fish of the sea was tributary to him How should this incourage our dependance upon that Omnipotent hand of thine which hath Heaven earth sea at thy disposing Still thou art the same for thy members which thou wert for thy self the Head Rather then offence shall be given to the world by a seeming neglect of thy dear Children thou wilt cause the very fowls of Heaven to bring them meat and the fish of the sea to bring them money O let us look up ever to thee by the eye of our Faith and not be wanting in our dependance upon thee who canst not be wanting in thy Providence over us LAZARUS Dead OH the Wisdome of God in penning his own Story The Disciple whom Jesus loved comes after his fellow-Evangelists that he might glean up those rich ears of History which the rest had passed over That Eagle soars high and towrs up by degrees It was much to turn water into wine but it was more to seed five thousand with five loaves It was much to restore the Rulers son it was more to cure him that had been thirty eight years a Cripple It was much to cure him that was born blind it was more to raise up Lazarus that had been so long dead As a stream runs still the stronger and wider the nearer it comes to the Ocean whence it was derived so didst thou O Saviour work the more powerfully the nearer thou drewest to thy Glory This was as one of thy last so of thy greatest Miracles when thou wert ready to die thy self thou raisedst him to life who smelt strong of the grave None of all the Sacred Histories is so full and punctual as this in the report of all circumstances Other Miracles do not more transcend Nature then this transcends other Miracles This alone was a sufficient eviction of thy Godhead O blessed Saviour none but an infinite power could so farre go beyond Nature as to recal a man four daies dead from not a mere privation but a setled corruption Earth must needs be thine from which thou raisest his body Heaven must needs be thine from whence thou fetchest his Spirit None but he that created man could thus make him new Sickness is the common preface to death no mortal nature is exempted from this complains even Lazarus whom Jesus loved is sick What can strength of Grace or dearness of respect prevail against disease against dissolution It was a stirring message that Mary sent to Jesus He whom thou lovest is sick as if she would imply that his part was no-less deep in Lazarus then hers Neither doth she say He that loves thee is sick but he whom thou lovest not pleading the merit of Lazarus his affection to Christ but the mercy and favour of Christ to him Even that other reflexion of love had been no weak motive for O Lord thou hast said Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him Thy goodness will not be behinde us for love who professest to love them that love thee But yet the argument is more forcible from thy love to us since thou hast just reason to respect every thing of thine own more then ought that can proceed from us Even we weak men what can we stick at where we love Thou O infinite God art Love it self Whatever thou hast done for us is out of thy love the ground and motive of all thy mercies is within thy self not in us and if there be ought in us worthy of thy love it is thine own not ours thou givest what thou acceptest Jesus well heard the first groan of his dear Lazarus every short breath that he drew every sigh that he gave was upon account yet this Lord of Life lets his Lazarus sicken and languish and die not out of neglect or impotence but out of power and resolution This sickness is not to death He to whom the issues of death belong knows the way both into it and out of it He meant that sickness should be to death in respect of the present condition not to death in respect of the event to death in the process of Nature not to death in the success of his Divine power that the Son of God might be glorified thereby O Saviour thy usual style is the Son of man thou that wouldst take up our infirmities wert willing thus to hide thy Godhead under the course weeds of our Humanity but here thou saist That the Son of God might be glorified Though thou wouldst hide thy Divine glory yet thou wouldst not smother it Sometimes thou wouldst have thy Sun break forth in bright gleams to shew that it hath no less light even whiles it seems kept in by the clouds Thou wert now near thy Passion it was most seasonable for thee at this time to set forth thy just title Neither wâ—s this an act that thy Humanity could challenge to it self but farre transcending all finite powers To die was an act of the Son of man to raise from death was an act of the Son of God Neither didst thou say merely that God but that the Son of God might be glorified God cannot be glorified unless the Son be so In very natural Relations the wrong or disrespect offered to the child reflects upon the father as contrarily the parents upon the child how much more where the love and respect is infinite where the whole effence is communicated with the intireness of relation O God in vain shall we tender our Devotions to thee indefinitely as to a glorious and incomprehensible Majesty if we kiss not the Son who hath most justly said Ye believe in the Father believe also in me What an happy family was this I finde none upon earth so much honoured Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus It is no standing upon terms of precedency the Spirit of God is not curious in marshalling of places Time was when Mary was confessed to have chosen the better part here Martha is named first as most interessed in Christs love for ought appears all of them were equally dear Christ had familiarly lodged under their roof How fit was that to receive him whose in-dwellers were hospital pious unanimous Hospital in the glad entertainment of Jesus and his train Pious in their Devotions Unanimous in their mutual Concord As contrarily he balâ—s and hates that house which is taken up with uncharitableness profaneness contention But O Saviour how doth this agree thou lovedst this Family yet hearing of their distress thou heldest off two daies more from them Canst thou love those thou regardest not canst thou regard them from whom thou willingly absentest thy self in their necessity Behold thy love as it is above ours so it is oft against ours Even out of very affection art thou not seldome absent None of thine but have sometimes cryed How long Lord What need we instance when thine eternal Father did purposely estrange his face from thee so as thou cryedst out of
the need of Baptism John baptized without Christ within The more holy a man is the more sensible he is 〈◊〉 his unholiness No carnal man could have said I have need to be baptized of thee neither can he finde what he is the better for a little Font-water The sense of our wretchedness and the valuation of our spiritual helps is the best tryal of our regeneration Our Saviour doth not deny that either John hath need to be baptized of him or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of John but he will needs thus far both honour John and disparage himself to be baptized of his Messenger He that would take flesh of the Virgin education from his Parents sustenance from his creatures will take Baptism from John It is the praise of his Mercy that he will stoop so low as to be beholden to his creatures which from him receive their Being and power both to take and give Yet no so much respect to John as obedience to his Father drew him to this point of humiliation Thus it behoves us to fulfill all righteousness The Counsels and Appointments of God are Righteousness it self There needs no other motive either to the servant or the Son then the knowledge of those righteous purposes This was enough to lead a faithful man through all difficulties and inconveniencies neither will it admit of any reply or any demur John yieldeth to this honour which his Saviour puts upon him in giving Baptism to the Authour of it He baptized others to the remission of their sins now he baptizes him by whom they are remitted both to the Baptizer and to others No sooner is Christ baptized then he comes forth of the water The element is of force but during the use it turns common when that is past Neither is the water sooner powâ—ed on his head then the Heavens are opened and the Holy Ghost descendeth upon that head which was baptized The Heavens are never shut whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administred and received neither do the Heavens ever thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost But now that the God of Heaven is baptized they open unto him which are opened to all the faithful by him and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him together with the Father joyns with the Father in a sensible testimony of him that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heavens in the Father in the Holy Spirit and might expect nothing but Divine from the entrance of such a Mediatour Christ tempted NO sooner is Christ come out of the water of Baptism then he enters into the fire of Tentation No sooner is the Holy Spirit descended upon his head in the form of a Dove then he is led by the Spirit to be tempted No sooner doth God say This is my Son then Satan saies If thou be the Son of God It is not in the power either of the gift or seals of Grace to deliver us from the assaults of Satan they may have the force to repell evil suggestions they have none to prevent them yea the more we are ingaged unto God by our publick vows and his pledges of favour so much more busie and violent is the rage of that Evil one to encounter us We are no sooner stept forth into the field of God then he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands or to turn them against us The voice from Heaven acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God This Divine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan but exasperate it Now that venomous Serpent swels with inward poison and hasts to assail him whom God hath honoured from Heaven O God how should I look to escape the suggestions of that wicked one when the Son of thy love cannot be free when even grace it self draws on enmity That enmity that spared not to strike at the Head will he forbear the weakest and remotest limme Arm thou me therefore with an expectation of that evil I cannot avoid Make thou me as strong as he is malicious Say to my Soul also Thou art my Son and let Satan do his worst All the time of our Saviours obscurity I do not finde him set upon now that he looks forth to the publick execution of his Divine Office Satan bends his forces against him Our privacy perhaps may sit down in peace but never man did endevour a common good without opposition It is a sign that both the work is holy and the Agent faithful when we meet with strong affronts We have reason to be comforted with nothing so much as with resistance If we were not in a way to do good we should finde no rubs Satan hath no cause to molest his own and that whiles they goe about his own service He desires nothing more then to make us smooth paths to sinne but when we would turn our feet to Holinesse he blocks up the way with Tentations Who can wonder enough at the sawcinesse of that bold spirit that dares to set upon the Son of the ever-living God Who can wonder enough at thy meeknesse and patience O Saviour that wouldst be tempted He wanted not Malice and Presumption to assault thee thou wantedst not Humility to endure those assaults I should stand amazed at this voluntary dispensation of thine but that I see the susception of our Humane nature laies thee open to this condition It is necessarily incident to manhood to be liable to Tentations Thou wouldst not have put on flesh if thou hadst meant utterly to put off this consequence of our infirmity If the state of Innocence could have been any defence against evil motions the first Adam had not been tempted much lesse the second It is not the presenting of Tentations that can hurt us but their entertainment Ill counsel is the fault of the Giver not of the Refuser We cannot forbid lewd eyes to look in at our windows we may shut our doors against their entrance It is no lesse our praise to have resisted then Satans blame to suggest evil Yea O blessed Saviour how glorious was it for thee how happy for us that thou wert tempted Had not Satan tempted thee how shouldest thou have overcome Without blows there can be no victory no triumph How had thy power been manifested if no adversary had tried thee The first Adam was tempted and vanquished the second Adam to repay and repair that foile doth vanquish in being tempted Now have we not a Saviour and High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but such an once as was in all things tempted in like sort yet without sin How boldly therefore may we goe unto the Throne of grace that we may receive mercy and finde grace of help in time of need Yea this Duell was for us Now we see by this conflict of our Almighty Champion what manner of Adversary we have how he fights how he is resisted how overcome
that persecuted thine innocence but limbs of this Devil And why are we then amazed to see thee touched and locally transported by the head when we see thee yielding thy self over to be crucified by the members If Satan did the worse and greater mediately by their hands no marvel if he doe the lesse and easier immediately by his own yet neither of them without thy voluntary dispensation He could not have looked at thee without thee And if the Son of God did thus suffer his own holy and precious Body to be carried by Satan what wonder is it if that Enemy have sometimes power given him over the sinful bodies of the adopted sons of God It is not the strength of Faith that can secure us from the outward violences of that Evil one This difference I finde betwixt his spiritual and bodily assaults those are beaten back by the shield of Faith these admit not of such repulse As the best man may be lame blind diseased so through the permission of God he may be bodily vexed by an old Man-slayer Grace was never given us for a Target against externall Afflictions Methinks I see Christ hoised upon the highest battlements of the Temple whose very roof was an hundred and thirty Cubits high and Satan standing by him with this speech in his mouth Well then since in the matter of nourishment thou wilt needs depend upon thy Father's Providence that he can without means sustain thee take now further tryall of that Providence in thy miraculous preservation Cast thy self down from this height Behold thou art here in Jerusalem the famous and holy City of the World here thou art on the top of the pinnacle of that Temple which is dedicated to thy Father and if thou be God to thy self The eyes of all men are now fixt upon thee there cannot be devised a more ready way to spread thy glory and to proclaim thy Deity then by casting thy self headlong to the Earth All the World will say there is more in thee then a man And for danger there can be none What can hurt him that is the Son of God and wherefore serves that glorious Guard of Angels which have by Divine Commission taken upon them the charge of thine Humanity Since therefore in one act thou mayest be both safe and celebrated trust thy Father and those thy serviceable Spirits with thine assured preservation Cast thy self down And why didst thou not O thou malignant spirit endeavour to cast down my Saviour by those same presumptuous hands that brought him up since the descent is more easie then the raising up Was it for that it had not been so great an advantage to thee that he should fall by thy means as by his own Falling into sin was more then to fall from the pinnacle Still thy care and suit is to make us Authors to our selves of evil thou gainest nothing by our bodily hurt if the Soul be safe Or was it rather for that thou couldest not I doubt not but thy Malice could as well have served to have offered this measure to himself as to his holy Apostle soon after But he that bounded thy power tethers thee shorter Thou couldest not thou canst not do what thou wouldst He that would permit thee to carry him up bindes thy hands from casting him down And woe were it for us if thou wert not ever stinted Why did Satan carry up Christ so high but on purpose that his fall might be the more deadly So deals he still with us he exalts us that we may be dangerously abased he puffs them up with swelling thoughts of their own worthinesse that they may be vile in the eyes of God and fall into condemnation It is the manner of God to cast down that he may raise to abase that he may exalt Contrarily Satan raises up that he may throw down and intends nothing but our dejection in our advancement Height of place gives opportunity of Tentation Thus busie is that Wicked one in working against the members of Christ If any of them be in eminence above others those he labours most to ruinate They had need to stand fast that stand high There is both more danger of their falling and more hurt in their fall He that had presumed thus far to tempt the Lord of Life would fain now dare him also to presume upon his Deity If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down There is not a more tried shaft in all his quiver then this a perswasion to men to bear themselves too bold upon the favour of God Thou art the Elect and Redeemed of God sin because Grace hath abounded sin that it may abound Thou art safe enough though thou offend be not too much an adversary to thine own liberty False spirit it is no liberty to sinne but servitude rather there is liberty but in the freedome from sin Every one of us that hath the hope of Sons must purge himself even as he is pure that hath redeemed us We are bought with a price therefore must we glorifie God in our body and spirits for they are God's Our Sonship teaches us awe and obedience and therefore because we are Sons we will not cast our selves down into sin How idlely do Satan and wicked men measure God by the crooked line of their own misconceit Iwis Christ cannot be the Son of God unlesse he cast himself down from the Pinnacle unlesse he come down from the Crosse God is not merciful unlesse he honour them in all their desires not just unlesse he take speedy vengeance where they require it But when they have spent their folly upon these vain imaginations Christ is the Son of God though he stay on the top of the Temple God will be merciful though we miscarry and just though sinners seem lawlesse Neither will he be any other then he is or measured by any rule but himself But what is this I see Satan himself with a Bible under his arm with a Text in his mouth It is written He shall give his Angels charge over thee How still in that Wicked one doth Subtilty strive with Presumption Who could not but over-wonder at this if he did not consider that since the Devil dar'd to touch the sacred Body of Christ with his hand he may well touch the Scriptures of God with his tongue Let no man henceforth marvel to hear Hereticks or Hypocrites quote Scriptures when Satan himself hath not spared to cite them What are they the worse for this more then that holy Body wich is transported Some have been poisoned by their meats and drinks yet either these nourish us or nothing It is not the Letter of the Scripture that can carry it but the Sense if we divide these two we prophane and abuse that Word we alledge And wherefore doth this foul spirit urge a Text but for imitation for prevention and for successe Christ had alledged a Scripture unto him he re-alledges Scripture unto Christ
hast believed so be it unto thee Never was any Faith unseen of Christ never was any seen without allowance never was any allowed without remuneration The measure of our receits in the matter of favour is the proportion of our belief The infinite Mercy of God which is ever like it self follows but one Rule in his gift to us the Faith that he gives us Give us O God to believe and be it to us as thou wilt it shall be to us above that we will The Centurion sues for his Servant and Christ saies So be it unto thee The Servants health is the benefit of the Master and the Masters Faith is the health of the Servant And if the Prayers of an earthly Master prevailed so much with the Son of God for the recovery of a Servant how shall the intercession of the Son of God prevail with his Father in Heaven for us that are his impotent Children Servants upon Earth What can we want O Saviour whiles thou suest for us He that hath given thee for us can deny thee nothing for us can deny us nothing for thee In thee we are happy and shall be glorious To thee O thou mightie Redeemer of Israel with thine eternal Father together with thy Blessed Spirit one God infinite and incomprehensible be given all Praise Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen Contemplations THE THIRD BOOK Containing The Widows son raised The Rulers son healed The dumb Devil ejected Matthew called Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd To my right Worthy and Worshipful friend Mr JOHN GIFFORD OF Lancrasse in Devon Esq All Grace and Peace SIR I Hold it as I ought one of the rich mercies of God that he hath given me favour in some eyes which have not seen me but none that I know hath so much demerited me unknown as your worthy Familie Ere therefore you see my face see my hand willingly professing my thankfull obligations Wherewith may it please you to accept of this parcel of thoughts not unlike those fellows of theirs whom you have entertained above their desert These shall present unto you our Bountifull Saviour magnifying his mercies to men in a sweet variety healing the Diseased raising the Dead casting out the Devil calling in the Publican and shall raise your heart to adore that infinite goodness Every help to our Devotion deserves to be precious so much more as the decrepit age of the World declines to an heartlesse coldnesse of Piety That God to whose Honour these poor Labours are meant blesse them in your hands and from them to all Readers To his Protection I heartily commend you and the Right vertuous Gentlewoman your worthy Wife with all the Pledges of your happy affection as whom you have deserved to be Your truly thankful and officious Friend JOS. HALL The Widows son raised THE favours of our beneficent Saviour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurion's Servant from his bed then he raises the Widows Son from his Biere The fruitful clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bounty of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sun were fixed in one Orbe yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingrosse the messengers of the Gospel whose errand is universal This immortal seed may not fall all in one furrow The little City of Nain stood under the hill of Hermon near unto Tabor but now it is watered with better dews from above the Doctrine and Miracles of a Saviour Not for state but for the more evidence of the work is our Saviour attended with a large train so entering into the gate of that walled City as if he meant to besiege their Faith by his Power and to take it His Providence hath so contrived his journey that he meets with the sad pomp of a Funeral A woful Widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her onely Son to the grave There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A young man in the flower in the strength of his age swallowed up by death Our decrepit age both exspects death and solicits it but vigorous youth looks strangely upon that grim Serjeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather up with contentment we chide to have the unripe unseasonably beaten down with cudgels But more a young man the onely Son the onely childe of his mother No condition can make it other then grievous for a well-natur'd mother to part with her own bowels yet surely store is some mitigation of loss Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still we hope the surviving may supply the comforts of the dead But when all our hopes and joyes must either live or dy in one the loss of that one admits of no consolation When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable he can but say oh daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in the ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely Son Such was the loss such was the sorrow of this disconsolate mother neither words nor tears can suffice to discover it Yet more had she been aided by the counsel and supportation of a loving yoke-fellow this burden might have seemed less intolerable A good Husband may make amends for the loss of a Son had the root been left to her intire she might better have spared the branch now both are cut up all the stay of her life is gone and she seems abandoned to a perfect misery And now when she gave her self up for a forlorn mourner past all capacity of redress the God of comfort meets her pities her relieves her Here was no solicitor but his own compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a Servant the Ruler for a Son Jairus for a Daughter the neighbours for the Paralytick here he seeks up the Patient and offers the cure unrequested Whiles we have to doe with the Father of Mercies our afflictions are the most powerful suitors No teares no prayers can move him so much as his own commiseration O God none of our secret sorrows can be either hid from thine eyes or kept from thine heart and when we are past all our hopes all possibilities of help then art thou nearest to us for deliverance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy The Heart had compassion the Mouth said Weep not the Feet went to the Bier the Hand touched the coffin the Power of the Deity raised the dead What the Heart felt was secret to it self the Tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weep not Alas what are words to so strong and just passions To bid her not to weep that had lost her only Son was to perswade her to be
