bodie nor with our substance He shall have neither our goods nor our knee but likely we put it off He shall have our soul why this is only to give God his thirds as a reverend Father saies to compound like Bankrupts and give him two parts less than we owe him and yet we look for ten thousand times more than He owes us We have some that are to be suspected for a kind of Sadduces among us that believe no resurrection of the body else they would never palter with discipline but be more forward in the prostration and worship of the bodie than the Church could be to command them Some have given a great blow to this duty by harping upon the bare words of S. John and not digesting the true meaning of his Text Joh. iv 23. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth Mark the occasion why this was spoken and the words precedent The woman of Samaria moved a doubt whether God was to be worshipped at Jerusalem as the Jews taught or at Mount Girizin as the Samaritans taught Now the Samaritans worshipt God falsely they worshipt they knew not what says Christ The Jews held strictly to Moses Law and observ'd figures and shadows of things to come which were all to give place and vanish upon the incarnation of our Lord. Now it is easie to discern the substance of our Saviours answer what it is to serve God in spirit and truth Truth is opposed to the false superstition of the Samaritans Spirit is opposed to the Jewish figures and sacrifices And Christ tells the woman God will neither be served any more after the Samaritan way or Jewish way but after the newness of the Gospel The hour cometh and now is when ye shall neither worship the Father in this Mountain nor at Jerusalem but they shall worship him in spirit and truth Do these words exempt the worship of the body nothing less The word spirit is not taken there for the soul divided from the body signifying only an internal act of the spirit but for all manner of virtuous actions as well external as internal which proceed from the grace of the Holy Spirit being acceptable to God because the Holy Spirit brings them forth not because they are figures of things to come I will sing with the spirit says St. Paul 1 Cor. xiv 15. and yet singing is a bodily action He did worship in spirit when he said For this cause bow I my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Ephes iii. to come to a point Remember therefore how we adore God in spirit when we adore him with those outward gestures of the body to which we are stirred up by the Spirit of truth And so much of the first member of my Text which I laid out to be handled by it self the Lord God is to be worshipped The next duty is the other Pillar of Religion which upholds the Church of the Elect the Lord God is to be served By worship you know already we understand all humble outward devotion and reverence Now by service you must conceive the inward conformity of the heart to all duty and obedience The will of the Lord is revealed to us two manner of ways Either as he doth promise us blessings and benefits and assures us great rewards in the Kingdom of heaven Or as he doth stipulate and covenant with us what we shall do to obtain his favour In the former respect as he hath given us the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth most liberally and as he doth promise greater fruits of his mercy most graciously we fall down and worship him for his benefits but as he doth condition with us to do somewhat for his sake that he may leave a blessing with us we serve him faithfully and bind our inward faculties our soul and our mind to be prompt and ready to execute all obedience That you may the better compose your hearts to attend Gods will in all things and to serve him I will supply your knowledge with these few motives following First There is no other Lord beside our God properly called 1 Cor. viii Though there be that are called Gods as there be Gods many and Lords many that is by opinion and nuncupation but to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him And again Eph. v. 4. One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God who is above all and through all and in you all Super omnes dominio per omnes providentiâ in omnibus justificatione Above all by his Dominion through all by his Providence in all by sanctifying us with his grace and justifying us from sin He that is subject to none inferiour to none independent of himself in all his power He may well be called a Lord and such a Lord deserves to be served Petty Magistrates hold of Princes favours and Kings hold their tenure under God Therefore some of the Roman Emperours having the perceivance that they could command nothing absolutely if he that sate above the heavens did stop it they would not be called Domini because themselves were servants in relation to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords therefore their circumscribed power did not answer the title When the Scripture brings in the most High the saying is Haec dicit Dominus Thus saith the Lord. If we would examine this after the stile of man you would say Lord of what Why universal Lord without any particular designment Specifications to be Lords of this or that are earthly phrases are notes of minority Attalus the Martyr was askt what name that Lord had whom he served Says he Qui plures sunt nominibus discernuntur qui autem unus est non indiget nomine Where there are many Lords they must be distinguish'd by their properties but what need that Lord a name for distinction who is the only Ruler by himself without any equal or partner in his dominion now since we must serve for sin hath brought servitude into the world whom would a man choose to serve but that only Lord to whose sheave all other sheaves do bend and who only hath authority Secondly In all service you will consider in what state and place it puts you Do so in this and spare not But let St. Peter be the Judge 1 Epist ii 9. Ye are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people There is royalty in the very service Cui servire est regnare To do him service is a Kingly Ministry Nay there is more in one of our Church Collects in one Line of it than in the most Augustious title of a King God whose service is perfect freedom A King may be so much subject to naughty passions as he shall be in vile thraldom to his own sensualities and so
from thence he assists his Sacraments sanctifieth his Ministry gives grace unto his Word And if they did not escape who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn from him that speaketh from Heaven Secondly Our Jerusalem is above not only in the Head but in the Members I do not say in all the Members for the Church is that great House in which are Vessels of honour and dishonour Terms of Excellency though indistinctly attributed to the whole are agreeing oftentimes only to the chiefer or more refined part Some there are in this Body whom though we salute not by the proud word of their Sublimity yet in true possession which shall never be taken from them they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are above Witness that the Angels make up one Church with us being the chief Citizens that are reckoned in the triumphant part fellow Servants with us under one Lord adopted Sons under one Father Elect under one Christ This is the language of the Scripture and surely Members of one Mystical Body for the same Jesus is the Head of all Principality and Power Colos ii 10. Of this Family also are the Saints departed even all those holy Spirits that obey God in heavenly places and do not imitate the Devil and his Angels This is that Church which hath neither spot nor wrinkle for when I speak of such a Church says St. Austin in his retractations I mean none but those in Heaven After these that make the front and first File of our March there are many among us I trust who have their part in this description Jerusalem which is above the Elect of God the Church invisible invisible I say not for their persons but for their qualites for who can see who hath an internal union with Christ the Head Who can tell whether this or that may be filled with his Grace and quickned with his Spirit Cusanus says very well that there is no certain judgment to be made by the outward fruits who are living Members of the Church but in Infants that are newly baptized With the mouth we confess the truth but with the heart man believes unto righteousness and only God can see the heart But these whose integrity their Master knows and loves no matter in what base condition they wander here they are greater by far than the ungodly that over-peer them in promotion they are above indeed for they are as high as the pinacle of blessedness and their names are written in the Book of Life for their sakes God hath dropt down the beautiful style of Jerusalem upon the Houshold of Christ but without these no name were so fit for it as Sodom or Samaria Such as will wrangle where no occasion is offered have carped at this as if we removed all from the Church but such as are Israel in occulto and have their sins forgiven in Christ It was never our meaning neither can we help it but that we must keep communion with all those that profess the common Faith But if the Church had known Hypocrites it had not admitted them into the Portion of the Lord or else it had excluded them Et quid prodest non ejici coetu piorum si mereris ejici says St. Cyprian What the better is it for an Hypocrite that he is not cast out of the Congregation since he deserves to be cast out he may abide with us in the outward Society of them that call upon Christ praesumptivè non veraciter as Spalatensis says because we presume he is faithful though indeed he is the Child of the Devil numero non merito he makes up one of the Multitude that go in the broad way he is none of the few that strive to enter in at the steight gate he keeps the formality of a Christian with others beneath he perteins not to Jerusalem which is above Thirdly We have obtained this dignity to be ranked as them that are above because our calling is very holy He hath saved us and called us with an holy calling 2 Tim. i. 9. called to Doctrin which is above which flesh and bloud did not reveal but the Father that giveth wisdom plentifully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Theophilact upon my Text God did preach the Gospel from on high with his own voice for take a Breviary of it and it is no more but that which he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased We are called to obey the truth by illumination from above from thence is sent the spirit of them that are baptized the spirit of the Apostles and Martyrs the spirit of Bishops and Doctors the spirit of all those that have lived in the Truth and shed their bloud for the Truth 's sake We are called to that Religion which consists in celestial Functions in Faith and Hope in Prayer and Charity not in a Religion which presseth them down that observe it with an insupportable weight of Shadows and Ceremonies but the hour is come when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth Beware of those of the Concision says St. Paul and among bad marks which they carry this is the conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they mind earthly things that is they are pleased with carnal Ordinances with these low and beggerly Observations of the Levitical Priesthood but immediately turning himself to the Fundamentals of the Gospel and the practice thereof says he nostra politeia our way of serving God our manner of worship is in Heaven So Bernard says that the Synagogue moved in a low Orb. But Solomon speaking of the New Testament says Quae est ista quae ascendit Cant. iii. 3. Who is she that cometh up from the Wilderness perfumed with mirrh and frankincense with all the powders of the Merchant Above all we are called to holy actions which savour not of mans passions and purposes but are qualified from above Our fortitude is heavenly fortitude our temperance heavenly temperance our liberality to the poor heavenly liberality but the moral deeds of the Heathen living out of the Church that had the best gloss upon them were smutcht with some bad vapour below and every grane of vertue that grew out of their stalks did abound with the chaff of vanity And what exceeds all that I have said beside to make our calling heavenly and holy God is so gracious to those things which are done in the Church in the name of his Son that where an unfit instrument may seem to marr all by his extravagant profaneness by his impenitent conscience nay by his heretical pravity yet Christs presence and assistance are not wanting to his Word and Sacraments but their efficacy is free and current to the people though they be performed by a crooked and an adulterous Generation As the Posterity of Jacobs Handmaid had a Princedom among their Brethren in the Land of Canaan
life of Christ and so forth we go on with chearfulness to abandon fear The Fathers note it in the Cratch of the Manger where he was laid a place made unclean with the dung of beasts but ipsa stercora mundefecit As his presence did purifie the room albeit the filthiness of the dung so his Nativity hath cleansed as many as believed in him albeit the loathsomness of their iniquities I have but one thing to say more to this point noted as I remember by Gregory out of the Genealogy of his birth Mat. i. thrice fourteen Generations are reckoned up and but four women incidentarily put into the Catalogue Judah begat Pharez of Thamar Salmon begat Booz of Rahab and Booz begat Obed of Ruth and David begat Solomon of her that had been the Wife of Vriah No women cited in the Chapter but these four three of which had been unchast ones very Strumpets to chear up the penitent sinner that their sins and his and the sins of all that believe are done away by him by him that is above all names the Son of God who came into the world to purge us of our filthiness therefore the true mirth of Christmas is to say with David Psal xxiii 4. Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me to save me from destruction Thus far I have enlarged the Angels comfortable Preface to the Shepherds Fear not that they should not be dismayed either at the light of glory which shined about them or at their own unworthiness which was a darkness within them or at the malediction of the Law which pleaded condemnation against them for the Birth of Christ as I have shewed was a remedy to take all malignity from them Perchance if the Angel should come amongst us in these days of slumber and security he might spare that part of his Message For where 's the man that humbles himself as he ought as if there were any evil to come We are all confident and void enough from fear if that be good Therefore I come now to lay the second part of my Text to the former how we should not be afraid not with an immoderate fear not with a desperate damning fear which dogs a sullen unrepentant sinner up and down but there is a pious reverential fear which well becomes the Saints and now I proceed to speak of those particulars The Schoolmen very rightly consider fear two ways Quà donum quà passio gift of the good Spirit of God one way and another way as it is meerly a natural passion And first I will speak of it as it is a gift of the Holy Spirit Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor says Statius not so soundly that fear was the first thing in the world that made a God But I am sure that want of filial and awful fear is the first thing that will make an Atheist and perswade a man there is no God The Prophet Isaiah could say no worse of the Idols made of stocks and stones but that we should not be dismayed at their Godship they could neither do good nor hurt But if we will revereri we must vereri there can be no true worship of God without a sollicitous and most anxious care not to displease his Majesty He that is not conscientiously afraid to offend doth most of all offend When Zacharies mouth was opened and began to divine of this day Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited his people fear fell upon all that were round about him Luke i. 65. it fell upon them indeed even as the Holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles at Whitsontide Acts ii In like manner when the Widows Son of Naim was raised from the dead by the word which Christ spake Fear came upon all that were there and they glorified God Luke xvii 16. Surely they had not glorified God as they ought if that fear had not come upon them One instance more 1 Kings iii. 28. All Israel feared Solomon when they saw the judgment of God was in him And shall not all the World bow down with reverence and astonishment when they know that the power of all judgment is in God himself But as for this filial devout fear perhaps we love to hear of it for the Angels themselves cover their faces with their wings standing before the throne of the most high Isa vi as if the Majesty of God were awful and dreadful unto them And indeed a sollicitousness to do the will of God because he is good and gracious the study of the heart which is wary and circumspect not to decline from his Law if you will call this fillial fear it may become an Angel for David speaks of it as if it should endure in heaven Psal xix 9. The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever This is it to whose perfection we must aspire to live justly and soberly though there were no Hell at all but purely out of the principle of love and zeal to the honour of our heavenly Father and what a becoming thing it is unto Religion to approach to divine Prayers especially to the Table of the Lord with an awful duty as if we were afraid to speak to God or to touch the crums of his heavenly banquet Is not this better than to thrust our selves into such coelestial actions with a sawcy familiarity without fear or wit What is more comfortable than to taste of that Cup which betokens the precious bloud that was shed for our sins And yet the Greek Fathers term it usually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tremendum mysterium a mystery to be trembled at when we partake thereof Assuredly we may presuppose that when Mary took the clouts into her hand to wrap about her Infant when Joseph did assist as it were in the office of a Father when the Wisemen offered their gifts when the Shepherds came out of the fields into Bethlem and peept in where Christ was laid to see what was done every action of theirs was mixt with reverent fear and joy they stood amazed they prostrated themselves there was no more spirit left in them as it is said of the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the royalty of Solomon therefore the Angel forbids not but after this sort they should dread the Lord with a filial and reverential fear Nay I go further the Angel would not disapprove of that fear which trembles at the wrath to come and endeavours to live unblameable because God is an avenger of unrighteousness for to discredit this fear by calling it fervile and to dehort Christians from it against which stone some I know do stumble it shall not be my Doctrine I hold it not safe and warrantable If they take fervile fear in that notion in which the Sententiaries do take Attrition that is to be displeased at our sins only because judgment will follow but neither sorrowing that God is
to say he that will afford honour unto Christ but even a bare enough affords him a great deal too little God did not appoint such Glory unto his Son as did just suffice but to teach us with what abundant magnificent reverence he should have been received He makes the whole train of Angels as some say the selected flower of them as others say attend him that his advent may be all in all illustrious Be it so yet I would it were not so that some do grudge and cavil at many points of ornament and decency which they find in our holy Service May not sundry Ceremonies be left out say they and yet our Religion be sound and entire Indeed our Ceremonies are not necessary in themselves we grant it why and what if such great Cathedral Churches had not been built nor such rich costly ornaments bestowed upon the Roof upon the Choire upon the Communion-Table might not Prayers be read and Sermons preacht with poorer habiliments and in meaner places well no man denies but God was faithfully serv'd in Dens and Rocks and Caves of the earth when the Apostles and Prophets were persecuted Besides there are that complain when one Minister may sufficiently and audibly read Service to the Congregation frustra fit per plura what a needless thing it is to have a Choire of Singers discharge that which ordinarily is no more than one mans labour They that make these objections let them consider what errors they fall into they may as well tax God himself for sending a multitude of Angels to congratulate the birth of his Son when two or three would have done the business for out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be justified Why should a reasonable man think it fit to glorifie God with bare scanty provision God hath given us full measure of all his blessings and running over therefore no decent Ceremony is superfluous no rich Ornament too gorgeous no strain of our Wit too eloquent no Musick too sweet no Multitude too great to advance his name who hath exalted us by the humiliation of his Son and made us capable to live with Angels in Heaven because Christ was content to lie among beasts in a manger Yet I am not out of this point concerning the multitude that came Angels came by one or by two at some other famous births in holy Scripture now they come not single or by pairs but they throng together at this Birth because this was no petty Saviour This was he that God gave in his great mercy to call all the ends of the world together from the East unto the West therefore all the dwellers in Heaven muster'd themselves together from one end to another and prophesied by their multitudes what increase the Evangelical Church should have A great multitude of all nations and kindred and people which none could number Rev. vii 9. A great draught of fish inclosed in the net so that the net was ready to break Some Feasts in the Old Law as that of the Passeover and that of Tabernacles had seven days annext to honour them Christmas-day hath twelve days joyn'd unto it to eche out the solemnity why should he not have most days to solemnize it of any Feast for through that holy Incarnation the company ot true Worshippers is infinitely larger than it was before As nothing is hidden from the heat of the Sun so every corner of the earth is disclosed to the light of the Gospel And remember that there is no variation or change in God as he appointed many Angels to sing out his Birth so to this time and for ever he loves to be glorified by multitudes Let two or three be gathered together in his name rather than one separatist alone but if you will multiply those two or three to hundreds to thousands of souls O then his desire is upon them that fear him and upon those thwackt congregations that call upon his name He that invited the guests in the Gospel did not think his Feast well bestowed till his room was full therefore he bid his servants scower the High-ways and bring them in that his number might be augmented I commend your private exercises of Prayer between God and your own heart that your Father that sees you devout in secret may reward you openly But those Prayers which you would have most prosperous and successful send them up in the thickest press of Prayers when a great assembly opens their lips together He that joyns his spirit with the spirit of the Church shall be heard as if he prayed with ten thousand voices Finally to bring this point to the end Angels flock by multitudes to disperse these tidings that Christ is born and who should take up this message after them but they that are called Angels in the Testaments New and Old The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger or the Angel of the Lord of hosts Mal. ii 7. And then the Church is blessed when there is multitudo exercitus a multitude of this Ecclesiastical host a multitude of these Angels upon earth when there are many among you to break the bread of life I know after the old Proverb there may be Multi thyrsigeri pauci Bacchi many Priests and few Pulpit-men many of that office and few that officiate therefore our Saviour bad those that followed him to pray that since the harvest was plenteous and the labourers were few that the Lord of the harvest will send forth labourers into his harvest God will send forth many Reapers at the last to gather his Wheat into his Barn and to burn up the Chaff therefore if there be not many sowers and many labourers the sickle will light upon those to cut them down for weeds that being Angels in the Church and sufficient for multitude did not often tune their musick after their ditty in my Text c. The connexion of the next point will fit well with the former for thirdly they are an host of Angels and therefore many nay they must be very many and more than one rank or file that make an host-like multitude the number of fifty or an hundred would make a full train for messengers but they would be much too few to make an Army As Tigranes scoft at the Roman legions which Lucullus led says he if they come to me for Embassadors they are a fair company if they come against me for an Army they are but an handful A multitude though unarmed are a good safeguard in their populous numbers how much more when they appear in battel array and stand readily charg'd in warlike preparation But I will come in order to the reasons of this apparition There are no creatures so mean and weak but God is able to put strength into them and to raise an invincible host therefore the very Flies and Grashoppers are called his Army and an
and a tooth for a tooth but the Gospel exhibiteth patience for wrongs received and benediction for injuries And indeed the charity of the Law was but partial as I may say it admonisheth fairly Levit. xix 18. Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forgetting of all evil done unto them extended only to Israelites which was not the full and large duty but an epitome of Charity If aliens from their own stock had provok'd them though many years before there 's another lesson for it Deut. xxv 17. Remember what Amaleck did unto thee by the way when ye were come forth out of Egypt Such fruit grows upon the bramble of the Law not upon the Olive tree of the Gospel God forbid that we should keep a Register what Moab or Amaleck or what any adversary hath done unto us the peace which the Angels proclaimed forbids that after the beginning of the new year we should remember the enmities or discords that were occasion'd in the old whosoever nourishes old grudges and contentions when the heavens sing peace gives the lye unto the Angels Let your ear receive this with it that all other practises of Religion having not peace and perfect amity among them are but forms of godliness which deny the power thereof This is not far off to be proved but within the verge of the Text for it will not be regarded that you give glory to God on high if there be not peace below you must leave your gift upon the Altar your glory to God and go home for peace go and be reconciled to your brother and then you are a fit instrument to give God his honour Some are always wrangling for the glory of God as they pretend and care not which way peace goes on earth Every theological conclusion I say not Articles of Faith but disputable deductions not near the foundation of Faith must be maintain'd precisely as they apprehend it or they cry out that truth is violated further than can be endured Every ceremonial observation must be either taken off or discharg'd punctually as they score a line or else they contend bitterly that Gods Worship is abused All this while two things are quite forgotten First that there is a compass and latitude for mens wits and judgments to be diverse one from another and yet no unity to be broken All points touch not to the quick and in such things because every mans reason hath not the same kind of reach and notion there may be much variety of opinions without all dissention Secondly few lay it to their thoughts that to meet in agreement as far as possibly the conservation of truth will permit is far more acceptable to God than an inflexible pertinacy which is rather rigorous than pacificous There was much ado to settle the pure Doctrine of the Church in the first four hundred years but nothing avail'd more than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers call it a condescending one to another making moderation the umpire of all strifes By these calm degrees God was more glorified among the Gentiles that were unconverted who perceived how the Christians kept the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace than if they had wrangled about every nicety and prosecuted every disagreement to an utter separation Peace on earth is a ready means that glory in the highest may not be scandalized And after all this that hath been said certainly the Angels meaning extends it self thus much further that the Child which was born in Bethlehem the Messias of the world would direct them in a way if men would be diligent to observe it that there should be no bloody Wars of seditious Princes in all the earth no Armies clattering together no rouling in blood it is his property to break the bow and knap the Spears in sunder and to burn the Chariots in the fire and it makes much that this is votum militare peace on earth comes from the mouth of Souldiers the Angels were arrayed like an host in battail when they preacht it as if military men could best tell the world what a blessed thing it is to have cessation from Wars and sweet agreement Our neighbour Kingdoms know the true rellish of this Doctrine who live in continual alarms losses destructions desolations alas their vintage is become not the blood of grapes but of men O 't is a most savage a very bruitish affection in them that are sick of the long continuance of peace and wish that Leagues and Truces were expired They are of another mind I warrant you that have felt the unutterable miseries of War for the space of fifteen years and more in their flourishing Empire without pause or respiration He that could certainly pronounce before them that they should enjoy the liberty of their conscience and no hostility should invade them they would receive him with as much gladness as the Shepherd heard the Angel say Glory he to God in the highest and on earth peace But the objection is ready to be cast in my way by every man I would it were not that all the divine inspirations of God have ensued plentifully upon Christs coming into the world but nothing less than peace Persecutions Massacres Contentions irreconcilable Wars these have entred in wheresoever the Gospel hath been taught and Jesus denied it not but said unto the twelve Think not that I come to send peace into the world I come not to send peace but a sword Mat. x. 34. Beloved opposition and war are not the right fruits of the Gospel no more than Ivy is the fruit of the Oak tree though it creep upon it But pre-supposing the malice and corruption of men the tidings of salvation though they exhort unto peace yet they will beget division for Satan reigns in the wicked and it makes him rage to hear celestial Doctrine preacht and that impiety which was asleep befere is roused up with the noise of the Gospel and grows tumultuous this is consequentiae necessitas non consequentis an accidental misfortune not a proper effect Yet very true that none is a greater adversary than our Saviour to some sorts of peace Pax Christi bellum indicit mundo voluptati carni demoni says Beda upon my Text The peace of Christ breaks the confederacy which sinners have in evil it defies the Devil and the vain pomp of the world it draws the sword against blasphemy and Idolatry it will not let a man be at quiet within himself when he is full of vicious concupiscence To make a Covenant with Hell as the Prophet speaks or to have any fellowship with the works of darkness as St. Paul speaks Illa mala pax est indigna hominibus bonae voluntatis that 's a pernicious peace and unworthy of those to whom that blessing belongs good will towards men
