this day is called White or Low â—unday because in the Primitive Church those Neophytes that on Easter Eve were Baptized and Clad in white Garments did to day put them off with this admonition that they were to keep within them a perpetuall candor of Spirit signified by the Agnus Dei hung about their necks which falling downe upon their breasts put them in minde what Innocent Lambes they must be now that of sinfull high and haughty men they were by Baptisme made Low and little children of Almighty God such as ought to retaine in their manners and lives the Paschall Feasts which they had accomplished * And thus we see an ample performance of our designe taking this Prayer in the true sence it hath The Epistle Ep. 1 Joan. cap. 5 v. 4 c. 4 Because all that is borne of God overcommeth the world And this is the victory which overcommeth the world our Faith 5 Who is he that overcommeth the world but he that beleeveth that Iesus is the Sonne of God 6 This is he that came by water and bloud Iesus Christ not in water only but in water and bloud And it is the Spirit which testifieth that Christ is the Truth 7 For there be three which give Testimony in heaven the Father the word and the Holy Ghost And these Three be One. 8 And there be Three which give Testimony in earth The Spirit Water and Bloud And these Three be one 9 If we receive the Testimony of men the Testimony of God is greater because this is the Testimony of God which is greater that he hath testified of his Son 10 He that beleeveth in the Sonne of God hath the Testimony of God in himselfe The Explication 4. THe Evangelist had in this Epistle and in the immediate verse before told us The love of God consisted in keeping his commands and that his commands are not heavy and this for divers reasons because compared to the grievous weighty precepts of the old ceremoniall Law they are nothing in a manner difficult at all For there were as Rabbi Moses did reckon them in his third Book two hundred and eighteen affirmative and three hundred sixty five negative precepts of the old Law which in the Law of Grace are reduced unto ten and those no other then even any reasonable man would exact of a creature towards God and of one man towards another for a quiet civill and honest neighbourhood and though to corrupted nature mortification may seeme hard yet to sound nature it is sweet and appetible at least as medicine is unto the sick person and as grace is the balsame that renders our corrupted nature sound againe so taking grace into the consideration as a help more powerfull then any impediment it is most true the Commandements are easie to a gratious soule to any one that hath in him the fear or love of God whence the Evangelist inferres that as by grace we are borne a new to in and of God so by this regeneration our feeble nature is made able enough to overcome all the world all the enemies and obstacles man hath betweene him and heaven which is the inheritance of Gods children whence Saint Bernard saith excellently well in his first Sermon upon this day it is an argument of our heavenly regeneration or new birth when we overcome temptations as therefore we are first borne children of God by Baptisme wherein we receive the infused vertues of Faith Hope and Charity so by contrition and confession after actuall sinne we are as it were new borne to God by his holy grace conferred on us againe and bringing back with it all those vertues and graces we had lost by reiterated sinnes But we are specially to note that this Text saith every thing that is borne of God overcommeth the world not every man because it is not by any naturall thing in man that he doth overcome sinne but by that which is supernaturall to wit Grace Faith Hope Charity and whence the Apostle saith immediately and this is the victory which overcomes the world our Faith by the victory he meanes the cause of our victory or the overcommer it selfe of the world whereupon Saint Leo Saint Cyprian and others said oftentimes a faithfull soule is farre greater then the world and one who is in heaven looks upon the earth as on a contemptible point so that it was most truly said of Saint Marke cap. 9. verse 23. All things are possible to him that beleeveth nay we see a strong and lively Faith hath in it a kinde of omnipotency when it commands as it were that to be done which none but God can do And what was it that brought the Infidell world and all the Monarchs thereof to the subjection of the yoke of Christ but Faith how then every way waâ— it true that Faith is the Victory or the Victrix rather that overcomes the whole world for by Faith we captivate our stubborne wils to reason and so quell as well the inward as the outward enemies to Christ and how doe Martyrs else by dying conquer death as Christ did on the Crosse but by dying for the Faith and in the Faith of Christ 5. None else indeed can doe it for in beleeving this we are forced to oppose all other that deny it and if in that opposition we lose our lives rather then our Faith we get the Victory of all the world that persecutes us for it and of death it selfe for he that beleeves this hopes in Iesus and hoping cals upon him and calling him to aide loves him and loving him takes courage to defie all his Enemies which are the world the flesh and the devill and in scorning them gets force to resist them and in resisting obtaines grace to overcome them 6. This is the Messias that Ezechiel cap. 36. v. 25. and Zachary cap. 13. v. 1. foretold should come in water and bloud alluding to the water of holy Baptisme and to the bloud he shed upon the Crosse and to verifie this both bloud and water issued out of his pierced side as he hung upon the Crosse as also of teares and bloud in his circumcision in his Prayer in the garden and in his whipping at the Pillory in memory of all which in the sacrifice of the Masse water is mixed with the wine that is to be consecrated By the Spirit testifying Christ to be verity is understood the holy Ghost descending and confirming the Apostles in grace and in beliefe of all that Christ had said unto them as if not onely a true man but God and man had told them and consequently verity it selfe for God is no lesse then very verity So Saint John rests not content to have given us the double Testimony of bloud and water without he had added also the sumnity or height of all Testimony the pure Spirit of Almighty God Nor are they out of the way that understand this place to be meant also of the testimony of the
inward spirit or inspiration of the holy Ghost revealing as it were to man internally this truth by a speciall favour of holy unction of whom it is said 2 Ep. Ioan. cap. c. 2. v. 20. 27. He shall teach all truth and that his unction teacheth us in all things 7. This for is a proper illative he having said before the Spirit bore testimony that Christ was verity since the Spirit is one of the three in heaven that give testimony beyond all exceptions namely Father Son and Holy Ghost which is the very spirit that is mentioned testifying as above in Christ his behalfe so the scope of this verse is that all the three persons of the Blessed Trinity give testimony to man and Angels of Christ his being the Messias the Son of God sent to redeeme the world The Father in his Baptisme and Transfiguration the Holy Ghost by comming downe upon him in the shape of a Dove and by comming as sent from heaven by him after his Ascension to confirme his Apostles in grace on Whitsunday the Feast of Pentecost and the word or second person abundantly in all the mysteries of his life and death and all these three are one not in essence and divine nature onely but even in their Testimonies of him they all concurre in one and the same Truth 8. Saint Iohn having cited three divine or increated testimonies of Christ his Deity addes also three created testimonies of the same Truth the spirit water and bloud which three to make a perfect Analogy between this double Trinity he sayes are all one meaning they have all one root the Sacred Deity in which they are sanctified The water represents the Father the Bloud the Son the Spirit the Holy Ghost for as water was the first principle of all sublunary things as in the first of Genesis the creation declared so is the Father the creator of all the world and as Christ by his own bloud saved us so his Holy Martyrs by their bloud give testimony of him as the Holy Ghost taught all truth to the Apostles and their successors so that Spirit of Truth in the Holy Church beares testimony of his infallible veracity by whose holy Spirit she remaines infallible Take then this created Trinity thus by Water Baptisme by Bloud Martyrdome by the Spirit the charity of God diffused in our hearts and these three are one in way of Testimony or testifying all one thing the Deity of Christ that he was true God as well as man So they are not one in nature as the increated Trinity is but in office or Testimony they are all one and the same yet may we say they are even in nature all one too if wee make the division thus that these three human testimonies were all one in Christ as he was man that is the water and bloud out of his side and the spirit his human soule which he dying gave up to testifie he was a true man and all these three may be said one as being severall parts that integrated one whole Christ 9. This verse begins with an argument of similitude importing if we beleeve men much more ought we to beleeve God not that it implyeth as if the Testimony that holy Church gives of truth were a humane Testimony onely but yet creditable even upon that account and undoubted upon an other that though men speak yet God dictates the Truth unto them and so the Doctrine of the Church is not onely the Doctrine nor Testimony of men but also of God assisting them and thence it makes human-Divines or Divine-Men so in short the sence of this verse is whither the created or increated Trinity bear testimony of Christ his Deity it is the testimony of God himselfe either being or working infallible Truth whence Saint Peter 2 Epist cap. 1. v. 21. Sayes well The holy men of God spake inspired with the holy Ghost * So were those signes when Christ suffered in the Sun Moone Rocks c. Signes of the creator speaking in the creatures 10. For many reasons this is true first because he hath a thing testified by God secondly the testimony of God about that thing for none but God could reveale that truth of Christ being the Sonne of God This was told Saint Peter and thence he was called by Christ Blessed Matth. c. 16. v. 17. thirdly because this testimony is faith it selfe the greatest gift of God lastly because by this gift of Faith a man is regenerate and made of the devils Son to be the Son of God The Priest asking first the baptized if he do beleeve Christ and that professed then baptizeth immediately The Application 1. THe Illustration upon this Prayer gives a great help to the present Application of this Text unto our best advantage according to intention of the Holy Church for seeing by the Paschal Feast we understand the vertues that were proper thereunto we must not exclude the magazine of vertues which men have been hoarding up since Advent but especially those in Lent towards making us more capable of the benefit of our Saviours Resurrection because it is no lesse vertue to conserve what we have gotten then it was to get the thing acquired and wee shall then best conserve those vertues when by frequent Acts thereof as occasion is administred we make them perfect in us and when our selves are perfected by them 2. Now to shew the Church observes a method in her services as the three Theologicall vertues Faith Hope and Charity are the maine roots of all Christianity and of all other vertues whatsoever therefore from this time till we come againe to Advent where we first began the Rules of Christianity there are three seasons set a part for these Three Theologicall vertues which are the three last misteries of humane Redemption the resurrection whereby we are to perfect our Faith the Ascension whereby we are to perfect our Hope and the comming of the Holy Ghost whereby we are to perfect our charity as shall be said at large of each when they occurr 3. Suffice it for the present that this Epistle in the front thereof and quite throughout commends unto us the exercise of our Faith as the most proper vertue now required at our hands since we see the mystery of the Resurrection was a thing so hard to be believed that it cost our Saviour forty dayes paines to make it good by frequent apparitians in divers places unto divers persons for he had else ascended up to heaven as soone as ever he arose from his grave had it not been matter of huge difficulty to make the world from thence beleeve that he was God as well as man because he was risen from the dead and that as he being man did rise againe so they should doe that were men too the good to everlasting Joy the bad to everlasting paine no marvell then our Faith in the Resurrection be call'd the victory which over comes the world in the sence of the