Saviour was not without the intention of a tryal Had not the Ruler gone home satisfied with that intimation of his sons life and recovery neither of them had been blessed with success Now the news of performance meets him one half of the way and he that believed somewhat ere he came and more when he went grew to more faith in the way and when he came home inlarged his faith to all the skirts of his family A weak faith may be true but a true faith is growing He that boasts of a full stature in the first moment of his assent may presume but doth not believe Great men cannot want Clients their Example swaies some their Authority more they cannot goe to either of the other worlds alone In vain do they pretend power over others who labour not to draw their Families unto God The Dumb Devil ejected THat the Prince of our Peace might approve his victories perfect wheresoever he met with the Prince of Darkness he foiled him he ejected him He found him in Heaven thence did he throw him headlong and verified his Prophet I have cast thee out of mine holy mountain And if the Devils left their first habitation it was because being Devils they could not keep it Their estate indeed they might have kept and did not their habitation they would have kept and might not How art thou faln from Heaven O Lucifer He found him in the heart of man for in that closet of God did the evil spirit after his exile from Heaven shrowd himself Sin gave him possession which he kept with a willing violence thence he casts him by his Word and Spirit He found him tyrannizing in the bodies of some possessed men and with power commands the unclean spirits to depart This act is for no hand but his When a strong man keeps possession none but a stronger can remove him In voluntary things the strongest may yield to the weakest Sampson to a Dalilah but in violent ever the mightiest carries it A spiritual nature must needs be in rank above a bodily neither can any power be above a Spirit but the God of Spirits No otherwise is it in the mental possession Whereever sin is there Satan is as on the contrary whosoever is born of God the seed of God remains in him That Evil one not onely is but rules in the sons of disobedience in vain shall we try to eject him but by the Divine power of the Redeemer For this cause the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Do we finde our selves haunted with the familiar Devils of Pride Self-love Sensual desires Unbelief None but thou O Son of the ever-living God can free our bosoms of these hellish guests Oh clense thou me from my secret sins and keep me that presumptuous sins prevail not over me O Saviour it is no Paradox to say that thou castest out more Devils now then thou didst whiles thou wert upon earth It was thy word When I am lifted up I will draw all men unto me Satan weighs down at the feet thou pullest at the head yea at the heart In every conversion which thou workest there is a dispossession Convert me O Lord and I shall be converted I know thy means are now no other then ordinary If we exspect to be dispossessed by miracle it would be a miracle if ever we were dispossessed Oh let thy Gospel have the perfect work in me so onely shall I be delivered from the powers of darkness Nothing can be said to be dumb but what naturally speaks nothing can speak naturally but what hath the instruments of speech which because spirits want they can no otherwise speak vocally then as they take voices to themselves in taking bodies This Devil was not therefore dumb in his nature but in his effect The man was dumb by the operation of that Devil which possessed him and now the action is attributed to the spirit which was subjectively in the man It is not you that speak faith our Saviour but the spirit of your Father that speaketh in you As it is in bodily Diseases that they do not infect us alike some seize upon the humours others upon the spirits some assalt the brain others the heart or lungs so in bodily and spiritual possessions in some the evil spirit takes away their senses in some their lims in some their inward faculties like as spiritually they affect to move us unto several sins one to lust another to covetousness or ambition another to cruelty and their names have distinguished them according to these various effects This was a dumb Devil which yet had possessed not the tongue only of this man but his ear not that only but as it seems his eyes too O subtile and tyrannous spirit that obstructs all wayes to the Soul that keeps out all means of Grace both from the door and windows of the heart yea that stops up all passages whether of ingress or egress of ingress at the eye or eare of egress at the mouth that there might be no capacity of redress What holy use is there of our tongue but to praise our Maker to confess our sins to inform our brethren How rife is this Dumb Devil every where whiles he stops the mouths of Christians from these useful and necessary duties For what end hath man those two privileges above his fellow-creatures Reason and Speech but that as by the one he may conceive of the great works of his Maker which the rest cannot so by the other he may express what he conceives to the honour of the Creator both of them and himself And why are all other creatures said to praise God and bidden to praise him but because they do it by the apprehension by the expression of man If the Heavens declare the glory of God how doe they it but to the eyes and by the tongue of that man for whom they were made It is no small honour whereof the envious spirit shall rob his Maker if he can close up the mouth of his onely rational and vocal creature and turn the best of his workmanship into a dumb Idol that hath a mouth and speaks not Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Praise is not more necessary then complaint praise of God then complaint of our selves whether to God or men The onely amends we can make to God when we have not had the grace to avoid sinne is to confess the sinne we have not avoided This is the sponge that wipes out all the blots and blurs of our lives If we confess our sinnes he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness That cunning man-slayer knows there is no way to purge the sick soul but upward by casting out the vicious humour wherewith it is clogged and therefore holds the lips close that the heart may not disburden it self by so wholesome evacuation When
place to thy love and obedience How should we have known these evils so formidable if thou hadst not in half a thought inclined to deprecate them How could we have avoided so formidable and deadly evils if thou hadst not willingly undergone them We acknowledge thine holy fear we adore thy Divine fortitude Whiles thy Minde was in this fearfull agitation it is no marvell if thy Feet were not fixed Thy place is more changed then thy thoughts One while thou walkest to thy drouzy Attendants and stirrest up their needfull vigilancy then thou returnest to thy passionate Devotions thou fallest again upon thy face If thy body be humbled down to the earth thy Soul is yet lower thy prayers are so much more vehement as thy pangs are And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground O my Saviour what an agonie am I in whiles I think of thine What pain what fear what strife what horrour was in thy Sacred breast How didst thou struggle under the weight of our sins that thou thus sweatest that thou thus bleedest All was peace with thee thou wert one with thy coeternal and coessential Father all the Angels worshipped thee all the powers of Heaven and earth awfully acknowledged thine Infiniteness It was our person that feoffed thee in this misery and torment in that thou sustainedst thy Father's wrath and our curse If eternal death be unsufferable if every sin deserve eternal death what O what was it for thy Soul in this short time of thy bitter Passion to answer those millions of eternal deaths which all the sins of all mankinde had deserved from the just hand of thy Godhead I marvell not if thou bleedest a sweat if thou sweatest blood If the moisture of that Sweat be from the Body the tincture of it is from the Soul As there never was such another Sweat so neither can there be ever such a Suffering It is no wonder if the Sweat were more then natural when the Suffering was more then humane O Saviour so willing was that precious blood of thine to be let forth for us that it was ready to prevent thy Persecutors and issued forth in those pores before thy wounds were opened by thy Tormentors O that my heart could bleed unto thee with true inward compunction for those sins of mine which are guilty of this thine Agonie and have drawn blood of thee both in the Garden and on the Cross Woe is me I had been in Hell if thou hadst not been in thine Agonie I had scorched if thou hadst not sweat Oh let me abhor my own wickednesse and admire and blesse thy Mercy But O ye blessed Spirits which came to comfort my conflicted Saviour how did ye look upon the Son of God when ye saw him labouring for life under these violent temptations with what astonishment did ye behold him bleeding whom ye adored In the Wilderness after his Duell with Satan ye came and ministred unto him and now in the Garden whiles he is in an harder combat ye appear to strengthen him O the wise and marvellous dispensation of the Almighty Whom God will afflict an Angel shall relieve the Son shall suffer the Servant shall comfort him the God of Angels droupeth the Angel of God strengthens him Blessed Jesu if as Man thou wouldst be made a little lower then the Angels how can it disparage thee to be attended and cheared up by an Angel Thine Humiliation would not disdain comfort from meaner hands How free was it for thy Father to convey seasonable consolations to thine humbled Soul by whatsoever means Behold though thy Cup shall not passe yet it shall be sweetned What if thou see not for the time thy Fathers face yet thou shalt feel his hand What could that Spirit have done without the God of Spirits O Father of Mercies thou maiest bring thine into Agonies but thou wilt never leave them there In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts shall refresh my Soul Whatsoever be the means of my supportation I know and adore the Author Peter and Malchus or Christ Apprehended WHerefore O Saviour didst thou take those three choice Disciples with thee from their fellows but that thou expectedst some comfort from their presence A seasonable word may sometimes fall from the meanest attendant and the very society of those we trust carries in it some kinde of contentment Alas what broken reeds are men Whiles thou art sweating in thine Agonie they are snorting securely Admonitions threats intreaties cannot keep their eyes open Thou tellest them of danger they will needs dream of ease and though twice rouzed as if they had purposed this neglect they carelesly sleep out thy sorrow and their own peril What help hast thou of such Followers In the mount of thy Transfiguration they slept and besides fell on their faces when they should behold thy glory and were not themselves for fear in the garden of thine Agonie they fell upon the ground for drouzinesse when they should compassionate thy sorrow and lost themselves in a stupid sleepinesse Doubtlesse even this disregard made thy prayers so much more fervent The lesse comfort we finde on earth the more we seek above Neither soughtst thou more then thou foundest Lo thou wert heard in that which thou fearedst An Angel supplies men that Spirit was vigilant whiles thy Disciples were heavy The exchange was happy No sooner is this good Angel vanished then that domestick Devil appears Judas comes up and shews himself in the head of those miscreant troups He whose too much honour it had been to be a Follower of so Blessed a Master affects now to be the leader of this wicked rabble The Sheeps fleece is now cast off the Wolf appears in his own likenesse He that would be false to his Master would be true to his Chapmen Even evil spirits keep touch with themselves The bold Traitor dare yet still mix Hypocrisie with Villany his very salutations and kisses murder O Saviour this is no news to thee All those who under a shew of Godlinesse practise impiety do still betray thee thus Thou who hadst said One of you is a Devil didst not now say Avoid Satan but Friend wherefore art thou come As yet Judas it was not too late Had there been any the least spark of Grace yet remaining in that perfidious bosome this word had fetcht thee upon thy knees All this Sunshine cannot thaw an obdurate heart The sign is given Jesus is taken Wretched Traitor why wouldst thou for this purpose be thus attended and ye foolish Priests and Elders why sent you such a band and so armed for this apprehension One messenger had been enough for a voluntary prisoner Had my Saviour been unwilling to be taken all your forces with all the Legions of Hell to help them had been too little since he was willing to be attached two were too many When he did but
Baboon who that shall read of the Elephant learning letters and numbers and plotting his cunning revenges would not say that these and a thousand the like must needs argue a baser kinde of sensitive discourse such as wherein Imagination doth notably counterfeit Reason and in some weak subjects so transcend it as that Lactantius dares say I dare not Ista non facerent nisi inesset illis intelligentia cogitatio It is true our reasonable Soul is furnished with higher powers but it is not more honour to have had them then shame to have impair'd them If God doth not breath upon our dim glasses and wipe them clear they shew us nothing To speak plainly Indeed it is our Illumination that perfects Reason and that Illumination is from the Father of lights without whose Divine light natural Reason is but as a Dial without the Sun eyes without light For the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. And in that person it is that Agar the Son of Jakeh speaks I am more brutish then man I have not the understanding of a man Prov. 30. 2. Why this I have not the knowledge of the holy vers 3. The word is remarkable no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jumentum a Beast the same that Ezekiel uses when he sayes I will give thee over into the hands of brutish men Ezec. 21. 31. and the Psalmist when he saies Oh ye foolish or brutish among the people when will ye understand So as notwithstanding this muddy and imperfect Reason God sees a kinde of brutality in the natural man Whereto it may please you to adde that in a man debauch'd Reason is so much worse then brutishness by how much wickedness is worse hainous then simplicity and if want of Reason make a Beast abuse of Reason makes a Devil It is a miserable advantage that make us onely apt to evil and capable of an Hell small cause have we to brag of those powers which so distinguish us from beasts that they make us worse then beasts In short therefore notwithstanding Shape Speech Reason a natural and thereby a vicious man may well pass for a beast And now that we see it apparent that he is so let us a little inquire how he became so Certainly God made man upright as in shape so in disposition What wrought this miserable Metamorphosis What could do it but Sorcery and what Witch could this be but the old Circe of the world Sensuality Man is led and informed by Reason Beasts by Sense now when man abandons Reason and gives himself up to Sense he casts off the man and puts on the beast Neither is this sensuality in the Affection only but it goes through the whole Soul there is a sensual Understanding as well as a sensual Appetite the one makes a beast in Opinion the other in Practice Gross Errour doth the one Vice the other Whosoever therefore is transported with either is turn'd Beast Give me a man that is given up to his filthy Lusts give me a man whose Reason is drawn through his maw or his spleen let him be otherwise what he will I dare say he is no other then a beast And now what variety think you is there of several kinds no wilderness affords so many Nero is a Lion 2 Tim. 4. 17. Herod a Fox Luke 13. 32. the Jewish false-teachers Dogs Phil. 3. 2. David's persecutors Bulls of Basan and Unicorns Ps 22. 12 21. the Aegyptian enemies Dragons Ps 74. 13. the Scribes and Pharisees Serpents Vipers Mat. 23. 33. the Babylonian Monarch an Eagle-winged Lion the Persian a Bear the Macedonian a Leopard Dan. 7. 4 5 6. the enemies of the Church wild Boares Ps 80. 13. Greedy Judges evening Wolves Zeph. 3. 3. Schismaticks Foxes cubs Cant. 2. 15. The time and my breath would fail me if I should reckon up all the several kinds of beasts in the skins of men Surely as there is thought to be no beast upon earth which hath not his fellow in the sea and which hath not his semblance in Plants so I may truly say there is no beast in the vast desart of the world which is not parallel'd in man Yea as Effects and Qualities are in an higher degree found in Causes and Subjects equivocal then in their own as Heat is more excellently in the Sun then in the Fire so certainly is brutishness more eminent and notorious in man then in beast Look into all heards and droves and see if you can find so very a beast as the Drunkard It was S. Austin's reason of old Those beasts will drink no more then they think enough and if the Panther which they say is the drunkennest beast or the Swine be overtaken with unaccustomed liquor it is upon ignorance of the power of it so a Noah himself may be at first mistaken But mans Reason foretells him that those intoxicating draughts will bereave him of Reason yet he swills them down wilfully as if it were a pleasure to forgoe that whereby he is a man The beast when he hath his load may frisk a little and move inordinately and then lye down in an ordinary posture of harmless rest but for the Drunkard his tongue reel◠straight either into railing or ribaldry his hands into swaggering and bloomed all his motions are made of disorder and mischief and his rest is no less odious then his moving See how he lies wallowing in his own filthy excretions in so loathsome a fashion as were enough to make the beholder hate to be a man And now when we have all done after all the shame and scorn here is Sus ad volutabrum All the world cannot reclaim an habituated Drunkard that which the beasts know not how to doe his wit projects when he is sober how he may be drunk and which St. Chrysostome well observes as more transcending all humors of beasts how he may force others to his own shameful excess Far far be this abominable vice from any of you Courtiers That which the Lacedaemonians scorned in their very Slaves that which our former times had wont to disdain in Beggers let not that stain the honour of a Christian Court Or if any such should hear me this day Awake ye drunkards and weep and howle ye drinkers of wine Joel 1. 5. return back your superfluous liquor into teares or if ye will not weep ye shall howl if ye will not weep with penitents ye shall howl with hell-hounds and ye that now pour down vessels more to make then quench thirst shall one day in vain wish to give all the world for but one drop of water to cool that flaming tongue which a whole Ocean cannot so much as moisten Look if in all the mountains or falls there be any such Goat or Stallion as the Voluptuous man Those silly beasts are carried with
