bodie nor with our substance He shall have neither our goods nor our knee but likely we put it off He shall have our soul why this is only to give God his thirds as a reverend Father saies to compound like Bankrupts and give him two parts less than we owe him and yet we look for ten thousand times more than He owes us We have some that are to be suspected for a kind of Sadduces among us that believe no resurrection of the body else they would never palter with discipline but be more forward in the prostration and worship of the bodie than the Church could be to command them Some have given a great blow to this duty by harping upon the bare words of S. John and not digesting the true meaning of his Text Joh. iv 23. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth Mark the occasion why this was spoken and the words precedent The woman of Samaria moved a doubt whether God was to be worshipped at Jerusalem as the Jews taught or at Mount Girizin as the Samaritans taught Now the Samaritans worshipt God falsely they worshipt they knew not what says Christ The Jews held strictly to Moses Law and observ'd figures and shadows of things to come which were all to give place and vanish upon the incarnation of our Lord. Now it is easie to discern the substance of our Saviours answer what it is to serve God in spirit and truth Truth is opposed to the false superstition of the Samaritans Spirit is opposed to the Jewish figures and sacrifices And Christ tells the woman God will neither be served any more after the Samaritan way or Jewish way but after the newness of the Gospel The hour cometh and now is when ye shall neither worship the Father in this Mountain nor at Jerusalem but they shall worship him in spirit and truth Do these words exempt the worship of the body nothing less The word spirit is not taken there for the soul divided from the body signifying only an internal act of the spirit but for all manner of virtuous actions as well external as internal which proceed from the grace of the Holy Spirit being acceptable to God because the Holy Spirit brings them forth not because they are figures of things to come I will sing with the spirit says St. Paul 1 Cor. xiv 15. and yet singing is a bodily action He did worship in spirit when he said For this cause bow I my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Ephes iii. to come to a point Remember therefore how we adore God in spirit when we adore him with those outward gestures of the body to which we are stirred up by the Spirit of truth And so much of the first member of my Text which I laid out to be handled by it self the Lord God is to be worshipped The next duty is the other Pillar of Religion which upholds the Church of the Elect the Lord God is to be served By worship you know already we understand all humble outward devotion and reverence Now by service you must conceive the inward conformity of the heart to all duty and obedience The will of the Lord is revealed to us two manner of ways Either as he doth promise us blessings and benefits and assures us great rewards in the Kingdom of heaven Or as he doth stipulate and covenant with us what we shall do to obtain his favour In the former respect as he hath given us the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth most liberally and as he doth promise greater fruits of his mercy most graciously we fall down and worship him for his benefits but as he doth condition with us to do somewhat for his sake that he may leave a blessing with us we serve him faithfully and bind our inward faculties our soul and our mind to be prompt and ready to execute all obedience That you may the better compose your hearts to attend Gods will in all things and to serve him I will supply your knowledge with these few motives following First There is no other Lord beside our God properly called 1 Cor. viii Though there be that are called Gods as there be Gods many and Lords many that is by opinion and nuncupation but to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him And again Eph. v. 4. One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God who is above all and through all and in you all Super omnes dominio per omnes providentiâ in omnibus justificatione Above all by his Dominion through all by his Providence in all by sanctifying us with his grace and justifying us from sin He that is subject to none inferiour to none independent of himself in all his power He may well be called a Lord and such a Lord deserves to be served Petty Magistrates hold of Princes favours and Kings hold their tenure under God Therefore some of the Roman Emperours having the perceivance that they could command nothing absolutely if he that sate above the heavens did stop it they would not be called Domini because themselves were servants in relation to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords therefore their circumscribed power did not answer the title When the Scripture brings in the most High the saying is Haec dicit Dominus Thus saith the Lord. If we would examine this after the stile of man you would say Lord of what Why universal Lord without any particular designment Specifications to be Lords of this or that are earthly phrases are notes of minority Attalus the Martyr was askt what name that Lord had whom he served Says he Qui plures sunt nominibus discernuntur qui autem unus est non indiget nomine Where there are many Lords they must be distinguish'd by their properties but what need that Lord a name for distinction who is the only Ruler by himself without any equal or partner in his dominion now since we must serve for sin hath brought servitude into the world whom would a man choose to serve but that only Lord to whose sheave all other sheaves do bend and who only hath authority Secondly In all service you will consider in what state and place it puts you Do so in this and spare not But let St. Peter be the Judge 1 Epist ii 9. Ye are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people There is royalty in the very service Cui servire est regnare To do him service is a Kingly Ministry Nay there is more in one of our Church Collects in one Line of it than in the most Augustious title of a King God whose service is perfect freedom A King may be so much subject to naughty passions as he shall be in vile thraldom to his own sensualities and so
with us than against us Our friends do exceed the number of our enemies therefore we may be couragious Besides the name of Gabriel supposed to be that Messenger that came to the Shepherds his name by interpretation is Fortitudo Domini the strength of God as if he were a great Bulwark on our side Quoniam bellum indictum est Daemonibus upon Christmas day began open hostility against the Devil therefore it is a good Omen a blessed presage that the trumpet of Gabriel blew these tidings abroad who is fortitudo Domini a valiant Prince such a one as Michael was that conquered the Dragon as his name is so is himself the strength of God Finally we may be sure that what he said to encourage us was solid comfort without flattery no false alarm no smoother of sweet words where there is no cause for there are Mountebanks in Divinity that will promise many sorts of remedies to a sin-sick soul where there is none at all As Jeremy describes those false blandishing Prophets They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace Slightly or verbis leviculis says Vatablus with gibing frumps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the Septuagint scornful despising them whom they seduced with lying hopes Periculosiora sunt animae secura quà m corpori adversa says St. Austin security is more perillous to the soul than affliction to the body But such messengers as my Text speaks of cannot publish a falshood because they are ever enlightned with the spirit of truth we may build upon a rock of confidence if they say Nolite timere fear not One touch more and this Point is done You hear that the Tongues of Angels are chearful comfortable Tongues their tidings are no flattery yet they are words of mirth and gladness Then it were good me thinks that discretion and the consideration of Christs merciful Gospel did mitigate their zeal who think they are bound to thunder nothing so much to the people as fears and terrors like the writer of Iambiques that spote anger and poyson to put Archilochus into desperation Let Vices be threatned but let the hope that accompanies true repentance go together Let Judgment be put home to the obdurate conscience but let Mercy be an Advocate for the broken in heart Let the strictness of Law and the Curse thereof fetch a tear from our eyes but let the ransom of our sins be set before us and that Christ will wipe all tears from our eyes St. Paul wisht himself at Corinth not to affright them but to rejoyce with the Brethren as it was said of the mild nature of the Emperour Vespasian Neminem unquam dimisit tristem he never sent any man from him discontent but gave him some comfort and satisfaction So the Gospel is such a sweet demulcing Lesson that if it be truly preach'd it must always revive the heart it cannot leave a sting behind it You see the Angel delights not to scare but to comfort the Shepherds Fear not I shall lead your patience no further than one thing more why they should not fear Propter nuntiatum that 's the most principal regard because Christ was born to be their comfort This is to be descanted at large hereafter upon the remainder of this Text and for the present I will prevent what I shall say hereafter but with this one observation that concerning all such as are terrified and perplex'd in mind we can do no more than the Angel hath done preach Christ unto them for their comfort if the joy of his Nativity will not allay their disconsolate melancholy desperation then there is no Balm in Gilead to help them that 's all the infusion of solace which the Angel did pour into the world when it was cast down with sin Poor soul that art terrified with a condemning conscience tell me to what end was Christ born but to seek and to save them that were lost Was not he partaker of flesh and bloud as thou art And dost thou surmise that he made any for condemnation whose nature he took upon him unless by their own infidelity they make themselves reprobates Did he come among us to bring great joy unto all people And wilt thou thrust thy self out of the number Did not he weep in his Cratch that thou mightest sing in heaven Did not he fly from Herod that thou mightest fly from Satan Was not he brought forth amongst us in great humility and misery that thou mightest be translated out of misery into glory Be not like Rachel that would not be comforted Fear not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth who shall condemn us It is Christ that was born and died and rose again to deliver us from all evil it is he that was made man that thou mightest be made a glorious Saint a fellow Citizen with Angels AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE ii 10. Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people IN the same Text where we ended the old year let us begin the new Jesus Christ last year and this year and the same for ever To speak of our Saviours Nativity says Bernard is as new at these days as it was in the first Twelfth-tide after he was born Semper novum est quod semper innovat mentes nec unquam vetus est quod fructificare non cessat That 's justly esteemed a new meditation which prepares us to newness of life neither can we say a tree grows old by standing long in the soil which fructifies continually as much as ever it did before In the imagination of our Faith Christ seems to be offered up again so often as we remember his Death and Passion in the Sacrament so he seems as verily to be born again so often as we do faithfully annuntiate his Incarnation Once we have done that work already in the day it self the time is not yet expired which belongs to that Solemnity now we are come once more to the same business to dispatch it that you may see the difference between the antiquation of the Old Law plucking out the sting of fear and the publication of the new Covenant the Gospel which breaths unspeakable gladness First I have preacht upon these words how we should purge out the old leaven of distrustful fear now I come to shew what it is to have a new heart created full of spiritual joy I observed unto you upon the whole verse that as much might be said from hence to extol the benefit which we receive by Christs Nativity as is usually delivered to express that everlasting felicity which we shall enjoy with God in the highest Heavens to that beatitude of the Saints say the Schoolmen very rightly two things must concur Omnis miseria excluditur omne
the Feast Go and sit down in the lowest room but litterally descension is infallibly the motion of a body And otherwise the wonder had herein consisted not that such a Dove was seen but that such a strange spectacle appeared to John and to all the multitude which was not to be seen John did see the object it did not phantastically in a shadow deceive him as if he saw it And it is a touch worthy to be observed by the way that my Text says he saw the Spirit which is a clear Metonimy of the sign for the thing signified for in truth he saw no more than the outward sign of the Spirit To call the holy Spirit by the attribute of the Dove is a Sacramental signification not an essential mutation just such a form of speech as when Christ brake bread at his Last Supper and said unto his Disciples This is my body I proceed to that which follows how aptly the Spirit came in one figure at this time upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at this day of Pentecost upon the Apostles If I would rake old Heresies out of their dead embers to refute them here I had occasion The Arians extorted from hence that Christ did receive the mighty gift of Sanctification at this Baptism and other admirable graces of the Spirit which he had not before If they were worth the refuting I could tell them Joh. i. 14. As soon as ever the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us he was full of grace and truth On the contrary the Macedonian Hereticks men of corrupt minds did make a difference of dignity between Christ and the Holy Ghost as the body of a man was more excellent which belonged to Christ than the body of a Dove wherin the Spirit sate upon him Then belike if an Angel should come in the shape of a man or of an Eagle which is more glorious than a Dove he should also have the preheminence But the blindness of the error came from hence that they did not distinguish how Christ took upon him the nature of a man but the Holy Ghost did not assume the nature of a Dove Let these blasphemies go let them rot and consume with the Authors which invented them the Father the Son and the Spirit are all one in Glory equal in Majesty coeternal Upon occasion of Baptism the Master sent forth his Disciples saying Go and baptize all Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Can I pass by the surpassing wit of St. Austin upon that place Non in nominibus sed in nomine patris ubi unum nomen est ibi unus Deus Not in the names but in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Where there is but one name and no more there is but one God and no more As in like argument St. Paul Gal. iii. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ Let me return into my own path which I am to beat that Christ had one sign of the Holy Ghost coming down upon him and the Apostles had another Upon which diversity thus I find the Fathers exercising their wits in several meditations First The Spirit sate upon our Saviours head in the shape of an whole entire creature in no other figure but a tongue upon the Apostles which is no more than a little part of the body for we receive the grace of God by scantlings and pittances and small measures the whole Spirit flowed into Christ in all abundance In like manner Gregory shews the odds between his fulness and ours in Analogy between the head and other members of the body A body hath the sense of touching only and no more the head is the continent of all the five senses Ita membra superni capitis in quibusdam virtutibus emicant ipsum caput in cunctis virtutibus flagret So the Saints have several gifts and ornaments divided among them some in one kind some in another but the head of the Church hath all flourisheth with all those vertues united in himself which are parted among his members Secondly The tongues of holy men and Prophets did often promise grace and reconciliation to the world and therefore a tongue did sit upon them as it were a Crest of Armory a Dove when time was did actually exhibit that God was pacified and appeased when he had been wroth I mean the Dove which returned to the Ark with a dry Olive branch in her mouth in token that the waters were dried up and that Noah and his Family might come forth with safety Therefore a Dove most properly did belong to Christ Most properly I say but more transcendently says St. Chrysostom now than ever The first Dove did comfort the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that punishment was taken away this Dove is a sacred pledge that grace and blessings shall be bestowed upon us Now it appeared not to bring one man and his family safe into the possession of the earth but to bring all Believers safe into the possession of heaven Thirdly The Spirit came not to Christ in fire for he was full of Zeal nor yet in the shape of a tongue for full of grace were his lips But discite quia mitis learn of me because I am meek and gentle therefore says Bernard the Dove came to testifie the placidness of the Lamb. Quod agnus in animalibus columba in avibus such as the Lamb is among the beasts of the field such is the Dove among the fouls of the air Fire is stern and formidable Christ would have none of that that which sorts with consolation to recreate a trembling conscience was his peculiar choice therefore the third Person descended like a Dove and sate upon him Fourthly The tongues wherein the Apostles received the grace of God were cloven and divided not to signifie a rent and a division Linguarum distantiae non sunt schismata but because there is a diversity and a dispreading about of the gifts of God Then comes down one single Dove to honour Unity Spiritus sanctus divisus in linguis unitus in columbâ says St. Austin it was pride which caused that diversity of tongues it was the Holy Ghost through the humility of Christ which sanctified that diversity Quod turris dissociaverat Ecclesia collegit Babel the Tower of pride scattered the world the Church which is the Tower of humility gathers the world together But the Dove was the Ensign of our Saviours Kingdom standing for the unity of the Spirit which is the bond of peace Fifthly The Holy Ghost was made manifest to the Chruch first in a Dove at the feast of Christs Baptism afterward in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide to betoken it is the same Spirit which requires innocency in the
