remembrance again Joh. 14. 26. He admonisheth and directeth us his Clients how to order and solicit our own business what Evidences to produce how to manage and plead them making up our failings by his Wisdom and not only so but as the word Paraclete here imports he intercedeth also with God for us not in such a manner as Christ is said to doe whom St. John also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1. For as much as that Bloud which He shed for us on the Cross speaks for us better things than that of Abel and continually pleads our Pardon before the Tribunal of God but the Holy Ghost is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered because he stirreth us up to Prayer prompting and teaching us also how to pray as we ought to doe in all our Necessities So that as Christ is the first Advocate by working our Reconciliation with God so is the Spirit our other or second one by testifying and applying the same unto our Souls 2dly He is our Advocate not only in respect of God but of Men too by maintaining our Cause against the World against Tyrants and Persecutors 1. Against the World as oft as it accuseth us by false and slanderous Calumniators laying to our charge things we never did The Spirit in this case maketh us not only plead our Innocency but rejoyce in the Reproaches of Christ count our selves happy in this that it is not such low marks as we are which the malice of the World aimeth at but the Spirit of glory and of God which resteth upon us who is on their part evil spoken of 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2dly Against Tyrants and Persecutors Whence it is that our Saviour Mat. 10. 19. bids his Disciples not be concern'd what they should speak when they should be delivered up to Men because it should be given them in that same hour what they should speak And he adds vers 20. It is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you And we know how that God in all Ages did by the mouths of Infants maintain his Truths to the shame and confusion of Tyrants who endeavour'd to suppress them But here it may be objected Was not the Holy Ghost given to the Jewish Church before the coming of Christ Did He not comfort and support them under a long and tedious expectation of his appearance Was He not then a Teacher of the Faithfull and when that Cloud of Witnesses suffered for the Cause of the God of Jacob when they were sawn in pieces and stoned was not the Holy Ghost their Advocate as well as the Martyrs under the Gospel Did He not speak by the Mouth of Daniel when cast to the Lions and of the three Children who chanted out the Praises of God in the midst of the flames of the firey furnace How then does our Lord say here If I go not away the Comforter will not come to you since so many Ages before He was come and as a Comforter too For Resolution hereof we are to observe That although the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity be equally the Principles of all those Acts they produce without according to the received Maxim of the Schools yet with a considerable difference in relation to those three distinct Oeconomies or Dispensations towards the Church That of the Father lasted till the Coming of Christ in the Flesh yet so as that in that space of time 't is generally believed that the Son of God did sometimes appear as to Abraham Jacob and Joshua being a kind of Essay or Prelude to his Incarnation and the Holy Ghost did then also impart some degree of Efficacy to the Faithfull However This is properly to be reckoned the Oeconomy of the Father The second was That of the Son from his Incarnation to his Ascension yet so as that the Father made his voice to be heard at Jordan and Mount Tabor This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear ye Him As at another time in the Audience of the People Joh. 12. 28. I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again Then also did the Holy Ghost appear in the form of a Dove yet still this is to be accounted the Oeconomy of the Son That of the Holy Spirit commenced from his Descent upon the Apostles and shall last unto the end of all things Differing herein from the other two That in the two first Dispensations Men's senses were usually affected with some extraordinary miraculous and sensible Objects God the Father shewing himself in a Cloud and Pillar of Fire giving out his Oracles from between the Cherubins consuming the burnt-offerings with Fire from Heaven and filling the Sanctuary with his Glory And the Son of God conversing so familiarly with Men that it made St. John say That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life declare we unto you Whereas I say All was as it were visible and palpable here 'T was far otherwise in the Dispensation of the Spirit The Heavens were not seen to part nor was God's terrible Voice heard in the Air no Shechinah no Glory or sensible Mark of the Presence of the living God in his Temple For which reason the third Person in the Trinity has the Special Name of Spirit given Him For as He is styled Holy in respect of that Sanctification he worketh in us though that same Title belongs also to the other two Persons as having the same Spiritual Essence yet the Holy Ghost bears the name of Spirit in regard of his altogether Spiritual Dispensation and those Graces he imparts to each faithfull Soul which are Heavenly and Spiritual such as are the Knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven and his inward Vertues and Consolations As for Knowledge it was so weak and imperfect under the Ancient Oeconomy that in respect of that our Lord preferrs the least in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. the meanest Christian to all the Prophets not excepting the Baptist himself Nor can it be deny'd but that the very first Principles and Rudiments of Christianity do far surpass the highest Attainments of the Law The Jews were under a Cloud and the Doctrine of the Prophets was but as a light shining in a dark place All was then Shadow or rather Night and Moses his Veil was over the Eyes of the whole Nation God made himself known to the Jews as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom They had a very wrong Notion looking upon him as the Conqueror of the World such was the very Apostle's fancy of him and that even after his Resurrection Act. 1. The ineffable Mystery of the Trinity that of Godliness which without controversie is great God manifested
Gentlemen of his Station and Quality were us'd to do but as Pythagoras Solon and Lycurgus he saw not only old Walls ruin'd Amphitheatres and antiquated Coins but brought home with him the Histories Polities and Learning of each Nation And indeed upon Comparison of his Discourses with some of the same Subject written beyond Sea you will find that whenever he borrows any Foreign Thought he so refines upon it that you can hardly descry the Plagiary but where you must apparently own the Conquerour and not so properly discover his Thefts as his Triumphs As to his Preferments in the Church it is easie to see in his Answer to Bishop Carleton's Charge that he was neither forward nor ambitious in attaining them nor proudly sullen in slighting or refusing them but carried himself so even between Contempt and Compliance that he was equally rais'd above the meanness of flattering his Superiours and above the Vanity of despising them By never writing or publishing any thing but what the Duty of his Place requir'd or publick Authority commanded he shew'd himself not desirous of applause and by his Care and Accuracy in the Excellency of those necessary performances he appear'd not insensible of Reputation He was moderate in his Diet and Pleasures and yet unhappily expos'd to the Gout and Stone which for many Years allay'd the Enjoyments of Life and at last occasion'd his Death However he had no reason to complain of Providence who liv'd long and well belov'd by his many Friends and rather envied than hated by his few Enemies Noble in his Descent and not uneasie in his Fortune Whose Reputation in his Life was unquestionable and whose Fame after Death will be lasting Who was happy in his Marriage Issue Preferment and Estate and not wholly unfortunate in any thing but what died with him his Diseases The further Character of our Authour the Reader may easily learn from his Works in which his Temper and Disposition is as well discover'd as his Sence display'd and which are not only the Test of his Wit but the best Image Representation and History of his Mind A SERMON Preached on the Annunciation St. LUKE XI v. 27 28. And it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it AND it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman lift up her voice And had she not done so had all the Auditory been silent the Stones would have immediately ery'd out and applauded the Speaker And yet though never Man spake as He did the harder Jews were of full proof here against his Eloquence A generation of Vipers not to be charm'd by the wisest Charmer who could as easily resist his Words as they had done his Miracles Each of these might convince but both together could not change them so that their Infidelity over-mastering his Omnipotency it prov'd a harder task for him to dispossess them than the dumb man v. 14. the occasion of our Saviour's discourse here and of the Jews envy Yet could not their untoward disposition make void the word of God especially when proceeding from the mouth of the Word Incarnate Here to be sure it should not altogether miss of its effect nor did the Seed sown by him wholly fall on such rocky ground some part thereof met with a fitter soil to receive and cherish it One there was among the rest of a more tender complexion whom God's hand had chaft into a suppleness capable of his impressions In the midst of all opposition from the Jewish Doctors he raises up a certain Woman to check and frustrate it His Truth opens her Mouth as his Grace her Heart to bless him whom they cursed and to proclaim him a Prophet whom they gave out for a Devil Thus can the Almighty out of the mouth of Infants or such-like weak Instruments those that bring them forth perfect his own Praises and give them that courage to maintain his Cause which Nature had deny'd them For let the learned Scribes and Pharisees revile him never so much this single weak Woman here shall dare to defend his Truth against their Slanders and magnifie his Person in spight of their malitious Contempt And now her Tongue mov'd by that Holy Spirit whom these Revilers blasphemed and resisted pronounces not only Christ himself Blessed but the very womb that bare him and the paps that gave him suck reflecting a Glory from the Son on the Mother which our Lord was not unwilling she should share in allowing her Blessed though not most Blessed in that respect granting it her as her privilege not as the sole much less the best reason of her Blessedness A Blessedness others might not despair of Men no more than Women who by a diligent attendance to God's Word conceiving and by a conscionable practice of its Precepts bringing Christ forth might each of them become his Mother too As if our Lord should have said Thou O woman pronouncest the womb blessed that bare me and the paps that I have suckt And herein thou say'st true for she is indeed even thus Blessed and all generations shall call her so but I will tell thee who are rather Blessed They that hear the Word of God and keep it I shall not pretend to tell you as some here doe who this Woman was nor what her name but 't is not strange those persons should be able to find out unknown names who can at their pleasure Saint folks as they have done this Woman in the Text it being as easie for them to Christen as to Canonize But of this the Text is silent and 't is not of such consequence to know who she was as what she says her Testimony being much more material than her Person Which Testimony here directly points to Christ and but glances at the Holy Virgin it being usual with the Jews to magnifie the Parents of those they chiefly intend to commend and not to be wonder'd at if a Woman were so willing to extoll her own Sex or a Jewish Woman the Paps and Womb of a Mother who could fancy nothing beyond the Milk and Honey of her Canaan I shall not consider the words as they point to our Lord himself who is above our praises over all God blessed for ever but as they occasionally reflect on his Mother A subject proper to this day's Festival and wherein there are two things considerable 1. The Testimony given in by this Woman and allow'd by Christ that she that bare and nurs'd him up was Blessed 2. A Way or Means propos'd by our Lord whereby others as well as she might be not only Blessed but more Blessed than the very Mother of God considered barely under that Relation and that is By hearing the Word of God and keeping it Which
