1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil IN the elder times of the Church every man can tell you who is a little acquainted with their customs that particular Churches especially those that were the principal and greatest Seats did keep an anniversary commemoration of the noble acts of the Saints and chiefly for them who had endured hard encounters for the name of Christ either into bonds and imprisonment or some other stern calamity who were called confessors or into bloud and death who were called Martyrs And this Ceremony was well instituted in praise and admiration of their victories who would not let that truth be overcome which was in their possession Therefore their memory was kept fresh every year for a double benefits sake says Minutius Felix Defunctis praemium futuris dabatur exemplum The dead were much renowned and the living were no less edified by their example What were the conflicts of men that we were so mindful of them And should not we much more remember this for ever famous conflict of the Son of God Brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Jesus Christ who girded himself with strength and with the power of the holy Spirit and brake the heads of Leviathan in pieces Magnifie him therefore that rideth upon the heavens as it were upon an horse praise him in his noble acts praise him in his excellent greatness yea and rejoyce before him This opposition of the whole battery of Hell against him his constancy to suffer it his victory to tread it under feet hath not only a due commemoration of it once a year in the Gospel for Ash-Wednesday or the first day of Lent but every week in the year so often as we read the Litany we speak of it to his honour and to our comfort By thy Baptism Fasting and Temptation good Lord deliver us A great omission might be imputed to Divines me thinks if Poets in their versifying fury should be able to raise the Wars of Troy to such an opinion in all Ages and we should flag in setting down the most terrible battel that ever was fought between Christ and Satan the trustiest Champion and the deadliest Enemy of mans Salvation one against another I say it were a shame to our negligence not to be blotted out if we should not prosecute the description of every circumstance I for my part with all requisite industry and you with all attention I take this first verse therefore into my hands once again which was thus disparted into five points 1. That among other parts of humility wherein Christ our High Priest was made like unto us He was tempted to sin 2. It is expressed by what sort of tentation neither by the concupiscence of the flesh nor by the vanities of the world but by the outward solicitations of the Devil 3. Here is the time and opportunity which Satan chose with all despight to set upon him then says my Text that is in the next place after his Baptism which went before Immediately says St. Mark after the voice from heaven had said This is my beloved Son 4. We may learn from hence how Christ was marshalled to the combate he was led up of the Spirit or as St. Luke more emphatically Being full of the Holy Ghost he was led by the Spirit 5. It is no idle word in the verse that we have the Lists where the combat was fought at least where it was begun to be fought the Wilderness In the first place at this time I must bend my meditations to the third of these particulars having dispatcht the other two in their place before and that is the time which Satan thought he nickt very right for his purpose then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was the Motto of the wise man Pittacus of Greece know the seasons and opportunities of time and you can hardly fail of that which you enterprize Yet all things fell out contrary to the imaginations of this subtil Serpent that the time which he thought was most in season was most out of season it was no such a critical hour as he hoped for But why was Christ tempted then So lies the question and thus I answer it in the first place because our Saviour had been lately baptized then as soon as ever he was initiated in the Sacrament of purification then the engines of iniquity were planted to overthrow him If Christ had been as one of us who are prone to relapse into our former filthiness after we have vowed a new life to God this had been a likely way to have sped and as dangerous as the counsel of Achitophel A Penitent that hath newly bid adieu to all unclean conversation newly gone out of Sodom goes upon a ticklish ground and stands not so sure but that he is easily thrown down Lucerna recens extincta levi flatu accenditur how often have you seen a candle put out by a mischance and blow the snuff presently while it is hot it flames again So carnal concupiscence being but lately corrected in a good Convert by the fear of God take heed the Devil blow not presently upon the snuff for an easie matter will make it flame again A man that hath lately begun a good work which is pleasing to God must keep a Midsummer watch over it a double guard more than he shall need when he is grown into custom and continuance So Chrysologus doth abet this very reason which I give upon my Text Diabolus primordia boni pulsat sancta in ipso ortu festinat extinguere Satan hath a more malicious aim than ordinary at the first fruits of holiness he would crop the beginnings of reformation before they grow up to perfect fruits of amendment of life The smallest bird can pick off the blossoms of a tree if that blossom be not nibled away but grow a fair apple the hurt is small that the fouls of the air can do unto it So the firstlings of a godly life are in the greatest danger upon maturity of holiness when the fear of God is well rooted in the heart those unclean Harpies of the air the Devil and his Angels shall be less able to annoy us Scit quod fundata subvertere non potest says the former Author Satan wants no sagacity to observe his advantages but is aware that if the Camp put their Spade into the ground for a few days and cast their trenches they will hardly be displanted An Army that is not long set down before a place is more easily removed so I say once for all that I may roul the same stone no more expect to find the greatest impediment from the Tempter at the beginning of a good work As the Children of Israel were never so full of Wars as when they first set foot into the Land of Canaan How many Factions bandied against David when he
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
they prophesied and did not cease Num. xi 25. Elegantly St. Austin to favour this opinion Christ warned his Apostles not to stir from Jirusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father and that not many days thence that is 10 days after his Ascension they should receive the Holy Ghost But says the Father Christ gave this spirit not only to them but to ten times as many as the Twelve to sixscore in all Ea est fidelitas imo liberalitas Christi docens nos pauca promittere sed decuplo plura praestare this is the just dealing nay the liberality of Christ which bids us promise no more than we will perform but rather perform ten times more than you promise But whether the cloven tongues which lookt as if they had been of fire did descend upon the whole Congregation men and women may a little be doubted for they were Types and Figures that the Lord would send forth of his Servants to be bold and fervent Preachers in all Nations and women were interdicted from the public ministry of Preaching though in the beginning they were imployed in some private labours of the Word And if the women had the gift of tongues they did not utter them in this Chapter for when all were amazed to hear such diversity of languages from illiterate ones and such as never travelled some mocked and said these men are full of new wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the masculine gender And 't is not to be despised for an observation that ver 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all are said to be full of the Holy Ghost and ver 3. the firy tongues are said to sit not upon all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon each of them meaning I conjecture upon each of the Apostles but I will not strive for it In the old Missals I am sure I have not perused the latter it reads the Epistle thus omnes discipuli all the Disciples were with one accord in one place and Beza says in two antient Greek Copies he had found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Apostles and none other mentioned Certainly they were primarily intended to reap the benefit of the day For it is well noted by the first Writers that there were four things proper and peculiar to the Apostles given them for the gathering together of the Saints which were not communicable to any other Servant of Christ The first was immediate vocation from Heaven St. Paul demonstrated he was not inferior to the best of the Apostles because of that property The second was infallibility of judgment in the necessary points of faith 3. A Generality of Commission to have the care of the whole world committed to every one of them to exercise their power in all places towards all persons 4. To speak in all the tongues and languages of the world to confirm their Doctrin by signs and miracles and by the imposition of their hands to give the like miraculous gifts of the spirit to others For although the having of miraculous gifts and the power to work miracles was not simply proper to the Apostles yet to have them in a sort as by the imposition of their hands to give the spirit unto others and to enable such as they thought fit to do signs and wonders through the finger of God this was a benediction upon the heads of the Apostles from the great day of Pentecost and only upon them Simon Magus that Mammonist you may remember would have bought it of them but had a curse instead of a blessing Nay when Philip the Deacon had baptized some at Samaria the Apostles went to confirm those whom he had baptized by imposition of hands that they might receive some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost And as these graces were reserved only for the Apostolical honor in their time so were they never since passed over to any by succession Instead of immediate calling God be praised we can shew our Vocation derived by succession from the Apostles Instead of infallibility of judgment we have the direction of the Scriptures to guide us in finding out the truth instead of general Commission over the whole World we have particular assignment of several Churches and parts of Christs Flock to feed instead of their miraculous gifts and power to confer them to others we have that faith which was confirmed by the Apostles miracles And so I have declared that many even all the Believers that met together shared in the blessings of this day but the Apostles had an excellency and preeminency above them all for the government of the Church not disputing what particular irradiations and sanctifications the Blessed Virgin had which we may suppose to be incomparable beyond all others such as were fit for her to receive but they are not here revealed But of the persons hitherto I can spare no more time for that for it is worth much observation how they were prepared to receive the Holy Ghost which I handle in this order howsoever the words ly first that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first unà then unanimes they were all in one place To be altogether in one City in Jerusalem and not to stir from thence till they had received the Comforter even the Spirit of Truth to that purpose Christ laid his command upon them but they were met together not only in one City but in one house not only in one Vineyard but like Grapes they hung together in one cluster Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity In publick they consorted together Luke v. ult they were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God together in private they held fast the same friendship and amity by this says our Saviour shall they know you to be my Disciples if you love one another Whether it were the time of praying or hearing the Word or breaking of bread mark it in several places of this Chapter they did it with chearfulness and mutual friendship they were never asunder Unity in matter of circumstance in matter of place carries blessing and edification with it that we are Brethren it is the Lords doing to make men to be of one mind to dwell in one house Psal lxviii 6. We read it in our last Translation he setteth the solitary in Families that is he reduceth the dispersed into unity and outward conformity I told you and pressed it earnestly about this time the last year what an acceptable thing it was to God that when Noah and his Sons and Daughters were all the living of men and women that were left in the World that these should all praise the Lord together in outward unity with one voice and with one Sacrifice this was called a sweet smelling savour so much it delighted God this day to see the Church met together those 120 names that after Ages might know how well compacted the Primitive
them should have no inspiration to speak Salmeron is much troubled that he could not give that magnificent report to his Associates that they spake with new Tongues by inspiration in India as well as the Apostles did when they were sent to teach the Gentiles But because he would not have his Order give ground to the Apostles see the stomack of the man he makes this comparison that it is no less Gods benefit and grace to take pains to learn a strange tongue than if it were immediately poured out from heaven nay says he In illâ adipiscendâ plus meriti positum est It is more meritorious to atchieve it by much industry than by inspiration as it is more praise-worthy to raise up a fortune by a mans own diligence than to have it bequeathed him by inheritance I was astonish'd when I read this that this Loyolite should dare to compare and to prefer himself and such like even before the Apostles of our Lord and prefer their smattering in Tongues before the mighty Miracle of this day the greatest that ever was granted to men I confess it is the wisdom of God which teacheth learned men their exact insight into the Sacred Tongues and the Lord hath furnish'd many Heroes of the Reformed Churches with such exquisite skill in that kind far beyond our Adversaries that out of their over-flowing envy they have called us Pedants and Gramarians But God be thanked many of our Linguists are able to communicate in Speech with those of the world beneath which is a sign to me that God is gathering the world unto him by the calling of all Nations and hastening his Kingdom These being the general extractions of this last part of the Text both touching the matter of it and touching the end for which it was done which is the form of it I will spare much of that which remains rather than exceed my time upon this day and yet I will rather point at the particular inferences than quite omit them 1. It is to be collected from the persons that received this utterance of Tongues that the Tongue is a member of diligent employment in an Apostle for how can he discharge St. Pauls Canons to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to teach fit to reprove and exhort unless he open his lips in the great Congregation that his mouth may shew forth the praise of the Lord. But remember that this hability was only infused into Apostles and Teachers How shall they speak unless they be sent Let others be contented with that monition He that hath ears to hear let him hear Suarez the Jesuite makes the case of the Blessed Virgin to be transcendent that she did not only receive the power from heaven to speak with divers Tongues on this day but she was able to do as much long before Therefore she conversed with the Wisemen of the East and had skill in their Eastern Tongue and when she fled away into the Land of Egypt with our Saviour she wanted not the knowledge of that Language Cajetan denies that ever she had this gift of Tongues For to what end It was not her part to preach unto the Gentiles And for the coming of the Wise men of the East my answer hath more likelihood than Suarez objection that they brought Interpreters with them For they asked at Jerusalem Where is he that is born King of the Jews And all the people understood them Let this grace therefore be ascribed only to the Apostles and to such as in those days joyned with them in the same labour 2. When they had these Tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they began to speak But first they were endued with Spirit and then with a Tongue to speak God doth first cleanse the mind within and then he puts his Word into the mouth of his Pastors Unless the heart have a sincere feeling of that which it speaks there will be a jarring in the Tongue as in a Bell that is crackt or an Instrument that is broken Without the help of the air the Organ of the natural voice cannot speak and without the Spirit there is no speaking in the name of God Why dost thou take my Laws into thy mouth since thou hatest to be reformed The Exorcists of the Jews that had no faith the Devil flew upon them when they began to speak of holy things Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye 3. Mark what an alteration the impression of the Holy Ghost makes in our very speech Now they begin to speak with boldness with Parthians Medes and Elamites with all Comers Jews and Gentiles Nay ye shall be brought before Kings says our Saviour yet fear not to profess my name Dabo vobis os loquelam Here was a great mutation since that time that Peter could not hold parly with a silly Damosel but he faltred We have tongues now adays but certainly we are empty and have none of this Spirit or else we would be bolder in delivering the Message of the Lord. Thirdly They began to speak with other Tongues Moses habuit linguae balbutiem as one says Moses that brought the Law had scarce the use of one Tongue he confessed he was of a slow speech and of a slow tongue Exod. iv 10. But the Gospel was not terrible like the Law which would make the tongue of him that brought it to falter and tremble but it is sweet upon the tongue and full of grace were their lips that brought it 5. Wherefore this variety of Tongues but that all may praise the Lord as well publickly as privately in a known Language What a tyranny it is in the Roman Church that the Common People in the time of Mass are edified by nothing but the mopping and nods and gestures of the Priest Lyra confesseth that if their vulgar Auditors understood to what they said Amen they would serve God better be converted sooner and answer much more devoutly to the words of the Liturgy 6. When the Apostles spake it was not with the demonstration of humane wisdom but with the power of the Spirit as the Spirit gave them utterance And yet it was not baldly and rudely performed for my Text says the Spirit gave them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sententiosa mirifica loqui says Beza To speak sententious and admirable matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome they were Apophthegms and ponderous sayings which they brought forth they spake Magnalia Dei the wonderful works of God ver 11. Yet now adays that is said to be spoken by the Spirit and nothing but that which is frothy and windy and perhaps never a wise word spoken and other men that have care of every word which they deliver in the sight of God and in his name that is studied affectation or some such bitter censure Whereas St. Paul requires in Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sound and learned doctrine Tit. i. 9. And St. Peter If any man speak let him
