creatures as the mountaines and the vallies should be refreshed thereby Such was the prophesie of Esay Reioyce O heauens and be glad O earth burst foorth into prayses O mountaines for God hath visited his people and will haue mercy on his afflicted And the Prophet Zacharie saith Reioyce for great ioy O daughter Sion shout out for ioy O daughter Ierusalem Behold thy king commeth vnto thee If these reioiced so much in that the Messias should come How much more should our soules magnifie the Lord and our spirits reioyce in him who already is come and as this day born vnto vs This is the day which the Lord did promise to our forefathers let vs reioyce and be glad in it Let vs clap our handes for ioy and gladnes let vs sing vnto the Lord with the voyce of melodie for Christ our Sauiour is borne as this day let vs sing prayses therefore all of vs with vnderstanding But some man wil say this day was long agoe it is olde and stale newes that Christ was borne I know indeede that the Messias was borne not onely long before our times but euen before all times But I reade also that Iesus is yesterday and to day and the same for euer and therefore if the fathers reioiced to see his day before it came we may as well celebrate the memoriall of it as present now it is come But now let vs proceede and inquire out the place of his birth And that the Euangelists affirme to be Bethlehem the citie of Dauid what if it be a poore village what if it be the least in all the land of Iudea shall it be an argument that he was not born there nothing lesse for what was more beseeming him that when he was rich became poore for vs and of a great and mightie Lord became a little child then to be born in a poore and little village And in this he declareth vnto vs how greatly he affecteth the poore in spirite and those that are of a lowly and humble hart For as he sayd vnto his Disciples of his washing of their feete so it may be said of his other actions I haue giuen you an example that you should doe as I haue done And in this shall all men knowe that ye are my Disciples If thou wouldst distinguish betwixt the corne and the chaffe cast them foorth the good corne descendeth but the chaffe will ascend the wicked are still aspiring and mounting vpward in this world but the godly cast down their crowns with the 24. Elders at the feete of the Lamb Dicit se filius indignum vt pater eum iudicet dignum The prodigall sonne termeth himselfe vnworthy that his father might terme him worthy for it is alwayes true that Cum inclinatur humilitas excitatur miserecordia when humilitie stoupeth downe mercy ariseth vp And therefore saith Peter Humisiamini sub potenti manu domini vt vos exaltat in diem Iudicij Humble your selues vnder the mightie hand of God that he may exalt you in the day of iudgement The tree doth not grow vpward except it first take root downwarde The higher wee meane to builde an house the lower we must lay the foundation for he that thinketh to doe the one without performing the other may seeme frugall in the beginning but will prooue a foole in the ende The high hils seeme next vnto the cloudes but the lowe vallies are most refreshed by them euen so God resisteth the proude but giueth grace vnto the humble The glow-worme shineth bright and in the darke gloriously but is blacke and vgly when it commeth to light whatsoeuer the condition of the proude man seemeth now in the darknes of this worlde I am sure that when the Sonne of righteousnes shall shine in the last day it shall prooue very lowe and base I would that ye were all little Bethelem of Iuda poore in spirit and little in your owne eyes that Christ might vouchsafe to bee borne in you by his spirit as he was there in the flesh Bethelem signifieth as much as the house of bread therefore it is good to bee there and if we may not build Tabernacles of abode in that place yet let vs send thither with Iacob our Camels and Asses I meane our affections that we may liue and not die It is the house of bread euen of that liuing bread that came downe from heauen of which whosoeuer eateth shall liue for euer Happy were the people that were in such a case yea blessed was Bethelem that had the Lord for their bread Let vs pray beloued that we may be also Bethelem the house of bread that the Lord may turne in vnto vs for otherwise if we be vnprouided as he that was faine to trouble his neighbour at midnight for a fewe loaues we are not fit to receiue so great a guest But who hath this Bread euen he whose heart is confirmed strengthned for bread strengthneth the hart of man and who is confirmed or strengthned in hart but he whose hart is setled to the Commandements of the Lord which doth not wauer in his faith but goeth forward with a determined hart towards the heauenly Canaan forgetting the flesh pots of Egypt which are behinde and not so much as looking backe towards the forsaken Sodom For if any one be doubtfull and wauering in his faith if a man be not resolued to proceed in his vocation but is in a quandary whither he should go forward or backeward deny his faith or maintaine it forsake his sinnes or returne to his vomit this man is not prepared to receiue the Lord Christ will not