therefore this truth for granted I shall only speak to his Office described here by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies two things 1. A Comforter 2. An Advocate 1. A Comforter and such He was to be 1. To the Apostles themselves 2. To the whole Church 3. To each faithfull Believer 1. To the Apostles themselves It was indeed a seasonable time to talk to them of a Comforter when sorrow and distress were coming upon them and they were to be as sheep without a shepherd They had left all for Christ but while he was with them they found all in Him who was dearer to them than all their possessions While He lived with them their joy and satisfaction was full and compleat but a joy that was to last no longer than his Corporal presence which the Holy Spirit was to supply and that abundantly For although they could no longer have recourse to their Lord for Resolution of Doubts or Protection from Dangers yet should they not want an Oracle to clear the one nor a Sanctuary to secure them from the other The Holy Ghost should both enlighten their Understandings and dispell their Fears Being endewed with power from on high Afflictions themselves should prove Consolations unto them and they should find more satisfaction in their very Sufferings than worldly Men in their highest Enjoyments as we find they did Act. 5. 41. when departing from the presence of the Counsel they rejoyced and that with joy unspeakable that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name But then 2. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter not only to the Apostles but to the whole Church of God The Father under the ancient legal Dispensation was a severe Law-giver rewarding Obedience and strictly punishing Rebellion He appeared terrible on Mount Sinai Nothing was to be seen there but Fire and Smoak and thick Darkness Nothing to be heard but Thunder and the Trump of an Angel insomuch that Moses himself trembled and quaked Such an Appearance suiting well with the Promulgation of the Law as denouncing nothing but Woes and Curses to Offenders But under the Gospel-Oeconomy there was another face of things The Son of God while in the Flesh had no such marks of terror and severity attending him more proper to a Creator than a Redeemer He came not with a Rod but in the Spirit of Meekness His condition was a condition of Humility agreeable to one whose Kingdom was not of this World and suitable to his appearance in the Flesh was that of the Holy Ghost whose descent was indeed in Fire but to warm and cherish not to consume In a mighty rushing Wind to represent his divine Power and Efficacy not his Impetuosity 'T was not such a Wind as God came to Elijah in which rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces The motions of the Holy Spirit are not violent He does not affright those He lights on nor create Fear but Love in that Heart he fills 'T is He that makes us cry Abba Father That begets in us a holy generous Confidence and speaks peace to his People The cords he brings with Him are those of a Man such as chain and captivate Hearts The Oeconomy of the Divine Spirit was to be an Oeconomy of Sweetness and Consolation to the Church becoming the Gospel of Peace and the God of all Consolation 3. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter to all true Believers not only as begetting Faith in their Hearts and dispelling that Darkness which naturally possesseth their Understandings but as giving them Peace of Conscience and that unspeakable joy which the World is unacquainted with and cannot take from them Hence He is said to seal them unto the day of their Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. To be the Earnest of their heavenly Inheritance and to make them fore-tast the joys of Heaven here on Earth What comfort what ravishing joys does he still raise in the Souls of all the Faithfull by the apprehension and sense he gives them of the Love of God and that certain hope they have by him of enjoying Him in Heaven Grace is the Paradise of the Soul Holiness its Crown and the assurance it has of God's Love to it the choicest flower of that Crown Nor is he thus only a Comforter to each true Believer but he is so too as his Teacher and another-guess Teacher than Men are to one another For let their Methods of Teaching be never so perspicuous and their care and pains to inform us never so great yet when all is done they cannot communicate unto us either clearness of Apprehension faithfulness of Memory or soundness of Judgment and where they find us dull or stupid all their pains and skill are but thrown away upon us But the Holy Ghost does so teach as withall to change the natural temper and disposition of men's Minds working so upon their Understandings by the clearness and evidence of those Reasons he proposeth that they are not able to resist or stand out against the force of his Demonstrations drawing them to Him in so sweet and yet effectual a manner that although sensible of the effect yet the way of his Attraction is as imperceptible to them as the power thereof is uncontroulable The Manner of the Holy Spirit 's operation on Believers now is very different from that on the Prophets of old which was so forcible that Elisha could not Prophecy without the help of Musick to compose and tune his Spirit But under the Gospel-Dispensation the Holy Ghost deals otherwise with his Servants No such Enthusiasms or Transports here Their Understandings are enlightned without any disturbance to their Bodies They receive the Holy Ghost's Inspirations without the least astonishment or discomposure while he gently glides and descends into them like rain into a fleece of wool in the Prophet David's expression Psal. 72. 6. And thus the Holy Ghost is a Comforter But then 2dly He is withall an Advocate The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies so much one that maintains the Cause of a Criminal or at least of an Accused Person Now the Spirit does so by justifying our Persons and pleading our Causes against the Accusations of our Spiritual Enemies 1. Against the Severity of God's Law and that most righteous undeniable Charge of Sin laid thereby upon us 2dly Against the Devil who we know is styled the Accuser of the Brethren and doth not only load our Sins upon our Consciences but farther endeavoureth to exclude us from the benefit of Christ by charging us with Impenitency and Unbelief Here the Spirit enableth us to clear our selves against this Father of lyes to secure our Title to Heaven against the Sophistical Exceptions of this our subtle Adversary and when by Temptations our Eye is dimmed or by the mixture of Corruptions our Evidences defaced he by his Skill helpeth our infirmities and bringeth those things which are blotted out and forgotten into our
the eternal Word is incarnated in us and we become as much his Mothers in the Spirit as the Blessed Virgin was in the Flesh. And herein was it that the Mother of God was in the best and most advantageous sense Blessed as one in whom the Word was twice Incarnated her Lord and his Gospel much more Blessed in sucking the sincere Milk of the Word from her Sons Paps those golden ones Revel 1. 13. than in affording him her own 'T was her glory and her chiefest happiness that she kept all her Sons sayings and pondered them in her heart an Eulogy given her no less than twice in one Chapter of St. Luke ch 2. v. 19 51. This sacred Ark had the two Tables of the Law and the better Manna laid up in it which she continually treasur'd up in her heart feeding upon it in her private thoughts and digesting it in her practice being as well a Daughter as a Mother of God and her Soul more fruitfull than her Womb. So that this Mary too chose the better part It was I say her Choice this whereas to be the Mother of God but her Privilege In this latter capacity she only furnisht her Son with a humane Nature but in the former she procur'd her self a participation of his divine one There Christ was made her Son and here her Saviour and 't is upon the account of her Faith Elizabeth blesseth her Luke 1. 45. and so does St. Augustine pronounce her more happy Percipiendo fidem Christi quà m concipiendo carnem Christi nay he plainly tells us that this latter Conception had done her no good at all without the former Nihil Mariae profuisset says he nisi feliciùs Christum corde quam corpore gestâsset To bear Christ in her Womb was little to the having the Holy Ghost in her Soul and to conceive of him little to the bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit Faith Humility Patience Love and the like Graces whereof she was a sacred Repository like the Ark overlaid and in-laid with Gold adorn'd with outward Privileges and inward Graces nay like that King's daughter Psal. 45. 14. more glorious within than without This Spouse of God shining out radiis Mariti cloath'd with that Woman Revel 12. 1. with the Son of Righteousness who deckt her with his light as with a garment And how could it be otherwise How was it possible that He on whom the Spirit rested and abode should not impart of it to her in whom he so long dwelt and in greater measures than to any mortal He who himself received not the Spirit by measure If in him were hid all the Treasures of Wisedom and Knowledge surely the Blessed Virgin must needs have been highly enricht by them and while he sanctify'd the Baptist in his Mother's womb did he not think we much more sanctifie that Womb wherein with himself the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily where the whole Blessed Trinity met the Father being with her the Son in her and the Holy Ghost over-shaddowing her Surely being so near the Fountain of Grace and Glory nay having it in her Soul those single Perfections which singly meet in others all concenter'd in this great Saint Among which give me leave to propose some of the more eminent ones to your imitation as 1. Her Faith in crediting the Message of the Angel 2. Her entire Resignation of her self to the Will of God Ecce Ancilla Domini 3. Her Modesty in being troubled at the presence of a Man and those Praises he bestow'd on her being it seems unacquainted with such guests or addresses a thing which now-a-days would perhaps be constru'd ill breeding 4. Her Prudence in examining a Message which at first blush seem'd to look like a Temptation casting in her mind what manner of Salutation that should be so jealous was she of her honour that she durst not trust the divine Messenger with so choice a Jewel till she saw it should be safe till he could find out a way to reconcile her being a Mother with her Purity otherwise to her even an Angel of light had been but an Angel of darkness This was not Unbelief in her as 't was in Zachary but Caution He indeed requir'd a Sign for that which was within the ordinary course of nature She none at all though in a business far above nature not in the least questioning the thing its self but desirous only to be inform'd of the manner of it since she knew not a man 5. Add we to this her Devotion in constantly visiting God's Temple where after our Lord's Ascension we find her assembled with the Apostles and other Saints of God Acts 1. 14. as in the frequent exercise of the Acts thereof Meditation and Prayer It being a general Tradition that when the Angel delivered her his message he found her on her knees and if we may credit St. Bernard but how warrantably I know not at that very instant begging earnestly for the Salvation of the World and the Revelation of the Messiah 6. Lastly To crown all her profound Humility that heavenly Ladder whereby God descended to her and she mounted up to him and that even in the midst of far higher Ecstasies and Revelations than the great Apostle was afraid of And yet no pretence of Merit no assuming to her self any portion of that glory which belonged unto God and she wholly ascribes to him in these words He that is Mighty hath magnified me and Holy is his Name Which clearly shews how inconsistent with nay how diametrically opposite to her Modesty and Humility those praises are which Popish flatterers so frequently bestow upon the Blessed Virgin and how impossible 't is to excuse their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as they are pleas'd to explain it not so high a kind of worship as belongs unto God and yet higher than what is due to any other Creature besides her self A strange middle sort of Adoration that has no ground or foot-step in Scripture and no better than flat Idolatry Prayer and Invocation are the Almighty's Prerogative This Incense must not smoak but on his Altar and the calves of the lips are a sacrifice which must be offered to none but to a God that heareth prayer Psal. 65. 2. and can alone grant our requests This he challenges as his peculiar right Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the time of trouble so will I hear thee and thou shalt praise me And to him the Saints of God have always address'd their Petitions David for one who Psal. 5. 2 3. professes that unto him he would direct his Prayer And therefore 't is observable that the Angel here salutes the Holy Virgin but does not pray to her and her self says that all generations shall call her Blessed not invocate her for Blessings as the Papists doe and not only so but in other respects too equal her to God as by freeing her from
them white in his bloud let us not defile them again but keep them unspotted from the World and hate even the garment spotted by the Flesh purifying our selves as He is pure that we may with comfort look for that blessed hope mentioned in the verse immediately preceding even the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ And when He shall appear follow that immaculate and unspotted Lamb into those Regions of Bliss where now He is and whither he has already exalted our nature To which place God in his good time bring us all for the Merits of his only beloved Son and our blessed Redeemer To whom with the Father c. Amen Soli Deo gloria A SERMON Preached on Candlemas-day St. LUKE II. 22. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished they brought him to Ierusalem to present him to the Lord. THere are not any Writings so harmonious and every-where consonant to themselves as the Holy Scriptures The Old and New Testament like Glasses set one against another reflect a mutual light so that as Moses and the Prophets testifie of Christ Christ bears witness to them and all the Types of the Law have their Anti-Types in the Gospel which directly answer them Thus the Gospel for this day is but the Eccho to the Epistle There the Prophet Malachi fore-tells That the Lord the Messias whom the Jewish Nation sought should suddenly come to his Temple and here we find Him with his Blessed Mother in that Temple each of them appearing there in obedience to the Mosaical Law the one to be purified the other to be presented And as this day's Festival takes its denomination from these two legal Rites so the Text expresly mentions each of them 1. The Purification of the Mother with the circumstance of its proper time in the former part of it When the days of her Purification were accomplished 2. The Presentation of her Child together with the several circumstances of the place where and the Persons that presented him in the latter They brought him to Jerusalem that is as 't is explain'd ver 27. His parents brought him into the Temple at Jerusalem to doe for him after the custom of the Law which was to present him to the Lord. Of these distinctly and first of the Purification of the Mother This we find expresly required by the Law of Moses Levit. 12. 