silence Though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings Jude 11. yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up in the same gulf Samuel ran to Eli 1 Sam. 3 5-10 when the voice was God's but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Though Ahab had many false Prophets 1 Kings 22. yet Micaiah was a true one And though there be many false Teachers come into the world 1 Joh. 4.1 yet the Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth and he shall lead us into all truth And that we may follow as he leadeth we must observe the wayes in which he moveth For as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of peace Luk. 1.79 so there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wayes of truth and in those wayes the Spirit will lead us 2 Pet. 2.2 I may be in the wayes of the wicked in the wayes of the Gentiles and profane men in my own wayes in those wayes which my Phansie and Lust have chalked out on that pinnacle and height where my Ambition hath placed me in that mine and pit where my Covetousness hath buried me alive and in these I walk with my face from Jerusalem from the Truth and in these wayes the Spirit leadeth me not How can he learn Poverty of spirit who hath no God but Mammon and knoweth no sin but Poverty How can he be brought down to obedience and humility who with Diotrephes loveth to have the preeminence 3 Joh. 9. and thinketh himself nothing till he is taller than his fellowes by the head and shoulders How can he hearken to the Truth who studieth lies And do we now wonder why we are not taught the truth where the Spirit keepeth open School There is no wonder at all The reason why we are not taught is Because we will not learn Ambition soareth to the highest seat and the Spirit directeth us to the ground to the lowest place Love of the world filleth our barns and the Spirit pointeth to the bellies of the poor as the better and safer granaries My private factious Humour trampleth under foot Obedience to superiours because I my self would be the highest and challenge that as my peculiar which I deny to others but the Spirit prescribeth Order Doth Montanus lead about silly women and prophesie doth he call his dreams Revelations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 1. c. 21. Contr. Valent. c. 4. Eusebius telleth us that the spirit which led him about was nothing else but an unmeasurable Desire of precedency Doth Valentinus number up his Aeones and as many Crimes as God's Tertullian informeth us that he hoped for a Bishoprick but being disappointed of his hopes by one who was raised to that dignity by the prerogative of Martyrdome and his many sufferings for the Truth he turned Heretick Doth Arius deny the Divinity of the Son Read Theodoret Lib. 1◠c. 2. and he will shew you Alexander in the chair before him Doth Aerius deny there is any difference between a Bishop and Presbyter The reason was he was denied himself and could not be a Bishop so that he fell from a Bishoprick as Lucifer did from Heaven whose first wish was to be God and whose next was That there were no God at all From hence those stirs and tumults in the Church of Christ those storms and tempests which blew and beat in her face from hence those distractions and uncertainties in Christian Religion that it was a matter of some danger but to mention it This made Nazianzene in some passion as it may seem cry out Orat. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I would there were no precedency no priority no dignities in the Church but that mens estimation did only rise from virtue but now the right hand and the left the higher and the lower place these terms of difference have led men not into the truth but into that ditch where Errour muddeth it self Caeca avaritia saith Maximus Covetousness and Ambition are blind and cannot look upon the Truth though she be as manifest as the Sun at noon It fareth with men in the lust of their eyes in the love of the world as it did with the man in Artemidorus who dreamt he had eyes of gold and the next day lost them had them both put out Now no smell is sweat but that of lucre no sight delightful but of the wedge of gold By a strange kind of Chymistry men turn Religion into Gold and even by Scripture it self heap up riches and so they lose their sight and judgement and savour not the things of God but are stark blind to that Truth which should save them But now grant that they were indeed perswaded of the truth of that which they defend with so much noyse and tumult yet this may be but opinion and phansie which the Love of the world will soon build up because it helpeth to nourish it And how can we think that the Spirit led them in those wayes in which Self-love and Desire of gain drive on so furiously Sure the Spirit of truth cannot work in that building where such Sanballats laugh him to scorn Now all these are the very cords of vanity by which we are drawn from the Truth and they must all be broken asunder before the Spirit will lead us to it For he he leadeth us not over the Mountains nor through the bowels of the earth nor through the numerous atoms of our vain and uncertain and perplext imaginations but as the wisdome which he teacheth Jam. 3.17 so the method of his discipline is pure peaceable gentle without partiality without hypocrisie and hath no savour or relish of the earth For he leadeth the pure he leadeth the peaceable he leadeth humble In a word he leadeth those who are lovers of peace and truth And now