alone damning without redemption for he that beleeveth not shall be condemned Mar. c. 16. v. 16. 10. Againe he shall argue them of Iustice that is hee shall accuse them of injustice shewing to the Jewes all their ceremoniall rites and Lawes did not render them just nor would all the morall vertues of the Gentiles that were infidels justifie them in the sight of God because none could render them just there but Jesus Christ who for that purpose went to his Father to tell him these onely shalt thou justifie who beleeve aright in me who renounce the ceremoniall Law of the Jewes the humane Law of the Gentiles and follow the divine Law that I have left them who alone have redeemed them and can alone save those that keep my Law that can make them truly just in the sight of men and Angels and of God himselfe it is very pretty what Saint Bernard saith of these words Ser. 12. The Holy Ghost doth argue the world of sinne because it dissembles of Justice which it doth not rightly order while it attributes the same to man not to God of Judgement which it usurpes while it judgeth rashly not onely of it selfe but of others too 11. Lastly he shal argue the world of Judgement is diversely understood by some that the Holy Ghost shal shew the world made a false judgement of Christ his Miracles holding them to be witchcrafts or workes of the devil by others that he shal argue men of sloath to be overcome by the wounded and conquered devil for want of diligence to resist him by others of cousenage to put their hopes in the devil who himselfe is damned and can save no man by others and those best of all that the Holy Ghost shal argue men of Judgement in shewing them how justly they deserve damnation who follow for their guides the damned devil and all his wayes and workes and this when he shal make the Apostles cast out devils out of the visible Temples where they were as Idols adored for God and out of the invisible Temples the soules of men whom they had possessed both by their foule persons presence and by the guilt of enormious sinne cast out by Sacramental grace of holy pennance 12. Christ here alludes to the mysteries of Faith the conversion of the Gentiles the foundation of the Churches and Government thereof by his Vicar by the Bishops and Priests in a Hierarchical way all which he left to be the product of the holy Ghost and things deeper then for novices to be able at first to dive into in whose eyes the carnal and ceremonial Rights of the Jewish Churches or Synagogues rather were too fresh as yet and their souls were not sufficiently illuminated to attend to higher matters and those altogether spiritual whence we may gather that even the Apostles had by the coming of the holy Ghost new lights and did daily increase in the knowledge of the mysteries of Faith and Religion according to that of the Proverbs Cap. 4. v. 18. The ways of the just are like light shining and increasing to high noon day whence the Primitive Church is compared to be quasi aurora consurgens like the dawning of the day Cant. 6.9 and proceeding brighter and brighter daily till she come to the brightness of the latter day when all her Saints shall enter like so many noon-time Suns into the kingdom of Heaven 13. When for the reasons above he shall come who is the spirit of Truth he shall teach you all Truth that you are capable off and that is fit you should know to guide your own and others souls to Heaven For he shall not speak of himself but what he shall hear since t is not what he alone says but what my Father and I say too that he shall tell you so all he says shall be as we all three determine nor shall he speak as men do out of their fancy no but just as I have taught you before and as my Father and I will have him tell you hereafter not as fables but as undoubted Truths which are of eternal Verity so look how Christ said his doctrine was not his own but his Fathers that sent him in like manner the truth which the holy Ghost shall teach is not his own onely but joyntly the Fathers and the Sons from whom he doth proceed and from whom he was sent And he shall tell you things to come by this is understood the Apostles were to have the Spirit of Prophesie as Actor 11. v. 18 20. v. 19 21. v. 11. we may read nor is St. Johns Apocalypse other then a continued Prophesie from one end to the other Nor was it requisite Christ his Apostles should be inferiourly gifted to any of the Ministers of God in the old Law and this gave great comfort and encouragement to the Apostles since naturally men desire to know future things by future things also venerable Bede understandeth things of Heaven of Grace and of Glory as who should say the Apostles shall not be onely able to guide you here but to set you safe into a blessed Eternity and future Kingdom that shall never end 14. He shall glorifie me when he shall confirm the world in the belief of my being the Messias expected God and man the Saviour of the World He shall receive of mine for he shall proceed from my Father and me and receive the Divine Essence one and the same in all the three Persons of the Trinity and consequently his Will shall be mine his Science mine his Doctrine mine where note the Text doth not say he shall receive me but of mine because he is a distinct Person from the Son and though he receive not the filiation by his procession he receives the Essence of the Son so that is to receive of him and yet not him nor to be him And thus he gave compleat content to the Apostles seeing they did passionately love him to tell them the Comforter he was to send them should supply his absence by teaching them as he had done by loving them as he did since he received his doctrine from him and his affection too The Application 1. THe whole scource of this Gospel is to beget belief in the Apostles that our Saviours departure from them was for their good and that the Primary effect of the coming of the holy Ghost was to beat down the sin of Infidelity as who should say it were the sin of sins not to believe in Jesus Christ and not to obey all his commands in vertue of that belief 2. What should then be the Practice of us Christians at this time but to use all means possible to fortifie our Faith as the greatest Bulwork against all sin whatsoever and indeed what is it else but a kinde of Infidelity not to do according as we are taught by the rules of Faith that is not to make all our actions tend to the sole will and pleasure of Almighty God since if
inflame one another to acts of Love and praise of God The rule of Ministery we see must be the same with that of preaching if we give it must be as from God not from our selves because by giving we intend to do good to others and since all goodness comes from God we must be sure to give rather in his then in our own or any other name for all gifts are originally from God the authour of them all and if we have any thing to give it is not our own but is lent us purposely to share part thereof to others be it a gift of nature or of grace That in all things which we say or doe God may be honoured and glorified not wee our selves magnified and how honoured by Jesus Christ who first taught us this perfection of referring all we say or do to Gods honour and glory for before Christ came all was vanity and pride nothing was done but for humane ends for selfe respects or the like whereas Christianity teacheth a quite contrary Doctrine to referre all to God and to arrogate nothing at all unto our selves Hence observe how besides Faith good works are necessary to salvation which yet the Libertines and Sectaries will not allow of The Application 1. LAst Sunday we were taught it was the proper duty of a Christian to exercise continuall Acts of Hope betweene the Ascension and the coming of the Holy Ghost See consequently now how the very first words of this dayes Epistle set us upon the two prime Acts of Hope Prudence and watchfull Prayer The first to shew we are not to be foolishly beaten off our Principles of Faith teaching us by practicall Prudence to worke out our salvation in Hope we shal not labour it in vaine The second to declare that Prayer without watchfulness is of small or no account at all since therefore our senses ought to be shut up in time of Prayer that the foule free from distraction of all sense may be like to her selfe in the state of separation from the body still fixt upon Almighty God as the blessed spirits of Saints and Angels are in Heaven 2. Nor is it without some Reason the method of this Booke allows but ten dayes onely for the speciall inculcation exercise of Hope First because Hope stil goes on hand in hand with Faith and Charity and cannot fail if those two be continued since it is impossible firmely to believe in God and ardently to love him without a constant Hope of enjoying him And secondly because it seemes mystically done of Holy Church to shorten the time of Hope thereby to make us see God cannot be long from those that long to be with him and are in constant expectation of his coming for we see that after onely ten dayes watchfull Prayer or exercise of Hope our Saviour sent the Holy Ghost to his Apostles not that he had promis'd it so soone but that he could not finde in his heart to defer it any longer And beloved if after the longest day of Time we enjoy a blissfull eternity how speedy a reward shall we esteeme it to be of our Hope and expectation in regard the abundance of the gain will recompence the longest delay thereof much after that sort as our Saviours first coming did recompence the four thousand years expectation of his Birth and Death for the Redemption of the World when we here the Prophet Habacuc c. 2. v. 3. say in his name I will come and I will not stay nay though I delay my coming yet I will not tarry Why because when I come I will reward beyond all expectation 3. Lastly we must not omit to mark that so soon as ere we Hope in God we ought to fasten Acts of Love unto that Hope for so the second Verse of this Epistle teacheth us hanging many links of Charity to that onely one of Hope presented to us here as we may see whilest the whole Epistle all but the first Verse thereof which is of Hope runs upon nothing else but ranking Charity into her several Acts that so the Holy Ghost now every hour expected may finde he comes where he 's as well beloved as hoped for nor can we indeed expect that he will enter into souls who love him not who have not their Wills devoted to him who have not their hearts sincerely set upon his Service according to the Rule of Christian Doctrine And for this purpose Holy Church as having our Reasons now illuminated and regulated by faith Praies as above that our Wills by the gift of Hope may be devoted and our hearts by Charity sincerely bent unto the service of his heavenly Majesty Hope and Charity residing in the Will as Faith doth in the understanding The Gospel Iohn 15. v. 26 27. Cap. 16. v. 1. c. 26 But when the Paraclete cometh whom I will send you from the Father the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall give Testimony of me 27 And you shall give Testimony because you are with me from the beginning Chap. 16.1 These things have I spoken to you that you be not scandalized 2 Out of the Synagogues they will cast you but the hour cometh that every one which killeth you shall think that he doeth service to God 3 And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me 4 But these things I have spoken to you that when the hour shall come you may remember them that I told you The Explication 26. NOte here though the Greek Hereticks take hold from hence to say the Holy Ghost doth not proceed from the Son but onely from the Father because Christ saith the latter in express terms yet the very truth is that procession and mission in the Divine Persons import all one thing and therefore the Father is never said to be sent at all wherefore Christ saying he will send the Holy Ghost it argues his procession is equally from both as his mission was The Paraclete is as much as to say the Comforter whose coming is both to comfort all Christians and to give testimony to all the world of that Doctrine which Christ had preached he is called the Spirit of Truth First because he proceedeth from the Son who is called the wisdom of his heavenly Father as also the Way the Truth and the Life Secondly because his coming made manifest the Truth of Christ his Doctrine of his being the Messias the Son of God the Saviour of the World Thirdly because he is the truest and most excellent Spirit in respect of whom the Angels the Souls of men and the Winds are but Analogical Spirits as being such onely by participation whereas the holy Ghost is so by Essence Fourthly because for this third Reason he is worthy of all Faith and Credit Fifthly because he gives Testimony of the New Testament which was brought us by a Spirit of Liberty and Truth whereas the Old was brought by a