Preacher and hath since called his Preachers Angels The message is well suited An Angel comes to a Virgin Gabriel to Mary He that was by signification the strength of God to her that was by signification exalted by God to the conceiving of him that was the God of strength to a Maid but espoused a Maid for the honour of Virginity espoused for the honour of Marriage The marriage was in a sort made not consummate through the instinct of him that meant to make her not an example but a miracle of women In this whole work God would have nothing ordinary It was fit that she should be a married Virgin which should be a Virgin mother He that meant to take mans nature without mans corruption would be the Son of man without mans seed would be the seed of the woman without man and amongst all women of a pure Virgin but amongst Virgins of one espoused that there might be at once a Witness and a Guardian of her fruitful Virginity If the same God had not been the authour of Virginity and Marriage he had never countenanced Virginity by Marriage Whether doth this glorious Angel come to finde the Mother of him that was GOD but to obscure Galilee A part which even the Jewes themselves despised as forsaken of their priviledges Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Behold an Angel comes to that Galilee out of which no Prophet comes and the God of Prophets and Angels descends to be conceived in that Galilee out of which no Prophet ariseth He that filleth all places makes no difference of places It is the person which gives honour and priviledge to the place not the place to the person as the presence of God makes the Heaven the Heaven doth not make the honour glorious No blinde corner of Nazareth can hide the blessed Virgin from the Angel The favours of God will finde out his children wheresoever they are withdrawn It is the fashion of God to seek out the most despised on whom to bestow his honours We cannot run away as from the judgements so not from the mercies of our God The cottages of Galilee are preferred by God to the famous Palaces of Jerusalem he cares not how homely he converse with his own Why should we be transported with the outward glory of places whiles our God regards it not We are not of the Angels diet if we had not rather be with the blessed Virgin at Nazareth then with the proud Dames in the Court of Jerusalem It is a great vanity to respect any thing above goodness and to disesteem goodness for any want The Angel salutes the Virgin he prayes not to her he salutes her as a Saint he prayes not to her as a Goddess For us to salute her as he did were grosse presumption for neither are we as he was neither is she as she was If he that was a Spirit saluted her that was flesh and blood here on earth it is not for us that are flesh and blood to salute her which is a glorious Spirit in Heaven For us to pray to her in the Angels salutation were to abuse the Virgin the Angel the salutation But how gladly doe we second the Angel in the praise of her which was more ours then his How justly doe we blesse her whom the Angel pronounceth blessed How worthily is she honoured of men whom the Angel proclaimeth beloved of God O blessed Mary he cannot blesse thee he cannot honour thee too much that deifies thee not That which the Angel said of thee thou hast prophesied of thy self we believe the Angel and thee All Generations shall call thee blessed by the fruit of whose womb all Generations are blessed If Zachary were amazed with the sight of this Angel much more the Virgin That very Sex had more disadvantage of fear If it had been but a man that had come to her in that secrecie and suddenness she could not but have been troubled how much more when the shining glory of the person doubled the astonishment The troubles of holy mindes end ever in comfort Joy was the errand of the Angel and not terrour Fear as all passions disquiets the heart and makes it for the time unfit to receive the messages of God Soon hath the Angel cleared these troublesome mists of passions and sent out the beams of heavenly consolation in the remotest corner of her soul by the glad news of her Saviour How can joy but enter into her heart out of whose womb shall come salvation What room can fear finde in that breast that is assured of favour Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God Let those fear who know they are in displeasure or know not they are gracious Thine happy estate calls for confidence and that confidence for joy What should what can they fear who are favoured of him at whom the Devils tremble Not the presence of the good Angels but the temptations of the evil strike many terrors into our weaknesse we could not be dismaied with them if we did not forget our condition We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father If that Spirit O God witnesse with our spirits that we are thine how can we fear any of those spirituall wickednesses Give us assurance of thy favour and let the powers of Hell doe their worst It was no ordinary favour that the Virgin found in Heaven No mortall Creature was ever thus graced that he should take part of her nature that was the God of Nature that he which made all things should make his humane body of hers that her womb should yield that flesh which was personally united to the Godhead that she should bear him that upholds the world Loe thou shalt conceive and bear a Son and shalt call his name Jesus It is a question whether there be more wonder in the Conception or in the Fruit the Conception of the Virgin or Jesus conceived Both are marvellous but the former doth not more exceed all other wonders then the latter exceedeth it For the childe of a Virgin is the reimprovement of that power which created the world but that God should be incarnate of a Virgin was an abasement of his Majestie and an exaltation of the creature beyond all example Well was that Child worthy to make the mother blessed Here was a double Conception one in the wombe of her body the other of the soul If that were more miraculous this was more beneficiall that was her priviledge this was her happinesse If that were singular to her this is common to all his chosen There is no renewed heart wherein thou O Saviour art not formed again Blessed be thou that hast herein made us blessed For what womb can conceive thee and not partake of thee Who can partake of thee and not be happy Doubtlesse the Virgin understood the Angel as he meant of a present Conception which made her so much
service Those that will goe no further then they are dragged in their Religious exercises are no whit of kin to her whom all Generations shall call blessed The childe Jesus in the minority of his age went up with his Parents to the holy solemnity not this year only but in all likelihood others also He in the power of whose Godhead and by the motion of whose Spirit all others ascended thither would not himself stay at home In all his examples he meant our instruction This pious act of his nonage intended to lead our first years into timely Devotion The first liquor seasons the vessel for a long time after It is every way good for a man to bear God's yoke even from his infancy it is the policie of the Devil to discourage early holinesse He that goes out betimes in the morning is more like to dispatch his journey then he that lingers till the day be spent This Blessed Family came not to look at the Feast and be gone but they duly stai'd out all the appointed daies of unlevened bread They and the rest of Israel could not want houshold-businesses at home those secular affairs could not either keep them from repairing to Jerusalem or send them away immaturely Worldly cares must give place to the sacred Except we will depart unblest we must attend God's services till we may receive his dismission It was the fashion of those times and places that they went up and so returned by troups to those set meetings of their holy Festivals The whole Parish of Nazareth went and came together Good fellowship doth no way so well as in the passage to Heaven much comfort is added by society to that journey which is of it self pleasant It is an happy word Come let us goe up to the house of the Lord. Mutual incouragement is none of the least benefits of our holy assemblies Many sticks laid together make a good fire which if they lie single lose both their light and heat The Feast ended what should they do but return to Nazareth God's services may not be so attended as that we should neglect our particular callings Himself cals us from his own House to ours and takes pleasure to see a painful Client They are foully mistaken that think God cares for no other trade but devotion Piety and diligence must keep meet changes with each other Neither doth God lesse accept of our return to Nazareth then our going up to Jerusalem I cannot think that the Blessed Virgin or good Joseph could be so negligent of their Divine charge as not to call the child Jesus to their setting forth from Jerusalem But their back was no sooner turned upon the Temple then his face was towards it He had businesse in that place when theirs was ended there he was both worshipped and represented He in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily could doe nothing without God his true Father led him away from his supposed Sometimes the affairs of our ordinary vocation may not grudge to yield unto spirituall occasions The Parents of Christ knew him well to be of a disposition not strange nor sullen Stoicall but sweet and sociable and therefore they supposed he had spent the time and the way in company of their friends and neighbours They do not suspect him wandered into the solitary fields but when evening came they go to seek him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance If he had not wonted to converse formerly with them he had not now been sought amongst them Neither as God nor man doth he take pleasure in a stern froward austerity and wilde retiredness but in a milde affableness and amiable conversation But O Blessed Virgin who can express the sorrows of thy perplexed Soul when all that evening search could afford thee no news of thy Son Jesus Was not this one of those swords of Simeon which should pierce through thy tender breast How didst thou chide thy credulous neglect in not observing so precious a charge and blame thine eyes for once looking beside this object of thy love How didst thou with thy careful Husband spend that restless night in mutual expostulations and bemoanings of your loss How many suspicious imaginations did that while rack thy grieved spirit Perhaps thou mightest doubt lest they which laid for him by Herod's command at his birth had now by the secret instigation of Archelaus surprised him in his childhood or it may be thou thoughtest thy Divine Son had now withdrawn himself from the earth and returned to his heavenly Glory without warning or peradventure thou studiedst with thy self whether any carelesness on thy behalf had not given occasion to this absence O dear Saviour who can miss and not mourn for thee Never any soul conceived thee by faith that was less afflicted with the sense of thy desertion then comforted with the joy of thy presence Just is that sorrow and those tears seasonable that are bestowed upon thy losse What comfort are we capable of whiles we want thee What relish is there in these earthly delights without thee What is there to mitigate our passionate discomforts if not from thee Let thy self loose O my soul to the fulness of sorrow when thou findest thy self bereaved of him in whose presence is the fulness of joy and deny to receive comfort from any thing save from his return In vain is Christ sought among his kindred according to the flesh So far are they still from giving us their aide to finde the true Messias that they lead us from him Back again therefore are Joseph and Mary gone to seek him at Jerusalem She goes about in the City by the streets and by the open places and seeks him whom her soul loveth she sought him for the time and found him not Do we think she spared her search The evening of her return she hastes to the Inne where she had left him where missing him she inquires of every one she met Have you not seen him whom my soul loveth At last the third day she finds him in the Temple One day was spent in the journey towards Galilee another in the return to Jerusalem the third day recovers him He who would rise again the third day and be found amongst the living now also would the third day be found of his Parents after the sorrow of his absence But where wert thou O blessed Jesu for the space of these three daies where didst thou bestow thy self or who tended thee whiles thou wert thus alone at Jerusalem I know if Jerusalem should have been as unkind to thee as Bethleem thou couldst have commanded the Heavens to harbour thee and if men did not minister to thee thou couldst have commanded the service of Angels But since the form of a Servant called thee to a voluntary homeliness whether it pleased thee to exercise thy self thus early with the difficulties of a stranger or to provide miraculously for thy self I inquire not since thou revealest not only this I
should give place to the God of Spirits How well contented was holy Mary with so just an answer how doth she now again in her heart renew her answer to the Angel Behold the servant of the Lord be it according to thy word We are all the Sons of God in another kinde Nature and the World thinks we should attend them We are not worthy to say we have a Father in Heaven if we cannot steal away from these earthly distractions and imploy our selves in the services of our God Christ's Baptism JOHN did every way forerun Christ not so much in the time of his Birth as in his office Neither was there more unlikeliness in their Disposition and carriage then similitude in their Function Both did preach and baptize only John baptized by himself our Saviour by his Disciples our Saviour wrought miracles by himself by his Disciples John wrought none by either Wherein Christ meant to shew himself a Lord and John a servant and John meant to approve himself a true servant to him whose harbinger he was He that leapt in the womb of his mother when his Saviour then newly conceived came in presence bestir'd himself when he was brought forth into the light of the Church to the honour and service of his Saviour he did the same before Christ which Christ charged his Disciples to do after him Preach and Baptize The Gospel ran alwaies in one tenor and was never but like it self So it became the Word of him in whom there is no shadow by turning and whose Word it is I am Jehova I change not It was fit that he which had the Prophets the Star the Angel to foretell his coming into the world should have his Usher to goe before him when he would notifie himself to the world John was the voice of a Cryer Christ was the Word of his Father it was fit this Voice should make a noise to the world ere the Word of the Father should speak to it John's note was still Repentance the Axe to the root the Fan to the floor the Chaffe to the fire as his raiment was rough so was his tongue and if his food were wilde Hony his speech was stinging Locusts Thus must the way be made for Christ in every heart Plausibility is no fit preface to Regeneration If the heart of man had continued upright God might have been entertained without contradiction but now violence must be offered to our corruption ere we can have room for Grace If the great Way-maker do not cast down hills and raise up valleys in the bosomes of men there is no passage for Christ Never will Christ come into that Soul where the Herald of Repentance hath not been before him That Saviour of ours who from eternity lay hid in the Counsel of God who in the fulness of time so came that he lay hid in the womb of his mother for the space of forty weeks after he was come thought fit to lye hid 〈◊〉 Nazareth for the space of thirty years now at last begins to shew himself to the world and comes from Galilee to Jordan He that was God alwaies and might have been perfect man in an instant would by degrees rise to the perfection both of his Manhood and execution of his Mediatorship to teach us the necessity of leasure in spiritual proceedings that many Suns and successions of seasons and means must be stayed for ere we can attain our maturity and that when we are ripe for the imployments of God we should no lesse willingly leave our obscurity then we took the benefit of it for our preparation He that was formerly circumcised would now be baptized What is Baptism but an Evangelical Circumcision What was Circumcision but a Legal Baptism One both supplied and succeeded the other yet the Authour of both will undergoe both He would be circumcised to sanctifie his Church that was and baptized to sanctifie his Church that should be that so in both Testaments he might open a way into Heaven There was in him neither filthiness nor foreskin of corruption that should need either knife or water He came not to be a Saviour for himself but for us we are all uncleanness and uncircumcision he would therefore have that done to his most pure body which should be of force to clear our impure Souls thus making himself sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him His Baptism gives virtue to ours His last action or rather passion was his baptizing with blood his first was his baptization with water both of them wash the world from their sins Yea this latter did not onely wash the souls of men but washeth that very water by which we are washed from hence is that made both clean and holy and can both cleanse and hallow us And if the very handkerchief which touched his Apostles had power of cure how much more that Water which the sacred body of Christ touched Christ comes far to seek his baptism to teach us for whose sake he was baptized to wait upon the Ordinances of God and to sue for the favour of spiritual blessings They are worthlesse commodities that are not worth seeking for It is rarely seen that God is found of any man unsought for that desire which only makes us capable of good things cannot stand with neglect John durst not baptize unbidden his Master sent him to doe this service and behold the Master comes to his servant to call for the participation of that priviledge which he himself had instituted and injoyned How willingly should we come to our spiritual Superiours for our part in those mysteries which God hath left in their keeping yea how gladly should we come to that Christ who gives us these blessings who is given to us in them This seemed too great an honour for the modesty of John to receive If his mother could say when her blessed cousin the Virgin Mary came to visit her Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me how much more might he say so when the Divine Son of that mother came to call for a favour from him I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me O holy Baptist if there were not a greater born of woman then thou yet thou couldest not be born of a woman and not need to be baptized of thy Saviour He baptized with fire thou with water Little would thy water have availed thee without his fire If he had not baptized thee how wert thou sanctified from the womb There can be no flesh without filthiness neither thy supernatural Conception nor thy austere life could exempt thee from the need of Baptism Even those that have not lived to sin after the similitude of Adam yet are they so tainted with Adam that unless the second Adam cleanse them by his Baptism they are hopeless There is no less use of Baptism unto all then there is certainty of
Now our very Temptation affords us comfort in that we see the dearer we are unto God the more obnoxious we are to this triall neither can we be discouraged by the hainousnesse of those evils whereto we are moved since we see the Son of God solicited to Infidelity Covetousnesse Idolatry How glorious therefore was it for thee O Saviour how happy for us that thou wert tempted Where then wast thou tempted O Blessed Jesu or whither wentest thou to meet with our great Adversary I do not see thee led into the market-place or any other part of the City or thy home-stead of Nazareth but into the vast Wilderness the habitation of beasts a place that carrieth in it both horror and opportunity Why wouldst thou thus retire thy self from men But as confident Champions are wont to give advantage of ground or weapon to their Antagonist that the glory of their victory may be the greater so wouldest thou O Saviour in this conflict with our common Enemy yield him his own terms for circumstances that thine honour and his foile may be the more Solitariness is no small help to the speed of a Tentation Woe to him that is alone for if he fall there is not a second to lift him up Those that out of an affectation of Holiness seek for solitude in rocks and caves of the desarts do no other then run into the mouth of the danger of Tentation whiles they think to avoid it It was enough for thee to whose Divine power the gates of Hell were weakness thus to challenge the Prince of darkness Our care must be alwaies to eschew all occasions of spiritual danger and what we may to get us out of the reach of Tentations But O the depth of the Wisdome of God! How camest thou O Saviour to be thus tempted That Spirit whereby thou wast conceived as man and which was one with thee and the Father as God led thee into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan Whiles thou taughtest us to pray to thy Father Lead us not into temptation thou meantest to instruct us that if the same Spirit led us not into this perilous way we goe not into it We have still the same conduct Let the path be what it will how can we miscarry in the hand of a Father Now may we say to Satan as thou didst unto Pilate Thou couldst have no power over me except it were given thee from above The Spirit led thee it did not drive thee here was a sweet invitation no compulsion of violence So absolutely conformable was thy will to thy Deity as if both thy Natures had but one volition In this first draught of thy bitter potion thy Soul said in a reall subjection Not my will but thy will be done We imitate thee O Saviour though we cannot reach to thee All thine are led by thy Spirit Oh teach us to forget that we have wills of our own The Spirit led thee thine invincible strength did not animate thee into this combat uncalled What do we weaklings so far presume upon our abilities or success as that we dare thrust our selves upon Temptations unbidden unwarranted Who can pitty the shipwrack of those Marriners which will needs put forth and hoise fails in a Tempest Forty daies did our Saviour spend in the Wilderness fasting and solitary all which time was worn out in Temptation however the last brunt because it was most violent is only expressed Now could not the adversary complain of disadvantage whiles he had the full scope both of time and place to do his worst And why did it please thee O Saviour to fast forty daies and forty nights unless as Moses fasted forty daies at the delivery of the Law and Elias at the restitution of the Law so thou thoughtest fit at the accomplishment of the Law and the promulgation of the Gospel to fulfill the time of both these Types of thine wherein thou intendest our wonder not our imitation not our imitation of the time though of the act Here were no faulty desires of the flesh in thee to be tamed no possibility of a freer and more easie assent of the Soul to God that could be affected of thee who wast perfectly united unto God but as for us thou wouldst suffer death so for us thou wouldst suffer hunger that we might learn by fasting to prepare our selves for Tentations In fasting so long thou intendest the manifestation of thy power in fasting no longer the truth of thy manhood Moses and Elias through the miraculous sustentation of God fasted so long without any question made of the truth of their bodies So long therefore thou thoughtest good to fast as by the reason of these precedents might be without prejudice of thine Humanity which if it should have pleased thee to support as thou couldst without means thy very Power might have opened the mouth of cavils against the verity of thy Humane nature That thou mightest therefore well approve that there was no difference betwixt thee and us but sin thou that couldst have fasted without hunger and lived without meat wouldst both feed and fast and hunger Who can be discouraged with the scantnesse of friends or bodily provisions when he sees his Saviour thus long destitute of all earthly comforts both of society and sustenance Oh the policie and malice of that old Serpent when he sees Christ bewray some infirmity of nature in being hungry then he layes sorest at him by temptations His eye was never off from our Saviour all the time of his sequestration and now that he thinks he espies any one part to lye open he drives at it with all his might We have to do with an Adversary no lesse vigilant then malicious who will be sure to watch all opportunities of our mischief and where he sees any advantage of weaknesse will not neglect it How should we stand upon our guard for prevention that both we may not give him occasions of our hurt nor take hurt by those we have given When our Saviour was hungry Satan tempts him in matter of Food not then of Wealth or Glorie He well knows both what baits to fish withall and when and how to lay them How safe and happy shall we be if we shall bend our greatest care where we discern the most danger In every Temptation there is an appearance of good whether of the body of mind or estate The first is the lust of the flesh in any carnal desire the second the pride of heart and life the third the lust of the eyes To all these the first Adam is tempted and in all miscarried the second Adam is tempted to them all and overcometh The first man was tempted to Carnal appetite by the forbidden fruit to Pride by the suggestion of being as God to Covetousnesse in the ambitious desire of knowing good and evil Satan having found all the motions so successeful with the first Adam in his innocent estate will now tread the same
