mans life by it self A just Father a just Counsellor a just Judge and so likewise in the particular condition of that Office a just Saviour and Mediator Out of this last acception surely we may best pick out the meaning of my Text. For this humility and obedience which our Saviour did now profess in coming to Jordan with the multitude to be baptized it could not be reduced to the observance of any Ceremony in the old Law nor to any Precept of the Ten Commandments wherein a necessary part of justice consisted but it was agreeable to the person of his Mediatorship and he was accountable for all such duties as parts of righteousness For let the Sacrament of Baptism be considered in two sorts First from the efficient cause that it was established by divine authority Secondly From the end in that it signifies the washing away of sins in both these respects it pertained to his Office to be baptized who was the Mediator between God and man In the former regard we have his own confession I came to do the will of my Father that sent me and although necessity did not lie upon him to meddle with that Ceremony which betokened the cleansing of sins yet it was expedient that he should not contemn but do honour to his Fathers Ordinance What did it concern him to be subject to his Parents To be Circumcized To keep the Feast days of the Jews But because it was a part of righteousness to apply himself devotionately to all divine Institutions In the latter regard though his own soul was pure neither was iniquity found in him Yet he bore the iniquity of us all and we have need of washing not our feet only but our hands and our head It is a full saying of Maximus to this purpose Justissimum erat quia totum suscepisset homimem ut per omnia hominis transiret sacramenta Since he took man upon him with the guilt of all his corruptions it behoved him to pass through all those Sacraments which are the means to take away our corruptions So you see what righteousness signifies in this place Non justitiam aequalitatis legis sed aequitatis vocationis Not such justice as is commanded in the Law but a decent equity according to the Office and vocation of his Mediatorship The next thing to be considered is the fulfilling of righteousness Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness Every one in whom the Spirit of God abides hath a good purpose to do justice and the works of the Law but he that fulfils righteousness and is exact in his ways without all reproof is the Son of God I say as for us that know God by faith and live in tabernacles of flesh wherein there is always malicious resistance against the inward operations of grace we are all transgressors of righteousness it is impossible we should fulfil it Let every man humble himself before God confessing that he is a great sinner because Christ humbled himself for us all to come to that Sacrament which is remediable for Sin St. Austin was troubled with one Celestinus who opposed him that one of the Sons of Adam might be exactly righteous in this life notwithstanding the manifold tentations of frailty St. Austin rejoyns are we not all taught to say the Lords Prayer But if any could be clear from trespasses he need not say Forgive us our trespasses We do not say therefore that there is a man without sin we say there may be a man without sin Quomodo autem possit per quem possit de hôc quaeritur But the question is how and by what means he may be so For the Orthodox Church did never mean a man could be so in this life untill he were translated to the Kingdom of Glory Attend what it is which the same Father brings under the compass of sin and let every man examine himself by that Peccatum est cum vel non est caritas quae esse debet vel minor est quà m esse debet sive hoc voluntate vitari possit sive non possit It is a sin either not to have charity which we ought to have or to have less charity than we ought to have Though we could avoid that defect by our own will or though we could not meaning sure our inability to fulfil the Law by the corruption we draw from our first Parents the guilt lies upon us for want of charity Who can tell how oft he offendeth Says David Is there any man then upon earth who can tell how oft he offendeth Rely not therefore upon thy self but upon Christ who alone was able to fulfil all righteousness The Devil tried him in the Wilderness whether the perfection of all justice were in him But was repelled and he could not draw him to forsake his righteousness The Scribes and Pharisees worse than Satan misdeemed the Doctrine of Christ how his Discipline would be some new thing quite different from obedience to the Law But our Saviour prevented their ill surmise saying I came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them Mat. v. 17. To destroy the Law is either to take the true sense from it by false interpretations or to cancell the force by which it obliged or lastly by malice and presumption to violate and infringe it For violation of the Law they did accuse him but not convince Pilate who did strive to do them favour was compelled to say I find no evil that he hath done For delivering the right sense and meaning of it his interpretations were most divine and discovered the vanity of Pharisaical Traditions Whereupon says Theophylact as a Painter laying fresh colours upon an old Picture Non delendo sed perficiendo tollit priorem imaginem makes as it were a new Image not by blotting out the old but by varnishing and washing it new again So Christ gave as it were a new Law to the Jews not by expunging or adding any thing but by applying the natural exposition to the Text. As for cancelling the force by which it tied it is true indeed that he did abrogate all Ceremonial Figures and Shadows because such things were to vanish away when the substance was exhibited in his own person Wherefore Cajetan marks the words accutely that Christ did not say I will destroy no part of the Law no not the Ceremonies but Non veni solvere they shall be laid aside hereafter but I came not to destroy them in my own person So St. Stephen was accused Acts vi 14. We heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth shall change the Customs which Moses hath delivered us Summarily therefore thus our Saviour fulfilled the Law and all righteousness The Law consists of four things Prophesies Moral Precepts Ceremonial Rites Judicial Statutes He fulfilled the Prophetical part personally exhibiting himself to be born to be crucified to rise the third day to ascend into glory In the
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
that Christ scorn'd his homage and bad him come out of the man and he durst not but obey him you see then this Commandment stretcheth even to things beneath the earth Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God Secondly I put this to my answer that for the other clause to serve God only the Tempter's malice is irremediable he hath turn'd away from obedience so stubbornly that he is wholy possest to defie the Kingdom of Heaven yet God may call upon him to serve him only from time to time requiring that reasonable service which he might have discharg'd by those faculties wherewith he was created before he marr'd them A Servant that hath mony given him to buy necessaries for his Master's use may be urg'd to make good those things though he hath negligently lost or lavishingly consum'd the whole sum which was put into his hand and utterly disabled himself to take up the merchandise so there is no injustice in God to claim fidelity and service continually from those apostate evil spirits although they are incorrgible and can afford no better submission than murmuring and blasphemy Yet after both those full satisfactions I had rather say nothing was Satan's in these words but the Repulse and the Commandment is wholly ours and for our instruction for where the Law is given it is given to be a School-master to bring them unto Christ and none but we men whose nature he took have purchase in Christ and a lively hope in the redemption of his most precious blood No devotion or duty to God is expected from Satan though it may be commanded my Text requires but that which Christ calls an easie yoke and a light burden and all the Sons of the Free-woman are made to bear it Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve The Holy Ghost speaks to us men and to no other if we know these things happy are we if we do them First then let us beat upon the knowledge of the Commandment which requires you hear worship and service service that is to have a general care to be obsequious and pliant to all Gods holy will and worship which is all external veneration which becomes the creature towards such a Lord who is of an infinite Majesty or if you will observe these two titles in my Text Lord and God and divide these two parts of Religion between them O God we will bow and kneel and fall down before thee can a man be too reverent to his God and O Lord all that thou command'st us we will endeavour to do can a man be servant enough to such a Master who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords But Dominum Deum tuum adorabis Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God of that by it self in the first order which is that point of Religion that is principally opposed to the Devils temptation And upon this it is to be noted that Christ hath rather expounded the Law of Moses than kept the very word of it the words are thus extant Deuteron vi 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him And is that rendred to the true sense will some object thou shalt worship the Lord are fear and worship so much the same that they may be called by the same name even so beloved for it is but an easie Metonymie to take the effect for the cause especially such a proper effect as flows naturally from the cause and cannot be parted for as St. Paul said Shew me thy faith by thy works so do I say shew me your fear by the fruits if it be not a dead fear you will fall down and worship The Servant that fear'd fell down and besought his Master Matth. xviii 16. they that fear the Lord will be humble they that are humble will worship often on their knees toward his Holy Place And I never knew any Sectaries busie the Church with objections why they would have licence not to prostrate themselves in lowly gesture at some offices of divine service but they drew their argument from this that then at such an occasion it was not meet to express fear but boldness and confidence They that speak against due reverence cannot choose but speak irreverently For thus some stand stoutly upon it that they would not kneel when they receive the consecrated elements of the holy Communion because kneeling is a gesture of inferiority and abasement now in that Sacrament we are to act the parts of Christs Guests in imitation to resemble our co-heirship with him in his Kingdom therefore they will not lose their right of fellowship with Christ by kneeling but take the benefit of their fortune and sit down I pitty weak ones that are so seduced in conscience but it is a most foul oversight in the seducers that have learning and knowledge to thrust out humility at that time when they know how that sacred Supper is the most absolute type of Christs wonderful humiliation This comes of it when they will imagin any part of Religion disjoyned from the fear of God for when they have blasted fear presently they say we will not worship That Woman Luke vii who was a sinner sometimes but had her sins forgiven and was now a co-heir with Christ yet still she stood behind him fearing to be too bold and kist his feet and bowed down to the ground in token of adoration The Text saies moreover she loved much to poize that other Text of St. John 1 Ep. iv 18. Perfect love casteth out fear but love is never perfect till we reign with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven I will yet be a little larger how the fear of God and the outward worship of God are knit together it must be so because our Saviour in my Text hath so interpreted Moses The common distinction rightly understood will be the best help to this doctrin There is a finer and a courser fear the courser is called a servile fear as when servants do their work lest they should be chastised and were it not for the rod that hangs over them perhaps they would let it alone yet this is it which David commends that you may not think it utterly disgraced by being called servile Stand in aw and sin not this was in the antient Israelites and it made their Prophets and their Prophets Children obedient and because it produced a good effect search and you shall find it came from God Rom. viii 15. You have not received again the spirit of bondage to fear therefore the fear which imports bondage comes from the spirit of God as Paul said which way soever Christ be preached it is well so which way soever God be served it doth well and it is a pleasant thing to pass to Heaven by much fear even by the gates of Hell Carni opus est timore spiritui fiduciâ the flesh must be dejected with fear and the spirit must be raised up with hope and confidence
St. Paul bids Deacons take heed of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Tim. iii. 8. that is Lying Equivocation Flattery sowing dissention double mindedness Jam. i. 8. Omnis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he that hath a double tongue hath a double mind an heart and a heart He praiseth that to one Faction which he defies before the other He commends a man to his face backbites him behind his back he confesseth Christ where it is advantage and denies him where it is advantage Cum tristibus severè cum remissis jucundè as the Oratour said of Cataline he can curse and bless with the same breath out of the same Fountain come forth sweet waters and bitter these and many more than these are the juglings of a double tongue but the Lord will say unto them double unto them double according to their iniquities and divide them in twain that they may have their portion with hypocrites I have been copious as the time would give me leave upon the Figure of these Tongues that they were Cloven next you must mark their Form ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as it were fire cloven tongues as it were fire and let a certain learned Interpreter have his judgment to himself that it is an Hypallage for there appeared fire as it had been Cloven Tongues yet still it is but appearing and as it were the sound was a real sound that came from heaven all beside was but Similitude and Apparition Very fire was not needful nay it would have been offensive and have scorched the part upon which it sate But it was such fire as appeared to Moses in the Bush Exod. iii. The bush burnt with fire and the bush was not consumed Such as the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah did foresee Isa xliii 2. When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee To be inspired in a moment to speak all sort of Tongues the Apostles did never dream of Christ did not foretel them any thing which sounded that way But they had prediction of this part of the Miracle both from John the Baptist He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire Mat. iii. 11. and from Christs own mouth I am come to send fire into the earth Luk. xii 49. Which the Fathers for the most part interpret of that which came down at this Feast of Pentecost All the Plagues of the Old World as if the Elements had spate out their venom became blessings under the Kingdom of Christ The Old World was drowned with Water the New World is saved by Baptism and as I said but lately God pulled down the Tower of Babel by the confusion of Tongues now he built up the New Jerusalem by the multiplicity of tongues So he sent down fire upon Sodom to consume it here he sent down fire upon his Church to save it But because all the Apparitions which the most wise God doth send are full of Signification and Doctrine it concerns the Text to have it diligently enquired wherefore the Holy Ghost did descend in fire First Look back to the Mosaical Law delivered at Mount Sinai at the promulgation of it there came smoak and thunder and flashes of fire therefore says Isidor Vt unus Deus in utroque testamento agnosceretur that you may know that the same Lord is Lord of both the two Testaments in the first setling of the Gospel likewise there came down fire from heaven The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai in his right hand was a firy Law Exod. xxxiii 1. Whereupon the Chaldee Paraphrast says that his right hand wrote the Law out of the midst of the fire so the holy Spirit doth write the Law of Christ in our hearts as it were with an hot Iron Mark making such a stamp as will never be got out Secondly And I mean principally likewise the brightness of fire concurred in the Tongues to import that boldness and fervour and efficacy which goes along with them where the Lord doth give the mouth utterance to speak Tongues of flesh and words of air will not serve the turn to convert souls there must be fire put into the Tongue somewhat above natural force and power that must bring it to pass Says the Son of Syrach concernig that renowned Prophet that awed all Israel with his Preaching then stood up the Prophet Elias like fire and his word burned as a lamp Ecclus xlviii 1. There is a burning vigour in the Word of God when it is luckily applied to the conscience of a sinner As Cleophas and the other Disciple said of the communication of our Saviour Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and opened unto us the Scriptures Luk. xxiv 32. And we must be warm and fervent our selves in our Message that we may warm others with it Ardeat orator si judicem velit accendere says Tully that was his crafts-master in that kind Let the Orator be fervent if he means to heat the Judge in his cause so the Embassadors of God must be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Rom. xii 11. Fervent in spirit if they mean to thaw the frozen hearts of their Auditors So says Gregory upon this very occasion of the firy Tongues Otiosus est sermo doctoris si praebere non valeat incendium amoris Our Preaching is frivolous if it do not kindle the fire of divine love in our Disciples Therefore St. Paul writes thus to Timothy 2 Epist i 6. To stir up the gift of God that is in him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to quicken and kindle the fire of the gift of God that is in him Vt sopitum ignitum suscites to rake up the fire together and make it flame that it go not out The gift of God is a lively flame kindled in our hearts which the Devil and the flesh would put out and that monition quench not the spirit is the watch word against it and we must labour as much as we can to foster it and keep it burning But he that is a lukewarm Christian neither hot nor cold indifferent to serve God or to disobey him he is a loathed morsel which God canot digest and because he wants fervor it is a manifest sign that the Spirit is departed from him Thirdly The Spirit came at several times in the shape of a Dove and in fire to shew what mixture out of them both is most pleasing in a Christian Quia ne que placere Deo simplicitas sine zelo neque zelus potest sine simplicitate the Dove is the Emblem of gentleness and simplicity the Fire of zeal neither is zeal good without meekness nor meekness without zeal We must not lose our fervour in tameness nor with preposterous zeal forget gentleness And well doth Gregory hunt this Parallel further that the Spirit did descend upon Christ in the similitude of a Dove upon the Apostles in the similitude of fire
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
went out of Babylon to repair Hierusalem arose in the night and went their way Nehem. 2.12 And thirdly the great Redeemer who should pluck us out of the mire and draw us out of the bondage of Sin his fame is spread abroad when the Shepherds kept watch over their Flocks by night Nay almost no work of extraordinary worth and efficacy toward and after the time of the Passion but it fell out when darkness was upon the face of the earth To let his Birth alone and to say no more than my Text doth Excubarunt noctu the poor men heard of it that lay abroad in the night His Agony in the Garden took hold on him by night when the world was in a dead sleep his own Disciples drowsie and could not watch with him one hour He suffered when the Sun was darkned and the Stars gave no light Finally He arose out of the Sepulchre before any body was stirring in the morning What is the meaning of this Even to shew that we were dumb and still passives in all the work of our Redemption we slept and thought not of help and succour when it was plentifully supplied for our salvation when no soul awoke to think of blessing in the dark night of Ignorance Christ was born We are supine in our sins like men stretcht upon their bed when he sweat drops of bloud We regarded not his Passion when he suffered we were careless when he arose for our justification But of the time let this suffice to be spoken That which made up the fourth and fifth parts of my Text is concerning the persons they were Shepherds and they were many Shepherds so many as made a Plural number And there were in the same Country Shepherds c. The heathen make much ado and relate it not without admiration by what mean and almost despised persons the deep knowledge of Philosophy was first found out and brought to light As Protagoras earning his living by bearing burdens of wood and Cleanthes no better than a Gibeonite fain to draw water for his liberty Chrysippus and Epictetus mere vassals to great men for their maintenance yet these had the honour to find out the riches of knowledge for the recompence of their Poverty but the day shall come that these Philosophers will wonder that they found out no more than they did and be astonished that silly Shepherds were first deputed to find out one thing more needful than all the World beside even Jesus Christ Tiberius propounded his mind to the Senate of Rome that Christ the great Prophet in Jury should be had in the same honour with the other Gods which they worshipt in the Capitol The motion did not please them says Eusebius and this was all the fault because he was a God not of their own but of Tiberius invention So lest great men and Rulers of the earth should disdain at a Saviour which was not of their own discovery but found out by servants that kept their flocks I will make it good by reason that the Angel pickt out very choice persons for the business the Shepherds of the Field It is truly and modestly observed by Tolet Causa cur pastores visitantur est Dei beneplacitum multae autem congruentiae Why shepherds were visited by the Angel rather than men of another trade or calling and in particular why these Shepherds rather than all besides of the same Vocation no cause can be assign'd but the meer will and favour of God but his pleasure having done the deed much may be said to approve it why it is fit and convenient To be a Shepherd is a life of great servitude and poverty as Job says they spend their time desolate and solitary in the Wilderness and for vile company they are set with the dogs of the flocks and these were fit to be the first partakers of the Gospel because it is powerful in Spirit but base and contemptible according to the Flesh A sapientibus non quaerit testimonium qui parvulis se revelat he baulks the Pharises and Princes of the people and seeks the testimony of Shepherds because he reveals himself unto those that are lowly in their own eyes and poor in Spirit none more unlikely than they to do a message for Almighty God When Samuel came to Ishai and askt for his Sons that he might pick out the man whom the Lord had chosen Ishai presented the most likely as he thought indeed all but one There is one more says he in the field that keepeth sheep O says Samuel let that David be sent for from following the Ews great with young Surely thinks the Prophet because he hath been despised and neglected he is the man whom God hath in store to govern Israel Weak and impotent means are the fittest for the Lords choice that men of action and authority may not attribute that unto themselves which is only the doing of the Lord. Praevalet imperitia in rusticitate Pastorum says S. Austin When such ignaroes as these were sent abroad to tell in the City what they had heard and seen the world could not say they were enticed by Eloquence the enemies of the Faith could not say that crafty Philosophy got ground upon the simple but as the Devil chose a Serpent a wise creature above all the Beasts of the field and all that are in the water to destroy the world by subtlety so Christ chose Shepherds out of the Field and Fishermen out of the Water as the chief means to repair the world by innocency and simplicity 1 Cor. 1.26 Brethren says St. Paul you see your calling for so Erasmus will read ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the present tense because the thing was open to all mens knowledge and perspicuous but what did they see so plainly not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but foolish things were chosen to confound the wise c. Two things are to be drawn from hence first that we distort not the Scripture as if it pronounced nothing but confusion to the rulers of the earth let not the honourable person hang down his head as if power and wisdom and noble blood and dignity were causes of rejection before God no beloved Isaiah foretold that Kings should be nursing Fathers and Queens should be nursing Mothers of the Church but it is often seen that the benignity of nature and the liberality of fortune are made impediments to a better life and therefore Nobles and Princes are more frequently threatned with judgment I adjoyn moreover that the Scriptures speak more flatly against illustrious Magistrates than the common sort for if God had left it to men whose tongues are prostituted to flattery they had scarce been told that their abominable sins would bring damnation 2. The comfort of the poor is never to be forgotten in this point the servile life of a poor Shepherd is as fortunate as great exaltation when it
minute or hour yet it was in a short space after for he tells them in his Message This day is born unto you in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. When God was to destroy a people he thought it fit to make it known unto Abraham shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do Gen. 18.17 much more when he was to save a people he would immediately reveal the thing in hand and loe the Angel of the Lord as who should say shall I hide from these religious careful Shepherds the thing which I have done for their salvation Let us compare in a word Christ manifested to the Shepherds to the Wisemen of the East to Simeon and Anna in the Temple to the Shepherds he was made known the same day that his Mother brought him forth to the Magi of the East as the most ancient do collect twelve days after upon the Feast of the Epiphany to Simeon and Anna forty days after he was born when Mary according to the Law came to the Temple to be Purified The Shepherds were Jews and he was made known incontinently to them prefiguring that the first-fruits of the Gospel should be preacht before them at Jerusalem the bread of life should first be broken to the Children before the dogs had the Crums which fell under the Table Those Easterlings that brought gifts to his Cradle of Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense they were Gentiles and the Apostles were sent to them in a little distance of time after the Feast of Pentecost when it was illustrious that all Tongues and Nations should praise the Lord in their own Language Yet again there shall be another Revelation of the Gospel to the Jews after forty days numerus certus pro incerto when the Gentiles have had their part Simeon and Anna shall enjoy them that is in the fulness of time and in an hour that we do not think of a remnant shall be collected God will gather together the out-casts of Israel and the dispersions of Sion Once it was ecce Angelus Gods Minister stood in the midst of them in this Text pointing the Messias with his finger who then was in the City of David now after much attendance after many an ecce many a long look the glory of Israel shall be revealed unto them So much for the time of this Apparition 3. Loe or behold an Angel soft a while and let us ask in the third circumstance quomodo how we should behold him a Spirit hath not flesh to be seen or bones to be felt in what fashion therefore did he alter himself surely it well deserves Ecce Angelus a note of Admiration for the manner was wonderful Beloved if the Eternal Son of God did not abhor the Virgins Womb those ministring Spirits whom he commands could not abhor the shapes of men they appeared every way in the same form and fashion wherein we walk upon earth Yet thus we distinguish them from our selves our bodies are begotten theirs were created our flesh propagated from the loins of Adam their substance made extraordinarily not according to nature but by the finger of God our soul quickens the flesh which it possesseth and makes it live their bodies which they assum'd had not vivification by the breath of life but only serv'd them for motion and representation our bodies have the instruments of outward senses to convey sensible things to the fancy and so to the understanding they had eyes and ears and other sensible organs non ut sentiant sed ut corpus perfecte representent says the great Schoolman not to exercise those senses but for an ornament and complement sake lest their bodies should seem monstrous and formidable to the beholders Finally their bodies after they had appear'd to discharge their embassage vanisht into elements never to return again into that composition but our bodies shall revive out of that dust into which they were dissolv'd and live for ever in the resurrection of the righteous Some have so commented upon the Apparitions of Angels in holy Scripture as if they had not truly taken humane shapes the better to communicate their business to men but God deluded mens eyes and bred this thought in their fancy as if they had seen that which was not visible I confess there are prophetical Visions in holy Text when the fancy of certain Prophets was perswaded it saw that which it did not see it was a Divine passion which made Ezechiel think he saw beasts with wings and wheels under their feet chap. 1. It was a mere Divine passion which made Daniel suppose he saw the powerful ram push down all other beasts with his horn on the banks of Vlai Dan. 8. These objects were conceived by none but by them single Prophets no other eye could be partaker of it Now on the contrary that 's no prophetical Apparition but a real object which is equally visible to all spectators therefore the Apparition of Angels was not imaginary but substantial for loe the Angel of the Lord was seen of all the Shepherds and the Angels which Lot entertained were conspicuous not to Lot only who was a just man but equally to all the vicious Sodomites And so much for the fashion wherein he did appear not as a spirit but in the shape of a man and therefore Ecce Angelus loe an Angel of the Lord. 4. The next doubtful question is Quo situ after what manner the Angel took his place when he came unto them the Grammarians are at odds what ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã should mean whether he hover'd above their heads in the air or stood in the same level near unto them Beda prevented this quarrel and accepts of both interpretations Sunt juxta nos per amorem supra nos per authoritatem they stand near unto us by their love and they stand above us by their authority Surely if Christ had not been born to reconcile us to his Father we had not been worth the coming near we had been no company for those holy Seraphins but since he vouchsafed to take flesh and blood the nature of man came into respect and reverence the enemy shall not approach to hurt it but those auxiliary troops of heaven pitch their pavilions round about it supra juxta planting themselves as a fortress for our head and as a buckler for our arm And indeed those are the chief things that need good influence and assistance knowledge and action head and hand Some are secret inventors of mischief plotters and contrivers of disturbance their brain is a mint of oppression where is Angelus superveniens the Angel above Some know their Masters will but they do not do it nay quite contrary fear or favour wrings ill effects from them where is Angelus astans they want a good Angel at their elbow Where is Michael the great Prince Qui stat pro filiis populi tui which standeth for the children of thy people Dan. 12.1 But whether
this celestial Embassador hover'd above their heads to shew the property perchance of a glorified body or whether he walk'd and convers'd upon the earth as man to note our fellowship with Angels by the Birth of Christ yet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã supervenit is one that came suddenly never lookt for at that season which construction says Beza is indifferent to both and well he doth apply the verse unto it Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora an hour of felicity came at an instant upon us which we never dream't of and so much for the manner how the Angel took his place 5. Now follows the fifth interrogatory upon which I shall stay longest why men were not accepted to do this office to manifest the Birth of Jesus but loe an Angel of the Lord. There are many reasons for that expediency which I will marshal in their order 1. As an evil Angel did co-operate to bring death into the world so a good Angel was a choice instrument to bring the tidings of salvation for why did the Son of God take flesh to repair the fall of man How did man transgress by the subtilty of the Serpent Who was the Serpent our adversary the Devil Who shall make amends for the mischief which the Devil wrought one much different in grace but of the same Essence and Nature and Creation the Angel Gabriel But you will say no fault was committed by the good Angels they were neither enticers nor abettors of Adams prevarication why should they trouble themselves true but a kind of blot did stick unto their name and for a full measure of recompence they would satisfie for that which was none of their transgression Our first disobedience was occasioned by a tree our Redemption was purchased upon the tree of the Cross We were wounded by the appetite of Eve we were healed by the Womb of Mary Here was tree for tree and woman for woman So an evil spirit tempted us to our loss and therefore a good Spirit is zealous to be an instrument of our restitution there 's Angel for Angel 2. They were exceeding busie to declare Christ unto the world many ways Concipiendum conceptum natum before he was conceiv'd to Mary when he was conceiv'd to Joseph after he was born to the Shepherds for they are willing to partake all good things unto us in the Militant Church because we shall be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã exalted to be equal to the Angels in the day of Christs second appearing Choristers of one Quire to praise the Lord and members of one triumphant Church for ever They came in humane shapes like unto men nay they are often called men in Scripture Vt demonstrent intelligibilem societatem cum iis habendam in vita futura because we shall make up one spiritual society and fellowship to sing Hallelujah hereafter I am not of their mind that say the Cherubims in many things were unresolv'd about the Mystery of Christs Nativity and that they came with these messages to instruct both themselves and us St. Peter doth not make good that fancy because he says these are things ânto which the Angels desire to look 1 Pet. 1.12 and Dionysius roves at random who imputes it to them that they would better understand that point of Faith because it is written Isa 63. Who is this that comes from Edom but many ancient Fathers do adjudge that the Angels take delight to be present in our Christian Assemblies when we meet in this house together to offer up the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving Paul enforceth modesty to the Corinthian women in the house of Prayer because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 Angelos testes habent honesti pundoris aut impudentiae as the most expound the Angels make one congregation with us and therefore they are witnesses of their modesty or impudence Where is then your reverence your bodily humiliation when you come to Gods house do all things with decency and well-beseeming devotion for the Angels are our invisible associates says holy Bernard Non ausus es illo presente facere quod me praesente non anderes Dare you do those unbecoming things where the Angels are by to witness which you durst not do for fear of censure if the Ecclesiastical Magistrate did look upon you 3. The Incarnation of Christ is I may say the perfection of all things in the world and therefore good reason that all creatures should have some participation and interest in it Men did share in him in his own sex and person women in the Womb that bare him poor men in the Shepherds great ones in the sages of the East the Beasts by the stable wherein he was born the Earth in the Gold that was offered the Trees in the Myrrhe and Frankincense and to reckon up no more the Heavens in the Star that blaz'd all the works of God even they which by natural obedience bless him and magnifie him for ever did claim some office to make one in the solemnity when their Creator was born Why surely some room was left for the Angels it was fit they should be in the train at the Inauguration of this mighty Prince and their place according to their dignity was very honourable they were Gods Embassadors and as if they had a Patent to use their office frequently they had many errands from Heaven to Mary to Joseph to the Shepherds Non satis est semel missum esse duobus aut tribus testibus stat omne verbum says St. Ambrose They came three several turns and no less that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established 4. Angelus in carnis specie Christum in carne venturum praenuntiat says Aquinas the advent of the Messenger was in some wise a commentary and explication upon the message the tidings to be open'd surpass'd the apprehension of a natural man though he were the wisest Dictator of Philosophy that the Eternal should be begotten the Infinite be contain'd in the finite that God who is a Spirit incomprehensible should be made flesh O unutterable mystery what visible inducement could be thought of to make man believe it how should the dull and ignorant apprehend this transcendent operation Behold Gods Nuntio this Angel that came to the Shepherds go no farther than him and you shall have an instance what the Almighty can bring to pass for the Essence of Gabriel was pure and spiritual not mixt with elements no bodily concretion in him yet he tells his errand to the world in the similitude of flesh and bone notifying that the Spirit of all Spirits God himself should be made flesh 5. Angels and Principalities were first upon this Ministry to preach the Nativity of Christ to honour and countenance their office who in the same calling do succeed the Angels Look not upon the poor Fishermen whom Christ did call from the Sea of Tiberius but estimate your Clergy by the excellency of
that heavenly Host who were the first that preacht the Gospel to the Shepherds I take my self off from this discourse in which I might amply proceed lest you say unto me as one said of Hortensius that he advanc'd Eloquence to the skies craftily meaning that himself might be advanc'd as an Eloquent Orator in the commendation If we glory we will glory in our infirmities and in the Cross of Christ not presuming upon that amplification of analogy with Angels I will lay the scene of my reproof beyond the Seas but I would we were quit of the fault at home How many exalted Prelates refuse to do that office to teach Christ especially to poor Shepherds although a Cherubim of Heaven in my Text did willingly submit himself to do the work It troubled the Historiographers among our Adversaries to find out one Pope in almost 100 years that was a pulpit man when he became a Pope that was Pius V and he but rarely I may say of such men as Pliny did of those Emperours who made great suit to be Consuls and then disdain'd to discharge the Function O inscitia verae majestatis concupiscere honorem quem dedigneris dedignari quem concupieris O ignorance of duty to affect that honour which they scorn'd to execute to scorn to execute that honour which they earnestly affected Is an Angel no more than fit to preach Christ and is proud man too good for it 6. The fancies of men have assaye'd to add this for a sixth reason to the former that the noble Hierarchies of Heaven do merit some increase and addition of glory by their care and obsequiousness toward the universal body of the Church of Christ but the matter was better scann'd by Biel who therefore refutes that sentence of Lombard Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus Angelus non habuisset summam suam beatitudinem Then it would follow that the Eternal Felicity of the Thrones of Heaven did depend upon the creation of man for except there had been a Church here below to which they might administer they had wanted occasion to demerit some increase of their glory Indeed it is an opinion that savours of servility and baseness as if they that stand always before the face of God would do nothing but upon gain and advantage Alas they have no other end of their labour but that which every man should have in charity the increase and enlargement of the Triumphant Church in Heaven and therefore our Saviour Luke 12.9 threatens Apostates from the Faith thus He that denieth me before men him will I deny before the Angels of God that is before the greatest friends and well-wishers of our beatitude Lastly It is an observation not to be omitted how St. Austin compares three several ways wherein Christ was manifested to the Shepherds by an Angel to the Wise men by a Star to Simeon and Anna devout people that spent their age in the Temple by the Holy Ghost Simeon and Anna were exceeding faithful such as waited and expected every day the salvation of Israel and therefore the Holy Ghost told them secretly in their hearts as soon as the Babe was brought into the Temple that this was the Lamb of God which should take away the sins of the world The Shepherds I presume were just men but had not so much perfection in the knowledge of the Law to look for and expect a Saviour therefore an extraordinary Nuntio an Angel was sent unto them but the Gentiles utter aliens from the Faith were directed to the Manger by signs and wonders from heaven So says St. Paul 1 Cor. 14.22 Signs are for them that believe not and Prophesies for them that believe And as the axiom is in Philosophy every thing is best collated when it is fitted ad modum recipientis Now the Shepherds were Jews and were taught in the Synagogues concerning the Apparition of Angels the Magi were Astronomers and better knew the course of Stars The book of the Creature was sit to teach the Gentiles but a Divine Spirit was better accommodate to teach a Jew that they might receive the Gospel even as they had received the Law and the Law was delivered says St. Paul by the ministration of Angels And so much for the first general part all the five questions being satisfied which of the Angels this was when he came in what figure and apparition how he did apply himself to the Shepherds and lastly why men were not accepted to do this office but loe an Angel of the Lord. The order which I propounded requires now that I speak of the pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the glory of the Lord shone round about them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the glory of the Lord fitly rendred in this place by the vulgar Latin Claritas Domini a lightsome brightness or splendor which God caus'd to shine in that place making the night unto the Shepherds as clear as if it had been day So when a lightsome pure cloud did appear in the Dedication of Solomons Temple the Text says 1 Kings 8.11 The glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord therefore it was not properly that essential glory of God unto which no man in this life can approach but lux ante gloriam the consolation of a beautiful light which was the shadow and the fore-runner of Glory But it were a great trespass in Art to run into obscurity and confusion when we are to speak of light 1. Therefore I will endeavour to shew how many ways such brightsome apparitions are observable in holy Scripture 2. Why this illustrious Glory did shine round about the Shepherds When God would beautifie and adorn a thing in some excellent manner I find that in a four-fold fashion he scatters and transfuses the beams of light and splendor either upon it or about it 1. Let us reflect our remembrance upon our Saviours Transfiguration his face did shine as the Sun and his rayment was white as the light as white as snow says St. Mark so that no Fuller on earth could make a thing so white Now we know that Christ was not as yet glorified his body had not yet put on incorruption therefore Eluxit splendor à Divinitate it was the pleasure of his Divinity at this instant to alter his countenance and his garment and from the union of his Divine nature this glory did redound upon the outward parts 2. In the Resurrection when our flesh shall become an inhabitant of the heavens not only the face but all the body of man shall look in a triumphant manner like a pillar of light which unspeakable beauty shall result from the soul to the blessing and ornament of the body So I read Dan. 12.3 They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever 3. This claritude and heavenly
