in all things 8. VVhile we thus censure and assault each other what advantages we give to our common adversary who takes pleasure to see us bickering with our selves And how far are we from that Legacy of thy Son that true Love he recommended to his Disciples Lord then we pray thee glew our hearts together by the grace of thy holy Spirit and purge our of them all the drosse and dregs of hatred malice schism and heresie 9. If it must be with us as with those two famous Rivers of the East the Sava and the Danuby that runne together threescore miles in one channel with their waters divided in very colour from each other yet let it be as it is in them without noise without violence 10. Keep us from Satan the Spirit of Division grant that we may live as Children of thy family Doves of thy flock and Lambs of thy fold by forgetting and forgiving all that is spoke or done against us Make us all Lord the sons of Peace even for his sake who is the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ our Lord Amen! The Second Word LUKE 23.43 Verily I say unto thee This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise The Explication THe occasion of the Word is this When two Theeves were Crucified with our Saviour one on the right hand the other on the left the one aggravating his former sins did blaspheme Christ and objected unto him an Imbecility Ver. 39. If thou be the Christ save thy self and us the other defended him and gives this modest check to the blasphemer Fearest thou not God Ver. 40 being thou art in the same condemnation But the other Evangelists seem to affirm the two theeves to be guilty of blasphemy Mat. 27.44 Mar. 15 3â— how then doth Luke speak but of one Aug. l 3 de Consensu Evang c. 16. Augustine resolves the doubt thus Matthew and Mark do take there the number of multitude for the number singular as it is frequent in holy Writ And so the Apostle speaks of the Prophets Heb. 11.33 37 how they silenced the mouth of Lions how they were stoned they were hewn asunder how they wandred up and down in Sheep skins and in Goats skins And notwithstanding he which stopt the mouth of Lions was only Daniel and he that was stoned was only Jeremiah and he that was hewen asunder was only Isaias Some think the good thief to have changed his opinion upon the hearing of Christ presenting those compassionate speeches to his Father Father forgive them c. But Luke doth evidently declare those words to be delivered before the wicked thief began to blaspheme and this also is consonant to the judgment of another Father of the Church Ambros in Luc. 23 who saith One only to have blasphemed the other to have as well praised as defended Christ and therefore rebukes the sausiness of his companion Fearest thou not God c. Happy thief as well in regard of his fellowship in suffering with a Saviour as of that divine light which began to open it self thus unto him he was no sooner converted himself but he begins to make a Proselite of his brother And then proceeding in a good work and those sparkles of grace increasing in his now happy Soul he confesseth his own sins Ver. 41. and preacheth the innocency of Christ And we truly are justly condemned to the death of the Crosse for we receive things worthy of what we have done but this man hath done nothing amisse Afterwards the Sun of illuminating Glory shining more brightly on him his Soul breaks forth into thiâ— holy Ejaculation Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom Behold with what an holy confidence he presents his Petition He whom Peter thrice denied this poor Penitent openly confessed and called him Lord. Thomas the Apostle denies to believe unless he could feel Christ the thief but beholding him miserably tortured on the Cross proclaims him boldly and in the face of his adversaries an heir apparent to a Kingdom He confessed him a Lord whom he beholds naked wounded grieved and openly derided and he stiles him a King when there was no probability of reigning in him for Kings only reign while they live and some scarce so long but when they leave off their weed of Mortality they part with their robe of Majesty Neither doth he petition for any thing in particular but only to Remember him .i. If Christ did but cast a thought on him and glance but the gracious eye of his favour towards him it were a plenary consummation of all his desires because he was fully assured of his power goodness and charity But what Kingdom is here understood Not that temporal Kingdom on earth which the Jews expected and yet he had a title to reign over them and was of the blood Royal of Israel and therefore the Wisemen after his Nativity made this enquiry Where is he that is born King of the Jews Matth. 