dwell indeed within us which happinesse we cannot receive from any one single Person of the Blessed Trinity but we must own it to them All three since where one Person is of necessity there all the three Divine Persons are also be it by presence or by operation 24. Here we see clearly the cause of our well doing or keeping Gods commands is our loving God and consequently the cause of our not doing well is our not loving him to which purpose St. Gregory hom 30. sayes excellently well To know whether we love God or not ask our Tongues if they speak well of him ask our souls if they imploy their thoughts upon him ask our lives if our actions be directed to his honour and glory if they be doing what he hath commanded or avoiding what he hath forbidden When he sayes The word he speaks is not his the meaning is 't is not onely his but also his Fathers because himself is the word of his Father and consequently as his nature is common with him and his Father so is his operation too wherefore what he sayes to us his Father sayes to him because all he is himself is to be his Fathers word 25. These things have I spoken to you abiding with you while I was with you I told you these things not that they abide by you or that you understand them but it sufficeth for the present I tell them to you though you understand them not you will penetrate these and much more when the holy Ghost shall telling you the same confirm you that he and I are both one God one Spirit one Goodnesse one Truth 26. It may seem strange here that Christ sayes his Father shall send the Holy Ghost to them in his name whereas Chap. 15. the same Evangelist tells us that he said he would send them the same holy Spirit himself in his Fathers name but the very truth is these two seeming several speeches are both to one and the same purpose for as the Holy Ghost doth proceed both from the Father and the Son one coequal Spirit and God with them both so is he equally sent by them both whence these are not contradicting but cohering Truths telling at several times what is most certain true But there are divers senses of these words in my name as first the Father is said to send the Holy Ghost in his Sons name as by the Sons means whose spiration as it is joyntly concurring with the Fathers to the procession of the Holy Ghost so by him joyntly with him the Father sends the Holy Ghost unto us Secondly in his name imports in vertue of his merits deserving for us the happinesse of this comfortable mission or missive comforter Thirdly in his name is as much as to say in his place to supply his visible presence by an invisible comfort equal thereunto that he may finish the work of humane salvation which Christ began and hence it followes he shall teach you all things namely to understand what Jesus told you and what he will have you further to know for establishing his Church over all the world and he shall suggest and prompt to you all things whatsoever I shall say This place is liable to several senses as whether the holy Spirit shall suggest more unto them for government of the Church then Christ told them because he spake much which they could not then understand or whether his suggestion shall onely be an exposition of what they heard before and were not able to penetrate the bottome of it but truly the last sense seemes most genuine because of that which followes namely his suggesting what Christ shall say what he hath unintelligibly already said and shall afterwards intelligibly by the Holy Ghost say unto them yet this sense may be verified though we do not take suggestion to be as a help to understanding but to memory as generally the Expositours conceive of it as if the suggestion of the holy Ghost were a renewing the memory of the Apostles towards calling to mind and upon recalling better understanding the meaning of what Christ had said then they did when they heard him speak what was now revived in their memory by the prompting or suggestion of the Holy Ghost But since in other places the Expositours have declared Christ did not tell the Apostles all that which he meant they should do by the instinct of the Holy Gbost especially for framing and maintaining the Hierarchy of the Church nor for expounding the mysteries of Faith therefore if we take here this suggestion in a larger sense then generally Expositours do we shall not erre as if we extend it to the holy Ghost prompting unto them what our Saviour shall say to him and by him to them now that he is in heaven for as Christ sayes his doctrine is not his own but his heavenly Fathers so it is certain the suggestions of the holy Ghost are not his own but Christ his doctrine whether delivered before by himself and so renewed in the memory of the Apostles by the holy Ghost as all Expositours allow or whether now onely spoken immediately to the Holy Ghost by Christ and by mediation of that holy Spirit to us for assuredly there are many things especially concerning government of the holy Church suggested by the Holy Ghost to the now present Governours thereof which were not spoken by Christ to his Apostles 27. By Christ his peace is here meant that which St. Paul Philip. 4. told us did exceed all humane sense and this he calls his so peculiarly as indeed it can be properly no bodies else but his own since he hath purchased it for us by his having ended all our war with sin death and the devil all such war as can indanger us if our selves be not cowards and cease to fight for this assurance we have as long as we fight we conquer and in conquering possesse that peace which by the Battel of temptation the devill sought to wrest away from us that sweetnesse that tranquillity of soul which a good conscience bringeth with it at all times and to all persons whatsoever This is the peace Christ gave and this he gives not as the world gives peace which is rather perturbation for the more we have of worldly peace and ease the lesse we have of true tranquillity of mind which is then most perfect when we are most at strife with the world and other enemies to Christian peace St. Augustine hath an excellent saying to this purpose He cannot be at peace with Christ who hath any contention with a Christian who is a member of him But the most genuine sense of this place is that he gave the Apostles his own peace immunity from all sin which onely can be the breach of peace with God And therefore he closed this verse with these words let not your heart be troubled at my going from you the presence of my peace shall supply for the absence of my
in this with a mighty authority of Fathers so 't is no weak assertion I hope of mine nor any ill-grounded recommends being thus supported O Beloved what an ineffable dignity doth this set upon these Prayers What an Emolument may we bring to our selves by saying them in such society What a vast Treasure of devotion shall we find wrapt up in them In fine what a supine negligence shall it be in us not to avail our selves of this devotion which without envie I may say is such as none that is vocall can equall it and which yet I have aymed to contrive into so short a method as shall not hinder us from any other pious exercises whatsoever onely let me beg this favour of our Sodality to ranke this way of prayer in the number of those duties towards Almighty God whereof it is truly said Mat. 23. ver 23. Haec oportet facere These things we ought to doe which yet shall nothing clash with what followes truly averrable of other Devotions to Et illa non omittere Those we need not omit for using these Not that I affirm we must of necessity say this Trinity of Prayer which here I have suggested to deserve the Title of good Christians or of Trinitarians as some from hence may call us but that I mean we must prefer the publike prayers of holy Church before all others whatsoever And truly since the first of these three Prayers will by this Book appear to bee an Abstract both of the Epistle and Gospel of the day rather than I shall attribute this devotion to my own Invention I will conceive it was the pristine practice of the Church because the very nature of the Piety is such as seems to draw its source from the better fountaines of devotion than any I can lay claim unto namely the zeals of the Antient Fathers of the Church True it is I can not positively say it was so but thus much I need not scruple to avouch That as the Epistles and Gospels are the expresse Doctrine of our blessed Saviour or of his Apostles as where S. Paul sayes Non Dominus sed ego Not our Lord but I c. 1 Cor. Chap. 7. so the Churches publike Prayers are the speciall Dictates of the Holy Ghost that is to say the avowed suggestions of that Holy Spirit which avowment our private praiers do want though whether the blessed spirit were resolv'd The holy Fathers who made these Publick Prayers should with reflection frame them suiteable to this Designe which I now draw them to that is more than I dare venture to affirme but certainly that holy Spirit did suggest unto the Pastors of the Church a stile so proper and so deep withall as might sound the lowest bottome of the Sea of holy Writ and so exhaust even the abstrusest sence thereof which whether I have alwayes done I know not but I beleive the meanest understanding will perceive I often make the Collect expresse the substance of the whole Epistle and Gospel of the day and where I come not home to this 't is rather that I see it not than that the Prayer extends no further or suits no better unto this Design suffice it now the door is open that stronger-sighted soules may see much farther into the Paradise of this Devotion than I have done and shew the world much rarer fruit therein To me the Honour is too much that I have made a great Attempt which is to render that Book sweet and easie wherein we may presume the Holy Ghost directed the Composers of it for the publick use of the Layety the Primmer I mean whose Prayers I hope henceforward will be found as sweet as they are sound and not so hard as to be laid aside for either barren or too deep to be understood by the common People The Hymmes whereof I conceive are lately made so smooth so eloquent and yet so easie too in the Manuell lately printed at Saint Omers that every one who can but read the English Tongue will find them very pleasing The Lessons I shall explicate in my second Tome of this Christian Sodality which I intend to Publish next following the like method as here I hold in this upon all the Feasts of our Lord as also upon those Festivals of his ever Blessed Mother the Virgin Mary those especially which allude to any Mystery of our Redemption As to the particular Feasts of other Saints I shall spare the labour to write upon them in this method but shall recommend them for daily Garnishing or Sawces to the Dishes added now