to cry out to God as children do to their Parents Abba that is to say Father O high dignity able to raise any loyal soul high towards so good a God 16. By the Spirit himself is here understood both Christ in whom alone we are said to live and also the holy Ghost whence the Greek text saith The Spirit giveth joynt testimony not onely testifies as the Latine Text hath to shew that however the Word and the Spirit make two persons of the B. Trinity yet they both are but one God with the eternal Father O how excellently are we assured of this happy filiation when both the heavenly Father looks on us as such and his eternal Son together with the holy Ghost testifie and avouch us so to be 17. This last verse tells us we are not onely sons of God but his heires also and not onely his heires but his coheires with Christ and indeed it is fitting Gods children should have a better birth right then the children of the world whereof commonly one onely is heire but here all are coheires of Christ at least The Application 1. THe Expositours upon the first word of this Epistle tell us it is by the tye of our Faith plighted of our promise and covenant made to God in holy Baptisme that Therefore we are debtours onely to the Spirit And with great reason since every man remaines a debtour onely for such bonds as he hath tyed and bound himself by to his creditours Now because God Almighty did foresee how apt a man would be to flatter himself that he was bound by the Law of Nature to pamper that flesh which he had received from his Natural Parents and consequently might loose his soul by so pampering of his body therefore he was mercifully pleased by making man enter into better bonds those of holy baptisme to cancell all his former debts to any creature whatsoever and to make him become new debtour only to that holy Spirit which was both his Creatour and so had more right in him then his fleshly Parents had and also his Regeneratour and so begot him to a spiritual life or being which his first begetters were not able to confer upon him 2. But S. Paul not content to tell us in this Epistle that we are onely debtours to the Spirit and the reason why because of the bond we entered into at holy baptisme of loving God above all things and of living wholly unto him proceeds to animate us towards the performance of this debt by shewing us the gallant effect thereof namely that it makes us as well the heires as sons of God and not heires onely but co-heires of Christ 3. Now in regard the Preachers office is to tell us how to pay this debt how to live spiritually and by so living to secure ourselves of this ineffable co-heiretage which office the Expositours upon this holy Text have at least in part supplyed therefore it remained onely that our holy Mother the Church should make us such a Prayer as might be most suitable to this doctrine and none so suiting it as that which begs our thoughts may be rightly such as suggest to operations answerable to our beeing spiritual altogether That so as it was a pure act of love in God to adopt us here his children in Grace we by re-loving him that is by living according to our better being may be yet further adopted his children in Glory and thus may be made the co-heires of Christ indeed Say now the Prayer above and see beloved if it be not most apposite to this holy purpose The Gospel Luk. 16.1 c. 1 And he said to his disciples There was a certain rich man that had a Bailiffe and he was ill-reported unto him as he that had wasted his goods 2 And he called him and said to him what hear I this of thee render account of thy Baili-ship for thou canst no more be Bailiffe 3 And the Bailiffe said within himself what shall I do because my Lord taketh away from me the Baili-ship digge I am not able to beg I am ashamed 4 I know what I will do that when I shall be removed from the Baili-ship they may receive me into their houses 5 Therefore calling together every one of his Lords debtours he said to the first how much doest thou owe my Lord 6 But he saith An hundred pipes of oyl And he said to him take thy bill and sit down quickly write fifty 7 After he said to another But thou how much dost thou owe who said An hundred quarters of wheat He said to him take thy bill and write eighty 8 And the Lord praised the Bailiffe of iniquity because he had done wisely For the children of this world are wiser then the children of light in their generation 9 And I say to you Make you friends of the Mammon of iniquity that when you fail they may receive you into the eternal Tabernacles The Explication 1. THis parable shewes that all Christians bear office of Trust in Gods Church and are onely to administer his goods not to waste or use them as their own and this is meant whether they have goods of nature or of grace they are to account for all to him And our accuser here mentioned is the devil who justly layes waste to our charge as well when we use not Gods gifts well as when we use them ill So still Christians must do good and not onely decline evil else they lye liable to the devils accusations 2. O how clement a Master do we serve how gently he rebukes when even in Justice he is bound to take an account of our perfidiousnesse Where he sayes now thou must not be longer Bailiffe is understood I cannot in justice let thee be longer in trust of my goods then whilest thou doest administer them faithfully An excellent lesson to keep us close to our duties 3. We see here the accusation is not false the Bailiffe pretends not that he confesseth his guilt when he asks what shall I do since he cannot hope for longer trust from his master This puts us in mind of our miserable condition at the latter account in respect whereof it followes there is no ability in us to labour amends by further service for then the time as well as the power of further labour is past and to beg relief of any other master is a shame to man that had so good a master of Almighty God whose favour he hath lost for ever 4. This verse shewes the Bailiffe had resolved with himself to cheat his master so to provide for himself by their means whom he had favoured to his masters prejudice 5. 6. 7. These verses need not explanation as shewing only how much he cheated his master of 8. Note the word Lord here is taken for the Bailiffes master not for our Saviour as some mistake it and truly the context proves as much for our Saviour undertakes to tell this story as in the
