steps in his temptations of the second The stones must be made bread there is the motion to a Carnal appetite The guard and attendance of Angels must be presumed on there is a motion to Pride The Kingdomes of the Earth and the glory of them must be offered there to Covetousnesse and Ambition Satan could not but have heard God say This is my welbeloved Son he had heard the Message and the Carol of the Angels he saw the Star and the journey and Offerings of the Sages he could not but take notice of the gratulations of Zachary Simeon Anna he well knew the Predictions of the Prophets yet now that he saw Christ fainting with hunger as not comprehending how infirmities could consist with a Godhead he can say If thou be the Son of God Had not Satan known that the Son of God was to come into the World he had never said If thou be the Son of God His very supposition convinces him The ground of his Temptation answers it self If therefore Christ seemed to be a mere man because after forty daies he was hungry why was he not confessed more then a man in that for forty daies he hungred not The motive of the Temptation is worse then the motion If thou be the Son of God Satan could not chuse another suggestion of so great importance All the work of our Redemption of our Salvation depends upon this one Truth Christ is the Son of God How should he else have ransomed the World how should he have done how should he have suffered that which was satisfactory to his Fathers wrath how should his actions or Passion have been valuable to the sin of all the World What marvel is it if we that are sons by Adoption be assaulted with the doubts of our interest in God when the natural Son the Son of his Essence is thus tempted Since all our comfort consists in this point here must needs be laid the chief battery and here must be placed our strongest defence To turn Stones into Bread had been no more faulty in it self then to turn Water into Wine But to do this in a distrust of his Fathers Providence to abuse his power and liberty in doing it to work a Miracle of Satans choice had been disagreeable to the Son of God There is nothing more ordinary with our spiritual enemy then by occasion of want to move us to unwarrantable courses Thou art poor steal Thou canst not rise by honest means use indirect How easie had it been for our Saviour to have confounded Satan by the power of his Godhead But he rather chuses to vanquish him by the Sword of the Spirit that he might teach us how to resist overcome the powers of darknesse If he had subdued Satan by the Almighty power of the Deity we might have had what to wonder at not what to imitate now he useth that weapon which may be familiar unto us that he may teach our weaknesse how to be victorious Nothing in Heaven or earth can beat the forces of Hell but the word of God How carefully should we furnish our selves with this powerful munition how should our hearts and mouths be full of it Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes O take not from me the words of Truth Let them be my Songs in the house of my pilgrimage So shall I make answer to my Blasphemers What needed Christ to have answered Satan at all if it had not been to teach us that Temptations must not have their way but must be answered by resistance and resisted by the Word I do not hear our Saviour aver himself to be a God against the blasphemous insinuation of Satan neither do I see him working this miraculous Conversion to prove himself the Son of God but most wisely he takes away the ground of the Temptation Satan had taken it for granted that man cannot be sustained without bread and therefore infers the necessity of making bread of stones Our Saviour shews him from an infallible Word that he had mislayed his suggestion That man lives not by usual food only but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God He can either sustain without bread as he did Moses and Elias or with a miraculous bread as the Israelites with Manna or send ordinary means miraculously as food to his Prophet by the Ravens or miraculously multiply ordinary means as the Meal and Oyle to the Sareptan Widow All things are sustained by his Almighty Word Indeed we live by food but not by any virtue that is without God without the concurrence of whose Providence bread would rather choak then nourish us Let him withdraw his hand from his creatures in their greatest abundance we perish Why do we therefore bend our eyes on the means and not look up to the hand that gives the blessing What so necessary dependance hath the blessing upon the creature if our Prayers hold them not together As we may not neglect the means so we may not neglect the procurement of a blessing upon the means nor be unthankful to the hand that hath given the blessing In the first assault Satan moves Christ to doubt of his Fathers Providence and to use unlawful means to help himself in the next he moves him to presume upon his Fathers protection and the service of his blessed Angels He grounds the first upon a conceit of want the next of abundance If he be in extremes it is all to one end to mislead unto evil If we cannot be driven down to despair he labours to lift us up to presumption It is not one foil than can put this bold spirit out of countenance Temptations like waves break one in the neck of another Whiles we are in this warfare we must make account that the repulse of one Temptation doth but invite to another That Blessed Saviour of ours that was content to be led from Jordan into the Wildernesse for the advantage of the first Temptation yields to be led from the Wildernesse to Jerusalem for the advantage of the second The place doth not a little avail to the act The Wildernesse was fit for a Temptation arising from Want it was not fit for a Temptation moving to Vain-glory the populous City was the fittest for such a motion Jerusalem was the glory of the World the Temple was the glory of Jerusalem the Pinnacles the highest piece of the Pinnacle there is Christ content to be set for the opportunity of Tentation O Saviour of men how can we wonder enough at this Humility of thine that thou wouldest so farre abase thy self as to suffer thy pure and sacred Body to be transported by the presumptuous and malicious hand of that unclean Spirit It was not his Power it was thy Patience that deserves our admiration Neither can this seem over-strange to us when we consider that if Satan be the head of wicked men wicked men are the members of Satan What was Pilate or the Jews