be borne in such a mans house who wanteth faith the bread of life as the Scripture calleth it saying the iust shal liue by faith But what did Bethelem beleeue in Christ did shee so abound with the bread of faith that the Lord chose his Inne there rather then any where else nay surely she was farre from that in nature which she seemed to be by hir name though she brought forth this Sonne according to the duty of a mother yet she was farre from a motherlike affection towards him though the walles of hir house contained him carnally yet the affections of hir hart would not entertaine him spiritually And indeed we may say of this as Paul doth of other like mysteries All things were done in former times in tipes and figures The beleeuing soule is that true citty of bread wherein Christ is dayly borne spiritually as he was in Bethelem carnally So that I thinke this name was giuē hir rather as a prophesie that the bread of Life Christ Iesus should be borne in hir then for that shee was fed or nourished by him Furthermore the holy ghost not onely hath expressed the name of the towne but also the very house yea and the very place or roome of the house wherein he was borne neither is it to be thought curiosity in vs to search the meaning of euery particular which the spirit of
that beleeued in him which were not borne of water and bloud but of the spirit of God And so by all we may vnderstand the kinds of people as a learned father saith Non pro singulis generum sed pro generibus singulorum c. Christ died not for all of euery kinde but for the kinde of all euen for those that were of his Church and beleeued in him And in this respect saith Augustine let euery one wipe his teares from his eyes and bannish feares from his heart that doth beeleeue in this Sauiour that is sent Art thou a sinner saith he Reioyce now because a pardon is sent from the Iudge vnto thee Art thou a Gentill Reioice now because thou shalt receiue saluation with the Iewes hast thou bin a stranger from God and an Aliant from his couenant be glad now because thou mayest be ingrafted into his Body And in an other place he saith Reioyce ye Iust because it is the Birthday of your Iustifier Reioyce ye feeble and sicke because it is the Birthday of your spirituall Phisition Reioyce ye that liue in captiuity because it is the Birthday of your Deliuerer Reioyce ye seruants because it is the Birthday of your Lord Reioyce ye freemen in heauen because it is the Birthday of him that did set you free Reioyce all Christians because it is the Birth-day of Christ and to be short Reioyce all people because it is the Birthday of the Sauiour of all people If any man haue cause to feare or be sorrowfull still this is the cause that though Light came into the world yet he loued Darknesse more then the Light because his works should be euill And thus much of the reason of the comfort why they should not feare now to the Tidings of Ioy it selfe Vnto you is borne this day in the Citty of Dauid a Sauiour which is Christ the Lord. Wherein wee will note first the Person who was borne Secondly the Person of whom he was borne Thirdly when Fourthly where and Fiftly for what cause he was borne In the beginning of this Treatise you heard in part of the misery of Adam after his fall that whereas he had bin placed in Paradise a garden of pleasure inioying the sight and presence of God his state was comparable euen to the Angels of Heauen for though he were subiect vnto God his Creator yet was he Soueraigne ouer all his Creatures his labour was rest and his rest might haue bin continuall his paine was pleasure and his pleasure might haue bin eternall he had health without danger of sicknesse and life without feare of death the flesh and the spirit neuer striued the body obeyed the soule and the soule gouerned the body In a word neither hell nor graue death nor diuell could so much as touch or trouble him so standing as God had appointed But when he presumed to taste of that fruite that onely was forbidden him presently the case was cleane altered so that in stead of life he heard that fearefull sentence Thou shalt die the Death Then was the Earth accursed for his sake and he was thrust out of Paradise in the entrance whereof God set the Cherubines with the blade of a sword shaking to keepe the way of the tree of life so that he was faine to betake himselfe to this miserable and wretched world the kingdome of the Serpent whither could he now goe but he should meete with a curse seeing all things were accursed What might he do but lie sweating in the miserable and pittifull pangs of desperation What comfort might hee finde in his wife or his wife in him but teares and torments sorrowes and sighes crying and howling weeping and wailing groaning and gnashing of teeth Beeing so clogged with the intollerable burden of their sinnes so ouerwhelmed with the bloody floudes of Gods vengeance so pittifully and plentifully powred out vpon them now they perceiue the wages of their sinne to be death and damnation now they pine away for hunger and would be glad of the worst and sowrest apple in all Paradise now they thirst like the Hart after the water of those sweet running Riuers now they