2. where 't is said If a woman have conceived seed and born a man-child then she shall be unclean seven days according to the days of her separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean And 't is added ver 4. She shall then i. e. after the circumcision of her Male-child continue in the bloud of her purifying thirty-three days she shall touch no hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary untill the days of her purifying be fulfilled Which legal Rite as it did no doubt point to that spiritual Purification which was to be made by the bloud of Christ the immaculate Lamb to be shed for all Mankind on the Altar of the Cross so did it insinuate to the Jews their Original corruption that they as well as other descendants of Adam were conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity For to what purpose should there be such care taken for the cleansing of the Vessel had it not before been tainted Or why should a Sin-offering be required where there was no sin to expiate The Law of Purification then evidently proclaims our uncleanness and tells us that our very Birth infects the Mother that bare us She might not we see till the seventh day converse with Men nor till the fortieth day appear before the Lord in the Sanctuary nor then without a burnt-offering for thanksgiving and a sin-offering for expiation and that of a double sin viz. of the Mother that conceived and as St. Paul tells us was first in the Transgression and of the Son that was conceived And this Rite without question the Holy Mother of God observ'd in conscience of that natural Corruption which was common to her with all other Men and Women propagated to her as a branch of the first stock and which by the Oblation made by her she publickly confessed to God and the Congregation From whence it will follow that as they are gross flatterers of Nature who tell us she is clean so they are no less Idolaters of the Virgin Mary who exempt her from all stain Original or Actual For besides that our Lord 's sharp rebuke Joh. 2. 3. implies some such fault as was inconsistent with a spotless impeccable condition her willing submission to the Mosaical Rite here and her professing her own need of a Saviour Luk. 1. 47. are sufficient Arguments to stop their mouths who will needs force those Eulogies upon her which her self utterly disclaim'd both by word and practice But whatever stain there might be in her own Conception 't is certain she was most free from any particular sin as to that of our Lord's and rather sanctified than polluted by bearing Him who could draw no infection from the loins of Adam as not conceived in the ordinary way of Mankind but by the vertue of the Holy Ghost over-shaddowing her Happy Mother Whatever impurity then there might be in others there could be none at all in the Son of God and if the best Substance of a pure Virgin had in it any spot it was sufficiently scowred off by that Holy thing which was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit and did in a far more extraordinary way sanctifie that Womb wherein Himself lay than that wherein the Baptist. Upon all which accounts the Holy Mother of God might well have challenged an Immunity from all Ceremonies of Purification she needed no purging since she had no stain This was for those Mothers whose Births were unclean hers was from God who is Purity its self The Law of Moses reach'd only to those Women which had conceived in sin she conceived not that Seed but by the Holy Ghost That extended to the Mothers of those Sons which were under the Law whereas hers was above it yet does she not wrangle with the Law upon any of these scores but cheerfully submits to a twofold Rite of Purification and Oblation waves all her Privileges and chuses Duty subscribes to the Law of that God whom she carried in her Womb and in her Heart the true Mother of Him who came to fulfill all Righteousness Legal as well as Moral and though he knew the Children of the Kingdom free would yet pay Tribute to Caesar. These Rites then she observ'd not for her self but for us to give us a fourfold Example of Charity Obedience Humility and Gratitude 1. Of Charity Among other Acts whereof this is not the least not to scandalize our Neighbours For as no man according to St. Paul's rule liveth to himself We are oblig'd in all our actions
away from God in Adam and his shame has ever since made us hide our heads Our Lord by wiping off that disgrace and regaining our lost innocence and honour has by his appearing in the sight of God for us given us boldness now to come into and stand in his Presence These were the reasons of Christ's Presentation in the Temple and surely it was never more glorious than when the Owner thereof was within the Walls of it For now was the hour and guest come in regard whereof the second Temple should surpass the first Now that Prophecy of Haggai received its full accomplishment when our Lord first appear'd in it For that it could not be otherwise understood 't is evident because if we consider the Wealth the Majesty the external Pomp and Structure of the first Temple the second was not in these respects any wise comparable to it But 't was the Presence of Christ in the flesh that made the latter so far out-shine the former the Prophet so interpreting himself v. 7. The desire of Nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of Hosts and then it follows ver 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former So that that prediction could not be applicable to any other glory but that wherewith our Lord fill'd the Temple this day and the rather for that this Prophecy was not made till after the destruction of Solomon's Temple an Argument sufficient to silence the most contradicting Jew and force him to acknowledge whether he he will or no that this Prophecy was never fulfilled till Christ was presented in the Temple But our Lord who foresaw that that gain-saying People would not be satisfied for their farther Conviction provided two such Witnesses as were beyond all exception and such as might bear down all opposition to the truth of this prediction Simeon and Anna both of a reverend Age and disciples of Moses of a holy and unblameable Life that waited for the consolation of Israel and were led by the Spirit into the Temple on purpose to meet the Lord of the Temple whom at this time they there expected and found In all which respects these two persons were most proper credible Witnesses of this truth though there was something more to recommend Simeon's testimony if the conjecture of many learned Men may here be of any force and credit who make him the Son of Rabbi Hillel the Master of Gamalael St. Pauls Instructer in the Law and withall a Priest as in all probability he was and 't is not obscurely intimated by some Priestly Offices done by him in the Temple as the taking of Christ in his Armes and the blessing of the People in the behalf of God acts peculiar to the Priest And thus much may serve concerning the place where our Saviour was presented it remains now that I speak something of the Persons that presented him the third and last Thing 3. They brought him to Jerusalem They i. e. his Parents The Law required this too and they were as willing to perform this good Office as the Law to exact it That which God gives us we should return to him our Children especially Children and the fruit of the Womb are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord says the Psalmist Psal. 127. 4. and we are to present them to him whose portion they are and from whom we received them And as they are not so much ours that beget as his that bestows them so should it be our endeavour to make them more his than our own Nor is it enough that we suffer our little ones to come to God but we must bring them when of themselves they cannot come and as soon as we receive them The care of Parents ought to supply the natural defects of their Children by a timely Consecration of them to him not only in their Baptism which yet some scarce baptized persons will not allow though Christ's Circumcision which was in effect our Baptism and his early Presentation in the Temple directly confute their Opinion and Practice but in their future Education too by bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and teaching them to bear his yoke in their youth which is Solomon's counsel too Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will never depart from it Those characters of Piety which are imprinted in these smooth unfullied Tables will not easily be raz'd out They will be both fairer and more lasting and these unstain'd Vessels will constantly retain a smack and tincture of that devotion which first seasons them 'T was St. Jerom's delight to hear Children balbutire Christum smatter of Christ before they could well speak of him and Basil bragg'd of Macrina his Nurse a disciple of Gregorius Neocaesariensis who by often repeating to him what she had learnt from her Master made him suck Vertue from her with her Milk They who first give up their Children to the World and then to God are as bad as those Israelites who devoted them to Moloch This Law we see requir'd the first-fruits of Persons as well as of Things then surely there is reason we should give him the Flower of our Childrens age not the Bran. Such Morality we may learn from this Constitution of God that the best of all kinds is fittest to be Consecrated to the Lord of all and that every thing we have is too good for us if we think any thing we have too good for him Happy are those Children who derive a spiritual as well as a natural Life from their Parents and as happy those Parents who beget them more to God than to themselves and with those of Christ bring them to the Temple before they can walk to it God will make those obedient to such Parents who have been so carefull to make them so soon subject to himself bless them mutually for each others sake both here and hereafter But while I speak of the Mystery let me not forget to mind you of the Duty it exacts from us Every Circumstance here is Symbolical If the Blessed Mother presented the Child to God then must we present him too as our Saviour and Mediator and with him our selves to be a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to him For unless we first present him 't is to no purpose to present our selves to God If he go not first to the Temple we had as good stay at home God seems to speak to us here as the Prophet did of Jehoshaphat to the King of Israel 2 Kings 3. 24. Surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat King of Judah I would not look toward thee nor see thee If it were not for Christ God would not regard either our Persons or our Gifts All our Offerings and Devotions then must be united to this Holy Present
that by the Merit and Excellency of this Oblation we may exhibit to God an Offertory in which he cannot but delight for the Combinations sake and Society of that his Holy Son in whom alone he is well pleased Appear then we must before him in this our Elder Brothers habit or we shall never steal away our Heavenly Father's blessing For all we have is by and through him and 't is with him God gives us all things Our Birth-right descends to us from this first-born of all the Creatures All the Privileges of it Our Kingdom and our Priesthood are derived from him who alone makes us Kings and Priests unto God But then 2dly if we doe not present our selves and all our Offerings with Christ in that manner whereby himself was presented we shall gain little by his own Presentation this day And here three things offer themselves to our direction how we may present our selves to God and all we have so as that our Presents may be acceptable to him This they will be 1. If they be pure 2. If early and of the best 3. If offered up in the Temple All coucht in the Mystery of this day First Our Presents must be pure and to this end we must purifie our selves before we presume to address our selves to God in his Holy Temple For if our Persons be not pure our Offerings will never be so since God looks not to the Hand but the Heart of the offerer And as his Eye is upon the Righteous and his Ear open to Their prayer so the best Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to him Cain's Present no doubt was as rich as Abel's but not so acceptable for the Donor's sake Come we then into the Temple of God but not till our selves be also his Temples and those Temples so well swept and garnisht that they may be a fit habitation for his Spirit I will wash mine hands in innocency aad so will I go to thine Altar says David Psal. 26. 6. There is none of us that can pretend to be as pure as the Mother much less as the Son of God yet each of them would be legally cleansed before they would appear in the Temple Nor was our blessed Lord brought thither till he had been circumcised to teach us that the spiritual Circumcision of our hearts is a most necessary qualification to make us fit presents for God And as his Example preaches Purity so doe his and the Blessed Virgin 's Offerings here proclaim the Necessity of it a Lamb and a pair of Turtle-Doves being the proper Emblems of Cleanness Secondly As our Presents must be pure and spotless so early ones And this not only the legal Offerings a Lamb of a year old and two young Pigeons did imply but our Saviour's Example declares who was no sooner born but presented to God Our young Services are most gratefull to the Almighty His Soul delights in the first ripe fruits Micah 7. 1. in the first-fruits of our Age not the remains of our Harvest Cain's Sacrifice He cares not for such Trees as St. Jude speaks of whose fruit withereth and which bud not till the Autumn verse 13. He who Jer. 1. 11. made choice of the Almond-tree because it blossom'd first 'T is true indeed that a late Sacrifice is not always refus'd but an early one sure is most pleasing to him and though the last Comers into the Vineyard had their penny yet doubtless the first were the most welcome and therefore Christ is said to have loved that young Man in the Gospel who had kept all God's Commandments from his youth up Besides a late conversion is seldom true for setting aside Abraham in the Old Testament and Nicodemus in the New we have not many instances of Men converted in their Old Age. And surely when we see how soon the Child Jesus was brought to the Temple we ought not to think it reasonable for us to stay so long from it till we must be fain to be carried thither like so many Carkasses to our Graves This is not that fat of the Sacrifice God requires of us The blind the lame and the decrepid are not fit Presents for him Thirdly and Lastly Our Presents will then be most acceptable when they are offered up in the Temple As Christ's first publick appearance was there so was his last too a little before his Passion Nor was it only in compliance to the Law that he first visited this place but withall to let us know where we are likeliest to find him The Temple at Jerusalem was then God's only House out of which no Sacrifice was acceptable and towards which Holy Persons address'd themselves where-ever they were their Faces and their Hearts too were still towards this place But our Devotion is not so limited Jerusalem is now every-where and every Christian Church as sacred as ever the Jewish Temple was where with Holy Simeon we may meet our Lord and embrace him admit him into our Heart as he took him up in his Arms. In this place does God more particularly exhibit Himself and Blessing to be sure will go along with him where-ever he goes In such Holy places as this as he has put his most Holy Name so does he usually manifest his choicest Mysteries to us and there is no doubt but he will doe so provided we come thither not with designs of Vanity and Curiosity Sensuality and Prophaneness but as Simeon and Anna did by the impulse and motion of his blessed Spirit Thus then let us come to the Temple and with Holy David wait for his loving-kindness in the midst of it not forsaking the assembling of our selves together in this House of God if we expect that Christ should make one of our number If we fly from his Presence here we shall withall run away from his Blessing St. Thomas we know was not with the other Apostles when Christ first appeard to them and to that his Absence some have imputed his Incredulity If Peter be out of the Ship he may sink and if Shimei out of Jerusalem he may dye for it The Church is our best Sanctuary and securest place of Refuge In this Ark we shall be safe Here let Christ find us and we shall find him especially if he finds us in such a way and equipage as he expects to find us in with that Evangelical Purity Obedience Humility Devotion and Gratitude he challenges from us He will then no doubt present us to his Father with himself give Merit and Value to our Persons and Offerings by vertue of his this day's Presentation Our Eyes shall then see his Salvation and we at last with Holy Simeon depart in peace to meet him in the Heavenly Jerusalem that Holy of Holies whereinto this our High Priest is now entred and where he ever liveth to present himself and his Merits and make continual intercession to God for us even the Church of the first-born