comfort could the children have we had been all like Esau afflicted and desperate when we had no share in the birth-right no part in the blessing of our Father The Israelites that toil'd like Gally-slaves under the works of the Law had their New Moons and their Solemn Feasts of Trumpets and Tabernacles had many other gaudy days which carried a shew of gladness but indeed there was no solid consolation in them they wanted a Christmas-day the Nativity of a Saviour to make all chearful their pleasantness was like the singing of a bird fast lockt in a cage sometimes it chants a sweet note yet flutters and is always unquiet because it is under captivity Therefore it is to them that Amos denounceth that heavy note chap. 8.10 The Lord will turn your feasts into mourning but for our sakes the message is transpos'd and the Lord will turn our mourning into an everlasting feast So said the Angel not only to a few Shepherds as in the former verse but to all that watch over their souls as they did over their flocks Fear not c. It is very manifest therefore that the scope of my Text bends to this point how Christ made flesh as this day in the similitude of man that he might redeem that nature from the curse of his Fathers wrath which he had taken into the union of his Person I say how the Son of God for our sakes incarnate is our crown and our rejoycing the consummation of all our felicity which thus I prove by a true division of the parts To that eternal happiness in which we shall rejoyce before God for ever two things say the Schoolmen very rightly do equally concur Omnis miseria excluditur omne desiderium expletur all misery shall be excluded all desire shall be satiated and both these two are most remarkable in this Angelical congratulation First the depulsion or sending of all manner of evil and misery from our blessed estate fear not Secondly the inclusion of all those joys and solaces that can be askt that 's laid open in Evangelizo good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Privatively the messenger brought no discomfort nay positively he brought comfort which twain put together make up the complement of our final beatitude In the first general branch wherein the Angel promiseth a deliverance or award from all evil that might make the Shepherds sorrowful I consider these particulars for the explication 1. What they should not fear 2. How they should not fear 3. Why they should not fear in the first they are incourag'd that three things be not dreadful unto them Splendor Angelicus propria indignitas legis maledictio tremble not either at the heavenly glory that shone round about them nor be dejected at their unworthiness nor be affrighted at the threatnings and maledictions of the Law In the second we may consider a natural fear which may be too passionate and immoderate they must cast off that and there is a worldly sorrow or fear which is altogether unprofitable they must fly that but there is a religious reverential fear which is not passio but donum not a passion of flesh and blood but a gift of the Holy Spirit they must pray for that The next interrogatory was why they should not fear and that for two reasons Propter nuntium propter nuntiatum first in a less principal respect because an Angel came to comfort them but chiefly in a more principal regard because Christ was born to be their comfort The second general branch abounds much above this where not only evil is dispell'd but a whole box broken and all the oyl of gladness poured upon their head wherein you may note first the Angels Trumpet with which he proclaims his errand ecce behold it then the errand consisting in no less than seven parts of Benediction 1. Ecce ego says Gabriel Behold I bring unto you the terms were much amended with Heaven and us that an Angel came upon a peaceable message 2. Ecce Evangelizo he was no Law-giver that was terrible but an Evangelist 3. The sweet air of the Gospel hath some harsh tidings to take up the Cross and endure unto blood and death but these were tidings of joy 4. Joys are of several sizes this is a great one nay none so great 5. Joys and great ones are quickly done this is gaudium quod erit joy that shall be and continue 6. A man may be a conduit-pipe to transmit joy to others and have no benefit himself this is gaudium vobis joy to you to every ear that hears it 7. A good nature would not engross a blessing but desires to have it diffused and so was this gaudium omni populo joy to all people None of these many circumstances can be omitted for I must be faithful in making this rehearsal Sermon as I may call it and omit nothing of that which the Angel hath preacht before me Now let us begin again with every parcel divided asunder The Angel said unto them fear not what should they not fear first non a splendore divino let not their hearts be troubled because the glory of the Lord shone round about them Sore eyes are distempered at much light and it is a sign there is some darkness within us all which loves not to be discover'd that the best of us all are much perplext if any extraordinary brightness flash upon us A glorious splendor fill'd the mountain where Christ was transfigur'd and it did amuse Peter James and John ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã who carry the name of the chief Apostles that they knew not what they spake Out of St. Pauls own mouth concerning his conversion Acts 22.6 Suddenly from heaven there shone a great light about me and I fell with my face unto the ground Well might the Psalmist say his lightnings gave shine unto the world the earth trembled and was afraid Ever ever shall we be afraid of any surpassing measure of light in this life because our deeds are darkness Especially the Shepherds hearts did mis-give them that the Lord himself was in this marvellous light it is his decking and his garment when he comes forth in Majesty Thou deckest thy self with light as with a garment Now you know Elias a man of mighty courage covered his face with a mantle when a still small voice passed by his ears and the Lord was in the voice then it were strange if poor Shepherds should not quake when they were perswaded that the Lord was in the light that shin'd upon them A learned Expositor confirms what I say Erat claritas creata praeseferens divinam Majestatem it was a splendor of glory newly made on purpose which did bear the evident shew of no created Spirit but of a Divine Majesty And ever since Adam was diffident of himself in the Garden or Eden and confessed in this wise Gen. 3.10 extimui I was afraid and hid my self ever since that
the same end to make us magnifie God for his Wisdom Goodness and Justice Nay I add compare the Law of Works imposed upon Adam and the Law of Faith imposed upon Christians and both of them are possible to be done For the first man according to the integrity wherein he was created and by the virtue of supernatural Grace bestowed upon him might have obeyed the Commandement given if he had not turned to disobedience and by the Divine help of the same grace we to whom God hath preached the glad tidings of his Son are endewed with power to believe that we may be saved Now in a word let us lay the difference of these two one against another God gave the Law in Paradise as a King in his Justice but he gave the Gospel in Sion as a Father of Grace and Mercy according to that Law the reward had been given ex debito by debt and due say the Schoolmen but to him that believes the reward is given by mere Grace which excludes boasting He that disobey'd that Law was to look for the most strict severity of Justice so condemnation belongs likewise to the unbeliever according to Justice but perhaps it shall be temper'd with some moderation for Christs sake Finally this is the main disagreement the first Covenant made with Adam did exclude all hope of remission of sins but the second Covenant made in Christ runs in this tenour to them that live by Faith your sins shall be blotted out and your iniquities forgotten After you have understood the first point how there was a Law imposed upon Adam when he was created and endewed with original Justice you must now give ear to the next thing in order what heavy and astonishing matter is contained in that Law which was given by Moses to the Children of Israel and remember that I consider the Law deliver'd in the two Tables at Mount Sinai Seorsim and by it self separated from all the promises contained in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David These then are the remarkable differences between the Covenant written in Tables of stone and this Covenant of the New Testament in the Blood of Christ First God gave the Law at Sinai being wrath with our sins for whereas we had lost both the wisdom of our understanding and the loyal obedience of our will by the transgression of our first parent yet God impos'd his Commandement upon us and exacts such measure of holiness which we are not able to perform Therefore that Law was given in the barren Wilderness because it is not able to bring one soul unto God likewise it was delivered with signs full of wrath thunder and lightning and a dreadful noise to shew that God was full of indignation when he laid it upon us On the contrary he made the new Covenant of peace being reconciled to them that were lost or at least proffering reconciliation in his beloved Son Read this Doctrine Heb. xii from the 18. to the 24. verse Ye are not come to the Mount that might not be touched and that burnt with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which they that heard entreated they might hear it no more They could not endure that which was commanded And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake but ye are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God c. Wherefore the Gospel was presented with manifest tokens of love and benevolence Ecce Evangelizo behold I bring you good tidings 2. There 's a difference arising between the first Testament and the last from the several Mediators that came between God and the people Moses was a servant faithful in the Family and he was the Mediator of the Old Testament Christ is the Son and Heir of all he was the Mediator of the New The Law was given by Moses Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ 3. The old Covenant was ratified with the blood of Beasts but loe the New Covenant doth much surpass it which was ratified with the precious Blood of that immaculate Lamb which took away the sins of the world which is therefore called the Blood of the New Testament 4. The old Law in St. Paul's phrase contained poor and beggerly rudiments not able to bring to life It was a killing letter the ministry of death and condemnation it worketh wrath it entred that sin might abound it is like Hagar which gendreth children unto bondage Gal. iv 24. The Gospel is the power of salvation to every one that believeth a quickening Spirit it purgeth us from our sins it speaketh better things than the blood of Abel 5. That which Moses brought was an heavy burden which neither the Fathers nor the Children could bear but of the Gospel Christ saith his yoke is easie and his burden is light and in it you shall find rest for your souls Lastly the Old Testament endured unto Christ and no longer wherefore because it passed away it is called the Old the New Testament remaineth for ever so says St. Paul of our Blessed Saviour taking flesh who is not made after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life No passage or comparison can be made between them but the Law given at Mount Sinai will appear to be an harsh and most unwelcome injunction and that which doth clear us from the curse thereof is Evangelium the best tidings that ever arriv'd at the ear of man Hitherto I have consider'd the Old Testament in no respect but as it contains the killing letter of the Law but you must not mistake that the Holy Spirit hath interlaced many fast-holdings of Faith and promises Evangelical almost every where in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David Nay the Old Testament is rather Promise than Law yet it was fit the rigour of the Law should be repeated that it might more appear how necessary the promise of Grace was that we could not live without it and that every man being convicted in his conscience by the sentence of the Law we might more ardently fly to Grace for the end of the Moral Law is double to set us a rule what we should endeavour to do and to discover our own impotency unto us what we are not able to do that we may seek a remedy in the satisfaction of Christ But this I say that the darkness and obscurity of the Old Testament was enlightned with many excellent promises that the believing Israelites might be partakers of Faith and of everlasting life they had the same Gospel which we have the same Christ the same Faith the same Spirit sealing the truth of promise unto them Where is then the priviledge you will say that the tidings are better to us then unto them or far surpassing on our side every way Israel that believed in the promised seed was an heir but under age
two observations 1. It appears in St. Matthew that the Angel called him Jesus before he was born yea before he was conceived Luke i. 31. it was Gabriels message to Mary Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus Men called him so after he was born and circumcised Idem quippe Angeli salvator hominis hominis ab incarnatione Angeli ab initio creaturae for the same Lord is the Saviour both of Angels and Men of Angels before he was born from the beginning of the world of Men in the fulness of time after he was born That is the second person in Trinity being the eternal Son of the Father did confirm the good Angels in grace that they should never fall and the same person incarnate being the Mediator of God and Man did redeem the Elect that they should rise again from their sins and reign with him in glory 2. The complete imposition of the name was at his circumcision when he first shed his Blood as if his Death had been foretold as soon as he was born it would cost him blood not a few drops of the foreskin but the very blood of the heart to be called Jesus In Circumcision he was called a Saviour at his Passion the word Jesus was wrote upon the Cross then his enemies confest he was a Saviour In circumcisione non fuit actu perfecto sed destinatione salvator in Circumcision it was told by destination what he should be and incompleatly and by inchoation what he was It was a sign of servitude and of taking the guilt of sin to be Circumcised it was a sign of ignominy and reproach to be Crucified but this name exalted him and defended him against the bad opinion of the world when he was called at the one time in the Temple and entitled on the Cross at the other Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews To drive this point no longer about the honour of the imposition of the name this is the sum Angels and Men had their several shares in the dignity to give this attribute to our Lord but the name was grounded in his own nature of exceeding mercy and in his office of reconciliation therefore God alone could give him this name Innatum est ei nomen hoc non inditum ab humana aut Angelica natura says Bernard the name was bred with him and not imposed by men or Angels A name so royally impos'd must include a great deal of excellency that 's the next point Gallio the Deputy of Achaia was a great scorner of Religion and because Paul magnified Christ and the Jews blasphemed him Gallio said it was a controversie of words and names and he would not meddle with it it was not worth the while The name of Christ was beyond Gallio's reach to judge upon it David makes a great account of that which he did villifie Thou hast magnified thy name and thy word above all things Psal cxxxvii The names of God Jehovah are his names as a Creator and yet to be magnified above all things but the name of Jesus adds above his power of creation his goodness of saving and redemption Nihil nasci profuit nisi redimi profuisset it had been unbeneficial to be created unless we had been happily redeemed His Words his Actions his Miracles his Prayers his Sacraments his Sufferings all did smell of the Saviour Take him from his Infancy to his Death among his Disciples and among the Publicans among the Jews or among the Gentiles he was all Saviour The Jews were under the condition of thraldom at this time when Christ was born under the thraldom of their enemies and the tidings of a Saviour was sweet news at such a season yet the Shepherds could not so mistake that an Infant born but that day could go out with their hosts to subdue their enemies No person upon earth hath such need of a Saviour as a sinner whether it be peace or war Pandora's box of mischiefs all the miseries that can be named are the just reward of a sinner therefore the Angel doth not specifie to the Shepherds from what calamities he should redeem them and be called a Saviour indefinitely and absolutely from all A few particulars would but derogate from the honour of his salvation he sweeps away all evil at once like a Spiders web ab omni malo he saves us from the whole mass of evil a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Jer. xxiii 7. It shall no more be said the Lord Liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought the house of Israel from the North Country the land of Chaldaea Alas both these are easie redemptions to that which calls him Jesus in the New Testament the Lord liveth who saveth his people from their sins there begins his mercy at that point to break the heavy yoke of sin from our necks to repress the dominion of the flesh rebelling against the spirit to take away earthly desires from our will and affections in a word to clear us in Gods Court that our iniquities may no more be imputed to us Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Revel i. 5. 2. He is a Saviour that delivers us from the sting and punishment of sin which is death He destroyed our death by dying on the Cross and repaired our life again by his own Resurrection 3. He is a Saviour that delivereth us from the power of Satan that although the enemy tempt and oppose vehemently yet he should not overcome his Saints Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth John xii 32. and so cast forth that he shall never renew his tyranny again For through death Chrst did destroy him that had the power of death the Devil Heb. ii 14. 4. He is a Saviour that frees us from the wrath of God and when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Rom. v. From sin from death from Satan from the wrath of God These are the four heads of our Redemption and these are the excellencies included in the name of Saviour After these things thus declared methinks the third point should fall in directly without any contradiction Methinks of our selves without bidding men should strive to do abundant reverence at the hearing of this word a Jesus a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. We have not that feeling of our sins which we ought to have nor of the wrath of God for if we had we would hear this name with greater joyfulness but the destruction is not near enough to affect us Hell and damnation are not represented before our face if those things were so nigh that we did feel their horror we would not captiously gainsay that Ceremony of the Church to vail the head and bend the knee and to
requisite additions and put it out of question The Wisemen adored him with costly Gifts after the manner of an earthly Prince The Angels glorifie him with Hymns and Praises after the Majesty of God In every respect this is the greatest testimony of Christ in all the Scripture excepting where God used his own voice immediately from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased These things are but said now I will prove it in the prosecuting of the parts which are these The Messengers the preparation to the Message and the Message it self or the Choristers the preparation to their Musick and then the Anthem The Choristers are 1. Heavenly ones 2. A multitude 3. An Host or an Army of them Their preparation is twofold With much suddenness suddenly there was with the Angel and with much chearfulness for they were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã singing praise unto God The Anthem it self hath three rests in it Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host these are the Choristers that sung the Carol and the first thing we note in them is that they were heavenly ones Many things in the former Verses of this Chapter were exceeding mean if I may not say vile and sordid touching our Saviours Nativity but this portion of the story is of another nature and very honourable the more his Divinity had hid it self in Clouts in Flesh in a Manger the more it is illustrated by a glorious testimony The Earth afforded him one of the worst places it had the Heavens afforded him their very best attendance the Angels These heavenly Spirits you see gaze not upon the Work of our Redemption nor upon the Oeconomy of the Church as idle Spectators but they were imployed from the beginning in all the works of the Lord Job xxxviii 7. Who laid the corner stone of the earth when the morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Some Expositors infer from hence that the Angels applauded and praised the Lord for the Creation of the world for the Chaldee Paraphrase instead of the Sons of God reads it Acies Angelorum the Army of Angels And the Septuagint ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã when the corner stone of the earth was laid all my Angels praised me with a loud voice St. Chrysostome says upon it that the Angels admired to see the beauty of the world beneath they were astonished to behold the degrees of the Elements the multitude of all sorts of Creatures their Order Number and measure And by so much were they transported with the beauty of Gods Excellency more than we and of all his Works by how much they did better perceive that they were wrought with infinite and inexplicable wisdom This apprehension of the Fathers upon those words of Job I think is not to be refused Anastasius Sinaita is cited to go a great deal further that on the fourth day of the Creation the Angels saw the Sun rise in the morning from under the interposition of the Earth and presently they bethought them how Christ Sol justitiae should be born of a pure Virgin and dwell upon the earth and immediately they sung this very Song Gloria in excelsis as a prevention or prediction what should be sang upon this day almost four thousand years before it came to pass But this conjecture supposeth one of these two things scarce to be admitted either that these heavenly ones foresaw the fall of Adam before it came to pass as well as God and that the Son of God should be given in the flesh for a Propitiation to be the remedy or else another scholastic quidlibet must be received that Christ was so the head of the Angels that he should have been Incarnate and the Angels saved by faith in that Incarnation though Adam had never faln which is but harsh in the delivery This is the true Doctrine and the right descant upon the Point these Spirits that dwell in Heaven rejoyced for the Creation of the Earth when the Foundations of it were laid as Job says how much more would they bear a part and triumph for our sakes at the Restauration and the Redemption of the Earth Yet now we are at the truth mistake not the reason of their joy as some have done let me but touch upon a petty error and so proceed to the true causes It is supposed by many that the Angels are ready to attend the Church with all their help and diligence and exceeding glad in our prosperity because they receive an augmentation of their blessedness by their pious Ministry towards the Sons of men Now this savours of a little servility me thinks as if those holy ones did not communicate themselves to be safeguards and watchmen over us without expectation of reward but Biel presseth it further Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus Angelus non habuisset beatitudinem It would follow that Angels had never come to the height of their beatitude unless men had been created nay it will follow further they should come short of their full beatitude unless man had sinned and disobeyed Gods Commandment Let me lay down more sufficient reasons therefore for your further satisfaction First The Angels had always done their best to pitch their Pavilions round about us and to keep us from the tyranny of the Devil but they perceived that their protection was not a saving Medicine it would not cure it would not keep us in life but it bred them great content and joy when Christ did manifest himself in flesh upon the earth to heal our sores and bruises and to overcome that strong man for us and spoil him generally to supply in himself whatsoever was defective in their abilities This is Origens reason and his Simile follows as if many unexpert but well affected Physicians should spend their pains to no profit about a sick person whom they would fain recover and hearing that one of renowned skill ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was come into the City who would undoubtedly restore the languishing party all the rest that had attempted it did much congratulate his coming So our heavenly Friends the Angels could not speed us as they desired but as soon as they saw the Prince of Physicians was come into the world first one Angel appeared the Prolocutor of the whole Host and he broke with the Shepherds about good tidings of great joy to all People This day is born c. All this while the rest of his consort hovered in the air and at last became visible and discovered themselves in a Volley Apparuerunt cum illo Angeli says the Syrian Paraphrast exulting and praising God that the Lamb was yeaned that should take away the sins of the World Secondly The fruit of this birth came to us and not to them Nusquam Angelos Christ took not on him the
best harmony with our best chearfulness from the example of Angels especially at this time for the Birth of our blessed Lord and Saviour c. THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE ii 14. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men O Sing unto the Lord a new Song for he hath done marvelous things I will begin the New year from that portion of Davids Canticle Marvelous things they were you will all confess that the powerful God should be made a feeble Infant that a woman should bear him in her womb who supports the world and all the Creatures that are contained in it that the Eternal should be born who had no beginning never was the like heard or seen before therefore whatsoever was said of old will not agree to set it forth it must be a new Song of praise and thanksgiving to our God So is the Text which I have read before you It cometh to pass by the providence of God that St. Lukes Gospel is more chearful than all the rest and full of Musick So that he is well called by one not only the Evangelist but the Psalmist of the New Testament The Song of Zachary the Song of Maries Magnificat the Song of Simeon this Song of the Angels the Church is beholding to him for reciting them and to no other Penman of the holy Word St. Paul calls him Luke the Physician some of the Roman Church to serve their own Imagery delights out of some Histories unallowed call him Luke the Painter there is no conjecture for that out of the book of Scripture which cannot lye But I have more conjecture for my own opinion that he was Luke the Musician a man of divers gifts and qualities for the Prophets and Evangelists wrote the Scriptures by divine revelation yet always with a sweet tincture of their own abilities The stately eloquence of Isaiah shews his breeding St. Pauls Logical Arguments shew his Scholarship St. Peters facile Exhortations shew his zeal and plain Education Finally if I be not deceiv'd the repeating of so many celestial Hymns in St. Luke shew his musical art and affection Now the Spirit of the Church hath been ever so directed by God to take in all the Songs of the New Testament into its publick Service and Liturgie the Magnificat the Benedictus the Nunc Dimittis Thus it is not only with us but was so most anciently in all flourishing and well established Churches Neither is this Versicle of the Angels I mean my Text left out but it is referred to the chief part of our serving of God in the celebration of the holy Communion before we part from the Table of the Lord our Rubrique commands us to sing or say Glory be to God on high Indeed that Prayer as we have it is enlarged with many other pithy strains of devotion We praise thee we bless thee we worship thee we glorifie thee c. And such as have wrote of ancient Ceremonies say that Pope Telesphorus made up that excellent prayer of Laud and Thanksgiving beginning with my Text. Very ancient it is I am sure because I meet with it for the most part in those pieces which are called the Constitutions of Clemens and St. James his Liturgy But for the words which I handle I have great cause to judge that they were the most acceptable Prayer of the Primitive Church for St. Paul begins his Epistles with grace and peace be multiplied as much as to say peace on earth and good will towards men and the end of many clauses in his Epistles is that Doxology to God To whom be glory for evermore Amen I wonder that the words themselves are bended in and out with such curious divisions by many Divines for the Angel hath parted them into three several rests and I will not go about to mend his work and whereas Points are raised out of Grammatical constructions of the Verb whether they should be the Indicative or the Optative Mood it shall be all one to that way in which I will handle the parts for I will handle every of the three members three ways First As a Congratulation or thanksgiving Secondly By way of Prayer or Petition Thirdly By way of Doctrine and Instruction Thanksgiving unto God that his glory on high appeareth that peace doth flourish on earth and that he is pleased with men or make it a Prayer or Postulation that all glory may be given to God all safety to the earth and that an happy reconciliation may be begun with men Otherwise if it be a Sermon or Exhortation the sum is that God be magnified peace preserved a friendship with God endeavoured thus nothing shall be lost of this divine musical Embassage Glory be to God in the highest c. Now we cannot be to seek what is the sum of the first member Glory to God in the highest it must be thus the Angels glorifie God for sending Christ in the flesh to redeem mankind and they wish and pray that men may glorifie God in Christ and they teach us that Gods glory is to be sought before all things and so I proceed to explicate it before you If the Disciples be silent at what time it is fit to praise God the stones shall speak says our Saviour that 's ultimum refugium the last shift and refuge that the very dross of the earth if need were should not want a tongue to magnifie its Creator But it stirs up emulation and provokes us more when those that are far above us discharge the duty which we ought to execute rather than when those things which are much beneath us should give us example So my Text lets you see that if men be silent and set not forth the praise of the Lord the Angels will speak and give him glory It were a great shame for the Commons to be rude and irrespectful towards their King when the Nobles and Princes of the people are most dutiful and obsequious so when the Cherubins devote their Songs to extol the most High it were a beastly neglect in man a worm in respect of a Cherubin not to bear a part in that humble piety But to speak after the method of reason had it not been more proper for the Angels at this time to have proclaimed Christs Poverty than his Power his Infancy than his Majesty his Humility in the lowest rather than his glory in the highest If there wereany glory coming out of this work of the Incarnation it may seem we had it rather than our Saviour and he lost it But the piercing eye of those celestial Spirits could see abundant honour compassing Christ about where ignorant man could espy nothing but vileness and misery For first they celebrate the glory of Gods justice in sending his Son made of a woman and made under the Law to suffer for us that had sinned against the Law because that Justice would not receive man into favour
Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps whcih thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it THis is the Sons day and not the Mothers This is Christs own day and not Maries Therefore it is not for the Wombs sake but for the Fruit of the Womb not for the Paps of a mortal woman but for the Infants sake an immortal God that I have chosen this Text. A good Israelitess she was that magnified Christ on this manner though she was not spoken to yet her heart was full and she must speak for her joy would have stifled her if she had not uttered it If you mark the Context of the Chapter immediately before these words our Saviour had taught his Disciples to pray most divinely he had cast out devils most triumphantly he had answered the Calumniations of the Pharisees most rationally he had put on glorious apparel as the Psalmist says and girded himself with strength While these wonderful works were fresh in memory the Lord from on high could have sent Legions of Angels to magnifie his Son and to praise him with celestial Canticles But to strike the greater shame into the Pharisees that had blasphemed him he stirs up a woman a nameless one a poor Plebeian one not admitted near him she stood afar off and was fain to speak aloud to be heard Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast sucked It was a free acclamation a sudden start a passion that came from her spirit ex tempore and that I may give Christ his full honour and attribute no more to the woman than is truth she prophesied in this saying of greater things than at that time she understood The Holy Ghost gave her the priviledge to be the tongue that delivered this Congratulation but it remains to us to lend it an heart that we may truly conceive it For the inward sense of it is the gladsom contents of this day blessed be the Father of all mercies for the Incarnation of his Son that he was made of a woman for our sakes and blessed are all mankind that he hath taken flesh of our flesh and that he is made partaker of our humane nature But because it would not prove our benefit that he was born for us unless he be born in us likewise by faith and obedience it follows to make our joy and crown complete yea rather blessed are they that hear c. The parts are as manifestly two as the two hands wherewith we handle First Blessedness offered to us in Christs Incarnation Secondly Blessedness made complete in our own application The woman begins the Text in the first part Christ finished in the second She said well for his Incarnation Blessed is the Womb that bare thee He makes it much better by stirrig us up to the use and fruit of it yea rather c. She blesseth Christ and Christ blesseth us she would have all felicity to rest in him he would have a share of felicity to be derived to us A pretty strife between a devout Creature and a merciful Creator between an humble Servant and a bountiful Master between a true faith that heaps all honour upon God and between a gracious God that heaps the treasures of his riches upon a true faith To begin with that which the woman said it must be considered two ways in a Litteral sense such as flesh and bloud revealed to her And in a Prophetical sense above her understanding such as the Spirit of God hath revealed to us Blessed is the Womb that bare thee And so it was indeed according to the Latitude of this womans natural understanding For first she knew at large that it was a blessed thing to be an Instrument or conveyance of any great good unto others Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber be blessed shall she be above women in the Tent Judg. v. 24. Shee had done her part to work deliverance for Israel And when Judith had sped in her adventure to cut off the head of Holofernes says Oziah Blessed art thou of the most high God above all the women upon earth Judith xiii 18. A good Messenger is called an happy and the feet of those are pronounced beautiful that bring glad tidings of peace It is a narrow and an abject conceit of some that think themselves fortunate and at the best when they receive and take in all that can be heapt upon them These men measure felicity backward for beatius est dare quam accipere it is more blessed to give than to receive Though that Maxim be not extant in any of the Evangelists St. Paul tells us upon his credit it was our Saviours The souls of them that are converted to true holiness shall bless the lips of the Priest the poor shall bless the liberal after Ages shall bless publick Spirits that do famous things and are provident for Posterity A Cistern that contains the waters poured into it is much inferiour to a Fountain that sends them forth It is nothing so laudible to be wrought upon as to work that which is honourable Even the Parents that have enricht the world with such as are ornaments unto it benediction reflects upon them for it because they are Conduit pipes of publick felicity Yet all those that have made others happy by their gifts and qualities had been for ever unhappy themselves if the Child that was born this day had not suckt the breasts of a Virgin O happy Parent whose Womb contained all the treasure that maintains the whole earth Somewhat she collineated at this meaning that said unto our Saviour Blessed c. And each Parent partakes in this reason that it is joy and honour to them to have a renowned Son and it may be this woman was partial to her own Sex that contented her self to speak of no more than the womb of the Mother In strict Divinity indeed her words are admirable for Christ had no Father according to the flesh but that is more than I collect out of St. Luke that she mentioned not his Father for that reason But in all humane births that prove successful and glorious the loyns of the Father are blessed as well as the womb of the Mother and the glory of children are their Fathers Prov. xvii 6. Yet in the next construction of mere natural capacity it was proper to say for his sake blessed is the womb because barrenness was a curse and fruitfulness of children a blessing They that propagate a faithful seed upon earth give the means to replenish heaven with Saints it is that wherein we exceed Angels to beget Sons and Daughters in our own likeness and to continue a Generation like our selves makes mankind by succession as incorruptible as the Angels God blessed all living Creatures mark that God blessed them and said unto them be fruitful and multiply Gen. i. 28. Though the Lord said