glory Thirdly He distributed to the Disciples and assumed them into the same works which himself did save only in the work of our Redemption but when he was acting that part either they fell asleep or run away as when he was laid hold upon to be crucified it was an exploit above a mortal man to assist it and would admit of no associate I have trodden the Wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me Isa lxiii 3. But the power of doing Miracles was communicated unto them for the edifying of the body of the Saints and that before a great Congregation where there were many witnesses that there was such virtue given to men as if Christ had said before them all these are they that shall work signs and wonders in my Name when I am gone to Heaven These are they indeed but to do such mighty things was an Heritage which they could bequeath again to their Sons and to their Sons Sons in all descending Generations As a Conqueror enters it may be in triumph into a City which he hath taken but when the Solemnity of the triumph is over a plain working-day fashion serves for after so the Gospel entred with triumph into the World by the power and pomp of Miracles overtopping all false Religions and captivating all imaginations but would you have Christianity to hold on its triumph when it hath vanquished both Judaism and Idolatry 1600 years ago Not so but as there is a time to every purpose under Heaven so there was a time to glorify God by Signs and Wonders and a time to believe though Signs are ceased But now was the season to communicate some share of that mighty vertue to the Apostles as well to prepare them to know their office as to prepare the People to know that those were the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God Lastly the Disciples received the Blessing immediately from Christ and they went between Him and the People to feed them with bread to teach us that it is for his Saints sake that the earth hath plenty of all things It was not unto them which murmured that God gave water of the rock but unto Moses that cried unto him It was to Elias that God gave rain after three years drought and not unto Ahab Forget not therefore which way all temporal Blessings come about There are holy and mortified men among us that spend the greatest part of their life in penance and devotion these make intercession for you that your Table may be furnished and though they do not give it you with their hand as the Disciples did in our present business they give it you with their Prayers when others revel it and waste their stock in vanity these grovel upon the earth with their bended knees that the Lord would not be angry As St. Austin said to such a purpose Quando ipsi laetantur nos pro illis gemimus when others pamper their genius with marrow and fatness these do macerate themselves with abstinence to avert famine from the Land A devout man whose zeal is free from faction and his heart clear from malice that drives not his private prosperity but every day spends some Canonical hours most strictly for publick blessings it may be hath nothing himself and yet procures all as the Apostles took bread from Christ not for themselves but to give away to the multitude or if some little came to their share they enjoyed it not without the envy of those that were the better for their benefit For when they had distributed their Masters Maundy once and again to so many folk yet they grudged them that which a Nest of Sparrows would make bold with when they pluckt a few ears of corn and rub'd them in their hands Well the World will never reform this ingratitude and yet the Lord doth not repent him that his Saints are so precious in his sight that they obtein riches health and peace for those that hate them and persecute them Such a poor Widow as Anna that continued in Prayers and Fastings day and night in the Temple in part Cesar did owe the prosperity of his Crown unto her the People were beholding to her that they had their Traffick the Priests that they had the exercise of their Religion they of the City that they had their health they of the Country that they had their Harvest May be there were Blasphemers Extortioners Adulterers that were filled with this Feast which Christ made so it shall be while good and bad are intermingled every where But do you mark it Christ committed the bread at the first breaking to the hands of the Disciples for faithful and good men are the Conduit-pipes of all the Blessings which the earth receiveth from the Father of mercies to whom be glory for evermore AMEN THE THIRD SERMON UPON JOHN vi 11. He distributed to the Disciples and the Disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the Fishes as much as they would IT will not be denied but if I share this Miracle between those that had their finger in it two parts to speak with the least must be given to Christ If therefore there be double as much in Christs act that be distributed to the Disciples as there is in their act who distributed to them that were set down it was as due required to put the Bucket twice into the Well to draw waters from the former and with half that labour uno pede stans that is at this once and no more to dispatch the latter And now I shall put it unto you that this Miracle is come down as low as it could descend The divine incomprehensible nature was the Origen of it and therefore Christ used that Ceremony when he took the Loaves into his hand to look up to heaven Our Saviours Humane Nature was the next Vessel into which the grace of the Almighty was poured for the Father had given all things into his hand Joh. xiii 3. The next and underneath his feet were the Apostles they had their Power and Commission from him As the Father sent me so send I you Joh. xx The last of all to whom the Apostles communicate their gift are the People and there the gift abides The Dove that is the Holy Spirit doth use to fetch this compass about before he lights O glorious Hierarchy O most beautiful degrees of strength and Majesty O golden Chain whose uppermost Link is fastned to the highest heaven and the nethermost part toucheth the lowest earth Thus doth our blessedness descend step by step from the Father to the Son from the Son to the Disciples and from the Disciples to all those that are nourished with the words of Truth and of good Doctrine 1 Tim. iv 6. So then we hold of God as the Author of all Grace of Christ as the head of the Body which is his Church of the Apostles and their Successors as his subordinate Ministers And
for the Function What you will say was not Christ first published by poor lay Shepherds and afterward preached unto the world by Fisher-men and then his Resurrection testified by Mary Magdalen and other Women why do we debar them of that now which Christ vouchsaf'd them before I answer Relation is one thing Revelation is another to teach a Doctrine is one thing to testifie an act is another if Christ be born if he be risen again to declare this fact and story honest plain dealing Shepherds and silly Women were fittest instruments and most unlikely to deceive but in matters of Revelation yea or in matter of Doctrine it is otherwise Moses was a Shepherd but never undertook to teach Israel until God mark'd him out for the business and inspired him David was a Shepherd but undertook not to teach divine Psalms and instruct the Church until God instructed him The Apostles were Fishermen but never made the Doctors of the world until the Spirit lighted on them And they that can shew either lawful calling or revelation that the Spirit hath pointed them out let them prosper in the work that they undertake otherwise I must say for the instance of these Shepherds in my Text that they were but faithful relators and witnesses of what they had heard and seen but not Ministers of the Gospel of Christ Of their personality thus far now of their plurality that they were Pastores Shepherds in the Plural at least more than one As some Fathers compute the number of the Wisemen that came out of the East that they were three neither more nor less because three gifts were presented to the Child in his Cradle Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense so these audacious Textmen are bold to say that there were three Shepherds to whom the Angel came neither more nor less and what conjecture moves them to this opinion but because that heavenly Carol which was sung this day from above consists of three parts Glory to God Peace on Earth Good will towards men but whether two or whether twenty it is known only to the Holy Ghost This we read and no more Pastores in eadem regione they were Shepherds in the same Countrey It is a point of care indeed very circumspectly observed in the birth of Kings to have witnesses of good credit and report in the place Ne quis falsus pro vero Rege supponatur lest a supposititious Child should be jugled in for the Heir of the Crown So Shepherds were called to come to the place where they should find Mary and the Babe that the testimony of good men without exception might stand firm against all those that should oppose it And what testimony could be more valid and strong in every part let the Jews cavil as they will they which talk of that which is done afar off may easily be mistaken but these came from the nearest parts to Bethlehem even in the same Country 2. Active and experienced men are more dangerous to trust but the Education of Shepherds is without guile or devices 3. Do not tax their report that it was a sleepy apparition or a dream for my Text avoucheth they were watching over their flocks 4. Lest all the credit of the tidings should lean upon one mans voice Pastores many Shepherds and many Tongues would bear record that they saw in the City of David a Saviour which was Christ the Lord. Now began the Vine that is the Church to stretch forth her branches and all the Husbandmen that could be hir'd were called to labour in the Vineyard the time was when one single Dove returned into the Ark. One David sate alone like a Sparrow upon the house top One Elias that was zealous for the Lord wandred solitary by himself in the Wilderness now they did increase into troops and into multitudes Many wise men drew to Bethlehem to adore the Lord many Shepherds to visit him Peter and Andrew Philip and Nathanael James and John were called together the Church brought forth no less than twins at once to shew her fruitfulness a true sign that they belonged to the Land of Canaan when they hang together full and thick like the Grapes of Eschol in their clusters A lesson for them that affect singularity and think they are in tune when they sing discord flat against all the world He that is one by himself is little better than one beside himself and hath no more cause to boast then a Leper had who dwelt alone and was cast out of the Congregation of Israel Esto gutta in imbre grandinis make a drop in a shower that poures down from Heaven Christ accepts not of the testimony of one alone but of many Vni testi ne Catoni quidem standum a shaft divided from the Quiver may be knapt in sunder when it is in the bundel it is not easily broken I have done with their pluralities now I come to the two last circumstances concerning their office and diligence they watcht that 's not all but they watcht over their flocks that is the sum of all There are two sorts of persons noted for finding out Christ more eminently than others the Shepherds before all others after he was born and Mary Magdalen the first of all men and women as far as we read after his Resurrection The Shepherds were vouchsafed their blessing because they watcht by night Vigilaverunt multum a hard task if you consider the time of the year and Mary was so prosperous because she rose very early in the morning to seek her Lord Vigilavit multum It is hard to say whether ever she slept one wink for care and grief since the Passion of our Saviour and God knows who shall be the first that finds him at his second coming in Glory when he shall come also like a thief in the night but whosoever he be this I am sure of Vigilabit multum he must be none of them that sleep in gluttony that are heavy with surfeiting and drunkenness with chambering and wantonness he must watch or be fit to waken to find the Lord. The enemies of our soul are mighty and many in number our temptations steal upon us as closely as they that come to rob in a mist or in the dark of the night David you know chid with Abner because he watcht no better about Saul his Master The thing is not good that thou hast done as the Lord liveth you are worthy to die because you have not kept your Master the Lords anointed So shall we be rebuk'd if we do not set watch and guard about our soul we deserve to die because we neglected to sence our soul from the incursion of those evil thoughts that will destroy it Slothfulness and idleness are all one as if you took your ease and slept upon your bed it is Vigilantia somno similima a kind of watching that is no better than if you snorted like a sluggard He that will not waken
the Feast Go and sit down in the lowest room but litterally descension is infallibly the motion of a body And otherwise the wonder had herein consisted not that such a Dove was seen but that such a strange spectacle appeared to John and to all the multitude which was not to be seen John did see the object it did not phantastically in a shadow deceive him as if he saw it And it is a touch worthy to be observed by the way that my Text says he saw the Spirit which is a clear Metonimy of the sign for the thing signified for in truth he saw no more than the outward sign of the Spirit To call the holy Spirit by the attribute of the Dove is a Sacramental signification not an essential mutation just such a form of speech as when Christ brake bread at his Last Supper and said unto his Disciples This is my body I proceed to that which follows how aptly the Spirit came in one figure at this time upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at this day of Pentecost upon the Apostles If I would rake old Heresies out of their dead embers to refute them here I had occasion The Arians extorted from hence that Christ did receive the mighty gift of Sanctification at this Baptism and other admirable graces of the Spirit which he had not before If they were worth the refuting I could tell them Joh. i. 14. As soon as ever the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us he was full of grace and truth On the contrary the Macedonian Hereticks men of corrupt minds did make a difference of dignity between Christ and the Holy Ghost as the body of a man was more excellent which belonged to Christ than the body of a Dove wherin the Spirit sate upon him Then belike if an Angel should come in the shape of a man or of an Eagle which is more glorious than a Dove he should also have the preheminence But the blindness of the error came from hence that they did not distinguish how Christ took upon him the nature of a man but the Holy Ghost did not assume the nature of a Dove Let these blasphemies go let them rot and consume with the Authors which invented them the Father the Son and the Spirit are all one in Glory equal in Majesty coeternal Upon occasion of Baptism the Master sent forth his Disciples saying Go and baptize all Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Can I pass by the surpassing wit of St. Austin upon that place Non in nominibus sed in nomine patris ubi unum nomen est ibi unus Deus Not in the names but in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Where there is but one name and no more there is but one God and no more As in like argument St. Paul Gal. iii. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ Let me return into my own path which I am to beat that Christ had one sign of the Holy Ghost coming down upon him and the Apostles had another Upon which diversity thus I find the Fathers exercising their wits in several meditations First The Spirit sate upon our Saviours head in the shape of an whole entire creature in no other figure but a tongue upon the Apostles which is no more than a little part of the body for we receive the grace of God by scantlings and pittances and small measures the whole Spirit flowed into Christ in all abundance In like manner Gregory shews the odds between his fulness and ours in Analogy between the head and other members of the body A body hath the sense of touching only and no more the head is the continent of all the five senses Ita membra superni capitis in quibusdam virtutibus emicant ipsum caput in cunctis virtutibus flagret So the Saints have several gifts and ornaments divided among them some in one kind some in another but the head of the Church hath all flourisheth with all those vertues united in himself which are parted among his members Secondly The tongues of holy men and Prophets did often promise grace and reconciliation to the world and therefore a tongue did sit upon them as it were a Crest of Armory a Dove when time was did actually exhibit that God was pacified and appeased when he had been wroth I mean the Dove which returned to the Ark with a dry Olive branch in her mouth in token that the waters were dried up and that Noah and his Family might come forth with safety Therefore a Dove most properly did belong to Christ Most properly I say but more transcendently says St. Chrysostom now than ever The first Dove did comfort the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that punishment was taken away this Dove is a sacred pledge that grace and blessings shall be bestowed upon us Now it appeared not to bring one man and his family safe into the possession of the earth but to bring all Believers safe into the possession of heaven Thirdly The Spirit came not to Christ in fire for he was full of Zeal nor yet in the shape of a tongue for full of grace were his lips But discite quia mitis learn of me because I am meek and gentle therefore says Bernard the Dove came to testifie the placidness of the Lamb. Quod agnus in animalibus columba in avibus such as the Lamb is among the beasts of the field such is the Dove among the fouls of the air Fire is stern and formidable Christ would have none of that that which sorts with consolation to recreate a trembling conscience was his peculiar choice therefore the third Person descended like a Dove and sate upon him Fourthly The tongues wherein the Apostles received the grace of God were cloven and divided not to signifie a rent and a division Linguarum distantiae non sunt schismata but because there is a diversity and a dispreading about of the gifts of God Then comes down one single Dove to honour Unity Spiritus sanctus divisus in linguis unitus in columbâ says St. Austin it was pride which caused that diversity of tongues it was the Holy Ghost through the humility of Christ which sanctified that diversity Quod turris dissociaverat Ecclesia collegit Babel the Tower of pride scattered the world the Church which is the Tower of humility gathers the world together But the Dove was the Ensign of our Saviours Kingdom standing for the unity of the Spirit which is the bond of peace Fifthly The Holy Ghost was made manifest to the Chruch first in a Dove at the feast of Christs Baptism afterward in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide to betoken it is the same Spirit which requires innocency in the