and then as they occurre to the constant Table of the Churches Sundayes and weekly food out of the Epistles and Gospels of the Season First Because the Prayers we use to Saints are cheifly addrest to God by the merits of his sacred Son as in the close of every Prayer appeares ending still Through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Secondly Because the particular honour we give to Saints must never interrupt the generall duty we owe to God at all times and upon all occasions Thirdly Because I find these Prayers have rather a Report to the Martyrologe or Stories of Saints lives and deaths than to the Epistle and Gospel of the day in regard one and the same Epistle and Gospel is common to divers Saints yet we may piously beleive those Saints whom then we serve have served God in their life time by being eminent in such perfections as the Epistles and Gospels read upon their Feasts doe recommend unto us all Neverthelesse I shall in my second Tome set out the Communion of Saints in such order as I intend to doe the Feasts of our Lord and of his sacred Mother that by this meanes the Layety may see in generall at least the severall Degrees of Saintity in Holy Church as those of Angels Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins and Widdowes whence they may easily distinguish the particular Proportion of every particular Saint as his or her Feast occurres in that line of Perfection which the common Glasse of Saintity shall represent As for the like regard I intend lastly in my second â—ome to add the Communion of Vigils the Embers and Rogation Dayes in this self-same method as these above because my third â—ome else of Lent will be too long if set forth after this manner there being six and thirty feriall Dayes in Lent besides the Sundayes already published in this first Tome and every day hath as well a particular Antiphon and Prayer as a particular Epistle and Gospel proper to it self whereof divers are very long besides those four long Gospels of the four Evangelists read all at length in Holy week which will swell this third Tome to a mighty bulk being done in this method where every verse is particularly gloss'd and by this meanes I shall render as much Scripture easie to the people as will occurre in the flux of the whole year which is the cheifest motive I have to give
Parents will to have him lost If then beloved we see the piety of the B. Virgin Mother of God was short of that which must be our guide how can we hope with lesse than heavenly piety to render our actions our desires gratefull to his divine Majesty And who can now complain there wants connexion in this Prayer unto the other service of the day if any doe let him see how to comply with the heavenly piety of his Eternall Father Jesus was Thirty years together subject to his Temporall Mother and then we shall soon find out a way how to sweeten the sour of our humane actions by having no desire to any of them less than heavenly nor to doe them with less than heavenly piety The Epistle ROM 12. ver 1. c. 1. I Beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercy of God that you exhibite your bodies a living host holy pleasing God your reasonable service 2. And be not conformed to this world but he reformed in the newnesse of your mind that you may prove what the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is 3. For I say by the grace that is given me to all that are among you not to be more wise than behooveth to be wise but to be wise unto sobriety to every one as God hath divided the measure of Faith 4. For as in one body we have many members but all the members have not one action 5. So we being many are one body in Christ and each one anothers members The Explication 1. THe Apostle had in his former Chapter told them much of the mercies of Almighty God and shewed them how though the wicked were justly condemned yet even the Blessed were most mercifully saved hence by that mercy so much inculcated immediately before he now conjures them that as they had now received from him the rule of Faith so they would frame their manners their actions and lives according to that rule see what is said of this Rule in the next Sundayes Epistle Rom. 12. v. 6. But to the present Text wherein the Apostle here beseecheth them by the mercy so much above recommended to live good lives answerable to their rule of Faith and to exhibite their bodies by action as well as their souls by Faith a living host to God There are many who loose the literall sense of this place by contenting themselves with the divers and those excellent mysticall meanings thereof as first by saying our bodies are living when our lives are vertuous Secondly when we are charitable because charity is the life of all vertues Thirdly when we have received the Sacrament of Christ his Body and Bloud but in very deed the literall allusion here is to the antient bloudy Sacrifices both of Jews and Gentiles made of beasts dead bodies whereunto the daily unbloudy Sacrifice of the Evangelicall Lamb is diametrically opposite first of the living Body and bloud of Christ next of living chastized but not mortified bodies of Christians being as the Apostle adviseth offered up to the service of Almighty God since such chastizements leave the bodies living by a naturall life again they live by the spirituall life of good works done in obedience to their soules command for so operating besides by corporall mortification or pennance the body is made truly a living host because it is mortified alive by becoming subject to the command of the Spirit for all mortification is a kind of living death whilest it makes the body dye to concupiscence and live to grace but these our bodies must further be holy Sacrifices that is to say imployed in holy not prophane or impure works not worshipping Idols as the Gentiles did but God as befits good Christians not polluting their bodies with unchast actions but keeping them pure and undefiled for this purity is by the Apostle 1 Cor. 7 called sanctity and is such indeed Again this bodily host must be pleasing to God for it may be living and holy in it self and yet not pleasing to God if the offerer be displeasing since many there are who fast goe in pilgrimage to holy places doe other corporall pennances and yet not rectifying together their souls obliquities their passions of the mind are nothing pleasing to God Lastly he concludes exhorting that our offerings to God be seasoned with the salt of wisedome that is be alwayes a reasonable service not fond childish curious indiscreet or singular but such as we may ever render a reasonable account of even to God who will not allow of indiscretions for reasons though indeed the Apostle here alludes to the irrationall offerings among the Gentiles who made their Idols their Gods and dedicated their services to Stocks and Stones whereas he would have Christians be more reasonable and instead of dead beasts to offer their living bodies joyntly with the acts of their believing hoping and loving souls to be a perpetuall Sacrifice or service to God all their life time and thus the whole creature will become not a corporall not an irrationall but a spirituall and reasonable Sacrifice 2. The Apostle hath pleased to make a disjunctive recommends of this entire creature in way of Sacrifice to God while in the former verse he insisted cheifly on the corporall part of the creature which we are and so advised how to render our bodies a living Sacrifice to God but in this verse he tells us how to render our better part the soul of man an acceptable oblation to the divine Majesty and since Christian perfection consists as well in declining evill as in doing good therefore this verse begins with removing evill out of our way that so we may doe good which the Apostle understands when he bids us take heed we doe not conforme our actions to the course of this unconformable world and this we shall performe by avoiding the evill that we see in men for we shall then best shew that we doe not conforme unto sinfull men when we fly their company and avoid such actions as renders them sinners and having thus followed the negative part of this counsell we are the better prepared to put the positive part thereof in execution for by not conforming to the world we whose bodies are made up of the old worldly metall shall be reformed in the newnesse of our minds by setting them henceforward on heavenly which heretofore were imployed wholly upon earthly cogitations so the Apostle by bidding us not conform to this world did not mean to forbid us making use of it but not to figure our selves like unto it that is not to become vain proud idle and the like as the world is for so we make our selves figures of this world or variable as worldlings are whereas the Apostle desires us to avoid becoming mutable or transitory figures and wisheth us to become persisting formes rather which are of a permanent nature namely spirituall formes of Saints not worldly figures of men and here reformation imports in truth
the meanest often doe 7. Further he proceeds to tell them he fears even himself as man lyable to the titillation of vain-glory and therefore to quell the rising of that rebellion in his own thoughts he confounds himself by declaring how rebellious he found his flesh even after he had the honour of this high rapture Note this rebellion of the flesh as given that is permitted to molest him by God intending thence to increase his merit by his humiliation not by the devill who intendeth alwayes thereby to tempt and destroy though God permitted the devill to make use by his temptation hereupon to bring Paul to carnality as he permitted him and therefore it must not be held immodesty to take this place in the right sense as explicating the Apostles affliction of body in this kinde â—o gain him the greater merit of grace and glory thereby For thus the Fathers understand S. Paul to call the buffeting of Satan that is the Devils raising in him this perpetuall rebellion of his flesh against his Spirit though his corporall labours in the vineyard of Christ were such as render'd his body little able to perform acts of lust First because the Apostle calls it here the sting of his flesh though he attributes it as a true effect to its true cause and therefore stiles it the Devils flail beating or buffering him continually Secondly because hee often complains of his carnall concupiscence molesting him especially Rom. 7.13 where he sayes it torments him as much as all his other persecutions and to quell this he tells us 1 Cor. 9. he doth chastise his bodie Thirdly because there is nothing can so truly humble a true Saintly spirit as this base temptation or rebellion of the flesh can doe which pulls men into the puddle of corruption as envying their happiness by rising up to the Paradise of immortality and glory Fourthly because these temptations doe not properly hurt pure soules but onely dminister matter of their better advantaging themselvas by shewing the power that a soule well ordered hatheto subdue all rebellion of the body lastly 8. By the Apostles professing he did three times pray to be delivered from this molestation for as by the number of three we heard before is included all number so by the trine repetition of prayer to this effect we conceive he meanes his alwaies praying to be eased of it and was answered it should not hurt him being as he was supported by the grace of God against it God dealing with Paul in this as Physitians do with patients calling to take off tormenting plaisters from them that is not reguarding their call to this purpose as knowing the paine that troubles them will be the cure of their disease against which the painful plaister was applied so was this of carnall concupiscence against the spirituall pride S. Paul might else have been transported with had not this humbling trouble kept him free from so dangerous a sinne as pride and vaine-glory 9. And that this was the true reason see what followes the more infirme man is the more power God shewes by his grace killing sinne in man by this power is understood his virtue overcoming the Apostles infirmity as importing carnall intemperance for these were the words of Christ denying Pauls request to