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
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
of the Israelitish Midwifes but good deeds also which like the Alms of Cornelius shall reach up to Heaven The Sea hath raged horribly and swallowed the Innocent the Stream hath gone even over his Soul that we might restore it again as mercifully as the Whale did Jonas with the increase of our substance that we might cast our bread as Solomon preached upon the waters God hath suffered an heavy sickness to wast away the afflicted and to consume his bones not that the Dogs should be more merciful than Dives and lik the poor mans sores but that our liberality might make him whole Canaan and the Patriarchs were well nigh famished with hunger what because God had forgotten to be gracious and had shut up his loving kindness in displeasure Not so but that Egypt might relieve them with their Granaries The Husbandman soweth seed in the ground and the encrease comes up thereafter God giveth it a body and to every seed his own body but the merciful man soweth a Loaf of bread in the belly of the hungry and it shall rise up again unto a plentiful Harvest Christ was made poor says Paul that we might be made rich and for the good use of our riches he hath made many poor There are few so hard-hearted but will protest with an oath if our Saviour had been incarnate in these our days how they would have strived to make him welcom their choisest Palace should have received him and his Diet should have been whatsoever the Earth and Sea afforded I says Tertullian Porrigat manum Jupiter accipiat if Jupiter himself would ask alms he should have it every man can say so Alass to promise this excess to him who needs it not is a kind of spiritual bribery Keep your costly Mansions to your selves and afford him some sustenance in an Hospital Take the plenty of the Earth to your own Table in sobriety and temperance and feed him with your Alms Basket If he say loe here is Christ or loe there he is and that every distressed Christian is nourished for his sake you may believe him Haec est tunica quam dedisti mihi Martine it is an old Story in Sulpitius the good Bishop Martinus cloathed a Criple with his Coat in the day time and in the Dreams upon his Bed he saw Christ himself wear it and thank him for it Such there are whom otherwise we may call good men but spoil their good parts as Crassus did with the love of money and having closed their Ark will not suffer so much as a Crow to fly out of it they will not believe this Divinity that to spend well upon Earth is to lay up treasure in Heaven Such a mans eyes are made of Spittle and Clay but not by Christ and they love to behold nothing but Gold which is indeed a refined Clay burnt well like a Brick by the heat of the Sun and the influence of the other stars Now there are but two common pretendments to make us spare our Purse and keep our hand withered in our bosom Semper aliquid curtae deest rei we have nothing to spare we have but five loaves and two fishes and what are they among so many O can you forget those mighty Mites which the poor Widow cast into the Treasury Three things says St. Gregory are incruenta sacrificia Sacrifices well pleasing unto God without drop of bloud shed Castitas in juventute sobrietas in ubertate liberalitas in paupertate a Chast Youth unspotted touching the Flesh Sobriety in Plenty and Liberality in Poverty And this is the Devils Topicks to perswade us we must repay nothing back again unto God unless He would give us as much as we could wish for Plato thought he made a charitable Common Wealth when by his evil Law to permit promiscuous lust no man knew another whether he were Stranger or Brother or of nearer Consanguinity So hath God knitted his Church together that we are all Christs and Christ is ours and yet we feel not the afflictions of Joseph they are nothing to us Nay it were well if we were not readier to give Stones than Bread and for a Fish a Scorpion This was Nabals Largess to David he told him he was a Runnagate from Saul his Master The next excuse against Charity is the great abuse of all good deeds and the wrong employment But though men be evil and the dayes are evil and the bounty of holy men is oft times wrong employed yet the Churches of God are no Transgressors why do the Rich men of the World nothing for them Do you expect that the Holy Ghost should come down again like a mighty rushing wind and enter in that every Wall and Window is left naked and decayed especially in famous Cathedral Churches to the injuries of the weather Good God! what was the zeal of our Fore-fathers that they should build more unto Religion than we can keep in reparation When St. Paul pleaded for a Collection for the poor Saints of Jerusalem feed them says he with your plenty who are enriched with their abundance With what abundance did the Apostle mean O say the Friers with the abundance of their good works and zeal as a bought or borrowed sanctity No such matter but for the abundance of the Words sake which first came out of the bosom of Jerusalem But all the Gospel which is preached in our Cathedral Churches cannot procure them so much benevolence as to preserve them from the curse of desolation that one stone be not left upon another And I would the innocent stones could fall down from their high Pinacles into the bowels of the earth from whence they were digged then were they safe and would be at rest again but now great men take them up and we must say in charity that which made God a Chancel serves to build them up a Kitchen or a Stable O if you will not be so merciful as your Father which is in Heaven be but as merciful as your Forefathers upon Earth who were zealous for the House of the Lord. But these things should rather be done then spoken Therefore let this suffice for mercy which is the first part of my Text. Now a complete Christian is not like a small Vessel which recovers his Haven with one Sail alone with Mercy only If you will have Religion to be ponderibus librata suis full poised on every side magna est veritas praevalet truth also is a prevailing part let not mercy and truth forsake thee And what is truth says Pilate but he would not stay to take his answer Why the Spirit is truth says St. John 1. Ep. v. I am the truth says Christ John xiiii God is Truth and in him is no error In a word your holy Faith is the Truth that which is armatura lucis the Armour of Light with St. Paul Rom. xiii that which is stronger than all things says Zorobabel in his Parable But
John should leap at the presence of our Saviour in his mothers womb and though it were an extraordinary case yet it demonstrates that the Holy Ghost can inhabit in a babe that is yet unborn or newly brought forth into the world Choose ye which of these opinions you will or choose ye neither and only be contented to believe concerning little ones that theirs is the Kingdom of heaven and therefore they ought to be baptized for unless ye be born again of water and the holy Spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven That is the stop of the first general Point the circumstance of time 1. Then when the people were full of repentance and did yearn for grace 2. Then when they began to conceit too much of John that he was the Christ 3. Then when our Saviour was of the ripe age of Priesthood and had seen thirty years in the world Then came c. It is time now to draw forward to the next general circumstance after what manner our Saviour would be baptized with the Baptism of John The Point is full of much matter even as Jordan it self in the time of harvest But I will obey the limits of the hour and handle two things briefly making my self your debter for the rest as God shall give occasion to pay it I frame therefore two questions on this sort 1. Upon what ground John did begin this new ceremony of Baptism never heard of before 2. What was the dignity or if you will call it so what was the vertue of Johns Baptism I address my self to the former To bring a new institution into the Church nay to bring in a new Sacrament of repentance for remission of sins this was more strange