more inquisitive into the manner and means of this event How shall this be since I know not a man That she should conceive a Son by the knowledge of man after her Marriage consummate could have been no wonder But how then should that Son of hers be the Son of God This demand was higher How her present Virginity should be instantly fruitfull might be well worthy of admiration of inquiry Here was desire of information not doubts of infidelitie yea rather this question argues Faith it takes for granted that which an unbelieving heart would have stuck at She sayes not Who and whence art thou what Kingdome is this where and when shall it be erected but smoothly supposing all those strange things would be done she insists onely on that which did necessarily require a further intimation and doth not distrust but demand Neither doth she say This cannot be nor How can this be but How shall this be So doth the Angel answer as one that knew he needed not to satisfie curiositie but to informe judgement and uphold faith He doth not therefore tell her of the manner but of the Author of this act The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall over-shadow thee It is enough to know who is the undertaker and what he wil doe O God what doe we seek a clear light where thou wilt have a shadow No Mother knows the manner of her naturall Conception what presumption shall it be for flesh and blood to search how the Son of God took flesh and blood of his Creature It is for none but the Almighty to know those works which he doth immediatly concerning himself those that concern us he hath revealed Secrets to God things revealed to us The answer was not so full but that a thousand difficulties might arise out of the particularities of so strange a message yet after the Angels Solution we hear of no more Objections no more Interrogations The faithfull heart when it once understands the good pleasure of God argues no more but sweetly rests it self in a quiet expectation Behold the Servant of the Lord be it to me according to thy Word There is not a more noble proof of our Faith then to captivate all the powers of our understanding and will to our Creator and without all sciscitations to goe blind-fold whither he will lead us All disputations with God after his will known arise from infidelity Great is the Mysterie of godlinesse and if we will give Nature leave to cavil we cannot be Christians O God thou art faithfull thou art powerfull It is enough that thou hast said it In the humilitie of our obedience we resign our selves over to thee Behold the Servants of the Lord be it unto us according to thy Word How fit was her womb to conceive the flesh of the Son of God by the power of the Spirit of God whose breast had so soon by the power of the same Spirit conceived an assent to the will of God and now of an Hand-maid of God she is advanced to the Mother of God No sooner hath she said be it done then it is done the Holy Ghost over-shadows her and forms her Saviour in her own body This very Angel that talks with the Blessed Virgin could scarce have been able to express the joy of her heart in the sense of this Divine burden Never any mortall creature had so much cause of exultation How could she that was full of God be other then full of joy in that God Grief grows greater by concealing Joy by expression The holy Virgin had understood by the Angel how her Cousin Elizabeth was no lesse of kin to her in condition the fruitfulnesse of whose age did somewhat suit the fruitfulnesse of her Virginitie Happinesse communicated doubles it self Here is no straining of courtesie The blessed Maid whom vigor of age had more fitted for the way hastens her journey into the Hill-country to visit that gracios Matron whom God had made a sign of her miraculous Conception Onely the meeting of Saints in Heaven can parallel the meeting of these two Cousins the two wonders of the World are met under one roof and congratulate their mutual happinesse When we have Christ spiritually conceived in us we cannot be quiet till we have imparted our joy Elizabeth that holy Matron did no sooner welcome her blessed Cousin then her Babe welcomes his Saviour Both in the retired Closets of their Mothers Womb are sensible of each others presence the one by his omniscience the other by instinct He did not more fore-run Christ then over-run Nature How should our hearts leap within us when the Son of God vouchsafes to come into the secret of our Souls not to visit us but to dwell with us to dwell in us The Birth of Christ AS all the actions of men so especially the publick actions of publick men are ordered by God to other ends then their own This Edict went not so much out from Augustus as from the Court of Heaven What did Caesar know Joseph and Mary His charge was universal to a world of subjects through all the Roman Empire God intended this Cension onely for the Blessed Virgin and her Son that Christ might be born where he should Caesar meant to fill his Coffers God meant to fulfil his Prophesies and so to fulfill them that those whom it concerned might not feel the accomplishment If God had directly commanded the Virgin to goe up to Bethleem she had seen the intention and expected the issue but that wise Moderatour of all things that works his will in us loves so to doe it as may be least with our fore-sight and acquaintance and would have us fall under his Decrees unawares that we may so much the more adore the depths of his Providence Every Creature walkes blind-fold onely he that dwels in light sees whither they goe Doubtless blessed Mary meant to have been delivered of her Divine burden at home and little thought of changing the place of Conception for another of her Birth That house was honoured by the Angel yea by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost none could equally satisfie her hopes or desires It was fit that he which made choice of the Womb wherein his Son should be conceived should make choice of the place where his Son should be born As the work is all his so will he alone contrive all the circumstances to his own ends Oh the infinite Wisedom of God in casting all his Designs There needs no other proof of Christ then Caesar and Bethleem and of Caesars then Augustus his Government his Edict pleads the truth of the Messias His Government now was the deep peace of all the world under that quiet Scepter which made way for him who was the Prince of Peace If Wars be a sign of the time of his second coming Peace was a signe of his first His Edict now was the Scepter departed from Juda. It was