Christ by the instigation of the Devil shed tears by the effusion of the Holy Ghost and as they had cruelly wounded him to the death they were penitently and mercifully by his Word and Spirit themselves wounded with Repentance unto life Which piercing as it was in part accomplished in those few Converts fore-mentioned so shall it have its fuller and more perfect fulfilling on the whole Nation of the Jews when they shall see their error and be all turned unto Christ as St. Paul tells us Rom. 11. 11 32. I heartily wish it may as no doubt it was intended be fulfilled in us too and that my Sermon may have the same effect on you that it had on Peter's Auditors That looking on Him whom we also have pierced we may with them be pierced at the heart too We find that at our Lord's crucifixion all Nature mourned all the Creation groaned Rom. 8. 22. The Sun put on blacks the Earth trembled the Rocks cleft asunder and it were strange if we of all God's creatures should remain insensible and express no sorrow when we behold the Lord of Nature suffering and for us too What a shame were it for us that the dumb inanimate Creatures should upbraid us as the Children their fellows in the Market-place Matth. 11. 17. We have mourned to you and ye have not wept Let us then bear our part in this Quire of Mourners but with this difference that our Mourning be not so much outward as inward not so much in the face as in the heart a heart pricked with sorrow for having pierced Christ and not so much for the smart as out of the sense of our Sin not so much for our selves as for him for his sake whom we have crucified for no Tears prevail with God but such as are wept over Jesus Christ If he be not the flame in our Breasts that melts our Hearts if he be not the Object that draws forth our Tears though we should weep Bloud our Bloud shall be but as Water spilt upon the ground If we grieve and not in and for Christ our grief will be but Hypocrisie at least but Formality This is the Sorrow this the Mourning which our piercing of Christ calls for as a proper effect of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication and it must come in at the Eye For the way to be pierced with Christ is to look upon him Iisdem quibus videmus oculis flemus The Eye is the instrument both of Sight and Sorrow That must affect the Heart What the Eye never sees the Heart as we say never rues If the Understanding be not convinced of Sin our Hearts will never be moved at it Sight of Sin must precede Sorrow for it The Prodigal first came to himself ere he returned to his Father Look we then to Christ but let us reflect upon our selves too that our Eyes may dissolve into Tears without which Christ's Bloud shall not wash away our guilt of having spilled it Let us sorrow but with a sorrow according to God such as may work in us repentance unto Salvation for having crucified the Author of it and then we may look upon Him to our comfort 3. With an Eye of Faith which is another prospect here mainly intended For the looking on in the Text is an Allusion to the beholding of the brazen Serpent a Type of Christ crucified on the Cross as himself tells us Joh. 3. 16. It was not the brazen Serpent it self but their looking upon it that cured the bitten Israelites It was their Faith that did it which came in at their Eye though it usually does at the Ear and gave it a healing quality As it was not the Woman's touch but her Faith that drew out Vertue from Christ to stanch her issue of bloud It is the generally received opinion that the Souldier who pierced Christ one Longinus was when he did that act blind but by vertue of that pretious Bloud which sprang on his Eyes from our Saviour's side he had his Sight restored and was hereupon converted and after became a Bishop of Cappadocia and in the end died a Martyr What truth there is in the History I know not but very much surely there is in the Application If by Faith we will look upon him whom we have pierced that Sight shall not only clear our Eyes to discern but touch our Hearts and dispose them to embrace a Saviour No spiritual Cure to be wrought on us without our Faith We find that Christ in all his miraculous Cures of diseased Persons still required their Faith as a necessary preparative to their healing as if Omnipotency it self could doe nothing without the Patient's belief nor will the diseases of our Souls be ever remedied without the concurrence of ours too The Prophet Elijah by applying the Members of his Body to those of the dead Child fetcht it again to life Let us stretch every part of Christ pierced to our Souls and they will soon be revived be they never so dead in trespasses and sins 4. We are to look upon Christ pierced with an Eye of Love This we know naturally comes in at the Eye too Oculi sunt in amore duces Now as there is no such Attractive of Love as Love so never was there any such Love as that of Christ in dying for us It was our Sin that gave Him his Wounds but it was his Love that made him receive them And we may reade that Love to use the Prophet Esay's expression in the Palms of his hands that were stretcht out for us upon his Cross In the Prints of the nails which could never have enter'd Him had not his Love made them a passage And in the point of the Spear which lets our Eyes into the very Bowels of his tender Love and Compassion towards us Well may each of us say with the Holy Martyr Ignatius My Love was crucified for me If the Jews that stood by Him when he was about to raise Lazarus said truly Behold how he loved him when he shed but a few Tears out of his Eyes much more truly may we say of Him Behold how he loved us for whom He shed his very Heart-bloud the utmost Expression of Love as Himself tells us Joh. 15. 13. Greater Love than this hath no Man to bestow his life for his friends and yet greater love than this did he shew forth by laying down his life for us who were his Enemies I say by laying it down for no man had power to take it from him Joh. 10. 18. It was his own pure Love not any force that compell'd him to dye for us And therefore our Obligation to love him ought to be so much the stronger by how much his suffering for us was more free and voluntary 5. Lastly Let us look on Him whom we have pierced with infinite Joy and Exultation not for that we have pierced Him which ought to produce a quite contrary Passion in us
humanity they must needs have been highly concern'd to hear that He was to leave them Happy sure not only the Womb that bare and the Paps that gave him suck but the Ears which heard the Eyes which saw the Feet which followed and the Hands which ministred unto Him Abraham rejoyced to see the Lord's day though at a great distance and St. Augustine could not propose a greater satisfaction to himself next to the Beatifical Vision than to have seen Christ in the flesh But these Disciples had not only the happiness to see Him but withall to be of his train to be instructed by his Divine Lessons comforted by his Christian Promises animated and encouraged by his Example and fortify'd by his Aid and Assistance Upon all which accounts our Lord Himself pronounceth them Blessed above those Prophets and Righteous Men who wanted such advantages Mat. 13. 16 17. Blessed then they were in this as well as other respects and therefore by how much the enjoyment of Christ's presence was beneficial unto them by so much the more was the very apprehension of losing Him harsh and unpleasing For although our Lord's Ascension-day which was the day of his leaving the Earth was to Him a day of Glory yet to the Disciples it could not be but a day of Sorrow It was his going to the Father indeed but it was a going from them And how could it be but that these Children of the Bridegroom should mourn when the Bridegroom was to be taken from them This sole Consideration was enough to beget sorrow in them but there were other Circumstances which help'd to fill up the measure of it and the chiefest this That He was to forsake them in their greatest needs For troubles were now hard at hand persecutions were suddenly to arise a storm was coming and all lookt black they were to be put out of the Synagogues nay the time was now coming That whosoever should kill them should think that he did God good service v. 2. So that to lose a friend such a friend and at such a time was a very uncomfortable prospect and there was but too much reason that their hearts should be filled with sorrow Nor does our Lord altogether blame it 'T was not his business to root out those affections which Nature had given Men but to moderate them He that took our infirmities was not severe to those of his disciples It was indeed a mistake in them to think that their Lord's departure would be disadvantageous to them but a mistake of carnal Love to his Person that was so dear to them which he minds them of and rectifies Quam incertoe providentioe nostroe How short-sighted are the best of us even in those things which most nearly concern us How apt are we to fancy a loss in our greatest benefit How earnestly bent many times on that which would be inconvenient if not mischievous to us And how ill a Judge is flesh and bloud of what tends to God s glory and Man's good St. Peter had no sooner been allarm'd with the news of Christ's Passion but he presently suggests Be it far from thee O Lord Matth. 16. 21 22. And while He and the rest of the Disciples here were possessed with Carnal thoughts how ill did they relish Spiritual things Nothing so much barrs up Men's minds against God's truths as worldly prejudice While they thought Christ was to reign on Earth they could not so much as dream of Heaven Upon the strength of this fancy so deeply rooted in them they give all for lost if they lose their Master It was high time then for him to shew them their error to let them know That that supposed loss would be their gain and the cause of his absence if well understood would raise a joy in them above their present sorrow since his going away for a time was only to prepare a place for them to all Eternity where He and they should one day so meet as never more to be parted In the mean while He assures them That he would not leave them comfortless but after his departure send one from Heaven who should more than supply the defect of his Presence on Earth even the Comforter Himself who yet could not come till He were gone A truth which though never so ungratefull yet being profitable they must hear and that from the mouth of Truth it self Nevertheless I tell you c. In the handling of which words I shall briefly and plainly discourse of these following Heads Shew you 1. Who the Person promised here is and how described 2. Who was to send him 3. When not till Christ was gone away 4. How expedient it was that the Holy Ghost should come and that not only to the Apostles but to all faithfull Believers by representing to you the infinite Benefits we and all the Faithfull do reap by his coming Of these in their order and 1. Of the Person promised here and his Office It cannot be deny'd but that the knowledge of the Third Person in the Ever-blessed Trinity was a Mystery lockt up for many Ages Holy Men of old spake indeed as they were moved by the Holy Ghost but 't is to be question'd whether they were well acquainted with Him they spake by They were his Organs and Instruments but at that time perhaps little sensible of that divine Breath that did inspire them He was scarce at all known before under the legal Dispensations those passages of Scripture being dark and obscure which point at him and Men not ripe then for so high a Revelation Which is so true that till the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles and appeared in cloven tongues as of fire on their heads the knowledge of him was very imperfect It being reported of some who had been baptized into John's baptism Act. 19. that they had not so much as heard whether there were any Holy Ghost not that they had never heard any thing at all of his Being having been baptized by John who had seen him descend upon Christ at his baptism in the visible shape of a Dove Mat. 3. Joh. 1. but that they had not yet been so throughly acquainted with his Gifts and Graces as afterwards they were Our Blessed Lord then was the first who clearly revealed him in his Gospel especially in that of our Evangelist As Joh. 14. 26. he promiseth Him to his Disciples to be their Instructer But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name He shall teach you all things He repeats it again chap. 15. 26. When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of me And so here in the Text where there is such a manifest discovery both of his Person and Godhead that none but an Arrian or a Macedonian none but He that resists can doubt of his Existence Taking