I kept silence my bones consumed For day and night thy hand O Lord was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer O let me confess against my self my wickedness unto thee that thou maist forgive the punishment of my sinne We have a tongue for God when we praise him for our selves when we pray and confess for our brethren when we speak the truth for their information which if we hold back in unrighteousness we yield unto that dumb Devil Where do we not see that accursed spirit He is on the Bench when the mute or partial Judge speaks not for truth and innocence He is in the Pulpit when the Prophets of God smother or halve or adulterate the message of their Master He is at the Barre when irreligious Jurours dare lend an oath to fear to hope to gain He is in the Market when godless chapmen for their peny sell the truth and their soul He is in the common conversation of men when the tongue belies the heart flatters the guilty balketh reproofs even in the foulest crimes O thou who onely art stronger then that strong one cast him out of the hearts and mouths of men It is time for thee Lord to work for they have destroyed thy Law That it might well appear this impediment was not natural so soon as the man is freed from the spirit his tongue is free to his speech The effects of spirits as they are wrought so they cease at once If the Son of God do but remove our spiritual possession we shall presently break forth into the praise of God into the confession of our vileness into the profession of truth But what strange variety do I see in the spectators of his Miracle some wondring others censuring a third sort tempting a fourth applauding There was never man or action but was subject to variety of constructions What man could be so holy as he that was God What act could be more worthy then the dispossessing of an evil spirit Yet this man this act passeth these differences of interpretation What can we doe to undergoe but one opinion If we give almes and fast some will magnifie our charity and devotion others will tax our hypocrisie If we give not some will condemn our hard-heartedness others will allow our care of justice If we preach plainly to some it will favour of a careless slubbering to others oft a mortified sincerity elaborately some will tax our affectation others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God What marvel is it if it be thus with our imperfection when it fared not otherwise with him that was Purity and Righteousness it self The austere forerunner of Christ came neither eating nor drinking they say He hath a Devil The Son of man came eating and drinking they say This man is a glutton a friend of Publicans and sinners and here one of his holy acts carries away at once wonder censure doubt celebration There is no way safe for a man but to square his actions by the right rule of justice of charity and then let the world have leave to spend their glosses at pleasure It was an heroical resolution of the chosen vessel I pass very little to be judged of you or of mans day I marvel not if the people marvelled for here were four wonders in one the blind saw the deaf heard the dumb spake the Demoniack is delivered Wonder was due to so rare and powerful a work and if not this nothing We can cast away admiration upon the poor devices or activities of men how much more upon the extraordinary works of Omnipotency Whoso knows the frame of Heaven and earth shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of frail Humanity but shall with no less Ravishment of soul acknowledge the miraculous works of the same Almighty hand Neither is the spiritual ejection worthy of any meaner entertainment Rarity and difficulty are wont to cause wonder There are many things which have wonder in their worth and lose it in their frequence there are some which have it in their strangeness and lose it in their facilitie Both meet in this To see men haunted yea possessed with a dumb Devil is so frequent that it is a just wonder to finde a man free but to finde the dumb spirit cast out of a man and to hear him praising God confessing his sins teaching others the sweet experiments of mercy deserves just admiration If the Cynick sought in the market for a man amongst men well may we seek amongst men for a Convert Neither is the difficulty less then the rareness The strong man hath the possession all passages are block'd up all helps barred by the treachery of our nature If any soul be rescued from these spiritual wickednesses it is the praise of him that doth wonders alone But whom do I see wondring The multitude The unlearned beholders follow that act with wonder which the learned Scribes entertain with obloquy God hath revealed those things to babes which he hath hid from the wise and prudent With what scorn did those great Rabbins speak of these sons of the earth This people that knows not the Law is accursed Yet the Mercy of God makes an advantage of their simplicity in that they are therefore less subject to cavillation and incredulitie as contrarily his Justice causes the proud knowledge of others to lie as a block in their way to the ready assent unto the Divine power of the Messias Let the pride of glorious adversaries disdain the povertie of the clients of the Gospel it shall not repent us to go to Heaven with the vulgar whiles their great ones go in state to perdition The multitude wondered Who censured but Scribes great Doctors of the Law of the divinitie of the Jews What Scribes but those of Jerusalem the most eminent Academie of Judaea These were the men who out of their deep reputed judgement cast these foul aspersions upon Christ Great wits ofttimes mislead both the owners and followers How many shall once wish they had been born dullards yea idiots when they shall finde their wit to have barred them out of Heaven Where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisdome of the world foolishness Say the world what it will a dram of holiness is worth a pound of wit Let others censure with the Scribes let me wonder with the multitude What could malice say worse He casteth out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils The Jewes well knew that the Gods of the heathen were no other then Devils amongst whom for that the Lord of Flies so called whether for the concourse of flies to the abundance of his sacrifices or for his aid implored against the infestation of those swarms was held the chief therefore they stile him The Prince of Devils There is a subordination of spirits some higher in degree some inferiour to others Our Saviour himself tells
waters and they could not but obey him now he speaks in the same language to the evil Spirit he intreats not he perswades not he commands Command argues Superiority He only is infinitely stronger then the strong one in possession Else where powers are matcht though with some inequality they tugge for the victory and without resistance yield nothing There are no fewer sorts of 〈◊〉 with Satan then with men Some have dealt with him by suit as the old Satanian hereticks and the present Indian Savages sacrificing to him that he hurt not Others by covenant conditioning their service upon his assistance as Witches and Magicians Others by insinuation of implicite compact as Charmers and Figure-casters Others by adjuration as the sons of Scaeva and modern Exorcists unwarrantably charging him by an higher name then their own None ever offered to deal with Satan by a direct and primary command but the God of Spirits The great Archangel when the strife was about the body of Moses commanded not but imprecated rather The Lord rebuke thee Satan It is only the God that made this Spirit an Angel of light that can command him now that he hath made himself the Prince of darkness If any created power dare to usurp a word of command he laughs at their presumption and knows them his vassals whom he dissembles to fear as his Lords It is thou only O Saviour at whose beck those stubborn Principalities of Hell yield and tremble No wicked man can be so much a slave to Satan as Satan is to thee The interposition of thy grace may defeat that dominion of Satan thy rule is absolute and capable of no lett What need we to fear whiles we are under so omnipotent a Commander The waves of the deep rage horribly yet the Lord is stronger then they Let those Principalities and Powers doe their worst Those mighty adversaries are under the command of him who loved us so well as to bleed for us What can we now doubt of His power or his will How can we professe him a God and doubt of his power How can we professe him a Saviour and doubt of his will He both can and will command those Infernal powers We are no lesse safe then they are malicious The Devil saw Jesus by the eyes of the Demoniack for the same saw that spake but it was the ill spirit that said I besecch thee torment me not It was sore against his will that he saw so dreadfull an object The over-ruling power of Christ dragged the soul spirit into his presence Guiltiness would fain keep out of sight The limmes of so wofull an head shall once call on the Hills and Rocks to hide them from the face of the Lamb such Lion-like terrour is in that milde face when it looks upon wickedness Neither shall it be one day the least part of the torment of the damned to see the most lovely spectacle that Heaven can afford He from whom they fled in his offers of Grace shall be so much more terrible as he was and is more gracious I marvel not therefore that the Devil when he saw Jesus cried out I could marvell that he fell down that he worshipped him That which the proud spirit would have had Christ to have done to him in his great Duell the same he now doth unto Christ fearfully servilely forcedly Who shall henceforth brag of the external homage he performs to the Son of God when he sees Satan himself fall down and worship What comfort can there be in that which is common to us with Devils who as they believe and tremble so they tremble and worship The outward bowing is the body of the action the disposition of the Soul is the soul of it therein lies the difference from the counterfeit stoopings of wicked men and spirits The religious heart serves the Lord in fear and rejoices in him with trembling What it doth is in way of service In service to his Lord whose Soveraignty is his comfort and protection in the fear of a son not of a slave in fear tempered with joy in a joy but allayed with trembling whereas the prostration of wicked men and Devils is only an act of form or of force as to their Judge as to their tormentor not as to their Lord in mere servility not in reverence in an uncomfortable dulness without all delight in a perfect horror without capacity of joy These worship without thanks because they fall down without the true affections of worship Whoso marvels to see the Devil upon his knees would much more marvel to hear what came from his mouth Jesu the Son of the most high God A confession which if we should hear without the name of the Author we should ask from what Saint it came Behold the same name given to Christ by the Devil which was formerly given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his name Jesus That awfull name whereat every knee shall bow in Heaven in earth and under the earth is called upon by this prostrate Devil And lest that should not import enough since others have been honoured by this name in Type he addes for full distinction The Son of the most high God The good Syrophenician and blind Bartimaeus could say The Son of David It was well to acknowledge the true descent of his pedigree according to the flesh but this infernall Spirit looks aloft and fetcheth his line out of the highest Heavens The Son of the most high God The famous confession of the prime Apostle which honoured him with a new name to immortality was no other then Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God and what other do I hear from the lips of a fiend None more Divine words could fall from the highest Saint Nothing hinders but that the veriest miscreant on earth yea the foulest Devil in Hell may speak holily It is no passing of judgment upon loose sentences So Peter should have been cast for a Satan in denying forswearing cursing and the Devil should have been set up for a Saint in confessing Jesus the Son of the most high God Fond hypocrite that pleasest thy self in talking well heare this Devil and when thou canst speak better then he look to fare better but in the mean time know that a smooth tongue and a foul heart carries away double judgments Let curious heads dispute whether the Devil knew Christ to be God In this I dare believe himself though in nothing else he knew what he believed what he believed that he confessed Jesus the Son of the most high God To the confusion of those semi-Christians that have either held doubtfully or ignorantly mis-known or blasphemously denied what the very Devils have professed How little can a bare speculation avail us in these cases of Divinity So far this Devil hath attained to no ease no comfort Knowledge alone doth but puffe up it is our love that edifies If there be not a sense of our sure interest in
day of universal Sessions They believe lesse then Devils that either doubt of or deny that day of finall retribution Oh the wonderfull mercy of our God that both to wicked men and spirits respites the utmost of their torment He might upon the first instant of the fall of Angels have inflicted on them the highest extremity of his vengeance He might upon the first sins of our youth yea of our nature have swept us away and given us our portion in that fierie lake He staies a time for both though with this difference of mercy to us men that here not onely is a delay but may be an utter prevention of punishment which to the evil spirits is altogether impossible They do suffer they must suffer and though they have now deserved to suffer all they must yet they must once suffer more then they do Yet so doth this evil spirit expostulate that he sues I beseech thee torment me not The world is well changed since Satan's first onset upon Christ Then he could say If thou be the Son of God now Jesu the Son of the most high God then All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me now I beseech thee torment me not The same power when he lists can change the note of the Tempter to us How happy are we that have such a Redeemer as can command the Devils to their chains Oh consider this ye lawlesse sinners that have said Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us However the Almighty suffers you for a judgement to have free scope to evil and ye can now impotently resist the revealed will of your Creator yet the time shall come when ye shall see the very masters whom ye have served the powers of darkness unable to avoid the revenges of God How much lesse shall man strive with his Maker man whose breath is in his nostrils whose house is clay whose foundation is the dust Nature teaches every creature to wish a freedome from pain The foulest spirits cannot but love themselves and this love must needs produce a deprecation of evil Yet what a thing is this to hear the Devil at his prayers I beseech thee torment me not Devotion is not guilty of this but fear There is no grace in the suit of Devils but nature no respect of Glory to their Creator but their own ease They cannot pray against sin but against torment for sin What news is it now to hear the profanest mouth in extremity imploring the Sacred Name of God when the Devils do so The worst of all creatures hates punishment and can say Lead me not into pain onely the good heart can say Lead me not into temptation If we can as heartily pray against sin for the avoiding of displeasure as against punishment when we have displeased there is true Grace in the Soul Indeed if we could fervently pray against Sin we should not need to pray against Punishment which is no other then the inseparable shadow of that body but if we have not laboured against our Sins in vain do we pray against Punishment God must be just and the wages of sin is death It pleased our Holy Saviour not only to let fall words of command upon this spirit but to interchange some speeches with him All Christ's actions are not for example It was the errour of our Grandmother to hold chat with Satan That God who knows the craft of that old Serpent and our weak simplicity hath charged us not to enquire of an evil spirit Surely if the Disciples returning to Jacob's Well wondred to see Christ talk with a woman well may we wonder to see him talking with an unclean Spirit Let it be no presumption O Saviour to ask upon what grounds thou didst this wherein we may not follow thee We know that sin was excepted in thy conformity of thy self to us we know there was no guile found in thy mouth no possibility of taint in thy nature in thine actions neither is it hard to conceive how the same thing may be done by thee without sin which we cannot but sin in doing There is a vast difference in the intention in the Agent For on the one side thou didst not ask the name of the spirit as one that knew not and would learn by inquiring but that by the confession of that mischief which thou pleasedst to suffer the grace of the Cure might be the more conspicuous the more glorious So on the other God and man might doe that safely which mere man cannot doe without danger Thou mightest touch the Leprosie and not be legally unclean because thou touchedst it to heal it didst not touch it with possibility of infection So mightest thou who by reason of the perfection of thy Divine nature wert uncapable of any stain by the interlocution with Satan safely conferre with him whom corrupt man pre-disposed to the danger of such a parlee may not meddle with without sin because not without perill It is for none but God to hold discourse with Satan Our surest way is to have as little to doe with that Evil one as we may and if he shall offer to maintain conference with us by his secret Tentations to turn our speech unto our God with the Archangel The Lord rebuke thee Satan It was the presupposition of him that knew it that not onely men but spirits have names This then he asks not out of an ignorance or curiosity nothing could be hid from him who calleth the Stars and all the hoasts of Heaven by their names but out of a just respect to the glory of the Miracle he was working whereto the notice of the name would not a little avail For if without inquiry or confession our Saviour had ejected this evil spirit it had passed for the single dispossession of one onely Devil whereas now it appears there was a combination and hellish champertie in these powers of darknesse which were all forced to vaile unto that Almighty command Before the Devil had spoken singularly of himself What have I to doe with thee and I beseech thee torment me not Our Saviour yet knowing that there was a multitude of Devils lurking in that breast who dissembled their presence wrests it out of the Spirit by this interrogation What is thy name Now can those wicked ones no longer hide themselves He that asked the question forced the answer My name is Legion The author of discord hath borrowed a name of war from that military order of discipline by which the Jews were subdued doth the Devil fetch his denomination They were many yet they say My name not Our name though many they speak as one they act as one in this possession There is a marvellous accordance even betwixt evil spirits That Kingdome is not divided for then it could not stand I wonder not that wicked men do so conspire in evil that there is such unanimity in the broachers and abettors of errors
the leg when they intend it at the head so doth this Devil whiles he drives at the Swine he aimes at the Souls of these Gadarens by this means he hoped well and his hope was not vain to work in these Gergesens a discontentment at Christ an unwillingnesse to entertain him a desire of his absence he meant to turn them into Swine by the losse of their Swine It was not the rafters or stones of the house of Job's children that he bore the grudge to but to the owners nor to the lives of the children so much as the Soul of their Father There is no Affliction wherein he doth not strike at the heart which whiles it holds free all other damages are light but a wounded spirit whether with sin or sorrow who can bear Whatever becomes of goods or limmes happy are we if like wise souldiers we guard the vital parts Whiles the Soul is kept sound from impatience from distrust our Enemy may afflict us he cannot hurt us They sue for a sufferance not daring other then to grant that without the permission of Christ they could not hurt a very Swine If it be fearfull to think how great things evil spirits can doe with permission it is comfortable to think how nothing they can doe without permission We know they want not malice to destroy the whole frame of God's work but of all man of all men Christians but if without leave they cannot set upon an Hog what can they doe to the living Images of their Creator They cannot offer us so much as a suggestion without the permission of our Saviour And can he that would give his own most precious blood for us to save us from evil wilfully give us over to evil It is no news that wicked spirits wish to do mischief it is news that they are allowed it If the owner of all things should stand upon his absolute command who can challenge him for what he thinks fit to doe with his creature The first Fole of the Asse is commanded under the Law to have his neck broken What is that to us The creatures doe that they were made for if they may serve any way to the glory of their Maker But seldome ever doth God leave his actions unfurnished with such reasons as our weaknesse may reach unto There were Sects amongst these Jews that denied Spirits They could not be more evidently more powerfully convinced then by this event Now shall the Gadarens see from what a multitude of Devils they were delivered and how easie it had been for the same power to have allowed these Spirits to seize upon their Persons as well as their Swine Neither did God this without a just purpose of their castigation His Judgements are righteous where they are most secret Though we cannot accuse these inhabitants of ought yet he could and thought good thus to mulct them And if they had not wanted Grace to acknowledge it it was no small favour of God that he would punish them in their Swine for that which he might have avenged upon their Bodies and Souls Our Goods are furthest off us If but in these we smart we must confesse to finde mercy Sometimes it pleaseth God to grant the suits of wicked men and spirits in no favour to the suitors He grants an ill suit and withholds a good He grants an ill suit in Judgement and holds back a good one in Mercy The Israelites ask meat he gives Quailes to their mouths and leannesse to their Souls The chosen vessel wishes Satan taken off and hears only My grace is sufficient for thee We may not evermore measure favours by condescent These Devils doubtless receive more punishment for that harmfull act wherein they are heard If we ask what is either unfit to receive or unlawfull to beg it is a great favour of our God to be denied Those spirits which would go into the Swine by permission go out of the man by command they had staied long and are ejected suddenly The immediate works of God are perfect in an instant and do not require the aid of time for their maturation No sooner are they cast out of the man then they are in the Swine They will lose no time but passe without intermission from one mischief to another If they hold it a pain not to be doing evil why is it not our delight to be ever doing good The impetuousnesse was no lesse then the speed The Herd was carried with violence from a steep-down place into the lake and was choaked It is no small force that could doe this but if the Swine had been so many Mountains these spirits upon God's permission had thus transported them How easily can they carry those Souls which are under their power to destruction Unclean beasts that wallow in the mire of sensuality brutish Drunkards transforming themselves by excesse even they are the Swine whom the Legion carries headlong to the pit of perdition The wicked spirits have their wish the Swine are choked in the waves What ease is this to them Good God that there should be any creature that seeks contentment in destroying in tormenting the good creatures of his Maker This is the diet of Hell Those Fiends feed upon spight towards man so much more as he doth more resemble his Creator towards all other living substances so much more as they may be more usefull to man The Swine ran down violently what marvell is it if their Keepers fled That miraculous work which should have drawn them to Christ drives them from him They run with the news the Country comes in with clamour The whole multitude of the Country about besought him to depart The multitude is a beast of many heads every head hath a several mouth and every mouth a several tongue and every tongue a several accent every head hath a several brain and every brain thoughts of their own so as it is hard to find a multitude without some division At least seldome ever hath a good motion found a perfect accordance it is not so infrequent for a multitude to conspire in evil Generality of assent is no warrant for any act Cōmon Errour carries away many who inquire not into the reason of ought but the practice The way to Hell is a beaten road through the many feet that tread it When Vice grows into fashion Singularity is a Vertue There was not a Gadarene found that either dehorted his fellows or opposed the motion It is a sign of people given up to judgment when no man makes head against projects of evil Alas what can one strong man do against a whole throng of wickednesse Yet this good comes of an unprevailing resistance that God forbears to plague where he findes but a sprinkling of Faith Happy are they who like unto the celestial bodies which being carried about with the sway of the highest sphere yet creep on their own waies keep on the courses of their own Holiness against the