be eased of his corporall infirmity his carnall temptation saying to him that as his Grace sufficeth for a remedy against all such temptations so his Virtue which in it selfe was alwaies perfect did appeare in us to be perfected when it had power to cure our like infirmities that is so to qualify them as though they remained in our bodies they should not hurt our soules but still the resisting soule should grow better however the suffering body seemed to grow worse by the perpetuall combate Note diverse do diversly expound this place some say it is also verified when any other heroick Acts of virtue are produced by weak men as well as those of Temperance Continence Chastity others when being conscious of our own infirmity we render the glory of all we doe to God others that the true subject whereon virtue workes is weaknesse to corrobotate what is infirme others that experience of often harme by such and such things makes weak men strong and able to refraine from what hurts them and so to make weaknesse the perfecter of their fortitude lastly S. Hierome to Ciâ—sephontes saies this is the onely perfection of the present life that thou acknowledge thy self imperfect wherefore S Paul concludes that he willingly and joyfully gloryes in his infirmities as in withdrawing roomes to the virtue of Christ which delights to be and dwell where infirmity is as the Apostle here tels us 10. And in the next verse of this Chapter he tells us he meanes by infirmity pleasing himself as he saies in his infirmities contumelies necessities persecutions and distresses for Christ concluding that when in any of these kinds he is weak then he is mighty meaning wheâ— weak in body he is strong in mind or virtue when weak in man he is mighty in Christ for whose sake he glories and pleaseth himselfe to become weake and if we will take S. Bernards opinion by the virtue which was perfected in infirmi y he will tell us it was humility and that this was the speciall virtue Christ recommended to his Apostles saying learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart Matth. 11. vers 29. So indeed the Apostle ends his boasting Chapter with his chiefest glory in his infirmity in his humility and conceives he shall best quell the pride â—f his Antagonists the false Apostles by leaving them to vaunt in flesh and bloud in their greatness while he glories in his pressures in his imprisonments in his whippings in his carnall temptations as having overcome all these by the virtue of Christ that is by humility in stooping patiently to the pressure of all these The Application 1. BLessed God! must we runne digge delve and plow all dayes of our life and that upon our masters ground nay in his own Vineyard too and must we yet lye open unto danger while we toyle is our ease damnable so last sunday told us and our labour dangerous so we are told to day 2. For what we read befell S. Paul we may be sure hangs also over us Danger here danger there and consequently danger every where If we doe ill 't is damnable to us if we doe well t is odious unto those that persecute us for so doing 3. Nay if we fly to heaven it self in heavenly contemplation yet the danger doth not cease so long as we are living here on earth S. Paul was there and after that he had the Divell at his back to pluck him down to hell nay his own flesh rebelled against him too so 't is with us what remedy But that we pray as holy Church appoints and that we hope so praying to obtain the help he had The Grace that maugre danger
though there were no priority of time wherein the Synagogue was existent before Moses the first-borne thereof nor of the Church before Christ the first-borne of her So here we see it is not inconsistent that Christ be both the Father and the childe of the Church the childe as the first borne of it in the sight of God the Father as the first erector of it in the sight of man 28. And from hence floweth the genuine sence of this next verse wherein the Apostle doth not onely meane that we Christians are Brothers to each other but that we have yet an honour farre transcending this namely to be even the Brethren of Christ Jesus so that he is a child as as well as we are the children of promise and consequently he and we are brethren being borne both of one promising parent Almighty God out of the barren wombe of Sara he only having this prerogative to be the first-borne of Sara and so Abrahams heire but we as being his brethren by vertue of the same promise are his coheires 29. This verse alludes to what we read Gen. 21. v. 8. of the jesting or playing of Jsmael so familiarly with Jsaac at the banquet which Abraham made when Isaac the younger brother was weaned that Sara knowing it was her Sonne Jsaac who must be heir to his Father Abraham complained to him not onely of the boldnesse of Ismael and of his sawcy familiarity with Jsaac which was a figure of the Jewes mocking of Christ and of false Churches scoffing at the true one but also of Agar his Mothers impudence not to reprehend her Slave-borne Son for his boldnesse with his Free-borne Brother whereupon Agar and Ismael were turned out of doores by Abraham as the Synagogue and Jewes were out of Christs Church for by Son of the flesh is here meant Ismael and by the Son of the Spirit the Apostle in this place meanes Israel as was said before adding that this quarrel betweene those two brothers continues stil in us so long as the flesh rebels against the spirit in man or so long as false Churches arise and persecute the true one 30. Then and not tiil then shall the Son of the Bond-woman be cast out by Christians as well as the Synagogue was by Christ himselfe according to Saint Pauls meaning here when there shall be in the worlds end but one stock and one shepheard though even now we that are children of the true Church must cast out of our communion in spirituals at least those that are of false Churches for they cannot with us inherit the kingdome of heaven what claime soever they lay unto it by feigned Sanctity or pretended legitimacy of birth unto that inheritance 31. Note though here the Apostle tels us for our comfoâ—t that we true Christians whereby is understood onely Catholikes who are of the true Christian religion are Sons of Sara the Free-woman that is of the remaining Church of Christ and not of Agar the abrogated Synagogue of the Jewes yet withall he mindes that we have not this Freedome this honour by right of inheritance as from our earthly or spirituall parents either but meerly as from the gratuite gift of Jesus Christ since by his holy grace it is we are adopted Children of Heaven and not by our Fathers in nature or in Spirit the Priests of the Church for as the first are no way able to beget us unto God so the last doe it but instrumentally as they are Vicars of Christ or dispensers of the mysteries of God and of his holy grace by meanes of the Sacraments The Application 1. THe Illustration upon this Sundayes Prayer and the explication upon this Epistle are so full and so home to the purpose of the Lenton Fast and to the end thereof our Purification that nothing will remaine now but to finde what good works now are by this Epistle taught to adde unto the Holy Fast which is not perfected without them 2. Now in regard we see this Parabolicall Epistle windes off with an Application to the Catholike Christian Redeemed from the Bondage of the Jewish Synagogue and from the slavery of sin by the merits of Christ and consequently giveth us cause of huge comfort for this redemption therefore we shall do well to joyn an Alacrity of soule unto the Lenten Fast because God loves a merry giver as a proper integrative part thereof especially on this Sunday which is called the Sunday of joy and not unfitly so when the whole Epistle runs upon the joyful Allegory between the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant by the abolition of the Jewish Synagogue 3. And yet because the motive of our joy is ever extrinsecal coming from Heaven to us out of the infinite mercy of God and no way proceeding from our selves whose every action so far forth as it is our own is demeriting and drawing punishment upon us for the sin it is in us unlesse by Gods assisting grace it be made vertuous therefore we are justly bid in our greatest comforts to acknowledge the punishments we deserve if God should ever give us our own due and consequently to mix with our Ioyes our Tears or rather never to look for any joy that we doe not first beg with sorrow for our sins to the end it may be with us as Holy David said according to the multitude of my griefes thy consolations have joy'd my soule whence it is we are taught to mix contrition with Alacrity this holy time of Lent to make our Fast compleat And that we may do this we fitly pray when this is preached to us as above The Gospel Joh. 6. v. 1 c. 1 After these things Iesus went beyond the Sea of Galilee which is of Tiberias 2 And a great multitude followed because they saw the signes which he did upon those that were sick 3 Iesus therefore went up into the mountaine and there he sate with his Disciples 4 And the Pasche was at hand the Festivall day of the Iewes 5 When Iesus therefore had lifted up his eyes and saw that a very great multitude cometh to him he saith to Philip whence shal we buy bread that these may eat 6 And this he said tempting him For himselfe knew what he would doe 7 Philip answered him two hundred peny-worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every man may take a little piece 8 One of his disciples Andrew the Brother of Simon Peter saith to him 9 There is a boy here that hath five barley loaves and two fishes but what are these among so many 10 Jesus therefore saith make the men sit down And there was much grasse in the place The men therefore sat downe in number about five thousand 11 Iesus therefore took the Loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to them that sate in like manner also of the fishes as much as they would 12 And after they were filled he saith to his Disciples gather the fragments that are remaining
victorious peace as who should say his coming hither was not upon his own account but ours So he tells them now his business is done their peace is made in Heaven and Earth 20. He shewed how they still remained perforated boared thorough as with the Nayles and Spear that had pierced them while he hung upon the Cross what more powerful Argument of the Truth of his resurrection what more convincing proof that it is a Piety for Christians to revere the memory of his Sacred wounds when the first thing he shewed to oblige us to love him after his resurrection were the Wounds he received for us in his bitter Death and Passion The joy which followed in the Disciples upon seeing these wounds was not that he had received them but that those notwithstanding and his Death to boot for the sins of mankinde they saw him propitious merciful sweet benigne unto them that they did not see him come to reproach their flight from him nor Peters denying of him but to comfort them to consolidate their Faith and in them the Faith of all Christians in this now undoubted Truth that as he became man was crucified dead and buried for satisfaction of our sins so now he arose from Death to Life to give all mankinde an assurance that the work of their redemption was finished and their salvation secured if they would themselves hence it was the Apostles were glad to see our Lord risen and alive to confirm all his former Doctrine maugre the Jews malice against him and their belief that they had put him to such a death as he was past all power of reviving 21. While he repeats peace to them again he shews the abundance of his goodness flowing still from himself and falling upon those he loves and further in testimony that these his Apostles were all in the rank of those he loved most behold he gives his own most ample commission which he had from his heavenly Father unto every one of them while he sends them in vertue of the same Commission to convert the whole world as he himself was sent first to redeem it and by vertue of his Passion to convert it also which yet he would not do to have the whole honour of it to himself but gives to his Apostles the happiness to be his instruments