than if a new star had appeared in the Firmament What a confidence was in this great Prophet to call all Judea and the Regions round about unto him to receive Baptism And yet no print or footsteep in all the Law of Moses where such a Ceremony was commanded Nay if they had mark'd it it was to break the staff of the Law of Moses for upon the entertainment of a new Ceremony never heard of before it did betoken that old Rites and Customs were in their declination and near unto abolishing Besides is it not very strange that the learned Priests the wrangling Pharisees the ignorant people all with an unanimous consent should submit themselves to this new Ordinance and yet such an Ordinance as was confirmed by no miracle from heaven for John wrought no miracle the true wonder was that so many thousands should flock after him to be baptized without a miracle Yet the truth is that the most strict defenders of their own Law and the best Interpreters of it did not gainsay the new use of Baptism as unlawful for the Pharisees sent unto John and asked him Why baptisest thou if thou be not that Christ nor Elias nor that Prophet They do not quarrel the Ordinance of Baptism but what authority John had to baptize Two things are to be observed out of the forenamed Text for our satisfaction One that it was not belonging to the Office of any Priest or Prophet in the Old Testament to baptize unto remission of sins Another thing is that the Jews expected the washing of water to cleanse them from their sins under the Kingdom of Christ as S. Hierom thinks they collected it Isa iv 4. The Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion as who should say Circumcision was a seal upon Male children only the water of regeneration under Christ shall belong to Females also Again Ezekiel speaking of the blessings that shall abound in Christ Chap. xxxvi 25. seems clearly to express this new Sacrament Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness Moreover I cannot say whether the Rabbies of deep learning had the knowledge to understand that their Forefathers were by a figure baptized in the red Sea and in the Cloud which went along with them in the Wilderness So St. Paul expounded it by the Spirit of God But the Pharisees and it seems all the people were perswaded that when the Messias came they should be baptized for the remission of their sins either by himself or by some great Prophet who should be his Associate Therefore if John were the Christ they confess he may baptize or if he were Elias he might baptize For Malachy foretold Chap. iv 5. Behold I will send Eliah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Or if he were that Prophet he might baptize not any Prophet inspired from God that is not the meaning but the same whom Moses speaks of Deut. xviii 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken The Jews had no particular name for this Prophet the plain meaning is that Prophet is Christ himself Now Johns answer to the Pharisees was twofold what he was not and what he was He denies that he was the Christ or Elias himself who shall come perhaps before Christ as an Apparitor at the day of Judgment or that Prophet Then they object that he must not baptize nothing must be innovated in the Church without divine authority but they wilfully forgat what he said he was The voice of a Crier to prepare the ways of the Lord why co jure as the fore-runner of Christs Kingdom he betokened a new work was beginning and a new Ceremony of grace appointed and he baptized as many as came to Jordan and did confess their sins Praecursionis ordinem servavit nascendo baptisando says Gregory he shewed himself to be Christs Harbinger that went before him in Birth in Preaching and in Baptism Now ye see by what priviledge John did quite alter the old Mosaical Rites and began to baptize and I cannot omit how graciously by these means God did turn their superstition into a blessing To begin with the heathen who perceived in natural causes that water gives growth to Plants and Seeds and fecundity to all things but they forgat God who made it a fruitful part of nature and conceited that there was somewhat divine in that Element more than in any other not could they be contented to rest upon that which every man knows that a clean river would wash the dust and sweat from their body but were so foolish to souze themselves every morning thrice over head and ears in some pure Fountain as if it had some inherent vertue to cleanse the filthiness of their souls The Pharisees being more superstitious in their generation than any other Jews followed the heathen close Mar. vii 3. They eat not except they wash often if they come from Market except they wash they eate not and therefore they quarrel some of the Disciples that they eat with defiled that is with unwashen
of God to every man that believeth not as if there were any Magical power in the pronunciation of the Syllables but because it prepares ye to faith and is a means by which the Spirit works his efficacy So the Sacraments setting aside the merit of Christ and the Sanctification of the Spirit are not available but by those Instruments the Father hath promised to work the Son to communicate the merit of his Passion and the Holy Ghost to sanctifie us I am sure it is no disparagement to compare him that hath received a Sacrament with the blessed Virgin that received our Saviour in her womb yet when one cried out Blessed is she that bare thee and the Paps which gave thee suck Yea says Christ Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it So the Sacraments are wonderful helps great trials of obedience Seales of mercy increasers of charity the best comforts of the soul in the world they are all this I confess if they be received in faith So I have spoken of the vertue which is in all kind of Sacraments the next part of my remonstrance is that the Baptism of John hath the same vertue with the Baptism of Christ Take my reasons briefly 1. It was the Baptism of Repentance and Repentance cannot be taught without faith in Christ and Remission of sins in his bloud take them two away and Repentance is but a lesson of heathen Philisophy Put them both together and is there not all the benefit of Christs Baptism faith and forgiveness of sins Nay directly Mar. i. 4. John did preach the Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins And indeed no man can separate true repentance from remission of sins At what time soever a sinner doth repent him c. 2. The scope of his Baptism was to warn men to fly from the wrath to come that is the true washing of the Spirit Says he to the Pharisees when they came to him to Jordan O ye generation of vipers who hath warned ye to fly from the wrath to come 3. Our Saviour fortelling to his Disciples that the time was coming at the feast of Pentecost when they should have a greater blessing from heaven than ever they had before Acts xv John truly baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence Then the Disciples had no other Baptism but Johns untill they were baptized with fire and surely they had a true and an efficacious baptism So Apollos knew of no other baptism but Johns Acts xviii 25. and yet we do not find that he was sprinkled with any other baptism 4. This reason is of great weight if Johns were not the true baptism of the Spirit which Christ received then either all we have received a baptism divers from our Saviour which were very comfortless or else we have not received the baptism of the Spirit which were every whit as comfortless 5. John baptized at the same time while the Disciples of Christ did baptize even till the time that he was shut up in prison by Herod And this he ought not to have done if his washing had been uneffectual but to have it laid down when a more perfect Sacrament was a foot These are the reasons sufficient as I suppose to prove that the Baptism of John had the same substantial vertue with the Baptism of Christ This is that opinion against which the Tridentine Council doth thunder forth Anathema 1. Because it is called the Baptism of John and therefore a mere external Ceremony which is distinguisht