in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory were then all riddle And as our Knowledge now is far clearer than that of God's ancient People was so is our Consolation and Joy also being established on better Promises revealed with more Evidence and embraced with more Firmness and Certitude Death is now swallowed up in victory and hath lost its sting so that our Fears are less as our Hopes are stronger sweeter and more comfortable being now not under the Spirit of Bondage but of Adoption which makes us go boldly to the Throne of Grace The Result of all is this That the Oeconomy of the Spirit followed that of the Father and of the Son That the Holy Ghost was not properly to be styled a Comforter till Christ went up from Earth to Heaven and that if our Lord had remained here below the blessed Comforter would not have come down in that plentifull Effusion of his Gifts and Graces as he did after our Lord's departure which is the Third thing proposed But before I enter upon this subject I shall first take notice of the sender of Him which our Lord says was Himself I will send him unto you Christ had before told his Disciples That He would pray the Father that He would send them another Comforter Joh. 14. 16. v. 26. That the Father would send Him in his Name But chap. 15. 26. as here in the Text He takes it upon Himself to send him I will send Him unto you from the Father And both with Truth For the Father and the Son sent and had an equal share in sending Him He is therefore called The Spirit of the Father Mat. 10. 20. and The Spirit of the Son Gal. 4. 6. For he proceedeth from both From the Father 't is said expresly Joh. 15. 26. and from the Son if not in express terms yet virtually imply'd in that He is said to be the Spirit of Christ as well as of the Father and must therefore come from Him because sent from Him too The only difference being this That the Holy Ghost is sent by the Father as from Him who hath by the Original Communication a right of Mission which denotes only distinction of Order The Father being as the Spring the Son as the Fountain and the Holy Ghost as the Stream flowing from both From whence we may collect two Things 1. That the Holy Ghost is a real distinct Person from the Father and the Son in as much as He is sent by them For how can He be the same with them that send Him If he proceed from the Father he must be distinct in subsistence and if his Coming depended on the Son 's going away and sending Him after he was gone He cannot be the Son who therefore departed that He might send Him 2. It follows hence That the Holy Ghost is equal to the Father and the Son For whatsoever proceedeth from God must be God whatsoever partakes of his Essence must be equal with Him And surely if the Son have the same right of Mission with the Father as we learn from the Text he must be acknowledged to have the same Essence with him too And had not the Holy Ghost been Equal with the Son as with the Father how could He have supplied his Place Or what Expediency could there have been in the Holy Spirit 's coming when being less than Christ he could have never been able to doe as much as Christ did and so the exchange must needs have been to the Apostle's loss and not as Christ himself had told them it should prove to their benefit and advantage St. Augustine's Prayer then was not impertinent Domine da mihi alium Te alioqui non dimittam Te Give me Lord another as good as thy self or I will never leave Thee nor ever consent that Thou shouldst leave me Nor is it any diminution to the Deity of the Holy Ghost that He is said here to be sent by the Son These Expressions To be sent or To come and the like being not Expressions of disparagement For He was so sent as to come too and to come of his own accord His coming being free and voluntary He came in no servile manner but as a Lord as a friend from a friend in a Letter the very Mind of him that sent it which shews an agreement indeed and concord with Him that sent him but implies no Inferiority nor any the least degree of Subjection 'T is the Spirits honour to be sent to be a Leader and though sent He be yet is He as free an Agent as He that sent him Tertullian calls Him Christi Vicarium Christ's Vicar on Earth But if that argued any inequality in the Spirit it might as well in the Son too who is styled in Scripture the Angel and Messenger of God and is said to go about his Father's business that sent Him But to leave this Argument as more proper to convince a Macedonian Heretick than needfull for any true Believer I shall proceed to the third Thing namely The time when the Holy Ghost was to be sent and that was after our Lord's departure If I depart I will send him unto you But what necessity was there may some say of Christ's departing in order to the Spirit 's Coming Might He not have tarried here and the Spirit have come for all that Was the stay of the one any lett or hinderance to the coming of the other Or might not Christ have sent for as well as go away himself to send him To this I say 1. That it was decreed from all Eternity That God the Father should draw us to his Son Joh. 6. 44. 2dly That God the Son should instruct us chap. 17. 6 8. And 3dly That God the Holy Ghost should assist and establish us in all Truth And so the whole Work of our Redemption should be ascribed to the Father as electing To the Son as consummating and to the Holy Ghost as applying it God the Father had done his part God the Son was at this instant doing his too It remained only that the Comforter should come to perfect both which could not be till the Son had performed his Task here on Earth and should go away to Heaven For the Acts of the Holy Ghost pre-suppose those of a Redeemer 'T is the part of that Blessed Spirit to inflame our Souls with the Love of God but in order to this effect 't is absolutely necessary that the Redeemer should first appease God Our first Parent was not able to endure the terror of the voice of his provoked Majesty but was forc'd to hide his head And what is each Sinner but as Flax before the consuming fire of his Justice Till our Redeemer then had disarm'd that Justice till he had made men's Peace and Reconciliation the Holy Ghost could not excite any motions of Love in them
It was the design of his Spirit to imprint his Image in their Hearts which consisted in true holiness and righteousness But how could that Image be imprinted on them till they were first adopted his Children Or how could they be owned for his Children but in and through Christ his only begotten and beloved Son That Peace which his Holy Spirit brings into and settles in our Consciences is founded in that other which our Mediator hath procured and merited for us by his Death and Sufferings nor could our Minds ever have been calmed had not the Lamb of God taken away the sins of the World Our Peace was to be prepared by the Father ere it could be purchased by the Son and purchased by the Son ere it could have been applied by the Spirit The Gift of the Comforter was an effect of Christ's Intercession I will pray the Father and He shall send you another Comforter And it was requisite that He should go away to send that Comforter since he was the Effect of his Intercession and that Intercession the last Act of his Sacrifice in the Heavenly Sanctuary But then 2dly it was not fit that Christ should bestow his best and most excellent Gifts on us till he had recovered his first Majesty or that the Members should be thus adorned till the Head was perfectly glorious 'T is at the time of their Coronation and Triumph that Kings and Emperors scatter their Largesses When our Lord had ascended up on high and had led Captivity captive then was it a proper time for him to give gifts unto men and among the rest of his Gifts the Fountain and Giver of all Gifts and Graces the Holy Spirit it self This St. Peter tells his Auditors Act. 2. 33. That Christ being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear Christ was first to rise from the dead and to be glorified before he could send down the Spirit And this we learn from Joh. 7. 39. where 't is said That the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified nor could he be fully glorify'd without the descent and testimony of the Spirit For 1. It had been some impeachment to Christ's equality with the Father had our Lord still remained on Earth for as much as the sending of the Spirit would have been ascribed to the Father alone as his sole Act. This would have been the most That the Father for his sake had sent Him but He as God had had no honour of sending Him 2. Nor indeed till he ascended up to Heaven could he have been fully glorified on Earth his appearance here having been very mean void of all pomp and state nothing about Him to strike men's Senses nothing of worldly grandeur to affect them who conversed with him neither wealth nor honour exposed he was to want and other inconveniencies of life and put at last to a cruel and an ignominious Death What strong prejudices had both Jews and Gentiles against Him upon this account And how could those prejudices be removed so long as he continued in that low state and condition But they were now quite taken away by the descent of the Holy Ghost which he had so often promised to send after his departure and which when they saw he made good their mean opinion of him was soon changed into veneration when they saw him who was made a little lower than the Angels nay who had appeared on Earth lower than the lowest of Men for the suffering of death crowned with such glory and honour And how can we but adore Him as God when we now behold Him that once stood before Herod and Pilate as a criminal exalted above all the Kings and Potentates of the Earth whose pride and glory now it is to be his Disciples to doe him homage and to lay down their Crowns and Scepters at the foot of his Cross We now see Temples every-where erected to his honour The most remote obscure Regions of the World enlightned by his beams That Jesus once so much despised become now the glory of the Earth His Name dreadfull to Devils adored by Turks and Infidels so that his Kingdom knows no bounds as it shall never have an end Had he still remained here below he had been lookt upon as no better than what the Arrians once styled Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But now his Godhead is as visible to each Christian as his Manhood heretofore was to each Man the Spirit of God whom He sent down having born witness to Him in all those wonderfull Signs and Miracles that were wrought by his Apostles through his Name And thus we see how that Christ could not have been glorify'd on Earth as God had he not ascended up into Heaven and from thence sent down the Holy Ghost Nor 3. could the Holy Ghost himself otherwise have been discovered Christ's stay here would have been a lett to the manifestation of his Godhead also which appearing in those many great signs and wonders done by Him had not our Lord gone away those glorious Works would in all probability have been wholly ascribed unto him and so the Holy Ghost should have lost that honour which was due to him while his Deity should have been concealed from the notice of the World 4. A fourth reason of the necessity of Christ's departure respects his Apostles and all other his Disciples 1. His Apostles who we know were to be sent abroad into all Coasts to be dispersed over the whole Earth to preach the Gospel and not to stay in one place Now Christ's corporal Presence could herein have availed them little in order to this purpose He could not have been with St. James at Jerusalem and St. John at Ephesus whatever Ubiquitaries Papists or Lutherans say to the contrary in flat contradiction to all Philosophy and Scripture too which allows not this priviledge to Christ's Body now glorified Whom the Heavens must receive saith St. Peter untill the times of Restitution of all things Act. 3. 21. There He must be till He comes to fetch us to Him and when He promised his Apostles to be with them always even to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. He meant no otherwise than by his Holy Spirit who should comfort and guide them into all Truth And therefore it was expedient for them as our Lord says here in the Text that himself should go away to make room for the Spirit as fitter for his Disciples in their dispersed disconsolate condition since He could be and was present with them all and with every one of them by himself as filling the compass of the whole World which cannot be affirmed of our Lord 's bodily Presence 2. Besides had this manner of Christ's Presence been possible without confounding the Properties of his humane and divine Nature it had been very