so confine his election to the pale of the Church as that he did not sometimes look out for special instruments of his glory Whither do these Sages come but to Hierusalem where should they hope to hear of the new King but in the mother City of the Kingdome The conduct of the Star was first only general to Judaea the rest is for a time left to inquiry they were not brought thither for their own sakes but for Jewrie's for the worlds that they might help to make the Jews inexcusable and the world faithful That their tongues therefore might blazon the birth of Christ they are brought to the head City of Judaea to report and inquire Their wisdome could not teach them to imagine that a King could be born to Judaea of that note and magnificence that a Star from heaven should publish him to the earth and that his subjects should not know it and therefore as presupposing a common notice they say Where is he that is born King of the Jews There is much deceit in probabilities especially when we meddle with spiritual matters For God uses still to goe a way by himself If we judge according to reason and appearance who is so likely to understand heavenly truths as the profound Doctors of the world These God passes over and reveals his will to babes Had these Sages met with the Shepherds of the villages near Bethleem they had received that intelligence of Christ which they did vainly seek from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem The greatest Clerks are not alwaiess the wisest in the affairs of God these things goe not by discourse but by revelation No sooner hath the Star brought them within the noise of Jerusalem then it is vanished out of sight God would have their eyes lead them so far as till their tongues might be set on work to win the vocal attestation of the chief Priests and Scribes to the fore-appointed place of our Saviours nativity If the Star had caried them directly to Bethleem the learned Jews had never searched the truth of those prophesies wherewith they are since justly convinced God never withdraws our helps but for a further advantage However our hopes seem crossed where his Name may gain we cannot complain of losse Little did the Sages think this question would have troubled Herod they had I fear concealed their message if they had suspected this event Sure they thought it might be some Son or grandchild of him which then held the Throne so as this might win favour from Herod rather then an unwelcome fear of rivalty Doubtless they went first to the Court where else should they ask for a King The more pleasing this 〈…〉 if it had falne upon Herod's own loyns the more grievous it was to light upon a stranger If Herod had not over-much affected greatness he had not upon those indirect terms aspired to the Crown of Jewry so much the more therefore did it trouble him to hear the rumor of a successor and that not of his own Setled greatness cannot abide either change or partnership If any of his subjects had moved this question I fear his head had answered it It is well that the name of forrainers could excuse these Sages Herod could not be brought up among the Jews and not have heard many and confident reports of a Messias that should ere long arise out of Israel and now when he hears the fame of a King born whom a Star from Heaven signifies and attends he is netled with the news Every thing affrights the guilty Usurpation is full of jealousies and fear no lesse full of projects and imaginations it makes us think every bush a man and every man a thief Why art thou troubled O Herod A King is born but such a King as whose Scepter may ever concur with lawfull Soveraignty yea such a King as by whom Kings doe hold their Scepters not lose them If the wise-men tell thee of a King the Star tells thee he is heavenly Here is good cause of security none of fear The most general enmities and oppositions to good arise from mistakings If men could but know how much safety and sweetnesse there is in all Divine truth it could receive nothing from them but welcomes and gratulations Misconceits have been still guilty of all wrongs and persecutions But if Herod were troubled as Tyranny is still suspicious why was all Hierusalem troubled with him Hierusalem which now might hope for a relaxation of her bonds for a recovery of her liberty and right Hierusalem which now onely had cause to lift up her drooping head in the joy and happiness of a Redeemer Yet not Herod's Court but even Hierusalem was troubled so had this miserable City been overtoiled with change that now they were setled in a condition quietly evil they are troubled with the news of better They had now got a habit of servility and now they are so acquainted with the yoke that the very noise of liberty which they supposed would not come with ease began to be unwelcome To turn the causes of joy into sorrow argues extreme dejectednesse and a distemper of judgment no lesse then desperate Fear puts on a visor of devotion Herod calls his learned counsel and as not doubting whether the Messiah should be born he asks where he shall be born In the disparition of that other light there is a perpetually-fixed Star shining in the writings of the Prophets that guides the chief Priests and Scribes directly unto Bethleem As yet envy and prejudice had not blinded the eyes and perverted the hearts of the Jewish teachers so as now they clearly justifie that Christ whom they afterwards condemne and by thus justifying him condemn themselves in rejecting him The water that is untroubled yields the visage perfectly If God had no more witnesse but from his enemies we have ground enough of our faith Herod feared but dissembled his fear as thinking it a shame that strangers should see there could any power arise under him worthy of his respect or awe Out of an unwillingnesse therefore to discover the impotency of his passion he makes little adoe of the matter but onely after a privy inquisition into the Time imployes the informers in the search of the Person Goe and search diligently for the Babe c. It was no great journy from Hierusalem to Bethleem how easily might Herod's cruelty have secretly suborned some of his bloody Courtiers to this inquiry and execution If God had not meant to mock him before he found himself mocked of the wise-men he had rather sent before their journey then after their disappointment But that God in whose hands all hearts are did purposely besot him that he might not finde the way to so horrible a mischief There is no Villan◠〈◊〉 but it will mask it self under a shew of Piety Herod will also worship 〈◊〉 Babe The courtesie of a false Tyrant is death A crafty hypocrite never means so ill as when he