feele the want of Gods presence and amiable countenance they perceiue the Serpent to be busie about their heeles most greedily sucking their blood neither can they both finde out the meanes to shake him off or bruise his head therefore they sit like two children hauing by misfortune slaine their deere and louing father weeping and howling the one to the other they had slaine the Image of their heauenly father they had poisoned their soules with an Apple which the venemous serpent had spit vpon they feele the worme of a guilty conscience lie gnawing their bowells and all Creatures disobeyed them and rebelled against them in that they had shewed themselues disobedient rebells against their Lord and Creator But what followed The mercifull and louing Lord when we stood at this point and in a maner at defiance with him although he saw that the imaginations of mans heart would be euill and that he would alwayes beare a stiffe stomacke against him and his holy will yet did he not vtterly cast vs off but blessed O blessed be his name therefore hee hath shewne vs a glad and cheerefull countenance it greeued him that we had deserued his wrath but it would haue greeued him much more if that we had died the deserued death therefore that Iustice might haue his course and his mercy neuerthelesse might be seene ouer all his workes he was content to send the Diadem of his deitie that precious pearle his owne glory in whom was all his delight his onely begotten his best beloued Sonne euen him before whom the 24. Elders threwe downe their Crownes humbly whom the Angels magnified and all the hoast of heauen worshipped continually and to this end that he might bee borne of sinfull flesh that it being defiled with sinne might be cleansed by the seede of righteousnesse to be hungry for materiall bread that our hungry soules might be fed with the bread of life to be polluted with our spitle that we might be cleansed by his spirit to be condemned to death by vs that we might attaine vnto life by him to bee crowned with a crowne of thornes that we might be crowned with crownes of glory to sustaine our sorrowes that we might attaine his ioyes and in a word to be borne in misery to liue in beggery and to die with ignominy for his cradle was a cratch his life crossed and his kind of death accursed that mankind might be blessed but of this hereafter The person of whom he was born is most distinctly expressed and expresly designed in Luke both with the name of hir espoused Husband the Citty she dwelt in the linage and Tribe she came of and the messenger that was sent from god vnto hir All which I thinke was not superuacaniously or in vaine set downe seeing that neither a leafe from the tree nor
wisedome so curiously hath expressed Sub sordido palliolo lateat sapientia Vnder a patched coate may lurke wisedome and vnder a plaine stile may mystically be contained most learned institutions so that not onely the deep Ocean sea is to bee sounded but also the shallow foords of Meander are diligently to be considered Neither do I thinke it haphazard that Christ was borne in a stable for such is the place that the Euangelists affirme that he was born in but that it was appointed by God for speciall reasons long before who doth nothing rashly but hath a reason of all his actions Ye heard before how honorable was the condition of Adam in his Innocencie being like vnto God and created in his Image But the Psalmist witnesseth man being in honor and wanting vnderstanding he was compared vnto the Beasts that perish and in natural affections became indeed a very beast and for his beastly similitude and resemblāce stood tied as it were at the manger to receiue the fodder of beasts A strange alteration beloued that he that was the possessor of Paradise the lord of the whole earth the houshold seruāt of the god of saboth the brother of the blessed and celestiall spirits and the perfect Image of the holy Trinity should so degenerate from his kinde as to become so lowe and base as a Beast But marke heere and consider the proceedings of god for whereas man being become a beast had left the Heauenly bread of Life delighting more in the fodder of Beastes Behold now that bread of Life is turned into Flesh nay into grasse which is the food of Beasts for all flesh is grasse and lieth in a racke or manger to be eaten and chewed of vs beasts Therfore let the Oxe now know his own and the Asse his masters crib Let them drawe neere to him in the stable whom they fled from in the garden Let them honor him in the manger whom they contemned in his maiesty and let them feede on him beeing grasse whom they loathed when he was bread yea let them with an eager and liuely faith ruminate and chew vpon him that they may be nourished and grow vp by him He must be receiued by Hearing chewed by Vnderstanding and disiested by beleeuing or as an other saith The eating of his flesh is a certaine hunger and desire to be incorporated into him And indeed as our sauiour sayth He that eateth the flesh of the sonne of man c. shall liue for euer A Sauiour But wherefore did Christ so debase himselfe Euen that he might be a Sauior vnto vs that he might drawe vs vnto him with the