2 And himself told Pilate Joh. 18.37 Thou saist that I am a King for this cause am I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth But though he was a King in the world yet was he not pleased to exercise his Soveraignty but lived as a Pilgrim among enemies and received instead of honours due to a Royal person contempt and reproach But the Kingdom here meant is that Spiritual and Eternal one in the heavens that where there is a perfect Beatitude of the soul by which man is free from all servitude and the subjection of things created and subject only to God whom to serve is to reign And that which is intimated in the Parable of a certain noble man Lu's 19.12 that went into a strange Country to receive for himself a Kingdom and so to come again That is Christ was to pass by the wearisom steps of a bitter death to another life there to receive a glorious Diadem and then to return in the day of Judgment to render every man according to his works And that Kingdom as much as appertained to the Beatitude of the soul Christ indeed had from his very Conception but what belonged to his body he had it not de facto or in a glorious actualitie but de jure and in an honourable inheritance until after his Resurrection for while he sojourned on earth he was subject to all humane infirmities sin only excepted yea to death it self but there belonged to him a true glorious body which after death he was to enjoy for so he testifieth of himself It behoved Christ first to suffer Luk. 24.26 and then to enter into his Glory And so it is for this Kingdom of Glory that this Thief prayes for his cravings are not temporal or carnal but his divine and new-fashioned soul aims at things Sempiternal and sublime which makes Christ more compliable to his desires for he had no sooner ended
are counted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loved us From these holy presidents we may learn how to master our afflictions and to sweeten our persecutions and to deem them as the embrioes of eternal life We may bear them with all spiritual joy if we look not on them but on him that imposed them on us who without doubt was the Father Almighty without whose Providence not a hair can fall from our heads and therefore let us with Moses esteem his rebukes greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Heb. ii 26. having respect unto the recompence of the reward 1. ANd now O Saviour of the world how great a compass wentst thou in this act of our redemption before thou didst bring it to this happy Period from thy swathing to thy shrowding from thy cold lying in a manger to thy cold dying upon the Cross what didst thou do and suffer Nay what didst thou not do and suffer for us The work of our Creation was great but this far greater That was done with a Fiat with the breath of thy mouth thou speakest the Word and all was done here was a miraculous conjunction of God and man in one person maid and mother in another when it was but begun thy omnipotencie indeed appeared in the first but thy mercy and justice in the latter such a work didst thou finish here that neither Man nor Angels or thy deity alone could well accomplish Oh! Thou that didst so much for us teach us to do somewhat for thee Thou that madest thy self a perfect victime for our sins grant that we may sacrifice our sins and mortifie all carnal concupiscences that so our souls and bodies may be offerings of a sweet smelling Saviour in thy Nostrils Thou that didst conquer the Prince of this world and all the enemies upon the Cross assist us against the conflicts and temptations of our spiritual adversaries save us from the roaring Lyon that he may never prevail O thou that art the Lion of the tribe of Judah But because we are ignorant of our selves what to do aright 1 Cor. 12.6 we pray thee guide us with thy Spirit thou Isa 28.21 who workest all in all work thy work in us and bring to pass thy act thy strange act whatever it be Let us perform what thou requirest of us and that is let us do justly shew mercy and walk humbly with thee Mic. 6.8 and walk humbly with thee our God Preserve thy Church that issued from thy side on thy Cross thou art her husband O Christ save thy spouse thou art her head save thy body protect her as thine from infidels hereticks and schismaticks from bad men and Devils from all errours and dangers Make her unto thy self glorious without spot or wrinkle holy and without sin Ephes 5.7 And though like thee shee sorrows and suffers often while militant here yet make her triumphant with thee in the world to come Let every member of her profess thy name to the end with courage and constancy after thy glorious Examples let us not be carried away from our duties to thee with the vanities of the world or the enticements of the flesh or the suggestions of Satan O thou that art immutable without shadow of change Yesterday to day and the same for ever fix our fickle thoughts on thy fear and establish thy holy Spirit within us that we may alwayes praise thee who never ceasest to bless us By the grace and merits of him who finished the grand works of eternal redemption for us living and dying to save us Lord make us live and dye thy servants that we may be partakers of that happiness which by his blood he hath purchased for us in the Kingdome of Bliss Amen The seventh and last Word LUKE 23.43 Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit