learning of the world hath busied it self about conjecture this is evident truth and no conjecture that they were Gentiles far remote from the Temple at Jerusalem which God had chosen out above all the earth for the holy place of his honour This is the reason that makes Twelfth-day so great a Feast throughout all the world because in the person of the Wise men a door of Faith was opened unto the Nations that knew not God As a Star is an heavenly body that is common to all Coasts and Climates to illuminate them so the Birth of Christ was attended by a Star because all people should partake of his Grace and Gospel Behold ye the Philistines and they of Tyre with the Morians loe there was he born Psal lxxxvii 4. As who should say it should be no prejudice to us that he was born among the Jews in the City of David for his blessing shall be with us as much as if he had been born in every Country of the Gentiles They that believe in Christ they are his Country-men They that hear the word of God and keep it they are my Mother and my Brothers and my Sisters says our Saviour The Prophet Jonas who was a Type of Christ in none of his smallest works but even in his glorious Resurrection he was sent to the Gentiles of Ninive to denote that through Christ that great Prophet whom the Lord would raise up the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven should be opened to the Gentiles But this is stale now and little thought upon because the sound of the word hath gone forth into the ends of the world for sixteen hundred years who considers this merciful loving kindness as he ought though at the first every small thing was admired and it was marvellous in mens eyes to see any partakers of the heavenly gift but the very natural branches of the stock of Abraham Christ himself wondered at the Centurions Faith for he was not of the house of Israel he was astonisht at the importunity and zeal of the Syro-phenisian O woman great is thy faith at the Samaritan who being a Samaritan was thankful when nine others were forgetful These were rare occurrences in the beginning And when St. Luke brings in his Shepherds to visit Christ in his manger he doth not say ecce pastores behold there were Shepherds of the Jews that saw the Birth of our Lord but St. Matthew lays an index of wonder upon these Gentiles Ecce Magi Behold there came Wise men of the East to Jerusalem A great change as ever was in the world to be remembred on this day with most festival Thanksgiving but never to be forgotten Every Nation loves to know above all other Antiquities when her people were converted to the Faith as our Country reckons from King Lucius the French from Clodoveus but the whole world from this day from the coming of the Wise men of the East to Jerusalem But the end of this strange work should especially be kept in mind and with that I end this point Our Saviour told the Pharisees to what end God called the Gentiles The kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Mat. xxi 43. From hence I move a little forward with their motion to the next thing observed Venerunt they came as if the Star had said unto them seek ye my face and they had answered with David Thy face Lord will I seek As soon as ever Christ was born cum natus est at that instant they set forward and made no delay Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day says the Wise man Ecclus. v. 7. Remigius says that the Wise men were brought through the air by an Angel to Jerusalem as Habakkuk was taken up when he carried meat to the Reapers but what needed a Star to direct them if they had not beaten out the way of themselves the Scripture says not they were brought but they came they trod out a long journey with much chearfulness though with much distress to their wearied bodies but where the carkass is thither will the Eagles be gathered and no happiness in any place but to be with the Lord. These were honourable persons and of great account in their own Country though they were not Kings as I have adjudged it before they could have spared their own labour and have sent their servants into Judea to have brought them tidings what strange thing had happened and truly there are too many that would have excused themselves by messengers the way being so long and tedious between them and Christ If it be far to Church from our own home 't is too common to mutter at it and to maunder at a little way every one would have a Chappel of Ease at his next door as if it were fitter for Christ to come to them than for them to come to Christ You forget in the mean time that God considers your bodily labour the molestations and inconveniences which you suffer in the flesh for his word sake To do your Masters work with so much tenderness and easiness to your own person is negligence and self love and as you sow you shall reap Herod I pray you mark it at the eighth verse of this Chapter he would not move out of Jerusalem to look out Christ himself and yet Bethlehem was but six miles off but he sent the Wise men to Bethlehem and bad them search diligently for the Child and when they had found him bring him word but because he sate still himself and set others about it he never found our Saviour Oleaster ad olivam non oliva ad oleastrum veniebat says St. Austin The wild Olive must come to the natural Olive to be ingrafted into it the natural Olive must not go to the wild Olive Venite qui laboratis Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden The fountain must not come to the thirsty man but the thirsty man must come to the fountain to drink The place where the blessed babe lay the Maker of his Mother is worth the seeing to this day worth their travel that have resorted to it from West and East how much more worthy of a journey ten thousand times when the glorious Infant himself was in the place Most justly did our Saviour condemn the whole world that the Queen of Sheba came from far to hear the Wisdom of Solomon and yet the Gentiles did not flock so fast as they ought to have done when a greater than Solomon was upon the earth Tully speaks it of Crassus the Orator as I remember being lately departed we came into the Senate house to look upon the place where that renowned Senator was wont to stand What part of Bethlehem or Jerusalem or Galilee is not a thousand times more worth the viewing where any thing can be recalled to memory of Christs Birth or Miracles
utterance ALL the joy which we celebrate for the famous acts of Christ is irksom to the Devil and the particular Solemnities which we keep are grievous to those that shut their eyes against the truth Upon the yearly day of our Saviours Nativity the Jew is sad and displeas'd because he believes not that he that was born of Mary a pure Virgin was the Son of God and the Messias whom their Fathers lookt for that should sit upon the Throne of David for evermore Upon the high Feast of his Resurrection the Sadducee gnasheth with his teeth because he denieth that the dead can be raised to life So upon this triumphant Feast wherein we abound with comfort for the sending of the Holy Ghost the Pelagian is malecontented who is an enemy to the efficacy of Grace and the more cause we have to maintain the dignity of it and to be throughly disciplin'd what the Holy Ghost hath wrought for our Soul because the Church is miserably soured of late in all places with the leaven of Pelagius Again as all the parts of our Saviours Mediatorship were several degrees to advance our Salvation and like the several steps of Jacobs Ladder to bring us nearer and nearer to Heaven so in this comparison the sending of the Holy Ghost is the loftiest degree and as it were the top of the spire which is next neighbour to the Kingdom of Glory for as man in his first creation had but an incomplete being till the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so man in his reparation was but incompletely restored till Christ did send the Comforter to infuse into him the breath of sanctification This day therefore is the concluding Feast of all the great days wherein we rememorate the noble works of our Lord and to go further this Text is the upshot of all the blessings that were conferred upon the Church in this happy day Christ took our nature upon him that he might die for our sins he suffered and was crucified that he might reconcile all such to his Father as would repent and believe repentance and faith to please God cannot enter into the heart of the natural man by his own abilities a power from Heaven must be the means to bring that about which is so repugnant to our corrupt nature Traverse over the mystery of our Redemption and you shall find that the work is at a stand till supernal grace poured in do draw it forward as Physicians say that spiritus est ultimum alimenti the last concoction and the most refined part of our nourishment is that which makes the spirits so the donation of the Holy Spirit is the accomplishment and final resolution of all the benefits which we partake in Christ And the last payment collated by that precious liberality to enrich the Church for ever is here in my Text nay indeed it was but a preparation before the talent of grace was not tendred till now That which was set forth in figure in the former verses is here exhibited in real substance Before a rushing wind made a noise here was the very thing imparted which was shadowed by the wind before certain firy tongues made a glittering that sat upon their head now their own tongues became most fluent and voluble with wonderful eloquence In brief to the exact building up of the Church two things were requir'd which are not wanting but abound in this verse First that the Lord should speak unto the Heart Secondly that he should speak unto the Ear by an invisible word and by a visible He spake invisibly to the Heart when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost he spake visibly to the Ear when his Ministers began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Nay more to gather a Society together whose Labours should be dispread over all the world it was expedient that the Lord should confer both ordinary and extraordinary Gifts upon them His ordinary Blessing and indeed nothing is blest without it is some quantity of Sanctification his extraordinary Blessing is twofold to send such as are not lightly sprinkled but filled with the Spirit and to speak with divers Tongues that their sound may go forth into all the World Yet again to shew the Amplitude of Gods allowance to his Primitive Church he makes a double provision first for every Disciple as he is one Member of this Body and so all and every one of them were filled with the Holy Ghost and then he provides for all the Members of his Body junctim in one union and communion they began c. so that here 's the inward and the outward blessing the ordinary and the extraordinary the particular and the universal The inward ordinary and particular blessing is this that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost If you look for the provision with which the Primitive Church was stored look for it in this Chapter and you will find out upon judicious survey that there are three things which make it plenteous with all manner of store Pastores Verbum and Spiritus First certain Pastors allotted to the sacred Function to guide the souls of the People 2. the Word of life which is put into their mouth to be preacht unto all Nations 3. The Spirit of grace accompanying the Word to make it fruitful and prolificous in the hearts of them that hear it and obey it That some were ordeined Pastors and Bishops to teach and rule the Church that 's clear the Apostles met together in Jerusalem with one accord as Christ had appointed and the Cloven Tongues which came from Heaven sat upon each of them that was their Commission to take their Bishoprick upon them that the Word was delivered unto them which they should preach and Elocution to impart that Word to every Kingdom and Language that 's as clear Eight times in this one Chapter St. Peter quotes the Scripture of the old Testament and with divers tongues according to the capacity of all the Nations and Languages that were met together and that the Holy Ghost was infused with much abundance at the same time that 's as clear and pregnant as the rest 't is twice gone over in my Text both in the beginning and in the end they were filled with the Holy Ghost and the Spirit gave them utterance A Church without lawful Pastors is but a Synagogue of Schismatiques a Pastor without a Tongue is but an Idol Shepherd or a dumb Dog a Tongue without the power of the Spirit is but sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal As St. Paul said of the three grand Theological Virtues Now abideth Faith Hope Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity so I say of these necessary parts that constitute the Church the Ministry the Word and the Spirit but the chiefest and most excellent of these is the Spirit In some strange manner God may have a Church without a consecrated Priesthood as when Adam and