it in his wrath that the mothers womb should bring forth children in sorrow yet he never recalled his former Sentence of grace but that fecundity should be a benediction As a rich harvest is joyfully received when the Valleys stand thick with Corn and a rich Autumn is most welcom when the trees bow down their arms to reach us fruit So Children and the fruit of the womb are a most desired Heritage that cometh of the Lord. Old Jacob anon before he departed out of the world poured out the strength of his prayers upon Joseph and this benefit he did impropriate to him Gen. xlix 25. The God of thy fathers shall bless thee with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb But it had been better for us that all women had been barren if the Saviour of mankind had not been inclosed in the womb of Mary All fruitfulness is to be congratulated but hers especially Blessed is the womb c. Thirdly I make no scruple to affirm it that this was the very thought and fancy of the woman that uttered these words that the Mother was most honoured full of fame and glory who had a Son that spake so divinely and wrought such heavenly Miracles It is a great recompence which God gives to careful Parents upon earth when their off-spring live soberly and temperately to be their comfort and honour Do you question it but that Rebeckah was pleased above all contents which the earth could afford when Jacob whom she tendered as her hearts darling was so just and diligent in the fear of the Lord Do you suppose that Bathsheba knew not how many eyes of favour were upon her how many tongues did congratulate her when her Solomon was the wisest of all the Kings of the earth that sate upon a Throne With what exultation did Olimpia speak often of her Son Alexander and his Monarchy How did Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi please her self when certain strangers noted her for a plain Matron that wore no rich or gaudy dressings as the fashion of the Roman Ladies was in those days but when her hopeful Sons came home she told her Guests those were her Cabinet of Jewels Hi sunt mei torques haec mea monilia And this is the reward on earth of all Paternal care and anxiety Spes surgentis Iuli that solace which you take in the ingenuous obedience of children as we call it towardliness And the neglect of their breeding a mischief which is seldom recovered if the Plant be marred in the first setting and tendance I say that neglect is a manifest ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a plain want of natural affection which is a denying of the faith But the fear of the Lord which is instilled into Children from their Infancy is not only the Childrens but even the Parents happiness The rare endowments that appeared in Christ made a certain woman here cast the praise of it upon the Mother Blessed c. And thus far in the Litteral sense as far as flesh and bloud could reveal unto her But if she could have seen into the Scriptures as the holy Spirit hath enabled us to see into them there are other grounds of more Evangelical observation And first let it be noted that the blessedness which is attributed to the womb that bore our Saviour redounds to all the members of his mystical body Even as upon that saying of our Saviour to St. Peter Blessed art thou c. Mat. xvi St. Austin says that the words should not have a full and illustrious sense unless they were referred to the whole Church So this saying in my Text were maimed and imperfect unless we enlarged it thus to all Believers blessed and thrice blessed are all the Sons and Daughters of God through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ who was he that came down into this wretched world to make it almost equal with heaven it self Let the Earth be glad and let the Hills rejoyce let the Sea make a noise and all that is therein What a flower of Jessai did the earth bring forth instead of thorns and briars What a Day-star did shine upon our Hemisphere which was justly threatned with eternal darkness What Prince of peace was this which visited us when we were at war and defiance with God and our selves and with all the Powers of Heaven What purity was this which mixt with our uncleanness What Omnipotent that descended to our weakness What Immortal that would be dishonoured with our corruption and mortality All treasures of Wisdom are hid in his age of nonage all Strength in his infant infirmity all Riches in his state of poverty all Righteousness in him that was accused of iniquity all Freedom from bondage in him that was wrapt up in swadling clouts all Felicity in him that was encompassed with weakness and misery These are the fruits of his Nativity these are the benefits of his birth and infancy The Eternal Father did more for us when he made him flesh than when he made the heaven and the earth beside without his Incarnation the Earth had been our Curse all the Elements our Plague the Heaven above our Envy and the Hell beneath our portion for ever But as soon as ever the Babe who is blessed for ever did open the womb our fetters were broken in sunder the kingdom of darkness spoyled no Malediction remained in the Law any longer no curse in death Hoc est Christianae fidei fundamentum quia unus per quem ruina alius homo Christus per quem structura This is the foundation of Christian faith this is the scope of all the Scripture this is the ground work of all hearts ease and consolation that one man was our ruine and another man was our reparation As the Apostle says Heb. ii 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation we deserve to mourn if we do not magnifie God for this joy we deserve to be miserable for ever if we prefer not the blessing we received this day for the very crown of our happiness Though you now see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. i. 8. One man in a family having a fortunate advancement makes his whole blood and kindred fortunate with him how much more shall Christ make all mankind happy being made one of us accedens ad nos per id quod assumpsit ex nostro liberans nos per id quod mansit ex suo He is come near unto us all by that nature which he assumed of ours and he hath redeemed us all by that glorious Deity which was ever his own Finally there was a concurrency of all sorts of blessedness in this most mysterious Incarnation The Mother pure from all carnal copulation and incorrupt in her Virginity the place comfortable to the worst sinners because he chose his habitation among beasts in a stable and an ostery for the common resort of all
can have no help from thence to understand it Erasmus says it is a particle Quae nec affirmat nec negat it neither assents to that which the woman uttered nor yet contradicts it but leaves it in medio untoucht and unanswer'd The Jesuit Maldonat will make Calvin his adversary many times where he is not and lays to his charge this impiety that Christ should cross all that was said before 'T is not so that the Womb is blessed which bare me no blessed are they c. Calvin God wot hath no such asseveration but thus Fere pro nihilo haec ducit Christus longe est inferius c. But 't is large in this form it cannot be denied says he but that God exalted Mary to the highest honour when he elected and destined her to be the Mother of his Son but Christ reputes this as nothing and much inferiour to the other to hear the word of God and keep it is there any offence in this not any And what if it be Maldonats own opinion in other words thus he Vtrum que quod dictum est quod dicendum affirmat sed dicto dicendum proponit Our Saviour affirms that the woman said true Blessed is the womb c. And he affirms it was blessed to hear the word of God and keep it but he prefers the spiritual blessedness of hearing the word of God and keeping it before the natural blessedness to bear him in the womb This is most true and runs thus in St. Austins elegancy Beatior Maria percipiendo fidem Christi quam concipiendo carnem Christi O sacred Virgin much more happy in entertaining the Faith of Christ than in conceiving the Flesh of Christ For the second Covenant which is the anchor of Salvation is Crede vive believe and thou shalt be saved not uterum gere vive bear the Son of God in thy Womb and thou shalt be saved Eusebius Emissenus speaks enough to have angred Maldonat yet sound and good in true construction She whom thou dost magnifie was not therefore blessed because she was my mother and bore me Sed quia verbum audivit audiendo credidit credendo custodivit but because she was glad to hear my word and what she heard she believed willingly and what she believed she practised diligently Her own Cousin Elizabeth extended her salutation to this sense Blessed is she that believed for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord Luke i. 45. A quip for her own Husband Zachary by the way who had a message brought him by an Angel and gave no credit to it and was strucken dumb for incredulity but Mary had all applause and congratulation from heaven and earth from Angels and men because she heard the word and believed it Nay Christ himself hath confirmed this construction most sharply and emphatically Mat. xii 48. Who is my Mother and who are my brethren and he stretcht forth his hand to his Disciples Behold my mother and my brethren for whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in heaven he is my brother and sister and mother And if it would not profit Mary to have given the bread to such a Son without Faith and obedience how can any other carnal respect and advantage do us good fleshly consanguinities and prerogatives make additions in a coat of armory but we must stand before the tribunal of God disrayed of all such circumstances A wise Heathen could taunt at them that boasted the smoky Images of their Ancestors Vt quod in fructu non teneas mireris in trunco says St. Hierom as eloquent as any of the Heathens Shall we commend the stock of a tree when we cannot commend the fruit Finally St. Paul divorceth the Jews and all others from pretending a carnal propinquity with Christ says he We know no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth we know him so no more 2 Cor. v. 16. The Mother whose paps he suckt must not glory that she fed him but that he fed her and gave her living waters of his Word and Spirit to drink Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it I must not and if I would I have no time set forth before you what a secundity of error there is in mans heart about the notion of blessedness Our Saviour confines our stragling imaginations to this rule that no good thing of a subordinate condition can stile a man happy 't is a title to be given to that immense communication of good when the soul shall enjoy the fulness of him that filleth all in all But the means that impetrate a reward and the reward it self are knit so individually together that nothing is enjoyed in the one but is affirmed of the other And he that goes the right way to the eternal joys above is canonized happy as if he were in those joys already Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it The Kingdom of God is not meats and drinks but a pure and a righteous spirit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says St. Basil very truly a pure and a sanctified soul is the first ascent of happiness And this is tried by two particulars first if we treasure up the precious things of God in our ear then if we transmit them to a more inward and a safer place and treasure them up in our heart Whether your consciences be sometimes vexed with a Sermon or whether your heart be pricked or whether the Doctrine delivered be most opposite to your appetite in way of profit or pleasure or reputation yet still remember it is a blessed thing to hear and a great honour to dust and ashes that God will speak unto you And he that is cloy'd with hearing hath such a surfeited constitution that he is cloy'd with blessedness Mary her sitting attentive to hear our Saviour was unum necessarium not a thing well done but yet indifferent and at her own choice whether she would do it or no but it was unum necessarium a necessary part of obedience which concerned her salvation The Lord from heaven began his law with the command of hearing hear O Israel Deut. iv 1. And so the voice of the Father from heaven began the Gospel This is my beloved Son hear him The fault of this age to speak the truth is not in this that there want hearers for excepting some few that think themselves wise enough already and that they need not learn and excepting some irreligious and profane ones that refuse true wisdom and never think of their latter end but the generality in all places will not stick to shew their duty in hearing but with divers they are mens gifts and persons which they admire and follow if those men teach whom their ear tasts or if it be such kind of teaching as they will only like in their prejudicate
Father David I lay the point now with all evidence and perspicuity against the infidelity of the Jews 1. God did promise the Scepter unto Judah Gen. xlix 2. Judah had it in David and Solomon 3. It was threatned to be taken away and never restored again and so it was in Jeconiah 4. Whereas the family droopt and decayed the promise was that it should reflourish in Christ 5. That it should be a Kingdom greater than ever was before extended from the flood unto the worlds end Lastly that it should stand and dure for ever In all things the Gospel consents with Moses and the Prophets and the blind Jews that will contradict it even Judah shall be scattered with this horn Zach. i. 21. and be broken in pieces with the Scepter of this Kingdom but as the Prophet infers well if I be Lord where is mine honour and if Christ be a King where is our obedience God hath anointed him with his horn of power to be a King O that the unction of his Grace may distil upon our hearts that we may serve and fear him Concupiscence says I will reign Ambition says I will reign the Devil says I will reign the world says I will reign but a good Christian will say Non habeo regem nisi Dominum Jesum There is no King that shall command my conscience but Jesus Christ he is the horn of my salvation The points remaining shall take up no long time the next that I come to is the verb of action how God did raise up this horn of salvation you may know the meaning of this by our own vulgar phrase for it is our usual saying that God raiseth up friends to a miserable man when his relief and deliverance come through those means which he never expected The house of David had ennobled the Kingdom of Israel more than any other tribe or kindred that came out of the loins of Jacob is freed the Nation from the oppression of the Philistines expulsed the Jebusites out of the Imperial City reared up the stupendious fabrick of the Temple contrived the service of the Priests and Levites into admirable decency brought them into great respect with Foreign Princes All this came to them by the Son of Jesse and Solomon that succeeded him But in process of time the lineage of David was quite eclipsed that stately horn was broken especially when Herod ruffled it the poor remnant of the kindred pluckt in their head and durst not with any safety own themselves to be of that progeny Loe the inconstant state of humane things the sons and daughters of David who were the Princes of that Kingdom were become poor artisans and inmates in by-places and nothing was so beneficial to them as to be forlorn and despicable Now chops in another alteration more strange than all that had been before a Virgin of a most private fortune in that stock not lookt upon not thought upon to repair that decay she conceives a Son by the power of the Holy Ghost in whom the honour of David's house was more exalted than if he had subdued all those Countrys which Cyrus and Alexander made tributary to their Empire This is according to that Prophesie which James applied to our Saviour Acts xv 16. in that solemn Council of the Apostles after this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down and I will build again the ruines thereof and will set it up This kindred in whom the Majesty of Judah did once rest nothing could be laid more flat than it in the revolution of a few ages and of a suddain this diminution was repaired no flesh and blood was ever more advanced than that house if they did not bid defiance to their own honor that Jesus Christ came from them according to the flesh This did David foresee and presageth it to his own generation Psal cxxxii I will make the horn of David to flourish but the Verb decomposit in the Septuagint is most significant ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will make it sprout up again as when a tree is cut down and the stock appears to be dead but a little branch springs out of the root grows high and tall and fills up a better room than the trunk which was felled But the Jew complains to this day that he can perceive no such redintegration of the house of David O who is so blind and sensless as that Nation who would not receive him that came to be their glory and being plagued for their unbelief they will not perceive their punishment and misery the horn is raised up and the beast out of which it grew will not own it or acknowledge it But the promise of God cannot be made of none effect through their infidelity There is room enough beside in the world to receive him though his own exclude him the horn is raised up though the Rebels of the house of David reject him The condition of our humane nature was most innocent and Angelical in the first Creation we sinned we fell our boughs of glory were lopt away our fruit of holiness was shaken from it our substance was involved in the general curse of the earth to bring forth nothing but thorns and briars Thus we continued a despised mass of corruption till our horn was exalted in the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Then was our nature advanced to one hypostasis with God himself as if a Giant should bear up an Infant upon his shoulders so we that pass'd for no better than blood temper'd with dirt are become as it were emulous with the thrones of heaven by this assumption of our manhood into his person because he took not upon him the seed of Angels but the seed of Abraham And as all that are born of women have some access of dignity because Christ took the similitude of our nature so the Church superabounds in two priviledges first as Gregory notes upon such words as these 1 Sam. 2. that it is said to the Priests of the Gospel whose sins ye remit they shall be remitted c. yet the like was never said to the Priests of the Law because remission of sins was brought to pass by him that was made man therefore from that time forth men were made the Ministers of Pardon and Absolution that 's the horn of the Church the power of the Keys Secondly God hath replenished us that are called by his name with a great abundance of the Holy Ghost and since Christ was made flesh he hath poured out of his spirit upon all flesh Loe these are the ascensions by which we climb up into heaven through this mercy that the Lord God of Israel hath raised up unto us an horn of salvation Now follows the third part of the Text to the end the Jews might know that this was the Messias which they expected here 's his lineage exprest according to the words of the Prophets he was raised
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
me yet they are not so uncharitable to bid Anathema to any in so disputable a point I am sure St. Austin having disputed on both sides concludes he would not strive eagerly with him that should say sins were remitted in the Baptism of John meaning it did not essentially differ from the Baptism of Christ yet I will end with this third observation that in some less principal respects the Baptism of Christ doth exceed the Baptism of John I will name five distinctions 1. In formâ verborum John baptized in the name of the Messias that came after him Acts xix 4. and it was more advantage to teach it to every of the Jews as he baptized them one by one than to proclaim it to the whole multitude But Christ bade his Disciples choose another form and for that he would not take all honour to himself it must be in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 2. They differ in amplitudine nationum John medled with none but such as were within the Regions of Judea Christ bad his Disciples to except no people but to wash all Nations from their sins 3. Christs Baptism transcends Johns in varietate personarum for it sounds not to likelihood that John baptized Infants they could not confess their sins nor learn the doctrine of Repentance nor be taught the coming of the Messias such only came to him But Christs Baptism pertains to little ones and his spirit was poured out upon all flesh your Sons and Daughters shall Prophesie and your young men see visions 4. Christs Baptism hath the upper hand in gradibus efficaciae the Spirit is more operative in Baptism since Christ did go to his Father to send us the Comforter than ever it was before 5. It is greater than Johns baptism in modo necessitatis The Sacraments of the New Testament had the seeds of life in them from the first institution and they were good to the receiver but they were not imposed by necessary commandment till the old Law was quite abolished and that was at the Resurrection says Leo or at the farthest in other mens opinions at the feast of Pentecost So Johns baptism was always good never necessary Christs baptism is always good is and ever will be necessary unto the end of the world These are less principal differences the substance of both being the same for one thing yet remains to be proposed that the Baptism of John opened the gate unto everlasting life as some have shewed by an Allegorical reason taken from the place where John did baptize Christ in Jordan says this Text not a private dipping in a Chamber and of all other places of Jordan it was Bethabara Joh. i. 28. which is being interpreted Domus transitus the house of passing over even in all likelihood where Joshuah divided Jordan and passed over into the Land of Promise this is the circumstance of place which I propounded the fortunate seat where this work was done to betoken that as Joshuah brought the twelve Tribes at that very standing through the River into that pleasant Land which was promised to Abraham so Jesus will bring us through the sprinkling of water into the Kingdom of heaven AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 14. But John forbad him saying I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me IN which Text you may see that ancient Sentence verified how an ambitious man is afraid left too little honour be cast upon him and an humble man is afraid of too much Our blessed Saviour saw multitudes of Penitents coming to John to be baptized and to confess their sins Among these people whose iniquities stood in need of cleansing he steps in for one into the River Jordan not to receive Sanctification unto himself but to sanctifie the waters unto others O exceeding dignity far above all honour that ever was vouchsafed to any Prophet for to which of them was it said at any time Dip thine hand in water and anoint the head of my Son And therefore Christ was pleased to give this Character of John that he was more than a Prophet More than a Prophet not only in the Office which he sustained to be the immediate fore-runner of the Messias but more than any Prophet or Patriarch in the expression of his humility Jacob wrestled with God but it was to get a blessing from his Angel he would not be denied John the Baptist wrestles with the Son of God to decline the blessing which was brought before him and fain he would be denied His hand shrunk up and durst not attempt to pour water upon his head who is the immortal head of the Church visible and invisible both of men and Angels He thought it no sin to disobey when he was required to such a work which in his eyes appeared far too excellent for any creature Therefore conceive him modestly starting back and making this reply to our Saviour Lord why dost thou tempt thy servant Why wouldst thou put the Potter into the hand of the Clay What is it to thee to be dipt in water Whose precious Bloud shall wash away all sins and mine in the reckoning among the rest Behold this exact humility more than any Prophet exprest how John forbad him to be baptized saying I have need to be baptized c. The matter of the Text may be handled in these three several Points 1. The Baptist did declare how jealous he was of Gods honour therefore the Text says he forbad Christ to come under the Ministry of a Sacrament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he would fain have put him by thinking it ignoble for the Lord of all Lords to descend so low 2. He disables himself and makes profession of his own vileness and infirmity I have need to be baptized of thee 3. He ends with the admiration of his Saviours humility And comest thou to me Yet again I will consider him in the exercise of the three spiritual vertues Faith Hope and Charity 1. He believed this was the Christ as soon as ever he saw him and that made him interpose to forbid him stoop so low as to be baptized there was his faith 2. He confesseth that he relies upon him to be baptised with his Spirit and to be saved through his merits there is his hope Lastly he breaks out into an extasie of admiration as soon as ever he saw him like old Simeon that sung a Canticle for joy Comest thou to me O thou expectation of the World O thou desire of our eyes There was his ardent love these are his Faith his Hope his Love and remember that every tittle of his praise is the rule of your practise Set your attentions now upon the first part of the Text that John was jealous of our Saviours honour and forbad him to be baptized The interpretation of the word certainly is not so harsh as it may be thought to
Ordination shall be necessary for us for nothing is necessary in it self but as the Lord hath decreed and made it so Wherefore this is my first Proposition That the use of Baptism is simply necessary to a true Church and where it is not in use as among Jews and Mahometans that alone is enough to defie them that they are not members of that body whereof Christ is the head It is not to be opposed that the due administration of the Sacraments is an inseparable note of the Church For the Church being an outward company of Professors that depend upon the grace of God How can it outwardly be discerned that we depend upon him unless we accustom our selves to the outward means that seal and assure his blessings unto us Touching Baptism therefore it is necessary to a company of Believers who make a Church it is so necessary that they could give no evident token of their Christianity to men if that mark of our initiation into the visible Church were omitted Though Baptism as I will shew instantly is not simply necessary for the invisible incorporation of Infants in to Christ yet it is certain that the sprinkling of water gives them that visible incition whereby they are ingrafted into him That must be our ordinary practice or else we are none of his flock he is none of our Shepherd In the description of Paradise we read of two things that were in it Pleasant Rivers of waters and Trees which did abound with fruit for sustenance So the Church in whose blessings Paradise is restored unto us hath spiritual sustenance for life in the Lords Supper and water of Regeneration in the other Sacrament Without these two it is no more it self and therefore the Church of God in general may say I have need to be baptized ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is a necessity laid upon me My next Proposition consists of these terms Suppose that there are some grown to years of knowledge able to discern between good and evil who from their birth were Paynims Mahometans altogether ignorant in the truth of Salvation but at last the light of heaven hath shined upon them and by the preaching of the Word hath wrought upon their hearts to believe such Converts must desire to be wash'd in the Sacrament of water and confess that they have need and that they would be baptized First I say they must desire it cordially and with all the affection of their mind If it be not the only Lesson of the Gospel yet I am sure it is the main drift of Christ and his Apostles to teach all men to attain to Salvation by humility Therefore to pluck down our high imaginations see the admirable wisdom of Gods Dispensations he hath made man subject to those creatures which are much beneath himself that they should be the sanctified instruments to make him partaker of everlasting life Naaman the Syrian thought great scorn at first to make use of an whole River to recover his Leprosie Now leât any man should have such insolent thoughts that he would not be beholding to small things for his salvation they that will be heirs of heaven must come to a Font and be glad of a little sprinkling in token that Christs bloud will cleanse them from their sins They must kneel and fall down likewise at Gods Table to pick up the crumbs and to taste a little of his banquet of bread and wine And he that despiseth these Elements as poor rubbish for so great a purpose he despiseth God himself and his heart is not right with the Lord. It is an essential propriety of faith to long for the Sacraments even as the Hart thirsteth after the Rivers of waters And he that sets those Mysteries at a low price as if it were not material to his souls benefit whether he used them or no the Devil hath pust him up to destroy him he wants the true life of Faith and is given over to the captivity of Satan I say no more than God hath denounced against the uncircumcised Gen. xvii 13. My Covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting Covenant the uncircumcised man-child shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant Beloved if an Israelites child died before the eighth day which the Lord appointed for Circumcision that did not offend the Lord neither was the child accounted out of the Covenant but if an Israelite of ripe years or a stranger within his gates did despise Circumcision that soul was cut off in the anger of the Lord. My third Proposition touching Converts of ripe age is this that if they desired Baptism and were prevented by the suddenness of death the Lord will accept the desire of their Faith and their soul shall not suffer for the want of Baptism Two Texts in the New Testament imply a strict command that we must all be baptized if we desire to be entred into the Covenant of grace yet I will draw from them that they are not altogether without limits and mitigation Mar. xvi 16. They are our Saviours words He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark with what wariness the words are repeated not thus he that is not baptized shall perish only the other member is taken into the threatning He that believeth not shall be damned To be an unbeliever to avoid the Sacrament out of disdain and not to be prevented by necessity that is the crime which according to our Saviours words shall not be unrevenged Hear in another place what he presseth more strictly upon Nicodemus Joh. iii. 5. Vnless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Here is no time limited but it is spoken as if instantly the institution of Baptism were in force and that from thenceforth no man could plead his right to the Kingdom of heaven without it Yet we know the soonest that it took place was not till anon after his Resurrection when the Disciples had the word given Go and baptize all Nations c. For as he said elsewhere Joh. vi 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud ye have no life in you the words run in the Present tense yet he did not perfectly declare what he meant nor put in force till he eat his last Supper with his Disciples So it appears that Text before cited Vnless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit is not without limitation and the next verse clears the matter on this sort That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit where we see the Spirit alone is able to regenerate a man and not always necessarily both water and the Spirit Bernard in his 77 Epistle to Hugo writes more diligently I think than any before him in this argument He proves from the confession of the
be yet it is a sweet consolation that we have a general taste of Gods Mercies and gracious Promises towards them but no good Christian can choose but think so divinely of the Sacraments that our comfort is more perfect and better satisfied when they had the special seal of grace before they departed And if any mans fancy lead him to hold that both shall be glorified yet where the honour of the Sacrament lights the greater glory shall follow I had rather assent to this opinion than gainsay it though I know not how to prove it And let me end this Point as he begins his Poem ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Water is the best Element in the world The Air for natural life the Water for spiritual And my exhortation is that you endeavour to see the Sacrament conferred upon all Infants as far as it is possible because John says I have need to be baptized I must now proceed to shew that John found imperfection in his own heart and therefore thus bemoans himself I have need to be baptized Two Expositions I suppose are natural to this Point 1. I have need to be baptized with thy Spirit and to receive thy grace 2. I desire that the infinite merit of thy bloud-shedding may be applied to me for the washing away of my sins The Baptism of the Spirit is the infusion of heavenly grace into the soul and John confesseth he had need of it Need I mean of the increase thereof although he had it in great abundance as soon as he was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. Abraham was circumcised in his old age and yet was justified before he received Circumcision Rom iv Cornelius was baptized having received comfort before from the Angel that his Prayers and Alms were pleasing to God When great multitudes of the Gentiles had their hearts touch'd from heaven says Peter Can any forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we Acts x. 47. In these instances it is seen that some grace did prevent the Sacrament and yet the parties who had received the Holy Ghost came willingly to be baptized For God doth not give all his grace at once or twice but more and more is added and supplied to the former Dose and though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day therefore the holiest Prophet alive while he carries flesh upon his loyns may say and ought to say I have need to be baptized of the Spirit This interpretation is accepted of all sides and what rubs can the other find that John did implore the mercies of Christ for the washing away of his sins Though he in a mortifying phrase and most contrite humility may seem to put himself in the number of sinners and so I have cited St. Ambrose making that sense of his words Tu venis ad me peccatorem Dost thou come to me a sinner Yet there are some that say unto him as Peter did to our Saviour Master spare thy self So they to another purpose spare thy self do not condemn thine own innocency thou art not polluted neither hadst thou any corruption in thee which could extend unto a mortal sin for it is written Luke i. 15. He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mothers womb That John was sanctified before he was born is it which hath made the scruple This is the doubt then which I am to clear that a man sanctified from his nativity I before his nativity may be a sinner whose iniquities have need to be washt away in the bloud of Christ To be sanctified from the womb it is a word of divers constructions and when I have named them all choose ye which you will and my conclusion will be inviolable First It hath been usual to say such Infants were sanctified from the beginning of their life to whom God hath very soon demonstrated some extraordinary favour So St. Ambrose says of Jacob the Patriarch that it was a sign of grace in him before he was born that he wrestled with Esau in the womb of Rebecca Ephraim the Syrian says as much of Moses that a divine blessing was upon him as soon as he was exposed in the Ark of Bulrushes because Pharaohs Daughter when she lookt upon him could not choose but pitty him Yet neither of these were so undefiled in their way but that they had need of remission of sins Secondly St. Austin hath this interpretation that to sanctifie him from the womb is not to pour extraordinary grace into the Infant at that rawness of age but to ordain him in due time unto Sanctification Sanctificavi i. e. destinavi sanctificare it is spoken of as a thing done in the present because Gods Predestination is sure from the first conception As the Gentiles are called the children of God before the Doctrine of faith was preach'd among them because they should be made the children of God as it is written Joh. xi 52. that Christ died not only for that Nation of the Jews but for the children of God that were scattered abroad the instance is in Jer. i. 5. I knew thee before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified and ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations Even Maldonat confesseth out of these words he was sanctified because from the first minute of life he was ordained to be sanctified Non per inspirationem Prophetiae sed per destinationem not as if he were inspired so young but so young in the eternal Council he was appointed to be inspired It is in effect as St. Paul offers himself to us in the like phrase Gal. i. 15. It pleased God who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace To separate from the womb is the same as to sanctifie from the womb Separare est à patre matre rebusque terrenis rem segregare Deo consecrare It is to draw a thing from Father Mother and all earthly relations and to appropriate it to God And yet this Apostle sighs it forth that he is the greatest of sinners and yet separated or sanctified from the womb And surely it is a Text of validity to prove that Jeremy was not cleansed from the foulness of Original sin for he reviles the day of his birth because it brought forth nothing but a miserable sinner Cursed be the day wherein I was born let not the day wherein my Mother bare me be blessed Jer. xx 14. I am very loth to lay any faults to the Saints of God yet after all answers and shifts I cannot see but that Jeremy in those words is guilty of great impatiency Thirdly To be sanctified not only from the womb but even from the earliest minute of life in the conception is to be endowed with eminent motions of grace not usual to other Infants and so it was in John the Baptist in whom two things of Gods especial
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
the witness is born the Eternal Father witnesseth to his Eternal Son Thou art my Son The best way to know so much concerning the eternal Generation of Christ as sufficeth for a good Christian is to speak little of it Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord says David among the Sons of God none like unto that Son who is the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father Joh. i. 18. Other Sons I will declare by and by are adopted by his grace Sons not begotten but by denomination of good liking as it is Mat. v. 9. Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God but Christ is the only begotten being of the same substance with the Father for surely that doth rightly explicate the Phrase to be in the bosom of the Father not as the Arians would evade it that to be in the bosom was to be the well-beloved of the Father God loved the world and most dearly such as believed yet where do ye read that such are said to be in his bosom It is a word by St. Chrysostoms exposition which agrees to Christ alone wrapping up much sense as it were in a Syllable that he is of the same substance the same power the same knowledge with his Father lying in his bosom and participant of all his secrets Sinus est divinitatis arcanum in quo est filius That bosom is the secret essence of the Father by which he made all things and knows all things and there is the Son To be called a Father after the manner of men rests upon three things 1. That the Son have his being from part of his substance that begets him then a Picture cannot be said to be the Son but the work of him that draws it 2. Father and Son must be of the same nature and species then the Heaven is not the Father of Flies and Gnats though the heat of the Sun begets them 3. It must be a living thing that begets another living thing in its own likeness then fire is not the father of fire though one spark kindles another But God begets a Son without these conditions and exceptions for his Son is not such another but consubstantial Not a part divided from the Fathers substance to make him but of the same substance with the Father Yet there is another ground of difference laid down by St. Austin that among us it hapneth to a man to be a Father and is contingent But in God it is no hapning accidental thing The Father was always a Father and the Son was always a Son And though he be a Father by a relative notion and not according to his substance yet nothing is said to be in God by accident as if he were mutable That peculiarity of a Son in Christ distinguisht from us is best set down by St. Paul with least curiosity Rom. viii 32. God spared not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Filio proprio non pepercit we read he spared not his own Son That Translation doth not altogether satisfie me for at the third verse of the same Chapter we read God sent ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is more emphatical he spared not his own proper Son Therefore though we be truly called Sons yet not so properly as Christ But David would be any thing though it were but a door-keeper to be in the house of the Lord so let us be stiled which way soever the Sons of God and it sufficeth Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God And tu es Filius say the Fathers upon my Text comports that the captivity and servitude of the Old Law is changed into the liberty of Sons Adoptio est similitudo filiationis naturalis Adoption makes him that was not born a Son be taken into the similitude of a Son And we have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear that was the condition of the Law but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father What an Ocean of comfort breaks into our soul upon this Meditation Five thousand Cubits higher than all the comforts of this world as the waters in the time of Noah are said to be fifteen Cubits higher than the tallest Mountains For first If we be Sons of God Christ will not refuse us to call us Brethren Yea when he was risen from the dead in his glory he sent Mary Magdalen to his Disciples saying Go tell my Brethren Secondly To be exalted to be a Son doth enfranchise us to take the inheritance of the Kingdom of heaven For if Sons then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Rom. viii 17. Thirdly If Sons it is a great word but I speak it by authority of Scripture then we are Gods Psal lxxxii 6. I have said ye are Gods and ye all are children of the most highest For God made his Son participant of our infirmity that by the merit of his humiliation we might be made participants of his Divinity And besides Consolation great names are great Engagements O what a strict exercise of holiness and obedience lies upon his soul that will be called the child of God Noli degenerare a praecelsis cogitationibus filiorum Dei Degenerate in nothing beneath that high cogitation how thou art become the Son of the most high Should I that am made partaker of divine Parentage surfet my body with meats and drunkenness Why it is loathsom in a Swine Should I satisfie my lust promiscuously against the bond of Matrimony Why it is odious in a Dog Or should the Sons of light lay snares in the dark to malice and despite the innocent O it is detestable in the Devil Be not a foolish Son to dishonour your heavenly Father It is observed in many of the noble Romans Cato Scaurus Cicero Antoninus how they were unhappy in nothing so much as that they had Posterity for their vicious branches blemish'd the glory of the root from which they sprung So a dissolute Christian makes that venerable name of Father come into contempt and reproach Mallem videre de malis editum quà m de bonis lapsum as Cassianus said It were better for a Reprobate that his Father were an Amorite and his Mother an Hittite than to be a stain to the heavenly Parentage when he is called to be a Son of God It was the motive which St. Austin pressed from the example of the Heathen if Varro was not ashamed to encourage valiant men to think themselves descended from Jupiter and Hercules or some other heathen Puppit though they belied their knowledge that the fancy of coming from such Progenitors might provoke them to great Atchievements Then a Christian is engaged to all manner of Divine and very Heroical works of godliness when his heart shall