is in the new Temple of Jerusalem above the Stars that doth secretly teach the heart As the times go the efficacy of grace had need be stiffly maintained against bare outward means Mark the consent of antiquity upon this Point Non satis fuisset stella nisi adfuisset fides illustratio sancti spiritus says St. Ambrose they had never moved so far for the Star alone without the illumination of faith and the holy Spirit Fulgentior veritatis radius eorum corda perdocuit says Leo certain impulsions and illustrations of the holy Spirit gave them understanding and will to come to Christ Deus direxit eos tam in viâ morum quà m in viâ pedum says Chrysologus God did direct them both in their inward and in their outward ways The natural man is not able to discern the things that belong to God let these alone to themselves and shew them a bright Lamp from heaven and they would have thought of any thing as soon as of this question Where is he that is born the King of the Jews Suppose they had certain Traditions in their Schools that when such a Star was seen the Messias was come into the world yet no man could apply himself to seek out Christ and worship him but by the Spirit of God Every man is full of his conjectures who should deliver the expectation of the Messias to those remote Gentiles whether Daniel or some other Prophet that was in the Chaldean Captivity Or whether Balaam who lived in the Mountains of the East a thousand years before Daniel Nay another Author puts it upon Seth that he left a Prophesie concerning such an occasion which should fall out against the birth of Christ and that the Wise-men of the East appointed twelve men of their Colledge to watch that Star every year from the beginning of Autumn to the Winter and when one of those twelve died they supplied the number that their Watchmen might never fail Some Predictions they had I will not contend about it preacht to the outward ear yet this had been but sounding brass and empty words if the Lord had not secretly moved their heart What you will say and was the Spirit diffused even among the disperced of the Nations that lived without the Law Yes Beloved that was more than seldom seen as the spirit of grace was in Cornelius to send up Prayers and Alms to heaven before he knew what it was to be baptized unto remission of sins in the bloud of Christ The spirit of direction was upon Cyrus an heathen 2 Chron. c. ult 22. he was admonisht from God to build the Temple The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus the King of Persia And the spirit of Divination or Prophesie was upon the wicked Soothsayers of the Philistins 1 Sam. vi 9. they divined if the Cart in which they put the Ark of the Lord went up straight to Bethshemesh to its own Coast then the Lord had laid evil upon them for detaining it and so it came to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom God did make the Event answer to the Prediction of those wicked Soothsayers No opposition therefore in this but the Spirit bloweth where it listeth even among the dispersed of the heathen even among these Wise-men of the East Dedit aspicientibus intellectum qui prestitit signum The grace of God was in their understanding and his signs and wonders in their outward eye And so much of their first Assertion what God had wrought for them We have seen c. Said I even now that the benediction of the Spirit was upon them So it is evident by the last part of my Text their second Assersion what God had wrought in them and are come to worship him Many might come a journey to see him as well as they for that Herod that cut off John Baptist his head desired of a long time to see him Many might see the Star as well as they and be never the better for sundry saw as great signs and miracles that never believed Many of the Scribes knew where he was to be born and were able to tell the Wise-men when they knew not the matter lies not therefore in venimus or in vidimus but in adoramus this is their praise and this is their piety that they came to worship him and that they profess they will worship him though they knew him to be but an Infant new born and never scan the case in what condition they may find him The Queen of the South came as far as these men did but she found a King in all Royalty and such a glorious Court as never was the like these men found a Child in a Cratch the poorest and most unlikely birth that ever was to prove a King no sight to comfort them not a word that came from him for which they were the wiser and yet they were as good as their word they did fall down and worship him and more than worship him present him with their gifts Why should not they humble themselves to the earth when they saw the Stars above did obey him and wait his attendance You will say If we could see such a Star as they did the obstinate would be more convinced to do him worship but it will be more acceptable to worship him though we have not seen Beside They adored him when he was so little in his humiliation who will be slack to perform that homage now he is so great in his glorification I will rather regard the time than dispatch all that remains But one thing is to be spoken of that some take the very foundation of this Point from us namely that the worship of the Wise-men was no religious worship they came not to exhibit a pious veneration to Christ as to the Eternal Son of God but they saluted him with their bended knee as the Persian manner was to behave themselves before their Kings But why should Persians tender such civil worship to one that was none of their own Kings but the King of the Jews One would answer it thus to ingratiate themselves into him betimes if happily he should become the Oriental Monarch in his elder years A conjecture too slight for his great judgment that uttered it Is it possible that wise men should conceive in him no more than a man and yet do him all Princely honour lying in the Cratch of a Stable Are they such men as were admonisht in a dream by the divine Oracles which way to return home and yet shall we interpret their actions politically and not after a divine manner St. Chrysostom says They did both adore him in Bethlehem and preach of his heavenly Kingdom when they came home into Persia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Ambrose is for the same they worshipped him being a little babe in swadling clouts Vtique parvulum non adorassent si parvulum tantum credidissent But
hands Defiled hands in the original are common hands for whatsoever was commonly touched by them and the Gentiles they called it defiled and in suspicion they might touch meat or vessels or apparel which was unclean by the Law they washed often to purge themselves from that defilement This is well illustrated Joh. ii where we read that at the marriage in Cana of Galilee there were ready standing six water-pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews containing two or three Firkins a piece these have reference to that Pharisaical tradition of washing often lest they should be defiled Now mark how God observes both the heathen and the Pharisees in their own weakness and out of that which they made a vain tradition he makes a gracious Sacrament A good Author cites out of the Rabbins that the Jews had added over and above Moses his institution of the Passeover first these words in eating the sower herbs with the Lamb Take and eat these in remembrance of our deliverance from bondage And likewise they gave a cup of Wine one to another with these words Take and drink this in remembrance of the same c. And from hence according to a Custom of their own our Saviour did break bread and give wine and use the same words in his holy Supper Thus both the Sacraments to please them the better had their original from some of their own Ordinances but cast in a new mold so the heathen Temples were changed to be houses of Prayer The Cross which was no better than their Gallows is made a significant and laudable Ceremony in Christian Baptism And lastly Their superstitious bathings were turn'd by John and confirm'd by Christ to be an immortal Laver. This I hope satisfies the first question how this Institution of Baptism began being never heard of untill the days of John The dignity of Johns Baptism is now to be examined It is grown like many things more to be full of difficulty because of mens contentions and without discussion of these three things it cannot be understood 1 What is the vertue of a Sacrament 2. That Johns Baptism had the same substantial vertue with the Baptism of Christ that it now hath 3. That in some respects both Baptisms being one and the same the Baptism of Christ doth exceed the Baptism of John Sacraments are thus distinguished into such as went before the fall of Adam and such as went after Before the Fall there was one Sacrament and no more that was the Tree of Life ordained to be a sign of the Covenant of Works After the Fall God did not make a Covenant of Works but of Grace with man and ever since the Sacraments are Covenants of Grace and seals of the same And they of the Old Testament betoken the Covenant promised to our Fore-fathers they of the New Testament do imply the Covenant performed Let me distinguish again that in the Old Testament all the Sacrifices and a great part of the shadows and Types are sometimes in the Fathers called Sacraments because they had a signification of Christ to come but Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb they only had the Promise of Grace and Reconciliation annexed unto them which is a great deal more than bare signification And as St. Paul speaks honourably of Circumcision that it was a Seal of the righteousness of Faith so our Church thinks it not fit to speak contemptibly of the faith of the righteous men under the Law nor of those visible signs which God appointed to establish his Promise unto them but we make them equal in efficacy with Baptism and the Lords Supper That according as their faith did apply the Promise unto them their Sacraments were as profitable for Salvation as ours Only these are Circumstantial differences 1. That our Sacraments are meerly spiritual which betoken nothing of this world The Jews Sacraments had somewhat in them both which belong'd to the body as well as to the soul for Abraham received the sign of Circumcision that he should be the Father of many Nations and the Paschal Lamb was a remembrance that they came out of Egypt out of the house of bondage 2. As the light of Faith is brighter with us the measure of the Spirit more abundant so our Sacraments are justly said to to be Virtute majora more efficacious because we are endued with better means of application 3. Our Sacraments are actu faciliora to wash and be clean and to eat bread and drink wine are performed with more facility than the cutting the foreskin of Infants or the slaying of a Lamb to eat it with sower herbs 4. Take all the Types and Sacrifices of the Jews together which were an heavy burden because of their multitude then our Sacraments are numero pauciora we have but twain and so their number is not troublesom These are accidental differences but otherwise as St. Austin said of Manna that it was to them as the Lords Supper is to us In signis diversis fides eadem the Elements were divers but such as begot the same faith and are tokens of the same Lord Jesus Christ and beget the same Salvation That which thwarts this Doctrine is the distinction of the Schoolmen that the Sacraments ordained in Moses Law were significancies of Grace but the Sacraments of Christ did exhibit and confer Grace What means that Surely he that did eat the Paschal Lamb by faith to him it was spiritual nourishment and he that eats the Lords Supper to him only it is spiritual nourishment I can see no odds The late Romish Writers disclaim their gross opinion maintained long ago that in men capable of reason and knowledge for we set Infants aside the taking of the Sacrament should add a benefit to the Receiver Ex opere operato externo sine motu interno says Biel by the meer outward act without an inward preparation This opinion their Cardinal Controverser disavows for he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks his own damnation Then if Faith be requisite in the Participant I cannot see how one Sacrament exhibits Grace more than another It is far from my meaning to diminish the excellency and vertue of our Sacraments No I had rather set all disputations aside and say with St. Austin Quorum vis inenarrabiliter valet plurimum that is their power prevails in such a sort as we cannot utter how it is Yet this may be safely taught that they are not helping and partial causes of Salvation to be joyned in office with the merit of Christ but only Instruments ordained to work Salvation by the Promise of God and the application of a lively faith Origens words express much if I could explain them Non sunt justitiae sed conditurae justitiarum The Sacraments are not our righteousness but as sauce makes meat fit to be eaten so they make righteousness fit to be put upon us The Word preacht is the power
of Adam the Sacrament of waters had not been ordained as if we were refined with Fullers Sope. There are but two Baptisms spoke of in the New Testament the one of Water the other of Fire and both are put together for the use of our impurities that all defilement may be driven out Molliora per aquam duriora metalla igne expurgantur If there be spots in Linnen or in any thing that is soft and supple we take them out in water if it be dross in stubborn Metals we decoct it and scum it off in a furnace of fire So our nature is most soft and supple to contract every kind of iniquity as easily as a cloath is stain'd And our heart is hard like iron stubborn and refractory to forsake iniquity therefore God applies Water and Fire to purge us to the bottom Water in the outward Laver Fire in the inward Spirit so by Christs humility who vouchsafed to dip himself in such water as we do he merited of his Father that we should be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire Non mundari voluit sed mundare Jordanem says St. Ambrose he came not to be cleansed but to cleanse the River Jordan and all other waters for the mystical washing away of sin Unus mersit sed lavit omnes unus descendit ut ascenderemus omnes One Jesus dived into the River that we might all rise up from the death of sin one man descended into the Pool in great humility that we might all ascend up into glory Therefore if any man ask why he that was whole in every part would step into Bethesda as if he were diseased why the immaculate Son of God would wash with sinners Let him take this answer That he was brought to Baptism even as the Spirit came down upon him anon after from heaven in the shape of a Dove It was not for want of the Spirit before or that any thing could be added to that plentiful grace which did inhabit in him but to call for the Holy Ghost that it might rest upon his Church So it was not for want of cleanness that he suffered such a Ceremony at Jordan to be done unto him as belongs to them that are impure but to make the Sacrament vertuous and powerful for them that should take it after him Pro nobis Christus lavit imò nos in corpore suo lavit all our defilements if we repent and believe are wash'd away upon his body There were certain legal cleansings with water in the Statutes of Moses Figures of things to come and ordained to satisfie for pollutions that hapned through chance and ignorance but Christ submitted himself to the Ordinance of the New Testament and avoided them For 1. They were Figures what should he do with such things that was the very truth 2. They appertained to the polluted What reference could they have to him that is immaculate 3. They were appointed for trespasses of ignorance What application could they have to him who knows all things in heaven and earth and under the earth And lest he should be mistaken for one in the rank of sinful men as if he came to be baptized for the same end that we do John pronounceth him holy after the strictest manner in another Gospel not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom behold him that is without sin but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold him that taketh away the sin of the whole world his soul must needs consist of nothing but untainted righteousness He did communicate in his Last Supper with his Disciples and this was his difference from them he took the Bread when he had blessed it Ad spirituale solatium non ad augmentum gratiae not to augment grace and charity as we do but for the delight of his Spirit So it delighted him to sanctifie the waters of our new Birth to the washing away of our sins Vnde ista vertus aquae St. Austin speaks like one astonisht Whence comes it that the poor Element toucheth the skin and mundifieth the heart But even from him whose hem of his garment an impotent woman took in her hand and Christ perceived that vertue was gone out of him and as you must not conceive any Physical inherent vertue was in his cloaths to stop an issue of bloud as there is in some stones and herbs which in their substance are medicinal so you must not mistake as if Christ had sanctified all Rivers that a strange hidden vertue is infused into such water as is blessed to baptize whereby ex opere operato by the meer aspersion the soul should become unpolluted but by this act of our Saviours it was ordained and instituted to be the matter of that Sacrament which should sanctifie the Children of God Neither doth the Doctrine of this reason stretch so far as if God could not have caused Jordan and all other Fountains to take away pollution though Christ had never been washed in his own Person for that immortal Laver is the medicine of our souls because the vertue of the Holy Ghost is upon it Spiritus novit locum suum as many of the Fathers when the world was first made the Spirit moved upon the waters and he keeps the same place in our New Birth when we are made again children I mean by adoption and grace and so far of the second reason Thirdly It appears from hence what the Prophet Isaiah foretold Chap. liii 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all because he hath received our sins upon him and offered himself as bail for us to his Father to discharge us from malediction therefore he was baptized in the form of a sinner and was reckoned among those that had need to be wash'd for their sins In all things it behov'd him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and a faithful High Priest Heb. ii 17. Nazianzen makes all things consist in these three Points man may be said to be born thrice 1. A miserable Infant from his mothers womb 2. He is regenerate and born again by water and the holy Spirit 3. He is brought to life again at the last day when the Grave shall give up the dead in every one of these Christ was made like unto man by his Nativity by his Baptism by his Resurrection But to be made like unto us in Baptism was more against his dignity than both the rest in some comparisons His Mother brought him forth indeed in the form of a poor helpless Infant yet you will grant that to be an Infant is the order of nature and not a misery He did overcome death at his Resurrection nothing was ever done more triumphantly he did overcome such enemies which to that time had been unvanquishable but he came to Baptism in the person of many sinners that as he had honoured our nature in his Birth so he might purifie it in Baptism to be made sin
increase will soon follow when you have begun happily God will teach you to proceed and to put your Talent into the way of increase The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob says David that is he loveth the perfect Sacraments of the New Testament better than the types and shadows of the Old Now Baptism is called especially one of the gates of Sion for that it is but the first door to let us into the Church The Church it self is an upper Chamber as Christ is said to eat his Passeover with his Disciples in superiori caenaculo the highest in the world next to heaven it self there are many stairs and degrees of vertues upon which we must climb till we come to the top of the hill In Baptism we go down as it were into the River and sit in the lowest room of humility but as speedily as we can we must advance our soul and go up from grace to grace from vertue to vertue and you shall hear that voice of joy from Christ himself Friends sit up higher AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 16. And loe the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him AS Moses said unto himself when he saw the splendor of a bright fire in the bush so do I say unto you Let us now turn aside and see this great sight Great in the Object great in the Persons and great in the Mysteries Great in the Object to be seen for loe the heavens were opened And what mean trash was that which Satan did offer to the view of our Saviour in respect of this all the Kingdoms of the world made visible in the twinckling of an eye Great in the Persons to be understood in their several apparitions for these are the great Estates that rule the world God the Son manifested at the Baptism of water God the Holy Ghost to be discerned in the sensible shape of a Dove and God the Father whose glory was heard in the voice This is my well beloved Son This is no usual matter it must be some extraordinary solemnity which is graced by the full concourse of the Trinity I find it so once at the Creation Gen. i. and I find it at this time when Christ is baptized Man was created a brittle vessel for the Potters use without a Metaphor the servant of his Lord and to let him know to whom he owes his Creation every fountain of life is recited in the Story The Father the Word which was in the beginning and the Spirit which moved upon the face of the waters But in the New Testament we rise up higher from the state of Servants and become the Sons of our heavenly Father and that we may know to whom we owe our adoption and grace once again in this place Christ comes to Jordan the Holy Ghost descends in the bodily shape of a Dove and the Father utters himself in a voice from heaven Now for the mysteries I am bold to say the Church is capable of no greater than are here contained First Here are all the causes and instruments of our Salvation implied The Sacraments which are the Seals of righteousness the word taught which begets faith and the Spirit which moves upon them and puts life into them both The Father is in the Word the Son sanctifieth the Sacrament and the influence which blesseth them both unto us is the Dove which rested upon that sacred head unto whom all the members are fitly compacted And besides all these primary causes and instrumental helps of salvation here is an Epitomy of all those benefits which the Mediatorship of Christ will procure unto us The Heavens which were shut before set open to receive us the Spirit of Sanctification to be poured out upon us and that God will be pleased in us through his only beloved Son To recapitulate these things premised briefly the Mysteries are so great as none so superlative The Persons manifested infinitely glorious as none so excellent the Object so delightful to the eye of the soul as none so amiable And loe the heavens were opened unto him c. Of three immortal benefits which our Redeemer hath procured for us this Text contains a couple and both declared in no ordinary fashion but by the wonderful power of God First Here is a wonder wrought above Loe the heavens were opened unto him Secondly Here is another wonder come down below to the world beneath And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him These are the two members of the Text the first part whereof is opened already for how could we unlock that hidden Mystery unless the Key of David had unbarred it And loe the heavens c. Take notice in the first part of the Text that here is a word of invitement to draw our eyes upon it Loe the heavens were opened Nature hath made man with that erection of face to look upward that he must often view the heavens but the sight is never clear enough without abundance of grace to see them open Wherefore without the advantage of the second Miracle in the Text we should never be capable to conceive the first Christ procures the Dove to descend he makes the holy Spirit light among his Saints and then our eyes which were be-darkned before shall be ready to look up and perceive Loe the heavens were opened In this order I shall briefly discourse upon it 1. What is meant by the heavens standing open 2. What did procure and obtain it 3. How this Miracle fell out to glorifie Christ 4. What joy and comfort it implies to all those that are of the houshold of our Saviour The first inquiry is to this purpose what is meant and exprest by the heavens standing open We do but grope in the dark for such notions as this and mens opinions are divided into five several conjectures First When the true glory of the heavens is made visible to the eye of a man upon earth God imparting and revealing to the senses of his body a taste of that happiness which is laid up for them that fear him So Stephen was ravisht with such a sight and cried out I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God It is not needful to say that the parts of heaven were set open like a window to let him look in but as it is concluded in fairest probability Oculus ejus porrectus fuit usque ad coelum empyreum The glance of his eye was endowed with vertue to penetrate through the clouds and through the spheres unto the Throne of God This acception doth no way agree with my Text for the heavens are said to be opened in this Scripture that all the multitude might behold the miracle but you must not think it was given to them all good and
and fell to them again seven times and no less and never made an end till his Servant told him he saw a little cloud rising out of the sea He that will give over for seven times seven repulses and will not be importunate with the Lord it were pity his desires should be successful Such constant such contrite devotion how can it choose but pierce the clouds The High Priest went once a year into the Holy of Holies with the perfume of Incense What is Incense but Prayer What is the Holy of Holies but the Kingdom of heaven O that you would believe which I am sure you ought to do that no part of Piety is so beneficial to the soul as Prayer You will remember my saying perhaps when you are upon the bed of your last sickness that Prayer is the Key to open the gate of heaven that Prayer is that address of the soul with which God appointed we should draw near unto him Now I know the most of you had rather spend your pains another way but at that last hour of anxiety unless God forsake you for your sins your heart will be intent upon nothing but upon zealous Prayer It is but a circumstance drawn into my Text from another Evangelist therefore I will pass it by with Bedes observation that Prayer is an active and a passive Benediction it draws God to us and by the same motion draws us to God as if a ship lay at Anchor tost upon the waves you may pluck the Cable with your hands and think to hale the ship to you but the Cable being of stronger tack will pluck you to the Ship The Prophet Isaiah in his Prayers was confident he could not be denied therefore he cries out O that thou wouldst burst the heavens O Lord and come down Our High-Priest Jesus offered the sweet odours of his Prayers unto his Father and loe the heavens were opened unto him The second consideration of the first Point is ended but I would you would diligently begin to practise it Thirdly I shall recite it before you how this Miracle fell out to glorifie Christ Therefore the Text says Loe the heavens were opened to him opened manifestly for the view of all beholders that were present but opened unto him because it was meant for his inauguration to honour his Mediatorship who came to redeem mankind from the curse of endless death and captivity Therefore imagine not as if the whole heavens did seem unveiled to discover all their glory but only so much of the Firmament did spangle like a Canopy advanced in state over our Saviours head as might betoken his Celestial Dignity The Father at this Baptism proclaimed him from above to be his well beloved Son and to make us understand that his love where it lights consists not in sweet words of affection only he did attire the Air in most Princely beauty to honour his well-beloved in whom he was well pleased Contrariwise at the Passion of Christ the Sun denied his light to the earth and the Regions above did never look so terrible as then with black clouds and darkness for he carried the malediction of us all upon him and it was a day of wrath and vengeance when God took punishment upon all iniquity We read of no Angel that was near to behold him at that dolorous hour upon the Cross belike it was a sight so ingrate and pitiful to behold that they withdrew themselves but at the triumph of his Baptism it is not mine but St. Austins opinion that the heavens which reach as far as the habitation of all blessed spirits were opened Vt in coelestibus esset miraculum de his quae agebantur in terris that the Angels might take this amiable spectacle into their view of those things that were done upon earth for would it not ravish the Powers of Heaven to peep into this Mystery that the Son of God should stoop so low in the River Jordan That a mortal man should hold up his hand above his head to baptize him When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from the Babylonish bondage the deliverance was so gladsom to the Land of Canaan to receive her ancient Inhabitants again that the Mountains skipped like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep When the Apostles prayed among them that were converted and had received the Holy Ghost the place was shaken where they were assembled as if the ground could have cleft for joy Acts iv 31. Then could the Heavens contain to burst themselves for joy when Christ was initiated into his Royal Office The Earth was obsequious to the honour of such as were earthly the Heavens did honour Christ at his Baptism for the second man was from the heaven heavenly Now I come to fill up the last thing considerable in this Miracle what joy and comfort the opening of the heavens affords to all them that believe in Jesus The heavens were opened the Dove descended a voice from above proclaimed the good will of the Father to rejoyce our hearts that the immortal Laver of Baptism is able to cast all those blessings upon us not that all those were not in Christ and due to him before the Sacrament For did he then begin to have the Spirit rest upon him who is of the same eternal substance with the Spirit Or was that the first time when the heavens were opened to him of whom it is said of old Heaven is my seat and Earth is my foot stool Nor did his Father then begin to call him Son for we read in the book of the Psalms Thou art my Son this day that is from all eternity I have begotten thee When God spake and answered our Saviours Prayer from Heaven Christ turns to the Jews saying This voice came not for me but for your sakes Joh. xii 30. Likewise he might expound upon the opening of the heaven this was not for me but for your sakes Restincta est aquis baptismi romphaea flammatilis quae claudit paradisum says Ratbertus A fiery flaming Sword debarr'd the way into Paradise by Gods appointment which flame is mystically quenched in the Baptism of our blessed Mediator and now as if the Angel had said I will stop the way into Paradise no more the Heavens were opened And if Marriage be called honourable inasmuch as he vouchsafed his Presence at a Marriage at Cana in Galilee then Baptism is most honourable and blessed because he was more than present at it He came in his own person from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized To what purpose should this Scripture say Loe or behold the heavens were opened Unless it were a continual opening from that time to this how could we behold it If open and immediately shut again it were not so proper to say unto us behold But if they always stand open by the meritorious Redemption of Christ then it is an apt Phrase to say Behold the Heavens were opened