to draw towards a conclusion You know the wayes in which the Spirit walketh and by which he leadeth us Will you also know the rules we must observe if we will be the Spirit 's Scholars I will be bold to give them you from one who was a great lover of truth even Galene the Physician Who though an heathen man yet by the very light of Nature found out those means and helps in the pursuit of humane knowledge which the Spirit hath set down in Scripture to further us in the search of Divine Truth They are but four The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love of Truth the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love of Industry a frequent meditation of the truth the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Orderly and methodical proceeding in the pursuit of Truth the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exercitation our conformity to the Truth in our conversation This gold though brought from Ophir yet may be useful to adorn and beautifie those who are the living Temples of the holy Ghost 1. First Love is a passion imprinted in us to
treadeth under foot from fear of the Law when we should have no other law but Piety That which is born of the flesh is flesh saith our Saviour John 3.6 Nor can the flesh work in us a love to and chearfulness in the things of the Spirit The flesh perfecteth nothing contributeth nothing to a good work Nor doth any thing work kindly till it come to perfection Perfection and Sincerity work our joy In Scripture we find even inanimate and senseless things said to be glad when they attain unto and abide in their natural perfection a Ps 19.5 The Sun is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race b Ps 65.12 â—3 The little hills rejoyce on every side The valleys are covered over with corn they shout for joy they also sing Prata rident So Solomon c Prov. 13.9 The light of the righteous rejoyceth because it shineth clear and continually The blessed Angels are in a state of perfection and their motion from place to place the Schools say is instantaneous and in a moment as sudden and quick as their will by which they move Therefore they are drawn out with wings Isa 6. and said to go forth like lightning Which signifieth unto us their alacrity speed in executing all God's commands Their constant office is to be ready at his beck and they ever have the heavenly characters of his will before their eyes as a Father speaketh And such also will our activity and chearfulness be in devotion and the service of God if we be thus animated and informed as it were with the love thereof if our minds be shaped and configured to it as S. Basil saith If either the Word or the Sword either the power of the truth or calamity and persecution hath made it sweet unto us and stirred up in us an earnest expectation and longing after it then IBIMUS We will go go with chearfulness to the house of mourning and sit with those who are in the dust go to that Lazar and relieve him to that prisoner and visit him to our friends and counsel them to our enemies and reconcile them with the Jews here go to the Temple to the Church and pray for the Nation Joel 2.17 and say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproch go and fall down and worship him yea go to the stake and dy for him Psal 39.3 When this fire burneth within us we shall speak with the tongue and that with a chearful accent IBIMUS We will go into the house of the Lord. And so we are fallen upon our last circumstance 5. The place of their devotion the house of the Lord. When a company go to serve the Lord they must needs go to some place For how can they serve him together but in a place Adam and his sons had a place Gen. 4.3 4. The Patriarchs had a place altars and mountains and groves In the wilderness the people of God had a movable Tabernacle And though Solomon said that a Acts 7.48 1 Kings 8.27 God dwelleth not in temples made with hands yet b Acts 7.47 Solomon that said so built him an house And the work was commended by God himself not onely when it was finished and brought to perfection but even while it was yet but in design and was raised no further then in thought The Lord said unto David 2 Chron. 6.8 Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name thou didst well in that it was in thine heart And when Christ came he blessed in this house prayed in it taught in it disputed in it he drove the profaners out of it he spake by his presence by his tongue by his gesture he giveth it its name and in a manner Christneth it Matth. 21.13 by calling it his house and the house of prayer For though he came to strike down the Law yet he came not to beat down right Reason Though he did disanull what was fitted but for a time as Sacrifices and all that busy and troublesome that ceremonious and typical Worship yet he never abolished what common reason will teach us is necessary for all ages How could he require that men should meet together and worship him if there were to be no place at all to meet in Or what needed an express command for that which the very nature of the duty enjoyneth and necessity it self will bring in He that enjoyneth publick worship doth in that command imply that there must be a certain publick place to meet in We hear indeed Christ saying to the Jews John 2.19 Destroy this Temple but it was to make a window in their breasts that they might see he knew their very hearts 21. He bid them do what they meant to do He spake of the Temple of his body saith the