may observe they were high attempts when the Son of God did use this Ceremony to look up to heaven It came from a good principle it tended to a good end and very good use is to be made of it The first good principle or impulsive cause is mercy He saw a great Multitude in want and destitute of sustenance and that was the provocation to make him fix his eyes upon the heavens to call down relief Our Evangelist in the fifth verse of this Chapter notes that he lift up his eyes meaning that he did affectionately behold a multitude of People all bescanted of food and that was the preparative to make him look higher to look up to heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is his own word in St. Mark My bowels yearn to provide for this people in their extremity of hunger These entrals of compassion make us bold to look up to God compassion is that Optique Nerve that draws up the eye lid and encourageth us to seek for grace because our eyes send forth the visual rays of Charity Better it is to want Eyes and Legs and Arms than to lack these entrals of Pity You may carve the proportion of a man in Stone or cast it in Brass a fair Figure it shall be but it hath no Bowels So he is no better than a Lump of Brass or Stone that hath not the Affections of Clemency an Idol that hath Ears and hears not that hath Eyes and sees not but he that hath the tender heart-strings of mercy in his bosom he may have confidence to look up to heaven Secondly It is Devotion which draws up our looks to God It is a sign that the interiour contemplation is directed thither when the exteriour glances fly aloft The Eye cannot refrain to fix it self upon that object which the mind doth passionately desire Therefore it is become an act of Latria or religious veneration to advance the eyes to heaven in the fervour of Prayer Vnto thee lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens Psal cxxiii And to look up to Idols is all one as to worship Idols in the Phrase of Ezekiel Cast your eyes therefore to the Throne of God when you address your self to Prayer that Love and Zeal may be struck out of the fire of the Eye I do not press it as inseparable Ceremony for the humble Publican did well when he thought so abjectly of himself that he durst not lift up his eyes to heaven says St. Chrysostom like an Orator lest he should find the Catalogue of his sins written in the Firmament to accuse him Yet a perpetual affectation of winking or covering the face in Prayer seems not to me so laudable for why should we debar our selves to praise God with our most heavenly sense Next of all it carries us along with it to know what end Christ had in working this Miracle The root of all was above and he work'd downward he set his Fathers glory before his eyes and he directed this and all his actions to the propagation of it To feed such a scattered Rout so liberally so unexpectedly you may be sure it would spread his renown far and wide they would cry him up for a bountiful Lord in all places This was the fashion of the rising men in Rome about the time that Christ lived to fill the People with congiaries and Feasts and win their applause by cramming their belly But our Saviours conceit was above this earth he had none but coelestial intentions And therefore when the People out of admiration would have prosecuted it to a most honourable issue and have made him a King he shifted away into a Mountain that he might not be found at the fifteenth verse of this Chapter He neither began this work for temporal glory nor would let it end in temporal glory for he looked up to heaven Whether it be in sustaining the poor or in any other Christian work that flows from charity do it that ye may have honour of God and beware of the leaven of Ambition that you have no flat sinister thoughts in it or humane policies Popularity is like a thief in a Candle it makes it blaze much but it quickly wastes it He that doth good and looks up stedfastly to heaven makes God his Debtor he that looks asquint to the praise of men shall be paid with ignominy You know now out of what Principles Christ did this you are sure for what end he did it From both we have this Lesson Let our eyes look unto the eyes of our Master When he looks upward let not us look downward but let us mind heavenly things The frame of our bodies heaves us thither Erectos ad sidera tollere vultus it bids us look to God and that way should our soul turn it came from thence and thither it should draw again The composition of Nature therefore would not have us to be Moales rooting into the earth but grace goes further and would have us to be Eagles flying above the Clouds Aquila nidum sibi in arduis construit Job xxxix 27. The Eagle builds his nest on high It is the Emblem of a Christian whose Spirit is so transported with the meditation of a better life that he walks as it were among the Stars The soul is not where it lives but where it loves Therefore St. Paul said that his whole Negotiation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conversation which was in heaven Here is hunger and thirst there is indeficient satiety Here are Envyings and Seditions there are sweet Hymns and Halelujah's Here are Worms and Corruption there are Angels and Immortality And what a joyous thing is it to have a pledge of this happiness by looking towards it before the time be come about that we should possess it Most willingly therefore will I send up mine eyes as Harbingers before me to make room for the whole man both soul and body Laertius says of Empedocles that he answered one that asked him what was the end of his life Vt coelum aspiciam to view the heavens What could be the meaning of this Philosopher To pore upon it like a Star-gazer I cannot but imagine more acuteness in him that he discerned the felicity of man was laid up in those supernal places God is every where We circumscribe him not in heaven when we look up thither It is not the Throne of his Presence but of his Glory But because we should have narrow and gross cogitations if we sought him only in these fading things Therefore for our Hope sake for our Consolation sake especially for the elevation of our mind we turn our eyes towards him in that place where there is no mixture of mutability Exalt your Spirit that you live as fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. ii 19. Ascend up on high as belonging to that Church which hath the Moon under her feet Rev. xii 1. Fix your nest in
desiderium expletur All misery shall be excluded from our happy estate and all our desires fulfill'd And both these two are most remarkable in this Angelical Congratulation First the depulsion or sending of all manner of evil and misery from our blessed estate in these words The Angel said unto them fear not Secondly The inclusion of all those joys and solaces that can be askt that 's laid open in Evangelizo Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Privatively the messenger cashier'd all discomfort nay positively he brought great comfort which twain put together make up the complement of our final beatitude and are both deduced from the blessing of the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Christ The first general branch wherein the Angel promis'd a deliverance or award from all manner of evil that might make the Shepherds sorrowful I have done with that and there I leave it I come now to the second general branch which abounds much above the former where not only evil is dispell'd but a chearful benediction succeeds in the place Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Wherein that no title may be lost of such heavenly comfort first note the Angels Trumpet with which he proclaims his errand Ecce behold Secondly the errand consisting in no less than seven branches of benediction 1. Ecce ego says the Angel Behold I bring unto you the tearms were much amended between Heaven and us that the Angel came unto us upon a peaceable message 2. Ecce Evangelizo he was no Lawgiver that was terrible but an Evangelist 3. The sweet air of the Gospel hath some harsh tidings to take up the cross and endure unto blood and death but these were tidings of joy 4. Joys are of several sizes this is a great one nay none so great 5. Joys and great ones are quickly done this is gaudium quod erit joy that shall be and continue 6. A man may be a conduit-pipe to transmit joy to others and have no benefit himself this is gaudium vobis joy to you to every ear that hears it 7. A good nature would not engross a blessing but desires to have it diffused and so was this Gaudium omni populo joy to all people And of these severally as I have put them in a rank Before the Law was delivered at Mount Sinai the voice of a Trumpet was heard in the Camp of Israel which sounded long and waxed lowder and lowder Exod. xix 19. A Trumpet was a sign of hostility and of warlike preparation The Law indeed came like an enemy to condemn us for we were not able to stand before it but Christ who was the end of the Law made way to his own manifestation by the articulate voice of an Angel as if it had been the voice of a man to intimate that the Prince of Peace was approacht near unto us ecce behold Out of which word standing in this place I note three things admiration demonstration and attention 1. Ecce see and admire this is the greatest wonder that ever was Name any thing unto me that ever was made and I am confident to say this is stranger to mans apprehension than any thing that ever was made the Incarnation of the Son of God If you love to cast your eyes upon that which is miraculous look this way and see the greatest miracle that ever was brought to light In the beginning was the word and no word can utter how it was made flesh in time The eternal Creator was made man of the substance of a woman and yet his hands did make and fashion the substance of his Mother The word by which the world was made became an Infant in the cradle and could not speak He that bears up the pillars of the earth was born in the arms of Joseph and carried into Egypt The Infinite Majesty that hath made the bounds of heaven and earth being himself without limits or circumscription was bound with swadling clouts and laid in a manger It is not safe to proceed into many of these inquisitions lest astonishment overwhelm us St. Paul was wary and came off thus from the wonderment thereof Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh as who should say the Temple of Solomon had things of much secresie within the Veil the Ark the Cherubims the Propitiatory the most Holy of Holies the Church of the New Testament hath things as wonderful and mysterious as those arcana fidei recluse and admirable secrets of Faith the manifestation of Christ in the form of man Ipsi quoque Angelorum primati incognita says Dionysius the Primate of Angels in the triumphant Church is not able to sound the depth of it So then you see this word is a preface to an extraordinary miracle ecce behold Secondly To cry out unto the Shepherds behold is an Adverb of Demonstration things hard by make us look towards them more than those that are further off we sit still and muse upon that which we hope will come to pass but when we hear the bridegroom coming then we busle and look out The Prophet would not say barely Thy King cometh O Sion but Ecce Rex tuus behold thy King cometh O what an alteration this was when the invisible God came to an ocular demonstration and though he be now ascended up to Heaven yet he hath left his Spirit in our hearts that we may say with the Apostle Dominus prope est the Lord is at hand And though the senses of our body do not fix themselves upon him yet Faith will perceive him strongly and certainly that he is truly present Faith will assure it self how he stands at the door and knocks and how it hears his voice Furthermore let this demonstrative direction put you in mind to live so justly and inoffensively as if you did always behold God in the flesh Elias made the right use of this doctrine when he took an oath Vivit Dominus in cujus conspectuâ—sto as the Lord liveth in whose presence I stand Well says Rubanus upon it the just Prophet demeans himself as one that stands in Gods presence in this life and he shall surely keep his rank in the same place in the life to come Ecce natus says the Angel Behold the tidings of a Saviour as if nothing else had been worth our consideration and how many be there that demean themselves as if they car'd not whether they heed it or no. But thirdly Ecce behold it doth not beg but command attention when the Lord sends a messenger is it not fit to note him diligently and to ponder his sayings in your mind Philo says that those two words of Moses Deut. xxvii 9. Take heed and hearken O Israel are the sum of all the precepts in the Law Hearken O daughter and consider incline thine ear says