unto the worlds end The Schoolmen collect a threefold opening of the heaven in holy Scripture and every way through the power and act of Christ Says Ales In baptismo aperta est coeli janua per figuram in passione per meritum in ascensione per effectum 1. The gates of heaven were opened at this Baptism as in a Type or Figure that they should be opened and God will certainly make good whatsoever he did but shadow in a Figure 2. They were opened at the shedding of his bloud upon the Cross as by those means which did meritoriously procure the opening Therefore we sing in the Te Deum When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers 3. They were opened effectually when his own glorious body entred in once into the most Holy of Holies when the heads of the everlasting doors were lifted up at the day of his Ascension And where the head doth sit at the right hand of God the Members of the body having their sins washed clean away shall reign also The Earth never opened in holy Scripture but upon some Curse for the destruction of man The Heavens never opened but that some mighty Blessing might distil down upon us the probatum whereof is in the second general part of my Text for the first Miracle which we have handled did but make way unto the second And after the heavens were opened he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him That John Baptist had this Miracle so clearly in his eye that he saw the Spirit of God I find it not so material to the business of the Text as to insist much upon it For although some observe upon it that the first Witness that preach'd of the Son of God is conceited to be the first Witness that saw the Holy Ghost yet the Miracle hapned not so much for Johns sake as to lead the whole multitude into a right apprehension that Jesus was that holy One which came into the world for the redemption of Israel John was born of a barren woman his Garments very strange and uncouth no better than the skins of Camels clapt about him as they were flay'd from the beast his austerity of life stupendious his Preaching powerful high in estimation so that all the Regions round about came to him to be baptized this drew them to conceit that none could come into the world to be compared with John But Columba columbam docuit the Dove taught the Dove the Spirit taught the Church who was the Christ the Saviour of mankind by the descending of the Dove That which I will speak to this Point briefly shall be brancht out into a threefold inquiry 1. Whether this were a living bird or no more than the figurative Apparition of a Dove 2. How aptly the Spirit came in one figure upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles 3. That the figure of a Dove doth sweetly admonish us of the properties of the Holy Ghost What manner of Dove this was is not a question of such doubtful resolution as the former how the heavens were opened for treading in the path of the Scripture as I adjudge it we may find the truth For three Evangelists say that the Spirit did sit upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were a Dove then add St. Luke unto it that the Dove came in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a bodily shape and these put together me seems do strongly prove two things 1. That it was not viva columba a Pigeon out of the Dove-Coats with a living soul for to notifie that there was but the outward fashion and resemblance of such a bird in three Gospels we read it was but quasi columba like a Dove And yet that you may not take it to be mere Phenomenon a shadow to perswade the eye having no substance in truth St. Luke hath not omitted that it was a bodily shape Verae effigies columbae a body created for this service having the true lineaments of a Dove To make both these opinions good by several illustrations And first what need it to be of the true Species of Doves Was not miraculous Omnipotency as much seen to frame such a shape out of the Elements at an instant and to put motion in it to descend upon the head of Christ as if it had been a very foul It was a work which could not be effected but by the infinite and incomprehensible Trinity For the Dove was a representation of the Holy Ghost the voice which came from heaven did speak the Father only the humane nature was united only to the Person of the Son but the Dove the voice the humane nature were the works of the whole Trinity which coequally works all effects in the world You may fully conceive what natural composition this Dove had by those bodily shapes wherein the Angels or God appeared of old to the Patriarchs they were not actuated by a soul but moved about by God or his Angels for the present turn as a Ship is by the Pilot. When their Errand was dispatcht the body vanisht away into air So the use of this Miracle being accomplished at Jordan the Dove was no more seen but instantly resolved into Elements Besides that which came down upon the Disciples at Whitsontide was a cloven tongue like as of fire did ever any man say it was fire indeed So this Apparition upon the head of Christ was like a Dove But for what purpose or necessity should it be a Dove indeed For Christ was man indeed because he took upon him the nature of man to redeem it therefore the reason is forcible that the Holy Ghost should not come down in a Dove indeed because he took not upon him the nature of a Dove to redeem it Secondly I gathered from St. Luke though it had not the life of a Dove yet it had lineaments and compacture of true substance like a Dove Christ came among us bodily in the flesh wherefore says St. Austin to shew that the assumption of a corporeal nature did not make an inequality of persons in the Godhead a voice was heard from heaven in the Person of the Father as if it had proceeded from the instruments of the body and a bodily Dove did descend from heaven in the Person as it were of the Holy Ghost Likewise the coming down is the motion of a body The Spirit is every where and cannot descend to any place which was not filled with his presence from the beginning of the world but in hôc signo in this bodily shape and effigie he came down And mark Beloved the Devil is Spiritus cadens I saw Satan fall like lightning down he tumbles to the nethermost Pit and all that follow him but the Holy Ghost descends like an humble Spirit according as our Saviour bids us place our selves at
the Feast Go and sit down in the lowest room but litterally descension is infallibly the motion of a body And otherwise the wonder had herein consisted not that such a Dove was seen but that such a strange spectacle appeared to John and to all the multitude which was not to be seen John did see the object it did not phantastically in a shadow deceive him as if he saw it And it is a touch worthy to be observed by the way that my Text says he saw the Spirit which is a clear Metonimy of the sign for the thing signified for in truth he saw no more than the outward sign of the Spirit To call the holy Spirit by the attribute of the Dove is a Sacramental signification not an essential mutation just such a form of speech as when Christ brake bread at his Last Supper and said unto his Disciples This is my body I proceed to that which follows how aptly the Spirit came in one figure at this time upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at this day of Pentecost upon the Apostles If I would rake old Heresies out of their dead embers to refute them here I had occasion The Arians extorted from hence that Christ did receive the mighty gift of Sanctification at this Baptism and other admirable graces of the Spirit which he had not before If they were worth the refuting I could tell them Joh. i. 14. As soon as ever the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us he was full of grace and truth On the contrary the Macedonian Hereticks men of corrupt minds did make a difference of dignity between Christ and the Holy Ghost as the body of a man was more excellent which belonged to Christ than the body of a Dove wherin the Spirit sate upon him Then belike if an Angel should come in the shape of a man or of an Eagle which is more glorious than a Dove he should also have the preheminence But the blindness of the error came from hence that they did not distinguish how Christ took upon him the nature of a man but the Holy Ghost did not assume the nature of a Dove Let these blasphemies go let them rot and consume with the Authors which invented them the Father the Son and the Spirit are all one in Glory equal in Majesty coeternal Upon occasion of Baptism the Master sent forth his Disciples saying Go and baptize all Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Can I pass by the surpassing wit of St. Austin upon that place Non in nominibus sed in nomine patris ubi unum nomen est ibi unus Deus Not in the names but in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Where there is but one name and no more there is but one God and no more As in like argument St. Paul Gal. iii. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ Let me return into my own path which I am to beat that Christ had one sign of the Holy Ghost coming down upon him and the Apostles had another Upon which diversity thus I find the Fathers exercising their wits in several meditations First The Spirit sate upon our Saviours head in the shape of an whole entire creature in no other figure but a tongue upon the Apostles which is no more than a little part of the body for we receive the grace of God by scantlings and pittances and small measures the whole Spirit flowed into Christ in all abundance In like manner Gregory shews the odds between his fulness and ours in Analogy between the head and other members of the body A body hath the sense of touching only and no more the head is the continent of all the five senses Ita membra superni capitis in quibusdam virtutibus emicant ipsum caput in cunctis virtutibus flagret So the Saints have several gifts and ornaments divided among them some in one kind some in another but the head of the Church hath all flourisheth with all those vertues united in himself which are parted among his members Secondly The tongues of holy men and Prophets did often promise grace and reconciliation to the world and therefore a tongue did sit upon them as it were a Crest of Armory a Dove when time was did actually exhibit that God was pacified and appeased when he had been wroth I mean the Dove which returned to the Ark with a dry Olive branch in her mouth in token that the waters were dried up and that Noah and his Family might come forth with safety Therefore a Dove most properly did belong to Christ Most properly I say but more transcendently says St. Chrysostom now than ever The first Dove did comfort the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that punishment was taken away this Dove is a sacred pledge that grace and blessings shall be bestowed upon us Now it appeared not to bring one man and his family safe into the possession of the earth but to bring all Believers safe into the possession of heaven Thirdly The Spirit came not to Christ in fire for he was full of Zeal nor yet in the shape of a tongue for full of grace were his lips But discite quia mitis learn of me because I am meek and gentle therefore says Bernard the Dove came to testifie the placidness of the Lamb. Quod agnus in animalibus columba in avibus such as the Lamb is among the beasts of the field such is the Dove among the fouls of the air Fire is stern and formidable Christ would have none of that that which sorts with consolation to recreate a trembling conscience was his peculiar choice therefore the third Person descended like a Dove and sate upon him Fourthly The tongues wherein the Apostles received the grace of God were cloven and divided not to signifie a rent and a division Linguarum distantiae non sunt schismata but because there is a diversity and a dispreading about of the gifts of God Then comes down one single Dove to honour Unity Spiritus sanctus divisus in linguis unitus in columbâ says St. Austin it was pride which caused that diversity of tongues it was the Holy Ghost through the humility of Christ which sanctified that diversity Quod turris dissociaverat Ecclesia collegit Babel the Tower of pride scattered the world the Church which is the Tower of humility gathers the world together But the Dove was the Ensign of our Saviours Kingdom standing for the unity of the Spirit which is the bond of peace Fifthly The Holy Ghost was made manifest to the Chruch first in a Dove at the feast of Christs Baptism afterward in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide to betoken it is the same Spirit which requires innocency in the
in domo charitatis in a charitable Hospital family every man hastened to a good work as if he had flown like a Dove Was not Paul a brave wing'd Apostle that traversed much of Asia and preacht the Gospel in every place from Jerusalem to Illyricum Seventhly The Doves eyes are fixt upon the Rivers of waters Cant. v. 12. some say out of vigilancy to espy therein the gliding of the Kite that flies above and to save it self So the spiritual man looks backward to the first waters wherein he was dipt to the Vow which he made in Baptism There he remembers his Garment was made white and he must not stain it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not only to wash away filth but to give tincture or colour to that which is died So in Baptism the foul spots of iniquity are taken forth and by sanctification a clear gloss is set upon our soul It was the exhortation of old at Baptism Accipe vestem candidam immaculatam c. Take this white garment pure and undefiled it was their Ceremony to put on such and keep it undefiled against the day of the Lord. Et grege de niveo gaudia pastor habet says Lactantius The Shepherd rejoyceth to see the fleeces of his Lambs fair and unspotted These are pennae deargentatae as the Psalmist says the Doves wings are silver wings and if they be bright Silver here it will be changed into a better Metal hereafter a Crown of Gold whose wings are silver wings and the feathers of Gold Lastly As it was toucht before in the days of Noah the Dove was a presager of a better world to come and in this Text likewise it is Nuncia futuri seculi the happy annuntiate that there is a better world to come when these evil days of sin and misery are ended So we are sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise which is the earnest of our inheritance the Spirit is a pledge of that possession which is purchased for us in the Kingdom of heaven whither he bring us c. THE SIXTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 17. And loe a voice from heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased SPeak O Heaven and hearken O Earth unto the word of the Lord. The Earth must keep silence and give ear when God is his own Orator himself and utters his pleasure with his own voice As it is usual when some great Palace is raising fron the Foundation that the Master of the Possession will lay the first stone with his own hands So the Church being to be built up again in the New Testament not upon the foundation of Works but upon Faith not upon Moses but upon Jesus Christ Loe the mighty God publisheth the first tidings of reconciliation from his own mouth and himself in the Prophet Isaiahs Phrase doth lay in Sion a chief corner stone elect and precious for the Foundation which sustains the whole body of the Saints is no other but such as is contained in that brief Proclamation which I have read unto you This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Some of the Fathers very aptly call the Text Gods ample testimonial given to his Son that the world might receive him gladly being about to preach the glad tidings of salvation Moses you know would not offer himself to the Children of Israel to be the means that should release them from Pharaohs bondage before he had a token of Credence who did send him to the People and the Lord said unto him Thou shalt say I am hath sent me unto you So our High Priest and anointed Saviour would keep that form to have a clear testificate to commend him to the World Now a Dove was but a dumb shew and might be interpreted many ways wherefore an articulate and a majestical voice was heard from heaven which would pierce the ears of all that were gathered together and could not be mistaken In that nature therefore as a Testimonial given to him that was now about to be the great Preacher of righteousness I will divide the Text 1. The Person that did bear witness it is the Father 2. The manner how he testified to the honour of his Son by a voice Loe a voice 3. The authority of that voice which was every way to be accepted because it was from heaven 4. The Person to whom the witness is born to a Son This is my Son 5. What is witnessed of him in respect of himself that he was beloved This is my beloved 6. What is witnessed of him in respect of our consolation that he is filius complacentiae in whom and through whom the Father is well pleased That is to say not only beloved in himself but procures us to be beloved likewise for his sake for all that by Baptism have put on Christ are unto God as Christ himself is Filii dilecti complacentes Sons beloved well pleasing So the Text is our Saviours Testimonial and our own Consolation And loe a voice c. The Father is become a witness to glorifie his Son that is the first consideration to be made upon my Text. The Spirit hath done his part before now the voice the Father is come to perfect this great solemnity and so the justice of God agrees with his own Law Ex ore duorum aut trium testium Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established was ever any truth so strongly confirmed so undeniably maintained that the Father which made all things should ratifie it sensibly in the audience of men Never was it heard of but only in this case which is the top of all truth that Jesus was the Son of God Other truths we are well perswaded of which come from the light of reason or from the testimony of man yet reason may be blind and man may err but it is impossible that God should lie Heb. vi And admit it to be good for who can controul it that the Prophets and Apostles were inspired from God so that the contents which they have written are certain and infallible then his divine wisdom which gave them that instinct whatsoever he utters immediately from himself it may well stand upon comparisons that it is much more infallible So St. Hierom distinguisheth between that truth which is increate and which is infused and participate that the truth of the Saints is called a lie in respect of that verity which abideth in the Father Yea let God be true and every man a liar in which words says he it is implied that God alone is true even as he alone is said to have immortality for although he hath communicated immortality to Angels and to the souls of men yet it is not their own immortality but his love and favour to give it to them So the Prophets and holy men were inspired with true knowledge yet it was not their own truth
So the Father is the Voice the Son is the Word the Spirit proceeding from them both is the Truth and these three are all one and undivided So you see why the Father is resembled in the signification of a voice I must adjoyn also how well this doth express the comforts of a Gospel The Law was a dead Letter litera occidit by the strength of sin it killed us all because we were not able to perform it The Gospel is viva vox a quickning living voice such a one as quickned Lazarus when he was four days in the Grave The Law was heard in Trumpet and Thunder upon Mount Sinai Now comes a still voice such a one as would not scare a Dove away now comes Musick from heaven now comes obsecro vos that fair spoken language of the Apostles I beseech ye brethren This is such a winning allicient voice that the words that proceed from it are rather kisses than words therefore the Church speaking to the praise of the Gospels sweetness begins the song on this wise Cant. i. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth The first time that ever we read of Gods voice in the Old Testament you shall hear what Adam says upon it Gen. iii. 10. I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid But at the first time that you read of Gods voice in the New Testament it is made smooth and soft to our ear with This is my beloved and here I am well pleased What else to be concluded from hence But that an evidence and manifestation of faith shall be discovered to all men As when one telleth his mind to his Friend not by messengers or by Script but face to face Thou spakest sometimes in dreams and visions to thy people But says the Lord I will speak with my Servant Moses mouth to mouth Num. xii 8. So by the revelation of the Gospel we are all become as precious to God as Moses was and the Lord talketh with us as one doth with his friend face to face And with all succinctness that is the sum of the second Point Neither must I insist long upon the third thing noted which is the great Authority that this voice doth carry because it came from heaven and Loe a voice from heaven The Oracles of the Gentiles were wont to come out of hollow Caves and Rocks The Law of the Hebrews was delivered from the top of a smoaking hill but as Judges and great Magistrates were wont to publish their Laws from their Throne of State so doth God deliver the Law of Faith from Heaven and that Firmament above it is the Throne of God When the Earth opens it is to swallow Chore Dathan and Abiron When the Heaven opens it is to pour out consolation The Gospel reckons up three times that the Lord spake from heaven above and at each time it had the same Theme to magnifie the Saviour of the World The first time at his Baptism the second time at his Transfiguration the third time anon before his Passion when the Son begg'd earnestly Father glorifie thy name the Father answers him I have glorified it and I will glorifie it again Joh. xii 28. And that you may be assured how that celestial voice continues to speak unto us in the accent of comfort John tells us he heard a voice from heaven saying Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord Rev. xiv 13. Bode no evil with your tongue to any since the Lord out of his habitation speaks nothing but love and benediction towards us The voice of God is an open heaven but as for the curser and reviler his throat is an open sepulchre Sursum corda The tidings of Salvation come not from beneath they hover above our head therefore lift up your heart lift up your understanding and you will easily perceive that every part of sacred Scripture is a voice from heaven I know unless the inward testimony of the Spirit prevail upon your soul and induce it to believe all external Arguments from the judgment of the Church in all Ages from harmony of truth from fulfilling of Prophesies and whatsoever else will be insufficient to perswade you Yet if any thing more than other will puzzle the refractory it is this that in every part and scope it sounds like a voice from heaven far otherwise than the books of humane learning That which drives our labours and studies only to the glory of God that which propounds no other reward but the fruition of God that which talks of no acts and monuments but such as belong to God this must be divine and from above Nec vox hominem sonat Surely it must be a voice from heaven But do the Heathen thus in any of those three parts of their Sciences either in their Moral Institutions or Natural Disquisitions or Historical Narrations In their Histories they write to honour men in their Philosophy to know the World in their Moral and Politick Axioms to make a just and a noble Patriot for his Country No Tract throughout all mans wit and learning but only in the sacred Scriptures like a voice from heaven Perhaps here and there a Sentence of theirs may soar aloft but as Kites flie high yet still look down to the Carion upon the Dunghil So the stile of the Heathen may rise up in some things as it were in the clouds but from thence they look down how they may be famous and popular And that is no better than a blast of vanity sure it is no voice from heaven Beloved this is a most illustrious opening of the Gospel that the heavens assumed a tongue and began to speak wherefore it is for good reason that our Saviour had that diction so often in his mouth He that hath ears to hear let him hear Let me be bold to add he that hath a tongue to confess let him praise the Lord. As we delight to have the Lord speak to us so it delighteth the Lord to have us speak to him And as the Father did vouchsafe to send his voice from heaven to earth so let our lips be full of Prayers that we may send our voice from earth to heaven God is not an Eccho nothing but empty voice we read of his face and his presence and his right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore And as Absalon though he were a disloyal Son yet he did wishly desire to stand before his Father Says he to Joab wherefore am I come from Gerar to Jerusalem if I may not see the Kings face So the rebounding of the voice from heaven is to enflame our affections that we may see his face in heaven So shall it be their fair lot and inheritance who are Fìlii dilecti complacentes Sons Beloved in whom he is well pleased These are the Testimonials due to Christ and flowing from Christ to us which now I come to handle The fourth annotation is the Person to whom
prompt him with this remembrance be not a blemish to the glory of thy Father in Heaven So much for that part of the Testimony Christ is the eternal Son of God and by him we are called to adoption of Sons Now the Spirit could not stay here but proceeds to glorifie him further This is my beloved Son This is my beloved and thou art my beloved we read it both ways in several Evangelists Ne uno modo dictum minùs intelligatur says St. Austin that the words expressed two manner of ways might be more clearly intelligible Thou art my beloved Son and this is my beloved Son do admonish us two things out of this diversity both that the Father is highly pleased in his Son and that in him he is well pleased with us for his Sons sake For he hath accepted us in the beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. i. 6. This title of beloved is three ways agreeable to Christ 1. Super omnes dilectus est à patre That above all things he is beloved of the Father an infinite love must needs result upon the begetting of an infinite wisdom Amor Deum gubernat amoris omne regnum est the heathen were wont to sing it and knew no reason for it but we know why that God himself was ruled by love love swayed all things in the world God himself is ruled by love that is the Father is intreated by the merits of his Son to break the yoak of his own justice from off our necks and hath put the dominion of life and death into his hands that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow as if he chiefly delighted in the honour of his Son The Schoolmen acutely assign him the preheminence of the Father above all things with this distinction that he was Dilectus quia filius not Filius quia dilectus Beloved because he was a Son and not made a Son because he was beloved which is the condition of them that are adopted Secondly Christ is Paterni amoris erga nos argumentum the proof of Gods exceeding love to us for so God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that who so believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting so he loved it that there is no measure or similitude to compare it The gradations of Bernard by which he draws up our soul higher and higher to meditate upon the divine love are these 1. Prius nos dilexit it were fit the Lord should be sought unto by such underlings as we are yet he began in way of affection and prevented us well contented if we would correspond and answer his offer 2. Tantillos dilexit he loved us and ordained to make us a people when as yet we were not 3. Tales he loved us again in his best beloved when we had defiled our creation 4. Tantus O the immenseness of his love he that is greater than the Heavens said unto us poor dust and ashes let me be your Saviour 5. Tantum dilexit so constant was the passion of his love that it brought him to the Passion of the Cross 6. Tam gratis of his own free love without merits foreseen in us to deserve it he bequeathed unto us an immortal inheritance this is the purchase of that well-beloved in whom he cannot but be well pleased As in the brestplate of Aaron there was holiness written to the Lord that the people might be accepted when he offered incense for them so the love of God is written with the pen of a Diamond in his Son never to be blotted out that looking upon him we might find grace and favour to be received into glory Thirdly Christ is beloved because he was obedient in all things we are all children of wrath that have rebelled against our Father God looked down from heaven to see if any would seek after him and we are all gone out of the way they were all become abominable usque ad unum and that one was Christ This voice prevents that infidelity which some might imagine upon his Passion for they that lookt with fleshly eyes might think he was one rejected and forsaken of God they might think him under the frown and malediction of his Father for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree but howsoever in the representation of our sins the Sun may discolour him and make him look black yet he is fair O daughters of Jerusalem and though we be prodigals that have wasted our Fathers goods and mis-imployed the portion of his grace yet the voice from heaven shall never be proved a liar concerning Christ This is my beloved Son Behold my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased Mat. xii 18. God is love and if the Son take the name from the Father may he not rightly be called the Beloved If I be a Master says our God where is my fear If I be a Father where is my honour And may he not add If I be the love of the Church where is the love to requite it For without love we may keep all the rest to our selves If we fear him without love it is abject and servil if we honour him without love it is flattery Love made the world of visible creatures and it must make the new world of Saints and Angels Truly did one say that the Emblem of a pious heart was Carbo ignitus divini amoris flammâ absorptus A firy coal wasting away all the gross and earthy parts of it with the flame of divine love Were never any tears better bestowed than one I read of in ancient times whose eyes did shed drops to see Gods glory scandalously abused by those that lived about him and being asked What ailed him to grieve so much for other mens sins It was his wonted answer Quia amor non amatur because love it self was not beloved again For if you loved me says Christ yo wo ld keep my Commandments Intimate love thinks nothing too much and too tedious to be done for the beloved yea it thinks nothing too bitter to be suffered no more did Christ for his Church The Spouse doth interlace it among her love-delights that she should suffer for the Lord so it is figuratively couched Cant. i. 13. My love is a bundle of Myrrh to me Says Bernard Myrrha amara aspera c. Myrrh is rugged and bitter yet of sweet fragrancy So tribulation is harsh but sweet for Christs sake And again Fasciculus Myrrhae dilectus mihi My Beloved is fasciculus but a little bundle of Myrrh but a little corrasive of affliction whatsoever we suffer Quia leve prae amore ipsius ducat quicquid asperi immineat If our affection be strong and entire to God a great deal of sorrow is nothing it is but a little bundle for I reckon that the sorrows of this life are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed Give me a resolute will ready to