ropes of man and with the cords of his loue as Ose speaketh And therfore he leaueth no meanes vntried to bring vs vnto him no not though they be neuer so base as to be borne in a Stable There is none of vs that liue in this region of death in the infirmities of the flesh and amidst the Temptations that are commonly offered but hath need of Counsell of Help and of comfort for we are Faciles ad seducendum debiles ad operandum fragiles ad resistendum if we would discerne betwixt good and euill we are easily deceiued If we trie to do good we are quickly tyred And if we are tempted we are sudenly subdued Therfore to enlighten our blindnes to help our weaknes and to defend our frailnesse Christ was borne vnto vs. Therefore Feare not For if he be in vs who shall deceiue vs If hee bee with vs what can we not do in him that strengthneth vs If he stand for vs what need we care who be against vs seeing he is the faithful Counseller which can neither deceiue nor be deceiued seeing he is the Almightie God which is neuer wearied seeing he is the strong man that bindeth Sathan breaketh the Serpents Head and is neuer vanquished Wherefore Feare not O Adam neither flie any longer Runne not in to the bushes from the sight of thy Maker for behold hee hath sent thee this day a Sauiour Once thou wast persuaded by the serpēt to sin against God and being taken in the fact thou hadst reason to feare Yea perhaps he brandished his fiery sword against thee but now it is not so He commeth not with weapons to punish but with mercy to preserue If thou saist thou heardst his voice and therefore fledst why he is an Infant and without any voyce and if he haue a voyce it is a voyce more to be pitied then feared Yea in this thou shalt know that he is come to saue thee and not destroy thee in that he fighteth for thee against such as rose against thee Thou hadst but two enemies Sinne and Death the death of the body and the death of the soule hee commeth to destroy either and to saue thee from both therefore feare not he destroyed sinne in his owne person when hee tooke mans flesh vpon him without any pollution For great was the violence that was offered vnto sinne when humane nature which was alwayes before as it were in a leprosie was found in Christ as white as snowe therefore I hope yea I am assured that he can plucke out the beame in mine eye which hath neuer a moate in his owne that he may satisfie for my sinne which was neuer defiled himselfe with any I reade of two that were called Iesus that is Sauiour who as they went before this that we speake of so I thinke they were tipes and prefigurations of him One of which brought the people out of Babilon the other brought them into Canaan both defended them from their enemies but neither saued them from their sinnes But this deliuereth vs from our sinnes bringeth vs out of bondage and placeth vs as kings in the land of the liuing Sinne had made a separation of the bodie from the soule and the soule from the bodie of both from God but Iesus hath brought them all together again yea in a far neerer coniunction then euer before For now they that were at mutual variance are now reconciled frends Yea and so reconciled that as in the blessed Deity there is a trinitie in persons but an vnitie in substance Euen so in this happy reconciliation there is a Trinitie in substance but an Vnitie in the persons And as there the Triplicitie of persons doth not breake the vnity nor the simplicitie of the vnitie doth not diminish the trinitie So heere in like manner the persons doth not confound the substances nor the substances doe hinder the vnitie of the person for the word the Soule and flesh are become one person and these three are one and this one thing is three not by confusion of the substances but by the vnitie of the person O wonderfull and superexcellent vnion who euer heard that things so diuerse should so meete together as to be one person yea soone person that whatsoeuer God may be sayde to haue done in the body the
him Or how can he not do this which can do all things In a word if I can pardon that which is committed against me if I will shal not God our Christ be able to forgiue that which is committed against him if he wil If therefore hee can forgiue and pardon our sinnes both because hee is omnipotent and onely can because they are onely done against him Surely blessed is the man to whom this Lord Christ will not impute sinne Therefore we know that Christ by the power of his diuinity is able to forgiue sins now of his will who need to doubt For hee that debased him selfe so much as to take our flesh vpon him and to suffer death for vs shall we thinke that he will not imparte vnto vs his righteousnes surely yes so that as it is euident by the consideration of his deitie that he is able to forgiue our sinnes so it is manifest by the consideration of his Humanity that he is willing so to do But what other argument haue we that he hath vanquished death marry this because hee suffered it which did not deserue it And therefore with what reason can that bee required of vs which an other hath already paid for vs hee that tooke away the merrit of sinne by giuing his righteousnes vnto vs hee