time which the Devil chose to set upon him then says my Text that is in the next place after his Baptism which went before Immediately says St. Mark as soon as ever the voice from heaven had said This is my beloved Son 4. Christs manner of addressing himself to the combate He was led up of the Spirit or as St. Luke more emphatically Being full of the Holy Ghost he was led by the Spirit 5. Here are the Lists where the Combate was fought or at least begun to be fought the Wilderness Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit c. Christ put himself upon a Tentation that is the first part of the Text and the Load-star by which all is guided that pertains to the whole matter which I am to handle in this story Other things did fall out at the same time but this was the drift of our Saviour For although we read that he fasted forty days in the Wilderness yet the purpose of his going thither ultimately was not to fast but to be tempted fasting was an accessory he must fast when he was there because there was no food to be had So Moses fasted forty days in Mount Horeb yet he went not up to the Mountain to fast but to receive the Tables of the Law Therefore St. Mark says that Christ was forty days in the Wilderness tempted of Satan but he never speaks of his fasting It is true He did expose himself to both those infirmities in his body he suffered hunger in his soul tentation both at once but his purpose was not to shew how his natural body could subsist a long time without the sustenance of meats but to manifest his strength and innocency in the trial of Tentation That he might say with Davids words and St. Austin says they are his own speech and his own words Psal cxviii 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me There are many things which will leave our wits in a maze if we cast our eye down from the top of Christs Majesty to the bottom of his infirmity the bread which came down from heaven did hunger strength it self was weak comfort it self was sad and heavy life it self did die but that purity and innocency it self in which no unrighteousness could be found should be instigated over and over to most horrid sins raiseth one point of admiration more than any thing else Magnum fuit facinus Deum conspui alapis caedi verum haec omnia ad malum paenae spectant c. It is a mystery of humility that God himself would be spit upon and beaten and be crown'd with thorns it was very much and yet these at the very worst were but the evils of punishment to be sollicited to distrust in his Fathers providence to be ambitious to be an Idolater these are far more incompetent to the Son of God because they are the evils of sin Let me search it therefore very diligently through all the causes which may be useful to your learning and instruction why Christ would be tempted of the Devil First He yielded himself to be assaulted with strong provocations of evil that he might pity us the more because he knew in his own case and trial what hard encounters we had with the enemy As if a General of a field would lie perdew take his rest on the bare ground assign a place unto himself in battel where he knew there was the greatest danger that he might the better understand and commiserate the distress of the common Souldier St. Paul comforts his brethren the Hebrews with a double consolation First That Christ our High Priest is gone into heaven to make intercession for us there Secondly That he bore all our afflictions upon earth and knows our infirmities here Heb. iv 14. Says he we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens and we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all Points tempted like as we are yet without sin so far as sin might not be admixed or have any place in him so far there was no kind of sorrow or tentation which we undergo but he bore his part therefore he sustain'd not the languors of feavours or sickness which are contracted usually by Luxury always by ignorance to preserve the constitution of our body in good plight both which are most unworthy of this High Priest And as for sin he suffered the outward invitement of tentation in great measure but not the inward rebellion of concupiscence to which we are obnoxious in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let not our hope therefore be utterly pressed down with the weight of our sins Christ will have compassion because he knows the devices of our Adversary and how feeble we are to make resistance his Spirit shall not strive with man because he is but flesh and if weak flesh be overcome sometimes by the spirit of darkness he will not be extreme to mark what is done amiss Quia fragilis est in homine conditio non eos ad aeternos servabit cruciatus says St. Hierom Every trespass wherewith our frail nature is deceived by the devil shall not be punished with eternal fire And the knowledge of God discerning of what corrupt metal we are made doth not only cause him to free us from eternal torments but also to mitigate his temporal chastisements Gen. viii 21. And the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth Because the imaginations of mans heart are so evil and will lead him into disobedience therefore the Lord is merciful Once he destroyed the whole earth because all flesh had corrupted its way to satisfie his Justice but no more than once that he might not turn justice into wormwood and bitterness Sweetly St. Ambrose the Lord extended his universal revenge but once Vindicta ad timorem proficit magis quà m ad naturae commutationem quae corrigi in aliquibus potest in omnibus mutari non potest The Lord doth not reiterate his universal punishments for he knoweth that depraved nature may be corrected in some it cannot be changed in all Moses in this point is seconded by David that the discerning of our infirmities doth stir up Gods compassion Psal ciii 14. Like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Novit enim figmentum nostrum for he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust That is no marvel indeed says Gregory to say he knows our frame and the stuff whereof we are made for there is nothing hid from his knowledge What special notice doth he take of it more than any thing else Gregory answers Figmentum nostrum scire est hoc in seipso ex pietate suscepisse He knows our frame more nearly and intimately
because he assumed such a frame such a natural body into the unity of his own Person Naturam nostram non solùm creando novit sed etiam assumendo He knows the condition of mans nature not only by Creation but also by Assumption Cyril of Alexandria did foresee an objection might rise from hence and thus prevents it What if the Word had not been made flesh Had not the Word notwithstanding perfectly known all the diseases and infirmities which hapned to that mass of flesh which it self created Yet it is answered that Christ had he never been incarnate had known the very secrets of our hearts and reins only he had not adjoyned this knowledge unto himself after the experimental manner This is the difference only which doth actuate our comfort much the more Scientiae divinae ea notitia quam effert experientia accessit That knowledge which is feeling and experimental was added to the divine omnisciency He knoweth whereof we are made he hath shared our mourning our sorrows and tentations he knows this dunghil metal of ours is full of putrefaction and he pities it To this one alluded ingenuously that Christ did anoint the eyes of the blind man with spittle and clay Joh. ix 6. Vt seipsum excitaret magìs tali spectaculo ad commiserationem That he might behold that object to stir up his commiseration You see by all this I have built upon a sure ground that our Saviour knowing experimentally the conflict of tentations what a mighty Giant this Goliah is that defies the Israel of God and how weak we are to make resistance it takes away the edge of his severity and enables him to plead our pardon before his Father So we our selves ought not be iron Judges unrelenting Censors but to look upon delinquents with a passionate regard and to pass our sentence upon offenders with this dram of moderation at least in our judgments we our selves have been tempted and know how hard it is to resist the devices of the Devil Secondly The first Adam was disgracefully overthrown by the Serpent therefore the second Adam did redeem this disgrace by overthrowing the Serpent in his own Tentations for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. iii. 8. The Scripture accommodates a Parable to make us remember it Luk. xi 22. Satan is the strong man that kept his Palace in peace for he held a Princedom over the Sons of men but a stronger than he came upon him even our Lord and Saviour and overcame him and took away his Armour wherein he trusted and divided his spoiles Dignus vindice nodus a recovery fit for him that had the greatest power in heaven and earth that the Sons of men might sing Songs of triumph not David hath killed his ten thousand but Christ hath subdued that enemy that exalted himself above all that were made after the Image and likeness of God Alexander moved Calisthenes to tell him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã how a man might purchase to himself a name to be the most famous of all men Calisthenes gave him a smart answer ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Let him kill the most famous of all men I suppose he ment of his enemies and this our great Champion hath done for us by frustrating and retorting all the tentations of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils It was our nature which he so much contemned that made him contemn the Son of God and adventure upon the holiest of all with confidence to get the day all the Posterity of mankind were so baffled in Adam that when Christ walked about in the similitude of man Satan supposed it was but Veni vici Come and conquer This day therefore the reproach was taken away from us when our chief Captain shewed the way that even flesh yet not through the arm of flesh but by the Spirit should be able to subdue our Ghostly enemies Thirdly Not only our former stain and ignominy is repaired because Christ was tempted and overcame but since that time also tentations have not that irresistible force which they had before their malignity is much abated Some ancient Writers especially Origen have puzzled their wits to conjecture what loss the Devil incurs when he is foiled in a tentation One thought that the same Devil could never tempt again like a Captive that yields himself up to the Conquerour and is never suffered to bear Arms again Others had rather say that the same infernal spirit could never turn head against the same Person any more who had once got the Mastery Others thought but themselves knew no reason for it that the Devil once repelled cannot tempt to the same sin any more I wish no man to build his judgment upon such divinations Beelzebub is by interpretation the God of a Fly Chase away Flies and yet the sent which allured them before draws them back again to the corruption which they had suckt before so I take it for an allowed truth that the Devil retires not quite for any repulse but as we see it in men or beasts in any Duel the longer they are beaten the worse they fight So the more we quench the firy darts of the Devil the more we disable his despight and make him impotent If the Tempter could have foreseen that Heroick vertue in Job and in the holy Martyrs he would have recoiled away and not touch'd their person Now every man reaps the fruit and praise of his own labours but the valiant acts and victories of our Saviour are publick advantages for as his Death had a mortifying force against the Old man which is in us and a quickning force toward the New man so his Tentations had a dulling force against the Devil and a strengthening force for us to make our arms break a bow of steel Ideo tentatus est Christus ne vincatur à tentatore Christianus says St. Austin Christ did vanquish the Devil in his own tentations that we might be unvanquishable This is our confidite Joh xvi 33. Be of good chear I have overcome the world Si tu vicisti gaude quid ad nos The Father makes one return a churlish answer rejoyce your self if you have overcome what is that to us Yea Beloved this is our Interest that his skirmishing is our peace and his victory is our triumph O how he hath sanctified tentations and made them wholsom which before were rank poyson Those things which were the baits to draw us to damnation are now become the instruments of our happiness blessed is the man that endureth tentation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of life Whosoever perceives his own concupiscence allure him to do evil let him call for a Second to aid him if he be not able himself to endure the brunt I mean for Jesus Christ he will be a party in all those quarrels if you call upon him faithfully ever
us that we may be condemned and Christ upbraided on this wise See these Servants of yours see those Children of men how full of all iniquity they are for whom you have shed your precious bloud These slanders and foul detractions of his though we do not hear them yet I have satisfied you so far herein out of my Text because his name imports them But we do feel it to our hurt and molestation that he is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Tempter as it is in the third verse of this Chapter The word it self I would not have you think it is altogether evil for even God is said to tempt man Non ut ipse sed ut ij quos tentat se cognoscant says St. Austin not that he may bring any thing to light which was unmanifested to him but that our own effects may be known to our selves and to all the world as Deut. xiii 3. The Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul but the vulgar Latin reads it Vt palam fiat to make it known that you love him Again one man may tempt another to find what excellency is in him as the Queen of Sheba came to prove Solomon with hard questions besides there is a good Tentation wherein a man is bound to prove and to try himself Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves 2 Cor. xiii 5. In all these acceptions the Word is innocent but there is an abusive Phrase for man to tempt God as if we had not good experiment of his power and goodness but would search it further but let not us tempt Christ as some of them tempted and were destroyed of Serpents 1 Cor. x. 9. Lastly the word Tentation taken for allurement and provocation to sin is proper to Satan and to Satans instruments Among military rules this is one in all Authors it brings some advantage with it to study the nature and condition of our enemy I will beat a little upon that advice I have met with some who have humm'd and haw'd at it whether there were any Devils or no as if it were a thing that were disputable Perchance these give credit to nothing further than their outward senses apprehend after the manner of beasts or like the Sadduces that held there was neither Spirit nor Angel because they could see none If you ask them if Christ did not cast out divers Devils from those that were possessed their evasion is perhaps those might be enormous sins But could sins which are no substance but qualities cry out and tear a man and run into the Swine and confess Christ This is such an opinion says a late Writer Ac si oves putarent fabulam esse de lupis as if the Sheep should think Wolves were but a tale there were no such creatures that sought to devour them St. Austin brings in such an unbeliever objecting How should I overcome Satan How should I repel him whom I cannot see or perceive Well enough says the Father Facile habent remedium se ipsos interius vincant de illo foris triumphant overcome the instigations of evil motions within and you triumph over the Devil without None hath described the puissance of our ghostly enemies more tragically than St. Paul Eph. vi 12. We wrastle not against flesh and bloud but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses in high places Every word of this description is Vae vae Woe be to them that are not strong to resist Our Adversaries in their essence are Spirits in their form invisible in their designs wicked in their power rulers of this world in their subtilties dealers in darkness in their place they have the higher ground much above our reach they hover in the air in high places The Prophet Isaiah demonstrated the weakness of the Egyptians That their horses were flesh and not Spirit Isa xxxi 3. The odds are the more against us that our adversaries are Spirit and not Flesh Daemonum tanto major nequitia quantò natura nobilior says Aquinas The more noble is the nature of hellish Fiends the more dangerous is their wickedness The more fleshly is our nature the more weak our resistance An Epicuraean will say perhaps that gives himself over to all licentiousness it is not in me to withstand the assaults of the Devil why should I go about it since I am made of a corruptible Elementary substance which cannot hold out against a spiritual wickedness But to make all such sinners inexcusable God hath made us a recompence and we have as good help on our side to say the least of it as they have of theirs partly by the help of his assisting grace partly by the Ministry of good Angels Some there are likewise that cry out man is unequally dealt withal because the Princes of darkness have that odds of us in their multitude they boast that their name is Legion Dionysius called the Areopagite as I read it in Aquinas reduceth the damnation of all sinners to this Multitudo Daemonum est causa omnium malorum the world is so over-laid with numbers of Devils that from thence ariseth all damnation I would not set so much by that single authority if St. Hierom had not said Communis est doctorum opinio this is the common received opinion of the Doctors Aer iste coelum terram medio dividens plenus est contrariis fortitudinibus The whole Element of the Air between heaven and earth is full of Diabolical troops that rise up against our soul and oppose our Salvation Howsoever this is but opinion and I am sure the Scripture doth no where put us in the perplexity of such a terror And that of Anthony the Eremite is confessed to be but a dream that he saw all the space between heaven and earth full of Satans snares to catch the souls of men Against these dreams and opinions I set the saying of Elisha on the one hand There are more that be with us than against us And the promise of our heavenly Father to the Children of Israel on the other hand One of you shall chase a thousand and two of you shall put ten thousand to flight Howsoever in all distress of tentation here is our refuge in this or the like Prayer Wilt thou suffer the destroyer O Lord to prevail against me Wilt thou permit him to say there there we have devoured him God spake once and twice that power belongeth unto God Semel atque iterum ob firmitatem once and twice because that truth is strongly established He that hath said unto the proud waves of the Sea hitherto shall ye go and no further He doth say unto Satan Hitherto shalt thou tempt and no farther It is not for the Devils deserving but for the wicked mans undeservings that God doth give him his
licet sometimes Go and do harm upon the earth I will permit thee that thou be a lying Spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets Non merito malitiae ejus sed transgressionis humana data est ei hujusmodi potestas says a Schoolman Not for the good that he hath done but for the much evil that we have done He is made a Prince of the world therefore turn unto the Lord and he will quickly cancel Satans Commission A Tragedian upon the Roman Theater repeating this verse Nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es the Auditors did all apply it immediately to Pompey surnamed the Great thou art grown to the name of great by our baseness and servile flattery So we have made our arch enemy a great tyrant by our rebellion and iniquity Therefore do you but cry out De profundo clamavi out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord and the Lord will bind him that hath bound us in our sins in the bottomless pit I have expatiated thus far upon the condition malice number and efficacy of these spiritual wickednesses in high places Now I restrain my self to meditate how at this time Satan chose out Christ for his object Our Saviour was not touch'd upon by the Tentations of the World or of the Flesh but he was tempted of the Devil And St. Cyprian gives a sweet reason for it Honestiùs cum spiritu quà m cum carne luctamur nemo libidinum morsus evasit illaesus A man may preserve his holiness and integrity and yet encounter the Devil No man is troubled with the concupiscence of the World or of the Flesh but he comes off with some detriment You shall know what all these three tentations are severally and then mark if it be not true First For the tentation of the World that is when some unlawful desire is stirred up in a man to wish inordinately some things in the world The world therefore is said to tempt by casting objects in our way which are occasions to make us stumble and fall as the shadow in the water made the Dog let go his piece of flesh says he in the Fable Secondly For the tentation of the flesh that is sometimes taken for all manner of wrong desire that opposeth reason or faith so Idolatry Witchcrafts Heresies Seditions are called the works of the flesh Gal. v. 20. but properly it is our affection towards some sensual things against reason or the Word of God either in the avoidance of some evils of punishment which should be sustained or in coveting some pleasures which should be avoided According to St. Pauls stimulus in carne whereof I spake before Both these you see leave some mark and impression of evil behind them for sin is sin in the first suggestion and could in no wise be competible to Christ who was a Lamb without blemish in all respects And whereas Satan propounded stones to be made bread and all the glory of the kingdoms of the World Divines do rightly distinguish Christ was not tempted of the world or of the flesh Ad ea tamen quae carnis mundi sunt but he was sollicited by Satan to enjoy the pomp of the world and to embrace those pleasures wherein the flesh lusteth against the Spirit Thirdly It remains alone since he would be an High Priest tempted with like infirmities unto us that he should be tempted of the Devil for that assault might happen with all the might and main that Satan could direct it and yet Christ be blameless and undefiled according to that Text The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Joh. xiv 30. That sin doth not follow as a necessary effect from such a tentation of the Devil I prove it two ways 1. From that common rule Peccatum in actu proprio consistit That which is the act of another cannot be called my sin my sin must be my own proper act Therefore if the suggestion of Satan had no success with me it was his envy but the resistance shall be imputed to me for innocency 2. I prove it from another rule speaking only of actual sins Nemo peccat propter id quod vitare non potest No man is put into such a plunge that sin is inevitable that he could not choose but sin Who can hinder it that Satan shall not so much as offer to seduce me I cannot avoid the attempts of the evil Spirit but through Christ I may avoid to consent unto him It is impossible but scandals and tentations should come but woe unto him by whom they come The difference between us and our High Priest is this Satan creeps into us by invisible insinuations he slides into the inward closet of our breast and there begets polluted imaginations libidinous delights wicked designs and intentions There he gets in says Biel though we perceive not any such guest in the inward room Sicut lumen penetrat in profundum aeris ibidem manet As the light is transfused through the air though the air feel it not A fit similitude for the Angel of darkness But the tempter came to Christ not by an inward induction but in an outward visible appearance And his presence or his speech were no more contagious to Christ than when the Sons of God stood before the Lord Satan also was among them and had leave to speak his mind against that holy patient man Job i. 7. I will conclude this Point and begin that which shall end all Jam. i. 13. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man He cannot be tempted with evil therefore that exteriour pulsation of the Devil was no ensnarement to Christ and Chrysologus makes this use of my Text take heed ye repine not at God for the author of evil and tentation they are the works of Lucifer and his Angels When you hear those Fiends make it their office to tempt an office not imposed by their Maker but assumed by their own malice In Deum hoc non imputent homines astris non imputent naturam non criminentur Revile not God throw not the mischief upon nature pick no quarrels with the Stars You see whose work it is heaven and earth are Gods and sin is the Devils God hath made his good Angels to be our custody and appoints them their Provinces how and whom they shall protect Evil instigations impugnations are from the Spirits of darkness only God appoints the order as he shall see fit for the punishment of rebellious ones that have forsaken him Deus ordinatè novit uti malo Evil tentations are the Devils God whose Providence guideth all things doth sometimes restrain and limit them always methodize and direct them Whom in the end of all we call upon by hearty and zealous Prayer to assoil and defend us from our ghostly enemies AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv
and harmless to him and at last he was fain to tell the men of the Land that they were metamorphosed into beasts and into the worst kind of all O ye Generations of vipers c. Son of man says God to Ezekil thou dwellest among Scorpions But Son of God thou didst die and wert crucified among Scorpions he changed for the worser company when he came from the beasts in the champion fields to the Pharisees in Jerusalem But to what a diminution of his excellency did Christ descend To what a low fall from that glory which was due unto him To be cast out from among the company of Angels into a desart to be a companion of beasts He before whom thousand thousands are said to minister and ten thousand thousands are said to stand before him Dan. vii 10. Instead of this Royal Train none but the savage cattel compass him round about His humility is the expiation of our pride he consorts with beasts that we may have fellowship with Angels He lives peaceably with Wolves and Tygers to obtain grace for us through the merit of his obedience that our brutish affections may be subject to reason and to the Law of God So St. Hierom made me bold with this Allegory Tunc bestiae nobiscum sunt cum caro non concupiscit adversus spiritum Then we and the beasts live quietly together when the Flesh doth not covet against the Spirit None of these descants which I have drawn from the best antiquity upon Christs removing into the Wilderness but were fit to be noted I have my own share to cast in that herein Christ was a lively exhibition of the Type of the Scape Goat of which you shall read a strange Ceremony Lev. xvi 20. The High Priest was not to come at all times into the holy place within the Vail no more than once a year First he was to offer a Bullock for a sin-offering for himself then he was to present two Kids of the Goats before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle according as the lot fell the one Goat was slain and his bloud sprinkled within the Vail As for the other this Ceremony was appointed Aaron put both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and did confess all the iniquities of the children of Israel over him and did put them upon the head of the Goat and the Goat did bear away their Iniquities into a Land not inhabited and he was let go into the Wilderness The Learned in their best conjectures do expound it after this sort in an Allegory By the Goat which was slain and sacrificed they understand the Humane Nature of Christ for Christ suffered only in his flesh By the Scape-goat they understand his Divine Nature for according to his Divinity he could not die he could not be crucified and yet it was the infinite value of that nature that bore away all our Iniquities For as God could not suffer for sin so man alone could not satisfie for sin Thus by very good Analogy our Saviour Christ is the Scape-goat upon whose head we laid all our sins And the better to give light to this Mystery he was really sent into the Wilderness in my Text to put us in mind that the Goat which was sent away into a Land uninhabited was a Type of him and therefore St. Mark speaks of a violent expulsion Expulit eum in desertum The Spirit did drive him into the Wilderness A little spoken concerning these Typical shadows will quickly rise to enough I come to that Doctrine which is aptest to conclude the first general part of my Text how Christ made himself often a stranger to this world and shewed it by retiring unto unfrequented places Quasi in mundo extra mundum ageret says one as if he minded another world much more when he lived in this His flesh was not ill pampered or fatned for sin and yet he fasted His integrity was untaintable ill examples could not seduce him the viciousness of the age could not infect him yet he drew back sometimes from those scandalous contagions as if he had said to one of us or to every one of us give thy soul such respite sometimes that it may abandon all earthly cares for a time and have leisure to talk with God As Christ invites his Church from the empestring of multitudes of people and secular businesses Come my beloved let us go forth into the field let us lodge in the Villages Cant. vii 11. We had need of longer Vacations than Terms more rest to serve God than stirring days to enrich our selves that we may ask God forgiveness at leisure for the sins which we did commit in our business Come ye apart into a desart place and rest awhile says our Saviour to his Disciples Mar. vi 31. All cannot receive this saying you will say all have not the way and opportunity to retire themselves bodily from the conflux of the world but there is a way for every man that his mind may pluck it self out of the throng and adhere to God So St. Cyprian bears off all objections from this exhortation Etsi omnes diversorium non excipiat loci animi tamen omnino necessaria est solitudo All men cannot cast the World behind their back and go alone into remote places but it is necessary for the heart of every man to say often my God and I am alone together I am solitary with him often in the midst of troubles God hath made man a sociable creature if the contagion of the world doth not make him unsociable Who can live with patience or comfort where he sees the Creator of Heaven and Earth dishonoured daily No reverence in the lips of children but swearing and prophanation No faithfulness in mens words but deceit and guile The trust of Guardians turn'd to supplantation the league of Friendship turn'd to treachery the bond of Wedlock so impiously so often wronged in Adultery Whom can the Living trust for righteous dealing Whom can the dying trust for an upright Executor What good man doth not feel the passions of Lot within himself at the recital of these things His soul vext with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites and therefore from thence he was glad to fly and retire to Zoar This made the Prophet Jeremy complain O ye that dwell in Moab leave the Cities and dwell in the Rock Chap. xlviii 28. Fuge seculi mare naufragium non timebis says St. Ambrose Sail away into some little streams and leave that Ocean of ungodliness which is in the most frequented places and ye shall not fear Shipwrack St. Basil extols it in the height of Gorgias the Martyr his praise that he left his native soil and all society and made the desolate woods his habitation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he detested the buyers and sellers the forswearers and liars I told you before that Eremitical solitariness was much in danger of tentation but one
answers it better fight single against Satan one to one in the Wilderness than fight against Satan and wicked men who will entice you to sin as fast as Satan Therefore let them take out my Lesson and eschew the frequent Societies of populous places who find the Contagion of pestilent multitudes rub some rust upon them and infect their integrity It is not the place but the corruptions of the place which the meditations of the Fathers gathered out of my Text do lead you to abandon therefore the words of our Saviour shall stand in the last place to shut up this Point Joh. xvii 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them that is the Disciples out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil So much for the circumstance of the place My Sermon thus far hath been upon the Wilderness against the handling of the next Point it is fit to ask What went we forth into the Wilderness to see Why to behold Christ fasting before he fought with the Devil Though that is not all he did there for there is much more behind yet this is enough to make it worth our labour Esurivit panis sicut defecit via sicut vulnerata est sanitas sicut mortua est vita says St. Austin By the same wonderful dispensation that the way of life was weary health it self was wounded life it self died by the same dispensation the bread of life fasted and was afterwards an hungry A sanctified fast hath two religious ends in it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as St. Paul says 1. To chastise our own body and to take revenge upon it 2. To put it into a good temperature for the minds sake Neither of these causes could be set before Christ in this long fast for his Flesh had never rebelled against the Spirit neither was there any inordinateness in his natural constitution which could be corrected by temperance Some therefore hold an opinion that Christ went not into the Wilderness to fast that fell out so indeed and was a necessary accessory because there was no food to be had You know the people ran after Christ into these spacious fields to hear Christ preach and not to fast with him yet there they continued three days fasting and had nothing to eat until four thousands were fed miraculously with five loaves and two fishes In like manner Moses went not up into the Mount to fast but to receive the Tables and truly this opinion is not to be contemned for St. Mark remembers that he was in the Wilderness tempted of Satan and quite omits his fasting This is prest the more zealously by some and with sufficient probability to shew upon what weak foundation they build who fetch it from hence that Christ observed the fast of forty days on purpose to constitute a yearly Lent in the Church for ever or a Quadragesimal fast for if it were by accident that Christ fasted here that can be no constitution of his intendment Nor indeed did he appoint any such thing as I will shew in just time Yet I concur not in the main sentence with those Authors for it seems to me this was purposed by Christ to go into the Desart and spend his time in Prayer and Fasting Now was the conflict at hand now was the first institution and undertaking of the greatest matter in the world the salvation of mankind and could not begin with a better Praeludium than an extraordinary Fast In this I will be directed by the interlineal gloss Jejunat ut tentetur tentatur quia jejunat He did fast that he might provoke tentations against himself and he did provoke tentations because he fasted For the better explication of the causes why he was pleased to fast I will lay down the distinction of Christs will as I find it considered in the School three ways Sicut ratio est unibilis corpori sicut est omnino conformis Deitati ratione membrorum 1. The soul is united to the body and for that union sake the will desireth the good of the whole man 2. God and man were united in Christ into one person therefore his will was subject in all things to the divine Law and pleasure 3. He was the head of the body which is the Church and therefore his will did graciously affect the prosperity of his members In these three respects there are so many causes of moment why Jesus fasted 1. Because it is profitable to conserve the whole man against tentations 2. It was the divine pleasure to provoke the Devil to give the onset by macerating and enfeebling his body and Satans foil was the greater because he was the challenger 3. He had regard unto his members to avenge himself on the Tempter by the victory of temperance who brought sin into the world through our first Parents by the sin of Gluttony Other causes I leave behind for refutation First I say it gives us a lesson to fast and withdraw the ordinary sustenance from the body when we perceive our selves in likelihood to encounter some temptation King Jehosaphat had a great battle to fight with the Ammonites and before the conflict he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah 2 Chron. xx 3. So did Esther when she undertook the great danger to go in to Ahasuerus against the Law to intercede for the deliverance of the whole Nation of the Jews she would not venture upon so great a peril unless all the Jews would fast three whole days before the Lord and neither eat nor drink Est iv 16. What should I say more out of many examples Ezra suspecting what great opposition he should find to re-edifie the Temple of the Lord he proclaimed a Fast that all the People might afflict themselves before God Ezra viii 21. And St. Basil a great Practiser of this doctrine as any was in the world which is better than a Teacher bid all his Scholars take it upon his word that Sobriety was the best Antidote in the world to expel the venom of the Devil This holy Father was so good a spiritual Physician that the Church had not a better since his time I think to prescribe a good diet for the soul Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomack poor Lazarus went fasting to heaven scarce fraught with the crums of the rich mans Table Moses did fast upon Sinah for forty days when he talked with God But the People who in the mean time did commit Idolatry sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Daniel refused the meat and drink allowed him from the Kings Table ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to honour his temperance and fasting the very Lions into whose Den he was cast were taught to fast and hunger and not to eat up Daniel who was thrown before them to be a prey unto their teeth Thus far he If you ask me wherein we honour God in what part it
Receiver Also we apply general Promises to our selves by the word of absolution For although God only pardons sins yet he hath promised to his Priests if our hearts be well disposed to admit their work Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis What they loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven but the special motive is the inward testimony of the Holy Ghost speaking in the conscience of true believers by the effects of grace This last is it which is opposed by some namely that there is no assurance ordinarily begot by the Testimony of the Spirit to a mans private spirit that he is the child of God But this I will prove This is not denied that this is the faith of the Gospel on which we lay hold for eternal life whosoever truly believeth on Christ he shall be saved and cannot a man infallibly infer but I do through Gods grace truly believe in Christ Cannot a man search into his own heart that he doth receive Christ not only in his judgment by a firm willing and unfained assent but also by an earnest desire to be made partaker of him and by a setled resolution to acknowledge him to be his Saviour Surely the mind is not ignorant of its own actions when it understandeth when it assenteth it knoweth it self to assent when it desireth it knoweth it self to desire when it resolveth it knoweth it self to resolve Much more is it able to examine it self being holpen by the Spirit of God I may boldly say the Letter of the Scripture is not more plain for any point of Divinity than for this Rom. viii 16. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God Either we can feel this witness and make use of it or to what end is it given And why else are we bidden to feel and try that good work of the Spirit if it be in our selves Examine your selves whether you be in the faith 2 Cor. xiii 5. The true sorrowful penitent hath not less comfort now than if Christ were still upon the earth But to some of them while he lived in Jury it was graciously spoken Daughter be of good chear ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã be confident thy sins are forgiven thee And again I have prayed Peter that thy faith may not fail he let Peter know so much that he might enjoy that comfortable perswasion They that oppose frame this retorsion Some of the most excellent Saints as Peter and Paul knew that Christ did live in them and that they were living members of his body for whom God had received the Crown of life yet this they attained unto not by the ordinary strength of faith but by extraordinary revelation No such matter for says St. Peter Give deligence to make your Calling and Election sure This exhortation were frustrate to stir up our diligence for that work if certitude of salvation come only by extraordinary revelation and St. Paul protesting that neither life nor death could separate not himself only but us many more of the Elect from the love of God draws his perswasion from such reasons as were common to him with all the Saints Rom. viii 32. to the end of the Chapter Because God hath not spared his own Son for our sakes because with him he would freely give us all things because Christ is risen from the dead because he sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us And now I will draw up my meaning in this first conclusion 1. Nothing but true faith can breed this particular application that any regenerate person should have affiance for his own salvation 2. That true faith doth not attain it in all but is kept back in many by tentations afflictions weakness want of instruction 3. Every good Christian ought to endeavour to get this assurance 4. Many without presumption have that stedfast and infallible comfort of Christs mercies applied unto themselves 5. In all that are truly justified it hath a sure foundation to beget it if they would well examine it Let no man therefore cavil upon any of these Points single unless he remember them all together The second conclusion follows the Holy Ghost doth beget this certitude of salvation in some measure in the faithful by causing them to examine what good fruits they have produced already from a lively faith and do firmly resolve to produce hereafter Let a well-guided conscience search how contritely we have repented us of those sins which we have committed What good works we have brought forth I mean good in their kind according to the manifold imperfections of our frailty examine whether they were done to be praised of men for fear of the Magistrate for fear of infamy or for Gods glory Whether we would not willingly leave all we have life and all rather than lose our integrity Examine all these things after Gods Word and not after the fashion of the world and what strong and serious resolutions you have for the time to come and upon strict inquiry if you find a good account then conclude I feel the Lord dwell in me by his holy Spirit I feel by these good effects he will not forsake me If any look for Enthusiasms as if God should whisper this to them in their ear they are much deceived Mark by what Index St. Paul directs us by the marks of sanctification There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And St. John clean throughout his first Epistle Hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments And by this we know we are translated from death to life if we love the brethren St. Austin thus upon it for an interpreter Let every man enter into his own heart and if he find there brotherly charity let him be secure for he is passed from death to life I confess it and I admonish you upon it it is no such easie thing as the most imagine to try and find out whether our charity be rooted in a lively faith And in examination of particular actions from whence it must be manifested there may be much deceit much mistaking this causeth doubtings and fears and suppositions and intermissions of confidence Yet this is a possibility to sound the depth of a mans own heart and so St. Austin pleads on my side again A man may know the charity wherewith he loveth his brother better then he knoweth his brother Some there are and not a few who would cloy the Doctrine of special faith with this absurdity That many are encouraged thereby to run on in all manner of iniquity as if it were no matter how many and how grievous sins they committed so long as they were assured by this special application of Christ that all their sins were remitted But mark this second conclusion and it is abundantly enough to put to silence this cavillation