corruption that is in us and to be the Sons of God Because there is mention of a good Spirit immediately before my Text that descended from heaven upon him in the shape of a Dove and all the business after my Text concerns an evil Spirit that assaulted him with many tentations therefore the quaere ariseth which of these did lead him into the Wilderness The Syriack determines it plainly Ductus â spiritu sancto he was led by the Holy Ghost And it is of more moment that certainly the Syriack Paraphrase took it from St. Luke Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that understand Grammer and the original Text do easily discern that the same word in the same sentence implies one and the same thing the latter being an effect of the former for being full of the Holy Spirit he was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness And I will parallel it plainly anon with that of St. Paul Acts xx 22 Behold I go bound in spirit to Jerusalem Moreover the Devil approached not unto him till after he had fasted forty days he began to be an hungry for he had no motive to begin his tentations till he perceiv'd he was in the distress of hunger like a weak man Therfore it was not Satan that carried him into this place where he fasted for then the tentation had begun before he had set foot in the Wilderness The case is clear to say no more of the first Point that the Spirit which led him was the influence and impulsion of the Holy Ghost The second thing to be askt is how the Spirit did lead him This can be conceived but two ways Either by inward instigation or removing him suddenly from one place to another which is called outward translocation Each way may be admitted for both are according to Analogy of Faith and both are favoured out of the Greek Text of sundry Evangelists You shall read in St. Luke Chap. iv 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was led by the Spirit which doth imply that the Holy Ghost did inwardly inspire that resolution into him and did assist continually while he abode in the Wilderness You shall read in St. Mark Chap. i. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness as if he had been transported thither in some wonderful rapture And my Text is read thus in St. Mathew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led up of the Spirit The Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sursum to lead up hath either regard to the situation of the Desart which was by far the higher ground in respect of Jordan where our Saviour was before Or else that he was exalted from the earth and carried away by the Spirit through the air untill he came unto that place where he spent forty days in Prayer Fasting and Meditation I dare not contend out of the Scriptures but that the Spirit wrought both ways upon Christ both carrying his body into the Wilderness and instigating his mind No unusual thing in the first sense for the Spirit to transport a body suddenly through the air without the motion of the feet to a place of far distance And although the whole Trinity God the Father the Son and Holy Ghost concur to that action and produce it or perhaps appoint an Angel to be the instrument yet it goes under the name of the Spirit because that Miracle impresseth a strange vertue into a material body as if it were spiritual How Enoch and Elias were translated on high in their bodies I have declared my mind not long since And surely before Elias his last translation into heaven this did befall him often times Obadiah was jealous of it 1 King xviii 13. It shall come to pass when I am gone from thee the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not What Ezekiel reports of himself I cannot say but it was rather an imaginary than a real rapture but thus he Ezek. viii 3. The hand of God took me by a lock of mine head and the Spirit lift me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem This could not be imprinted in his imagination but that it was possible to be done really And Gregory meditates well upon it Every regenerate person during the time of this mortal flesh is so lifted up between heaven and earth Adhuc ad superna plene non pervenit sed tamen ima dereliquit His conversation and his heart are not altogether in heaven but they are higher than the earth What a direct instance is that of the Prophet Habakkuk He was carrying food to the Reapers in the Land of Jury and the Angel of the Lord took him by the crown and bare him by the hair of his head and through the vehemency of the Spirit set him in Babylon Neither need this be rejected for Apocryphal since there is an example to match it Acts viii 39. The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip who was then at Gaza and he was found at Azotus which two are forty miles distance after the best descriptions of the Holy Land A Faith that is but linum fumigans a dusky faith and shines not clearly may easily admit this for if the birds can cut the air with their gross wings naturally who will not be perswaded that God can make the body of man more nimble and fit for such a motion by his supernatural power But I marvel at those Expositors who are squemishly conceited against that opinion that they did not frame this objection God doth not use to work Miracles only to shew tricks as one would say no necessity requiring Then cui bono Why might not Christ have gone into the Wilderness step by step What occasion of moment should urge the Spirit to transport him Beloved it was thus far expedient that Christ should vanish and no man know which way he was departed that he might avoid the honour which the multitude would have done him upon that voice which came from heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So in the sixth of St. John after the miracle of feeding some thousands with a little bread and a few fishes Christ perceived that they would take him by force and make him a King therefore he made a sudden departure none knew whither till his Disciples met him walking upon the Sea in a dark night and a great storm Mat. xiv 23. This is reason then sufficient to decline the people who were astonished at the testimony which was given him from heaven that the Spirit snatcht him away in a rapture into the Wilderness Why this interpretation of the word should not take with you I know not but I am sure the next must take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led by the Spirit that is the Holy Ghost did inspire this heroical
resolution into his humane nature to fight with and to overthrow the tentations of the Devil I shall reach this doctrine unto you the better upon certain questions And first what needed this Preface of all other before this mighty work that he was guided by the Spirit What action throughout all his life did not deserve the same commendation A young Rhetorician dedicated an Oration to one Antalcidas What is the subject of your Oration quoth he Says the young Orator the praise of Hercules Fie man says Antalcidas what needless pains have you taken Who did ever dispraise Hercules So it may seem as redundant an expression to say that Christ was led by the Spirit at this time for through the grace of Union and the grace of Unction he was always conducted by the Spirit It is sufficient for answer to this that this was the first exploit of those that Christ did act to shew he was the Christ and the Mediator of God and man therefore this clause being prefixt to the formost of his actions is a title to all the rest he was led of the Spirit 2. It is not to be taken per modum inhaerentiae that he was now full of the Holy Ghost as if he had received a larger measure than he had before but by way of manifestation for the Spirit even now had visibly descended upon him in the shape of a Dove Semper fuit actus à spiritu sed jam maximè ejus vis apparuit the common gloss of the best Writers The Spirit did always lead him and dwel in him but now it did appear and put forth its strength I move another question be not offended that I move these hard things as it were by way of Catechism are the leadings of the Spirit of more sorts than one Yea these two are degrees one above another The first is general to all the Sons of God for they are all stirred up to faith and hope and good works by a divine illumination If ye be led by the Spirit then are ye not under the Law of the flesh Gal. v. 18. The second is special to the chiefest and principal Ministers of God as Kings Prophets and Apostles when Saul was anointed King over Israel the Lord gave him another heart his Spirit came upon him and he Prophesied So Christ our anointed Prophet prepared himself for a famous enterprize and he had the badge of Gods good liking The Spirit came upon him or he was led by the Spirit Suffer but one interrogatory more and it is this Did the Spirit thrust on Christ and as it were hale him with compulsion at this time So a man might hap to fall into that error by St. Marks words The Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness And the Vulgar Latine gives the same offence Luk. iv 1. Agebatur a spiritu he was pusht on by the Spirit For answer hard words are soon mollified by good construction The very Heathen could say Generosus est animus hominis magisque ducitur quà m trahitur Mans will is a free generous thing and had rather be led fairly than drawn forcibly Therefore the other Evangelists must be expounded by St. Matthew that the Spirit led him by illumination and propounding the will of his Father unto him not by violence and coaction So Cajetan Non vis significatur sed efficientia impulsus spiritus All was done by the efficacy and motion of the Spirit nothing by compulsion Some there are who care not what old Pillars of Divinity they pull down to set up their new devises that hold that Christ did obey his Father and the Divine Law with so much liberty and freedom that it were no offence to say Christ could not have obeyed his Father not have kept the Law and so by consequent have sinned and whereas it is certain he did not sin they will neither allow that the Hypostatical Union was the cause of it O strange Theologie nor yet the grace of Unction wherewith he was anointed above his fellows O strange impudency Neither of these was fundamentum impeccabilitatis And all this to maintain that because he did merit by his obedience his will was not determined to do good but left indifferent to good or evil Away with this over audatious disputing Christ could not but fulfil all righteousness I must do the works of him that sent me Joh. iv 9. All good things conducible to the work of a Mediator were necessary to be done And it was necessary Gods will being declared that it should be fulfilled of Christ although he was not necessitated by a violent determination but moved willingly and obediently unto it by a certain perswasion Non necessitatus erat sed propter illud quod necessarium erat sponte motus says Abulensis The object propounded was necessary to be done of him though he accepted it with much alacrity and desire and no way driven by constrainment Therefore this was not like Peters case Another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not Joh. xxi 18. But the hand of the Lord was with him and carried him whither he liked himself Non invitus aut captus sed sponte liberè venit says St. Hierom He was not drawn on as if his own will drew back but rejoyced as a Giant to run his course To say no more but this Oblatus est quia voluit It was his own good will that he was slain for the sins of the world it was his own pleasure not to dread death and it was as much his own pleasure to grapple with tentations And so much for that question how the Spirit did lead him into the Wilderness You shall now be partakers of the third thing why this passage is inserted into the story that he was led up of the Spirit Good reasons are rather to be esteemed by their weight than their multitude take these few to content you 1. The Spirit is said to lead him because de did not run on blindfold but knew the task which he undertook he foresaw the difficulties that he would meet and weighed them in the balance of judgment and discretion Non ignarus sed consilio ducebatur says St. Ambrose The counsel of the Spirit did enlighten him to see what he had in hand Saul thought that David was but a fool-hardy Stripling and knew not what a perilous thing it was to fight with such a Giant as Goliah Thou art but a youth and he a man of War from his youth thou art not able to go against this Philistine But David shewed the reason of his confidence the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine He had considered Gods mercies and protection therefore he was led by the Spirit into that noble action Beware to plod on like Balaam with our eyes shut never discerning what is
to the Members of his body and it was laudible in him to wish some trial that he might encounter the Devil and spoil him of his Kingdom Tentationem exoptare in eo qui succumbere nequit est laudabile say the Schoolmen It was an heroical magnanimity in Christ to wish tentations so might fall upon him because he could not be vanquished And therefore some gather an observation contrary to St. Chrysostom that our Saviour went into the Wilderness and fasted forty days and after was an hungry destinating that the Devil should find him out Obviam procedit Diabolo quem scit non pug naturum nisi lacessitum He went out to dare the Tempter because he knew he would not come on and fight unless he were provok'd yet it is the sounder way to collect that for our instruction when we should examine this Story Christ did not go in a bravado or a challenge to offer himself to be tempted but the Spirit led him as who should say this was not Curtius in foveam a precipitated intrusion Let not man expose himself to temptation Dubia est victoria who knows that carries the badge of Adams frailty in his body whether he shall come off with victory or captivity Happy is that man and the Lord shall bless his integrity who will not come near the suburbs of sin for no man can keep the Commandments unless he be careful to avoid the first invitations of evil and to shun the farthest and remotest impediments of obedience Have you seen little children dare one another which should go deepest into the mire But he is more childish that ventures further and further even to the brim of transgression and bids the Devil catch him if he can I will but look and like says the wanton where the object pleaseth me I keep company with some licentious persons says an easie nature but for no hurt because I would not offend our friendship I will but bend my body in the house of Rimmon when my Master bends his says Naaman I will but peep in to see the fashion of the Mass holding fast the former profession of my faith Beloved I do not like it when a mans conscience takes in these small leaks it is odds you will fill faster and faster and sink to the bottom of iniquity I have read of a Bishop that was performing the Office of Baptism to many that were converted from Gentilism and when a Virgin came near the Font of an extraordinary beauty he desired a substitute to discharge the place for he would not please his eyes no not for a few minutes to look upon such an object as allured his fancy What a careful Christian this was that kept off occasions of sin and would not suffer them before him as David charged his treacherous Son Absalom to keep a distance and not to come near Jerusalem Hannibal that approved Souldier placed himself in a battel where many Darts of the enemy flew round about him and when some commended him that he ventured his person upon the mouth of danger you mistake says Hannibal I am more ashamed of my self this day than ever I was in my life that being the General of the Field I came in peril to be wounded This is well applied to every Souldier that fights under Christs Banner when we are run into tentations it is good and blessed to come off with the least impairment to our innocency But why did you come so near the flame that you were in peril to be scorched Job comforted himself that he had kept his eyes from wandring Jeremy was careful neither to lend upon Usury nor to borrow upon Usury In a word when Tentations fall upon you by Gods permission resist them manfully but if you mean to be led by the Spirit do not wittingly and daringly fall upon tentations This is the sum of the third observation I defer the fourtn to a larger tractate To God the Father c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the VVilderness to be tempted of the Devil THis Text you see will not let me go I have been parting from it twice and still it invites me to stay As the Levite took his farewel at Bethlem sundry times and could not get away Judg. xix And now I have good cause to tarry being led by the leading of the Spirit Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile with him go with him twain says Christ Mat. v. 21. And if the Spirit of God compel us to go with him one Sermon we will go with him twain it cannot be irksom or weary to follow such contemplations But it is fit I should satisfie you where I stick in this verse for the present that I do not proceed how Christ was tempted wherefore he was tempted by whom he was tempted when he was tempted I have rid my hand of these discourses Likewise I have passed thus far how Christ was marshalled into the field by the divine impulsion of the Holy Ghost Here I resume my task into my hands where I left it That which remains for me to survey and for you to exercise your attentions upon is this First Since Christ himself was led by the Spirit when he went forth to fast and pray and to fight against the Devil therefore I will make enquiry how the grace of God doth lead us to eschew evil and to do good And secondly I will bring you along to consider the place whereon our Saviour planted himself to encounter his enemy it was the Wilderness How all men whom God calls to the saving truth by the preaching of the Spirit are led by the Spirit that is governed and directed by his grace is the Doctrine with which I begin in which intricate subject I confess my self to be in a Wilderness before I come to the last part of my Text if ever there were a question which troubled the whole world it is this How the will of man is guided unto Salvation by the supernatural help of God It is run into a Proverb that there are three things almost impossible to be traced The one how a King doth govern his Kingdom the secret reasons of state make the course of his actions so obscure Cor regis inperscrutabile says Solomon The other how grace doth govern the soul And the third how God doth govern the world We are sure divine motions move within us and yet we know not how they move Our Saviour did admonish us it would be a hard matter to understand when he spake of the Holy Ghost who doth regenerate us The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes What impression a spiritual quality doth or can make upon a spiritual substance Philosophy cannot judge of it but so far as the Scripture opens the mysterie Divinity may examine it and faith must believe it In these labyrinths
called to hear the word of faith and of none other God might have left them in their bloud as the Prophet Ezekiel speaks and given them over to the reprobate sense of their own mind but because he requires a new Covenant from all those to whom Christ is preached therefore he gives them new abilities lest he should seem to invite them in vain but being supplied with these internal excitations of supernatural help they are unexcusable This is the way to give God the glory and to make all the hearers of the Word know what talent they have received But the force of exhortations and expostulations were taken away if a sinner were converted by Enthusiasms and sudden inspirations If God would immediately bring a man to himself without feeling of his sin without hating it without desiring pardon it were superfluous to say We beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain I marvel you are so soon removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ Gal. i. 6. They that heard St. Peters Sermon Acts ii 37. at the beginning of it were unbelieving and rebellious Jews before he had ended they were terrified felt the guiltiness of innocent bloud upon themselves desired freedom submitted themselves to direction Men brethren what shall we do All these were good internal effects but as yet they were not converted and regenerate as yet unbelievers for had they believed they had never made that question What shall we do They come to that in the next verse says Peter Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins Well they followed this counsel and then at the soonest and not before they were justified in Christ for thereupon it is said There were added unto the Church above three thousand souls So I have made that conclusion undeniable I think that Christ doth produce some effects of initial grace before conversion The next conclusion is that since the natural man hath no powers in the freedom of his will to do good therefore the first effects of grace that are brought forth in us the Holy Ghost doth produce them solely and intirely the will of man conferring no strength at all As the ground receives the seed which is cast into it so a natural man takes the good seed from God which he casts into him passivè receptivè only passively and by way of reception Even they that will not be beaten off from their tenet but that the will of man hath some cooperancy with Gods grace in the act of conversion yet they give their suffrage to this doctrine that this preventing grace or grace of preparation is res infusa not comparata a thing infused from above not gotten by our diligence or acquired even as the air doth not dispose it self to admit the light of the Sun but is illuminated by the presence of the Sun They are best known by the name of Semi-pelagians who would not admit this truth for it was taught in their School that the beginning of faith was from man and the increase from the power of the Holy Ghost But why did they teach that the beginning of faith was from man Because they imagined that the talent of grace was promised to them that used the talent of nature well Habenti dabitur to him that hath it shall be given But I would have them find me any such Covenant in all the Scripture which God made with man that such as negotiated the talent of nature well should have an increase of grace for their reward It is a trespass and a foul one to bely a man and to father Covenants upon him which he never made the offence is greater to alledge Covenants from God and yet no tittle leaning that way in all his Testament The powers of nature are blindness of understanding obdurateness of will perverseness of affections what reward can be due to these but eternal death When thou wert in thy bloud Ezek. xvi that is when thou wert under the loathsom filthiness of sin and under the condemnation of death I said unto thee live that is I began to extend my mercy of vivification upon thee The beginning and introduction of all Christian vertue is to think of God From whence comes this From any good parts wherewith we were born Go to the fountain of wisdom and ask there We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. iii. 5. The next a b c and first rudiment of goodness is to pray to God Is nature a sufficient Mistris to teach you that Is it not the Spirit which the Lord sends into us crying Abba Father I will pour upon the house of David the Spirit of grace and supplications and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem Zach. xii 10. Thus St. Austin proves that the very firstlings and proems of all our Christian dispensations are from God because St. Paul said I obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful 1 Cor. vii 25. Misericordiam consecutus sum ut fidelis essem non ut fidelior essem That I was made faithful or had any faith it was the benefit of God and not only by way of increase or augmentation that I was made more faithful otherwise we should lead the Spirit to take his aim from us and not be led by the Spirit a Passive Verb and fit to express that we are merely passive in the first preparations of faith I shall speak anon touching that efficacy of the Spirit upon the heart of man But touching the work of preparatory grace in the first onset it brings illumination with it it dispels darkness from our understanding it makes us perceive we are gone astray in our sins like sheep that are lost it makes us know God is to be feared it makes us discern that we are in a wretched estate this illumination cannot be resisted Mens nostra ipsum scire effugere non potest Philosophy doth dictate that we cannot repel the knowledge of a thing palpably demonstrated before us though we would it pierceth as easily into the mind as a needle through a thin cloath Yet I do not say this grace which first possesseth the soul and makes it willing to good motions which was most averse before doth compel a man or force him compulsion is a word of hostility rather than of favour It comes with that sweetness and authority together that it will not be said nay Thus we are led by the Spirit in the first introduction of preparatory grace The third thing to be considered is how the Spirit doth lead us all the while we use this preparatory grace before conversion St. Austin comprehended all in this short rule Primùm gratia Dei operatur bonam voluntatem deinde per eam First Gods grace doth effect a good will in us and then by that will so illuminated and excited it produceth
give him the onset this is no God So Jesus grazing about like a poor sheep that could find nothing but stones for fodder the Wolf grins upon him but he proved to be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Impar congressus Achilli and the wild beast of the Forest was repelled by him that led captivity captive the more infirmity pretended on Christs part the more glorious the victory Fames Domini pia fraus est ne caveat tentare Diabolus says Bonaventure This fast and hunger was a pious fraud or stratagem laid by God to draw on Satan to tempt his Lord and Maker and so prove him guilty of a most foul rebellion St. Austin doth so receive this opinion that he rejects all others it may be said says he that fasting came after Baptism even as a good diet is to be kept after health recovered for fear of a relapse but that is impertinent Illius causa jejunii non Jordanis tinctio sed Diaboli tentatio fuit This fast had no reference to the dipping in Jordan but to cozen Satan and make him rashly adventure upon the ensuing tentation So St. Ambrose likewise and almost all the best Authors of the best antiquity It is a fatal requital upon some busie wits that as they are sharp and sore deceivers so when their own turn comes about they are as sorrily deceived Marcus Crassus was one of the cunningst flatterers that ever was and yet no man so easily and so notoriously gull'd with flattery So Satan is the grand Impostor of mankind and yet this grand Imposture was thrust upon him to enter combate with Christ who is invincible and omnipotent And let cheaters and cunning practisers beware that their own shot rebound not upon themselves God hath a retorsion in store a fallere fallentem which will fall upon them in spight of subtilty and circumspection They think they work closely and no harm shall happen unto them I am sure that David prophesies how certainly they shall be stew'd in their own sawce they are taken in the crafty wiliness that they imagined for others in the same net that they hid privily is their foot taken The ways of a Serpent are slippery and treachery shall be tript up with treachery The Lord hath spoken it and the Lord hath done it I have set these three reasons why Christ fasted in the formost rank because they are warrantable Brentius I think mistook when he interserted this for a reason It is a great anxiety or a great sickness which keeps a man from his meat for a few days so as he thought the tentations of Christ were so violent and horrible that for forty days he eat nothing I suppose when I come to shew at what time the Devil began his work I shall make it appear that no tentation was offered to Christ until the fortieth day Howsoever the Author took his aim amiss for although we read that our Saviour endured a most violent conflict in the garden when he sweat drops of bloud in his Prayer the case is not the same in this conflict with the Devil In the Garden he stood before his Father representing himself not as the beloved Son in whom the Father was well pleased but under the imputation and malediction of all our sins and he struggled with his Fathers justice that he might bear our iniquities in his own body upon the cross This was a wrestling indeed to put all his strength and powers in a heat and all his spirits in an agony But to beat down the suggestions of the evil one it put him to no sollicitousness or anxiety never was victory got so easily None of those poysoned darts could stick in him this was the Lamb without spot that could commit no sin but came to take away the sins of the world This error is easily put off the next opinion is maintained more pertinaciously that this fasting was part of that obedience by which he merited exaltation of his Father and in like manner the pennance of fasting is meritorious to the obedient members of his Church Thus they I will examine this strictly by several pieces First to enter into a tedious disputation how or what Christ did merit by his obedience cannot consist with the time and it doth not piece well with my Text. But take a little knowledge of it by this similitude the Angels of heaven have a double operation one that they stand always before the face of our Father which is in heaven another that they are ministring Spirits and do good offices to the Church upon earth as they do always stand before God so they must needs be completely blessed having the substance of their reward but as they assist and help us so they have some kind of increase or as it is called accidental addition to their reward So Christ in the union of the two natures could not but ever behold the divine glory so that the fruition of that eternal happiness was ever conjoyned to him but inasmuch as the dispensation of our redemption was his continual exercise upon earth so that deserved him some additions to his glory in the glorification of the sensible part of mans nature the speedy resurrection of the body his speedy ascension or exaltation into heaven and as some do add that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow or if so be these things were so intrinsecal to the hypostatical union that they could not be parted from it yet thus it may be well agreed Mereri est de debito facere majus debitum These things accrued to Christ meritoriously because that which was due by the hypostatical union was made more due by his humiliation I add secondly that the great abstinence and sweet temperance of our Saviours life was part of his humiliation but for the forty days wherein he fasted I concur with them that maintain this was no part of his abstinence What abstinence could there be says one in this miraculous act when all that while he had no provocation in his appetite to long for meats no more than the Angels have who taste no corruptible things The faculties of nutrition call'd for no sustenance God repressed the appetite says Cajetan from feeling the provocations of hunger and thirst even as he suppressed the devouring quality of the fire that it should not burn the three constant Saints that were cast into it I make it my third reply though Christs obedience in his humiliation was meritorious yet there is so much disparity between his obedience and ours that men can take no measure of it I do not only mean in this difference which is so well known that he did exactly fulfil all the Law of God and for our part in many things we sin all There is another thing which puts as wide a difference between us Christ obeyed his Father because he would we because we must He obeyed without any terrour pronounced to compel
spake upon all the Kingdoms of the World this could not be done in the twinkling of an eye But no man can read an Author but he will find many such hyperbolical speeches The Syrian Paraphrast translates St. Luke in brevissimo tempore Satan did it in a trice in a very short time beyond the imagination of man to think how it should be done so quickly that 's the meaning of the Holy Ghost It was his subtilty to hurry over things that Christ might have no time of deliberation but be surprized of a sudden before He could give a well meditated answer I know it may be descanted upon likewise that such things told upon relation could not move any mans appetite so well as to muster them before the eye Segnius irritant animos dimissa per aures c. therefore I say this was a mingle of tentation all that could be was shewed unto the eye and the rest was supplyed by narration Use which of these last opinions you will or if none do satisfie yet believe the Text to be true for that must be believ'd though the manner be unsearchable The Lord will come at the blast of a Trumpet and all flesh shall be gathered together in the twinkling of an eye and then all mysteries shall be opened to us among other things that are not yet discover'd how the Devil took our Saviour up into an exceeding high Mountain and shew'd him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them in the twinkling of an eye THE FIFTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 9. And saith unto him All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me BErnard meditates upon our Saviours suffering on the Cross that there were tria pungentia three sharp pointed Instruments that ran into his flesh But the first more lightly The second much more sensibly And the last made a further entrance into his body than all the rest The thorns platted on his head raced the skin the Nails went through his hands and feet But the Speare made a ruder and a deeper wound through his side into his very heart So these three Tentations of the Devil succeed one another like those tria pungentia every one had a sharper point and a greater sting to do mischief than the other but it was not possible they should stick like thorns and nails in the Son of God The tentation to make stones of bread was an advice to make bad provision for the sustenance of this life there was Spina necessitatis Satan would have prickt Christ on with the thorns of want and necessity The tentation to cast himself down from the top of the Temple was to draw him to a violent and a presumptuous death as bad as that nail if he could have fastned it which Jael struck into the head of Sisera The third tentation is a mash of all the venom which the Devil had left Peccata peccatis producta here are sins hanging upon sins one at the end of another to make up the length of a Spear In a word here is a brood of sins in a nest four apparently without all subdivisions First Peccatum habendi he offers him the sin of Covetousness to give him all the Possessions of the world Secondly Peccatum regnandi he would rub Ambition upon him and put into his hands all the Kingdoms and Power of the world Thirdly Peccatum malè credendi he would seduce him to believe that all these things which God alone brings forth from his treasure were his to dispose Fourthly Peccatum turpiter adorandi he durst ask that which is so horrid that it is able to curdle a mans bloud to repeat it that Christ would fall down and worship him Aquinas builds the gradation of these three Tentations on this sort First The evil Spirit demanded no more of Christ Quà m quod appetunt quantumcunque veri spirituales which the holiest men in the world and most endowed with the Spirit must use but to refresh and feed his body Secondly He required that which holy men ought not to do yet it is incident through frailty now and then for holy men to do it to jump down from a Pinacle out of ostentation and to be gazed upon for vain glory But he climbs up in the third tentation to such a motion as never any spiritual and holy man can commit to be bribed with wealth and honour to forsake the Lord and to adore his foulest enemy Therefore in both the former temptations he began with this preface If thou be the Son of God but he leaves out those words when he makes this Proposition in my Text for the Son of God would never commit such black Idolatry though he could give more than all yet he laies all at the stake for this venture All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Though Satans Kingdom be not divided yet his Tentations may But first I will read you my Text as St. Luke hath enlarged it that we may miss nothing which the Spirit of God hath uttered upon these words Thus that Evangelist Chap. iv 6. All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine Now I suppose we may charge these particulars upon the Text made up out of both the Evangelists First Wherein the enticement of this tentation consists why in giving in most liberal remuneration pretended Dabo I will give Secondly What and how much he will give and that is twofold As a Mammonist of Wealth he will he says put into his hands all the Riches and Possessions that the eye can see All these things will I give thee And as a Lucifer of pride he tells him that he will give him title to all the honours of the world all this power will I give thee and the glory of them Thirdly he shews Christ his evidences Quo jure by what right and authority he can make over all this unto him In these words For that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Fourthly and lastly Every Bait hath his Hook under it So this promise is laid upon a most impious condition if Christ will fall down and worship him Set your minds now upon these things and I will deliver them in their order Every tentation had some clawing provocation in it peculiar to it self now the sharpness and dangerousness of this tentation is in giving that is the first Point Dabo tibi I will give thee that is a speeding word we must confess it to the shame of the world Every one is a friend to him that bringeth gifts says Solomon All Satyrical Invectives Fables or Morals Writings of every cut and fashion are full of this that these things which Satan requires are commonly to be bought Worship Homage and what you