Text and they did destroy both his body and their own Temple For they who had nothing more in their mouthes then The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7.4 set fire on the Temple of the Lord with their own hands as Josephus relateth And so their Ceremonies had an end so their Temple was destroyed but not to the end that all Churches and places of publick meeting should be for ever buried in its ruines before they were built That house of the Lord was dissolved indeed but at the dissolution thereof there was no voice heard that did tell us vve should build no more in any other place The first Christians we may be sure heard no such voice For assoon as persecution suffered them to move their arms they were busy in erecting of Oratories in a plain manner indeed answerable to their present estate But when the favour of Princes shined upon them and their substance encreased they poured it out plentifully this way and founded Churches in every place Nor did they think they could lay too much cost upon them none counted that wast which was expended about so good a work They built sumptuous houses for God's worship and rejoyced and after-ages applauded it both by their words and practice they magnified it and did the like Such cost hath ever gone under the name of Piety and Devotion till these later times when almost all are ready with Judas to condemn Mary Magdelene for pouring forth her ointment John 12 3-6 Churches were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Houses of the Lord and so were esteemed and not Idole Synagogues not Styes till Swine entred into them and defiled them and holp to pull them down We know God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Acts 7.48 17.24 nor can his infinite Majesty be circumscribed we remember and therefore need not to be told that Christ said to the woman of Samaria that the hour was coming when men should neither in that mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father John 4.21 23. but should worship him
in spirit and truth But this they cannot do together but in some place and the Spirit which breatheth upon the Church will not blow it down nor the place where they meet who make up a Church We remember also that S. Paul enjoyneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that men pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 But those words carry not any such tempest with them as to overthrow the houses of the Lord. S. Basil who had as clear an eye and as quick an apprehension as any that age or after-ages have afforded could spy no such meaning in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he doth not take-in those places which are deputed to humane and profane uses but extendeth and dilateth the worship of God beyond the narrow compass of Jerusalem to every place in the whole world It is written that all shall be Priests of God but yet it is not meant that all shall exercise the Priests office I am ashamed to exercise my self against rotten posts set up by wanton and malicious men which will fall to the dust to nothing of themselves and to spend my time and pains to beget a good opinion of the house of God in their minds who know not what to think or what they would have who fear their own shadow which their ignorance doth cast and run from a monster of their own begetting the creation of a troubled or rather a troublesome spirit and an idle brain God then hath an House and he calleth it his Nor can he be guilty of a Misnomer And if it be God's then it is holy not holy as he is holy but holy because it is his Why startle we It is no ill-boding word that we should be afraid of it Donatus the Grammarian observeth Si ferrum nominetur in comoedia transit in tragoediam that but to name a Sword in a Comedie is enough to turn it into a Tragedie I know not whether that word have such force or no sure I am there is nothing in this word Holy why so much noise and tumult should be raised about it as if Superstition had crept in and were installed and inthroned in our Church The house of God is holy What need we boggle at it or what reason is there of fear when the lowest degree of charity might help us to conclude that it is impossible that he who calleth it so should mean that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. I ask Hebr. 12.14 Is it possible that this should ever enter into the heart of any man who is not out of his wits I will be bold to say Matth. 3.9 that God who can raise up children unto Abraham out of stones cannot infuse holiness into stones till they be made children of Abraham I dare not shorten his hand or lessen his power yet I may say His Power waiteth in a manner upon his Wisedome and He cannot do what becometh him not He cannot do what he hath said he never will do But when Stones are piled together and set apart for his service he himself calleth it his holy place because of the relation it beareth to his service and to holiness and in respect of the end for which it was set up Holy that is set apart from common use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 10.14 common and profane signifie the same in holy Writ So the Gentiles were common and profane and the Jews were holy that is culled and taken out from the rest of the world sanctified and set apart to the Lord. For as holy a people as they were how many of them did embrace that holiness which beautifieth the inward man and might make them like to the Holy one of Israel Again SANCTUM est ab hominum