his cooperators thereunto as himself was the instrument of his heavenly Father to the same purpose and if we observe the force of our Saviours words in giving his commission of Apostolate to these his chosen Servants we shall finde he doth not onely give them the title and honour of being his Apostles but of being even so many Sons of God by commission not by nature while he sends them even as his Father sent him to supply what was wanting of his Passion as we have heard already explicated once or twice 22. And least being but men not God as he was they should fear to fail in the execution of this high Commission Lo by his breathing on them he seems to convert them into holy Spirits and if we may so say even to so many Hoâ—y Ghosts by Commission or Office not by Nature in giving the Holy Ghost unto them For as by Spiration of the Father and Son the Holy Ghost proceeded equal to both in Nature so by this Spiration of Christ upon his Apostles they became equal in Spirit to him sent as he was by his heavenly Father in similitude of office in-similitude of power because he was God as well as his Father in similitude of end to save the souls of men in similitude of works of miracles and lastly in similitude of Spirit of Love and of affection while their commission is given by way of his Holy and Divine Insufflation or Inspiration whence they were impowered even to dye for him as he was by the force of his own holy Spirit to dye for us and by this inspiration he shews that as God by breathing on Adam gave him natural Life so he by breathing on his Apostles gives them a supernatural one a life of Grace but we must note here the holy Ghost was not given them as they had it before in Baptism when they received justifying Grace and Grace rendring them grateful nor as it was afterward to be given them by way of plenitude containing the fulness when they were so confirmed in Grace as that probably they never sinned afterwards but as a thing here gratis given and limited to one special effect namely to that of remission of sins as is made evident by the words in the following Verse so here we may see gratuite grace may consist with the state of sin or power to absolve others sins may be in a Priest who is actually himself in sin Note also by this inspiration the same power of remitting sins was given to St. Thomas though absent as well as to those Apostles present as Numb 11. v. 26. we read the Spirit of Prophesie was given in like absence by Moses to Eldad and Medad for we do not see it repeated after when St. Thomas came in among them though some think it was then he received that power and not before Note also that by this ceremony of our Saviours breathing upon the Apostles holy Church is grounded in sufficient warrant to use such ceremonies as to her shall seem fit in Administration or Collation of Sacraments 23. How absurdly doth Calvin wrest this place to power of preaching rather then he will allow man power of remitting sins though it be given him by God himself This very corruption of so plain a place of Scripture argues how dangerous a thing it is for men to read and wrest it to their own sense since the Act of Preaching is Teaching and Exhorting the Act of forgiving sins is the Act of a judging Power besides all men may at all times be lawfully preacht unto be they in sin or out of sin but all cannot at all times be absolved from sin nor any indeed at any time but by Contrition Confession and Satisfaction either Actual or in Vote if opportunity be given It is therefore an Article of Faith that by these words our Saviour gave to the Apostles power to forgive sins however it may be disputed whether he had not before at his last Supper made them Priests when he said unto them as often as you shall do this that is as often as you shall Consecrate my Body and Blood or Eat and Drink them do it in remembrance of me Luk. 22. v. 19. because now whensoever Priests are Ordained it is done by their joynt prolation of the words of Consecration with the Bishop at Mass after he hath said unto them Receive ye power to offer Sacrifice and though here were given by Christ the Faculties of Absolving to the Apostles yet it doth not follow Priesthood was then given since to this day we see many Priests that have power to Sacrifice and yet have not leave to Administer
our being by the word of truth begotten since the Apostle doth close this verse with telling us how to make our selves more apt to receive the word of truth into our soules or as who should say since wee are begotten voluntarily by the word of truth let us endeavor by all meanes to preserve in us this regeneration this inborne word in us this filiation to God this adoption to glory and by the name of uncleanness the Apostle here alludes to concupiscence drawing us from the life of this word unto the death of sinne by the name of malice hee alludes to the sinne of anger before inculcated as hindering our justice such as by meekness we produce in our selves and so preserve the inbred word our filiation to God which must be our finall salvation of our soules by taking in or receiving the ingraffed word is here meant keeping it for this was spoken to those who were already Christians and the allusion is pretty which is here made to a graft for as by ingrafting on the body of an Apple-tree the gardiner if he please brings forth a Plum or Peare so the word of God ingrafted into our soules brings forth the fruits of grace which are the Seeds of better fruit of glory if any aske what is this ingrafted word we may say it is God incarnate for his incarnation is as it were an ingrafting or inoculating God into the hearts or soules of men since as the graft is alwayes of a better kinde then the Stock it is ingrafted on so the Divinity is much more sweet and fertil then our sowre Crab of humane nature whereas by the Hypostaticall union God and man in Christ became one person as the Tree and the graft become one body when the Sap unites and cements them together againe as all grafts are first cut from their own homogeneall Stock before they be ingrafted into another so the second person of the Trinity was taken as it were out of the hosome of his eternal Father to be ingrafted in the wombe of the Blessed Virgin Mary and so was brought out of his heavenly to be planted in our earthly Paradise or rather wilderness indeed for such it was when he came downe to earth and as from the sowre Stock of a Crab-tree we must first cut a branch before we can ingraft a better fruit upon it so was there cut off from Christ his humane hypostasis and he made to subsist by the hypostasis divine besides as the graft and the Stock are bound together till they fasten into one another so by the hypostaticall union was the divine graft bound to our stock of humane nature that thereby God and man might grow into one person consisting of two natures others will have this ingrafted word to be the Blessed Sacrament united to our Soules others understand it to be Christ crucified on the Cross others contend it is the word of God ingrafted by the Preachers into the hearts of the Faithfull The Application 1. THe two first verses of this Epistle point directly at the gift of Faith which is indeed the Best and most perfect gift eminentially called the gift of God and is such a Light to our Reason as can come from none but the Father of Lights in it selfe the Blessed Trinity but as to us we may say it comes from the Father of our Light that is of our Faith our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath indeed voluntarily begotten us by the word of Truth the Holy Writ the Record of our Faith whereby we have our first beginnings of being God Almighties creatures 2. The two next verses tell us with what Alacrity and Promptitude we should hear this Sacred word of God as also with what Patience we should bear the Rebukes and Checks it gives our Consciences when it reprehends our vices In plaine termes we are told that to be Angry at any holy reprehension is an evident signe of our not being Right beleevers since by our operative Faith we are made just as we have often been taught and nothing is less consistent with justice then Anger 3. The last verse tels us what effects Faith ought to work in us namely Purity Love and Meekness for without these we are not capable of saving our soules by the ingafted word of God in us which yet of it self is sufficient to save us if received with that Purity which renounceth all mixture of Heresie Schisme or Infidelity for these are the Obstructions to the unity of minds which Faith worketh in the soules of true beleevers making them therefore all of one minde because they are all of one pure and impermixed Faith such as is only in the Catholicke Church and the effect whereof is to make them therefore love even the hardest commands of that good God they do beleeve in and to covet ardently what he promiseth unto them in requitall of their love who amongst all the allurements in this world fix their hearts only upon heavenly joyes which are promised in the next world not on such shadowes of joyes as we possess here in a word not to fix their hearts upon our present loanes but upon our future promises for God here doth not properly give us any thing how ever he lends us all we have his gifts are for eternall enjoyment not for temporary uses onely Now that we may doe this see how fitly Holy Church Prayes as above The Gospel John 16. v. 5 c. 5 But I told you not these things from the beginning because I was with you And now I goe to him that sent me and none of you asketh me whither goest thou 6 But because J have spoken these things to you sorrow hath filled your hearts 7 But J tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I goe for if I goe not the Paraclete shall not come to you but if I goe J will send him to you 8 And when he is come he shall argue the world of sinne and of Iustice and of Iudgement 9 Of sinne because they beleeve not in me 10 But of Justice because I goe to my Father and now you shall not see me 11 And of judgement because the Prince of this world is now judged 12 Yet many things I have to say to you but you cannot bear them now 13 But when hee the spirit of truth commeth hee shall teach you all truth for hee shall not speake of himselfe but what things soever he shall heare he shal speake and the things that are to come he shall shew 14 He shall glorifie me because he shall receive of mine and shall shew to you The Explication 5. TO understand what the Apostle meanes in this verse we must know the meaning of the foregoing words and though many wil have these things to report unto what went before namely our Saviours having told them they should be persecuted and punished to death for his sake after he was gone which he told them of that when it