the bones of them that have been or shall be interred here rest in peace untill a joyful resurrection Let heavenly goodness be on all those that shall here be wedded in lawful Matrimony remembring it is the mystery of Christ and his Church made one with him O let the most Divine Sacrament of Christs Body broken and his Bloud shed for us be the savour of life unto all that receive it Sanctify to holy Calling such as shall be ordained Priests and Deacons by Imposition of hands And we heartily pray that thy Word preached within these walls may be delivered with that truth sincerity zeal and efficacy that it may reclaim the ungodly confirm the righteous and draw many to salvation through Jesus Christ c. BLessed and immortal Lord who stirrest up the hearts of thy faithful people to do unto thee true and laudable service we magnifie thy Grace and the inward working of thy holy Spirit upon the heart of our gracious Soveraign Lord King CHARLES his Highness James Duke of York and his most Religious Dutchess and all Dukes Dutchesses Nobles and Peers of this Realm with our most gracious Metropolitan and all Bishops and others of the holy Orders of the Clergy all Baronets Knights and Gentry Ladies and devout persons of that Sex and for all the Gentry and godly Commonalty for all Cities Burrows Towns and Villages who have bountifully contributed to re-edify and repair this ancient and beautiful Cathedral which was almost demolished by Sons of Belial But these thy large-hearted and bountiful servants have raised up this Holy Place to its former beauty and comliness again Lord recompence them all sevenfold into their bosom As they have bestowed their temporal things willingly and largely upon this holy place so recompence them with eternal things and with increase of earthly abundance as thou knowest to be most expedient for them Let the Generation of the faithful be blessed and let their memories be precious to all posterity O Lord this is thy Tabernacle it is thy House and not mans perfect it we beseech thee in that which is wanting to accomplish it And for all those thy choice servants whose charitable hands have given their oblation to raise up again this sacred Habitation which was pulled down by impious hands give them all thine eternal Kingdom for their Habitation Amen O Thou Holy One who dwellest in the highest Heavens and lookest down upon all thy servants and considerest the condition of all men now we have begun to speak to our Lord God who are but dust and ashes permit us to continue our prayers for the souls health and external prosperity of all those that are concerned in this place Be favourable and merciful to the most reverend Father in God Gilbert Lord Archbishop of Canterbury our most munificent Benefactor under whose Government we reap much peace good order and happiness O Lord be merciful to me thy Servant the most unworthy of them that wear a linnen Ephod yet by thy providence and his Majesties favour the Bishop of this Church and of the Diocess to which it belongs Be a loving God to the Dean Archdeacons Canon Residentiaries Prebendaries Vicars Coral and to all that belong to this Christian Foundation Bless them that live and are encompassed in the Close and Ground of this Cathedral Pour down the plentiful showers of thy bounteous goodness upon this neighbour City of Litchfield the Bailiffs Sheriff Aldermen all the Magistrates and all the Inhabitants thereof Lord we extend our petitions further that thou wilt please to bless all that pertain to this large Diocess for all the Clergy of it that they may be godly examples to their Flock that they may attend to Prayer to Preaching and to administer thy holy Sacraments and diligently to do all duties to those under their charge that are in health or sickness O Lord multiply thy blessings upon all Christian people in the several Shires and Districts belonging to the Government of this Bishoprick and keep us all O Lord in faith and obedience to thee in loyalty to our Soveraign in charity one toward another in submission to the good and orderly Discipline of the Church And save us from Heresies Schisms Fanatical separations and all scandals against the Gospel And guide us all to live as becometh us in the true Communion of Saints Grant all this O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake To whom with Thee and thy Holy Spirit be ascribed and given c. PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy holy Name and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Then the Bishop pronounced a solemn Blessing upon the whole Administration performed and upon all that were present Then followed the Service of Morning Prayer for that day two especial Anthems in extraordinary being added Provision was made instantly for Alms to the Poor And in a very stately Gallery which the Bishop erected in the House where he lived his Lordship annexed to the precedent Solemnity a Feast for three days First to feast all that belonged to the Choir and the Church together with the Proctors and other Officers of the Ecclesiastical Courts On a second day to remember God's great goodness in the restauration and reconciliation of the Church He feasted the Bailiffs Sheriff and all the Aldermen of the City of Lichfield On a third day to the same purpose in the same place He feasted all the Gentry Male and Female of the Close and City He would often afterwards give God thanks who had accepted him as an unworthy Instrument to build him an House that what he could not accomplish at Holbourn in his younger years when he was more able to take pains yet He had now enabled him to do in his old age and far worse times when he found by experience the Wars had exhausted not only the Wealth but Piety of the Nation and that it was far easier under Charles the First his Reign to raise an hundred pound to Pious Vses than now ten pounds So some observe that in the Primitive Church Charity ebb'd lower and lower till the stream quite dried up the first examples thereof were most bountiful to provoke the liberality of following Ages Barnabas gave all his Possessions and so did many others Ananias divided half or thereabouts but the next Age minced it to a considerable Legacy and then it fell to Charity in small money afterwards to good words only as St. James sayes and I pray be comforted sed ecquid tinnit Dolabella seldom one cross or coyn dropt from them the like he observ'd in our own Church in the Ages past and present when Christianity was first planted among us our glorious Founders built Colledges and Cathedral Churches the next rank of Benefactors endowed Schools and Parishes after Ages gave
hour the heart of man is cast down and presageth some evil to come when God and his Angels appear though they entreat us peaceably The main reason is this Ne dignam suis meritis accipiant retributionem our own sins rise up against us as unanswerable accusers and we ominate and conjecture that God appears for nothing but to judge and condemn us When God and his Angels presented themselves to Jacob in a dream he breaks out into these words Gen. 28.27 How dreadful is this place this is no other but the gate of heaven Peace Jacob why doest thou not cry out how comfortable is this place this is no other but the gate of Heaven but it 's certain that the very comfort of heaven was dreadful and unpleasant to men in the Old Testament and our nature is still corrupted the vessel is still unclean that receives these blessings and therefore we are afraid of the great mercies of the Lord as well as of the great punishments Alas O Lord for I have seen an Angel of the Lord face to face says Gideon and yet for all that fear Gideon is named a mighty man of valour Manoah the sire of that race from which Sampson came the very name of valour yet he said to his Wife We shall surely dye because we have seen the Lord. The charitable widow of Sarepta was no less afraid of Elias an extraordinary Prophet Art thou come to slay my son and to call my sins to remembrance finally Peter drawing a miraculous draught of fish into the Ship as Christ bad him cast out the net thought of nothing but his own sins and Gods vengeance Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man But here 's a messenger in my Text that bids the Shepherds cashiere all these affrightments neither to be dismay'd at the light that shin'd about them nor yet that God was in the glory of that light First Not to be troubled at the light for it was to make this doctrine manifest as if it had been written with a beam of the Sun that Christ is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world And why says Bernard did God ordain that light should be instead of John the Baptist to usher Christ into the world when he was born but because he would illuminate him without Qui interioribus ignorantiae tenebris obducitur who was overcast with darkness within In him was life and that life was the light of men John 1.4 Quae necdum infundi poterat at divina saltem circumfunditur claritas as the light was but spread about their bodies here so it was a sign that if they would believe in him that was come to be the Messias and to save them from their sins their whole bodies should be transform'd into bodies of light hereafter in the Kingdom of Heaven And as every living thing rejoyceth when the night is past and the Sun appears upon the earth so they and we have cause to rejoyce that the night of Ceremonies pass'd away and the clear evidence of truth did shine abroad Vnto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise Mal. 4.2 Therefore according to Bernards elegancy this is the Angels fear not drawn out at large timetis phantasma en adest veritas You are afraid of some spectrum or vision fear not behold we come with the evidence of truth You suspect this is the lightning that goes before a thunder-clap No no it betokens there is a light risen into the world which is the comfortable light of men You suspect death but I annuntiate life You fear the gates of Hell but the Heavens are opened and God is come down among you You conjecture some perdition but behold I preach a Saviour that shall save you from your sins This is the meaning of the light which did dance at Midnight about the air when Jesus was born and the Angel said to them that trembled at the Vision fear it not But what if God himself were in that light What if it were a fiery Apparition darted from the presence of his Majesty Why yet Nolite timere Fear it not Once it pleased our heavenly Father to keep a distance with man upon these terms no man hath seen God at any time and lived Now the day is come when you shall see he communicates himself more friendly to dust and ashes so St. John begins his Epistle That which was from the beginning yet we have seen it with our eyes we have looked upon it and our hands have handled the Word of life It is not from henceforth since Christ was born as it was with the Bethshemites that lookt into the Ark which represented the glory of God and died for it Now no man hath so much cause to fear his indignation as he that shuns his presence and fears lest the Lord should appear before him How did St. Stephen exult when he saw the heavens opened and Christ Jesus standing at the right hand of God Do you think the Martyr was amazed to see the sight No my Beloved ever since the Son of God vouchsafed to take flesh in the womb of Mary it is not a sign of death to see any part of Gods glory but a good ominous presage of everlasting life Therefore be it that God was in the light which shin'd about the Shepherds yet all is well says the Angel Nolite timere Fear it not Secondly They must take courage and not be troubled à propriâ indignitate because of their own unworthiness Indeed what might they think within themselves that they were vouchsafed to hear the first Proclamation of this Blessed Nativity To us these Congratulations To us poor Swains this heavenly Embassage To us miserable Shepherds these Tidings who are set with the Dogs of the Flock Tell them to Caesar or to Herod his Lieutenant or to the chief Priest Non nobis Domine non nobis We are most desertless Wretches and why should God bestow such a royal favour upon us Do you remember Beloved how Peter drew our Saviour near unto him by crying out Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord Luk. v. 8. The more he requested him to be gone the more Christ did abide with Peter so by how much the Shepherds did abase themselves before the Angel the more did the Angel raise them up and bade them be encouraged to behold the Glory of God He that did choose little Infants to be his first Martyrs and ignorant Fishermen to be his first Apostles and Mary Magdalen a woman and a sinner to be the first Witness of his Resurrection it may appear that his grace is manifestly toward them who have a quick feeling of their own indignity The blessed Virgin when she had conceived her Son came to her Cosin Elizabeth that God might prove her lowliness and thus she exprest it Whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me
appointed by the best of Reformed Churches I mean this of England God be glorified for his grace towards us We do not urge them so peremptorily as to say thus it is necessary to be a Christian but thus it becometh us to serve the Lord and that which is decent in Gods house I say again will ever prevail with tractable and godly dispositions You cannot hear or meditate too much upon that of St. Paul Phil. iv 8. Whatsoever things are just or venerable whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report and let me add whatsoever things become us these things do and the God of peace shall be with you Amen THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 15 16. Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water AT these words John Baptist hath changed his mind you may perceive but not his humility It was his perswasion that it could not behove him to minister the Sacrament to his Saviour But since Christ would have his hand to do that duty he puts himself upon the office and performs it Whether did he refuse at first or come on at last with greater humility Nay the further we go in the actions of the Saints of God they will manifest unto us that they are better and better For is it not more lowliness to obey when he was taught a reason for it than to tremble and to start back at the presence of Christ because he was confounded at his coming to Baptism and was not taught a reason Every vertue is so much the better rooted when it knows the true cause of its own rectitude In this John said very well at verse 14. which I have handled lately I have need to be baptized of thee Though he were a most bright vessel of honour yet he did feel a defect in himself how far he wanted the grace of God to open his eyes a little clearer and his desire was secretly fulfilled the spirit of illumination did slide into his heart and made him to understand about what work of ignominy our Saviour came into the world and would begin from hence to do after the custom of a despicable sinner O glorious God that at the same instant did baptize him of whom he was baptized Quomodo creavit Mariam creatus est à Mariâ sic dedit baptismum Johanni baptizatus est à Johanne As he made the Virgin Mary his mother and was made man of the substance of the Virgin even so he baptized John with the Spirit and was baptized of John in water Nothing was ever done in the Church which was eminently noble and eximious but with an opinion that a Spirit from heaven was sent to reveal it So in old Legends they report that the Angels of God did whisper divine Oracles into St. Ambrose that Doves were sent from heaven to infuse holy wisdom into Basil and Gregory that the soul of Paul was sent to gild over the Writings of Chrysostom with Eloquence nil sine numine So the Spirit before he appeared in a bodily shape upon our Saviour entred by his invisible power into the heart of this great Prophet and he that before denied to baptize his Master because he was humble is now ready to baptize him because he is more humble for after Christ had spoken Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized c. That which is here described in the Baptism of our Saviour comprehends three things 1. As the Naturallists call it here is removens prohibens that which did prohibit the effect is removed away John resists no more Then he suffered him 2. Here is the effect it self Jesus was baptized 3. That this beginning was but a preparatory to greater matters which should follow therefore he went up straightway out of the water First I must insist upon this consideration that the obstacle of Johns doubting is taken away then he suffred him The woman of Samaria because she knew not our Saviour gave him no water to drink John Baptist because he knew him to be God immortal gave him no water to be baptized An ignorance very inoffensive was in them both and so they were easily corrected with a word for they that wander for want of knowledge and not for want of obedience are easily brought into the way when they are taught the truth Moses did soon put off his shooes when he knew the place whereon he stood was holy ground Mary Magdalen took our Saviour for the Gardener when he was risen from the dead but she fell presently at his feet and worshipt him when she knew it was the Lord. Peter did demur and hesitate what to do when the sheet was let down before him with all manner of four footed beasts but straightway learnt that nothing was common or polluted which the Lord had cleansed John was loth to take the honour upon him to pour water upon our Saviours head but you see he need not be bidden twice when the Lord commanded he did wisely consider what was injoyned him by the divine authority rather than what did become his own unworthiness and did as he was bidden without any more repugnancy Vera est humilitas quam non deserit comes obedientia So I think St. Austin there dwells an humble mind you may be sure which is associated with tractable obedience Aristotle falling into the praise of that sententious judgment which in some men is very exhortative that weaker capacities should hearken to such mens opinions without any manner of contradiction for their eye is fixt upon a true ground and principle for whatsoever they deliver therefore where age and experience and prudence meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you ought to submit to their bare dictates and sayings no less than if they were the most forcible demonstrations This was most wholsom counsel for the ignorant for they will learn more a thousand times by believing their Teachers than by framing their wit to a captious inquisitive course admitting nothing for good unless their own line can fathom it John Baptist was a right Scholar to make a good proficient whose reason was confounded and knew not what Christ did mean yet because it was his Masters will he was obsequious against the grain of his own reason Then he suffered him The praise which S. Chrysostom gives to this holy man is thus in a negative expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he yielded quickly he was not immoderately contentious for the Holy Spirit makes us mild and apt to consent the adverse Spirit makes us unquiet and vexatious to our neighbours As God describes the refractory Israelites who did ever resist their Prophets Isa xlviii 4. I know that thou art obstinate and thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow is brass This obstinacy you see in the Prophets phrase is a sign of an iron age and I pray God we be not
and efficacy therefore it is very ancient Canonical Law which forbad that any person endicted for a fault secretly committed and therefore accused either upon bare suspicion or upon the mouth of one witness should purge himself by dipping his arm in hot scalding water or by walking between plow-shares red hot unequally laid which was called the Ordeal Fire for these creatures thus imploy'd have no force by nature to manifest a truth and much less is any promise annex'd unto them to be the instruments of examinatory Justice by Divine Revelation If it be pretended that God appointed the woman suspected for Adultery to drink a draught of bitter waters which should discover whether she were innocent or no I answer That this one instance was peculiarly enacted by God who no doubt would assist such miraculous proceedings as were of his own institution but it is an unpardonable boldness to imitate him in his Omnipotent Ordinations and to ascribe unto other humane causes that they shall reveal hidden things which cannot be searcht by mans wit which is proper only to the Creator is to commit Idolatry obliquely and to seek that from a poor contemptible creature which is to be expected only from Almighty God Nor doth my Doctrine hold only in things that are common and profane but even things of the Divinest use are abused when we would wring out from them to detect Thefts or Murders or other Trespasses which cannot be discover'd by the ordinary way of Justice Therefore this Canon of a Provincial Council in Worms is dislik'd by grave Authors That if any things were stoln in a private Monastery where some Monk must needs be the Thief and all denied it every one of them should receive the Holy Sacrament with these words pronounc'd Corpus Domini nostri sit tibi ad probationem Let the Body of our Lord be thy trial or probation This was an insolent temptation for the Sacrament is taken to Commemorate Christs Death until he come not to detect such as were suspected of pilfering And however the sifting out of truth to discover the enemies of Gods Anointed and to lay open perilous talk against his Sacred Person may require such means and trials as are justly to be denied to all other cases yet we see the renowned Piety of his most Religious Majesty that would not have truth decided by the sharpness of the Sword no not in a matter that concern'd his own Royal Safety and when the Laws of the Realm did directly put that course into his hands and when his Royal Ancestors in this Island and sundry Princes in other Kingdoms have often us'd it for all this his excellently guided Conscience would not hazzard the blood of an Innocent as one party must needs be so where there is no certainty of assistance promis'd from God that the guiltless should be the Conquerour My Text hath directly led me to praise God that hath so guided the heart of his Majesty not to tempt the Lord. I did not strain to bring this note in by force for I wish no mercy if I do not vehemently abhor slattery But how ill is this noble example followed by the vulgar no toy can be lost no secret which we desire to know be kept in obscurity but being impatient to want their will an hundred sensless Charms and old Wives devices and casting Figures and casting Lots shall be sought after which God hath no more appointed to manifest hidden things then the wagging of a Feather or the shaking of a Leaf before the Wind. Beloved mark this Rule Si non potest sciri quare inquiritis secreta ad Dei tribunal spectant It may be the thing we inquire after concerns us deeply and would give us much quiet and content to find it out but where God hath denied you the ordinary means of discovery it is a sign that he means to reserve it in his own power and knowledge therefore to fly to these extraordinary ways ways after our own hearts but never allow'd in the word is to endeavour by force to pluck it out of Gods bosom If the Lord should offer you a miraculous or supernatural assistance to unrip any secret wickedness it were not to be refused as in a few examples the casting of Lots is granted in Scripture either to reveal some hidden truth or to foreknow somewhat to come but out of those cases such things are not to be medled with nor in no wise to be taken into your consultation For it is not in the power of those that use the Lot nor in the nature of the Lot to effect that necessarily whereunto it is employ'd therefore I damn it as an indirect means that is taken up against or beside the will of the Lord. Let me give you to see that one word of excuse which is very trivial is very erroneous and I will hasten to conclude Many do object that the Scripture hath no pregnant place in it which condemns the decision of truth or the finding out of hidden things by Duels by Ordeals by Lotteries by other Divinations I but can you shew me where the Scripture hath bid it to be done or else you have said nothing for where no Faith is the act which you undertake cannot be free from sin but where there is no warrant of the Word of God there can be no Faith Do you think it is possible to build Faith hereupon that such a course is not directly forbidden it cannot be for Faith without the Word and without promise is not Faith but presumption So I have delivered my mind how many ways it is offensive to tempt the Lord. I have prepared all things before to say little to the last point wherein the trespass consists to tempt the Lord. In two things first in Infidelity secondly in want of due reverence to the Divine honour 1. It is a token of little Faith yea of Infidelity to be uncertain or unskilful in any of the Divine Attributes but he that tries God it makes his action guilty that either some whole Attribute of the Divine Nature or some degree of excellency in it is unknown unto him as Ananias and Saphira put it to the trial if God had so much knowledge to discover their dissimulation Zachary tempted him whether the message which the Angel brought were verily the Divine Will The Israelites mis-doubted his power when they said Can he prepare a Table in the Wilderness Secondly He that tempts a thing upon no necessary cause esteems light of it and makes no reverential account of it as he ought but that he may toy with it at his pleasure as he that will pluck a Lion by the lip certainly he neither fears the anger nor the strength of the Beast So he that will assay what God can do only to satisfie his own curiosity it is evident he sets very little by the Divine Honour But we were not best to make sport with Sampson as the Philistines did
