humanity they must needs have been highly concern'd to hear that He was to leave them Happy sure not only the Womb that bare and the Paps that gave him suck but the Ears which heard the Eyes which saw the Feet which followed and the Hands which ministred unto Him Abraham rejoyced to see the Lord's day though at a great distance and St. Augustine could not propose a greater satisfaction to himself next to the Beatifical Vision than to have seen Christ in the flesh But these Disciples had not only the happiness to see Him but withall to be of his train to be instructed by his Divine Lessons comforted by his Christian Promises animated and encouraged by his Example and fortify'd by his Aid and Assistance Upon all which accounts our Lord Himself pronounceth them Blessed above those Prophets and Righteous Men who wanted such advantages Mat. 13. 16 17. Blessed then they were in this as well as other respects and therefore by how much the enjoyment of Christ's presence was beneficial unto them by so much the more was the very apprehension of losing Him harsh and unpleasing For although our Lord's Ascension-day which was the day of his leaving the Earth was to Him a day of Glory yet to the Disciples it could not be but a day of Sorrow It was his going to the Father indeed but it was a going from them And how could it be but that these Children of the Bridegroom should mourn when the Bridegroom was to be taken from them This sole Consideration was enough to beget sorrow in them but there were other Circumstances which help'd to fill up the measure of it and the chiefest this That He was to forsake them in their greatest needs For troubles were now hard at hand persecutions were suddenly to arise a storm was coming and all lookt black they were to be put out of the Synagogues nay the time was now coming That whosoever should kill them should think that he did God good service v. 2. So that to lose a friend such a friend and at such a time was a very uncomfortable prospect and there was but too much reason that their hearts should be filled with sorrow Nor does our Lord altogether blame it 'T was not his business to root out those affections which Nature had given Men but to moderate them He that took our infirmities was not severe to those of his disciples It was indeed a mistake in them to think that their Lord's departure would be disadvantageous to them but a mistake of carnal Love to his Person that was so dear to them which he minds them of and rectifies Quam incertoe providentioe nostroe How short-sighted are the best of us even in those things which most nearly concern us How apt are we to fancy a loss in our greatest benefit How earnestly bent many times on that which would be inconvenient if not mischievous to us And how ill a Judge is flesh and bloud of what tends to God s glory and Man's good St. Peter had no sooner been allarm'd with the news of Christ's Passion but he presently suggests Be it far from thee O Lord Matth. 16. 21 22. And while He and the rest of the Disciples here were possessed with Carnal thoughts how ill did they relish Spiritual things Nothing so much barrs up Men's minds against God's truths as worldly prejudice While they thought Christ was to reign on Earth they could not so much as dream of Heaven Upon the strength of this fancy so deeply rooted in them they give all for lost if they lose their Master It was high time then for him to shew them their error to let them know That that supposed loss would be their gain and the cause of his absence if well understood would raise a joy in them above their present sorrow since his going away for a time was only to prepare a place for them to all Eternity where He and they should one day so meet as never more to be parted In the mean while He assures them That he would not leave them comfortless but after his departure send one from Heaven who should more than supply the defect of his Presence on Earth even the Comforter Himself who yet could not come till He were gone A truth which though never so ungratefull yet being profitable they must hear and that from the mouth of Truth it self Nevertheless I tell you c. In the handling of which words I shall briefly and plainly discourse of these following Heads Shew you 1. Who the Person promised here is and how described 2. Who was to send him 3. When not till Christ was gone away 4. How expedient it was that the Holy Ghost should come and that not only to the Apostles but to all faithfull Believers by representing to you the infinite Benefits we and all the Faithfull do reap by his coming Of these in their order and 1. Of the Person promised here and his Office It cannot be deny'd but that the knowledge of the Third Person in the Ever-blessed Trinity was a Mystery lockt up for many Ages Holy Men of old spake indeed as they were moved by the Holy Ghost but 't is to be question'd whether they were well acquainted with Him they spake by They were his Organs and Instruments but at that time perhaps little sensible of that divine Breath that did inspire them He was scarce at all known before under the legal Dispensations those passages of Scripture being dark and obscure which point at him and Men not ripe then for so high a Revelation Which is so true that till the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles and appeared in cloven tongues as of fire on their heads the knowledge of him was very imperfect It being reported of some who had been baptized into John's baptism Act. 19. that they had not so much as heard whether there were any Holy Ghost not that they had never heard any thing at all of his Being having been baptized by John who had seen him descend upon Christ at his baptism in the visible shape of a Dove Mat. 3. Joh. 1. but that they had not yet been so throughly acquainted with his Gifts and Graces as afterwards they were Our Blessed Lord then was the first who clearly revealed him in his Gospel especially in that of our Evangelist As Joh. 14. 26. he promiseth Him to his Disciples to be their Instructer But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name He shall teach you all things He repeats it again chap. 15. 26. When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of me And so here in the Text where there is such a manifest discovery both of his Person and Godhead that none but an Arrian or a Macedonian none but He that resists can doubt of his Existence Taking
in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory were then all riddle And as our Knowledge now is far clearer than that of God's ancient People was so is our Consolation and Joy also being established on better Promises revealed with more Evidence and embraced with more Firmness and Certitude Death is now swallowed up in victory and hath lost its sting so that our Fears are less as our Hopes are stronger sweeter and more comfortable being now not under the Spirit of Bondage but of Adoption which makes us go boldly to the Throne of Grace The Result of all is this That the Oeconomy of the Spirit followed that of the Father and of the Son That the Holy Ghost was not properly to be styled a Comforter till Christ went up from Earth to Heaven and that if our Lord had remained here below the blessed Comforter would not have come down in that plentifull Effusion of his Gifts and Graces as he did after our Lord's departure which is the Third thing proposed But before I enter upon this subject I shall first take notice of the sender of Him which our Lord says was Himself I will send him unto you Christ had before told his Disciples That He would pray the Father that He would send them another Comforter Joh. 14. 16. v. 26. That the Father would send Him in his Name But chap. 15. 26. as here in the Text He takes it upon Himself to send him I will send Him unto you from the Father And both with Truth For the Father and the Son sent and had an equal share in sending Him He is therefore called The Spirit of the Father Mat. 10. 20. and The Spirit of the Son Gal. 4. 6. For he proceedeth from both From the Father 't is said expresly Joh. 15. 26. and from the Son if not in express terms yet virtually imply'd in that He is said to be the Spirit of Christ as well as of the Father and must therefore come from Him because sent from Him too The only difference being this That the Holy Ghost is sent by the Father as from Him who hath by the Original Communication a right of Mission which denotes only distinction of Order The Father being as the Spring the Son as the Fountain and the Holy Ghost as the Stream flowing from both From whence we may collect two Things 1. That the Holy Ghost is a real distinct Person from the Father and the Son in as much as He is sent by them For how can He be the same with them that send Him If he proceed from the Father he must be distinct in subsistence and if his Coming depended on the Son 's going away and sending Him after he was gone He cannot be the Son who therefore departed that He might send Him 2. It follows hence That the Holy Ghost is equal to the Father and the Son For whatsoever proceedeth from God must be God whatsoever partakes of his Essence must be equal with Him And surely if the Son have the same right of Mission with the Father as we learn from the Text he must be acknowledged to have the same Essence with him too And had not the Holy Ghost been Equal with the Son as with the Father how could He have supplied his Place Or what Expediency could there have been in the Holy Spirit 's coming when being less than Christ he could have never been able to doe as much as Christ did and so the exchange must needs have been to the Apostle's loss and not as Christ himself had told them it should prove to their benefit and advantage St. Augustine's Prayer then was not impertinent