no common Priviledge allowed to others that can be held too great for me in particular But lest the common Reader should be lost in this discourse that begs a School-prerogative I shall crave leave of the more learned to give unto the lesse intelligent examples of those three severall wayes how one thing is included in another As formally when the included doth denominate the includer So we say whiteness is in a wall that is white because whiteness is the form which gives the wall that denomination Virtually when effects are included in their causes as the Son in his Father as the greatest Tree or fairest fruit in the little seed thereof Eminentially when the creatures are contained in the Creator which last kind is the most excellent way of any thing being contained in another because the creature is more perfect in the Creator then any effect is in the virtuall cause thereof or any form in the subject which it denominates Or then indeed the creature is in it self where we find a world of imperfections though in God there can be none at all so to be eminentially contained in a thing is a more noble and excellent way of being included then either virtually or formally to be contained is And thus now and then wee shall find the Word of God to be as it were eminentially contained in the Churches prayers because in them the Holy Ghost seems to communicate himself most like himself most spiritually of all when by the spirit of prayer he opens the sense of the letter in the holy Writ And no marvell since our Saviour left his own sacred Word to the Exposition of the Holy Ghost who was sent on purpose to teach the world all truth upon all occasions of debate about the meaning of the Text. For as Christ is the word of his eternall Father so the Scripture is the word of Christ and so the prayers of Holy Church are the word of the Holy Ghost setting an eminentiall ground of harmonious musick unto the dayly descant of the Epistles and Gospels of the day since wee see the Antiphons commonly taken thence are still prefixt before the Prayer to shew how one reports unto the other Now if in this First Tome it happens here and there that some one Sundayes work bee longer then another yet there is not any so long which may not with much ease bee read in seven dayes and studyed diligently to thence to make the benefit of reading by a little meditation upon every Verse Nor have I suffered some of those Sundayes to passe much shorter then the rest namely those in the third Part of this Tome both because that Part alone containeth almost half the Sundayes in the year as also because I did there indeed begin this work in that brief way which afterwards I did inlarge because I was loath to lose so much sweetness of devotion as the larger Exposition of the Text affords And if any part shall prove lesse pleasant then other let me beseech the Reader to consider That as in Preachers there are three signall Faculties whereof any one renders the owner excellent Namely To teach To move To delight So it is in Books for these are all well written wherein some one at least of those three faculties throughout the Book appears either that of teaching what is true and solid Doctrine That of moving to amendment of our lives or that of delighting us with a sweet delivery of what is written whether it be by the eloquence of language or by the quaintness of conceit in which the Writer doth expresse his mind it imports not much and albeit I cannot boast of happiness in any one of these three faculties yet I will hope to have taken such advantage in the contriving of this Book that what is any where wanting in me will bee supplyed by the Authority of Texts both out of Holy Writ and out of the Expositors upon the same Thus having run over the parts of the Primmer whereunto I aim to adopt the whole work of these three Tomes intended thereupon I shall now desire the Reader to take such an account as I am able to give him of the Parts of this my present Book consisting of Antiphons Versicles Responsories Prayers Epistles and Gospels as for the Illustrations and Applications they being wholly mine the little that is already said thereof above is more then enough unlesse any thing I can doe were more considerable The Explications being all of them in substance though not in words the Fathers glosse upon the holy Text have their worth and authority in themselves more then I can add unto them Onely I desire the Reader to know I rather chose Cornelius à Lapide then any other Expositor both because he hath written largely upon all the Books of Holy Writ which do occur in the Churches Service throughout the year and because his Morals are more for my pious purpose then the other more literall Glosses would have been of more speculative Authors though withall he falls not short of the literal sense where it is requisite to follow it First therefore as to the Antiphons True it is they are now and then taken from some other Part of Holy Writ then commonly they use to be As for example That on the first Sunday of Advent is out of S. Luke Cap 1. v. 30. whereas the Epistle of that dayes service is taken from S. Paul Rom. 13. And the Gospel from S. Luke cap. 21. but the reason is that in this Antiphon the Church reports to the mystery of the Incarnation which must needs precede that of our Saviours Birth so here respect unto the Time or Season hath prevailed for omitting the usuall way of ordering the Antiphons before the Prayer and for the same reason the Anthiphon also on the Third Sunday of Advent varies in this manner to being taken out of Saint Luke cap. 1. v. 41. whereas the Gospel on that day is out of S. John cap. 1. v. 19. and so the prayer is answerable thereunto Thus for respect unto the Persons praying in those dayes as now the Church would have us do The Antiphon on the fourth Sunday of Advent alludes much to the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets manner of calling upon the Messias to come away after so long an expectation of him as four thousand years together hence that Antiphon is then taken as it were out of those ancient Patriarchs mouths rather then from the Epistle or Gospel of the day and therefore it is alwayes one of the seven great Os or exclamatory prayers of the holy Prophets groaning and crying out with an impatience of delay in the Messias our B. Saviour being born And these are the onely Three Antiphons in all the year that are not taken out of the Epistles and Gospels of the Divine Service proper to their day As for the Antiphon on Palme Sunday though it be not in that Gospell wihch I have here inserted in