and fears comes deliverance At their entrance into the ship at the arising of the tempest at the shutting in of the evening there was no news of Christ but when they have been all the night long beaten not so much with storms and waves as with their own thoughts now in the fourth watch which was near to the morning Jesus came unto them and purposely not till then that he might exercise their patience that he might inure them to wait upon Divine Providence in cases of extremity that their Devotions might be more whetted by delay that they might give gladder welcome to their deliverance O God thus thou thinkest fit to doe still We are by turns in our sea the windes bluster the billows swell the night and thy absence heighten our discomfort thy time and ours is set as yet it is but midnight with us can we but hold out patiently till the fourth watch thou wilt surely come and rescue us Oh let us not faint under our sorrows but wear out our three watches of tribulation with undaunted patience and holy resolution O Saviour our extremities are the seasons of thine aide Thou camest at last but yet so as that there was more dread then joy in thy presence Thy coming was both miraculous and frightfull Thou God of Elements passedst through the aire walkedst upon the waters Whether thou meantest to terminate this Miracle in thy body or in the waves which thou trodest upon whether so lightning the one that it should make no impression in the liquid waters or whether so consolidating the other that the pavemented waves yielded a firm causey to thy sacred feet to walk on I neither determine nor inquire thy silence ruleth mine thy power was in either miraculous neither know I in whether to adore it more But withall give me leave to wonder more at thy passage then at thy coming Wherefore camest thou but to comfort them and wherefore then wouldest thou passe by them as if thou hadst intended nothing but their dismay Thine absence could not be so grievous as thy preterition that might seem justly occasioned this could not but seem willingly neglective Our last conflicts have wont ever to be the sorest as when after some dreeping rain it powrs down most vehemently we think the weather is changing to serenity O Saviour we may not alwaies measure thy meaning by thy semblance sometimes what thou most intendest thou shewest least In our Afflictions thou turnest thy back upon us and hidest thy face from us when thou most mindest our distresses So Jonathan shot the arrows beyond David when he meant them to him So Joseph calls for Benjamin into bonds when his heart was bound to him in the strongest affection So the tender mother makes as if she would give away her crying childe whom she hugs so much closer in her bosome If thou passe by us whiles we are strugling with the tempest we know it is not for want of mercy Thou canst not neglect us Oh let not us distrust thee What Object should have been so pleasing to the eyes of the Disciples as their Master and so much the more as he shewed his Divine power in this miraculous walk But lo contrarily they are troubled not with his presence but with this form of presence The supernatural works of God when we look upon them with our own eyes are subject to a dangerous misprision The very Sun-beams to whom we are beholden for our sight if we eye them directly blinde us Miserable men we are ready to suspect Truths to run away from our safety to be afraid of our comforts to mis-know our best friends And why are they thus troubled They had thought they had seen a Spirit That there have been such apparitions of Spirits both good and evil hath ever been a Truth undoubtedly received of Pagans Jews Christians although in the blinde times of Superstition there was much collusion mixed with some verities Crafty men and lying spirits agreed to abuse the credulous world But even where there was not Truth yet there was Horror The very Good Angels were not seen without much fear their sight was construed to bode Death how much more the Evil which in their very nature are harmfull and pernicious We see not a Snake or a Toad without some recoiling of blood sensible reluctation although those creatures run away from us how much more must our hairs stand upright and our senses boggle at the sight of a Spirit whose both nature will is contrary to ours and protessedly bent to our hurt But say it had been what they mistook it for a Spirit why should they fear Had they well considered they had soon found that evil spirits are neverthelesse present when they are not seen and neverthelesse harmfull or malicious when they are present unseen Visibility addes nothing to their spight or mischief And could their eyes have been opened they had with Elisha's servant seen more with them then against them a sure though invisible guard of more powerfull Spirits and themselves under the protection of the God of Spirits so as they might have bidden a bold defiance to all the powers of Darkness But partly their Faith was yet but in the bud and partly the presentation of this dreadfull Object was suddain and without the respite of a recollection and settlement of their thoughts Oh the weakness of our frail Nature who in the want of Faith are affrighted with the visible appearance of those adversaries whom we professe daily to resist and vanquish and with whom we know the Decree of God hath matched us in an everlasting conflict Are not these they that ejected Devils by their command Are not these of them that could say Master the evil spirits are subdued to us Yet now when they see but an imagined spirit they fear What power there is in the eye to betray the heart Whiles Goliah was mingled with the rest of the Philistin hoast Israel camped boldly against them but when that Giant stalks out single between the two armies and fills and amases their eyes with his hideous stature now they run away for fear Behold we are committed with Legions of Evil spirits and complain not Let but one of them give us some visible token of his presence we shreek and tremble and are not our selves Neither is our weakness more conspicuous then thy mercy O God in restraining these spiritual enemies from these dreadfull and ghastly representations of themselves to our eyes Might those infernal Spirits have liberty to appear how and when and to whom they would certainly not many would be left in their wits or in their lives It is thy power and goodness to frail mankinde that they are kept in their chains and reserved in the darkness of their own spiritual being that we may both oppugn and subdue them unseen But oh the deplorable condition of reprobate souls If but the imagined sight of one of these Spirits of darkness can