from Christs Baptism that is accompanied with internal Grace Beloved I conceive it was called Johns Baptism not as if it wanted the grace of God from above for the Pharisees durst not reply to our Saviours question that the Baptism of John was from heaven and not from men but because it began with John even as the Law of God is called Moses Law because Moses was the first Mediator of it Sacraments are of three sorts Praenuntiativa venturi Messiae Some that promised a Messias to come as Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb Some that promise the Messias now a coming monstrativa venientis as the Baptism of John Some that promise the Messias is come already annuntiativa exhibiti Baptism and the Lords Supper these meet all in one center of faith and have the same efficacy 2. It is urged that John puts a difference between his baptizing and Christs I baptize you with water he shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire I answer with St. Hierom Ex quo discimus homo tantùm aquam tribuit Deus spiritum sanctum From whence we learn that the Ministry of man suppeditates only water the power of God suppeditates the Holy Ghost wherefore one sign is not opposed to another but the Ministry of man to the authority of Christ otherwise it will follow that now the Holy Ghost is given by him that baptizeth The baptism of the Spirit is not another Baptism but an heavenly blessing upon the baptism of water and it comprehends all the benefits of the New Testament that is all the merit of Christ 3. I confess this is strongly opposed Acts xix 3. that some Disciples of Ephesus who were baptized unto the Baptism of John were baptized again in the name of the Lord Jesus as if Johns washing had been a watry Meteor rather than a Baptism Of many answers I like but two to this place First says Lombard all were not rebaptized whom John had baptized before the Disciples were not for whatsoever some Apocryphal stories say that Christ baptized his Mother St. Peter yea and John Baptist himself yet the Scripture says he baptized no man but where a substantial error might be committed or apprehended in Johns Baptism there the parties were re-baptized Now it is my own conjecture out of the Text that these men were baptized after our Saviours Passion In nomine venturi Messiae in the name of Christ to come who was come and had suffered for mankind therefore to correct that fundamental error it may be the Disciples of Ephesus were baptized again Secondly I see no exceptions at this answer that the Disciples of Ephesus were only baptized in Johns Baptism and Paul teacheth that all whom John baptized were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Therefore at your leasure mark the fifth verse of that Chapter Act xix that they are the words of Paul preaching how John baptized not the words of St. Luke how they of Ephesus were rebaptized and that very difficult place is easily answered Wherefore it stands I am sure as most probable of two opinions that the Baptism of John to which Christ came is the same with the Baptism of Christ and as for these that curse our opinion with Anathema I say unto them Woe unto those that call light darkness and make the truth a lye Though so ancient Fathers may seem to dissent from
glory Put thy fear into us all that we do not crucifie our Lord anew by Blasphemies by Vncharitableness by an Impenitent heart lest we be brought into the bondage of sin lest our heart wax gross and want understanding lest we lose thy favour as thine own Israel did upon earth lest we lose the light of thy countenance in heaven for ever O Lord hear us and be merciful to us for his sake who died upon the Cross c. THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE PASSION JOHN xix 34. But one of the Souldiers with a Spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out Bloud and Water WE cannot meddle with any part of our Saviours Body this day but we shall touch a wound and the greatest of them all without controversie is this in my Text. Thomas might put a finger in where the nails had entred but where the Spear had opened his side Christ bad him thrust in his hand Of Evils be sure to choose the least as David did but of Blessings such were all the wounds of Christs Passion wisdom without art will lead our meditations to the greatest And as Lot chose the Plain of Jordan to dwell there before all the Land of Canaan besides because it had variety of Springs of waters so this wound was the moistest and had the most plentiful issue of all the five it gushed out into two streams of blood and water I have not found such a passage in the Meditations of the Ancients that they came to drink at the hands or feet of Christ although the bloud trickled down from them also But it is usual with them in their Allegories to speak unto their Soul as if they laid their mouth unto the side of our Lord and did draw at it for the Fountain of everlasting life Did they suppose said I that they laid their lips there Nay Bernard could not satisfie his desire till he found a way to lay his heart upon the place and at length thus he hit upon it he believed as he had received that this Souldiers Spear entred at the right side of our Saviour Now says he that Elisha stretcht his living Body upon the dead Corps of the Child to raise it again to life it is a figure that Christ should apply his Body to our body which is dead in sin that it might live unto God his mouth which bled with buffeting upon our mouth that hath been full of deceit and bitterness his brows enameld with the pricks of thorns upon our heads which have contrived mischief and malice his hands which were riveted with nails upon ours that they may be washt in innocency his feet upon ours that have trod in the crooked ways of the Serpent then the Orifice of this Wound laying his right side to our left shall ly directly upon our heart and cure that part which disperseth iniquity to all the body The other three Evangelists exact in most circumstances of the Passion have all omitted this violence done to the dead Body of Christ surely had they wrote like meer men you might have thought the long story of these sufferings to be so lamentable that they could not for very compassion draw it quite out to an end John says in the next verse that he saw it done and that he knows he speaks the truth Amatus amans vulnera Domini the beloved Disciple that loved the wounds of his Master and would not let one of them be unrecorded this is the last wound that the Son of God received and therefore it is recorded by the last Evangelist The whole Story is comprized in this one verse and it will yield us these two points the malice of the living and the blessing that came from the dead The malicious action conteins four circumstances 1. Who was that evil person who did offer ignominy to the Body of Christ one of the Souldiers 2. What was the violence he offered he pierced him with a spear 3. Upon what part of his Body this fury did light upon his side 4. When he smote him you shall find by the thirtieth verse when he had given up the ghost In the second general branch which is the blessing that came from the dead there is the mystical opening of the Fountain of life wherein I consider first the two streams severally Bloud and Water 2. Their Conjunction Bloud and Water together 3. Their Order first Bloud and then Water 4. The Readiness of the Fountain that gushed out the stream could not be stopped no not for a minute forthwith there came out Bloud and Water Of these in their order Vnus militum one of the Souldiers did a despiteful fact upon the Body of Christ The Romans having the whole Nation of the Jews under their subjection at this time did gratifie them notwithstanding in many things to prevent rebellion and to satisfie their Law which forbids their dead to hang upon a tree after Sun-set lest the Land should be defiled Pilate gave them leave to take away the Bodies this day crucified from the Cross Wherefore to dispatch the Malefactors that they might be taken down two Thieves had their legs broken in whom there was life remaining It seems the chief Centurion would not be