worship the Lord there with pure and undefiled service he wandred away from this regal fortune to keep sheep in the Wilderness O most magnanimous servant of God that had rather keep sheep with a pure conscience than be a King among Idolaters for how much wiser is it to purchase eternal felicity with a little miserie than to heap up eternal miserie by enjoying a little felicity There are things to come far more precious than these which the tempter extols but alass he did offer nothing to speak of to countervail the loss of a soul when he mouthed these words as a donative which could not be refused all these things will I give thee Finally to go but one deliberation further though Satan was incredulous and would not be perswaded that Christ was the eternal Son of God consubstantial with the Father that had taken our flesh in the Virgins womb to redeem us yet he could not but observe how holy and zealous He was in all his waies endowed with sanctity beyond all the Prophets that ever liv'd therefore this Tentation must needs be ill placed and most unseasonable for God is all manner of riches to those that serve him unfeinedly and with an upright heart Plenitudo deliciarum sufficientia divitiarum Deus est no strong line but a sweet and most emphatical meditation of St. Austins Where God abides there goes with him the alacrity of all delight and the inheritance of all riches Where was St. Pauls Exchequer think you in what corner of the world did his rents lye that he wrote to the Philippians I have all and abound Philip iv 18. Satan cannot be so shameless to offer any thing to him that hath all already there 's work for an Auditor let him cast up those sums if he can and make them even 2 Cor. vi 10. as having nothing and yet possessing all things such Apostolical spirits those few that are measure themselves wealthy not by the weight of silver and gold but by the grace of God which inhabits in them and doth enable them to refuse more than Satan can pretend to give There was somewhat else which St. Peter lookt for that was not in the Inventory of all this baggage which the tempter would impart to Christ these are his words Lo we have left all and followed thee what shall we have Mark x. 28. this is odd you will say to leave all and then to fall a demanding and looking for more but first he lookt for the promise of the coming of the Holy Ghost which David pray'd for Encline my heart unto thy law and not to covetousness rather a dram of virtue than a talent of fortune Secondly he lookt for the glorification of body and soul where Satan shall no more stand at our right hand to tempt us where the spirit shall be ready and the flesh as willing to fall down and worship the Lord for evermore Amen THE SIXTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 9. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me St. Luke more largely renders it thus chap. iv 6. All this power Will I give thee and the glory of them for that is deliver'd unto me and to whom soever I will give it if thou therefore Wilt Worship me all shall be thine YOU heard before what vast sums of wealth the great Prince of the riches of this World did commend out of his most abundant but deceitful liberality to our Saviour all these things will I give thee Solomon had a mighty Tribute 666 talents of gold yearly and silver as the stones of the street all his vessels were of pure gold silver was not anything accounted of in the daies of Solomon Yet the whole revenue of Solomon was but beggerie to those comings in which Satan promised in this place haec omnia whatsoever the globe of the earth conteins without exception or deduction But as if the Tempter would exceed himself and rise above all expectation his mouth speaks greater things by far in that which follows now to be handled than in those particulars which I opened before for he will engage to make our Saviour Lord of all the Kingdoms in the World all this power will I give thee and the glory of them he should have that into the bargain Pompey the great saith Livie made the Romans Lords of so much land by his successful victories that unless he had taken so many captives as he did the land could not have been till'd and occupied and again he made them Lords of so many captives that unless he had seiz'd upon so much land the captives could not have been received and harbour'd So the Devil offer'd our Saviour so much wealth that unless he had promis'd to give him all the honour of the world it could not have been spent and again he offer'd him so much honour that unless he had promised him all the wealth in the world it could not have been maintein'd But what will all this come to here 's a shower of wealth and glory pour'd down what thunderbolt comes after it timeo Daneos dona ferentes shut the gift out of doors till ye know the condition why it should be receiv'd a wise man will be as careful lest any thing should be basely given him as he will be circumspect that nothing be unjustly taken from him for many times the intent of pernicious liberality is to make a man incur the foulest sins in the world to avoid ingratitude The woman had a cup of gold in her hand but it was full of abomination Rev. 17.14 so the purpose of this great gift is to take the Devils Damm with a Dowry to be raised up on high above all the Dominions of the Earth ut lapsu graviore ruat then to fall down from that height and to commit Idolatry What were the several particulars which I charged upon the whole Text the last time it will be fit for me to repeat and for you to hear First wherein the forcible enticement of this last Tentation consists in giving a speeding word I told you and very provocative dabo I will give thee Secondly what and how much he would give and that 's twofold First as a Mammon of iniquity all riches and possessions that the eye could see and as a Lucifer of pride the power of all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them Thirdly he shews Christ his evidences quo jure by what right and authority he can make over all this unto him in those words for that is deliver'd unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Fourthly and lastly every bait hath his hook under it this promise hath a most impious condition annext unto it if Christ will fall down and worship him I have spoken of the former part of the gift which this insolent Braggart made ostentation to bestow he would put all the riches of the world into one donative
the wicked Spirit out of thy breast by speaking hatefully and reproachfully to the old man within thee and to his corruptions The rod of the wicked shall not rest in the lot of the righteous lest the righteous put forth their hands to wickedness Psal cxxv 5. And though in many things we sin all and who can say he hath not offended Yet take heed ye commit not sin with greediness as if you delighted in the servitude of iniquity nay as if you did it with that full resolution that you saw hell fire before you and yet you will not be reformed This is to gaze the Devil in the face and to have no remorse of conscience But if frailty steals upon us yet extinguish not the ardour of zeal which would fain be delivered from that captivity let it cry out I am carried away with the violence of my depraved nature and the evil which I would not that I do This is to commit sin but with such a delight as is mixt with great unwillingness The love of God still abideth in us and we cry out against the Tempter Get thee behind me Satan Though a good man be carried back sometime in his pious endeavours yet he looks towards Gods glory he minds that chiefly and he will not cast his eye off He moves not willingly toward the Devil though the Devil tread upon his heel behind him and sometimes prevails to pluck him back from God But remember how David composed himself and with that I end I have set God always before me therefore I shall not fall AMEN THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 10. For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve THE Lacedaemonians had this Lesson in the private Instructions of their State and observed it as far as they could ut nunquâm cum eôdem hoste ter confligerent by no means to give battel three several times to the same Enemy for that Enemy encountring them so often might learn to overcome them by their own wayes and stratagems Why Satan hath this advantage to try masteries the third time with our Saviour neither did Christ varie one jot from his usual manner of defence he fights with the same sling and with a stone taken out of the same brook as before scriptum est for it is written the written word is all the refuge that our Lord did seek Satan knows full well at what guard He will lye doth then the adversary speed ever the better for this can he improve that knowledge to help himself Nay but far otherwise Christ is so surely fixt upon one true ground so constant to that rock of the Divine Law which is stronger than all the waves of the sea that some against it that his adversary discern'd at last the longer he strove the more unable he was to maintain the quarrel If the tempted entrench himself within the Scriptures indignation shall vex the tempter but he shall never prevail The Devil believes and trembles at it that all the Law is irresistable and shall triumph over the enemies of the Lord but this Text after which no more was said as if more could not be spoken it contains a more strict and high command than any other portion of the Law it extends not only to transgressors to hedg them in their duty that they may not start from it but to the blessed Angels that are confirm'd in grace to the damned Devils that are incorrigible in sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worship and adoration is lookt for at all these and every particular whether they be such as are comforted under mercy or such as are tormented under the Judges fury or such as sing praises for ever before the King of glory all must bend and do him homage At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow both in the highest region of souls in the middle region of the Militant Church or in the lowest region of Hell at that name every knee shall bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Therefore Justin Martyr call'd upon all the Heathen with whom he disputed to receive this charge which my Text gives This says he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest that is the most spacious Commandment of all other a Charter between God and all his Creatures That upon which David speaks on this manner thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psal cxix 96. this is a chain to which all the works of the Lord are fastned and therefore our Saviour was sure it would bend his opposite with whom he disputed that he should not reply Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Where the Text is so clear I will not make it hard to be understood with dividing it The specials to be spoken of are these First the Lord God is to be worshipped Secondly the Lord God is to be served Thirdly He onely to be worshipped and served therefore fourthly whatsoever things they are beside to which men do offer religious worship and service let them mince and excuse it with what distinctions they please they run into flat Idolatry Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God let this be first the query upon the first point tu adorabis is there any emphasis in the Pronoun thou shalt worship Is the Commandment directed to the Tempter for that doubt I find in St. Chrisost whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Precept or a Repulse a Doctrin or a Defiance Thou shalt worship I answer it in several conclusions First the outward act of worship and adoration is enjoyned continually even to the spirits of damnation and they must perform it God hath put all things under Christs feet the Grave and Death and Hell Who is meant by Hell but Satan and his Camrades that are sunk into that place of sorrow wherefore he was bound to pay worship himself where he call'd for worship and let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. i. 6. yea and the Devil forceth himself sometimes to pay this tribute unto Christ though much against his will and content but sometimes he doth outwardly worship him that he may not fall into greater torments For as a Servant that hath run away and is taken falls down at his Masters feet that he may not be beaten so this unclean spirit having entred into a man that lived in tombs in the Country of the Gaderens when Christ came into those coasts the Devil did not keep the man close out of sight but came forth to meet Christ and worshipt our Saviour Mark v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very word in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke vii 28. he fell down in that body into which he had entred before him and he besought him very much that he would not send him away out of the Countrey Indeed it is seen by the sequel
unless they be equalized with God Then the Platonicks taught good divinity for they worshipped their Daemones or Angels not as the first causes of all things but as Spirits employed by the first Principle of the world If an Angel from heaven teach the same doctrine in his own case which Paul did surely two such Witnesses both in one tale cannot be refused The instance is more beaten than any high way Rev. xix 10. St. John certainly being even beside himself with the excellency of Revelation fell at an Angels feet to worship him who said unto him See thou do it not I leave it to your judgments if this be not a monstrous prevarication of Bellarmines That the Angel might have accepted that dutiful homage if he had pleased and did not make shy of it before Christ was incarnate but in honour of our Lords incarnation who took our nature upon him Angels from thenceforth will not be religiously worshipped by men Therefore we do what becomes us when we fall down to worship Angels and Angels do what becomes them when they refuse it thus He. But I beseech you if learned men may take such leave to interpret Scripture they may turn it to any thing Doth the Angel say any such thing to John that the times were altered human nature was now more precious than before and grown too good for such servile observance No but very plainly in the Text See thou do it not to me I am thy fellow-servant worship God Mark both his reasons first I am thy fellow-servant Fellow servants are to worship one Master together not one to worship the other Yes says the Adversary hereafter we shall worship together in the Church Triumphant and be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why we have the same excellency and beatitude which then shall be revealed in a lively faith and a steadfast hope And if they shall be less honoured of us hereafter than now the Angels should lose honour by our being exalted into heaven Nay rather their glory shall be increased to requite that sedulous care which they had over us here against the tyranny of the world and the devil I will wish no other Author but St. Austin to speak on my side says he Let us believe that the best Angels and most excellent ministring spirits do desire that we may worship one God together with them Honoramus eos charitate non servitute That is we love them for their good will we do not serve them Nec eis templa construimus they would not be so honoured of us for they know none better if we be holy we our selves are the Temples of the Holy Ghost This we have learnt out of the first reason what the Angel meant Fall not down before me I am thy fellow-servant Beside it is added Worship God Can any question be made but St. John would worship God Surely he was not to be taught that No but he was to be rouzed out of an extasie that God only is to be adored with a sanctified fear and no Creature It is easie to cast a scruple in any mans way so the Pontificians give us an objection to pick Josh v. 14. A man stood over against Joshuah with a drawn Sword Joshuah demands Art thou for us or for our Adversaries The supposed man replies Nay but a Captain of the Host of the Lord am I now come Then Joshuah fell on his face to the earth and did worship First the Antagonist presumes without all suspition of denial that Joshuah did worship the Angel But the Text says no more than as soon as he knew God had sent him a Captain from heaven he did worship But if it were Religious Worship it was done not to the Angel but unto Gods upon the coming of the Angel When such things come before us as are signs of Gods presence and grace of his mission and institution not of our own invention ware that it is good pious devotion to fall down and worship God when those things are before us As it is most laudable in us to kneel not to the outward Elements upon the Lords Table but unto God at the receiving of Christ in those Elements So Moses probably fell down at or before the burning bush where God spake When the fire came down from heaven to consume the Sacrafice it was a sign of the Lords special presence and the people fell down and worshipped 2. Chron. vii 3. Thus Joshuah seeing the Captain of Gods Host come to succour him fell down and praised the Lord. This answer I dare build upon yet if it were extorted that either Joshuah worshipped this Angel or Balaam that other Angel who bowed down his head and fell flat on his face Num. xxii 31. It is not or ever will be proved that these were religious Adorations but very great moral reverence done unto them more than to any men on earth according to their Coelestial and Supernatural excellency But Angels are not to be religiously worshipped in heaven why then on earth Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven and that is in this precept Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Yet a few words before I end To adore the Eucharist the Reliques of Saints the Figure of the Cross or Images of Christ and his Servants departed is to commit Idolatry with inanimate things those being all alike in that I will keep that bundle of Tares for another occasion But the superstitious worshipping of Saints is so near of kin to that of Angels against which I concluded before that the same Notions I used before and a little added will clearly condemn it We must not think more divinely of a Creature than a Creature is capable And even in this we have cause to bless God that our Religion is repurged from most strong defilements that our common Prayers have none of those blasphemies which some chant over to the most glorious Virgin the Mother of our Lord. And all this happens that they impute more Divinity unto her then is competent to a Creature So the Heathenish Lycaonians saw that Paul and Barnabas were men but they thought some Divinity did inhabite them such as is in God Certainly so the good Centurion Cornelius was mistaken for he gave unto Peter both civil observance as unto a man But because the Lord did bid him send for Peter for his souls Salvation he thought there was a genious in him above a Creature Otherwise Peter had not corrected the reverence he did him with those words Stand up I my self also am a man Acts x. 26. His cogitation had apprehended some divineness in Peter which made him commit a religious prostration for which he was rebuked And indeed an opinion is bread in the superstitious touching the Saints departed that there is more Divineness in them than they can receive else they would not bow down themselves to the mention of their names and
to heaven now yet it was the very same cloud which took him quite away from his Apostles upon the Ascension day Acts i. Non dubito quin ipsa est illa nubes quae suscepit eum ab oculis omnium Apostolorum The man is very confident of that opinion wheresoever he had it This he might say for certain Christ did ascend in a Cloud and we all shall ascend in the Clouds at the last day 1 Thes iv 17. We which are alive shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air Once St. Peter was so weak in faith that upon a Miracle of a great draught of Fish he cried out Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man Now he was grown so strong in love that nothing was more bitter to him than departing In a while after this accident of the Transfiguration Christ prepared the Twelve with many reasons and consolations that he must go away for if he went not away the Comforter would not come but when he did go away he would send them the Comforter even the Spirit of truth Upon these terms it was fit they should be glad to have him ascend unto his Father but having not as yet bequeathed any such promise of the Comforter it made them agast to think he should enter into a Cloud and be no more seen Beloved if God take not away the influence of his Holy Spirit from us we know he is always at our right hand though in his humane body he sitteth at the right hand of God Live justly and chastely and soberly as if the Son of God were always before your face and though he be entred into the Clouds though he be entred into Heaven your Conscience shall be comforted I must make an end of the first general part of the Text because of the time and I have put my self into a narrow strait to speak of the second the succour which Christ did administer to his three Disciples to quit them out of fear which S. Matthew hath remembred he touched them and said Arise be not afraid Though he seemed before to be going far off and as it were quite forsake them yet now he draws so near as to touch them with his hand Perhaps no more was done by Christ than the bare Letter of my Text acknowledged he did but lay the ends of his fingers upon them and if he pleased there was as much vertue in his fingers ends to quicken the Spirit of these men that sunk down with fear as there was in all Elias when he stretch'd his whole body upon the Child to bring it to life again The Angel Gabriel did but touch Daniel when he was faln upon the ground and set him upon his feet again Dan. viii 18. But behold a greater than Gabriel whose touch is more comfortable and more significative Eâ manu recreantur ad fidem I think it is St. Hieroms saying quâ creati erant ad vitam Those hands which made them and fashioned them to receive natural life the same hand did work a supernatural effect upon them and did raise them up to a boldness and assurance of a good hope in Christ Yet I will not say but that which is here called a touch may import the giving of his whole hand to assist them Postquam altos tetigit fluctus says the Poet when he meant that the Ship did sail upon the Sea Therefore to touch here may be no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manum supponere to stay with the hand and arm which we use to do to a man that is ready to sound and sink The Lord upholds all such as fall and lifteth up all those that be down Psal cxlv 14. But David explains himself in another place that all sorts of men promiscuously good and bad do not attain this favour he restrains that universal Proposition Psal xxxvi 24. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand It is said of the evil Angel I saw Satan fall like lightning Luke x. 18. The Lightning is darted out of the Clouds and never ascends again but is lost in vapour so are all those that imagine wickedly and whose heart is not stedfast in the Lord. Nescit stare superbia si ceciderit non novit resurgere says St. Ambrose Pride will catch a fall and God will leave it to shame and confusion never to recover again But a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again Pro. xxiv 16. As the young birds fall out of the Nest sometimes but the old one takes them up and carries them where they shall be safe So trust in the Lord and you shall not be cast down but his hand will be ready to catch you that you shall not be bruized All parts of mans body which are made for defence are attributed unto him for our preservation from the arm to the hand from the hand to the finger from the finger to the least touch Against great oppressions God opposeth that his arm is stretched out When he will fashion out deliverance with wonderful salvation as if a workman wrought it curiously with a Tool then the Prophets speak of the hand of God when he doth assist us suddenly and with great facility before we could think of help that is said to be done per contactum by a touch and away as in this case He touched them and said arise be not afraid These are his words who when the earth hath been fear'd with Winter makes all things to flourish again when he reneweth the year with his goodness so when the heart of man is frozen with fear by his word he makes it spring with joy His Countenance was fair and lightsome his tongue as comfortable as his face As St. Ambrose says of the Writings of St. Paul Quae Epistola Pauli non melle dulcior lacte candidior Every Epistle which he wrote was sweeter than honey whiter than milk So the beauty of Christ Transfigured was whiter than milk and his words were sweeter than the honey comb He can look frowningly and make his Foes fall down before him he can speak in Thunder and make the earth to quake the very voice which came from heaven in this next verse did confuse all that heard it This is my beloved Son hear him Vt conspectus vox Dei nos dejicit ita tactus vox Christi erigit says St. Hierom The Lord hath a voice to cast us down and a voice to raise us up again Especially Consolation shall succeed fear and that instantly when God did bring it upon us He never lead his Chosen into trouble for his sake but he brought them off again with comfort Christ had taken Peter and James and John into Mount Thabor whatsoever they suffered there it was by his conduct and for his sake it was the brightness of his
give him at her Brothers house at Bethany as she was wont to do she called him Rabboni and as she was wont to do she would have toucht him but where there wanted Reverence Christ corrected her mildly Touch me not But as for these Women that prostrated themselves at his feet with Adoration to worship him they had leave to touch because in heart they had tasted the fruit of life The Ark of God would not endure Vzzah's touch he died for it but the Priests that came near it with holy access had authority to touch it and it was the dignity of their Office Not to roll this stone any longer that good Saint Mary Magdalen was mistaken as if Christ lived again no otherwise than as her Brother Lazarus did to converse in the world as he had done before Touch him not with the finger of that little Faith But they that saw some greater excellency in him than before and fell low on the ground before him they may hold him by the feet Yet there is one Interpretation beside which casts no imputation at all upon Mary Magdalen and I like it the better 't is thus Christ had great use of her to dispatch her to his Disciples it being expedient to send her upon that errand yet she was loth to depart surmising that she should see him no more therefore when our Saviour would have her to insist no longer in expressing her love says he Touch me not I am not yet ascended to my Father which is to this effect I am not yet ascending or going away you shall have more time to converse with me hereafter but now it will do more good to my Disciples to hear I am risen than for you to stay and touch me depart insist no longer in these expressions of Love touch me not I am not quite going away to the Father But for these Women who made no such fond delay but laid their hands on his feet and worshipt him and rose again no such Interdict was upon them as Touch me not which is the Sum of this Point And the next thing they did confirms me that the holding his feet was unblamable and a sanctified action for they worshipt him If when the first begotten was brought into the world it is said Let all the Angels of God worship then when the first begotten from the dead came into Jerusalem his excellency proclaims it let all that behold his glorified presence worship him The wise men fell down before his Cradle and ador'd him when he lay in a poor and despicable manner and this was their wisdom to see the brightness of the Godhead in the dark Lantern of his Humanity Nay the evil Spirit having possessed the body of him that lived in the Tombs fell down before him and with a loud voice said what have I to do with thee thou Son of God most high Luke viii 28. Hell it self is not so refractory but that the Spirits of darkness confess he is to be worshipped and they did it It was not their own body but in that body over which they had command they did that function of their own accord before they were bidden Yet it was not thanks-worthy in them because they executed no more than the duty of the outward gesture I do highly commend the lowly service and inclination of the body O let down your body to the very ground before your Maker as these women did a man cannot be too reverent to his God And as a Plaister of cordial Ingredients laid to the stomach or an Unction well fomented upon the skin without comforts the spirits within and makes us more chearful in our vital operations so outward reverence helps us greatly against the dulness and drowziness of our heart the lifting up of the eyes and hands makes a man ask in prayer more passionately the knocking of our breast provokes our repentance to a more eager indignation against our selves the bowing down the head and knee makes us the better to understand the great distance between God and us the uncovering of the head fills us with that necessary consideration in whose presence we stand Glorifie God with your body 1 Cor. vi 10. Tertullian and St. Cyprian read it portate Deum in corpore vestro Carry God in your body that is bear your Religion openly in the observance and humility of your body Christ is the Husband of the Church an Husband to the Soul of every Christian now this is gained from the similitude that the Wife is the Husband 's both in her body and in her affections so we are Christ's as well in our bodily worship as in our spiritual adherence to him But because the act of worship as concerning that which the head the knee the hand do execute may be used to our superiours in civil demeanor as well as in religious usance to God it is the addition of sanctity conceiv'd in the heart and mind which makes it Religious Adoration for the complete definition of it is thus adoratio est veneratio talis exterior quae ex corde pio religioso procedit that is that 's the adoration due to God and to him alone which with the exterior veneration of the body proceeds out of the pious and religious intention of the heart If you yield any token of outward obeysance and mean it to him who hath created you who hath given you all that you have who rose from the dead that we also might rise with him then it is raised up from civil homage and it becomes Divine Worship These apprehensions were in the hearts of these women and thereupon their bodies bowed down in lowliness and so it wants not one grain of due weight but that it was the worshipping of the Lord Jesus From those things which were personally performed by the women I remove forward to all that which was personally performed by Christ and that is conteined in his action or his words his action is but in this one passage Behold Jesus met them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to overtake one or to come behind them but to meet them full but as our phrase is therefore it hath somewhat in it diverse from that Apparition which was made to Mary Magdalen and it can not be the same for he stood behind her and she turned about to look upon him but when he presented himself to these Women he met them face to face They were going to tell his Disciples and he that was no hindrance to their journey stood in their way Behold and marvel at it for the hope of the Resurrection was out of their heads they came to embalm his dead Body not to see him living Or suppose we that the Angels had lately persuaded them to that Faith that he was alive again yet to speak indifferently they had no cause to expect him in that place or any where near to Jerusalem for the Angel told them thus in the 7. verse