since he was tempted of Satan Lord let me not fight alone lest my foes prevail against me Thus tentation begets fear and fear begets prayer and prayer calls for succour and heavenly succour will assist us to be conquerours Gregory incloseth it in his meditation Vnde pertimescit homo enerviter cadere inde accipit fortiter stare that tentation which makes a just man distrust he shall fall affordeth him occasion to set his feet upon a sure place Cast not your selves therefore into tentation Brethren but when you are in them endure them with joy and courage as it is said of the Machabees that they fought with chearfulness the battels of Israel so go on with alacrity against those innumerable evils that take hold upon you The just man triumphs with David against the powers of darkness as if he saw them already made subject unto him they are cast down and faln but we are risen and stand upright Pelopidas being environed with an Ambush alas says his Lieutenant we are faln into the hands of our enemies And why not rather our enemies faln into our hands says Pelopidas So let not the name of Satan and tentation be dreadful unto you he hath more cause to fear he shall be repulsed than you have reason to fear he shall prevail since Christ hath blunted his weapons in this conflict The Fathers call that verse the Saints Jubilee after their trial with the evil one Psal lxvi 12. We went through fire and water but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place And therefore I bequeath St. Pauls exultation to your use Thanks be to God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly Christ was tempted to give us an example how to encounter with the roaring Lion and to win the Mastery As a young Learner will observe diligently every ward and thrust that an experienced Gladiator makes so the Holy Ghost hath set down for our advertisement every passage how Christ did turn and wind the delusions of the Serpent These things had need to be scanned beloved we had need to be cunning at our fence for if the Devil sought our overthrow in Christ how much more will he do it in our selves If these things were done to the green wood what will be done to the dry But mark how the man of Gods right hand chased away the enemy mark how he demeaned himself from first to last and you are fortified with the best president that ever the world afforded Ut cujus munimur auxilio ejus erudiremur exemplo says Leo he looks upon our conflicts from heaven and helps the weaker side both by the presence of his grace and by the president of his example Observe him that we might instance in all his ways retiring into a desart from the contagion of the world observe him fasting observe him drawing his shafts out of the quiver of the holy Scripture to maintain his cause and say this is the true Charm to make the evil Serpent break as Daniel in the Apocryphal story choakt the Dragon with lumps of strong confection Christ himself could not receive increase of the Spirit either by being baptized or by being tempted for he had the fulness not of sufficiency but of abundancy before without measure but it was for the proficiency of his members that were under him And therefore the Schoolmen have a disceptation since Christ was much greater than the Angels and did far excel them in grace why he should be tempted of the Devil For we do not read that any of the Angels confirmed in grace were ever tempted One of them answers Quia Angelus non habet membra sub se quomodo Christus habet Christ is head of a body and hath members under him to give erudition unto by his example and so have not the elect Angels Wherefore if the Children of Israel lookt up by faith upon the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness that they might be healed when they were wounded how much more should we look attentively upon Christs Tentation in the Wilderness that we may not be wounded of the Serpent The Fathers in their piety say it is easier to avoid ten sins that compass us round about and have not yet taken hold of us than to recover our selves sound again from any one sin that we have committed It is the Angelical part of Christianity to take out this Lesson Prevent us O Lord from evil in all our doings There is a great deal of the old man and his ragged lining in the best repentance You may learn repentance from Christs Gospel but not from Christ himself but innocency and clearness of life and to be impregnable against tentations not Verbum Christi but Christus Verbum not the Word of Christ but Christ the eternal Word makes you cunning in that by his own example He that knows not the experience of many tentations doth not well know himself says St. Austin Nescit se homo nisi in tentatione discat se But he that knows not the experience of Christs combate will not know how to deal with tentation Fifthly Says Bonaventure very acutely he began in the ministry of the Gospel first to refute the false Doctors before he taught his Disciples the truth first to beat down the Synagogue of Satan and then to build the City of God First root up the Tares and bind them in bundles and then dress the Wheat A Bishop must be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince gainsayers Tit. i. 9. Conviction of falshood requires the greater care and diligence and the great Bishop of our souls begins with that How soon were all divinity learnt What little pains would go to Preaching and Exhortation if it were not that Heresies and Falshoods beget us a most laborious drudgery to refute them Innumerable errors are disseminated that they are like Augias his Stable so foul that they are never to be cleansed It held our Saviour forty days in the Wilderness to untie all the knots of Satan and thus we must build up Hierusalem like Nehemiahs builders with the Sword in one hand with the Trowel in the other Having the Sword of the Spirit to cut in twain the snares of the wicked one you shall the sooner build up the walls of Sion Sixthly And then I take off my hand from this Point Let no man say I am cast out from the face of the Lord because he is beset with daily tentations God had one Son that was free from sin but he hath no Son that is free from the incumbrances of Satan If there be no more in it than an outward occasion cast before you to try if you will bite which is Exterior pulsatio as a man that comes not into the house but stands without and knocks at door This is your praise in the highest respect that your vertue is impenetrable As the Lord sent a blast upon Sennacharib and made him return to his
resolution into his humane nature to fight with and to overthrow the tentations of the Devil I shall reach this doctrine unto you the better upon certain questions And first what needed this Preface of all other before this mighty work that he was guided by the Spirit What action throughout all his life did not deserve the same commendation A young Rhetorician dedicated an Oration to one Antalcidas What is the subject of your Oration quoth he Says the young Orator the praise of Hercules Fie man says Antalcidas what needless pains have you taken Who did ever dispraise Hercules So it may seem as redundant an expression to say that Christ was led by the Spirit at this time for through the grace of Union and the grace of Unction he was always conducted by the Spirit It is sufficient for answer to this that this was the first exploit of those that Christ did act to shew he was the Christ and the Mediator of God and man therefore this clause being prefixt to the formost of his actions is a title to all the rest he was led of the Spirit 2. It is not to be taken per modum inhaerentiae that he was now full of the Holy Ghost as if he had received a larger measure than he had before but by way of manifestation for the Spirit even now had visibly descended upon him in the shape of a Dove Semper fuit actus à spiritu sed jam maximè ejus vis apparuit the common gloss of the best Writers The Spirit did always lead him and dwel in him but now it did appear and put forth its strength I move another question be not offended that I move these hard things as it were by way of Catechism are the leadings of the Spirit of more sorts than one Yea these two are degrees one above another The first is general to all the Sons of God for they are all stirred up to faith and hope and good works by a divine illumination If ye be led by the Spirit then are ye not under the Law of the flesh Gal. v. 18. The second is special to the chiefest and principal Ministers of God as Kings Prophets and Apostles when Saul was anointed King over Israel the Lord gave him another heart his Spirit came upon him and he Prophesied So Christ our anointed Prophet prepared himself for a famous enterprize and he had the badge of Gods good liking The Spirit came upon him or he was led by the Spirit Suffer but one interrogatory more and it is this Did the Spirit thrust on Christ and as it were hale him with compulsion at this time So a man might hap to fall into that error by St. Marks words The Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness And the Vulgar Latine gives the same offence Luk. iv 1. Agebatur a spiritu he was pusht on by the Spirit For answer hard words are soon mollified by good construction The very Heathen could say Generosus est animus hominis magisque ducitur quà m trahitur Mans will is a free generous thing and had rather be led fairly than drawn forcibly Therefore the other Evangelists must be expounded by St. Matthew that the Spirit led him by illumination and propounding the will of his Father unto him not by violence and coaction So Cajetan Non vis significatur sed efficientia impulsus spiritus All was done by the efficacy and motion of the Spirit nothing by compulsion Some there are who care not what old Pillars of Divinity they pull down to set up their new devises that hold that Christ did obey his Father and the Divine Law with so much liberty and freedom that it were no offence to say Christ could not have obeyed his Father not have kept the Law and so by consequent have sinned and whereas it is certain he did not sin they will neither allow that the Hypostatical Union was the cause of it O strange Theologie nor yet the grace of Unction wherewith he was anointed above his fellows O strange impudency Neither of these was fundamentum impeccabilitatis And all this to maintain that because he did merit by his obedience his will was not determined to do good but left indifferent to good or evil Away with this over audatious disputing Christ could not but fulfil all righteousness I must do the works of him that sent me Joh. iv 9. All good things conducible to the work of a Mediator were necessary to be done And it was necessary Gods will being declared that it should be fulfilled of Christ although he was not necessitated by a violent determination but moved willingly and obediently unto it by a certain perswasion Non necessitatus erat sed propter illud quod necessarium erat sponte motus says Abulensis The object propounded was necessary to be done of him though he accepted it with much alacrity and desire and no way driven by constrainment Therefore this was not like Peters case Another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not Joh. xxi 18. But the hand of the Lord was with him and carried him whither he liked himself Non invitus aut captus sed sponte liberè venit says St. Hierom He was not drawn on as if his own will drew back but rejoyced as a Giant to run his course To say no more but this Oblatus est quia voluit It was his own good will that he was slain for the sins of the world it was his own pleasure not to dread death and it was as much his own pleasure to grapple with tentations And so much for that question how the Spirit did lead him into the Wilderness You shall now be partakers of the third thing why this passage is inserted into the story that he was led up of the Spirit Good reasons are rather to be esteemed by their weight than their multitude take these few to content you 1. The Spirit is said to lead him because de did not run on blindfold but knew the task which he undertook he foresaw the difficulties that he would meet and weighed them in the balance of judgment and discretion Non ignarus sed consilio ducebatur says St. Ambrose The counsel of the Spirit did enlighten him to see what he had in hand Saul thought that David was but a fool-hardy Stripling and knew not what a perilous thing it was to fight with such a Giant as Goliah Thou art but a youth and he a man of War from his youth thou art not able to go against this Philistine But David shewed the reason of his confidence the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine He had considered Gods mercies and protection therefore he was led by the Spirit into that noble action Beware to plod on like Balaam with our eyes shut never discerning what is
before us Try all things and prove your own heart if you understand which way you walk unto the Lord. Ephraim feedeth on the wind and followeth after the East wind wherein the Prophet deciphers them that know not what they seek after or at least how they would comprehend it Some eat and drink their own damnation because they discern not the Lords body they come by custom to the Table of the Lord not with solemn and faithful preparation these are not led by the Spirit Some lay their hand to this Plow to preach the Kingdom of Christ but never bethought them seriously what it was to bear the Ark of God upon their shoulders they took the Priests Office upon them only for the hire and wages but never examined whether they were inwardly called these were not led by the Spirit The Widows in St. Pauls days who were to continue in supplications night and day these were not to be taken into that Society which attended the Church under threescore years of age and such as had been diligent in every good work In after Ages out of more presumption than due care some were accepted to take the vow of continency upon them at the age of forty Others more dangerously admitted Virgin Votaries at the age of twenty five And now every youngling at the age of fourteen is solemnly received to be incloystered in an unmaried estate for ever before they know the hazard of their own frailty the iron bondage of such a Vow or how to avoid the continual tentations of most discontenting melancholy these took their snare upon them by fond enticements and ignorant devotion they were not led by the Spirit This was St. Ambrose his reason of this phrase 2. The next owes it self to St. Hilary Non aliter tentatus est quà m spiritûs permissu auxilio He was led by the Spirit that is he maintained this quarrel against the Devil by the permission and assistance of the Holy Spirit The Holy Ghost is not an idle Spectator but a party that leads us by the hand and holds up our hands to conquer these Amalekites as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses The Apostles were like things shut up that durst not come abroad till they were filled with the Spirit that had no heart to offer themselves to the trial of any affliction but kept out of the way But in Gods help as David says they leapt over the wall and ventured forth out of that narrow imprisonment and to make some satisfaction for that privacy when they lived as recluses they travelled boldly through all places of the world baptizing all Nations in the name of the Lord Jesus What durst they not do for the honour of God when they were led by the Spirit The Children of Israel made no scruple to pitch their Tents within the borders of their enemies if the Pillar of cloud did remove before them so wheresoever the grace of God doth carry a man Gods glory being his undoubted end without all vain delusions and carnal reservations he may be bold to venture As we read of Sampson that before he did those great and heroical exploits against the Philistines he was possessed with the Spirit of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him when he slew a thousand of the Philistines with the jaw-bone of an Ass Judg. xv 14. So it holds in the works of Regeneration Patience Obedience denying of our selves taking up the Cross of Christ mortifying the body of Sin these cannot be done unless the Spirit of the Lord do move upon us But according to the method of the Psalm first we must trust in God to pluck our feet out of the snare before he lead us in the right way and set us upon a rock of stone where we shall not be moved First lead us not into tentation that is leave us not to our selves and then bear us on Eagles wings and bring us to himself Exod. xix 4. We do not so much deprecate in the Lords Prayer that we should not come near the assault of any tentations as that we may not be drawn into the midst of them and there left unto our selves Most excellently the Apostle Heb. xiii 20. The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant he will bring us out of the Pit-falls of the Devil that is implied for it follows he will make us perfect in every good work to do his will Aristotle hath a rule in his Rhetoriques how that must needs be an excellent thing which the worst men desire they may seem to have though they want it As liberality must needs be a graceful vertue for few are so sordidly covetous but that they love to be accounted liberal So the guidance of the divine Spirit necessarily must be the most laudable principle of all humane actions for there is not so palpable an hypocrite that will confess he was led by his own Concupiscence or seduced by his Passions no he will pretend it is the fear of God and his Conscience that doth lead him in all things What wonder if Christian Hypocrites have such conceits For the King of Assyria a Most prophane Blasphemer thought it was the best way to make the same pretension when he came to pluck down the living God Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it The Lord said to me go up against this Land to destroy it And I would it were not the disgrace of these times that many such live among us who have their secret stratagems and desires to make havock of the small revenue of the Church and to pluck down the glory and dignity of it but with the same ungodly flourish that the King of Assyria made We are led by the Spirit the Lord said unto us go and destroy this as they most impudently and ignorantly call it Superstition I will give them the Prophet Ezekiels woe for their reward Ezek. xiii 3. Thus saith the Lord God woe unto the foolish Prophets that follow their own Spirit and have seen nothing These are led on by their fury to bring to pass the works of the evil one not led by the Spirit as our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Arch-leader was to overcome the tentations of the Devil The third reason is out of St. Chrysostoms Quiver and I cannot exceed beyond that at this time Non simpliciter profectus sed abductus God did inspire the Evangelists to write in this manner how Christ was led when he went into temptation rather than that he went of himself simply without more addition because no man should offer himself rashly and voluntarily to be tempted unless God did put some constraint and impulsion upon him It is a most cautilous note if you observe it for take the matter right and consider Christ in himself alone without respect of leaving an example
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
