Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A42902
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A sermon of the transfiguration of our Lord preach'd before the Queen-Dowager, in her chappel at Somerset-House, on the second Sunday in Lent, 1687/8 / by Thomas Godden.
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Godden, Thomas, 1624-1688.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing G922; ESTC R21790
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13,937
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33
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A SERMON OF THE Transfiguration of our LORD Preach'd before the Queen-Dowager IN Her Chappel at Somerset-House On the Second Sunday in LENT 1687 8. By THOMAS GODDEN D. D. Preacher in Ordinary to Her MAJESTY Published by Her Majesty's Command LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are to be sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black-Fryers MDCLXXXVIII A SERMON OF THE Transfiguration of our LORD Preach'd on the Second Sunday in Lent. Assumit Jesus Petrum Jacobum Joannem fratrem ejus ducit illos in Montem excelsum seorsum transfiguratus est ante eos Matth. 17. 1. Jesus taking Peter and James and John his brother leadeth them into a high Mountain apart and was transfigured before them IN the last Sundays Gospel as St. Matthew relates the Devil took our Savior up into an exceeding high Mountain to shew him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them In this present Gospel our Savior himself leads three of his Disciples into another high Mountain to give them a Prospect of the Glory which is prepared for the Just in Heaven Opposing Mountain to Mountain and Glory to Glory the Glory of Heaven to that of Earth to defeat the designs of the Tempter by the same method he had made use of to overcome But as the Objects were different and the Mountains too the one deservedly call'd by Historians Mons Satanae the Devil's Mount for having been the Theatre of his greatest Temptation the other by St. Peter Mons Sanctus the Holy Mount for the excellent Glory which was represented on it so was the manner of ascending them different also For whereas the Devil as St. Matthew says took our Savior up into an exceeding high Mountain that is according to the Explication best agreeing with the Context carried him through the Air as an Angel had formerly done Habacuch without giving him the least trouble or pain to ascend the same St. Matthew tells us that our Savior did not so with his Disciples but that he led them up duxit illos that is went himself before them and caused them to follow him on foot to give us to understand that the Way to Perdition is pleasant and easie ducunt in bonis dies suos those who walk in it pass their time in mirth and jollity Job 21. 12. But the Way to true Glory is hard and difficult Strait is the Gate and narrow the Way which leadeth unto Life Matth. 7. 14. But how strait and narrow how hard and difficult soever it be the greatness of the Reward more than recompences the Labor of acquiring it as appears by what passed with the Disciples of my Text for being arrived at the top of the Mountain our Savior there became transfigured before them so that the brightness of his Face vy'd with that of the Sun in his richest Attire of Light and the whiteness of his Garments with that of the Snow when array'd in its whitest Dress Which of Us Dear Christians had he been present at this Glorious sight would not have cry'd out with St. Peter Domine bonum est nos hic esse Lord it is good for us to be here And who is there of us now that is not inflam'd with a holy Desire or as I may call it Curiosity as Moses was when he beheld the burning Bush to know how it came to pass that the Body of our Savior which till then had appeared different in nothing from the Bodies of other Men should be suddenly invested with a brightness like that of the Sun and what End or Design he had in the doing of it To satisfie this two-fold demand of how and why he would be thus transfigured is what I have design'd for the Subject of my present Discourse and accordingly shall divide it into Two Parts In the First I shall give you an Account as God shall enable me of the Mystery it self that is how it came to pass that the Body of our Savior was so transfigured that it became bright and shining as the Sun. In the Second why he would work this wonderful change in his Face and Garments and that in the sight of his Disciples Et transfiguratus est ante eos And he was transfigured before them or in their sight Whil'st the Disciples were absorpt with wonder at this Glorious Spectacle the Evangelist says that a bright Cloud over-shadowed them which Cloud St. Augustin says was a Symbol of the Holy Ghost in which he appeared as he formerly had done in the Figure of a Dove at our Savior's Baptism to Grace the Solemnity with his Presence That the Assistance of this Divine Spirit may not be wanting whil'st we treat of this Glorious Mystery let us humbly implore it by the Intercession of that Sacred Mother who in the Conception of her Son was over-shadow'd by the same Divine Spirit Ave Maria. The First Part. Et transfiguratus est And he was transfigured TO give an Account how the Body of our Savior was so transfigured as to become bright and shining as the Sun it will be necessary to enquire into the meaning of the word Transfiguration When we say a thing is disfigured every one understands the meaning of it but if we say a thing is transfigured the sense is not so easie and obvious to all at least to the Unlearned as not to require some Explication Which yet I shall endeavor to manage so that whil'st I am instructing those of the lowest Form such as are in a higher Class may not lose their time remembring with the great Apostle that I am a Debtor to both Sapientibus insipientibus debitor sum A thing then is said to be transfigured according to the proper acceptation of the word when its Shape or Figure not its Essence is alter'd so that it puts on another appearance more Noble and Glorious than it had before for the Particle trans here signifies an excess or passing beyond or above what is commonly and usually found in the Thing An Example of this we have in a Cloud which of it self is nothing but a dark Vapor or Mist exhaled from the Bowels of the Earth yet dark and misty as it is no sooner is it penetrated by the Rays of the Sun but presently it becomes bright and shining and what before seem'd a black Veil which muffled the Light of that Glorious Planet having now drank in his Beams is transform'd into a radiant Mirror in which he seems to rejoyce to behold himself so gloriously reflected This change of the Cloud so much for the better may fitly be called its Transfiguration and gives us tho' not a Parallel yet a glimpse at least of what passed in the Transfiguration of our Savior when his Body till then dark and obscure like those of other men became bright and shining like the Sun. But now because this Transfiguration