injuria munitum That which is holy is fenced from the injuries of men and the hand of Sacrilege Things thus holy God looketh upon as his with an eye of jealousie And as he gave charge concerning his Anointed so he doth concerning his House Psal 105.15 Nolite tangere Touch it not And he that toucheth it with a profane and sacrilegious hand toucheth the apple of his eye and if he repent not of his wickedness God will one day put him to shame for that low esteem he had of the place where his honour dwelleth Psal 16 8. It is the end which maketh it holy and to hinder it of its end is to profane it though the pretense be never so specious What is it then to laugh and jest at this name that we may pull it down in earnest Oh trust not to a pretense And if we lean upon it whilest we deface the house of God it will fail and deceive us and our fall will be the greater for our support we shall fall and be bruised to pieces our punishment shall be doubled and our stripes multiplied first for doing that which is evil and then for taking in that which is good to make it an abettour and assistant to that which is evil which is to bring in God pleading for Baal and to suborn Religion to destroy it self Oh why do men boast in their shame What happiness can it be to devour holy things Prov. 20.25 and then be caught in that snare which will strangle them To dance in the ruines of the Church and then sink to hell Time was Beloved when this was counted an holy language and holy men of God and blessed Martyrs of Christ spake it Then it was not superstition but great devotion And no other language was heard almost till the dayes of our grandfathers But then Covetousness under the mask of false Zele which was rather burning then hot and carried with it more rage then charity swallowed up this Devotion in victory led it in triumph disgraced and vilified it and gave it an ill name Then the Devil shewed himself in the colours of light and did more mischief then if he had appeared as a roaring Lion Then the very name of holy was a good argument to beat down a Temple which must down for this because it was called so Before this There were Holy Means and they were called so the Word Prayer Sacraments Ecclesiastical Discipline and for the applying of these Means to the end for which they were ordained there were Holy Times when and Holy Persons by whom they were to be administred and there were Holy Places too or else the rest were to no purpose And holy things S. Paul calleth them 1 Cor. 9.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy things out of the holy place All these are so linked together as a chain that you cannot sever them For neither can there be Holiness without fit means nor Means administred without fit Persons nor Persons do their office but in a fit Place Holiness indeed is properly inherent in none but God Angels and Men in God essentially in the blessed Spirits and Men by participation as far as their
foretold for the Tares as well as for the Wheat Poena sequitur culpam Punishment follows close upon Sin And this is Gods mocking of us which consists in giving every seed it s own body If we sow to the Flesh he clothes it with Death And herein consists his Justice and his Providence 1. in punishing of sin 2. in fitting and proportioning the punishment to it First Sowing implyes labour and industry This Phrase is often used They have sowen the wind and shall reap the whirle-wind Hos 8.7 They have laboured much to little purpose And Job 4.8 They that plow wickedness and sow iniquity reap the same As they that expect the year and a good Harvest first manure and plow the ground then scatter their seed upon it so do wicked men first turn their thoughts as the Husbandman doth the earth lutosas cogitationes saith Bernard earthly dirty thoughts busily tending the Flesh as if it were a field to be tilled racking their memory calling up their Understanding debauching their Reason fitting their instruments watching opportunities putting all things in readiness to bring their purposes about which is as it were their Plowing and then they break forth into action which is their Sowing and then springs up either Adultery or Murder or Oppression Behold he travaileth with iniquity he hath conceived mischief He is in as great pain as a woman with travail And all this trouble is to bring forth a Lye Psal 7.14 Scarce any sin but costs us dear For first as there is lucta a kind of contention in doing a good work an holding back of the Flesh when the Spirit is ready for when the Spirit is ready the Flesh is weak saith our Saviour So in the proceedings of wicked men there is also lucta some secret strugling and complaining of the Spirit when the Flesh is ready When the Hand is held up to strike the Eye open to gaze and the Mouth to blaspheme there be fightings within and terrours without there is a Law staring in our face like a Tribune with his Veto to forbid us a Conscience chiding a Judge frowning a Hell opening its mouth to devoure them all which must be removed as Amasa's body or else they will stand still 2 Sam. 20 1◠and not pass and venture on to that which they intended These Fightings must cease these Terrours be abated their Conscience slumber'd the Law nulled the Judge forgot Hell fire put out or sow they cannot For if these did appear in their full force and vigour did they look upon these as truths and not rather as our mormos and illusions how could they put such seed into the ground Again secondly though