boni nostri An infinite perfection of excellency on which all things do depend for their first being and for their last happiness So St. Austin Haec est religio Christiana ut non colatur nisi unus Deus quia non fecit animam beatam nisi unus Deus Religious prostration seeks out no object but such as can make the soul blessed for ever and that is the only Lord. St. Hilary In maledicto est religio creaturae All Religion done to a Creature is accursed That Weather-cock Spalatensis after much search in antiquity confesseth that Nazianzen in the Greek Church Gregory the Great in the Latine Church knew of no other Religious Worship but that which is called Latria the veneration of God Nay their great Schoolman Aquinas I will make him the Judge against himself Religio est virtus exhibens famulatum Deo in iis quae specialiter pertinent ad Deum Religion is a vertue which doth perform all Ministry to God in those duties which peculiarly belong to God Go now and say against all these reasons and testimonies there is some kind of Religious Worship pertaining to a Creature I have heard some interpret it thus it is not denied but we are to give honour to the blessed Angels and Saints yes verily God forbid else Then they encroach that we are taught by our Religion to give them that honour therefore that honour which we do give them is Religious A most unlearned Assumption Religion teacheth the Children to honour the Parents yet it is not Religious honour but Civil that is given to our Parents Religion teacheth a Mariner or Plowman to follow his Calling diligently yet those are not religious but worldly businesses Religious Worship is the actus elicitus the immediate act which flows from Religion but all other honest civil Offices are actus imperati à latria Actions wherein Religion governs us and teacheth us but they are not properly called religious In a word no such excellency can be apprehended in a Creature to have religious honour done unto it for Religion binds the soul for ever to that it worships and that is only to God Therefore I conclude the first Dogmatical part of my Text that Christ included all kind of religious honours exempted none when he said Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve And when the Pontificians profess to ascribe a Religious Dulia but no Latria to a Creature their Practice and their Doctrine cannot agree if they yield Religious Worship of what kind soever to any thing save unto the Lord our God if it be not Idolatry it is gross Superstition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The glory of a pious heart be given to God alone and not to God and the ever blessed Virgin joyned together as the Jesuites generally conclude all their Books with that Blasphemy There is more of my task behind though but little of it can be spent in this hour to demolish the errors of them that have offended against this Imperial Law Thou shalt worship c. Sundry false opinions have beaten upon these words as upon an Anvil open enemies and deceitful friends have risen up against it Some are totally some in half some are quarter Idolaters but the least corn of that sin is as heavy as a Milstone to plunge them without repentance into damnation In many of the Errors to be refuted I will be at a word and dispatch in some I will insist the longer where I find them worth my labour Those transgressors that worship not God alone are of three sorts The first are such as make another God than the Lord of heaven and earth in their own heart and worship that invention The second are they that kneel unto the true God and yet reserve some part of Religious Worship for his glorified Creatures as the Blessed Virgin the Angels the Saints both living and departed both themselves and their very Reliques shall have some part of their Adoration Thirdly Beside the honour which they give to the invisible God they find out a way to worship him in visible works of their own hands in Images in the figure of the Cross in the Elements of the Lords Supper All these are Aberrations for there is but one truth against them all Thou shalt worship the Lord c. First God loseth all his honour at their hands that frame a new God in their own heart and do all their service to it like the Ephesians that hallowed no other power in heaven and earth but a Goddess of their own acceptation Great is Diana of the Ephesians This is the most gross Idolatry of all other which professeth not the true God one whit and professeth that to be a God which hath no subsistence but the Metal of Gold or Silver or any other stuff upon which the Artist exercised his invention This is the foul and apparent transgression of the first Commandment but to worship the true God in a manner contrary to that he hath commanded in a piece of bread or in an Image is Idolatry by reduction and against the Second Commandment But the transgression of the Heathen was most vicious that knew no God but the works of their own hands The Scripture says they sinned more grievously that worshipped Baalim than they that worshipped the true God in Jeroboams Calves For Jehu called the Israelites that worshipped God in those Calves the worshippers of the Lord. But when Ahab was not content with that sin but was seduced by his Wife Jezabel who came of the Idolatrous Zidonians says the Lord as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat he went and served Baal and worshipped him 1 Kings xvi 23. It is more pestilentious you see to worship a stark Idol than to worship the true God in an Idol though both are abominable But I will not speak of that stupid Idolatry of the Heathen whose own folly hath laught it out of the world if the workman could have put life into his work the Statue would have worshipped him for making it All those puppit Gods are faln down like Dagon of the Philistins and the Jewish Writers observe well that Dagons feet and hands were broken off from his body Partes adorationis abscissae sunt The Philistins worshipped that stock with their bended knee and their hands lifted up therefore the Idol lost his hands and knees Furthermore Dagon fell down upon his face Non tantum jacens sed super os jacens ut videretur adorare arcam Domini He was laid in a posture as if prostrate before the Ark of God as if the Heathen and all their vain inventions should be turned into the praise of the true God Worship him all ye Gods I will close this Point with a Paradox They which most abhor all Pictures and Images at this day they which hate them more than they should do even in
away one opinion of St. Austins as quite out of the cancels of truth and then proceed He doth not deny but the dead through Gods concession may upon such occasions as the Lord directs them to appear unto the living he cites Samuel brought up by the Witch of Endor to speak with Saul What if that were not Samuel but an evil Spirit or an Imposter he cites Ecclesiasticus He objects what if that Book be refused because it is not in the Canon of the Hebrews Then he cites our present instance of Moses and Elias yet he falls off again and thinks the Saints themselves appear'd not but seem'd to appear by the Ministry of Angels Many times in the Old Testament when the Angel is sent from God as a Legate He speaks in the person of his King I am the Lord thy God therefore he presumes that Angels in this place might be called by the names of Moses and Elias for whom they appeared The same most excellent Author is more orthodox in other places upon this point This cannot well consist Christs glory was true and not ficticious it betokened a true estate of blessedness to us miserable men hereafter therefore it cannot piece well together that all this should be confirmed by ficticious and imaginary Witnesses Now I venture forward and first I will speak of Elias how he came in his own body then of Moses I have a reason for it and St. Mark 's words ly so there appeared unto them Elias with Moses In what body should Elias be an assistant to Christs glory now but in the same body wherein He was taken up in a whirlwind to Heaven Henoch and Elias were ever parallelled to be of the same condition in Gods favour that their Body was never dissolved from the Soul but in their whole substance assumed up on high Some Jewish Rabbins have presum'd to teach more than Scripture that the Bodies of Henoch and Elias were dissolved into Elements in their rapture and nothing but their Soul was received into Abrahams bosom I smell the leaven of the Sadduces in those Rabbies for certainly the origen of it came from such as they who resisted the truth that a Body could not be exalted to heavenly places Is not St. Paul enough to silence all tongues of that language Heb. xi 5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death If Enoch did not see death in his translation and that 's the fair letter of the Scripture no more did Elias Says Epiphanius Henoch and Helias their Bodies and Souls were never parted but remain undivided for ever Henoch lived a married life Elias was a Virgin to shew that continency in Marriage and Virginity shall both be glorified in the great day of the Resurrection Thus Epiphanius and I could name a multitude of concurrents who are advowers of the same sentence They that list to be contentious gainsay this Doctrin touching Elias his Body that it never was corrupted from the common theme of mans mortality Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. v. 12. Death passed upon all men what 's that but a just Sentence and Decree and none can say Why am I born to dy But there is mercy and power in the Most High to spare and to execute his Decree upon whom he pleaseth Heb. ix 27. Statutum est that presseth home says the Antagonist it is appointed unto men once to dye that 's the Text indeed but not statutum est omnibus it is appointed unto all men once to die as some do read it The ordinary end of men is death but God hath his exemptions and priviledges to limit that Statute I tell you a mystery says St. Paul We shall not all die but we shall all be changed there 's one limitation They that are found upon the earth at the second coming of Christ shall not die but shall be snatcht up with Christ in glory non separatione formae sed immutatione qualitatum their Soul shall not be taken of the Body but corruptible qualities shall be taken from the Body So it was in Elias his Rapture the Body was not destroyed but only that corruption which was in his Body Again it is appointed unto men once to die semel once and no more Yet the Shunamites Son Jairus Daughter Lazarus and many others brought back from their Graves died twice there 's another limitation of the Statute Nothing concludes from thence but that Elias his Body was never dissolved in that Body wherein he talked with God at Mount Horeb in the same Body he heard God talk to his Son at Mount Tabor about the time of the Transfiguration But as for Moses after what manner he came to Christ in the shape of a Body I cannot speak with any certainty To hold that the elements were compacted into the figure of a Body that he might use it for that occasion and then disperse it into air when the mysterie was finished hath an ill relish in it because imaginary shapes like Pageants to be set up for a while and strait taken down again were not fit demonstrations of the truth of the Resurrection Damascen observes wittily that it is likely how the Promise which God did long before make to Moses was now fulfilled Exod. xxxiii 23. That thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seen meaning says he that the eye of man could not see his Divinity but he should have the honour to see Christ incarnate That is not unfitly called posteriora or exteriora Dei the out parts or the Veil of the Godhead Now was that desire of Moses fulfilled and the Son of Man in excellent beauty stood before him but had he not seen him with his own eyes all had not been according to his first desire and affection And me-seems that this conjecture is not weak if Elias had appeared in his own flesh Moses but in a phantastical shape this had derogated from the dignity of Moses who was the Prophet than whom none was greater from the Law to John the Baptist The Jews oppress us again with their figments in a second opinion saying that Moses was so beloved of God that he never saw death but continued in his Body for ever as Elias doth Josephus tells us his mind herein so plainly that I perceive the most did follow him that when Joshuah and Eleazar had parted with Moses upon Mount Nebo he was taken away from them in a Cloud and advanced to Heaven but to make the people quiet that they might not talk too much of his exaltation and attribute too much honour unto him he left it written that he died in the Land of Moab But this doth peremptorily contradict the Holy Word in divers places He died and was buried in a Valley in the Land of Moab Deut. xxxiv 6. according to the word of the Lord. That word is in the same book Deutr. xxxii 50. Thou
to place safe enough in their own Country Once indeed they were scared with a great tempest upon the Lake of Genezaret which might have faln out upon any other occasion and then they cry out desperately Lord save us we perish But upon their haughty demand Christ askt them Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of It was a cup of wormwood and tribulation such as Moses and Elias drank of to the very lees and those are they that appear with him in glory those are they that sit in his Kingdom the one at his right hand the other at his left Their countenances have been sad now they smile for ever they have worn sackcloath and ashes and mingled their drink with weeping now they appear bedeck'd with Majesty For if none might enter into King Ahasuerus Gate cloathed with sackcloath Esth iv 2. Then much more all that are deigned the presence of the King of heaven shall shine triumphantly in glory Thirdly The objects of Moses and Elias standing conspicuously before the face of these three men would instill into them the imitation of their holy life and impectorate to them those good examples whereby they themselves should become mirrours and examples to after Ages Their Justice their Prayers their Temperance their Constancy to true Religion their hatred of Idolatry all these were texted in their face all their noble acts were remembred by seeing them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Chrysostome The history of the Saints warms out hearts within us to read it Historiae sacrae inspectio est quasi compendium resurrectionis ante oculos habere says one To entertain our time in reading the Sacred History is to cast our eyes upon a model of the Resurrection But to be brought in place where there was an ocular Apparition of Moses and Elias was to gain both a model of their Resurrection and a Chronicle of their History It is a good thing to call the dead into consultation with the living where God promiseth to send the former and the latter rain to the earth many apply it mystically to this purpose The Examples of the Patriarchs and Prophets well digested into our use are the first showers of rain or the dew of the morning The Examples of Christ and his Apostles and such as have shined like burning lights since their days are the latter rain or the dew of the Evening but these drop down one after another and fill the Church with spiritual encrease No observation more appertinent than this which I find attributed to St. Hierom. Moses was first inspired to write the Book of Genesis which contains the acts of the old World before he published Exodus which contains the Law A fair method which came from heaven First instructed to write the History of Antiquity before he Penn'd a Pandect of Laws for the use of Posterity lest he should rashly proceed to teach the Children before he had wisely learnt the Examples of the Fathers I will set my rest upon this Text of Scripture that there is not a pithier Precept in all the Sacred Volume Deut. xxxii 7. Remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee It is a very satisfying thing when a truth comes to us by a good descent as the Poet bragg'd of his stories Quae Phoebo pater omnipotens mihi Phoebus Apollo God did inspire Moses and Elias to know what sufferings his Son should undergo at Jerusalem they preach'd it before the Disciples the Disciples to their Scholars they to the next and so from Generation to Generation it is an Heir-loom to the latest Posterity Alta mysteria per majores ad alios debent devenire Let great mysteries be devolved from the mouths of famous forerunners such as Moses and Elias The Devil himself was ashamed of upstarts when they came to be broachers of their own fancies Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye Sometime it is as hard to know who were the broachers of new Doctrine as to understand the Doctrine it self As Tiberius scoft at a conceited Roman proud enough but of no good Parentage Curtius Rufus videtur mihi ex se natus Curtius Rufus did beget himself he had no Progenitors So ignominious it is to press any thing for current which is a brat of yesterdays invention and doth not bear a pass from the example of our fore-fathers Beware of novel Doctrines and observe it when you will if they do not beget new Vices as a Mill-stone new-peck'd fills the meal it grinds with more gravel than one that is smooth with use Therefore gather such Manna as fell very early in the Morning Enquire for the old I mean for the oldest way but habete salem be sure it be salted with Apostolical Doctrine and then it will not be tainted with corruption That we might not only fetch our Examples so far as the Apostles but a reach beyond them likewise here were two old Sires of great authority and veneration that came to Mount Thabor Moses and Elias Fourthly I had occasion the last day to make a difference between these two Saints thus far that the body of the one was always living the body of the other that is of Moses came from the dead which is an improvement to the truth of that Article of our Creed that Christ shall bring all to judgment both the quick and dead before him The dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds How many applications may be deduced from thence likewise that the dead and the living came to teach that Christ should die upon the Cross and live again unto the glory of the Father Or thus to teach us Mortification and Vivification that we should die unto sin and live unto God But referring your memories back to that which is past I stay my self upon this Notion that Moses and Elias come from the other world unto this to let us see and that it is undeniably true that there is a life remaining after this is ended and of a much happier condition a life of glory It is the complaint of them who dispute stifly for their own infidelity Nullus de mortuis resurgit None come from the dead to teach us that are living but since we mean the Apparitions of them that should come from the other world they should say none come from the living to us who in comparison to them may be called the dead But to answer to the meaning of the objection words may be reformed with ease Have none been sent with tidings to us from the habitation of the other world Yes twice apparently to go no farther At the first bout Moses and Elias from Mount Thabor at the second bout a witness without all exception our blessed Saviour who rose the the third day from
