is at an end we shall reign for evermore And because Christ did appear in Mount Tabor no otherwise than as he means to come to Judgment therefore he did qualify the light of his face to be no greater than the light of the Sun his body which is strange to consider shall have more resplendency than that mighty Lamp of Heaven but it is not for the Wicked to behold them they shall see him shine upon his Throne but with as little comfort as sore eyes gaze upon the Sun or with as little joy as we see flashes of lightning in a terrible thunder non dat lucem videntibus sed pavorem which is not sent to illuminate us in darkness but to agast us with the apparition Of this more at large hereafter But this is the second motive of this Miracle he transformed himself into that Majesty wherein He will judge the World Thirdly He did represent himself as the Argument and Idaea of that beautiful Reward which the bodies of the Just shall have in the General Resurrection The Pharisees required a Sign and Christ told them they should have no sign but the sign of the Prophet Jonas that a body being swallowed up in death should come to life again but these few Disciples over and above the Sign of the Prophet Jonas had the Sign of Transfiguration which is the dainty and delicate part of the Resurrection Say no more but that God will be the Redeemer of his Elect yet it would amuse a man to think what should become of this vile body every member whereof hath been a thousand times an instrument of iniquity well even this very naughty flesh shall have a beam of Divine mercy shine upon it it is impossible to make it ought in this life but a sink of corruption no Fuller upon earth can make it so white as God can In these days the Soul is full of bad concupiscence and the Body is made miserable Hereafter the Soul will be full of grace and the Body shall be made delectable And mark it that the Disciples had their item not to talk of these things till Christ were risen from the dead because the Transfiguration was intended to make up the complement of our joy touching the resurrection of the Body And to sink it deeper in our hearts that this brightsom alteration did not concern the Spirit but the Body his raiment was white and glistering which is no more than the shrowd of the Body In a word God did never reveal that He could take away the essential properties of a true Body and yet keep it a true Body they that believe so much believe beside the Book but in this Miracle appeared that God can add a celestial and beauteous form unto a Body so that the Sun in all his brightness shall not come near it This is the seed of that faith which St. Paul preacheth It is sown in dishonour it is raised in honour Praise the Lord therefore in Body and Soul since both shall be invested with a Royal Dignity to make them both fit for the society of Angels But herein we exceed the happiness of Angels they are glorious Spirits we shall be glorified both in body and spirit So the Prophet Isa lxi 7. They shall possess the double in their land everlasting joy shall be with them Duplicia possidebunt their Soul filled with the vision of God their Body transfigured in glory Fourthly this wants not a granes weight of a principal cause the Son of God in the dayes of his exinanition lookt like a person for this once of divine authority ut crucis scandalum tolleret that their minds might not be cast down with despair to see the misery of his Cross who had seen his glory upon Mount Tabor Now he lookt more Angelical than a Cherubin then he lookt more ruthful than the poorest Lazarus now the greatest in heaven did speak graciously unto him then the scum of the earth reviled him he than was glorified at one time could not be compelled to shame and ignominy but from his own patience and yielding would be crucified at another Sicut luctatores corpus inclinant sayes a Father Christ wrestled with Satan and though that old supplanter the Serpent did bruise his heel yet he could not get the Mastery Christ stooped low like a Lion couching for his prey and when he might seem to be cast down this was his feat to overturn his adversary Fifthly The fifth and last Reason hath a Moral Use There is an old man with his corruptions to be metamorphosed in us all sicut Pelias recoctus as the Fable goes that Medaea bathed the body of Pelias with certain magical drugs and from a decrepit old man transmuted him into a vigorous youth This is a figment for no man spent his young years so well to deserve at Gods hands in this world to be young again but there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a renovation in the spirit of our mind God will not know us in our own form and filthiness unless we put on the Image of Christ As Jacob obtained his Fathers blessing not in his own shape but in the Garments of Esau so we must sue our blessing having put on the righteousness of Christ then the Lord will receive his servant and say unto thee as Jacob did unto Esau I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God You have heard the final cause more wayes than one why this Miracle was wrought I may speak somewhat of the efficient cause how this splendor was derived and further than so I must not proceed now because of the time Many obscure points will come to light by asking this question Whether this lightsom beauty like the Sun did appear in our Saviour's face from the beatification of his humane Soul or from the union of his Divine nature First you must understand that the great School-man Aquinas took the best end of the cause into his hand when he answered to neither of those two members but rather to the purpose of the question in this wise fuit haec qualitas gloriae sed non corporis gloriosi quia nondum erat immortalis this Transfiguration was a quality of glory but not of a glorified body because He was not yet passed death and raised up to be immortal and impassible In this distinction is covertly included that it was not such a brightness as the Soul shall communicate to the Body when it is reunited in a joyful resurrection but was created at this time by the Divine power to foretel and shadow what would come to pass with much increase in the Kingdom of God Praelibatio regui Dei fuit haec transfiguration says Cajetan this was but the Landskip or Pattern of the true happiness which shall be in the Kingdom of Heaven It was a far more excellent splendour than that of Moses or Stephen upon earth but not so perfect or proper
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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
the word of men though they call themselves the Church for the children of men are deceitful upon the weights they are altogether lighter than vanity it self To draw this Doctrine streight and even upon the Text 1. Many will alledge Simeons example and say they could willingly die if they might see this or that come to pass Pray observe that such as these seldom or never see their desire come to pass because they fabricate vain hopes to themselves without the word of the Lord. 2. When that which they long'd for doth come to pass they are content to redeem it with any Physick or cost that they may not die for all their bragging like the woman in the Fable that was miserably poor and gathering sticks for her fire and herbs for her sustenance being vexed with extreme want she bursts out into this frowardness O that death would come to me Says the Fable death did come to her to know what she would have Help me up with my bundle of sticks says she I have nothing else to say to you But this is the sum of this point all our petitions are but avaritious craving or unchristian presumption unless we say Lord let it be according to thy word And now I shall end my Sermon in that point wherein Simeon desired to end his life it is the reason upon which he stood why he would depart because he had seen that which his soul waited for before it flitted away For mine eyes have seen thy salvation which is to this effect the Redeemer is come let my fetters therefore be broken off my joy is excessive and superlative this frail flesh cannot contain it The new Wine is poured in O let the old bottles break Thou hast granted me more than ever thou didst grant to any Prophet upon earth therefore exalt me to thy Saints in heaven For all the Prophets could get no more than this answer that a Virgin should conceive Immanuel that is God with us should be born and their posterity should not fail to behold him in after ages but says St. Paul all these died in Faith not having received the promises themselves but having seen them afar off Heb. xi 13. Now this Patriarch did far exceed all the Prophets that he saw the Messias with his own eyes and none other And mark the Pleonasmus not contented to have said I have seen thy salvation He doth denote the assurance of the act that he was not deceived hisce oculis vidi I have seen him with mine eyes it is the very Jesus that shall save the world I cannot be deluded as Vlysses speaks to Circe in Homer that she should re-transform his associates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinguishing true sight from phantastical Nicephorus a most corrupt Historian hath a tale by himself that Simeon was so far stricken in years that he had been long blind and as soon as ever this heavenly babe was brought near unto him he recovered his sight and therefore he magnifies God that his eyes were restored to see the object of all objects the blessed Child Incarnate and is it likely that St. Luke would have concealed such a miracle if it had been true and would God have let us receive it from so corrupt an hand as Nicephorus The Scripture says ver 27. of this Chapter He came by the Spirit into the Temple not that he was led like a blind man There are some conjectures that rove at random likewise by what means he should discern such Divine glory in our Saviour Admit there were other Infants presented in the Temple at the same time how did he perceive that this was the Son of the most high rather than any of the rest I find one Author shoot his bolt that a celestial splendor came down from Heaven and shone round about the Child I find another Author more superstitious than this that the Blessed Virgin was compast about with a cloud of glorious light in the place where she stood and so that honour should terminate it self upon her and not upon Christ This is to trifle in a most serious matter for certainly the suggestion of the Holy Ghost within him was enough to direct him without any external cognizance and therefore Nyssen says well Blessed were the eyes both of his soul and body his bodily eyes did see the happiest sight in heaven and earth but the eyes of his soul did respect that which is invisible His bodily eyes did see God made of a woman an object more beautiful and estimable then even Paradise it self when Adam saw it at the best Nay more beautiful than the whole Revelation which S. John saw in heaven excepting Christ himself whom he saw upon his throne Abraham would have given his portion in the promised land to have seen him David his Kingdom Solomon his revenews of Ophir and therefore no wonder if Simeon triumph in it that the eyes of his body had seen him But what the eyes of his soul did pierce into is magnum auctarium an huge addition They did see his salvation and salvation cannot be comprehended but by a lively and an effectual Faith They did see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cornu salutis as old Zachary calls it in whom God had reposed all the stock and treasure of salvation But why thy salvation and not rather ours had it not been more proper to say mine eyes have seen mine or our salvation There is no difference in effect one saying is as proper as the other salutare tuum for he is the Son of God the gift of God to us the holy One conceived by the Holy Ghost and in those notions Gods salvation as David says the Lord hath made known his salvation Psal xcviii 2. Again salutare nostrum for he came to redeem us and to give himself a ransom for us and so he is our salvation As if Simeon had said this is he after whom Jacobs heart panted Gen. xlix 18. I have waited for thy salvation O Lord. This is he of whom Isaiah foretold All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God chap. lii 10. He comes with much impotency and weakness to be presented in the Temple and to be redeemed after the custom of the Law with five shekels of silver but he will redeem us both from the bondage of the Law and from the bondage of sin with the five wounds of his body If such salvation as this were only to be glanced upon perfunctorily this sage Israelite would have been contented to have seen him and rested there but forasmuch as we must incorporate our Saviour in our souls and endeavour that there be a real union 'twixt Christ and us therefore in the verse before my Text Simeon took up our Saviour into his arms and St. John makes that a great mystery of his own and his brethrens happiness that their hands had handled the word of life Quod Simeon ulnis gestavit nos fide
Saints but would not have them forget Zeal Ne dolum habeas in columba demonstratum est ne simplicitas frigida remaneat in igne demonstratum est Guile and circumvention are to be banisht from Christianity if the Dove sit upon your head it will instill simplicity but simplicity may be chil and faint in a good cause therefore if a Pillar of fire sit upon your head it will infuse fervency There was no fire wanting in Stephen the Martyr when he did asperse the Jews with all manner of disdainful reproaches because they were stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart There was no Dove-like simplicity wanting because he prayed for them that stoned him And so far of the second point how aptly the Spirit came like a Dove upon Christ at his Baptism in cloven tongues and in fire upon the Apostles at the Feast of Whitsontide The conclusion of the Text rests now upon this Point that the figure of the Dove sweetly doth admonish us concerning many properties of the Holy Ghost It sate upon Christs head not to enrich him with any heavenly treasure which he wanted before but to derive the manifold issues of sanctification into our heart Solus injuriis se subdidit Dominus sed solus gratiam non quaesivit says St. Ambrose all manner of ignominies and buffetings all manner of injuries upon the Cross our Lord and Saviour took them to himself alone but the coming down of the Spirit that he took not to himself alone I will pray unto the Father and he will send you another Comforter Open your heart wide therefore and this Dove will fill it A dumb creature ye know and may signifie many things and because I am perswaded the Holy Ghost came down in that shape which had the largest number of significations for the advancement of piety therefore I will hold me to my task to collect all that are profitable and omit none And because it bears a similitude which will increase into many applications I will enter upon that occasion first therefore it is animal foecundum it is a bird of a most teaming fertility and whether any bird that flies doth breed oftner I am not certain I believe not many such fecundity there is always in a lively faith Like the trees of Eden always bearing fruit never without some good work either the tongue is praying or the ear is hearing or the heart is meditating or the eye is weeping or the hand is giving or the soul is thirsting for remission of sins and every pious action is like a Pomgranate in Aarons garment full of kernels to betoken it will seed farther and spread in infinitum This is faiths fertility therefore the Spirit harboured himself in the shape of a Dove Secondly The Gall is the drought of cholerical matter in mans body out of that distemper proceed anger revenge and malice but the Dove hath no gall or if Aristotle hath observed it better than others so small a one that it can scarce be perceived So the Spirit loves to inhabit in a mild and gentle soul without wrath and fury The wrath of man worketh not the will of God for his will is mercy and forgiveness The Dove will intreat for Miriam as Moses did and sheild off the revenge of David from Nabals folly as Abigail did and crave pardon of Philemon for his fugitive servant Onesiphorus as Paul did The bruised reed shall not be broken and the smoaking flax shall not be quenched therefore when James and John called for fire from heaven upon the Samaratans their check was Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of as who should say ye have forgot the coming down of the Dove Thirdly The harmlesness of that bird is notable it hath neither beak nor talons to tyrannize over smaller Creatures Sine armis extra sine felle intus the smallest flies or gnats may hum about it and take no harm for it devours nothing wherein there is life There is not I dare pronounce it a more Saint-like ornament in any Christian than a Dove-like innocency Devour not one another by greedy gaining by racking oppression by strict advantages by extortion by treacherous blind informations He that wrongfully fleeceth his neighbour of all his substance to increase his own store would eat the flesh likewise from his brothers arm like a savage Cannibal if he wanted sustenance The spoyls which you have robb'd from others perhaps they shall be found upon thy back at the dreadful hour of judgment but wil our Saviour say thou didst not learn this thou extortioner from the Dove that sate upon me Fourthly The Dove feeds cleanly not upon Carrion like Vultures Corvi de morte pascuntur Crows peck upon dead carkasses but it picks up grains of corn and the purest fruits of the field Me thinks in this propertie I see the Spirit invite us to the Table of the Lord What corn-food so pure as that which our Saviour brake and gave to his Disciples saying Take eat this is my body Non hoc corpus quod crucifigetur c. not as St. Austin glosseth my very body which shall be crucified and my very bloud which shall be spilt that was the gross understanding of the sapernaits to think our Saviour meant his fleshly body The Dove is no devourer of that fleshly body of Christ which he assumed from the Virgin Mary but it satisfies its spiritual hunger with those pure crums of bread which are the Sacrament of his body Fifthly It is impossible to teach a Dove to sing a chearful tune for nature hath ingrafted in it a solemn mourning Gemitus pro cantu and it is the Spirit that puts compunction into our spirit with groans unutterable Sometime hang up the Harps of mirth and sit down and weep You never read that God will honour your joy in his eternal remembrance you are sure he will not forget your mourning says David Psal lvi 8. Thou tellest my slittings put my tears into thy bottle are not these things noted in thy book Yea not only doth he bear them in mind and keep them in register but if some Interpreters erre not he wears them upon his head Cant. v. 2 My head is filled with dew says Christ and my locks with the drops of the night as if he wore our tears says the Paraphrast like drops of Pearl upon his head Dry eyes and unrelenting hearts are the curse of God Ezek. xxiv 23. Ye shall not mourn nor weep but ye shall pine away for your iniquities Sixthly The Holy Ghost useth the wings of Angels the wings of the wind the wings of the Dove a bird of strong flight for the Spirit is swift in operation what he doth he doth it quickly Nescit tarda molimina Abraham ran forth to meet the Angels that drew to his Tent Sarah made ready quickly three measures of fine meal Abrahams young man ran to the Herd to fetch a Calf tender and good Nemo piger est
for the value of the benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer better than our Maker So Bernard Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio quam creatio Therefore God could not so dispose for our souls that occasion should be given to love an Angel or Saint better than himself the King of glory The Son that sits at his right hand is the Person in whom he is well pleased who thought it no robbery to be equal with God He alone was fit for this dispensation who by an exceeding mystery did receive and accept the Sacrifice of reconciliation as God offended in his divine nature and yet did offer up that Sacrifice to the divine nature being the Mediator God-Man The close of all is sweet like the rest that the Father is pleased in all things both in heaven and earth by the reconciliation of his Son Reconciliation is the knitting up of Friends into amity again and reducing them to concord that were enemies Then how can it fitly be said that God is reconciled with his Sons whom he loved from everlasting Says Beda to it Deus miro modo quando nos oderat diligebat He loved us according to that nature which he had made and hated us according to that sin which we had made Neither is the Father so said to be reconciled to us upon earth as if he loved us at any time now when before he did not Sed quia per hanc reconciliationem sublata est omnis odii causa says Aquinas but because by this act of reconciliation all cause of anger and displeasure was taken away I mean our sins were covered and the righteousness of Christ imputed to us And as the Angels minister to us so let me minister one speculation about them to the Text. God is pleased in Christ both with things in earth and with things in heaven No question but Christ is head of the Angels as well as of men for they as well as other members receive direction from Christ and are illuminated by him so that an influence is poured on them from Christ as members take from the head but as one distinguisheth judiciously Influens in Angelis non est finis incarnationis sed quiddam incarnationem consequens It was not put into the ends why he was incarnate to infuse vertue into the Angels but it is a gracious consequent which fell out upon it This perhaps will not be doubted of But how can it be said that he did reconcile unto himself things in heaven that is the Angels by the bloud of Christ They had never made any rupture with the friendship of God as men had and could they be reconciled Certainly the word Reconciliation properly taken is only agreeable to us who were Sons of wrath but are become elect and precious through Christ But Analogically it is truly said the Angels were reconciled in Christ because he obtained for them to be confirmed in grace and to be so established in the divine favour that it was impossible any breach or rupture should come between therefore this establishment in grace to them is the same that reconciliation to us That beatifical and glorious eternal life which the Angels have with God is a reward far above the merit of any Creature Therefore Angels are admitted into that glory not by condignity but as they challenge Christ for their head and themselves members of his triumphant body Paul therefore adjures Timothy before God and the elect Angels There is no election either of Angels or men but with respect unto Christ and the good Angels are called the Sons of God Job xxxviii not as begotten of him for Christ is the only natural Son as I have said before but because they are adopted through Christ therefore this is the beloved Son in whom with Men and Angels God is well pleased But to us especially this benefit is extended who were perfect enemies but being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN XXI SERMONS UPON THE TENTATION OF OUR SAVIOUR THE FIRST SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the VVilderness to be tempted of the Devil I Have already entreated before you of many things concerning our Lord and Saviour his Incarnation Circumcision Adoration by the Wise-men about his Baptism in Jordan Let us not rest here but say as that devout man did unto him Luk. ix 57. Lord I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest Therefore I invite your attention to go with me into the Wilderness another passage of his pomp and victories and to see him tempted of the Devil In Num. xxi 14. a Book is mentioned which was called the wars of the Lord. Rupertus says very well that the whole Scripture will not unfitly bear that name Quid aliud continetur vel agitur in sacrâ Scripturâ nisi bellum certamen verbi ad destructionem peccati mortis What is contained and agitated throughout all the contents of that divine Book but Christ warring and striving to destroy sin and death And if the whole Scripture were summed up into one Chapter you might draw out this Verse for the Contents Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between her seed and thy seed As if the Lord had said the Devil hath drawn my servants to consent to him Facti sunt socii consentanei rebellionis they are agreed like friends and have conspired in one rebellion against me but I will dissolve this friendship and turn it into hatred I will break this agreement and turn it into opposition I will divide them into an enmity that shall never be reconciled Three things I admire especially in the dispensation of Gods providence herein First We were his enemies rather than the Devils yet when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. v. 10. Secondly It is well for us that the Lord said ponam inimicitias he would make the quarrel between us and Satan break out into an open enmity It is an act of his most gracious wisdom to take away those weapons from the Devil wherein he was so cunning Leave the Devil to his wiles and deceipts and he goes away a conquerour proclaim him an open enemy and we have far more advantage against him Thirdly To the end this great Adversary might be beaten and vanquished to our hand our Saviour fought a combat with him in the Wilderness and overthrew him the narration of which great enterprise begins thus as I have read unto you Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil In the handling of which verse it will be worth the labour to insist upon these five things 1. Here is the hinge upon which all the story turns Christ was tempted 2. We must work somewhat out of the consideration of the Tempter the Devil 3. The