upon them to make them loiter from their daily necessary labour but it was an high solemnity as fell out in all the year Dies celeberrimus sanctissimus as the Vulgar Latin reads it Lev. xxiii 21. where we read that then they should proclaime and call an holy Convocation So I have summed up the three occasions of this Feast in the Old Law first to give thanks for their deliverance from bondage Secondly to honour the day wherein first they received the Law at Mount Sinah and thirdly to offer up the first fruits of their Harvest will you see now how aptly the gift of the Holy Ghost was distributed at the same time When the day of Pentecost c. First Whereas the Jews did celebrate at the Feast of Pentecost their enfranchisement from the house of bondage so the benefit of liberty was augmented this day much more than ever it was before This Satan knew well enough and therefore the longest thing wherein he held the Church in ignorance was about the sending of the Holy Ghost long after the name of Christ and his power was received whole Cities and Societies confessed they had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost or not Ignorance in those Points which are necessary to salvation is the greatest thraldom and captivity in the world False Prophets says S. Paul do lead captive silly women laden with sins 2 Tim. iii. 6. I spake not only of such as sate in the darkness of death and were lost these were like Samson in fetters having their eies put out but the Disciples the flower of Christs train saw nothing in holy mysteries as they ought to see till the influence of this glorious day cleared there eye-sight their eyes were held their hearts were held they knew not which way their Redemption was brought about and how Israel was restored Our Saviour took out but one Text in all the New Testament it is out of Isaiah and it is to this very purpose that the Spirit of God redeemed us out of the captivity of ignorance the place is extant Luk. iv 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised This comes home to the matter I am sure Yet moreover this is a day of restitution unto liberty because it dissolved the Church from the tye and yoke of Levitical Ceremonies from those multitude of Statutes which overwhelmed the people with observation As Pharaoh was drowned in the red Sea so the tenure of Mosaical Ceremonies was drowned in the bloud of Christ which was shed upon the Cross and on this Feast we received the Seal of the Spirit that we were rid of them all So far I have demonstrated that at this time we shook off the bondage of Ignorance and Ceremonies which makes it a feast of Pentecost to us Christians as well as it was to the Jews Secondly You shall find the other correspondency marvelously kept between the Law and the Gospel Christ at his death was slain not only as the Paschal Lamb but even when the Lamb was slain on the Feast of Passeover Now from the Feast of Passeover or rather from the second day of sweet bread reckoning fifty days the Children of Israel came to Mount Sinah and there received the Law which was kept ever after with a most sacred memorial so fifty days after Christ rose from the dead the Apostles and the Church received the Spirit of Sanctification And I am sure we have much more cause to renown our Pentecost than the Jews had to honour theirs If the Law which was the ministration of death was so thankfully remembred how much more the dedication of the Gospel For this day as the Fathers say very well was the first dedication of Christs Catholick Church upon earth They were made the Sons of the bondwoman by the Law we are made the Sons of the free-woman by the Spirit We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but we have received the spirit of adoption Rom. viii 15. A sinner could have no comfort in the Pentecost of the Jews they had the Law and that condemned them this was miserable comfort We have gladsom tidings this day not from Sinah but out of Sion which bids us live by faith in Christ In no other Feast of the Jews might Leaven be eaten it was an hainous transgression but the two loaves of the first fruits were to be baked with Leaven which were dedicated to God at this Feast Lev. xxiii 17. Expositors say no more to it but thus Leaven was put into the dough of new corn Vt panes sapidiores essent to make it more savory certainly so vulgar an interpretation is much under the meaning of the Holy Ghost I would rather say it had a mystical construction that Leaven was allowed at this Feast to intimate that the Holy Spirit would bear with the leaven of our nature with our sins of frailty and infirmity And it is observable that this is the number of the Jubilee every fiftieth year was the Jubilee year which was a time with the Jews to restore all men to their Lands which were sold away by ill-husbandry and a general forgiving of all debts So this day was a true Jubilee for remission of Trespasses it was at this time that Peter preach'd remission of sins to all that did repent and believe to all without exception for says he the Promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call So I have shewed that we received the divine Spirit of grace at Sion at the same time that they received the terrible Law at Sinah which makes it a greater Feast of Pentecost to us Christians than it was unto the Jews Thirdly We agree no less with them in the next similitude for keeping this day The Israelites according to the early maturity of corn in that climate began to put their Sickle at this time into Wheat Harvest so the Apostles from this day forward went forth to reap that which the Prophets had sown gathering much fruit unto eternal life and bringing the Wheat of God into his Garner unto the everlasting praise of the glory of his grace Their Barly Harvest such was the condition of their Soil and Husbandry begun at Easter their Wheat was begun to be cut down seven weeks after at Whitsuntide and the latter was called Tempus primitiarum the Time or Festival of First-fruits which were presented to the Lord. So God breathed his spirit into man at the creation of Adam that was the first Harvest which spirit being choked by him and coming to nothing this day there was a second emission of the spirit into man fully to restore and renew him again Now the two Loaves
they prophesied and did not cease Num. xi 25. Elegantly St. Austin to favour this opinion Christ warned his Apostles not to stir from Jirusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father and that not many days thence that is 10 days after his Ascension they should receive the Holy Ghost But says the Father Christ gave this spirit not only to them but to ten times as many as the Twelve to sixscore in all Ea est fidelitas imo liberalitas Christi docens nos pauca promittere sed decuplo plura praestare this is the just dealing nay the liberality of Christ which bids us promise no more than we will perform but rather perform ten times more than you promise But whether the cloven tongues which lookt as if they had been of fire did descend upon the whole Congregation men and women may a little be doubted for they were Types and Figures that the Lord would send forth of his Servants to be bold and fervent Preachers in all Nations and women were interdicted from the public ministry of Preaching though in the beginning they were imployed in some private labours of the Word And if the women had the gift of tongues they did not utter them in this Chapter for when all were amazed to hear such diversity of languages from illiterate ones and such as never travelled some mocked and said these men are full of new wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the masculine gender And 't is not to be despised for an observation that ver 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all are said to be full of the Holy Ghost and ver 3. the firy tongues are said to sit not upon all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon each of them meaning I conjecture upon each of the Apostles but I will not strive for it In the old Missals I am sure I have not perused the latter it reads the Epistle thus omnes discipuli all the Disciples were with one accord in one place and Beza says in two antient Greek Copies he had found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Apostles and none other mentioned Certainly they were primarily intended to reap the benefit of the day For it is well noted by the first Writers that there were four things proper and peculiar to the Apostles given them for the gathering together of the Saints which were not communicable to any other Servant of Christ The first was immediate vocation from Heaven St. Paul demonstrated he was not inferior to the best of the Apostles because of that property The second was infallibility of judgment in the necessary points of faith 3. A Generality of Commission to have the care of the whole world committed to every one of them to exercise their power in all places towards all persons 4. To speak in all the tongues and languages of the world to confirm their Doctrin by signs and miracles and by the imposition of their hands to give the like miraculous gifts of the spirit to others For although the having of miraculous gifts and the power to work miracles was not simply proper to the Apostles yet to have them in a sort as by the imposition of their hands to give the spirit unto others and to enable such as they thought fit to do signs and wonders through the finger of God this was a benediction upon the heads of the Apostles from the great day of Pentecost and only upon them Simon Magus that Mammonist you may remember would have bought it of them but had a curse instead of a blessing Nay when Philip the Deacon had baptized some at Samaria the Apostles went to confirm those whom he had baptized by imposition of hands that they might receive some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost And as these graces were reserved only for the Apostolical honor in their time so were they never since passed over to any by succession Instead of immediate calling God be praised we can shew our Vocation derived by succession from the Apostles Instead of infallibility of judgment we have the direction of the Scriptures to guide us in finding out the truth instead of general Commission over the whole World we have particular assignment of several Churches and parts of Christs Flock to feed instead of their miraculous gifts and power to confer them to others we have that faith which was confirmed by the Apostles miracles And so I have declared that many even all the Believers that met together shared in the blessings of this day but the Apostles had an excellency and preeminency above them all for the government of the Church not disputing what particular irradiations and sanctifications the Blessed Virgin had which we may suppose to be incomparable beyond all others such as were fit for her to receive but they are not here revealed But of the persons hitherto I can spare no more time for that for it is worth much observation how they were prepared to receive the Holy Ghost which I handle in this order howsoever the words ly first that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first unà then unanimes they were all in one place To be altogether in one City in Jerusalem and not to stir from thence till they had received the Comforter even the Spirit of Truth to that purpose Christ laid his command upon them but they were met together not only in one City but in one house not only in one Vineyard but like Grapes they hung together in one cluster Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity In publick they consorted together Luke v. ult they were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God together in private they held fast the same friendship and amity by this says our Saviour shall they know you to be my Disciples if you love one another Whether it were the time of praying or hearing the Word or breaking of bread mark it in several places of this Chapter they did it with chearfulness and mutual friendship they were never asunder Unity in matter of circumstance in matter of place carries blessing and edification with it that we are Brethren it is the Lords doing to make men to be of one mind to dwell in one house Psal lxviii 6. We read it in our last Translation he setteth the solitary in Families that is he reduceth the dispersed into unity and outward conformity I told you and pressed it earnestly about this time the last year what an acceptable thing it was to God that when Noah and his Sons and Daughters were all the living of men and women that were left in the World that these should all praise the Lord together in outward unity with one voice and with one Sacrifice this was called a sweet smelling savour so much it delighted God this day to see the Church met together those 120 names that after Ages might know how well compacted the Primitive
says St. Hierom that is if the Wolf come near the Sheepfold he must not only be threatned with the Staff but the Dogs must bark at him likewise and then he will leave his Prey and take him to his heels St. Austin presseth the same Doctrin out of St. Paul Ephes iv 11. He gave some Apostles and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers Says he I collect from hence that every Pastor that is every Bishop must be a Teacher for it is not said he gave some Pastors and some Teachers as it went before some Apostles and some Prophets but Pastors and Teachers are put together without a distinctive member ut intelligerent Pastores ad officium suum pertinere doctrinam that Pastors may know how teaching is included in their duty and cannot be separated from it This then was the principal intent of giving the tongue at the Feast of Whitsuntide as it is Isa l. 4 The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season First then negligent silence in Pastors is a stifling the grace of God Quantùm vitae merito aedificat tantùm destruit silentio Secondly affected silence is affronting the grace of God as those Orders of Friars that bind themselves by vow and institution of life not to utter a word excepting one day or it may be one hour in the week sometimes not so often Agatho the Anchorite is commended in the lives of the Fathers that he never spake what is this but as it were to advow not to receive the benediction of the Holy Ghost Finally to be preproperous and over-hasty to teach the Gospel is to prevent the Spirit or rather not to wait for the grace of God For Christ had first rooted the knowledge of the Word and Scripture in the Apostles and then endued them with a tongue but they that start up Teachers before they be grounded in the Word speak with their own tongue before they have received the tongue of the Holy Ghost But the tongue supplies another office in nature and that 's to taste The ear trieth words as the mouth tasteth meats Job xxxiv 3. so the Spirit makes us feel and know the good things of God that are in us even as the tongue makes us relish that which is sweet upon the palat and will be delectable for nourishment Nay we do not only taste the things of heaven slightly and as we say upon the tip of the tongue but the same Spirit makes us to ruminate upon them and chew the cudd my heart is always musing of thy testimonies says David O 't is a comfortable thing to have a tast of Heaven in our Soul to have some persuasive Experiment that the Holy Ghost dwelleth in us especially to have it proceed to that most pleasing Sapor when the Spirit shall testifie to our Spirit that we are the Sons of God but in all that are meetly disposed to Eternal Life there is some perceivance in others more in others less there 's some Tast some Consolation that Christ is in them and works in them by Faith and Love and the more you tast it the more sweetness you shall find to breed an Appetite The Natural Man perceives not the things that are of God he counts the Doctrin of Christ and him crucified to be Madness and Foolishness he thinks they that kill his Apostles do God good service he puts bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Isa 5.20 there 's all the Tast that he hath he wants a Tongue to dijudicate of the Manna that comes from Heaven which no man knows but he that receiveth it Rev. ii 17. He to whom it is given to know what is the height bredth and depth of the Love of our Lord Jesus and his Redemption he accepts of all things in a diverse manner from him to whom the mind of the Lord is not revealed he interprets the Poverty of Christ to be the Riches of the World his Ignominy to be the Triumph of the Saints Tribulation for the truth is a Refreshing to his body Mortification and pious Sorrow a dainty Lenitive to his soul he receives the Doctrin of our Ministry not as the Word of Man but as it is indeed the Word of God he cannot but speak the Truth though his life ly at the stake for it negare Dei verbum non valeo quia spiritus sancti linguam habeo it is Gregories I cannot deny the word of God because the Holy Ghost hath given me a tongue to speak it To conclude this point no man can have a smack of the Kingdom of Heaven but through the rellish of this tongue no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. xii 3. as we are born children of wrath in our unregenerate estate we have bitterness in our throat and the poison of Asps under our lips how can we savour the things that are of God but the Spirit makes us a new creature and takes away all this sourness and ill relished acrimony and then his fruit will be sweet unto our mouth Cantic ii 3. Having delivered unto you the substance of this Vision which is a tongue it follows to speak of the Figure and Form of it It was cloven that 's truly called the Figure and like as of fire that 's truly called the Form A Tongue was a Commission and an enabling of the Apostles to preach but a Cloven Tongue was their hability to preach unto many The Syrian language was all that they could speak before and in that they faultered too and mouthed it rudely and unelegantly a silly Damosel quipt even St. Peter with it Thou art a Galilaean and thy speech betrayeth yet such a tongue as it was they were unlettered men and could speak no more all the world beside were Barbarians to them and they Barbarians to all the world But the Lord knew that they had need of many tongues to pay that great debt which they owed his Church ite praedicate universae creaturae go and teach all Nations from Jerusalem and Samaria even unto the ends of the world I would a little satisfie my Auditors before I go any further that would know how the tongues did resemble a cloven figure that sat upon the Apostles If you look upon such types of it as Picture-drawers have framed remember that there is no heed to be given to their Pencil for they will extremely abuse your ignorance they usually represent the Apparition as if every Apostle and the Blessed Virgin sitting in the midst of them had a little lamp of fire like the flame of a small Torchet blazing upon their head and so would thrust this belief upon the rash gazer that God sent down a shew of many firy tongues into the place where this holy Society was gathered together and that there was singularis flammula a little flame proportioned somewhat like a Tongue sitting
for God will be mild as a Dove toward us if we will be hot as fire against our selves That he may spare us with his mercy let us be angry at our selves with godly revenge And so they that made no bones of lies and fictions have renowned St. Dunstan in his Legend that a Dove descended from heaven upon him Et remigia alarum scintillantis ignis splendorem prae se ferebant says Capgrave And the wings of it when they were stretcht out did sparkle like fire Their meaning is in this Fable as I call it to set him forth as most full of the Holy Ghost upon whom both the Dove and fire descended Fourthly says St. Austin where God causeth the Tongue to speak the truth fire that is sorrow and trouble will follow Ignis portendit tribulationem quam propter linguas erunt perpessuri The fire imports that tribulation which the Apostles must undergo by preaching the Gospel The Devil did rage against those that were the Pillars of the Church and of true Doctrine and blew the coals of many a fire to consume them Fifthly and to shut up that Point the Tongue being left to it self is full of much corruption as I have amplified already and it had need of a purging fire to cleanse it and refine it In all the old Sacrifices of the Grecians Homer says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they threw the tongue of the beast into the fire whereupon says Coelius Rhodoginus Comburendo linguas perperam dictorum labes expurgabant They made expiation thereby in the flames of fire for all words that had been spoken offensively St. James says the Tongue is a fire Chap. iii. 6. meaning a fire of discord and mischief and that fire had need to be corrected by another fire from heaven or else the torments of hell-fire would be the end of it And now we will rest at last in that Point which is the resting and setling of these Tongues There appeared unto them c. and it sate upon each of them It sate Why we spoke of Tongues in the Plural number before What Enallage is this Cajetan and the most Divines interpret it that the fire sate upon each of them Calvin by a Metonimy of signi pro re signatâ that the Spirit sate upon each of them The Syrian Paraphrast refers it directly to the Tongues and puts it in the Plural number sederunt they sate upon each of them Indeed to refer it to many Tongues and yet to make the Verb of the Singular number is the best exposition of all it sate to shew that it is one Holy Ghost in the administration of divers gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I said before one root and many stalks There are diversity of operations but it is the same Lord that worketh all in all 1 Cor. xii 6. But upon whom did they descend and sit For now I make haste Upon every one of the hundred and twenty that were gathered together Or upon the Apostles only Somewhat is in it that when all are named to whom this fire appeared all to be filled with the Holy Ghost yet the Tongues are said to sit upon each of them In two ancient Copies some of our Criticks say that the Text runs they sate upon each of the Apostles and I think that a very probable gloss The Reasons are First the Spirit in some particular manner was promised to them only Acts i. 7. Secondly when some Scoffers said they were full of new wine that had the gift of Tongues St. Peter makes his apology for himself and the Eleven only Thirdly it is said hereupon that they all spake or preacht the mighty things of God This befits the Apostles and not those one hundred and twenty among whom was the Blessed Virgin and other women whose office it was not to preach Fourthly the standers by said Are not all these of Galilee that speak with divers tongues which was true in the Apostles now Judas was taken away but very improbable to agree to all the rest Howsoever let there be no discord about this it is not worth the while no more is the next quere upon what part of them the Cloven Tongues did sit That is not exprest but in all likelihood it was their head for thereunto all Expositors do give their suffrage The Spirit must be in summo loco we must give it and the inspiration thereof the pre-eminence in all things These Tongues says Gregory did encircle about their head Vt novae coronae spirituales capiti eorum imponerentur as if the King of heaven had crowned them with spiritual Crowns from heaven They are ridiculous among the Pontifician Writers that would fetch it from hence that Christ did ordain the Apostles Bishops at this time and used this Ceremony to touch their head from heaven for Consecratio Episcoporum est in capite as they urge it out of Clemens Constitution For another while they confess that the Episcopal character and all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and authority was given them in those words As my Father sent me so do I send you These things being thus put out of the way the main Doctrine agreed on all hands is that the sitting of the Tongues did betoken the constant abiding of the Spirit he is no flitter he doth not come with a lick and away but his gifts are without repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Chrysostome and his true follower Oecumenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both agree that the Spirit was setled upon them not to depart away It is a fire like that on the Altar permanent and never going out according to our Saviours Promise Joh. xiv 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever Some of the Schoolmen find a knot in this plain Doctrine whether the Apostles and all upon whom the Spirit did now abide were confirmed in grace Certain Ecclesiastical Historians trouble them in their conclusions who say that Nicholas the Deacon from whom the Nicolaitans were derived and many other ring-leaders of Hereticks were present at this time and although the Spirit descended upon them yet they forsook their first faith The answer is if these stories be Authentical these gifts were gratiae gratis datae not gratum facientes Gifts which God did graciously give not gifts which made them gracious to God that received them And the continuance and residency of these tongues is established in these words that the Comforter whom Christ would send should abide with them for ever that is it should abide in the Church that is in them and in their Successors unto the ends of the world till Christ should come again in glory as I will open upon the next verse AMEN THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them
be our Intercessor with his Father and to prepare a place for us Whitsunday or the Coming of the Holy Ghost is like a fair Land-mark to instruct the most unlearned that though our nature is most corrupt and averse from all good motions yet the spirit is poured into us whereby in some weak measure we become obedient Children and cry Abba Father These are the Days which the Lord hath made and when we devote our selves to magnifie him upon these occasions they prove the best means to teach us the Catechetical and fundamental points of faith And as Christ was great in himself and in those works of grace so He is great in the Angels of Heaven great in the Apostles in the Evangelists in all Saints and Martyrs and the choice is made by our Church of the Flower of all occasions in this kind publickly to praise the Lord and it is very fit I say that there should be a sensible difference between these and common days both for our thanksgiving and for the profitableness of our piety Gods works are all worthy of observation but not at all times alike to be remembred for as the Lord by being every where doth not give unto all places one and the same degree of holiness but the Church is more sacred than the High-ways of the Field though Gods Immensity and Omnipotency is alike in both so neither is one and the same dignity competent to all times although the Omnipotency of God doth work in all times but as his extraordinary presence hath hallowed and sanctified certain places so they are his extraordinary works which have worthily advanced certain times for which cause they ought with all men that honour God to be in more honour than other dayes I should add two things more that are very ponderous to confirm this truth one from the practice of some holy persons in the Old Testament whose constitutions God approved the other from the practice of our Fore-fathers in all Ages and 't is fit to tread in their steps in things that are laudable honest and indifferent but this shall not be hudled up I will dilate it hereafter To dispatch all beside our holy due of the Lords Day we are now to celebrate the Kings Day and for good reason in all equity we ought to do some Religious Service on His Day who is the Defendor of our Religion Next under the Providence of God who but the King doth maintain the Truth among us therefore on what day of the week soever this Day lights it becoms us to set open the Door of the Church and to praise the Lord because we have freedom to come to Church all the year by his grace and protection We have no Romish Superstition no Anabaptistical or Presbyterian Anarchy to make this holy place irksom unto us God be praised that has given his Anointed a faithful heart to serve him and to uphold his People in the right way that they may hold up clean hands to Heaven I do read that Constantine celebrated an yearly Feast for his Victory against Licinius I read that the Church of Alexandria celebrated a Day yearly wherein the waters asswaged after a great Inundation I read that Alexius Comnenus appointed a perpetual Holiday for the memory of the famous Emperor and Lawgiver Justinian nay St. Ambrose calls to mind that Felix Bishop of Cuma kept that day every year in a magnificent manner to God wherein he was consecrated Bishop Thus former Ages have given us light that we keep in the Circle of that which is lawful when we adorn the Anniversary Day of the Inauguration of our most noble King with joy and festivity in the sight of God and first let us confess the Lords benefit towards us and say as the People did of Solomon Because thy God loved Israel to stablish them for ever therefore made he thee King over them to do judgment and justice 1 Chron. ix viii Secondly let as put up Prayers and Intercessions to the Divine Majesty to give great prosperity to our Anointed Sovereign to his Royal Consort and to their Posterity for ever AMEN A SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION PSAL. cxviii 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it IF you have ever seen a piece of Coin stamp'd with one face upon the fore-side and with another upon the reverse then set that fancy before you to understand the double sense of this Text. First If you ask according to the Letter whose Image and Superscription is this I tell you and I have told it you once before it is Davids And this is the triumphant Hymn of the devout men of Israel exulting that God had given them such a King to go in and out before them If you ask according to the Spirit to whom this Verse belongs most certainly it aims at Christ and that two ways either calculating this Day for the whole Age of the Gospel that is the day which God hath made to put gladness into his chosen through the remission of our sins because the day-spring from on high hath visited us Or else in a more eminent sort it is the joyful acclamation of the Church upon the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus that being the most honourable and most welcome of days because the Resurrection hath ever been esteemed the most glorious of all the works of the Gospel I have spun out the first of these concerning David to the last thread now my Web which is upon the Loom is concerning Christ that is I have given unto Caesar that which is Caesars and it is very expedient as the more principal duty to give unto God that which is Gods Indeed I cannot say that I am come to the heart and to the vitals of the Text till now till now that I apply it not as formerly to the Lords Anointed but to Christ himself our Lord anointed And I have clear way made me for this interpretation as clear as I can wish for never any that have received the Book of the Psalms for spiritual and divine melody but do reckon this Psalm and especially this part of the Psalm to belong to Jesus the Author and finisher of our Salvation The Doctors of the Jews says St. Hierom did use to sing it in praise of the Messias And the Doctors of the Christians must be all of one Chorus to chant it merrily to the Son of God because four places of the New Testament that is witness enough have made a challenge unto it that this Psalm is an Allelujah or Hosannah to the Son of God And because the words of my Text are obvious to be recited upon any memorable and plausible occasion sometimes they have been drawn to congratulate humane affairs yet with this reservation that none under heaven hath a true interest in them I read that in the second Constant Council held under Justinian the Emperour Johannes Presbyter as he was