Chrysostomes judgment upon it is that when Christ came out of the Grave death it self was delivered from pain and anxiety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death knew it held him captive whom it ought not to have seized upon and therefore it suffered torments like a woman in travel till it had given him up again Thus he But the Scripture elsewhere testifies that death was put to sorrow because it had lost its sting rather than released from sorrow by our Saviours Resurrection Secondly Cajetan understands by the loosening of the pains of death the undoing or taking off those penalties which he suffered in triduo mortis in those three days while he lay asleep in the Sepulchre But what penalties are those in his construction Why one thing irksom unto him was that the body and soul should be divided in sunder the other that the very place of hell to which his soul descended is in it self ordained for torment Et mora in inferno erat paena infamiae as another said any stay or delay in hell was a derogation to his honour and for the body resting in the Grave though then it have no sense of smart yet for that while it is sub mortis victoriâ imperio under the charge and Empire of death There is somewhat near to truth in this Exposition as I will manifest by and by and somewhat clean mistaken For all the sorrow and punishment of Christ was finished in his death that was the consummation of all his penal sufferings Wherefore his body was not kept in the Grave much less his soul made progress to Hell to bear any penalty revenge or sorrow for our sakes or to satisfie for our sins but to fulfill all righteousness to confirm our faith that he was truly dead and to captivate the Devil Therefore his Resurrection did not cut off or mitigate any sorrows which he sustained in death I cannot consent to Cajetan if he mean the contrary But if he take not sorrows in a proper signification but Metaphorically for the bands of death as the Syrian Paraphrast reads it Solvens funes mortis loosening the cords or twists of death so I think it to be the very marrow and true sense of the Text that God raised up his Son not Christ but God the sense continuing in the same person having loosened or unbound him from that death wherein he was detained three days But if it agree to the Person of Christ that he loosed the pains of death though it be a little violence to Grammer me thinks then thirdly it comes to this interpretation that Christ had paid you know that is solvere too he had undergone he had satisfied the pains of death or a most painful death So Beza says it may be taken here Dolores mortis pro morte dolorum The pains of death for a death full of pains even all that spight and malice could wreck upon him Andradius likewise in his defence of the Tridentine Faith agrees with Beza that Christ after he had given up the Ghost and paid the debt of Nature upon the Cross was acquitted or exempted from the sorrows of death that is from a death full of sorrows sorrows that were not only deeply impressed into the body as far as whips and thorns and nails could reach but exceeding anguish and pain of mind sighs and horrors that we can not conceive Thus far only we may peep into it that God was represented to him most â—ngry at our sins that He felt the malediction of his wrath lying upon him for our sakes especially that He was troubled to shed his bloud for so many ungrateful wretches that had no regard of it these were the sorrows of death that compassed him about but that He should put on the horror of our guiltiness so far and suppose himself to stand in our person at his Fathers Tribunal even to the forgetting of himself to the confusion of his reason to the pangs of desperation as if He felt hell about him whatsoever a grave and worthy Author says to this point upon my Text and in other places I draw my consent from it Exceeding sorrows both of body and mind gat hold of him but they were loosened and finished upon the Cross But will some man say why doth St. Luke speak of these in order after his Resurrection I answer that Christ satisfied the wrath of God to the full upon the Cross and paid that debt for which He was our surety to the utmost farthing Thereby He loosed the deadly sorrows yet it did not appear so well that He had loosed those sorrows till the time He rose from the dead therefore the victory over those sorrows being estated as it were in his rising again St. Luke ascribes it to his resurrection I have not spared you see to open this third and most common opinion unto you yet I rather satisfie my self in this Interpretation that as it was Gods work to raise up Christ so it was his act to loose the pains of death solvere i. e. irritum reddere all that the pains and sharpness of death could do was to divorce his Soul from his Body and God did frustrate and dissolve all that by uniting them again in the Resurrection And according to this true reading of the words which I have hitherto beaten upon the Expositions are easie and full of consolation full of consolation I say for neither could the Scripture say that the sorrows of death were all paid neither had it been possible for Christ to have got out of the Grave if there had been any one sin though the least in the world unsatisfied The other reading is strange to the Original yet admitted by all them that are bound even to the errors of the vulgar Latin Translation and often quoted and cited for great authority in some Controversies solvens dolores inferni having loosed the pains of Hell 'T is true that Irenaeus and some others of good credit of old do use the same and our Criticks tell us of one antient Greek Copy that concurrs with them and a learned Bishop of our own Church reconciles the seeming difference on this wise that by death in that place is meant not the first but the second Death the second Death you know is eternal punishment in Hell fire and in his opinion it comes all to one pass to say having loosed the sorrows of death and having loosed the sorrows of hell This will be examined by and by but first I will premise how some have blundered themselves in this reading St. Austin in that famous Epistle of his to Evodius propounds it though very faintly that it is not improbable that the Soul of Christ went into Hell in triduo mortis and carried away with him some that were there tormented and if none other were released yet at least Adam was If the Father can be expounded to mean that Christ blotted out the hand-writing against us harrowed Hell and
Christ should rise the third day and all the World was benighted in the darkness of incredulity There is no need to strain the Text so mightily and yet Chrysologus hath invented a more forced Interpretation Thus he As the day was shortned at our Saviours Passion and the Sun did set in an Eclipse a long time before the natural Evening of that season so at his Resurrection the Sun rejoyced and was so officious to attend him that he rose certain hours before the natural season of the day Therefore according to the natural rising of the Sun it was very early when Mary Magdalen came but if you consider the extraordinary appearance of that glorious Lamp upon the Earth before the time so the Sun was risen and yet it was the time of darkness This is more subtil than solid my first interpretation was the sure resolution I will ask but one question more to clear a doubt and so conclude All the Evangelists no doubt do purpose to set out the diligence and watchfulness of Mary that none have omitted to describe what an early Pilgrim she was Had they no other end in it Yes surely to express the timely Resurrection of our Lord. As David sings it Exurgam diluculo Awake my glory awake Lute and Harp I my self will awake right early But how can you then inch out the time to say resolvedly that he lay three days in the belly of the Grave Beloved you must measure the days by a Synechdoche He was buried toward Evening upon the Jews day of preparation and so lay interred some part of the Afternoon and all the night Upon the Jews Sabbath he rested in the Sepulcher all day and night upon the first day of the week he continued in the state of death some hours of the Morning and very early he came forth an eternal Triumpher he fulfilled the Scriptures therefore and withal made haste to fulfil his Promise to rise the third day Euthymius expresseth it more elegantly than I can Quod citius quà m sit constitutum efficitur potentiae est quod tardius imbecillitatis Christus non solùm promissum explevit sed etiam gratiam velocitatis addidit To be eardier than our promise is a sign of some let and infirmity To be beforehand with a Promise is a sign of power and efficacy The Promise of the Son of God was that in three days he would build up the Temple of his body again He did so and more than so soon after the third day was begun Behold the prestation of his Promise and the acceleration of his favour joyned unto it so we have seen both his truth in the Promise and his love in the speediness doing even above his Promise To whom be honour praise and glory for ever AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT. xxviii 2. And behold there was a great Earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sate upon it THE greatest matter which we preach unto you throughout all the year is that of this great Festival Christ is risen from the dead All that we preach beside holds of this in chief skore out this line and ye blot out the contents of all the Gospel St. Paul says it If Christ be not risen then is our preaching in vain 1 Cor. xv 14. You hear of what great consequence it is to preach of the Resurrection and yet I cannot tell you from any part of holy Scripture at what moment of time or after what manner our Saviour rose from the dead Thou knowest it O Son of David who dost open and no man shutteth who dost shut and no man openeth He opened the Grave nor Death nor Hell nor Pilates Seal could shut it against him He shutteth up this mystery from us when he came out of the Grave and no man is able to open it Is this the reason because his Disciples and the very best of his Chosen were incredulous upon this day and it would not enter into their hearts how he was risen from the dead though he had often foretold it and therefore he did punish them to conceal the manner of his Resurrection from them though no doubt they did much desire to know it Or was it for this respect as another says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we know not the hour when he rose from the dead neither is it possible to know the time when we shall rise from the dead Now it was obscure when he came again to life and it will be as much obscure when he will come to judge the world at the general Resurrection Or was it rather to inform us that since we receive this principal Article of our Creed plainly and not examining many needless particulars so must we receive all the Tenets of Faith naked and uncloath'd from all questions of curiosity The secret things belong unto the Lord our God Yet thus far we may dare to incroach that the Resurrection of Christ fell out within the compass of the words which I have read unto you It came to pass very early in the morning on the third day I told you so the last year at large now I come nearer to the Point For all that say any thing to the incidency of time agree in this that about the time the earthquake shook the place or about the time the Angel descended or about the time the stone was rouled away among these Circumstances one or other he awoke out of a sleep and came forth of the Sepulcher Needs then must you hear from hence some good tidings of joy and triumph The last words of my Text are memorable to this purpose that the Angel sate upon the stone Quasi fidei doctor Magister resurrectionis says Chrysologus Upon these concurrencies presently the Angel sate down like a Doctor of faith in the Chair of Authority and like a Master to teach the Resurrection Where the Angel sits him down to teach the case you will presume is worth the hearing The two things generally in which I fix my thoughts are these motus and quies a motion and a quietness Of motions there are three 1. The foundations of the Earth opened and behold there was a great earthquake 2. The Heavens were opened for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven 3. The door of the Grave is opened He came and rouled away the stone But albeit these things are turbulent in the doing great tranquility shall follow Surely the earth presently was setled and stood still for the stone was steady the Angel composed himself at rest and sate upon it To these I will add such explication as God shall give me leave to utter An Earthquake was a royal trumpet to proclaim this victory the greatest that ever was obtained against an enemy The deep murmur and hollow sound which came from beneath the earth gave notice at one blast to Heaven and
man Therefore this opinion doth thus distinguish ante devolutum lapidem prodiit non ante concussum he passed forth out of the mouth of the Cave not before the Stone was shaken off with the Earthquake but before it was rolled away The fourth opinion I have read in no Author but I find it cited by one or two once in the Remish Testament and again in Estius potuit prodire per rimam ostii vi subtilitatis as he came into his Disciples when the doors were shut so he came out of the Sepulchre when the door was shut by some chink or crany where the passage was not stopt close This I know that they who speak to this purpose upon other occasions do quote St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 44. It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body because a body raised from the dead is called a spiritual body many do assume that it hath no grosseness as our bodies have but can attenuate it self as a thick piece of gold is malleated and made ductile into a thin leaf and so to pass through a narrow crevis Beloved this opinion is not so simple as some would make for the learnedst Clerk in the world cannot define what manner of spirituality a glorified body should have neither shall we understand it till we come to know in Heaven even as we are known Yet I confess I am puzzled when I think that by this cobweb subtilty Christ must needs lose the figure and lineaments of a manly body beside Theodoret Tertullian and all that wrote against the Marcionites do stiffly maintain the truth of Christs Body to be no aereal phantastical thing Beside I will frame an argument as well against these who hold our Saviour slipt in by a chink of the door when the doors were shut as against the Pontificians who define he came through the wood of the door and so violated nature both these Tenents are contrary to that which himself said to Thomas the Apostle to remove the suspicion that he was no spirit says he Handle and see me for a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me have this had not been enough to prove the truth of his bodily presence and resurrection in the body if they had been perswaded he came in as an aereal spiritual substance or by penetration of the door contrary to nature In the fifth place Zwinglius and Sadael and some others of the Reformed Churches conceived there was so much difficulty in all the four opinions which I have run over and finding no compulsive reason to be driven out of the plain way deliver'd their sentence that the Angel tumbled the stone from the door of the Monument and then the passage being clear Christ came forth without a miracle Certainly as well as I could peruse the Scriptures though I see nothing in them to favour this opinion so I see nothing in the Sacred Text to contradict it I would the Fathers had countenanced it Leo the Great did howsoever some would shuffle it but he proving against the Marcionites that Christ had no phantastical body breaks out Can his substance be phantastical which was nailed to the Cross lay in the Sepulchre and the Stone being rolled away rose again the third day therefore the scruple is that the general consent of all the Fathers beside bend that way how the Grave was not unclosed when he rose Non indigebat ut amoto lapide surgeret sicut Lazarus says St. Austin he needed not like Lazarus to have the stone rolled away that he might come forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Chrysost the Grave was open after he was risen ftom the dead nay in plain terms he says the Seal and stone were still untoucht Set aside that reverence which we bear to these glorious lights of the Ancient Church I see no absurdity which follows if we said he rose to life when the Stone was rolled from the Sepulchre But in all these opinions nothing is grosly repugnant to Faith or Nature only I had rather addict my self to the first opinion which considers not how or which way he came out of the Grave but says the manner was miraculous and inexplicable But I can in no wise digest the sixth and seventh opinions I must couple the Pontificians and Lutherans together though the one side be Transubstantiators the other side Consubstantiators The Lutherans say boldly and blindly that his body passed through the stone so the substance of bread and the substance of Christs body are both together in one place in the Sacraments The Faction of Rome say he went through the stone but what 's that to them who hold not that the substance of Bread and his Body remain together after Consecration in the Host but the substance of bread is abolished and his body remains under the quantitative dimensions of bread but they infer if two bodies may be together in one place by Divine power then one and the same body may be in divers places at once by the same power without a contradiction For these are equivalent and of the same capacity There want not those who deny that the possibility of the one is so probable as the other but to make haste I will speak of this Pontifician opinion as they refer us for the like to other instances in Scripture and then as they refer it to the Eucharist their Allegations are that Mary remain'd a Virgin after Christs birth quem clausa virginitas ad presentem tulerat vitam clausum sepulchrum ad vitam reddidit sempiternam Marics virginity was not enclosed when he was born nor the stone rolled away when he rose 'T is strange that this was ever urg'd when the Holy Ghost applieth that Scripture to our Saviour Luke ii 23. Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And her virginity consisted in this which she spoke to the Angel virum non cognosco I know not a man and truly such a Nativity as they speak of cannot properly be called a Birth The second instance is very witless when the Jews would have thrown our Saviour down an hill he passed through the midst of them and went his way A most blind inference to say out of those words his body passed through the midst of their bodies and as much to the purpose as to have cited that he sat in the midst of Doctors at twelve years of age It avails as little in the third plate to cite St. Paul Heb. iv 14. We have a great High-priest that is passed into the heavens Is this objection of any strength unless they think the Heavens could not be opened to receive him of whose opening we read so many times in the Holy Testament therefore their strength lies onely upon one place Joh. xx 19. when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst Inde clausus
the first day of the Week We are not those that esteem one day more than another as it is the mere flux of time but we are those that must remember how God hath glorified himself in one day more than another and never so much on any as on this day The first day of the Week As God the Father upon the first day did begin to make this visible World of Creatures so Christ rose the same day from the dead to shew the beginning of a new Age. Resurrectio est alterius mundi spiritualis creatio says Justin Martyr The Resurrection is well called a Creation of a new spiritual world On the first day of the Week God said Let there be light and he divided between the light and the darkness Verily in the same sort upon the same day God brought the light of the world out of the darkness of the Grave and the life says St. John was the light of men Now this infinite work to tread death under feet and to bring mankind out of corruption into the state of immortality being more eximious than to make Adam in a possibility to die and perish therefore all Christian Churches have desisted to meet together at holy exercises upon the Sabbath of the Jews and the first day of the Week hath been solemnly appointed from the Apostles even to this Age to sanctifie the name of the Lord in publick Congregations It is but a fretful question which is too much agitated now adays since the first day of the Week is designed to be sanctified to the praise of God from the Resurrection of our Saviour what time we may borrow for the use of domestical affairs and harmless recreations He that is perswaded in his conscience no part of the day must be spared from Gods Service let him so do according to the resolution of his conscience no man can be offended that he is earnest for his own part to keep the whole day unto the Lord. Again he that is perswaded that the Lord must have his due service on that day but that he is not tied to a strict Sabbatical servitude surely his knowledge is good and he may use his liberty but without scandal to his brother To the first I say be a zealous Christian in keeping the Lords day but be not a Jew in opinion To the other I say give thanks to God for the freedom to which he hath called you and that he hath eased your shoulders from the servil burden of the Jewish Sabbath but be not a Libertine in practise And this is the sum of that which I will say to the first Point that this marvellous work was done upon the first day of the Week Now the Holy Ghost hath not only satisfied us with the designation of the day but because the more particularity the more certainty therefore the Spirit hath condescended to name almost the hour of the day so that I am sure we may guess near upon the time for it was early on the first day of the Week which denotes two things that the Lord made haste to rise from the dead to comfort the Disciples and that Mary Magdalen made haste to comfort herself with coming to the Sepulcher Christ started up suddenly out of sleep like Samson before the powers of hell those Philistines were aware of him To this it may be David alluded in Exurgam diluculò Awake my glory awake Lute and Harp I my self will awake right early Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia Be not you slow in paying your debts to God God is ever before-hand in fulfilling his promises to you The words in the Second Psalm which are applied Heb. i. to our Saviours eternal Generation are referred by the same Apostle Acts xiii 33. to his Resurrection Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee I cannot pass it over that the Vulgar Latine reads it Ante luciferum genui te Before the Morning star have I begotten thee Very fitly to this Doctrine which I teach that Christ rose early this day before the Morning Star appeared Now that one Scripture may not seem to fall foul upon another these two must be reconciled how he that rose so early ante luciferum how he can be said to be three days like Jonas in the belly of the Grave The answer is you must measure these three days by a Synechdoche He was buried towards Evening upon the Jews day of preparation and so lay interred some part of Afternoon and all that night Upon the Jews Sabbath he rested in the Sepulcher all day and all night Upon the first day of the Week he continued in the state of death some hours of the Morning and very early he came forth an eternal Victor he fulfilled the Scriptures therefore and withal he made haste to fulfil his Promise upon the third day Euthymius expresseth it more elegantly than I can Quòd citiùs quà m sit constitutum efficitur potentiae est quòd tardiùs imbecilitatis Christus non solùm promissum explevit sed etiam gratiam velocitatis addidit To be tardier than our promise is a sign of some let and infirmity to be before hand with a promise is a sign of power and efficacy The promise of the Son of God was that in three days he would build up the Temple of his body again he did so and more than so soon after the third day was begun Behold the performance of his word and the sudden dispatch of his favour joyn'd unto it So we have seen both his truth in the Promise and his love in the speediness of the act doing above his promise Moreover I would have it be mark'd that as he rose early so he was sought early by Mary Magdalen The desire of Christ held her eyes waking and I believe she had took but small rest since Christ was crucified as soon as it was possible to have access to his Monument she came unto it I know not whether you are to learn it but it was not the usual manner of the Jews to bury their dead within the Walls of their Cities to a Garden you know the Corps of our Saviour was carried into the Suburbs of Jerusalem therefore she was compelled to attend till the Gates of the City were opened and passage being made she came before the break of day to the Sepulcher And believe it she sped much the better that she was such an early visitor do not imagine but the eye of the Lord unto this day is upon those that make haste to come unto the threshold of his sacred House and they are greatly deceived that think they shall find God as soon if they come late to Church as if they come early I pray you tell me is there any part of the Service so mean and unuseful that you can be content to spare it Or do you think that God is asleep and by that time the Congregation hath rouzed him up then