ANd well might he call him Father because he had merited the name of an obedient Son to the last minute of his life and therefore most worthy to gain attention But here a doubt occures what we are to understand by the hands of God are we with the Anthropomorphites to ascribe the form and lineaments of man unto God Theod. l. 4. c. 10. as if he had eyes and ears and hands and other parts and faculties like unto us far be it for God is a spiritual substance of an invisible and indivisible nature without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdome and goodness but for the better explanation of this and the like expression in holy Writ we must make use of that known adage of the Hebrew Doctors Lex loquitor linguam filiorum hominum That is the holy Ghost in the Scripture descends to the capacity of man speaks man's language that is so as he would be understood by man and therefore presents him in the faculties of the mind of man and in the lineament of the body of man not that he hath really either of them for he is a most pure and a most simple entitie without any corpority or composition And so the hands of God do denote unto us his wisdom and power or which fals into one meaning his intellect knowing all things and his will enabling all things for with these two as it were two hands God did all things The will of God is his power for all things whatsoever he would he did in heaven and earth My Spirit There are divers significations of this word Spirit in Scripture which if not rightly apprehended may occasion divers errours it is spoken of God or of Angels or of men or of inferiour creatures Of God it is spoken sometimes Essentially sometimes Personally God is a Spirit Jo. 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth So also Isai 31.3 So also The Egyptians are men and not Gods and their Horses flesh and not spirit for if they were God they were Spirit so God altogether and considered in his essence is a Spirit but when the word Spirit is spoken not essentially of all but personally of one then that word designeth the holy Ghost Matth. 28 19. Go and baptize all in the Name of the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost Rom. 8â— 6 And the Spirit it self beareth witness c. And as of God so of Angels also it is spoken in two respects of good Angels sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of Salvation And evil Angels Heb. 1.14 The lying Spirit that would deceive the King by the Prophet 1 Kin. 22.22 Hosea 4.8 The spirit of whoredom when the people asked counsel of their stocks And spiritus virtiginis the spirit of giddiness or perversities which the Lord doth mingle amongst the people in his judgment Of man also is this word Spirit spoken two wayes sometimes for the Soul sometime for those animal spirits which conserve us in strength and vigour
the possession of the world that is of humane kind the Devill had for a long time usurped a dominion over man because he conquered the first man and enslaved him and his whole posterity and therefore he is stiled the Principalities and Powers of the world Eph. 6.12 and the Prince of darkness Neither was he only so called Psal 96.5 but also termed the Gods of the heathen for he was publickly adored with sacrifices among them as their only God but on the other part Christ as the true and lawfull heire of the universe claimed to himselfe the Principalities of the world so that at length the battell was decided on the Cross and sentence was given in favour of our Saviour where he obtained the Trophees of an absolute Conquest for there he gave a plenary satisfaction to the Divine Justice for the transgressions of all mankind for there is returned a greater obedience from the Son to the Father then was the inobedience of the servant to the Lord the Son of God was more humbled even to death for the honour of the father then man was lifted to pride to the dishonour of God so God was reconciled to man through the merits of his Son when he rescued him from the clawes of the Devil Col. 1. and translated him into the Kingdom of his beloved son 5. And lastly these words may rightly be applyed to the building of Christ 's Church which was not perfected and finished until his passion though inchoated in his Baptisme Thus Epiphanius in his third book against Heresies and that learned and holy Augustine Lib. 3. haere 78. in his last book of the City of God affirm and teach Lib. 22. câ—â— that Eve being built and founded on the rib of Adam he being a sleep was a type of the Church which was raised from Christs side when he began to sleep through the heaviness of death and so the Scriptures do notifie not without a mystery Eve to have been built not formed And that the Church began to be edified from the Baptisme of Christ the said Father proves out of the Psalmist His dominion shall be from sea to sea Psal 71.8 and from the river to the ends of the world for the Kingdome of Christ which is the Church began to be built from the water of his Baptisme in which he receiving the