inconvenient for his Apostles that He should still have remained with them considering how carnally affected they were to him Nay very convenient it was for them that he should withdraw his Presence when they grew too fond of it as we see Mothers deal with their little Children in the like case We know nothing would satisfie them but Christ's Flesh and his fleshly Presence nothing but that still them And we know who said If thou hadst been here Lord As if absent he had not been as able to doe it by his Spirit as present by his Body We know also that St. Peter would have built him a Tabernacle to keep him still on Earth and ever and anon his Disciples were dreaming of an Earthly Kingdom and their chief Seats therein All their Thoughts and Fancies being gross and carnal 't was time to refine them They were not to be held as Children still but to grow to Men's estate to perfect age and strength If they had hitherto known Christ after the flesh 't was fit that henceforth they should thus know him no more And so 't is for all Christians too who so long as they should stand affected in like sort as the Apostles here were would no doubt run into the same error with them as to conceit they could not be without Christ's bodily Presence though the Spirit it self should supply it Surely 't is much better for us by faith to converse with Christ in Heaven than by sight to behold him on Earth Because thou hast seen thou believest says he to St. Thomas Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe Joh. 20. 19. Better it is for us to look to those things that are not seen than to those that are seen The time will come when it shall be our chiefest happiness to see our Redeemer as Job says with these fleshly Eyes we carry about us But that we cannot now doe or if we could that very sight would but astonish and confound us The only Glass to behold him in here is his Gospel as the only place to find him in is Heaven Thither he is now gone from us and 't is well for us as it was for his Apostles that he is so and so hath left us to the guidance and conduct of his Spirit Nay I dare say farther that 't is expedient for us Christians that Christ should withdraw even his Spiritual Presence from us in some cases As 1. when we grow faint in seeking and careless in keeping him When with the Spouse in the Canticles we lye in bed and take him there When 2. we grow high conceited of our selves and say with David We shall never be moved Psal. 30. 7. But then may it not be said If Christ leave us if he withdraw his spiritual Presence from us shall we not then fall into Sin And can that be expedient for any one of us It is good that I have been in trouble for before I was troubled I went wrong says David Psal. 119. 67. But is it good for any of us to fall into Sin If I should say so I have St. Augustine's warrant for it Audeo dicere I dare affirm says that Father Expedit superbo ut incidat in peccatum It is not amiss sometimes for a proud Man to fall with David and Peter into some notorious Sin to fill his Face with shame and to teach him Humility That this Messenger of Satan should sometimes thus buffet him as he did St. Paul to keep him down for the Holy Ghost will not come to him till he find him in this posture He will come to none rest on none nor give grace to none but to the humble In all respects then we see how expedient it is that Christ should leave us that he should withdraw himself from us as he did from his Apostles that he should go away to prepare a place for us where we may be with him for ever and that we should prepare our selves too for that better place he hath prepared for us by withdrawing our Thoughts and Affections from that we now are in For if that fond affection the Apostles had for his corporal Presence was a hinderance to the Spirit 's coming to them much more will our impure earthly ones keep him off from us Nor ought we to be troubled but rather to rejoyce that Christ our forerunner is gone before to take possession of a heavenly place for us in his flesh or to imagine that we shall lose any thing by his absence as if his Spirit could not abundantly make up that loss or that with his bodily Presence he had withdrawn his love or care from us In the midst of his Glories he still minds us He is not only a compassionate High-Priest to pity but an Advocate to plead and an Intercessor still to mediate for us Amidst the Angelical Acclamations and Hallelujahs he not only hears our sighs and groans but joyns in the Consort and shares with us too in our Sufferings Nay it is now that he is most intimately present with us that he dwells in our hearts by faith and if thereby we hold him fast he will then never leave us at least never leave us comfortless no more than he did his Apostles but will send the Holy Ghost to comfort us as he did them for his promise of sending him was not so ty'd up to them as to exclude us but is general here to all the faithfull If I depart I will send him unto you And thus we see how expedient and necessary it was that our Lord should depart that his Holy Spirit might come to us That without his Ascension-day there had been no Pentecost for us and so we should have wanted our Comforter and all those inestimable Blessings He brings along with Him 1. For had He not come the work of our Salvation had been but half done 'T is true indeed that our Lord just as he breathed out his Soul on the Cross did pronounce a Consummatum est and if we consider the Work it self he compleated all he came to doe for us here below for he exactly performed the part of a Mediator by putting an end to all the Ceremonies of the Law which prefigured Him but in regard of us and making that his work ours all had not been finished without the Coming of the Holy Ghost For to speak after the manner of Men we know a Word though written a Deed is of no force till the Seal be added 't is that which makes it Authentical Christ is indeed the Word but the Holy Ghost is the Seal In whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. 2. Nor is this all The Will of a Testator is of no force when sealed till Administration be granted Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 9. 15. But the Administration is the Spirit 's 1 Cor. 12. 11. And without that the Testament is of no
advantage 3. Besides to make our Estate good is required Investiture so that although Christ hath made a purchase and paid a price for us yet what would this advantage us without Livery and Seizin which the same Apostle calls The Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 5. Lastly What are we at all the better for what Christ did for us if we be not joined to Him as He was to us and 't is by his Spirit that we are joined unto Him For he that hath not Christ's Spirit is none of his Rom. 8. 9. and then Christ will profit him nothing From whence it plainly appears That what the Father and the Son did for us could not be compleat or available without the concurrence of the Holy Ghost They could doe nothing for us without Him nor we any thing for our selves in order to our Salvation For first without Holiness we cannot see God who is therefore called Holy because he is the cause of Holiness in us his Office consisting in the sanctifying of us We are by Nature void of all saving Truth 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. None knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God And 't is the Spirit that searcheth all things and revealeth them unto the Sons of Men That dispells their Darkness enlightens their Understandings with the knowledge of God and works in them an assent unto that which by the Word is propounded unto them Again 2dly Unless they be regenerate and renewed they are still in a state of natural Corruption Now 't is the Holy Spirit that regenerates and renews us According to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. And Except a man be born again of Water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 5. We are all at first defiled by the corruption of our Nature and the pollution of our Sins but we are washed but we are sanctified but we are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thirdly We are not able to guide our selves and 't is the Spirit that leads directs and governs us in our Actions and Conversations that we may perform what is acceptable in the sight of God 'T is He that giveth both to will and to doe and As many as are thus led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. Fourthly If we be separate from Christ we are as branches cut off from the Tree which presently wither away for want of sap to nourish them Now 't is the Spirit that joins us to Christ and makes us Members of that Body whereof he is the Head For by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. And hereby we know that God abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3. 24. Fifthly Till we be assured of the Adoption of Sons we have no comfort no hope for 't is that which creates in us a sense of the Paternal love of God towards us The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5. 5. And the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. 8. 16. who is therefore said to be the Pledge and the Earnest of our Inheritance In a word had not the Holy Ghost been sent to us we could have done nothing to any purpose no means on our part would have availed us Not Baptism which might wash spots from our Skins nor stains from our Souls No laver of Regeneration without renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Not the Word which without the Spirit would have proved but a killing letter Not the Sacrament The Flesh profiteth nothing 't is the Spirit that quickneth Joh. 6. 63. Lastly Not Prayer which without the Spirit is but lip-labour For unless he help our infirmities and make intercession for and with us we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. To summ up all It was expedient nay absolutely necessary that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ. Christ's Advent was necessary for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the compleating of the Gospel Christ's to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach it Christ's to shed his bloud for it and the Spirit 's to wash and purge it in that bloud Christ's to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit 's to interpret it The one without the other is imperfect Christ's Birth Death Passion Resurrection are good news but sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it Of such importance was his coming and so expedient yea and necessary for us it was that our Lord should go away to send Him to us And as he did send Him to the Apostles in an extraordinary manner in cloven tongues like as of fire as at this time so all Christians have a promise of the Comforter though not of the firey tongues The promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are a-far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Act. 2. 39. That is To all that wait for and are in such a fit posture and condition to receive Him as the Apostles themselves were To all that are like Him Holy Pure Charitable Peaceable That have those fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. That are void of carnal sensual Affections than which nothing will more obstruct his entrance He being a Spirit and having therefore no commerce with the Flesh. Christ carnally apprehended we see could not avail any thing and so long as our Thoughts and Desires run after things here below his Spirit from above will not fill or inflame them Therefore sur sum corda let us lift up our hearts towards Him He will meet us and Christ will send Him to us if we meet Him in his way Send Him if we send for Him too if we send up our Prayers to fetch Him down For being a Spirit of supplication Zach. 12. 10. the proper means to obtain Him is Prayer And surely He is worth the asking for being the greatest gift God can give us or we receive In giving whereof He is said to give us all things Mat. 7. 11. In whom we have a Teacher to instruct The Spirit of Truth to lead us into all Truth necessary for us An Advocate to plead for and defend us A Comforter in all our outward and inward distresses so that Direction Protection Consolation and all that is beneficial to us or we can desire we have in Him But then when we have got let us be sure to retain and to cherish Him not chase Him away for then we had better never to have had Him Be sure not to resist Him by our Pride quench Him by our Carnality and so grieve Him
who is our Comforter if so the following Verse here will tell us That He can Reprove as well as Comfort But on the other side if we obey his Motions submit to his Dictates follow his Guidance and Direction in a word be led by Him we shall then be the Sons of God and the only-begotten of the Father will not fail to send him to us as He did to his Apostles Then especially above all other times when we eat and drink his flesh and bloud in the Holy Sacrament For as his Bloud was the meritorious Cause to procure us his Spirit so is his Holy Sacrament the Pipe or Conduit to convey Him unto us For hereby we are all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. And then as there is plentifull Redemption here on Christ's part so if we duly partake of that Redemption there will be plentifull Effusion of his Spirit on us Which God of his infinite Mercy grant c. Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on Michaelmas-day HEB. I. 14. Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation 'T IS the great happiness and priviledge of Saints to be under the care and protection of an Almighty God Others have the benefit of his general Providence These of his particular Love and Kindness The clearest Evidence of that his Love appears in sending his only beloved Son into the World to merit Salvation for them and next to that in employing Angels to further it He being our alone Saviour These our Guardians and Assistants Wherein the Almighty has abundantly provided as well for the honour as the security of his Servants For what greater honour next to the having Christ for our Brother than that we should have such glorious Creatures as Angels for our Ministers Their Nature we know places them above us and yet God's Love and their Humility sets them here below us Even while those excellent Spirits attend on the Throne of God we may see them waiting on us Men While they behold his Face there they cast a benign aspect on us here These bright Morning-stars do at the same time praise Him and assist and guide us Their Employment in Heaven does not exempt them from their Services on Earth dividing them as it were between those two places ever ascending and descending i. e. perpetually employ'd in discharging their Duties to their Creator and for his sake performing all good Offices to their fellow Creatures 2. And hence it is That in consideration of those great and various Benefits she receives by their appointed Aid and Ministration The Church has set apart this Day as to praise Him who makes use of such glorious Instruments for her safeguard and protection so gratefully to commemorate those advantageous Services they doe her And although the Title of this Festival carries but a particular denomination of St. Michael's Day yet does the Church herein celebrate the general Memorial of all Angels and the Text I have chosen leads us to it as the Scope thereof does to the whole Chapter wherein the Apostle's design is to compare Christ with Angels and to prove his Superiority over them which He does by several Arguments taken 1. From his Sonship He God's Son by Eternal generation These only by Creation and Resemblance v. 2. 2. From his Name more excellent than that of Angels v. 4. 3. From the Worship peculiarly due to Him even from Angels themselves v. 6. 4. From his being the Head of Angels who at best are but his Ministring spirits v. 7. 5. From his Kingly Authority over all Creatures Men and Angels too v. 8. 6. From his creating the Heavens and the Earth which Angels neither did nor could doe v. 10. 