Domine da mihi alium Te alioqui non dimittam Te Give me Lord another as good as thy self or I will never leave Thee nor ever consent that Thou shouldst leave me Nor is it any diminution to the Deity of the Holy Ghost that He is said here to be sent by the Son These Expressions To be sent or To come and the like being not Expressions of disparagement For He was so sent as to come too and to come of his own accord His coming being free and voluntary He came in no servile manner but as a Lord as a friend from a friend in a Letter the very Mind of him that sent it which shews an agreement indeed and concord with Him that sent him but implies no Inferiority nor any the least degree of Subjection 'T is the Spirits honour to be sent to be a Leader and though sent He be yet is He as free an Agent as He that sent him Tertullian calls Him Christi Vicarium Christ's Vicar on Earth But if that argued any inequality in the Spirit it might as well in the Son too who is styled in Scripture the Angel and Messenger of God and is said to go about his Father's business that sent Him But to leave this Argument as more proper to convince a Macedonian Heretick than needfull for any true Believer I shall proceed to the third Thing namely The time when the Holy Ghost was to be sent and that was after our Lord's departure If I depart I will send him unto you But what necessity was there may some say of Christ's departing in order to the Spirit 's Coming Might He not have tarried here and the Spirit have come for all that Was the stay of the one any lett or hinderance to the coming of the other Or might not Christ have sent for as well as go away himself to send him To this I say 1. That it was decreed from all Eternity That God the Father should draw us to his Son Joh. 6. 44. 2dly That God the Son should instruct us chap. 17. 6 8. And 3dly That God the Holy Ghost should assist and establish us in all Truth And so the whole Work of our Redemption should be ascribed to the Father as electing To the Son as consummating and to the Holy Ghost as applying it God the Father had done his part God the Son was at this instant doing his too It remained only that the Comforter should come to perfect both which could not be till the Son had performed his Task here on Earth and should go away to Heaven For the Acts of the Holy Ghost pre-suppose those of a Redeemer 'T is the part of that Blessed Spirit to inflame our Souls with the Love of God but in order to this effect 't is absolutely necessary that the Redeemer should first appease God Our first Parent was not able to endure the terror of the voice of his provoked Majesty but was forc'd to hide his head And what is each Sinner but as Flax before the consuming fire of his Justice Till our Redeemer then had disarm'd that Justice till he had made men's Peace and Reconciliation the Holy Ghost could not excite any motions of Love in them
It was the design of his Spirit to imprint his Image in their Hearts which consisted in true holiness and righteousness But how could that Image be imprinted on them till they were first adopted his Children Or how could they be owned for his Children but in and through Christ his only begotten and beloved Son That Peace which his Holy Spirit brings into and settles in our Consciences is founded in that other which our Mediator hath procured and merited for us by his Death and Sufferings nor could our Minds ever have been calmed had not the Lamb of God taken away the sins of the World Our Peace was to be prepared by the Father ere it could be purchased by the Son and purchased by the Son ere it could have been applied by the Spirit The Gift of the Comforter was an effect of Christ's Intercession I will pray the Father and He shall send you another Comforter And it was requisite that He should go away to send that Comforter since he was the Effect of his Intercession and that Intercession the last Act of his Sacrifice in the Heavenly Sanctuary But then 2dly it was not fit that Christ should bestow his best and most excellent Gifts on us till he had recovered his first Majesty or that the Members should be thus adorned till the Head was perfectly glorious 'T is at the time of their Coronation and Triumph that Kings and Emperors scatter their Largesses When our Lord had ascended up on high and had led Captivity captive then was it a proper time for him to give gifts unto men and among the rest of his Gifts the Fountain and Giver of all Gifts and Graces the Holy Spirit it self This St. Peter tells his Auditors Act. 2. 33. That Christ being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear Christ was first to rise from the dead and to be glorified before he could send down the Spirit And this we learn from Joh. 7. 39. where 't is said That the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified nor could he be fully glorify'd without the descent and testimony of the Spirit For 1. It had been some impeachment to Christ's equality with the Father had our Lord still remained on Earth for as much as the sending of the Spirit would have been ascribed to the Father alone as his sole Act. This would have been the most That the Father for his sake had sent Him but He as God had had no honour of sending Him 2. Nor indeed till he ascended up to Heaven could he have been fully glorified on Earth his appearance here having been very mean void of all pomp and state nothing about Him to strike men's Senses nothing of worldly grandeur to affect them who conversed with him neither wealth nor honour exposed he was to want and other inconveniencies of life and put at last to a cruel and an ignominious Death What strong prejudices had both Jews and Gentiles against Him upon this account And how could those prejudices be removed so long as he continued in that low state and condition But they were now quite taken away by the descent of the Holy Ghost which he had so often promised to send after his departure and which when they saw he made good their mean opinion of him was soon changed into veneration when they saw him who was made a little lower than the Angels nay who had appeared on Earth lower than the lowest of Men for the suffering of death crowned with such glory and honour And how can we but adore Him as God when we now behold Him that once stood before Herod and Pilate as a criminal exalted above all the Kings and Potentates of the Earth whose pride and glory now it is to be his Disciples to doe him homage and to lay down their Crowns and Scepters at the foot of his Cross We now see Temples every-where erected to his honour The most remote obscure Regions of the World enlightned by his beams That Jesus once so much despised become now the glory of the Earth His Name dreadfull to Devils adored by Turks and Infidels so that his Kingdom knows no bounds as it shall never have an end Had he still remained here below he had been lookt upon as no better than what the Arrians once styled Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But now his Godhead is as visible to each Christian as his Manhood heretofore was to each Man the Spirit of God whom He sent down having born witness to Him in all those wonderfull Signs and Miracles that were wrought by his Apostles through his Name And thus we see how that Christ could not have been glorify'd on Earth as God had he not ascended up into Heaven and from thence sent down the Holy Ghost Nor 3. could the Holy Ghost himself otherwise have been discovered Christ's stay here would have been a lett to the manifestation of his Godhead also which appearing in those many great signs and wonders done by Him had not our Lord gone away those glorious Works would in all probability have been wholly ascribed unto him and so the Holy Ghost should have lost that honour which was due to him while his Deity should have been concealed from the notice of the World 4. A fourth reason of the necessity of Christ's departure respects his Apostles and all other his Disciples 1. His Apostles who we know were to be sent abroad into all Coasts to be dispersed over the whole Earth to preach the Gospel and not to stay in one place Now Christ's corporal Presence could herein have availed them little in order to this purpose He could not have been with St. James at Jerusalem and St. John at Ephesus whatever Ubiquitaries Papists or Lutherans say to the contrary in flat contradiction to all Philosophy and Scripture too which allows not this priviledge to Christ's Body now glorified Whom the Heavens must receive saith St. Peter untill the times of Restitution of all things Act. 3. 21. There He must be till He comes to fetch us to Him and when He promised his Apostles to be with them always even to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. He meant no otherwise than by his Holy Spirit who should comfort and guide them into all Truth And therefore it was expedient for them as our Lord says here in the Text that himself should go away to make room for the Spirit as fitter for his Disciples in their dispersed disconsolate condition since He could be and was present with them all and with every one of them by himself as filling the compass of the whole World which cannot be affirmed of our Lord 's bodily Presence 2. Besides had this manner of Christ's Presence been possible without confounding the Properties of his humane and divine Nature it had been very