to us cooperating with the same what our sins retarded that is to say our own redemption was by our own sins retarded for 4000. years together the Indulgence of his propitiation may accelerate It was indeed a huge indulgence in Almighty God to make his sacred Son a propitiation for our sins and more to hasten him away for this purpose since fourty thousand years had been too short a time to have expected so much mercy as is now accelerated by the indulgence of his propitiation which would not give him leave to stay above 4000. years away And by this close of the Prayer we virtually include the whole Epistle and Gospell of the day while we beg the help of Gods Grace to accelerate unto us the benefit of the Indulgent propitiation that Christ his Birth-Day brings to every pious Christian which benefit lest our sins retard see how the Church prepares both Priest and People to a due regard against them by the counsell given to both in the Epistle and by exhorting both to be Baptistick Saints in the Gospel of the Day to be preparers of the way of Christ Angels of Men running this holy Advent before his face to sanctifie our own and our neighbours wayes unto the Crib where Christ on Christmas Day is mystically born again as often as Christians celebrate the Feast of his Nativity so saith Saint Leo in his nineth Sermon upon that Feast and the like is of all others We doe not so much recall the past as we behold the present Feast of our Saviours Birth so often as it comes about by Annuall revolution The Epistle 1 COR 4. ver 1. c. 1. SO let man esteem of us as the Ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the Mysteries of God 2. Here now is required among the dispensers that a man be found faithfull 3. But to me it is a thing of least account to be judged of you or of Mans day but I judge not my self neither 4. For I am not guilty in Conscience of any thing but I am not justified herein but he that judgeth me is our Lord. 5. Therefore judge not before the time untill our Lord doe come who also will lighten the hidden things of darkness and will manifest the counsels of the hearts and then the praise shall be to every Man of God The Explication 1. THe Apostle seemes here to bid Man esteem of him and his Associates in the Apostolate as if they were not men but Ministers of Christ for as much as they did the Offices of God by being dispensers of his Mysteries and indeed that is most true for though to be a Steward or master of a Family under any temporall Lord and to dispence and dispose of his Lords Monies and Goods be not to execute an office above man in regard all the goods and monies in the Stewards hands are temporall things and the properties of nothing above a humane creature yet to be Steward of the House of God and to have the dispensing of such goods as are Spirituall and cannot be the properties of any temporall Lord certainly this renders a man though not in nature more than Man yet by Office hugely more than an Angel for though we read of them that they are Heb. 1.14 Ministring Spirits in the House or Church of God both triumphant militant and patient yet we never read that they were stiled the dispensing spirits of Gods hidden Mysteries which yet as the Apostles were so must their suuccessours the Priests of holy Church be too and consequently are not in the execution of that Spirituall Office to be looked on or esteemed as men but as Ministers of a higher nature as persons indeed more than Angelicall since they have an Office and Power above Angels namely to forgive Sins and to dispence or dispose of Gods severall Graces by the conduit of holy Sacraments Pipes made on purpose by our Saviour Jesus Christ to convey unto our barren Souls the fertilizing waters of heavenly grace and these pipes are so put into the hands of Priests as they can turn the cock at pleasure give or retain this holy grace as they judge fit to administer a Sacrament or suspend a Sinner from the benefit thereof But we must further note the Apostle here as he speaks in generall to all Christians and bids them esteem Priests above men by reason of their office so he speaks particularly to the Corinthians in order to their main contention which was to make a difference betwixt the Dispensers of these Mysteries as if Baptism for example received from one were of more value than if they were baptized by another or as if the Ministers of Baptism were the Authors of grace and so they who received it at a more holy mans hands received more than if the conferror thereof were lesse holy to both these effects the Apostle speaks correcting the Corinthians errour in them both that is for thinking the Administrator of a Sacrament to be the Author of grace therein conferred or that grace was more abundantly conferred according as the Administrators thereof were more or lesse holy 2 This alludes to the vanity of the Corinthians who were men so curious that they judged of their Preachers as they found them more wise more grave more eloquent in their Sermons or Catechisms than others and particularly they adhered much to Apollo because they held him more eloquent than S. Paul whereas the same Apostle here tells them they must not regard in the Dispensers of Gods word the Rhetorick language or eloquence of the preachers but above all their fidelity or being faithfull that is to have them tell the true sence and meaning of Christ Jesus to have them give rather sound than flourishing doctrine least while they put too much force in words they lose the vigour of the Spirit which is and ought to be the life of a Sermon and least they seek by the Ostentation of their languages rather their own than the glory of God or preach themselves not Christ Whereas S. Paul tells them here fidelity is the principall part of a preacher that is to preach the Word of God and not the word of man to preach spirit rather than language to move the soul to Acts of love rather than the ear to delight of Eloquence 3. This Verse prosecutes the sense of the former telling them plainly he did not regard their fond judgements that esteemed men by their glib tongues rather than by their vertuous spirits for it is indeed Unction a speciall gift of the Holy Ghost that renders a Preacher most profitable to souls and so most accomplisht in his preaching whence the Apostle knowing what he said was pure spirit told them he did not regard their censures of him as if he were defective in his duty of preaching and what he sayes to them in this kinde he affirmes the like in respe of all men by his following words wherein he makes no account of