Baptisme of John consecrated the waters and instituted his own which is the gate of the Church and this he was made manifest through that voice of his Father heard from heaven this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him from that time the Lord began to preach and to Congregate Disciples who were the first that came to the Church and although there was made an apersion of Christ's side after death from whence issued forth water and blood which signified those two principal Sacraments of the Church Baptisme and the Lords Supper yet all ordinances had their full qualifications from his meritorious passion so that the flowing of water and blood from his side was rather a declaration of the mysteries rather then an institution most rightly therefore it is said that the building of the Church was then consummated when he said It is finished for there remained nothing then but a dissolution which speedily following the price of a blessed redemption for man was compleated 1. Learn hence O man that as thou art certain those things by their events to have been true which the holy Prophets predicted so thou ought'st to be fully assured that those future things which are foretold by the same Prophets shall come to pass though not as yet fulfilled for they spake not from humane fancies but from an inspiring Spirit of God which is ever infallible Sicut usque ad hodiernam diem omnia evenerunt Aug. in Psal 76. sic et quae restant eventura sunt c. Even as to this day all things have rightly followed so the things which remain will undoubtedly follow Let us fear then the day of judgment the Lord is coming he that came once in poverty will next come in Glory And that there be no haesitation in our saith we have stronger arguments on our sides then ever our Ancestors had they who preceded the times of Christ without any performances or external impletions were tyed to believe many things we who have had an experimental knowledg of diverse things already accomplished should be induced to credit the rest with the more facility who lived in the dayes of Noah did here that the general deluge was to come and it was demonstrated unto them not only by his preaching but also by his building of an Ark notwithstanding they would not believe because they had never seen such a deluge and therefore a divine fury fell suddenly on them now we who know that to be impleted which the Prophet foretold may easily believe that he at whose beck are all the elements may as well destroy the world by fire the second time as he hath done first by water And we that find it verified that Christ raised many from death and his own body from the grave may be fully confirmed that by virtue of his Resurrection our soules and bodies also shall be translated to a state of glory and immortality in the world to come 2. Observe that though the journey of our Saviours peregrination here was laborious and sharp above measure yet it received an honourable compensation it ended in triumph and Glory it lasted thirty three years but what was the labour of those years in comparison of Eternal happiness he was humbled and made a scorn of men and an abject of the people for a short time but God hath highly exalted him Phil. 2.9 10. and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven things in earth and things under the earth But his adversaries exulted to the period of his Passion Pilate rejoyced till the instant of his sufferings because he had preserved his friendship with Cesar and was then reconciled to King Herod but now he and the perfidious Jewes justly suffer in hell-flames for their sacrilegious impieties Here then the humble and patient men may see how good how propitious a thing it is to take up the Cross in this life and to follow Christ their afflictions are but light and transcient and not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to them for when they dye they pass from a vaile of sorrowes to a Paradise of joyes Rev. 7.16 where all teares shall be wiped from their eyes but with the ungodly it is not so the end of their miseries if they have any in this world is but an entrance and beginning of greater in the other where is endless weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth 3. Another benefit may be reaped from the third acceptation of the words for if