advantage 3. Besides to make our Estate good is required Investiture so that although Christ hath made a purchase and paid a price for us yet what would this advantage us without Livery and Seizin which the same Apostle calls The Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 5. Lastly What are we at all the better for what Christ did for us if we be not joined to Him as He was to us and 't is by his Spirit that we are joined unto Him For he that hath not Christ's Spirit is none of his Rom. 8. 9. and then Christ will profit him nothing From whence it plainly appears That what the Father and the Son did for us could not be compleat or available without the concurrence of the Holy Ghost They could doe nothing for us without Him nor we any thing for our selves in order to our Salvation For first without Holiness we cannot see God who is therefore called Holy because he is the cause of Holiness in us his Office consisting in the sanctifying of us We are by Nature void of all saving Truth 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. None knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God And 't is the Spirit that searcheth all things and revealeth them unto the Sons of Men That dispells their Darkness enlightens their Understandings with the knowledge of God and works in them an assent unto that which by the Word is propounded unto them Again 2dly Unless they be regenerate and renewed they are still in a state of natural Corruption Now 't is the Holy Spirit that regenerates and renews us According to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. And Except a man be born again of Water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 5. We are all at first defiled by the corruption of our Nature and the pollution of our Sins but we are washed but we are sanctified but we are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thirdly We are not able to guide our selves and 't is the Spirit that leads directs and governs us in our Actions and Conversations that we may perform what is acceptable in the sight of God 'T is He that giveth both to will and to doe and As many as are thus led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. Fourthly If we be separate from Christ we are as branches cut off from the Tree which presently wither away for want of sap to nourish them Now 't is the Spirit that joins us to Christ and makes us Members of that Body whereof he is the Head For by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. And hereby we know that God abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3. 24. Fifthly Till we be assured of the Adoption of Sons we have no comfort no hope for 't is that which creates in us a sense of the Paternal love of God towards us The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5. 5. And the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. 8. 16. who is therefore said to be the Pledge and the Earnest of our Inheritance In a word had not the Holy Ghost been sent to us we could have done nothing to any purpose no means on our part would have availed us Not Baptism which might wash spots from our Skins nor stains from our Souls No laver of Regeneration without renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Not the Word which without the Spirit would have proved but a killing letter Not the Sacrament The Flesh profiteth nothing 't is the Spirit that quickneth Joh. 6. 63. Lastly Not Prayer which without the Spirit is but lip-labour For unless he help our infirmities and make intercession for and with us we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. To summ up all It was expedient nay absolutely necessary that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ. Christ's Advent was necessary for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the compleating of the Gospel Christ's to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach it Christ's to shed his bloud for it and the Spirit 's to wash and purge it in that bloud Christ's to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit 's to interpret it The one without the other is imperfect Christ's Birth Death Passion Resurrection are good news but sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it Of such importance was his coming and so expedient yea and necessary for us it was that our Lord should go away to send Him to us And as he did send Him to the Apostles in an extraordinary manner in cloven tongues like as of fire as at this time so all Christians have a promise of the Comforter though not of the firey tongues The promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are a-far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Act. 2. 39. That is To all that wait for and are in such a fit posture and condition to receive Him as the Apostles themselves were To all that are like Him Holy Pure Charitable Peaceable That have those fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. That are void of carnal sensual Affections than which nothing will more obstruct his entrance He being a Spirit and having therefore no commerce with the Flesh. Christ carnally apprehended we see could not avail any thing and so long as our Thoughts and Desires run after things here below his Spirit from above will not fill or inflame them Therefore sur sum corda let us lift up our hearts towards Him He will meet us and Christ will send Him to us if we meet Him in his way Send Him if we send for Him too if we send up our Prayers to fetch Him down For being a Spirit of supplication Zach. 12. 10. the proper means to obtain Him is Prayer And surely He is worth the asking for being the greatest gift God can give us or we receive In giving whereof He is said to give us all things Mat. 7. 11. In whom we have a Teacher to instruct The Spirit of Truth to lead us into all Truth necessary for us An Advocate to plead for and defend us A Comforter in all our outward and inward distresses so that Direction Protection Consolation and all that is beneficial to us or we can desire we have in Him But then when we have got let us be sure to retain and to cherish Him not chase Him away for then we had better never to have had Him Be sure not to resist Him by our Pride quench Him by our Carnality and so grieve Him
the work of Man's Redemption which could not have been perform'd but in such a Body as his own nor could the Seed of the Woman be said to bruise the Serpent's head had not Christ been conceived of that Seed nor the Promise renew'd to Abraham Gen. 22. 18. In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed have been made good had not the Mother of our Lord descended from his loins too And surely well may she be call'd Blessed without whom we could never have been so since 't was she that furnish'd those Materials that repair'd our ruines from whose Bloud also flow'd that most pretious One which alone can cleanse and redeem us Our Mother Eve could brag when she had brought forth her first-begotten and he but an untoward Child for St. John tells us he was of that wicked one the Devil 1 John 3. 12. as all other Reprobates are there said to be vers 10. I have gotten a Man from the Lord Gen. 4. 1. i. e. as some interpret the words That famous Man the Lord fancying Cain to be that Seed of the Woman that should bruise the Serpent's head But how truly may each of us now say Possedi Deum per Virginem I have gotten the Lord my Redeemer by the means of a pure Virgin of whom my Saviour was made Man that I might be made the Son of God How much better may the Virgin Mary deserve the name of the Mother of all the Living than Eve did Gen. 3. 20. who at best convey'd unto us but a Natural whereas the former a Spiritual life in giving us Him who is the Life so far was Eve from being Mater Viventium in this sense that she brought forth all her Posterity still-born into the World dead in trespasses and sins She indeed hearkned to the Suggestions of an evil Spirit but the Holy Virgin to the Message of a good one If she were the Mother of the Living then this of the Predestinate and if by the former Satan bruised our heel by this Anti-Eve we crush his head being instated in a better condition than we had forfeited Now if they who were the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactors to Mankind were thought worthy of divine Honours the first occasion of Idolatry there being nothing that renders a person more like God than to doe good especially to oblige all Manking nothing that could raise such Persons so high in the Esteem of Mortals as such a large and comprehensive Goodness surely none came so near the Almighty in this so divine a quality as the Holy Virgin did by whose means not only the Inhabitants of the Earth but in some sort too those of Heaven became certainly and immutably Blessed confirm'd in such a state of happiness by her Son as they are uncapable of losing And therefore well might the Angel pronounce her Blessed who with the rest of his Order were so much obliged by her And surely all generations of Men much more who in part owe unto her their recovery and those hopes they have of being one day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alike Blessed with them and if St. Paul was Blessed in being a chosen Vessel to bear Christ's name then the Holy Virgin much more by conveying a humane Nature to him who alone makes us partakers of the divine one All these advantages had the Mother of God glorious indeed but not the chiefest part of her happiness nor was she to value her self for her relation purely considered in its self Yea rather Blessed are they says our Lord who hear the Word of God and keep it Whereby it appears how little he set by any carnal propinquity and how much nearer and dearer to him the Righteous are than his own bloud not that he did in the least despise his Parents for his own Example preaches Subjection to them Luke 2. 51. but only preferr Spiritual kindred to Carnal as he often does letting us know That to doe the will of his Father which is in Heaven is to be his Brother Sister and Mother Matth. 12. 