his Sons for he provides not for him Secondly Whosoever wants bread let him never aske God for it but fetch it out of the hard stones get it by any stratagem or device let him remember to furnish himself with the slight of his own wits since God hath forgot him These are the upper and the nether Milstone by which Beelzebub grounds despair and worldly sorrow out of one principle and all manner of injustice and wrong dealing out of the other I called them lately the two Tables of the Devils Law unto which it is easie to reduce the most common sins that reign these two I make the parts of my Text which being throughly traversed will be sufficient to take up my discourse and your attention The first of those false rules which the Tempter teacheth is this that we must measure our filiation that God is our Father and tenders us as his Children by this note namely by our portion in this life if we have a full supply of worldly blessings then call him Father if you be pincht with sharp necessity then never call your self his Son a rule fitter for a beast to know his Master by than for a Christian to know his God by A Dog will wait upon him that gives him Crums under his Table the Oxe by this sign knoweth his Owner the Ass though a stupid Creature knows his Masters Crib by the allowance of his Provender But Brethren will you depend upon such a carnal mark to know the Lord and make your selves fit to be compared with the beasts that perish Fides est rerum invisibilium Faith hath an eye upon invisible things it is the evidence of things not seen But the Devil in his Catechism contradicts the Scripture and says Fides est rerum visibilium If you have not a competency of these things which you see why will you believe you shall be partaker of those things which you do not see Thus the Flesh is so partial in its own behalf that unless it have provision it will not suffer the Spirit to say Thou God carest for me and wilt never forsake me There is a passage well wrought into a Fable that shews the true disposition of a natural man Chremes casts off his Son Clitipho for attempting a Marriage without the consent of his Parents the refractary young man knew not how to revenge himself but pretending suspicion before his mother that he was none of her true Child but some exposed Brat or Changeling whom they had fostered for a time Alienus sum subditus volo parentes meos ut commonstres mihi So the Devil would whisper into our ear if God cast us off and gives us not relief and nourishment it is fit we should disavow him for our Father and especially he thought this a good motive among the Jews who had all temporary blessings promised unto them in great abundance That Promise made them so touchy that they quarrelled yea and denied the Lord which had done so great things for them if their desire were not satisfied At Massa and Meribah when they wanted water Is the Lord among us or no Exod. xvii 7. Upon the pressure of their Enemies the Angel could not make Gideon believe at first that the Most High was the Watchman of Israel that overlook'd them If the Lord be with us why then is all this faln upon us Judg. vi 13. In the Psalms of David it were without end to instance how the Prophet expostulates Awake why sleepest thou Why dost thou turn away thy face Why dost thou not see our misery and trouble And at last seeing Gods enemies have the upper-hand of his Servants in these external blessings my feet were well-nigh moved when I saw the ungodly in such prosperity In this common Theme I take it as I light upon it you shall hear my reasons which flatly check Satans rule that there are and have been divers opprest with necessity and want of bread and yet God doth not cease to be their Father and they must retain the consolation that they are his Sons First and before any thing attend to this consideration If every good Christian were satisfied at all times with temporal blessings we should appear to serve God for our own profit that we might lack nothing which concerned this transitory life But Abraham flies his Country and hath not a foot of ground to dwell upon Jacob and the Patriarchs have no food in Canaan unless they go into Egypt for it Peter and John have not a mite of Silver and Gold no not for the use of Charity that the World may see there are some that serve the Lord for pure zeal and not for the wages of Fortune as we call it The Devil in whom it is proper to calumniate vertue he gasht at Job with his Tusk and slighted his integrity as if he were a mercenary friend of God Doth Job serve God for naught His substance is increased in the Land And therefore to confute Satan the Lord put him to the utmost trial and took away almost all he had It is good humility to say unto out Father with the Prodigal Make me as one of thy hired servants that is Put me into thy Family though I be in the lowest rank a door-keepr in thy house as David said Put me to any drudgery and labour but it is not the meaning he would be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an hireling one that would do his Father just so much service as he was paid for Of such a one the Orator said Non est amicitia sed utilitatis mercatura So in our Dialect we may say It is not to glorifie God but to merchandise Religion Like that saying 1 Sam. ii 36. Put me into one of the Priests Offices that I may eat a piece of bread It is pity he should eat that would not be a Priest to serve at Gods Altar unless he might eat by his Office St. Thomas the Disciple had not yet taken out the true lesson of faith when he required to put his finger into the print of the nails and to thrust his hand into Christ else he would not believe but they are further off than he that will not believe unless they may finger their gains and thrust their hand into the commodity of the world I and perhaps look for honour to boot bare riches will not content them Many Sons of perdition even in the ancient and pure times of the Church started away to rank Atheism and renounced their Baptism upon discontent that some promotion did not fall upon them Ammianus Marcellinus could sây in his time it would encourage a man to be a Christian if he might be chosen Bishop of Rome and so flow with wealth and dignity Gratis poenitet esse bonum O base earthly mind that would be an Infidel unless he might be a rich believer Every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts says Solomon But he that loves God for his
in the Field As the Fable is that the Vnicorn dips his horn into the River and makes it wholsom for all the beasts to drink so the mercy of the Lord shall breath upon all thy sustenance and sanctifie it for chearfulness and health and thy bones shall be filled with marrow and fatness But though we take our meat from God yet through infidelity it seems to me we will not take his word that he will concoct it to vivificate and strengthen us For if you do trust to that secret infusion that he gives unto his gifts why are you so sollicitous what you shall eat and what you shall drink Why do you confect every thing you take with such licious cost Why do you ingurgitate your selves with superfluity I am sure this makes it evident that you will neither trust God nor nature unless all the Art which Luxury and Wantonness can excogitate be added unto it As Elkanah said to Hannah his Wife Am not I better to thee than ten Sons So let it run in your mind as if the Lord spake it to you in your ear Am not I better unto thee than all the Corn in the Fields Than all the Cattel upon a thousand hills Than all the Cookery in the world that can be sweet upon the Palate What is bread What is a plentiful Table without my benediction Man shall not live by bread alone c. The last Proposition shall be the more succintly handled as it is least of all the meaning of the Text. That there is another life for man to look to beside this which is sustained with bread the inward man the spiritual man which lives upon the first word which I handled in my Text Scriptum est it is written Non in solo pane vivet homo non potior pars hominis quae est anima as St. Ambrose The better half of man which is the Soul and Spirit lives not by material bread but by the Word of God A heavenly Doctrine and is not minded yet not the proper and native construction of the verse I confess Yet the reason why some Fathers inclined to that meaning in their Commentaries was forasmuch as Christ mentioned the Word which proceeded out of the mouth of God now indeed that particle Word is not in the Hebrew Text which goes no further than thus Man liveth not by bread alone but by every thing suppose that cometh out of the mouth of God The 72 Translators made it up by every word and so St. Cyprian and others made this plausible sense that bread indeed strengthens mans heart but the soul liveth by the Law of God Yet in this meaning the Devil had had room to prosecute his Argument and would have said Give your soul such comfort as befits the soul yet that is no impediment but the body also must have his necessary refection Satan dares not be so impudent to deny but there is somewhat in man which is to be cared for more than the flesh for he himself is a Spirit which will make him confess that a spiritual substance deserves our sollicitous love before a body which is made of dirt Therefore the banquet for the soul is like Benjamins Mess five times yea five hundred times as good as the victuals of this Carkass Martha was careful to provide meat for the families her Sister Mary sate at our Saviours feet and fed upon the Manna of those divine words which fell from him You know who made the comparison Mary hath chosen the better part A Philosopher that preferred solid knowledge before the best diet could say He had rather be invited by Plato than by any Nobleman in Athens for he that supp'd with him might be the better for his discourse the morrow after O how much better is it then to sup with Christ Sometimes tasting of his Sacrament sometime hearing his Priests deliver the Mysteries of Faith sometime reading the mellifluous story of his Gospel sometime meditating often praying that we may not suffer a famine of the Word which we justly deserve for our sins but that his sayings may sink into our hearts and nourish us that we may grow up from grace to grace from vertue to vertue that we may eat the bread of life in the Kingdom of Heaven and never hunger again AMEN THE TENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City and setteth him on a Pinacle of the Temple AT this Verse Satan fenceth against Christ with a new weapon and after the tentation of the Wilderness Now follows the tentation of the Pinacle wherein Christ fulfilled that Doctrine in the Gospel He that will compel thee to go with him one mile go with him twain for it was no presumption in our Lord to go with him from one trial to another because he was sure he should out-go him As the Romans said of Hannibal their enemy that he was a perpetual fire Cui nihil deerat nisi qui eum excitaret that would instantly flame if any man would stir him up So neither loss nor victory will make the Devil sit down with peace he is a perpetual fire to kindle sin in man that wants nothing but an occasion to stir him up When he could do no good by his first Patent taking away all that Job had he comes and sues for a new Commission that he might touch his flesh and bone Semblably when his first onset took no effect and could not penetrate our Saviour to make him satiate his hunger by unlawful means now he deals with him in a most different way whether he would be taken with pride and vain-glory He that will not despair of his Fathers Providence but that he shall be fed will he then presume of his protection that in the midst of the greatest dangers he shall be preserved Let not the Pontificians take my similitude in ill part for I shall speak no more than the truth As they have particular ways to ravish all mens affections and to fit each humour that every fancy may be satisfied and every appetite find what to feed on they have the dignity of a Cardinal to allure the magnificent mind the humility of a Capuchin to agree with a despiser of the world Employment enough for the stirring metal'd spirit of a Jesuite and ease enough for the sullen restive disposition of a Monk a Cloyster of Virgins for the chaste a street of Curtezans for the dissolute So Satan will be with some in the desart Wilderness with others in the populous City Practiseth with one man upon his hunger and poverty with another upon his ambition no retiring place so low but he hath an Engine to use in that no Pinacle so high but he can reach at that Cum tristibus severè cum remissis jucundè as the Orator did point out Cataline for a Devil incarnate he can sigh with them that want but to make them murmur
using no labour cashiring all providence and yet expecting to live and thrive as well as they that eat the bread of carefulness by the sweat of their brows They look to be Gods Sparrows that lay up nothing neither sow nor reap and yet hope to be fed But Solomon's Pismire is so little that they cannot see the similitude that the sluggard should lay up for Winter and tred after the providence of that forecasting creature When Christ was in the Wilderness far from any provision he made use of his transcendent power to multiply many portions of food out of five loaves and two fishes but when he was near a Town he sent his Disciples to buy some food John 4. There is a way to use this world as if we us'd it not these tanquam non utentes God loves exceedingly such as seek for necessary means of life as if they sought it not such as possess that portion of riches which they have freely charitably being willing to communicate as if they possest it not Finally such as use the delights of the world yet sparingly in offensively as if they us'd it not These I say are tanquam non utentes but wretchless regardless humours such as are absolutely non utentes that will not seek after the natural benefits which God hath given but let his benefits drop down in their mouths like Manna and come to them these contemn Art and Nature and industry these are one rank of them that tempt the Lord. Then they shall stand for the fourth that make holy vows and bind themselves in a perpetual obligation where God hath given no promise of assistance that they shall be able to perform them The Apostles were offended with them that injoyned Christians to observe Judaical Ceremonies after Christs Ascension into Heaven not meerly because the Levitical Law was not only dead and buried but even become mortiferous to them that used it but because there was no promise any longer that the grace of Christ would assist them that undertook that kind of Worship which was discharg'd and abrogated The words of Peter are plain to this sense Acts xv 10. Why tempt ye God to lay a yoke upon the necks of the Disciples God is tempted when ye expect his Grace to bless you in those inventions of Will-worship where he never engaged himself to be present with his holy Spirit I step into this observation some have the gift to be Virgins without any dangerous reluctancy against the rebellion of the flesh all the days of their life but there is no express and punctual promise made that such as will endeavour it pray for it be earnest to attend it should be able to lead a vowed single life without the remedy of Matrimony therefore it is a gross presumption and no modest assurance for any one to bind himself by Vow to perpetual Virginity for such a man or woman will seem to engage God to give them victory over all Concupiscence that they may not be beholding to his holy institution of Matrimony But we see it by woful experience and they are too impudent that deny it how such presumption and tempting of God instead of unspotted Virginity falls very often into most gross carnality Fifthly to use such things again which either always or for the most part have been unto us an occasion of sinning is to tempt the Lord whether he will let those things prevail against our souls which so often have proved unto us an occasion of falling Look not on the wine while it is red in the glass says Solomon and that 's a proverb too which the Prophet useth Put not your finger upon the hole of the asp listen not to a smooth enticing tongue though you think your self and your constancy as impenetrable as flint yet a little rain wears out the hardest stone insensibly we know not how falling drop by drop upon it We do not read what became of Naaman after he craved leave to bow down sometimes in the house of Rimmon I fear his integrity suffered some detriment but I am sure both he and all men else are guilty of those sins towards which they drew near and approach'd when they might have kept further off I am sure we do read of Amnon what an hell of iniquity he brought upon himself when he entreated that his Sister Tamar might stand before him a conscionable man that feared to do evil would have turn'd away his eyes as from a Basilisk a moral man could do it barely to be renowned and spoken of and for no further end ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Alexander he would not look upon those eye-sores the fairest of the Persian women for fear of incontinence Shall not Religion make us as cautelous as popularity made the heathen he that dares sail near the Syrens within hearing hath forfeited himself to unlawful pleasure he that dares come close to the threshold of sin shall be pluck'd into the doors for he hath tempted the Lord his God And sixthly this smells of a most audacious spirit provoking wrath and urging the patient God to indignation when you make slight of all the terrors and minacies in the Law as if they were high words but do what you will they shall never fall upon you this was the first imposture that Satan put upon our first Parents The threatning of the Lord is very strict indeed but nequaquam moriemini do you not regard it you shall not dye O how it exasperates the Divine Justice and draws down severity when any one deludes himself that the vengeance denounced against him is but as one said of the Popes Bull vacui murmur culiciâ the humming of a poor empty gnat Some dispute it with Originists that at the end of certain years the damned shall be released from Hell As for the sentence of eternal fire Magis minaciter quam veraciter dictum Those words have more terror in them then verity Some would make it good by their wit that the souls of Reprobates shall have no sense of rosting and burning in fire but only be damnified and deprived of eternal happiness not to stand before the face of God at least that nothing but the loss of the beatifical presence was threatned against the disobedience of our first Parents And some mens hearts are hardned against all the thundering of Judgments which shall be discovered at the last day as if they were Chimera's or poetical fictions Such as these do most strongly tempt the terrible Judge to open the earth immediately and swallow them up quick into Hell like Dathan and Abiron that their bodies and souls may feel the pains of Hell sooner then all other men because they provokt him with their infidelity I have reserved to speak of one strong temptation in the seventh and last place To ascribe some notable effect unto a thing unto which it was not enabled or appointed by nature or by the Divine Ordinance revealed for such power
death was contrived and his accusation laid before Pilate he that maketh himself a King is not Cesars friend I have often both read it and seen it that Pride Vain-glory Faction and I know not what have been laid to the charge of the Innocent by some uncharitable mouths who have spread it so far that for all their innocency they could never wipe off the stain Many times the more they decline those crimes the more occasion is taken to accuse them Every thing that Paul could say or do to purge himself wrought him envy and misreport that he was turbulent and a mover of sedition He could never shake it off with all his meekness and modesty Well if mischief and defamation must have their course the remedy is easie though it be desperate commend your innocency to God The Lord of life himself was haunted with a wrong opinion from the time that Satan made this motion to his death that he had a purpose to be a Monarch and to display his Banner against Cesar in the quarrel of the Jews for their ancient liberty The people would have made him a King Joh. vi and he hid himself out of the way yet that would not acquit him his very Disciples not seldom but even till after his Resurrection till they saw him taken away to heaven lookt for honourable command and superiority under him It cost the sweet Babes of Bethlem their lives that the Wisemen of the East called him a King It lost him his own life as I toucht upon it before that the children of Jerusalem entertained him with that acclamation Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord Luk. xix 38. That question was and is scandalous to the Jews was and is a stumbling-block to some Gentiles what manner of Kingdom belonged to Christ as he was man Before ever the Magi of the East said Where is he that is born King of the Jews The Angel upon the first tidings of his Incarnation told the blessed Virgin his Mother The Lord shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end Luk. i. 32. From hence some Papalins whom I formerly refuted stile him a Temporal King who bequeathed all his Dominions to his chief Apostle St. Peter and he to one that is his Successor if it please God in all but his Sanctity Then the perfidious Jews object since the Prophets say that the Messias shall be a King and sit upon the Throne of David the Messias is not yet come because Christ did not triumph and exercise Lordly authority upon the Throne of David To draw out truth against both these at once like a two edged Sword I lay down these three things 1. That neither the Prophets nor St. Luke do teach that Christ had a Temporal Kingdom 2. That he had Dominion given to him by his Father over all earthly things but not by way of ruling all things like a King in his Kingdom 3. In most proper and safe construction we must say his was a spiritual Kingdom I will be brief in all these especially in the former To make much ado that Christ had no temporal Kingdom were to light a Candle at Noon-day The case is clear for I hope we will believe him rather than his enemies These are his words Joh. xviii 36. My Kingdom is not of this world if it were my servants would fight for me that I should not be delivered to the Jews but my Kingdom is not from hence He meant say some Papalins that the world gave him no Kingdom neither chose him a King yet he doth not deny but he received an earthly Kingdom from God A most empty Objection For Pilate sate his Judge to examine if he made himself a King to injure Cesar The same Pilate liked his answer so well that he told the Jews he found no fault with him But would Pilate have put it up if he had answered no better That he claimed a Kingdom indeed by a right and title derived from heaven frivolous and the Cavil of the Jews comes to nothing that God would set the Messias upon the Seat of his Father David Stretch not the Phrase too far and the meaning is 1. The Messias should come out of Davids Loins 2. And be a King as David was 3. Not after that way an earthly Potentate but after a more noble glorious perfect way than ever David governed And I pray you how could it be that he should be a King over Judah and Israel as David was when that Kingdom was taken away from Davids house before Christ was born and a Prophesie denounced it should never return to that house again So it was foretold to Jeconiah Jer. xxii 30. Write this man barren there shall be no man of his Seed to sit upon the Throne of David and to have power any more in Judah In a word Scripture elsewhere shews that to sit upon Davids Seat was to have the Jews subject unto him not after a carnal way but to be worshipped of them in spirit and to enjoyn them to keep his Laws and Commandments for their salvation So it is Hos iii. 5. They shall seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days Secondly I said Christ had Dominion given to him by his Father over all earthly things but not by way of ruling all things like a King in his Kingdom for by uniting the Humane Nature to the Godhead through the admirable influence of that Hypostatical Union So the very Manhood was made Lord over all things according to those places Mat. xi All things are delivered unto me of my Father And in these last days he spake unto us by his Son whom he made Heir of all things Heb. i. 2. And that you doubt not how he had power over all things as being man united with God he whose name was called the Word of God had a name written on his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. xix 16. Super femur mark that Vpon his thigh that is upon his Humane Nature Now this in him was of a more eminent and sublimed condition than all Regal Authority on the earth It came to him the most glorious way that ever was by the Hypostatical Union not by Conquest Inheritance Election Donation or any earthly sort 2. His power reacheth not only to command the outward actions but the very thoughts and conscience 3. He is over things sensible and insensible Men and Angels quick and dead heaven and earth and the very Regions of darkness 4. When men die their glory perisheth with them but of this mans Kingdom it is often testified there is no end Yea after his death he rose again and then began his Dominion to be most absolute by many exteriour works It was his pleasure oftentimes to exercise
this power and priviledge even while he debased himself in all humility Did he not consent to the destruction of the Gadarens Swine and curse the barren Figtree Because his jurisdiction extended to any thing in the world Did he not send for the Ass and the Colt with absolute command saying no more but the Lord hath need of them Did he not charge the Souldiers to let his Disciples alone And no man toucht them All these are Arguments of indefinite authority But this Government which is most ample perfect eternal was not after a Regal way as David and Solomon were Kings in Israel It was not contrary to the Rulers of the earth usurping any power to thwart and controule theirs but a transcendent exaltation above them and above all things visible and invisible yet withal he was most obedient and subject unto them paying Tribute unto Cesar and medling with no Humane Laws to divide their Inheritance that were contentious If he had professed himself an earthly King it had hindred the work which he had in hand to perswade men to the contempt of honour and glory Yet having all power given him of his Father it argued the more humility that he made himself subject to most vile men therefore it is put into the Creed that he suffered under Pontius Pilate meaning that he took his death with patience under the authority of a most unjust Governour Therefore St. Austin endites these words as from our Saviours mouth Hear me Jews and Gentiles hear me Circumcision and Uncircumcision hear me all ye Judges of the world Non impedio dominationem vestram in hôc mundo Enjoy the Principalities of this world unto your selves I do not hinder them In the third Conclusion I determined how in most proper and safe construction we must say that Christs Kingdom was a spiritual Kingdom I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Psal ii 6. The Psalm speaks of a spiritual Sion as St. Austin notes because it is termed an holy Sion therefore it must be understood of a spiritual King His Unction was not that Coelestial and not Corporeal With my holy oyl have I anointed him with the grace of Unction Such as the Unction is such must be the Kingdom a spiritual Kingdom His Priesthood was not carnal such as Aarons was but spiritual such as Melchisedechs was Like as was his Priesthood so was his Kingdom Those whom God had given him What were they His Disciples that never forsook him those that were born again of the Spirit His Subjects were Spiritual therefore his Kingdom could not be Terrestrial The Law of Moses was carnal so it was esteemed imperfect and is disannulled the Law of Christ which is set up instead of it is the Gospel which prescribes a reasonable and an holy service Where the Law of Christ is spiritual his Kingdom must needs be within us it is a Ghostly Kingdom Finally all the good things thereof concern the Spirit grace peace of conscience remission of sins and eternal life Says Fulgentius the Gold which the wise men of the East offered him in his Cradle shewed him to be a King but not such a King as will have his Image and Superscription in the Coin but such a one as seeketh his Image in the hearts of the Sons of men After the Angel had said The Lord would give him the Throne of his Father David Mark how divinely the words are qualified in the next verse And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end He shall reign and did reign here not in regno sed in domo in no Monarchy but in a Family in the house of Jacob that is in the houshold of the Faithful for alas they are but a Family to the potent multitudes of Unbelievers One question before I shut up the Point Christ was promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob Principally to Abraham What means the Angel then to omit Abraham and Isaac and to speak of one and no more that he shall reign in the house of Jacob Why the house of Abraham had Ismael as well as Isaac but Ismael was the Seed of the bond-woman which figured those that pertained not to the freedom of the Spirit The house of Isaac had Esau as well as Jacob Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated He reigned not in all the house of Isaac But all the twelve Sons of Jacob were Circumcised all blessed all represented the Church all heirs of the Promise and because Christs Kingdom was totally spiritual in the Faithful and Elect the Angel very properly delivered his Errand that He should reign in the house of Jacob. This last part of my Sermon was very necessary to be insisted upon that our Lord Christ invested himself with no such honour as Satan tendred to him All this power will I give thee and the glory of them Yet he had a Kingly Office adjoyned both with Priestly and Prophetical Offices Those are holy Functions the Devil likes not them he never spoke of them Nay let us have the Priesthood to serve God or let us take nothing without it St. Peter tells us we shall be Regale Sacerdotium a Royal Priesthood We shall have a Kingdom and a Priesthood combined together far exceeding all the power and glory which mortal men do manage Run fervently to the end of the Race and you shall have the prize Deus vult omnes suos athletas coronari says St. Hierom God will have all that try Masteries for his sake receive the Laurel and the Crown of Victory Every Saint hath his Kingdom who is cloathed with immortality and honour to live with the Lamb of God for evermore But you will say What Abraham a King Moses a King Peter and Paul Kings Where are the Nations which they govern Where are their Subjects Regnum est ubi nulli inimico subjicimur non quia populus nobis subjicitur A full answer it is a Kingdom because all our enemies are trodden under our feet not because any of the Blessed are Liege-men and Vassals unto other In the fruition of that Kingdom a main part of the Soveraignty will be that he shall be trodden under our feet who is so impudent and audacious in my Text to offer all the Kingdoms in the world God replenish us with the Kingdom of his grace in this life and exalt us to his Kingdom of glory hereafter AMEN THE SEVENTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 9 10. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Then saith Jesus unto him get thee hence Satan OUR natural Philosophers say very truly that a Serpent lays not her eggs one by one but they come from her in a cluster like a rope of beads and hang one at another in a string Satan deserves no better comparison than a Serpent the sins which he suggests no better comparison than the eggs
he is made a greater vassal than the poorest of his Subjects themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage 2 Pet. ii 19. What appearance of soveraignty was in the voluptuous Licinius Of whom Tacitus says Tanta torpedo invaserat animum ut si principem eum fuisse caeteri non meminissent ipse oblivisceretur Such a stupidness had possessed his mind that unless others had been mindful towards him that he was a Prince himself would have forgot it You see then there is no freedom but by killing the strength of sin and living unto God in new obedience if by one offence death reigned by one they that receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ Rom. v. 17. Sin holds the sinner under tyranny grace makes the righteous man reign in this life it is the Apostles phrase Therefore Christ who gives us freedom despised not to be called a servant to his Father Thou art my servant O Israel in whom I will be glorified Isa xlix 3. Thirdly That fawning heathen did humour his Patron for this reason Et habet quod det dat nemo largius So the Lord hath all manner of riches in store and he withholdeth no good thing from those that serve him No Master in the world is so munificent to reward his Ministers Let me borrow it from the Queen of Sheba's mouth what she said of Solomons attendants to apply it to those of Gods houshold that perform the task he sets them Happy are these thy servants that stand continually before thee being now made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life Rom. vi 22. The poor bondman among the heathen had no more wages than food for all his drudgery the more hard-hearted they ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Aristotle give a bond-slave provender like a beast and he is paid for his labour Did God ever use any of his retinue that serve him so hardly They have all their meat in due season and plenteously says he in the Parable How many hired servants are there in my Fathers house that have meat enough Yet this is nothing I may say to the remainder this is but the Alms-basket of his liberality What say you to this That he gave his only Son to redeem his servant and that the Servant might be spared even that most beloved Son did undergo the most bitter death of the Cross and all this that such servants as forgot the Lord who had done so great things for them and rebelled against him might be co-heirs with Christ in his Kingdom Who would not serve such a Master If he say go who would not make speed to follow If he say do this who would not do it He hath given us such hire more than all the world beside can lay down that we will worship the Lord our God and he only shall be served I should wrong the matter I handle if this question were not moved How we should feel the comfort in our selves that we serve the Lord I answer by a Negative by an Affirmative examination Negatively when we think that we have never laboured enough in our Lords Vineyard to earn our peny Or as it is elsewhere very clearly set down to take away all boasting from our works when we have done all we can say we are unprofitable servants The Affirmative Collection may be best drawn from a saying of Christs Mat. vi 24. No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will cleave to the one and despise the other Here I gather that the two notes of a good servant are deligere adhaerere to love and to cleave fast to his Master Those Servants that loved King David such as Hushai and Ittai and Ahimaaz would take part with him to the death in Absolons rebellion those were good Servants It was love that made Jacob such a diligent Shepherd under Laban to suffer heat and frost Laban never had the like to tend his flocks A servant that takes a delight to please you may trust him with any thing both for Faith and Diligence Nemo meliùs obtemperat quà m qui ex caritate obsequitur says St. Ambrose no man will obey God better or go further to discharge his Law then he that is rouzed up by the zeal of love and charity But he that doth the Lords work without pleasure and delight doth it with unwillingness unwillingness breeds sloath and between these all their service is left-handedly performed as if it were never intended Si quid invitus facis fit de te magis quà m id facis says Prosper Whatsoever you did grudgingly without love it was drawn from you but never done by you and as if you had not been the doer you shall never be rewarded Beside deligere I said there was adhaerere a good servant was no flincher but stuck close not a Fugitive as Jonas was not an Apostate as Demas was not one that began in the Spirit and ended in the Flesh the Galatians were thought to be bewitched that did so The Bond-man in the Old Law that loved his Master though the time of his releasement was come about would be bored through the ear for a ceremony that he would never part from him St. Paul was the fast man above all we read of that was glued unto the service of the Gospel Neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yet I will end this Point in the words of one of our own Prelates a faithful Minister of God bestirs himself with respect to that one Master to whom he cleaves in all the works of his Vocation Ac si nihil aliud esset in hôc mundo praeter illum ac Deum As if there was none in the world but himself and God himself to obey and God to be served with all possible diligence This cleaving fast unto one Master doth link it self in with the next Point that the Lord God is only to be worshipped and served Let it not start your patience that I name it now the time is past I am not about to huddle it up at this time being the most copious subject and of the choicest variety in my judgment in all Divine Learning But this Doctrine you shall carry away with you at this time It is no impediment for Servants to shew all diligent duty to their Masters on earth because one verse of the Gospel says No man can serve two Masters and because my Text says of our Lord in heaven him only shalt thou serve Him only indeed in Religious Service in Divine Worship and Adoration he
make supplications unto them When I commend my self to the Prayers of any man upon earth I attribute nothing unto him falsly as divine he hath ears to hear me he hath memory faith and chariry to commend his brethren to God But when I do the like to the Saints granting the distinction that they call upon them to intercede not to perform their request but when I do the like to them I make them stand in the place of God to hear all men every where at once perhaps lifting up their voice nay perchance no more than the thought of their heart unto them Solius Dei proprium est ubique omnes audire exandire It is the excellency of God alone to hear and attend to all men in all places at once Therefore he makes an Idol of that Saint in whom he supposeth as much vertue and excellency to hear him how much soever distant as is in God himself I omit burning Incense to their Shrines making Pilgrimages to their Sepulchres Building Churches wherein their memory may be worshipped and invoked And making Vows in their names which is one of the flowers of Gods eternal royalty They that are such earnest Devotees to Creatures and think there is not work enough for a Christian to worship God alone deserve that gross delusion which hath started from some of their own Confessions that many names are enrolled for glorified Saints and great Patrons of the Church whose souls are tormented in Hell Let God be worshipped for the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs departed so shall we our selves we trust one day have a place in that Coelestial Quire where the Lord our God is only worshipped and he only served day and night without ceasing AMEN THE TWENTIETH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve I Am come to this Text again in the zeal of Elias to let no kind of Idolater be unrebuked that doth not worship the Lord and serve him only according to these words which were Law at first and our Saviour by reciting them hath made them Gospel Take the Priests of Baal says that holy man and let not one of them escape 1 King xviii 40. I will trace his steps in this cause and will rather be a man of contention as Jeremy became by taking the Lords part then suffer Rags and Reliques Stocks and Stones to have an attractive virtue more than magnetical to draw religious honour and adoration unto them If men would hold their peace these things which I now proceed to arraign and condemn for having holy worship done unto them have no tongues to defend themselves They are not Angels or Saints departed they have neither life nor motion in them neither the Cedar that grows in Libanus nor the Hisop that grows on the top of the wall but the Trunck of the Cedar and such other things as Art hath made unfit for any further benefit of nature 'T is strange that sharp-witted men will take pains to extol such dull inanimate things as can never thank them And concerning inanimate liveless things how superstitiously such glory as belongeth to God alone hath been imparted unto them I shall spend my labours at this time for concerning rank Heathen Idol Gods imaginaries Deities and concerning the Host of Heaven above and the Spirits of darkness beneath how they are idolized by some I have maintained the judgment of our Church before But our quarrel against the Pontificians to vindicate all religious worship latrical and dulical to the Lord of Heaven alone is like a Suit in Law that holds many Terms as long a quarrel as upon any other common place in all Divinity I am in hand at this time with the same Controversie again to protest against four things namely 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Religious adoration of the Reliques of Saints 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Religious adoration of the Elements in the Lords Supper 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Religious adoration of the Sign of the Cross and that most stiffely and impudently maintained 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Worship of Pictures and Images whether resembling Christ or his Saints Wo is it for the Church of Christ that we must spend an hour in these dissentions but what peace can there be while these Idolatries are maintained under the name of great devotion and anathema denounced against them that cry out for the Lord and for his Christ to them glory and worship and to none but them And now I have sounded the trumpet to this battel I betake me to the particulars propounded First that Religious adoration of Reliques confronts the verity of my Text c. But in the Exordium if any one shall ask how do our Opposites worship or serve Reliques or any of the aforenamed I will satisfie him that for the intentions of their heart in their inward reverence towards these things we could not accuse them but that they profess and teach it is religious and holy honour for if it were no more than precious estimation to some of those things we would not disfavour their practice but consent unto it and for their outward behaviour which expresseth the affections within judg if this be not to worship to kneel unto to kiss those things to prostrate the body to hold up the hands and eyes and uncover the head before them judg also if this be not serving of them censing of perfumes in those places lighting candles to honour them adorning with the richest cost of jewels and gold Circumgestation Procession Supplication Festival days appointed for their service and as much as all these Guilds and Religious Orders appointed to attend them This is square and open dealing that I impute Idolatry and Will-worship unto them upon grounds of practice and confession Nay I have not said all no not by half touching that over respect which is done to the Reliques of Christ and his Saints They exalt them above the Altar St. Ambrose thought it a great honour for himself or any deceased Bishop to lye under the Altar they call that adoration which is given to them meritorious The Priests teach the people that there is a kind of grace communicated to those Reliques they take Pilgrimages to them swear by them carry parts about as Prophylacticks against bodily and ghostly evil and pronounce indulgence for venial sins to them that fall down and worship them Beside the main sin see the uncertainty of all this Of Saints they have mightily multiplied the number and of their Reliques far more than is possible to belong unto them Yet it is impossible to know by faith who are Saints deceased but those whose memorial is recorded in Scripture and for their Reliques it is not denied they are conjectur'd at by mere humane credulity The bones of a Varlet may be carried in procession for the bones of a Martyr decem millia talium rerum Romae fiunt says L.