of Apostolate though they were all Preachers of the Gospel according still to this Rule of Faith kept close amongst themselves And indeed the Evangelists writ their Gospels rather upon Emergencies than upon any design or command they had from Christ so to doe but incountring with Heresies they did beat them down not onely by preaching but even by writing as since the Doctours and Fathers of the Church have done in all ages yet this difference there is betwen the Apostles and the Fathers writings that the former are more magisteriall more oracular more authoritative than the latter for however we attribute much to any one Father yet if another Father write contrary we regulate our selves then by the consent of Fathers whereas it is not so in any of the Evangelists writings or any Canonicall part of Scripture every book every chapter every sentence every word every letter thereof is sacred and of uncontrouled undoubted indeed of sacred Authority both by reason of the Authors prerogative Apostolate and of the speciall instinct they had from the Holy Ghost to write upon such occasions as to them occurred Now to our usuall gloss upon the Text In these Three first verses of the Epistle the Apostle enumerates the gifts proper to Church-men according to this rule of Faith From the ninth verse forwards he recounts what even the lay-people ought to beg of God for the embellishment or measure of Faith according to the rule thereof concerning all faithfull Believers whatsoever and though many take prophecy for a common gift bestowed as well upon the Laicks as upon Ecclesiasticall persons yet in this place the Apostle takes it strictly as appertaining to their prophetick by which is understood their preaching and teaching Function 6. For we read in holy Writ where the Ministery or Diaconate was set apart by the Apostles as hindring them from teaching and preaching and conferred on Deacons assigned specially for that purpose Non est equum It is not reason say the Apostles Acts 6. v. 2 that we leave the word of God and serve Tables Consider therefore Brethren seven men of you of good Testimony full of the Holy Ghost and wisdome whom we may appoint over this Businesse But we will be instant in prayer and the ministery of the word The like division is made 1 Tim. 3. where under the name of Bishops he includes Pastors and Preists too under the name of Deacons he includes all Church-Officers below them too So under the stile of prophecies he includes two sorts of Preists Apostles and Bishops as also Pastors and Preachers which are Priests and those that by office take care of souls and that of Deacons we shall likewise see divided anon Note here by faith is not onely understood an absolute Article of faith but a perfect understanding the sence of the divine word bee it written or delivered from the Apostles by word of mouth and this Faith is that which is recounted as a gratuit or free gift of the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. v. 9 To another is given Faith in the same spirit so he sayes here the Apostles and others had the gift of prophecie as a measure of their Faith that is to explicate the sacred word according to the rule of faith so none could use this gift to vent any their own brain-sick fictions but onely thereby to illustrate the rule of Faith left unto the Church by Iesus Christ and conserved as a sacred Tradition amongst the Apostles whilst they lived and so handed over from age to age unto the Church untill the worlds end S Ambrose will have this gift of prophecie or as the Apostle here means of Teaching to be such as renders the Preacher able to deliver high mysteries of Faith according to the measure of every true Christians capacity or understanding and indeed prophecy is here taken properly for a gift of teaching according to the exact rule of Faith even when the deepest Mysteries are agitated or the hardest places of Scripture are controverted Now by this and what we said last Sunday when the third verse of this 12th Chapter to the Romans was expounded we see the difference between the measure and the rule of Faith 7. By Ministery is here understood as above the Diaconat either as it imports the office it self or the execution thereof as shall be more at large expressed in the next verse Suffice it here to know the office is taken for an externall duty of charity and that as well corporall as spirituall whereas Doctorat or prophecie imported onely the spirituall exhibition of charity by Teaching Preaching or the like but the gift of Prophecie or Doctorate hath two branches The one is of strict solid and Magisterial doctrine according to the measure and rule of Faith a gift not imparted to every man but rarely to some few and that is here insisted upon only The other is of exhorting as followes 8. This seems a gift that allowes a liberty to the Preacher of perswading to truth by any lawfull art or meanes of Rhetorick and eloquence to draw the hearer to a content as well as a consent of what is delivered So that this exhortation is properly that which Pastours are to mix with their administration of the Sacraments and doctrinall points in their Sermons that the people may thereby be raised up as well to Acts of Love perfecting their will as to Knowledge perfecting their understanding And in this place the Apostle adviseth all men thus gifted to make use thereof according to the measure and rule of faith not to bury such their talents without profiting others thereby since here is a reduplication importing an actuall use of this Talent saying He that exhorts in exhorting let him use his talent As who should say Hee that is gifted to exhortation let him make actuall use of that gift But we are further to note in this Verse the Apostle explicates clearly the office of a Deacon or Diaconate which is Tripartite The First is that of Almes The next that of Government The third that of Hospitality for tending sick persons To the perfection of Alms he requires Simplicity such as gives purely for charity without self-interest and gives liberally upon all occasions of exigence not reserving for the future when there is a present want but confiding in Gods providence for what is to come without any sinister end such as theirs is who give alms to tempt the poor to sin But chiefly this Simplicity consists in a contradistinction against duplicity or fraud and against distinction of persons as some use to doe giving rather to one than another in equall necessity out of a partiality of respect to this body rather than to that as to an allie or acquaintance before a stranger a good or an ill natured man or the like which is against true Simplicity for God is no accepter of persons Acts 10.38 To the perfection of government the Apostle requires carefulness sollicitude and vigilance