more rigid than the Law to do any further despite to Christ when he was dead already yet the cracking of his bones to splinters was the chief thing the Jews intended but one of the Souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certainly says the Father for a fee to please the people thrust a spear into his side I doubt me that those who delighted in war bore no good will unto our Saviour His birth was destinated by providence unto the days of peace his Name was the Prince of Peace his Doctrin was utterly against the Sword qui gladium sumpserit gladio ferietur now see what comes of it when he is faln into the hands of Souldiers Joab and the mighty men of the Camp were all for Adoniah and all against Solomon Adoniah was like to live in the field as his Father David had done but Solomon's hand must spill no blood that it may build up a Temple The Emperor Probus let a word of meekness slip from him equus nascetur ad pacem he hoped to have horses brought up to do service in peace and not in war and the Captains of the Host cut short his dayes and so it far'd with the great Preacher of Peace Christ had as good be guarded by one of the Pharisees as by one of the Souldiers As Aristotle said of Bees and Swallows Nec feri sunt generis nec mansueti they were neither reckoned among those creatures that were wild nor those that were tame but of a middle sort Such was the condition of these Spear-men somewhat ruder than civil men somewhat tamer than Savages but violent in their disposition as they are pleased or provoked Yet I am not of Tertullian's mind to
the light that was before and to turn to the smoak that was behind This is no distorted amplification but an evident spot in her crime yet not in her alone but in all those that cannot shew the use of good examples in the fruits of their lives A good Example is the fairest transcript of Gods will texted in capital letters so that he that runs may read and as a Picture expresseth the life more when colours are laid upon it than when 't is drawn out only in the rude figure so where piety lives and moves in the actions of virtuous men 't is more illustrious so by far than in empty Precepts and God expects it at our hands that where we are deaf to plain instruction yet we would easily be won with imitation We will run after thee in odore unguentorum says the Spouse in the smell of those fragrancies which the Worthies of the Church have left behind them Our Church which hath omitted no opportune occasion to put sound devotion in our mouths hath taught us often to pray in several Collects in that admirable piece of piety the Common-Prayer Book for grace of conformity with the best of Gods Children that we may learn to love our enemies by the example of his Martyr St. Stephen that after the example of John the Baptist we may constantly speak the truth and patiently suffer for the truths sake that we may follow all the Saints that are knit together in one communion and fellowship in vertuous and godly living this is the true celebration of their Holy-days to tread their footsteps as they have gone before us unto everlasting life But Novelists had rather be talkt of that they began a fashion and set a Copy for others than that they contein'd themselves within a strict imitation of the most excellent Presidents Be ye followers of me says Paul to the Church of Corinth and is it not better says Nazianzen to one Nichobalus upon the mention of those words to come after the Apostles heels than be a ringleader or the formost among Sectaries Praestat infra aquilas paululum quà m supra alaudas volitare it is a fairer pitch to fly a little under an Eagle than to soar somewhat above a Lark The Age is blessed the days are blessed when conspicuous facts of holy men are like Beacons on a hill which cannot choose but be gazed upon And if our sluggishness obscure such rare Examples for want of emulation and make them vanish like prints in snow that are soon forgotten the Lord will set up others of a contrary kind that shall last longer to our terror For since the memory of the just is no more regarded which is eternized for our imitation he will powder and make brine of the wicked for our confusion Here 's an instance in my Text of one that observ'd not a faithful Leader that conducted her She would not be tied to example and in that place where she refused to learn she was left for an example to all posterity But why do I stick at this only that she would not be a Scholar to Lot he was a frail man and had need of a Guide himself herein rather it appears that she was most averse from discipline nothing would make her wise for there was an Angel or twain in the Troop they were the Leaders of this little Flock out of Sodom yet she order'd her steps disobediently even in the sight of an Angel No earthly means or perswasions no nor heavenly patterns can reduce some head-strong sinners to repentance they have hardned their hearts like the nether milstone The rich Glutton in Hell thought that by some new device his Brethren might be converted if one would come from the dead and admonish them And do not most of you imagin if an Angel were sent from Heaven to preach there would be great reformation among us we would mend apace yes perhaps as much as Lots Wife did who would tread her own path though the Angel were at her elbow They that will not hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be converted for that they would be at the same stay though Angels walked daily among them The express words of my Text have afforded me hitherto all that I have objected against this sinner and what I shall say more shall be deducted out of it both by facil and easie consequence and by fair authority especially in the imputations of incredulity and recidivation And to come to them with the more perspicuity and order I observe the same rottenness in the sin of Lots Wife which Cajetan discovered in the transgression of Eve Eve cavilled upon that which God had commanded two wayes first she turned that absolute sentence in the day thou eatest that fruit thou shalt die into ye shall not eat of it lest you die or as the Vulgar Latin ne forte lest perhaps ye die Then she cloyed the Commandment with more austerity than was in it to shew she was weary of it ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it concerning the not touching her own loathing of the Law did put in that addition So the poison of the Devil had crept into her understanding and into her affections says Cajetan In intellectum per haesiâ—ationem poenae in affectum per displicentiam praecepti in her understanding she doubted no such punishment would follow as was threatned in her affections she distasted the Commandment and these are just so in the Subject we handle In the 10. of Wisdom ver 7. I name an Author of all that are in the Apocryphal List next to Canonical credit Lots Wife is called a standing Pillar of salt as a Monument of an unbelieving soul An unbeliever is one that gives not faith to that which God hath said and revealed Now she fell into unbelief in one of these two points or in both either she believed not that the place from whence she came should be destroyed as the Angels had denounced or else she believed not it would conduce to her safety whether she looked back or no the former she would try out of curiosity and the latter she would put to hazard upon peevish presumption The Sun rose clear that morning ver 23. there was no thunder nor darkness in the Heavens she began to suspect she was drawn from home to no purpose and they were wiser that stayed behind So she stood in motu trepidationis she knew not whether she should believe or not believe at last she resolved to trust Gods Messenger no further than she saw cause and would make her own eyes her sureties though she were strictly forbidden You cannot provoke God to anger sooner than by reserving power and license to your self to judg whether all his sayings are certain and infallible He that believeth not is condemned already Faith is the eye of all Religion if you wink with that eye you shall never see the Lord Especially to think you can discern