better tidings to you Israelites than to any other Nation if you will accept them The Son of God came of their Fathers according to the flesh in their Country he came to preach daily and no where in the world beside in their eyes he wrought his Miracles and upon their bodies he practis'd his wonderful power to cure their Diseases to make their Blind to see and their Lame to walk He professed himself to be more devoted to their welfare than to all the earth beside before the Canaanitish woman I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel They were his he did acknowledge it he was theirs but they denied it he came to his own but his own received him not To abreviate my discourse in this point Evangelizo vobis they are glad tidings to you because it is given to you to hear the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven for blessed is the ear that heareth the things which you hear Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God It is flat cheating in the Devil to put dubitation into mans fancy on this wise I am partaker of the outward word but I know not whether God have gone any further with me to give me his inward Spirit to quicken that seed unto immortal life Beloved as Christ did institute both Bread and Wine to be the outward Elements of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood Bread is the substance of food Wine causeth the concoction and makes it comfortable food So the word preacht is the food of life and God never lets it go alone without some drops of the Wine of his Grace to make it nourishing and beneficial Jude xiii 23. Manoah the Father of Sampson cries out to his Wife we shall surely die because we have seen God Nay says she If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not receive a burnt-offering at our hand Neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would at this time have told us such things as these So let me answer all dubitative Christians unless the Lord did desire thy salvation he would not put his Word into thy ear nor his Sacrament into thy mouth The Gospel is an happy annuntiation to every one that hears it unless he quench the Grace which is offered unto him Evangelium omni populo the tidings are auspicious to all people To all people Trahit sua quemque voluptas There are so innumerous many fond pleasures desires vanities affections in several appetites can any thing satisfie them all yes it is relishable to every palat that will taste it though the true delight apprehended is included among the small number of the Elect yet it is given to all and no man shall say he is lost for want of a Redeemer and a sacrifice for his sins Cum omnibus scriptus significavit omnes says Origen He was taxed in his Mothers Womb by Augustus Caesar when all the world was taxed to intimate that he did communicate himself to all the world that after that conscription of their names in Caesars enrollment whosoever believed in him his name might be written among the Saints in the book of Life In the first lesson read upon Christmas-day thus you have it Isa ix 3. They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest and as men rejoyce when they divide the spoil A good Harvest is not welcome to one Village but it is gladsome to the whole Country round about and when spoils are divided after the vanquishing of an Enemy every Souldier is enricht and hath his share Such a communicative blessing is our Saviours Incarnation every man fills his bosom with the sheaves of the harvest every Christian Souldier that fights a good warfare plucks somewhat from the spoils of the Enemy The dew of thy birth is as the womb of the morning A learned Father of our own Church transposeth the Versicle on this wise Thy birth from the Womb is as the morning dew which waters the whole earth As the walls of Jericho fell down before the sound of the rams horns so the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile methinks it fell down flat to the ground at this blast of the Angels trumpet in my Text that these were glad tidings not toti populo but omni populo not to the whole people of the Jews but to all the people of the world The wall of discord is taken away in the universe which parted those two great houses and shall not the sweet welcome of the Birth of Christ take away a wall of partition between thee and thy neighbour which is in thy heart Can you out of enmity and hatred wish sorrow unto any when God wisheth joy great joy unto all dost thou envy at the prosperity of thy brother when the Lord would have the same glad tidings common to you both Lay down old grudgings and quarrels with the old year and begin the new year with a new reconciliation in love unfeigned and true meaning Charity and the Lord renew a right spirit in us all Amen THE SIXTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE ii 11. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. THE Angel hath made a brief Sermon upon a great occasion The occasion is the Incarnation of our Lord and who can be so copious upon that subject as the Mystery requires yet the Sermon which the Angel preacheth is neither a whole Chapter nor a whole Gospel but three verses of a Gospel In the multitude of words a great deal is lost unto the hearer the good application of a little whatsoever we think will yield the best fruits of increase But for such divine joy as is here proclaimed it was fit to roul it up in a small pill and to minister it to the audience in a little quantity How is it possible for frail flesh to subsist and not to be dissolv'd for gladness if the Angel had continued his tidings with such matter as he begun a Saviour is born unto you a Saviour is born no petty redeemer but the Lord strong and mighty a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. O it was provident care after the Shepherds had heard a little to tell them no more at once but rather to send them away into the City that they might see the rest After Israel had shaken off the Chaldean slavery and the Lord had turned the captivity of Sion David knew not how to express their astonisht joy but thus they were like unto them that dream as Livie says of the Grecians when the Romans that conquer'd them sent them unexpected liberty Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur they received the tidings as if it had been a pleasing dream and themselves scarce awake So our sins have so much discomforted our hearts that our spirits are confus'd and faint if we receive all the comfort that God sends at once like a strong
Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps whcih thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it THis is the Sons day and not the Mothers This is Christs own day and not Maries Therefore it is not for the Wombs sake but for the Fruit of the Womb not for the Paps of a mortal woman but for the Infants sake an immortal God that I have chosen this Text. A good Israelitess she was that magnified Christ on this manner though she was not spoken to yet her heart was full and she must speak for her joy would have stifled her if she had not uttered it If you mark the Context of the Chapter immediately before these words our Saviour had taught his Disciples to pray most divinely he had cast out devils most triumphantly he had answered the Calumniations of the Pharisees most rationally he had put on glorious apparel as the Psalmist says and girded himself with strength While these wonderful works were fresh in memory the Lord from on high could have sent Legions of Angels to magnifie his Son and to praise him with celestial Canticles But to strike the greater shame into the Pharisees that had blasphemed him he stirs up a woman a nameless one a poor Plebeian one not admitted near him she stood afar off and was fain to speak aloud to be heard Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast sucked It was a free acclamation a sudden start a passion that came from her spirit ex tempore and that I may give Christ his full honour and attribute no more to the woman than is truth she prophesied in this saying of greater things than at that time she understood The Holy Ghost gave her the priviledge to be the tongue that delivered this Congratulation but it remains to us to lend it an heart that we may truly conceive it For the inward sense of it is the gladsom contents of this day blessed be the Father of all mercies for the Incarnation of his Son that he was made of a woman for our sakes and blessed are all mankind that he hath taken flesh of our flesh and that he is made partaker of our humane nature But because it would not prove our benefit that he was born for us unless he be born in us likewise by faith and obedience it follows to make our joy and crown complete yea rather blessed are they that hear c. The parts are as manifestly two as the two hands wherewith we handle First Blessedness offered to us in Christs Incarnation Secondly Blessedness made complete in our own application The woman begins the Text in the first part Christ finished in the second She said well for his Incarnation Blessed is the Womb that bare thee He makes it much better by stirrig us up to the use and fruit of it yea rather c. She blesseth Christ and Christ blesseth us she would have all felicity to rest in him he would have a share of felicity to be derived to us A pretty strife between a devout Creature and a merciful Creator between an humble Servant and a bountiful Master between a true faith that heaps all honour upon God and between a gracious God that heaps the treasures of his riches upon a true faith To begin with that which the woman said it must be considered two ways in a Litteral sense such as flesh and bloud revealed to her And in a Prophetical sense above her understanding such as the Spirit of God hath revealed to us Blessed is the Womb that bare thee And so it was indeed according to the Latitude of this womans natural understanding For first she knew at large that it was a blessed thing to be an Instrument or conveyance of any great good unto others Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber be blessed shall she be above women in the Tent Judg. v. 24. Shee had done her part to work deliverance for Israel And when Judith had sped in her adventure to cut off the head of Holofernes says Oziah Blessed art thou of the most high God above all the women upon earth Judith xiii 18. A good Messenger is called an happy and the feet of those are pronounced beautiful that bring glad tidings of peace It is a narrow and an abject conceit of some that think themselves fortunate and at the best when they receive and take in all that can be heapt upon them These men measure felicity backward for beatius est dare quam accipere it is more blessed to give than to receive Though that Maxim be not extant in any of the Evangelists St. Paul tells us upon his credit it was our Saviours The souls of them that are converted to true holiness shall bless the lips of the Priest the poor shall bless the liberal after Ages shall bless publick Spirits that do famous things and are provident for Posterity A Cistern that contains the waters poured into it is much inferiour to a Fountain that sends them forth It is nothing so laudible to be wrought upon as to work that which is honourable Even the Parents that have enricht the world with such as are ornaments unto it benediction reflects upon them for it because they are Conduit pipes of publick felicity Yet all those that have made others happy by their gifts and qualities had been for ever unhappy themselves if the Child that was born this day had not suckt the breasts of a Virgin O happy Parent whose Womb contained all the treasure that maintains the whole earth Somewhat she collineated at this meaning that said unto our Saviour Blessed c. And each Parent partakes in this reason that it is joy and honour to them to have a renowned Son and it may be this woman was partial to her own Sex that contented her self to speak of no more than the womb of the Mother In strict Divinity indeed her words are admirable for Christ had no Father according to the flesh but that is more than I collect out of St. Luke that she mentioned not his Father for that reason But in all humane births that prove successful and glorious the loyns of the Father are blessed as well as the womb of the Mother and the glory of children are their Fathers Prov. xvii 6. Yet in the next construction of mere natural capacity it was proper to say for his sake blessed is the womb because barrenness was a curse and fruitfulness of children a blessing They that propagate a faithful seed upon earth give the means to replenish heaven with Saints it is that wherein we exceed Angels to beget Sons and Daughters in our own likeness and to continue a Generation like our selves makes mankind by succession as incorruptible as the Angels God blessed all living Creatures mark that God blessed them and said unto them be fruitful and multiply Gen. i. 28. Though the Lord said