50. That true Christian Heraldry is founded in Grace and not in Bloud That to be joined unto him in one Spirit is a closer Union than to be united to him in the flesh and to be obedient to his Commands far more advantageous than to relate to his Person Nay so little would our Lord have us too to prize such outward things as these that unless in some cases we hate Father and Mother Wife and Children Brethren and our selves too he plainly tells us we cannot be his Disciples Luke 14. 26. And for this reason Moses blessed Levi Deut. 33. 9. Who said unto his Father and to his Mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his Brethren nor knew his own Children but observed God's Word and kept his Covenant This is certain that all outward favours and privileges how pompous soever in themselves are wholly insignificant and ineffectual without the grace of Obedience being at best but gratioe gratis datoe non gratum facientes rather ornaments than benefits which as we are not thanklesly to over-slip so neither presumptuously to over-ween See how little account St. Paul makes of them 2 Cor. 5. 16. Though we have known Christ after the flesh have familiarly convers'd with him been eye-witnesses of all those glorious things he did as his Apostles yet now henceforth know we him no more we disclaim all such carnal acquaintance and if we should know Christ no better he would not know us nor own us for his we might be nearly related to him and yet be far enough from him and without him for so 't is expresly recorded of some of his Brethren that they did not believe in him Joh. 7. 5. So far were they from looking upon him as their Saviour that they took him for no better than a mad-man one besides himself Mark 3. 21. though in process of time some of them indeed became his disciples and no doubt of Christ's Genealogy not a few were eternally lost The Jews much prided themselves in being Abraham's sons and yet one of them that calls himself so fryes in Hell What did it avail Saul to be a Prophet or Judas an Apostle when such privileges serv'd them for no other purpose but to enhanse their damnation We reade not of any dignified with more glorious Prerogatives than these two the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Evangelist the one for bearing our Saviour in her Womb and the other for leaning on his Breast yet how little had these things benefited them had not Faith and Piety seasoned such outward privileges and made them as gracious as they were glorious Happier Mary for bearing Christ's Sayings in her Heart than Himself in her Womb in that she partook of the Merit than imparted the Matter and Substance of his bloud 'T was not so much the loveliness of her Motherhood as the lowliness of her Handmaidship that He regarded
the eternal Word is incarnated in us and we become as much his Mothers in the Spirit as the Blessed Virgin was in the Flesh. And herein was it that the Mother of God was in the best and most advantageous sense Blessed as one in whom the Word was twice Incarnated her Lord and his Gospel much more Blessed in sucking the sincere Milk of the Word from her Sons Paps those golden ones Revel 1. 13. than in affording him her own 'T was her glory and her chiefest happiness that she kept all her Sons sayings and pondered them in her heart an Eulogy given her no less than twice in one Chapter of St. Luke ch 2. v. 19 51. This sacred Ark had the two Tables of the Law and the better Manna laid up in it which she continually treasur'd up in her heart feeding upon it in her private thoughts and digesting it in her practice being as well a Daughter as a Mother of God and her Soul more fruitfull than her Womb. So that this Mary too chose the better part It was I say her Choice this whereas to be the Mother of God but her Privilege In this latter capacity she only furnisht her Son with a humane Nature but in the former she procur'd her self a participation of his divine one There Christ was made her Son and here her Saviour and 't is upon the account of her Faith Elizabeth blesseth her Luke 1. 45. and so does St. Augustine pronounce her more happy Percipiendo fidem Christi quà m concipiendo carnem Christi nay he plainly tells us that this latter Conception had done her no good at all without the former Nihil Mariae profuisset says he nisi feliciùs Christum corde quam corpore gestâsset To bear Christ in her Womb was little to the having the Holy Ghost in her Soul and to conceive of him little to the bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit Faith Humility Patience Love and the like Graces whereof she was a sacred Repository like the Ark overlaid and in-laid with Gold adorn'd with outward Privileges and inward Graces nay like that King's daughter Psal. 45. 14. more glorious within than without This Spouse of God shining out radiis Mariti cloath'd with that Woman Revel 12. 1. with the Son of Righteousness who deckt her with his light as with a garment And how could it be otherwise How was it possible that He on whom the Spirit rested and abode should not impart of it to her in whom he so long dwelt and in greater measures than to any mortal He who himself received not the Spirit by measure If in him were hid all the Treasures of Wisedom and Knowledge surely the Blessed Virgin must needs have been highly enricht by them and while he sanctify'd the Baptist in his Mother's womb did he not think we much more sanctifie that Womb wherein with himself the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily where the whole Blessed Trinity met the Father being with her the Son in her and the Holy Ghost over-shaddowing her Surely being so near the Fountain of Grace and Glory nay having it in her Soul those single Perfections which singly meet in others all concenter'd in this great Saint Among which give me leave to propose some of the more eminent ones to your imitation as 1. Her Faith in crediting the Message of the Angel 2. Her entire Resignation of her self to the Will of God Ecce Ancilla Domini 3. Her Modesty in being troubled at the presence of a Man and those Praises he bestow'd on her being it seems unacquainted with such guests or addresses a thing which now-a-days would perhaps be constru'd ill breeding 4. Her Prudence in examining a Message which at first blush seem'd to look like a Temptation casting in her mind what manner of Salutation that should be so jealous was she of her honour that she durst not trust the divine Messenger with so choice a Jewel till she saw it should be safe till he could find out a way to reconcile her being a Mother with her Purity otherwise to her even an Angel of light had been but an Angel of darkness This was not Unbelief in her as 't was in Zachary but Caution He indeed requir'd a Sign for that which was within the ordinary course of nature She none at all though in a business far above nature not in the least questioning the thing its self but desirous only to be inform'd of the manner of it since she knew not a man 5. Add we to this her Devotion in constantly visiting God's Temple where after our Lord's Ascension we find her assembled with the Apostles and other Saints of God Acts 1. 14. as in the frequent exercise of the Acts thereof Meditation and Prayer It being a general Tradition that when the Angel delivered her his message he found her on her knees and if we may credit St. Bernard but how warrantably I know not at that very instant begging earnestly for the Salvation of the World and the Revelation of the Messiah 6. Lastly To crown all her profound Humility that heavenly Ladder whereby God descended to her and she mounted up to him and that even in the midst of far higher Ecstasies and Revelations than the great Apostle was afraid of And yet no pretence of Merit no assuming to her self any portion of that glory which belonged unto God and she wholly ascribes to him in these words He that is Mighty hath magnified me and Holy is his Name Which clearly shews how inconsistent with nay how diametrically opposite to her Modesty and Humility those praises are which Popish flatterers so frequently bestow upon the Blessed Virgin and how impossible 't is to excuse their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as they are pleas'd to explain it not so high a kind of worship as belongs unto God and yet higher than what is due to any other Creature besides her self A strange middle sort of Adoration that has no ground or foot-step in Scripture and no better than flat Idolatry Prayer and Invocation are the Almighty's Prerogative This Incense must not smoak but on his Altar and the calves of the lips are a sacrifice which must be offered to none but to a God that heareth prayer Psal. 65. 2. and can alone grant our requests This he challenges as his peculiar right Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the time of trouble so will I hear thee and thou shalt praise me And to him the Saints of God have always address'd their Petitions David for one who Psal. 5. 2 3. professes that unto him he would direct his Prayer And therefore 't is observable that the Angel here salutes the Holy Virgin but does not pray to her and her self says that all generations shall call her Blessed not invocate her for Blessings as the Papists doe and not only so but in other respects too equal her to God as by freeing her from