since he was tempted of Satan Lord let me not fight alone lest my foes prevail against me Thus tentation begets fear and fear begets prayer and prayer calls for succour and heavenly succour will assist us to be conquerours Gregory incloseth it in his meditation Vnde pertimescit homo enerviter cadere inde accipit fortiter stare that tentation which makes a just man distrust he shall fall affordeth him occasion to set his feet upon a sure place Cast not your selves therefore into tentation Brethren but when you are in them endure them with joy and courage as it is said of the Machabees that they fought with chearfulness the battels of Israel so go on with alacrity against those innumerable evils that take hold upon you The just man triumphs with David against the powers of darkness as if he saw them already made subject unto him they are cast down and faln but we are risen and stand upright Pelopidas being environed with an Ambush alas says his Lieutenant we are faln into the hands of our enemies And why not rather our enemies faln into our hands says Pelopidas So let not the name of Satan and tentation be dreadful unto you he hath more cause to fear he shall be repulsed than you have reason to fear he shall prevail since Christ hath blunted his weapons in this conflict The Fathers call that verse the Saints Jubilee after their trial with the evil one Psal lxvi 12. We went through fire and water but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place And therefore I bequeath St. Pauls exultation to your use Thanks be to God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly Christ was tempted to give us an example how to encounter with the roaring Lion and to win the Mastery As a young Learner will observe diligently every ward and thrust that an experienced Gladiator makes so the Holy Ghost hath set down for our advertisement every passage how Christ did turn and wind the delusions of the Serpent These things had need to be scanned beloved we had need to be cunning at our fence for if the Devil sought our overthrow in Christ how much more will he do it in our selves If these things were done to the green wood what will be done to the dry But mark how the man of Gods right hand chased away the enemy mark how he demeaned himself from first to last and you are fortified with the best president that ever the world afforded Ut cujus munimur auxilio ejus erudiremur exemplo says Leo he looks upon our conflicts from heaven and helps the weaker side both by the presence of his grace and by the president of his example Observe him that we might instance in all his ways retiring into a desart from the contagion of the world observe him fasting observe him drawing his shafts out of the quiver of the holy Scripture to maintain his cause and say this is the true Charm to make the evil Serpent break as Daniel in the Apocryphal story choakt the Dragon with lumps of strong confection Christ himself could not receive increase of the Spirit either by being baptized or by being tempted for he had the fulness not of sufficiency but of abundancy before without measure but it was for the proficiency of his members that were under him And therefore the Schoolmen have a disceptation since Christ was much greater than the Angels and did far excel them in grace why he should be tempted of the Devil For we do not read that any of the Angels confirmed in grace were ever tempted One of them answers Quia Angelus non habet membra sub se quomodo Christus habet Christ is head of a body and hath members under him to give erudition unto by his example and so have not the elect Angels Wherefore if the Children of Israel lookt up by faith upon the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness that they might be healed when they were wounded how much more should we look attentively upon Christs Tentation in the Wilderness that we may not be wounded of the Serpent The Fathers in their piety say it is easier to avoid ten sins that compass us round about and have not yet taken hold of us than to recover our selves sound again from any one sin that we have committed It is the Angelical part of Christianity to take out this Lesson Prevent us O Lord from evil in all our doings There is a great deal of the old man and his ragged lining in the best repentance You may learn repentance from Christs Gospel but not from Christ himself but innocency and clearness of life and to be impregnable against tentations not Verbum Christi but Christus Verbum not the Word of Christ but Christ the eternal Word makes you cunning in that by his own example He that knows not the experience of many tentations doth not well know himself says St. Austin Nescit se homo nisi in tentatione discat se But he that knows not the experience of Christs combate will not know how to deal with tentation Fifthly Says Bonaventure very acutely he began in the ministry of the Gospel first to refute the false Doctors before he taught his Disciples the truth first to beat down the Synagogue of Satan and then to build the City of God First root up the Tares and bind them in bundles and then dress the Wheat A Bishop must be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince gainsayers Tit. i. 9. Conviction of falshood requires the greater care and diligence and the great Bishop of our souls begins with that How soon were all divinity learnt What little pains would go to Preaching and Exhortation if it were not that Heresies and Falshoods beget us a most laborious drudgery to refute them Innumerable errors are disseminated that they are like Augias his Stable so foul that they are never to be cleansed It held our Saviour forty days in the Wilderness to untie all the knots of Satan and thus we must build up Hierusalem like Nehemiahs builders with the Sword in one hand with the Trowel in the other Having the Sword of the Spirit to cut in twain the snares of the wicked one you shall the sooner build up the walls of Sion Sixthly And then I take off my hand from this Point Let no man say I am cast out from the face of the Lord because he is beset with daily tentations God had one Son that was free from sin but he hath no Son that is free from the incumbrances of Satan If there be no more in it than an outward occasion cast before you to try if you will bite which is Exterior pulsatio as a man that comes not into the house but stands without and knocks at door This is your praise in the highest respect that your vertue is impenetrable As the Lord sent a blast upon Sennacharib and made him return to his
corruption that is in us and to be the Sons of God Because there is mention of a good Spirit immediately before my Text that descended from heaven upon him in the shape of a Dove and all the business after my Text concerns an evil Spirit that assaulted him with many tentations therefore the quaere ariseth which of these did lead him into the Wilderness The Syriack determines it plainly Ductus â spiritu sancto he was led by the Holy Ghost And it is of more moment that certainly the Syriack Paraphrase took it from St. Luke Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that understand Grammer and the original Text do easily discern that the same word in the same sentence implies one and the same thing the latter being an effect of the former for being full of the Holy Spirit he was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness And I will parallel it plainly anon with that of St. Paul Acts xx 22 Behold I go bound in spirit to Jerusalem Moreover the Devil approached not unto him till after he had fasted forty days he began to be an hungry for he had no motive to begin his tentations till he perceiv'd he was in the distress of hunger like a weak man Therfore it was not Satan that carried him into this place where he fasted for then the tentation had begun before he had set foot in the Wilderness The case is clear to say no more of the first Point that the Spirit which led him was the influence and impulsion of the Holy Ghost The second thing to be askt is how the Spirit did lead him This can be conceived but two ways Either by inward instigation or removing him suddenly from one place to another which is called outward translocation Each way may be admitted for both are according to Analogy of Faith and both are favoured out of the Greek Text of sundry Evangelists You shall read in St. Luke Chap. iv 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was led by the Spirit which doth imply that the Holy Ghost did inwardly inspire that resolution into him and did assist continually while he abode in the Wilderness You shall read in St. Mark Chap. i. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness as if he had been transported thither in some wonderful rapture And my Text is read thus in St. Mathew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led up of the Spirit The Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sursum to lead up hath either regard to the situation of the Desart which was by far the higher ground in respect of Jordan where our Saviour was before Or else that he was exalted from the earth and carried away by the Spirit through the air untill he came unto that place where he spent forty days in Prayer Fasting and Meditation I dare not contend out of the Scriptures but that the Spirit wrought both ways upon Christ both carrying his body into the Wilderness and instigating his mind No unusual thing in the first sense for the Spirit to transport a body suddenly through the air without the motion of the feet to a place of far distance And although the whole Trinity God the Father the Son and Holy Ghost concur to that action and produce it or perhaps appoint an Angel to be the instrument yet it goes under the name of the Spirit because that Miracle impresseth a strange vertue into a material body as if it were spiritual How Enoch and Elias were translated on high in their bodies I have declared my mind not long since And surely before Elias his last translation into heaven this did befall him often times Obadiah was jealous of it 1 King xviii 13. It shall come to pass when I am gone from thee the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not What Ezekiel reports of himself I cannot say but it was rather an imaginary than a real rapture but thus he Ezek. viii 3. The hand of God took me by a lock of mine head and the Spirit lift me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem This could not be imprinted in his imagination but that it was possible to be done really And Gregory meditates well upon it Every regenerate person during the time of this mortal flesh is so lifted up between heaven and earth Adhuc ad superna plene non pervenit sed tamen ima dereliquit His conversation and his heart are not altogether in heaven but they are higher than the earth What a direct instance is that of the Prophet Habakkuk He was carrying food to the Reapers in the Land of Jury and the Angel of the Lord took him by the crown and bare him by the hair of his head and through the vehemency of the Spirit set him in Babylon Neither need this be rejected for Apocryphal since there is an example to match it Acts viii 39. The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip who was then at Gaza and he was found at Azotus which two are forty miles distance after the best descriptions of the Holy Land A Faith that is but linum fumigans a dusky faith and shines not clearly may easily admit this for if the birds can cut the air with their gross wings naturally who will not be perswaded that God can make the body of man more nimble and fit for such a motion by his supernatural power But I marvel at those Expositors who are squemishly conceited against that opinion that they did not frame this objection God doth not use to work Miracles only to shew tricks as one would say no necessity requiring Then cui bono Why might not Christ have gone into the Wilderness step by step What occasion of moment should urge the Spirit to transport him Beloved it was thus far expedient that Christ should vanish and no man know which way he was departed that he might avoid the honour which the multitude would have done him upon that voice which came from heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So in the sixth of St. John after the miracle of feeding some thousands with a little bread and a few fishes Christ perceived that they would take him by force and make him a King therefore he made a sudden departure none knew whither till his Disciples met him walking upon the Sea in a dark night and a great storm Mat. xiv 23. This is reason then sufficient to decline the people who were astonished at the testimony which was given him from heaven that the Spirit snatcht him away in a rapture into the Wilderness Why this interpretation of the word should not take with you I know not but I am sure the next must take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led by the Spirit that is the Holy Ghost did inspire this heroical
before us Try all things and prove your own heart if you understand which way you walk unto the Lord. Ephraim feedeth on the wind and followeth after the East wind wherein the Prophet deciphers them that know not what they seek after or at least how they would comprehend it Some eat and drink their own damnation because they discern not the Lords body they come by custom to the Table of the Lord not with solemn and faithful preparation these are not led by the Spirit Some lay their hand to this Plow to preach the Kingdom of Christ but never bethought them seriously what it was to bear the Ark of God upon their shoulders they took the Priests Office upon them only for the hire and wages but never examined whether they were inwardly called these were not led by the Spirit The Widows in St. Pauls days who were to continue in supplications night and day these were not to be taken into that Society which attended the Church under threescore years of age and such as had been diligent in every good work In after Ages out of more presumption than due care some were accepted to take the vow of continency upon them at the age of forty Others more dangerously admitted Virgin Votaries at the age of twenty five And now every youngling at the age of fourteen is solemnly received to be incloystered in an unmaried estate for ever before they know the hazard of their own frailty the iron bondage of such a Vow or how to avoid the continual tentations of most discontenting melancholy these took their snare upon them by fond enticements and ignorant devotion they were not led by the Spirit This was St. Ambrose his reason of this phrase 2. The next owes it self to St. Hilary Non aliter tentatus est quà m spiritûs permissu auxilio He was led by the Spirit that is he maintained this quarrel against the Devil by the permission and assistance of the Holy Spirit The Holy Ghost is not an idle Spectator but a party that leads us by the hand and holds up our hands to conquer these Amalekites as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses The Apostles were like things shut up that durst not come abroad till they were filled with the Spirit that had no heart to offer themselves to the trial of any affliction but kept out of the way But in Gods help as David says they leapt over the wall and ventured forth out of that narrow imprisonment and to make some satisfaction for that privacy when they lived as recluses they travelled boldly through all places of the world baptizing all Nations in the name of the Lord Jesus What durst they not do for the honour of God when they were led by the Spirit The Children of Israel made no scruple to pitch their Tents within the borders of their enemies if the Pillar of cloud did remove before them so wheresoever the grace of God doth carry a man Gods glory being his undoubted end without all vain delusions and carnal reservations he may be bold to venture As we read of Sampson that before he did those great and heroical exploits against the Philistines he was possessed with the Spirit of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him when he slew a thousand of the Philistines with the jaw-bone of an Ass Judg. xv 14. So it holds in the works of Regeneration Patience Obedience denying of our selves taking up the Cross of Christ mortifying the body of Sin these cannot be done unless the Spirit of the Lord do move upon us But according to the method of the Psalm first we must trust in God to pluck our feet out of the snare before he lead us in the right way and set us upon a rock of stone where we shall not be moved First lead us not into tentation that is leave us not to our selves and then bear us on Eagles wings and bring us to himself Exod. xix 4. We do not so much deprecate in the Lords Prayer that we should not come near the assault of any tentations as that we may not be drawn into the midst of them and there left unto our selves Most excellently the Apostle Heb. xiii 20. The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant he will bring us out of the Pit-falls of the Devil that is implied for it follows he will make us perfect in every good work to do his will Aristotle hath a rule in his Rhetoriques how that must needs be an excellent thing which the worst men desire they may seem to have though they want it As liberality must needs be a graceful vertue for few are so sordidly covetous but that they love to be accounted liberal So the guidance of the divine Spirit necessarily must be the most laudable principle of all humane actions for there is not so palpable an hypocrite that will confess he was led by his own Concupiscence or seduced by his Passions no he will pretend it is the fear of God and his Conscience that doth lead him in all things What wonder if Christian Hypocrites have such conceits For the King of Assyria a Most prophane Blasphemer thought it was the best way to make the same pretension when he came to pluck down the living God Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it The Lord said to me go up against this Land to destroy it And I would it were not the disgrace of these times that many such live among us who have their secret stratagems and desires to make havock of the small revenue of the Church and to pluck down the glory and dignity of it but with the same ungodly flourish that the King of Assyria made We are led by the Spirit the Lord said unto us go and destroy this as they most impudently and ignorantly call it Superstition I will give them the Prophet Ezekiels woe for their reward Ezek. xiii 3. Thus saith the Lord God woe unto the foolish Prophets that follow their own Spirit and have seen nothing These are led on by their fury to bring to pass the works of the evil one not led by the Spirit as our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Arch-leader was to overcome the tentations of the Devil The third reason is out of St. Chrysostoms Quiver and I cannot exceed beyond that at this time Non simpliciter profectus sed abductus God did inspire the Evangelists to write in this manner how Christ was led when he went into temptation rather than that he went of himself simply without more addition because no man should offer himself rashly and voluntarily to be tempted unless God did put some constraint and impulsion upon him It is a most cautilous note if you observe it for take the matter right and consider Christ in himself alone without respect of leaving an example
to the Members of his body and it was laudible in him to wish some trial that he might encounter the Devil and spoil him of his Kingdom Tentationem exoptare in eo qui succumbere nequit est laudabile say the Schoolmen It was an heroical magnanimity in Christ to wish tentations so might fall upon him because he could not be vanquished And therefore some gather an observation contrary to St. Chrysostom that our Saviour went into the Wilderness and fasted forty days and after was an hungry destinating that the Devil should find him out Obviam procedit Diabolo quem scit non pug naturum nisi lacessitum He went out to dare the Tempter because he knew he would not come on and fight unless he were provok'd yet it is the sounder way to collect that for our instruction when we should examine this Story Christ did not go in a bravado or a challenge to offer himself to be tempted but the Spirit led him as who should say this was not Curtius in foveam a precipitated intrusion Let not man expose himself to temptation Dubia est victoria who knows that carries the badge of Adams frailty in his body whether he shall come off with victory or captivity Happy is that man and the Lord shall bless his integrity who will not come near the suburbs of sin for no man can keep the Commandments unless he be careful to avoid the first invitations of evil and to shun the farthest and remotest impediments of obedience Have you seen little children dare one another which should go deepest into the mire But he is more childish that ventures further and further even to the brim of transgression and bids the Devil catch him if he can I will but look and like says the wanton where the object pleaseth me I keep company with some licentious persons says an easie nature but for no hurt because I would not offend our friendship I will but bend my body in the house of Rimmon when my Master bends his says Naaman I will but peep in to see the fashion of the Mass holding fast the former profession of my faith Beloved I do not like it when a mans conscience takes in these small leaks it is odds you will fill faster and faster and sink to the bottom of iniquity I have read of a Bishop that was performing the Office of Baptism to many that were converted from Gentilism and when a Virgin came near the Font of an extraordinary beauty he desired a substitute to discharge the place for he would not please his eyes no not for a few minutes to look upon such an object as allured his fancy What a careful Christian this was that kept off occasions of sin and would not suffer them before him as David charged his treacherous Son Absalom to keep a distance and not to come near Jerusalem Hannibal that approved Souldier placed himself in a battel where many Darts of the enemy flew round about him and when some commended him that he ventured his person upon the mouth of danger you mistake says Hannibal I am more ashamed of my self this day than ever I was in my life that being the General of the Field I came in peril to be wounded This is well applied to every Souldier that fights under Christs Banner when we are run into tentations it is good and blessed to come off with the least impairment to our innocency But why did you come so near the flame that you were in peril to be scorched Job comforted himself that he had kept his eyes from wandring Jeremy was careful neither to lend upon Usury nor to borrow upon Usury In a word when Tentations fall upon you by Gods permission resist them manfully but if you mean to be led by the Spirit do not wittingly and daringly fall upon tentations This is the sum of the third observation I defer the fourtn to a larger tractate To God the Father c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the VVilderness to be tempted of the Devil THis Text you see will not let me go I have been parting from it twice and still it invites me to stay As the Levite took his farewel at Bethlem sundry times and could not get away Judg. xix And now I have good cause to tarry being led by the leading of the Spirit Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile with him go with him twain says Christ Mat. v. 21. And if the Spirit of God compel us to go with him one Sermon we will go with him twain it cannot be irksom or weary to follow such contemplations But it is fit I should satisfie you where I stick in this verse for the present that I do not proceed how Christ was tempted wherefore he was tempted by whom he was tempted when he was tempted I have rid my hand of these discourses Likewise I have passed thus far how Christ was marshalled into the field by the divine impulsion of the Holy Ghost Here I resume my task into my hands where I left it That which remains for me to survey and for you to exercise your attentions upon is this First Since Christ himself was led by the Spirit when he went forth to fast and pray and to fight against the Devil therefore I will make enquiry how the grace of God doth lead us to eschew evil and to do good And secondly I will bring you along to consider the place whereon our Saviour planted himself to encounter his enemy it was the Wilderness How all men whom God calls to the saving truth by the preaching of the Spirit are led by the Spirit that is governed and directed by his grace is the Doctrine with which I begin in which intricate subject I confess my self to be in a Wilderness before I come to the last part of my Text if ever there were a question which troubled the whole world it is this How the will of man is guided unto Salvation by the supernatural help of God It is run into a Proverb that there are three things almost impossible to be traced The one how a King doth govern his Kingdom the secret reasons of state make the course of his actions so obscure Cor regis inperscrutabile says Solomon The other how grace doth govern the soul And the third how God doth govern the world We are sure divine motions move within us and yet we know not how they move Our Saviour did admonish us it would be a hard matter to understand when he spake of the Holy Ghost who doth regenerate us The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes What impression a spiritual quality doth or can make upon a spiritual substance Philosophy cannot judge of it but so far as the Scripture opens the mysterie Divinity may examine it and faith must believe it In these labyrinths