own sake and not for Gods sake he hates him Honours and affluency of all store are not contrary to Christianity nay many times God gives the one with the other and they agree together well enough But if not there is the trial whether we will be mercenary or no. What said the three generous Captives to Nebuchadonosor Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of thine hand and will deliver us but if not be it known unto thee we will not serve thy Gods that is no worship will we afford save to the Lord of Heaven though it cost us our life These were right that look'd to save nothing by their Religion but their soul Godliness is great gain says the Apostle for it gains a man in this life joy and tranquility of Spirit that he hath done that duty which belongs to his soul It is the punishment of sin for a man to know he hath sinned and to remember it to his torment so a good deed is rewarded that you can say you did it Sanctitas praemium est sancè operantis therefore follow not the Lord for the prey you look for for bread as Satan would have you the Kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink therefore where there is scarcity of all things let there be plenty of righteousness Before I come off from this Point let not one word which Jacob did speak stumble you Gen. xxviii 20. Jacob vowed a vow if God will be with me and keep me in my way and will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on then shall the Lord be my God Beloved it were a gross error to take Jacobs words absolutely as if he would have the Lord keep Covenant to give him bread and rayment or else he would not serve him What more sordid than those words in this sense Or more unworthy of Jacob But the words have respect to a Vow and to a particular worship of God as it is verse xxii First He would set up that stone for a Pillar that it might be as a Temple where the Lord should be worshipped And secondly He would give the tenth unto God of all he had He doth only covenant to sanctifie these particularities of Divine Worship to Jehovah if he found prosperity and relief in that dangerous journey Therefore I conclude this Point in defiance of Satan we must be the obedient children of God though we want bread and the most righteous are in scarcity sometimes that they may not seem to serve for an earthly reward Secondly God doth not suppeditate bread always to him that is his Son that he may loath this World and look for a recompence for all this misery not among these hard-hearted generations of men but among the habitations of the blessed Say to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Isa iii. 10. As Philostratus tells of one that desired his Son might not be Musical and therefore sent him to learn of the worst Musicians in the City that their scraping and jarring might make him not care to learn it So God provides for many whom he loves nothing but the harshness and worst entertainment of this world that they may learn to loath it Cujus bonitas non specie praesentium sed futurorum utilitate pensanda est says St. Ambrose Estimate the fatherly goodness of the Almighty not by the austere education wherewith he holds us under in this life but by the amplitude of our Patrimony in his Kingdom hereafter The beggary of vertue is grown a Proverb the Martyrology of the Saints is grown a Volume the felicity of their enemies is grown a wonder Mirabor hoc si sic abiret It is impossible but there must be another reckoning for these things the patient abiding of the meek shall not always be forgotten But as Christ said to his Disciples so may these to their enemies that have trod them under We have meat to eat that you wot not of And as Elisha said to one of the braveries of Samaria that God would fill the City with great plenty but he should be never the better Videbis sed non gustabis So may Lazarus say to the remorseless Glutton Thou shalt see the banquet which is set before me but thou shalt never taste of it The voluptuous had so much set upon their Table in the first course now that they shall never have a second Nemo transit à deliciis ad delicias rarò quisquam in hôc seculo primus est in secundo There were no alteration in the condition of naughty men if they could pass out of this life from pleasure to pleasure but many times he that is the Favourite of Fortune here shall be the least in the Kingdom of heaven that is shall be quite excluded from thence hereafter The Heathen in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did never deifie a poor man indeed they would allow it to some of their Kings and Princes that they became Stars in the Firmament and would call the Constellations after their names but they could not see whither the poor harmless man goes to a place above the Stars and where they shall shine above the Stars in glory Take courage therefore to say It is my turn to want for a while I shall be replenished hereafter he filleth the hungry with good things and the rich shall be sent empty away Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things when thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Psal ciii 5. There is a Mystery says St. Austin in joyning them two together for there is no satisfaction of good things for the righteous man untill his youth be renewed like the Eagles meaning the last Resurrection when God shall be all in all The upshot is that the Sons of God may be dear unto their Father and yet want bread for though our wages be small upon earth yet great is our reward in heaven Thirdly Though this Son of God to whom the Devil spake our blessed Saviour were innocent and yet suffered so many sorrows that hunger was the least not for any evil in himself but for our iniquities yet the best in the world beside are rebellious children and sometimes God breaks the staff of bread for their sins and whips them with the mild chastising of want and scarcity as he did the Prodigal Son to bring them home again Praestat sentire lenitatem patris quà m severitatem judicis Is it not better to feel the scourge of a Father to amend us than the Axe of a Judge to cut us off Is it not better with Lazarus to want the crums of the rich mans Table here than with the rich man to want a drop of water hereafter to cool his Tongue in hell fire If thou do evil says God to Cain sin lies at the door From whence some do truly meditate so long as an impenitent man continues in this world he
you have made your Covenant with Hell by forgery false witness perjury corruption subornation and with all the forms of damnable iniquity beside God will start an Objection which was never foreseen that shall unmasque all their villany You cannot stop your gaps so close but he will break open your hedge for here is a president in my Text the wittiest Jugler in the world and the Father of devices he could not wind up his reasons so well but Christ did easily find an end to unravel them Jesus said unto him it is written again Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God The answers of our Saviour grow stronger and stronger before he replied affirmatively Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Here he decides the Objection with a Negative Rule and Negative Precepts are stronger than Affirmative tenent ad semper they bind a man at all times at every minute of his life Again Christ answered to the first tentation Non est necessarium he might have made stones become bread but there was no need of it Unto this Tentation he answers Non est bonum not it may be spared and left undone well enough but it must not be done it is unlawful But at both times our Saviours answer was a true Elench most pat against that which the Tempter urged and that in two respects First here is Christs Scriptum est against Satans Scripture to counter-poise Scripture he censures the Devils malicious interpretation of Scripture by Scripture truly applied Again it is written Secondly Satan blew the coals of presumption Cast thy self down c. Christ puts them out with the still waters of Siloah with godly fear and circumspection Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God These are the contents of the Text which you shall make yours by attending unto them and I by opening and enlarging them Will a Thief sue a true man in the Law whom he hath robb'd and despoiled by violence No surely he will avoid the Law if he can shift it for it will certainly condemn him Yet Satan hath perswaded Christ to rebel against heaven he hath robb'd God of his honour and yet pleads his cause out of the holy Scriptures and flies to them Our Saviour was glad to catch him there and holds him hard to Scripture whether he would or no Rursum Scriptum est again it is written The evil Spirit perceived his own errour that it was unadvisedly done to deal with those Tools and remove his suit out of that Court in the next Tentation And because he was once beaten upon that ground he would never meddle more with Scriptures But Christ goes them over and over Again it is written for the oftner you use the Word of God you shall speed the better with it If any thing in the Prophets or Apostles be strange unto you blame your self if it be for want of acquaintance every man will be to seek in the way where he goes but seldom The more you use that sharp Sword of the Spirit the more expert you will be to handle it Threaten the Devil that you will lay this stone in his way if he shall approach you that you will betake you to the Testament of God again and again if he come against you and while the Scripture lasts there is no conquering of a righteous man for his defence is impregnable But after what sort doth Christ meet his enemie in the face Again it is written What doth he knock Scripture against Scripture Is there civil discord in the Word of God within it self Are there Twins of several natures and conditions in it like Esau and Jacob in the womb of Rebeckah Not so Beloved Christ alledgeth Moses against the place of the Psalm which the Tempter quoted not as we say to drive out one nail with another but by way of Harmony and Exposition to shew that the Devil did misalledge the Psalm of David because he gave it a sense repugnant to the Text of Moses It was a blasphemous assertion of Pighius let his Pew-fellows salve it as they will that the Sacred Bible without the Gloss and Exposition of the Church was like a Nose of Wax you might pull it straight or turn it which way you would If it speak not clearly of it self but be obnoxious to a good sense or a bad by mens interpretations they might pass that censure upon it which is horrid to be spoken that a man of a clear notion and stile might endite a Book of less danger to give offence than that which was inspired throughout by the Eternal Spirit Aristotle could say there was no use of an Indefinite Rule because there was no certainty in it Such says he was called a Lesbyan Rule it was made of lead flexible and would bend to any thing that you would measure with it To settle reason by the example of mens actions and not to reduce mens actions to the notions of common reason were it not ridiculous To apply the Law to mens manners and not to make mens manners be directed by the Law were it not preposterous So let the Scripture expound unto men the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven But if men will teach the Scriptures how to expound themselves were not that most arrogant and most blasphemous If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the Battel says St. Paul 1 Cor. xiv 18. The Scripture is the Trumpet of God that Trumpet of which St. Hierom speaks that it always sounded in his ears Surgite mortui venite ad judicium Arise ye dead and come to judgment And how uniform the sound of it is no way dissonant from it self I read it in an Allegory Num. x. 2. God spake unto Moses Make thee two Trumpets of silver of one whole piece shalt thou make them that thou mayst use them for the calling of the Assembly The two Trumpets are the two Testaments they call the Assemblies together all Nations from the East unto the West to serve the Lord and they are made of one whole piece because they do no where vary or contradict themselves As the whole world before the confusion of Babel was of one Speech and of one Language So the whole mass of Scripture is of one consent and one harmony they may make discords in it indeed that are building Heresies in their own fancy like the Tower of Babel I recollect all this to one Head That Christ replied out of the Law to confound that which Satan quoted out of the Psalms not as if Scripture were made to jossle against Scripture not as if it were a fencing School that had foyls for the Challenger and for his Antagonist that answered him for then we should never have peace but to shew that the Devil had stained the true Word of God Christ produced another place of the Word to parallel it and if this Text do prohibit
fullonicant ingeniis suis says Origen Hereticks set a bright gloss upon their false opinions they in his construction are those Fullers upon earth that would make their doctrine if it were possible as white as truth but if you pattern it with the Scripture you shall see it colours not with that spiritual light which comes from Christ That Doctrine which hath the simplicity of the Spirit without the knotty entanglements of mans wit that which says let God have the glory but to us belongs shame and confusion of face That which impresseth humility into the thoughts zeal and devotion into the heart all manner of vertue into the practice This is that true light which comes from heaven no Fuller upon earth none that sit in the pestilent Chair of deceitful tongues can make a thing so white and every one that is of the truth loveth the light and hateth darkness And so far upon this admirable vision His countenance was altered and his rayment white and glistering These were res mirae strange and uncouth things the next general part of the Text doth handle personas miras strange persons whom a man would not expect in that place and at that time Behold there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias If any of the people had been by that took him to be Elias or Jeremias or one of the old Prophets they should have seen a difference in this Vision between the head and the feet between the Lord and his Servants For surely some of the old Prophets two for all and those whom the Jews did most admire came upon this Theater to be seen that Christs glory might appear the more Let the eyes of Peter look upon them together and see if Christs glory be not far exalted above all the Saints Quantùm lenta solent inter viburna cupressi Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord Psal lxxxvi 8. Non in Angelis coelestibus seu in altissimis says the Chaldee Paraphrase not among the Angels nor among any of the blessed souls that live in the highest places Was this such a business to be taught will some men say to bring the dead out of their graves Can any mistake that the honour of Christ is far exalted above all his Servants For to which of the Angels did the Father say at any time Sit thou on my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool Beloved are there none that keep the festival days of the Saints with more devotion and observance then the first day of the week for ever to be sanctified because Christ rose from the dead on that day Do they not make more Pilgrimages and Vows to some Patrons of their own invention who have been but men Are not there more Temples erected in their name More costly Ornaments bestowed upon their Images More Prayers poured out unto them than to Christ himself And had I not need to remember you that two men who were now glorified talked with Christ upon Mount Tabor that they might appear like little stars obscured before the greatest Planet Moses did but verifie in person what he had taught in a Song before Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods Who is like unto thee Exod. xv 11. I adjudge it for another reason that two men beatified came to talk with him because he would not seem to ingross the light of glory to himself without derivation to others It is not a treasure to be reserved unto himself but a communicable donative The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Joh. xvii 22. As a seed-corn is fruitless unless it die and bring forth stalks of Wheat so Christ compares himself to such a grain of Wheat which must die to bring forth much fruit or else it abideth alone as if all were marred unless we were accommodated by his fruitfulness The Kings honour is in the multitude of his people the joy of the Father is in the Olive branches round about his Table The glory of the woman is for the children to grow up and call the mother blessed The felicity of these consists herein to have some that are partners of their felicity But God is all-sufficient to contemplate his own glory though he had never made the world he did not make man to praise him as if he wanted voices to magnifie his name and make him God Yet he is pleased to express his love so far that his honour should be alone unless the goodly fellowship of Saints and Prophets were round about him Except a seed-corn fall into the ground and die it abideth alone Joh. xii 24. Lord why dost thou esteem thy self alone and heaven to be solitary without us But O man how canst thou be without him in thy heart on earth that would not be alone without thee in heaven Behold when he brought down heaven upon earth in his own body two of the Elect brought down their glory to the Mountain to assist him His own Disciples were yet but earth and corruption and therefore incapable of such illuminated brightness till the time should come to be translated out of the prison of mortality And Angels were not fit to be his Compeers at this bout because he manifested the glorification of the flesh which pertains not to Angels but to Men. None of the living would serve the turn to appear with him in Majesty they were not supernaturalized to undergo it nor any of the Angelical Order they were not of the right Predicament two men came down unto him who had been exalted into Heaven and now I will shew with what great congruity these two men who were Moses and Elias But to omit nothing which is fit to be observ'd I will make three general heads of this matter 1. Whether all Elias and all Moses did appear both body and soul 2. From whence they came to be Parties at the celebration of this great Miracle And 3. If I can reach so far Why they became the representative persons for the whole Body of the Saints in Heaven To the first that these two Witnesses presented themselves in bodily shapes there is no wit so scrupulous I think that can make a question of it for S. Matthew says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these men were seen of Peter James and John Then they were heard talking and by their talk discover'd to be those grand Prophets as I will shew hereafter They talked as men to men vocally not in an intellectual fashion as spirits do And the Apostles in their extasie mentioned the making of Tabernacles to shrowd them in but a Tabernacle is a Coverture for a Body and not for a Spirit The controversie doth not consist in this therefore I pass it over That which hath caused diversities of judgments to arise is herein what manner of Bodies these were wherewith Moses and Elias were cloathed to attend the Transfiguration of Christ I will make bold to remove