gestemus he doth bear us up always in his hands let us bear him and enclasp him in our Faith and say as Israel did I will not let thee go till thou hast blessed me says Origen Was it so beneficial to a poor woman to touch the hem of Christs garment in the Gospel then how profitable will it be to hold him close in our embraces as this Father did And as Maldonat says very truly Non credentis est modo sed amantis complectimur quos amamus This doth not only betoken Faith but exceeding love we hug them in our arms whom we have in dear estimation we catch them in our arms as if we would grow together so if we love the Lord sincerely we are one with him and he with us we dwell in him and he in us This amplexus arctissimus and he that loves not our Lord Jesus let him be accursed Chiefly at this time in the holy Sacrament we see him upon the Lords Table we take him in our hands we incorporate him in our souls by a lively faith and at his mystical presence in these Elements let us say as it is reported of a Religious Votary called Maria Aegyptiaca when Zozimus the Abbat gave her the Bread of Life upon her sick bed she beheld the Sacrament wishly which is the seal of all Christs mercies towards us and brake out into this song of Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Amen THE ELEVENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE i. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people AMong all portions of Scripture that afford matter for Christmass day I have for the most part hitherto chosen those Texts to speak of before you which are extracted out of the Songs of the New Testament Our Proverb goes It is good to be merry and wise Every Section of the Gospel disposeth us to be wise unto eternal life but the Canticles which sing the birth of Christ they teach us to be merry and wise unto Salvation Nothing doth better agree with this day than a godly Song Sing we merrily unto God our strength make a chearful noise unto the God of Jacob. You have heard me divers times preach unto you out of the Angels Carol Luke ii The last year I made my Sermon out of the Song of Simeon Nunc dimittis and I am sure I could not furnish my self better this year than out of the Song of Zachary so appositely doth it serve our turn both for our spiritual benefit procured in our Saviours Nativity and for our temporal benefit God having repossessed us after a lingring and destructive contagion in health and safety to break out into this Thanksgiving Blessed be the Lord c. The Lord turn us unto him and bring us out of our evil ways for therefore he visited us The Lord make us his own peculiar people zealous of good works for therefore he hath redeemed us When you hear of a Visitation and Redemption I know your thoughts will carry you presently to your late sufferance under a bitter scourge and to Gods merciful deliverance This is not amiss and I wish it may be long in your mind to bring forth the fruit of righteousness But this Visitation whereof my Text speaks it invites you to look above you not about you it invites you to think of that heavenly Infant that was born unto us not of those Sucklings and Infants that were swept away with the late mortality and by all means let us prefer the rejoycing that we have in Christ at this time before that other gladness for our bodily prosperity intend that chiefly and the condition of our own particular welfare let that come behind in a latter regard so did Zachary the Priest from whose mouth my Text proceeded God did give him a Son for the comfort of his own Family and such a Son as a greater than he was not born of a woman John the Baptist God also gave him to understand by Prophetical illumination that the Messias the Redeemer of the World was in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mark now the Piety of this good old man first he praiseth God for the Incarnation of Jesus that he raised up an horn of salvation for them out of the house of David and in the last close of the Song he magnifies that blessing that such a Son should be born to him in his old age and thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest This is a fair direction for our use that this should be the first thing in our thoughts and in our thankfulness to say Blessed be the Lord that the Word was made Flesh and hath dwelt among us Having told you how well this Song doth become the day and that the chief note of the Song is in the word Visitavit the Son of God did visit his people in an humane body I will yet give you more content out of the Text by informing you that it is a most remarkable Prophesie from Malachy for the space of four hundred years there had been no Prophet in all the Land of Judaea and therefore we count all that Apocryphal Scripture which is thrust upon us from the days of Malachi to Christ because there was no Prophetical inspiration among the Jews Behold now when a Prophet was grown such a rare thing among them the Lord opens the mouth of Zachary the Priest and he begins to Prophesie It is well noted of Origen that after the blessed Virgin conceived our Saviour men and women wheresoever she came were all inspired with Prophesie Elizabeth the wife of Zachary breaks out into admiration and how is it that the Mother of my Lord doth come unto me And she Prophesies the Child sprang in the mothers womb for exultation that the Messias was under that Roofe that was a mighty Prophesie not in word but in deed When Mary came to the Temple and brought Jesus with her to be purified after the Law Simeon and Anna in their several turns gave thanks unto the Lord and Prophesied but Zachary though last named he is the first and most memorable of the rest that spake mighty things in the Spirit the reviver of Prophesie after a long time it had lain asleep and to set an Emphasis upon my Text the words of it are the first that came from him after he had been dumb and the first that he uttered after he became a Prophet In a word mark it that he is the first-born of the Sons of the Prophets in the New Testament and this Text is the first fruits of his Prophesie Christ was yet but an Embrio his mother but three months gone since she conceived and yet Zachary speaks with a most Prophetical confidence of things to come as if they were past already as if the sweet Babe were born who had not yet opened the womb He hath visited and he
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
be yet it is a sweet consolation that we have a general taste of Gods Mercies and gracious Promises towards them but no good Christian can choose but think so divinely of the Sacraments that our comfort is more perfect and better satisfied when they had the special seal of grace before they departed And if any mans fancy lead him to hold that both shall be glorified yet where the honour of the Sacrament lights the greater glory shall follow I had rather assent to this opinion than gainsay it though I know not how to prove it And let me end this Point as he begins his Poem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Water is the best Element in the world The Air for natural life the Water for spiritual And my exhortation is that you endeavour to see the Sacrament conferred upon all Infants as far as it is possible because John says I have need to be baptized I must now proceed to shew that John found imperfection in his own heart and therefore thus bemoans himself I have need to be baptized Two Expositions I suppose are natural to this Point 1. I have need to be baptized with thy Spirit and to receive thy grace 2. I desire that the infinite merit of thy bloud-shedding may be applied to me for the washing away of my sins The Baptism of the Spirit is the infusion of heavenly grace into the soul and John confesseth he had need of it Need I mean of the increase thereof although he had it in great abundance as soon as he was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. Abraham was circumcised in his old age and yet was justified before he received Circumcision Rom iv Cornelius was baptized having received comfort before from the Angel that his Prayers and Alms were pleasing to God When great multitudes of the Gentiles had their hearts touch'd from heaven says Peter Can any forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we Acts x. 47. In these instances it is seen that some grace did prevent the Sacrament and yet the parties who had received the Holy Ghost came willingly to be baptized For God doth not give all his grace at once or twice but more and more is added and supplied to the former Dose and though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day therefore the holiest Prophet alive while he carries flesh upon his loyns may say and ought to say I have need to be baptized of the Spirit This interpretation is accepted of all sides and what rubs can the other find that John did implore the mercies of Christ for the washing away of his sins Though he in a mortifying phrase and most contrite humility may seem to put himself in the number of sinners and so I have cited St. Ambrose making that sense of his words Tu venis ad me peccatorem Dost thou come to me a sinner Yet there are some that say unto him as Peter did to our Saviour Master spare thy self So they to another purpose spare thy self do not condemn thine own innocency thou art not polluted neither hadst thou any corruption in thee which could extend unto a mortal sin for it is written Luke i. 15. He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mothers womb That John was sanctified before he was born is it which hath made the scruple This is the doubt then which I am to clear that a man sanctified from his nativity I before his nativity may be a sinner whose iniquities have need to be washt away in the bloud of Christ To be sanctified from the womb it is a word of divers constructions and when I have named them all choose ye which you will and my conclusion will be inviolable First It hath been usual to say such Infants were sanctified from the beginning of their life to whom God hath very soon demonstrated some extraordinary favour So St. Ambrose says of Jacob the Patriarch that it was a sign of grace in him before he was born that he wrestled with Esau in the womb of Rebecca Ephraim the Syrian says as much of Moses that a divine blessing was upon him as soon as he was exposed in the Ark of Bulrushes because Pharaohs Daughter when she lookt upon him could not choose but pitty him Yet neither of these were so undefiled in their way but that they had need of remission of sins Secondly St. Austin hath this interpretation that to sanctifie him from the womb is not to pour extraordinary grace into the Infant at that rawness of age but to ordain him in due time unto Sanctification Sanctificavi i. e. destinavi sanctificare it is spoken of as a thing done in the present because Gods Predestination is sure from the first conception As the Gentiles are called the children of God before the Doctrine of faith was preach'd among them because they should be made the children of God as it is written Joh. xi 52. that Christ died not only for that Nation of the Jews but for the children of God that were scattered abroad the instance is in Jer. i. 5. I knew thee before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified and ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations Even Maldonat confesseth out of these words he was sanctified because from the first minute of life he was ordained to be sanctified Non per inspirationem Prophetiae sed per destinationem not as if he were inspired so young but so young in the eternal Council he was appointed to be inspired It is in effect as St. Paul offers himself to us in the like phrase Gal. i. 15. It pleased God who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace To separate from the womb is the same as to sanctifie from the womb Separare est à patre matre rebusque terrenis rem segregare Deo consecrare It is to draw a thing from Father Mother and all earthly relations and to appropriate it to God And yet this Apostle sighs it forth that he is the greatest of sinners and yet separated or sanctified from the womb And surely it is a Text of validity to prove that Jeremy was not cleansed from the foulness of Original sin for he reviles the day of his birth because it brought forth nothing but a miserable sinner Cursed be the day wherein I was born let not the day wherein my Mother bare me be blessed Jer. xx 14. I am very loth to lay any faults to the Saints of God yet after all answers and shifts I cannot see but that Jeremy in those words is guilty of great impatiency Thirdly To be sanctified not only from the womb but even from the earliest minute of life in the conception is to be endowed with eminent motions of grace not usual to other Infants and so it was in John the Baptist in whom two things of Gods especial