we mean that the Sacrifices of the chiefest Priest is now finished on the Cross it followes that all his disciples in imitation of their Master according to their several talents should offer likewise Sacrifices to their God in this sence all Christians are Priests to offer Sacrifices 1 Pet. 2.9 not such as were in the old Testament i Pet. 2.9 but Spirituall Priests to offer mystical sacrifices which may be presented from all men as praises and prayers and other services of piety the same is most occurately taught us in the Epistle to the Romans Heb. i3 i5 16. in resemblance of the sacrifices of the ancient Law Rom. 12.1 for there was in them 1. The hallowed to God which to convert to profane use was held a nafarious Crime 2. It was to be a thing living as a sheep or goate or the like 3. It was to be holy that is clean for there were among the Hebrews animals clean and unclean 4. And then the thing hallowed to God was to be burn't that it might send forth an odour of sweetness The like properties must be found in our spiritual Sacrifices 1. Our bodies ought to be hallowed to God that we may use them to his honour not as our own but his to whom they are consecrated by Baptisme and who hath purchased them by his blood 2. They ought to be living sacrifices enlivened with the life of Grace and of the holy Spirit for whosoever are dead by sin are not fit Victimes for God but for the devils our God who is alwayes living and the everlasting fountain of life abhors the stinking oblations of dead carkasses who are profitable for nothing unless for dogs and fowles of the Aire We must then enbalm and preserve the life of the soul with our best and most religious actions that we may give a reasonable sacrifice to our God 3. We must be holy and clean for none shall ascend into the hill of the Lord Psal 24.3 4 or stand in his holy place but he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully 4. And then we must be well pleasing and send up a sweet savour to our God to that purpose in the old Law they used to kill and burn the sacrifie and this is rightly performed in the spiritual Sacrifice when carnal concupiscence is truly mortified and burn't with the coales of charity nothing can sooner or more effectually destroy it then a sincere love to God for he is Lord and King of all the affections of the heart and rules them all whether Fear Hope Desire Hatred Anger or any other perturbation of the soul and love doth not yeild but to a greater so that when divine love doth possess and bear dominion over the inmost corners of the heart then carnal concupiscence gives place and being mortified it vanisheth to nothing Thence flaming desires and most pure prayers ascend to heaven like aromatical perfumes of precious spices this then is that perfect and acceptable sacrifice which God requires and the Apostle here exhorts with a most persuasive argument I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies c. By his mercy that is as if he had said by him that created you something when you were nothing By him that made you his servants and needed not your service and when your merits were unavaileable blest you with his own by him that made you to his own similitude and by this capable of his love and knowledg by him that made you his adoptive sons and co-heirs with his unigenit by him that made you members of his body whereof he was the head by him that offered himself a full and propitiatory sacrifice on the Cross to redeem you from servitude and wash you from all spots and wrinkles by him I beseech you to give to God in stead of dead beasts lively sacrifice in stead of their blood which was but a shadow and pleased not God of it self the acceptable sacrifice of the spiritual man framed by faith to godliness and charity 4. And then we are here further taught that we shall be crowned with Lawrels and Diademes of eternal happiness if we fight courageously under the banner of Christ against our spiritual enemies and never desist until we have obtained the Victory Christ gave not over until all was finished If God had given over at his second dayes work we had had no sin no seasons if at the fifth we had no being if at the sixth no sabbath but by proceeding to the seventh we are all we have all So Christ if he had stayd at his Circumcision or his Agony or his scourgings our redemption had been imperfect but by continuing to his crowning and his nayling and the piercing of his side on the Cross all was completed that was necessary for mans salvation 2 King 5.24 Naaman could not be cured of his leprosie but by washing in Jordan seven times less could not do it it is not enough for a man to begin or do some few acts of piety or religion unless he make a constant progress therein Are the Angels weary of looking on that face of God which they looked upon yesterday or are the Saints weary of singing of that Allelujah which they sung to Gods glory yesterday Is not that song which is their morning and evening sacrifice and which shall be their song world without end called still A new song Oh! then never be weary never give over performing thy duties to that God that never ceaseth to bless thee for he and he only that continues unto the end shall receive a Crown of life In vain did the perfidious Jews cry if he be King of Israel let him come down from the Cross and we will believe in him Nay rather because he was so he would not desert his place for by his perseverance his interest to the Kingdome was confirmed and the work of redemption was consummated in such a glorious manner that nothing could be deficient to the greatness of its merit or to enduce us to follow so noble a president to proceed in those actions that are pleasant and suitable to our temper is facil and not praise worthy but to persevere in laborious Agonies and sorrows and in such things as are against the dictates of our own natural and carnal affections is indeed difficult but very laudable Christ was so enamoured with his divine Father and long'd so earnestly for the redemption of man that all intervening Crosses seemed Cordials to him and all pains pleasures After his Example we find that Paul enumerating his own sufferings with those of his Co-Apostles breaks thus forth who is able to separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8. shall tribulation or distress shall anguish persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we