Worship not one for Christ c. Herein as Peter knew not what he said so he said somewhat which Expositors wonder how he should know namely he calls these men Moses and Elias but how was it revealed to him The Text intimates how they spake to Christ but no where that Christ spake to them and used their names to make them familiar and well known And certainly he had never seen so much as their Pictures to make himself acquainted with the fashion of their countenance The Jews did hold themselves so strictly to the Letter of the Second Commandment that they made no Picture or Graven Image without Gods especial Commandment To resolve this doubt almost every Writer hath laboured to make his own ingenuous conjecture most probable Says Theophylact Moses might say Thou art the Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the World whose Passion I prefigured in the institution of the Paschal Lamb And might Elias say Thou art the Christ whom we believe shall rise again from the dead and that thy power over death might be believed I raised up the Widows Son to life Another way says Christianus Druthmarus Elias might say ascend on high and lead Captivity Captive even as I mounted up to heaven before Elisha Then Moses might vie with him Do thou deliver thy Saints from Hell even as I brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt Did both express that they two had fasted forty days and that they alone above all others had that symbolical mark with Christ Might not the one bring the two Tables of the Law in his hand as if they were his Escutchion by which he would be known And the other perhaps came in his Chariot of fire that bore him up to heaven that is a fourth way So wise an Author as Tolet might have taken any of these conjectures rather than his own forsooth that Elias came as he is described 2 Kings i. 8. An hairy man with a girdle of leather about his Loins and Moses came as their vulgar Latine most ridiculously sets him forth Cum cornutâ facie with Horns for where we read his face shined according to the Hebrew they read his face had horns Indeed this would well become some of their late Canonized Worthies who do rather deserve horns to be fixed to their heads for Monsters than the irradiation of beams for glorified men Zachary Chrysopolitanus hath a Scholastique way by himself Nec probo nec improbo That Peter and the other two Apostles were partakers of some heavenly glory when they saw the Transfiguration and therefore had that spark of happiness to know all persons whom they saw intuitivè as if they had been glorified So he discerned these to be Moses and Elias whom he had never seen before by that gift of grace whereby every Saint shall know all the Society of Saints by name after the Resurrection I will not enter upon that Theme to enlarge this opinion whether we shall know one another perfectly in the life to come Luther very judiciously held the affirmative part the very same night that he gave up his Spirit to the Lord. But to Zacharies opinion I give this dash that Peter was no partaker of glorified qualities at this time especially by way of knowledge and the gift of discerning For he knew not what he said There are reasons to be glanced at before I leave this Point why Peter would impale Moses and Elias in Mount Thabor in his Tabernacles to keep his Master company First he thought says one that none were more gracious with God to be fed miraculously with corporal sustenance so that for their sakes they should all have food enough Moses obtained Manna to fall from heaven about the Tents of the Israelites for forty years at his desire he brought Quails and opened the hard Rock so that waters flowed out And the very Ravens that use to devour all they can get they did spread a Table for Elias and brought him bread and flesh Secondly Fain would Peter defend his Master that he might not be delivered up to the high Priests to be crucified Now he bethought how near Moses was to drowning and his life was preserved how near to be stoned by the people and yet protected Num. xiv How violent was Jezebel against Elias and yet he escaped These had been very fortunate in their preservation therefore he would make Tabernacles for these to dwell with Christ Thirdly If Mount Thabor should happen to be environed with enemies that came to hale them to judgment why Peter may surmise let Moses have a Tabernacle here and he can bring Plagues upon Plagues against them that will meddle with Christ as he did upon Pharaoh and all his Host Let Elias have a Tabernacle here and he will call for fire from heaven to devour their Captains These are the glosses of ancient Writers but I would not confidently say it that the Apostle had all or any of these weak policies in his head when he spake these words Surely he had not time to confer with John and James no nor upon the sudden starting of fear any leisure to roule things in his own reason much less to apply reason to Divine Faith It was an extemporary Ejaculation and a very infirm one not knowing what he said All the first part of my Text was zeal to Christs glory the next part shews it was Zeal not according to knowledge not knowing what he said Upon these words some have quite mistaken the fault some have aggravated it too much some have excused it too far some have delivered their mind as I conceive with reason and moderation The Historiographers of Magdeburg in the first place conceived the case amiss who thought that Peter would have three Tabernacles built upon that flore in memory of the Transfiguration whereas he would have made his Fabrick not for the remembrance of the work that was past but for their cohabitation for the time present and to come In the next place Origen lays so great a crime to the Apostles charge that he says a Diabolical Spirit seduced him to say these words to impedite his Masters Passion for in the sixteenth Chapter of St. Matthew when he disswaded Christ from his sufferings Christ said unto him Get thee behind me Satan therefore all such seducements as this was must be Satanical St. Mark knew the reason of Peters transgression better than Origen this is all that he says Mar. vi 9. He wist not what to say for they were sore afraid It was not the evil Spirit of darkness but the spirit of fear that misguided him And as for the Passion of our Lord who more ready than Satan to hasten it Did he not put it into the heart of Judas that he might procure the death of Christ Did not Christ say to the Jews You are of your father the Devil and you would fulfil his desires when they sought to kill him Joh. viii It was too
of Heaven and all the Stars thereof Moreover Vna Sabbati litterally rendred is not the first but one day of the Week because one is the first ground to begin numbring and Theophilact says the Lords day is called the one day of the Week either because it is the only day from whence the blessing is procured for all the rest or besides it is a figure of the life to come Quando una tantum dies est nequaquam nocte interpolata when there shall be but one day for ever and no night of darkness to interrupt it Thus much of the words The matter of the Point is of a more profitable use And hence I begin that as God the Father upon the first day did begin to make this visible world of Creatures so Christ rose the same day from the dead to signifie that a new Age was then begun Resurrectio est alterius mundi spiritualis creatio says Justin Martyr The Resurrection is well called a creation of a new spiritual world On the first day of the Week God said Let there be light and he divided between the light and the darkness Verily on that wise on the first day of the Week God brought the light of the world out of the darkness of the Grave and the life says St. John was the light of men Now this infinite work to tread death under feet and to bring all flesh out of corruption into the state of immortality being more eximious than to make man in a possibility at first to die and perish therefore all Christian Churches have desisted to meet together at holy exercises upon the Sabbath of the Jews and the first day of the Week is the day appointed to sanctifie out selves unto the Lord for what reason I will now unfold and it is a case of no small perplexity And let me auspicate from the Text and Authority of Holy Scripture and these places following do conspire to verifie the Truth Acts xx 7. Paul abode seven days at Troas the seventh day of his abode was the first day of the Week then and not before it seems upon the first day of the Week when the Disciples came together to break Bread that is to partake of the Lords Supper Paul preacht unto them This seems to approve that in the Apostles time it was no more in use for their Disciples to meet upon the Sabbath but as well to honor the Resurrection as to separate from the Rites and Customs of the Jews in the Spirit of God they did convene together on the first day of the Week From Preaching and Administring the Holy Communion let us come to Collection of Alms. 1 Cor. xvi 2. Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come How can this be expounded but that distributions were made to the poor upon the first day of the Week in their most solemn Assemblies For if the meaning were that every man should set apart a share of his own gains upon that day in his private Coffers and not in the publick Treasury when their Congregations were together then Collections had been to be made from house to house when Paul was to come who desires it might be laid up in readiness as it were in one stock before 'T is pity we are faln from that good order but in the most antient Church I find that they never miss'd to carry the Poors Box about every Lords Day witness this place of St. Cyprian Locuples es dives Dominicam celebrare te credis quae Corbanam omnino non respicis Thou that art rich and wealthy dost thou imagin thou keepest the Lords Day as thou oughtest and dost cast nothing into the Treasury Thirdly as the last day of the Week when God rested from his works was called the Sabbath of the Lord so it is of much moment to the point that the first day of the Week is called the Day of the Lord or the Lords Day Rev. i. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day as it appears Rev. i. 13. John was walking on the Sea shore meditating upon holy things in the Isle of Patmos Very probable that there was no solemn meeting to praise God as it ought to have been among those Pagan Islanders otherwise John had not betaken himself to solitary Meditations but see how he was recompensed Nactus est Doctorem ipsum Deum quando fortasse deessent quos ipse doceret when he was disconsolate because he wanted Auditors to teach God preached unto him the Mysteries of the Age to come But to enforce the Text forenamed for an Argument we have but two things in the New Testament called the Lords the Sacrament is called the Supper of the Lord 1 Cor. xi 20. and this day of Christian Assemblies is called the Lords Day the Lords Prayer and the Lords House are good Phrases but our own not the Scriptures but as we keep the Feast of Passeover no more but instead thereof eat the Lords Supper so neither do we observe the Jews Sabbath any more but instead thereof we keep the Lords Day Thus far I have prest the Authorities of Sacred Scripture The Authority of the Primitive Church and so downward to this Age will convince it clearly against any that is obstinate Ignatius was St. John's Scholar and as if he had learnt of his Teacher he writes thus Let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lords Day which is dedicated to the honor of his Resurrection the Queen and Princess of all days Justin Martyr commands the same day to be kept holy to the Lord every Week in his 2. Apolog. So doth Tertullian more than once and I cited St. Cyprian before The Council of Laodicea speaks thus resolutely Anathema to all those that rest upon the Sabbath let them keep the Lords Day when they observe a vacancy of labor and do as becometh Christians The great Council of Nice doth not command the first day of the Week to be kept holy but supposeth in the 20. Canon all good Christians would admit that without scruple and then appoints other significant Ceremonies to be kept upon the Lords Day from Easter to Whitsontide I need not reckon downward after the Nicen Council because in one word I have not heard or read that it was opposed by any of the Fathers They knew that an appointed time must be allotted for every necessary Duty and certainly upon the abrogation of the Old Sabbath not Man but God did appoint a time for so necessary a thing as the religious Service of his Name Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his own Sabbath lying all that day and night in the Grave and to hold that the Sabbath which is but a Shadow is to continue is to hold that Christ the Body is not yet come yet that being laid apart let us
man Therefore this opinion doth thus distinguish ante devolutum lapidem prodiit non ante concussum he passed forth out of the mouth of the Cave not before the Stone was shaken off with the Earthquake but before it was rolled away The fourth opinion I have read in no Author but I find it cited by one or two once in the Remish Testament and again in Estius potuit prodire per rimam ostii vi subtilitatis as he came into his Disciples when the doors were shut so he came out of the Sepulchre when the door was shut by some chink or crany where the passage was not stopt close This I know that they who speak to this purpose upon other occasions do quote St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 44. It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body because a body raised from the dead is called a spiritual body many do assume that it hath no grosseness as our bodies have but can attenuate it self as a thick piece of gold is malleated and made ductile into a thin leaf and so to pass through a narrow crevis Beloved this opinion is not so simple as some would make for the learnedst Clerk in the world cannot define what manner of spirituality a glorified body should have neither shall we understand it till we come to know in Heaven even as we are known Yet I confess I am puzzled when I think that by this cobweb subtilty Christ must needs lose the figure and lineaments of a manly body beside Theodoret Tertullian and all that wrote against the Marcionites do stiffly maintain the truth of Christs Body to be no aereal phantastical thing Beside I will frame an argument as well against these who hold our Saviour slipt in by a chink of the door when the doors were shut as against the Pontificians who define he came through the wood of the door and so violated nature both these Tenents are contrary to that which himself said to Thomas the Apostle to remove the suspicion that he was no spirit says he Handle and see me for a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me have this had not been enough to prove the truth of his bodily presence and resurrection in the body if they had been perswaded he came in as an aereal spiritual substance or by penetration of the door contrary to nature In the fifth place Zwinglius and Sadael and some others of the Reformed Churches conceived there was so much difficulty in all the four opinions which I have run over and finding no compulsive reason to be driven out of the plain way deliver'd their sentence that the Angel tumbled the stone from the door of the Monument and then the passage being clear Christ came forth without a miracle Certainly as well as I could peruse the Scriptures though I see nothing in them to favour this opinion so I see nothing in the Sacred Text to contradict it I would the Fathers had countenanced it Leo the Great did howsoever some would shuffle it but he proving against the Marcionites that Christ had no phantastical body breaks out Can his substance be phantastical which was nailed to the Cross lay in the Sepulchre and the Stone being rolled away rose again the third day therefore the scruple is that the general consent of all the Fathers beside bend that way how the Grave was not unclosed when he rose Non indigebat ut amoto lapide surgeret sicut Lazarus says St. Austin he needed not like Lazarus to have the stone rolled away that he might come forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Chrysost the Grave was open after he was risen ftom the dead nay in plain terms he says the Seal and stone were still untoucht Set aside that reverence which we bear to these glorious lights of the Ancient Church I see no absurdity which follows if we said he rose to life when the Stone was rolled from the Sepulchre But in all these opinions nothing is grosly repugnant to Faith or Nature only I had rather addict my self to the first opinion which considers not how or which way he came out of the Grave but says the manner was miraculous and inexplicable But I can in no wise digest the sixth and seventh opinions I must couple the Pontificians and Lutherans together though the one side be Transubstantiators the other side Consubstantiators The Lutherans say boldly and blindly that his body passed through the stone so the substance of bread and the substance of Christs body are both together in one place in the Sacraments The Faction of Rome say he went through the stone but what 's that to them who hold not that the substance of Bread and his Body remain together after Consecration in the Host but the substance of bread is abolished and his body remains under the quantitative dimensions of bread but they infer if two bodies may be together in one place by Divine power then one and the same body may be in divers places at once by the same power without a contradiction For these are equivalent and of the same capacity There want not those who deny that the possibility of the one is so probable as the other but to make haste I will speak of this Pontifician opinion as they refer us for the like to other instances in Scripture and then as they refer it to the Eucharist their Allegations are that Mary remain'd a Virgin after Christs birth quem clausa virginitas ad presentem tulerat vitam clausum sepulchrum ad vitam reddidit sempiternam Marics virginity was not enclosed when he was born nor the stone rolled away when he rose 'T is strange that this was ever urg'd when the Holy Ghost applieth that Scripture to our Saviour Luke ii 23. Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And her virginity consisted in this which she spoke to the Angel virum non cognosco I know not a man and truly such a Nativity as they speak of cannot properly be called a Birth The second instance is very witless when the Jews would have thrown our Saviour down an hill he passed through the midst of them and went his way A most blind inference to say out of those words his body passed through the midst of their bodies and as much to the purpose as to have cited that he sat in the midst of Doctors at twelve years of age It avails as little in the third plate to cite St. Paul Heb. iv 14. We have a great High-priest that is passed into the heavens Is this objection of any strength unless they think the Heavens could not be opened to receive him of whose opening we read so many times in the Holy Testament therefore their strength lies onely upon one place Joh. xx 19. when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst Inde clausus
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