And with a little motion with a turning about he was just behind her and now first she got the sight of him She got the sight of him but loe here is another degree of his appearance before he was clearly revealed he was presented to her in such a fashion that as yet she knew not that her blessedness was so near her She mistook him it is hard to say how for the Gardener that dress'd those grounds But how came this ignorance upon her I do not believe that Christ carried a rake and spade in his hand like a Gardener as vulgar Pictures make bold to set him out He might offer himself in a poor habit and without any upper Garment like one that was not far from home and being so early in the ground these circumstances would suit so well to no man as to the Gardener Very well this conceit might have taken her if our Lord had been a stranger to her knowledge But this is marvellous she sought none but him she knew no mans person in the world so well as him and yet the first glimpse he is any body but himself he is a Gardener How comes this I have it for you I think out of two Texts of the Gospel In the 12. verse of this chapter it is said that after Mary had seen him he appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in another form to two of them by the way Yet concerning the same parties we read Luke xxiv 16. Their eyes were holden that they should not know him We may collect thus much out of both these put together that in those forty days wherein Christ walked upon the earth after he was risen he seemed by his Divine power to wear many sorts of Garments but he wore none for a glorified body needs not the coverture of Apparel and the eyes of those that saw him had not the power to perceive who he was until such time as he saw fit to disclose himself And take it for very truth that I say their outward senses had no power to judg of their object but when he pleased for as I will shew in good time by and by Mary talkt with him and did not know his voice till he opened her ears When he thought it due time and not before her eyes and ears recovered their faculties But I confess the question doth yet depend upon a little more resolution why Christ would let her continue a while deluded that she knew not who he was I answer she deserved not to partake of more favour she loved much indeed but we cannot say that she believed much She believed no more than the High-Priest would have all the world believe that his body was stoln out of the Sepulcher Since therefore she was more zealous in her love towards Christ than all others he appeared unto her but because she would not believe in his resurrection no not for the testimony of the holy Angels therefore for a little space he hid himself from her contriving that in his body now which he doth continually in the sending of his Holy Spirit a little love shall have some reward but he will come and dwell with them and be known of them that believe without wavering As yet he passeth with this woman for a Gardener and that was no unhappy error it was he that did sow the seeds of faith in her heart and planted repentance in her soul that it might grow up and prosper to amendment of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she supposed him to be a Gardener it is true in the allegory but not in the letter Take heed that our carnal affections do not impress Christ into our thoughts otherwise than he is When we are full of earthy low flat cogitations we frame a God of a strange fashion to our selves As Mary Magdalen giving no trust to the Angels that he was risen from the dead took him for no better than the Gardener But to strike up this point to the head whatsoever Christ seemed to her he was himself without all transformation he had now a glorified body he did not change the form and lineaments of his body it was the poison which the Manichaeans suckt out of this Text says St. Hierom that forasmuch as the Lord seemed to this woman diverse from himself he was diverse from himself and had a phantastique body not made of flesh and bone of the seed of the woman ridiculous he contiued very God and very man in the unity of one person the same man Jesus Christ that was born of the Virgin But his wisdom did contrive it so as to reveal himself to this party by degrees First by his Proxies the Angels Secondly by the shape of a Gardener now thirdly he threw the Veil aside and shewed himself clearly as he was unto her and she that desired but to find him dead found him living for ever The manner the manner of it I say is that which is well worthy of a godly eare to mark it for which I still refer you to the 20. of St. John Our Saviour when he came in presence gave her occasion of discourse on this sort woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou Good expressions both of a most passionate love weeping and seeking Yet to seek did befit her diligence but to weep was out of date at this time and convinced her of a reproveable weakness It was no day to spend tears upon which offered occasion of eternal joy and shall so continue a day of gladness every week while the world endures But says St. Austin she that wept for her Brother Lazarus and obteined his resurrection with tears she makes assay if by weeping she could obtein the resurrection of Christ But whatsoever may be thought her infirmity in weeping it was gracious in Gods eyes when it was joyned with seeking Doubtless says St. Paul God is not far from every one of us Act. xvii 27. yea but he is always near at hand to those that seek him not far from any but thou Lord never failest them that seek thee Psal ix 10. Mary had done as much as diligence could express she had wept as much as grief could express now Joseph could not choose but make himself known to his Brethren now Jesus would hold the woman in suspence no longer but he chang'd the accent of his voice and spake so tunably that she knew him at the first word he said no more but Mary as God said unto Moses Thee have I known by name and then she turned and said Rabboni as who should say I know the voice of my Master and I am thine Handmaid It sounded well in her mouth to call him Rabboni or Master now he was alive for she continued to call him Lord when she took him for lost and that he was no better than one of the dead When all ignominy had been cast upon him when none would own him for a Lord yet she reserves his title to him they
the dead and the resurrection of the soul from sin in this interview between himself and Mary Magdalen All men shall be restored to life good and bad for the Son of God redeemed the whole nature of man this day from the corruption of the Grave and the Devil did utterly loose jus mortis the dominion of death because our Saviour being an Innocent was put to death over whom he had no dominion But the glory of Christs victory was to conquer two at once Hell and Death So the Prophet Hosea cries out in form of triumph O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory and from his own voice Revel i. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead behold I am alive for evermore and have the keys of Hell and of Death So in his own person he shewed that he had conquered Death in the person of Mary Magdalen that he had conquered Hell Beloved this great day is Christs Festival and it is the Holiday of every penitent sinner because first he appeared to such an one to Mary Magdalen For our sakes both the Keys are turn'd and for our sakes both the Gates are opened that our bodies may escape the curse of corruption and that our souls may be delivered from the judgment of Hell through Jesus Christ the first fruits of the dead and that first appeared to an humble Convert AMEN THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT xxviii 9 10. And as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them saying all hail and they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him Then said Jesus unto them be not afraid go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me YOU may call to your remembrance that my subject upon Easter-day the last year was How Christ was first seen after he rose again from the dead of one whom he had raised before from the death of sin he appeared first to Mary Magdalen And in this Text other women have the next turn to see him appear in order of story That Sex it is apparent had the honour of the day in the first and second bout that the power of God might be seen in the weaker Vessels The women brought sweet Spices to embalm his body and they encounter that which was sweeter than all the Spices in the world the Vision of the Lord who came forth from the dark places of the dead to life again There is not the weakest capacity among you but must needs observe that the relations of these things are very diversly set down in the four Evangelists And there is not the learnedst capacity among men that can distinctly unfold how they should be reconciled I suppose the Primitive Church I mean the Disciples that were taught by the Apostles and other Scholars taught by them were informed of the true Exposition how every thing hapned in its order but the tradition is lost And they who boast they have kept the Traditions of the Church faithfully are not able to give us a clear rule how to refer these confusions to a certain order St. Paul 1 Cor. xv rehearseth sundry ways how Christ was seen of many after he rose from the dead yet he utterly omits how he was seen of these devout women St. John Chap. xx speaks of the famous interview between our Saviour and Mary Magdalen and no more Our Evangelist in the beginning of this Chapter mentions Mary Magdalen and the other Mary that is the Mother of Zebedees children he goes no further St. Mark quotes another woman that is Salome St. Luke names also one Joanna she was the Wife of Chusa Herods Steward and indefinitely he folds it up that there were other women whose particular cognisance is not revealed And divers things are related divers ways of these which may be reconciled as divers ways without jar or contradiction The stiffest knot in the dissention is that although St. Luke and St. Mark record how the Angels appeared to the women and spake unto them of Christs rising yet they do not say that Christ was seen of them St. Mark relates that he was seen of Mary Magdalen So doth St. John they go no further St. Matthew holds him to Mary Magdalen and to one other Mary that is all Yet he involves at large that as the women not those women only went to bring tidings to the Apostles of what they had seen and heard Christ did meet them by the way For the perplexity of these Narrations some do argue that none of the women saw him this day risen from the dead but Mary Magdalen and that when this Scripture says that he did appear to the women plurally yet it is a Synechdoche speaking that of many which was verified but in one for but one saw him instead of all her companions This is not so probable for it would work better if this truth were manifested by a multitude of Witnesses Others also consider that Mary Magdalen saw him alone and was controuled at that time not to touch him therefore it must be another Apparition when divers women did touch him and worship him Some say therefore that in a very little compass of time Mary Magdalen saw him twice this day unless there were two Mary Magdalens as St. Ambrose would have it first alone and then immediately with her Consorts Yet that seems not so congruous I can say no more against it that two Apparitions should be granted to her in a few moments Therefore without any pertinacy in rejecting the conjectures of others I conceive this second Apparition of Christ which we have in hand to be made to Mary the Mother of James Joanna and Salom with other devout women of Galilee when Mary Magdalen was lately departed from them to tell her errand to the Disciples Laying my ground upon that opinion I deduct these parts out of the Text First I will treat upon it what proceeded from the women Secondly what proceeded from Christ Touching the women again I will handle first what they did before they saw Christ secondly what they did after they had seen him Before they saw him they went to tell his Disciples somewhat After they had seen him 1. They came to him 2. They held him by the feet 3. They worshipped him That which belongs to Christ is contained in his Action and his Words His Action is thus expressed Behold Jesus met them His Words are first a Salutation All Hail 2. A Consolation Be not afraid 3. A Commission Go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee 4. A Promise There they shall see me These are the several talents which God hath committed to me in this and now I will employ them for my Masters profit The women before they had seen our Saviour went to tell his Disciples that must be our beginning They went and went to and fro sundry times upon this occasion It could not choose but be observed by the eyes
of Trinity disclosed his glory and power openly two wayes to their ear and to their eye by a sound unto the ear by a lightsom brightness to the eye to the ear as to the sense of faith and suddenly there came a sound from heaven c. to the eye as to the sense of love and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire c. Whereupon I will enlarge my self unto you at this time in these particulars 1. That the Holy Ghost presented himself to the Primitive Church in a visible object 2. For the principal substance of the apparition it was a Tongue 3. Lingua dispertita vel sectilis it was a Cloven Tongue 4. Quasi ignis it was a firy Tongue 5. It was lingua or ignis or spiritus insidens this Tongue or this Fire or this Spirit take which you will it is all one but it rested or sat upon each of them We begin with an Apparition representing not some Angel or other glorious creature putting on a sensible shape but the third Person of Trinity the Eternal Spirit consubstantial with the Father and the Son He offered himself as this day in a visible Figure to the Apostles and divers other believers that were gathered together in Jerusalem St. Austin in his third Book of the Trinity maintains that all the Persons of Trinity did appear in visible shapes to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament one or two upon one occasion and a third upon another occasion Tertullian and Epiphanius are stout in their opinion that none but God the Son called the Angel of the New Covenant did lay aside his invisible glory in the old times and appeared to men I will not engage my self in that quarrel but for one thing I am at certainty that when the Law was delivered at Mount Sinai the Godhead did not condescend to any apparition at all the people were forbidden so much as to imagin they saw any resemblance of the Most High says Moses Ye saw no similitude only ye heard a voice Deut. iv 12. But the Lord grew more friendly and familiar with us that profess the Gospel We have seen we have heard our hands have handled the word of life this day the new Law began at Mount Sion and we did not only hear a voice as it is in the former verse but according to my Text they saw a similitude that which was wrapt up in dark Parables to the Fathers we see that truth as clearly as it were the Sun at noon day They had the Veil before their eyes says the Apostle we behold the fair beauty of God and the Veil taken away and rent asunder they did dishonur God by worshipping visible things instead of the Invisible Creator and therefore they might not see any resemblance of him for fear of transgressions and if we worship vain things that are not Gods in this world we shall utterly be deprived of seeing his glory and lose our reward hereafter But the special intent of this apparition was to comfort the Apostles for all the tribulations that they were to sustain for as their faith was corroborated with some vision of God here so it assured them that the same faith should be rewarded with a perfect vision hereafter in the life to come He that believeth doth as it were shut his eyes and takes all upon trust that he believes yet upon such trust as cannot deceive him the trust of Divine Revelation so that he sees God as I may say though he do not see him as it is Hebr. xi 27. By faith Moses endured the wrath of Pharaoh as seeing him who is invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see him that is invisible is contrary to reason but reconciled by Divinity but if at any time the most renowned Servants of God had some glimpse of his Majesty in an apparition as it was at this time then it seals that promise unto them which they have made Matth. v. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God they shall I say for all their consolation is de futuro in hope but not in act whether this Vision of the Holy Ghost or any other before it they saw nothing to speak of in comparison of that which shall be revealed Says Epiphanius he that looks through the funnel of a Chimney may truly say that he sees the Heaven but what doth he see neither the heighth nor the breadth nor the vastness of it so he that sees some resemblance of the Holy Trinity sees somewhat of God darkly as in a Glass but he sees not so much of the immensity of his glory as he that sees the Heavens above but through the eye of a Needle To close this point what doth the Lord require from hence but that our eyes should be chast and pure and sanctified to his service because He let the benediction of his Spirit shine upon them and that amends might be made chiefly in that bodily instrument through which we have dishonoured him with wantonness and concupiscence What is created more wicked than an eye says the Son of Sirach and therefore it weepeth upon every occasion Ecclus. xxxi 13. God hath placed our eyes in the uppermost part of man to be Centenels in our Watch-Tower and to give us warning of those things that may hurt us but quis custodiet ipsos custodes unless we set a Watch upon this Watch we shall be betrayed to the sins of the flesh We live like Labans Sheep every man conceives folly as his eye beholds vain things and party coloured Seleucus King of Locrine enacted a Law to have the unchaste eyes of Adulterers pull'd out to punish the trespass in the fountain of the sin and Democritus the Philosopher pull'd out his to prevent the danger We have had an evil eye Matth. x. eyes full of adultery and then as Salâ—ucus said or rather as our Saviour said oculus eruendus an eye good for nothing but pull it out and cast it from you but as the whole man shall be made a new lump through the reformation of inward grace so that the same work may be wonderful also in our eyes the Holy Ghost cast his beams upon them at this Feast of Whitsuntide and there appeared unto them c. Hitherto I have made a general survey of the Text that it conteins an Apparition sent from Heaven in making access to particulars the first thing notorious in the Apparition is that the matter and as it were the substance of it is a tongue The whole world was mad against the truth crying out distractedly like those of Ephesus Acts xix Then there was need of the voice of a charmer to make them still and attentive with some heavenly incantation The Church was going forth in a militant order to fight the Lords Battels therefore the Lord gave a Trumpet to his Ministers to utter forth a certain sound that they might prepare themselves for the skirmish 1 Cor.