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
Visions that he could take no notice for the present that he lived or had a body but his Spirit was quite abstracted from the senses and lifted up to converse with supernatural speculations Now to sum up this Point touching the modus how John saw the souls of the blessed you shall hear how St. Austin made no scruple of the like case The Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream How did Joseph see an Angel when his eyes were shut Nay rather says the Father how could he have seen an Angel if his eyes had been open So the more the senses of this Prophet were bound up the less communication he had with his mortal nature the more capable he was to see the secrets of God It were no digression at all to tell you at large in this place that St. John was not every body when he saw the Mysteries of the Ages to come in an holy trance Examine him from the time that he was the beloved Disciple while his Master Jesus Christ was upon the earth behold him in his other cognizances that he was an unspotted Virgin a patient Confessor An Evangelist that sored higher than his fellows an Eagle in his Gospel but a Dove in his Epistles where every line is enchased with Jewels of love the aged Patriarch who had long survived all the Apostles the Oracle that resolved all the Churches in their Controversies Finally that supereminent man that left not his like behind him and since his days his equal did never rise up after him Put all this together and mark what a sanctified Vessel this was to see the souls under the Altar and all those things which the Angel told him should come to pass in the days to come What wretch can think himself so prepared as he was to receive these Prophetical graces of God With how many favours of God is a Vision qualified to make it a perfect illumination Let it deter any one that is not possessed with the spirit of Arrogance to think that he is possessed with the spirit of Divination Quia videre non possumus audiamus says St. Austin There is no hope that we vile sinners should see such Visions it is our blessedness that we hear of them What laughter doth it give our Adversaries that this caution is not observed among us we had proof of it lately and almost year by year every hair-brain'd Schismatick that out of pride thinks himself more holy than others fancies that he is a Prophet These filthy dreamers presume they have learnt all that the Scriptures can teach them and therefore like apt Scholars they must be promoted to an higher Form to learn supernal Revelations As the Romanists are excessive in forging lies for their Saints sakes so these are excessive in forging lies for their own sakes both are liars both are Legendaries It was a gift which St. Austin says his Mother Monica had that she could distinguish inter Deum revelantem animam somniantem she knew when God gave her a supernatural inspiration in her sleep and when it was but a common dream By what mark or token could she do this Nay none at all Nescio quo sapore quem verbis explicare non poterat she could not express by what relish of the soul she made a difference between them Of whom have our modern Wizzards it is too good a name if I do not put frentique to it I say of whom have these phrentique persons learnt the trick of Divination Since they that were Prophets upon earth could not teach another how to be a Prophet If St. John knew how he saw this Theory in heaven it was his priviledge alone or with some very few more But God doth not carve a Prophet out of every Christian And so much de modo videndi which is the first Point Take the object now to your attention which he saw an object too subtil to be discerned by a bodily creature but disclosed to this Apostle in his Rapture in the excellency of Revelation he saw the souls of the blessed in heaven It could not out of Tertullians mind as I told you before but that he thought the soul when it was separated from the body had some bodily figure and dimension in it Those polite heathen men indeed whom he had perused did speak grosly in the point as if the Soul after it left this world did flit about the Elysian fields in the form of a thin cloud witness that fancy of the best Poets Infelix simulacrum atque ipsius umbra Creüsae And it is no injustice to excuse such Authors for though the substance of the Soul be incorporeal yet it is impossible for one of us to conceive a Spirit or an Angel but by the help of some corporeal Idea it is a true Metaphysical rule Nihil intelligimus in hôc statu sine verbo materiali in intellectu we understand every thing in this life by some material expression within our selves yet we are able by the undeniable proofs of Art to transcend the narrowness of our own fancy and to affirm that the soul cannot choose but be immaterial that it is not circumscriptive in any place though it have a determined and defined subsistence But this is no time to Philosophize and our Saviours words will carry it clear without the help of Humane Arguments Handle me and see a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have Luk. xxiv 39 which is thus in effect there is no corporeity in a Spirit And the Sixth general Council held against the Monothelites hath these weighty words Nascitur Deus humano corpore animam rationalem incorpoream habens The Son of God had an humane body with a reasonable and incorporeal soul I dismiss that Point it shall not hold you longer There are those that doubt it in their heart or at least they live as if they doubted it whether their soul hath a second state in reversion after this life Can there be any exception against such a Witness as St. John that was taken up into heaven to relate the truth to all Generations upon earth Why he saw the souls of the Saints in a triumphant and immortal condition after they were uncloathed of the body There cannot be an Apparition of that which had ceased to be that were a delusion Not one natural Writer that had a sound brain but maintained that the soul did survive the body and that it was at best liberty when it was released from the prison of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle that the Mind or Spirit can subsist by it self not mixt with any composition not affected with passions They could not search far enough why it should be so they never discovered that the dissolution of the soul from the body was brought into the world after Adam was created for the punishment of sin but their dim Candle gave them light to see that the soul was
greatest probation of faith but it changeth faith into another species of Religion than it was before St. Austin speaks to some holy people that were ready to die for the testimony which they held Mox aurei eritis nunc argentei estis Now you are Silver that is you are clean and sanctified but if you be tried in the Furnace of Martyrdom ye shall become Gold And as Gold is deposited in the best place of a mans Treasury so those golden Saints I mean those that are slain for the Word they are received into the most precious and costly Cabinets of the Kingdom of God Upon those words of the Psalm xxvii 5. He shall hide me in the secret of his Tabernacle says Bernard Christ is a Tabernacle of protection for all his servants but he reserves the Altar for the Martyrs which is the principal part of the Tabernacle In acknowledgment that they had won the chief Garland which was propounded to them that run the race the bones of the Martyrs anciently were wont to be buried in no common place of the Church but under the Altar So St. Ambrose of the bones of Protasius and Gervasius buried in his Church of Millain under the Altar says he Let these triumphal Sacrifices be brought to that place where Christ is sacrificed I had destined that plot of ground for mine own burial It is meet that the Priest should sleep in peace where he was wont to offer up the Peace-offering Sed cedo sacris victimis dexteram portionem locus ille martyribus debebatur but I resign the right hand of the Altar to them it is due to the Martyrs How their names were read at solemn times out of the Diptyches to renoun their passions