all the gazing multitude and to embalm it When we confess God's name with the Psalmist before Kings when Kings defenders of the Faith profess their Religion in publick and everlasting monuments to all nations to all times this is glorious to God and in God to them It is no matter how close evils be nor how publick good is This is enough for the Chronography the Topography follows I will not here stand to shew you the ignorance of the Vulgar translation in joyning probatica and piscina together against their own fair Vatican copy with other antient nor spend time to discuss whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be here understood for the Substantive of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is most likely to be that Sheep-gate spoken of in Ezra nor to shew how ill piscina in the Latin answers the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ours turn it a pool better then any Latin word can express it nor to shew you as I might how many publick Pools were in Jerusalem nor to discuss the use of this Pool whether it were for washing the beasts to be sacrificed or to wash the entrails of the Sacrifice whence I remember Hierom fetches the virtue of the water and in his time thought he discerned some redness as if the blood spilt four hundred years before could still retain his first tincture in a liquid substance besides that it would be a strange swimming pool that were brewed with blood and this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This conceit arises from the errour of the construction in mismatching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither will I argue whether it should be Bethsida or Bethzida or Bethsheda or Bethesda If either you or my self knew not how to be rid of time we might easily wear out as many hours in this Pool as this poor impotent man did years But it is Edification that we affect and not Curiosity This Pool had five Porches Neither will I run here with S. Austin into Allegories that this Pool was the people of the Jews Aquae multae populus multus and these five Porches the Law in the five books of Moses nor stand to confute Adrichomius which out of Josephus would perswade us that these five Porches were built by Solomon and that this was stagnum Solomonis for the use of the Temple The following words shew the use of the Porches for the receit of impotent sick blinde halt withered that waited for the moving of the water It should seem it was walled about to keep it from Cattel and these five valuted entrances were made by some Benefactors for the more convenience of attendance Here was the Mercy of God seconded by the Charity of men if God will give Cure they will give harbour Surely it is a good matter to put our hand to Gods and to further good works with convenience of injoying them Jerusalem was grown a City of blood to the persecution of the Prophets to a wilful despight of what belonged to her peace to a profanation of God's Temple to a mere formality in God's services and yet here were publick works of Charity in the midst of her streets We may not alwaies judge of the truth of Piety by charitable actions Judas disbursed the money for Christ there was no Traitor but he The poor traveller that was robb'd and wounded betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho was passed over first by the Priest then the Levite at last the Samaritan came and relieved him His Religion was naught yet his act was good the Priests and Levites Religion good their uncharity ill Novatus himself was a Martyr yet a Schismatick Faith is the soul and good works are the breath saith S. James but as you see in a pair of bellows there is a forced breath without life so in those that are puffed up with the winde of oftentation there may be charitable works without Faith The Church of Rome unto her four famous Orders of Jacobins Franciscans Augustines and Carmelites hath added a fifth of Jesuites and like another Jerusalem for those five Leprous and lazarly Orders hath built five porches that if the water of any State be stirred they may put in for a share How many Cells and Convents hath she raised for these miserable Cripples and now she thinks though she exalt her self above all that is called God though she dispence with and against God though she fall down before every block and wafer though she kill Kings and equivocate with Magistrates she is the onely City of God Digna est nam struxit Synagogam She is worthy for she hath built a Synagogue Are we more orthodox and shall not we be as charitable I am ashamed to think of rich Noblemen and Merchants that dye and give nothing to our five porches of Bethesda What shall we say Have they made their Mammon their God in stead of making friends with their Mammon to God Even when they dye will they not like Ambrose's good Usurers part with that which they cannot hold that they may get that which they cannot lose Can they begin their will In Dei nomine Amen and give nothing to God Is he onely a Witness and not a Legatee Can we bequeath our Souls to Christ in Heaven and give nothing to his Lims on earth And if they will not give yet will they not lend to God He that gives to the poor Foeneratur Deo lends to God Will they put out to any but God and then when in stead of giving security he receives with one hand and payes with another receives our bequest and gives us glory Oh damnable niggardliness of vain men that shames the Gospel and loses Heaven Let me shew you a Bethesda that wants porches What truer house of effusion then the Church of God which sheds forth waters of comfort yea of life Behold some of the porches of this Bethesda so farre from building that they are pulled down It is a wonder if the demolished stones of God's House have not built some of yours and if some of you have not your rich Suits garded with Souls There were wont to be reckoned three wonders of England Ecclesia Foemina Lana The Churches the Women the Wooll Foemina may pass stil who may justly challenge wonder for their Vanity if not their Persons As for Lana if it be wonderful alone I am sure it is ill joyned with Ecclesia The Church is fleeced and hath nothing but a bare pelt left upon her back And as for Ecclesia either men have said with the Babylonians Down with it down with it even to the ground or else in respect of the Maintenance with Judas ut quid perditio haec why was this wast How many remorseful souls have sent back with Jacob's sons their money in their Sacks mouths How many great Testators have in their last Will returned the anathematized peculium of Impropriations to the Church chusing rather to impair