7. And lastly from his sitting as Equal with God at his right hand whereas the most glorious Angels doe but stand there as Ministers of his Will and Commands and to serve the necessities of his Chosen ones in the question here put Are they not all c. In which Words you may observe 1. Something imply'd or suppos'd and that is Their Existence Are they not c. The Apostle speaks of them as of persons really and actually subsisting 2. Something plainly exprest and those are four Particulars here mention'd 1. The Essence or Nature of Angels They are Spirits i. e. intellectual immortal and incorporeal Substances 2. Their Office Ministring spirits and that without any reserve All of them such none excepted not the most glorious not the most excellent of their Order 3. Their Commission from God who sends them forth deputing them their several Ministerial Charges and Employments 4. The End or Design for which they are employ'd viz. God's glory and the benefit of those who shall be heirs of Salvation These be the several Stages through which I shall lead you And first of the Existence or Being of Angels suppos'd in the question Are they not all c. 1. Since the Being of Angels is here suppos'd and taken for granted one would think there should need no farther proof of it and surely 't would be needless did not the Infidelity of some Men make it necessary And 't is strange that Divine Revelation should not be sufficient to settle this Truth among Christians which Heathens by the dim light of Nature have so clearly discern'd For what-ever mistakes they were guilty of as to the Nature they believ'd the Existence of spiritual Substances and we find them very curious in ranking and disposing them into their several Classes and describing the Hierarchy of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with as much exactness I had almost said as good ground as the pretended Dionyfius has done that of Angels whom the Schoolmen so passionately doat on And the same reason which taught Heathens so much Divinity fetches this Truth also from the Order of Nature which seems to require it For as here we find some things without life others living but without sense some again sensible and others rational yet so as to be of a mixt Nature partly Corporal and partly Spiritual there would want one main link in the Chain of Providence had not the Divine Power made some Creatures purely Intellectual such as might be a Mean between God and Man as Man is between them and Beasts to prevent a chasm or vacuum in Nature Besides since every part and place in the World is fill'd with Inhabitants proper for it it seems but requisite that the highest Heavens should not be left void of such as might be fit to dwell in those pure and glorious Mansions But not to build so necessary and important a Truth on meer rational Conjectures we have a more solid foundation for it which is Divine Revelation the Scriptures every-where not only mentioning the Being of Angels but giving us a clear account of their Creation of their manifold Apparitions and Discoveries to Men on Earth together
with their several Actions and Operations All which clearly demonstrate their Existence For the first Their Creation may be gathered though it be not set down in express terms from the first and second Chapters of Genesis where they are styl'd the Host of Heaven an usual Title afforded to all Creatures in Scripture-language but in a more especial manner appropriated to Angels as 't is by the Psalmist Psal. 148. 2. and most suitable to them in regard of their great Power and exact Order And so all Expositors allow it 'T is true indeed there is no such express mention of the Creation of Angels in Moses's Writings as in those of the other Holy Pen-men which he omits not so much as some would have it to prevent Idolatry in the Israelites who had they known Angels would have been apt to have ador'd them as for these two Reasons 1. Because Moses applies himself to the simple Capacity of that People and describes the Creation of visible and sensible things leaving spiritual as above their lower apprehensions and 2dly lest Men should think God needed the help of Angels either in the production or disposition of other Creatures As if the Fabrick of the World had been too great a Task for Himself alone to undertake as Heathens and some Hereticks also have fancied to the manifest derogation of the Divine Omnipotency But for what reason soever Moses forbore to speak out here the Psalmist is plain enough By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth Psal. 33. 6. and clearer yet Psal. 104. 4. He maketh his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire And whereas our Apostle v. 4. tells us That God made the Worlds Colos. 1. 16. He explains the meaning of that expression by things visible and invisible and these invisible things by Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers the usual Titles Angels are design'd by So void of all Reason as well as of Religion is that bold or rather impudent Assertion of the Author of the Leviathan concerning the Creation of Angels there is nothing delivered in Scripture 2. A second proof of the Existence of Angels may be taken from their sundry Apparitions both before and under the Law and in the first dawning of the Gospel There is nothing more certain than that under those several Dispensations especially at the beginning of them such Apparitions were very frequent Holy Men in those times had a familiar acquaintance and correspondency with Heaven 'T was no news then to see an Angel of God The Patriarchs scarce convers'd so much with Men as with blessed Spirits They were their Guests and their Companions of their Family and of their Counsel Nothing of importance was done either at home or abroad without their privity and direction And he must be a great stranger to the New Testament that finds them not there too very often among the Servants of God For though God had for a long time withdrawn from the Jews all means of supernatural Revelations yet at the first publication of the Gospel he began to restore them 'T was no marvel that when that wicked people became strangers to God in their Conversation God should grow a stranger to them in his Apparitions But when the Gospel approacht he visited them afresh with his Angels before he visited them with his Son Joseph Mary Zachary the Shepherds Mary Magdalen the gazing Disciples at the Mount of Olives Peter Philip Cornelius St. Paul St. John the Evangelist were all blessed with the sight of them In succeeding times 't is also very credible what Ecclesiastical Writers report That the good Angels were nowhit more sparing of their Presence for the comfort of Holy Martyrs and Confessors who suffered for the Name of Christ. I doubt not but Constant Theodorus saw and felt the refreshing hand of the Angel no less than he reported to Julian the Persecutor Nor do I question but that those retired Saints too of the prime Ages of the Church had sometimes such heavenly Companions for the Consolation of their forced Solitude as St. Jerome reports of them But this is evident too that the elder the Church grew the more rare was the use of these Apparitions as of all other Miracles Actions and Events not that the Arme of God is shortned or his Care and Love to his abated but that his Church being now setled in an ordinary way has no need of any extraordinary ones no more than the Israelites had of Manna when they were once got out of the Wilderness Nay such extraordinary ones now would perhaps be not useless only but dangerous and we may justly suspect those strange Relations of the Romanists concerning later Angelical Apparitions to Saints of their own Canonizing when we see them made use of to countenance Doctrines of Men. And yet notwithstanding their false play here 't is hard to say that all those instances which sober learned Men have given us of Modern Apparitions are utterly incredible But it has often fallen out indeed that Evil spirits have appeared in this wicked and corrupt Age more than good ones The frequent experience of later days gives in here its Evidence and 't is unreasonable wholly to reject it there being no other reason but this to doe so that our selves doe not see what others so peremptorily affirm they did which were to call in question all that our own Eyes have not been witnesses to and if we will believe nothing but what we see we may as well doubt whether there be Souls as Devils And yet so far as men's Eyes may discern Spirits they may doe it in those possessed Bodies they usurp For that such Possessions have been and still are in the World though more frequent in our Saviour's time than ours is as hard to deny as that there are Witchcrafts which yet many will not allow of and the Papists would take it ill we should deprive them of this one great Argument to prove the truth of their Doctrines who though they feign Possessions where there are none and conjure up imaginary Devils that they may have the credit to lay them yet this is no good reason to say there are no such things at all And this once granted as we must needs doe unless we will contradict all credible sensible Experience there will be no ground left to dispute the real Being of bad Angels which is an Argument of equal force to prove that there are good ones But then 3dly What if we do no longer now-a-days see Angels in visible shapes may we not discover them by their several actions and operations And do not these necessarily imply the Being of things Now besides the Testimony of Scripture which represents Angels standing moving talking and the like It is apparent that there are many effects in Nature which as they cannot be attributed to any natural Causes unless we will have continual
make nothing for it As first that they have often appeared to Men in visible forms and shapes and perform'd such actions as are proper to us as eating drinking and the like All which was by divine Dispensation for a time the better to accomplish their enjoyn'd Duties Yet were those Bodies whereby they perform'd such actions no other than assum'd ones they were no part of their Natures but only as Garments are to us and were laid aside when there was no farther use of them which being made of Air quickly resolv'd into it and vanisht away as their Meat also did One passage there is in the 6th of Genesis which being mistaken has occasion'd gross conceits in some of the Nature of Angels 't is on the second Verse of that Chapter where 't is said That the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men that they were fair and took them Wives of all which they chose The not understanding of which place has betrayed many and among those some Ancient Fathers of the Church as Justin Martyr Tertullian Lactantius Ambrose and Sulpitius Severus into so foul an error as to conceit That those Sons of God were no other than Angels who being enamoured with the Beauty of Women and defiling themselves with Lust of Angels became Devils and which is yet as ridiculous a Paradox That those Gyants there mention'd were their Off-spring As if those blessed Angels who continually behold the Face of God could be taken with the Beauty of a little varnisht Dust and Ashes As if Spirits could beget Men or Holy Spirits wicked Men. Nay Tertullian who as he had greater Parts than most of the Fathers so had greater Errors too to establish one Error by another adds withall That for this reason the Apostle bids Women be Veil'd in the Church lest some of the Angels should once more be Captivated by them Thus does one gross mistake usually draw on another as gross and the first great one proceeds only from hence That in many Copies of the Seventy Interpreters heretofore the word Angel crept in as St. Augustine has observ'd But that those Sons of God were not Angels but Men and of the Posterity of Seth besides the express words of Moses both St. Cyril and St. Augustine have at large demonstrated And what some erroneously have fancy'd of the good others as ridiculously have done of bad Angels which Aquinas and Fr. Valesius maintain as a probable opinion and accordingly Bellarmine himself is not asham'd to affirm That Antichrist shall be born of the Devil and a Woman Surely none so fit to be his Father as the Devil the Father of Lies nor to be his Mother as the great Whore in the Revelations And therefore one of his Tribe in a book to the like purpose fraught with no less malice than absurdity endeavours to prove that Luther was so But 't is no marvel that they who hold that Accidents can subsist without their Subjects should also with equal contradiction to Philosophy affirm That Devils can be the Fathers of Men or they who can paint God the Father in a piece of Arras should make Angels corporeal All this I say proceeds from a false apprehension of the Nature of Spirits and Philastrius ranks such Opinions among his other Heresies which Wierus at large shows to be as void of Sense as they are full of evil Consequences For we find that Heathens who held the Corporeity of their Deities did withall render them obnoxious to all those vile Lusts and Impieties which the most profligate Wretches on Earth were capable of committing and found opportunity of doing so upon the strength of that prevailing fancy To which purpose I might produce several instances and among them one famous one recorded by Josephus of one Paulina the Wife of Saturninus in the Reign of Tiberius a noble beautifull and vertuous Lady whom one Dacius Mundus by the assistance of the Priests of Isis much abus'd upon such an account These are the wicked Consequents of drawing Spirits into a participation of our Natures and then of our Vices I shall not dwell any longer on this subject nor trouble my self to satisfie their curiosity who cannot understand how such incorporeal Beings can be capable of that punishment by Fire which the Scripture says shall be their as well as their associates portion Surely no Man ought to question how they can be lyable to such a punishment that finds a Soul within him troubled with Passion even while no offence or distemperature ariseth from that corporeal part nor how such spiritual Beings can be wrought on by material Fire till he can understand what nature Hell-fire is of That they shall suffer by it the Scripture assures us but how it tells us not nor can our best Reason tell us no more than St. Augustine's could tell him who plainly here confesses his ignorance Our care should be not to examine what Hell-fire is but to avoid it and though we cannot resolve all those difficulties which arise from the Nature of Angels yet since the Text here tells us they are Spirits we must have so much Faith as to believe it and consequently that they are Immortal it being impossible that Spirits as such should be Mortal since there can be no internal Cause of their corruption nor any external physical one but God who as he made them of nothing can indeed reduce them to nothing In which respect no Creature is Immortal none but the great Creator of all things who alone as the Apostle tells us hath immortality 1 Tim. 6. 16. as eternally subsisting by himself and by no other But not to speak of the absolute Power of God 't is certain that as to their Nature Angels are immortal and therefore by God's Decree too 't is said of them that have their share in a blessed Resurrection that they cannot dye for this reason because they shall then be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angels in Heaven Luk. 20. 36. And this is a quality as proper to bad as good Angels who though Devils are still Spirits and shall remain objects of God's everlasting Justice as the elect Angels of his Love and Mercy For though they lost their Purity they can never lose their Nature All of them then are Spirits and so by Nature immortal and those good ones which kept their station glorious heavenly and elect ones and yet such noble Creatures as these has God design'd for the Ministry of his Saints The second Particular to be considered Ministring Spirits To God himself in the first and chiefest place They are his Creatures and consequently his Servants The Psalmist expresly calls them so Psal. 103. 21. O praise the Lord all ye his Hosts ye servants of his that doe his pleasure and Psal. 104. 4. his Ministers Such they are and Estius well observes it out of the Text Non dicit Apostolus says he eos mitti in Ministerium