his Beatification that he has done Miracles in his Life fecit enim mirabilia in vita sua And that we might know what Miracles these were he presently adds Qui potuit transgredi non est transgressus facere mala non fecit He says he is the man that hath done Miracles in his Life who when it was in his power to transgress transgressed not and when he could have done the evil to which his corrupt Nature inclin'd him withheld himself from committing it And for this reason it is that when our Savior among other Signs or Miracles which he foretels should be done by those that believed in him puts this for one That if they drink any thing that is deadly it shall not hurt them St. Gregory tells us That then it is this Miracle is wrought in a more Sublime because Spiritual manner by the Faithful when feeling in themselves the venemous suggestions and persuasions of the Devil or their own corrupt nature they are not drawn by them to commit any thing that is evil Dum pestiferas suasiones audiunt sed tamen ad operationem pravam minime pertrahuntur mortiferum quidem est quod bibunt sed non eis nocebit In this case saith he they drink that which indeed is deadly of its own Nature but not consenting to it it shall do them no harm And now if the repressing the first motions of Sin be so miraculous in respect of other Vices how much more in regard of that of Pride which is the Source and Spring of all the rest Whoever has thoroughly considered says St. Augustin or which is more experienced in himself the different degrees of difficulty which occur in the subduing of Vices knows very well that the Sin of Pride and Vainglory is the chief if not the only one to which those who have attani'd to Perfection are obnoxious and as it was the first which infected the Soul so also it is the last that is overcome From whence St. Peter Damianus doubted not to affirm That if so so great a man as Elias could shut his mind from admitting a thought of Vainglory 't was a greater Miracle than the shutting Heaven by his Prayer that it rained not for three years and six months together Here then it is that a Christian truly shews himself to be a Thaumaturgus or Worker of Miracles when finding thoughts of Pride Envy Gluttony Impurity Anger Blasphemy Revenge and the like to arise in his heart ready like an impetuous Floud to overflow by his Reason or Superior Will assisted with the Grace of Christ which was given him in Baptism he forces them back and will not suffer them to gain upon his consent nor to reign in his Mortal Body Fecit mirabilia in vita sua he hath done Miracles in his life And by depriving himself of those undue delights and satisfactions which are the natural consequences of Concupiscence he both prepares and disposes his own mortal Body to be configured to the Brightness of the Body of his Glorified Redeemer and shews his Gratitude to him for having deprived himself of that Glory and Brightness which was due and as such would and ought to have redounded upon his Body from the Glory of his Soul had he not miraculously repress'd and kept it back from the first Instant of his Conception to the day of his Transfiguration Why he permitted it then to pour it self forth in a glorious Floud of Light upon his Body and Garments and that in the presence and sight of his Disciples is what I come now to treat of as the Subject of the Second Part of my Discourse The Second Part. Transfiguratus est ante eos He was transfigured before them AND why before them or in their sight but to excite them more efficaciously to labor for the obtaining of so Glorious a Reward To give light to this Answer it may not be unuseful to premise what the Scripture relates to have pass'd with the Patriarch Jacob when his Sons brought him the News of his Son Joseph's being alive The Case was this Joseph being now Vice-Roy of Egypt and having made himself known to his Brethren commanded them to go tell his Father Jacob of all his Glory and to bring him along with them into Egypt to preserve him from the Famin which was yet to last five years To accomplish this design he provided them of Carriages and all things necessary for the way adding over and above a Present of the good things of Egypt which might serve as an Earnest or Pledg of the Riches of the Place to excite him to the Journey No sooner were they arrived in the presence of their Father but they acquainted him with the good News Joseph Filius tuus vivit dominatur in universa terra Aegypti Joseph that Son of thy Love whose Absence not to say Death thou hast so bitterly lamented for so many years is yet alive and is Governor over all the Land of Egypt and nothing is wanting to complete his Happiness but to have his Father Jacob with him How may we imagin was the heart of the Holy Man transported with joy at the hearing of this News and how would he give order to get all things ready for the Journey that he might go and enjoy the presence of his Beloved Joseph This indeed might have been expected but not a word of any such thing On the contrary the Scripture saith That when Jacob had heard these things his heart fainted within him or as the Vulgar hath it he remained as a man awaking out of a heavy sleep without knowing what to think for he did not believe them Quo audito Jacob quasi de gravi somno evigilans tamen non credebat eis What then was to be done They give him a more particular account of all the words of Joseph which he had said to them And when this availed as little as the former they shewed him the Wagons and rich Presents which Joseph had sent him and the Text saith That when he had seen them cumque vidisset plaustra universa quae miserat his Spirit revived within him revixit Spiritus ejus and as if he were now no more the same man but another he said It is enough I am now convinc'd that my Son Joseph is yet living and so without regarding either the Feebleness of his Old Age or the Difficulties of the Way he resolved to go and see him before he dy'd Behold here how much more powerfully our Affections are mov'd to act by the things we see than by those we only hear And can we then wonder if our Dearest Redeemer whose Wisdom suggested and Goodness prompted him to make use of the most efficacious means to inflame our Affections with the Love of Heaven led the Disciples of my Text up to the top of Mount Thabor and was there transfigured before them He had often told them of the