had been witnesses of this man's want of eyes He sate begging at one of the Temple gates not only all the City but all the Country must needs know him thrice a year did they come up to Jerusalem neither could they come to the Temple and not see him His very blindness made him noted Deformities and infirmities of body do more easily both draw and fix the eye then an ordinary symmetry of parts Besides his Blindness his Trade made him remarkable the importunity of his begging drew the eyes of the passengers But of all other the Place most notified him Had he sate in some obscure village of Judaea or in some blinde lane of Jerusalem perhaps he had not been heeded of many but now that he took up his seat in the heart in the head of the chief City whither all resorted from all parts what Jew can there be that knows not the blinde begger at the Temple gate Purposely did our Saviour make choice of such a Subject for his Miracle a man so poor so publick the glory of the work could not have reach'd so far if it had been done to the wealthiest Citizen of Jerusalem Neither was it for nothing that the act and the man is doubted of and inquired into by the beholders Is not this he that sat begging Some said It is he others said It is like him No truths have received so full proofs as those that have been questioned The want or the suddain presence of an eye much more of both must needs make a great change in the face those little balls of light which no doubt were more clear then Nature could have made them could not but give a new life to the countenance I marvell not it the neighbours which had wont to see this dark visage led by a guide and guided by a staffe seeing him now walking confidently alone out of his own inward light and looking them chearfully in the face doubted whether this were he The miraculous cures of God work a sensible alteration in men not more in their own apprehension then in the judgment of others Thus in the redresse of the Spiritual blindnesse the whole habit of the man is changed Where before his Face looked dull and earthly now there is a sprightful chearfulness in it through the comfortable knowledge of God and Heavenly things Whereas before his Heart was set upon worldly things now he uses them but injoyes them not and that use is because he must not because he would Where before his fears and griefs were only for pains of body or losse of estate or reputation now they are only spent upon the displeasure of his God and the peril of his Soul So as now the neighbours can say Is this the man others It is like him it is not he The late-blinde man hears and now sees himself questioned and soon resolves the doubt I am he He that now saw the light of the Sun would not hide the light of Truth from others It is an unthankfull silence to smother the works of God in an affected secrecy To make God a loser by his bounty to us were a shamefull injustice We our selves abide not those sponges that suck up good turns unknown O God we are not worthy of our spiritual eye-sight if we do not publish thy mercies on the house top and praise thee in the great congregation Man is naturally inquisitive we search studiously into the secret works of Nature we pry into the reasons of the witty inventions of Art but if there be any thing that transcends Art and Nature the more high and abstruse it is the more busie we are to seek into it This thirst after hidden yea forbidden Knowledge did once cost us dear but where it is good and lawful to know inquiry is commendable as here in these Jews How were thine eyes opened The first improvement of humane Reason is inquisition the next is information and resolution and if the meanest events passe us not without a question how much lesse those that carry in them wonder and advantage He that was so ready to professe himself the Subject of the Cure is no niggard of proclaiming the Author of it A man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and sent me to Siloam to wash and now I see The blinde man knew no more then he said and he said what he apprehended A man He heard Jesus speak he felt his hand as yet he could look no further upon his next meeting he saw God in this man In matter of Knowledge we must be content to creep ere we can goe As that other recovered blinde man saw first men walk like trees after like men so no marvel if this man saw first this God only as man after this man as God also Onwards he thinks him a wonderfull man a mighty Prophet In vain shall we either exspect a suddain perfection in the understanding of Divine matters or censure those that want it How did this man know what Jesus did He was then stone-blinde what distinction could he yet make of persons of actions True but yet the blinde man never wanted the assistance of others eyes their relation hath assured him of the manner of his Cure besides the contribution of his other Senses his Eare might perceive the spittle to fall and hear the injoined command his Feeling perceived the cold moist clay upon his lids All these conjoined gave sufficient warrant thus to believe thus to report Our eare is our best guide to a full apprehension of the works of Christ The works of God the Father his Creation and Government are best known by the Eye The works of God the Son his Redemption and Mediation are best known by the Eare. O Saviour we cannot personally see what thou hast done here What are the monuments of thine Apostles and Evangelists but the relations of the blinde man's guide what and how thou hast wrought for us On these we strongly relie these we do no lesse confidently believe then if our very eyes had been witnesses of what thou didst and sufferedst upon earth There were no place for Faith if the Eare were not worthy of as much credit as the Eye How could the neighbours doe lesse then ask where he was that had done so strange a cure I doubt yet with what minde I fear not out of favour Had they been but indifferent they could not but have been full of silent wonder and inclined to believe in so Omnipotent an Agent Now as prejudiced to Christ and partial to the Pharisees they bring the late-blinde man before those professed enemies unto Christ It is the preposterous Religion of the Vulgar sort to claw and adore those which have tyrannically usurped upon their Souls though with neglect yea with contempt of God in his word in his works Even unjust authority will never want soothing up in whatsoever courses though with disgrace and opposition to the Truth Base mindes