says St. Hierom that is if the Wolf come near the Sheepfold he must not only be threatned with the Staff but the Dogs must bark at him likewise and then he will leave his Prey and take him to his heels St. Austin presseth the same Doctrin out of St. Paul Ephes iv 11. He gave some Apostles and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers Says he I collect from hence that every Pastor that is every Bishop must be a Teacher for it is not said he gave some Pastors and some Teachers as it went before some Apostles and some Prophets but Pastors and Teachers are put together without a distinctive member ut intelligerent Pastores ad officium suum pertinere doctrinam that Pastors may know how teaching is included in their duty and cannot be separated from it This then was the principal intent of giving the tongue at the Feast of Whitsuntide as it is Isa l. 4 The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season First then negligent silence in Pastors is a stifling the grace of God Quantùm vitae merito aedificat tantùm destruit silentio Secondly affected silence is affronting the grace of God as those Orders of Friars that bind themselves by vow and institution of life not to utter a word excepting one day or it may be one hour in the week sometimes not so often Agatho the Anchorite is commended in the lives of the Fathers that he never spake what is this but as it were to advow not to receive the benediction of the Holy Ghost Finally to be preproperous and over-hasty to teach the Gospel is to prevent the Spirit or rather not to wait for the grace of God For Christ had first rooted the knowledge of the Word and Scripture in the Apostles and then endued them with a tongue but they that start up Teachers before they be grounded in the Word speak with their own tongue before they have received the tongue of the Holy Ghost But the tongue supplies another office in nature and that 's to taste The ear trieth words as the mouth tasteth meats Job xxxiv 3. so the Spirit makes us feel and know the good things of God that are in us even as the tongue makes us relish that which is sweet upon the palat and will be delectable for nourishment Nay we do not only taste the things of heaven slightly and as we say upon the tip of the tongue but the same Spirit makes us to ruminate upon them and chew the cudd my heart is always musing of thy testimonies says David O 't is a comfortable thing to have a tast of Heaven in our Soul to have some persuasive Experiment that the Holy Ghost dwelleth in us especially to have it proceed to that most pleasing Sapor when the Spirit shall testifie to our Spirit that we are the Sons of God but in all that are meetly disposed to Eternal Life there is some perceivance in others more in others less there 's some Tast some Consolation that Christ is in them and works in them by Faith and Love and the more you tast it the more sweetness you shall find to breed an Appetite The Natural Man perceives not the things that are of God he counts the Doctrin of Christ and him crucified to be Madness and Foolishness he thinks they that kill his Apostles do God good service he puts bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Isa 5.20 there 's all the Tast that he hath he wants a Tongue to dijudicate of the Manna that comes from Heaven which no man knows but he that receiveth it Rev. ii 17. He to whom it is given to know what is the height bredth and depth of the Love of our Lord Jesus and his Redemption he accepts of all things in a diverse manner from him to whom the mind of the Lord is not revealed he interprets the Poverty of Christ to be the Riches of the World his Ignominy to be the Triumph of the Saints Tribulation for the truth is a Refreshing to his body Mortification and pious Sorrow a dainty Lenitive to his soul he receives the Doctrin of our Ministry not as the Word of Man but as it is indeed the Word of God he cannot but speak the Truth though his life ly at the stake for it negare Dei verbum non valeo quia spiritus sancti linguam habeo it is Gregories I cannot deny the word of God because the Holy Ghost hath given me a tongue to speak it To conclude this point no man can have a smack of the Kingdom of Heaven but through the rellish of this tongue no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. xii 3. as we are born children of wrath in our unregenerate estate we have bitterness in our throat and the poison of Asps under our lips how can we savour the things that are of God but the Spirit makes us a new creature and takes away all this sourness and ill relished acrimony and then his fruit will be sweet unto our mouth Cantic ii 3. Having delivered unto you the substance of this Vision which is a tongue it follows to speak of the Figure and Form of it It was cloven that 's truly called the Figure and like as of fire that 's truly called the Form A Tongue was a Commission and an enabling of the Apostles to preach but a Cloven Tongue was their hability to preach unto many The Syrian language was all that they could speak before and in that they faultered too and mouthed it rudely and unelegantly a silly Damosel quipt even St. Peter with it Thou art a Galilaean and thy speech betrayeth yet such a tongue as it was they were unlettered men and could speak no more all the world beside were Barbarians to them and they Barbarians to all the world But the Lord knew that they had need of many tongues to pay that great debt which they owed his Church ite praedicate universae creaturae go and teach all Nations from Jerusalem and Samaria even unto the ends of the world I would a little satisfie my Auditors before I go any further that would know how the tongues did resemble a cloven figure that sat upon the Apostles If you look upon such types of it as Picture-drawers have framed remember that there is no heed to be given to their Pencil for they will extremely abuse your ignorance they usually represent the Apparition as if every Apostle and the Blessed Virgin sitting in the midst of them had a little lamp of fire like the flame of a small Torchet blazing upon their head and so would thrust this belief upon the rash gazer that God sent down a shew of many firy tongues into the place where this holy Society was gathered together and that there was singularis flammula a little flame proportioned somewhat like a Tongue sitting
these persons and to this season not to these persons for it is most likely that none but the Apostles were partakers of the Divine illumination which came from Heaven upon this day and the Apostles no man calls it in question had the talents of that grace delivered unto them which saved their souls Ir is a masterless and a false fame that any castaways were in the number of these that were filled with the Holy Ghost Christ himself is said to be full of the Holy Ghost Luke iv 1. and the Blessed Virgin gratiâplena full of grace and St. Stephen the Captain of all Martyrs full of the Holy Ghost Acts vi and Barnabas the Son of Consolation full of the Holy Ghost Acts xi None but such as were peerless Saints are deigned with that praise to give this scruple a full satisfaction regard the time and season wherein this dew of heaven did drop down into the Fleece of wooll it is the day so long before promised wherein the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh the scaturigo the first spouting out of the Spirit and do you think that this being the original from whence the spring began that all the best Balsams and Liquors did not flow into them that received it I resolved therefore that these persons in my Text did not only partake such gifts as made them wonderful in the eyes of the world but such also as made them holy and acceptable in the sight of God that is it did not only speak in their tongues but it was diffused in their hearts To end this matter remember what manner of spirit that is which God bestows it is from above it is holy it is not our own but Christs a Spirit from above and not from beneath as St. Paul says Now we have received not the spirit of this world but of God 1 Cor. ii 12. Spiritus mundi est per quem arripiuntur phanatici says St. Ambrose that 's the spirit of this world with which phanatical men are led which drives them into contention or vain glory but they are enemies to peace and savour not the things which belong to God And since we are bidden to deny our selves if we will be Christs Disciples we must also deny our own private Spirit and submit our selves to the Spirit of the Church which is the Spirit of God for our Saviour hath promised to be with it unto the end of the world Take heed of this hot windy humour which makes some cleave pertinaciously to their own imagination and attribute far more to their own ignorant judgment than becomes them The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets but if any one think that some new mysteries are revealed to him which the Church never heard of before and begin to trouble our peace with his falsesly pretended raptures and enthusiasms I say unto such in Ezekiels words Woe unto the foolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing Thus far I have spoken of the Gift which was given to the Apostles to supply the room of Christ himself now he was gone and ascended into Heaven Hominem portavit in coelum Deum misit in terram says St. Austin he carried away his Manhood into Heaven and instead thereof he sent down God unto the Earth I mean the Holy Ghost and this Gift more worth than all the world beside is his usual and continual favour but the measure of it is more than ordinary repleti sunt omnes they were all filled with the Holy Ghost And Leo did very well to mark it that this was not spiritus inchoans but cumulans not the initiation but the accumulation of the Spirit the augmenting of the old stock which the Apostles had in a good quantity before not the beginning of a new They had the Spirit before as appears particularly in St. Peter when Christ told him he had prayed that his faith might not fail therefore he had a portion of faith In general it is most manifest that Christ breathed on them all and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost But as it appears by Elisha's request to his Master Elias there are single and there are double Portions of the Spirit there is a single Talent of Grace given to one Servant two to a second and five Talents committed to him that was most entrusted by his Master there are such as have a little of this Manna in their Omer and them that have it top full And these that received the Holy Ghost at this Feast were such as were not sprinkled but replenished with it quibus nulla pars animae mansit carens spiritu sancto says Cajetan the fruits of sanctification did not grow thinly in them here a berry and there a berry upon the top of a bough but pious conformity to Gods will obedience and the fear of the Lord were in every faculty of their soul and body The Romanists oftentimes put in such impertinent cautions that their bedging in of some needless exception lays waste the truth of God Among others of that bad stamp this is one that the Apostles and other holy men are said to be filled at this time with the Holy Ghost because an Increase was put to that which they had before but the Blessed Virgin was so full before that she received not any new addition or if she received a new distillation of it now illud erat ut in nos tantum effunderet says Lorinus it was for our sakes that it might overflow and be transfused from her to us even as Christ was full of grace and truth from the first moment that he was incarnate and yet for our sakes the Spirit came upon him when he was baptized in Jordan Matth. iii. a most scandalous comparison between the Infinite and the Finite between the Creator and the Creature for though Christ thought it no robbery to be equall with God Philip. ii yet it is a great robbery of the Divine honor to make the Blessed Virgin equal with Christ But to keep to mine own work the Apostles had an earnest penny of the Spirit before but they came to the fulness of it by degrees first they were baptized and so had an introduction unto sanctity afterward Christ breathed on them that was their proficiency last of all came this mighty rushing and cloven tongues as it were fire and sat upon each of them that 's their perfection by nature and of themselves they were of the earth earthly but they were regenerate and born again in Baptism that 's an Element above the Earth The next step of their heavenly promotion was that the Lord breathed on them so the Air is above the Water In conclusion the Holy Ghost came down upon them in fire this is a sign that they were now full to the brim for that 's the Element which is above the Water and the Air and is the next to Heaven And well may it be called a
of Devils are but Gods Serjeants not executioners by their own power Since Michael and his Angels are the better number and more couragious since Christ hath the key of the bottomless pit to bind the binders Quamvis ad inferos fodiunt though they dig into Hell Sion shall dwell in safety Having dispatched the Action and the Object it is to be examined what use these Fugitives can make of Hell Why 1. To escape danger and betake themselves to safety says Hugo 2. To inchant and complot against the innocent says Lyra. Beloved let your patience stay a little and only see what the wicked would have Every creature under the Sun hath a natural inclination and propensity to save it self and to avoid that which may destroy it The Lamb yeaned but yesterday makes hast from the Wolf the Chicken newly hatch'd hides it self from the gliding of the Kite As for Sinners and Reprobates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are so foolish that when destruction doth threaten them they dig into Hell for Saviours Like a runnagate servant that was well-nigh overtaken and ran away to hide him in a Mill Vbi te occuparem nisi in pistrino says his Master it is the very place I wisht to find you in Somewhat like to that which Phocion said of his bitter enemy Aristogiton whom he visited in prison Vbi congrediare cum Aristogitone libentiùs quà m in carcere In all the world the jail was the fittest place to encounter Aristogiton So these Fugitives have chosen their rendezvous where God would have them fodiunt ad inferos c. It was the Elogy of Heraclitus the Philosopher Vivis esse unum omnibus communem mundum all that are awake know they live in one world together Dormientes in peculiarem mundum divertere men that dream and are in sleep every one in his phancy is in a world by himself Give me leave to turn the River into my own Channel The godly man that knows his sins and trespasses knows he is in that world where God may take vengeance of him But the presumptuous sinner as foolish as the man that dreams thinks his life secure and that he is in a new-found world where God cannot find him out Whom God destines out to destroy it is his providence to make them find out a place instead of preservation for their own destruction I will begin with Catesby and his fellow Assassinates They lived in plenty amongst men and in favour with their Prince but being uncertain what might befall them they devise a stratagem to advance their heads that they might never be removed why in this was Gods providence to overwhelm them in their own cruelty So one of the Cassii being perfidious to his own Nation and luckily discovered fled to the sanctuary of a Temple his own Father sentenced to have the door damm'd up and so to starve him there was his Sanctuary Among five Kings of Canaan that were discomfited Josh x. in all likelihood some or all might have escap'd by flight but they take a Cave at Makkedah over their head and there they are inclosed Jonah was sick with fear and durst not walk upon the ground when God was displeased at him then to make all sure he prepares for shipping A strange resolution as if the Sea had not as many deaths as there are winds that blow from all the corners of the world as many graves as there are billows surging How often have we seen our friends like superstitions Gamesters shift their ground and remove into fresh air and pleasant dwelling for their health who have laid down their Carkass in that dust where they look'd for recovery In manus tuas Domine in manus tuas Into thy hands O Lord into thy hands alone we commend all we have Heaven is the only treasury where we may cast our two Mites safely as the Widow did I mean our soul and body This then is the first part of folly in these profligate persons to dig for Saviours into Hell But secondly they are a kind of men who cannot build except they pluck down they purchase nothing but by other mens ruins therefore they undermine they would settle Religion by undermining the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have had experience of such ill neighbours alas when we did stand before their faces they did design us unto death and we may say as David did living with Saul in his phrensie As the Lord liveth there was but a step between us and death Circa serpentis antrum positus diu non eris illesus says Isidor here lurks a Serpent and there a Viper and who could tread any where and not be bitten Quid gloriaris tyranne Faithless men why do you boast so much of your refined wits that you can do mischief When Songs were sung in every Town of Greece how King Philip had defaced the fair City Olynthus But when will he build up such another City says a silly woman That would be cared for Take away conscience and dispense with the Word of God and every soft Spirit and silly man could cheat as much as any promoter It was never otherwise from the beginning of the world but that a bloud-thirsty rabble have always treacherously opposed the new setling or reviving of the faith The Israelites began to be a visible Congregation in Egypt to call upon God let us deal subtilly says Pharaoh and cut off the Male Children there was one plot The next change of their State was in Captivity but finding favour in a strange Land and growing to a competent number of religious souls Haman had like to have cut them off in the twinkling of an eye there was another plot The next change after the Captivity was the Incarnation of our Saviour Sweet Babe no sooner is he born but Herod calls for the wise men privily to destroy him there is a third plot Anon after our Saviours Ascension Ceremonies are evacuated and Paul preacheth the Gospel then their heads were busie to pluck down the Cedar and plant the Heath-thorn and more than forty men bind themselves with an oath to take away his life Here are four plots and since that time there have been four thousand An honourable story for our reformed Sion and if we glory let us glory in our infirmities that for a long time the Monasteries of Friers the Colledges of Jesuits and the Consistories of Cardinals have been nothing but Conventicles to conspire against us They seem to practise as against the eldest heirs of Gods Inheritance and they like younger Brothers by wile and by guile would fain succeed us So I have let you see the two ends why the wicked spend their time about this fearful object which is Hell First For their own safety and therein they deceive themselves Secondly To undermine others and therein God will deceive them The frustrating of their end is the last part of my Text in these words Inde educet eos manus