Church was that there were no divisions or distractions in their Body God be praised for the multiplication of his Saints now over all the world we cannot meet now under one Roof as these did nor sit down in rows in one Field together as those 5000 did whom our Saviour fed in the Desart the bounds of all the Land of Canaan are not able to hold us God be glorified for the increase Our unity of place is to meet in those publique Assemblies which are allotted to particular Churches at those appointed times which are enjoyned us In no wise to slack our presence here on the Lords day to flock together on other festival days at Morning Prayer on week days to be much more diligent than we have been fie upon our tardiness and excuses in that duty do we look that God shall bless us in our Persons and Calling to take a Benediction away with us to serve us the whole week and come no oftner is not he the God that makes men to be of one mind to come to the Temple together and there to receive the Holy Ghost Chiefly I wish heartily in Christ that they would consort together with us who take no offence at our Doctrine established but make a separation and strangeness both from us and among themselves for matter of Ceremonies and things indifferent They that are baptized into Christ and one Faith why should they not come together with one accord in one place I must not be prolix I will say no more to it but let us say with St. Paul Hebr. x. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are not of them who separate or draw back unto perdition Vnto perdition let that be noted The observation of this point gains thus much more out of St. Austin As all the Tribes of Israel were gathered together about Mount Sinah to hear in what manner the Law was proclaimed so here was an agreement of all persons to joyn together to receive the Holy Ghost but in that admirable similitude there is this dissimilitude that the people were prohibited with many terrors to come near the place where the Law was delivered but at this time the Holy Ghost was sent unto them who expecting the promise were all with one accord in one place And Calvin conjects much unto this note that the minds of the faithful were exceedingly encouraged and chang'd for the better the stoutest Champions of them all had no manlike fortitude in them before the Shepherd was smitten and instantly they were scattered and ran away for fear now the very women had hardned themselves against all danger they mix themselves together in one place with that holy company and fear no evil that can happen unto them A resolved constant mind an heroick heart to take up the Cross of Christ and to suffer unto the death for righteousness sake is a sign of much grace in the soul and an admirable preparation to receive the greatest measure of the Holy Ghost And that you may not think this Apostolical Society had crept into a dark corner where no espials could find them out Many Authors that have laboured to understand where it was say it was a spacious goodly Room of as much note as any private House in all Jerusalem and frequented so often by the Apostles that their haunt was known through all the City All that I have met withal conclude it was the same upper Chamber where our Saviour celebrated his last Supper and so consecrated the place Nicephorus and Cedrenus say it was the House of John the Evangelist for he took the Blessed Virgin to his own home and she was now among them a slender guess God wot and repugnant to many circumstances of Scripture Theophylact says it was the House of Simon the Leper how can that be when his House was in Bethany Matth. xxvi 6. Euthymius says it was the House of Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counseller and had goodly Rooms to receive them Baronius goes with the most voices all are but conjectures that it was the House of Mary the Mother of John whose surname was Mark. To this Adrichomius consents and says this was the place where 3000 Jews were converted by Peter and baptized thither Peter betook himself when the Angel brought him out of prison there Stephen and others were made Deacons there James the Brother of our Lord so called was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem there the first Council of the Apostles was held Acts xv All ancient Authors conclude it was about where the Tower of Sion stood and this is certain that Helen the Mother of Constantine did build a goodly Temple upon the same place to honour that holy ground It was a Figure of the whole Church of Christ so much the more to be remembred and the Church is a Figure of the Kingdom of Heaven where all the Saints and I trust all we shall praise the Lord with one accord in one place for evermore It follows now as the outward Bond of Peace was with this Society so they were claspt together faster with the inward Bond of Agreement with the unity of the same spirit they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one accord There cannot be a more proper true and certain disposition to make us meet for the Holy Ghost than unanimity As the Halcyon so our Naturalists say never appears but against fair weather so the Spirit comes either not at all or not very plentifully unto us until he find concord among us without jars and tranquility without bitterness The unity of the Apostles is called by the Fathers parasceue spiritus the way-making to receive the grace of God and if the Patient be prepared aright the Agent will do his work the sooner and the better No gifts of benediction are given to strive and oppose to fight one against another but for charity and edification therefore it was the beginning of our Collect three Sundays past Almighty God which dost make the minds of all faithful men to be of one will and it is a principal part of our Gospel for this day Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you That peace which Christ left among the Apostles was as it were an earnest penny put into their hands that they should have the full donative of the Comforter from above Our Saviour was born in the days of Caesar Augustus when a still Peace was over all the world now He pours out his holy spirit upon them that were of one accord and of one heart the one was his first act upon earth the other is his last then he was cloathed with our flesh now we are invested with his spirit This remarkable amity and Saint-like brotherhood among the Members of the Church which had no ruptures was well prefigur'd in the old Feast of Pentecost which was kept by the Jews For Levit. xxiii 19. upon the day of Pentecost among other Burnt-offerings the Priests were appointed in
sufficient bigness to hold those three thousand that were converted ver 41. of this Chapter To that other Circumstance also that the men and women are said to be sitting in the house when this blessing came down upon them I have little to add I love reverence of gesture with all my soul yet I love not to be so nice as some that hold it so necessary for the Apostles to be humbled on their knees when the grace of God fell on them that they say the meaning of the Text is not sitting but kneeling howsoever the words go and that to sit signifies not the posture of their body but their habitation I confess and believe if they had lookt for the Comforter at that moment they would have cast themselves down upon the ground when the Majesty of God was in the place and I perswade my self they did instantly kneel and give thanks as soon as they perceived what mighty work God had wrought upon them But remember they were taken suddenly and unawares in some honest communication no doubt And being so unprovided why might not Christ begin this Miracle while they were sitting as well as Christ appear from heaven to Paul as he was riding or God appear unto Moses while he was keeping sheep Excellently Cajetan Non horreo sessionem corporalem cum nihil indecens inducat I am not scrupulous or troubled at their sitting as long as it was done with no obstinate irreverent disobedient affection O but the Roman Missal for this day hath this Hymn Orantibus Discipulis Deum venisse nunciat While they were at their prayers they mean kneeling the sound gave them warning that the Holy Ghost was come Well this case is quickly resolved their Hymn is mistaken and let them mend their Missal and not mend the Scripture Is there any thing more to be extracted out of this last Point One thing and that is all It is a remarkable note of a most acute Father of our own Church Thus This Wind filled not all the Country or all Jerusalem but that house where they sate Nay says he and very truly that Room only of the house where they were assembled One Room for an whole house is a frequent Synechdoche Natural Winds breath over many places at once but this Wind blew electivè by choise and discretion The Spirit blows upon certain places where it will and upon certain persons and they shall plainly feel it and others about them not a whit It is a peculiar wind appropriate to the place where the Apostles are that is the Church else where to seek it is but folly the place it bloweth in is Sion This is the Divinity of that great Scholar Bishop Andrews that the Spirit hath not cast an universal diffusion over all the world but it blows by election and choise that is at Gods good will and pleasure upon that place only where Christ hath his Church For what use can they make or have they ever made of the Spirit to whom the name of Christ and salvation in his bloud was never revealed The purpose of giving the Holy Ghost is to make the Seed of the Word fruitful in our hearts that we may believe the Gospel that we may live holily according to the profession of our Faith and that through faith which must work by love if it be true faith we may be saved AMEN THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 3. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them OF all Mysteries of all Visions of all Revelations which the Church ever had this that is conteined in my Text hath one peculiar blessing that it is most easie to be understood I can give no reason for it but this that as natural light makes all colours visible to our eyes and it self most visible so the Holy Ghost causeth all celestial Doctrin that concerns eternal salvation to be revealed to the knowledg of faith and makes himself to be most apparent and intelligible Therefore I cannot but observe it unto you that some Angel or some Saint departed did always interpose their presence at the other mighty works of the Gospel only they forbore to shew themselves at this Feast of Pentecost upon the sending of the Holy Ghost I will spread this before you in a trice and my conjecture upon it At the Nativity of our Saviour many Angels were employed to divulge it At his Transfiguration Moses and Elias appeared to ratifie it At his Agony in the Garden an Angel waited there to strengthen him At his Resurrection two Angels in white appeared in his Sepulcher to glorifie him And lastly at his Ascension two others clad in as white apparel as they did testifie of him But upon the descending of the Holy Ghost the Angels did quite withdraw themselves I am sure they came not in any bodily shape into the place where the Apostles were gathered together for that were as the Proverb says facem soli praeferre to light a candle before the Sun at noon day and that illustrates all things can be illustrated by nothing but by himself This is the comfort then of my Text that we have light on every side to walk in this is the great latitude of the benefit conteined in it that it gives us vocem scientiam linguam ignem both tongue and fire both science and elocution sapere fari quae sentiat to conceive clearly that which is fit to be learnt and to utter distinctly that which is wisely conceiv'd And therefore in one word we owe unto this blessed day both completely to be made happy and completely to know our happiness No marvel if the Old Church many hundred years since which was most prudent in appointing Festivals did constitute that between Easter and Whitsuntide all the fifty dayes should be destinated to joy and gladness that all the people should sing haleluja with a loud voice so often as they met in their holy Assemblies that there should be no fasting days no mourning no not so much as the dejection of kneeling on the ground but to stand and pray all that space of time these Fathers were exceeding full of ceremony to express the gladness which they had for the gift of the Holy Ghost And therefore Bernard calls the Lenten strictness that goes before Easter Quadragesimam luctus paenitentiae the fourty days of godly sorrow and repentance but he calls the time following to Whitsuntide Quinquagesimam gaudii the fifty days of Exaltation for our joy doth surpass our sorrow At Easter we are assured by Christs Resurrection that the body shall rise from corruption at Whitsuntide these firy tongues do manifest that the Soul shall rise from darkness and ignorance and be partaker of the marvelous light And because this mighty miracle was communicated to the Apostles in most sensible objects therefore I told you the last year that the third person
xiv 8. Briefly the Gospel was now to launch forth and to flote upon the waves of many trials and persecutions and therefore it had need of a Helm to turn it about whithersoever the Governor listeth and that little Helm is the tongue Jam. iii. 4. I told you even now that the wantonness of the eye had a gracious vision to amend it so here came a remedy from Heaven to correct the iniquity of our mouth which is the very forge of Hell and a tongue descended from above to sanctify it As the Devil can put no worse thing into us than an evil tongue and then it becoms the worst member that we have Jam. iii. 6. so God can send us no better thing from the store of his mercies than a tongue to praise him and then David calls it in the old Translation of our Psalms the best member that we have Psal cviii 1. We had need to let that Prayer come in often among our earnest supplications that God would touch our lips with a coal from his altar as he sent a Seraphin with that blessing to the Prophet Isaiah It is very meet that we consider in our vote with the Psalmist Set a watch before my mouth pone ostium circumstantiae as the vulgar Latin hath it make such a door for my mouth that I may look to every circumstance of every syllable that passeth out Oret lingua ut dometur lingua Says St. Austin O let the tongue pray for it self that it may be ruled how often trips it in swearing how often doth it murmur in discontent in boasting above measure in pride lofty in anger furious in perjuries blasphemous in curses bitter in vain talking never quiet glib as honey in hypocrisie subtle in lying smooth in deceiving impudent in flattery What a happy thing it is to have a fence about the lips that no such evil spirits as these may come in or out and notwithstanding all these exorbitancies of the mouth to which we are so obnoxious God can purifie our speech and season it with salt that it shall not corrupt For if man by wit and industry can tame wild beasts which he hath not made can not the Lord much more tame the tongue which he hath made a Watch can suppress and curb those in that would break out of their holds and the Lord can make such a door for our lips as shall inhibit all the petulancy of vain breath and shut and open for his own glory Ostium aperitur clauditur says Gregory unto it a door is made to let our friends and familiars in but to keep out theevs and robbers so the tongue must be open to confess our sins and shut if hypocrisie shall attempt to excuse them the mouth must be open unto the praise of God and barred against our own commendation it must be open to teach the humble but shut and silent if the obstinate will not learn for answer not a fool in his folly says Solomon He that openeth and no man shutteth he that shutteth and no man openeth can give us this power from above to speak unto his praise and to be silent unto evil therefore the Holy Ghost descended in the apparition of a tongue To pierce further as far as observation will give me leave upon this point as the tongue naturally is an instrument of two functions of speaking and of tasting so these extraordinary tongues were destined for two properties to preach the Gospel and to discern spiritual things in their true gust and sapor The first intent was to give the Apostles a door of utterance to proclaim salvation to all that were prepared to hear and that all men should confess with boldness that Jesus is the Christ The Spirit came in the former verse like a rushing mighty wind that was for inspiration for the Apostles own sakes to sanctifie themselves but the gift of tongues was for elocution to impart the benefit to more than themselves This is the antient gloss of the Fathers upon my Text especially Gregorie's and that in two places Pastores primos in linguarum specie spiritus sanctus insedit quia quos repleverit de se protinus loquentes facit the Holy Ghost sat upon the first Pastors of the Church in the shape of a tongue for whomsoever of that rank the Divine Spirit fills he opens their lips to preach the Lord Jesus In both of St. Pauls Epistles to Timothy one of his Injunctions upon a Bishop is that he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to teach In his admonitions to Titus the same lesson again A Bishop must be able by sound doctrin to exhort and convince gainsayers Tit. i. 9. and St. Hierom says very truly how that character is more appropriated to a Bishop than all the rest the rest ought generally to be found in all holy Christians not to be given to filthy lucre nor to quaffing of wine to be the Husband of one Wife to be hospital just unblameable but this is intrinsecal first to Episcopal then to Priestly vocation to be cymbolum mundi the loud Cymbals of the world the tongues of the Church to be apt and painful to teach And therefore Espencaeus though of the Roman party exclaims much against the Pontifician Bishops for giving Monks and Friars licence to preach who are no Successors of the Apostles and therefore never received an Evangelical tongue in their Predecessors but says he the Prelates that ought to do that work themselves will not and therefore they grant licence to those to teach the Gospel who ought not but he cries out unto them to live according to St. Pauls Canons charged upon those two famous Bishops Timothy and Titus and then eant Episcopi se a docendi necessitate si possint excusent mark that Reverend Fathers says he and excuse your selves if you can from the necessity of preaching No there is no excuse for these tongues descended now after a mighty rushing wind quasi exeuntes è loco tonitrui as if they had been bolts after a clap of thunder to signify that these are the Trumpets which God sends forth to call us to repentance before the day of Judgment Ante adventum judicis ipsi clamando gradiantur says Gregory And howsoever some may justly attain to such place in the Church as to sway the Staff of Government in their hand yet they must remember that they are never released of this duty that their tongue must edify In the old Book of Ordination in this Church as well as in the Church of Rome the Bishop Elect at his Consecration had the Bible given him in one hand to teach and the Pastoral Staff in the other hand to govern the Flock It was never meant he should let fall the Book out of one hand and hold the Staff in both nay beware he be not beaten with the Staff that lets go the Book Latratu baculo rabies luporum deterrenda est