one But since as Erasmus hath too truly observed there is nothing so happy in these humane things wherein there are not some intermixtures of distemper and Saint Paul hath told us there must be Heresies and the Spouse in Solomon's Song compares her blessed Husband to a yong Hart upon the Mountain of Bether that is Division yea rather as under Gensericus and his Vandals the Christian Temples flamed higher then the Towns so for the space of these last hundred years there hath been more combustion in the Church then in the Civil State my next wish is that if differences in Religion cannot be avoided yet that they might be rightly judged of and be but taken as they are Neither can I but mourn and bleed to see how miserably the World is abused on all hands with prejudice in this kind Whiles the adverse part brands us with unjust censures and with loud clamours cries us down for Hereticks on the other side some of ours do so slight the Errours of the Romane Church as if they were not worth our Contention as if our Martyrs had been rash and our quarrels trifling others again do so aggravate them as if we could never be at enough defiance with their Opinions nor at enough distance from their Communion All these three are dangerous extremities the two former whereof shall if my hopes fail me not in this whole Discourse be sufficiently convinced wherein as we shall fully clear our selves from that hateful slander of Heresie or Schisme so we shall leave upon the Church of Rome an unavoidable imputation of many no less foul and enormous then novel Errours to the stopping of the mouths of those Adiaphorists whereof Melanchthon seems to have long agoe prophesied Metuendum est c. It is to be feared saith he that in the last Age of the World this errour will reign amongst men that either Religions are nothing or differ onely in words The third comes now in our way That 〈◊〉 Laertius speaks of Menedemus that in disputing his very ears would sparkâ—â—â— is true of many of ours whose zeal transports them to such a detestation of the Romane Church as if it were all Errour no Church affecting nothing more then an utter opposition to their Doctrine and Ceremony because theirs like as Maldonat professeth to mislike and avoid many fair interpretations not as false but as Calvin's These men have not learned this in S. Augustine's School who tels us that it was the rule of the Fathers as well before Cyprian and Agrippinus as since that whatsoever they found in any Schism or Heresie warrantable and holy that they allowed for its own worth and did not refuse it for the abettors Neither for the chaff do we leave the floor of God neither for the bad Fishes do we break his nets Rather as the Priests of Mercurie had wont to say when they eat their Figs and Honey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All truth is sweet it is indeed Gods not ours wheresoever it is found the Kings Coin is current though it be found in any impure Chanel For this particular they have not well heeded that charitable profession of zealous Luther Nos fatemur c. We profess saith he that under the Papacy there is much Christian good yea all c. I say moreover that under the Papacy is true Christianity yea the very kernel of Christianity c. No man I trust will fear that fervent spirits too much excess of indulgence under the Papacy may be as much good as it self is evil Neither do we censure that Church for what it hath not but for what it hath Fundamental truth is like that Maronaean wine which if it be mixed with twenty times so much water holds his strength The Sepulchre of Christ was overwhelmed by the Pagans with earth and rubbish and more then so over it they built a Temple to their impure Venus yet still in spight of malice there was the Sepulchre of Christ And it is a ruled case of Papinian that a Sacred place loseth not the Holiness with the demolished wals No more doth the Romane lose the claim of a true visible Church by her manifold and deplorable corruptions her unsoundness is not less apparent then her being If she were once the Spouse of Christ and her Adulteries are known yet the Divorce is not sued out CHAP. II. The Original of the Differences IT is too true that those two main Elements of evil as Timon called them Ambition and Covetousness which Bernard professes were the great Masters of that Clergie in his times having palpably corrupted the Christian World both in doctrine and manners gave just cause of scandal and complaint to godly mindes which though long smothered at last brake forth into publick contestation augmented by the fury of those guilty defendants which loved their reputation more then Peace But yet so as the Complainants ever professed a joynt allowance of those Fundamental Truths which descried themselves by their bright lustre in the worst of that confusion as not willing that God should lose any thing by the wrongs of men or that men should lose any thing by the envy of that evil spirit which had taken the advantage of the publick sleep for his Tares Shortly then according to the prayers and predictions of many Holy Christians God would have his Church reformed How shall it be done Licentious courses as Seneca wisely have sometimes been amended by correction and fear never of themselves As therefore their own President was stirred up in the Council of Trent to cry out of their corruption of Discipline so was the Spirit of Luther somewhat before that stirred up to tax their corruption of Doctrine But as all beginnings are timorous how calmly did he enter and with what submiss Supplications did he sue for redress I come to you saith he most holy Father and humbly prostrate before you beseech you that if it be possible you would be pleased to set your helping hand to the work Intreaties prevail nothing the whiles the importune insolence of Eckius and the undiscreet carriage of Cajetan as Luther there professes forced him to a publick opposition At last as sometimes even Poisons turn Medicinal the furious prosecution of abused Authority increased the Zeal of Truth like as the repercussion of the flame intends it more and as Zeal grew in the Plaintif so did Rage in the Defendant so as now that was verified of Tertullian A primordio c. From the beginning Righteousness suffers violence and no sooner did God begin to be worshipped but Religion was attended with Envie The masters of the Pythonisse are angry to part with a gainful though evil guest Am I become your enemy because I told you the truth saith Saint Paul yet that truth is not more unwelcome then successful For as the breath of