relate but that he finished this life I cannot say it His years are numbred before my Text like other mens three hundred sixty five just as many years as there be days in an usual year after the motion of the Sun not that this reckoning is the term of his life but the term of that time that he conversed with men As Tertullian glosseth upon St. Pauls words I am crucified with Christ How crucified and yet live Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia by the reformation of his life not by the loss of his life So Enoch had a period when he left to be with men Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia By an exaltation to a better life not by the corruption of his body As the men of Israel would not let Jonathan suffer death though Saul had given Sentence against him What say they shall Jonathan die that hath wrought such great salvation in Israel So when the Spirit of the Lord had testified what a Prophet Enoch was a perfect obedient that abhorred Will-worship a stiff maintainer of Gods part against the Devil and all his Instruments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a friend a familiar acquaintance a walker with God Upon this testimony Mercy opposeth Justice and though the Lord had said to Adam and to all that were in his loyns Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return What says Mercy shall Enoch die an example of repentance to all Generations So the stroke of death was diverted that he saw not the Grave and Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him The partition which I framed upon the whole Verse was on this wise first how uncorrupt Enoch was in his ways he walked with God and secondly that he did not see corruption And this second Point which is reserved for this hours labour is to be handled in two several heads the former I will call Enoch's passage out of this world He was not The latter his reposure in another world For God took him His place was left empty among the Patriarchs below and he filled a room among the Thrones and Angels above Upon these two I shall handle many particular Doctrines before you And he was not a concise phrase you see and brevity will breed obscurity especially put this unto it that it is a form of speech which is not used again in this sense to my remembrance in all the Scripture But the sense is made plain by St. Paul Heb. xi 5. By Faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death He had a passage out of this world without any dissolution of the soul from the body In the same body that he pleased God says Irenaeus he was translated being never uncloathed of the flesh that he might put on immortality That this truth may be carried the clearer I will debate it a little with them that oppose it and with them that qualifie it Some of the Hebrew Rabbines as I find them quoted because they consult not with the authority of the New Testament think they are not convicted by the Old Testament but that they may conclude how Enoch died and was taken away in an early Age as those times went much sooner than his Forefathers As if this Verse did rather bemoan him for his untimely departure than renown him for some glorious favour which did befal him The phrase indeed if we look no farther will bear it both in sacred and in heathen Writings to say of one departed fuit he was but is not this was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair way of language to avoid an unpleasing word Yet the phrase doth not always stand in that sense but hath a double acception and both in one verse that you may the better carry it away Gen. xlii 36. Jacob there bemoans himself for the waat of two Children Joseph is not and Simeon is not the one he took to be dead indeed the other to be in fast hold and taken from his eyes removed where he could not come at him as Enoch was but no more So the Chaldee Paraphrase explains the meaning of Jacob Joseph non superest Simeon non est hic Joseph is quite lost and Simeon is not here The phrase then accords very well with that place of the Hebrews by faith Enoch was translanted that he saw not death And my Text must incline to that exposition for two reasons First that the Lord took him stands for a consequent that he was pleased in him it is the reward as you would say that he walked with God not that there is a necessary and perpetual coherency in it that whosoever walks with God should be exalted into Paradise and not see corruption but Enochs righteousness by a priviledge of favour was so requited a favour then being understood in those words it cannot be the sentence of death upon him it is impossible Secondly in this Chapter the last word that the Holy Ghost gives of Adam is Et mortuus est and he died so of Seth so of Enos so of Cainan so of all the Antecessors of Enoch wherefore unless Enoch had some other issue out of this world diverse from the rest which was by translation without death why should it be said of him so differently from all others he was not for the Lord took him So I have corrected the great error of those Hebrew Doctors who would lay Enochs honour in the dust But I suppose the general Exposition of the Jews was right and according to St. Pauls doctrine For Paul wrote to the Hebrews that he saw not death knowing the tradition was commonly so received among them and the Chaldee Paraphrast who lived straight after Christ was of the same judgment beside one of great note among them says he was disarrayed of the foundation corporal and cloathed with the foundation spiritual which words I conceive do jump with those who oppose not the Scripture that he saw not death far be it from them but they have a qualification for the meaning of it that death is taken two ways most properly for the separation of one essential part of man from the other the body from the soul a loath to depart it is a most unwelcom dissolution a punishment upon the sin of our first Father which was remitted to Enoch improperly it is no more but the separation or extinction of corruptible qualities from the soul and body one whom I named even now called it the disarraying of a man from the foundation corporal and so Enoch was purified altered made quite another man in the very moment that he was wrapt up to heaven This evacuation of corruptible qualities from the flesh is called death by some very good Authors in our own Church and so Procopius much more ancient than they Mirabili modo mortis defunctus est ad vitam coelestem translatus it was a rare and admirable kind of death he suffered
you must know that there is a threefold evidence of truth to be distinguished First there is the evidence of our outward senses Matt. xvi when it is Evening you say it will be fair weather for the Sky is red O ye hypocrites can you discern the face of heaven says our Saviour as who should say then there is more to be understood 2. There is the evidence of knowledg which will condemn the Heathen that know not God for the invisible things may be understood by the things which are made even his eternal Godhead Rom. i. both these truths you see are fruitless without a third and what is that but the evidence of faith Heb. xi As for other Truths every man is in the high way to get them capiat qui capere potest but as for this Truth it hath looked down from Heaven says David looked upon whom it listeth and all men have not faith Whether Faith be the evident Truth or not all the World almost upon a time stuck at that point but onely Abraham either because their eyes were dim or because it shined like the face of Moses that they could not behold it Yea we have sundry Traditions that some Philosophers cast an eye upon the first verse of the Scripture In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth but they started at it like the Host of Israel at the dead Corps of Amasa and went no further Alas poor Philosophy who knows not how to confound the wisdom of her Principles The fire hath been as temperate as the morning air Dan. 3. the waters have stood upon an heap like the strong ribs of a Mountain Exod. xiv the Sun hath hid his face at noon day when Astronomy could find no reason for it their Art was as blind as the Heaven in the Eclipse But every part of nature should be out of frame Heaven and Earth should pass away before one title of Gods book should perish that with the dissolution of the Heavens no Angels might remain and with the ruine of the Earth no men might be left to testify against it The holy Martyrs have forsaken their lives that this truth might not forsake them And as it is reported of our Philosopher that the ashes spread upon the high Mountains of Tenariffa retain for ever any letters drawn out upon them by reason of the tranquillity of the place So no wind or storm can scatter away those holy words of Gods Book since they have been written in the ashes of the Martyrs the Law cannot endure better in the Tables of Stone than the Gospel in that sacred dust If Faith be not a Truth how did Abraham see Christmas day and rejoyce and keep it a solemn Festival more than a thousand years before the name was entred into our Calender He knew the faithfulness of Gods Promise that made Jesus our Redemption so undoubtedly that he swore him a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech The Mother of our Lord might ask reverently quomodo How should these things be The best in the World have their doubts of infirmity but Domine non erit tibi this thing shall not be so when Christ had spoken it that was a mistake in St. Peter and yet behold the Evidence of Truth shewed it self more abundantly anon after in the faith of that Apostle than in all the skill of Greece and Egypt Tell me what Physician could promise recovery to the Cripple lying at the Beautiful Gate Durst all the Colledg of Galen say unto him confidently stand up and walk but the Apostle saw that one grane of faith could give him the use of his feet and ancle bones that he might leap and praise the Lord. Whatsoever is confirmed by the mouth of two or three Witnesses it passeth for truth by the Law of God and Man and good reason for it Now the Old Testament was confirmed under the name of three Patriarchs I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. In the New Covenant whether it were at the Transfiguration of Christ Peter James and John three Attendants did bear him company to Mount Tabor in like manner at the raising up of Jairus Daughter and in the Mount of Olives when he sweat and prayed so many were with him as before and the self same three Disciples all was confirmed under the mouth of three Witnesses But I will take no more pains in this point to prove Faith to be a Truth as I remember the great Orator reports of a good man Q. Metellus he was excused or rather forbidden to shew his proof unto the Senate in a Controversie to be debated lest the Bench should seem to distrust so reverend a Citizen None but Julian the Apostate and such accursed as he hath left behind him would scoff at Faith whose cavil it was as Nazianzen reports that we had a starting hole for all objections in one silly word Believe These men knew not that Faith in a little Pearl was worth all the substance of a Merchant and he sold all he had to buy the Pearl Matt. xiii Surely if the Womb of Mary deserved a Blessing from all Generations that bore the Infant from everlasting if the Arms of Simeon deserved a Church Anthem every Evensong that enclasped him if the Tomb of Joseph was attended by Angels where his body lay then cut down Palms and spread your Garments in the way for Christ is rode in triumph into that heart into which faith is entred Now Truth is fruitful and brings forth Truth a Daughter not unlike her self Divine Truth is the cause of Human Truth of a true Conversation of a right Balance and a just Fphah Her Merchandise is such as Abraham's was with the Hittites Gen. 23. which I will ever commend when he bought a Tomb for Sarah such as the ancient Romans was aedes pestilentes vendo the Seller was not ashamed to confess that his House had the Pestilence Not as St. Hierom told the Trades of his time tanti vitrium quanti margaritam to chop away Glass for Rubies or as St. Basil says of Gordias the Martyr that his Soul was vexed with the City and he retired into the Wilderness leaving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he could not endure the Buyers and Sellers the forswearers and liars And what doth all come to when they cast up their Audit Prov. xxi 6. The getting of riches by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death Let our Merchants beware that they carry not that report which the Wits of St. Paul's time put upon the Cretians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwayes liars evil beasts and slow-bellies or as Plutarch spake of Demades the Pleader then grown past the best that there was nothing left in him but his Tongue and his Paunch his Tongue to tell lies and his Belly to surfeit the meer Reliques of an Ox sacrificed Nay I beseech you
King Agrippa's leave almost a Christian was three parts an Atheist Such a glimmering light of zeal is like a Morning mist which quickly vanisheth away and it is Christus suffuratus as the Souldiers said Christ stoln away and pilfered out of our heart I know not how He that never saw the Sea is as near his journeys end to pass it over as he that wades but to the ankles The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundation of this house and his hands shall finish it Zach. iv 9. that was a blessing from the Lord. To be of Caesars mind Nil actum credens cum quid superesset agendum to think nothing done when any thing was undone that was a Spirit to make a Conquerour My love is a bundle of Myrrh Cant. xiii As if she were like Seleucus shafts which could not be broken in the cluster Such a bundle of Myrrh is in St. Peter 2 Epist i. 5. Give all diligence and add to your faith vertue to your vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance to temperance patience to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to all these charity What will all these serve the turn when they stand as thick as corn in harvest Yes says the Apostle Si abundaverint if they abound in you they will make you you shall not be barren and fruitless Thus then Truth and Mercy will forsake us if we do not further the gift of God take away the single Talent and give it to him that hath ten more The next way to make our heart cast this happy brood and to miscarry when it travels with Truth and Mercy is admotione contrarii by taking part both with God and Belial Asahal was not more nimble than St. John to fly away when he spied Cerinthus the eldest Son of Satan in the same Bath with him and therefore do not think to make your soul an Ark for the clean and unclean beasts to lie together A little frosty air is so forcible that it bursts the clouds and forceth out the hot exhalation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is spirted out between the fingers and gone before you can think of it Beloved that field in Israel was hated like Aceldama which was sown with divers seeds and Nehemiah cursed the children that spake one half in the Hebrew Tongue and another part in the Language of Ashdod Covetousness is so wealthy and it thrives so fast that it easily purchaseth the whole heart of man and whom at first you entertained like a foreiner to have one moyety in your heart it buys the whole possession over Mercies head Veios migrate coloni and so casts it forth And likewise so incompatible is truth with the least falshood that the haters of the Lord were found liars at our Saviours arraignment when he spake nothing Is it not strange Very strange That Christ should come before unrighteous Judges be impeached by malicious Adversaries all this while hold his peace and yet the Witness not agree Will you know the reason There came two false Witnesses Mat. xxvi Averring that this fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and to build it again in three days There is another tale told Mar. xiv We heard him say I will destroy this Temple made with hands and will build another without hands But what said our Saviour in very deed You shall find his saying Joh. ii 19. Neither I can destroy with the former nor I will destroy with the latter But vos solvite do you destroy and solvite templum hoc the Temple of his body and in three days I will raise it up You cannot clap good and bad together but with waxen pins if you move them a little they fly asunder the wax melteth and it confounds the Chariot and his Rider For what agreement hath light with darkness or the Temple of the Lord with Idols Touching the third manner and the last how a quality may cease to be desitione subjecti when that faileth wherein it is it hath no place only in Truth and Mercy Other things indeed we can expect to remain no longer than the house of our body lasteth beauty ceaseth with the bloud and strength faileth with the sinews nay tongues shall cease and knowledge shall vanish away but mercy and charity abideth for ever Yea and truth also but veritas in visione not in fide Truth in the clear vision of God and not darkly in faith In a word as Joseph furnished his Brethren both with food for their travel and Corn to keep house with in the Land of Canaan So there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. James gifts for our Pilgrimage in this life and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts to abide with us in our Country above perfect gifts descending from the Father of lights So some endowments drop away with this house of flesh but after glorification this voice shall no more be heard in our ears let not Mercy and Truth forsake thee But this uncomfortable deserant that Gods gifts may forsake us is to view Jacob but as a Criple halting and failing in his combate but nè deserant let them not forsake thee shews Israel wrestling with the Angel and keeping God as I may speak it with reverence fast unto him with a chain of Faith To begin therefore with Mercy there are two ways to keep a firm possession of it by Meditation and by Petition The Meditations also shall be twain and very short ones for the time sake First Consider that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers call it the deep engagement of our Charity in the Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our brethren and no otherwise Lord what a deep curse do we bring upon our soul if this be not said in earnest Secondly Consider the compassion of all the Members in that mystical body whereof Christ is the head He that is hard hearted against a Christian is cruel against a part of himself Nero might fill the streets with the slaughtered bodies of the Saints For why he was none of ours but a Lion in the Sheepfold but a little bitterness a disdaining contempt a reviling malediction the neglect of the misery of a Christian at the hands of a Christian is more unnatural It was St. Basils counsel and most elegant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that as he that looks upon the sore eye of another man may chance to provoke the rheum in his own eyes so our eyes should grow feeble and conceive tears when we see the tears of our brother If we chance to offend against Mercy and to forget one of these Meditations it is very likely that it will stop at the other but if both fail then we must fly unto uncessant Prayer and Petition That is Anchora sacra for the last refuge let us fall down before his footstool and confirm Gods grace to our soul as Elias made the heavens of brass I do not mean so
gave me not my outward senses to delude me I am sure that Christ is there and I partake the meritorious Passion of his Body crucified and his Bloud shed upon the Cross all that men controvert more than this is to beget sorrow to the Church and laughter to the Devil My soul dwelleth among them that are enemies unto peace but I am content to say this is my Saviour who offered himself up for me therefore I will not let thy truth forsake me Lastly In that great Controversie of Justification there is a way in which the mists of errour cannot arise and there is a way in which the substantial food is lost by striving to comprehend the shadow with it By vertue of the Law I know my duty that I must be a Doer and thereby I discern my infirmity that I must be a Debtor By vertue of the Lords Prayer I find my self arreraged in iniquities that are past my flesh trembling at tentations to come my soul and body gasping for deliverance from evil round about me I find not one line wherein I may obtest unto God by any part of my own Sanctification Thirdly By vertue of my Creed I find that my Saviour was incarnate suffered and rose again to purchase Redemption unto us and Remission of our sins The Angels are not more sure of their incorruptible glory than we may be to say As many as walk in this rule peace be to them and mercy and on the Israel of our God Cogita de Deo quicquid meliùs potes de teipso quod deterius vales says St. Bernard and then thy truth is like Mount Sion which cannot be removed But to go a little further and to creep into the Mediatorship of Jesus Christ there is no likelihood but it should prove an unthankful blasphemy Being rooted in this most holy Faith and in our active Mercy toward the whole body of Christs Church there remains for us a passive mercy which will not forsake us the sure mercies of David in our blessed Redeemer who is called Amen and in whom are all the Promises And there is a truth which will stick to us as fast and answer for us against the slanders of Satan who is the Reviler of the Brethren For he that confesseth me before men there is truth on our part I will confess him before my Father which is in heaven there is truth on Gods part to which God Father c. A SERMON UPON THE RECHABITES JEREM. xxxv 6. But they said we will drink no Wine AT the first hearing of these words I may conjecture that some men thought of no such Scripture and that most men look for a strange construction and you shall have a construction to mollify the Paradox since it was ever safe to decline extremes in all opinions for they are like Jehu in his furious march what have they to do with peace Indeed if you will recount among many who they were that have professed so much austerity as those that say in my Text We will drink no wine you will neither commend them for wisdom nor for piety Lycurgus in the Luxury of his Country cut up every Vine by the roots and destroyed the Vineyards like those inconsiderate men in our dayes superexcessive Reformers of Religion who think there is no way to amend that which is abused but with Hezekias Justice against the Brazen Serpent utterly to consume it The Manichees would not endure to taste the Cup at the holy Communion as if Christ had been too prodigal to bestow Wine at his last Supper upon his Disciples And you know who they are that want not much to be Manichees Tertullian mentions a most harsh Discipline among the Romans that no Woman might know the taste of Wine sed sub Romulo quae vinum tetigerat impunè à marito trucidata est that it was lawful for the Husband to shed his own Wifes bloud if she tasted of the bloud of the Grape So likewise there were certain Christians called Severiani by a nick name that grudged the whole World St. Pauls allowance that Modicum which he granted unto Timothy and Pharaohs Butler with these men had been kept for ever in prison had he pressed a few Grapes into the Kings own Cup. But for all these men who grudg Cato his draught of wine when he is wearied with the affairs of the Common-wealth I say their abstemious life is perverseness and such were not the Rechabites that say in my Text We will drink no wine In which Text barren as it may seem there are many things very Religious and profitable to make up my Treatise at this time And as boldly as Prudentius said by a Catachresis that there were jejuniorum victimae many Sacrifices offered up to God by fasting and abstaining from meats so say I that this Text is abstemiorum racematio there is a fruitful Vintage to be gathered out of non bibemus We will drink no wine This whole Chapter is but of one entire piece like the silver Trumpets of Moses Numb 10. so is the discourse thereof without interruption or almost without full point from the beginning to the end First God is provoked to wrath by the rebellions of Judah False Prophets were crept in that had taught strange Doctrin and the People had itching ears and were worse Disciples Now what instrument should the Lord choose to lay open his indignation whom but Jeremy the Propher and him God knew to be fit for the Errand not as he knew Nathaniel under the shade of his Fig-leaves sed sub carnis umbraculo in his Mothers Womb. Jeremy sets himself to the Task and lays open their sins not by revilings by menacies by zeal as hot as fire and who could do less they made Moses the meekest Soul alive throw stones at them and break the Tables but setting before them the Example of the Rechabites promising their obedience should be had in an everlasting remembrance and Judah his stubborn Son should see their happiness and want it Et spectet nostros jam plebs Romana triumphos Will it not grieve them to see Strangers and Aliens bear the Bell away and themselves look on and be quite neglected Lastly what was the Obligation that kept the Rechabites under such aw and duty for Jeremy spread a Table entreated them courteously and set Flagons of wine before them Why nothing but this their Father Jonadab had made them protest to take this austere life upon them that they would drink no wine A hard case between God and Israel if you mark it What was Jonadab or who was it that gave him wisdom no stedfast faith could be put in his Laws nor certainty in his Statutes nay upon this Text it is Calvins opinion laudatur obsequium filiorum non legi approbatum fuisse consilium paternum 't is true that Jeremy commends the Sons of Jonadab for their obedience but the Holy Ghost did no where commend Jonadab for making such