how their requests which they made to the Church before they died were granted for the pardon of any delinquent how their reliques were held precious though not exposed superstitiously to veneration these and much to that effect were too long to recite it is measure heaped and running over that Stephen the Captain of the bloudy Army saw the Heavens opened to immortalize his sufferings and that in the first File of all that are blessed St. John saw those that were slain for the Word of God Yet this service is so rough unto our tender nature to part with life for the custody of the truth that all men had rather owe it to God than pay it him O but it is a good thing to put your self to the question secretly between God and your self and do it not easily or hypocritically admit I had supplied the room of Stephen of James of Justin Laurence Cyprian quanta nomina Should I have stood it out to the shedding of my bloud Or should I have fainted If you stick at it and cannot make a constant resolution go to a new scrutiny and that the flesh may not say that you deceive it with a superficial examination make the most that you can of the pains which you shall be put to under the hand of the torturer yet put all things in a right Scale that the pains to be endured are over in a pair of hours at longest for the most part in a pair of minutes that the truth which you defend is ten thousand times dearer than a corruptible body that the passions of this life are not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed solicite your self often with these meditations till you have concluded with a mature judgment as St. Paul did I count not my life dear unto my self so I may finish my course with joy And then I will pronounce you a Martyr in extraordinary for God accepteth the will for the deed But howsoever the preconsiderations of many be stout I fear they would grow effeminate upon the trial You cannot discharge a strict Lenten Fast how would your delicate bodies digest the hunger of an Inquisition The ground is too hard for your knees to pray upon what hope is there that you would hold out to lie upon the bare ground of a prison A throng in hot weather stifles you that you cannot endure the Church how would your flesh endure a flaming fire I believe you think this deaths-head hath been set too long before you And is there no smoother way to be a Martyr than by being slain Yes St. Paul says there is a living Sacrifice as well as a dead And St. Austin Pervenitur non solùm occasu sed contemptu carnis ad coronam You may receive the Crown prepared for them that fight lawfully not only by extinguishing but by mortifying the flesh Mine eyes do persecute my chastity ambition doth persecute my humility revengeful malice doth persecute my charity concupiscence is always persecuting my soul which way can I turn my self but that every thing is a Martyrdom to a Religious Christian But if I mortifie the deeds of the flesh if I abandon covetousness if I repress lust if I bridle malice if I trample upon the world whereas I was a Martyr in affliction before and sin did reign over me I have expulsed it by another Martyrdom by renovation and by crucifying the old man But alas for pitty how many Martyrs have we if they may be believed upon their own testimony How many whining passages in by-corners and Satyrical Sermons touching the persecution of the Saints God shield that Saints should suffer in so Orthodox and so mild a Church Sure they are mistaken Nay but they exclaim over and over that they suffer for their conscience For their conscience That is another thing Do they suffer for the Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Complutensian Bibles read my Text I love not to insult over misery with many words let them sift their own case and it will prove they are supprest for contemning Authority But there are others far more obstreperous against our state If Pictures and Almanacks and Martyrologies and Beatifications of Traitors will condemn us we are up to the ears in these Certificates for savage cruelty in killing the Saints Do they not mean Jesuites and Seminaries that were forbidden upon forfeiture of their head not to enter into his Majesties Dominions It is as clear as the light of the Sun then that they were executed for breaking the Statute-Law and not for the Word of God or for the Testimony which they held Every Malefactor will pretend that he dies in a good cause to make his judgment odious in mens nostrils Such as serve in the Gallies will never be known what crimes they are in for but complain that they wear their Chain for Faith and Religion Alass say their Abettors that canonize them that Statute is violated but by accident they come to instruct their own Proselytes and to execute the Function of their Priesthood therefore by consequent they are slain for the Word of God I will match their case with a full place of St. Cyprian and so answer them The Proconsul that
therefore whatsoever the refractory think that filled our Liturgie with Te Deums with Magnificats with Doxologies Methinks Prayer were but a drowzy thing without them When we ask any thing that we need we speak in the Dialect of men but when we send forth acclamations to the honour of Jesus Christ we speak with the tongues of Seraphims In our Petitions we may exceed and ask too much in our Doxologies we cannot exceed It agrees well to the true only God which Plato ascribed to his Idols heap what Epithets you will upon the Gods you cannot flatter them Perhaps some are of the mind of that Heathen that asked a Rhetorician to what purpose he penn'd an Oration in praise of Hercules for who did ever discommend Hercules Or if Blasphemers should detract from God his excellency it is not made less So all the invocations and Halleluja's of the Saints cannot add on Cubit not one Inch to the stature of his Majesty it is uncapable of increase and can never grow greater But will you be content to open your lips unto the praise of the Coelestial goodness if it bring your self to honour though it be no amplification to the glory of God Agreed then no man can ascribe much praise to God but out of a large capacity of faith for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost No man can speak of the King of Heaven according to his due honour but it will procreate devotion and reverence no man doth advance the name of God in the preface of his Prayer but it is a tacite Confession that he prefers the glory of his Maker before his own Necessity Behold now though Gods honour be in the state that it was before yet your soul is in a better state by Prayer and Invocation for a spiritual gift in this life is a degree to a reward in the life to come Let me not defer it any longer to speak of the ditty of that praise which the Souls under the Altar did give unto the most High And the words when they are laid together are Triga divinae gloriae as it is called a Chariot drawn by the three transcendent Attributes of the Divine Nature Who doth excel in Power but the Lord Who doth excel in goodness but the Holy of Holies And He that brings to pass whatsoever he hath spoken he must excel in truth Power belongs unto the Father for all things are by him Truth belongs unto the Son for all the shadows of the Old Law are fulfilled in him Goodness belongs to the Holy Ghost for he is the Sanctification that is diffused in our hearts Therefore more praise cannot be couched in three words than in these Lord Holy and True We wretched and ignorant sinners that utter these words with polluted lips we cannot apprehend as the Martyrs in Heaven do what an eternal weight of glory is in every one of these Syllables Yet we know that he is Lord whose authority admits no equal the Idaea of all goodness whose sanctity admits no question A Truth which is the measure of all truth whose words and statutes admit no contradiction His Dominion is so strong that it cannot be resisted his Holiness is so sincere that it cannot sin and his Truth is so firmly coupled to his Holiness that he cannot lie There is no Power but in Him for all the Foundations of the Earth are weak There is no Holiness but