Provincial Council of Colen shall serve for all Bellarmine himself grants them herein ours and they are worth our entertaining That Book is commended by Cassander as marvellously approved by all the learned Divines of Italy and France as that which notably sets forth the sum of the judgment of the Ancients concerning this and other Points of Christian Religion Nos dicimus c. We say that a man doth then receive the gift of Justification by Faith when being terrified and humbled by repentance he is again raised up by Faith believing that his sins are forgiven him for the Merits of Christ who hath promised Remision of sins to those that believe in him and when he feels in himself new desires so as detesting evil and resisting the infirmity of his flesh he is inwardly inkindled to an endeavour of good although this desire of his be not yet perfect Thus they in the voice of all Antiquity and the then present Church Onely the late Council of Trent hath created this Opinion of Justification a Point of Faith Sect. 2. The Errour hereof against Scripture YET if age were all the quarrel it were but light For though Newness in Divine Truths is a just cause of suspicion yet we do not so shut the hand of our munificent God that he cannot bestow upon his Church new Illuminations in some parcels of formerly-hidden Verities It is the charge both of their Canus and Cajetan that no man should detest a new sense of Scripture for this that it differs from the ancient Doctors for God hath not say they tied exposition of Scripture to their senses Yea if we may believe Salmeron the latter Divines are so much more quick-sighted they like the Dwarf sitting on the Giants shoulder overlook him that is far taller then themselves This Position of the Romane Church is not more new then faulty Not so much Novelty as Truth convinceth Heresies as Tertullian We had been silent if we had not found this Point besides the lateness erroneous erroneous both against Scripture and Reason Against Scripture which every where teacheth as on the one side the imperfection of our Inherent Righteousness so on the other our perfect Justification by the Imputed Righteousness of our Saviour brought home to us by Faith The former Job saw from his dunghil How should a man be justified before God If he will contend with him he cannot answer one of a thousand Whence it is that wise Solomon asks Who can say My heart is clean I am pure from sin And himself answers There is not a just man upon earth which doth good and sinneth not A Truth which besides his experience he had learned of his Father David who could say Enter not into Judgement with thy Servant though a man after God's own Heart for in thy sight shall no man living be justified and If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand For we are all as an unclean thing we saith the Prophet Esay including even himself and all our Righteousness are as filthy rags And was it any better with the best Saints under the Gospel I see saith the chosen Vessel in my members another law warring against the law of my minde and leading me captive to the law of sin which is in my members So as In many things we sin all And If we say that we have no sin we do but deceive our selves and there is no truth in us The latter is the summe of Saint Paul's Sermon at Antioch Be it known unto you men and brethren that through this Man is preached to you forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified They are justified but how Freely by his Grace What Grace Inherent in us and working by us No By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast Works are ours but this is Righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ to all them that believe And how doth this become ours By his gracious imputation Not to him that worketh but believeth in him who justifieth the wicked is his faith imputed for righteousness Lo it is not the Act not the Habit of Faith that justifieth it is he that justifies the wicked whom our Faith makes ours and our sin his He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Lo so were we made his Righteousness as he was made our sin Imputation doth both it is that which enfeoffes our sins upon Christ and us in his Righteousness which both covers and redresses the imperfection of ours That distinction is clear and full That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith S. Paul was a great Saint he had a Righteousness of his own not as a Pharisee onely but as an Apostle but that which he dares not trust to but forsakes and cleaves to God not that essential Righteousness which is in God without all relation to us nor that habit of Justice which was remaining in him but that Righteousness which is of God by faith made ours Thus being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ For what can break that peace but our sins and those are remitted For God's elect it is God that justifies And in that Remission is grounded our Reconciliation For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their sins unto them but contrarily imputing to them his own righteousness and their Faith for righteousness We conclude then that a man is justified by faith And Blessed is he to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins covered Let the vain Sophistry of carnal mindes deceive it self with idle subtilties and seek to elude the plain Truth of God with shifts of wit we bless God for so clear a light and dare cast our Souls upon this sure evidence of God attended with the perpetual attestation of his ancient Church Sect. 3. Against Reason LAstly Reason it self fights against them Nothing can formally make us Just but that which is perfect in it self How should it give what it hath not Now our Inherent Righteousness at the best is in this life defective Nostra siqua est humilis c. Our poor Justice saith Bernard if we have any it is true but it is not pure For how should it be pure where we cannot but be faulty Thus he The challenge is unanswerable To those that say they can keep God's Law let me give S. Hierome's answer to his Ctesiphon Profer quis impleverit Shew me the man that hath done