their Will have determined its act yet there may be many hinderances and retardancies many cross accidents intervene to hinder the work The child may be brought to the birth and there may be no strength to bring forth The Seed may be ready to be sown and the hand too weak to scatter it For the Will is not alwayes accompanied with Power God forbid it should It was but a weak argument which Luther brought against the Freedom of the Will from the Weakness and inability of performance Ostendant saith he magni illi Liberi arbitrii ostentatores Let them saith he who boast of Freewill shew any power they have to kill so much as a fly For a limited Power is no argument of a limited Will He that cannot get his bread may wish for a Kingdom and he that cannot kill a fly may will the destruction of the whole vvorld Novv this limitation of their Povver this weakning their strength in the way makes them go forth vvith sorrovv carrying their seed of iniquity and not able to scatter it This makes them mourn and cover the Head as Haman flings them on the bed with Ahab makes them hang themselves as Ahithophel did This many times puts them on the rack strikes them with care and anxiety fills them with distracted thoughts which choke one another The Covetous man would be rich but he must rise up early and lye down late and eat the bread of sorrow The Ambitious would climb but he must first lick the dust The Seditious would trouble the waters but is afraid they may drown him Nemo non priùs peccat in seipsum There is no man sins but first he offends and troubles himself before he conveys the poyson of his sin on others He that hurts his brother felt the blow first in his own bosome We read of the work of Faith and labour of Charity And it is true it is not so easie a matter to believe nor so easie a matter to be charitable as many suppose who cannot be brought to study either but must have them on gift Virtus duritiâ exstruitur A Christian is a Temple of the holy Ghost but it is Hardness and Industry that must help to build him up But yet we cannot but observe that there is as much care taken I am unwilling to say more in the sweeping and garnishing a habitation for Satan What Gibeonites are we in the Devils service and what lazy dreamers in the family and house of God More cost is bestowed in sowing to the Flesh then in sowing to the Spirit It is the service of Christ but Drudgery of Satan both are sowing but we make that of the Flesh the more laborious of the two To apply this in a word We read in our books of a devout Abbot who beholding what cost and art a woman had bestowed in attiring her self fell a weeping and Oh said he what a misery is this that a woman should bestow more labour upon the dressing of her body then we have done in the adorning of our souls that she should put more ornaments on her head then we have been careful to put into our hearts What a misery is it that we should wish for heaven and contend for earth that Mary's part should be the better but Martha's the greater Oh what a sad contemplation is it that many men will not be perswaded to take so much pains to go to heaven and eternal rest as many thousands do to go to hell and everlasting Torments that we should sweat for the bread that perisheth and but coldly and faintly ask for the bread of life that we should heap up riches James 5 3. which will eat our flesh as it were fire and be ever afraid of that Grace which will raise us from the dead that we should watch for the twilight an opportunity to do evil and let so many opportunities of doing good fly by us not marked nor regarded lay hold on any opportunity to destroy our brother and let pass any that prompts us to help him that we should labour and travel and spend our selves in the one and be so weary and faint and dead in the other that we should take more delight to feed with swine then to eat at Christs Table that the way
disconsonant to the wayes of those who are deeply immerst and drencht in the world and which by them is in esteem as Madness or Drunkenness shall receive the reward of Soberness and Truth O how happy were it for these mockers if they were thus distempered thus superstitious if they took this cup of the Lord and did adde drunkenness to thirst and even fill and glut themselves with it They cannot be too reverent too spiritual too absurd and ridiculous to the world and worldly men He that seems wise to these must needs be neer of kin to a fool and he whom they admire must be ridiculous Aliud est judicium Christi aliud anguli susurronum Whom the world laughs at Christ will honour whom they make their slaves with Christ are Kings and whom they scorn he will crown And then these scoffers shall be had in derision and they who are filled with the Spirit shall for ever drink of the river of his pleasures and shall sit down with him at his table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and these Apostles here and drink that new wine with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that spiritual immortal joy in the kingdom of his Father in the presence of God where there are pleasures for evermore To which He bring us who sent his Spirit down upon us Jesus Christ the righteous The Three and Thirtieth SERMON PART I. LUKE XI 27 28. And it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it WE cannot say more of our Saviour in the dayes of his flesh then this He went about doing good Acts 10.38 Job 29.15 He was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and