us that we may be condemned and Christ upbraided on this wise See these Servants of yours see those Children of men how full of all iniquity they are for whom you have shed your precious bloud These slanders and foul detractions of his though we do not hear them yet I have satisfied you so far herein out of my Text because his name imports them But we do feel it to our hurt and molestation that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tempter as it is in the third verse of this Chapter The word it self I would not have you think it is altogether evil for even God is said to tempt man Non ut ipse sed ut ij quos tentat se cognoscant says St. Austin not that he may bring any thing to light which was unmanifested to him but that our own effects may be known to our selves and to all the world as Deut. xiii 3. The Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul but the vulgar Latin reads it Vt palam fiat to make it known that you love him Again one man may tempt another to find what excellency is in him as the Queen of Sheba came to prove Solomon with hard questions besides there is a good Tentation wherein a man is bound to prove and to try himself Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves 2 Cor. xiii 5. In all these acceptions the Word is innocent but there is an abusive Phrase for man to tempt God as if we had not good experiment of his power and goodness but would search it further but let not us tempt Christ as some of them tempted and were destroyed of Serpents 1 Cor. x. 9. Lastly the word Tentation taken for allurement and provocation to sin is proper to Satan and to Satans instruments Among military rules this is one in all Authors it brings some advantage with it to study the nature and condition of our enemy I will beat a little upon that advice I have met with some who have humm'd and haw'd at it whether there were any Devils or no as if it were a thing that were disputable Perchance these give credit to nothing further than their outward senses apprehend after the manner of beasts or like the Sadduces that held there was neither Spirit nor Angel because they could see none If you ask them if Christ did not cast out divers Devils from those that were possessed their evasion is perhaps those might be enormous sins But could sins which are no substance but qualities cry out and tear a man and run into the Swine and confess Christ This is such an opinion says a late Writer Ac si oves putarent fabulam esse de lupis as if the Sheep should think Wolves were but a tale there were no such creatures that sought to devour them St. Austin brings in such an unbeliever objecting How should I overcome Satan How should I repel him whom I cannot see or perceive Well enough says the Father Facile habent remedium se ipsos interius vincant de illo foris triumphant overcome the instigations of evil motions within and you triumph over the Devil without None hath described the puissance of our ghostly enemies more tragically than St. Paul Eph. vi 12. We wrastle not against flesh and bloud but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses in high places Every word of this description is Vae vae Woe be to them that are not strong to resist Our Adversaries in their essence are Spirits in their form invisible in their designs wicked in their power rulers of this world in their subtilties dealers in darkness in their place they have the higher ground much above our reach they hover in the air in high places The Prophet Isaiah demonstrated the weakness of the Egyptians That their horses were flesh and not Spirit Isa xxxi 3. The odds are the more against us that our adversaries are Spirit and not Flesh Daemonum tanto major nequitia quantò natura nobilior says Aquinas The more noble is the nature of hellish Fiends the more dangerous is their wickedness The more fleshly is our nature the more weak our resistance An Epicuraean will say perhaps that gives himself over to all licentiousness it is not in me to withstand the assaults of the Devil why should I go about it since I am made of a corruptible Elementary substance which cannot hold out against a spiritual wickedness But to make all such sinners inexcusable God hath made us a recompence and we have as good help on our side to say the least of it as they have of theirs partly by the help of his assisting grace partly by the Ministry of good Angels Some there are likewise that cry out man is unequally dealt withal because the Princes of darkness have that odds of us in their multitude they boast that their name is Legion Dionysius called the Areopagite as I read it in Aquinas reduceth the damnation of all sinners to this Multitudo Daemonum est causa omnium malorum the world is so over-laid with numbers of Devils that from thence ariseth all damnation I would not set so much by that single authority if St. Hierom had not said Communis est doctorum opinio this is the common received opinion of the Doctors Aer iste coelum terram medio dividens plenus est contrariis fortitudinibus The whole Element of the Air between heaven and earth is full of Diabolical troops that rise up against our soul and oppose our Salvation Howsoever this is but opinion and I am sure the Scripture doth no where put us in the perplexity of such a terror And that of Anthony the Eremite is confessed to be but a dream that he saw all the space between heaven and earth full of Satans snares to catch the souls of men Against these dreams and opinions I set the saying of Elisha on the one hand There are more that be with us than against us And the promise of our heavenly Father to the Children of Israel on the other hand One of you shall chase a thousand and two of you shall put ten thousand to flight Howsoever in all distress of tentation here is our refuge in this or the like Prayer Wilt thou suffer the destroyer O Lord to prevail against me Wilt thou permit him to say there there we have devoured him God spake once and twice that power belongeth unto God Semel atque iterum ob firmitatem once and twice because that truth is strongly established He that hath said unto the proud waves of the Sea hitherto shall ye go and no further He doth say unto Satan Hitherto shalt thou tempt and no farther It is not for the Devils deserving but for the wicked mans undeservings that God doth give him his
holden of it A Resurrection Text out of the first Sermon that ever the Apostles Preached upon the Resurrection preached in their full vigour of sanctification immediately after they had received the Holy Ghost to let us know that Whitsunday was principally ordeined for this end to make Easter-day famous over all the world for when God filled Peter and all that were gathered together with that new wine of the Spirit which is mentioned in the begining of the Chapter what did it produce in the first instant what effect did immediately flow from it as an essential property read and mark from my Text onward to the end of ver 36. this is the nail altogether struck upon this is the Theme gone over and over that God had raised up Jesus the Book of the Psalms did prove it and the Disciples were witnesses of it O mystery of mysteries and wonder of Miracles the first lesson of faith the Corner-stone of the Building the most necessary Pillar of the Gospel indeed the bloudy passion of our Saviour which was delivered us in the former verse and the victory over death after that bloudy Passion which I shall instance upon in this verse these two are the supporters of all Christianity take away these two Pillars as Samson broke down those that held up the Theatre of the Philistins and you ruinate the whole Tower of Faith and demolish it to nothing Very fit it was therefore that all the tongues wherewith the Holy Ghost had endowed the Apostles with utterance to speak should concur in this one point and go no further in their first days labour namely that Christ was become the first fruits of them that slept that his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh see corruption And because this Sermon of St. Peters in the forenamed respects is such an illustrious testimony of our Lords resurrection therefore both Eastern and Western Churches have selected this Chapter of old to be the second Lesson for the Evening Prayer of this great Festival so our Liturgie reteins it which never recedes from good antiquity and where our Church hath gone before me in her judgment I thought it meet to follow her at this time in my duty and to parcel out my Text from that great variety which the Chapter affords upon this occasion in these words c. The division that I will give you upon this verse shall be easie to conceive and that will help out some things which are a little difficult in the handling of the parts First here is the Resurrection of our Saviour barely and positively affirmed whom God hath raised up Secondly the complement of it God loosed withall the pains of death Thirdly the necessity of it for it was not possible that He should be holden of death He humbled himself and became obedient to death therefore He was raised up He undertook the death of the Cross being fast bound in misery and iron but as fast as they bound him God loosed him from those pains neither were these things arbitrary accidental obnoxious to any human impediment but contrived and fixed by Gods inevitable Decree ought not Christ to suffer and so to enter into his glory says the mouth of truth and wisdom There is an oportuit upon both he must suffer and he must overcome those sufferings Oportuit the former must be and it was impossible he should fail of the latter Or you compose this Text with the Points of the former Text immediately connexed with it and see the amends made by Gods mercy for the Jews fury Ye have slain that holy one says the Apostle but what follows God hath raised him up Ye have taken and crucified him but see the alteration God hath loosened all the pains and pangs of death He must not escape your hands it was permitted unto you from above he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God And he must escape all his ghostly enemies sin and death and hell for it was impossible he should be holden of them Whom God hath raised up Since the world began there was never any thing opposed so much as this that Christ rose again the third day according to the Scriptures For what shall we think of others when the Apostles of our Lord did not only suspend their belief when tidings were brought of it but with some disdain rejected it For when Mary Magdalen and Joanna and Mary the Mother of James did tell the Eleven what the Angel had testified their words seemed to them as idle tales and they believed them not Luc. xxiv 11. Nay when Christ had appeared to ten of that company Thomas only being out of the way they could not all perswade him that they had seen the Lord alive Was ever any Tenet of faith so difficultly received even into the hearts of the best men Then you may be sure that when this good seed fell into worse soil it was miserably choaked with thorns A sudden and a strong Faction combined against it instantly after it began to sound abroad Acts iv 2. The Priests and the Captain of the Temple and the Sadduces were grieved at no other part of their doctrine but this That they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead Josephus says that as long as the Sadduces continued till they were all destroyed they became as horrid and savage as beasts in cruelty raging against those that affirmed the immortality of soul and body When that Doctrine spread it self abroad and came to the Philosophers of Athens Some censured Paul for a babler some for a setter forth of strange Gods Acts xvii 18. And St. Chrysostome says upon it that Anastasia which signifies the Resurrection was accounted a God which the Christians only worshipped The same Paul opening the knowledge of the Gospel before Festus and King Agrippa that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead Festus broke out in reviling at that passage Paul thou art beside thy self much learning doth make thee mad I would the opposition had gone no further but St. Austin and Epiphanius in their Catalogues of Hereticks rehearse more Adversaries against the Resurrection of Christ than any other doctrinal Point that concerns our Salvation Simon Magus wrote many books against it Basilides a venemous Dogmatist taught that Christ as he was led to be crucified vanished away by Art and Praestigiation and that Simon of Cyrene who bore his Cross some part of the way was put to death in his stead but that Jesus did never die and therefore was never raised from the dead The dross of so many Heresies was stained through these wicked wits that the Church might enjoy truth more triumphantly after such great resistance But let me go on with the Apostles question Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead He that created the soul and body