to take away all hurtfull things and grant them all availing ones to their salvation but especially this most availing of all the rest to send them true Prophets good and holy Priests such as may teach them as well by the exemplarity of their lives as by the veritie and soliditie of their Doctrine for as the Text commands us to beware of others so the Prayer by consequence must beg for these On the eighth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Luk. 16. v. 3. WHat shall I doe for that my Lord taketh from me the Bailiff-ship To dig I am not able to beg I am ashamed I know what I will do that when I shall be removed from the Bailiff-ship they may receive me into their houses Vers Let my Prayer O Lord c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee propitiously the spirit of thinking alwayes and of doing what is right that as we cannot be without thee so we may live unto thee The Illustration O Beloved what an excellent Prayer is this How deep how sweet how alone able to save us if said with the same spirit that taught it and if performed as well as â—aid For if we neither think nor do amisse how can we ever sin and consequently how fail of being saved Again if we onely subsist by the preservation of Almighty God as is most true how can we presume to live unto our selves and not unto him As therefore our beeing is purely and onely by him so ought our living to be purely and onely to him not as it is God help us to our selves as if we had been our own makers or could for the least minute preserve our selves how daring so ever our comportment is as though we were our own and not God Almighties creatures Idolizing dayly to our selves sinning hourely and provoking God to undo his own handy work by damning not annihilating of us were not his mercy above our malice which malice onely can attempt our annihilation I need say no more of the excellency of this Prayer for whilest I strive to amplifie it by other words I do contract it rather then inlarge it which is more patheticall and significant in the short method it observes then any ampliation even by the tongues or pens of Angels can make it and shewes us That as God is but one simple essence in himself yet contains within him all the variety that is possible in infinite millions of creatures or worlds indeed so he can if he please contract into one word the sense and meaning of all the languages of the world and truly much is contracted in this Prayer above I shall therefore say no more in commends of it but onely shew how rarely well it suites with the Epistle and Gospell following how as it were eminentially it contains them both the former in begging first the spirit of alwayes thinking and doing right that so we may be and live to God as the Epistle adviâ—eth which you see quits us of all obligation to our selves and ties us up to the duty of a spirituall life and of a corporall death both which are petitioned in the Prayer the latter in shewing us how to prevent the danger of such like cheats to our Lord and Master which the Gospell mentions by prepossessing our thoughts with a right addresse of them to our masters pleasure and profit and consequently by preventing our actions towards him to be unjust when we acknowledge we cannot be at all but such creatures as he makes us and thence we can have no hope to be preserved by him in a wicked being which he never gave us nor can we expect he should preserve us in it so the Prayer concludes begging we may live onely to him who onely is the authour of our being The Epistle Rom. 8. v. 12. c. 12 Therefore Brethren we are debtours not to the flesh to live according to the flesh 13 For if you live according to the flesh you shall die but if by the spirit you mortifie the deeds of the flesh you shall live 14 For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God 15 For you have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear but you have received the spirit of adoption of sonnes wherein we cry Abba Father 16 For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God 17 And if sonnes heirs also heirs truly of God and coheirs of Christ The Explication 12. THis therefore is S. Paul's inference or conclusion upon the premises wherein he had said we were by Baptisme regenerate born again not of flesh and bloud but of Christ in whom the Baptized must live as he did in spirit not in flesh and so consequently are no longer debtours to flesh but to spirit and must no longer live to the flesh but to the spirit 13. By the spirit is here understood Christ and his grace not our own soules for though our bodies live by our souls yet our soules must live by Christ who is their life and we must by conformity to his will mortifie both our own bodies and soules too if we will live spiritually in and by him we must dye to concupiscence and inordinate desires for till then they are not mortified but live in us and we by them live fleshly not spiritually 14. To be led by the Spirit signifies that Christ should act in us not onely we in our selves and then we are true Sons of God when we are led by him by his holy Spirit who is our life as he was S. Paul's when the Apostle said Gal. 2.20 he lived now not he but Christ in him But here S. Austin playes prettily upon the word acting We must saith he act our selves and yet let our action be from him rather then from us for then we act well when he makes us act when our action is radicated in him and squared to his holy will So here to be led argues the impulse of his holy Spirit and the voluntary cooperation of our action too for then saith S. Austin we are led by his Spirit when we do as we ought to do 15. The spirit of servitude or servile fear was that which God led the Jewes withal fear of temporal punishments but we are led by a better spirit that of love and so must serve God for love of him rather then for fear of hell and as his adopted children rather then servants so much nobler is our condition then that of the Jewes And this spirit of adoption is no lesse then the holy Ghost himself communicated unto us as v. 6. was said on Sunday within the Octaves of Nativity For as God gave his own Deity to Christ when he made Christ the Son of God so the holy Ghost gives us himself to make us also the Sons of God by adoption in virtue of our Saviours Passion whence we have the priviledge
to cry out to God as children do to their Parents Abba that is to say Father O high dignity able to raise any loyal soul high towards so good a God 16. By the Spirit himself is here understood both Christ in whom alone we are said to live and also the holy Ghost whence the Greek text saith The Spirit giveth joynt testimony not onely testifies as the Latine Text hath to shew that however the Word and the Spirit make two persons of the B. Trinity yet they both are but one God with the eternal Father O how excellently are we assured of this happy filiation when both the heavenly Father looks on us as such and his eternal Son together with the holy Ghost testifie and avouch us so to be 17. This last verse tells us we are not onely sons of God but his heires also and not onely his heires but his coheires with Christ and indeed it is fitting Gods children should have a better birth right then the children of the world whereof commonly one onely is heire but here all are coheires of Christ at least The Application 1. THe Expositours upon the first word of this Epistle tell us it is by the tye of our Faith plighted of our promise and covenant made to God in holy Baptisme that Therefore we are debtours onely to the Spirit And with great reason since every man remaines a debtour onely for such bonds as he hath tyed and bound himself by to his creditours Now because God Almighty did foresee how apt a man would be to flatter himself that he was bound by the Law of Nature to pamper that flesh which he had received from his Natural Parents and consequently might loose his soul by so pampering of his body therefore he was mercifully pleased by making man enter into better bonds those of holy baptisme to cancell all his former debts to any creature whatsoever and to make him become new debtour only to that holy Spirit which was both his Creatour and so had more right in him then his fleshly Parents had and also his Regeneratour and so begot him to a spiritual life or being which his first begetters were not able to confer upon him 2. But S. Paul not content to tell us in this Epistle that we are onely debtours to the Spirit and the reason why because of the bond we entered into at holy baptisme of loving God above all things and of living wholly unto him proceeds to animate us towards the performance of this debt by shewing us the gallant effect thereof namely that it makes us as well the heires as sons of God and not heires onely but co-heires of Christ 3. Now in regard the Preachers office is to tell us how to pay this debt how to live spiritually and by so living to secure ourselves of this ineffable co-heiretage which office the Expositours upon this holy Text have at least in part supplyed therefore it remained onely that our holy Mother the Church should make us such a Prayer as might be most suitable to this doctrine and none so suiting it as that which begs our thoughts may be rightly such as suggest to operations answerable to our beeing spiritual altogether That so as it was a pure act of love in God to adopt us here his children in Grace we by re-loving him that is by living according to our better being may be yet further adopted his children in Glory and thus may be made the co-heires of Christ indeed Say now the Prayer above and see beloved if it be not most apposite to this holy purpose The Gospel Luk. 16.1 c. 1 And he said to his disciples There was a certain rich man that had a Bailiffe and he was ill-reported unto him as he that had wasted his goods 2 And he called him and said to him what hear I this of thee render account of thy Baili-ship for thou canst no more be Bailiffe 3 And the Bailiffe said within himself what shall I do because my Lord taketh away from me the Baili-ship digge I am not able to beg I am ashamed 4 I know what I will do that when I shall be removed from the Baili-ship they may receive me into their houses 5 Therefore calling together every one of his Lords debtours he said to the first how much doest thou owe my Lord 6 But he saith An hundred pipes of oyl And he said to him take thy bill and sit down quickly write fifty 7 After he said to another But thou how much dost thou owe who said An hundred quarters of wheat He said to him take thy bill and write eighty 8 And the Lord praised the Bailiffe of iniquity because he had done wisely For the children of this world are wiser then the children of light in their generation 9 And I say to you Make you friends of the Mammon of iniquity that when you fail they may receive you into the eternal Tabernacles The Explication 1. THis parable shewes that all Christians bear office of Trust in Gods Church and are onely to administer his goods not to waste or use them as their own and this is meant whether they have goods of nature or of grace they are to account for all to him And our accuser here mentioned is the devil who justly layes waste to our charge as well when we use not Gods gifts well as when we use them ill So still Christians must do good and not onely decline evil else they lye liable to the devils accusations 2. O how clement a Master do we serve how gently he rebukes when even in Justice he is bound to take an account of our perfidiousnesse Where he sayes now thou must not be longer Bailiffe is understood I cannot in justice let thee be longer in trust of my goods then whilest thou doest administer them faithfully An excellent lesson to keep us close to our duties 3. We see here the accusation is not false the Bailiffe pretends not that he confesseth his guilt when he asks what shall I do since he cannot hope for longer trust from his master This puts us in mind of our miserable condition at the latter account in respect whereof it followes there is no ability in us to labour amends by further service for then the time as well as the power of further labour is past and to beg relief of any other master is a shame to man that had so good a master of Almighty God whose favour he hath lost for ever 4. This verse shewes the Bailiffe had resolved with himself to cheat his master so to provide for himself by their means whom he had favoured to his masters prejudice 5. 6. 7. These verses need not explanation as shewing only how much he cheated his master of 8. Note the word Lord here is taken for the Bailiffes master not for our Saviour as some mistake it and truly the context proves as much for our Saviour undertakes to tell this story as in the