therefore this truth for granted I shall only speak to his Office described here by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies two things 1. A Comforter 2. An Advocate 1. A Comforter and such He was to be 1. To the Apostles themselves 2. To the whole Church 3. To each faithfull Believer 1. To the Apostles themselves It was indeed a seasonable time to talk to them of a Comforter when sorrow and distress were coming upon them and they were to be as sheep without a shepherd They had left all for Christ but while he was with them they found all in Him who was dearer to them than all their possessions While He lived with them their joy and satisfaction was full and compleat but a joy that was to last no longer than his Corporal presence which the Holy Spirit was to supply and that abundantly For although they could no longer have recourse to their Lord for Resolution of Doubts or Protection from Dangers yet should they not want an Oracle to clear the one nor a Sanctuary to secure them from the other The Holy Ghost should both enlighten their Understandings and dispell their Fears Being endewed with power from on high Afflictions themselves should prove Consolations unto them and they should find more satisfaction in their very Sufferings than worldly Men in their highest Enjoyments as we find they did Act. 5. 41. when departing from the presence of the Counsel they rejoyced and that with joy unspeakable that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name But then 2. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter not only to the Apostles but to the whole Church of God The Father under the ancient legal Dispensation was a severe Law-giver rewarding Obedience and strictly punishing Rebellion He appeared terrible on Mount Sinai Nothing was to be seen there but Fire and Smoak and thick Darkness Nothing to be heard but Thunder and the Trump of an Angel insomuch that Moses himself trembled and quaked Such an Appearance suiting well with the Promulgation of the Law as denouncing nothing but Woes and Curses to Offenders But under the Gospel-Oeconomy there was another face of things The Son of God while in the Flesh had no such marks of terror and severity attending him more proper to a Creator than a Redeemer He came not with a Rod but in the Spirit of Meekness His condition was a condition of Humility agreeable to one whose Kingdom was not of this World and suitable to his appearance in the Flesh was that of the Holy Ghost whose descent was indeed in Fire but to warm and cherish not to consume In a mighty rushing Wind to represent his divine Power and Efficacy not his Impetuosity 'T was not such a Wind as God came to Elijah in which rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces The motions of the Holy Spirit are not violent He does not affright those He lights on nor create Fear but Love in that Heart he fills 'T is He that makes us cry Abba Father That begets in us a holy generous Confidence and speaks peace to his People The cords he brings with Him are those of a Man such as chain and captivate Hearts The Oeconomy of the Divine Spirit was to be an Oeconomy of Sweetness and Consolation to the Church becoming the Gospel of Peace and the God of all Consolation 3. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter to all true Believers not only as begetting Faith in their Hearts and dispelling that Darkness which naturally possesseth their Understandings but as giving them Peace of Conscience and that unspeakable joy which the World is unacquainted with and cannot take from them Hence He is said to seal them unto the day of their Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. To be the Earnest of their heavenly Inheritance and to make them fore-tast the joys of Heaven here on Earth What comfort what ravishing joys does he still raise in the Souls of all the Faithfull by the apprehension and sense he gives them of the Love of God and that certain hope they have by him of enjoying Him in Heaven Grace is the Paradise of the Soul Holiness its Crown and the assurance it has of God's Love to it the choicest flower of that Crown Nor is he thus only a Comforter to each true Believer but he is so too as his Teacher and another-guess Teacher than Men are to one another For let their Methods of Teaching be never so perspicuous and their care and pains to inform us never so great yet when all is done they cannot communicate unto us either clearness of Apprehension faithfulness of Memory or soundness of Judgment and where they find us dull or stupid all their pains and skill are but thrown away upon us But the Holy Ghost does so teach as withall to change the natural temper and disposition of men's Minds working so upon their Understandings by the clearness and evidence of those Reasons he proposeth that they are not able to resist or stand out against the force of his Demonstrations drawing them to Him in so sweet and yet effectual a manner that although sensible of the effect yet the way of his Attraction is as imperceptible to them as the power thereof is uncontroulable The Manner of the Holy Spirit 's operation on Believers now is very different from that on the Prophets of old which was so forcible that Elisha could not Prophecy without the help of Musick to compose and tune his Spirit But under the Gospel-Dispensation the Holy Ghost deals otherwise with his Servants No such Enthusiasms or Transports here Their Understandings are enlightned without any disturbance to their Bodies They receive the Holy Ghost's Inspirations without the least astonishment or discomposure while he gently glides and descends into them like rain into a fleece of wool in the Prophet David's expression Psal. 72. 6. And thus the Holy Ghost is a Comforter But then 2dly He is withall an Advocate The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies so much one that maintains the Cause of a Criminal or at least of an Accused Person Now the Spirit does so by justifying our Persons and pleading our Causes against the Accusations of our Spiritual Enemies 1. Against the Severity of God's Law and that most righteous undeniable Charge of Sin laid thereby upon us 2dly Against the Devil who we know is styled the Accuser of the Brethren and doth not only load our Sins upon our Consciences but farther endeavoureth to exclude us from the benefit of Christ by charging us with Impenitency and Unbelief Here the Spirit enableth us to clear our selves against this Father of lyes to secure our Title to Heaven against the Sophistical Exceptions of this our subtle Adversary and when by Temptations our Eye is dimmed or by the mixture of Corruptions our Evidences defaced he by his Skill helpeth our infirmities and bringeth those things which are blotted out and forgotten into our
who is our Comforter if so the following Verse here will tell us That He can Reprove as well as Comfort But on the other side if we obey his Motions submit to his Dictates follow his Guidance and Direction in a word be led by Him we shall then be the Sons of God and the only-begotten of the Father will not fail to send him to us as He did to his Apostles Then especially above all other times when we eat and drink his flesh and bloud in the Holy Sacrament For as his Bloud was the meritorious Cause to procure us his Spirit so is his Holy Sacrament the Pipe or Conduit to convey Him unto us For hereby we are all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. And then as there is plentifull Redemption here on Christ's part so if we duly partake of that Redemption there will be plentifull Effusion of his Spirit on us Which God of his infinite Mercy grant c. Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on Michaelmas-day HEB. I. 14. Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation 'T IS the great happiness and priviledge of Saints to be under the care and protection of an Almighty God Others have the benefit of his general Providence These of his particular Love and Kindness The clearest Evidence of that his Love appears in sending his only beloved Son into the World to merit Salvation for them and next to that in employing Angels to further it He being our alone Saviour These our Guardians and Assistants Wherein the Almighty has abundantly provided as well for the honour as the security of his Servants For what greater honour next to the having Christ for our Brother than that we should have such glorious Creatures as Angels for our Ministers Their Nature we know places them above us and yet God's Love and their Humility sets them here below us Even while those excellent Spirits attend on the Throne of God we may see them waiting on us Men While they behold his Face there they cast a benign aspect on us here These bright Morning-stars do at the same time praise Him and assist and guide us Their Employment in Heaven does not exempt them from their Services on Earth dividing them as it were between those two places ever ascending and descending i. e. perpetually employ'd in discharging their Duties to their Creator and for his sake performing all good Offices to their fellow Creatures 2. And hence it is That in consideration of those great and various Benefits she receives by their appointed Aid and Ministration The Church has set apart this Day as to praise Him who makes use of such glorious Instruments for her safeguard and protection so gratefully to commemorate those advantageous Services they doe her And although the Title of this Festival carries but a particular denomination of St. Michael's Day yet does the Church herein celebrate the general Memorial of all Angels and the Text I have chosen leads us to it as the Scope thereof does to the whole Chapter wherein the Apostle's design is to compare Christ with Angels and to prove his Superiority over them which He does by several Arguments taken 1. From his Sonship He God's Son by Eternal generation These only by Creation and Resemblance v. 2. 2. From his Name more excellent than that of Angels v. 4. 3. From the Worship peculiarly due to Him even from Angels themselves v. 6. 4. From his being the Head of Angels who at best are but his Ministring spirits v. 7. 5. From his Kingly Authority over all Creatures Men and Angels too v. 8. 6. From his creating the Heavens and the Earth which Angels neither did nor could doe v. 10. 