in him for there is none that doth good no not one There is no verity but in him for God is true and every man a lyar As for all the Gods of the Heathen there was infirmity in their protection for they had no strength Viciousness in their Sanctions for they had no sanctity Delusions in their Oracles for they were nothing but vanity To contract a world of variety which may be morallized out of this Triple Crown of God it is not to be over-passed that these are the Titles upon which the Church depends for all its blessings the Hills unto which we lift up our eyes for help Solium gubernandi altare sanctificandi cathedra docendi The Throne of his Kingdom the Altar of his Priesthood the Chair of his Prophetical Wisdom which afford unto the Church Might to protect it Grace to purifie it and Truth to direct it in all things Or observe it how the Enemies of the Church are over-matcht and trodden down by these Attributes We all know they are in three Ranks Tyrants Hypocrites and Hereticks To suppress Tyrants he is the mighty Lord for the detestation of Hypocrites he is the Holy One of Israel for the conviction of Hereticks Truth hath flourisht out of the Earth and Righteousness hath looked down from Heaven But if these be the Flowers of Christs honour if the Martyrs as some Expositors say meant of him only they are Lines which will easily I am sure meet in that Center Though once he was compassed with our infirmities yet now what Power so great as his to whom the Father hath committed all judgment What Holiness so perfect as his which challenged the censure of his Enemies Which of you can reprove me of sin Or what Truth so praepotent as out of his mouth which made his Adversaries confess Never man spake like him Not to leave this Subject without some utility to our life Are these Titles of our Father no way hereditary to us by Adoption of Sons Yes surely after the model of our earthen Vessel the compellation of Lord which is so awful and to be adored in the Supreme Majesty it claims veneration and submissive obedience to those Powers upon earth to whom God hath committed the execution of his governance The other two Attributes are not so restrictive but are the Vrim and Thummim of every Christian or like the two eyes in our head we know not which is dearest Holiness and Truth Truth is the illumination of our understanding in all points to be believed Holiness is the reformation of our will in all cases of practice Which of these can you spare and live your brains or your heart If Holiness be true there will be no Hypocrisie If Truth be holy there will be no contention If Holiness be true Zeal shall be joyned to Knowledge If Truth be holy Knowledge shall be joyned to action Where Truth is not holy Herod for the engagement of his Oath will cut off the head of John Baptist Where holiness is not true the Pharisees in defence of the Law will Crucifie our Saviour Wherefore put on the new man which is created after God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the holiness of truth or in true holiness Eph. iv 24. Forget not I pray that I said these Epithets were not only an Invocation but an obtestation also as if the Martyrs had said As thou art the Lord as thou art holy as thou art true avenge our bloud of them that
they believed him to be more than that little one or they had not worshipped him To make a full choir of consent thus St. Austin Adorant in carne verbum in infantiâ sapientiam in infirmitate virtutem They adored in the flesh that Word that was made flesh they adored in that Infant the Wisdom of the Father they adored in that infirmity the mighty power of God To whom c. SIX SERMONS UPON THE BAPTISM OF OUR SAVIOUR THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him YOU shall hear a Story beginning at this Verse and so ending with the Chapter how christ did enter into his Office of Mediatorship and how he began to make himself known to be the Promised Seed who should reconcile God and Men together It was as I have read unto you at a solemn Baptism which he received from the hand of John A happy beginning for us men and for our Salvation and a Baptism as useful for the spiritual liâ—e of all Christians as the Air conduceth to our natural conservation For as the same Air which God created in the beginning is the breath which our Fore-fathers did draw and which sustains us and shall serve the Generations of men which are yet unborn So the Baptism of our Saviour it purged all true believers that have gone before us it cleanseth us according to our Faith and shall work the same good work upon our childrens children for ever It stands us under the Gospel instead of the same comfort which the Rainbow afforded unto the old world The Rainbow is a reflexion of the Sun-beams in a watry cloud and was ordained as a sign of pacification that Gods anger should no more strive with man Such a Rainbow was Christ Jesus and therefore it encompasseth his Throne round about Apoc. 4. look upon him not standing majestically in a cloud above but wading like an humble servant into the waters of Jordan beneath look upon him how he sanctifies that Element which was once a means to drown the World and now is made a means to save it look upon him in that posture as a Rainbow in the water and you may read Gods sure Covenant made with his whole Church that his anger is pacified in his well beloved Son and that he will be gracious with his Inheritance A brave beginning and worthy to be the first work of his Mediatorship which is enough to say it will be most worthy your best attention Theodorus in Aristotle would never play a part in any histrionical sport unless he might be the first that came upon the stage He thought the first entrance in any person made the deepest impression in the Spectators And surely a good onset is no small grace to all that follows The first-born were sanctified to the Lord. God smelt a sweet savour out of the first Sacrifice that Noah offered unto him a distinct mark is set upon the first miracle which our Saviour wrought at Cana in Galilee by turning water into wine And this being the first work of his Prophetical Office is transcendently observable that he came from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him Which verse is but the preparatory to that which follows and therefore it affords no more than three circumstances of the main matter which lies behind at ver 16. First It refers us to inquire into the circumstance of time Then cometh Jesus from Galilee surely it was some very fit season and opportunity Secondly After what manner he would be baptized with the Baptism of John it will be necessary therefore to examine the dignity of Johns Baptism Thirdly The place must not be omitted which was the fortunate seat where this work was done not in Galilee but in Jordan Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan c. For the first of these we need not divine or follow conjectures of our own invention how seasonable it was for the Son of God to declare himself just at this present to be the Messias that would save his people three reasons may be drawn out of express Scripture and we can have no better 1. You may read in this Chapter the men of Judea and all Jerusalem round about were baptized in Jordan confessing their sins John preacht the doctrine of Repentance before them and wrought great compunction of heart in many that heard him they were afflicted for their sins and grieved for the days that were past Then did the Son of God present himself to be baptized in Jordan In the midst of their contrition when their souls were filled with the desire of grace Then said I loe I come Poor People they began to know themselves in what miserable condition they were even sick unto death and when their bowels did yearn O is there none to deliver us Then steps in the peace of heaven and earth as who should say Is it I that you look for Is there any beside me that can cure your miseries Observe my beloved how pat the comfort of Salvation comes in after true repentance David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said unto David in the same line The Lord also hath put