abundance or store enough of Scripture for them to be able inwardly to abound withall and to conferre wisely thereupon with one another nay even to teach themselves if the Priest fail to doe it how to square their actions according to the Word of God the Law of Christ the instinct of the holy Ghost and the rule of his immediate substitutes the Pastours of holy Church whose preaching may be more ample but must not be to other sense than what they find delivered to be the true meaning of the holy Scriptures so shall they be ever in grace singing c. that is in thanks-giving to God for having received thus much of his holy Word expounded to them in their own native tongue and rendring him much more thanks for having left so much more of the Gospell as they have not here expounded full of the same delightfull and solid substance conducing to their Souls salvation and even this thankfulness of their hearts is the singing here mentioned for out of their abundant gratitude they will be alwayes praising God with some discourses of this nature which will sound in the ears of our heavenly Lord as so many Hymnes Psalmes and Canticles of praise unto his Divine Majesty 17. And consequently will beget in us a habit of doing as this last verse exhorteth us to doe namely directing all our words and actions to the honour and glory of God the Father Creating us God the Son Redeeming us and God the holy Ghost Sanctifying us and commanding that we remember our acquaintance with the sacred and undivided Trinity came unto us by the means of the second Person thereof wherefore in recognizance of that infinite obligation to thâ second Person which was Christ Jesus all our thoughts words and deeds all our prayers and praisings of this great God shall then be most acceptable when they fall from our lips or flow from our hands imbellished with this adorning memory of being said and done in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord which is partly a Precept and partly a Counsell and certainly it is a negative precept that is to say it forbids us now to call upon God in the name of Moses or of his Angels or of his Saints directly as in former times the Jewes did saying Let not our Lord speak to us lest we die no let Moses speak whereas now we are bound to say Let not Moses but Christ speak to us nor let the Angels or Saints be our immediate recourse but be Christ the principall refuge we have and if by Saints or Angels we help our selves be it as they are more in favour to intercede for us than our selves are but so as still by them we aim at Christ for our Assistant for our Redeemer for our Saviour so as by his not by their Merits we hope to be saved though by their intercessions rather than our own we may hope of Christ to be heard And thus from the negative precept as above we come to finde it as well a positive or affirmative command as it is a counsell to direct all our thoughts words and deeds to Christ as to our last end of those Actions which must first in his Grace have beginning This I say is an habituall precept however it may be but an actuall Counsell that is to say in generall all we think say or do must to be meritorious be virtually at least directed to God by the merits of Christ our Lord his Son But we are not under precept bound actually to make this application of all we say or doe for to this we are onely counselled and it is indeed the best counsell we can or give or take if at every thought word or deed we make attend an act of directing it to our last end our souls Salvation through the merits of Christ Jesus which God of his infinite goodnesse grant we may doe by a sweet custome of so doing not by a scrupulous perturbation of minde if we fail therein for nothing so certain as that we shall fail and then to afflict our Souls otherwise than by endeavour to mend next time is so far from Vertue that it is a very dangerous vice of scruple as if it were in our powers not to be failing men or as if God were a Tyrant and would expect under pain of Sin from us that which he onely counsels but commands not so our failings is rather Infirmities than Sins and at such we ought rather with the Apostle to glory in them than to be troubled at them 2 Cor. 12. ver 15 God forbid saith he I should glory but in my own Infirmities that is to see how in the midst of them he was still supported and assisted by the grace of God alwayes enabling him to endeavour at least to doe all things to Gods Glory as the same Apostle exhorted the Corinthians to do in his first Epistle to them chap. 10. ver 31. and as we may laudably endeavour all our life time to doe but must never be afflicted to finde our selves fail of doing it since it is rather a counsell than a precept and so to fail in this is rather infirmity than sin as I said above and which I choose to repeat because I would have it fixed in the memory of all scrupulous Souls for their comforts and their Ghostly Fathers ease whom they often tire with their needless scruples in such trifles as these for want of rightly stating the duty of a Christian to themselves The Application 1. LAst Sundayes service told us of the dangers we were in this points us out our best defence in dangers To body our selves and take up our Mansions in the Bowels of Christ Jesus for so we doe by being our selves mercifull to others as he hath been to us as if the sharpest sword against an enemy were to have pitty or mercy on him 2. Now we are bid above all to love him too for to pardon him is not enough and to be in Peace with him if we expect our selves to be members of the same Mysticall Body whereof he is a member though our enemy and since it is apparent out of this dayes Text that by Peace with one another we are united members to our common Head Christ Jesus we must by this peace exulting in our hearts defend our selves and others from the common enemy 3. Then shall we declare this Peace to be in our Hearts when the Word of God is alwayes in our mouthes when we are singing forth the praises of our Lord to shew we glory in no other Generall than Jesus Christ we need no other weapon than his holy Word no other sheild than his proteâting Grace against our greatest enemies And therefore we pray to Day as bodyed all in one Family c. The Gospel MAT. 13. ver 24. c. 24. ANother Parable he proposed unto them saying The Kingdome of Heaven is resembled to a man that sowed good seed in his field 25. But