7. And lastly from his sitting as Equal with God at his right hand whereas the most glorious Angels doe but stand there as Ministers of his Will and Commands and to serve the necessities of his Chosen ones in the question here put Are they not all c. In which Words you may observe 1. Something imply'd or suppos'd and that is Their Existence Are they not c. The Apostle speaks of them as of persons really and actually subsisting 2. Something plainly exprest and those are four Particulars here mention'd 1. The Essence or Nature of Angels They are Spirits i. e. intellectual immortal and incorporeal Substances 2. Their Office Ministring spirits and that without any reserve All of them such none excepted not the most glorious not the most excellent of their Order 3. Their Commission from God who sends them forth deputing them their several Ministerial Charges and Employments 4. The End or Design for which they are employ'd viz. God's glory and the benefit of those who shall be heirs of Salvation These be the several Stages through which I shall lead you And first of the Existence or Being of Angels suppos'd in the question Are they not all c. 1. Since the Being of Angels is here suppos'd and taken for granted one would think there should need no farther proof of it and surely 't would be needless did not the Infidelity of some Men make it necessary And 't is strange that Divine Revelation should not be sufficient to settle this Truth among Christians which Heathens by the dim light of Nature have so clearly discern'd For what-ever mistakes they were guilty of as to the Nature they believ'd the Existence of spiritual Substances and we find them very curious in ranking and disposing them into their several Classes and describing the Hierarchy of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with as much exactness I had almost said as good ground as the pretended Dionyfius has done that of Angels whom the Schoolmen so passionately doat on And the same reason which taught Heathens so much Divinity fetches this Truth also from the Order of Nature which seems to require it For as here we find some things without life others living but without sense some again sensible and others rational yet so as to be of a mixt Nature partly Corporal and partly Spiritual there would want one main link in the Chain of Providence had not the Divine Power made some Creatures purely Intellectual such as might be a Mean between God and Man as Man is between them and Beasts to prevent a chasm or vacuum in Nature Besides since every part and place in the World is fill'd with Inhabitants proper for it it seems but requisite that the highest Heavens should not be left void of such as might be fit to dwell in those pure and glorious Mansions But not to build so necessary and important a Truth on meer rational Conjectures we have a more solid foundation for it which is Divine Revelation the Scriptures every-where not only mentioning the Being of Angels but giving us a clear account of their Creation of their manifold Apparitions and Discoveries to Men on Earth together
recourse to Miracles we must of necessity conclude them to be of a higher Efficiency Those many more than ordinary Tempests devouring Earthquakes firey Inundations and Apparitions which have been seen and heard of so many though they may indeed have natural Causes yet 't is highly probable that these things are not the ordinary Effects of Nature but that the Almighty for the Manifestation of his Power and Justice may set Spirits whether good or evil on work to do the same things sometimes with more State and Magnificence of horror As the Frogs of Egypt ordinarily bred out of putrification and generation were yet for a plague to that wicked Nation supernaturally also produced I might instance in sundry miraculous Preservations whereunto in all probability Angels concur How many have fallen from very high Precipices into deep Pits past the natural probability of hope which yet have been preserved not from Death only but from Hurt How many have been raised up from deadly Sicknesses when all natural Helps have given them for lost God's Angels no doubt have been their secret Physicians Have we had instinctive intimations of the Death of some absent friends which no humane intelligence had bidden us to suspect who but Angels have been our Informers Have we been kept from Dangers which our best Providence could neither have foreseen nor diverted we owe these strange escapes to our invisible Spies and Guardians And thus Gerson attributes the wonderfull preservation of Infants from so many perils they usually run into to the super-intendency of Angels Indeed where we find a probability of second Causes in Nature we are apt to confine our Thoughts to them and look no higher yet even there many times are unseen Hands Had we seen the House fall upon the Heads of Job's Children we should perhaps have ascrib'd it to the natural force of a vehement Blast when now we know it was the work of a Spirit Had we seen those Thousands of Israelites falling dead of the Plague we should have complain'd of some strange infection in the Air when David saw the Angel acting in that Mortality When the Israelites forcibly expell'd the Canaanites nothing appear'd but their own Arms but the Lord of Hosts could say I will send mine Angel before thee by whom I shall drive them thence Exod. 33. 2. Nothing appear'd when the Egyptians first-born were struck dead in one night the Astrologers would perhaps say they were Planet-struck but 't was an Angel's hand that smote them Balaam saw his Ass disorderly starting in the path He who formerly had seen Visions now sees nothing but a Wall and a Way but his Ass who for the present had more of the Prophet than his Master could see an Angel and a Sword Nothing was seen at the Pool of Bethesda but a moved Water when the sudden Cures were wrought which perhaps might be attributed to some beneficial Constellation but the Scripture tells us that an Angel descended and infused that healing quality into the Water Elias could see an Army of the Heavenly Host encompassing Him when Gehezi could not till his Master's Prayers had opened his Eyes We need not make use of Cardan's Eye-salve to discern Spirits in the Air our Reason may discover them though our Eyes cannot and by the manifest good Effects they produce we may boldly say Here hath been an Angel though we have not seen Him All this may serve to confute the ancient Error of Sadducees who made Angels to be nothing but good Motions or good Thoughts turning them into an Allegory as Hymeneus and Philetus did the Resurrection And 't is observed that they who deny'd Angels did withall deny a Resurrection and both upon the same ground their loose temper which prevails so much with their Successors inclining 'em to baffle themselves out of the belief of those things whose real Being brings them so little advantage 'T is not strange that such men's Senses should swallow up their Faith since it deprives them of their Reason though probably such fancies are rather the issues of their Desires than of their Judgment Behold here a cloud of Witnesses against them not Revelation only but even Sense too backt with Reason Authority and Experience of all Ages and of all Conditions of Men Good and Bad Heathens and Christians If nothing will satisfie their curiosity but a Vision I must tell them that the commerce we have with Spirits is not now by the Eye nor shall any thing confute their Infidelity but Hell where to their cost they shall meet with those Devils whose company they are here so fond of and yet their very Infidelity methinks were they not stupid as well as impious might serve to rectifie their belief here which being the unquestionable effect of Satan is no small evidence of his Existence I shall not stand to confute them the Text does it for me If their Faith be not strong enough their Eyes to be sure will be too weak to discern Angels these cannot be the Objects of Sense since they are Spirits which points to the first thing exprest here their Nature Spirits 'T is an easier matter to prove that there are Angels than to describe what they are Spirits have so little affinity with our Natures that 't is no marvel if they exceed our Apprehensions But this notion suggests so much to us that they are intellectual Substances immaterial incorporeal and consequently immortal In all which capacities most resembling the Almighty and the fairest Copies of the great Original of all things Yet are they not void of all kind of matter no more than the Soul of Man is it being peculiar to the Father of Spirits to be one most pure and simple Act whereas every created Being though never so refin'd admits of some dross some alloy is compounded either by natural composition as consisting of matter and form or at least Metaphysical of the Act and the Power Yet so far we may and ought to allow Angels to be immaterial as not to consist of any corporeal matter though never so fine and subtle for this were to destroy the very Nature of a Spirit and our Saviour's argument whereby he convinced the Disciples that he was no Spirit as they took him for Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have Luk. 24. 39. I shall not trouble you with any Philosophical discourse to prove Angels incorporeal nor with those tedious and impertinent Niceties of the Schools grounded upon their being so How Millions of Angels can lodge together in one point as a Legion of them did in one Man How they move in an instant and pass from one extream to another without going through the middle parts and the like curious matters contributing nothing at all to our edification Some passages there are indeed in Scripture which at first blush seem to favour the corporeity of Angels but in effect