off and abandon their Society and he shall find heavenly comforters in his soul as if Angels ministred unto him Qui expellit à se Satanam allicit ad se Angelos Bid Satan get him hence and the Angels take it for an invitation that they should pitch their Pavilions round about you Lot lived like a stranger in his own City and conversed not with the men of Sodom they called him a stranger he shut himself up and barr'd his doors against those filthy people What could he do more to keep the ungodly from his very sight as David said Thus estranging himself from the conversation of pernicious sinners he made himself sit to give hospitality to Angels A good Lesson for these times wherein ribbald roaring company is rather sought for than declined A strange thing that a Christian who feels some comfort in Christ and desires salvation in his bloud should with so much affection and longing thrust himself among them whose desperate behaviour is easily perceived if repentance help not to tend to utter damnation St. Paul was weary of his own body called it a body of death and groaned to be delivered from it because the Flesh rebelled against the Spirit Did he loath himself that he might love Christ the more And will you invite those into your friendship and fellowship that blaspheme Christ Shake off this dust from your feet all prophane intemperate lascivious persons from your familiarity if either you expect that God should give his Angels charge of you in this life or make you partakers of their fellowship of heavenly glory in the life to come The next thing towards which we turn our eyes at this word behold is the alteration of rest and quietness before there were assaults and troubles and molestations all this is changed in a moment into peace and tranquillity which shall be the certain issue of all those that fight a good fight with patience Semper asperiora laetiorum vicissitudine mitigantur Rough beginnings have joyful events by the temperature and vicissitude of Gods gracious mercy Such as were called prosperous among the heathen most usually the best share of their fortune was in the forepart of their life and their end was lamentable the seven first years in Pharaohs dream did betoken plenty but the seven last years famine and scarcity the head of Nebuchadonosors Image was of Gold and the toes of Clay the rich man had a great time of gathering more than he knew where to bestow it but in one night lost his soul and all This is an unkind and an unnatural method to taste the sweetest at the top of the Cup and after a little sipping to have our teeth set on edge with Aloes Doth it not taste better when the gracious providence turns the lot thus First a Deluge and then a Rainbow First a Captivity and then a joyful return First a Dioclesian and then a Constantine First the impugnation of the Devil and then the Congratulation of Angels Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour untill the evening says the Psalmist There is a time to give the body a cessation from toil and do you think the Lord doth not measure out when he will give the soul and spirit relaxation from misery As a stranger is received at night and bids God b'you in the morning so indignation and the severity of chastisement are stangers unto the Lords clemency he calls vengeance Peregrinum opus his strange work Isa xxviii Therefore it shall be dismissed from him like a stranger after it hath staid a while Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psal xxx 6. Tentations have their bout and the storms of hell their period but the good Angels know their qu when to enter and to turn the scene Behold the Angels came and ministred unto him And once more this note of admiration Behold bids us regard to what alteration of dignity the truly humble are called Recusavit dominatum in homines habet imperium in Angelos Our Saviour turn'd away from that ambitious suggestion All this power will I give thee and the glory of them He desired not to have a Kingdom in this world or to have the pre-eminence of men and loe the pre-eminence over Angels is given unto him And it is more dignity to have two Angels minister unto him than to have ten thousand Kingdoms Every part of Christs humility was inlaid with honour to recompence it To be laid in a Manger was not so vile as it was most magnificent to be adored of the Wisemen of the East to be visited by Shepherds was not so contemptible as it was most glorious to be proclaimed of Angels To ride upon an Ass was not of such debasement but the cry of the children made amends Hosanna blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. It savoured not so much of infirmity to be tempted of the Devil but it is supplied as much with Majesty to be attended by the Cherubins No part of his humility went without a reward from the first to the last nay the last part had amends made for all He humbled himself unto the death even unto the death of the Cross propter quod wherefore God hath highly exalted him c. Humility was his direct way to glory but we think we are out of the way to promotion unless we shift and shuffle for the highest place and the chiefest room in the Synagogues The first shall be last and the last shall be first This is a riddle to them that love to set their feet upon a rising ground Yet David hath laid a curse upon preposterous ambition that it shall decline That which should have been for their wealth says he let it be unto them an occasion of falling The holy Father Basil lost no honour in this life by shunning the dignity which was intended him and flying away into obscurity when he was called to be a Bishop The Apostle Bartholomew is reported in some histories to have been of the bloud royal of the Kings of Egypt Was it any diminution to him to have left all to be a poor Disciple Is there any Christian King that doth not wish he had rather born his Office of Apostleship than have swayed a Scepter When Princes die their honour shall not follow after them but those twelve humble ones of our Saviours train shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel If spiritual thoughts will lift a man up to heaven an humble man is mounted above the earth all the while he seeks those things which are above Themislius an holy man put this Lesson in so pure a verse as it is beyond translation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã his heart sunk down when ambition puft him up but he felt his feet upon the Angels Ladder going up when humility cast him down Our Saviour despised all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory
the second branch his associates are Peter John and James ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he took them to see his glory it was his association St. Mark adds by way of emphasis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he took three only and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã privatim he sequestred them apart from this world that they might see his glory Thirdly he prepar'd himself for this illustrious accident in great humility inter precandum he had prostrated himself before his Father in prayer And then fourthly this majestical glory came upon him two waies quoad vultum quoad vestitum in his person in his apparel in his flesh an astonishing radiancy the fashion of his countenance was altered in his cloaths an admirable purity his raiment was white and glistering I cannot be copious upon so many particulars of some more largely of the most succinctly In the first circumstance of all the Spirit of God hath noted out the Time and therefore I must not balk it no not in any of the three respects post dicta post dies post itâr First after those sayings says my Text inquiry shall be made what words those be and with whom he had that communication which went before the demonstrance of his glory in two preceding verses in this chapter Christ exhorted his Disciples and many others to the assurance of his Cross and that they might know he was able to recompence their sorrows who endured affliction for his name sake yea and would recompence it he speaks thus The Son of man shall come in his own glory and in his Fathers and of the holy Angels and I tell you of a truth there he some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God He refers the multitude to look for the last day of judgment when he would come in infinite Majesty to call the World before him but he refers certain nameless persons to expect after a while a pregustation of some heavenly apparition wherein they should see how he would be cloathed with power and excellencie when he came to sit upon his Throne and to call the Nations before him they should not taste of death till they saw a spectacle of the Kingdom of God in his transfiguration This was the occasion which made him exhibit his body with that glorious lustre in the Mount and yet some have ignorantly distorted those words to another purpose There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God what doth it mean say they but that John the Disciple whom Jesus loved should live till the last day of judgment as the report went among the Brethren how that disciple should not die Thus Theophylact and the counterfeit Hypolitus that error which hath run through so many Pens grew from hence that when Peter being told with what death he should glorifie God asked What should become of his fellow Disciple John Christ gave him no clear satisfaction because his question deserved it not but only thus If I will that he stay till I come what is that to thee follow thââ me Let it be but probably discovered what coming Christ speaks of and there is no great perplexity in the saying Attend therefore this coming is nothing less than that great coming in personal Majesty at the last day but his coming in wrath and judgment against the Nation of the Jews to punish them and quite to extirpate their seed from Jerusalem Touching this coming by the fury of the Romans to execute his vengeance St. James speaketh to the faithful converted from Judaism and then sore afflicted by the Synagogue Be ye patient and stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Jam. v. 8. Whereas therefore antient stories have delivered unto us that all the other Apostles were swept away by Martyrdom before the final destruction of Jerusalem onely John outlived that time even till the reign of Trajan This then is a plain meaning of our Saviour's answer if I will that he live till that dismal day when I come to destroy this people which hath crucified me what is that to thee Peter thou shalt never see that day but prepare thy self before for a speedier Martyrdom And to what use should the Apostle live a mortal life upon earth unto the end of the world and yet never appear to any man he lived to see the coming of Gods judgments against the holy City and he together with Peter and James lived to see a mirror of celestial glory in the Transfiguration that 's the meaning of our Saviour's promise going before my Text There be some standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Kingdom of God It follows to be noted in the observation of the Time that after these sayings he fulfilled his word neither at the instant nor after a long distance but about an eight days after these sayings It was neither so quickly dispatcht before they had meditated upon it nor so long put off that they could forget it be it about an eight days or about eight thousand ages it is but a little while to God who measures all things by Eternity Now in these words which are the very front of the story there are two days odds in the relations of the Evangelists St. Luke you hear sayes about an eight days after St. Matthew and St. Mark after six days Doth not this account differ no not a whit six days complete did go between his sayings and his mighty work St. Matthew and the other speak of that time only but in a part of one day he had said there be some standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Kingdom of God in part of another day He took those three up into the mountain and so St. Luke computes exactly 't was about an eight dayes after those sayings So hath the Divine wisdom disposed that the same thing should be repeated in several Gospels with some alteration of phrase but with no difference or contradiction and that for two causes When outwardly there seems to be some disagreement between the Text of one Evangelist and another these difficulties do whet our industry to study the book of God there must be knots and mysteries hard to be understood ut homo semper discat Deus semper doceat that man may alwayes learn and God may always teach unto the end of the world 2. Says another si per omnia consentirent nemo putarent eos seorsim scripsisse if they had all jumpt in the same words quite throughout as some say of the 72 Interpreters in the Old Testament it might have been imagined that the Gospels were not writ at distinct times and in distinct places now the dissonancy of their phrase doth warrant us to say that the Evangelists did not cast their heads together when they committed the Scriptures to writing but wrote apart and yet the same spirit
I have read unto you I am proceeded in this subject and by so much as I have read in these two Verses St. Luke hath more than the other two Evangelists to wit that Moses and Elias talked about Christs sufferings in Jerusalem and that Peter James and John were asleep and waking of a sudden were startled at the transmutation I have spoke severally the last day in what bodies Moses and Elias did appear now I proceed to these persons that appear And because I must not break the joynts of an History I take the parts whole thus First With what fitness these two were presented rather than any other for celestial witnesses Moses and Elias Secondly What they meant by this communication to speak of his Passion and Sufferings They spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Thirdly That the earthly Witnesses Peter James and John were asleep at the beginning of this Miracle But Peter and they that were with him were heavie with sleep Fourthly The mists of drowziness were dispelled they did awake and then they saw the Vision and as the next Verse will prove it they heard the conference To these do you give Attention and I my Exposition The Lord did not pick twain out of so great an host of blessed Spirits to stand upon Mount Thabor but that there was some hability and fitness in their persons rather than in any other And the first mark eminently stampt upon them for this work is this The Law and Prophets do equally and concordiously bear witness to Christ Moses the first handler and publisher of the Law Elias the greatest by far of all the Prophets O Elias how wast thou honoured in thy wondrous deeds And who may glory like unto thee Ecclus. xlviii 4. As the Kings Coin is stampt on both sides so the Gospel like a piece of currant Metal is engraven on the one side with the ancient testimony of the Law on the other side with the strong Predictions of the Prophets Says Philip to Nathanael We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Joseph Joh. i. 45. But Peter might go further and say We have seen him attended and waited on by Moses and the Prophets The Law and the Prophets and the Gospel make good Musick when they are three parts of one song but if you make several Airs or several Ditties of them you mar all good harmony We see Moses and the Son of God together says St. Ambrose so often as we read that portion of St. Matthew Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy might We see Elias and the Son of God together so often as we read that desire inflamed to maintain Gods honour I have been very zealous for the Lord of hosts 1 Kings xix 8. That zeal made Elias fast forty days and eat nothing And Christ doth answer it again The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up O how amiable it is to unite Moses and the Prophets and the grace of Christ all together to look upon them in one prospect to enterline the Old Testament with the New But if you part Moses from the Prophets or the Prophets from Moses or both from Christ you shall not find any glory in them The Samaritans received no Scripture but the Books of Moses The Jews receive none but Moses and the Prophets The Christian puts them all together and so Moses and Elias appear with Christ in glory And although many things are very difficult to be understood in the Old Testament in some places we do see Moses plainly in some places he is hard to be understood yet this Miracle gives us comfort that in the holy Hill of God in the glorification of heaven there we shall see Moses and Elias all that is wrote in the Law and the Prophets very clearly and that one jot or tittle is not perished which the Penmen of holy Writ did foretell should come to pass For example in Exod. xx 19. the Children of Israel cry out to Moses Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us least we die To this demand God makes a full and explicite answer Deut. xviii 18. They have well spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee they shall hear him Here is a middle way difficult to be understood neither would God speak unto them in thunder to terrifie them and Moses could not abide always to be their Speaker as they would have it but a Prophet should come like unto Moses like unto him in humane nature but far more admirable in grace and power Why behold this dark mystery is expounded at this Transfiguration for Moses is brought to confess of Christ this is the Prophet spoken of like unto me whom you are bound to hear For the glory which was seen now the affrightment which took the Disciples the bright cloud which overshadowed the place all these hapned now even as it was at Mount Sinah call to mind what Covenant was then made and how this is the time to fulfil it Thus you see how Christs glory makes the Law and the Prophets intelligible which is the first reason why Moses and Elias did appear in glory Secondly These are they that had undergone many sorrows upon earth for the defence of their God and after much tribulation did win the crown of life in whose faces the Disciples might behold that through fire and water through cross and calamity through ignominy and dishonour we must enter into glory None so famous for exposing their lives to all dangers as Moses and Elias There was but a Bulrush between Moses and death when he was set afloat to be drowned in his tender infancy And if Jezebel and all her Gods could cut Elias throat she swore he should not have a day to live 1 Kings xix 2. What sharp encounters had the one with Pharaoh What dismal threatnings did the other denounce against Ahab The one was driven out rudely and violently from the presence of Pharaoh The other banished himself into the Wilderness and could not be found for three years Here were a fit couple that could shew their long Pedigrees of afflictions to be called the Sons of God These were fit indeed to preach of Christs Cross and of his sufferings at Jerusalem They that suffered much might aptly and confidently commend the sufferings of the body to the Disciples Si vis me flere dolendum est primùm ipsi tibi And here John and James the two ambitious brethren might see of what condition it behoved those men to be who in our Saviours Kingdom should sit the one at his right hand the other at his left What had they done for their Lords sake as yet when they askt that bold demand but to walk with him in Judea to travel from place
he called unto Moses out of the midst of the Cloud Some more veneration certainly redounds to the Divine Majesty by drawing a Veil before him that his glory may be kept secret The Mercy-seat from whence God promised the Children of Israel to tell them all things whatsoever they should do it was covered with the wings of the Cherubins that every rash eye might not behold it But this was not all that a shadowed darkness should beget veneration there was another reason that men might see no manner of shape or resemblance to make them figure the Lord in any form and commit Idolatry I will take Salmeron the Jesuit at his word in this Notation Ne si aliqua effigies videretur Deus pingeretur a Cloud did invelop the glory of the Father whensoever he spake that men might not say they saw his likeness and therefore paint or carve an image like unto him And since the Lord continues to speak out of a Cloud as well in the New Testament as in the Old surely his purpose continues the same to bridle our inclinations to Idolatry O that men knew what this Cloud meant and they would never be so forward to make the Images of God and they that will not learn that wholsom lesson from the Pillar of Cloud shall be consum'd by the Pillar of Fire Let us come from the substance of it to the qualities and certainly St. Matthew hath left us matter to work upon that he says it was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a bright Cloud it seems it lookt like that part of Heaven which we see in a fair night and is called via lactea the Milky way which is the concurrence of the light of many small Stars as if it were a Lane made or paved with dimpling Stars Such a Cloud must needs be more delectable than the clearest Summer day which had no thickness in the air but were all serenity And such it must be in a great measure in Aquinas's interpretation for when Peter talkt of Tabernacles close shady Arbors to keep out the light of the Sun he was thus confuted says Aquinas that light did rather become the Saints than shady darkness Claritas mundi innovati erit sanctorum tabernaculum when there shall be a new Heaven and a new Earth bedeckt with infinite light that 's the Tabernacle of the Blessed which shall abide for ever But the chief reason was to fulfil that promise which David knew should be performed the Lord shall make my darkness to be light here was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Jesus Christ it is He that came to bring a Lantern to our feet and a Light unto our paths that we should not stumble and fall In the Old Testament the Clouds where God appeared were densissima tenebrosae thick and dark Clouds Exod. xix 16. vapours and pillars of smoak in the New Covenant the darkness is dispersed and the Cloud remaines white and of a pure lustre For the first Testament is full of Ceremonies and Shadows of things to come the Covenant of Faith in the Gospel exhibits the manifest and open truth says Paschasius Ratbertus it was neither a fiery Cloud nor a dark Cloud but a brightsom quia non in igne terroris nunc venit non in caligine caecitatis sed in lumine veritatis the terror of fire is overpast the mistiness of Clouds is cleared truth comes forth like the morning and is ascended to the height like the Sun at noon day Nay as the things to be believed are clear so there are no mists and fogginess in their affections where the spirit of grace will abide Non calligat affectibus hominum sed revelat occulta says St. Ambrose Our depraved imaginations shall not make the truth a lie but God shall bring to light the hidden things before the eyes of all men What 's the whole Gospel indeed but nubes lucida a very Cloud in it self but made lightsome and perspicuous by the gift of interpretation For although the Veil of the Law is removed away yet even among the Evangelical Writers there are says St. Peter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã certain things hard to be understood the Incarnation of our Lord the Resurrection of the Dead the ineffable mystery of the Holy Trinity still we are in nubibus these are thick Clouds and it is impossible for the natural man with the dim eye of nature to see through them without doubt great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh Faith is a very mysterious thing but that the cloud is illuminated by the revelation of the Holy Spirit and as he that sees through the Water or through a Cloud suppose an Oar through the Water or the Sun through a Cloud will rather trust to his judgment than to his outward sense which would much deceive him so because we do all see the secrets of God through a thick Cloud let us rather trust to our faith than to our reason there are many strong delusions incident to reason because it looks through the clouds of sin and infirmity And Beloved as for the Priests that should keep the Key of knowledge what is their Office and Calling but to make Clouds appear bright And therefore Christ said of his Apostles Vos estis lux mundi Ye are the light of the world Though now adays it is the fashion of many to make that which was lightsom before appear as duskie as a Cloud Such as especially about Gods unsearchable decrees tangle knots and ravel Divinity that you shall find no end And after much is spoken or written you may say Incertior sum multó quà m dudum I was in a Cloud before that was dark now I am in a smoak that puts out my eyes All the light which some voluminous Compilers afford which would teach men Gods secret purpose in their Election and the way of their own heart in their Conversion both which are inscrutable it is like a Candle in a Thieves Lanthorn perhaps they see a little themselves but I am sure no body else shall be the better for their light Finally to end this Point God who can colour a thick Cloud with whiteness and make it transparent is able to lay the dark conveyances of our hypocrisie conspicuous and naked before him Laban could not find his Idols because Rachel had hid them in her Tent but God can discover those sins which are our greatest Idols though we have set them up in the inmost corner of our heart If the Spirit of Elisha went along with Gehazi when Gehazi ran after Naaman to take a Bribe then the Lord that gave that Spirit to Elisha traceth along all the Compacts of Simony all the fine conveyances of Bribery all manner of Corruption though it be dark as midnight The fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is 1 Cor. iii. 13. When it once catcheth fire it will be
Shepherds and not like Wolves That is the just Latitude of this Precept This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him The first part of the Text would require much more to be spoken but here must be the end of that because much more remains behind Therefore in the second Point that the Church might the better admit Christs sole Authority to hear him and no other all other persons of excellency vanisht and he was left alone The Disciples lookt up says St. Matthew and lookt about says St. Mark and when the voice was past Jesus was found alone Whether they that come back from the dead depart from us again as did Moses and Elias in this place or whether our living Friends whom we tender dearly go from hence for ever unto the dead let this comfort remain with you that the best Friend of all sticks by you Christ is with you and stays behind And much better it is to find him alone than all the world beside without him Vnus Iesus satis superque nobis est So I think Gregory It is an happy solitariness to be forsaken of all other and to be left with him alone St. Austin enumerating the several Temples which the Romans built to their Deities reckons up one for Vertue another for Felicity another for Fortune Says the Father If the Heathen had been wise men at least they would have spared the Temple of Fortune and made no use of that Quid ei sufficit cui virtus felicitasque non sufficit He that hath vertue and felicity hath enough or he will never be contented So he that can keep our Saviour hath the fulness of joy abiding with him and he cannot choose but be satisfied What small hearts-ease had the Blessed Virgin to find all her Kindred at home and to miss him And if his Room be empty the house is in a pitiful case though it be furnish'd with all manner of store beside When the whole World was lost in the Deluge of waters one Ark was unto Noah instead of all the world beside to save him so when all things flit away and consume by little my Father and Mother forsake me our friends our means our strength our health our life Tu autem Domine non dereliquisti one Redeemer is all and more than all As when the leaves drop off from the Tree yet the Sun continues to comfort it and make it spring again so the reliefs and pleasures of this Age shall wax old with time and be shaken off as the leaves before the wind but nothing shall separate us from the love of God and nothing shall separate God from the love of us And as Christ is enough for all so this one reason is suficient why the Disciples found him alone yet I have another to spare which is this Postquam legis Prophetarum umbra decessit omnia in Evangelio reperiuntur When the Shadows and Types of the Law and Prophets are dispersed away the Gospel abides for ever and is the true repertory of all things that belong to salvation The Law of Moses is a killing Letter no flesh living shall be justified by the works of the Law The Spirit of Elias breaths nothing but fire and perdition to them that sin against the Lord. O God what will become of us miserable offendors if we meet with such as these O remove these away and let us find Jesus alone who came into the world to seek and to save that which is lost A poor Prisoner must needs suspect that he should have a bloudy trial when such angry Judges came from heaven as Moses and Elias let them rise off from the Bench and depart and leave our cause to be heard before a Saviour so full of pity who is all bowels all compassion An potior judex Puerisve quis aptior orbis He will not recompence us according to our misdeeds but deliver us from the Tormentor The poor woman taken in Adultery had a sweet taste of this Doctrine Christ cast a scruple of conscience before her bitter Accusers which made them slip away one after another then the day began to go on the poor sinners side When Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst Joh. viii 9. Beside I have repeated it to you very often that the Transfiguration was an Idea or Model of the Resurrection and therefore Christ was left alone to let you see the condition of that period of time when all things shall pass away at the end of the world Vt Deus maneat omnia in omnibus when Christ shall be our portion alone and the glory of every thing in earth shall vanish and come to nothing And he alone is an hundred fold those all things else which we enjoy'd in this life according to the reckoning of the Gospel and yet that is but a modest comparison a finite proportion for an infinite In this course of life which now we lead every man acts his part in the mutual Communion of Saints and we have all need one of another For as the members depend upon the head so every member doth want his fellow member to support him the hand cannot say it hath no need of the foot nor can the eye say it hath no use of the ear we must have the help of Moses and Elias and all those bright shining stars that have gone before And the Ages to come shall acknowledge that they were the better for the help of those good men which these times produce But after the final consummation of all things we shall no more be put to these shifts to require the assistance one of another though there were no Moses no Elias no Peter no James and John yet every one shall be perfect in Christ and shall be filled with the fulness of him that filleth all in all St. Hierom in a certain Epistle to Amandus takes upon him to interpret the words of St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 28. on this wise All things shall be subject unto him that God may be all in all Says he our Lord and Saviour is not now all in all but according to the several distributions of his gifts a part only in every several man For example Wisdom in Solomon Zeal in David Patience in Job Interpretation of dreams in Daniel Power of Miracles in Paul Faith in Peter Virginity in John In caeteris caetera but when the end of all things shall come then he shall be all in all Vt singuli sanctorum omnes vertutes habeant ut sit Christus totus in cunctis That every Saint may be filled with all vertue and the fulness of Christ may be in all alike And so far on the second part that Jesus was found alone This is the Argument of the third part of the Text that when God from heaven had commanded the Disciples to hear his Son and left him alone to be heard instead of the Law and the Prophets Christ
Howsoever it was charm'd by Gods protection that man should not meddle with it a celestial Minister turn'd it aside from the mouth of the Pit A Cherubin in the Old Testament shut up Paradice and stopt the way of joy against us An Angel in the New Testament opens the Graves of sorrow He came and rolled back the stone from the door 'T is certain that the Scripture gives no reason why the Angel did it but this was one end to declare the truth of the Resurrection for after the Stone was cast aside says he Come see the place where He was laid He is not here It is not from the power of man but from Angelical help from Divine grace that we are led into the knowledg of the mysterie of the Resurrection The Law of Moses says one was written in Tables of stone and therefore was likened unto a Stone a Milstone which if Christ did not bear off the weight would grind us to powder Now the comfort of Redemption in Christ his Passion Resurrection Ascention the Coming of the Holy Ghost are mystically delivered in the Old Testament but are covered over darkly with the Letter of the Law as with a Stone but after the resurrection from the dead was well believed the Stone was rolled away I assure you great knowledg of Divine things ensued never before that time was the substance of faith so perfectly apprehended Beatus lapis qui non minùs corda aperit quà m sepulchrum says that Father whom I have often cited upon this Text. Happie stones at whose opening and rolling away not only the Sepulchre was unclosed but our hearts were opened to believe Beloved if there be one among you that is dull to conceive and slow to believe it is a sign that the Stone is not yet rolled away to him all is shut up to that poor Soul and he sees nothing such a mans Key must be continual prayer it behoves him to cry out earnestly Lord take away this stony heart and give me an heart of flesh Lord shut not up thy loving kindness in displeasure send down thy Holy Spirit to remove away all carnal impediments open mine eyes that I may look into thy Sepulchre and believe thy Resurrection Now the Scriptures assigning no cause for the rolling away of the Stone but to manifest that he was risen not that he might rise in his body when the mouth of the Cave was open and further as Gregory Nyssen urgeth the Angel doth not preach that he rose even now since He came down from Heaven but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã surrexit he hath risen he hath departed out of the Grave as if he spake of a thing that was past before his coming from whence you may observe what a perplexful question ariseth to be handled how the Body of Christ being now made alive again came out of the Sepulchre I do not find the several opinions collected together by any man some may escape me but as many as I have noted I will rehearse them all One opinion among the Antient Fathers and the most general if they be well understood is thus That He came forth by his own mighty power after what sort we cannot tell for God would not trouble us with those strange effefts which we are not able to apprehend So one of our late Writers after much ado concludes Divino nutu viam sibi aperuit mirando nobis inexplicabili modo he made way to come forth as he would himself in a miraculous and unspeakable manner These are Paraeus words And I put Calvin in this rank who goes no further but Christum ante surrexisse quà m ab Angelo sepulchrum aperiretur Christ rose before the Sepulcher was unbarred by the Angel but he determined not what way and it was a becoming modesty in him I could name a multitude more but divers have borrowed the words of Musculus Christ did use the external ministry of Angels to roll away the Stone for us not for himself He that rose to life though death were upon his Body could come forth into the Garden though the Stone were upon the Sepulchre But after what sort he came forth all these put their finger upon their mouth and say nothing To determine after what manner great mysteries are brought to pass when the Word of God is silent hath done more hurt to the Christian Church by procuring endless Controversies than all the Persecutions that ever were raised I concur therefore in mine own judgment with this first rank of Divines yet you shall hear the second That he issued out the Stone remaining on the mouth of the Grave creaturae mutatione non sui corporis by an alteration caused in the Stone not in the Body of Christ So Justin Martyr he came out by the Stone even as he made the Seas fit for his own feet and for Peters to tread upon No mutation can be said to be in Christs Body for the Father says it was corpus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a solid Elementary Body certainly Peters body also was heavy and earthy for after a little while he began to sink yet he at first walkt upon the Seas because Christ stiffned the waies to support him and Peter like a solid Pavement So the Stone might be attenuated and made thin as easie as air to transmit a body St. Austin reports of a Ring falln from a womans Girdle yet the Ring remaining and the Girlde whole and unbroken Admit it were true yet the Ring passed not through the substance of the Girdle but the one substance passed by while in a moment by Gods power the other gave place unto it So the place through which Christs Body passed admit no rarefaction of the Stone might be whole and shut by and by and streight after he passed by it not in the instant of his passing that 's contrary to the nature of a true body Some in credulous Jew when Malchus ear was cut off and presently on again might think the Sword had never gone between his ear and his head yet we are sure it did In such a starting while which could not be perceiv'd might the Stone yield to Christs Body and come together again or if not made thin parted of a sudden to let him pass by and in an instant come close together again Thirdly some antient Writers and divers moderns hold probably that Christ made his egress repagulorum cessione non penetrationum dimensione not as if one body had penetrated another but the Stone in the trembling of the earthquake started off from the mouth of the Cave and clos'd again till the Angel rolled it quite away This is made the more credible from Acts 5.23 the Apostles were shut up in the common Prison the Angel brings them forth the Officers being question'd confess The Prison truly found we shut with all safety the Keepers standing without before the doors but when we had opened it we found no
all Saints must be glad at those news all hail to this day for all the Feasts and Sundays of the year borrow their festivity from Easterday This is the day which the Lord hath made c. It is an easie thing to make us break out into carnal and voluptuous joy but it is not easie to make us apprehend spiritual joy Christ spake the good word unto the women all hail ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã rejoyce There is somewhat in original sin which makes us great misdeemers it is not one ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that will set us right though Christ himself pronounced it there were some signs which betrayed these parties that they were sore afrighted they said nothing for ought appears and therefore it is likely they were strucken dumb with the astonishment their countenance I suppose changed and every joynt of them shaked when they held him by the feet and therefore the gracious Lord adds be not afraid We may put it at large thus I come as a friend I have saluted you with peace and joy therefore be not afraid of me as if I were an enemy So Josephs Brethren being mistrustful of some great evil were enheartned by Josephs Steward Peace be unto you fear not Gen. xliii 23. The comfort of the salutation was reinforced by this consolation that there was no cause to fear When reason hath repulsed the fallacies of our passions by good arguments fear will diminish by little and little But here 's a case wherein reason could afford no succour for what could reason conceive touching the resurrection of the dead It is a dreadful thing to mans wit let it be never so dispassionated to see one come alive out of the Grave for it is a most natural thing for a man to tremble when he sees an accident far above nature therefore the exhortation must proceed from Christ and supernatural grace in such an instance as this Fear not The Angels said as much unto them before in the same syllables he is risen and be not afraid Comfortable speeches indeed yet they did not take it required a greater Doctor than they to inculcate that Lesson Christ preacheth it and it took effect they did remit of their fear for the Angels spake unto the ear and Christ unto the heart And when the conscience is enlightned by grace it cannot choose but see that the greatest avoider of fear is to know that Christ is risen from the dead Death is called the King of terrors by Job as being the strongest of earthly fears and yet this is quite assuaged in them that have an assured hope of joyful resurrection Wy boastest thou thy self thou Tyrant that thou canst kill the body death is not extinction but an intermission of life My bones shall be covered again when worms have eat my flesh and with mine eyes I shall see my Saviour It is the Whetstone of fortitude in battel and in all dangers scelus est rediturae parcere vitae who but a base mind will dastardly preserve that life which shall return again An application of the Holy Spirit will make a good Christian as stout as a Lion setting the most valiant object of the Resurrection before him Though the Pharisees would hate them to death that should testifie how Christ was raised in power though the Scouts of the High Priest were abroad to note them in the black book that travell'd about that errand though the Souldiers were grim and cruel and would spare none that should refute their falsehood that the Disciples had taken away the Body while they slept yet these weak women dare do any thing to confront the evil world since Christ had said unto them be not afraid After this they have a Commission to dispatch and depart Go tell my Brethren they must not stay and dispute it Lord whither should we go thou hast the words of eternal life send us not away from thee for in thy presence there is the fulness of joy If the Blessed Virgin was not happy that her paps gave him suck but that she heard the word of God and kept it then it was no happiness to see Christ or to touch his feet but to do his will and obey it It was not a time to feed still upon this gladness and to stay with him but go and impart it There was a season when Mary Magdalen was commended for sitting still at his feet and choosing the better part but now blessed are the feet that stir and walk upon this errand to bring glad tidings of salvation As the Samaritan Woman did well not to stay with Christ but it was better to go into the City and to tell her kindred that she had found the Messias Beside their Commission was a special dignity to go from him and to bring a Message to the Disciples neither did they pretext as Moses did we are ignorant women slow of speech let Aaron rather be sent unfit for the preaching of these mysteries Christ knew what sufficiency and aptitude was in them better than themselves and therefore they must undertake to go to the chief Princes of the Church to them that succeeded Aaron in his Bishoprick The Apostles lurkt at home for fear so that Christ was fain to find out new Apostles to preach him these Daughters of Jerusalem And as their Commission had dignity in it so it was very pleasing and full of sweet address to those that sat disconsolate Go tell my Brethren they that run away from him and forsook him did not look it may be for so sweet a Title No doubt their hearts did catch at it as soon as ever they heard it like those that came from the King of Syria thy Brother Benhadad The Angels did not give them this style but plainly thus Go tell his Disciples and it was well considering their fault that they did not lose the name of Disciples but Christ exceeds the Angels in loving kindness and is not ashamed to call them Brethren Hebr. ii 11. But the more he advanceth his Servants in title the more ought they to depress themselves the more he calls us Brethren the more let us cast our selves down before him as Servants to the Mighty Lord. This also they learnt into the advantage that now Christ was risen in immortality he had not put on another body or chang'd his nature he is still as we are in his fleshly substance and therefore calls his Disciples Brethren And this we are taught likewise that he doth acknowledg them for his Brethren after he appeared in glory even as Joseph claimed kindred of his Brethren in the top of his honour Haughty men will forget their old acquaintance when they rise unto promotion but in true morality amicitia non dissolvitur per fortunae accessionem a true friend will persist a friend though he ascend to a noble accession of fortune Christ being made the greatest that ever was upon earth calls these Fishermen his
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