away thy Sin As soon as ever Stephen was besmeared with the bloud of Martyrdom then he saw the heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God And Repentance comes but thus short of Martyrdom that it fetcheth bloud from the soul and killeth the old man with his concupiscence When tears of godly sorrow trickle down or at such time as compunction hath a bleeding heart within though the eyes be dry without then it hath an imaginary vision that it sees the Son of God making intercession for us to his Father and beckoning with his right hand to our wounded conscience that we should be comforted No man can ever say he languisht long in desire to obtain Gods grace and could not find it Let Mary Magdalen weep and wring her hands that Christ is taken away and if she turn about glad woman she shall perceive how near he is unto her He was born indeed at Bethlehem Angelis cantantibus when the Angels of heaven did sing for joy But being lost as it were to the knowledge of the world for a long space at the end of thirty years he manifests himself again hominibus plorantibus when men were broken in heart with Mortification and Repentance at the preaching of John Then cometh Jesus from Galilee c. Secondly The austerity of Johns life and the divinity of his preaching did amuze the world therefore the Priests and Levites sent to him from Jerusalem to know if he were the Christ Joh. i. 19. And another Evangelist says all the people were in suspence in their hearts whether John were the Christ Luke iii. 15. Now at this instant that the servant might no longer rob the
Master of his honour but that the truth might be revealed if they would embrace it then he came most opportunely from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized of John St. Cyril gives this delightful similitude upon it John Baptist was the Lucifer or morning Star that ran his course before our Saviour Now as the Sun makes his approach in our Hemisphere before this Star is set in the West and obscures that lesser light with his own glory So Christ did not lie hid untill his fore-runner had done baptizing and were gone out of the world but when he shined most in the great opinion of all men then a greater than John advanceth himself and obscures him for ever How willingly how chearfully was the Baptist contented My joy says he is fulfilled that he must increase and I must decrease The word bodes no such thing as if he should decrease in sanctity or in the favour of God but it was his joy that he should grow less in the opinion of the world that the Church would begin to know the true Messias to be the Bridegroom and that he was no more than the Friend of the Bridegroom It is pretty which some observe how the birth of John fell out at Mid-summer when the days grow shorter and shorter Contrariwise the Nativity of Christ happens in that month when the Sun approacheth and the days grow longer and longer So the glory of John was in the waine and declined to less and less estimation in respect of Christ but he that is the brightness of the Fathers glory ascends higher and higher the earth shall know him more and more while the Sun and Moon endure Collect this observation to the use of your own life my beloved Decrescâ—t homo â—rescat Deus Let man be diminished and brought low let God arise and be exalted It was not a little decreasing that Paul stood upon but wisht himself Anathema for his brethren so God might be glorified And surely if the blessed Virgin and the Saints departed have any perceiving what religious honour is done unto them by some superstitious devotaries which belongs to none but to the Eternal Majesty on high I doubt not but it is their usual supplication O Lord take this honour from us and lay it upon thy self God raiseth up Prophets in his Church not to make them eminent but that himself may be magnified This no doubt was a rule well grounded in John Baptist whose heart was as humble as his Rayment and when it was bruted abroad that he was the Messias it vext his righteous soul and desired nothing more than that the true Lamb of God would appear that taketh away the sins of the world He had his wish when the Son of glory disclosed himself at Jordan Yet it was not an errour but rather a praise in John that he was taken for the best that ever lived because of his conspicuous Piety for Christ himself It was not a crime in Peter that such Saint-like reverence appear'd in him that Cornelius being astonisht fell down to worship him It was not to be blamed in Paul and Barnabas that they carried themselves among the Lycaonians above the ordinary condition of men insomuch that they called Paul Mercurius and Barnabas Iupiter St. Chrysostom extols them for it says he Let every Apostolical man imitate their sanctity that they may appear to be better than corruptible flesh and to live like Angels in this wicked world So Paul behaved himself among the Galathians that they received him as an Angel yea even as Christ Jesus But when it came to a foul mistake that the men of Lycaonia would have done sacrifice to them the Apostles were grievously offended they rent their cloaths and ran among the people declaring themselves to be men who came to teach the world that they must not rob God of his honour I am ashamed to read such bald excuses made for Francis the first Friâ—r of his order that he permitted some to fall down and do him divine adoration for they did not worship him but God that was in him Is that sufficient Then it had not been intollerable in Alexander to require divine honours to his person as he was Gods Vice-gerent in his Monarchy Yet one Hermolaus an heathen in the story of Curtius exprobrates him that he was violently made away because he would be worshipt as a God Some would defend the Frier forenamed by the example of Daniel Dan. ii 46. when he had expounded Nebuchadnezzars dream the King fell on his face and worshipt Daniel and commanded that they should offer an Oblation and sweet Odours unto him But doth Daniel any more than recite what was bidden to be done Do you find the Kings command was obeyed in this Certainly Daniel did never consent but forbad it and had other honours done unto him to sit in the Kings Gate and to be ruler of his Provinces Believe it therefore that man must not defile himself by touching Gods glory too much of that weigt lay upon Johns shoulders when he was taken to be the Christ and to take that opinion from the Creature to the Creator Then came our blessed Lord from Galilee to Jordan Thirdly This Adverb of time Then it points to the Age of Christ he began to be about thirty years of age Luk. iii. 23. Then and not before did this Star of brightness make his appearance Then came Jesus c. He was made like unto us in all things sin only excepted for else we can give no reason why he would stay to fulfil the perfect age of man before he would take in hand the work of his Mediatorship A decorum is usually kept among us that a man is not called to the administration of great business before his person carries some authority in it by the gravity of his years And therefore our blessed Saviour that his enemies might not calumniate or despise him for a novice put forth himself at that maturity of age which is commonly well allowed for manliness and wisdom Not that there wanted perfection and ability in him even in his swadling clouts and Cradle to do more than any mortal man could bring to pass far be it from us to conceit him otherwise The Union of the Godhead as soon as he was conceived in the womb gave him more power and understanding than ever inhabited in any other flesh And therefore the Prophet Jeremy speaking how he should be inclosed in a Virgins womb hath dropt out such a word that many of the Fathers catch hold of it for an Emphasis Jer. xxxi 22. A woman shall compass a man Circumdabit virâ—m non infantem though she bore an Infant yet in his Infant-age nothing was defective in him but did exceedingly super-abound all which could be required in man Therefore at twelve years of age he made all the Doctors of the Temple astonisht at the questions he propounded but from that time to the age of