make nothing for it As first that they have often appeared to Men in visible forms and shapes and perform'd such actions as are proper to us as eating drinking and the like All which was by divine Dispensation for a time the better to accomplish their enjoyn'd Duties Yet were those Bodies whereby they perform'd such actions no other than assum'd ones they were no part of their Natures but only as Garments are to us and were laid aside when there was no farther use of them which being made of Air quickly resolv'd into it and vanisht away as their Meat also did One passage there is in the 6th of Genesis which being mistaken has occasion'd gross conceits in some of the Nature of Angels 't is on the second Verse of that Chapter where 't is said That the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men that they were fair and took them Wives of all which they chose The not understanding of which place has betrayed many and among those some Ancient Fathers of the Church as Justin Martyr Tertullian Lactantius Ambrose and Sulpitius Severus into so foul an error as to conceit That those Sons of God were no other than Angels who being enamoured with the Beauty of Women and defiling themselves with Lust of Angels became Devils and which is yet as ridiculous a Paradox That those Gyants there mention'd were their Off-spring As if those blessed Angels who continually behold the Face of God could be taken with the Beauty of a little varnisht Dust and Ashes As if Spirits could beget Men or Holy Spirits wicked Men. Nay Tertullian who as he had greater Parts than most of the Fathers so had greater Errors too to establish one Error by another adds withall That for this reason the Apostle bids Women be Veil'd in the Church lest some of the Angels should once more be Captivated by them Thus does one gross mistake usually draw on another as gross and the first great one proceeds only from hence That in many Copies of the Seventy Interpreters heretofore the word Angel crept in as St. Augustine has observ'd But that those Sons of God were not Angels but Men and of the Posterity of Seth besides the express words of Moses both St. Cyril and St. Augustine have at large demonstrated And what some erroneously have fancy'd of the good others as ridiculously have done of bad Angels which Aquinas and Fr. Valesius maintain as a probable opinion and accordingly Bellarmine himself is not asham'd to affirm That Antichrist shall be born of the Devil and a Woman Surely none so fit to be his Father as the Devil the Father of Lies nor to be his Mother as the great Whore in the Revelations And therefore one of his Tribe in a book to the like purpose fraught with no less malice than absurdity endeavours to prove that Luther was so But 't is no marvel that they who hold that Accidents can subsist without their Subjects should also with equal contradiction to Philosophy affirm That Devils can be the Fathers of Men or they who can paint God the Father in a piece of Arras should make Angels corporeal All this I say proceeds from a false apprehension of the Nature of Spirits and Philastrius ranks such Opinions among his other Heresies which Wierus at large shows to be as void of Sense as they are full of evil Consequences For we find that Heathens who held the Corporeity of their Deities did withall render them obnoxious to all those vile Lusts and Impieties which the most profligate Wretches on Earth were capable of committing and found opportunity of doing so upon the strength of that prevailing fancy To which purpose I might produce several instances and among them one famous one recorded by Josephus of one Paulina the Wife of Saturninus in the Reign of Tiberius a noble beautifull and vertuous Lady whom one Dacius Mundus by the assistance of the Priests of Isis much abus'd upon such an account These are the wicked Consequents of drawing Spirits into a participation of our Natures and then of our Vices I shall not dwell any longer on this subject nor trouble my self to satisfie their curiosity who cannot understand how such incorporeal Beings can be capable of that punishment by Fire which the Scripture says shall be their as well as their associates portion Surely no Man ought to question how they can be lyable to such a punishment that finds a Soul within him troubled with Passion even while no offence or distemperature ariseth from that corporeal part nor how such spiritual Beings can be wrought on by material Fire till he can understand what nature Hell-fire is of That they shall suffer by it the Scripture assures us but how it tells us not nor can our best Reason tell us no more than St. Augustine's could tell him who plainly here confesses his ignorance Our care should be not to examine what Hell-fire is but to avoid it and though we cannot resolve all those difficulties which arise from the Nature of Angels yet since the Text here tells us they are Spirits we must have so much Faith as to believe it and consequently that they are Immortal it being impossible that Spirits as such should be Mortal since there can be no internal Cause of their corruption nor any external physical one but God who as he made them of nothing can indeed reduce them to nothing In which respect no Creature is Immortal none but the great Creator of all things who alone as the Apostle tells us hath immortality 1 Tim. 6. 16. as eternally subsisting by himself and by no other But not to speak of the absolute Power of God 't is certain that as to their Nature Angels are immortal and therefore by God's Decree too 't is said of them that have their share in a blessed Resurrection that they cannot dye for this reason because they shall then be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angels in Heaven Luk. 20. 36. And this is a quality as proper to bad as good Angels who though Devils are still Spirits and shall remain objects of God's everlasting Justice as the elect Angels of his Love and Mercy For though they lost their Purity they can never lose their Nature All of them then are Spirits and so by Nature immortal and those good ones which kept their station glorious heavenly and elect ones and yet such noble Creatures as these has God design'd for the Ministry of his Saints The second Particular to be considered Ministring Spirits To God himself in the first and chiefest place They are his Creatures and consequently his Servants The Psalmist expresly calls them so Psal. 103. 21. O praise the Lord all ye his Hosts ye servants of his that doe his pleasure and Psal. 104. 4. his Ministers Such they are and Estius well observes it out of the Text Non dicit Apostolus says he eos mitti in Ministerium
some Protestant Divines on the affirmative And were this the worst opinion of the Romanists we should not quarrel much with them since some passages of Scripture seem to favour it Whether this be so or no I shall not here undertake to determine nor indeed need I. For to what purpose were it to prove that every Man has a peculiar Angel assign'd him when we are here and elsewhere so clearly told that all of them do serve every one of us while we serve and obey God He hath given his Angels charge over thee says the Psalmist in the fore-cited Psal. 91. 10. i. e. many Angels over one particular Man And as we find more than one appointed to carry Lizarus's Soul into Heaven Luk. 16. 22. so sometimes we reade of one Angel attending many Men as in the case of Israel in the expulsion of the Canaanites and Amorites Gen. 24. 7. and at other times of many Angels attending one Man as in that of Jacob Gen. 32. 1 2. and of Elisha 2 King 6. 17. 'T is not for us to limit the Almighty nor to retrench that guard He has assign'd us While we have an heavenly Host about us why should we content our selves with one single Assistant And when we are certain of their protection why should we dispute their Number And as it may seem some scanting of the bountifull provision of the Almighty who is pleas'd to express his gracious respects to one Man in the allotment of many Guardians so a Platonick piece of Divinity in the School-men to reduce them to one single one for each individual person But to let this pass as an innocent though perhaps erroneous Opinion their conceit of an exterior and interior Mission whereby some are said to illuminate others and fit them for their several Charges but never to stir abroad themselves may justly in St. Paul's expression be styl'd an intruding into things which they have not seen nor can see and is indeed no better than a flat contradiction to the Text which tells us That All none excepted are Ministring spirits to serve the necessity of God's Elect ones These blessed Spirits know no such state as to think it a disparagement to wait on the meanest Saint When God sends them the best of them go be the errant never so slender They measure not their Obedience by the lowness of their employment but the Will of him that employs them thinking no message beneath their Dignity which God is pleas'd to put them upon The highest Angel does not esteem himself too good to obey his Commands in the lowest instances of Obedience And since the Son of God came down on Earth to minister to Men no Arch-angel will deem it an abasement unbefitting him to serve them The measures of humane Grandeur are not to be apply'd to that of Heaven where every abasement if there can be any such thing in doing God's Will is Exaltation Let us then imitate them in their humble submissions to their Maker but then let our Prudence be as Angelical as our Humility if that teaches us to go when God sends us this should teach us also not to stir or act till he sends us which leads me from their Office to their Commission They are sent The very name Angel signifies a Messenger and consequently implies a subordination and dependence on some superior Being that employs him 'T is a name of Office not of Nature This belongs to him as he is a Spirit That as he is an Agent God is the supreme cause and disposer of all things Angels but his instruments They act not but by his Commission nor do they run till he sends them The Heavenly Host do nothing without Orders from their General and like the Centurion's Souldiers in the Gospel go and come when he bids them He gives his Angels charge says the Psalmist and as his Ministers they doe his pleasure not their own ours much less They are not our Familiars And though their Help be more powerfull yet is it not more absolute than that of other means since it dependeth still on the Will of God too and what-ever Message they deliver or Commands they execute 't is that Will still that gives them Motion and Authority And therefore when St. Stephen says the Law was received by the disposition of Angels we must not fancy them to be Authors of it but only the Heralds 'T was Christ that gave these did but publish it The Law was ordained by Angels but still in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3. 