begin a worse this Heavenly flame should but kindle that of Hell Thus unconceivably heavy was the revenge but what was the offence We have learned not to think any indignity light that is offered to the Son of God but we know these spiritual affronts are capable of degrees Had these Samaritans reviled Christ and his train had they violently assaulted him had they followed him with stones in their hands and blasphemies in their mouths it had been a just provocation of so horrible a vengeance Now the wrong was onâ—ly negative they received him not And that not out of any particular quarrell or dislike of his Person but of his Nation onely the men had been welcome had not their Country distasted All the charge that I hear our Saviour give to his Disciples in case of their rejection is If they receive you not shake off the dust of your feet Yet this was amongst their own and when they went on that sacred errand of publishing the Gospel of Peace These were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel This measure was not to Preachers but to Travellers only a mere inhospitality to misliked guests Yet no lesse revenge will serve them then fire from Heaven I dare say for you ye holy sons of Zebedee it was not your spleen but your zeal that was guilty of so bloody a suggestion your indignation could not but be stirred to see the great Prophet and Saviour of the world so unkindly repelled yet all this will not excuse you from a rash Cruelty from an inordinate Rage Even the best heart may easily be miscarried with a well-meant Zeal No affection is either more necessary or better accepted Love to any Object cannot be severed from hatred of the contrary whence it is that all creatures which have the concupiscible part have also the irascible adjoined unto it Anger and displeasure is not so much an enemy as a guardian and champion of Love Whoever therefore is rightly affected to his Saviour cannot but finde much regret at his wrongs O gracious and divine Zeal the kindely warmth and vitall temper of Piety whither hast thou withdrawn thy self from the cold hearts of men Or is this according to the just constitution of the old and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisdome but in a dull indifferency and chuse rather to freeze then burn How quick and apprehensive are men in cases of their own indignities how insensible of their Saviour's But there is nothing so ill as the corruption of the best Rectified zeal is not more commendable and usefull then inordinate and misguided is hatefull and dangerous Fire is a necessary and beneficial element but if it be once misplaced and have caught upon the beams of our houses or stacks of our corn nothing can be more direfull Thus sometimes Zeal turns Murder They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholesome and blessed is that zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by wisdome and charity Wisdome to avoid rashnesse and excesse Charity to avoid just offence No motion can want a pretence Elias did so why not we He was an holy Prophet the occasion the place abludes not much there wrong was offered to a servant here to his Master there to a man here to a God and man If Elias then did it why not we There is nothing more perillous then to draw all the actions of Holy men into examples For as the best men have their weaknesses so they are not priviledged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instict or speciall command which we shall expect in vain There must be much caution used in our imitation of the best patterns whether in respect of the persons or things else we shall make our selves Apes and our acts sinfull absurdities It is a rare thing for our Saviour to finde fault with the errous of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with Gods own hand I finde him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitors and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitablenesse cannot be swallowed up in zeal If there were any colour to hide the blemishes of this misdisposition it should be this crimson die But he that needs not our Lie will let us know he needs not our Injury and hates to have a good cause supported by the violation of our Charity We have no reason to disclaim our Passions Even the Son of God chides sometimes yea where he loves It offends not that our Affections are moved but that they are inordinate It was a sharp word Ye know not of what spirit ye are Another man would not perhaps have felt it a Disciple doth Tender hearts are galled with that which the carnal minde slighteth The spirit of Elias was that which they meant to assume and imitate they shall now know their mark was mistaken How would they have hated to think that any other but God's Spirit had stirred them up to this passionate motion now they shall know it was wrought by that ill spirit whom they professed to hate It is far from the good Spirit of God to stir up any man to private revenge or thirst of blood Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwinde or in the fire but in the soft voice O Saviour what do we seek for any precedent but thine whose name we challenge Thou camest to thine own thine own received thee not Didst thou call for fire from Heaven upon them didst thou not rather send down water from thy compassionate eyes and weep for them by whom thou must bleed Better had it been for us never to have had any spirit then any but thine We can be no other then wicked if our mercies be cruelty But is it the name of Elias O ye Zelots which ye pretend for a colour of your impotent desire Ye do not consider the difference betwixt his Spirit and yours His was extraordinary and heroical besides the instinct or secret command of God for this act of his far otherwise is it with you who by a carnal distemper are moved to this furious suggestion Those that would imitate Gods Saints in singular actions must see they goe upon the same grounds Without the same Spirit and the same warrant it is either a mockery or a sin to make them our Copies Elias is no fit pattern for Disciples but their Master The Son of Man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Then are our actions and intentions warrantable and praise-worthy when they accord with
together This I have been bold to say out of caution not of reproof Thus much that there was a Feast of the Jewes Now what Feast it was is questionable whether the Pasch as Irenaeus and Beza with him thinks upon the warrant of John 4. 35. where our Saviour had said Yet four months and then comes harvest or whether Pentecost which was fifty dayes from the shaking of the sheaf that was Easter Sunday as Cyrill Chrysostome Theophylact Euthymius and some later or whether one of the September Feasts as some others The excellencie of the Feast makes for Easter the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the number of Interpreters for Pentecost the number of Feasts for September For as God delighted in the number of seven the seventh day was holy the seventh year the seventh seven year so he shewed it in the seventh month which reserves his number still September the first day whereof was the Sabbath of Trumpets the tenth dies expiationum and on the fifteenth began the Feast of Tabernacles for seven dayes It is an idleness to seek that which we are never the better when we have found What if Easter what if Tabernacles what if Pentecost what loss what gain is this Magnâ nos molestiâ Johannes liberasset si unum adjecisset verbum John had eased us of much trouble if he had added but one word saith Maldonat But for us God give them sorrow which love it this is one of Saint Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain disputations that he forbids his Timothie yea which is the subject thereof one of them which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish and unlearned questions 2 Tim. 2. 23. Quantum mali facit nimia subtilitas how much mischief is done by too much subtilitie saith Seneca These are for some idle Cloisterers that have nothing to doe but to pick straws in Divinity Like to Appian the Grammarian that with long discourse would pick out of Homer's first verse of his Iliads and the first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the number of the books of Iliads and Odysses or like Didymus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that spent some of his four thousand books about which was Homer's Countrey who was Aeneas's true mother what the age of Hecuba how long it was betwixt Homer and Orpheus or those wise Criticks of whom Seneca speaks that spent whole volumes whether Homer or Hesiod were the elder Non profuturam scientiam tradunt they vent an unprofitable skill as he said Let us be content with the learned ignorance of what God hath concealed and know that what he hath concealed will not avail us to know Rather let us inquire why Christ would go up to the Feast I find two silken cords that drew him up thither 1 His Obedience 2 His desire of manifesting his Glory First It was a general law All males must appear thrice a year before the Lord. Behold he was the God whom they went up to worship at the Feast yet he goes up to worship He began his life in obedience when he came in his Mothers belly to Bethleem at the taxation of Augustus and so he continues it He knew his due Of whom do the Kings of the earth receive tribute of their own or of strangers Then their Sons are free Yet he that would pay tribute to Caesar will also pay this tribute of Obedience to his Father He that was above the Law yields to the Law Legi satisfacere voluit etsi non sub Lege He would satisfie the Law though he were not under the Law The Spirit of God sayes He learned Obedience in that he suffered Surely also he taught obedience in that he did This was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to John Baptist It becomes us to fulfill all Righteousness He will not abate his Father one Ceremony It was dangerous to goe up to that Jerusalem which he had left before for their malice yet now he will up again His Obedience drew him up to that bloody Feast wherein himself was sacrificed how much more now that he might sacrifice What can we plead to have learned of Christ if not his first Lesson Obedience The same proclamation that Gedeon made to Israel he makes still to us As ye see me doe so doe ye Whatsoever therefore God injoyns us either immediately by himself or mediately by his Deputies if we will be Christians we must so observe as those that know themselves bound to tread in his steps that said In the volume of thy Book it is written of me I desired to doe thy will O God Psal 40. 6. I will have obedience saith God and not sacrifice But where Sacrifice is Obedience he will have Obedience in sacrificing Therefore Christ went up to the Feast The second motive was the manifestation of his Glory If we be the light of the world which are so much snuffe what is he that is the Father of lights It was not for him to be set under the bushel of Nazareth but upon the table of Hierusalem Thither and then was the confluence of all the Tribes Many a time had Christ passed by this man before when the streets were empty for there he lay many years yet heales him not till now He that sometimes modestly steals a Miracle with a Vide nè cui dixeris See thou tell no man that no man might know it at other times does Wonders upon the Scaffold of the World that no man might be ignorant and bids proclaim it on the house tops It was fit the world should be thus publickly convinced and either wone by belief or lost by inexcusableness Good the more common it is the better I will praise thee saith David in Ecclesia magna in the great Congregation Glory is not got in corners No man say the envious kinsmen of Christ keeps close and would be famous No nor that would have God celebrated The best opportunities must be taken in glorifying him He that would be Crucified at the Feast that his Death and Resurrection might be more famous will at the Feast doe Miracles that his Divine power might be approved openly Christ is Flos campi non horti the flower of the field and not of the garden saith Bernard God cannot abide to have his Graces smothered in us I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart saith the Psalmist Absolon when he would be insigniter improbus notoriously wicked does his villany publickly in the eyes of the Sun under no curtain but Heaven He that would doe notable service to God must doe it conspicuously Nicodemus gain'd well by Christ but Christ got nothing by him so long as like a night-bird he never came to him but with owles and bats Then he began to be a profitable Disciple when he durst oppose the Pharisees in their condemnation of Christ though indefinitely but most when in the night of his death the light of his Faith brought him openly to take down the Sacred Corps before
merry Ye delicatest Courtiers tell me if Pleasure it self have not an unpleasant tediousness hanging upon it and more sting then honey And whereas all happiness even here below is in the vision of God how is our spiritual eye hindered as the body is from his Object by darkness by false light by aversion Darkness he that doth sin is in darkness False light whilst we measure eternal things by temporary Aversion while as weak eyes hate the light we turn our eyes from the true and immutable good to the fickle and uncertain We are not on the hill but the valley where we have tabernacles not of our own making but of clay and such as wherein we are witnesses of Christ not transfigured in glory but blemished with dishonour dishonoured with oaths and blasphemies recrucified with our sins witnesses of God's Saints not shining in Tabor but mourning in darkness and in stead of that Heavenly brightness cloathed with sackcloth and ashes Then and there we shall have tabernacles not made with hands eternal in the heavens where we shall see how sweet the Lord is we shall see the triumphs of Christ we shall hear and sing the Hallelujahs of Saints Quae nunc nos angit vesania vitiorum sitire absinthium c. saith that devour Father Oh how hath our corruption bewitched us to thirst for this wormwood to affect the shipwracks of this world to dote upon the misery of this fading life and not rather to fly up to the felicity of Saints to the society of Angels to that blessed contemplation wherein we shall see God in himself God in us our selves in him There shall be no sorrow no pain no complaint no fear no death There is no malice to rise against us no misery to afflict us no hunger thirst weariness tentation to disquiet us There O there one day is better then a thousand There is rest from our labours peace from our enemies freedome from our sins How many clouds of discontentment darken the Sunshine of our joy while we are here below Vae nobis qui vivimus plangere quae pertulimus dolere quae sentimus timere quae exspectamus Complaint of evils past sense of present fear of future have shared our lives amongst them Then shall we be semper laeti semper satiati alwaies joyfull alwaies satisfied with the vision of that God in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Shall we see that heathen Cleombrotus abandoning his life and casting himself down from the rock upon an uncertain noise of immortality and shall not we Christians abandon the wicked superfluities of life the pleasures of sin for that life which we know more certainly then this What stick we at my beloved Is there a Heaven or is there none have we a Saviour there or have we none We know there is a Heaven as sure as that there is an earth below us we know we have a Saviour there as sure as there are men that we converse with upon earth we know there is happiness as sure as we know there is misery and mutability upon earth Oh our miserable sottishness and infidelity if we do not contemn the best offers of the world and lifting up our eyes and hearts to Heaven say Bonum est esse hîc Even so Lord Jesus come quickly To him that hath purchased and prepared this Glory for us together with the Father and Blessed Spirit one Incomprehensible God be all praise for ever Amen The Prosecution of the Transfiguration BEfore the Disciples eyes were dazled with Glory now the brightness of that glory is shaded with a Cloud Frail and feeble eyes of mortality cannot look upon an Heavenly lustre That Cloud imports both Majesty and Obscuration Majesty for it was the testimony of God's presence of old the Cloud covered the Mountain the Tabernacle the Oracle He that makes the clouds his Chariot was in a cloud carried up into Heaven Where have we mention of any Divine representation but a Cloud is one part of it What comes nearer to Heaven either in place or resemblance Obscuration for as it shew'd there was a Majesty and that Divine so it shew'd them that the view of that Majesty was not for bodily eyes Like as when some great Prince walks under a Canopy that veile shews there is a Great person under it but withall restrains the eye from a free sight of his person And if the cloud were clear yet it shaded them Why then was this cloud interposed betwixt that glorious Vision and them but for a check of their bold eyes Had they too long gazed upon this resplendent spectacle as their eyes had been blinded so their hearts had perhaps grown to an over-bold familiarity with that Heavenly Object How seasonably doth the cloud intercept it The wise God knows our need of these vicissitudes and allayes If we have a light we must have a cloud if a light to chear us we must have a cloud to humble us It was so in Sinai it was so in Sion it was so in Olivet it shall never be but so The natural day and night do not more duely interchange then this light and cloud Above we shall have the light without the cloud a clear vision and fruition of God without all dim and sad interpositions below we cannot be free from these mists and clouds of sorrow and misapprehension But this was a bright cloud There is difference betwixt the cloud in Tabor and that in Sinai This was clear that darksome There is darkness in the Law there is light in the Grace of the Gospel Moses was there spoken to in darkness here he was spoken with in light In that dark cloud there was terrour in this there was comfort Though it were a Cloud then yet it was bright and though it were bright yet it was a Cloud With much light there was some shade God would not speak to them concerning Christ out of darkness neither yet would he manifest himself to them in an absolute brightness All his appearances have this mixture What need I other instance then in these two Saints Moses spake oft to God mouth to mouth yet not so immediately but that there was ever somewhat drawn as a curtain betwixt God and him either fire in Horeb or smoak in Sinai so as his face was not more veiled from the people then God's from him Elias shall be spoken to by God but in the Rock and under a Mantle In vain shall we hope for any revelation from God but in a cloud Worldly hearts are in utter darkness they see not so much as the least glimpse of these Divine beams not a beam of that inaccessible light The best of his Saints see him here but in a cloud or in a glass Happy are we if God have honoured us with these Divine representations of himself Once in his light we shall see light I can easily think with what amazedness these three