from thee and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth But St. Paul doth not use to obscure plain Doctrin with strange Poetical Phrases and Estius hath requited Beza with another place out of the Psalms to confirm my Doctrin Psal lxiii 9. Those that seek my Soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth that is the enemies of the innocent should go into the place of the damned The other Testimony of Scripture for I will press no more is Psal xvi 10. and rehearsed by St. Peter in this Chapter Thou shalt not leave my Soul in hell c. What pains some men have taken to no fruitful end that I know to make these words bear any sense rather than that which is literal no man that marks their diligence must deny but the Soul in divers Authors is taken for the Body and Hell for the Grave and so they patch it up Thou wilt not leave my life in the Sepulcher but why should literal Scripture be so eluded St. Austins rule is that when the literal sense of the Text sounds somewhat that is sinful or impossible then discreet and learned Interpretations must mollifie the letter but it is not to be suffered where good divinity is conteined in the letter as there is in this the meaning is as no flesh in the Sepulcher was ever free from corruption but only Christs so no Soul in Hell was ever supported and assisted by God and not forsaken but only Christs So Fulgentius most divinely anima immunis à peccato non erat subdenda supplicio carnem sine peccato non debuit vitiare corruptio Christs Soul knowing no sin went not to Hell to pay any debt of punishment for an innocent could not be obnoxious to those flames and torments and his Body never executing any evil act could not be tainted with corruption and putrefaction Is it not therefore consonant to reason to stick to the letter of Scripture when it bears an Orthodox exposition of faith and whether we say that Christ being free among the dead to walk whither he would his Soul being separated in death first shewed it self to the Saints in Joy to their exceeding comfort then to the Unbelievers in Hell to their woe and confusion or whether we say He descended that such as believed may never be thrust into that infernal Prison or rather that He brought his triumph over death with him before the face of Hell and brought those unruly spirits under his yoke entred upon the strong mans house and spoiled his house as it is in the Parable Matth. xii All these ways are agreeable to Gods word and to be admitted without contention Thus far upon Scripture attended by reason Indeed Stapleton says that two Articles of the Creed are not to be found in Scripture this of Christs descent in to Hell the other of the Catholick Church I confess in his sense they are not to be found in Scripture but in ours they are But last of all attend what light the very Creed it self will give to the confirmation of this Doctrin The ground that a learned Father of our own Church lays I take to be most rational Thus take these words properly and not figuratively as it is fit in a short abstract of faith next let them have a sense different in matter from all other Articles or else they were a superfluous repetition then let every Article keep a true consequent order of time one after another or else it would make a strange confusion and all other Expositions will give place Some of the Romish and some of our own part have taught that when Christ was crucified he susteined the pains of Hell but observe against them how this Article should come in most preposterously after his death and burial which was in time before Others make this sense of it that he was dead and deteined in death others to be no more but that he was buried but according to these opinions there shall neither be property of phrase nor difference of matter in this Article from them that went before To be dead and buried are as plain speeches as be in all the Creed and should these be explained by an enigmatical Phrase to descend into Hell rather to obscure than to explain the former Observe how our Church of England hath differenced it from death and burial art 3. As Christ died for us and was buried so also it is believed mark that 's another point that He went down into Hell And the thirtieth Article of the Church of Ireland doth not satisfie me that this line is in one comma I know not whether by the negligence of the Printer He was buried and descended into Hell I cannot come to the third part of my Text and I have done as much as the time will permit upon the second only let me add let weak capacities be no ways discomforted though they cannot explicitly understand the meaning of this controverted Article of the Creed Christs descending into Hell they must believe that Christ vanquished the Devil for our sakes that 's necessary both for their comfort and salvation And all Articles of Faith are not equally necessary and fundamental Gregory Valenza and many others I think not imprudently hold that the main and necessary points for unlearned simple people to believe are the great works of God remembred in the principal Feasts of the year Christs Nativity his Passion Resurrection Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Ghost And though this Article of the Descent into Hell contein an excellent mystery of Faith yet it comes not near the excellent knowledg and use of the former Suarez the Jesuit writes confidently that if by an Article of Faith we understand a Truth which all faithful people are bound explicitly to believe so he did not think it necessary to reckon it among the Articles of Faith The Nicene Creed in our Common-prayer Book hath left it out Ruffinus says that after 400 years it came into the Latin Church and like enough for St. Austin expounds the Creed five times and Chrysologus of Ravenna ann 440. six times and never glance it For that Creed called the Apostles was not so drawn up by the Apostles for ought we can find in good antiquity but called so because it conteins the sum of all Apostolical Doctrin one part of it was laid too after another and this I believe was the last addition of all Therefore it is a main arm of faith that Christ loosed the sorrows of death and a Truth it is no doubt though not of such prime consequence that He descended into Hell to loose those sorrows for our liberty but the main Pillar of Faith is the first Comma of my Text that God raised up Jesus from death and it was impossible He should be holden of it AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN xi 43. And when he had thus spoken he cried with a
made him cry out These men came not in by Gods honorabo and therefore they went out with a mischief infelicity was the end of that honour which was not begun in humility Let my speech sink into the heart of all those whom God hath advanced to the rule of his People let the meanest find favour in their eyes as well as the greatest mercy and justice love and charity you owe them alike to all the world to Caius and Titius alike to Neighbour and Stranger An elegant Minstril if his Musick be delicious a sporting Stage-player and the like shall be admitted into the noblest Assemblies and I am sure it is better than sport and musick to a worthy Magistrate to hear a man oppressed with wrong relate his grievances and redress them Pudeat aspernari fratrem quem Deus non aspernatur filium says St. Austin Do not despise him for thy Brother whom God hath accepted for his Son This I have spoken for the first share of honour which God giveth in this life and that for these two ends in utilitatem humilitatem First to promote the publick good Secondly to be depress'd in humility But alas what do we speak of Promotions in great places this is small comfort to the poor man although it came from God A poor Philosopher told a rich man that invited him He was set at the lower end of the Table ut ultimum locum cohonestaret to bring the lowest room in credit So divers and very rare Personages are but underlings in this life ut ultimum locum cohonestarent but these may partake of honours in the second life from the voice of fame for the memorial of the just shall be blessed saith the Lord. Very briefly of this You have known loving Fathers bequeath somewhat to their Posthumi to their Babes which should be born after their decease in whom they could never take joy nor comfort so divers at the last gasp of their life have bequeathed Monuments and places of liberality to charitable uses to reap that glory after their decease which they should never hear of A question may be asked in this place if it be lawful to call Colleges or Free-Schools or Hospitals after the Founders names that posterity may know them and testifie their pious affection I must mollify the answer propter duritiam cordis vestri because of the hardness of mens hearts for I had rather allow it as good and give some indulgence to human infirmity which itcheth after praise than Structures of Charity should fail and the hands of the liberal should quite be dried up But this is truth without yielding one whit to mans frailty good works offend not because they are seen but when their upshot and scope is to be seen that their praise may be divulged Si times spectatores non habebis imitatores says Gregory as who should say it is good to have our light shine that men may behold and imitate it not that they may behold and applaud it as the Schoolmen express it ad profectum aliorum non ad ostentationem sui not for our own reputation but for our Brothers edification 'T is a sign of a generous and noble spirit to do good things among other scopes and intentions to purchase a good name contemptu famae contemnuntur virtutes Certainly the propagation of a good name when it is not ambitiously coveted and affected it is a leaf of Gods own Chronicle and a blessing of many days wrought by his power who is the Ancient of days He that compared glory unto vertue as the shadow unto the body hit of a good similitude sometimes the shadow is cast before the body as when our glory is reported in our own ears Sometimes the shadow is cast behind the body as when the memory of our good deeds remains after us and this is from the Lord. Oblivion cast upon some is like the Plague of darkness cast upon Egypt Three Kings of Judah sprung from a wicked Race of whom our Saviour came touching the flesh are quite omitted in his Pedigree Mat. i. as if they had never been and who they were it shall not be named for me since the Holy Ghost despised to reckon them Tola judged Israel twenty three years and all that he did is not so much remembred as that Paul left his Cloak at Troas Joabs valour is forgotten among the Worthies of David because of his cruelty It is Alexander Hales his observation that the Scripture doth spend some Chapters to relate the Fall of Adam because Man recovered himself by the Promise made in Christ But not a word is spoken concerning the Fall of Lucifer and the Evil Angels neither in Moses nor the Prophets except it be under Parables and since it was their sin to rise against God they could not procure such an instance of their memory in Gods Books as to have the story of their Fall But a good name is a precious ointment an Ointment which is consecrated and made holy by the blessing of God Well let us proceed to the third and last portion of Gods Honour in tertio seculo aeterno in the life everlasting and here is comfort in the end For let the worst be made of the good mans fortune his calling is not honourable but private and his infamy perchance not private but publick Naboth dies for Cursing and Stephen for Blaspheming and both were innocent Now where is Honorabo What is become of the Honour that God promised And yet who deserved it better than such a man Nemo virtutem Sanctius coluit quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet No man loves Vertue more than he that had rather die with an ill name than with an ill conscience Where is such a mans Honour Where the Philosophers Country was when he pointed up to heaven Blessed are you says our Saviour when men revile you and speak all manner of evil falsly on you for my Names sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven There no Julian is an Emperour no Sanballat a Magistrate nor Caiphas an High Priest Si Honor diligitur illic quaeratur ubi nemo indignus honoratur says St. Austin Double my portion there O Lord and as Mephibosheth said Let Ziba take all and surely this Honour is best agreeable to the Text Honorabo I will honour him It is a blessing in future at such a time I may say when time shall be no more Not as the Gloss hath it Qui benè utitur dignitate conservabo eum in statu dignitatis suae He that manageth any promotion of Honour justly and faithfully I will keep him in it and not cast him down Nay admit that faithfulness and just dealing be an occasion to cast him down the sooner as it befel Aristides still Honorabo is a good promise when greatness is eclipsed upon Earth heaven stands sure and there the condition of this promise