hath paid the debt of death and restored life vnto vs for so death being vanquished life is restored as sinne being taken away righteousnes is returned But how could he die which was God Euen in this respect that hee was man But how could the death of one man satisfie for an other because he was Iust and Innocent that died As he was a man he might die but being guiltlesse it was not necessary Indeed a sinner is not able to satisfie the debt of death for an other sinner for euery one dieth for his owne sinne but he that hath no cause to die for his owne shall we not thinke his death may be a ransome for an other Surely by how much the more vniustly hee dieth which hath not deserued death by so much the more iustly he liueth for whom he so dieth But what equity is it saist thou that an innocent person should die for the guilty I tell thee it is not Iustice but mercy if it should haue bin Iustice then he had not died voluntarily but of duty if of duty then he himselfe should die indeed yet he for whom he so died should not liue But neuerthelesse if it be not Iustice yet it is not against iustice otherwise God could not haue bin iust and mercifull at once But although one iust man may satisfie for one sinner yet howe is it that one may satisfie for many for it might seeme inough if one dying for one do restore Life vnto one To this the Apostle shall answere As by the offence of one the fault came on all men to the Condemnation of death So by the Righteousnes of one the benefit abounded towards all men to the iustification of Life For as by one mans disobedience many were made Sinners So by the Obedience of one many are become Righteous But perhaps one man might restore Righteousnes vnto many but Life not so By one man saith he death entered into the world and so by one is Life regayned For as by Adam all die so by Christ shall all be made aliue For what shal one man sinne and all become guilty and shall the Righteousnes of one redownd but to one only was gods Iustice such as to condemne al for one and cannot his mercy be as great as to saue all by one Or could Adam do more in euill then Christ in good Shall Adams Sin be imputed vnto me and shall not Christes righteousnes belong vnto me Shall his disobedience be the cause of my Death and shal not Christs obedience restore me to life but thou wilt say we are worthely guilty of Adams Sinne because we were contained in him when he sinned and were begotten of his flesh in the sinfull Lust of the Flesh But I say more truly are we begotten of god according to the spirit then of Adam according to the flesh I meane if we are of the number of those whom God hath predestinated before the creation of the world vnto Life And that we are begotten of god S. Iohn witnesseth where he saith Which were not begotten of blood nor after the will of the Flesh nor of Man but of God And in one of his Epistles he likewise maketh mention of this holy generation saying He that is borne of God sinneth not But thou wilt say our carnall concupiscence and sinne testifieth that we haue descended of sinners according to the flesh and not of God I answere this generation or birth is not seene in the flesh but in the spirit and minde and that of those onely that can say with the Apostle we haue the minde of the Lord and who haue the spirit bearing witnesse to their spirits that they are the sonnes of God for by the spirit of God chastitie is infused into our mindes as by the flesh which is of Adam concupiscence is diffused about in our members and as that which is descended vnto vs from the parents of our bodies doth neuer depart in this life from the flesh so the other proceeding from the father of our spirits is neuer excident from the intention of the mindes of his children that are perfected in him If then we are borne of God and elected in Christ what equity is it that our earthly and humane generation should hurt vs more then our spirituall and heauenly is able to helpe vs Can our carnall succession hinder the election of God and a momentary sinne be a let vnto his eternall and euerlasting purpose Nay if by one man death entered vpon all shall not life by one man especially such a man as Christ be giuen vnto all And if in Adam wee all died shall we not much more in Christ be made aliue for the fault was nothing so much as the gift for iudgement came for one sinne vnto condemnation but grace was of many sinnes vnto iustification Christ therefore both could remit our sinnes in that he was God die in that he was man and by dying deliuer vs from death in that he was iust and though but one yet be sufficient vnto iustification and life for all because both sinne and also death did enter into vs all by one Thus all of Christ was powerfull to helpe vs in euery thing he was profitable for vs neither was his infirmity lesse auaileable then his maiestie for although by the power of his deitie hee remoued the yoke of sinne from our neckes yet in the infirmity of his flesh he destroyed the power of death by his death And therefore true is that of the Apostle the weakenesse of God is strongest vnto men for his death hath freed vs from death as his life did from errour and his grace from sinne