where they finde possession never look after right Our Saviour had pick'd out the Sabbath for this Cure It is hard to finde out any time wherein Charity is unseasonable As Mercy is an excellent Grace so the works of it are fittest for the best day We are all born blinde the Font is our Siloam no day can come amisse but yet God's day is the properest for our washing and recovery This alone is quarrel enough to these scrupulous wranglers that an act of Mercy was done on that day wherein their envie was but seasonable I do not see the man beg any more when he once had his eyes no Burger in Jerusalem was richer then he I hear him stoutly defending that gracious author of his Cure against the cavils of the malicious Pharisees I see him as a resolute Confessour suffering excommunication for the name of Christ and maintaining the innocence and honour of so Blessed a benefactor I hear him read a Divinity Lecture to them that sate in Moses his chair and convincing them of blindness who punish'd him for seeing How can I but envie thee O happy man who of a Patient provest an Advocate for thy Saviour whose gain of bodily sight made way for thy Spiritual eyes who hast lost a Synagogue and hast found Heaven who being abandoned of Sinners art received of the Lord of Glory The stubborn Devil ejected HOW different how contrary are our conditions here upon earth Whiles our Saviour is transfigured on the Mount his Disciples are perplexed in the valley Three of his choice Followers were with him above ravished with the miraculous proofs of his Godhead nine other were troubled with the business of a stubborn Devil below Much people was met to attend Christ and there they will stay till he come down from Tabor Their zeal and devotion brought them thither their patient perseverance held them there We are not worthy the name of his clients if we cannot painfully seek him and submissely wait his leisure He that was now awhile retired into the Mount to confer with his Father and to receive the attendance of Moses and Elias returns into the valley to the multitude He was singled out awhile for prayer and contemplation now he was joyned with the multitude for their miraculous cure and Heavenly instruction We that are his spiritual agents must be either preparing in the mount or exercising in the valley one while in the mount of Meditation in the valley of Action another alone to study in the assembly to preach here is much variety but all is work Moses when he came down from the hill heard Musick in the valley Christ when he came down from the hill heard discord The Scribes it seems were setting hard upon the Disciples they saw Christ absent nine of his train left in the valley those they flie upon As the Devil so his Imps watch close for all advantages No subtile enemy but will be sure to attempt that part where is likelihood of least defence most weakness When the Spouse misses him whom her Soul loveth every watchman hath a buffet for her O Saviour if thou be never so little stept aside we are sure to be assaulted with powerful Temptations They that durst say nothing to the Master so soon as his back is turned fall foul upon his weakest Disciples Even at the first hatching the Serpent was thus crafty to begin at the weaker vessell experience and time hath not abated his wit If he still work upon silly Women laden with divers lusts upon rude and ungrounded Ignorants it is no other then his old wont Our Saviour upon the skirts of the hill knew well what was done in the plain and therefore hasts down to the rescue of his Disciples The clouds and vapors do not sooner scatter upon the Sun's breaking forth then these cavils vanish at the presence of Christ in stead of opposition they are straigth upon their knees here are now no quarrells but humble salutations and if Christ's question did not force theirs the Scribes had found no tongue Doubtlesse there were many eager Patients in this throng none made so much noise as the father of the Demoniack Belike upon his occasion it was that the Scribes held contestation with the Disciples If they wrangled he fues and that from his knees Whom wil not need make both humble and eloquent The case was wofull and accordingly expressed A son is a dear name but this was his only son Were his grief ordinary yet the sorrow were the lesse but he is a fearfull spectacle of judgment for he is Lunatick Were this Lunacy yet merely from a natural distemper it were more tolerable but this is aggravated by the possession of a cruell spirit that handles him in a most grievous manner Yet were he but in the rank of other Demoniacks the discomfort were more easie but lo this spirit is worse then all other his fellows others are usually dispossessed by the Disciples this is beyond their power I be sought thy Disciples to cast him out but they could not therefore Lord have thou mercy on my Son The despair of all other helps sends us importunately to the God of power Here was his refuge the strong man had gotten possession it was only the stronger then he that can eject him O God spiritual wickednesses have naturally seized upon our Souls all humane helps are too weak only thy Mercy shall improve thy Power to our deliverance What bowels could chuse but yearn at the distresse of this poor young man Phrensy had taken his brain that Disease was but health in comparison of the tyrannical possession of that evil spirit wherewith it was seconded Out of Hell there could not be a greater misery his Senses are either berest or else left to torment him he is torn and racked so as he foams and gnashes he pines and languishes he is cast sometimes into the fire sometimes into the water How that malitious Tyrant rejoices in the mischief done to the creature of God Had earth had any thing more pernicious then fire and water thither had he been thrown though rather for torture then dispatch It was too much favour to die at once O God with how deadly enemies hast thou matched us Abate thou their power since their malice will not be abated How many think of this case with pity and horror and in the mean time are insensible of their own fearfuller condition It is but oftentimes that the Devil would cast this young man into a temporary fire he would cast the sinner into an eternal fire whose everlasting burnings have no intermissions No fire comes amisse to him the fire of Affliction the fire of Lust the fire of Hell O God make us apprehensive of the danger of our sin and secure from the fearfull issue of sin All these very same effects follow his spiritual possession How doth he tear and rack them whom he vexes and distracts with inordinate cares and sorrows How
for thanks who would be a debter With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current If he then will honour us so far as to be blessed of us Oh let us honour him so far as to blesse him Quare verbis parcam gratuita sunt Why do we spare thanks that cost us nothing as that wise heathen O give unto the Lord ye mighty give unto the Lord the praises due to his name offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and still let the foot of our song be Blessed be the Lord. This for the Descant of gratulation the Ground follows His own sake hath reason to be first God will be blessed both as Jah and Adonai the one the style of his Essence the other of his Soveraignty Even the most accursed Deist would confesse that as a pure simple infinite absolute being God is to be blessed for if Being be good and these two be convertible Nature must needs teach him that an absolute and infinite Being must needs be absolutely and infinitely good But what do I blur the Glory of this Day with mention of those Monsters whose Idol is Nature whose Religion is secondary Atheism whose true region is the lowest Hell Those damned Ethnicks cannot will not conceive of God as he is because they impiously sever his Essence from his inward Relations We Christians can never be so heavenly affected to God as we ought till we can rise to this pitch of Piety to blesse God for what he is in himself without the external beneficial relations to the creature Else our respects reflect too much homeward and we do but look through God at our selves Neither is it for us only to blesse him as an absolute God but as a Soveraign Lord too whose Power hath no more limit then his Essence the great Moderator of Heaven and earth giving laws to his creature overruling all things marshalling all events crushing his enemies maintaining his Church adored by Angels trembled at by Devils Behold here a Lord worthy to be blessed We honour as we ought your conspicuous Greatness O ye eminent Potentates of the earth but alas what is this to the great Lord of Heaven when we look up thither we must crave leave to pity the breath of your nostrils the rust of your Coronets the dust of your graves the sting of your felicities and if ye take not good heed the blots of your memories As ye hold all in â—ee from this great Lord so let it be no disparagement to you to doe your lowliest homage to his footstool homage I mean in Action give me the reall benediction I am sure that is the best They blesse God that praise him they blesse him more and praise him best that obey him There are that crouch to you Great ones who yet hate you Oh let us take heed of offering these hollow observances to the searcher of hearts if we love not our own confusion They that proclaimed Christ at Jerusalem had not only Hosanna in their mouths but palms in their hands too so must we have Let me say then If the Hand bless not the Lord the Tongue is an Hypocrite Away with the wast complements of our vain Formalities Let our loud actions drown the language of our words in blessing the name of the Lord. Neither must we bless God as a Soveraign Lord only but which is yet a more feeling relation as a munificent Benefactor Who loadeth us daily with benefits Such is man's self-love that no inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence Whiles thou makest much of thy self every one shall speak well of thee how much more whiles thou makest much of them Here God hath met with us also Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm above all other of David's to abound see here I beseech you a four-fold gradation of Divine Bounty First here are Benefits The word is not expressed in the Original but necessarily implied in the sense for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God Favours Precepts Punishments the other two are out of the road of Gratulation When we might therefore have exspected Judgments behold hold Benefits And those secondly not sparingly handfulled out to us but dealt to us by the whole load loadeth with benefits Whom thirdly doth he load but us Not worthy and well-deserving subjects but us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebels And lastly this he doth not at one doal and no more as even churls rare Feasts use to be plentifull but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 successively unweariedly perpetually One favour were too much here are Benefits a sprinkling were too much here is a load once were too oft here is daily largition Cast your eyes therefore a little upon this threefold exaggeration of Beneficence the measure a load of benefits the subject unworthy us the time daily Who daily loadeth us with benefits Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of Mercies Were it no more but that he hath given us a world to live in a life to injoy aire to breath in earth to tread on fire to warm us water to cool and cleanse us cloaths to cover us food to nourish us sleep to refresh us houses to shelter us variety of creatures to serve and delight us here were a just load But now if we yet adde to these civility of breeding dearnesse of friends competency of Estate degrees of Honour honesty or dignity of vocation favour of Princes successe in imployments domestick comforts outward peace good reputation preservation from dangers rescue from evils the load is well mended If yet ye shall come closer and adde due proportion of Body integrity of parts perfection of senses strength of nature mediocrity of health sufficiency of appetite vigour of digestion wholsome temper of seasons freedome from cares this course must needs heighten it yet more If still ye shall adde to these the order and power and exercise of our inward Faculties inriched with Wisdome Art Learning Experience expressed by a not-unhandsome Elocution and shall now lay all these together that concern Estate Body Minde how can the axel-tree of the Soul but crack under the load of these Favours But if from what God hath done for us as men we look to what he hath done for us as Christians that he hath imbraced us with an everlasting Love that he hath molded us anew enlivened us by his Spirit fed us by his Word Sacraments clothed us with his Merits bought us with his Blood becoming vile to make us glorious a Curse to invest us with Blessedness in a word that he hath given himself to us his Son for us Oh the height and depth and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh the boundlesse toplesse bottomlesse load of Divine benefits whose immensity reaches from the center of this earth to the unlimited extent of the very Empyreal Heavens Oh that men would praise the
God In vain shall the vassals of appetite challenge to be the servants of God Were it that the Kingdome of God did consist in eating and drinking in pampering and surfeits in chambering and wantonnesse in pranking and vanity in talk and ostentation O God how rich shouldst thou be of subjects of Saints But if it require abstinence humiliation contrition of heart subjugation of our flesh renunciation of our wills serious impositions of laboursome devotions O Lord what is become of true Christianity where shall we seek for a crucified man Look to our Tables there ye shall finde excesse and riot look to our Backs there ye shall finde proud disguises look to our Conversations there ye shall finde scurril and obscene jollity This liberty yea this licentiousnesse is that which opens the mouths of our adversaries to the censure of our reall impiety That slander which Julian could cast upon Constantine that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 led him to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delicacie to intemperance the very same do they cast upon us They tell us of their strict Lents frequent Fastings Canonical hours sharp Penances their bashfull shrists their painfull scourgings their solitary Cells their woolward and barefoot walks their hard and tedious pilgrimages whiles we they say deny nothing to back or belly fare full lie soft sit warm and make a wanton of the flesh whiles we professe to tend the spirit Brethren hear a little the words of exhortation The brags of their penal will-worship shall no whit move us All this is blown away with a Baal's Priests did more then they yet were never the holier But for our selves in the fear of God see that we do not justifie their crimination Whiles they are in one extreme placing all Religion in the out-side in Touch not taste not handle not let us not be in the other not regarding the external acts of due Humiliation It is true that it is more ease to afflict the body then to humble the Soul a dram of remorse is more then an ounce of pain O God if whippings and hair-cloaths and watchings would satisfie thy displeasure who would not sacrifice the blood of this vassall his Body to expiate the sin of his Soul who would not scrub his skin to ease his Conscience who would not freez upon an hurdle that he might not frie in hell who would not hold his eyes open to avoid an eternall unrest and torment But such sacrifices and oblations O God thou desirest not The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Yet it is as true that it is more easie to counterfeit mortification of spirit then humiliation of body there is pain in the one none in the other He that cares not therefore to pull down his body will much lesse care to humble his Soul and he that spares not to act meet and due penalties upon the Flesh gives more colour of the Souls humiliation Dear Christians it is not for us to stand upon niggardly terms with our Maker he will have both he that made both will have us crucified in both The old man doth not lie in a lim or faculty but is diffused through the whole extent of Body and Soul and must be crucified in all that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the chosen vessel I beat down my body my body as well as my spirit Give me leave ye Courtiers and Citizens Lent is wont to be a penitential time If ye have soundly and effectually thriven your selves to your God let me enjoyn you an wholsome and saving Penance for the whole year for your whole life Ye must curb your appetites ye must fast ye must stint your selves to your painfull Devotions ye must give peremptory denials to your own wills ye must put your knife to your throat in Solomon's sense Think not that ye can climb up to Heaven with full panches reaking ever of Indian smoak and the surfeits of your gluttonous crammings and quaffings Oh easie and pleasant way to Glory from our bed to our glasse from our glasse to our boord from our dinner to our pipe from our pipe to a visit from a visit to a supper from a supper to a play from a play to a banquet from a banquet to our bed Oh remember the quarrel against damned Dives He fared sumptuously every day he made neither Lents nor Embers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said every day was gaudie and festival in rich sutes in dainty morsels and full draughts Intus mulso foris oleo Wine within oyle without as he said now all the world for a drop and it is too little Vae saturis woc to the full saith our Saviour but even Nature it self could abominate bis de die saturum one that is full twice a day One of the sins of our Sodom is fulnesse of bread What is the remedy It is an old word that Hunger cures the diseases of Gluttony Oh that my words could prevail so far with you Honourable and beloved Christians as to bring austere abstinence and sober moderation into fashion The Court and City have led the way to excesse your example shall prescribe yea administer the remedy The Heathen man could say He is not worthy of the name of a man that would be a whole day in pleasure what and we alwaies In fasting often saith S. Paul what and we never I fast twice a week saith the Pharisee and we Christians when I speak not of Popish mock-fasts in change not in forbearance in change of courser cates of the land for the curious dainties of the water of the flesh of beasts for the flesh of fish of untoothsome morsels for sorbitiunculoe delicatoe as Hierome calls them Let me never feast if this be fasting I speak of a true and serious maceration of our bodies by an absolute and totall refraining from sustenance which howsoever in it self it be not an act pleasing unto God for well may I invert Saint Paul neither if we eat not are we the better neither if we eat are we the worse 1 Cor. 8. 8. yet in the effect it is singulare Sanctitatis aratrum as that Father terms it The plow bears no Corn but it makes way for it it opens the soil it tears up the briers and turns up the furrows Thus doth holy Abstinence it chastises the flesh it lightens the spirit it disheartens our vitious dispositions it quickens our Devotion Away with all factious Combinations Every man is master of his own maw Fast at home and spare not leave publick exercises of this kinde to the command of Soveraign powers Blow the trumpet in Zion sanctifie a Fast saith Joel 2. 15. Surely this trumpet is for none but Royal breath And now that what I meant for a suit may be turned to a just gratulation how do we blesse the God of Heaven that hath put it into the heart of his Anointed to set this
deadly condition As ye love your Souls give no sleep to your eyes nor peace to your hearts till ye find the sensible effects of the Death and Passion of Christ your Saviour within you mortifying all your corrupt affections and sinful actions that ye may truly say with S. Paul I am crucified with Christ Six several times do we find that Christ shed blood in his Circumcision in his Agonie in his Crowning in his Scourging in his Affixion in his Transfixion The instrument of the first was the Knife of the second vehemence of Passion of the third the Thorns of the fourth the Whips of the fifth the Nails of the last the Spear In all these we are we must be Partners with our Saviour In his Circumcision when we draw blood of our selves by cutting off the foreskin of our filthy if pleasing Corruptions Col. 2. 11. In his Agony when we are deeply affected with the sense of God's displeasure for sin and terrified with the frowns of an angry Father In his Crowning with thorns when we smart and bleed with reproches for the name of Christ when that which the world counts Honour is a pain to us for his sake when our guilty thoughts punish us and wound our restless heads with the sad remembrance of our sins In his Scourging when we tame our wanton and rebellious flesh with wise rigor and holy severity In his Affixion when all the powers of our Souls and parts of our body are strictly hampered and unremovably fastened upon the Royal Commandements of our Maker and Redeemer In his Transfixion when our hearts are wounded with Divine love with the Spouse in the Canticles or our Consciences with deep sorrow In all these we bleed with Christ and all these save the first onely belong to his Crucifying Surely as it was in the Old Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without bloodshed there was no remission Heb. 9. 22. so it is still and ever in the New If Christ had not thus bled for us no remission if we do not thus bleed with Christ no remission There is no benefit where is no partnership If Christ therefore bled with his Agony with his Thorns with his Whips with his Nails with his Spear in so many thousand passages as Tradition is bold to define and we never bleed either with the Agony of our sorrow for sin or the Thorns of holy cares for displeasure or the Scourges of severe Christian rigour or the Nails of holy constraint or the Spear of deep remorse how do we how can we for shame say we are crucified with Christ Divine S. Austin in his Epistle or Book rather to Honoratus gives us all the dimensions of the Cross of Christ The Latitude he makes in the transverse this saith he pertains to good Works because on this his hands were stretched The Length was from the ground to the transverse this is attributed to his longanimity and persistance for on that his Body was stayed and fixed The Height was in the head of the Cross above the transverse signifying the exspectation of supernal things The Depth of it was in that part which was pitcht below within the earth importing the profoundness of his free Grace which is the ground of all his beneficence In all these must we have our part with Christ In the Transverse of his Cross by the ready extension of our hands to all good Works of Piety Justice Charity in the Arrectary or beam of his Cross by continuance and uninterrupted perseverance in good in the Head of his Cross by an high elevated hope and looking for of Glory in the Foot of his Cross by a lively and firm Faith fastening our Souls upon the affiance of his free Grace and Mercy And thus shall we be crucified with Christ upon his own Cross Yet lastly we must goe further then this from his Cross to his Person So did S. Paul and every Believer die with Christ that he died in Christ For as in the first Adam we all lived and sinned so in the second all Believers died that they might live The first Adam brought in death to all mankind but at last actually died for none but himself the second Adam died for mankind and brought life to all Believers Seest thou thy Saviour therefore hanging upon the Cross all mankind hangs there with him as a Knight or Burgess of Parliament voices his whole Burrough or Country What speak I of this The arms and legs take the same lot with the head Every Believer is a lim of that body how can he therefore but die with him and in him That real union then which is betwixt Christ and us makes the Cross and Passion of Christ ours so as the thorns pierced our heads the scourages blooded our backs the nails wounded our hands and feet and the spear gored our sides and hearts by virtue whereof we receive justification from our sins and true mortification of our corruptions Every Believer therefore is dead already for his sins in his Saviour he needs not fear that he shall die again God is too just to punish twice for one fault to recover the summe both of the surety principal All the score of our arrerages is fully struck off by the infinite satisfaction of our Blessed Redeemer Comfort thy self therefore thou penitent and faithful Soul in the confidence of thy safety thou shalt not die but live since thou art already crucified with thy Saviour he died for thee thou diedst in him Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifies Who shall condemn It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and lives gloriously at the right hand of God making intercession for us To thee O Blessed Jesu together with thy Coeternal Father and Holy Spirit three Persons in one infinite and incomprehensible Deity be all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen ONE OF THE SERMONS Preached to the LORDS OF THE High Court of Parliament In their solemn Fast held on Ashwednesday Feb. 18. And by their Appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Acts 2. 37 38 40. 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 38. Then said Peter unto them Repent and be baptized c. 40. And with many other words did he testifie and exhort them saying Save your selves from this untoward generation WHO knows not that Simon Peter was a Fisher That was his trade both by Sea and Land if we may not rather say that as Simon he was a Fisher-man but as Peter he was a Fisher of men he that call'd him so made him so And surely his first draught of Fishes which as Simon he made at our Saviours Command might well be a trade Type of the first draught of men which as Peter he made in this place for as then the nets were ready to