for God will be mild as a Dove toward us if we will be hot as fire against our selves That he may spare us with his mercy let us be angry at our selves with godly revenge And so they that made no bones of lies and fictions have renowned St. Dunstan in his Legend that a Dove descended from heaven upon him Et remigia alarum scintillantis ignis splendorem prae se ferebant says Capgrave And the wings of it when they were stretcht out did sparkle like fire Their meaning is in this Fable as I call it to set him forth as most full of the Holy Ghost upon whom both the Dove and fire descended Fourthly says St. Austin where God causeth the Tongue to speak the truth fire that is sorrow and trouble will follow Ignis portendit tribulationem quam propter linguas erunt perpessuri The fire imports that tribulation which the Apostles must undergo by preaching the Gospel The Devil did rage against those that were the Pillars of the Church and of true Doctrine and blew the coals of many a fire to consume them Fifthly and to shut up that Point the Tongue being left to it self is full of much corruption as I have amplified already and it had need of a purging fire to cleanse it and refine it In all the old Sacrifices of the Grecians Homer says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they threw the tongue of the beast into the fire whereupon says Coelius Rhodoginus Comburendo linguas perperam dictorum labes expurgabant They made expiation thereby in the flames of fire for all words that had been spoken offensively St. James says the Tongue is a fire Chap. iii. 6. meaning a fire of discord and mischief and that fire had need to be corrected by another fire from heaven or else the torments of hell-fire would be the end of it And now we will rest at last in that Point which is the resting and setling of these Tongues There appeared unto them c. and it sate upon each of them It sate Why we spoke of Tongues in the Plural number before What Enallage is this Cajetan and the most Divines interpret it that the fire sate upon each of them Calvin by a Metonimy of signi pro re signatâ that the Spirit sate upon each of them The Syrian Paraphrast refers it directly to the Tongues and puts it in the Plural number sederunt they sate upon each of them Indeed to refer it to many Tongues and yet to make the Verb of the Singular number is the best exposition of all it sate to shew that it is one Holy Ghost in the administration of divers gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I said before one root and many stalks There are diversity of operations but it is the same Lord that worketh all in all 1 Cor. xii 6. But upon whom did they descend and sit For now I make haste Upon every one of the hundred and twenty that were gathered together Or upon the Apostles only Somewhat is in it that when all are named to whom this fire appeared all to be filled with the Holy Ghost yet the Tongues are said to sit upon each of them In two ancient Copies some of our Criticks say that the Text runs they sate upon each of the Apostles and I think that a very probable gloss The Reasons are First the Spirit in some particular manner was promised to them only Acts i. 7. Secondly when some Scoffers said they were full of new wine that had the gift of Tongues St. Peter makes his apology for himself and the Eleven only Thirdly it is said hereupon that they all spake or preacht the mighty things of God This befits the Apostles and not those one hundred and twenty among whom was the Blessed Virgin and other women whose office it was not to preach Fourthly the standers by said Are not all these of Galilee that speak with divers tongues which was true in the Apostles now Judas was taken away but very improbable to agree to all the rest Howsoever let there be no discord about this it is not worth the while no more is the next quere upon what part of them the Cloven Tongues did sit That is not exprest but in all likelihood it was their head for thereunto all Expositors do give their suffrage The Spirit must be in summo loco we must give it and the inspiration thereof the pre-eminence in all things These Tongues says Gregory did encircle about their head Vt novae coronae spirituales capiti eorum imponerentur as if the King of heaven had crowned them with spiritual Crowns from heaven They are ridiculous among the Pontifician Writers that would fetch it from hence that Christ did ordain the Apostles Bishops at this time and used this Ceremony to touch their head from heaven for Consecratio Episcoporum est in capite as they urge it out of Clemens Constitution For another while they confess that the Episcopal character and all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and authority was given them in those words As my Father sent me so do I send you These things being thus put out of the way the main Doctrine agreed on all hands is that the sitting of the Tongues did betoken the constant abiding of the Spirit he is no flitter he doth not come with a lick and away but his gifts are without repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Chrysostome and his true follower Oecumenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both agree that the Spirit was setled upon them not to depart away It is a fire like that on the Altar permanent and never going out according to our Saviours Promise Joh. xiv 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever Some of the Schoolmen find a knot in this plain Doctrine whether the Apostles and all upon whom the Spirit did now abide were confirmed in grace Certain Ecclesiastical Historians trouble them in their conclusions who say that Nicholas the Deacon from whom the Nicolaitans were derived and many other ring-leaders of Hereticks were present at this time and although the Spirit descended upon them yet they forsook their first faith The answer is if these stories be Authentical these gifts were gratiae gratis datae not gratum facientes Gifts which God did graciously give not gifts which made them gracious to God that received them And the continuance and residency of these tongues is established in these words that the Comforter whom Christ would send should abide with them for ever that is it should abide in the Church that is in them and in their Successors unto the ends of the world till Christ should come again in glory as I will open upon the next verse AMEN THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them
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
these persons and to this season not to these persons for it is most likely that none but the Apostles were partakers of the Divine illumination which came from Heaven upon this day and the Apostles no man calls it in question had the talents of that grace delivered unto them which saved their souls Ir is a masterless and a false fame that any castaways were in the number of these that were filled with the Holy Ghost Christ himself is said to be full of the Holy Ghost Luke iv 1. and the Blessed Virgin gratiâplena full of grace and St. Stephen the Captain of all Martyrs full of the Holy Ghost Acts vi and Barnabas the Son of Consolation full of the Holy Ghost Acts xi None but such as were peerless Saints are deigned with that praise to give this scruple a full satisfaction regard the time and season wherein this dew of heaven did drop down into the Fleece of wooll it is the day so long before promised wherein the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh the scaturigo the first spouting out of the Spirit and do you think that this being the original from whence the spring began that all the best Balsams and Liquors did not flow into them that received it I resolved therefore that these persons in my Text did not only partake such gifts as made them wonderful in the eyes of the world but such also as made them holy and acceptable in the sight of God that is it did not only speak in their tongues but it was diffused in their hearts To end this matter remember what manner of spirit that is which God bestows it is from above it is holy it is not our own but Christs a Spirit from above and not from beneath as St. Paul says Now we have received not the spirit of this world but of God 1 Cor. ii 12. Spiritus mundi est per quem arripiuntur phanatici says St. Ambrose that 's the spirit of this world with which phanatical men are led which drives them into contention or vain glory but they are enemies to peace and savour not the things which belong to God And since we are bidden to deny our selves if we will be Christs Disciples we must also deny our own private Spirit and submit our selves to the Spirit of the Church which is the Spirit of God for our Saviour hath promised to be with it unto the end of the world Take heed of this hot windy humour which makes some cleave pertinaciously to their own imagination and attribute far more to their own ignorant judgment than becomes them The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets but if any one think that some new mysteries are revealed to him which the Church never heard of before and begin to trouble our peace with his falsesly pretended raptures and enthusiasms I say unto such in Ezekiels words Woe unto the foolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing Thus far I have spoken of the Gift which was given to the Apostles to supply the room of Christ himself now he was gone and ascended into Heaven Hominem portavit in coelum Deum misit in terram says St. Austin he carried away his Manhood into Heaven and instead thereof he sent down God unto the Earth I mean the Holy Ghost and this Gift more worth than all the world beside is his usual and continual favour but the measure of it is more than ordinary repleti sunt omnes they were all filled with the Holy Ghost And Leo did very well to mark it that this was not spiritus inchoans but cumulans not the initiation but the accumulation of the Spirit the augmenting of the old stock which the Apostles had in a good quantity before not the beginning of a new They had the Spirit before as appears particularly in St. Peter when Christ told him he had prayed that his faith might not fail therefore he had a portion of faith In general it is most manifest that Christ breathed on them all and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost But as it appears by Elisha's request to his Master Elias there are single and there are double Portions of the Spirit there is a single Talent of Grace given to one Servant two to a second and five Talents committed to him that was most entrusted by his Master there are such as have a little of this Manna in their Omer and them that have it top full And these that received the Holy Ghost at this Feast were such as were not sprinkled but replenished with it quibus nulla pars animae mansit carens spiritu sancto says Cajetan the fruits of sanctification did not grow thinly in them here a berry and there a berry upon the top of a bough but pious conformity to Gods will obedience and the fear of the Lord were in every faculty of their soul and body The Romanists oftentimes put in such impertinent cautions that their bedging in of some needless exception lays waste the truth of God Among others of that bad stamp this is one that the Apostles and other holy men are said to be filled at this time with the Holy Ghost because an Increase was put to that which they had before but the Blessed Virgin was so full before that she received not any new addition or if she received a new distillation of it now illud erat ut in nos tantum effunderet says Lorinus it was for our sakes that it might overflow and be transfused from her to us even as Christ was full of grace and truth from the first moment that he was incarnate and yet for our sakes the Spirit came upon him when he was baptized in Jordan Matth. iii. a most scandalous comparison between the Infinite and the Finite between the Creator and the Creature for though Christ thought it no robbery to be equall with God Philip. ii yet it is a great robbery of the Divine honor to make the Blessed Virgin equal with Christ But to keep to mine own work the Apostles had an earnest penny of the Spirit before but they came to the fulness of it by degrees first they were baptized and so had an introduction unto sanctity afterward Christ breathed on them that was their proficiency last of all came this mighty rushing and cloven tongues as it were fire and sat upon each of them that 's their perfection by nature and of themselves they were of the earth earthly but they were regenerate and born again in Baptism that 's an Element above the Earth The next step of their heavenly promotion was that the Lord breathed on them so the Air is above the Water In conclusion the Holy Ghost came down upon them in fire this is a sign that they were now full to the brim for that 's the Element which is above the Water and the Air and is the next to Heaven And well may it be called a
their nearest Relations if they be a bar to the Kingdom of Heaven And who cares if revilers call it a drunkenness of the Spirit Thirdly Much Wine gives a great edge to valour and courage In praelia trudit inermes it runs into any danger because it knows not what is danger but there is nothing of such animosity nothing so undaunted as the Spirit of God The righteous is bold as a Lion says Solomon It must needs be that strength is doubled in him because he hath two lives in his heart this life and the life to come What could the world say but that some illapse from heaven was in the breast of the Apostles that those miselli those neglected worms should overtop the terrors of Councils of Prisons of Death of Devils Let such as Rabshekah call it drunkenness it was the boldness of the Spirit Fourthly Wine is a rejoycer of the heart Ecclus xl 20. But what joy is comparable to that which is begotten by the infusion of the Holy Ghost Let the righteous rejoyce and be glad let them also be merry and joyful A good conscience recreated by the Promises of God and assurance of forgiveness of sins is like a volary of sweet singing birds chirping and carolling within the Soul nothing but the pleasant notes of heaven and immortal blessedness When we sing Psalms of chearfulness let Scorners censure it for vanity but it is the new Wine of the Spirit which makes the heart glad Lastly As the airy vapours of wine make a man to broach his secrets and reveal them Arcana recludit so the Holy Ghost coming down this day did open the fountain which was sealed up before the Mysteries of Gods eternal counsel brought to pass in time by the Incarnation of his Son were made manifest to all the world This was it which confounded the Jews that were present to hear those abstruse things of Godliness divulged and they did not understand them The Spirit made the Apostles pour them out and they could not hold they were transported above natural to supernatural reason and they were carried above themselves as men even drunken with great Revelations Upon those words of St. Paul 2 Cor. v. 13. Whether we be beside our selves it is to God or whether we be sober it is for your cause says Bernard Audi sanctam insaniam Festus told Paul he was mad here he professeth little less for the Gospel sake he neither says that he was sober and he doth not contend whether he were beside himself or no. Such as he was he was for the Church sake possessed of the Spirit and full of that new Wine which gave him a tongue of utterance to preach Jesus Christ to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness These uses rise out of an holy and mystical sense of the words and that is no thanks to these taunting Jews who being full of malice a sin that is worse than drunkenness burden the Apostles that they were full of Wine or as the Syrian Paraphrast reads it without mincing these men are drunken The just upright man is laughed to scorn Job xii 4. Isaac the Son of Promise was scoffed at by Ismael the Profane Gen. xxi 9. The Septuagint calls it Ismaels play or sport Illa lusio erat illusio says St. Austin it was his pastime to mock the righteous Be prepared therefore against evil words and reproaches you must have your share of them if your conversation be Christian First you have a Paracletus which is a spirit of comfort to bear them off with patience Then you have a Paracletus for that is the word an Advocate to answer against the Accuser of the Brethren who shall discover your innocence Apoc. xii 10. There is no good action but the Devils claw of scornfulness is upon it At our Saviours Resurrection the Jews made the Apostles Thieves they forsooth had stoln away their Master by night and at the coming of the Holy Ghost they make them Drunkards But this was a baptizing with the Holy Ghost not a sousing with Wine it was somewhat poured on them no strong drink poured in them it was no drunken thing but rivers of living waters springing up to everlasting life and this he spake of the Spirit which they that believed on him should receive Joh. vii it is the fountain of the water of life issuing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. xxii So Moses likened the inspiration of Prophesie to the dew falling on the herbs or to the rain poured on the grass Deut. xxxii It is no distempering heady liquour but the Cordial of joy and the Balm of Gilead If then the effusion of the Spirit was tax'd with drunkenness what do you that think profane persons have devised concerning the Cup of the Sacrament Horrendum dictu because it is our Saviours Doctrine by a figurative speech that the Cup is the New Testament in his bloud the heathen traduced the Christians soon after the Apostles days that they killed a Child in their private Feasts and Sacrifices and drank his bloud And a long time it was before the heathen Magistrates would be perswaded that such as partaked the holy Communion were not murderers Indeed it is true though they understood it not that such as partake unworthily are murderers of their own souls But again if Gods mighty miracle was scoft at when he gave grace to his Apostles to preach so divinely what will profane persons say to our weak Doctrine so much inferiour to theirs Quoties dicimus toties judicamur nothing is more snatcht at to be made matter of idle talk and frumping discourse than that which is delivered in the Pulpit Take heed and remember that Michol was barren who scorned ac David that no Scorner might be begotten of her says St. Ambrose But the Devil hath got a new way to bring both Preaching and Praying into contempt For Preaching let every one practice it that will and then it will come to pass I am sure if not Musto pleni spumâ pleni if they be not full of new wine they will be full of froth Says the Apostle 1 Cor. xii 29. Are all Prophets Are all Teachers Are all workers of miracles It can no more agree that all should be Teachers than that all should be workers of Miracles As for publick Prayer the deriders of sanctity call it not new wine but they call it worse by the name of that homely broth for which Esau sold his birth-right But as the Prophet said to the calumnious Jews against whom do you sport yourselves Against whom do you make a wide mouth and draw out the tongue Against whom do you shoot out Arrows even bitter words Are ye not children of transgression a seed of falshood Isa lvii 4. But this is the derision which Satan would put upon Religion in this unsanctified unpeaceable Age. First take away directly the publick Liturgie of Prayers that the people may have