19. The Ministry was indeed of Angels but the Authority of Christ. And therefore Junius renders those words Act. 7. 53. You have received the Law in the midst of the ranks of Angels i. e. among them attending God when he delivered it Thither then they came only to assist at the Ceremony not as Law-givers but Attendants That being a Title peculiar to the one great Law-giver who gives Laws as well to Angels as to Men. These they constantly observe and if we doe so they shall be Ministring spirits to us for their Employment lasts still and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Particle of the Present tense implies it Thus as they are God's Ministers they shall still be ours too if we be God's Servants and consequently heirs of Salvation The last Particular Who shall be heirs of Salvation i. e. To those that shall one day possess what they now doe certainly expect and wait for They who are already in Heaven need not the assistance of Angels being themselves though not Angels yet like them and equally happy in the fruition of the same God Their Ministry is necessary to bring us thither but ceases when we are there They are our Guides here There they shall be our Companions Nor are their Services design'd but for those whom God has chosen out of the rest of lost Mankind to fill up the void places of Apostate Spirits For as Christ himself is by our Apostle styl'd the Saviour of all Men but in an especial manner of those that believe So may Angels be said to be in some sort Ministring spirits to Mankind but with a reserve to those who are God's chosen Vessels Those may possibly have their common protection but their particular attendance is on these For as the Almighty makes his Sun to shine as well upon the just as the unjust and sometimes more gloriously on the latter than the former so is it in the Ministry of Angels from which even wicked Men may reap a general benefit in some instances more perhaps of an external help and assistance than the good while the best of their Offices are reserved for the best We know that whosoever stept down first into the Pool of Siloam was cured whether good or bad and the Angels brought down Manna in the Wilderness to the rebellious as well as to the obedient Israelites These are favours
not any Excellency they had in their own Nature being not good but only in respect of what was worse It being better to sacrifice to God than to Devils nor otherwise than as Types of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World and did therefore vanish as soon as He was once offered upon the Cross Whereas true Religion remains still a Juge Sacrificium and is more lasting than the Heavens themselves which as it was long in the World before any Command came forth for Sacrifice So is it now most glorious when Jewish Altars are down 'T is not confin'd to time or place nor ever to be dispenc'd with as we find legal Sacrifices oft-times were And as 't is in the sight of God the best of all Sacrifices who requires Mercy and not bruitish Oblations so is it a most Reasonable Service being not founded in mera voluntate imponentis but in the Reason of the thing it self the Sacrifice not of a Brute Beast but of a man endued with Reason and withal most suitable to the Nature of God who as He is a Spirit will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and as He is a most wise God will not away with the Sacrifice of Fools Eccles. 5. 1. But will have the Evangelical as well as the Legal Sacrifices salted with salt our words and actions seasoned with discretion For we are fed with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well with the Rational as with the sincere milk of the Gospel so far is Christian Religion from divesting men of their reason that it strictly requires them to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them 1 Pet. 3. 15. Being in it it self as 't is easie to demonstrate of all other the most Reasonale service and to present God with any other worship were but to offer strange Fire before him And now let me bespeak you in like manner as Naaman's Servants did their Master 2 Kings 5. 13. If the Lord had bid us do some great thing should we not do it Might he not require of us as of the Jews whole Herds of Cattle and Woods of Spices and Incense Nay which is more the Sacrifice of our Bodies in the most strict and severe Sense He might surely as being Lord of all but here we see He does not No other Bloud now to be shed but what St. Bernard calls sanguinem animi vulnerati that of a wounded troubled Spirit of a broken and contrite heart Slay thy lust and thou shalt offer him a Beast give him thy Reason or which is perhaps dearer to thee Thy Will and thou shalt sacrifice a Man to him He will accept thy Tears for drink-offerings and prefer thy very Fasts to meat-offerings Thou needest not appear before thy God empty while thou presentest thy self to him every part of thy Body and every faculty of thy Soul nay every thing thou possessest and which many times thou accountest more pretious than that very Soul of thine may be a Sacrifice and a far more acceptable one too than all the Beasts of the Forrest Give the Lord thy Heart and that will be the Fat of thy Sacrifice As thy Charity the true fire of it without which the Incense of thy Prayers and of thy Devotions will not smoak nor ever ascend up to Heaven nay without which Martyrdom it self will prove a vain and insignificant oblation and though thou shouldst give thy Body to be burnt yet thou shouldst be nothing In a word give thy God thy self and in such a manner as He requires thee to do it and thou canst give him no more and yet when all this is done no more than what he first gave thee Thus shalt thou make him Thine and be infinitely more thy self by being His. 'T is like laying up Treasure in the Temple which thereby becomes more sacred and more assured too But then in the last place let us remember that what we have once solemnly dedicated to God cannot without Sacriledge be alienated Our Bodies being once his they are no more then our own For to whom we yield our selves Servants to obey his Servants we are to whom we obey Rom. 6. 16. Our gifts here like God's must be without Repentance nor can we recall much less employ them to any other use either of the World or Satan as we cannot serve God and Mammon so neither ought we to give him the Lean and this the Fat of our Sacrifice If our God will not part stakes surely he will not content himself with the worser share Let us then give him all and that all will be our Heart and our Affections that when we appear before him our Souls may ascend up to him as the Angel did in the flame of the Altar and that Flame may still be kept alive upon it be a continual Sacrifice such as may never cease and we may do that constantly on Earth which shall be our Eternal Employment in Heaven still praise and adore our Creator Then shall he change these our Sacrifices into everlasting Temples for himself to dwell in what we now present him natural Bodies turn into spiritual and make these our vile ones like unto his glorious one Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant c. Amen Soli Deo Gloria in aeternum A SERMON ON ESAY V. 20. The former Part of the Verse Wo unto them that call Evil good and Good Evil. THE great Creator has never been wanting to Man in prescribing him such Laws as might be sufficient if obeyed to make him happy whether we consider him in the State of Primitive Integrity or out of it In the former God so left him in the hands of his own Councel as to make himself his own Rule Nature was to him instead of Revelation he had then the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil planted in him Conscience was his Oracle and Reason his Guide and to know his Duty was but to consult himself God did not only wind him up as a Watch to a regular Motion but did withal place in him a Sun-dial to set himself by if he should go false so that his very Essence and Rule was then so much the same that to transgress was not so much to break a Law as a Man Nor did he by his Fall wholly forfeit all his natural Advantages either to himself or his Posterity For though our first Parent brake the natural Tables as Moses afterwards did those of Stone yet from the scattered pieces thereof set together we may all of us though imperfectly spell out our Duty The worst of men are born with a certain Decalogue Their Souls are not mere Rasae Tabulae there is a Book of Conscience wherein the different Characters of Good and Evil are plainly legible and by the help of those practical Notions which make