good effects Then the will of man according to that free liberty it hath which is helped toward good works not taken away doth all things with that indifferency that it may cast away this initial grace or embrace it work fruitfully with it or unfruitfully This is that qualification and condition of grace which some wicked ones are said to resist this is that Spirit which other sensual men are said to grieve They will not understand they will not be gathered together they will not follow their Leader through the servile liberty of their own concupiscence It is this first pittance and portion of a good life that many are said to begin in the Spirit and to end in the flesh In the work of conversion though a man hath power to resist it being founded in the natural liberty of the will yet no man doth actually resist the grace of conversion yet this grace of preparation many do resist out of the pravity of their will in which respect they are said to quench the Spirit I cannot speak so much as I might in this subject but because the understanding of Gods favour and justice and the provocations of our own duty depend much upon it therefore I will give you some short rules and corollaries to bear away 1. I do not say all men but as many as are invited by the preaching of the Word are made partakers of some preparatory grace for as a Vein and Artery run together in the body natural to convey bloud wherein the life consists so the Word preacht and some measure of supernatural grace go hand in hand in the mystical Therefore St. Paul says We are Ministers not of the Letter but of the Spirit It is told to no man in vain that Christ died for him the possibility of apprehending the benefit of that sacrifice is offered him if he do not hinder the work of God 2. In this previous grace and for the good use of it we apply unto you the exhortations comminations invitations of all the Prophets and Apostles giving you truly to wit that God hath given you the means to be saved if you do not reject them The last end at which we drive in all our Sermons is your conversion and regeneration that is the Crown of all diligence in this world but the immediate and next end that we labour is that men and women do their diligence to make good use of this preparatory grace 3. This grace of preparation before convertion is shorter in some than in others God did presently hasten the conversion of Paul of Lydia of the Jaylor Why may he not do what he will with his own And give a Peny to them that have laboured one hour as soon as to them that have laboured ten But usually there is large trial and with some this preparatory grace continues alone till anon before they end their life 4. God forsaketh no wicked man within the Church till he hath quenched this grace and interrupted the chain of those means which were prepared for his conversion Prius quam deseratur neminem deserit multos desertores saepe convertit says Prosper which is in part thus Englished 2 Chron. xxiv 20. Because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you Solomon was an excellent Divine as well as a Philosopher Prov. i. 24. Because I have called and ye refused ye have set at nought my counsel they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord therefore I will mock at their calamity but though he forsakes none untill they forsake him yet he forsakes not all that forsake him So said Prosper Multos desertores saepe convertit Peter and Judas both did reject this grace of preparation and fall from it yet the one hath efficatious grace given to convert him the other hath not This inequality is from the pure pleasure of God and no man can sound the depth 5. Some are much more largely watered with this heavenly dew of preparatory grace all may drink their fill but some have their cup brim full some are endued with more patience proved with fewer tentations Yet none can justly grudge why hath he five talents and I but three Why doth God stand longer at the door to knock for him than he will for me God is not bound to follow men with all manner of grace 6. If these works of preparation be not hindred if this grace be not quenched God will follow the soul with saving grace Not that any man in the world did ever use this precedaneus help so well but that it deserved to be taken from him How many sins do we incur How stubborn how disobedient is the heart of every man Here we might be for ever forsaken according to our misdeeds but the Lord will accept of small endeavours as great accomplishments In a word the good use that we can make of this gift of God is no way meritorious to salvation the ill use of it in those that perish is demeritorious and makes them justly undeserving to be called to salvation This I am perswaded is the true doctrine of this Point to stop the mouth of them that are lost and to shew the plenteous riches of Gods mercy in the vessels of Election Fourthly I labour for the easiest notions I can invent to make these intricate things plain the fourth Point will require an intelligent Auditor with what great and mighty power the Spirit doth lead the children of God in converting grace I have spoke of the first preparation of grace and the will prepared so I must speak distinctly of the act of renovation and the will renewed and the nature of renovation or conversion is best conceived in these six heads 1. What this converting grace adds above that preparatory help 2. God doth work it alone and the will doth passively receive it 3. It doth infallibly attain its effect 4. It is no violent compulsion upon the will 5. It is more than a moral perswasion 6. This is not repugnant to the Promises to the comminations or to the exhortations of God First It adds this above preventing initial grace that it doth but dispose a man to life but after this act we may say justly this man is born of God That is common to them that are lost who quench the first beginnings of divine assistance by their own evil will this is only given to the elect servants of Christ God works by several quantities and doses of Sanctification 1. That they can resist if they will as in Adam before his Fall 2. In others that they will not though they can as in those in whom he doth conserve his preparatory grace 3. In others that they will not nor cannot in the introduction of that act as in them whom he doth actually convert 4. In others that shall never can nor will as in the Angels and Saints of heaven God foresaw if he should only give this grace of preparation all
make us his instruments to defile the holy Temple Gods glory is put to the greatest scandal and reproach And this is brought to pass so many ways that it is plain to see there hath been a most witty complotter in the treachery 1. When any Prelate is so puft up that he thinks himself too great to be a door-keeper in Gods house but will be higher than all the Church and seâ— on the top of the Pinacle who sitting in the Temple of God exalts himself above all that is called God 2. The Temple is defiled by setting up Idols in the Courts of our heavenly King even in the midst of thee O thou Sanctuary of the Lord. 3. By offering up unclean Sacrifice either false Doctrine or impious Prayers or superstitious Worship or corrupted Sacraments 4. When men set their foot within the sacred Tabernacle with carnal thoughts with worldly imaginations with no zeal or attention 5. To bring any prophane work any secular business within those walls which are consecrated to the name of the Lord. This is that Camel which the Jewish Priests did swallow when they strained at a Gnat. For they told our Saviour that he brake the Sabbath he did not keep the Law but they themselves did licence and allow the prophanation of the Temple by bringing Merchandize into it selling of Sheep and Oxen and changing money and you know how Christ revenged it even with anger and indignation I must borrow time to tell you how Christ did bestir himself in the reformation of that abuse more than in any thing else throughout all the Gospel For first he corrected that fault twice over in the second of St. Johns Gospel in the beginning of his Ministry and Mat. xxi toward the end of his life anon before he suffered You see what an obstinate evil it was which would not be redressed for one admonition 2. When he came to Jerusalem there were many other faults flagrant crimes wherewith the place abounded yet the first thing he reformed was the abuse of the Temple 3. He would not tolerate the least prophanation wink at no fault for he would not permit that any should carry so much as a Vessel through the Temple Mar. xi 16. 4. He reformed this trespass not only by preaching and quoating Scripture against it but by a scourge and by violence by word and deed And surely if words will not serve God will bring blows to maintain the reverence of his house that it be not contemned What a dissolute carriage it is to see a man step into a Church and neither veil his head nor bend his knee nor lift up his hands or eyes to heaven Who dwels there I pray you that you are so familiar in the house Could you be more saucy in a Tavern or in a Theater This is no other but the very gate of heaven says Jacob when he had but a vision of God and his Angels Brethren renounce the Devil let him not alienate your reverence from that place which God hath specially appointed for the saving of your soul Holiness becometh thine house for ever O holy blessed and glorious Trinity AMEN THE ELEVENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 6. And saith unto him If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down For it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone IT is altogether unknown to man when a sin comes merely from the suggestion of his own heart and when it comes from the tentation of the Devil But in one case eminently above many others it is most likely that there is some hellish provocation when out of good principles and religious grounds our heart is quite turned out of the way to rebell against the Lord. Ely the High Priest had a tender fatherly affection Who could turn this wholsom water into poyson to make him wink at the vices and dissoluteness of his Sons but Satan David was a thankful Prince and loved to remember how God had multiplied his favours upon him yet upon this stock grew that evil fruit to number the people Why the Text says Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel King Josias was an enemy to the Heathen that knew not God and he that deludes good motions made him so irreconcilable that he would fight against Pharaoh Necho to his own destruction and harkened not to the word which came from the mouth of God Certainly the hand of Joab was in this and in all such fallacies where a good fountain is made to send forth sweet waters and bitter as to sin because grace abounds to neglect publick Prayer because faith comes by hearing to cark and care too much for the world because a man would provide for his Posterity And this master-wit of Hell laid this bait to make our Saviour swallow it in this present tentation For Christ being demanded to make bread of stones he replies that he was confident in his Fathers Promises Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Are you so confident Thinks the Tempter and upon this confidence I will thrust you on Have you appeal'd to Cesar And to Cesaer you shall go It is true that you say God is very gracious and will not destitute you in any want or danger you have answered very well therefore cast your self down from this Pinacle and be confident still God will look to it that you shall be supported This is the very train discovered and made as clear unto you as the light of the Sun In the former tentation he would drive Christ to unlawful means if that take not because he trusts in God then trust in him still and refrain from the use of things lawful so St. Austin distinguisheth that his first fallacy was Deum defuturum ubi promisit that God would not help where he had promised to assist and the second fallacy which now I am to handle is Deum adfuturum ubi non promisit that God would help where he had not promised to assist Where many things are to be found out in one verse they must be divided severally and in this order I take it to be expedient 1. Here is Satans demand Cast thy self down 2. Upon what supposition he demands it Why if thou be the Son of God 3. Upon what authority authority enough for it is written 4. Upon what assistance why the best in the world whether it is the supreme or the instrumental The supremeis God He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and the instrumental are the most glorious powerful and excellent creatures in all the world the whole Host of Angels in their hands they shall bear thee lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone These are such particulars as the wisdom of the Spirit hath left us
these things and come to that heavenly Banquet without these preparatory steps and so you shall eat and drink your own damnation It is fit likewise that all our life should be a meditation of our death to number our days one by one as we go down to the grave No says the Tempter jump down from the Pinacle to the bottom it is a melancholy cogitation never think of it till it comes do not go down fair and softly with fear and trembling but defer all your repentance to the last hour and then commend yourself to God And none are more in fault in this kind than they who begin at the top of the golden Chain at Election and Predestination and straight leap into the assurance of their Glorification they are Predestinated to his Kingdom therefore theirs is the Adoption of Sons theirs is the inheritance without more ado Soft and fair this is a jump from one end to another without steps there must be a ladder of practice to come to these things or your boasting may be in vain and you may fail of that Salvation wherein you falsly glory Examine your Love if it be sincere examine your Repentance if it be very mournful and make you most resolute to be a new Creature Examine your Faith if it be stedfast and immovable prove it by such fruits as will grow upon a living tree and then God hath given you leave to rise up upon these degrees to ascend in these effects from one to another till you lay hold of the highest Link and say with the Prophet I am thine O save me I am thy Child by Adoption and Grace and thou art my Father who hast elected me before the foundations of the World But beware of these desultory motions to fall down from aloft and not pass by such steps and stairs as God hath ordained And so much for this motion to which the Tempter perswaded Christ Jace teipsum deorsum Cast thy self down Next let us see how the Tempter would have Christ take his fall from the Pinacle of the Temple why he would have it to be his own voluntary act Cast thy self down And subtilly continued to palliate this horrid Vice as if it had been humility Humility must be home-born flow from our own willingness without the least compulsion or constraint Cast thy self down For they that are pressed down and would get higher if they could they are not humiles but humiliati it is their cross fortune not their mortified affections that they are not upon the top of a Pinacle But as I have said already you can taste no such thing as pious humility in the Devils counsel But first as St. Hierom shews he doth much betray his own weakness in this to commend the execution of this tentation to Christ himself and not to take it into his own hands He can perswade he cannot precipitate a man whether he will or no. Nemini potest nocere nisi ipse se deorsum miserit It is not in his power to throw you down if you will save your self No Sorcerer no worker with familiar spirits had ever the power to hurt the meanest Magistrate in the Commonwealth that examined them or any Officer of correction that did chastise them His Dominion is inhibited that he can take away no mans life by hostile violence It is one of the flowers of Gods own Royalty that life and death are before him only he giveth breath and he calls it away when he pleaseth And as Satan cannot hurt the body of man but by our own consent and by our own permission so he must ask us leave and work it by our own perverse will if he ensnare our soul in any iniquity He cannot break open the door no nor so much as draw the latch but if he find the door open and the room swept and garnished then he enters in Luk. xv Some ungodly ones think they have made a fine excuse when they cast their faults upon the Devil If you have blasphemed or reviled it was he I wiss that was the cause of it if you have spilt bloud it was he that did direct your hand to this hainous fact if you lived in malice it was he no doubt that crossed you from many purposes to be reconciled what cares he to let you run on in these excuses You deceive your selves your Debts increase and I am sure he will never pay the score for you I allow it unto you that he is as subtil to cast scandalous objects in your way as malice can make him as forward to excite you to all evil as diligence will suffer him as vigilant as a restless spirit can be to divert you from all good But what of all this If you will not lend him your own free-will to practise with he is quite excluded All those Antecedents are but invitations to evil not compulsions Malorum immissor non impulsor If you will not cast your self down head-long he cannot thrust you into wickedness In this Text he confesseth that the last and complete power is in our selves to hurt our selves and not in him all precipitations are his counsels but our own motions Cast thy self down Then the Tempter could not cast our Saviour down it is his restraint and weakness moreover he would not though he could For Nullum praecipitium nisi voluntarium est praesumptio No tumbling cast had born the guilt of presumption with it unless it had been voluntary and of his own doing And now I am come to the most horrid part of this second Tentation wherein Christ was provoked to destroy himself with his own will to be guilty of his own murder the most irremediable sin as much as I can perceive that can be committed Though he would not come down from the Cross and save himself but was led with all patience as a Lamb unto the slaughter yet his death was inflicted upon him by Pilates Souldiers he was not his own Executioner The Jews never spake more despightfully against him than when they asked Will he kill himself because he says whither I go ye cannot come Job viii 22. No let Satan put such desperate resolutions into the heart of Judas the Traytor to make himself away And some Historiographers would perswade us that the Devil obtained this very request of him which he moved to Christ to cast himself down from some lofty Pinacle St Matthews words must be true that he hanged himself and St. Lukes words must be true that falling down headlong he burst asunder in the midst Acts i. 18. Theophylact says the bough of the tree bended to the ground upon which he hung and since he could not dispatch his life that way he brake his neck down a steepy Mountain and burst in twain And now all Ages call him Reprobate as well for this desperate conclusion of his life as for betraying Christ There were some Hereticks of whom I think one Petileus was the Author
these did foully err and hold that a man being conscious to himself of some sin that was worthy death might put himself to death that it was an act of justice yea and a Martyrdom and upon this ground whether shouId I say more foolish or more impious they Canonized Judas for a Martyr But St. Austin shews that their Argument jars against two common principles Nemo potest esse judex reus It is incompetible that the same man should be both the guilty person and the Judge 2. Nocentem hominem privata potestate occidere non licet It is murder for any private man not authorized by a lawful Magistrate to execute death upon a Malefactor Judam execramur quamvis sceleratum hominem occidit Judas was a Malefactor and could not kill a worse man than himself yet that sin alone without the rest was damnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slaying of himself Remember the Commandment Thou shalt not kill Whom not Neither your self nor your neighbour for you have no more power to hurt your self than another the body is Gods and the Temple of the Holy Ghost And who gave you leave to pluck down a Temple Nature inclines a man to the conservation of himself and what a detestable thing it is to violate the chief Maxime of Nature Which is this in St. Pauls words No man hates his own flesh but loves and cherisheth it No man indeed but he that makes hast to be no man that he might the sooner be a Devil The Heathen went thus far that a man is put into this world as a Souldier is put into some File or some place of the Watch from that station he must not stir till his General calls him Et majori supplicio afficiendus est desertor vitae quà m desertor militia And is not he more worthy of punishment that leaves the place where God did put him before he was summoned than he that comes off from the Watch before the General calls him If the love of your soul the dreadful expectation of Hell-fire will make you decline a sin take heed of this for Gods sake above all others All other sins when they are committed have yet some leasure to beg mercy and at what time soever a sinner c. but how can the Lord put such a sin out of his remembrance where it is impossible there should be time to repent Vt laqueo respiratio it a prohibetur desperatione spiritus sanctus as Bedae said of Judas they stop their own breath and with that desperate act exclude the Holy Ghost from inspiring any sanctified cogitation into them What can befal a man in this world to defie Heaven and Earth at once And to die the death of the damned without redemption Bethink your selves judiciously it cannot be want torture or calamity for though these be very sharp especially to those that are impatient yet they are not so smartful as the stinging of a Bee nor the biting of a Flea compared with the Lake of Brimstone into which they irrecoverably send their own soul that let out of the body with their own violent hand Nor should it irke a man to stay Gods leasure till he be dissolved for any reproach or ignominy that he hath incurred for so your former dishonour is not forgotten but ten times more divulged and increased See how publick shame which followed such desperate persons after their death did work with some of Miletum as Plutarch reports it Many of the Milesian Virgins through the perswasions of some Diabolical Philosophers hanged themselves To stop this unnatural fury when no reason would revoke them the Magistrates made a Law that the bodies of all such should be left naked in the open Market-place for ten days and the fear of that worldly shame did for ever after rectifie those who were living that they held their hands from violence But what other impulsive cause can be named Can the remorse of sins past breed such a destructive melancholy in any mans disposition God forbid This is to cast Mountains upon Mountains and to make all worse Sins are not covered by heaping one upon another but blessed is the man whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered There is another life given to expiate your iniquities and not your own even the bloud of Christ Repent you seriously and be merciful unto your self and then God will be merciful unto you Yet Achitophel with all his politick reach could not make use of these plain notions but confounded himself partly with the guiltiness of his rebellion partly with the fear of his reputation For it is very likely he shuffled his Game thus If Absalon overcome King David Hushai hath given the better counsel and so I shall live in disgrace If David prevail which is very likely he will take away my life because of the pernicious Plots which I have laid against him See how this witty Wretch could forget that David was a merciful Prince and did not execute one of his enemies in cold bloud But God lets the wits of the wisest turn addle who meditate to be Authors of their own ruine and to cast themselves down from a Pinacle upon the Devils suggestion But God keeps all those from this sin whom he means to have converted and be saved The Jaylor took out his Sword and was ready to have faln upon it but Paul cried out at the instant Do thy self no hurt and soon after he was baptized and believed he and his house Paul may loath this world and desire to be dissolved but he must wait the Lords leisure and not hasten his dissolution It was the blessing of the Lord upon mankind Increase and multiply To replenish the world is a Benediction to take one of Gods Servants away unless by the hand of justice and that the Magistrate doth in the person of God is a Malediction What spirit was in the Tridentine Fathers to make the second book of Machabees Canonical Wherein Razias is commended in most fluent phrases that killed himself I know St. Austin says Razii mors narratur non laudatur it is but a narration of the fact not an Encomium Let any child read Chap. xiv toward the end of it and judge if he be not extolled for it with most artificial commendation The same Father is more Orthodox in another place that pious reason is to be preferred before examples Quae tantò dig niora sunt imitatione quantò excellentiora pietate which are no further worthy of imitation than they excel in Piety And again I may say Why did the Roman Martyrology Canonize the Virgins of Aquileia Who drowned themselves to avoid certain barbarous Ravishers For as Aquinas treats upon the fact 1. Fornication were a less sin than violent murder 2. If they had not refused that carnal sin as much as they could yet Repentance might have wash'd away the spot of that crime in the other act of unnatural