God of Heaven Now they fill every mouth and beat every eare in a neglected familiarity What should I tell you of the overgrown frequence of Oppressions Extortions Injurious and fraudulent transactions malicious Suits The neighbour walls of this famous adjoyning Palace can too amply witness this truth whose roof if as they say it will admit of no Spiâ—ers I am sure the floor of it yields venome enough to poison a Kingdome What should I tell you of the sensible declination to our onceloathed Superstitions of the common trade of contemptuous disobediences to lawful Authority the scornful undervaluing of Gods Messengers the ordinary neglect of his Sacred Ordinances what speak I of these and thousands more There are Arithmeticians that have taken upon them to count how many corns of sand would make up the bulk of Heaven and earth but no Art can reckon up the multitude of our provoking sins Neither do they more exceed in number then Magnitude Can there be a greater sin then Idolatry Is not this besides all the rest the sin of the present Romish Generation One of their own confesses as he well may that were not the Bread transubstantiate their Idolatry were more gross then the heathenish Lo nothing excuses them but an impossible Figment Know O ye poor ignorant seduced Souls that the Bread can be no more turned into God then God can be turned into Bread into nothing The very Omnipotent Power of God barrs these impious contradictions My heart trembles therefore and bleeds to think of your highest your holiest Devotions Can there be a greater sin then robbing of God This is done by our Sacrilegious Patrons Can there be a greater sin then tearing God out of Heaven with our bloody and blasphemous Oathes then the famishing of Souls by a wilful or lazie silence then rending in pieces the bowels of our dear Mother the Church by our headstrong and frivolous dissentions then furious Murders then affronts of Authority These these are those huge mountains which our Giantlike presumption rolls upon each other to warre against Heaven Neither are the sins of men more great then Audacious yea it is their impudency that makes them hainous bashful offences rise not to extremity of evil The sins of excess as they are opera tenebrarum so they had wont to be night-works They that are drunken are drunk in the night saith the Apostle now they dare with Absolom's beastliness call the Sun to record Saint Bernard tells us of a Daemon meridianus a noon-Devil out of the Vulgar misâ—translation of the 90 Psalme Surely that ill spirit walks about busily and haunts the licentious conversation of inordinate men Unjust Exactions of griping Officers had wont to creep in under the modest cloak of voluntary courtesie or faire considerations of a befriended expedition now they come like Elie's sons Nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I will take it by force 1 Sam. 2. 16. The legal Thefts of professed Usurers and the crafty compacts of slie Oppressors dare throw down the gantlet to Justice and insolent Disobediences doe so to Authority And when we denounce the fearful Judgments of God against all these abominable wickednesses the obdured sinner dares jeare us in the face and in a worse sense ask the Disciples question Domine quando fient haec Master when shall these things be Yea their self-flattering incredulity dares say to their Soul as Peter did to his Master Favour thy self for these things shall not happen to thee Neither lastly would sin dare to be so impudent if it were not for Impunity it cannot be but cowardly where it sees cause of fear Every hand is not to be laid upon evil If an Errour should arise in the Church it is not for every unlearned Tradesman to cast away his yard-wand and take up his pen. Wherefore serve Universities if every Blew apron may at his pleasure turn Licenciate of Divinity and talk of Theological questions which he understands not as if they were to be measured by the Ell O times Lord whether will this presumption grow Deus omen c. If folly if villany be committed in our Israel it is not for every man to be an Officer Who made thee a Judge was a good question though ill asked But I would to God we had more cause to complain of the presumption of them who meddle with what they should not then the neglect of them who meddle not with what they should Woe is me the flood-gates of evil are as it were lift open and the full stream gusheth upon us Not that I would cast any aspersion upon Sacred Soveraignty No blessed be God for his dear Anointed of whom we may truly and joyfully say that in imitation of him whom he represents he loves Justice and hates Iniquity It is the partiality or flackness of the subordinate inferiour executions that is guilty of this prevalence of sin What can the head doe where the hands are wanting to what use is the water derived from the cistern into the pipes if the cock be not turned What availes it if children are brought to the birth if they want a midwifty to deliver them Can there possibly be better Laws then have in our times been enacted against Drunkenness where or when are they executed Can there be a better Law made for the restraint of too-too common Oathes who urges who payes that just mulct Can there be better Laws against wilful Recusancy against Simony against Sacriledge how are they eluded by fraudulent evasions Against neglect of Divine Service yet how are they slighted Against the lawless wandring of lazie Vagabonds yet how full are our streets how empty our Correction-houses Lastly for it were easie to be endless can there be better Laws then are made for the punishment of Fornications Adulteries and all other fleshly inordinatenesses how doth bribery and corruption smother these offences as if the sins of men served only to inrich covetous Officers Now put all these together the Multitude the Magnitude the Boldness the Impunity of sin and tell me whether all these do not make this of ours generationem pravam a froward generation So as we may too well take up Esay's complaint Ab sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters Esa 1. 4. Honorable and beloved how should we be humbled under the hand of our God in the sense of our many great bold and lawless sins What sackcloth what ashes can be enough for us Oh that our faces could be covered with confusion that we could rend our hearts and not our garments Be afflicted and mourn and weep and thus Save your selves from this froward generation And so from St. Peter's Attestation to their wickedness we descend to his Obtestation of their redress Save your selves We must be so much shorter in the remedy as we have been longer in the disease The remedy is but of a short sound but of a long
Church cannot abide either Conventicles of Separation or pluralities of professions or appropriations of Catholicism Catholick Romane is an absurd Donatian Solecism This is to seek Orbem in urbe as that Council said well Happy were it for that Church if it were a sound lim though but the little toe of that mighty and precious body wherein no believing Jew or Indian may not challenge to be jointed Neither difference of time nor distance of place nor rigor of unjust censure nor any unessential errour can barre our interest in this blessed Unity As this flourishing Church of great Britain after all the spightfull calumniations of malicious men is one of the most conspicuous members of the Catholick upon earth so we in her Communion do make up one body with the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and faithfull Christians of all ages and times We succeed in their Faith we glory in their Succession we triumph in this Glory Whither go ye then ye weak ignorant seduced souls that run to seek this Dove in a forein cote She is here if she have any nest under Heaven Let me never have part in her or in Heaven if any Church in the world have more part in the Universal Why do we wrong our selves with the contradistinction of Protestant and Catholick We do only protest this that we are perfect Catholicks Let the pretensed look to themselves we are sure we are as Catholick as true Faith can make us as much one as the same Catholick Faith can make us and in this undoubted right we claim and injoy the sweet and inseparable communion with all the blessed members of that mystical body both in earth and Heaven and by virtue thereof with the glorious Head of that dear and happy body Jesus Christ the righteous the Husband to this one Wife the Mate to this one Dove to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one God be given all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen THE FASHIONS OF THE WORLD Laid forth in a SERMON at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By J. H. Rom. 12. 2. Fashion not your selves like to this World but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde c. THAT which was wont to be upbraided as a scorn to the English may be here conceived the Embleme of a Man whom ye may imagine standing naked before you with a paire of sheers in his hand ready to cut out his own fashion In this deliberation the World offers it self to him with many a gay misshapen fantasticall dresse God offers himself to him with one onely fashion but a new one but a good one The Apostle like a friendly monitor adviseth him where to pitch his choice Fashion not your selves like to this world but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde How much Christianity crosses Nature we need no other proof then my Text. There is nothing that Nature affects so much as the Fashion and no fashion so much as the worlds for our usuall word is Doe as the most And behold that is it which is here forbidden us Fashion not your selves like to this world All fashions are either in Device or Imitation There are vain heads that think it an honour to be the founders of Fashions there are servile fools that seek onely to follow the Fashion once devised In the first rank is the World which is nothing but a mint of Fashions yet which is strange all as old as mis-beseeming We are forbidden to be in the second If the World will be so vain as to mis-shape it self we may not be so foolish as to follow it Let us look a little if you please at the Pattern here damn'd in my Text The world As in extent so in expression the World hath a large scope yea there are more Worlds then one There is a world of creatures and within that there is a world of men and yet within that a world of believers and yet within all these a world of corruptions More plainly there is a good world an evil world an indifferent A good world as of the creatures in regard of their first birth so of men in regard of their second a world of renewed Souls in the first act of their renovation believing Joh. 17. 20. upon their belief reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 19. upon their reconcilement saved Joh. 3. 16. An evil world yea set in evil 1 Joh. 5. 19. a world of corrupt unregeneration that hates Christ and his Joh. 15. 18. that is hated of Christ Jam. 4. 4. An indifferent world that is good or evil as it is used whereof St. Paul Let those that use the world be as not abusing it 1 Cor. 7. 31. This indifferent world is a world of commodities affections improvement of the creature which if we will be wise Christians we must fashion to us framing it to our own bent whether in want or abundance The good world is a world of Saints whose Souls are purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. To this world we may be fashioned The evil world is a world of mere men and their vicious conditions God hath made us the lords of the indifferent world himself is the Lord of the good Satan is lord of the evil Princeps hujus Seculi And that is most properly the world because it contains the most as it is but a chaffe-heap wherein some grains of wheat are scattered To this evil world then we may not fashion our selves in those things which are proper to it as such in natural in civil actions we may we must follow the world singularity in these things is justly odious herein the World is the true master of Ceremonies whom not to follow is no better then a Cynicall irregularity in things positively or morally evil we may not There is no material thing that hath not his form the outward form is the fashion the fashion of outward things is variable with the times so as every external thing cloaths building plate stuffe gesture is now in now out of fashion but the fashions of Morality whether in good or evil are fixed and perpetual The world passeth and the fashion of it but the evil of the fashions of the world is too constant and permanent and must be ever the matter of our detestation Fashion not your selves like to this world But because evils are infinite as wise Solomon hath observed it will be requisite to call them to their heads and to reduce these forbidden fashions to the several parts whereto they belong I cannot dream with Tertullian that the Soul hath a Body but I may well say that the Soul follows the body and as it hath parts ascribed to it according to the outward proportion so are these parts suited with severall fashions Let your patient attention follow me through them all Begin with the Head a part not more eminent in place then in power What is the
with Christians Let us speak truth every man to his neighbour Farre farre be it from any of you to have a mercenary tongue either sold or let out to speak for injury for oppression Where the justice of the cause seems to hang in an even poise there exercise the power of your wit and eloquence in pleadings but where the case is foul abhor the Patrocination discourage an unjust though wealthy Client and say rather Thy gold and thy silver perish with thee resolving that the richest fee is a good conscience and therefore with the Apostle that ye can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth Thus fashion not your Tongue to the falshood of the world 2. The world hath a tongue as Malicious as false he carries poisons arrows swords razors in his mouth whether in reviling the present or backbiting the absent What have our tongues to walk in but this round of detraction Barre this practice there would be silence at our bords silence at our fires-side silence in the Tavern silence in the way silence in the Barbers-shop in the Mill in the Market every where yea very Gossips would have nothing to whisper Lord what a wilde licentiousnesse are we grown to in this kinde Every mans mouth is open to the censures to the curses of their betters neither is it cared how true the word be but how sharp Every Fidler sings Libels openly and each man is ready to challenge the freedome of David's Ruffians Our tongues are our own who shall controll us This is not a fashion for Christians whose tongues must be ranged within the compasse as of Truth so of Charity and silent Obedience we know our charge Diis non detrahes Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the ruler of thy people Exod. 22. 28. No not in thy bed-chamber no not in thy thoughts Eccles 10. 20. And for our equalls God hath said it Whoso privily slandereth his Neighbour him will I cut off Psal 101. 5. The spightfull tongue as it is a fire and is kindled by the fire of hell Jam. 3. 6. so shall it be sure once to torment the Soul that moves it with flames unquenchable Thus fashion not your Tongue to the maliciousnesse of the world 3. As the world hath a spightfull tongue in his anger so a Beastly tongue in his mirth No word sounds well that is not unsavoury The onely minstrell to the world is ribaldry Modesty and sober Merriment is dulnesse There is no life but in those cantiones cinaedicae which are too bad even for the worst of red Lattices yea even those mouths which would hate to be palpably foul stick not to affect the witty jests of ambiguous obscenity Fye upon these impure brothelries Oh that ever those tongues which dare call God Father should suffer themselves thus to be possessed by that unclean spirit that ever those mouths which have received the Sacred body and blood of the Lord of Life should indure these dainty morsels of the Devil For us Let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouth but that which is edifying and gracious Ephes 4. 29. and such as may become those tongues which shall once sing Allelujahs in the Heavens Fashion not your Tongues to the obscenity of the world From the Tongue we passe to the Palate which together with the gulf whereto it serves the throat and the paunch is taken up with the beastly fashion of Gluttony and excesse whether wet or dry of meats or liquors surfeits in the one drunkennesse in the other insomuch as that the vice hath taken the name of the part Gula as if this piece were for no other service The Psalmist describes some wicked ones in his time by Sepulcrum patens guttur eorum Their throat is an open Sepulchre Psal 5. 9. How many have buried all their Grace in this tomb how many their Reputation how many their Wit how many their Humanity how many their Houses Lands Livings Wives Children Posterity Health Life Body and Soul Saint Paul tels his Philippians that their false teachers made their belly their God Oh God what a Deity is here what a nasty Idol and yet how adored every where The Kitchins and Taverns are his Temples the Tables his Altars What fat Sacrifices are here of all the beasts fouls fishes of all three Elements what pouring out yea what pouring in of drink-offerings what incense of Indian smoak what curiously-perfumed cates wherewith the nose is first feasted then the maw More then one of the Ancients as they have made Nebuzaradan principem Coquorum Jer. 52. 12. the chief Cook of Nebuchadnezzar so they have found a mysticall allusion in the story that the chief Cook should burn the Temple and Palace both Gods house and the Kings and should destroy the walls of Jerusalem Surely gluttonous excesse destroies that which should be the Temple of the Holy Ghost and is enough to bring a fearfull vastation both upon Church and State I could even sink down with shame to see Christianity every where so discountenanced with beastly Epicurisme what street shall a man walk in and not meet with a Drunkard what rode shall he passe and not meet some or other hanging upon the stirrup waving over the pummel Saint Peter's argument from the third hour of the day and Saint Paul's from the night would be now a non sequitur Day is night night is day no hour is priviledged I cannot speak a more fearfull word then that of Saint Paul Whose belly is their God whose end is damnation Oh wofull wofull condition of that damned glutton in the Gospel Oh the flames of that delicious tongue which beg'd for a drop but should in vain have been quenched with rivers with Oceans As ye desire to be freed from those everlasting burnings Awake ye drunkards and howl ye drinkers of wine Joel 1. 5. Return your superfluous liquors into tears of repentance which onely can quench that fire and for the sequel put your knife to your throats Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overtaken with surfeiting and drunkennesse Luk. 21. 34. Thus fashion not your selves to the Excesse of the world From the pampered Belly we passe to the proud Back of the world whereon he is blind that sees not a world of fashions in all which the price of the stuffe strives with the vanity of the form There is a Luxury in very Cloaths which it is hard to look besides O God how is the world changed with us since our Breeches of fig-leaves and Coats of skin The Earth yields Gold Silver rich Stones the Sea Pearls the Aire feathers the Field his stalks the Sheep her Fleece the Worm her web and all too little for one back After necessity Cloaths were once for distinction as of Sexes so of Degrees How curious was God in these differences the violation whereof was no lesse then deadly Deut. 22. 5. What shall we say to the Dames yea to the Hermaphrodites of