Ghost is made manifest who is the Authour of all supernatural gifts The profit whereunto these gifts are given is rather to the Church then to him that receives them for gratuite graces ever avail the Church but not so him who receives them as miracles may be wrought by a sinner who doth not profit by them perhaps at all yet the Church doth 8. By the word of wisdome is understood the power to explicate deep mysteries of Faith as of the B. Trinity Incarnation praedestination or the like By the word of knowledge or science is understood the power to direct mens actions or manners that they be rational at least Thus S. Augustine lib. 12. Trinit cap. 14. 15. distinguisheth between wisdome and science or knowledge 9. By Faith here is not understood that act of Theological vertue which is common to all Christians but an act of particular confidence in God whereby it is believed he will by vertue of that our confidence work a miracle being asked so to do by such a Faith as is able to remove mountains Others understand by Faith here a deep understanding inabling to contemplate and explicate the mysteries of Faith 10. By miracles here are understood those which are extraordinary and are exercised not onely upon the body but even on the soules of men such as was that of S. Peter upon Ananias and Saphyra commanding them to dye By discretion of spirits is meant when God gives one man the grace to see into the very thoughts and intentions of others to know when an action is done by a good or evil spirit by God or the devil a gift to be begged by ghostly Fathers and conducing to their conduct of soules These gifts S. Hilarion was noted to have By interpretation of languages is understood a special gift frequent in the primitive Church whereby men illuminated for that end did give the true sense of Scripture and of those who being ignorant yet had the gift of Tongues and to spake more then themselves well understood but were by Interpretâ—rs expounded 11. Namely as that Spirit as the holy Ghost pleaseth The Application 1. St. Paul in this Epistle first puts the Corinthians and â—n them all other Christians in mind of the horrid Nothing that they were before their conversion from Gentilisme to Christianity And his aym in this is that as nothing was more abominable to the Gentiles then the name of Jesus Christ so nothing ought to be more reverential to Christians then that most sacred and most saving name insomuch as S. Paul concludes it is an Apostacy from God a relapse to Gentilisme not onely to use irreverence to the name of Jesus but to conceive we have any other life or being then what is purchac'd in that sweetest name 2. Notwithstanding true it is we have life often given us by the holy Ghost the special giver indeed of holy grace which is the â—ife and being of a Christian and hence it is S. Paul had no sooner inamoured the Corinthians on the Name of Jesus then he falls instantly upon the gifts of the holy Ghost sent from his heavenly Father and from his sacred Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to multiply on us the mercies of Almighty God as if to have been once redeemed by Christ had not satisfied his infinite goodnesse without he had also made this Redemption copious by sending his holy Spirit to re-redeem us by his graces from the relapses into sinne that render our first redemption fruitlesse unlesse it had been more copious yet by the multiplyed mercies of the holy Ghost applying the Passion of our Saviour to us by some new gift of grace bestowed upon us as often as we take religious breath into our bodies by calling on the Name of Jesus with an aweful reverence thereunto as befits all Christians to do and for this purpose it is S. Paul falls into the enumeration of the gratuite gifts of God the graces that are meerly gratis given not such as are usual and absolutely necessary for our sayntification or justification but such as rather serve to shew the multiplication of Gods holy Power and Mercies over us 3. Blessed God! how art thou perpetually out-doing thine own goodnesse by thy continual effusion of thy self upon our iniquity how art thou giving daily more and more manifestation and consequently much more admiration to the blessed Angels and Saints in heaven by multiplying thy mercies on us sinners here in earth whom all those happy spirits may give a thousand thousand times for lost when they see how we run after nothing but the sordid gain and pleasure of the world the sweets that poyson the contents that damne our soules and yet by the multiplication of thy mercies we are sweetly forc'd maugre the impulse of devil flesh and bloud to let go all our hold on the possessed shadowes of this world and to run after the promised substances of the next But how my God are we forc't to this by the manifestation of thy Power in the multiplication of thy mercies according as was said before in the Illustration Say now beloved the Prayer above and see if it be not excellently well adapted to this holy Text and to this application of the same unto our best improvement The Gospel Luke 18. v. 9. 9 And he said also to certain that trusted in themselves as just and despised others this parable 10 Two men went up into the Temple to pray the one a Pharisee and the other a Publicane 11 The Pharisee standing prayed thus with himself God I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men extortioners unjust advouterers as also this Publicane 12 I fast twice in a week I give Tythes of all that I possesse 13 And the Publicane standing afar off would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven but he knocked his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner 14 I say to you this man went down to his house justified more then he because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted The Explication 9. 10. By a Pharisee is understood a proud by a Publicane an humble man in this place 11. By the word standing the pride of the Pharisee is insinuated With himself 't is true for he prayed neither with nor to God for his prayer is rather a vaunting of his own then a seeking of Gods glory And his insolence is great whilest he sayes he is not as other men as who should say all besides himself are sinners had he said as some other men there had been lesse arrogancy yet too much and out of this arrogancy he passeth a rash Judgement upon the Publicane whom he points out for a notorious sinner and insinuates himself to be just 12. By twice a Sabbath is understood twice a week as naming the principal day for the whole week By Tythes of all he possesseth he meanes not onely
therein Just thus it is with holy Churches preaching admit a million of people be assembled to one sole Preacher in the pulpit is his Sermon ever the worse because it dynts the soul of every hearer there and moves him so as if the Preacher knew the heart of every auditour he had whom yet he never saw in all his life nor knowes him now he sees him would any man condemn this Preacher No admire him rather and in him adore Almighty God who with one speech could touch the quick of every soul alive And so it is with holy Churches prayers the commoner they are the more peculiarly they touch each pious persons soul if rightly understood they seem to reach as far as all the preachers of the Church can scrue into a soul and farther too for who so sayes them with a zeal suitable to the Spirit whence they flow he like a river runs into the sea whence all the waters have their spring and is not lost although he beâ— not found but rather swells to be a sea of spirit while he falls out of his private devotions into the Ocean of the Churches prayer and sayes to himself Matt. 23.23 These things ought to be done and those things ought not to be omitted O Christians what a sovereign cure have we to day against the worst contagion in the Church the spirit of division of faction Say but this prayer devoutly read but the lessons of the other services of holy Church to day agreeable to this prayer and I shall hope to hear no more of faction in the Church of division in the house of the Holy Ghost of dissention among Roman Catholicks much lesse amongst the Priests of holy Church for in them it were a contagion worse then diabolical who as they are all Ministers of one onely God so should they all agree in one to guide the souls they are to govern in the spirit of peace and unity of love and charity which they shall never teach better then when they give example of it to their flocks The Epistle Ephes 4.1 1 I therefore prisoner in our Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called 2 With all humilitie and mildnesse with patience supporting one another in charity 3 Carefull to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace 4 One body and one spirit as you are called in one hope of your vocation 5 One Lord one Faith one Baptisme 6 One God and Father of all which is over all and by all and in us all 7 Who is blessed world without end Amen The Explication 1. THe cause why he beseecheth them is in regard they had the happinesse to be made of Gentiles Christians and so equall with the Jewes that were the chosen people of God He calls himself prisoner in our Lord because he was in prison for our Lord for teaching the faith of Christ Walking here is understood living Note the word Vocation is of speciall regard and so imports a speciall obligation they had to comply with their said vocation which was indeed their conversion from Gentilisme to Christianitie 2. This verse specifies the eminent marks of Christians from Gentiles the one proud harsh furious quarrelsome the other therefore humble milde patient loving that so it might appeare a religious change to come from one contrary to another Supporting each other imports bearing with each others infirmities In Charitie is to say by or with Charitie repending good for evil 3. By unitie of spirit is here meant unanimitie that is though in bodies divided yet in mind they should be one and make it their studie so to be thus to comply with the care thereof commended if not commanded also This verse is hugely against all schismaticall division in the Church receding from the common Doctrine to follow the fancies of private spirits By the word bond is understood removing private sense in point of religion for a bond imports a tie between parties and so abandons singularitie when it must binde many together in the peace of unanimitie 4. This verse is exhortatorie stirring up to be all as one body and one soul that as you are called to one hope of Heaven by this your vocation to Christianitie so you goe all thither as one man since the Church is properly called one civill man while all the Members of it are regulated by one Law of Christ by one holy Spirit And indeed Saint Paul useth a huge Art telling us we have all one hope namely Heaven thereby to make us tend all one way to the attaining thereof 5. One Lord Christ Jesus one Faith that which the Apostles preached one Baptisme that which is given in due matter and forme applied with due intention water accompanying these words I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost according as holy Church intendeth when this Sacrament is administred 6. In this verse the Apostle summes up all he said before As we have but one God who is our common Father so we must have but one spirit lest we degenerate from being his children who will own none but those that are one in him and one to one another all others are bastards and cannot be brothers because not begotten of him that knowes no division but consists of unitie and simplicitie No God is above all men by his Majestie and Deitie he is through all things by his power and efficacie in them penetrating and passing through them all as freely as we doe through the Aire in all things by his essence and being in us Christians by his grace which makes us be his children and by his glory which makes us be his heires Others understand by this triple division the Apostle means that God the Father is above us all by creation God the Sonne by redemption runs through us with the Sea of his passion God the Holy Ghost is in us all by his sanctifying grace The Application 1. SAint Paul being by his imprisonment separated from his Converts the Ephesians and desirous in litle to send them much counsell how they might walk worthy of the vocation in which they were called summes up here those virtues that are most necessary for new converted souls Humilitie as the foundation whereupon they must build their monuments of a blessed Eternitie in imitation of Almightie God who raised all the fabricke of humane salvation upon the Basis of his own abasement Mildnesse in testimony they were no more children of wrath and indignation but of their milde Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ A charitable Patience that is to say for love of God supporting bearing with one another as the onely means to keep themselves in favour with Almighty God whom they hourely much more exasperate then any man can do them And Unanimitie as the badge of perfect Christianitie testifying they are onely true lovers of one another who are right believers in Jesus Christ