of First-fruits which at this time by the Levitical Sanctions were waved to the Lord are rendred after the spiritual gloss of our Church to be amor Dei proximi the love of God and the love of our Neighbour and these must be weaved or heaved up after their manner what 's that why our integrity and piety must shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father that is in heaven Beloved here 's the difference they gave first-fruits of earthly things this day unto God but this day we celebrate the memorial how God gave First-fruits of heavenly things unto man In Rom. viii 23. St. Paul speaks of the first-fruits of the spirit in a diminutive sense as the inchoation of grace the enlightning of faith the hope of better things that what he hath begun in us he will perfect but the first-fruits of the spirit which the Church reapt this day was that which sanctified the whole lump for ever after for this last correspondency and for the other forenamed the Apostles in a most acceptable time expected the Holy Ghost when the day c. A most delicious gift poured out from God in the very strength and deliciousness of the year A festival time it was you have heard and such a Festival as brought a Concourse of many Nations to Jerusalem so it appears in this chapter I have my authority from St. Ambrose that the Lord had this time much in mind to do it honor many years before for some Jewish Tradition hath encouraged him to say that the certain season when the Angel came down to the Pool of Bethesda to trouble the water that whosoever stepped in first might be made whole of his disease it was but once a year and that once was the Feast of Pentecost Mark how the Lord design'd out that day for his Angelical Miracle I will not engage my self into that Chronological question whether our first Whitsunday when the Holy Ghost appeared in firy tongues was the very Pentecost of the Jews or rather the day after To the latter opinion many incline upon that slight reason because St. Luke writ this Story of the Acts 28 years after Christ's ascension into heaven and then the Jews Pentecost was abolished the doubt is much uncertain wherefore I let it pass But I can assure you that in very ancient times of the Christian Faith yea in the most ancient if Clement his Constitutions were warrantable this day was kept with as high honour and devotion as the zeal of our Forefathers could excogitate Says Eusebius lamenting that his Master Constantine the Emperor died at the same time if I should call it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Holiday of Holidays we should not erre He adds that it was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it had honour done it seven weeks together This in my apprehension refers us to three things First the Church was wont to sing that chearful Anthem of Alleluia every Sunday from Easter to Whitsuntide an arbitrary Ceremony at the discretion of every particular Church and our Church of England since the Reformation continued the custom according to the first Liturgies set forth in Edward the sixth his Reign to sing or say alleluia from Easter to Whitsuntide at Morning Prayer 2. By the ancient Prescript no Fasts were bidden all those seven weeks nothing but joy and exultation was heard and practiced 3. During all that space they did not kneel at time of Prayer but stand upright looking towards Heaven from whence the Holy Ghost descended Nefas erat de geniculis adorare in Tertullian's time these were ancient Rites and Prescriptions to magnify this day in the beauty of holiness But whereas Eusebius adds that Christ ascended into Heaven the very same day the Holy Ghost descended this was his oversight though not his alone who would not pick the right sense Act. i. 3. that Christ was seen of his Disciples but fourty days speaking of the things of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore on the fourtieth day he was taken from them into Heaven and ten days after the plentiful showers of grace did rain down upon the Church the time is so precisely noted says Isidor Palcusiot to refute that proud Heretick Montanus who said the great promise of the Holy Spirit was not fulfill'd at the Feast of Pentecost but long after in his days This is the glorious day which the Lord hath made wherein he summ'd up the complement of all his benefits as the sixt day was the complement of the Creation All other preceding mercies were but words to this the Holy Ghost is the Seal or Signature of those words to make the deed the stronger in quo signati estis Eph. iv 30. in whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Rejoyce in this day and keep it holy before the Lord not in decking the body in full diet in sport in idleness but in thankfulness in purity of mind in spiritual consolations in the feast of a good conscience and ever set before you at such seasons what Gregory said Quid prodest interesse festis hominum si contingat deesse festis Angelorum What profit is it to keep holiday with men if we should be excluded from keeping holiday with Angels for evermore So much for the time of the Holy Ghosts coming I repent me not that I have been long in it for it was most material The persons that received this power from on high are next in the way of my discourse omnes all of them Many there are that understand this note of Universality collectivè not as meant of all that were present but of all the Apostles The whole Church was gathered together for the Election of a new Apostle that 's apparent in the former chapter and the lot fell upon Matthias The number of names together were about an hundred and twenty Among these there were divers women Mary the Mother of our Lord is expresly mentioned for one of them these continued together in prayer and supplication even until the time that the Holy Ghost did fill the Room Now I would put the case into this distinction whether the spirit came down upon them all upon them all in some great measure no question but not upon them all with the same virtue and power and illumination Many talents of rare perfections were distributed among all the Believers that were present men and women for else Peter had not applied the place of the Prophet Joel so pertinently ver 17. of this chap. In the last days I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh your sons and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions St. Hierom leans to this side and says that the mighty gift of grace was given to all that believed even as God took the spirit of Moses and gave it to the 70 Elders and it came to pass when the spirit rested upon them
Church was that there were no divisions or distractions in their Body God be praised for the multiplication of his Saints now over all the world we cannot meet now under one Roof as these did nor sit down in rows in one Field together as those 5000 did whom our Saviour fed in the Desart the bounds of all the Land of Canaan are not able to hold us God be glorified for the increase Our unity of place is to meet in those publique Assemblies which are allotted to particular Churches at those appointed times which are enjoyned us In no wise to slack our presence here on the Lords day to flock together on other festival days at Morning Prayer on week days to be much more diligent than we have been fie upon our tardiness and excuses in that duty do we look that God shall bless us in our Persons and Calling to take a Benediction away with us to serve us the whole week and come no oftner is not he the God that makes men to be of one mind to come to the Temple together and there to receive the Holy Ghost Chiefly I wish heartily in Christ that they would consort together with us who take no offence at our Doctrine established but make a separation and strangeness both from us and among themselves for matter of Ceremonies and things indifferent They that are baptized into Christ and one Faith why should they not come together with one accord in one place I must not be prolix I will say no more to it but let us say with St. Paul Hebr. x. 39. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We are not of them who separate or draw back unto perdition Vnto perdition let that be noted The observation of this point gains thus much more out of St. Austin As all the Tribes of Israel were gathered together about Mount Sinah to hear in what manner the Law was proclaimed so here was an agreement of all persons to joyn together to receive the Holy Ghost but in that admirable similitude there is this dissimilitude that the people were prohibited with many terrors to come near the place where the Law was delivered but at this time the Holy Ghost was sent unto them who expecting the promise were all with one accord in one place And Calvin conjects much unto this note that the minds of the faithful were exceedingly encouraged and chang'd for the better the stoutest Champions of them all had no manlike fortitude in them before the Shepherd was smitten and instantly they were scattered and ran away for fear now the very women had hardned themselves against all danger they mix themselves together in one place with that holy company and fear no evil that can happen unto them A resolved constant mind an heroick heart to take up the Cross of Christ and to suffer unto the death for righteousness sake is a sign of much grace in the soul and an admirable preparation to receive the greatest measure of the Holy Ghost And that you may not think this Apostolical Society had crept into a dark corner where no espials could find them out Many Authors that have laboured to understand where it was say it was a spacious goodly Room of as much note as any private House in all Jerusalem and frequented so often by the Apostles that their haunt was known through all the City All that I have met withal conclude it was the same upper Chamber where our Saviour celebrated his last Supper and so consecrated the place Nicephorus and Cedrenus say it was the House of John the Evangelist for he took the Blessed Virgin to his own home and she was now among them a slender guess God wot and repugnant to many circumstances of Scripture Theophylact says it was the House of Simon the Leper how can that be when his House was in Bethany Matth. xxvi 6. Euthymius says it was the House of Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counseller and had goodly Rooms to receive them Baronius goes with the most voices all are but conjectures that it was the House of Mary the Mother of John whose surname was Mark. To this Adrichomius consents and says this was the place where 3000 Jews were converted by Peter and baptized thither Peter betook himself when the Angel brought him out of prison there Stephen and others were made Deacons there James the Brother of our Lord so called was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem there the first Council of the Apostles was held Acts xv All ancient Authors conclude it was about where the Tower of Sion stood and this is certain that Helen the Mother of Constantine did build a goodly Temple upon the same place to honour that holy ground It was a Figure of the whole Church of Christ so much the more to be remembred and the Church is a Figure of the Kingdom of Heaven where all the Saints and I trust all we shall praise the Lord with one accord in one place for evermore It follows now as the outward Bond of Peace was with this Society so they were claspt together faster with the inward Bond of Agreement with the unity of the same spirit they were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with one accord There cannot be a more proper true and certain disposition to make us meet for the Holy Ghost than unanimity As the Halcyon so our Naturalists say never appears but against fair weather so the Spirit comes either not at all or not very plentifully unto us until he find concord among us without jars and tranquility without bitterness The unity of the Apostles is called by the Fathers parasceue spiritus the way-making to receive the grace of God and if the Patient be prepared aright the Agent will do his work the sooner and the better No gifts of benediction are given to strive and oppose to fight one against another but for charity and edification therefore it was the beginning of our Collect three Sundays past Almighty God which dost make the minds of all faithful men to be of one will and it is a principal part of our Gospel for this day Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you That peace which Christ left among the Apostles was as it were an earnest penny put into their hands that they should have the full donative of the Comforter from above Our Saviour was born in the days of Caesar Augustus when a still Peace was over all the world now He pours out his holy spirit upon them that were of one accord and of one heart the one was his first act upon earth the other is his last then he was cloathed with our flesh now we are invested with his spirit This remarkable amity and Saint-like brotherhood among the Members of the Church which had no ruptures was well prefigur'd in the old Feast of Pentecost which was kept by the Jews For Levit. xxiii 19. upon the day of Pentecost among other Burnt-offerings the Priests were appointed in
opened that the Word should run swiftly throughout all the world when good tidings were diffusive great joy unto all people The sound came flying upon the wings of the wind that there was neither Speech nor Language upon the earth but their voices were heard among them The Law made a great din when it was published there came thunder with it and the noise of a Trumpet louder and louder Yet this noise was spread in the Desart of Sinai in a desolate and uninhabited Region But this sound which hapned when the Gospel was authorized to be preached in every Nation it had audience in the most populous place of all Judaea in the City of Jerusalem As who should say it was a communicable sound which should be received into the Imperial Cities of all Kingdoms I draw this only observation from it to your holy practice that the Lord loveth fragorem vocis not a whispering silence but an exalted voice a loud exclamation to praise him Open confession of Gods name is an effect individually connex'd with a true lively faith so says David Psal cxvi I believed and therefore I spake There are three things hateful to God which jar against it 1. Hypocritical profession when the protestation of the mouth is not rooted in the heart 2. Abnegation of the Faith whether they deny the truth for fear or for resolved Apostasie 3. There is another way to sin against the confession of the Faith and that is malum silentium not to glorifie God openly in our profession when it concerns his honour in whose person the Psalmist speaks I kept silence yea even from good words but it was pain nay it will be pain and grief unto them St. Paul complains of those Christians that were of Rome in his days that none would openly declare themselves of his side in the time of persecution At my first answer none stood with me but all forsook me I pray God it may not be laid to their charge 1 Tim. iv 16. The Lord would not have it lurk only in the secrets of our breast that we are Christs Disciples but that it should resound abroad to his glory for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation And let Gods service be performed on all sides on the Priests part and on the peoples with fervor and strength of voice like the sound of many waters You may pray tacitly in the heart but sure the holy Spirit came not from heaven like a vehement sound to teach you to fumble in the mouth and scarce to open your lips when you are in Prayer Prayer is a calling upon God Call upon me in the time of trouble Psal l. Nay a roaring for very disquietness of heart says the same Prophet in another place Our humble Petitions are called Vituli labiorum Heb. xiii Their lips will offer their sacrifice aloud if the true incense of zeal do burn within for our Saviour says Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A troubled soul I grant it sometimes cannot utter it self sometimes a dumb-born Prayer is very powerful as Hannah the Mother of Samuel is the great instance of it but in the ordinary way assuredly the more strength of voice we put to our Supplications the more we shake off the drowsiness of the flesh the more we stir up the grace of the holy Spirit which loves that the Eccho and chearful sounds of the voice should ascend up to heaven But the Scripture doth not leave at this that there came a sound from heaven it goes further and tells us the manner of the sound that it was like unto that noise which is caused by a vehement wind ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as if the wind had blown but it was but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as if it were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Oecumenius that you might not imagine the holy Spirit to be a corporeal breathing like the vaporous substance of the wind therefore the quasi is very significant that it had but the similitude of the wind Yet it is very inquirable why like that more than any thing else If we had been left to guess what sound it was why might not we have imagined it to be the purling of some soft streams Or the humming of Bees about their Hive Or the voice of harpers playing with their harps Rev. xiv 2. None of those it was but as the fragor of the wind And when God declares his vertue in some sensible object you must perswade your reason there is some great relation between the sign and the thing signified Did not our Saviour illustrate unto Nicodemus our Regeneration or new Birth from the blasts of the air Joh. iii. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the voice thereof and knowest not whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit Yet more feelingly when he did infuse into his Apostles the power of the Holy Ghost bequeathing them that great Sacerdotal priviledge Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained Was it not conveyed by blowing upon them like the wind by insufflation Joh. xx 22. He breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost Now I will tell you together where both the mystery and the use of it do consist First As the breath which we send forth comes from the warmth of our Lungs and of our bowels within so the Spirit proceedeth from the substantial love of the Father and of the Son What was the meaning then of that sensible expiration But that as the breath which he vented out came from his Humane Nature so the Holy Ghost which he breathed on his Disciples came from his Divine Nature And this must follow to give it you by the way that Christ is very God for who but God can communicate the Holy Ghost For it was Gods Promise that He and none but He would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh Isa xliv And it stands as well proved that the Holy Ghost is God for the prime and supreme power to remit sins is the Holy Ghosts he was given to the Disciples for that end and none can forgive sins but God alone Secondly Christ communicated his spiritual gifts by breathing to shew that he even the same Lord was the Author both of our temporal and eternal life For in the Creation the Lord breathed into mans nostrils the breath of life Gen. ii 7. But this life shall pass away and the body shall crumble into dust Why behold the breath of the Lord will go forth again to cause a joyful Resurrection as it is in the Prophets vision of the dry bones Ezek. xxxvil 5. Thus saith the Lord unto these bones Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live Yet if this body wherein sin reigns and inclines it only to
Child of wrath and those laudable actions were but sins or imperfections with a good gloss Will you say they desire and pray for the holy Spirit and therefore this illumination comes not suddenly but with invitation O but says the Arausican Council which handled this Point of the grace of God more copiously and Orthodoxly than ever any Council did the utterance nay the very thought of every good Prayer it is instilled by the divine irradiation of Gods help and the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Prayer and if any man say that the grace of God is bestowed upon our Prayer and Invocation and that grace did not first enable us to make that Prayer he contradicts the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostle Paul who both have these same words I am sought of them that asked not for me I am found of them that sought me not Thus that Council whereby you hear that we whose nature is rank corruption do not prepare and dispose the way to attract the blessing of heaven upon us by little and little upon congruity of Gods favour it comes suddenly and unawares when we least deserve it It must not be let alone without this addition to it which is S. Ambrose his descant on it Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia the spirit of purity and renovation is quick and sudden in the work of conversion he doth not linger and mature his good effects by soft leisure he doth not creep like a snail or as a Father of our own Church says like a Serpent Serpentis est repere Commonly motions that come from the old Serpent the Devil creep upon us and men grow bold in iniquity by degrees Nemo repentè fit pessimus was the old Proverb but where the Lord loveth the man whom he chooseth he doth in an instant take away his stony heart and give him an heart of flesh And as the Resurrection of the dead shall be in an instant so in an instant he translates him from death to life It is done with such dispatch and celerity that the gift of Prophesie nay of Sanctification is called but the touch of the lips Says the Angel to Isaiah upon the living coal which he brought from the Altar This hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Isa vi 7. The loyal Israelites that feared God and the King are called a band of men whose hearts God had touched 1 Sam. x. 26. O admirable workman says Gregory Mox ut tetigeret mentem docet solùmque tetigisse est docuisse He doth but touch and teach and the mind is reformed in a moment as soon as ever the finger of his Spirit is laid upon it An Apostolical Spirit came suddenly upon St. Matthew penitent restitution upon Zaccheus confession and grace upon the Thief on the Cross The Eunuch made haste to believe and as soon as he believed he would be baptized of Philip at the next water he came to and go no further Men must not neglect present motions of grace though suddenly rising in them Now the Lord moves my heart and now at the first touch I will obey the Spirit This is a brave and a pious resolution But if you let the grace of God knock at door once and twice and do not open it is to be feared that you will grow deaf after a while and never hear it Modo modò non habebant modum Anon and to morrow and hereafter at more leisure and as Festus said to Paul Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee these are not words of good manners to so great a King as the King of heaven Can Impenitancy or continuance in evil be good at any time Then break it off at the first pang and throw that the Conscience suffers for it The Spirit is a sudden wind he deceives his own soul that continues in a long consumption of any sin and thinks to be helpt out of it by a lingring remedy The description of the suddenness hath not been unuseful you see and we shall collect as much from that which follows that it was Flatus veniens vehemens a rushing mighty wind Methinks I see the Spirit of God set out here in his manifold strength and efficacy Is there any thing in it self so thin and poor as a puff of Air It is neither Iron nor Brass nor Bones and yet what strange effects it works Turns up Oaks and Cedars by the roots breaks the Ships of the Sea in pieces casts down Bulwarks and Fortresses so Epiphanius received it from some good hand that God overthrew the Tower of Babel with a violent wind So the principles of the Spirit seem to be very mean and foolishness to flesh and bloud the Instruments in which it wrought homely illiterate Fishermen yet the learning of five Synagogues putting their wits together was not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which Stephen spake Acts vi 10. It brings down strong Holds and high Imaginations it brings into Captivity every exalting thought to the obedience of Christ Wisdom Learning Might Majesty all have stoopt before it As the Scripture says often that the Spirit came mightily upon Samson and then his Foes were sure to fall before him so it rusheth upon some holy men with a gallant heroick zeal and then all the subtilties of Satan are not able to make a part against it No Fear can dismay them no Persecution can make them hide their head no Favour or Reward make them swerve from a good conscience no Discipline so strict that they will not undertake for the love of Christ The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Mat. xi 12. The Kingdom of heaven was among the Jews but Rapuit regnum coelorum Centurio The Centurion did as it were invade it and take it from them for upon his confession our Saviour said I have not found so great faith no not in Israel Neither is it only expedient to make it manifest that the Spirit is strong and mighty like a stiff vehement wind in actu exercito in the power of it which the Saints of God have to exercise to others but also in actu primo informante when it enters into the heart of them whom God converts it comes with a mighty force and will not be gainsaid with the opposition of our rebellious nature Neque resistere ultra potest cui velle resistere sublatum est says a Reverend Father of our own Church that is neither shall our vicious nature resist the mighty working of Gods converting grace since the first thing that such grace works is to conquer our perverseness in resisting I do not say but our will hath always a liberty and indifferency in it to do or not do To chuse or refuse but the act to resist is suspended for that time by the grace of God and though
these persons and to this season not to these persons for it is most likely that none but the Apostles were partakers of the Divine illumination which came from Heaven upon this day and the Apostles no man calls it in question had the talents of that grace delivered unto them which saved their souls Ir is a masterless and a false fame that any castaways were in the number of these that were filled with the Holy Ghost Christ himself is said to be full of the Holy Ghost Luke iv 1. and the Blessed Virgin gratiâplena full of grace and St. Stephen the Captain of all Martyrs full of the Holy Ghost Acts vi and Barnabas the Son of Consolation full of the Holy Ghost Acts xi None but such as were peerless Saints are deigned with that praise to give this scruple a full satisfaction regard the time and season wherein this dew of heaven did drop down into the Fleece of wooll it is the day so long before promised wherein the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh the scaturigo the first spouting out of the Spirit and do you think that this being the original from whence the spring began that all the best Balsams and Liquors did not flow into them that received it I resolved therefore that these persons in my Text did not only partake such gifts as made them wonderful in the eyes of the world but such also as made them holy and acceptable in the sight of God that is it did not only speak in their tongues but it was diffused in their hearts To end this matter remember what manner of spirit that is which God bestows it is from above it is holy it is not our own but Christs a Spirit from above and not from beneath as St. Paul says Now we have received not the spirit of this world but of God 1 Cor. ii 12. Spiritus mundi est per quem arripiuntur phanatici says St. Ambrose that 's the spirit of this world with which phanatical men are led which drives them into contention or vain glory but they are enemies to peace and savour not the things which belong to God And since we are bidden to deny our selves if we will be Christs Disciples we must also deny our own private Spirit and submit our selves to the Spirit of the Church which is the Spirit of God for our Saviour hath promised to be with it unto the end of the world Take heed of this hot windy humour which makes some cleave pertinaciously to their own imagination and attribute far more to their own ignorant judgment than becomes them The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets but if any one think that some new mysteries are revealed to him which the Church never heard of before and begin to trouble our peace with his falsesly pretended raptures and enthusiasms I say unto such in Ezekiels words Woe unto the foolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing Thus far I have spoken of the Gift which was given to the Apostles to supply the room of Christ himself now he was gone and ascended into Heaven Hominem portavit in coelum Deum misit in terram says St. Austin he carried away his Manhood into Heaven and instead thereof he sent down God unto the Earth I mean the Holy Ghost and this Gift more worth than all the world beside is his usual and continual favour but the measure of it is more than ordinary repleti sunt omnes they were all filled with the Holy Ghost And Leo did very well to mark it that this was not spiritus inchoans but cumulans not the initiation but the accumulation of the Spirit the augmenting of the old stock which the Apostles had in a good quantity before not the beginning of a new They had the Spirit before as appears particularly in St. Peter when Christ told him he had prayed that his faith might not fail therefore he had a portion of faith In general it is most manifest that Christ breathed on them all and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost But as it appears by Elisha's request to his Master Elias there are single and there are double Portions of the Spirit there is a single Talent of Grace given to one Servant two to a second and five Talents committed to him that was most entrusted by his Master there are such as have a little of this Manna in their Omer and them that have it top full And these that received the Holy Ghost at this Feast were such as were not sprinkled but replenished with it quibus nulla pars animae mansit carens spiritu sancto says Cajetan the fruits of sanctification did not grow thinly in them here a berry and there a berry upon the top of a bough but pious conformity to Gods will obedience and the fear of the Lord were in every faculty of their soul and body The Romanists oftentimes put in such impertinent cautions that their bedging in of some needless exception lays waste the truth of God Among others of that bad stamp this is one that the Apostles and other holy men are said to be filled at this time with the Holy Ghost because an Increase was put to that which they had before but the Blessed Virgin was so full before that she received not any new addition or if she received a new distillation of it now illud erat ut in nos tantum effunderet says Lorinus it was for our sakes that it might overflow and be transfused from her to us even as Christ was full of grace and truth from the first moment that he was incarnate and yet for our sakes the Spirit came upon him when he was baptized in Jordan Matth. iii. a most scandalous comparison between the Infinite and the Finite between the Creator and the Creature for though Christ thought it no robbery to be equall with God Philip. ii yet it is a great robbery of the Divine honor to make the Blessed Virgin equal with Christ But to keep to mine own work the Apostles had an earnest penny of the Spirit before but they came to the fulness of it by degrees first they were baptized and so had an introduction unto sanctity afterward Christ breathed on them that was their proficiency last of all came this mighty rushing and cloven tongues as it were fire and sat upon each of them that 's their perfection by nature and of themselves they were of the earth earthly but they were regenerate and born again in Baptism that 's an Element above the Earth The next step of their heavenly promotion was that the Lord breathed on them so the Air is above the Water In conclusion the Holy Ghost came down upon them in fire this is a sign that they were now full to the brim for that 's the Element which is above the Water and the Air and is the next to Heaven And well may it be called a
them should have no inspiration to speak Salmeron is much troubled that he could not give that magnificent report to his Associates that they spake with new Tongues by inspiration in India as well as the Apostles did when they were sent to teach the Gentiles But because he would not have his Order give ground to the Apostles see the stomack of the man he makes this comparison that it is no less Gods benefit and grace to take pains to learn a strange tongue than if it were immediately poured out from heaven nay says he In illâ adipiscendâ plus meriti positum est It is more meritorious to atchieve it by much industry than by inspiration as it is more praise-worthy to raise up a fortune by a mans own diligence than to have it bequeathed him by inheritance I was astonish'd when I read this that this Loyolite should dare to compare and to prefer himself and such like even before the Apostles of our Lord and prefer their smattering in Tongues before the mighty Miracle of this day the greatest that ever was granted to men I confess it is the wisdom of God which teacheth learned men their exact insight into the Sacred Tongues and the Lord hath furnish'd many Heroes of the Reformed Churches with such exquisite skill in that kind far beyond our Adversaries that out of their over-flowing envy they have called us Pedants and Gramarians But God be thanked many of our Linguists are able to communicate in Speech with those of the world beneath which is a sign to me that God is gathering the world unto him by the calling of all Nations and hastening his Kingdom These being the general extractions of this last part of the Text both touching the matter of it and touching the end for which it was done which is the form of it I will spare much of that which remains rather than exceed my time upon this day and yet I will rather point at the particular inferences than quite omit them 1. It is to be collected from the persons that received this utterance of Tongues that the Tongue is a member of diligent employment in an Apostle for how can he discharge St. Pauls Canons to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã apt to teach fit to reprove and exhort unless he open his lips in the great Congregation that his mouth may shew forth the praise of the Lord. But remember that this hability was only infused into Apostles and Teachers How shall they speak unless they be sent Let others be contented with that monition He that hath ears to hear let him hear Suarez the Jesuite makes the case of the Blessed Virgin to be transcendent that she did not only receive the power from heaven to speak with divers Tongues on this day but she was able to do as much long before Therefore she conversed with the Wisemen of the East and had skill in their Eastern Tongue and when she fled away into the Land of Egypt with our Saviour she wanted not the knowledge of that Language Cajetan denies that ever she had this gift of Tongues For to what end It was not her part to preach unto the Gentiles And for the coming of the Wise men of the East my answer hath more likelihood than Suarez objection that they brought Interpreters with them For they asked at Jerusalem Where is he that is born King of the Jews And all the people understood them Let this grace therefore be ascribed only to the Apostles and to such as in those days joyned with them in the same labour 2. When they had these Tongues ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they began to speak But first they were endued with Spirit and then with a Tongue to speak God doth first cleanse the mind within and then he puts his Word into the mouth of his Pastors Unless the heart have a sincere feeling of that which it speaks there will be a jarring in the Tongue as in a Bell that is crackt or an Instrument that is broken Without the help of the air the Organ of the natural voice cannot speak and without the Spirit there is no speaking in the name of God Why dost thou take my Laws into thy mouth since thou hatest to be reformed The Exorcists of the Jews that had no faith the Devil flew upon them when they began to speak of holy things Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye 3. Mark what an alteration the impression of the Holy Ghost makes in our very speech Now they begin to speak with boldness with Parthians Medes and Elamites with all Comers Jews and Gentiles Nay ye shall be brought before Kings says our Saviour yet fear not to profess my name Dabo vobis os loquelam Here was a great mutation since that time that Peter could not hold parly with a silly Damosel but he faltred We have tongues now adays but certainly we are empty and have none of this Spirit or else we would be bolder in delivering the Message of the Lord. Thirdly They began to speak with other Tongues Moses habuit linguae balbutiem as one says Moses that brought the Law had scarce the use of one Tongue he confessed he was of a slow speech and of a slow tongue Exod. iv 10. But the Gospel was not terrible like the Law which would make the tongue of him that brought it to falter and tremble but it is sweet upon the tongue and full of grace were their lips that brought it 5. Wherefore this variety of Tongues but that all may praise the Lord as well publickly as privately in a known Language What a tyranny it is in the Roman Church that the Common People in the time of Mass are edified by nothing but the mopping and nods and gestures of the Priest Lyra confesseth that if their vulgar Auditors understood to what they said Amen they would serve God better be converted sooner and answer much more devoutly to the words of the Liturgy 6. When the Apostles spake it was not with the demonstration of humane wisdom but with the power of the Spirit as the Spirit gave them utterance And yet it was not baldly and rudely performed for my Text says the Spirit gave them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sententiosa mirifica loqui says Beza To speak sententious and admirable matter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says St. Chrysostome they were Apophthegms and ponderous sayings which they brought forth they spake Magnalia Dei the wonderful works of God ver 11. Yet now adays that is said to be spoken by the Spirit and nothing but that which is frothy and windy and perhaps never a wise word spoken and other men that have care of every word which they deliver in the sight of God and in his name that is studied affectation or some such bitter censure Whereas St. Paul requires in Titus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sound and learned doctrine Tit. i. 9. And St. Peter If any man speak let him
speak the Oracles of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã rational discourses 1 Pet. iv 11. So our Saviour promised his Disciples I will give you a mouth and wisdom not a mouth only but wisdom with it so that all your Adversaries shall not be able to gainsay it Luk. xxi 15. Finally the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the person of an Evangelical Priest The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should speak a word in season Isa l. 4. And so to end all let us send up our tongues of praise and thanksgiving to heaven to the gracious God that did send down the blessing of these Tongues to his Church upon earth And the same Lord Jesus exalt us to his Church Triumphant where with one song and with one voice we shall sing glory to him for evermore AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 12 13. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this Others mocking said these men are full of new wine MEntion being made in the former part of this Chapter what effects the Mission of the Holy Ghost as upon this day wrought in the Apostles the next thing which is disclosed in these two verses is what entertainment it found in the World What entertainment should it find but joy and gladness and thanksgiving it was a shower of grace that fell from Heaven and every drop of it more valuable than an Orient Pearl which made the whole earth barren and unfruitful before spring out with spiritual increase that from thenceforth the Wombs of Mothers should not bring out men but Saints It was not as upon the sixth day of the week in the Creation of the World that God did breath into man the breath of Life but upon this first day of the week he breathed into his Church the breath of Righteousness and filled it with the seeds of future Glory From the Feast of the Passover the Jews were to number seven weeks and then they kept a most solemn day called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost that 's this very day instituted to recognize how at that time they came out of Egypt from the Bondage of Pharaoh and received the Law which was delivered upon Mount Horeb. But to expunge the memory of that occasion God did superinduct a far greater blessing upon this Festival day and poured out his Spirit in a bountiful and miraculous manner upon his Disciples at Jerusalem Was there a season appointed to congratulate the deliverance of the Jews from the Captivity of the Body and doth not this Mercy exalt it self above the other that they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise to be enfranchised from the slavery of Sin and the Devil Was the remembrance of the Law a perpetual rejoycing though it were a killing Letter and is it not ten thousand times more comfortable to receive the power of the Holy Ghost which enabled them to keep the Law Did they take it kindly and chearfully to receive the Law written in Tables of Stone And is not the change a great deal better on this day to have it written in the fleshly Tables of their Heart Then the Lord gave them but one Talent and they made but small multiplication of it nay they were the Servants in the Parable and who but they that bound it up and buried it in a Napkin Lo here are five Talents delivered unto us a greater Sum than ever the Children of Men received before And answer me now in equity what entertainment the Mission of the Holy Ghost should receive in the World Not to deceive your expectation with many words the case is thus The best of the Jews that came to the God-speed of this days work profest ignorance and knew not what to make of it the worst of them exhaled envy and rancour out of their malignant minds and jeared at it And they were all amazed and were in doubt c. The parts must needs arise to these two heads Grande miraculum Grande ludibrium First a great Miracle for it wrought these three things first Amazement they were all amazed secondly Doubt they were in doubt thirdly earnest Search and Inquisition for they said one to another what meaneth this But though the greater part were thus affected and therefore it is said they were all amazed meaning the greater number yet divers turn'd it to mockery and said these men are full of new wine First the sending of the Holy Ghost was construed to be a great Miracle by all that saw the effects of it in the Apostles and in the beginning it is exprest by a passion that took away their reason for a time ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they were amazed then it troubled their reason they doubted and finally it exercised their reason for they asked after it Amazement is a word to express the highest and most sudden admiration that can take a man when astonishment doth seize upon the faculties of the mind and bind them up for a little space that they have no power to exercise themselves as if they were Planet-blasted The Latin word Attonitus is he that is scared with a sudden clap of thunder so that he is stupified for a while but the Greek word in my Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã goes further for the right signification is they were beside themselves or they were in an extasie So our Saviour's Kinsmen being themselves out of their wits with ignorance thought that our Saviour was transported when he preached the Gospel and knew not what he said therefore their opinion was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he is beside himself Mark iii. 21. Ecstatici qui non sunt in potestate mentis they that are amazed have not their mind present for the time it is dizied and confounded so that this Miracle wrought upon the Jews after the highest pitch of admiration Let us interpret it to the best that joy did overcome them to see the riches of all goodness poured out upon the Sons of men Their Forefathers were astonisht with fear at the delivery of the Law and they are astonisht with joy at the coming of the Holy Ghost The Gift it self the Persons that received it the Operation which it did exercise in them to speak the glory of God in all Tongues and Languages all are transcendently wonderful that the wit of a natural man especially is not able to comprehend them The Gift it self in the first place is so celestial that the Lord himself is not more wonderful in all his works than in sending the Holy Ghost so hidden from the knowledg of the world so rare to be found so beneficial to mankind that he that marvels not at it is himself a Miracle Are you amazed at things which are secret and very abstruse in their nature none more close and unperceivable than this As the wind passeth by and is not perceived so God breaths the
Spirit of grace into the Soul and is not discerned there it sanctifies there it reforms there it changeth the mind and yet we cannot understand what manner of quality it is a thing of no appearance and yet of infinite efficacy Our senses are the Cinque-ports of all humane knowledg if any thing come into us either it must enter by those passages or we have no means to know how it should enter without those passages But when we feel the agitation of grace in our heart nothing is left us but to say Lord how camest thou hither We know not which way thou camest The Jews were sealed outwardly in the Body with the Mark of Circumcision whereby every man knew his Brother but our Mark is privily imprinted upon the Soul the Holy Spirit whereby we are sealed unto the day of Redemption whereby God only knoweth his Elect. God knows it the Conscience of the faithful feels but if we go about to consider what manner of Essence or Influence it is it will amaze us that we cannot understand it Again do you wonder at things which are rarely found then marvel to see how sparingly the Grace of God doth grow upon the Earth To whom hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed and who hath believed our Report The Sun illuminates half the World at once with his Light and leaves the other half in Darkness but the tenth part of the Sons of Men are not beautified with the Light of Grace nay the sixth part of the Earth hath not heard whether there be an Holy Ghost It strikes me with Admiration how so many do want the Heavenly Calling for the Ravens and the Sparrows do not want the comfort of their daily Food Naturas rerum minimarum non destituit Deus the smallest things that be God doth not leave them destitute yet there are Millions of men and women that continue in a barbarous and unrepented life So that it turns to be the Subject of Admiration to find out those few that are the small Remnant of Jacob. Christ himself marvelled at the faith of the Centurion a Commander and so submissive a Gentile and so devout an Example seldom seen and the Lord did marvel at it So he lifted up his voice in Acclamation to the Canaanitish womans praise O woman great is thy faith a denied Supplicant and so constant a disgraced Supplicant and so patient Seldom doth the Grace of God inhabit where it proves so well But O love the Saints and magnifie God in their good success Such as serve God truly in spirit are no usual sight therefore the coming down of the Holy Ghost was matter of Amazement But above all the Effects and Benefits of it are so beneficial to mankind that it amounts to the highest admiration It opens unto us the meaning of the Scriptures without which the Eunuch may read but he knows not the interpretation it teacheth us to pray with zeal and faith without which our words are but babling it makes us hear the Word of God to our edifying and salvation without which it is lost in stony or thorny ground it puts the tast of Christs Body and Bloud into our mouths when we receive the Sacrament without which we eat and drink our own damnation it comforts us though we find the horror of sin in our conscience and tribulation in the world without which the vengeance of God and the wrath of man would overwhelm us it seasons our actions with piety and obedience without which nothing that we can do but is corrupted with the root of bitterness it intenerates the most stony Hearts it hath civilized the most barbarous Nations it hath brought in Nurture and the Use of Laws and Discipline among them that lived by nothing but rapine and robbery it hath made the Flesh of Man which was a Cage of uncleanness to be the Temple of God Upon whomsoever the Spirit of Grace doth rest the Lycaonians may say of them without offence Gods are come down unto us in the likeness of Men. You may justly extol it with a boundless Praise and a boundless Praise must needs close in with an Extasie of admiration You would bless your selves with wonder to see a mighty Cure wrought upon the Body by the Finger of God a Cure above nature and is it not more astonishable to see a supernatural Cure wrought upon the desperate Diseases and Distempers of the Soul If one that is born blind be made to see O then they cry out Never was the like seen from the beginning of the world Consider your selves I pray you in the better part are we not by nature blind and ignorant groping in darkness and cannot find a true step to Heaven The Spirit is eyes unto the understanding it makes us walk in marvelous light so that we shall not dash our foot against the stones and ruins of tentations which of these two is the greater Miracle To cast out a Devil from him that is possessed would make the Earth ring of the mighty virtue Doth not Grace cast out a Legion of Devils from the Soul To skip over all other instances but one no Miracle which Fame did publish with a lowder Trumpet than to raise the Dead chiefly to raise up Lazarus that had been four days dead Why a continuance in sin is the death of the Soul and no Paradox it is to say it is an immortal death Yet Christ rolls away the stone of impenitence under which it is buried looseth our hands and feet which were bound with the cords of Satan calls us forth from the Grave of Custom renews our spirit and makes us live unto holiness and you being dead in sins and trespasses hath he quickned Colos ii 13. So you see how hard it is to know the Spirit how rare to find it for totus mundus in maligno positus how copious and infinite in his Effects and Benefits it is above our capacity to measure it and most worthy of amazement to admire it Now as we know the Gift of the Holy Ghost better than these Jews so it is the more admirable to us by how much we know it the better but the persons of the Apostles were better known to the Jews than to us and that circumstance they fell upon as a strange thing which they could not dive into why the Lord did put so great a Treasure into such homely Vessels There was not a Moses among them skill'd in all the Learning of the Egyptians not a Joshua in all the cluster that could lead a Battel not a Samuel that had worn a Linnen Ephod from his childhood before the Lord not a Rabbi not a Pharisee not one of polite Education It is that which confounded the Multitude at the 7. verse Behold are not all these which speak Galilaeans There was some reverence done to them in that Character they might have said are not all these Fishermen Publicans and Ideots Truly if there were nothing else these