sacred son Christ Jesus at the day of Judgement to revenge his Fathers and his own wrongs done unto them by the sins of ungratefull and mis-believing men who notwithstanding they see Christ was raised from the dead will not yet believe him to bee the Messias and Saviour of the world from which revenge or wrath those who believe in Christ Jesus are delivered that is from the damnation due to their incredulity who believe not in him or to their evill lives who though they doe rightly believe yet live not according to the rule of Faith or doe not works answerable to their belief The Application 1. AS it is huge Reason we should fly to heaven for help in humane dangers according as wee were taught last Sunday so is it very reasonable we should practise what S. Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to whilest his Lesson to them is this day read to us Namely to be mindfull of the work of our Faith c for albeit Faith elevateth Reason to believe some things that are above Reason yet it bindeth us not to doe any thing either above or against Reason and so leaves us in all our thoughts and actions to be regulated by reason 2. Hence it is great Reason that we who now profess the same Faith with the Thessalonians doe persevere with them in the works of faith such as may render us able by our exemplar lives to convert all that we converse with as wâ hear the Thessalonians did convert all those of Macedonia and of Achaia to the faith of Jesus Christ 3 Now because our actions commonly are such as our thoughts propend and lead us to it is fitting that to bee the better able to doe reason in all our actions we should admit of notâing but reason into our thoughts and meditations since we are certain whatsoever can lay claim to Reason especially such âs is elevated by Faith must needs be pleasing to almighty God According as we are taught in the Prayer above The Gospel MATTH 13. vers 31. 31. ANother Parable he proposed unto them saying The kingdome of heaven is like to mustard seed which a man tooke and sowed in his fiâld 32. Which is the least surely of all seeds but when it is grown it is greater than all hearbs and is made a Tree so that the fowls of the aire come and dwell in the branches thereof 33. Another Parable he spake to them The kingdome of heaven is like to leaven which a a woman tooke and hid in three measures of meal untill the whole was leavened 34. All these things Jesus spake in Parables to the multitudes and without parables he did not speak to them 35. That it might be fâlfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying I will open my mouth in parables I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world Psal 77. v. 2. The Explication 31. OUr Saviour it seems at this time made profession to speak nothing but Parables so after he had as we heard last Sunday told them the Parable of the cockle amongst the corn here hee likens the Church to the least of grains a mustard seed sowed in a mans field that is to say scattered over the field of this world which is truly said a mans field in regard Christ who is God and man is Lord and master of this whole Universe and all over it hath planted this mustard seed his holy Church 32. And as in very truth a mustard seed is the least of all others so the Church of Christ was when first planted or sowed the least of all communities in the word But some conceive Christ himself to bee this mustard seed on whom grew as so many birds in their nests The Apostles Popes Bishops Pastours and Saints of all sorts and of both sexes Others will have the Church to be this mustard-seed little in it self at first now spread over all the world Others contend it is the Gospel of Christ his doctrine or the word of God that at first was onely sowed like mustard seed among the Jewes but now is diffused over the whole Universe In fine it avails little which of these we take the Parable is verified in them all and indeed they are all in a manner one and the same thing for all have root in Christ and are branches of him and the Analogie holds between the mustard seed and every one of these for who lesse than Christ who was the out-cast of men What Church lesse than the Primitive Church of Christ What Doctrine avowed by weaker men than his Disciples were and so consequently what word lesse than his which was exsibilated or hissed out of the world at first when it was said to be a scandall to the Jewes and a folly to the Gentiles 1 Cor. 1.23 to preach the Gospel of his resurrection And this is speciall between the word and mustard-seed that as in this seed there is a kinde of fierie quality so is the word of God as holy David sayd Psal 119. v. 140. Thy word is exceeding fierie that is servorous and hot inflaming hearts to the love of God and whereas the Text speaks of this seed growing to a tree it is indeed so in Syria where birds really build in the boughs thereof as all the members of Christ doe upon him as was abovesaid 33. This other parable of the Church or of her doctrine being like to leaven suites exceedingly therewith for as a litle leaven gives a relish to a whole batch of bread so the least Word of God hidden in mens hearts as leaven is in meal makes them rise into professions of Christian dutie and renders all their actions savourie both to God and man By the woman is here meant the Church which is the Spouse of Christ hiding the leaven of Christian doctrine in the three measures of meal that is to say in three parts of the World whereunto Christianity was then immediately designed namely Asia Africa and Europe for America hath been discovered but an hundred years agoe and whither formerly disjoyned from some one of these other three parts of the Earth by an interjected Sea as now it is we know not But this we conceive that these other three parts seemed to have been a division of the whole Earth into all the parts thereof when Noe divided the World between his three Sons assigning Asia to Sem Afirica to Cham and Europe to Japhet and this perhaps may be the literall allusion of the three measures of meal seasoned by the leaven of the Gospel Mystically Saint Ambrose applyes this leaven to the three parts of Man his spirit his life and his body or to his three appetites rationall Irascible and concupiscible So that by vertue of Gods holy Word Saint Hierome sayes in our reason we possesse prudence in our anger we lodge a holy hatred against Sin in our desires or concupiscencies we harbour a coveting of Vertue And all this in having these naturall appetites elevated to