our charity though above the definition of our judgment And thus I would rise up into pious credulity of their salvation for our Church hath a pious credulity at their burial As the longer proportion of afflictions usually falls upon them that can more patiently suffer them and God lays his burden upon them that can best bear it so let our charity infer that he makes the bed of their sickness be long and tedious that had need of large repentance and takes them away suddenly that are best prepared St. Austin fills up this very doctrine with the instance of Lots Wife Magis est hoc exemplum eruditio nobis quà m condemnatio ipsius this Pillar of salt stood there rather for our instruction than for our condemnation And God doth often chastise his own in the flesh as well with sudden as with lingring correction to save the soul from the wrath to come Filii Aaronis castigati sunt non damnati says Gregory Nadab and Abihu were chastised and suddenly slain for offering strange fire but not damned So the old Prophet that was rent by the Lion for his disobedience lived and died an holy man in all the reputation of Israel Luther pleads thus for Lots Wife that in the general course of her life she was faithful and holy left Vr of the Chaldaeans to come away with Abraham from that sink of Idolatry and with Lot her Husband Gen. xii 5. and she stuck close to her Husband in this Exile out of Sodom Therefore it is to be credited that her former faith did not leave her though her soul had but a short moment to call for mercy I wonder the Jesuits should extenuate her sin to be but venial and yet make her a castaway For Lorinus says he would grant she was saved but that all their Authors were against him Lenior placet sententia quamvis Patronum non reperiam Nay I think the best of her in charity not by lessening her sin but by extolling Gods mercy Some of the Rabbies make a toy of it that she became a Pillar of Salt because she would not set Salt before the Angels whom she had received the night before in hospitality The Hebrews will write sometimes as if they were wiser than men sometimes scribble as if they were foolisher than children The fault was a vast one she cast away that which the Lord would have saved in regard of her self desperately of the Angel contumeliously of her Husband and Daughters scandalously of God and his favours unthankfully yet her last gasp might be illuminated by the Spirit to commend her soul into the hands of her gracious Father To which Father and the Holy Spirit together with Jesus Christ be all glory and honour AMEN A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL NUMB. xxi 7. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us I Preach of a People that travelled fourty years in a Wilderness wherein there was neither pleasure nor plenty that came in the end to the Land of rest I preach to a People that are willing according to the boundaries of our Church to number fourty days of Abstinence to be spent without plenty or pleasure to keep them in breath for true repentance that they may find rest for their Souls The People of whom I preach when they were in one of their last journeys at Salmonah I am sure in the last year of their travail were stopt by firy Serpents before they got into the Land of Promise And you to whom I preach are brought into the Land of the Living by the conduct of Joshuah the Servant of the Lord. And though we are come out of a Wilderness and are within the borders of our Canaan God be praised yet we cannot be quiet for Serpents Which puts this word into my mouth to day to avert the malice of the ungodly Pray c. The way wherein I mean to handle the Text is in two parts a Punishment for sin and a Repentance for sin The sin of the Nation must be considered in both and before both And that was murmuring as you may read it in two verses before Indeed it hath that name and another 1 Cor. x. 9 1◠Let us not tempt Christ as some of them tempted and were destroyed of Serpents neither murmur as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Yet the stubbornness and the very back-bone of their sin is murmuring That was their guilt and the same is ours and the worse in us because we offend under the grace of a better Covenant The punishment of the sin of the murmuring Israelites was annoyance by true and real Serpents strictly and in the letter they were no other On our part nothing toucheth us of that nature but we are plagued with Serpents that are far worse as will appear in their ranks and conditions hereafter to be unfolded The repentance for their sin is seen two ways First that they fly to the remedy of Prayer For the Soul which God did breath into Man cannot shake off this principle that all succour comes from above for which it must breath out it self to God Secondly that they fly to that Prayer which comes out of the mouth of Moses That Moses with whom their whole Host was just before offended he is so generally in their good opinion thank the Serpents for it that he must now be their rescue and Advocate and none but he make their peace with God Thou Moses pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us Now you see what you are to look for out of the Text and in what order and that before I come to the Punishment I must look out a sin for affliction riseth not out of the dust neither doth trouble come out of the ground Job vi 5. Gods hand sends them and Mans sin brings them And this was brought on by repining at Gods mercy and quarreling at Moses his Minister Their tongues run as if they had drunk deep of Viper wine so the Lord sent Serpents among them They that serve God for temporal things and are too eager to get them cannot choose but fall into the tentation of murmuring Such was this People not one Tribe better than another that grumbled upon the lightest thing that crossed them that it was not God that brought them out of Egypt but a trick of Moses to be a King over them But being now more impatient than ever they insist upon two things as ver 4. that the soul of the People was much discouraged because of the way And why so they were not turned aside from the Land of Promise the Journey had been long but the fourtieth year was even spent the worst was past and six moneths would give them possession They could not complain of weariness their feet never swelled Deut. viii 4. Only they were foundred in their patience and would not stay a little while till the time was come which God had
it had been dried before the fire now that and bread made of Barley had need to be washed down But what said the Roman Captain to his Army Nilum habetis vinum quaeritis they that had the whole River of Nile before them need not complain of thirst so they that were near to the Sea of Tiberias took no thought for any other Beverage it was a Lake of wholsom and fresh water which after the custom of the Jews is called a Sea if it be large and spacious and with that they were contented to quench their thirst Our Saviour furnished them once with wine at the joyful Solemnity of Marriage they lookt not for the like at every occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a pleasant liquor says the Poet but it is the Milk of Venus They declined all incentives of lust and lived almost after Daniels rate with pulse and water When Christians lived among the Heathen they were detected by their parsimony and moderation of diet though it were to save their lives they could not gurmandize like Epicures Nos oleris comas nos siliqua faeta legumine paverit innocuis epulis says Prudentius by temperance and fasting they got the mastery of the concupiscence of the flesh But above all Christians especially sobriety descended from the Apostles upon Ecclesiasticks it deserved a censure in them to exceed in delicious fare the Canons are extant and the proofs are authentique that the great and solemn Fasts of the Church well known to us were observed by them a good while before they were admitted by the People None know better than we says St. Austin that when temperance directs us to deny our selves those things that are lawful we are the better instructed to shun the sinful works of the Devil which are altogether unlawful The Apostles are our Forerunners in this frugality or rather austerity of food and yet to see that for all this they were scandalized for riotous libertines The imputation against them according to St. Matthew is this that they did not fast when the Disciples of John did In St. Luke more palpably spiteful they tell our Saviour that his Disciples did eat and drink why not would they have them macerate themselves with wilful famishment but could envy it self lay excess or intemperance to their charge I would we were as clear from the fault as they we that abuse the fertilness of our Land to rankness of gluttony we that pay more to the belly than we owe to the whole body who almost is not an Apicius that can maintain it what sin did ever grow up in any State to a more prodigious extremity but if the droughts of three years successively threatening dearth and scarcity will not affrighten this sin from our Table it is not a piece of a Sermon that will beat it down Yet I pray you remember that sharp Epiphonema of the Parable These three years have I come and found no fruit cut it down Nay God defend Why then expiate your surfeitings with Apostolical abstinence and forget not what a thrifty pittance they had in store even five barley loaves and two fishes And was this all and were they pleased that Christ should take that little from them and give it away to strangers yes it appears by Andrews answer they did not grudg it We have no more it is as good as nothing to feed such a multitude This implies as if he spoke the rest they shall have it all and much good do them if that will content them And was he so willing to part with that which was necessary for his own sustenance he had no more And will not we bestow our superfluities upon them that want Every luxuriant Vine must be largely pruned and he that hath much must scatter bountifully The Vine doth not miss the redundant branch and a rich mans Purse is like a River that doth not fall for a spoonful of contribution But when a poor man conjects heartily to any pious use his faith is proved as well as his charity is exercised for it is a sign that he believes that God will sustein him though he have emptied himself of all his substance in a small Oblation There are three things says Gregory that are most holy Sacrifices castitas in juventute sobrietas in ubertate liberalitas in paupertate liberality in poverty chastity in youth moderation in plenty And St. Chrysostom infers it from the readiness of the Disciples to part with all their homely Viands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maunder not that you are scanted and have but little he that hath any thing hath somewhat to spare to lend to the needy When the poor Widow had conferr'd two Mites no less than all her living unto the godly uses of the Temple Christ avouched it in her praise it was more than all the rich ones had bestowed That is not by absolute but by proportionable quantity as Aquinas states it not measuring the magnitude of the Gift but the sincereness of the Charity Non perpendit quantum sed ex quanto proferatur says Bede God doth not estimate how much was given but out of how much it was taken It was more for her to give two mites than for Zacheus to give a talent So it was more for these Disciples to surrender up their five loaves and two fishes than for another to keep open house for all the poor in Jerusalem And these shall be the limits of the first point our Saviours bodily preparation to the ensuing Miracle accepit he took the loaves And what more beside accepit For the Miracle came not off without another preparation and that is Ghostly Postquam gratias egisset after he had given thanks Best take it with the full allowance as the other Evangelists have enlarged it that beside giving thanks he looked up to heaven and blessed So then before he brought the sign to pass he glorified his Father three ways with his Eye he looked up to heaven with his Tongue he gave thanks and with his Spirit he blessed If you will scan the value of an action by the rarity of it in holy Scripture and by the incidency upon none but great occasions then both these do concur in this that Christ looked up to heaven I call it to mind that it hapned three times that is not often now at this instant when he was about the miracle of the Loaves Once again when he raised Lazarus to life Joh. xi 41. And once more when he began his Prayer to his Father but a few minutes before he was apprehended to be crucified Joh. xvii 1. And the Tradition is of long continuance that he lifted up his eyes to heaven the fourth time when he consecrated the Elements at his Last Supper The Liturgies ascribed to St. James and St. Mark do remember it and upon the credulity of the example the Canon of the Mass in the Church of Rome commands it At all times you
glory Thirdly He distributed to the Disciples and assumed them into the same works which himself did save only in the work of our Redemption but when he was acting that part either they fell asleep or run away as when he was laid hold upon to be crucified it was an exploit above a mortal man to assist it and would admit of no associate I have trodden the Wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me Isa lxiii 3. But the power of doing Miracles was communicated unto them for the edifying of the body of the Saints and that before a great Congregation where there were many witnesses that there was such virtue given to men as if Christ had said before them all these are they that shall work signs and wonders in my Name when I am gone to Heaven These are they indeed but to do such mighty things was an Heritage which they could bequeath again to their Sons and to their Sons Sons in all descending Generations As a Conqueror enters it may be in triumph into a City which he hath taken but when the Solemnity of the triumph is over a plain working-day fashion serves for after so the Gospel entred with triumph into the World by the power and pomp of Miracles overtopping all false Religions and captivating all imaginations but would you have Christianity to hold on its triumph when it hath vanquished both Judaism and Idolatry 1600 years ago Not so but as there is a time to every purpose under Heaven so there was a time to glorify God by Signs and Wonders and a time to believe though Signs are ceased But now was the season to communicate some share of that mighty vertue to the Apostles as well to prepare them to know their office as to prepare the People to know that those were the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God Lastly the Disciples received the Blessing immediately from Christ and they went between Him and the People to feed them with bread to teach us that it is for his Saints sake that the earth hath plenty of all things It was not unto them which murmured that God gave water of the rock but unto Moses that cried unto him It was to Elias that God gave rain after three years drought and not unto Ahab Forget not therefore which way all temporal Blessings come about There are holy and mortified men among us that spend the greatest part of their life in penance and devotion these make intercession for you that your Table may be furnished and though they do not give it you with their hand as the Disciples did in our present business they give it you with their Prayers when others revel it and waste their stock in vanity these grovel upon the earth with their bended knees that the Lord would not be angry As St. Austin said to such a purpose Quando ipsi laetantur nos pro illis gemimus when others pamper their genius with marrow and fatness these do macerate themselves with abstinence to avert famine from the Land A devout man whose zeal is free from faction and his heart clear from malice that drives not his private prosperity but every day spends some Canonical hours most strictly for publick blessings it may be hath nothing himself and yet procures all as the Apostles took bread from Christ not for themselves but to give away to the multitude or if some little came to their share they enjoyed it not without the envy of those that were the better for their benefit For when they had distributed their Masters Maundy once and again to so many folk yet they grudged them that which a Nest of Sparrows would make bold with when they pluckt a few ears of corn and rub'd them in their hands Well the World will never reform this ingratitude and yet the Lord doth not repent him that his Saints are so precious in his sight that they obtein riches health and peace for those that hate them and persecute them Such a poor Widow as Anna that continued in Prayers and Fastings day and night in the Temple in part Cesar did owe the prosperity of his Crown unto her the People were beholding to her that they had their Traffick the Priests that they had the exercise of their Religion they of the City that they had their health they of the Country that they had their Harvest May be there were Blasphemers Extortioners Adulterers that were filled with this Feast which Christ made so it shall be while good and bad are intermingled every where But do you mark it Christ committed the bread at the first breaking to the hands of the Disciples for faithful and good men are the Conduit-pipes of all the Blessings which the earth receiveth from the Father of mercies to whom be glory for evermore AMEN THE THIRD SERMON UPON JOHN vi 11. He distributed to the Disciples and the Disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the Fishes as much as they would IT will not be denied but if I share this Miracle between those that had their finger in it two parts to speak with the least must be given to Christ If therefore there be double as much in Christs act that be distributed to the Disciples as there is in their act who distributed to them that were set down it was as due required to put the Bucket twice into the Well to draw waters from the former and with half that labour uno pede stans that is at this once and no more to dispatch the latter And now I shall put it unto you that this Miracle is come down as low as it could descend The divine incomprehensible nature was the Origen of it and therefore Christ used that Ceremony when he took the Loaves into his hand to look up to heaven Our Saviours Humane Nature was the next Vessel into which the grace of the Almighty was poured for the Father had given all things into his hand Joh. xiii 3. The next and underneath his feet were the Apostles they had their Power and Commission from him As the Father sent me so send I you Joh. xx The last of all to whom the Apostles communicate their gift are the People and there the gift abides The Dove that is the Holy Spirit doth use to fetch this compass about before he lights O glorious Hierarchy O most beautiful degrees of strength and Majesty O golden Chain whose uppermost Link is fastned to the highest heaven and the nethermost part toucheth the lowest earth Thus doth our blessedness descend step by step from the Father to the Son from the Son to the Disciples and from the Disciples to all those that are nourished with the words of Truth and of good Doctrine 1 Tim. iv 6. So then we hold of God as the Author of all Grace of Christ as the head of the Body which is his Church of the Apostles and their Successors as his subordinate Ministers And
And to be threatned to be little in Gods Kingdom is to loose it for ever whereas every one must be great who shall be rewarded with that immortality When the Heathen traduced the Christians that they debased their Emperour and made him less than the God of heaven Know you not says Tertullian that this is the eminency of your Emperour to be less than God Imperator ideo magnus est quia coelo minor est And as the Orator perswaded Caesar Dum Pompeii statuas ornat suas erigit While he took care to adorn Pompeys Statues he did advance his own so we build our selves a Throne by falling down low before the foor stool of the Lord and the hands which are lifted up to praise him shall one day stand at the right hand of his Majestly Somewhat was in it but the Heathen knew not what it was they called it abusively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every thing which grew too tall was thunder-blasted and that great fortunes when they came to excess did end in some shameful ruine Wherefore the wise Historian said of Poppaeus Sabinus that when divers Senators were cut short he lived secure in the reign of three Tyrants Quòd par negotiis neque supra habebatur he was fit for the business he undertook and not too great for it St. Chrysostom observes it among St. Pauls Salutations to the Romans that no man was saluted by the name of honour as Lord and Master and the like but Andronicus his fellow-prisoner Amplias his beloved Epaenetus his well beloved these were Titles in which the Saints delighted expressing their glory to be the union of charity in the holy Spirit As Virgil says of his Bees that they are full of stomach and revenge and that one Hive will fight cruelly against another Atque haec certamina tanta pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt Cast a little dust into the air and the fray is parted So when the pride of man hath set up sails and swells with vain opinion Pulveris exigui jactu methinks the casting of a little dust should pluck down our stomach the base mould of which our flesh is made Tolle jactantiam quid sunt homines nisi homines says St. Austin Set aside this corrupt leaven of ostentation and all men are but men as naked in their pomp as when they were born or when they shall be buried It was pride that dethroned the bad Angels and it is that makes man stubborn against the Law and refractory against faith hence it passeth currently to be the root of evil Yet Covetousness also as if there were emulation among Vices is taxed by St. Paul for the root of all evil setting the soul to be a Vassal to the love of the world and deceitful riches This Controversie coming before the Schoolmen to be decided this is the judgment of Aquinas These two parts are in the nature of sin Aversio à bono incommutabili a departure from the love of the Creator and Conversio ad bonum commutabile an inclination to the love of the Creature In the inclination to the transitory good Covetousness is the root of all evil in the departure from the chief good Pride is the root and matter of all evil that as the Aegyptians at the burial of the dead were wont to tear out the dead mans belly and to cry over it Thou wert it that killedst this man so if we would dissect out Pride from the rest of our vices we might more justly make that invective over it Thou wert the fall of Man and the ruin of evil Angels The Devil would lead our Saviour into the Wilderness little manners to go before his Maker Sequitur superbos ulton says the Poet but it is with punishment The Adulterer is a sinner in secret the Covetous commits Idolatry iu his Cabinet the Slanderer is like Pestilence that flieth by night alia vitia fugiunt à Deo sola superbia se opponit other vices are afraid and keep out of the way only Pride spurs on like Balaam upon his Ass when God and his angry Angel stand before him Now there are four ways as the Schoolmen make the account whereby this daring vice of Pride doth diminish from that which should be given to Gods glory 1. Cum homo existimat à se habere bonum quod habet A sin no less ungrateful than presumptuous to enjoy wit and art and memory and the blessings of the best Portion but the founders name to he quite lost and God forgotten when the Romans began to insult over the world well says one if every Country had their own which they have seized upon by violence and robbery ad casas reducerentur they would have nothing left them but their Shepherds Cottages But should God have all his own restored unto him which we have received what should I fay Ad casas reduceremur our strength our honor wisdom and eloquence all must be returned nay we should not have so much left as the Cottage of our Body for we had it from the Lord every thing that renowns us that feeds us that preserves us is but mica sub mensa a crum that falls from our Masters Table Did not the Egyptians make themselves fools in their Phitosophy that thought their Country was not the clearer for the Sun and Stars but that the Sun and the Stars sucked up sweet vapours from their Rivers and were the clearer for their Country so abominable are they in the pride of their hearts who think they did not receive the spirit of Prayer and the gift of Faith and the peace of a good conscience from Heaven but that they do pay Prayers and Alms and Charity to Heaven which they never received Secondly Violence is done to Gods glory cum desuper datum credunt sed pro suis se accepisse meritis when conscience will acknowledg that God doth give all but arrogancy will infer that man deserves all The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the free Gift of God the Father the Unction of the Holy Spirit are turned quite aside like a river from his own true channel when it falls into such a Soil that thinks it deserves it As the Jews said unto our Saviour on the other side of Gehezareth Rabbi quà huc venisti Master how camest thou hither so let us say Sanctification quà huc venisti We did not shew the way with Palms neither did we lift up the Gates there was no entrance which our merits could prepare for sactification not by our ears which are profane not by our mouths which are blasphemous and as our Saviour said If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee so in another sense I may say if thy right eye do not offend thee if any part of thy body usurps that it is not sinful cut it off and cast it from
honour of God did infect the air and provoke this immediate putrefaction in Herods bowels Beloved We do all hold up our hands and bless our selves from such a vengeance as fell upon him that the very flesh should putrefie in his body and breed stink and loathsomness yet our lustful Gallants will take no warning but incur a more odious disease a more putrefying corruption of the body by their uncleanness and fornication than ever Herod had It is very strange to see how one Country will shift off the name of that disease to another which for reverence to your ears I will not mention The Indian will not own it The Naopolitan shuns the disgrace to have it pinn'd upon him the French translates it upon another People whole Kingdoms were ever ashamed of the infamy and yet this man and that man and the other that haunts Stews incurs it knows of it professeth it Beloved is such a putrefied Carkass fit to make a Temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in or rather fit to make a Hog for Satan to enter in and run him headlong to his ruine O you are sure all shall be cured by Baths and Chirurgeons when the Angel of the Lord may strike you immediately that you give up the Ghost So indeed our Saviour himself is said to give up the Ghost but with much difference from Herod in the very original phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Luke and St. Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Matthew still there is mention of the Spirit in all the four Evangelists because Christ was full of the Holy Ghost But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says my Text of Herod he breathed out his soul no mention of the Spirit for he was homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul says Efflavit animam he disgusted out his soul which no doubt did loath the body To conclude all If you ask me what became of Herod after these words He gave up the Ghost I have no Commission from the Scripture to search into it he had much cause to give God thanks if he were saved who gave him five days repentance after he was struck to be sorry for his sin If he were condemned we have cause to give God thanks who hath made Herod an example unto us and might have made us had we been created sooner an example unto Herod Like Davids Arrows about Jonathan so are Gods Judgments about us on this side and beyond round about our eyes his name be blessed for evermore that we are not the mark of his indignation Which mercy that he may continue towards us we beg for the merits of Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit c. THE FIRST SERMON UPON GAL. iv 26. But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all AN odd conceit that came into the head of the Cosmographer who said that if two Eagles equally strong in flight should be chosen out the one being set at the furthest part of the East in Asia the other at the furthest part of the West in Europe if these two should take the wing just in the same moment and not rest till they came together they would meet both at Jerusalem as if it were the Navel of the habitable World I rehearse it as a Dream and I give it this Interpretation The Synagogue under the Law of Moses was the Occidental Eagle the Gospel of Grace the Oriental Eagle which did rise with Salvation in its wings why these two holy Professions which soared aloft when all other Religions crept upon the ground I say these two when St. Paul wrote this Epistle to the Churches of Galatia did conspicuously meet in Jerusalem as in that Theater whereon they did act their most principal part There was the Chair of the Scribes and Pharisees advanced that taught the exactest way of the Law there was the Temple wherein the Rites and Ceremonies were performed daily which Moses commanded And likewise from thence began the Gospel to go forth into all the Earth and had gained more ground there than in any other place You have filled Jerusalem with your Doctrin say the High Priests Lo this is the Rendezvouz of the Cosmographers two Eagles and this is the Explication of his Fable You know they continued there a short while for about the space of forty years like Twins strugling in one Womb. And though at first the Propugners of the Law would in no wise consent that the College of the Apostles the Preachers of the new Covenant of Grace should have any room in their Principality yet in a short time the Devil saw it best for his purpose to let them share together Nec meum nec tuum sed dividatur let it neither be Moses alone nor Christ alone but let them mix together This was the bane of sincere truth for every Metal that is mixed with gold embaseth it And yet it was entertain'd as a motion sent from Heaven to make peace and amity in all the Churches of Galatia till the Lord stirred up the spirit of St. Paul to dissolve this Combination which he performs with most approved success in this Chapter And because Similitudes and Figures will hold faster in the memory of the unlearned who are the greater number than powerful Arguments after weighty Reasons premised the Apostle concludes with an Allegory at the end of his Disputation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Banquet after a Meal of solid meat And thus it runs that they who sought righteousness by the Law were no better than Ismael the Son of Hagar they that sought righteousness by Faith were as Isaac the Heir of his Father That the Law came from Sinah which was seated in Arabia a Mountain quite out of the Confines of the Land of Promise the Gospel began at Sion or Jerusalem which was the heart of the Holy Land Or let Jerusalem be compared with it self and it was under servitude and malection by the Profession of the Law but it gained honour and a beautiful Portion by the Profession of the Gospel Jerusalem which now is in bondage with her Children but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all Out of this contention between St. Paul and the Galatians those suspensive men those neutrals that would be half Jew half Christian and so were rightly neither Jews nor Christians I say from hence the legitimate Church which is the undefiled Spouse of Christ hath purchased this description which I have read unto you wherein divers of her Privileges are collected together I do not say all for under the Title of the Kings Daughter she is described circumamicta varietate Psal xlv clothed with as much embroidering and varieties as could be rehearsed in a long Psalm In this little Abstract of the excellency thereof six Portions of its glory are conteined in six words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