seen in the Emblem of a Fool that thought to fly aloft and had a Plume of Feathers in one hand to carry him up like a birds wing but there was a stone in the other hand The word was Non tam pluma vehit quam grave mergit onus So vain ostentation is but a Feather to lift a man on high Gods wrath is like a Milstone to weigh him down and to lay his honour in the dust In a corrupt Age he may perhaps be advanced that had rather be great than good but because much of greatness consists in the opinion that men have of them as well as in the title Honor in honorante the world was never so bad yet to hold him great in the common estimation that had no conscience to be good Want of Piety want of the fear of God doth eclipse the most generous qualities of Nature and Morality and make them contemptible Solomon wrote most choice Philosophy upon the Plants of the earth from the Hyssop on the Wall to the Cedar in Lebanon yet Posterity neglected to preserve those Monuments of his wisdom though they were the Labours of a King because Lust and strange flesh made his wisdom despicable Julian a man of rare moral qualities for an Emperour Vlpian the greatest Lawyer Galen the greatest Physician Plotinus the greatest Platonist Porphyrie the greatest Aristotelian to descend lower Aretine the quaintest wit of Italy we vilifie the men and set a mask upon their good parts as God did upon Jeroboam that he made Israel to sin because their Religion was Atheism and Profanation I have told you before that Eli the High Priest was the man shot at in this Text not for any personal crime of commission in himself but for a sin of omission because he did not reform or else severely punish the unpriestly behaviour of his two Sons Hophni and Phineas One part of disgrace that fell upon him is in the third Chapter following my Text and the first Verse Sermo domini erat pretiosus in diebus istis the word of the Lord was precious in those days there was no open Vision that is Cessaverunt responsiones divinae Propheticae in illo tempore Prophesie and Divine Revelations were well nigh deceased in those times for the wickedness of the Sons and the indulgence of the Father Moreover in the next verse to my Text God says he will cut off his arm and the arms of his Fathers house that is the Succession of the Priesthood should be removed from that naughty Generation Afterward it is denounced that there shall not be an old man in his house Alas Counsel must needs perish when Age and Experience doth not govern Thus you see that for want of bridling nay for want of deposing and not utterly cutting off of scandalous Sons of his own body Eli the High Priest should be so despised that is his Succession should fail the wisdom of old men should not support him and divine Revelations had utterly forsaken him Tell this to the Bishop of Rome to him that would be the sole High Priest of the Church of Christ Are there any Christians in the world more riotous more lascivious than his Sons the Cardinals And by your leave it is often seen that some of them are his Natural Sons Is there any Father more facile and connivent than he That it seems will ever hearken to the counsel which Nicholas Archbishop of Capua gave to Pope Leo the Tenth Ne quid omnino reformantur at any hand whatever the Lutherans said to mend nothing How can we then refrain to despise them as the Lord said the house of Eli should be despised Can we believe that Succession hath not been long ago cut off from the chair of the Scorners Shall we delude our selves that the Revelation of Truth is among them Or that the Oracles of infallible illumination are not more precious among them than they were in the days of Eli's declination They take upon them the Honour of Eli I know they are guilty of the faults of Eli and of crimes much more flagitious was the Scripture written for any one mans sake Shall not the infamy also of Eli be inflicted upon them As my Text says They that despise me shall be lightly estâ—med Yet it were happy for the despisers of God if this were only their doom to be inglorious in this life and a scorn of men as I said before that the best Saints of God had marks of ignominy branded upon them Stephen died in the name of a Blasphemer Naboth died in the name of a Traitor St. Paul who was entertained by the Corinthians instar Angeli as an Angel of God passed among the Jews and Tertullus for a pestilent fellow but as Aulus Gellius said of the Epithete illaudatus that more was meant by it than not to be worthy of praise it was as much in true sense as innominandus Neque unquam nominandus one that should never be named or mentioned so to be lightly esteemed in this place is to be put out of Gods Check to have their names raced out of the book of life when the Saints carry Palms in their hands and Crowns upon their heads who have made their red Robes white in the bloud of the Lamb they shall be cast out of doors among the foolish Virgins with a Non novi vos Depart from me for I know yâ—u not Can any thing be made more vile and abject than not to know it Others will say perchance Lord thy hands have made us and fashioned us by thee have we been upholden ever since we were born how can it be that thou that knowest all things shouldst not know what we are In Mat. xxv when Christ spake in the person of a Judge how he would challenge the uncharitable for not refreshing him in Hunger nor in Prison nor in Nakedness they make answer as if God either knew not their thoughts or knew not them throughly or knew not what he said Domine quando te vidimus esurientem Lord when did we see thee in hunger Therefore God puts this derision upon them at the judgment since you think I am mistaken in you Non novi vos be it so as you would have it I know you not Which interpretation puts me in mind of the last Point and the very height of these mens miseries for to be cast aside as an ignoâ—e person is a most light esteem but being utterly forlorn and miserable then to be made a â—lout and derision it passeth all other scorn and contumely Says the Lord Prov. i. 26. I will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh So he seems to triumph and insult over the Devil and his Angels Isa xiii How art thou faln from Heaven O Lucifer thou son of the Morn In the Second Psalm there is mention of as great a Faction banding against the Lord as could cluster together the Heathen
relate but that he finished this life I cannot say it His years are numbred before my Text like other mens three hundred sixty five just as many years as there be days in an usual year after the motion of the Sun not that this reckoning is the term of his life but the term of that time that he conversed with men As Tertullian glosseth upon St. Pauls words I am crucified with Christ How crucified and yet live Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia by the reformation of his life not by the loss of his life So Enoch had a period when he left to be with men Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia By an exaltation to a better life not by the corruption of his body As the men of Israel would not let Jonathan suffer death though Saul had given Sentence against him What say they shall Jonathan die that hath wrought such great salvation in Israel So when the Spirit of the Lord had testified what a Prophet Enoch was a perfect obedient that abhorred Will-worship a stiff maintainer of Gods part against the Devil and all his Instruments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a friend a familiar acquaintance a walker with God Upon this testimony Mercy opposeth Justice and though the Lord had said to Adam and to all that were in his loyns Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return What says Mercy shall Enoch die an example of repentance to all Generations So the stroke of death was diverted that he saw not the Grave and Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him The partition which I framed upon the whole Verse was on this wise first how uncorrupt Enoch was in his ways he walked with God and secondly that he did not see corruption And this second Point which is reserved for this hours labour is to be handled in two several heads the former I will call Enoch's passage out of this world He was not The latter his reposure in another world For God took him His place was left empty among the Patriarchs below and he filled a room among the Thrones and Angels above Upon these two I shall handle many particular Doctrines before you And he was not a concise phrase you see and brevity will breed obscurity especially put this unto it that it is a form of speech which is not used again in this sense to my remembrance in all the Scripture But the sense is made plain by St. Paul Heb. xi 5. By Faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death He had a passage out of this world without any dissolution of the soul from the body In the same body that he pleased God says Irenaeus he was translated being never uncloathed of the flesh that he might put on immortality That this truth may be carried the clearer I will debate it a little with them that oppose it and with them that qualifie it Some of the Hebrew Rabbines as I find them quoted because they consult not with the authority of the New Testament think they are not convicted by the Old Testament but that they may conclude how Enoch died and was taken away in an early Age as those times went much sooner than his Forefathers As if this Verse did rather bemoan him for his untimely departure than renown him for some glorious favour which did befal him The phrase indeed if we look no farther will bear it both in sacred and in heathen Writings to say of one departed fuit he was but is not this was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair way of language to avoid an unpleasing word Yet the phrase doth not always stand in that sense but hath a double acception and both in one verse that you may the better carry it away Gen. xlii 36. Jacob there bemoans himself for the waat of two Children Joseph is not and Simeon is not the one he took to be dead indeed the other to be in fast hold and taken from his eyes removed where he could not come at him as Enoch was but no more So the Chaldee Paraphrase explains the meaning of Jacob Joseph non superest Simeon non est hic Joseph is quite lost and Simeon is not here The phrase then accords very well with that place of the Hebrews by faith Enoch was translanted that he saw not death And my Text must incline to that exposition for two reasons First that the Lord took him stands for a consequent that he was pleased in him it is the reward as you would say that he walked with God not that there is a necessary and perpetual coherency in it that whosoever walks with God should be exalted into Paradise and not see corruption but Enochs righteousness by a priviledge of favour was so requited a favour then being understood in those words it cannot be the sentence of death upon him it is impossible Secondly in this Chapter the last word that the Holy Ghost gives of Adam is Et mortuus est and he died so of Seth so of Enos so of Cainan so of all the Antecessors of Enoch wherefore unless Enoch had some other issue out of this world diverse from the rest which was by translation without death why should it be said of him so differently from all others he was not for the Lord took him So I have corrected the great error of those Hebrew Doctors who would lay Enochs honour in the dust But I suppose the general Exposition of the Jews was right and according to St. Pauls doctrine For Paul wrote to the Hebrews that he saw not death knowing the tradition was commonly so received among them and the Chaldee Paraphrast who lived straight after Christ was of the same judgment beside one of great note among them says he was disarrayed of the foundation corporal and cloathed with the foundation spiritual which words I conceive do jump with those who oppose not the Scripture that he saw not death far be it from them but they have a qualification for the meaning of it that death is taken two ways most properly for the separation of one essential part of man from the other the body from the soul a loath to depart it is a most unwelcom dissolution a punishment upon the sin of our first Father which was remitted to Enoch improperly it is no more but the separation or extinction of corruptible qualities from the soul and body one whom I named even now called it the disarraying of a man from the foundation corporal and so Enoch was purified altered made quite another man in the very moment that he was wrapt up to heaven This evacuation of corruptible qualities from the flesh is called death by some very good Authors in our own Church and so Procopius much more ancient than they Mirabili modo mortis defunctus est ad vitam coelestem translatus it was a rare and admirable kind of death he suffered