exaltation when Saint Peter in his Epistle tels us we that are Christians are called to suffer with Christ who gave us example by his sufferings to follow his steps even unto death for him who did vouchsafe to dye for us And is not this the full sence of the Prayer As for the Gospell if we look with a regardfull eye upon it 't is but the same sence in other words for while it runs upon the nature of a Shepheard it never comes unto the hight of his commends untill it layes him low as death to save his sheep so still it drives to that abasement which is our exaltation and drawes us sweetly on to dye for him while it gives us an example of confidence that admits no fear because there is no security but in Trust and who can we trust more safely then him that knowes no guile our Saviour Jesus Christ who rather dyes in us then we can dye for him and if he dye it is that we may live and joy eternally with him that by his resurrection conquered death Thus do the sparkes of spirit flye from every letter of the Holy Text when they are strook against the steele of this dayes Prayer and thus the high dignity of Pastorate acquires a glory from the lowest stoop the Pastor makes even that to death so in a word our highest sanctity consists in our lowest humility as this dayes Prayer Epistle and Gospel do all avouch The Epistle 1 Pet. 2. v. 21 c. 21 For unto this are you called because Christ also suffered for us leaving you an example that you may follow his steps 32 Who did no sinne neither was guile found in his mouth 23 VVho when he was reviled did not revile when he suffered he threatned not but delivered himselfe to him that Iudged him unjustly 24 VVho himselfe bare our sinnes in his body upon the Tree that dead to sins we may live to justice by whose stripes you are healed 25 For you were as sheep straying but you are converted now to the Pastor and Bishop of your soules The Explication 21. SAint Peter had before advised to bear patiently not onely just punishments inflicted on the faithfull to whom he writ dispersed as they were some here some there of Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia but also to bear injuries with the like patience saying that to this Christians were called because Christ did suffer for us most unjustly leaving us example to doe the like if need were and as there were three causes which moved God to become man this last is one of them The first was by his death to redeeme us the second by his preaching to teach us the third by his example to draw us to imitate his sanctity of life And to this last the Apostle now chiefely exhorts in this place as we see by the following verse contrary to the Hereticks Doctrine who hold it needless Christ having dyed for our sinnes that man himselfe use any mortification or doe any penance at all 22. Nor could he do any because he was God as well as man and hence Calvins Doctrine teaching Christ was a reall sinner and that he was in regard of his sins afraid to dye and did sweat bloud for fear thereof were all most abominable blasphemies because though in Christ there were two natures humane and divine yet there was in him but one person so had that person sinned God had sinned as well as man since the actions are attributed to the suppositum or person not to the natures contracted by the person but see the Apostle mindes us that Christ was not onely free from sin of fact but also of word and consequently of thought which is by word expressed nor is this marvell since out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Matt. c. 12. v. 34. but certainly God was the most abounding in Jesus his heart and so his words were all holy he being the very word of the eternall Father to whom as nothing is more proper then veracity so nothing is more improper then falsity or dissimulation fraud or guile 23 As indeed he was reviled when they called him drunkard raiser of seditions blasphemer nay conjurer or devill as casting out devils in the devils name yet did not he revile those who used him so ill nor did he recriminate as commonly men doe that excuse their own sins by casting other mens faults in their dish though in pure charity we read in Saint Matthew cap. 23. How roundly he did rebuke the Jewes to see if by a temporall check he could preserve them from eternall paines of hell which is a far other aime then those use who excuse themselves by way of recrimination of others for their end is not charity but passion or revenge and when he might have terrified the Judges that unjustly did condemne him he did not give them the least threat but gave himselfe up to the hands of Pilate his unjust judge how farre short are we of following this example whose whole indeavors are in all our actions even in those that are unjust to justifie our selves whereas if we would follow Saint Bernards counsell we should finde a remedy for all evils and injuries done unto us in the passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 24. The Apostle here assimilates Christ to the Emissary Goat in Levit. cap. 16. v. 21. Sent out into the desert loaden with all the sinnes of the people and so Christ came into the desert of this world out of his Eternall Fathers heavenly Pallace carrying all our sinnes upon his shoulders though by sins here is not understood the fact or guilt thereof but the punishment due unto them by the tree is meant the Crosse of Christ whereon while he dies hee represents us to his heavenly Father as dead to sinne because he dyes for us and for our sins whereupon Saint Ambrose sayes divinely well c. It was not our Life but our Sinne which dyed when Christ our Saviour dyed upon the Crosse So we being dead by that meanes to sinne may live to justice that is in the sight of the just Judge may deserve Eternall life in heaven for living justly here on earth O Soveraigne Stripes which bruising Christs body do cure our Soules more ulcerated with sinne then his body was with stripes 25. Straying we were indeed from God from vertue from Salvation from heaven and running to the devill to vice to damnation to hell had not Christ our Shepheard ââduced us to his fold againe by converting us to an amendment of our lives and winning us to follow the Footsteps of our heavenly Pastor and Bishop of our Soules See Bishops are metaphorically called Pastors because as shepheards feed their sheep so do Bishops by Doctrine and example feed the soules of men but Christ is eminentially called both as feeding soules not onely by grace here but with glory in the next world The Application 1. HOw sweetly Holy Church