even now Heirs of a kingdom Jam. 2. 5. The wise that shall inherit Glory Prov. 3. 35. Heads destinated to a Diadem in Tertullian's expression which their Heavenly Father hath prepared for and will at last put upon them who alone too makes them fit to wear it meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light III. How differently soever the Children of God may share in the same Inheritance This is certain that every one's share therein shall be the Gift of his Heavenly Father The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here imports it The Apostle alluding to the Division of the Land of Canaan a Type of Heaven which God had appointed to be done by lot wherein Himself we know had the main hand according to that of Solomon Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. Thus it was in the Choice of Matthias to the Apostleship Act. 1. And thus it is as to our share in the Inheritance of Glory It falls to us by lot by the disposition of God the Father we have no part here but what he gives us And if so then no merit of Condignity nor so much as of Congruity can be pleaded by us And truly one would think it were sufficient to partake of the Inheritance without making out our own Title to it That we might be content to be Heirs without coming in as Purchasers or if we will needs be so to be Purchasers on Christ's score and not our own But this is too low and mean for some men who come with Counters in their hand ready to reckon with God to shew Him how much he is in their debt and who stick not to tell Him to his face that He is an unjust Master if he pay them not their due wages But 1. Our Lord Himself hath told us That God is beforehand with us That whatsoever we can doe is due from us to Him That when we shall have done all those things which are commanded us we must say that we are unprofitable servants and have done but that which was our duty to doe Luk. 17. 10. And then what merit can there be in paying just debts And 2. St. Paul hath told us That we can doe no good thing without Him too who worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. So that He crowns His own gifts in us and rewards not our deservings Besides 3. Our goodness extendeth not to God says David Psal. 16. 2. And being unusefull how can it be meritorious Nay our best works are so imperfect and so sinfull too that the utmost they can expect is but a Pardon and not a Reward And were they never so good and perfect yet what proportion can they bear to such a Reward as an Inheritance in light Our light affliction which is but for a moment to a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. where we must not let pass an elegant Antithesis For Affliction there is Glory For Light affliction a Weight of glory And for Momentary affliction an Eternal weight of glory to shew the vast disproportion between these things so vast that even Martyrdom it self the highest utmost proof of our love to God is in St. Paul's account nothing in comparison of that Glory we expect For I reckon says he that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. IV. And lastly The very word Inheritance excludes all Purchase on our part For this were to renounce Succession to cast off all Filial Duty and Affection not to own our selves Sons but mercenary Purchasers yea and Purchasers of an Inheritance already purchased for us by Christ and for his sake freely bestowed upon us by our Heavenly Father out of His own pure Goodness and Bounty to which alone we must ascribe it For we all the best of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 23. And we are told ch 6. 23. that The wages of sin our proper wages is death but the gift of God is eternal life The Apostle might have said and indeed the Antithesis or Opposition there seem'd to require it But the wages of Righteousness is eternal life But he altered the Phrase on set-purpose and chose rather to say The gift of God is eternal life That we might from this change of the Phrase learn That although we procure Death unto our selves yet 't is God that bestows eternal life on us That as He hath called us to his kingdom and glory 1 Thess. 2. 12. so he gives that glory and that kingdom for no other reason but because He is pleased so to doe It is your Father's good pleasure for into God the Father's good pleasure Christ resolves it to give you a kingdome Luk. 12. 32. No merit nor so much as any good disposition in us for it He propares it for us Matt. 20. 23. And he prepares us for it too here in the Text by making us meet to be partakers thereof For what meetness could he find in us for such an Inheritance Title to it we have none being by nature the Children of wrath and disobedience Eph. 2. 2 3. Mere Intruders here and Usurpers The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and we the violent take it by force Mat. 11. 12. Qualifications proper for it we have none too That An Inheritance in light we darkness That An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1. 4. we corruptible polluted and still decaying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cries out our Apostle We are not sufficient not fit for the word signifies either as of our selves but our sufficiency or fitness call it which you will is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 1. 4. who as He makes us Partakers of his divine Nature so meet Partakers of the divine Inheritance not by pouring out the divine Essence but by communicating to us those divine Qualities which will fit and prepare us for the Sight thereof by putting light into our Understandings and holiness into our Wills without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. By cleansing our hearts and washing our hands that so we may ascend into the hill of the Lord dwell and rest in his Tabernacle Psal. 15. 24. He gives us Faith and with that a Prospect of our Inheritance and He gives us Hope and with that an Interest therein And to summ up all in one He gives us his Holy Spirit the earnest of that Inheritance Eph. 1. 14. who worketh all our works in us writes his laws in our hearts and by softning makes them capable of his divine Impressions In short That divine Spirit which by Regenerating makes us new Creatures and so fit Inhabitants for the new Jerusalem calling us first to Vertue and then to Glory to that as
sending them strong delusions because they receive not the love of the truth that they should believe a lie and delivering them up to those whose interest it is still to keep them in it and whose business to beguile unstable Souls that have no ballast in them Their Proselytes being usually such as are weak or loose men that have lost either their reason or their conscience This being the condition of the greatest part of mankind to be blinded with ignorance or prejudice against the Truth and of corrupt lives no marvel if they be so easily deluded by those who come with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their slight of hand and cunning craftiness creeping first into men's houses and then into their hearts and affections dazling the eyes of such silly people with glittering pretences of stricter severities with a shew of wisedom and neglect of the body of self-denial rigorous observances and mortifications of notions of a higher and sublimer strain oppositions of science falsly so called that puzzle their own and others understandings and of greater favour and liberty to nature while they promise liberty and allure through the Lusts of the flesh and a thousand such artifices No marvel I say if every one has not wit enough to discover such gaudy impostures nor grace to withstand them These are disguises able to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. But that they shall not we have our Saviour's warrant for it Matt. 24. 24. The gates of hell shall never finally prevail against the Church nor the true Members of it Their eyes can see through the sheeps-cloathing and pierce into that corruption which lies under the painted sepulchres In vain is the Net spread in the sight of these Birds not to be caught with such chaff Ad populum phaleras Christ's Disciples will soon smell out a Cheat be it never so well laid these Children of light being in their generation not be outwitted by the children of this world They will not dance after every Seducer's pipe nor be charmed by every Siren charm he never so wisely Christ's Sheep are rational and will not follow a Stranger They are all taught of God and have an Unction from above which teaches them all things to discover errour and truth that they may avoid the one and embrace the other True indeed the Apostles had a more extraordinary gift of discerning Spirits than others had and St. John upon the very sight of a Cerinthus could immediately pronounce him Satan's First-born But every true Disciple of Christ has as infallible a light to guide him which is a holy prudence and a sanctified reason that is as the Apostle phrases it senses exercized to discern good from evil Let him then make use of these and they will safely direct him in his choice nor will the Spirit of God be wanting to him if he be not wanting to himself Should an Angel from Heaven object against the truth he would not yield to him or Should an Angel of darkness transform himself into an Angel of light his own natural ugliness would soon betray him at last to the eye of a Disciple of Christ and his noisome stench to his Nose Satan and all his Minsters have a cloven foot that will shew them Be their leaves never so glorious or flourishing yet these trees shall be known by their fruits which is the Second thing to be considered By their Fruits Not by any secret character of Reprobation nor mark of the Beast stampt on their foreheads which some with the advantage of their Enthusiastical Spectacles can so plainly see when they are invisible to all other men's eyes not by the blossomes of good purposes nor the thin fig-leaves of a hollow profession For Satan may confess a Christ as well as a St. Peter and Pirates may hang out the Flaggs of those Princes whose Subjects they intend to rob every one can wear Christ's Livery and none boast more of it than they who are the Devil's servants as you may find these false prophets here did v. 21 22 23. 'T is not by such signs as these then that we must know them but by their fruits i. e. by their doctrines as some by their practices as others understand them or rather indeed by both of them joined together and so making up a full and complete Criterium whereby to judge of them And first We may know them by their doctrines For indeed these be the proper and genuine fruits of a Prophet Nor can we better judge of the quality of a Messenger than by the nature of that message he delivers They who make no other use of their being counted Prophets but to infuse higher degrees of all kind of Piety and Charity without doubt are sent from God for the Devil would never help them to credit and reputation in the World who should employ it only to the advancement of Piety On the other side if their design be to infuse into their Followers seeds of impiety and injustice of uncleanness and uncharitableness of fedition and rebellion be their pretences never so specious or their behaviour never so fair to be sure they are to be rankt among the false prophets The wisedom that is from above says S. James is first pure then peaceable easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie whereas that which descendeth not from above is earthly sensual and devilish always levelled at interest lust or pride And therefore St. Paul yokes seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4. v. 1. To let us know that the latter is an infallible sign of the former But here it may be objected How can we know doctrines to be true or false To this I answer 1. Negatively Not by the maxims of natural reason which are so far from being infallible that if extended beyond the sphere of Philosophy for whose Meridian only they are calculated they are for the most part defective if not wholly false stretch them never so far they can never be adequate to those things which are to be believed nor any foundation for a divine Faith all assent wrought by them in the Soul being but opinion or science Nor 2. from Antiquity which is so far from being a certain rule that it can be no certain mark of Faith Nor 3. by the writings of learned men which at best can never pretend to infallibility and being humane judgments can make up no more but a humane testimony and which can never exactly be known by all men some having neither skill nor leisure to inquire much less ability to find it out 2. I answer Positively That the Scripture is that which must direct us in our search for Truth this alone being a Rule in it self infallible as dictated by an infallible Spirit in respect of us also clear and known and in