Angel if his Superiour called him he must come instantly away These are whimsies in the head when the Devil prompts them to do some strange tricks more than ordinary Christians are able even as he would have put our Saviour upon a supernatural shall I say Nay upon a contra-natural exploit because he was the Son of God Whereas the true marks of Filiation and Adoption are these Humility awful Fear Faith that works by Love hate of Vain-glory Denying of our selves giving all honour to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost AMEN THE TWELFTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 6. For it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone THey that meditate mischief against others usually they begin with perswasion and end in hostility their first way is subtilty and their last is violence As Themistocles told the men of Andria that he had brought two great Goddesses with him to exact Tribute of that Island 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perswasion and Necessity First I pray do it and then you must do it The Devil held our Saviour play all the while he was on the Earth with the same method For a long space he laid his train privily to overcome him with Art and Tentation at length he made his assault openly to bring him to his Death and Passion Vulpes in primo congressu leo in crucifixione at this bout he made towards him like a Fox with many trim perswasions but when he stood out perswasions he rose against him like a Lion as David prophesied They would tear my soul in pieces like a lion while there is none to deliver me In this story of Scripture upon which I insist he practiseth the Arts of the Fox upon which subtil creature Gregory lends this Observation to our present matter Nunquam rectis itineribus sed tortuosis anfractibus currunt they never run straight on when they are hunted but make an hundred windings and doublings that it may be more difficult to trace them So Satan never went right on with any Proposition which he made to our Saviour sometimes he urgeth one way sometimes another comes forward and falls back practiseth like Pharaoh with Moses who profess'd he would deal subtilly with the people of Israel One while Pharaoh makes an offer to let the men of Israel go serve the Lord in the Wilderness but not their Children nor their Cattel then he changeth his Sentence and detains them all Then he gives them leave to take their Children with them but nothing else at last he gives order to let them all be gone Children and Herds and Flocks Bag and Baggage they should have all to be rid of them Beloved there can be no good meaning where there is so much alteration and inconstancy Square dealing stands upon one firm base hold fast to that without being removed Delusions and devices hop about like Ignis fatuus This holds very right on the Tempters part in my Text. You see he shifted ground from the Wilderness to the Temple and then he flies back from the Temple to the Mountains in the Wilderness He tries if he can make him despair then he falls off and ventures to make him presume Upbraids him at first that God would give him no bread Perswades with him by and by that God will give him all his Angels First he would put the working of a miracle into Christs hands command that these stones be made bread Next he refers the work of power to the Angels He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up Thirdly He assumes the doing of great matters to himself All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me He laboured with our first Parents neither to believed God nor the Word which he spake now he makes a shew that he would have Christ both trust in God and in his Angels and in his Word the holy Scripture For it is written He shall give his Angels charge c. The whole verse was thus distributed to you before First in order I propounded the demand which Satan made Cast thy self down 2. Upon what supposition If thou be the Son of God there I ended with the hour 3. Upon what Authority Why upon the warrant of the holy Scripture For it is written 4. Upon what assistance Why the best in the world which here is twofold Supreme and Instrumental The Supreme is God He will give his Angels charge concerning thee The Instrumental helps are the first Instruments of all Creatures the whole host of good Angels In their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone And first I must meditate hereupon at this time that the wicked one hath quoated the best Authority which the Church hath to justifie the lawfulness of his demand Scriptum est enim for it is written Perhaps he had never thought of Scripture at this time but that Christ put him in mind of it in the fomer Tentation and it was his old sin Ero similis altissimo I will be like the most High do every thing as Christ did not out of pious imitation but out of perverse affecting an equality And because Christ had the start of him to fly first to the Word of God therefore the Devil doth both quote Scripture and carry him to the Temple as if he would shew Religion and Sanctity double as much as our Saviour did Joab in his necessity will fly to the horns of the Altar for sanctuary as if the Lord would protect a Rebel that had set up a concurrent against his lawful King So the Devil will fly to the Scripture for a need as if there were any refuge there for him that had been a Traitor to his God Occasio fallendi est maxima ubi est maxima authoritas says St. Ambrose the most perilous way to deceive is under pretence of the greatest authority Therefore the Tempter comes like a Divine with a Psalter in his hand you know how well he counterfeited Samuel putting on the shape of that good Prophet to abuses Saul and here he counterfeits David nay therein he counterfeits the very Spirit of God A man would have thought Satan would have skipt the Book of the Psalms though he had search'd over all the Scripture beside It is the Volume of joy of consolation of alacrity the very Songs of Angels Is any man merry Let him sing Psalms says St. James Is there any use of that sweet harmony for him that lives in perpetual torment But they that mean to abuse the Sacred Text instance in those places where you would least expect to find them From the Commandment to sanctifie the Sabbath day the Pharisees wrung in their exception that it was not lawful for Christ on that day to
will The Tongue of man the Knee the Heart nay Body and Soul together are to be purchased As you bring with one hand you shall carry away Favour and Justice in the other The access of profit carries the main stroke in every thing The Heads judge for reward and the Prophets divine for money Mich. iii. 11. They that should be most clear from this fault you see are chiefly in the reprehension No man knows with what stint he would spend or how much he would lay up therefore unless where the conscience is much refined from greediness it is a pleasure to sacrifice to our net and above all things to catch at that which comes in with so much easiness as Dabo I will give thee Hazael King of Syria must have a present even all the hallowed things that were dedicated to the Lord that he might not come up against Jerusalem Felix the Governour without a feeling would not set Paul at liberty The corruption of the times was such in Israel that men thought the Prophets as greedy as themselves and would not ask them counsel of the Lord without a gift in their hand Benhadad sent a Present of all the good things in Damascus even forty Camels burdens to Elisha to enquire if he should recover of his sickness And Saul more apparently being counselled to go to Samuel to ask which way he should return home made a stand at it saying What shall we give to the man of God There is not a present left This polling Covetousness was very ordinary no doubt in that Land when the People knew nothing but the Prophets were devourers of gifts and would not open the Oracles of God unto them without Satans complement Dabo I will give thee The giver that would corrupt another such as the High Priests that delivered Judas thirty pieces of Silver to betray his Master such a one you see by the instance of my Text doth supply the place of the Devil I am sure God gave no man wealth to this end to buy another out of his honesty the eternal Law says that vertue only should be rewarded and he that keeps the Commandments therefore to give a Pension to man or woman to be vicious is to cross that supreme fundamental Law by which heaven and earth are governed Fie that so good a vertue as Liberality should be so scornfully imitated No vertue is more often commended by God than bounty and giving but above all moral qualities it is most plausible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle hit the reason in a word it redounds to the common benefit of others more than any other vertue which begets it favour and affections Now to cast dirt in the face of this vertue Satan sets up a liberality which is of a most different condition and nothing of kin to it when the great Patrons of sin care not what they bestow upon them that serve their turn for flattery for injustice for lust for sensuality When poor Lazarus wants a draught of cold water a shower of Gold shall rain down into the Lap of Danae the wages of an Harlot are far greater for the most part than the recompence of most faithful and honest service The Egyptian Rhodope out of the gifts of her Lovers was able to dispend enough to build a Pyramis an expence so great that few Kings in Egypt could accomplish it If the Daughter of Herodias shew her self lascivious and immodest Herod will cast away half his Kingdom upon her or if that be too little he leaves her to be her own carver she may ask any thing Dabo quodcunque volueris I will give thee whatsoever thou wilt ask O that noble qualities were as sure of Patronage as Instruments of wickedness are sure of means and maintenance As Suetonius said of his Nero Pecuniae fructum non alium putabat quà m profusionem He thought there was no use of riches but waste and profusion So in the Line that Satan draws out there is no use of giving but to procure Idolatry to fall down and worship him Cursed be those hands that open themselves wide to any one man or woman to make them the child of perdition Judah gave his Ring to Thamar to hire her unto Fornication I believe he repented him with many tears of bitterness because old Jacob did so abundantly bless him but let me propound unto him that is prone to do the like will you abuse those blessings those temporary blessings which God hath given you to buy Souls for the Devil Christ hath given a ransom out of his bloud to redeem that soul from Hell and will you give Gold and Silver to buy it into Hell again Was there no poor Member of Christ whose body you might save with that money wherewith you destroy a soul He that giveth to the needy lendeth to the Lord but he that purchaseth any one to be sinful by his bounty he lendeth to the Devil This that I have spoken of was the sin of Balaac to barter and be at a price with Balaam to do an evil act to curse them whom the Lord had blessed and it is the Chapman that makes the Market woe be to the giver that tempts the weakness of man with such a forcible provocation Aureo pugillo ferreus murus frangitur says the Heathen A Hammer of Gold will beat down a Wall of Iron Yet is there nothing to be said to the receiver Shall his hand be clear that hath taken when he is called to answer Nay none more accused by the Spirit of God none more criminous They are companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after reward Isa i. 23. Neither is robbery their alone enditement but the worst of sins against the Second Table Bloud and Murder Shut not up my life with the bloud-thirsty in whose hands is wickedness and their right hand is full of gifts Psal xxvi 9. He that takes reward to do evil takes a fee to lose his own salvation Nay what toil and drudgery some will undergo to earn the wages of iniquity Minori labore margarita Christi emi poterat says St. Hierom You might accompass that invaluable Pearl in the Gospel whereof the Parable speaks that the Merchant sold all he had to buy it I say that Pearl might have been gained with less danger and industry the whole treasure of the Kingdom of heaven Espencaeus being a Romish Doctor and a most learned may be bold with his own friends who hath revealed more corruption and bribery in the Roman Court than a modest Protestant could almost believe As Pensions taken not only for the punishment of incontinence past but to lay down somewhat before-hand for the time to come What if the Visitors met with such as resolved to be chaste yet the common Levy was exacted of such a one Habeat si velit O shameless word he may use the sin if he will Then the Taxa Camerae as they call it
worship the Lord there with pure and undefiled service he wandred away from this regal fortune to keep sheep in the Wilderness O most magnanimous servant of God that had rather keep sheep with a pure conscience than be a King among Idolaters for how much wiser is it to purchase eternal felicity with a little miserie than to heap up eternal miserie by enjoying a little felicity There are things to come far more precious than these which the tempter extols but alass he did offer nothing to speak of to countervail the loss of a soul when he mouthed these words as a donative which could not be refused all these things will I give thee Finally to go but one deliberation further though Satan was incredulous and would not be perswaded that Christ was the eternal Son of God consubstantial with the Father that had taken our flesh in the Virgins womb to redeem us yet he could not but observe how holy and zealous He was in all his waies endowed with sanctity beyond all the Prophets that ever liv'd therefore this Tentation must needs be ill placed and most unseasonable for God is all manner of riches to those that serve him unfeinedly and with an upright heart Plenitudo deliciarum sufficientia divitiarum Deus est no strong line but a sweet and most emphatical meditation of St. Austins Where God abides there goes with him the alacrity of all delight and the inheritance of all riches Where was St. Pauls Exchequer think you in what corner of the world did his rents lye that he wrote to the Philippians I have all and abound Philip iv 18. Satan cannot be so shameless to offer any thing to him that hath all already there 's work for an Auditor let him cast up those sums if he can and make them even 2 Cor. vi 10. as having nothing and yet possessing all things such Apostolical spirits those few that are measure themselves wealthy not by the weight of silver and gold but by the grace of God which inhabits in them and doth enable them to refuse more than Satan can pretend to give There was somewhat else which St. Peter lookt for that was not in the Inventory of all this baggage which the tempter would impart to Christ these are his words Lo we have left all and followed thee what shall we have Mark x. 28. this is odd you will say to leave all and then to fall a demanding and looking for more but first he lookt for the promise of the coming of the Holy Ghost which David pray'd for Encline my heart unto thy law and not to covetousness rather a dram of virtue than a talent of fortune Secondly he lookt for the glorification of body and soul where Satan shall no more stand at our right hand to tempt us where the spirit shall be ready and the flesh as willing to fall down and worship the Lord for evermore Amen THE SIXTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 9. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me St. Luke more largely renders it thus chap. iv 6. All this power Will I give thee and the glory of them for that is deliver'd unto me and to whom soever I will give it if thou therefore Wilt Worship me all shall be thine YOU heard before what vast sums of wealth the great Prince of the riches of this World did commend out of his most abundant but deceitful liberality to our Saviour all these things will I give thee Solomon had a mighty Tribute 666 talents of gold yearly and silver as the stones of the street all his vessels were of pure gold silver was not anything accounted of in the daies of Solomon Yet the whole revenue of Solomon was but beggerie to those comings in which Satan promised in this place haec omnia whatsoever the globe of the earth conteins without exception or deduction But as if the Tempter would exceed himself and rise above all expectation his mouth speaks greater things by far in that which follows now to be handled than in those particulars which I opened before for he will engage to make our Saviour Lord of all the Kingdoms in the World all this power will I give thee and the glory of them he should have that into the bargain Pompey the great saith Livie made the Romans Lords of so much land by his successful victories that unless he had taken so many captives as he did the land could not have been till'd and occupied and again he made them Lords of so many captives that unless he had seiz'd upon so much land the captives could not have been received and harbour'd So the Devil offer'd our Saviour so much wealth that unless he had promis'd to give him all the honour of the world it could not have been spent and again he offer'd him so much honour that unless he had promised him all the wealth in the world it could not have been maintein'd But what will all this come to here 's a shower of wealth and glory pour'd down what thunderbolt comes after it timeo Daneos dona ferentes shut the gift out of doors till ye know the condition why it should be receiv'd a wise man will be as careful lest any thing should be basely given him as he will be circumspect that nothing be unjustly taken from him for many times the intent of pernicious liberality is to make a man incur the foulest sins in the world to avoid ingratitude The woman had a cup of gold in her hand but it was full of abomination Rev. 17.14 so the purpose of this great gift is to take the Devils Damm with a Dowry to be raised up on high above all the Dominions of the Earth ut lapsu graviore ruat then to fall down from that height and to commit Idolatry What were the several particulars which I charged upon the whole Text the last time it will be fit for me to repeat and for you to hear First wherein the forcible enticement of this last Tentation consists in giving a speeding word I told you and very provocative dabo I will give thee Secondly what and how much he would give and that 's twofold First as a Mammon of iniquity all riches and possessions that the eye could see and as a Lucifer of pride the power of all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them Thirdly he shews Christ his evidences quo jure by what right and authority he can make over all this unto him in those words for that is deliver'd unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Fourthly and lastly every bait hath his hook under it this promise hath a most impious condition annext unto it if Christ will fall down and worship him I have spoken of the former part of the gift which this insolent Braggart made ostentation to bestow he would put all the riches of the world into one donative
of the Serpent and nothing can be truer than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or application that one sin is never hatcht alone especially if it be a great one but it hath a train to follow it God challeng'd his people that they had broken the bond of marriage between him and their soul not with one adultery and no more but the Prophet chargeth Jerusalem fornicata es cum multis amatoribus thou hast committed fornication with many lovers that is with many sensual pleasures Upon this consideration virtue is compared to salt have salt in our selves sayes Christ to his Disciples of which you cannot take up one corn alone upon your knifes point but many grains will cleave together and upon the same respect wickedness is compared to the sands of the sea one mote is very rarely severed by it self sand is a Noun Collective which supposeth many motes of dust for there is not any sin but respectively to divers parts of disobedience it may be call'd by divers names David emplung'd himself into many crimes what with Bathsheba what with Vriah what with Joab whom he made his evil instrument Peter fell into three denials one after another He that will praise the Lord as he ought in the uprightness of his life must honor him upon a ten-stringed Lute upon all the Commandments and he that wilfully fails in one instance will put every string out of tune for he that committeth one sin is guilty of the whole law These funiculi peccatorum cords of vanity sins entwisted one within another come into my mind from this third Tentation in my Text so that Tertullian is justified in his saying by this practice multiplicia spiritus incitamenta jaculantis the rebellious spirit hath more than one shaft for his bow a quiver full at least as it is Psal xi 2. For lo the ungodly bend their bow and make ready their arrows within their quiver For what sin hath not the Devil committed in these words All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me furtum perduellio mendacium blasphemia they are all here in the height of their offence Furtum the largest theft that ever was committed he would give all the substance in the world to Christ but then he must rob the right owners Perduellio a most foul attempt of treason he would give him all Kingdoms and honour but then he must depose all just and lawful Princes Mendacium not a plain lie but a very monster of untruth as St. Luke hath it in large for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Lastly Blasphemia a blasphemy that vies beyond all the rest if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine Now I have added to make up my Text at this time how easily God doth cut off all these heads of Hydra at once with his revenge and justice for this short rebuke of Christ is enough to controul the Devil with all his sins about him Get thee hence Satan or as St. Luke Get thee behind me Satan The words then which I have read amount to four parts the Gift which I have entirely dispatcht the Giver the Condition the Repulse The Gift furtum both to rob private men of their peculiar and Kings of their Royalty The Giver mendacium a lye without all shame that all the honors of the world were at his dispose The Condition blasphemia he bargains that Christ should earn all this by falling down to worship him But the Repulse is justitia Gods vindicative justice Get thee hence Satan words of anger and revenge as I will shew anon but first I will disclose what a great giver Satan would make himself All these things will I c. Twice as it appears in the two former Tentations the Devil used all his cunning to discover if Christ were the Son of God and since our Saviour would not reveal what He was Satan is the more bold to make himself the Son of God as if he were that holy one to whom the Father had committed all power in Heaven and in Earth All these things will I give thee This will be the easiest way to sift this saying wherein the wicked one usurps to himself that he advanceth to all honors to consider what likelihood of truth there is in those words by accident and secondly what great unlikelihood Marvel not that I give it for a conclusion granted that there is some colour and likelihood for Satan to say this is deliver'd to me and to whomsoever I will give it for he is the Prince of the power of the air that spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience and whosoever is successful in promotion by iniquity the Devil did sway the event so far that he calls himself their Benefactor Abimelech and Zimri got Kingdoms by treachery Joab wrought himself into Abners honor to be Captain of King Davids Host by murder Jason and Menelaus in the book of Machabees strived one against another for the High Priest-hood by Simony there are not so many names of honour as there are sins crying sins sins died in scarlet that have purchast them The infelicity of it is so general of such long continuance and so desperate against all hope of redress that Satan speaks as if he had forgot that this power was ever out of his hand For upon the event we may lament it but cannot deny it he brings the basest instruments into private favour with mighty men he bestows offices he presents to Churches Difficile est Satyram non scribere no abuse in the world will provoke a suffering spirit sooner than this to be satyrical nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es we may be asham'd and our ambition blush for it that the most hateful of all Gods creatures should have cause to boast that all manner of dignities and titles depend on his beneficence yet the world is not so bad but that he is a shameless slanderer in that saying far be it from us to number the righteous with the wicked to bestain all dignified persons with an evil reproach as he doth to condemn all the worthies of David that wickedness was their original because sometimes Satan hath a predominant faction among them He was a great Prince indeed in the Emperor Tiberius his Court scarce any advancement escapt him but went through his hands ad Consulatum non nisi per Sejanum aditus neque Sejani voluntas nisi scelere quaerebatur Every one that would be Consul us'd Sejanus for his preferment and every one that would have preferment Sejanus us'd him for some criminous villany Thus the eloquence of the Historian exaggerates the naughtiness of the times yet a little after when things grew much worse rather than mended in the reign of Nero Paul had many friends and Christ had many faithful servants even in Caesars Houshold The Spirit of God in the holy Scripture doth but very rarely amplifie
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
industry that can attain to such excellent things but by Gods grace and clemency Yet we must not think to fold onr arms together and sleep out our time with Solomons Sluggard and yet be made happy we must awake from sin before we receive the hope and comfort of that future glory in this life and we must awake from death before we can see God and his glory face to face hereafter O that we could awake from the sluggishness of the flesh and open our eyes illuminated by faith then we should see many admirable mysteries which now pass away from our knowledg and we never seek them out Wake thou that sleepest stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light There is an eye-salve of Prayer and humility and long-suffering in these dayes of trial to dispel the mists of darkness which obscure our faith and when we awake up after thy likeness O blessed Jesus we shall be satisfied with it AMEN THE FOURTH SERMON UPON The Transfiguration LUKE ix 33. And it came to pass as they departed from him Peter said unto Jesus Master it is good for us to be here and let us make three Tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias not knowing what he said UPon my entrance into the handling of this beautiful miracle of the Transfiguration we found Christ at Prayer and he continued in that exercise by himself alone for he needed not to have his Petition recommended to his Father by any other mouth by any Intercessor in Heaven or Earth He indeed prays for every mans wants but in all the Gospel throughout no man prays for him Pro quo nullus interpellat sed ipse pro omnibus hic unicus verusque mediator est says St. Austin He in whose behalf no man sollicits the Father to bless him and he whose Lips bless every man this is the true and only Mediator of Mankind But though we found Christ at Prayer yet we did not find his Apostles waking to say Amen If God be for us who can be against us Rom. viii 31. I answer the Apostle though God be for us all a man may be his own Enemy and fight against himself Christ was occupied in Prayer Who could be against Peter when his Master was on his side But Peter slept while his Master prayed therein he was against himself Thrice our Saviour rose from Prayer in the Garden and found him sleeping therefore the watchful Cock was a sign unto him soon after that he had denied his Master thrice So to lay this upon our own building if the three Disciples whom Christ took with him to Mount Thabor had imployed their time in watchfulness and Religion as their Master did doubtless the Lord had guided their understanding in the right way but because they laid them down to rest when they should have prayed and did not lift up their hands as an Evening Sacrifice therefore the Lord sent upon them the Spirit of slumber Rom. xi 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an imagination as dark as the darkness of Egypt in which they could discern nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aquila reads it Isa xxix 10. a strong drowziness which is in the manner of a Lethargy a Spirit of error and stupidity Loe what words do come from Peter in my Text let him shake himself as Samson did when he came out of sleep and he shall find that the Spirit of the Lord was gone from him He did not watch and pray that he might not fall into error therefore he slept and fell into error that he might pray to come out of it Because his tongue was tied when it ought to speak therefore when he began to speak he knew not what he said And that shall appear unto you both this day and once again God willing upon this whole Verse which I have read At this present I have bounded my meditations to go but half way It came to pass as they departed from him Peter said unto Jesus Master it is good for us to be here All this matter must not be drawn into an heap but into this order 1. What came to pass which caused Peter to speak now when he had been silent before Why Moses and Elias were taking their leave and he would have retained them It came to pass as they departed from him Peter said 2. To whom he did direct his speech not to his fellow servants Moses and Elias but to his Master Peter said unto Jesus Master 3. That his Disciple went about to teach his Master in the words following Master it is good for us to be here Those being the words of especial use to spend our time upon I will enlarge my self to shew that they contain three things to be well allowed and six things to be doubted of that I may not say condemned 1. At the first blush that he saw Christ in glory he said it was bonum he was excellently delighted with it for the glory of the Gospel is no affrighting thing but a delectable object 2. He said true it was bonum nobis good for us for God doth shew his glory for us and for our satisfaction 3. It is as true that it is very good to be continually present with his glory and never part from it O it is the best of all goods to enter into the joy of our Master Thus far he built upon a Rock his foundation is infallible In the rest he builds upon the sands yet to censure the errors of so great an Apostle with modesty I will contrive all that is objected against him into six questions 1. An bonum non videre mortem Whether it were good for us not to see death 2. An bonum non affligi If it be good to remain in pleasure and not be afflicted 3. An bonum sit in terrâ manere Whether it could be good to dwell always upon the earth 4. An bonum sit quod paucis solummodo bonum Whether that can be a true good which is restrained to few Bonum nobis if it were not enlarged beyond those that were present 5. An bonum consistit in aspectu humanitatis Whether it could be the supreme good of man to behold the Humane Nature of Christ only beautified without the revelation of his divine glory 6. An bonum sit Christum non crucifigi If it could be good for them that Christ should entrench himself in Mount Tabor and never go to Mount Calvary to be crucified These are the parts of the Text not one to be spared They shall not trouble you with length though they do with multitude I begin with the occasion which moved Peter to speak it was the departure of the two Witnesses Factum est cum illi discederent ab eo dixit He was ever prompt to speak and now he could not hold when those two the most heroical Prophets that ever had lived did now come from another world and