give thanks for this is the will of the Lord 1 Thes v. 18. If the Scripture had not said it natural ingenuity would lead you to the duty St. Ambrose says that Noahs Sacrifice was a free-will offering it was not commanded Qui debitum gratiae ut à se exigatur expectat ingratus est If you expect a Process to be served upon you to be thankful it is a kind of ingratitude for it wants the sweet savour But I will degree it to the highest to make my Doctrine useful As one Wave of the Sea drives on another and the latter puts on the next in a continual flux so the souls yearnings to thanksgiving take hand in hand and that which goes before plucks on that which follows after it A consultation must be called about it as David did What shall I render to the Lord The Soul asks it self the question and needs no Monitor as Elisha made it his own motion to the Shunamite in requital of her hospitality Behold thou hast been careful for us what shall be done for thee Proceed now What doth consultation produce Why the voice of joy and melody I will sing and give praise O but lip labour may be fruitless a Pharisee can say Lord I thank thee Prove it more than by some bountiful retribution bring presents unto the Lord that ought to be feared Let them be many and liberal such as God doth expect who gave us all and looks for no nigardly proportion in return O but again a Pharisee will give as well as pray Yes but he will boast and pride himself in it then wrap your thankful present in lowly confession O my God my goods are nothing to thee For what is the light beholding to them that look upon it Or what doth a Fountain get of a thirsty man that drinks of it Then that which brings up the rear and puts on the rest before it is a heart big with holy thoughts thankful for the grace of the holy Spirit above all things that stirs it up to be thankful and is ashamed of its own impotency that it is able to make no better retribution Therefore David changeth giving into taking What shall I give I will take the Cup of salvation As who should say fain I would render unto the Lord fain I would be thankful but that 's impossible on even terms all the Cattel are his upon a thousand hills If I can give nothing I will take somewhat for his sake I will take any thing in good part I will suffer any thing that the Lord doth lay upon me so you may compound these many things into a redolency to make a sweet savour to the Lord. This generous and well bred quality of gratitude is ever in good men where those few are to be found Few alas for God knows and benefactors find it that mercy and bounty are Pearles cast before Swine and that they are requited with malice revilings treachery from those whom they have bribed enough and estated in all they have No Rogues mark burnt upon the shoulder or face are so infamous as this character upon some that no benefits will win them no good turns will purchase them The Parable of the ten Lepers bids you expect nine bad for one good so it was among them that Christ healed Mundita cute leprosi corde healed of their Leprosie still sick of unthankfulness cured in the outward skin corrupted in their heart Where are the other nine says our Saviour Are they lost that they returned not to give thanks Yes certainly quite lost De ingratis quasi ignotis loquitur Christ makes as if he did not know them That is the fatall doom to have it pronounced by him Depart from me I know you not The next thing that follows is to be cast into the stinking Dungeon because the Lord did smell an ill savour from an unthankful Generation Hear now the fourth principal answer what the sweetness of this savour was it was Noahs charity that he desired to appease Gods wrath toward all flesh then living and to beseech his mercy to all Generations that should succeed Josephus the best reporter of the Jewish Traditions says it was the end of this Sacrifice to be a solemn Litany for the reparation of the drowned world and that it might no more be destroyed with an universal deluge My Text doth much concur if you read it word for word after the original that God did smell an odour of rest Quia fecit Deum quietum ab indignatione says the Gloss by this propitiatory offering he made the divine justice quiet or cease from indignation And mark what mercy in this Verse immediately follows the sweet savour I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake and in the next Chapter the Rainbow is instituted for a promise and Sacrament of future safety I will confirm it with apt words out of Luther Delectatus est Deus perdendo genus humanum nunc iterum delectatus est augendo God was delighted in his justice before to destroy all people and now his mercy will be delighted to increase mankind again It is fairly seen now as the light that Noah entreated God by Sacrifice to be favourable to his Sons and Daughters to their off-spring to the whole increase of the New World and this was part of the sweet savour For God commends this zelum protensum zealous love that extends it self to all its neighbours round about to the whole body of Christs Church to all men living to all Generations to come as Tully in his Lelius writes like an honest man Non minoris mihi curae est c. I have as much care that this Commonwealth should flourish when I am dead as while I am alive Hezekiah's affections were too much contracted to himself when he said Is it not good if peace and truth be in my days 2 Kings xx 20. Moses is called Gods Elect his chosen Servant for standing in the gap to save all the people Nehemiah is very famous for he raised up the ruines of his Nation Ecclus. xlix 13. If forraign wits do not mistake us English they defame us sharply that we want publick spirits and are commonly careless of the common good But I doubt we are worse than they make us For it is not as they have heard that we intend our private wealths before the general wealth of the Kingdom no it is our private pleasure our private luxury that we project at rather than the honour of our Nation and Country This is a strong Garlick smell fit to be looked to and to be turn'd into a better savour with a great deal of redress and reformation It is an unnatural baseness to prefer our selves before the prosperity of the Land that bore us The seat of our Ancestors the receptacle of our Children and Progeny to come where we breathed the first breath of life whose dust which the wind blows about is the
she nor any Unbeliever can know till they have tasted the good gift of God Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Go now and ask our Saviour Art thou greater than our Father Jacob that gave us this Well The Well was Jacobs perhaps but not the water he digged the Cystern but God gave the Spring that flowed into it this might have been alleged But what profit had come to the winning of a Soul if Christ had made comparisons between himself and his Servant It was his purpose at this time not to wrestle with Jacob but with the Woman of Samaria he came not to diminish the honour of his Saints but to magnifie the power of the Holy Ghost Petit potum ut det potum He met with one that was backward in courtesie and would not draw a Pitcher of water to cool his thirst yet he is forward in mercy and profers living water to quench the flame of her sins He drops by little and little upon her stony heart until he opened that hard rock that waters of salvation might flow out And first his Doctrin bred admiration in this Woman then a desire to learn then a sudden spark of faith which confessed that Jesus was the Messias then confusion for her sins then repentance and surely then godly sorrow and then tears and so she drew those waters before she was aware after which our Saviour thirsts above all others the tears of unfeigned repentance She denied him to take the pains to draw a draught out of Jacobs Well but he enforced her to draw out more precious liquors than those were from the bottom of her heart These are the words now read unto you which wrought that great effect and did pierce into her soul And let me say of that weak Instrument by whose tongue the Lord at this time doth make an offer unto you of that immortal Fountain as sometimes Gregory did when he exhorted many great persons to the contempt of the World and invited them to eat and drink with Christ in his Kingdom Etsi ego ad invitandum indignus appareo sed tamen magnae sunt deliciae quas promitto I am most unworthy to bid you come unto these waters and drink but the delicious Fountain which I promise to them that thirst after righteousness is worthy to invite you To handle it succinctly and to your edification there are four Branches of the Text to be propounded 1. The Subject to which all is to be referred is a water of a most different condition from that which is mentioned in the former verse 2. Who is able to draw it none but Christ it is a water that he gives and none beside him 3. How it is to be taken even as a soveraign and a delightful Receipt for the health of the Soul and the very soul of health it must be drunk 4. The exceeding benefit and virtue which amounts to that value that the whole World hath not riches enough to purchase it if it were to be bought for whosoever drinketh of it he shall never thirst To begin with these and the Touchstone upon which all other parts of the Text shall be tried is this What this mystical water is which our Saviour prefers so much before Jacobs Well Christ calls it living water at the tenth verse of this Chapter that 's a sweet Epithet indeed and yet it hath a more amiable description in the words that follow my Text a Well of water springing up unto everlasting life These are names of much elegancy and much obscurity but that we find a clear explanation of them in the seventh Chapter of this Gospel ver 38. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive So the Scripture hath written upon this water what it is that you may know it from any other it is the gift of Grace that cometh from above that sanctifieth our hearts and cleanseth us from all our sins it is the working of the Spirit which knits us unto Jesus Christ and makes us Heirs of Salvation God the Holy Ghost doth abase himself to be resembled to many of these inferior things for our understanding No man can miss to remember how the Spirit did appear in cloven tongues as it were of fire Acts ii 2. In another place Jo. 3.8 he is likened to the air The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that is born of the spirit And here his name passeth down a descension beneath that and is termed water only the earth is too base an Element whereunto the Holy Spirit should be compared leave that to man and to his corruptible constitution The Fire the Air and Water have some infinitude in them after a sort quod suis terminis non continentur says the Philosopher they are diffusive bodies which are not properly bounded or circumscribed in any Figure as the Earth is therefore all their names are borrowed to signify some disposition of the Divine Spirit toward us whose Vertue is most diffusive and whose Majesty incomprehensible But in each of the Testaments Old and New the first time that we read of the Holy Ghost he was joyned unto the Waters in the first day of the Creation the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Gen. i. 2. and upon the first manifestation of Christ that he shewed himself abroad to be the Messias of the World the Spirit sat upon his head when he was baptized at Jordan in the shape of a Dove And it is not vain to consider that when the Holy Ghost came down in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide yet St. Peter applies the place of the Prophet Joel to that occasion which speaks as if it had been water effundam spiritum In the last dayes I will pour out of my spirit to all flesh By that which is said already I have brought it to this the Scripture doth very much aim at this Comparison to be considered why the vertues and operations of the Holy Ghost are called Water and the choice of the Comparison I think are these particulars First as waters poured upon Hills will not stay upon their tops but runs down to the lowest places and fills the Valleys beneath so the Graces of God descend to the lowly and humble in heart and abide not with the proud Nay David says it will be the better for it if it be but a little Valley a diminitive thou makest fruitful the little Valleys thereof with the drops of rain Centurio quantò humilior tantò capacior says Bernard the Centurion lay very flat and low at our Saviour's feet and where was there a man that had a larger portion of the heavenly benediction for Christ said of him I have not found so great faith