more with these bodily senses than with the inerrable light of Divine Truth is an extreme indignity A grave Patrician would be grieved that the deposition of a noted Varlet should be heard against his innocency And will you hear the objections of sense and reason against that sacred evidence Thus saith the Lord that were to trust to darkness before light the Flesh before the Spirit to lying vanities before unalterable and eternal truth But to her senses this Infidel would appeal and they would instruct her sufficiently whether it had gone with Sodom so ill as it was foretold And was she sure to be satisfied by looking back I greatly doubt it a mist might rise up like the smoak of a Furnace and she conceive it to come from fire when it did not Or the Sun might shine upon the waters in the Plain and she misdoubt that the waters were become bloud as the Moabites were so mistaken Doth not a late Historian tell us of the whole Watch of a City that misdoubted a Field of thistles a far off was a Troop of Pikemen that encamped there to besiege them Was ever man more cautious according to humane rules than St. Thomas the Apostle He would trust no mans reports that his Master was risen from the dead he would see somewhat neither would he trust his own eyes he would feel too nay he would not trust his fingers ends in small wounds but he would wallow his whole hand in the rent of his side For all this wariness he might have been deluded The Syrians saw Elisha and yet wist not it was he The Sodomites felt all night at Lots door and were still to seek Old Isaac held Jacob fast and was deluded the hands are Esau's hands says he and yet they were not And will this woman trust her eye-sight and at a distance rather than Gods peremptory assertion O trust not in man trust not in these fallible humane means Our senses are bruitish Nature is corrupt Philosophy is vain but Faith leans upon that strong pillar the revelation of the Spirit from above which cannot falter and to lie it is impossible And as this woman was called an incredulous Soul because she looked back to see whether vengeance had passed upon the Cities of the Plain as the Angel of the Lord had foretold so for want of faith touching the caution which was given to her own person she fell into presumption and by presumption into death it would not sink into her thoughts that God was in earnest that as many of their Troop as looked behind them should be consumed she thought they were big words to scare timerous persons such as Prophetical men in their zeal did every day denounce against sinners yet they liv'd and rub'd on that took their own liberty to disobey for God was gracious and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise against miserable sinners Feel feel the pulse of your own conscience I beseech you tell me if it do not beat disorderly Doth it not confuse you to call to mind that this infidelity this in ipso genere hath betrayed you to the tentations of Satan more than all his snares beside that desperate courage which you assume to your selves upon some hope of impunity is it not the spur to all transgression God is gentle and of long suffering his minacies are terrible but his dearly beloved Son and our only Saviour is merciful sed exorabile numen fortasse experiar says the Heathen his loving kindness is soon entreated This is a bastard faith of our own to subvert the true faith which is begotten by the Spirit A Diabolical infusion that God doth menace out of policy that which He never meant to make us obsequious by the shadow of his scourge but remember that non moriemini was a lie 'T is the Serpents Master-piece to expel all faith and fear out of our mind for they go hand in hand together and to break our necks with confidence A barbarous beastly kind of life says Aristotle hardned the Scythians that they neither feared Thunder nor Earthquakes but it is infernal witchcraft that makes obdurate hearts believe that all the woes and curses in the Gospel are but a strong noise terrible while it is heard but comes to nothing Quotidie Diabolus quae Deus minatur levigat says Gregory God affirms the Woman doubts the Devil denies O unhappy they that think Truth it self may be deceived and give ear to a deceitful spirit If all the maledictions against Impenitents were not indubitably to be expected Christianity were but fainthearted superstition Religion nothing but panick fear Faith not the Evidence of things to come but a devised Fable and the sacred Scriptures in all penalties and threatnings a vizard of mockery But as sin brought punishment upon us so let the certain expectation of punishment bring us out of sin Remember Lots Wife the only memento that Christ fixeth upon any Story of the Old Testament The less she believed the less she feared but the less she feared the more she smarted What God hath threatned will not be declin'd by our contrary opinion Though Christ shed his bloud to save a sinner God will not lie to save a sinner No title of his Word shall fail no not to save an hundred thousand souls out of the infernal pit I am come to the utmost portion of the hour and not to the utmost of the first part of my Text by three points She fainted in well-doing she neglected mercy and was slow to save her self she contemned the benefit of preservation in respect of that which was taken from her But as Logick convinceth more than Rhetorick as the fist knit together is stronger than the hand spread abroad so all this will be most doctrinal in one point that she relapsed and sunk after she was in fair speed to obtain mercy because she fell in love with wicked Sodom again from whence God had withdrawn her This is her crime which Philo exaggerates more than once aestu refluo retrosum absorpta she was like a Ship sailing with full sails from the sinful delights of the World but the contrary winds and tides of concupiscence carried her clean back again Josephus accuseth her worse upon the same charge that though her feet came from that impious City yet her heart staid behind Et saepius tardavit vertendo se ad civitatem she stood still more than once to take her full view of that loss which she so much bemoaned nor was it at the first turning about as he says that she was turn'd into a pillar of salt The very Apples of Sodom remain as a token against her to this day which put forth at first as if they would grow to be very delicious in the taste and in conclusion they pulverize and become sooty ashes So Lots Wife ran well at first but in the midst of her course nay almost at the end she fainted and stuck fast
one in the Gospel so strong that none could hold him no not the Chains wherewith he was tied but he brake them asunder Now this unhappy person of whom I speak was possessed with a Devil Mar. v. 4. The same evil spirit is entred into those robustious men who esteem them dastards who quake at the threatnings of the Law and faint at the terrours of death and judgment to come No fetters of Religious fear will hold them Are not these Sons of Anack mighty Giants And we that tremble and weep at the guilt of our sins are we not as Grashoppers in their sight You cannot be of that mind if you consider that it is not strength in the wicked but madness to carry themselves stubbornly before an infinite and omnipotent Majesty Gregory the Great is copious in a whole Sermon upon this subject that there is no such weakness as the fortitude of Reprobates Says he out of the Prophet Isaiah they are strong to drink Wine and mighty to pour in strong drink Is not that a weakness Ad inanem gloriam cum discrimine vitae perveniunt They will uphold their reputation in frivolous quarrels with the hazard of their lives nay with the hazard of their salvation and is not that a weakness They will endure attendants scorns base Offices for favour They will travel by Sea and Land in perils of Thieves in perils of Waâers for the hope of Riches That is more than I can do says Gregory for this worlds good Profectò ego non sum tam fortis in ejus desiderio I am not so hardy to suffer so much for these transitory things Lastly Says he Contra flagella conditoris insensibiliter perdurant God threatens them and they do not weep he corrects them and they do not feel it There is a num Palsie in their conscience I may truly say they are dust Nullus pulvis est tam pulvis There is no moysture in them no living sap in their root if there were any thing of the life of grace in them they could not be so stupid Gregory concludes this Doctrine with a good distinction Reprobi sunt debiliter fortes boni sunt valenter infirmi Reprobates have great infirmity in their fortitude the Children of God have great fortitude in their infirmity Therefore it is more than manly it is Saint-like Apostolical Prophetical to weep because we have grieved the holy Spirit of God with our iniquities It is Apostolical by the instance of St. Paul Phil. iii. 18. There are many that walk of whom I have told you before and now I tell you weeping they are enemies to the Cross of Christ Even those superstitious ones that fall down before the sign of the Cross they are enemies to the Cross Many of them walk among us too many God help it their Idols and Images I fear will bring a curse upon the Land If St. Paul were alive he would tell us weeping that they are enemies to the Redemption obtained by Christ And weeping for sin is Prophetical Jeremy was never satisfied with weeping for the deplorable state of the Jews O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears Chap. ix 1. Et quid nisi vota supersunt The most that we can do is to wish for such a tender and compassionate soul It is to be wish'd I say but few there be that can overcome themselves to perform it As Leo said of his days men are little touched with any thing that God doth to us in his Justice or his Mercy Nec de correctione compungimur nec de remissione laetamur We have neither spiritual joy when God forgives us our sins nor penitent compunction when he corrects us for our sins Whence comes this hardness of heart Hath Mary Magdalen left none of her generation behind her Says the Son of Syrach What is created more wicked than the eye Therefore it weeps upon every occasion Upon every occasion it is ready to shed moisture but not upon the best occasion for when will it weep for its own transgressions because it hath been wanton and full of lust As a Widow that did not love her Husband will follow his Coarse with dry eyes to his burial So Christ is the Husband of every soul which he hath espoused to him in Baptism If your sins grieve him and provoke him to depart from you either lament it with many tears or the case is plain that you never loved him But the Devil hath turned the River of our tears the wrong way A vain Interlude a Fable upon the Stage represented in due action will make the soft Spectator to wet his handkercher So the River is diverted from its natural channel for when we are put in mind of the damnableness of our sins our cheeks are as sear as the Mountains of Gilboa upon which no drop of dew did fall Do you wonder at your selves and ask the reason of this Philosophy will tell you that love is stronger than hatred and hath more command of our passions We have tears in readiness to bewail the death of our dear friends love hath such power over our tender affections but when we are upon mortification to deplore and hate our sins the drops of our eyes are not so easily commanded And this is marvelous in Nature that you shall sooner see fire sparke out of our eyes in hot desire of revenge than tears which are most proper to the eye for our grievous sins But will Philosophy assist us with no better reason Then hear Divinity which will tell you the truth It is presumption rank presumption that will not let our shallow repentance go on unto tears We are not altogether perswaded that God is in earnest when he threatens what manifold woes he will bring upon us for our rebellions That desperate courage which we assume to our selves upon great likelihood of impunity is that which mitigates our sorrow and suffers it not to break forth into any great measure of lamentation We dream that the bloud of Christ is medicinal even for impenitent sinners Thus Satan kills us with that Balm which is distilled out of his wounds to cure us But keep your faith from these impostures and fawnings of the evil one who would make you laugh your selves to death lik those that are bitten with the Tarantula The Stag when he is at the bay and knows there is no way but death for him falls a weeping And are we not surer that no tittle of Gods minacies shall fail than if we were at bay with the Stag and ready to be pluck'd down Believe that God is a severe Judge and that all his threatnings are true that there is a day to come when there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth And when you fear this indeed then you will practise my Doctrine without teaching If any great sickness hold you that you think death is at hand then your eyes will pay the tribute of sorrow to
them That the Nazarites had any dwelling in the Temple Maldonat is mistaken no more had these Shepherds who lived in Tabernacles Again some constrain themselves to the observation of a Vow but for a time for never any but Samson that we read of was a perpetual Nazarite some oblige the Votary for ever such was this which I treat of in Tabernacles they must live for ever Fourthly Some stand upon conditions like that of Anna if she had a Son she would give him to the Lord. Some are absolute like the Vow of Baptism wherein there is no capitulation But were it a Vow in any rank of these which I have named yet the complexion of the matter must have these four conditions according to the Schoolmen We will take that which is sound and refuse that which is corrupt Esto say they res adiaphora possibilis licita faciens ad cultum Dei 1. The thing vowed must be indifferent and free from necessity 2. An atchievment possible and not out of the reach of humane frailty 3. Unless it be lawful we offer our service unto Devils 4. That which we vow unto God must not be every idle fancy of our own brain it must bear weight and moment if we promise it unto the Lord. To begin with the first A thing not commanded but indifferent to be done or not done is the first condition of a Vow says Aquinas Stay there a while Shall I believe Aquinas or the Patriarch Jacob For I learn that the first ground of making a Vow is in Jacobs example Gen. xxviii by the light of nature before the Law and he vows both res praeceptas that God should be his God and res adiaphoras where the Stone was set to build up an house to God Beloved be not deceived with the leaven of the Jesuits this is Diana of the Ephesians and their credit lies upon it Indeed such Commandments as literally forbid sin are negative and obligant ad semper the yoke of them is never off from our conscience and so it is easie to acknowledge that they are Commandments But whereas inclusively there are duties to be done quae non obligant ad semper which bind us but at times and seasons therein we may meet with many parts of Divine Worship which seem superfluous and as it were given into the bargain Especially we want a good inspection to make a difference between these three things 1. There is the end of a Christian life 2. The next and immediate means to that end 3. The remoter means and further off The end is Gods glory and we cannot oversee that point but that it is the first injunction which lies upon our Soul The next and the proper end to that means are the strict words of the Commandments and those we cannot gainsay it are a necessary part of Christianity But as for the remote means which are further of there we boast that we do pay that which we did never owe but supererogate with God O deluded Conscience hearken and consider purity of body and soul is the scope of the seventh Commandment The next means to avoid Adultery is in some men Marriage in some the shunning of lascivious talk and lewd Company there are means more distant to subdue the wantonness of the body by strict Fastings by Canonical hours of Prayer to shun the very Country where bewitching Beauties tempt our affections Should you tell me in this case that your Prayers your Fastings your Pilgrimages were more than measure and above the Commandment I would tell you you did lie against God and your Conscience against God who hath commanded all that you can perform by might and strength and against Conscience for whatsoever my heart tells me will give me advantage to serve the Lord conscientia in iis est regula faciendorum and it is sin to omit it I appeal to a Jury of the Schoolmen Why did Christ and his Angels vow no vow because they are the most perfect Creatures of reasonable essence full of the noblest speculation yet they keep the Law of God and observe it Down then with that blasphemy that the observation of the Law is but Milk for Babes and Vows are left to try the vertues of an excellent and heroick spirits greater Tasks for the Champions of the Militant Church The Law is like the Passover which must be eaten Devotions of indifferency when conscience doth prescribe them are like the sower herbs to be eaten with it If you think the Sawce better than the Meat the Herbs more costly than the Lamb they are fermentum in Paschate and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees You will say was not this res adiaphora was it not in the power of the Rechabites to drink wine or refrain yes but when conscience had set it down before them as an excellent disposition to serve the Lord conscience hath made that which was indifferent in it self necessary unto them and their Task in this very thing to please the Lord. If this Chapter be not strong enough to convince our Adversaries though they glory in the Example of the Rechabites let them take the Cause For although they restrained themselves to the poorest life of keeping sheep and dwelt in Pavillions and drank no wine yet it came not from these observations that they were acceptable to God no God himself reduceth their good service to the fifth Commandment in the last verses of this Chapter because they have obeyed their Father Jonadab in all things therefore there shall not want a man of that Race to stand before him for ever And so much for the first condition of this Vow the observations in themselves are of indifferency and liberty but yet media remota ad praeceptum they are reducible to the fifth Commandment In the second condition I concur with the Schoolmen that a Vow must be possible to accompass lest they that pass by shake their heads and say this man laid a foundation and was not able to build it up non est votum sed ostentatio it is no Vow but plain boasting and ostentation They deal as certain of the Sect called Druides among the Gauls that took much upon trust in this life to pay their Creditors in the Resurrection When St. Peter would trust his feet to walk upon the Seas to Christ the waves surged and had well nigh drowned an Apostle A good Emblem for those who finding their affections calm and even say to morrow will be as yesterday and vow for the years to come but in time our heart loatheth this Manna and what are we but Bankrupts unto God and Peter sinketh A true Votary says Anselm gives unto God the whole tree with the fruit root and branches the works of the will and the power of the will for ever But if the Thistle should vow and threaten to bring forth grapes would it not be trodden down by the Beasts of the field as it is in the
viluerunt Lesser things are admired which happen rarely the greater works of God because they are frequent are heeded carelesly Say not now but ye see cause enough why Christ did actuate this Miracle of the loaves no oftner than twice he would not stretch his Creatures beyond their natural size to please their idle curiosity And yet I will tell you of a miraculous multiplication but I do not wish you to believe that is done toties quoties as they think fit that have the Relique in their custody It is the Cross on which our Saviour was crucified you must not question the Story but that Helen found it in an heap of rubbish at Jerusalem many did desire Chips of it out of their devotion and though innumerous slices of it were cut away yet it kept its just magnitude and never varied The thing was divulged by some but none of the famous Doctors one thousand three hundred years ago One of them that is said to write extemporary Catechisms when he was a young man compares the Cross which wasted not for all the shivers that were borrowed from it to these Loaves and Fishes Another says out of his credulous good meaning that it got this solidity because the bloud of him was spilt upon it who saw no corruption And to this hour say such as get their living by this craft this holy wood is not consumed though it be abundantly imparted Is this credible that Christ did dispense this power unto any to work a Miracle when they would as if there were an Office erected to do signs and wonders Qui Bavtum non odit he that hath so strong a stomach to disgest this let him swallow such an other that out of three or four nails that pierced our Saviours hands and feet the Friers can direct you to Churches and Religious Houses where an hundred instead of four are exposed to adoration What though the Beam of the Cross did not diminish for the portions cut away yet which way did the Nails increase Did one Nail spawn another as big as it self None is so frontless to defend it But to cut off further process upon the matter It is best to bind the Legend how the Cross and the Nails have multiplied into volumes and believe them together But the sure way is not to parallel the glorious works of our Master with such Apocryphal fictions There is a great difference between Juggling and Miracles Hitherto touching the Act of his power in producing this admired work go onward to the next Point and we shall encounter his goodness Our Saviour did not use to do tricks to shew his skill but that some might be the better for him therefore his power was joyned with Beneficence Vt potestas non terreat sed amorem excitet says St. Austin That he might not astonish them with his greatness but endear them with his liberality Leaf gold is drawn out a great way and then it is fit for nothing but Ostentation So the multiplying of the Loaves and Fishes had served barely for the pomp of the eye but that the wonderful encrease thereof concluded in a benefit And first I note though the love of Christ to mankind was excessive strong unto death yet going in the Tract of reason they had little cause to look for this at his hands Alas he had no home to entertain them no Revenues wherewith to feast them no Olive yards or Vineyards to bestow upon them Could five thousand look for a Supper of his bestowing For our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might become rich that is says Nazianzen he put on the poverty of my wretched flesh that I might gain the riches of his glorious Divinity They that followed him had not their wages in Meats and Drinks in Silver and Gold but in Sanctity and Justification in peace of Conscience and in the earnest of the Spirit to be heirs of Salvation And he whose Profession it was to open the Treasures of Heaven to his Disciples and to possess naught of Earth no not so much as to set his foot upon doth he strain himself to give entertainment to so many in the Wilderness What was this but to yield as it were to the time to be beneficial to the Jews in a temporal way that by all means he might win their love He had fed their Spirit with the Word of life and satiated them one would think with the promise of eternal Joy and Immortality if they believed in his name but he knoweth whereof we are made he considereth the Worm in our corruptible appetite which is always craving He remembred that a little in hand goes a great way with them that cannot abide to have all their state in reversion therefore he distributed unto the necessity of their body though his Errand for which he came into the world was to be the Saver of Souls as you would say he stept a little out of his own way to bring them into the right way I cannot but revolve it in my fancy that the Jews were more transported with this curtesie of our Saviours than with all that had preceded Hereupon they cry out This is the Messias this is he that should come into the world Let us take him up and make him a King How ignorantly and unequally doth flesh and bloud set a price upon the works of God I durst almost say that this was one of the least good turns that ever he did them When a Miracle came off graciously indeed it had such a tang at the end of it as Son thy sins be forgiven thee or This day is Salvation come to thine house This had no such heavenly adjunct but was a frank Feast among a promiscuous company as his rain falls upon the just and unjust Well though the grudgings of this disease are become natural to us all to like the heavenly offices of the Gospel the better if Christ befriend us a little with these corruptible things yet carnal Companions are most odious to apprice things momentary before coelestial How much better doth Solomon distinguish Length of days meaning endless days are in his right hand and in his left hand riches and honour Wherefore David describes evil affected men that value earth before heaven that their right hand is a right hand of iniquity because they grasp transitory things in their right hand fixing their chiefest complacency in them which are favours of much later digress and to be received in the left And the same Metaphor is prosecuted in another sacred Song Cant. ii 6. His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me Sinistra capiti non praeponitur sed supponitur says Bernard The left hand which bestows Loaves and Fishes must be under our head not above it as if it were the top of our desires but the right hand should compass us about at the very heart To this Point but a word more Christ produced
Gospel He prosecutes the Trope from Ishmael the Son of the Bondwoman who was aliened from his Fathers house and from Isaac the Son of Sarah who was the Heir of the Promise And all this is curious and inlac'd like Mosaick work with most artificial correspondencies Thus Solomon delivered the Institutions of an honest life in plain and concise Proverbs but when he wrote upon the beauty of the Church he altered his stile into a polite and mystical Song And our Apostle doth frequently utter the things belonging to Justice and Temperance in lowly and vulgar forms of speech but when he goes about to describe the rights and graces of the Church then Paulò majora he is quite another man and handles that subject with many gradations of eloquence Witness my Text as in part I have unfolded it already which is a flower growing upon the stalk of this Allegory which I discuss the oftner to keep the Precept which David gives Psal xlviii Walk about Sion and go round about her tell the Towers thereof mark well her Bulwarks and consider her Palaces The Sion in that Psalm is the Jerusalem in my Text which consists of no ordinary Bays of building but all of sumptuous Architecture There is never a word in this Text but is either a Tower a Bulwark or a Palace of Jerusalem Mark them well go round about them says the Psalmist Her Towers rise up in state for Jerusalem is above she hath Bulwarks of safety for we are made free therein by the bloud of Christ Her Palaces are of large containment for she is the Mother of us all Out of six words in the verse I formerly considered six attributes of honour that belong to that Church which Christ hath purchased with his bloud ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1. She is a Jerusalem a visible fair City there is her external Communion 2. A Jerusalem above that is its internal Sanctity 3. A Jerusalem that is free which is her most proper Christian Badge and supernal Redemption 4. A Mother that is her fruitfulness 5. The Mother of us which imports a Brotherly Unity 6. The Mother of us all which expresseth the universality I have told and numbred the Towers of it and in a former day I proceeded to Jerusalem above Now I will mark her Bulwarks and consider her Palaces that she is free and the mother of us all Jerusalem which is above is free The precedent praise of the Church adheres unto this word for the consummation thereof If there be any that take upon them to belong to the New Jerusalem and to the City which is above let them shew the Copy of their Freedom that they are not led by the Spirit of Bondage but by the Spirit of Adoption There may be a plausible conversation of life in them that are out of the Pale of Jerusalem For Moral Vertues do not belong to Christian men as Christians but they pertain to them as men says Hooker There may be fair manifests of sanctity and the contempt of the world in their outward carriage whose heart is not above The sower morosity of the Pharisees would make you believe they renounced all vanities Pestilent Hereticks have exceeded that I may not say excelled in works of mortification Pelagius was of a demure honesty Vir ut audio non parvo profectu Christianus says St. Austin Severus Sulpitius says of Priscillian he was noted for many laudable parts of mind and body in fasting in humility in contentation So Anthimus and others Doth not this shew as if it were all for the world above And yet they had neither part nor lot in that matter The Reason because they had some bondage in them they were under a Captivity which they had not shaken off They had not liberale ingenium so that the last enquiry who belong to that Jerusalem above is upon this question Whether the truth hath made them free Joh. viii 52. For Jerusalem that is above is free It is a word that comprehends in it much favour and much duty And it shall pass under my hand with this examination 1. What this freedom is 2. How we got it 3. How we must use it Our freedom consists in a manumission from a four fold servitude 1. We are delivered from the Yoke of Ceremonies called the bondage of the Elements of this World in this Chapter verse 4. 2. We are most free for the New Covenants sake which is made with us For salvation is not offered us through the Works of the Law but through the Promise of grace We Brethren as Isaac was are Children of promise verse 28. 3. We have not received the Spirit of Bondage to fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. viii 25. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Theophylact upon my Text the Gospel exhorts us gently it doth not affright us tyrannously 4. The rewards of the New Testament are not momentary things such as the Law propounded but heavenly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says the same Author we are not servants that do our duty for visible wages And all these together make the copy of a perfect freedom He that is under rudiments is under age he that is bound to the works of the Law is under condemnation He that is curbed by threatnings is under thraldom He that looks for momentary things from God is under base afflictions From all these Christ hath exempted us by the Gospel which is called the perfect Law of liberty Jam. i. in this complete sort our Jerusalem which is above is free First To be exempted from the incumbrance of well nigh a Million of Levitical Ceremonies will not appear so gracious a benefit as it is unless we take a great deal of leisure to mark it Never was any people so Paedagogically handled as the Jews were The observation of the greatest part of their days was calculated their meats were stinted their bread was prescribed They had Ordinances upon their Garments precise rules for the fruits that grew in the field directions for their building appointment for their Apparel Not so much but the very cutting of their hair was subject to a Commandment What strict Orders against Pollution What nice receits to cleanse pollution What tedious Traditions in their Oblations and Sacrifices What Punctilioes to be nicely kept in all the discharges of their Religion In Secular affairs they could do nothing wherein their soul delighted In Sacred affairs it was impossible for them to perform every thing which Moses enjoyned God knew how much addicted they were to their own inventions therefore he leaves them nothing either holy or profane to be managed by their own discretion but are quite rejected as unworthy to judge of the smallest matters and they had their hands full of these petty duties to leave no room to extraneous Superstitions Tertulliam adds Et Deus operosis officiis dedolaret God did plain and smooth the ruggedness of their nature with many
disputation but to inward examination how you look to be freed from the fire of Hell when you shall stand before the Judgment Seat of God Will you trust to inherent righteousness and say it will be well for me this good I have done Or to the imputed justice of Christ which is true and perfect justice and pleaseth the eyes of God O there is no ground can be laid for peace and salvation but in his righteousness that justifieth a sinner They that carp at this take them from their sentences and quodlibets and search what they say in their Books of Devotions Manuals of Prayer Graduals of love and repentance Meditations of Death then nothing comes from them but O Lord deliver us O Saviour redeem us O Son of God remember not that which is past then they never fly to the bloudy Altar of the Law but to the Sanctuary of the Gospel In a word whosoever refers his justification in any part to a legal righteousness is yet in bondage but Jerusalem which is above is free It is this Covenant of Faith that turneth away the captivity of Jacob. Now under the Discipline of Faith the Spirit attracts us by love and meek perswasions it doth not threaten and bend the fist at us as the Law did and that 's the third part of bondage which our Jerusalem hath escaped it is not awed with compulsion and fear but it follows the direction of the Spirit with gladness which is the next step to the state of Angels It is not good for a Child to be too much scar'd by Praeceptors and Governours such nipping weather is an enemy to a flourishing Spring Then imagine what a shivering Ague it was to the Israelites Sons of God but not yet come to age as St. Paul describes them to struggle with so many austere Statutes as Moses gave them Scourgings loss of eyes loss of limbs burning stoning forfeiting the life of a man for the trespass of a beast losing the right hand for a casualty a moral man that knew not the strictness of Gods Judgments would say for a trifle Add unto these so many pollutions circumstantial natural that could not be helpt to be expiated with continual cost and labour add above all these that noise of Malediction louder than thunder Cursed is he that doth not continue in all the words of this Law to do them amidst these terrours that came so thick as they were good to bridle stubbornness so many generous resolutions of the mind that would have put forth must needs be suffocated The Angel of God when he came with a message from heaven and would have it intelligently received likely he began with this Preface Fear not Nay God did deliver this People from the fear of Pharaoh and his Host before ever he would give them a Law to serve him Men that are held to their Tasque by minacies Magis aguntur quà m agunt He that doth a thing out of love is carried to it by an internal complacency he is a self mover and the action is his own he that goes forward to his Tasque because the scourge is behind him the action is not his own raptatur ad obsequium his will rows against the stream but the Tide is so strong that it carries him with it by Coaction And that harvest of obedience which is reapt with the Sickle of stern dominion and threatning when all is done it is not worth the bringing into the barn For it keeps a man that he dares not break out into a scandalous transgression of the Law Is not that all The External Act is smooth and conformable to justice But what reformation is there all that while in the heart It is not fear but love which takes upon it to cure the concupiscence which is in the mind If there be no better School-master than fear the body may worship God alone and the mind remain an Idolater A longer declaration of this there needs not We all know that a Palsie of fear will shake Judgment out of the wit The Oratour that pleaded upon peril of his life Lugdunensem rhetor dicturus ad aram he would pronounce but badly and surely much of the imperfections of the Jews may be imputed to this that the Law did subject them to the Spirit of Bondage It is the Spirit of the New Testament which turns us about and sets us free from the superciliousness of the Law and it would have us please the Lord for his mercies sake and out of the sense of his goodness it exhorts us that our service should grow out of his favours and our duty out of his bounty and benefits so shall there be alacrity and readiness in the soul to all manner of vertue as well as passive obsequiousness in the body The Schoolmen observe it rightly that filial fear which is the freedom and ingenuity of obedience riseth out of the love of God but servile fear which is a plain captivity of Spirit riseth out of the love of our selves The Servant who goes through his Tasque that he may not suffer correction would do as much as may keep his skin whole that is for love of himself A Son that honoureth his Father and rejoyceth to hear his voice seeks his Fathers glory that he may receive of his glory and this is purely out of the love of God No wonder therefore if this hath redounded to far more fruits than ever the tree of the Law did bear which was pelted and beaten For as one hath noted it well Gods Church hath increased more by the love of God than by the terrour which he sent in the old time but when persecutions were rife it increased more by the terrours of men than by their love The use of it is that we serve God as those that are past the Spirit of bondage reverently with fear and chearfully without fear Faith is the great promoter of reverential fear and breeds in us an awe of Gods Majesty and a dread of his glory as the Cherubins do cover their faces with their wings before him This is clean and pure refined in the flame of love caused neither by sin nor punishment but it reflects upon the baseness of our own substance the Creature compares its own vileness with the infinite excellency of the Creator and so approacheth with all due distance of humility But Faith again cools the inflammation of servile fear with the water of Baptism wherein we were sprinkled with the bloud of Christ It teacheth us to decline offences with all care and study not to escape punishment but out of gratitude to him who hath done so great things for us It ingenders an ardent sollicitousness to be unblameable not because the wrath of the Lord is terrible when he is displeased but because his Mercy and Redemption deserve to be recompenced with all manner of obedience Labour for that integrity which is expected from one that is free from sin but a servant to
Visions that he could take no notice for the present that he lived or had a body but his Spirit was quite abstracted from the senses and lifted up to converse with supernatural speculations Now to sum up this Point touching the modus how John saw the souls of the blessed you shall hear how St. Austin made no scruple of the like case The Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream How did Joseph see an Angel when his eyes were shut Nay rather says the Father how could he have seen an Angel if his eyes had been open So the more the senses of this Prophet were bound up the less communication he had with his mortal nature the more capable he was to see the secrets of God It were no digression at all to tell you at large in this place that St. John was not every body when he saw the Mysteries of the Ages to come in an holy trance Examine him from the time that he was the beloved Disciple while his Master Jesus Christ was upon the earth behold him in his other cognizances that he was an unspotted Virgin a patient Confessor An Evangelist that sored higher than his fellows an Eagle in his Gospel but a Dove in his Epistles where every line is enchased with Jewels of love the aged Patriarch who had long survived all the Apostles the Oracle that resolved all the Churches in their Controversies Finally that supereminent man that left not his like behind him and since his days his equal did never rise up after him Put all this together and mark what a sanctified Vessel this was to see the souls under the Altar and all those things which the Angel told him should come to pass in the days to come What wretch can think himself so prepared as he was to receive these Prophetical graces of God With how many favours of God is a Vision qualified to make it a perfect illumination Let it deter any one that is not possessed with the spirit of Arrogance to think that he is possessed with the spirit of Divination Quia videre non possumus audiamus says St. Austin There is no hope that we vile sinners should see such Visions it is our blessedness that we hear of them What laughter doth it give our Adversaries that this caution is not observed among us we had proof of it lately and almost year by year every hair-brain'd Schismatick that out of pride thinks himself more holy than others fancies that he is a Prophet These filthy dreamers presume they have learnt all that the Scriptures can teach them and therefore like apt Scholars they must be promoted to an higher Form to learn supernal Revelations As the Romanists are excessive in forging lies for their Saints sakes so these are excessive in forging lies for their own sakes both are liars both are Legendaries It was a gift which St. Austin says his Mother Monica had that she could distinguish inter Deum revelantem animam somniantem she knew when God gave her a supernatural inspiration in her sleep and when it was but a common dream By what mark or token could she do this Nay none at all Nescio quo sapore quem verbis explicare non poterat she could not express by what relish of the soul she made a difference between them Of whom have our modern Wizzards it is too good a name if I do not put frentique to it I say of whom have these phrentique persons learnt the trick of Divination Since they that were Prophets upon earth could not teach another how to be a Prophet If St. John knew how he saw this Theory in heaven it was his priviledge alone or with some very few more But God doth not carve a Prophet out of every Christian And so much de modo videndi which is the first Point Take the object now to your attention which he saw an object too subtil to be discerned by a bodily creature but disclosed to this Apostle in his Rapture in the excellency of Revelation he saw the souls of the blessed in heaven It could not out of Tertullians mind as I told you before but that he thought the soul when it was separated from the body had some bodily figure and dimension in it Those polite heathen men indeed whom he had perused did speak grosly in the point as if the Soul after it left this world did flit about the Elysian fields in the form of a thin cloud witness that fancy of the best Poets Infelix simulacrum atque ipsius umbra Creüsae And it is no injustice to excuse such Authors for though the substance of the Soul be incorporeal yet it is impossible for one of us to conceive a Spirit or an Angel but by the help of some corporeal Idea it is a true Metaphysical rule Nihil intelligimus in hôc statu sine verbo materiali in intellectu we understand every thing in this life by some material expression within our selves yet we are able by the undeniable proofs of Art to transcend the narrowness of our own fancy and to affirm that the soul cannot choose but be immaterial that it is not circumscriptive in any place though it have a determined and defined subsistence But this is no time to Philosophize and our Saviours words will carry it clear without the help of Humane Arguments Handle me and see a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have Luk. xxiv 39 which is thus in effect there is no corporeity in a Spirit And the Sixth general Council held against the Monothelites hath these weighty words Nascitur Deus humano corpore animam rationalem incorpoream habens The Son of God had an humane body with a reasonable and incorporeal soul I dismiss that Point it shall not hold you longer There are those that doubt it in their heart or at least they live as if they doubted it whether their soul hath a second state in reversion after this life Can there be any exception against such a Witness as St. John that was taken up into heaven to relate the truth to all Generations upon earth Why he saw the souls of the Saints in a triumphant and immortal condition after they were uncloathed of the body There cannot be an Apparition of that which had ceased to be that were a delusion Not one natural Writer that had a sound brain but maintained that the soul did survive the body and that it was at best liberty when it was released from the prison of the flesh ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Aristotle that the Mind or Spirit can subsist by it self not mixt with any composition not affected with passions They could not search far enough why it should be so they never discovered that the dissolution of the soul from the body was brought into the world after Adam was created for the punishment of sin but their dim Candle gave them light to see that the soul was
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