to heaven now yet it was the very same cloud which took him quite away from his Apostles upon the Ascension day Acts i. Non dubito quin ipsa est illa nubes quae suscepit eum ab oculis omnium Apostolorum The man is very confident of that opinion wheresoever he had it This he might say for certain Christ did ascend in a Cloud and we all shall ascend in the Clouds at the last day 1 Thes iv 17. We which are alive shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air Once St. Peter was so weak in faith that upon a Miracle of a great draught of Fish he cried out Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man Now he was grown so strong in love that nothing was more bitter to him than departing In a while after this accident of the Transfiguration Christ prepared the Twelve with many reasons and consolations that he must go away for if he went not away the Comforter would not come but when he did go away he would send them the Comforter even the Spirit of truth Upon these terms it was fit they should be glad to have him ascend unto his Father but having not as yet bequeathed any such promise of the Comforter it made them agast to think he should enter into a Cloud and be no more seen Beloved if God take not away the influence of his Holy Spirit from us we know he is always at our right hand though in his humane body he sitteth at the right hand of God Live justly and chastely and soberly as if the Son of God were always before your face and though he be entred into the Clouds though he be entred into Heaven your Conscience shall be comforted I must make an end of the first general part of the Text because of the time and I have put my self into a narrow strait to speak of the second the succour which Christ did administer to his three Disciples to quit them out of fear which S. Matthew hath remembred he touched them and said Arise be not afraid Though he seemed before to be going far off and as it were quite forsake them yet now he draws so near as to touch them with his hand Perhaps no more was done by Christ than the bare Letter of my Text acknowledged he did but lay the ends of his fingers upon them and if he pleased there was as much vertue in his fingers ends to quicken the Spirit of these men that sunk down with fear as there was in all Elias when he stretch'd his whole body upon the Child to bring it to life again The Angel Gabriel did but touch Daniel when he was faln upon the ground and set him upon his feet again Dan. viii 18. But behold a greater than Gabriel whose touch is more comfortable and more significative Eâ manu recreantur ad fidem I think it is St. Hieroms saying quâ creati erant ad vitam Those hands which made them and fashioned them to receive natural life the same hand did work a supernatural effect upon them and did raise them up to a boldness and assurance of a good hope in Christ Yet I will not say but that which is here called a touch may import the giving of his whole hand to assist them Postquam altos tetigit fluctus says the Poet when he meant that the Ship did sail upon the Sea Therefore to touch here may be no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manum supponere to stay with the hand and arm which we use to do to a man that is ready to sound and sink The Lord upholds all such as fall and lifteth up all those that be down Psal cxlv 14. But David explains himself in another place that all sorts of men promiscuously good and bad do not attain this favour he restrains that universal Proposition Psal xxxvi 24. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand It is said of the evil Angel I saw Satan fall like lightning Luke x. 18. The Lightning is darted out of the Clouds and never ascends again but is lost in vapour so are all those that imagine wickedly and whose heart is not stedfast in the Lord. Nescit stare superbia si ceciderit non novit resurgere says St. Ambrose Pride will catch a fall and God will leave it to shame and confusion never to recover again But a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again Pro. xxiv 16. As the young birds fall out of the Nest sometimes but the old one takes them up and carries them where they shall be safe So trust in the Lord and you shall not be cast down but his hand will be ready to catch you that you shall not be bruized All parts of mans body which are made for defence are attributed unto him for our preservation from the arm to the hand from the hand to the finger from the finger to the least touch Against great oppressions God opposeth that his arm is stretched out When he will fashion out deliverance with wonderful salvation as if a workman wrought it curiously with a Tool then the Prophets speak of the hand of God when he doth assist us suddenly and with great facility before we could think of help that is said to be done per contactum by a touch and away as in this case He touched them and said arise be not afraid These are his words who when the earth hath been fear'd with Winter makes all things to flourish again when he reneweth the year with his goodness so when the heart of man is frozen with fear by his word he makes it spring with joy His Countenance was fair and lightsome his tongue as comfortable as his face As St. Ambrose says of the Writings of St. Paul Quae Epistola Pauli non melle dulcior lacte candidior Every Epistle which he wrote was sweeter than honey whiter than milk So the beauty of Christ Transfigured was whiter than milk and his words were sweeter than the honey comb He can look frowningly and make his Foes fall down before him he can speak in Thunder and make the earth to quake the very voice which came from heaven in this next verse did confuse all that heard it This is my beloved Son hear him Vt conspectus vox Dei nos dejicit ita tactus vox Christi erigit says St. Hierom The Lord hath a voice to cast us down and a voice to raise us up again Especially Consolation shall succeed fear and that instantly when God did bring it upon us He never lead his Chosen into trouble for his sake but he brought them off again with comfort Christ had taken Peter and James and John into Mount Thabor whatsoever they suffered there it was by his conduct and for his sake it was the brightness of his
a Lord as if his soul did divine there was a greater upon earth The Reed put into Christs hand the Crown upon his head the bowing of the Knee the Title upon the Cross these were calumnies and revilings on the Jews part but on Gods part secret mysteries of his Spirit to make his enemies afford him the Ensigns of a Kingdom Nay ipsa crux tribunal fiâ—it says Origen Upon his very Cross whereon he hanged he stood like a Judge between the nocent and the innocent All this was nothing to Caesar to challenge the chief place among malefactors One thing is worth your adnotation that because Pilate and the Roman Empire did give wrong sentence of death against Christ who did not make himself a King therefore the self same Roman Empire doth endure this malediction from God that it should endure the pride of a Bishop unto this day who calls himself the Vicar of Christ and sets himself in a Throne above their Emperour The fault was cast upon Christ but the Pope commits it To end this Point If the Jews thought him worthy of death who made himself a King they that have a Doctrine to unmake a King as they please to sport with their Crowns what do they deserve And let the Jews be Judge and not the Jesuits Callisthenes was asked how a man might be most famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him kill the most famous A fit answer for our Roman Parricides who above other Christians are rebaptized in baptismo sanguinis in the bloud of Princes Speak Pilate and you outragious murderers of the Jews do they not deserve to be crucified So now to recapitulate these false crimes objected the Temple was unviolate for any thing Christ had done the people unperverted Tribute granted Caesar honoured Venit Princeps mundi in me non habet quicquam let Pilate speak if he were not a just person How should a man be avenged of his enemies Plutarch answers by being so good that they cannot reproach his honest conversation So did our Saviour and surely it would pity any heart in the world that such a Saviour such an innocent Lamb should be slain But such a Sacrifice it behoved us to have which was holy unblameable and undefiled And to conclude this second general part of my Text be careful my brethren to keep a good conscience that when you shall crucifie this mortal body and the affections thereof as you must do daily you may endeavour to be a just person to walk in all the Statutes of the Lord that you may offer up a clean Sacrifice to God your Creator and Redeemer And so much for Pilat's true Testimony that Jesus was a just person I am innocent c. And now I betake my meditations to the last Point of all Vos videbitis you shall see to it The depravation of his own nature made him forge a lie in the first words I am innocent Conscience extorted truth in the second that his Prisoner was a just person A strange instinct brings forth this last part Vos videbitis you shall see to it Marvel no more at Caiaphas that he could Prophesie One man must die for all the people but rather marvel how Pilate should Prophesie that all the people must die for the bloud of one man As Salust said of the desperate times of Rome that men were so ill affected Vt intenta mala quasi fulmen optarent se quisque ne attingat That they wished mischiefs might fall down like a thunderbolt only every man was so careful as to pray for his own head So Pilate calls for a curse upon all Jury but first he shields his own head he is innocent You never knew a Fortune-teller skilful either in Palmistry curious Metaposcopie or of the Devils secret counsel in judicious Astrology that could read ought in his own destiny as Seneca said of the Soothsayers of Rome that undertook to tell Prodigies by the entrails of beasts Plus sapiunt in alieno jecore quam in suo That they had a better insight into the entrails of other things than into their own So we are all very cunning in vos videbitis to denounce those judgments which will befall other men but we ever misinterpret what will betide our selves Harsh judges we are of other mens faults for the most part but worse Prophets not so charitable as Elizaeus his bones to bring the dead unto life but like Micaiah unto Ahab always portending some disastrous thing to come to bring the living unto death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Grecian General said to Chryses when will we leave this ominous Prediction to be chanting some deadly Prophesie against our brethren Like Pilate against the Jews Vos videbitis You shall see to it Many Jews had Prophesied against the Abominations and Idolatry of the Gentiles Pilate is the first Gentile in Scripture that Prophesied against the Jews Alas then if the wrath of God be kindled yea but a little what is it that can save us from indignation Vos videbitis shall Israel be lost Shall Judah the first-born of God be wiped out of his mercies Is there no title for the protection of a sinner Joab is fled to the Altar what shall become of him Ask Benaiah when he cuts his thred The Altar yet is an eternal refuge for others Shall it not stand for ever Ask the Prophet who made it shake with fear as with an Earthquake that it should be thrown down The Temple is an everlasting habitation shall it not last as long as the Sun and Moon endureth Ask our Saviour if one stone shall be left upon another The people of the Land are the Sons of Abraham and Isaac is not their Covenant to endure for ever Ask St. Paul if the natural branches be not cut off and withered The Land howsoever is that plentiful Canaan fruitful by the report of Caleb and Joshuah more fruitful than report could make it Shall it not always be the Lady of the earth Ask Titus and the Romans if it be not a nest for Screech-owls and an hissing to all that shall live in the world How is the destiny of all things turned about Neither security remaining to fly unto the Altar nor the Altar remaining in the Temple nor the Temple in the City nor Inhabitants remaining in the Country but City and Country defaced unto all Posterity See Beloved how no priviledge upon earth will keep conditions with us except we keep conditions with heaven As Tertullian said of the Devils Pluvias quas jam sentiunt repromittunt When they perceive much moisture in the Air by their natural sagacity then the Soothsayers tell us we shall have rain so Satan knowing that judgment was begun already in Judaea Pilate begins to Prophesie Vos c. The murder of our Saviour should be their endless calamity The Passions of Christ were so innumerous so spiteful that to draw them unto certain heads if all were reckoned up
Et fuit in toto corpore sculptus amor says a Christian Poet the thorns of the field catch the Fleece and tear off locks sometimes that is more the Shepherds loss than the Sheep but Blessed Jesus thou wert stript of thy Garments and the skin was flaid off and then the thorns were dinted into the flesh the least touch of pain was too much for thee but let not thy Cup seem too sower to thy Children the greatest dose that can be given is not too much for us Secondly as Tertullian said abstulit omnes aculeos mortis dominici capitis tolerantia there will be tribulations there will be sorrows in the world but the mortal sting is gone the thorns of all our persecutions and vexations are stuck in the Temples of our Saviour his sufferance hath blunted their sharp points that they shall not run in so far as to our heart to make our spirit sad and heavy within us quite contrary to Synesius his Art of Gardening 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he would have strong and unsavoury roots planted neer to Rose-trees that the neglected root might draw the ill sap and venom of the earth into it self and save the Rose-trees harmless but here the Rose of Sharon did save the Garlick and the wild Roots harmless and drunk up the bitter juice into it self lest God should come and root us out of his Vineyard Thirdly we read of a purple Robe put upon the back of Christ of bowing and bending to him of a Reed in his hand of a Crown upon his head alas it was thorns all these Ensigns of Majesty were put upon him in scorn What doth this mockery express Quod regnum Christi in hoc mundo ludibrio futurum sit because the Kingdom of Heaven in this world that is the Kingdom of Christ in his Church should be made a taunt and a by-word to them that sit in the Chair of the scorner the Power Ecclesiastical and the Hierarchical Dignity of it is flouted at by them that would neither allow the Head of it a Crown nor the supreme Priests their Miters but trample all Rule and Order under their feet Fourthly and lastly to end this part the place where the Ram is caught is a Thicket of thorns but what place was this afterward Quantum mutatus ab illo as I told you before from St. Hierom that the Cross was set up upon the very plot of ground where the Ram was sacrificed so upon the next part of this Hill of Moriah Solomon built the Temple for so it is 2 Chron. iii. 1. Then Solomon began to build the House of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah and why may it not be that the Jebusites who inhabited that Hill are called thorns in the eys of Israel why may not that be their Nick-name because thorns had overgrown their Habitation certainly in the Thickets of thorns there are the Walls of the Church reared up such a choice was made as the famous Antiquary of this Island hath wrote for the foundation of the Abbey which is the next to this place the ground was sometime called Thornega Thus you see we must lay our foundation in thorns we must sow in tears the higher we build from earth the further from the briars then our sorrows will be trampled down and we shall reap in joy and though thorns were a curse which was laid upon the vast World yet to plant in thorns shall be a blessing to the Church whose faith shall be refined in affliction as Gold is tried in the furnace Remember how St. Paul stil'd himself to Philemon Vinctum Christi a Prisoner of Christ not the Jews Prisoner not Festus his Prisoner not Caesars Prisoner but rejoycing in his Bonds for the Gospel a Prisoner of Jesus Christ And so far of the second General Part praesens auxilium Abrahams necessities were supplied at an instant Behold behind him a Ram caught in a Thicket by his horns In the handling of the last Part I must obey the time I called it Sacrificium succedaneum one Sacrifice answering for another or coming in the place of another And Abraham went and took the Ram and offered him up for a Burnt-offering in the stead of his Son 1. Abraham went and took the Ram so to apprehend and lay hold upon Christ that 's our duty 2. And offered him up that 's only consonant to God the Father 3. For a Burnt-offering there comes in Christs part 4. Instead of his Son there 's the redemption of the Elect I hope there comes in our part The hand of faith the good will of God the Father the full satisfaction of God the Son The full redemption of all that shall be saved With these four Points briefly we will end And Abraham went and took the Ram. It was the comfortablest hand that ever Peter felt when upon the danger to sink and perish in the Sea Christ stretched forth his hand and caught him So it was the most comfortable thing that ever Abraham caught hold of to apprehend this Ram in the Thicket partly out of natural affection partly supernatural the life of Isaac lay at the stake just before all the Sons of promise that he had and if he be cut off call him no more Abraham call him Abram again for how can he be the Father of many Nations or if that be made good in Ismael yet shall Isaac die the joy and laughter of his Father as his name goes quasi nusquam alibi gaudium ei restaret as if there were no joy without him Once Abraham had fought valiantly against five Kings when He was young 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom what a hard thing was it for him in his old age to fight against nature O had not his natural affections a brave occasion of joy to work upon when a Ram was put into his hands instead of Isaac and all this sorrow prevented but the Spirit 's comfort is the eye-sight of the Spirit into supernatural blessings hereby there was the gladness as Jacob laid hold of an Angel so did Abraham of this Ram the principal of the Flock the Leader of all the Sheep in the Pasture he was sure of a blessing before he parted with him Joabs hands may be pluckt from the Altar of refuge Sauls hand may be rent from the Garment of Samuel the Children of Bethlem may be pluckt from the arms of their own Mothers and slain before their eyes but who so apprehendeth the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ he that doubteth not as Thomas did and yet approacheth by faith so near as to put his hand into his wounds as if he would bury his sins in that Grave he shall lie safe in that Harbour and never be removed from the love of God in Christ Caius Caesar his foot slipt landing upon Affrica and the palm of his hand fell upon the ground verso in meliùs omine teneo te inquit Affrica turning it to the
continue as Pillars for Ages to come Burial did not abolish the memorial of his trespass as it was engraven upon the Monument of an Egyptian King that went down with much sorrow to his grave because of his sacriledge In me quis intuens pius esto He that looks upon my Sepulchre let him learn to be religious You read of Lots Wife in the same Gospel where you read of Mary Magdalen of her Pillar of salt as well as of the others box of Ointment There she stood congealed in the open field and never went down to the dead that she might be always in the remembrance of the living So the Brazen Serpent did exhibit those mortal Serpents which annoyed Israel in their journey Like to like And this the Lords of the Philistines had heard of and did imitate it 1 Sam. vi 4. For they sent home the Ark with a trespass-offering five golden Emerods the very figures of the diseases wherewith they were chastised I know no pattern that could lead them into that fancy but only this in my Text. The right use of it whether the Philistines knew it or no I am uncertain is this That when a punishment is exemplified in a figure and resembled to the life it is a deprecation that God would with-hold it from us and mitigate his wrath but so that we cannot be ignorant that his Arrow is still in his Bow and he hath not removed away his hand but is ready to send his Army of Serpents again if we return unto our sins And now according to the exact method of mortification having done our duty to set our sins and our punishment before us we may look towards the Serpent as a remedy And it shall come to pass that every one that looketh upon it shall live Num. xxi 8. A welcom sign to that poor People of the old Law the delights of the Synagogue for which they lifted up their hands to Heaven were length of days health and sound habit of body poor accessories of a transitory happiness they rested in such favours more than in better things that concerned their Spirit and their Soul wherein they succeed them that value the benefit of their Physician above the blessing of their Bishop But God did time it with them according to their imperfection and gave them a new Salve for a new Malady that their flesh might rejoyce in the living God The Land by which they passed was full of noxious Vermin Who led thee through the Wilderness wherein were firy Serpents and Scorpions Deutr. viii 15. If God had kept them from the teeth of this venemous brood â—equid erit pretii should he have gotten any thank for his protection affliction unfelt is unregarded It was better to have some sense of a wound that they might know what a Deliverer was in the experience of a Cure Or if Dictamnuâ— and the secret vertue of other herbs had relieved them as Moses was skilled in all that Science the work of Nature and not the God of Nature had been magnified But Discorides says that an hot venom namely that of the Dipsas and Causon are incurable therefore in a desperate case when all secondary causes were unprofitable nothing but a Miracle made them whole that were diseased And that which was most abhorr'd a Serpent was hanged up as if it were not enough to be cured but they triumpht over that which annoyed them Out of their mischief came the mitigation of their pain as cunning Leaches confect Treakle out of Vipers and Oil of Scorpions out of Scorpions a Serpent was the Instrument both of death and life for it is God that kills and makes alive again as a Whale devoured Jonas and a Whale cast him alive upon the shoar Again here was no application per contactum to the green Sore which is the ordinary course of Chirurgery not so much as an Unguent besmeared upon the substance of the Serpent the new device of Vnguentum armarium not so much as the touch of Moses hand upon the part ill affected as many of the Strumosi are toucht this day by God in the finger of the King No more was requir'd of them that languisht but to bestow the cast of their eye upon the Figure that God only might have the glory in the Medicinal operation For he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing which he saw but by thee O God the Saviour of all Wisd xvi 6. Yet more strange the Remedy having no congruity with the relief of the Disease God did supply the efficacy but this was like spittle and clay upon the eyes of the blind man fitter to make him blind than to make him see Rabbi Joseph says I say it upon his credit that to look upon polisht Brass is present death to him that is bitten with a firy Serpent To reconcile these enmities in nature to make antipathies afford friendship to turn destruction to be preservative to overcome one death by another it doth not only lighten my thoughts to the incomprehensible power of our Creator but it breaks me off from this object before I am aware to consider Christ and his Passion wherein these effects are gloriously conspicuous he is the Serpent lifted up in the Wilderness A Similitude of great humiliation Non solum per hominem sed etiam per pecudem est figuratus says St. Austin the mighty one by whom the Worlds were made did not only take the form of a Man but is disguised in the figure of a Beast and among Beasts if any be more filthy than another we all know it is a Serpent Yet thus much we must abate in him from the nature of that pestiferous brute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen it had the shape but not the poison of a Serpent God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh but no more than in the likeness and condemned sin in the flesh because no iniquity was found in him all that came out of his mouth was an antidote and not a venom His Maligners call'd him Carpenter in scorn they could not call him Sinner dicunt habet daemonium non dicunt habet peccatum they slandered him and said he had a Devil but their tongues would not let them lie nor permit them to say he was a Transgressor a Dove was not more innocent than this Serpent No Heresie methinks is more incredible if St. Austin had not faithfully reported it than that of the Ophitae who kept a Serpent under the Altar to creep out and lick their Oblations which they brought to God as if a noxious Dragon were a seemly imitation of this Image in my Text that had no offence in it What agreement was there between poison and no poison Nay between that which wounded and that which healed Between a Destroyer and a Saviour It must be harmless at least which stood in his stead that came not to condemn the world but that the world