to distort this saying as if Christian were general to every Schismatick and Sectary and Catholick were appropriated to the Orthodox abiding in the bosom of the true Church Nay some are so senseless to make the Apostles the Authors of such childish counsel that because good and bad would invade the name of Christian therefore the Disciples should call themselves Catholicks for distinction sake Why list I pray you he that can falsly say Christian is my name can he not with as much impudency and falshood say that Catholick is my surname the word becomes the Creed most divinely the holy Catholick Church for what Church shall I adhere to That which is for Time universal from the preaching of Christ unto these dayes that which is for Place universal dispersed wheresoever the Faith of the Elect is received that which is for Truth universal believing all that the Prophets and Apostles have delivered and whatsoever the Church hath ratified by its continual interpretation But our fine Italian Wits have spun out another notion that particular Church is Catholick which hath reteined the pure Truth in all Ages since Christ and never failed from whence hath resulted that proud inclosure of Roman Catholick an error not to be argued me thinks but to be whooped at I am sure Catholick in their sense is neither name nor surname of them that seek for peace They pour it on as Vinegar to make the wounds of the Church smart The Name of Christian is the Sanctuary of Unity and Oil to heal the wound let that be our Badg then which was the good Disciples c. But if you wear this Livery of Christ what service will you do him do you consider it unto what holiness you are engaged if your Title be derived from so pure a Fountain Now I am at the top of the spire at that point of my Text which is nearer to Heaven than any other It is well that we were Infants when we were first inrolled to be Christians in those sucking days we did not feel the weight that was laid upon our shoulders if we came with ripe years to Baptism and with premeditated understanding it would make us sink down when we put our foot into the waters and tremble all over to bethink us what heavenly part a Christian is to act upon the Earth as if he were an Angel incarnate Alexander Severus the Emperor whose Mother Mammaea was a Christian was saluted in the name of Antoninus by the Romans a name which had been most auspicious in that Republick By no means says the Emperor do not engage me to the necessity of that expectation Nomina insignia onerosa sunt illustrious names are burdensom and I cannot satisfie that which is looked for from them Alas but a trifle was looked for from an Antoninus in comparison of that is looked for from a Christian A few sins were esteemed no blemish in one of them one sin and unrepented of shall be an everlasting woe to one of us The similitude of a few Vertues made up a gallant Heathen the defect of one Vertue degrades a Christian In whom there is not meekness and mercies there 's no print of Christ in whom there is not humility there 's no colour of Christ in whom there is not perfect charity there is no agreement with Christ non potest esse concors cum Christo qui est discors cum Christiano he that doth not abrenuntiate and deny himself he hath no part in Christ for he that thinks his good works are estimable with Heaven and looks to be saved by his own merits est latro insultans cruci Domini says St. Austin he is the wicked Thief that insults over the Cross of Christ He that hath Christ alwayes in his eye to follow him in his heart to love him in his faith to trust in him in his works to glorifie him he is co Christus he shall communicate of his name here and he shall be cohaeres Co-heir with him in his Fathers Kingdom hereafter St. Austin calls us Heirs in this World by the usurpation of this Name sicut sunt haeredes nominis ita sunt imitatores sanctitatis Christian thou art Heir of his Name thou shalt do well therefore to be Executor of his Sanctity There are three things as the same Father hath filed them together with which our Christendom holds a secret antipathy in his short book of true Religion Neque in confusione Paganorum neque in caecitate Judaeorum neque in purgamentis Haeâ—eticorum quaerenda est it is neither to be found in the confusion of Pagans nor in the blindness of the Jews nor in the filthiness of Hereticks Justin Martyr is well rejected by the great Annalist for condescending to call all the Heathen Christians qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vixerunt who from the beginning of the World had instituted themselves by well guided reason This can never be concocted with truth for Christianity in the very essence is an explicit knowledg of the Son of God that died for our sins and rose again for our justification Beside Gentilism doth incorporate in it the worshipping of vain Gods and how abhorrent is that to this Name When the Roman Deputy urged Polycarpus to swear by the Genius of Cesar his answer was no more but I am a Christian a Negative to all Idolatry in that Affirmative Secondly Where there is Judaism there is no Christianism He that hath relished the honey of the Gospel says St. Austin cannot endure the bitter waters of the Law Circumcision hath a bitter acrimony in it to offend his taste nec hostiarum ferre cruorem valet nec Sabbati observantiam custodire he will not offer the bloud of Sacrifices he will not keep the observation of the Sabbath Let them note that who strive to have the entire fourth Commandment to be moral and perpetual A strange refractariness in some men that cannot endure to be Christians in Ceremonies and yet are content to fall back to those beggarly Elements of Moses and to be Jews in Ceremonies Thirdly The filthiness of Hereticks either in Doctrin or Life it draws a dash through the Name of Christian and blots it out No lie is of the truth and he that denies that Jesus is the Christ he is a liar and an Antichrist Jesus is the name of the Person of our Lord Christ is the name of his Office how every Heresie clasheth either against his Person or his Office and such a one doth so little merit to pass for a Christian that he is published for an Antichrist Or be it that you are undepraved in the truth but most depraved in manners there again you forfeit your interest in this spotless Name For why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Luk. vi 46. Cum impiis homines sumus sed non cum impiis Christiani sumuâ—â— I do not yield clearly to that but
from thence he assists his Sacraments sanctifieth his Ministry gives grace unto his Word And if they did not escape who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn from him that speaketh from Heaven Secondly Our Jerusalem is above not only in the Head but in the Members I do not say in all the Members for the Church is that great House in which are Vessels of honour and dishonour Terms of Excellency though indistinctly attributed to the whole are agreeing oftentimes only to the chiefer or more refined part Some there are in this Body whom though we salute not by the proud word of their Sublimity yet in true possession which shall never be taken from them they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are above Witness that the Angels make up one Church with us being the chief Citizens that are reckoned in the triumphant part fellow Servants with us under one Lord adopted Sons under one Father Elect under one Christ This is the language of the Scripture and surely Members of one Mystical Body for the same Jesus is the Head of all Principality and Power Colos ii 10. Of this Family also are the Saints departed even all those holy Spirits that obey God in heavenly places and do not imitate the Devil and his Angels This is that Church which hath neither spot nor wrinkle for when I speak of such a Church says St. Austin in his retractations I mean none but those in Heaven After these that make the front and first File of our March there are many among us I trust who have their part in this description Jerusalem which is above the Elect of God the Church invisible invisible I say not for their persons but for their qualites for who can see who hath an internal union with Christ the Head Who can tell whether this or that may be filled with his Grace and quickned with his Spirit Cusanus says very well that there is no certain judgment to be made by the outward fruits who are living Members of the Church but in Infants that are newly baptized With the mouth we confess the truth but with the heart man believes unto righteousness and only God can see the heart But these whose integrity their Master knows and loves no matter in what base condition they wander here they are greater by far than the ungodly that over-peer them in promotion they are above indeed for they are as high as the pinacle of blessedness and their names are written in the Book of Life for their sakes God hath dropt down the beautiful style of Jerusalem upon the Houshold of Christ but without these no name were so fit for it as Sodom or Samaria Such as will wrangle where no occasion is offered have carped at this as if we removed all from the Church but such as are Israel in occulto and have their sins forgiven in Christ It was never our meaning neither can we help it but that we must keep communion with all those that profess the common Faith But if the Church had known Hypocrites it had not admitted them into the Portion of the Lord or else it had excluded them Et quid prodest non ejici coetu piorum si mereris ejici says St. Cyprian What the better is it for an Hypocrite that he is not cast out of the Congregation since he deserves to be cast out he may abide with us in the outward Society of them that call upon Christ praesumptivè non veraciter as Spalatensis says because we presume he is faithful though indeed he is the Child of the Devil numero non merito he makes up one of the Multitude that go in the broad way he is none of the few that strive to enter in at the steight gate he keeps the formality of a Christian with others beneath he perteins not to Jerusalem which is above Thirdly We have obtained this dignity to be ranked as them that are above because our calling is very holy He hath saved us and called us with an holy calling 2 Tim. i. 9. called to Doctrin which is above which flesh and bloud did not reveal but the Father that giveth wisdom plentifully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Theophilact upon my Text God did preach the Gospel from on high with his own voice for take a Breviary of it and it is no more but that which he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased We are called to obey the truth by illumination from above from thence is sent the spirit of them that are baptized the spirit of the Apostles and Martyrs the spirit of Bishops and Doctors the spirit of all those that have lived in the Truth and shed their bloud for the Truth 's sake We are called to that Religion which consists in celestial Functions in Faith and Hope in Prayer and Charity not in a Religion which presseth them down that observe it with an insupportable weight of Shadows and Ceremonies but the hour is come when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth Beware of those of the Concision says St. Paul and among bad marks which they carry this is the conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they mind earthly things that is they are pleased with carnal Ordinances with these low and beggerly Observations of the Levitical Priesthood but immediately turning himself to the Fundamentals of the Gospel and the practice thereof says he nostra politeia our way of serving God our manner of worship is in Heaven So Bernard says that the Synagogue moved in a low Orb. But Solomon speaking of the New Testament says Quae est ista quae ascendit Cant. iii. 3. Who is she that cometh up from the Wilderness perfumed with mirrh and frankincense with all the powders of the Merchant Above all we are called to holy actions which savour not of mans passions and purposes but are qualified from above Our fortitude is heavenly fortitude our temperance heavenly temperance our liberality to the poor heavenly liberality but the moral deeds of the Heathen living out of the Church that had the best gloss upon them were smutcht with some bad vapour below and every grane of vertue that grew out of their stalks did abound with the chaff of vanity And what exceeds all that I have said beside to make our calling heavenly and holy God is so gracious to those things which are done in the Church in the name of his Son that where an unfit instrument may seem to marr all by his extravagant profaneness by his impenitent conscience nay by his heretical pravity yet Christs presence and assistance are not wanting to his Word and Sacraments but their efficacy is free and current to the people though they be performed by a crooked and an adulterous Generation As the Posterity of Jacobs Handmaid had a Princedom among their Brethren in the Land of Canaan
fullonicant ingeniis suis says Origen Hereticks set a bright gloss upon their false opinions they in his construction are those Fullers upon earth that would make their doctrine if it were possible as white as truth but if you pattern it with the Scripture you shall see it colours not with that spiritual light which comes from Christ That Doctrine which hath the simplicity of the Spirit without the knotty entanglements of mans wit that which says let God have the glory but to us belongs shame and confusion of face That which impresseth humility into the thoughts zeal and devotion into the heart all manner of vertue into the practice This is that true light which comes from heaven no Fuller upon earth none that sit in the pestilent Chair of deceitful tongues can make a thing so white and every one that is of the truth loveth the light and hateth darkness And so far upon this admirable vision His countenance was altered and his rayment white and glistering These were res mirae strange and uncouth things the next general part of the Text doth handle personas miras strange persons whom a man would not expect in that place and at that time Behold there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias If any of the people had been by that took him to be Elias or Jeremias or one of the old Prophets they should have seen a difference in this Vision between the head and the feet between the Lord and his Servants For surely some of the old Prophets two for all and those whom the Jews did most admire came upon this Theater to be seen that Christs glory might appear the more Let the eyes of Peter look upon them together and see if Christs glory be not far exalted above all the Saints Quantùm lenta solent inter viburna cupressi Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord Psal lxxxvi 8. Non in Angelis coelestibus seu in altissimis says the Chaldee Paraphrase not among the Angels nor among any of the blessed souls that live in the highest places Was this such a business to be taught will some men say to bring the dead out of their graves Can any mistake that the honour of Christ is far exalted above all his Servants For to which of the Angels did the Father say at any time Sit thou on my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool Beloved are there none that keep the festival days of the Saints with more devotion and observance then the first day of the week for ever to be sanctified because Christ rose from the dead on that day Do they not make more Pilgrimages and Vows to some Patrons of their own invention who have been but men Are not there more Temples erected in their name More costly Ornaments bestowed upon their Images More Prayers poured out unto them than to Christ himself And had I not need to remember you that two men who were now glorified talked with Christ upon Mount Tabor that they might appear like little stars obscured before the greatest Planet Moses did but verifie in person what he had taught in a Song before Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods Who is like unto thee Exod. xv 11. I adjudge it for another reason that two men beatified came to talk with him because he would not seem to ingross the light of glory to himself without derivation to others It is not a treasure to be reserved unto himself but a communicable donative The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Joh. xvii 22. As a seed-corn is fruitless unless it die and bring forth stalks of Wheat so Christ compares himself to such a grain of Wheat which must die to bring forth much fruit or else it abideth alone as if all were marred unless we were accommodated by his fruitfulness The Kings honour is in the multitude of his people the joy of the Father is in the Olive branches round about his Table The glory of the woman is for the children to grow up and call the mother blessed The felicity of these consists herein to have some that are partners of their felicity But God is all-sufficient to contemplate his own glory though he had never made the world he did not make man to praise him as if he wanted voices to magnifie his name and make him God Yet he is pleased to express his love so far that his honour should be alone unless the goodly fellowship of Saints and Prophets were round about him Except a seed-corn fall into the ground and die it abideth alone Joh. xii 24. Lord why dost thou esteem thy self alone and heaven to be solitary without us But O man how canst thou be without him in thy heart on earth that would not be alone without thee in heaven Behold when he brought down heaven upon earth in his own body two of the Elect brought down their glory to the Mountain to assist him His own Disciples were yet but earth and corruption and therefore incapable of such illuminated brightness till the time should come to be translated out of the prison of mortality And Angels were not fit to be his Compeers at this bout because he manifested the glorification of the flesh which pertains not to Angels but to Men. None of the living would serve the turn to appear with him in Majesty they were not supernaturalized to undergo it nor any of the Angelical Order they were not of the right Predicament two men came down unto him who had been exalted into Heaven and now I will shew with what great congruity these two men who were Moses and Elias But to omit nothing which is fit to be observ'd I will make three general heads of this matter 1. Whether all Elias and all Moses did appear both body and soul 2. From whence they came to be Parties at the celebration of this great Miracle And 3. If I can reach so far Why they became the representative persons for the whole Body of the Saints in Heaven To the first that these two Witnesses presented themselves in bodily shapes there is no wit so scrupulous I think that can make a question of it for S. Matthew says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these men were seen of Peter James and John Then they were heard talking and by their talk discover'd to be those grand Prophets as I will shew hereafter They talked as men to men vocally not in an intellectual fashion as spirits do And the Apostles in their extasie mentioned the making of Tabernacles to shrowd them in but a Tabernacle is a Coverture for a Body and not for a Spirit The controversie doth not consist in this therefore I pass it over That which hath caused diversities of judgments to arise is herein what manner of Bodies these were wherewith Moses and Elias were cloathed to attend the Transfiguration of Christ I will make bold to remove