trials of obedience Yet though their number was so great and cumbersom their weight had been more easie if they had been plain and perspicuous but the people underwent much geare and I think not one among an hundred did know the signification The substance of Religion was so darkly involved in the Types that happy was that Prophet or Prophets Son that could crack the shel to eat the kernel Who of the Vulgar rank could penetrate into the moral signification of those vices which were forbidden in the unclean Creatures Vt homines mundarentur pecora culpatu sunt says Tertullian The Law did seem to loath some beasts that we might know what God did love Was not the Salvation in Christ propounded to them in Signes And his death resembled in a Bullock slain at the Altar And what small comfort was there in that Pardon which was not intelligible to the poor Offendor Luther says well upon my Text that mans knowledge is unshackled it is at liberty when he discerns the naked truth in it self Cognitio est ancilla quando subjecta est velaminibus figurarum Our Wisdom is made a bondwoman subject to the captivity of Ignorance when it sees nothing but in the dark Glass of typical Obumbrations Thanks be to God that we are Scholars of the New Testament We are called to the manifestation of faith and love in Christ that we do not grope in darkness but walk in light for the Gospel is like a Glade which is cut through the grove of ancient Ceremonies Let me speak to this point once more Beside their excess in number and their cloudy obscurity there were unpleasing remembrances in them some that seemed to be mysteries of grace were likewise mystical Exprobrations and therefore referred by good Expositors to the hand-writing of Ordinances which is against us Col. ii 14. For Ceremonies take them not as Sacraments or Circumstances of Evangelical Service but as Yokes of the Law Nihil aliud erant quà m miseriae humanae publica professio They were imprints of humane misery not Expiations but Confessions of our iniquity Circumcision it accused the Israelites that they were born in sin Their frequent washings did testifie that there was filthiness in the Object The life of the Sacrifice spilt upon the ground pronounced him guilty of death that brought it to the Lord. I go no further because I would be compendious and I have said enough for this discovery that the Law of Ordinances was our Adversary But thanks be to that Saviour who blotted out the hand-writing payed the grand debt which we did owe and discharged the interest likewise when he evacuated the Levitical Ceremonies which is the first mark of the freedom of Jerusalem Yet be advised that we do not claim more immunity by this Chatter than is granted for that is ordinary to stretch out the name of liberty like cheveril Leather to what length we please some have assumed that they have good ground to blow up all our Modern Ceremonies with this Mine because Jerusalem is free from the yoke of Ordinances It is true our Jerusalem is free and therefore we are free for partus sequitur ventrem the Church appoints her own Orders of decency now and is not appointed nothing is imposed upon it with bond of necessary and perpetual observation the principality is upon her shoulders to make her Children submit to her prudent Constitutions But if particular men might challenge interest in this freedom as if they had scope to serve God with what order and comliness they pleased this were an uproar and not a freedom and a looseness like that of mad men when they have broke their Chains Certainly the liberty which God hath granted in setting our feet at large from these things with which the Priesthood of Aaron was charged it was to accommodate us with great grace and favour but if this should repel the bringing in of those Ceremonies which are means to beget the greater veneration of Religion the bounty of God which cannot be would turn to a prejudice his blessing to a cross and such as love the welfare of Sion might cry out O Lord we are oppressed with liberty Touching the substance of divine Worship it is written with Gods own finger in holy Scripture we must not add unto it Only God is pleased to try our judgment how we will administer it in the particular fashion His Worship is the Bread of Life sent down from heaven and not invented upon earth but for the manner of his Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens says of humane Philosophy it is like the sauce in which the bread is dipt to make it savoury to this conditement Jerusalem is allowed to put her skil providing for comliness and honesty as a wise dispenser of the mysteries of God Was ever any thing of moment transacted without some graceful solemnity Or is man so governed by the Spirit that he can lift himself up to Heaven sufficiently by interiour Meditation I forget not that some will say yea the Body also serveth God by the tongue And I allow it for an excellent way to warm our zeal with the loud voice of prayer But this warmth will quickly cool unless some devout actions concur together and deeds are far more durable in the fancy than the memory of speech either to teach the understanding somewhat which it ought to consider or to move the heart to due reverence and regard which it ought to have in the performance of sacred matters Here let the new Jerusalem act her part this is her liberty to enjoyn such Ceremonies for the eye as may prepare the heart the better to feel the power of the grace of God and to prescribe such visible signs as will leave a deeper print behind them than bare exhortation I will add that by this power bequeathed to the Church some Jewish Ceremonies may be reteined as far as the state of the things will bear if they be followed only for outward order and not returning to that obstinately which must be disannulled because Christ is come in the flesh I confess that Spiritual Worship is best for it is most correspondent to his nature whom we worship God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit This is the reason that he says he hates Incense and effusion of bloud at his Altar such kind of service hath no assimilation with him who is incorporeal give him the Sacrifices of righteousness of prayers and mercy and thanksgiving qui corpus non est umbram non habet Approach not to him with shadows for he is a Spirit and not a Body yet in respect of us though not of himself he entertains the lowliness of bodily Worship as it hath a conveniency and conjunction with our nature The Lord is a Spirit and he even he alone gives law how he will be worshipped in spirit but we that worship him are bodily creatures and
is the portion which comes unto us and for which our Covenant is called the Gospel of glory For tribulations which did not accord with the Jewish Oeconomy if they be not above our strength we must not only expect them but rather invite them then avoid them Vre seca hic ne parcas Domine ut in aeternum parcas Prove me chastise me bruize me like sweet Gum till thou beest pleased with my savour pitty me not in these momentary afflictions that thou mayest spare me for ever As the soul is free from the prison of the body when it is dissolved in death so it is most free from the faeces and earthiness of the body when it is not wedded to the desire of transitory things Mushrooms that have no savour when we have enjoyed them but a day Briefly Jewish servility is an unbeliever like St. Thomas Nisi mittam digitum Let me touch let me feel let me grasp my handful or it is in vain to obey the Lord Christian liberty is ingenuous and heroical it hath swum out of this dead Sea in whose mud the unregenerate do stick and if the Lord will give us himself let Ziba take all The greater is our freedom because we know we need not the aids of fortune I have heard that a Cardinal being elected to be Pope his former State is rifled because his new dignity will supply him in abundance Just so when the Spirit comforts us that we are called to a Crown of glory pardon the similitude it is no worse than as Christ hath compared himself to a Thief that comes in the night but our confidence of our new Election to that Inheritance makes us easie to part with that which others keep for a while and leave it in a moment And thus when freedom hath struck inward to our affections pardon us if we speak despicably of the Jews for our Jerusalem alone is free The whole Charter of Jerusalems freedom is dispatcht Though the hour were to begin again I would not stick at the next question how we came by it We all know the procurer and what he did to gain it for us it is a flower that grew out of the bloud of Christ We were not protected as Joshuahs Spies were by a common woman nor set at large as Samaria was by the tidings of Lepers our Deliverer is more honourable to us than our freedom the Son of God was made a Servant that we Servants might become Sons As God made nothing in nature but by his Son by him he made the Worlds so he did nothing for the restauration of the World without him He is all in all He hath freed us from the bondage of shadows by taking a body From the Covenant of Works by satisfying his Fathers Justice From the dread of fear by the sweetness of his Mercy From the sordid desire of earthly things by the operation of his holy Spirit The purchase of our Freedom was carried in this sort so that the Jesuit à Lapide borrowed a fit name to call it by you know from whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift of a King of David our King Imagine by a Prosopopaea that you saw the Devil and Sin and death defying us in the same words that Goliah did the Camp of Israel If you be able to fight with us and to kill us we will be your Servants but if we prevail against you then you shall be our servants and serve us Then David our Champion slew these Giants of Gath in our quarrel and from thenceforth we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his purchased people as St. Peter says St. Austin says that by nature we were Pharaohs bondmen that is Satans and when we forsook him and fled away to serve God in the Wilderness he followed after us but no further than the Red Sea Quid est mare rubrum Vsque ad fontem Christi cruce sanguine consecratum What is the Red Sea that divided us from him The Fountain of Baptism consecrated to save us by the Cross and Bloud of Christ Bernard alludes to the words of Jacob and says that the Church is that portion which Christ won from the Amorite with his Sword and with his Bow Gladio praedicationis arcu incarnationis With the Sword of his Doctrine with the Bow of his incarnation where the shaft and the string make but one Instrument as his Godhead and Manhood make but one Person Thus he hath snatcht us from our Enemies that were made Lords over us and from the hard bondage wherein we were made to serve Isa xiv 3. Having seen the Copy of our Freedom and knowing how we got it it is a Lesson fit to conclude with that every mans memory may carry that away at the least how we should use it No blessing hath been more abused than this Under colour hereof the Galileans would be free from Tribute the Nicolaitans from the bond of Marriage the Gnosticks from all Justice and Temperance the Clerks of the Roman Church from the Courts of the Civil Magistrate and the Anabaptists from all Moral Duties No says St. Peter to all these As free but not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God It was St. Austins by-word Dilige Deum fac quod vis You are free therefore love God and do what you will If ye love him keep his Commandments We are not so soon loosed but we are tied again both freed and bound at once Liberando servos nos facit says the same Father in Joh. viii We must recompence his goodness with our imperfect obedience it is the Law of Gratitude it is the Bond of Nature As we commonly say that nothing is more dearly bought than that which comes by gift so we owe the greater service to him of whom we got our freedom Nay we are bound to endure all for his sake Neque hoc facit stupor sed amor nec deest dolor sed contemnitur says Bernard We feel the pain as much as they that curse and rage in their sufferings but our love unto Christ doth overcome it A Free-man that will thrive follows his Trade as close as any Apprentice though not by austere compulsion So our Freedom will not make our hands slack from working if we mean to lay up a treasure in heaven Every piece of Land they say holds of some Lord so every man retains to some Lord either we serve God or sin and Satan If we count it Freedom to take our swing in all voluptuousness pity their frensie that can stir no where but as their intemperate appetite commands them and yet mistake themselves to live without controul who are the Vassals of the Devil While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption 2 Pet. i. 19. Tully objects to Clodius that he set up the Picture of Liberty in his house in the habit of a Strumpet Says that approved Senator
apt to be separated I suppose an Epicure may lose his conscience in a mist for a little while and dispute it like a Galenist that the soul is nothing else but the temperature of the first qualities and so in death extinguished but can you imagine that the Spirit it self doth not often give him the lie and say within his breast you do me wrong I am immortal Verily I believe that they that put it off doubtingly and would be uncontrouled in their voluptuousness it may be it is not so are often tormented with the other part of the opinion it may be it is so If you will hear this truth upheld out of holy Scripture there is no resistance or cavillation against it Because I will not tie my self to every Text which chimes that way I will choose compendiously where others have made choice before me The Sadduces being stiff opposers against the separated existence of the Spirit and yet commending themselves in the Holy Patriarchs from whose Loyns they descended our Saviour selected that Scripture above all other to convict them which would catch them in their own net I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living How was God the God of Abraham unless he lived And in what did Abraham live but in his soul which was divorced from the body Irenaeus admires that any one should doubt of the souls perseverance after death since the enarration is so â—lear that the rich man saw Lazarus in joys when himself was tormented St. Hierom sets his rest upon those words Mat. x. 22. Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill the soul St. Austin recommends the words of Stephen to nick the Point without all contradiction Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Si animus moriturus esset causae nihil foret cur animum potiùs quà m corpus commendaret Aquinas against the Gentiles lays his strength upon that place of St. Paul 2 Cor. v. 8. We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with God One quotation were enough then how forcible are all these together He must be a beast in understanding that knows not that the souls of good men are Angels in reversion There are others that profess so much faith that the soul hath a state of happiness in reversion to those that die in the favour of God But that it comes not to any gust of this happiness till the end of the World For the soul say they falls asleep when the body perisheth that is it dies together with the body and when the flesh shall be quickned again and gathered out of the dust then the soul shall live again when both it and the body shall be exalted in the Resurrection I do not create Monsters to fight with all St. Austin found such Hereticks in his days he calls them Arabians who taught it every where that the Soul had no being after death till in the consummation of the World they both obtained together a joyful Resurrection Nay these Tares were sown long before St. Austin lived Irenaeus took the pains to root them up in his Age and he confutes them out of my Text says he how did St. John see the souls of the Martyrs who had been slain for the Testimony of Christ if the Soul should cease to be till the final Resurrection And if a Caviller shall say it doth not cease to be but it lies quiet and senseless in a trance Irenaeus blunts the point of that objection because in the next verse they desire vengeance for their bloud that was shed but principally because in the eleventh verse they are clad in white garments which are cognizances of their joy and glory and doubtless they wear them not sleeping but waking And do not think that I rake in the ashes of ancient Heresies that are quite forgotten For the Anabaptists in their Theses Printed at Cracovia Anno 1568 have this position We deny that any Soul hath a separated being after death that was a devise invented by the Papists to maintain Invocation of Saints and Purgatory this is Popery trimly reformed and according to that Proverb of the Jews they cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils And even at this day a new Generation of Vipers risen up at Racovia in Polonia do pledge the Anabaptists in the same cup namely that there is a futurition of glory for the soul when the whole Fabrick of man shall be redintegrated again in the Resurrection but they profess they cannot tell whether in the mean time there be any such thing extant as a separated soul yet St. Paul says he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ And yet Christ told the good Thief that day he should be with him in Paradise And yet the Souls of just men departed do follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Rev. xiv 4. These instances are more perswasive I am sure than that which they pretend that the Just do rest from their labours What rest in Gods name do they dream of They are not in a profound trance without motion or action as Adam was cast into a deep sleep when Eve was taken out of his side but it is a rest when the Spirit doth acquiesce in the Vision of God as David said Turn again unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath rewarded thee There are some that I must afford a little Patronage who are accused to lean to the Anabaptists in their opinion that do nothing less It was allowed for 1400 years as a Problem wherein Christians without breach of charity might have Latitude to dissent granting that the soul after the dissolution from the body was received into the joys of heaven whether it be not sequestred in some distance from the highest heaven where the invisible God doth chiefly reign in Power and Majesty till the whole Body of the Saints be accomplished It is well known what way St. Bernard took Nec sancti sine plebe nec spiritus sine carne That such as die before us shall not see the Beatifical Vision of the holy Trinity without us nor without their own body and that an integral Beatitude is not given but to an integral person And Calvin hath taken his freedom to be of the same mind says he Christ himself only is entred into the supreme Sanctuary of Heaven Et solus populi eminus in atrio residentis vota ad Deum defert and he alone commends the Petitions of the Saints to his Father whose Spirits attend in the outward Courts Those over-awing Fathers of the Florentine and Tridentine Councils have defined it indeed as an irrefragable Article of Faith that the Saints enjoy the most perfect Vision of God immediately after death What is that to us who will not lose our moderation in indifferent points for their
sakes But Cornelius à Lapide the Jesuit puts the infamy of an Anabaptist upon Calvin as if he had taught that the soul departed had no sense or taste at all of the glory of God Why did he not censure Ambrose and Bernard Why did he not spit his venom upon Pope John the XXII There was good reason for that if we may believe Gerson a most grave Author of their own part But Calvin was the first that ever I met withall who writ a voluminous Treatise to prove that the souls of good men after this life have their quartering and Mansion in Heaven that they are not insensible of their state or benummed in sleep or fettered with darkness but that they praise the Lord continually and Christ that redeemed them which is consonant to this Point of my Text that John saw the souls under the Altar Yet I like not their way who are so careful to teach the people that the souls deceased do not sleep that they keep themselves waking with a thousand Fictions and Impostures there is scarce one leaf written of any Saint in the Church of Rome especially of the modern ones but you shall meet with two or three sprinklings in it how his soul appeared in this or that manner to his friends upon earth their posthumous miracles after their death exceed the number of those which they did when they were living And if any thing be out of order it is straitway rectified with an apparition And from whence think you the Elf or Goblin comes that appears From a place where I am sure this good Apostle saw no souls from the correction house of Purgatory Their Larvae or night-walking souls are their best Doctors for the confirmation of that opinion Ask Gregory the Great else who could urge little beside to gain credit to his opinion for the temporary chastisements of the faithful after this life but as the dead came and made relation to their surviving acquaintance Some silly men were first affrighted out of their wits with a gastly Vision and then guess you who it was that taught them points of Religion But four ages ran out after Gregories time before this cousenage grew trivial and common Gregory the Fourth in the year 835. decreed that a Solemn Feast should be held over all the Church to the memory of all the Saints in heaven that whatsoever was not fully performed in the Feasts and Vigils of particular Saints might be consummated on that day this was nothing to the puling souls detained in the prison of temporary castigation But almost two hundred years after Odilo the Abot of Cluni in commiseration to them that were departed in his own Monastery dedicated a day for the relief of their souls not yet admitted into heaven And Pope Jo. XVIII anno 1007 taking light from Odilo commanded the Feast of all Souls to be general in all places The Devil wanted nothing but the opening of this door to beat down all opposites with apparitions And let the Readers mark it that from that Age not a Book was written not a Chapter of a Book but it relates what Nocturnal Mercuries appeared to bring tidings from Purgatory Some Jangler will catch at this and say Belike you reject all Apparitions of the dead for lies or Demoniacal Impostures If I should I had Tertullian to abet me Omnem mortuorum exhibitionem incorporalem praestigias judices All incorporeal Phantosms of the dead are juglings and delusions And if any point of doctrine depend upon the sleeveless Errands that the souls departed bring I do renounce them for delusions We have Moses and the Prophets and we are certain their Spirits are ever to be preferred before any Spirit that comes from the dead For the living to go to the dead says the Prophet Isaiah none of that but to the Law and to the Testimony Isa viii 19. Rabbi Maimon says that some superstitious Jews would burn Incense among the graves that the dead might come and talk with them And therefore God said that man should be cut off from among the people that sought the truth among the dead Deut. xviii 11. Yet I deny it not but that the divine power hath sometimes presented the Saints departed to communicate with the living as they that appeared in the holy City to testifie our Saviours Resurrection Mat. xxvii Likewise in the 2. of Mach. Chap. ult Onius who once had been High Priest he was exhibited being dead to Judas Machabaeus that is another instance if you have any stomack to that Historian But the upshot is that Souls have been seen in heaven that was the Vision of St. John so Souls may be sent from Heaven but not from Purgatory Through fire I confess these souls had passed which the Apostle saw yet not through that subterraneous fire which they imagine but through the fire of Martyrdom and persecution He saw the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held And if it be true as none of the worst Expositors conjecture that the computation of the fifth Seal opened immediately before the words of my Text is rightly calculated at what time Dioclesian did cease to make havock in the Church it was a very fit time to see souls in heaven slain for the Word of God it was thwackt with Martyrs like an hive with Bees For burning of Churches for massacring of Christians for Proscription of Innocents no Persecution was ever like it It lasted ten whole years without ceasing and in the first year of his Reign in Egypt only an hundred forty and four thousand Christians were put to death beside seventy thousand that were banisht insomuch says Scaliger that the Epocha of Dioclesian is called the Epocha of the Martyrs in Chronology Who would have thought that the Posterity of Cham a Generation branded with dark and unlovely visages should have afforded so many sacrifices to be offered up unto the glory of Jesus Christ Well might the Church of Aethiopia sing the Canticle of Solomon I am black but comely O ye Daughters of Jerusalem And not only these but exceeding great numbers of Bishops Priests and People in all quarters of the habitable world a long bedroll of faithful men and women in this Island did taste of the bitter Cup under the same Tyrant Fathers lost their Children Children lack'd their Parents the Wife missed her Husband and one friend another whom St. John hath found altogether making up one Chorus of blessed Spirits and while Rachel the Church below mourneth for her Children Jerusalem which is above the Mother of us all rejoyceth for them Martyrdom is the way to sublimate death into a Cordial which was a poyson the means to make that a blessing which was a curse upon our nature A Traffick proper to none but to the Citizens of the supernal City to secure our whole adventure not by assuring but by losing their life It is not only the
but his illumination Wherefore the Church by way of external testimony was ever the best approved and most faithful witness of Christ yet this testimony so much beneath his Person were unauthorized and fruitless but that it is always governed by the inward Spirit of the Father Aquinas in a certain Sermon upon the Pentecost hath drawn up those things which bear witness of Christ into a certain number and that the verdict is given from twelve the most principal things in the world God the Father in this Proclamation God the Son in his own Confession God the Holy Ghost in the Dove-like Apparition the Angels at his Nativity the Saints that rose from the dead the Miracles which he wrought the Heaven which was darkned at his Passion the Fire when he sent the Comforter in that Element upon his Disciples the Air when he commanded the winds to be still the water when he made the Seas to be calm the Earth when it shook and quak'd at his Resurrection and lastly Hell it self when the Devils did acknowledge him calling him Jesus of Nazareth and saying We know thee who thou art But above all this testimony in my Text enforceth credence upon us more than any other as St. Ambrose thinks Si dubitatur de filio paterno non creditur testimonio If there be any spice of unbelief in your heart run hither to take it out for will you not take the Fathers word for the excellency of his Son that this is the Sacrifice in whom he is well pleased Shew us thy Father says Philip and it sufficeth Joh. xiv 8. Much more resolutely might the Church say Let us hear thy Father and it sufficeth We ask no surer warrant to confirm our faith For as Abraham answered the rich man concerning his brethren that did not believe If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one arose from the dead So I may say to all that receive not the faith If they will not believe the Father in whom all the treasures of knowledge are hidden then they may question if there be light in the Heavens perspicuity in the Air life in their own souls every thing that flesh and bloud can alledge must be dark and doubtful to their capacity God spoke from above through the air and it received his voice and when he speaks in our hearts shall not we receive his testimony Thus St. Ambrose in a sweet strain upon it Credidit mundus in Elementis credat in hominibus credidit in exanimis credat in viventibus credidit in mutis credat in loquentibus The rude Elements of the world were taught to admit the doctrine of Faith then much more let men embrace it inanimate things took the Symphony from the Fathers mouth let things which live much more receive it the dumb things of nature were taught to embrace the voice let those things which have tongues much more praise God for glorifying his Son To the upshot of the Point I add this and have done John Baptist did bear witness to our Saviour but his witness was too mean for so great a Person Quo ad nos in regard of our apprehension the testimony and approbation of holy men is a great matter but in regard of the honour of Christ it was fit that the Father who is coequal should testifie of the Son and so doth the Son of the Father which is excellently knit up in one Text Joh. v. 32. There is another that beareth witness of me and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true So by the voice of the Father we know the excellency of the Son and by the preaching of the Son we know the truth of the Father This is their mutual testimony In the second place the manner follows how the Father testified to the honour of his Son and that is by a voice Every Creature whether it live or whether it be inanimate every season of the year every blessing for our use that the earth brings forth though it be dumb yet I am not ashamed to say that it speaks aloud how there is a God that made us and preserved us To this purpose St. Paul spake to the Lycaonians Actc xiv 17. The living God left not himself without witness in that he gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Since therefore all the Elements continually are dumb witnesses of the glory of God how easie is it for the Father Almighty to put a tongue into the air and make it speak I will not argue upon the strict terms of Logick how this can be called a voice being not uttered by the Throat and Palate and other Instruments of a rational Creature God is a transcendent above all the Arts in the world and many things proceeding from him are not to be examined by such rules this I may definitively say it was sonus articulatus an articulate intelligible sound of words as if it had come from the tongue of man And I would pass by this Point but that two things come in my way 1. How properly the Father is known by a voice 2. How well it expresseth the comforts of the Gospel Upon the first the School doth distinguish Efficientia vocis erat à totâ Trinitate declaratio spectat ad solum patrem Every effect belongs equally to the whole Trinity therefore this voice was as well the work of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as it was of the Father For so St. Austin beat down the blasphemy of the Arians who taught that the Father gave some honour to the Son which he had not nay says he Ille transeuntium verborum sonus non sine filio factus est alioquin non omnia per ipsum facta sunt That transient voice which was intended to glorifie the Son was made by the Son otherwise the Scriptures had not said All things were made by him and without him nothing was made But though the efficiency of the voice be common to every Person of the Trinity yet the signification of it was appropriated to the Father for he said the word and by it he made the worlds he spake and all things were created The Lord said indeed let the Firmament be made let the light be made and all things else not by oral prolocution but by the Decree of his holy will and as one said Facilius est Deo facere quam nobis dicere God can sooner make all things visible and invisible than we speak of it therefore the Phrase runs as if all things were existent at the uttering of a word And I know not if any similitude do speak that ineffable mystery of the Holy Trinity better than this from the manifest pronunciation of a speech wherein are these three things together which cannot be parted The voice begets a word spoken and there is truth in that word which was spoken by the voice