bond can you deny that Is not this Lazarus See but what infirmity Christ pretended in the beginning of this work and how powerfully it ended Jesus wept in the 35 verse as if it were a pitiful case indeed but he could not help it He asked where they had laid him Lord dost thou ask for the grave which was hard by and yet knowst thine own self no man told thee being two days journey from Bethany that Lazarus was dead Then he ask'd for help to take away the stone Debile initium miraculi a weak beginning God knows how should we expect that he should open the gates of Hell that with a word doth not command the Sepulchers to open Doth this offend you What and if you see not only a dead man after four days raised to life but also to walk before you when his feet and hands were bound As if he moved like an Angel rather by the will of his own Spirit than by bodily instruments This was the conclusion of the Miracle and whatsoever the beginning was the end was admirable As Samson went away with the Pin and the Web Judg. xvi 14. which were tied to his hair whatsoever Delilah bound him with still he walked So Lazarus went away with his bonds as if he had triumphed over death and carried the Ensigns away that is the grave-cloaths with him Peters Chains fell off from his hands and so he avoided the imprisonment of Herod Peter thought so strangely of this to walk when his fetters were off that a great while he wist not it was true that was done but thought he saw a vision What did Peter think of Lazarus then For he was one that stood by His eyes were blindfold that he could not see his way the hands are the blind mans Candle and serve to feel out the way and they had Manicles The feet had Shackles that should tread the way Yet as if he had flown out of the Grave rather than walked Lazarus came forth he was in the Sepulchre shortly to be brought forth as if he had been hatching in his mothers womb rather than in a Cave of interred men He was says St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a babe new born wrapt in swadling clouts rather than like one in a winding sheet But when he walk'd without the use of feet or hands he was like Paul wrapt up into the third heavens whether in the body or out of the body he knew not It is a great comfort unto us says Irenaeus that Lazarus came forth cap-a-pe the same man that he was laid in the Grave nothing altered about him Igitur eâdem animâ eodem corpore sumus resurrecturi it shall be our own body it shall be our own soul in the Resurrection no substances newly created Lazarus could best speak for the soul that it must be his own because his former fancy and remembrance still remained And his Sisters could speak for the body they knew what they had foulded up and what they found when they had unfoulded it And therefore some think that it was unto Martha and Mary that Christ spake in the end of this verse Loose him and let him go When Elias raised up the Son of the Widow of Sarepta to life he gave him to his Mother when Elisha restored the Shunamites Child to life he gave him to his Mother when Christ raised up Lazarus from the Grave he puts him into the hands of his Sisters that they may unty what they had bound before nay when he rose from death himself he appeared first to Mary Magdalen What is the reason that at every turn the women had the Resurrection first declared unto them Because they did first occasion death therefore to shew that by faith they were excusable of the fault they had the first news of the life of them that rose again Lord says Martha if thou hadst been here my brother had not died She put all the fault upon the absence of Christ Nay woman says Chrysologus Nisi tu fuisses in paradiso If thou hadst not been in Paradise thy brother had not died But Lazarus is bound that you may unty him and give him breath who first did stop his breath by eating the forbidden fruit Exiit ligatus he came forth bound Lazarus was not glorified in body by this Miracle as the Saints shall be yet here you shall see one of the properties of a glorified body and they are reckoned up to be four by the Schoolmen Claritas incorruptibilitas spiritualitas motus agilitas 1. There shall be an exceeding brightness in those bodies as our Saviours body shined so white at the Transfiguration that no Fuller could make a thing so white 2. They shall be incorruptible Summer and Winter Fire and Sword could do them no violence as Christ said unto Mary Touch me not 3. They shall not be gross like our bodies and sustained with meat It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body 4. It shall be nimble in motion like an Angel flying as Philip did from Gaza in the Desart to Azotus suddenly gliding upon the wings of the wind not depending upon feet as we do and to prefigure this property in a glorified body hereafter Lazarus came forth bound The vulgar Translation puts in a word to make the Miracle more strange Statim exiit that Lazarus came instantly forth without delay though his feet and hands were bound and his face with a Napkin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nonnus he came not out like one that was shackled and halted because of his impediments he ran swiftly before them all For Christ useth not to do his work lamely and by halves St. Chrysostome makes this comparison As a horse and his Rider listen at the Race when the word shall be given and take it at the first syllable to be gone So says he as soon as Christ had but said Lazarus come forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he started out like the horse at his game and came on with speed and chearfulness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like one that watch'd the Sepulcher rather than the Corps Chrysologus brings in the Devil who is the Jaylor of death wonderfully amazed that our Saviour called for a dead Corps and makes him to speak thus Let him have the man he calls for let him have him bound hand and foot if he will let us not stay so long as to unty the knots make no delay Ne dum tardius unum referimus omnes cogeremur afferre lest while we prolong the time to restore one dead man he should call unto the Graves to restore them all As Luther called upon the Pope at first to have but one error amended concerning indulgences and while he trifled and hung off to do that Luther cried so loud that he caused divers Churches most happily to mend twenty more So death hastned away Lazarus being bound lest if he staid more would follow him As the
they prophesied and did not cease Num. xi 25. Elegantly St. Austin to favour this opinion Christ warned his Apostles not to stir from Jirusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father and that not many days thence that is 10 days after his Ascension they should receive the Holy Ghost But says the Father Christ gave this spirit not only to them but to ten times as many as the Twelve to sixscore in all Ea est fidelitas imo liberalitas Christi docens nos pauca promittere sed decuplo plura praestare this is the just dealing nay the liberality of Christ which bids us promise no more than we will perform but rather perform ten times more than you promise But whether the cloven tongues which lookt as if they had been of fire did descend upon the whole Congregation men and women may a little be doubted for they were Types and Figures that the Lord would send forth of his Servants to be bold and fervent Preachers in all Nations and women were interdicted from the public ministry of Preaching though in the beginning they were imployed in some private labours of the Word And if the women had the gift of tongues they did not utter them in this Chapter for when all were amazed to hear such diversity of languages from illiterate ones and such as never travelled some mocked and said these men are full of new wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the masculine gender And 't is not to be despised for an observation that ver 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all are said to be full of the Holy Ghost and ver 3. the firy tongues are said to sit not upon all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon each of them meaning I conjecture upon each of the Apostles but I will not strive for it In the old Missals I am sure I have not perused the latter it reads the Epistle thus omnes discipuli all the Disciples were with one accord in one place and Beza says in two antient Greek Copies he had found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Apostles and none other mentioned Certainly they were primarily intended to reap the benefit of the day For it is well noted by the first Writers that there were four things proper and peculiar to the Apostles given them for the gathering together of the Saints which were not communicable to any other Servant of Christ The first was immediate vocation from Heaven St. Paul demonstrated he was not inferior to the best of the Apostles because of that property The second was infallibility of judgment in the necessary points of faith 3. A Generality of Commission to have the care of the whole world committed to every one of them to exercise their power in all places towards all persons 4. To speak in all the tongues and languages of the world to confirm their Doctrin by signs and miracles and by the imposition of their hands to give the like miraculous gifts of the spirit to others For although the having of miraculous gifts and the power to work miracles was not simply proper to the Apostles yet to have them in a sort as by the imposition of their hands to give the spirit unto others and to enable such as they thought fit to do signs and wonders through the finger of God this was a benediction upon the heads of the Apostles from the great day of Pentecost and only upon them Simon Magus that Mammonist you may remember would have bought it of them but had a curse instead of a blessing Nay when Philip the Deacon had baptized some at Samaria the Apostles went to confirm those whom he had baptized by imposition of hands that they might receive some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost And as these graces were reserved only for the Apostolical honor in their time so were they never since passed over to any by succession Instead of immediate calling God be praised we can shew our Vocation derived by succession from the Apostles Instead of infallibility of judgment we have the direction of the Scriptures to guide us in finding out the truth instead of general Commission over the whole World we have particular assignment of several Churches and parts of Christs Flock to feed instead of their miraculous gifts and power to confer them to others we have that faith which was confirmed by the Apostles miracles And so I have declared that many even all the Believers that met together shared in the blessings of this day but the Apostles had an excellency and preeminency above them all for the government of the Church not disputing what particular irradiations and sanctifications the Blessed Virgin had which we may suppose to be incomparable beyond all others such as were fit for her to receive but they are not here revealed But of the persons hitherto I can spare no more time for that for it is worth much observation how they were prepared to receive the Holy Ghost which I handle in this order howsoever the words ly first that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first unà then unanimes they were all in one place To be altogether in one City in Jerusalem and not to stir from thence till they had received the Comforter even the Spirit of Truth to that purpose Christ laid his command upon them but they were met together not only in one City but in one house not only in one Vineyard but like Grapes they hung together in one cluster Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity In publick they consorted together Luke v. ult they were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God together in private they held fast the same friendship and amity by this says our Saviour shall they know you to be my Disciples if you love one another Whether it were the time of praying or hearing the Word or breaking of bread mark it in several places of this Chapter they did it with chearfulness and mutual friendship they were never asunder Unity in matter of circumstance in matter of place carries blessing and edification with it that we are Brethren it is the Lords doing to make men to be of one mind to dwell in one house Psal lxviii 6. We read it in our last Translation he setteth the solitary in Families that is he reduceth the dispersed into unity and outward conformity I told you and pressed it earnestly about this time the last year what an acceptable thing it was to God that when Noah and his Sons and Daughters were all the living of men and women that were left in the World that these should all praise the Lord together in outward unity with one voice and with one Sacrifice this was called a sweet smelling savour so much it delighted God this day to see the Church met together those 120 names that after Ages might know how well compacted the Primitive
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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
the name of the whole Congregation to offer up two Lambs of the first year for a Sacrifice of Peace-offerings You will say that 's no strange matter to present a Peace-offering to the Lord true indeed particular persons did it often in their own behalf but Maimonides observes it that the publick Body the Vniversal Church of the Jews never offered any Peace-offering but at the Feast of Pentecost O who will work this work for the Militant Catholique Church that we may say of all the parts of it omnes unanimiter they conclude all for the Orthodox Faith with one accord Some strange salvation must drop out of the clouds we know not how to work this Attonement yet on both sides let every man take heed he make not the rent bigger with more obstinacy and greater separation sweetly did a meek Moses of our own Church write there will come a time when three words uttered with charity and meekness shall receive a far more blessed reward than three thousand Volumes written with disdainful sharpness of wit It may seem a wonderful and unanswerable scruple that many in the former Ages of the Church did so much transcend us in these dayes for gifts of Miracles gifts of Devotion and Learning for Watchings and Fastings for Industry and assiduous diligence for most prosperous success in winning many Souls to the Kingdom of Heaven but the true cause is that their unanimity and pious agreement opened a wide gate to admit sanctification into their breast and our discords exclude it No spirit can give life to Members dismembred unless they be first united and compact together Ezekiel knew not how scattered bones could live but the bones came together bone to his bone and then the breath of the Lord came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet Ezekiel xxxvii 10. The Scribes and Elders of the Jews in few years after our Saviour was crucified were like broken bones scattered and divided like as one breaketh and heweth wood every year by bribery or calumniations the High Priest lost his dignity and a new one was substituted Josephus most impartially hath related that there was no care of Religion no zeal for the Law among them because there was nothing but bandings and factions in their Synagogues Here was no accord and therefore no Holy Spirit came down into their habitations Against the Congregation of the famous first Nicene Council the Fathers that met together it is not to be concealed forgat themselves so far that they put up innumerous Bills of complaints one against another before the Emperor Constantine The Emperor knew this was a most repugnant beginning to the good work they had in hand to enter into the consideration of Christs business with distracted enmities therefore he threw all their bills and brables into the fire and then bad them proceed in the name of Christ and in the grace of his Holy Spirit Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty says the Prophet Hosea chap. x. 2. A contentious stickler that loves to be the head of a Faction and to disjoynt things out of peace and quietness I wonder whether ever he thinks how the Apostles were composed and prepared when they received the Holy Ghost Fuerunt omnes eâdem animatione simul in unam so St. Austin reads they had one heart and one mind and one inclination to advance the Kingdom of Christ they were all with one accord in one place I enter now upon the last part of all that I may find the way out of my Text and conclude it is the other Preparation for the coming of the Holy Ghost as all the Disciples were knit in vinculo pacis in the bond of peace and concord so they were united together in vinculo spei in the bond of hope by patience and expectation they were ejusdem unanimitatis and ejusdem longanimitatis they kept together for the promise of the Holy Ghost till fifty days were fulfilled God made the Israelites number fifty days after their coming out of Egypt before the Law was delivered ut adventus sui desiderium accenderet to make their hearts burn within them with longing for his coming so he put off the coming of the Holy Ghost for the same space of time to make them think of his promise with eager expectation The Jews called it the Feast of fifty days and the Feast of weeks for whether we reckon by days or weeks or years we must wait the Lords leisure and say expectans expectavi Psal xl 1. I have waited patiently for the Lord and say with our Saviour not my will but thy will be done that is not my time but thy time be fulfilled Where is the faith where is the humility of those rash spirits that will not tarry the fulness of time but have all things at their whistle by and by or quarrel with God as if he had forgot them They received this blessing of wonderful grace that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long abiders in the 13. verse of the former chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perseverantes ver 14. such as continue till the day of promise was fully come He that believeth let him not make haste says the Prophet Isaiah God will do all things by his own leisure and maturity if he happen to stay stay for him Habak ii 3. for at last he that cometh will come and then he is no flitter his gifts are without repentance and he will abide with us for ever AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and filled all the house where they were sitting THE Feast of Christs Resurrection and the Feast of Whitsunday or coming of the Holy Ghost are distant one from another fifty days in space of time but are as near to themselves as the bark unto the tree in real substance and in spiritual conjunction In the Resurrection the strength of Hell was weakened for us In the descending of the Holy Ghost the vertue of Heaven was made powerful in us In the first the doors of the Grave were unlock'd that we might not be held in death In the other the windows of heaven were opened that we might be partakers of the life to come The Resurrection reduceth the soul into the body again which was dissolved by the sin of Adam The coming of the Holy Ghost doth again reduce grace into the Soul when original Justice had been taken from it by the same mans transgression These are parallell'd in primo gradu and the comparison may reach a little further to our present business that there was a great noise caused at Christs rising For behold there was an Earthquake Mat. xxviii 2. And loe as great a noise from above at the coming of the Holy Ghost for behold there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind These two honourable Feasts
dead works were not quickned by grace better it might be for us that we had never been born therefore the life of Sanctification was begun in the Church as it were with a gentle gust of wind when Christ breathed on his own and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost So you see this outward sign of insufflation was constantly used at our Creation at our Resurrection at our Sanctification to shew how it is the same God that worketh all in all Yet St. Ambrose comes in with a third Meditation upon it Says he God did give man a living soul at first by breathing or inspiration to let him see he did not only give him a temporal or carnal vivification but grace and sanctity to live for ever But when man had lost this primitive grace and original righteousness it was fit to let us know that such losses could be repaired by none but Christ therefore Christ breathed again upon man to demonstrate that he was the restorer of those immortal blessings which exceed our merits and pass all understanding But when Christ was ascended up on high the Spirit could not be infused immediately from the breath of his mouth but in Analogy to it it came into the place where the Apostles were gathered together like the murmuring wind or the breath of heaven As Solomon fore-told it in his Poetical Ode Cant. iv 16. Awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out And here again I shall pass through some humane Comparisons to the illustration of most divine Mysteries First of all Elementary Creatures the Wind is the most active thing in the world nothing so quick and active as it Vsque adeo agit ut nisi agat non sit when it is not active it is not at all no stirring of the air no wind So it is with the Spirit of faith and love the very being of it consists in being operative What shall I do to inherit eternal life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome it impels the heart to be never out of motion in some spiritual exercise Either the Tongue is praying or the Ear is hearing or the Heart is meditating or the Hand is giving or the Soul is thirsting for remission of sins When the Spirit beats not in the Pulses there is no spirit in the body it is a dead Carkass and in whomsoever there is a cessation from all good works you may say it justly that there the Holy Ghost is extinguished there is no difference between a standing Puddle and a dead Sea And cozen not your selves with a vain confidence that albeit you be altogether barren and unprofitable no fruit of Sanctification budding from you yet Semen Dei manet the sap may be in the root the vertue in the Seed-corn though it do not put out These may-bees are pitiful Anchors of hope and miserable comforters Will you say the wind is up when there is a still Serena no puff of air moving Then think as little that God dwells in that brest where there are no tokens of Sanctification Secondly I have it from St. Austin Flatus ille à carnali palea corda mundabit The Wind is the advantage of the Husbandman to winnow Chaff from Wheat and where the Spirit blows upon the conscience it will purge it from all dead works The cares of this world the thought of getting Riches anxieties for honours and advancements these overspread the life of a natural man left to the ways of carnal reason but as soon as ever we begin to sift and discuss these cogitations by the doctrine of the Spirit they vanish and disperse Tradam protervis in mare Creticum portare ventis they are light and empty of true goodness and so are blown away to the Father of errors and delusions to the Devil himself from whence they came Thirdly Says St. Chrysostome Suppose a Ship be well appointed with Pilot Mariners Sails Cables Anchors and all convenient appurtenances to what use will all this serve if the winds stir not So let there be profound Judgment quick Invention neat Eloquence and all the graces of Art in a man these will not bring a man one whit onward in his Voyage to the haven of happiness to the kingdom of glory unless the sweet gales of the Spirit carry him forward those are the wings of the Dove upon which the Soul shall fly away and be at rest Another Author taken for St. Chrysostome writing upon St. Matthew composeth it thus As the ground doth not fructifie by rain alone but there is a prolificous vertue in the winds which blows upon the fields and makes the Spring to sprout So it is not our Doctrine alone which converts your Souls though it distill like the soft drops of rain upon the earth but benediction of inward grace that goes with the word breaths salvation upon our heart The Letter may kill but the Spirit quickneth and in our Evangelical Priesthood we are Ministers not of the Letter alone but of the Spirit also Qui instat praecepto praecurrit auxilio the words of Leo which I take to be solid truth in this Point when God presseth us with the outward instruction of his Word He impresseth the secret operation of his Spirit to make it fructifie And now to come to another portion of the Text it agrees very accurately with the nature of that supernal gift which God infuseth into his Saints that the Spirit came with a sudden flaw of wind And I am very willing to make that collection of it which divers have done before me Datur haec gratia ex improviso sine meritis Grace is a blessing that comes unlook'd for unawares nay it is impossible for an unconverted man to say now I am prepared for it now I expect it now my heart is ready to receive it for there is no good preparation for grace in the soul of man till some portion of it have entred before Natural dispositions cannot attain to bring in supernatural grace Therefore the first influx and admission of it must needs be sudden and unawares As you can make no rules for the Wind why it should blow South to day and North to morrow why from this Point of heaven at such a season rather than from another So there is no aim to be taken how this or that man was first partaker of the heavenly light which is thus couched in our Saviours words The kingdom of God cometh not with observation neither shall they say loe here or loe there for the Kingdom of God is within you Luk. xvii 20. For what observation can we make or through what tokens can we collect that God will begin to draw a sinner unto him Will you say he lives justly and chastely If they were Christian justice and chastity the seed of the Spirit was in his heart before If they be but moral conformities he is still the