the patience to learn the following Article he might hear of his Triumphant Ascension into heaven and sitting there in Majesty and power on Gods right hand all the consolation of a Christian consists in this principally that after a troublesome warfare here he shall be carried to Abrahams bosome the Celestial Paradise to the durable Jerusalem to his Masters joy to an inheritance immortal undefiled reserved in the heavens to a rest from his labours and to behold the glory of God O how it behoves each man then to secure his interest in those felicities and daily and hourly commend his soul to that God that made it We are all careful enough when death approaches to put our houses in order and dispose of our temporals but few take a thought for that which is spiritual We had rather with King Asa seek to the Physitian then to the Lord 2 Chr. 16. when seized with sickness or with the Pharisees tithe mint and cummin and leave the weighty Matters of the Law undone but so we do but present God with maim not perfect with dead not living sacrifices Nothing can enter into the Kingdom of heaven but what is pure and immaculate and therefore our chiefest care should be if we desire to have admission there to prepare our souls by true faith and timely repentance without which our prayers and tears will nothing avail for without holinesse no man shall see the face of God He made our souls spirits let us not then make them carnal by feeding on corrupt lust He made them immortal let us not murder them with our sins and deprive them of eternal life He made them noble and after his own image let us not make them brutish and earthly by doting on the pleasures and vanities of this transitory world For what shal it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul TO thee therefore O thou Father of our Spirits do we make our humble addresses that thou wouldst be pleased to be a Protector of our souls and bodies both here and to all eternity Thou art our Rock and our Fortresse therefore for thy Names sake defend and guide us We have no confidence in saints or Angels for thou hast charged the best of them with folly but in the multitude of thy mercies for thou alone hast redeemed us O Lord God of truth Thou that didst shew thy power in weakness and shake the foundations of the earth when suffering on thy Cross make us to tremble through the horror of our sins and to fear thy judgments for them which we justly merit As thou didst then cleave the Rocks and rend the vail of thy sanctuary so melt our stony hearts with the beams of thy grace that they may receive the impressions of thy favors and that we may enter into the Holy of Holies above which thou hast prepared for thy chosen The height of our love is but to lay down our lives for our dearest relations but thou didst depose thy precious life for thy enemies that rebelled against thee Lord who by thy active and passive obedience wouldst leave nothing undone or unsuffered for our salvation O teach us to obey thy word to embrace thy metions to practise what thou commandest Let our wills be wholly resolved into thine and make us conformable to thee as thy saints and angels in heaven are We confess Lord that the wages of sin is deaeth and that we justly deserve to be reduced to our first nothing but O let not death which is the work of the divel have dominion over thy creatures who are the work of thine own hands Before we receive a summens to our end we pray thee furnish us with all requisite graces that we may be clothed with the wedding garment of holinesse and righteousness to meet thee the sweet Bridegroom of our souls Let us not commend unto thee foul sinful spouses but clean and sorrowful spirits for thou despisest not Lord humble and contrite hearts At the hour of death Lord speak comfortably to our souls and seal in our hearts by thy holy Spirit the pardon of all our sins Assist us with thy presence against all the assaults of our spiritual adversaries for if thou wilt be with us we shall neither fear nor feel any evil though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death And grant that though our souls and bodies be separated by death for a short space they may be re-united at thy great day and by vertue of thy Resurrection be raised to live in thy ever blessed eternity Grant this for his sake who lived and dyed and rose again for our salvation Jesus Christ Amen FINIS