we brought with us and carry about us and there can be no safety unlesse we be transformed by renovation Behold God saies I make all things new a new Heaven and a new earth Esay 65. 17. The year renews and to morrow we say is a new day we renew our clothes when they are worn our leases when they grow towards expiring only our hearts we care not to renew If all the rest were old so that our Heart were new it were nothing Nothing but the main of all is neglected What should I need any other motives to you then the view of the estate of both these Look first at the old Put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts Ephes 4. 22. Lo the old man is corrupt this is enough to cashier him what man can abide to carry rotten flesh about him If but a wound fester and gather dead flesh we draw it we corrode it till it be clear at the bottome Those that make much of their old man do like that monstrous twin willingly carry about a dead half of themselves whose noisomnesse doth torment and kill the living Look at the new Being freed from sin and made servants to God ye have your fruit in holiness and the end everlasting life Rom. 6. 22. Holiness is a lovely thing of it self there is a beauty of Holiness Gloria Sanctitatis as the Vulgar turns it Psal 144. and goodness doth amply reward it self Yet this Holiness hath besides infinite recompence attending it Holiness is life begun eternal life is the consummation of Holiness Holiness is but the way the end whereto it leads is everlasting life As therefore we would avoid the annoiance and danger of our sinful corruptions as we would ever aspire to true and endless blessedness Oh let us be transformed by renewing But how is this renewing wrought and wherein doth it consist Surely as there are three ways whereby we receive a new being by Creation by Generation by Resuscitation so according to all these is our spiritual renewing it is by Creation Whosoever is in Christ is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. it is by Regeneration Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdome of God Joh. 3. 3. it is by Resuscitation Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickened us together with Christ Ephes 2. 5. From whence arises this double Corollary 1. That we can give of our selves no active power to the first act of our Conversion no more then Adam did to his first Creation no more then the child doth to his own Conception no more then the dead man to his raising from the grave 2. That there must be a Privation of our old corrupt forms and a reducing us from our either nothing or worse to an estate of Holiness and new Obedience This is that which is every where set forth unto us by the Mortification of our earthly members and putting off the old man on the one part and by the first resurrection and putting on the new on the other Nothing is more familiar then these resemblances But of all Similes none doth so fitly methinks express the manner of this renewing as that of the Snake which by leaving his old slough in the streights of the Rock glides forth glib and nimble I remember Holcot urges the Similitude thus To turn off the Snakes skin saith he two things are requisite The first is foraminis angustia the streightness of the passage else he must needs draw the old skin through with him the latter is stabilitas saxi the firmness of the stone else in stead of leaving the skin he shall draw the stone away with him So must it be in the business of our renovation First we must pass through the streight way of due Penitence secondly we must hold the firm and stable purpose of our perseverance in good True sorrow and contrition of heart must begin the work and then an unmoved constancy of endeavour must finish it Whosoever thou art therefore if thy heart have not been toucht yea torn and rent in pieces with a sound Humiliation for thy sins the old slough is still upon thy back thou art not yet come within the ken of true Renovation Or if thou be gone so farre as that the skin begins to reave up a little in a serious grief for thy sins yet if thy resolutions be not steadily setled and thine endeavours bent to go through with that holy work thou comest short of thy renewing thine old loose filme of corruption shall so cumber thee that thou shalt never be able to pass on smoothly in the ways of God But because now we have a conceit that man as we say of fish unless he be new is naught every man is ready to challenge this honour of being renewed and certainly there may be much deceit this way We have seen plate or other vessels that have look'd like new when they have been but new guilded or burnish'd we have seen old faces that have counterfeited a youthly smoothness and vigorous complexion we have seen Hypocrites act every part of renovation as if they had falne from Heaven Let us therefore take a trial by those proofs of examination that cannot fail us And they shall be fetcht from those three ways of our renewing which we have formerly specified If we be renewed by Creation here must be a clean Heart Cor mundum crea saith the Psalmist Psal 51. 10. For as at the first God look'd on all his works and found them very good so still no work of his can be other then like himself holy and perfect If thy heart therefore be still full of unclean thoughts wanton desires covetousness ambition profaneness it is thine old heart of Satans marring it is no new heart of God's making for nothing but clean can come from under his hands But if we plead the closeness of the heart which may therefore seem impervious even to our own eyes see what the Apostle saith Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created unto good works The cleanness of the heart will shew it self in the goodness of the Hands But if our hands may deceive us as nothing is more easily counterfeited then a good action yet our Feet will not I mean the trade of our wayes That therefore from our Creation we may look to our Regeneration if we be the sons of God we are renewed and how shall it appear whether we be the sons of God It is a golden Rule Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. Yet if in both of these life could be counterfeited death cannot That therefore from our Creation and Regeneration we may look to our Resuscitation and from thence back to our grave Mortifie your members which are on earth Col. 3. 5. There is a death of this body of sin and what manner of death Those that
Religion But alas poor souls we are mistaken all this while it is nothing else but pure Piety forsooth which we ignorantly condemn for Cruelty 't is the zeal of Gods house wherewith Good Prelate thou art so inflamed that thou hast hereupon both wished and importuned the utter extirpation of all those Hereticks stabling in the French Territories O forehead O bowels For us we call God Angels Saints to witness of this foul calumniation I wis those whom thou falsly brandest for Hereticks thou shalt one day hear when the Church shall imbrace them for her children Christ for the spiritual Members of his mystical body For what I beseech you do we hold which the Scriptures Councils Fathers Churches and Christian Professors have not in all Ages taught and published To say the truth All that which we professe your own most approved Authors have still maintained whence then is this quarrell Shall I tell you There are indeed certain new Patches of Opinion which you would needs adde to the ancient Faith these we most justly reject and do still constantly refuse They are humane they are your own briefly they are either doubtfull or impious And must we now be cast out of the bosome of the Church and be presently delivered up to fire and sword Must we for this be thunder-strucken to Hell by your Anathemas there to frie in perpetuall Torments Is it for this that a stall and shambles are thought good enough for such brutish animals Good God! See the justice and charity of these Popelings This is nothing but a mere injury of the Times it was not wont to be Heresie heretofore that is so now-a-daies If it had been our Happinesse to have lived in the Primitive times of the Churches Simplicity before ever that Romish Transcendency Image-worship Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Masse Purgatory single or half-Communion Nundination of Pardons and the rest of this rabble were known to the Christian world surely Heaven had been as open to us as to other Devout Souls of that purer Age that took their happy flight from hence in the Orthodox Faith of Christ Jesus But now that we are reserved to that dotage of the world wherein a certain new brood of Articles are sprung up it is death to us forsooth and to be expiated by no lesse punishment then the perpetuall torments of Hell-fire Consider this O ye Christians wheresoever dispersed upon the face of the whole earth consider I say how far it is from all Justice and Charity that a new Faith should come dropping forth at mens pleasure which must adjudge Posterity to eternal death for Mis-believers whom the ancient Truth had willingly admitted into Heaven These new Points of a politick Religion are they indeed that have so much disturbed the peace of Christendome these are they that set at variance the mighty Potentates of the earth who otherwise perhaps would sit down in an happy Peace these are they that rend whole Kingdomes distract people dissolve Societies nourish Faction and Sedition lay wast the most flourishing Kingdomes and turn the richest Cities to dust and rubbish But should these things be so Do we think this will one day be allowed for a just warrant of so much war and bloodshed before the Tribunall of that supreme Judge of Heaven and earth Awake therefore now O ye Christian Princes and You especially King Lewis in whose eares these wicked counsels are so spightfully and bloodily whispered rouse up your self and see how cruell Tyranny seeks to impose upon your Majesty in a most mischievous manner under a fair pretence of Piety and Devotion They are your own native Subjects whom these malicious foreigners require to the slaughter yea they are Christs and will you imbrue your hand and sword in the blood of those for whom Christ hath shed his yea who have willingly lavished their own in the behalf of You and your great Father Hear I beseech thee O King who art wont amongst thine own to be instiled Lewis the Just If we did adore any other God any other Christ but thine if we aspired to any other Heaven embraced any other Creed any other Baptisme lastly if we made profession of a new Church built upon other foundations there were some cause indeed why thou shouldest condemn such Hereticks stabling in France to the revenging sury of thy flames If this thy people have wilfully violated any thing established by our common God or lawfully commanded by thee we crave no pardon for them let them smart that have deserved it is but just they should But do not in the mean time fall fiercely upon the fellow-servants of thy God upon thine own best Subjects whose very Religion must make them loyall suffer not those poor wretches to perish for some late upstart superfluous additions of humane invention and mere will-worship who were alwaies most forward to redeem Thine thy Great Fathers Safety and Honour with the continuall hazzard of their owne most precious lives Let them but live then by thy gracious sufferance by whose Valour and Fidelity thou now reignest But suppose they were not yours yet remember that they are Christians a title wherewith your style is wont most to be honored washed in the same Laver of Baptisme bought with the same price renewed by the same Spirit and whatsoever impotent malice bawle to the contrary the beloved Sons of the Celestiall Spouse yea the Brethren of that Spirituall Bride-groom Christ Jesus But they erre you will say from the Faith From what faith I beseech you Not the Christian surely but the Romish What a strange thing is this Christ doth not condemn them the Pope doth If that great Chancellour of Paris were now alive he would freely teach his Sorbon as he once did that it is not in the Popes power that I may use his owne word to hereticate any Proposition Yea but an Oecumenicall Council besides hath done it What Council That of Trent I am deceived if that were hitherto received in the Churches of France or deserved to be so hereafter Consult with your own late Authors of most undoubted credit they will tell you plainly how unjust that Council was yea how no Council at all It was only the Popes act whatsoever was decreed or established by that pack'd Conclave envassalled to the Seven hills Consider lastly I beseech you how the Reformed Christians stand in no other terms to the Papists then the Papists do to the Reformed Heresie is with equall vehemency upbraided on both sides But do we deale thus roughly with the followers of the Roman Religion Did we ever rage against the Popish Faith with fire and sword Was ever the crime of a poor misled conscience capitall to any soul You may finde perhaps but very seldome some audacious Masse-priest some firebrand of Sedition and contemner of our publick Laws to have suffered condign punishment But no Papist I dare boldly say ever suffered losse either of life or lim merely for his Religion
know that hereby thou intendedst to teach thy Parents that thou couldest live without them and that not of any indigency but out of a gracious dispensation thou wouldest ordinarily depend upon their care In the mean time thy Divine wisdome could not but foreknow all these corroding thoughts wherewith the heart of thy dear Mother must needs bleed through this sudden dereliction yet wouldst thou leave her for the time to her sorrow Even so O Saviour thou thoughtest fit to visit her that bore thee with this early affliction Never any loved thee whom thou doest not sometimes exercise with the grief of missing thee that both we may be more careful to hold thee and more joyful in recovering thee Thou hast said and canst not lie I am with you to the end of the world but even whiles thou art really present thou thinkest good to be absent unto our apprehensions Yet if thou leave us thou wilt not forsake us if thou leave us for our humiliation thou wilt not forsake us to our final discomfort Thou mayest for three daies hide thy self but then we shall finde thee in the Temple None ever sought thee with a sincere desire of whom thou wert not found Thou wilt not be either so little absent as not to whet our appetites nor so long as to fainten the heart After three daies we shall finde thee and where should we rather hope to finde thee then in the Temple There is the habitation for the God of Israel there is thy resting place for ever Oh all ye that are grieved with the want of your Saviour see where you must seek him In vain shall ye hope to finde him in the streets in the Taverns in the Theaters seek him in his holy Temple seek him with piety seek him with faith there shall ye meet him there shall ye recover him Whiles children of that age were playing in the streets Christ was found sitting in the Temple not to gaze on the outward glory of that house or on the golden Candlesticks or Tables but to hear and appose the Doctors He who as God gave them all the wisdome they had as the Son of man hearkens to the wisdome he had given them He who sate in their hearts as the Author of all learning and knowledge sits in the midst of their school as an humble Disciple that by learning of them he might teach all the younger sort humility and due attendance upon their Instructors He could at the first have taught the great Rabbins of Israel the deep mysteries of God but because he was not yet called by his Father to the publick function of a Teacher he contents himself to hear with diligence and to ask with modesty and to teach only by insinuation Let those consider this which will needs run as soon as they can go and when they finde ability think they need not stay for a further vocation of God or men Open your eyes ye rathe ripe invaders of God's Chair and see your Saviour in his younger years not sitting in the eminent pulpits of the Doctors but in the lowly floors of the Auditors See him that could have taught the Angels listning in his minority to the voice of men Who can think much to learn of the Ancients when he looks upon the Son of God sitting at the feet of the Doctors of Israel First he hears then he asks How much more doth it concern us to be hearers ere we offer to be teachers of others He gathers that hears he spends that teacheth if we spend before we gather we shall soon prove bankrupts When he hath heard he asks and after that he answers Doubtless those very questions were instructions and meant to teach more then to learn Never had these great Rabbins heard the voice of such a Tutor in whom they might see the wisdome of God so concealing it self that yet it would be known to be there No marvel then if they all wondred at his understanding and answers Their eyes saw nothing but humane weakness their ears heard Divine sublimity of matter betwixt what they saw and what they heard they could not but be distracted with a doubting admiration And why did ye not O ye Jewish teachers remember That to us a Childe is born and unto us a Son is given and the government is upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace Why did ye not now bethink your selves what the Star the Sages the Angels the Shepherds Zachary Simeon Anna had premonished you Fruitless is the wonder that endeth not in faith No light is sufficient where the eyes are held through unbelief or prejudice The Doctors were not more amazed to hear so profound a childhood then the Parents of Christ were to see him among the Doctors the joy of finding him did strive with the astonishment of finding him thus And now not Joseph he knew how little right he had to that Divine Son but Mary breaks forth into a loving expostulation Son why hast thou dealt so with us That she might not seem to take upon her as an imperious Mother it is like she reserved this question till she had him alone wherein she meant rather to expresse grief then correption Onely herein the Blessed Virgin offended that her inconsideration did not suppose as it was that some higher respects then could be due to flesh and blood called away the Son of God from her that was the daughter of man She that was but the mother of humanity should not have thought that the business of God must for her sake be neglected We are all partial to our selves naturally and prone to the regard of our own rights Questionlesse this gracious Saint would not for all the world have willingly preferr'd her own attendance to that of her God through heedlesness she doth so her Son and Saviour is her monitor out of his Divine love reforming her natural How is it that ye sought me Know ye not that I must goe about my Fathers businesse Immediately before the Blessed Virgin had said Thy father and I sought thee with heavy hearts Wherein both according to the supposition of the world she called Joseph the Father of Christ and according to the fashion of a dutiful Wife she names her Joseph before her self She well knew that Joseph had nothing but a name in this business she knew how God had dignified her beyond him yet she saies Thy father and I sought thee The Son of God stands not upon contradiction to his Mother but leading her thoughts from his supposed father to his true from earth to Heaven he answers Knew ye not that I must go about my Fathers business It was honour enough to her that he had vouchsafed to take flesh of her it was his eternal honour that he was God of God the everlasting Son of the heavenly Father Good reason therefore was it that the respects to flesh
At leastwise he will counterfeit an imitation of the Son of God Neither is it in this alone what one act ever passed the hand of God which Satan did not apishly attempt to second If we follow Christ in the outward action with contrary intentions we follow Satan in following Christ Or perhaps Satan meant to make Christ hereby weary of this weapon As we see fashions when they are taken up of the unworthy are cast off by the Great It was doubtlesse one cause why Christ afterward forbad the Devil even to confesse the Truth because his mouth was a stander But chiefly doth he this for a better colour of his Tentation He gilds over this false metall with Scripture that it may passe current Even now is Satan transformed into an Angel of Light and will seem godly for a mischief If Hypocrites make a fair shew to deceive with a glorious lustre of Holinesse we see whence they borrowed it How many thousand souls are betraied by the abuse of that Word whose use is soveraign and saving No Devil is so dangerous as the religious Devil If good meat turn to the nourishment not of Nature but of the Disease we may not forbear to feed but endeavour to purge the body of those evil humours which cause the stomach to work against it self O God thou that hast given us light give us clear and sound eyes that we may take comfort of that Light thou hast given us Thy Word is holy make our hearts so and then shall they finde that Word not more true then cordial Let not this Divine Table of thine be made a snare to our souls What can be a better act then to speak Scripture It were a wonder if Satan should do a good thing well He cites Scripture then but with mutilation and distortion it comes not out of his mouth but maimed and perverted One piece is left all misapplied Those that wrest or mangle Scripture for their own turn it is easie to see from what School they come Let us take the Word from the Author not from the Usurper David would not doubt to eat that sheep which he pulled out of the mouth of the Bear or Lion He shall give his Angels charge over thee Oh comfortable assurance of our protection God's children never goe unattended Like unto great Princes we walk ever in the midst of our guard though invisible yet true careful powerful What creatures are so glorious as the Angels of Heaven yet their Maker hath set them to serve us Our Adoption makes us at once great and safe We may be contemptible and ignominious in the eyes of the world but the Angels of God observe us the while and scorn not to wait upon us in our homeliest occasions The Sun or the Light may we keep out of our houses the Aire we cannot much lesse these Spirits that are more simple and immaterial No walls no bolts can sever them from our sides they accompany us in dungeons they goe with us into our exile How can we either fear danger or complain of solitarinesse whiles we have so unseparable so glorious Companions Is our Saviour distasted with Scripture because Satan mis-laies it in his dish Doth he not rather snatch this sword out of that impure hand beat Satan with the weapon which he abuseth It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God The Scripture is one as that God whose it is Where it carries an appearance of difficulty or inconvenience it needs no light to clear it but that which it hath in it self All doubts that may arise from it are fully answered by collation It is true that God hath taken this care and given this charge of his own he will have them kept not in their sins they may trust him they may not tempt him he meant to incourage their Faith not their Presumption To cast our selves upon any immediate Providence when means fail not is to disobey in stead of believing God We may challenge God on his Word we may not strain him beyond it we may make account of what he promised we may not subject his Promises to unjust examinations and where no need is make triall of his Power Justice Mercy by devices of our own All the Devils in Hell could not elude the force of this Divine answer and now Satan sees how vainly he tempteth Christ to tempt God Yet again for all this do I see him setting upon the Son of God Satan is not foiled when he is resisted Neither diffidence nor presumption can fasten upon Christ he shall be tried with Honour As some expert Fencer that challenges at all weapons so doth his great Enemy In vain shall we plead our skill in some if we fail in any It must be our wisedome to be prepared for all kinde of assaults as those that hold Towns and Forts do not only defend themselves from incursions but from the Cannon and the Pionier Still doth that subtil Serpent traverse his ground for an advantage The Temple is not high enough for his next Tentation he therefore carries up Christ to the top of an exceeding high Mountain All enemies in pitcht fields strive for the benefit of the Hill or River or Wind or Sun That which his servant Balac did by his instigation himself doth now immediately change places in hope of prevailing If the obscure country will not move us he tries what the Court can do if not our home the Tavern if not the field our closer As no place is left free by his malice so no place must be made prejudicial by our carelesnesse and as we should alwaies watch over our selves so then most when the opportunity carries cause of suspicion Wherefore is Christ carried up so high but for prospect If the Kingdomes of the earth and their glory were only to be presented to his imagination the Valley would have served if to the outward sense no Hill could suffice Circular bodies though small cannot be seen at once This shew was made to both divers Kingdomes lying round about Judea were represented to the eye the glory of them to the imagination Satan meant the eye could tempt the fancy no less then the fancie could tempt the will How many thousand souls have died of the wound of the eye If we do not let in sin at the window of the eye or the door of the eare it cannot enter into our hearts If there be any pomp majestie pleasure bravery in the world where should it be but in the Courts of Princes whom God hath made his Images his Deputies on earth There is soft rayment sumptuous feasts rich jewels honourable attendance glorious triumphs royal state these Satan laies out to the fairest shew But oh the craft of that old Serpent Many a care attends Greatnesse No Crown is without thorns High seats are never but uneasie All those infinite discontentments which are the shadow of earthly Soveraigntie he hides out of the way nothing may