from thence he assists his Sacraments sanctifieth his Ministry gives grace unto his Word And if they did not escape who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn from him that speaketh from Heaven Secondly Our Jerusalem is above not only in the Head but in the Members I do not say in all the Members for the Church is that great House in which are Vessels of honour and dishonour Terms of Excellency though indistinctly attributed to the whole are agreeing oftentimes only to the chiefer or more refined part Some there are in this Body whom though we salute not by the proud word of their Sublimity yet in true possession which shall never be taken from them they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are above Witness that the Angels make up one Church with us being the chief Citizens that are reckoned in the triumphant part fellow Servants with us under one Lord adopted Sons under one Father Elect under one Christ This is the language of the Scripture and surely Members of one Mystical Body for the same Jesus is the Head of all Principality and Power Colos ii 10. Of this Family also are the Saints departed even all those holy Spirits that obey God in heavenly places and do not imitate the Devil and his Angels This is that Church which hath neither spot nor wrinkle for when I speak of such a Church says St. Austin in his retractations I mean none but those in Heaven After these that make the front and first File of our March there are many among us I trust who have their part in this description Jerusalem which is above the Elect of God the Church invisible invisible I say not for their persons but for their qualites for who can see who hath an internal union with Christ the Head Who can tell whether this or that may be filled with his Grace and quickned with his Spirit Cusanus says very well that there is no certain judgment to be made by the outward fruits who are living Members of the Church but in Infants that are newly baptized With the mouth we confess the truth but with the heart man believes unto righteousness and only God can see the heart But these whose integrity their Master knows and loves no matter in what base condition they wander here they are greater by far than the ungodly that over-peer them in promotion they are above indeed for they are as high as the pinacle of blessedness and their names are written in the Book of Life for their sakes God hath dropt down the beautiful style of Jerusalem upon the Houshold of Christ but without these no name were so fit for it as Sodom or Samaria Such as will wrangle where no occasion is offered have carped at this as if we removed all from the Church but such as are Israel in occulto and have their sins forgiven in Christ It was never our meaning neither can we help it but that we must keep communion with all those that profess the common Faith But if the Church had known Hypocrites it had not admitted them into the Portion of the Lord or else it had excluded them Et quid prodest non ejici coetu piorum si mereris ejici says St. Cyprian What the better is it for an Hypocrite that he is not cast out of the Congregation since he deserves to be cast out he may abide with us in the outward Society of them that call upon Christ praesumptivè non veraciter as Spalatensis says because we presume he is faithful though indeed he is the Child of the Devil numero non merito he makes up one of the Multitude that go in the broad way he is none of the few that strive to enter in at the steight gate he keeps the formality of a Christian with others beneath he perteins not to Jerusalem which is above Thirdly We have obtained this dignity to be ranked as them that are above because our calling is very holy He hath saved us and called us with an holy calling 2 Tim. i. 9. called to Doctrin which is above which flesh and bloud did not reveal but the Father that giveth wisdom plentifully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Theophilact upon my Text God did preach the Gospel from on high with his own voice for take a Breviary of it and it is no more but that which he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased We are called to obey the truth by illumination from above from thence is sent the spirit of them that are baptized the spirit of the Apostles and Martyrs the spirit of Bishops and Doctors the spirit of all those that have lived in the Truth and shed their bloud for the Truth 's sake We are called to that Religion which consists in celestial Functions in Faith and Hope in Prayer and Charity not in a Religion which presseth them down that observe it with an insupportable weight of Shadows and Ceremonies but the hour is come when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth Beware of those of the Concision says St. Paul and among bad marks which they carry this is the conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they mind earthly things that is they are pleased with carnal Ordinances with these low and beggerly Observations of the Levitical Priesthood but immediately turning himself to the Fundamentals of the Gospel and the practice thereof says he nostra politeia our way of serving God our manner of worship is in Heaven So Bernard says that the Synagogue moved in a low Orb. But Solomon speaking of the New Testament says Quae est ista quae ascendit Cant. iii. 3. Who is she that cometh up from the Wilderness perfumed with mirrh and frankincense with all the powders of the Merchant Above all we are called to holy actions which savour not of mans passions and purposes but are qualified from above Our fortitude is heavenly fortitude our temperance heavenly temperance our liberality to the poor heavenly liberality but the moral deeds of the Heathen living out of the Church that had the best gloss upon them were smutcht with some bad vapour below and every grane of vertue that grew out of their stalks did abound with the chaff of vanity And what exceeds all that I have said beside to make our calling heavenly and holy God is so gracious to those things which are done in the Church in the name of his Son that where an unfit instrument may seem to marr all by his extravagant profaneness by his impenitent conscience nay by his heretical pravity yet Christs presence and assistance are not wanting to his Word and Sacraments but their efficacy is free and current to the people though they be performed by a crooked and an adulterous Generation As the Posterity of Jacobs Handmaid had a Princedom among their Brethren in the Land of Canaan
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
Prologue for both the Vision which he saw and the words which he heard though they deserve an Interpreter yet they are much more obvious to the capacity than the Antecedent Predictions If I had put it into my tasque to speak of the opening of the fifth Seal which begins the verse then I must have embarqued my self in a great controversie about the precise Age when such things fell out and what distance of Ages the several Seals do include But I undertake not to foretell events that were to Prophesie out of my own brain I apply nothing which St. John saw either to the Empire or to the Church below I deal no further than the prospective of these words doth carry me that is the Theatre of the Church Triumphant The Church Triumphant That puts another objection upon me For who is sufficient to handle that Subject Eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man what God hath done for his Saints in those glorious places I submit unto it and will not touch their inscrutable glory with my unwashen hands Upon two things we may taste without surfeiting of curiosity and I will set no more before you They are these Let us neither think that the Saints are extinguished in death for St. John saw the Souls under the Altar of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held Nor let us think that their enemies are forgotten for those Souls cry night and day saying c. To contract it into short terms for the more apt division here are two parts what the Apostle saw in the Church Triumphant and what he heard But of no more than the first of these at one time Wherein first I must speak a little de modo videndi after what manner he saw this Theory I saw 2. Quid vidit what he saw he saw Souls 3. Quales vidit what kind of Souls they were Souls of them which were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held 4. Vbi vidit where and in what place he saw them Vnder the Altar When St. John relates how he did comprehend this wonderful object he says he saw it With what eye doth he mean No bodily Instrument you may be sure not such an eye as every birds dung can put forth not these foggy lights in our head that wax dim with Age and at last will spend themselves quite out in their Sockets these cannot attain to behold the Spirits of Saints Tertullian mistook a Parabolical passage for a real branch of a story where the Rich man in hell is said to see Lazarus in Abrahams bosom from whence he ascribed effigiation and colour to a soul and would not endure Critolaus and the Peripateticks that said it was a quintessence and no body no error more visible than this that the Souls in heaven are visible and have corporality The eye of man shall be endued with vertue to see the Angels nay to see the very Essence of God when this flesh shall be clarified and refined in the Resurrection In virtutem ipsius mentis quodammodò convertentur oculi says St. Austin This bodily eye shall then be transformed into an intellectual Faculty But as yet it can discern nothing but that which is earthy like it self Search we out therefore for some other way how John saw the souls under the Altar It lies in those words which we meet twice before in this Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was in the Spirit That is as I take it a Prophetical Revelation was infused into him through imaginary forms joyned with an abstraction from the senses Blame me not if this desription be somewhat difficult for who can tell what a divine Rapture is unless himself had been in a rapture I call it a Revelation it is the title of the Book for this reasâ—n Pharaoh and Nebuchadonosor had Visions and understood not what they meant but when the intelligence of the thing is opened as it was to Joseph and Daniel it became a Revelation So St. Austin observes Maximè propheta est qui in utroque excellit ut videat in spiritu corporalium rerum similitudines eas vivacitate mentis intelligat He is an eminent Prophet both ways who sees in the Spirit certain Figures and Similitudes of things to come and knows them by illumination So did this Apostle no question for all Scripture was opened to the Apostles much more was this Scripture opened to the Apostle who wrot it from the mouth of God 2. I blazon'd it for a Prophetical Revelation for the Angels have all things revealed unto them in the Vision of the Divine Essence but that is no Prophesie to them because as the Schoolmen speak it is Sine omnibus creatis adminiculis they have it put into them neither by word nor by deed nor by dream nor by figurative presentation but this being communicated to St. John by imaginary species it was no Angelical way of seeing but a Prophetical Revelation 3. I add infused by the holy Spirit For when Moses saw the bush burn and not consume it was a Prophetical Revelatio yet without inward infusion because he beheld it with his eyes This was not so but he saw it through abundant inspiration He was in the Spirit which is in effect to say that he became very Scriptural As Camerarius fits the phrase out of the Poet Euripides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very learned men most intimate with the Muses so this phrase denotes that the Holy Ghost had the dominion in John for the Spirit was not in him but he was in the Spirit 4. This must go with the rest that the Spirit infused this Revelation into him through imaginary forms supplying his fancy with the fashion of an Altar of a Throne a Lamb newly slain a Sea of Crystal and a thousand things more Many times new species and forms are created in the fancy of him that is illuminated many times that light which God gives doth shine upon those notions and conceptions which were in the mind before So we see that Isaiah and Amos this Apostle and other Prophets do utter their Prophesies through the similitudes known unto them in their former conversation 5. The utmost of all is that this Revelation was accompanied in him with a Rapture or abstraction from the senses So Beza interprets that phrase he was in the Spirit Correptus spiritu he was swallowed up of the Majesty of God so that his mind was taken away from the body Ezekiel says in one place that the Spirit entred into him Chap. ii 2. In another place that he was carried away in the Spirit Chap. xxxvii 1. There is great odds between these two the one was by ordinary inspiration the other by extasie and so was this of our Prophet when he saw the souls under the Altar he was so enwrapt in Celestial
denial but that they have brought the Point to the true Touchstone I quoated somewhat out of St. Ambrose before that the bodies of some who gave up their life for the Faith were interred in the Church under the Lords Table which with reference to the representation of the Sacrifice of Christ Crucified is figuratively called an Altar St. Austin confirms it There let their dead corpses be interred where the death of our Lord is continually celebrated And in later years when they studied for increase of Ceremonies every principal Church under the Pontifician command hath a Vault under the Altar where the supposed Reliques of the Martyrs or the Reliques of supposed Martyrs are reserved Out of these Ritual Forms the Jesuits interpret St. John that he saw the Souls of them that were slain for the word whose bodies lay encombed under the Altar and whose Reliques were kept there in custody They had need of a long Figure to bring these ends together Neither shall they ever perswade me that St. John bends his aim at a Custom of Sepulture which began above two hundred years after he wrote his Prophesie No toleration can be found for the burial of the Martyrs in those holy places till the Pacificous Reign of Constantine the Great And how did the Church understand this Scripture in the mean time A Modern Writer of our own handles it much more learnedly to the same relation He notes it very acutely that the Theater wherein St. John saw all his Visions hath a resemblance in every part to the Camp of Israel and to the Tabernacle of Moses in the Wilderness it is enough to have named it Now the Apostle being acquainted by the Spirit what innumerous Troops of Martyrs should be slaughtered he saw as it were the Altar of burnt-offerings belonging to the Tabernacle and the Saints that were sacrificed to God were under it not as ashes are underneath that fall through a grate but they lay like beasts newly slain at the foot of the Altar that is sprauling upon the ground before the Altar The Soul then is taken by Synechdoche here for the whole man or according to the usual style of Scripture for the body of the man The conjecture I think may pass for probable and judicious There is but one thing to disparage it it is but one mans conjecture But if you will hear that which hath judgment to commend it and multitude of Authors it is likely to be found among them that in the third place refer this figuratively to the condition of their Spirits Yet I mean not him that says the Ark and the Covering thereof did represent Gods Mercy Seat but the Altar did represent his Justice for it was the place of fire and bloudshed and that these souls were under the Altar that is under the Justice of God to be avenged of their Adversaries It is nothing so for as it appears by them that fled unto it for refuge the Altar was a place of Propitiation The Altar here by the greatest number of votes is He that mitigates the stern Justice of his Father Jesus Christus Agnus propter mactationem Altare propter propitiationem He is all by whatsoever we are reconciled to God the Altar the Priest and the Sacrifice St. Gregory proves it that the Altars of the Levitical Service were express Types of him for either they were to be made of rude earth Temeraria de sespite altaria in Tertullians words or of rough and unpolisht stones Exod. xx Wherefore of earth but to betoken the Incarnation of our Lord Quicquid offerimus Deo in altari terreo i. e. in fide Dominicae incarnationis solidamus Whatsoever we bring unto God lay it upon the earthen Altar upon this faith that Christ was incarnate to save his people from their sins When the Altar was made of stone it was rough and unpolisht and in those materials likewise we shall meet with Christ For he was the Living Stone in Daniel cut out of the Mountain without hands neither was he polisht by Art by Education or by any thing that man can put into him as he came from the Quarry from the Womb of his Mother he was full of Grace and Truth This standing is firm that the term of Altar agrees well with our Saviour many reasons may be easily rendred why the souls of the Blessed were under the Altar 1. Says Estius a little too slightly They have not yet attained to be like the glorious body of Christ they have not resumed their Carkasses as He is risen from the dead they are yet below His dignity and so under the Altar 2. The Just that died in the Lord in the Old Law are said to be in Abrahams bosom because they professed the Faith of Abraham so they that died in the Faith of the Gospel that Christ is the Altar upon whom all our works that please God are to be offered up their Souls are under that Altar 3. As Lazarus the poor man full of Piety is said to be in Abrahams bosom as if he were placed in heaven next to Abraham so the godly Martyrs are next to the Altar for dignity of glorification next to Christ himself and wheresoever the Carkass is thither will the Eagles be gathered together Luk. xvii Lastly Which takes me most the persecuted Saints had no shelter on earth to defend them now their souls are at rest disquieted with no fear under the protection and custody of Christ Under him we are in safety upon earth and no man can take his sheep out of his hand and under his Wings we shall be safe in Heaven for ever yea and though we have the faith of Martyrs to spend our life for the love of God yet our hope is not in ourselves but to be covered with the Altar to run to Christ as to our Shield and Buckler without his Merits to assoil us from our sins Martyrs cannot appear before the face of God O prepare your selves to come unto this holy Sanctuary He that comes with an hypocritical Conscience to partake of the Altar of the Lords Table he shall find no place for his Soul under that Altar which is above And take heed of high imaginations and exalted thoughts Our state in Heaven is subter and not super And all subters in this World are not worth a good mans thought to reflect upon them Let me be an underling let me be abased let me go down to the lowest Room let my Spirit aim at nothing but to be Templum sub altari the Temple of God here that hereafter I may rest under the Altar in life everlasting AMEN A SERMON UPON REVEL vi 10. And they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the Earth NOthing may seem more out of order than these words are at the first reading but their true scope is to put that in
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
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