health to the sick And as he cured mens bodies of diseases so he purged their souls from sin As he went his steps dropped fatness Scarce proceeded there a word from his blessed lips that breathed not forth comfort In this chapter he cast out a devil which was dumb and the people wondred v. 14. But such is the rancour and venome of Envy and Malice that no vertue no miracle no demonstration of power can castigate or abate it What is Vertue to a Jew or what is a Miracle to a Pharisee When the devil was gone out saith the Text the dumb spake a work not to be wrought but by the finger of God But if a Pharisee look upon it it must change its name and be said to be done by the claw of the Devil For some of them said He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the devils Others tempting him sought from him a sign from heaven as if this were not such a one but rather proceeded from the pit of hell and from the power of darkness It is the character of an evil and envious eye to look outward extrà mittendo not to receive the true species and forms of things but to send out some noxious spirits from it self which discolour and deface the object Hence Envious men are thought as S. Basil saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to infect every thing they look upon and like the Basilisk to kill with a very look What do they cast their eye upon that they do not poison and corrupt Is it Temperance they call it Stupidity Is it Justice they call it Cruelty Is it Wisdome they call it Craft Is it Honesty they call it Folly and Want of foresight Is it a Miracle they call it Magick and Sorcery and a work of Beelzebub Wherefore saith the Father was our Saviour made a mark for every venemous dart wherefore was he so sorely laid at by the Jews by the Scribes and Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For nothing else but his wondrous works And what were they His curing of the sick feeding of the hungry restoring of the dead to life casting out of devils And therefore as he confirmed his doctrine by miracles so Malice putteth him to another task to make good his miracles by reason and argument And this he doth 1. argumento ducente ad absurdum by an argument which will either bind them to silence or drive them upon the face of an open absurdity For what an absurd thing were it for Satan to drive out himself and 2. argumento ducente ad impossibile For if Satan be divided against himself it is impossible his kingdome should stand Proficit semper contradictio stultorum ad stultitiae demonstrationem saith Hilary The contradiction of sinners and fools striveth and struggleth to gain ground and to over-run the Truth but the greatest proficiencie Folly maketh is but to make her self more open and manifest like Candaules's wife who was seen naked of all but her self But Truth is as unmovable as a rock which as the Father speaketh of the Church tunc vincit cùm laeditur tunc intelligitur cùm arguitur tunc obtinet cùm deseritur then conquereth when it receiveth a foil is then understood when it is opposed and is then safe when it is forsaken Let the Jews rage and the Pharisees imagin a vain thing let Envy cast a mist and let Malice smoke like a fornace yet Christ's miracles shall be as clear as the day wherein they were wrought and the mouth of Iniquity shall be stopped Out of his own mouth shall the Pharisee be convinced and Christ shall be as powerful in his words as in his works so powerfull in both that even è â—urba out of that multitude which did oppose him one witness or oâ—her shall rise to bear testimony to the truth to point out to the finger of God by which this miracle was wrought to magnifie and bless not onely our Saviour but even the very womb that bare him and the paps that he had sucked For it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed c. My Text divideth it self between the Woman and Christ First the Woman taketh occasion from what she had heard and seen to magnifie Christ Then Christ taketh occasion from her speach to instruct her and let her at rights She calleth Christ's mother blessed He sheweth her a more excellent way by which she may come to be as blessed as his mother She talketh of Blessedness He telleth her what it is He condemneth not her affection but directeth and levelleth it to the right object and as the Pythagoreans method of teaching was he indulgeth something that he may gain the more Be it so Blessed is the womb that bare me and the paps that gave me suck QUINIMO But much rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it To be my Mother is but a temporal privilege but to hear and keep my word is eternal
but Love joynes the Will and the Tongue and the Hand together and indeed is nothing else but a vehement and well ordered will Knowledge may be but a dream but Love is ever awake up and doing 1 John 2.3 I may so know the truth that I may be said not to know it but I cannot so love the truth that I may be said to hate it For though the Scripture sometimes attributeth knowledge of the truth to them who so live as if they knew it not yet it never casts away the pretious name of Love on those who so live as if they loved it not A Pharisee an hypocrite may know the truth but it was never written that they loved it but that they loved the praise of men more then of God And this was the reason that they had eyes and saw not eares and heard not nor understood that they had tongues and spake not that they would not be perswaded when they were