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
St. Paul bids Deacons take heed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. iii. 8. that is Lying Equivocation Flattery sowing dissention double mindedness Jam. i. 8. Omnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
for God will be mild as a Dove toward us if we will be hot as fire against our selves That he may spare us with his mercy let us be angry at our selves with godly revenge And so they that made no bones of lies and fictions have renowned St. Dunstan in his Legend that a Dove descended from heaven upon him Et remigia alarum scintillantis ignis splendorem prae se ferebant says Capgrave And the wings of it when they were stretcht out did sparkle like fire Their meaning is in this Fable as I call it to set him forth as most full of the Holy Ghost upon whom both the Dove and fire descended Fourthly says St. Austin where God causeth the Tongue to speak the truth fire that is sorrow and trouble will follow Ignis portendit tribulationem quam propter linguas erunt perpessuri The fire imports that tribulation which the Apostles must undergo by preaching the Gospel The Devil did rage against those that were the Pillars of the Church and of true Doctrine and blew the coals of many a fire to consume them Fifthly and to shut up that Point the Tongue being left to it self is full of much corruption as I have amplified already and it had need of a purging fire to cleanse it and refine it In all the old Sacrifices of the Grecians Homer says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they threw the tongue of the beast into the fire whereupon says Coelius Rhodoginus Comburendo linguas perperam dictorum labes expurgabant They made expiation thereby in the flames of fire for all words that had been spoken offensively St. James says the Tongue is a fire Chap. iii. 6. meaning a fire of discord and mischief and that fire had need to be corrected by another fire from heaven or else the torments of hell-fire would be the end of it And now we will rest at last in that Point which is the resting and setling of these Tongues There appeared unto them c. and it sate upon each of them It sate Why we spoke of Tongues in the Plural number before What Enallage is this Cajetan and the most Divines interpret it that the fire sate upon each of them Calvin by a Metonimy of signi pro re signatâ that the Spirit sate upon each of them The Syrian Paraphrast refers it directly to the Tongues and puts it in the Plural number sederunt they sate upon each of them Indeed to refer it to many Tongues and yet to make the Verb of the Singular number is the best exposition of all it sate to shew that it is one Holy Ghost in the administration of divers gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I said before one root and many stalks There are diversity of operations but it is the same Lord that worketh all in all 1 Cor. xii 6. But upon whom did they descend and sit For now I make haste Upon every one of the hundred and twenty that were gathered together Or upon the Apostles only Somewhat is in it that when all are named to whom this fire appeared all to be filled with the Holy Ghost yet the Tongues are said to sit upon each of them In two ancient Copies some of our Criticks say that the Text runs they sate upon each of the Apostles and I think that a very probable gloss The Reasons are First the Spirit in some particular manner was promised to them only Acts i. 7. Secondly when some Scoffers said they were full of new wine that had the gift of Tongues St. Peter makes his apology for himself and the Eleven only Thirdly it is said hereupon that they all spake or preacht the mighty things of God This befits the Apostles and not those one hundred and twenty among whom was the Blessed Virgin and other women whose office it was not to preach Fourthly the standers by said Are not all these of Galilee that speak with divers tongues which was true in the Apostles now Judas was taken away but very improbable to agree to all the rest Howsoever let there be no discord about this it is not worth the while no more is the next quere upon what part of them the Cloven Tongues did sit That is not exprest but in all likelihood it was their head for thereunto all Expositors do give their suffrage The Spirit must be in summo loco we must give it and the inspiration thereof the pre-eminence in all things These Tongues says Gregory did encircle about their head Vt novae coronae spirituales capiti eorum imponerentur as if the King of heaven had crowned them with spiritual Crowns from heaven They are ridiculous among the Pontifician Writers that would fetch it from hence that Christ did ordain the Apostles Bishops at this time and used this Ceremony to touch their head from heaven for Consecratio Episcoporum est in capite as they urge it out of Clemens Constitution For another while they confess that the Episcopal character and all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and authority was given them in those words As my Father sent me so do I send you These things being thus put out of the way the main Doctrine agreed on all hands is that the sitting of the Tongues did betoken the constant abiding of the Spirit he is no flitter he doth not come with a lick and away but his gifts are without repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Chrysostome and his true follower Oecumenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both agree that the Spirit was setled upon them not to depart away It is a fire like that on the Altar permanent and never going out according to our Saviours Promise Joh. xiv 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever Some of the Schoolmen find a knot in this plain Doctrine whether the Apostles and all upon whom the Spirit did now abide were confirmed in grace Certain Ecclesiastical Historians trouble them in their conclusions who say that Nicholas the Deacon from whom the Nicolaitans were derived and many other ring-leaders of Hereticks were present at this time and although the Spirit descended upon them yet they forsook their first faith The answer is if these stories be Authentical these gifts were gratiae gratis datae not gratum facientes Gifts which God did graciously give not gifts which made them gracious to God that received them And the continuance and residency of these tongues is established in these words that the Comforter whom Christ would send should abide with them for ever that is it should abide in the Church that is in them and in their Successors unto the ends of the world till Christ should come again in glory as I will open upon the next verse AMEN THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them
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
our charity though above the definition of our judgment And thus I would rise up into pious credulity of their salvation for our Church hath a pious credulity at their burial As the longer proportion of afflictions usually falls upon them that can more patiently suffer them and God lays his burden upon them that can best bear it so let our charity infer that he makes the bed of their sickness be long and tedious that had need of large repentance and takes them away suddenly that are best prepared St. Austin fills up this very doctrine with the instance of Lots Wife Magis est hoc exemplum eruditio nobis quà m condemnatio ipsius this Pillar of salt stood there rather for our instruction than for our condemnation And God doth often chastise his own in the flesh as well with sudden as with lingring correction to save the soul from the wrath to come Filii Aaronis castigati sunt non damnati says Gregory Nadab and Abihu were chastised and suddenly slain for offering strange fire but not damned So the old Prophet that was rent by the Lion for his disobedience lived and died an holy man in all the reputation of Israel Luther pleads thus for Lots Wife that in the general course of her life she was faithful and holy left Vr of the Chaldaeans to come away with Abraham from that sink of Idolatry and with Lot her Husband Gen. xii 5. and she stuck close to her Husband in this Exile out of Sodom Therefore it is to be credited that her former faith did not leave her though her soul had but a short moment to call for mercy I wonder the Jesuits should extenuate her sin to be but venial and yet make her a castaway For Lorinus says he would grant she was saved but that all their Authors were against him Lenior placet sententia quamvis Patronum non reperiam Nay I think the best of her in charity not by lessening her sin but by extolling Gods mercy Some of the Rabbies make a toy of it that she became a Pillar of Salt because she would not set Salt before the Angels whom she had received the night before in hospitality The Hebrews will write sometimes as if they were wiser than men sometimes scribble as if they were foolisher than children The fault was a vast one she cast away that which the Lord would have saved in regard of her self desperately of the Angel contumeliously of her Husband and Daughters scandalously of God and his favours unthankfully yet her last gasp might be illuminated by the Spirit to commend her soul into the hands of her gracious Father To which Father and the Holy Spirit together with Jesus Christ be all glory and honour AMEN A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL NUMB. xxi 7. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us I Preach of a People that travelled fourty years in a Wilderness wherein there was neither pleasure nor plenty that came in the end to the Land of rest I preach to a People that are willing according to the boundaries of our Church to number fourty days of Abstinence to be spent without plenty or pleasure to keep them in breath for true repentance that they may find rest for their Souls The People of whom I preach when they were in one of their last journeys at Salmonah I am sure in the last year of their travail were stopt by firy Serpents before they got into the Land of Promise And you to whom I preach are brought into the Land of the Living by the conduct of Joshuah the Servant of the Lord. And though we are come out of a Wilderness and are within the borders of our Canaan God be praised yet we cannot be quiet for Serpents Which puts this word into my mouth to day to avert the malice of the ungodly Pray c. The way wherein I mean to handle the Text is in two parts a Punishment for sin and a Repentance for sin The sin of the Nation must be considered in both and before both And that was murmuring as you may read it in two verses before Indeed it hath that name and another 1 Cor. x. 9 1◠Let us not tempt Christ as some of them tempted and were destroyed of Serpents neither murmur as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Yet the stubbornness and the very back-bone of their sin is murmuring That was their guilt and the same is ours and the worse in us because we offend under the grace of a better Covenant The punishment of the sin of the murmuring Israelites was annoyance by true and real Serpents strictly and in the letter they were no other On our part nothing toucheth us of that nature but we are plagued with Serpents that are far worse as will appear in their ranks and conditions hereafter to be unfolded The repentance for their sin is seen two ways First that they fly to the remedy of Prayer For the Soul which God did breath into Man cannot shake off this principle that all succour comes from above for which it must breath out it self to God Secondly that they fly to that Prayer which comes out of the mouth of Moses That Moses with whom their whole Host was just before offended he is so generally in their good opinion thank the Serpents for it that he must now be their rescue and Advocate and none but he make their peace with God Thou Moses pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us Now you see what you are to look for out of the Text and in what order and that before I come to the Punishment I must look out a sin for affliction riseth not out of the dust neither doth trouble come out of the ground Job vi 5. Gods hand sends them and Mans sin brings them And this was brought on by repining at Gods mercy and quarreling at Moses his Minister Their tongues run as if they had drunk deep of Viper wine so the Lord sent Serpents among them They that serve God for temporal things and are too eager to get them cannot choose but fall into the tentation of murmuring Such was this People not one Tribe better than another that grumbled upon the lightest thing that crossed them that it was not God that brought them out of Egypt but a trick of Moses to be a King over them But being now more impatient than ever they insist upon two things as ver 4. that the soul of the People was much discouraged because of the way And why so they were not turned aside from the Land of Promise the Journey had been long but the fourtieth year was even spent the worst was past and six moneths would give them possession They could not complain of weariness their feet never swelled Deut. viii 4. Only they were foundred in their patience and would not stay a little while till the time was come which God had
King Agrippa's leave almost a Christian was three parts an Atheist Such a glimmering light of zeal is like a Morning mist which quickly vanisheth away and it is Christus suffuratus as the Souldiers said Christ stoln away and pilfered out of our heart I know not how He that never saw the Sea is as near his journeys end to pass it over as he that wades but to the ankles The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundation of this house and his hands shall finish it Zach. iv 9. that was a blessing from the Lord. To be of Caesars mind Nil actum credens cum quid superesset agendum to think nothing done when any thing was undone that was a Spirit to make a Conquerour My love is a bundle of Myrrh Cant. xiii As if she were like Seleucus shafts which could not be broken in the cluster Such a bundle of Myrrh is in St. Peter 2 Epist i. 5. Give all diligence and add to your faith vertue to your vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance to temperance patience to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to all these charity What will all these serve the turn when they stand as thick as corn in harvest Yes says the Apostle Si abundaverint if they abound in you they will make you you shall not be barren and fruitless Thus then Truth and Mercy will forsake us if we do not further the gift of God take away the single Talent and give it to him that hath ten more The next way to make our heart cast this happy brood and to miscarry when it travels with Truth and Mercy is admotione contrarii by taking part both with God and Belial Asahal was not more nimble than St. John to fly away when he spied Cerinthus the eldest Son of Satan in the same Bath with him and therefore do not think to make your soul an Ark for the clean and unclean beasts to lie together A little frosty air is so forcible that it bursts the clouds and forceth out the hot exhalation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is spirted out between the fingers and gone before you can think of it Beloved that field in Israel was hated like Aceldama which was sown with divers seeds and Nehemiah cursed the children that spake one half in the Hebrew Tongue and another part in the Language of Ashdod Covetousness is so wealthy and it thrives so fast that it easily purchaseth the whole heart of man and whom at first you entertained like a foreiner to have one moyety in your heart it buys the whole possession over Mercies head Veios migrate coloni and so casts it forth And likewise so incompatible is truth with the least falshood that the haters of the Lord were found liars at our Saviours arraignment when he spake nothing Is it not strange Very strange That Christ should come before unrighteous Judges be impeached by malicious Adversaries all this while hold his peace and yet the Witness not agree Will you know the reason There came two false Witnesses Mat. xxvi Averring that this fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and to build it again in three days There is another tale told Mar. xiv We heard him say I will destroy this Temple made with hands and will build another without hands But what said our Saviour in very deed You shall find his saying Joh. ii 19. Neither I can destroy with the former nor I will destroy with the latter But vos solvite do you destroy and solvite templum hoc the Temple of his body and in three days I will raise it up You cannot clap good and bad together but with waxen pins if you move them a little they fly asunder the wax melteth and it confounds the Chariot and his Rider For what agreement hath light with darkness or the Temple of the Lord with Idols Touching the third manner and the last how a quality may cease to be desitione subjecti when that faileth wherein it is it hath no place only in Truth and Mercy Other things indeed we can expect to remain no longer than the house of our body lasteth beauty ceaseth with the bloud and strength faileth with the sinews nay tongues shall cease and knowledge shall vanish away but mercy and charity abideth for ever Yea and truth also but veritas in visione not in fide Truth in the clear vision of God and not darkly in faith In a word as Joseph furnished his Brethren both with food for their travel and Corn to keep house with in the Land of Canaan So there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. James gifts for our Pilgrimage in this life and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts to abide with us in our Country above perfect gifts descending from the Father of lights So some endowments drop away with this house of flesh but after glorification this voice shall no more be heard in our ears let not Mercy and Truth forsake thee But this uncomfortable deserant that Gods gifts may forsake us is to view Jacob but as a Criple halting and failing in his combate but nè deserant let them not forsake thee shews Israel wrestling with the Angel and keeping God as I may speak it with reverence fast unto him with a chain of Faith To begin therefore with Mercy there are two ways to keep a firm possession of it by Meditation and by Petition The Meditations also shall be twain and very short ones for the time sake First Consider that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers call it the deep engagement of our Charity in the Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our brethren and no otherwise Lord what a deep curse do we bring upon our soul if this be not said in earnest Secondly Consider the compassion of all the Members in that mystical body whereof Christ is the head He that is hard hearted against a Christian is cruel against a part of himself Nero might fill the streets with the slaughtered bodies of the Saints For why he was none of ours but a Lion in the Sheepfold but a little bitterness a disdaining contempt a reviling malediction the neglect of the misery of a Christian at the hands of a Christian is more unnatural It was St. Basils counsel and most elegant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that as he that looks upon the sore eye of another man may chance to provoke the rheum in his own eyes so our eyes should grow feeble and conceive tears when we see the tears of our brother If we chance to offend against Mercy and to forget one of these Meditations it is very likely that it will stop at the other but if both fail then we must fly unto uncessant Prayer and Petition That is Anchora sacra for the last refuge let us fall down before his footstool and confirm Gods grace to our soul as Elias made the heavens of brass I do not mean so
David for the pomp of Jerusalem nor for the taste of Meats nor for the noise of Musick then your inward delights are a River shut up the waters of comfort flit not out of the channel But if you desire to have a Portion in this life if you desire to taste a little of this honey as Jonathan did which hangs in the Trees round about you plenus rimarum effluis then the River opens your earnings and your desires will break out in a thousand Sluces If a Chrystal Glass were durable and not obnoxious to breaking with a fall it would be as estimable perhaps as a Silver Plate though the substance be not so precious So the vanities of this World which are but water or rather froth that passeth away had they been stable and of long endurance which God forbid for then who almost could have withstood their temptation as base as they are in themselves I say if they had not been so transitory they had deceived many instead of that which our Saviour commends so highly the water of Eternal Life But there is not such a terminus diminuens in nature not any word of more rejectment than to say they consume as fast as they are born they perish in their making and come to a perpetual end If I see a Meteor make a fair shew in a bright Evening I may take it for a Star but if it once glide in a flake of fire like a swift arrow I contemn it for a putrid exhalation so Honors and Riches make a gay sight but because they are as transitory as dreams and shadows I despise them Shall I moil my self like the Grecian Champions at Olympus for no more than a Garland of leaves that will wither before I go to bed for a corruptible Crown as St. Paul calls it How little did the recompense answer the danger These men you will say were fit to be laught at As they lived in a silly Age so they sped accordingly But now the World 's grown wiser they do not aim at a few flowers but at the whole Garden as Ahab did not at leaves but at fruit I warrant you and the trees that bear the fruit and the Lands and Lordships that the trees grow upon both to them and to their Posterity This will come to some value and not to be slighted like the labour of the Heathen for a Garland or for a corruptible Crown Yet for all this I will and must maintain that worldlings deserve the application both of this and of a worse Similitude I confess that the Heathen in their emulatory Sports aimed at trifles scarce fit to hang on the Posts of their Doors and no way comely for their head yet trifles as they were they engaged but a trifle against them their limbs and body but you venture your soul the Divine part of Man for things that may stick as little by you as a flower of the Garden Aut habebunt finem sui aut finem tui either your pleasure or your life or the whole World may pass away in a moment What a rotten pillar we lean upon which is subject to the hazard of three imminent casualties where lies the wit now they hazard Grass for Grass their Body against a Garland you hazard Heaven against Earth your Soul for Honours and increase of Substance you stake the hope of Salvation to drink in a few pleasing relishes of this World which fall away like water that runneth apace Because time is as transitory as these fickle things of fortune which I speak of therefore my discourse shall pass from this point without any longer trouble to you Now St. Austin observes how the pleasures of our natural life are not simply resembled here to River waters which you may take up with your hand and are in every mans fight that passeth by Our Saviour was now at Jacobs Well and he that will drink of it must draw it out from a deep bottom Et voluptas seculi est aqua in puteo seu profunditate tenebrosâ so our terrestrial pleasures are waters in a deep pit with which if you desire to fill your Pitcher this Body I mean which is an earthen Vessel you must bestow your labour to fetch it up from a low Abyssus from a dark profundity They that plunge themselves into delights of all fashions and conditions are not able to tell you how deep their own concupiscence is nor how far it would descend into vanities Tiberius the Emperor I confess no common example the worst not of men but even of four-footed beasts When he had run over all kind of pleasure that was known and common then he puts down the Bucket into the Well to fetch up rarities of sensuality and was so witty in nothing as to find out new studied pleasures unheard of to all former impiety Novum instituit officium à voluptatibus says Suetonius he created an Officer to reward such as brought forth new invented stratagems Are you not afraid when you go so low into these vile earthly things from one sensuality to another deeper and deeper I say are you not afraid that the next step should be into the bottomless pit A fugitive Servant in Plutarch being well nigh overtaken ran out of the way to hide himself in a Mill and the Mill was in those days instead of an House of Correction to torment Runnagate Servants O says the Master ubi te occuparem nisi in pistrino This is the very place where I wisht to find you So shall the Lord speak to those Epicures that make a mystery of their pleasures you are in the right way for my vengeance to find you out when you run into the dark and secret corners of voluptuousness as if you digged into Hell The deeper we reach into the Well Satan knows we must stoop down the more David complains what a snare it is when a man is enticed to dive as it were into a large bottom for his vanity incurvaverunt animam meam they have pressed down my soul Psal lvii 7. like Corn that 's beaten flat to the earth with a violent storm and when it is laid the Fowls of the air devour it As the eye of Cain which looked down dejectedly upon the earth was a sign of desperation is it not worse when the will and desire of the Soul tends downward to this base Element and to these transitory joys So it was with Israel when the Lord had forsaken them and left them to the dregs of their own carnal mind Es li. 23. I will put thee into the hand of them that have said unto thy soul bow down that we may go over thee A certain Parable and a Story go together on this wise Luke xiii A woman had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up her self And a Fig-tree was planted in a good soil which for three years together bore no fruit Here 's the