convinced and withstood the truth when they were overcome In a word Knowledge may leave us like unto the idoles of the heathen with hands that handle not and mouths that speak not Love onely emulateth the power of our Saviour and works a miracle casts out the spirit which is dumb For when he spake these things not the Pharisees but a woman of the company lift up her voice And thus her heart was truly affected and she lift up her voice As the Prophet speaks Jer. 20.9 The Love of Christ was in her heart as a burning fire shut up in her bones and she was weary of forbearing and she could not stay It was like that coal of the Seraphins which being laid on her mouth Isa 6.7 she spake with her tongue Now in the next place what was it that begat her love but the admiration of Christs person his power and his wisdome This was it which kindled that heat within her which broke out at her lips Plato calls Admiration the beginning of Philosophy We admire and dwell upon the object and view it well till we have wrought the Idea of it in our minds Whence Clemens citeth this saying out of the Gospel according to the Hebrew Qui admiratus fuerit regnabit qui regnabit requiescet He that at first admires that which to him is wonderful shall at last reign and he that reigns shall be at rest shall not waver or doubt or struggle formidine contrarii with fear that the contrary should be true and that that which he saw should be but a false apparition and a deception of the sight This woman here saw and wondred and loved she saw more then the Pharisees to whom a sign from heaven appeared in no fairer shape then the work of Beelzebub She saw Christs miracles were as his letters of credence that he came from God himself She had heard of Moses and his miracles but beholds a greater then Moses here For 1. Christs miracles breathed not forth horrour and amazement as those of Moses did in and about the mountain of Sinon Nor 2. were they noxious and fatal to any as those which Moses wrought in Pharaohs court and in Aegypt He did not bring in tempest and thunder but spake the word and men were healed He did not bury men alive but raised men out of their graves He brought upon men no fiery serpents but he cast out devils If he suffered the devils to destroy the hogs yet he tyed them up from hurting of men and what is a Hog to a Man In a word Moses's miracles were to strike a terrour into the people that he might lead them by fear but Christs were to beget that admiration which might work love in those whom he was to lead with the cords of men with the bonds of love All Christs miracles were benefits Acts 10.38 For he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the devil for God was with him Christs miracles were above the reach and power of Nature Nature had no hand in the production of any of them All that we vvonder at are not Miracles not an Eclipse of the Sun vvhich the common people stand amazed at because they know not the cause of it Nor is that a Miracle vvhich is besides the ordinary course of Nature For then every Monstre should be a Miracle Nor that vvhich is done against Nature for so every child that casteth a stone up into the air doth vvork a Miracle But that is a Miracle vvhich is impossible in Nature and vvhich cannot be vvrought but by a supernatural Hand 2. Christs miracles vvere done not in a corner but before the sun and the people This Woman here heard the dumb speak she savv the blind see the lame go and the lepers cleansed Miracles vvhen they are wrought are not the object of our faith but of our sense They are signs and tokens to confirm that which we must believe 3. Christs miracles were done as it were in an instant With a touch at a word he cured diseases which Nature cannot do though helpt by the art of the Physician All the works of Nature and of Art too are conceived and perfected in the womb of Time 4. Last of all Christs miracles were perfect and exact When he raised Jairus's daughter Luke 8.55 he presently commanded them to give her meat When he cured Peters wives mother forthwith she was so strong that she arose and ministred unto them Matth. 8 1â— He gave his gifts in full measure nor could more be desired then he gave And shall not these miracles and these benefits appear wonderful in our eyes Shall not his Power beget Admiration and Admiration Love and Love command our voice Shall a woman see his wonders and shall we be as blind as the Pharisees Shall she lift up her voice and shall we still keep in us the devil that is dumb It came to pass as he did and spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said And now we should pass to what she said but I see the time passeth away Let us therefore make some use of what hath already been said and so conclude And first let us learn from this woman here to have Christs wonderful works in remembrance to look upon them with a stedfast and a fixed eye that they may appear unto us in their full glory and fill us with admiration For Admiration is a kind of voice of the soul Miracula obstupuisse dixisse est saith Gregory Thus Silence it self may become vocal and truly to wonder at his works is to profess them This motion of the heart stirred up with reverence to the ears of the uncircumscribed Spirit is as the lifting up of the voice which speaks within us by those divers and innumerable formes and shapes of admiration which are the inward expressions of the soul When the soul is in an ecstasie when it is transported and wrapt up above it self