no not in Israel Nor is this a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Heathen called it an embasement of a good courage for the humble man hath the loftiest mind of all others if it be well observed for he reckons not by the magnificent pomp and praise of the World though he have no little part in it but esteems God and nothing else to be his glory and because he doth give God the glory in all things that are excellent therefore he doth invite the Spirit of Grace unto himself by a religious policy as thus Grace is no longer Grace than you confess it is conferred by meer gift and frank benevolence The proud is so arrogant in all his thoughts that he would not yield to that he thinks it was his due which could not justly or at least congruously be denied him Needs must the rain fall down from such a steepy Mountain and where will it find a place to rest but in a little Valley in a lowly heart which magnifies the love and favour of Christ for the gift of the Spirit above all things but we had no right to ask it because we were sinful we had no understanding to desire it because we were foolish it is omni modo gratuita a good turn freely bestowed in all respects why do you not see says Bernard gratia nullibi nomen suum tuetur nisi in humili the Grace of God should quite lose its nature unless it dropt upon the humble man sink down therefore like a valley to receive this water for the Lord resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. v. 5. Secondly The Spirit holds this Analogy with water it washeth away all filth from the soul and maketh the heart clean which was defiled No superstition hath lasted longer or spread further than one I shall name unto you that an external sousing of the body in water did quite take away the guilt of all those sins which had been committed by the body So Euripides as wise an Heathen as any in the pack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dive but into the Sea and it would rense away all their iniquities then the Jews encurred this errour by that corruption which the Romans brought among them especially the Pharisees who if they had walked in the streets or been in the Market presently washt as soon as they came home lest they had toucht or been toucht by somewhat unawares which was defiled by the Gentiles And if they washt all was well No marvel therefore if the savage Moriscoes have a strong fancy to this day how their filthiness is purged away if they bath in some river water every morning It is more strange that the Russian Christians in these times should attribute secret power to such an idle Ceremony but most foppish of all that the Priests of Rome would lead their whole Church into this delusion that venial sins are done away if a few drops of an hallowed casting bottel light upon the gaping people and many a shrewd knavery passeth under the name of a venial sin as it is to be seen in their Cases of Conscience Against all their errours which I have recited I lay my conclusion again nothing but the grace of God that water indeed which is above the heavens doth wash away all filth from the soul and make the heart clean which was defiled The which will appear the better by noting this preeminence in their difference Elementary water well applied takes away all impure soil that cleaves to a vessel But can it add a brightness to the Vessel better than it had in the first making No you will say that is not to be expected I but such is the operation of inward grace when it maketh clean an earthen vessel is still no better than earth when it is rensed in a River but if the Spirit from above abide within us if it wash and sanctifie this Vessel of clay it overlays it with Gold and makes it more precious by far than ever Then but a word spoken with grace and in due season is like apples of gold with pictures of silver says Solomon O how much have we need of it We are all black before God like the Children of an Ethiopian says the Prophet Amos. We have Vultus adustos faces as if they were scorched with flames Jer. xiii 8. And of others whom God did begin to loath their visage is blacker than a coal Lam. iv 8. Black will take no colour we use to say there is no help for it either by Art or Nature but if the supernatural hand be stretched out upon us then the Blackmore shall change his skin and the Leopard his spots As the bloud of the Mother after the birth of her Child keeps not the colour of bloud but becomes milk in her breasts so after we are begotten again by the Spirit and bring forth the fruits thereof our bloudy sins shall become milk and though they be read as Scarlet they shall be white as snow Isa i. 18. Yea the Prophet says of Jerusalem while it served the Lord her Nazarites were whiter than snow purer than milk Lam. iv 7. Doth not David promise as much unto himself if the Lord would renew a right spirit within him Lavabis me dealbabor super nivem Thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter than the snow As if by the Sacred Unction from heaven his soul should have a new beauty which it never had before a plain Transfiguration such as our Saviours was in the Mount so that no Fuller upon earth could make a thing so white Solomon in all his Royalty was not cloathed like a Lilly of the field But take Solomon in his repentance whereof I perswade my self and his soul was much whiter than any Lilly in the field This is a superlative vertue wherewith the water in my Text is endowed to cleanse that which was foul from every spot and to make it surpass the whiteness which it had by nature Thirdly Happy is the tree that grows by the Rivers of waters No Plant can prosper unless sap and moysture nourish it So Grace is that coelestial water which supplies the root within us it makes the conscience abundant in good works and without it it is impossible to bring forth the fruits of righteousness Mark the rain which falls from heaven and the same shower which dropt out of one cloud increaseth sundry Plants in the same Garden according to the nature of the Plant. In one stalk it makes a Rose in another a Violet divers in a third but sweet in all So the Spirit is a moistning dew which works rare effects in several dispositions and all most acceptable to God Is your Complexion Cholerick Try thine own heart if it be apt to be zealous in a good cause If it be so it is the fruit of the Spirit that works upon your constitution Is Melancholy predominant The grace of God turns that sad
the Apostle from him that sent him What if the Lycaonians are so ravished with the actions of such Instruments that they acknowledge no God but Barnabas and bring forth Sacrifice to offer unto Paul and not to Christ Why there is no remedy against wilful blindness There is a beam as big as the whole â—arth in their eye that will look about them and not above them Choose you whether you will be dazled with that vertue which our Saviour hath given to his holy Servants but this is the tenure of their Commission Joh. xiv 12. He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do That is multiply Loaves and Fishes as I have done and multiply them more than I have done Are you scandalized at this Truly I confess it is a word of no easie digestion that any Saint or friend of God should do greater works Majora If Christ had not said it who could have heard it with patient ears He doth not mean the works of the Law for no man ever did the like because none but the unspotted Son of God fulfilled the Law He doth not mean the works of Redemption and Salvation they were so proper to his own person as the Angels were not good enough to have any fellowship in them He means his Miracles most certain they were called works and none but they by the popular estimation For without them all that had been done beside to their palates had been impertinency or idleness But how shall we measure one by another that greater Miracles were brought forth than those which he effected Well enough says St. Austin For was it not more for the sick to be cured by the shadow of Peter passing by than by touching the hem of our Saviours Garment And again our Lord did cure diseases by speaking the word and laying on his hand yet the world was more amazed that evil Spirits were cast out of the Possessed if but an handkerchief was applied which was brought from the body of Paul And another Father it is St. Hierom puts it home that mightier things should be brought to pass at this day than ever were seen since the Creation if there were any just cause to declare the glory of God by such wonders If you say where is the promise that a Fig-tree should wither away and a Mountain be removed into the Sea when a strong Believer should say the word Did any Apostle or Martyr make trial and accomplish it Nevertheless says the Author the Promise is in force and if there were just occasion to pray unto the Father it should be executed Such things are not unproduced as it were upon emulation because the story of Christ you may think hath nothing to parallel such vast Miracles When the hour shall come to glorifie the Gospel such works shall be brought to pass which are apted for that end perhaps less perhaps greater than in former Ages Finally if it should be brought to pass at this day that twenty thousands were fed with one Loafe you should not say true if you affirmed it were a greater Miracle than Christ did for Jesus Christ yesterday and to day is the Author of that very Miracle So Theophylact hath a subtil note upon that Text of St. John that Christ did not say He that believes shall do greater things than I How was that Not of themselves possible when they did nothing of themselves but by him and his Spirit but thus they shall do greater things than these viz. when I assist them and they pray unto the Father So let us honour God in his Saints as that we rob not the Lord of his honour When he that is mighty hath magnified his Servants to do great things give unto the external cause all moral veneration but give unto the supernal cause all religious adoration None did distinguish upon this with a more singular dexterity and unanimity than these five thousand that were fed so marvellously in the Wilderness What they received was from the Disciples and from none beside and that which they received if it swelled miraculously in Christs hand it exceeded much more in the hands of the Disciples and yet the People were so prudent in taking the right way that they baulked the Disciples and glorified Jesus they found out the Founder and discerned him from his Instruments As it is a Proverb in Nazianzen Vestem consuit Istiaeus caeterum induit Aristagoras Istiaeus made the Coat Aristagoras did but wear the Coat So Christ made the Miracle the Apostles were no more than the representers or the publishers of the Miracle This was espied not by one or two but by the whole Assembly that had met in the Desart and they pick out Christ from the herd of the Disciples him they proclaim to be the Prophet that should come into the world they worship him they design him to be their King and nothing that appears was devised to gratifie the Disciples for they were not the primary Agents in whom supernatural power was immanent and habitual but Balislae Spiritus Sancti the Engines of the Holy Ghost that uttered forth such vertue as they received by his infusion As the gift of Prophesie is not born with the soul but comes by inspiration Or as the Peripateticks say that the Intelligences assist the Orbs of heaven and move them about but they do not move by a soul that informs them So it was not a native and ingenite quality which the Worthies of the Primitive Church had to speak with Tongues and to effect Wonders but an adventicious vertue according to the pleasure of him that distributes where he pleaseth In Christ the power is absolute home-born undependent in his Ministers it was but borrowed derivative dependent in him that was the brightness of his Fathers glory it is original and essential in his Servants it is gratuitous and accidental in him it is without measure and infinite in theirs it is limited and finite Far be it from us then to think that it gave the Disciples any precedency no nor equality no nor the least degree of comparison with their Master because when they distributed to them that sate down the Loaves increased in their hands more abundantly than they did in Christs I am now past the first Point the extraordinary grace that descended upon the Disciples but we that would walk in their steps according to the ordinary grace of God shall make more use to look upon them as boni viri and boni Pastores First As good men that gave liberally as God enabled them And the former grace would bear no price at all if it wanted this Though I have all faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no charity I am nothing but with this it makes a propitious conjunction As fast as Christ gave unto them they gave unto those that were in need Tu vade fac similiter There
especially overtop the Mountains and his voice delighteth to shake the Cedars of Libanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. says Plutarch Among Mariners not one that dies a quiet death among ten but among evil Kings not one among ten thousand As their life is infectious unto many so is their doom dreadful unto many and that is the second reason why he was smitten Thirdly The people were not altogether free from chastisement I am sure not free from terrour in Herods castigation Look now upon him that was your Idol look ye Sidonians upon the empty cloud which you did blow into the air nay above the heavens with the breath of your mouth How is it vanished and come to nothing Imagine Beloved with what astonishment the whole Assembly was dissolved if their Consciences were not as full of Worms as Herod's body Fourthly Says St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To enlarge the Fathers meaning Clemency and Justice when they meet together attend how they may punish few and save many Vt poena ad paucos metus ad omnes perveniret Wherefore judge in your own reason if Herod had been spared and a great Assembly punished they all were sure to perish he perchance might be amended but if Herod suffer the Malediction one man feels the smart and the whole Assembly may repent and be saved Fifthly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the same Father Let the Rabble go home in peace for this time they were not all white for harvest upon that day but behold the end Where is Caesarea now Or who almost knows the Sidonian They have learnt to know by dear experience that Thunder and Judgment is the Voice of God and not an Eloquent Oration The Sum and Doctrine of this Point is thus much First It is dangerous for a Magistrate it is certain Judgment for men whom God hath blessed with honourable and plentiful fortunes to defile themselves with scandalous vices You have Plenty in your Houses What need you to be unjust Your State is able to subsist by it self What need you to flatter You may have Families and Wives and Children Why should you be Adulterers Your Provision is not scanty Why do you eat and drink in excess as if they were things which you had not daily It is not for Princes to drink Wine that is not unto Drunkenness says the Prophesie of Lemuel which his Mother taught him A nullo periculo fortuna principum longiùs abest quà m ab humilitate The worst thing which happens to a magnificent life is that it is not obnoxious unto humility Secondly It is no less dangerous when a whole Kingdom and City or any collected multitude set their face against heaven Judgment may seem to have forgot them as these Sidonians departed safely in my Text but in time the Lord will root out such a Nation Well then when the flattering Assembly had deserved a vengeance Herod only carries it to his grave What shall I say As the Child that threw a stick at the dog which barked at him and hit his Mother-in-law who had long afflicted him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I meant the Dog but it is well as it is says the Child so that Princes may see they have no priviledge to be flattered whatsoever the People deserved Gods judgment fell not amiss upon Herod and he was smitten Tantus periit the second thing follows Tantus à tanto he was smitten by an Angel of the Lord. If these men says Moses concerning Core Dathan and Abiram If these men die the common death of all men if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me Strange Wickednesses procure strange kinds of Death If the Earth will not avenge them the Angel of the Lord will come down and fight Do the Trees of Paradise deserve to have a Cherubin set before them with a flaming Sword And shall not all the Host of heaven stand about the Majesty of the Most High and see the honour of his name preserved But there is a controversie whether this Angel were not one of the evil Spirits now commanded to inflict a disease upon Herods bowels For say they it were as great a torture for the Devil to punish Herod for Pride as for Herod to suffer it because it calls their own sin to remembrance for which they are fettered in chains of darkness And Josephus gave the occasion to this opinion augmenting the story of Herods death with this circumstance that an Owl at this very moment perched upon the silken strings of his Canopy which the King took to be a Presage of his death and was no doubt a tenour substituted by Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Homer says a Bird of fatal Praediction and such a one is said to have affronted Innocent the Third as he was declaring his own Title in the Council of Lateran For my part I am not averse to believe Josephus in this part of the Story because in all other points he doth follow the Evangelist And the sight of some uncouth Creature is able to put an evil Conscience into a perplexity worse than death Every thing is dismal to a guilty mind like Archimedes his Engines dreadful to the Romans if a Timber-log or Cable-rope did but shew it self upon the Walls of Syracusa But though the relation of the Owl be true the Spirit of God would not mention it in holy Scripture lest it should encrease our ignorance who are superstitions to be afraid of the crossings and apparitions of beasts and such other casualties Let it be then that this evil Vision affrighted Herod yet it is more likely that the Angel was one of the blessed which smote him that he died For although the good Angels are sometimes called evil ones ab effectu as the Psalmist says of the Israelites that God sent evil Angels among them yet the unclean Spirits are never stiled by this honourable compellation to be called the Angels of the Lord. And give me leave to please my self a little in this conjecture God would not permit vengeance of death to be executed against a King by any power inferiour to an Angel of light It is the priviledge of their Unction their immediate subjection to God alone which exempts them from the hand of all other authority yea from the fury of infernal Spirits Wherefore the Jesuits own tender conscience which is as soft as Flint dare not say that a King is obnoxious to death till some unnatural Sentence of deposition go before Which resembles methinks the very first passage in Aristophanes You dare not strike me says Charion the Servant having a Crown upon my head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says his Master I will first take your Crown from you so first the Jesuits lay down rules of Arts to depose Princes and then their Devil ships say that you may use them as you will Well though Herod deserved the worst
their avengers It cannot utterly be gainsaid therefore but that the Grammatical words will bear this sense that the Souls under the Altar pray for deliverance rather than revenge For the deliverance of their Brethren that suffer not for the confusion of those Malefactors that spill their bloud I confess if you take Revenge in the usual way for a cankered desire to see the hurt of another this construction were the safer And for Analogy of Faith it agrees well with that that the holy Ones in the sight of God pray that their Brethren may be pluckt out of the jaws of their Tormentors and fill up their Society in Heaven So St. Cyprian Illic copiosa turba nos desiderat de suâ immortalitate secura adhuc de nostra solicita An innumerous company of holy ones in Heaven desire our coming resting secure in their own peace and glory but solicitous for ours And Bernard very vehemently Vnde tibi hoc ô caro foetida How comes this to pass O filthy and sinful flesh of man that they in whom Gods Image is repaired should long for thy fellowship in whom it is defaced That they who are made white with the bloud of the Lamb should wish for thee that art polluted So I leave this Point with a probable assent but no more that the Saints desire not the vengeance of the ungodly but the deliverance of the righteous It is drawn up more solidly in the fourth Conclusion That vengeance indeed is no part of their Petition in Heaven it was their love and forgiveness of their Enemies which God accepted when he exalted them thither and surely their Charity is increased and not diminished But how then will St. Johns Vision and their Charity hold together Well enough directly they pray for that which is fit for the voice of Saints but because no good thing is good to them that hate the Church obliquely it brings vengeance upon them Cajetan is the great abettor of this Interpretation I shall find another Author for it they are our Saviours words Luk. xviii 7. Shall not God avenge his own Elect that cry day and night unto him Says he The assiduous cry of the Elect tends formally to this that the Kingdom of God would come and that he would accomplish all things but forasmuch as when this Kingdom is come and the Elect are gathered together from the four Winds the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the people that imagined evil against his Sanctuary therefore virtually and indirectly they invocate God that his Foes may be swept away with the Beesom of destruction Affectu orant pro persecutoribus effectu pro vindictâ Their affections are sweet and tender that all Infidels who defie the Gospel of Christ may be converted but the effect which follows their Prayers shall not be their Salvation but their Subversion for ever The Casuists express this after a pretty manner that the Will of any man is Mother to some effects and Grandmother to other some Such things as it wisheth for expresly it is the Mother of those desires when many things fall out consequently upon these desires and quite beside the intention of the wish they are not the Children of our own Will but our Daughters Daughters as it were and our Will is but Grandmother unto them I desire fair weather meerly for mine own delight my fancy covets nothing else but this may hinder the Seeds-man in the Field or burn up his Flowers that hath planted a Garden those effects are not begot by my Will their relation is that they came to pass out of that which I desired they are my Childrens Children and so remotely they are mine Or as a Ward wisheth that he were come to Age and had sued out his Livery his aim is to be seized of his own Inheritance yet that desire cannot be accomplished in some instances without wringing his Estate out of the hand of his Guardian and leaving him poor and succourless So says Gregory the Great to this case in my Text Sancti petunt mundi consummationem atque indui corporibus These blessed Souls call for the consummation of the World for a joyful Resurrection and to be cloathed with their bodies But woe unto violent men that have insulted upon the Righteous when that shall come to pass then shall their cruelty begin to be requited The Saints do praise God day and night and the Incense of their Prayers is lifted up unto him for a greater amplification of their triumph yet since their honour must be the ruine of many this must necessarily be derived out of their Petitions that the Lord would judge and avenge their bloud on them that dwell on the Earth But you will say I have not yet made it to appear that the primary and direct Petition of the Saints is that God will reveal his utmost glory in the end of all things and in the Resurrection of their bodies I refer you for that to the verse which follows my Text for why had each of them his white Robe given Or why is it said That they should rest for a little season and till all were fulfilled This is no answer to the words of my Text but an answer to their uncessant Prayer for the future Resurrection that the pittance of glory which they had must satisfie them and in due time when the whole body was gathered together there should be an accomplishment of their blessedness I do not say That the time deferred is irksom to them for their heart is so devoted to every thing that God pleaseth to have done that it is sweeter to them since the Lord will have it so to have the time adjourned when they shall be cloathed with their house which is from Heaven than if it were now at hand Yet the Spirit hath such a thirst to resume the Flesh again that it spends their affections in part upon the object which otherwise would freely and intirely without deducting any share be consecrated to the praise of the Eternal Majesty To dispatch this Conclusion now if I look right upon it it is sound and hath no flaw namely that the proper ingredients of the prayer of the Saints departed are for the hastening of Christs Kingdom and for a speedy Resurrection but to the terror of them that are destructive and unmerciful that heavenly supplication devoves them by consequent to the nethermost Hell There is but one Conclusion more behind the fifth and last which stands upon this firm Basis that if any man will be contentious that revenge is every way to be exploded out of the Prayers of holy Martyrs though his conscience receive scandal unjustly where none is given yet there is one interpretation left which is obnoxious to no exception namely that these words are not Oratio personae sed rei the Martyrs themselves do not utter such a Prayer in the ears of God but the wrongs and injuries which they sustained