it is distinguished from hazard fortune chance besides we are three severall times begotten first by nature or creation secondly by grace and regeneration in Baptisme remitting originall sinne thirdly by grace and pennance remitting actual sin though the Apostle here alludes only to the two last ways of our regeneration as is cleer by what followes saying we are thus begotten by the word of truth which is first understood by the second person of the Trinity becoming man to save us who were before Gods creatures but the devils children by the guilt of sinne and he is truly called the word of truth who is truth it selfe secondly the word of truth alludes to the promise of redemption made by God to Abraham through one of his seed Jesus Christ Thirdly the word of truth may allude to the Sacramentall words that are most true I Baptize I absolve thee fourthly and most literally by the word of truth is understood the word of the Gospel which is called properly the word of truth as first taught for such by Christ and afterwards confirmed for such by the Holy Ghost lastly by the word is understood the good life and doctrine of the faithfull corresponding to the word of God or Gospel of Truth for thus we are begotten also as by the word so that we may see in this generation God is our Father his grace the seed our Mother is a conformed will to the will of God her seed the consent to what our Holy Father cals unto and lastly the childe thus begotten of these Parents is our inward or supernaturall man so called from our better Parent God Almighty and yet even thus happily brought forth you see the Apostle cals us but some kinde of beginning to be creatures of Almighty God that is so his creatures as we are also his children though by this word beginning is best understood the chief principall or first fruits among men such as are to share in glory with the first created Spirits the Holy Angels as if other men that are not true Christians could not hope for this happiness and of this sort the Apostle accounts these to whom hee writes this Epistle by his creature therefore is understood onely those faithful soules who shall finally live and raigne with him in glory for all other creatures though his are not yet so excellently his as these for these are by speciall grace new creatures that is twice or thrice borne or made over such by nature or creation by grace or Baptisme by pennance and by glory 19. Know you that is to say you know enough by what I have said to you upon this subject of Christianity as above in generall termes now let me give you a lesson or two in particular let every one of you be swift or nimble to heare For as the wise man saith Prov. c. 1. v. 5. a wise man will heare and be more wise for he had observed many of them were so transported with finding they had some gifts of grace that they were alwayes boasting of them though even to the interruption of others that first had undertaken to speake of Godly things to them whence often they fell into passion and anger one with another and to all these the Apostle speakes particularly exhorting them with humility rather to heare others teach them then to undertake teaching others and not onely to heare but to follow the rules of their teachers for he onely perfectly heares the word of God who lives a life according to the doctrine he heares whence Saint Paul sayes Rom. 2. v. 13. not the hearers of the Law are just with God but the doers of the Law shall be justified we note here the Apostle relates in all this exhortation to the attaining of those vertues which he had first recommended to them in the beginning of this Epistle and in particular to wisdome which he mentioned in the fifth verse thereof so that as the property of wisedome he commends attention to what others can say slowness to speake our selves and slowness to anger and here he seemes by slowness of speech to recommend unto Preachers that quality and that they affect not loquacity but rather tardity of speech in their Sermons as more proper to imprint what they say and to edifie in the hearer for it was excellently said of Publius Mimus he knowes not how to speak that cannot hold his peace but much better of Saint Augustine Epist 132. in Psalm 139. in vaine doth he Preach the word of God to the eare who doth not himselfe heare it in his heart his meaning is let no man preach the word that hath not first heard what the Holy Ghost dictates to him upon it by way of meditation or contemplation besides Christ himselfe gave us this rule of whom we read Act 5.1 Iesus began to do and to teach to be silently a good man before he did openly Preach to perswade others to be good To conclude slowness to anger is advised as the best guard we have to stand upon because nothing so much loseth a wise man in the repute of others as choler passion and anger especially when it is frequent and therefore the Apostle not presuming it likely to be able to cut off that vice by the rootes adviseth at least that we be wary of it and not to fall unprovoked thereinto 20. By the anger of man is here understood that as God when he doth most justice in the latter day of judgement passeth that finall sentence without anger so to be here a just man one must be free from anger too but there are divers senses of this place among the expositors some will have it to meane that God to doe justice made not private mens anger the measure but the sentence of the impartiall Judge amongst men others will have it as if anger did not love but hate justice but the most genuine sense and to the Authors minde is that anger generally hinders all justice as if anger and passion did obstruct all the wayes to make a just man note Saint Thomas gives an excellent mark to know how we may be angry and not sinne when our anger followes reason and contrarywise whensoever reason followes anger there must needs be sin because anger is the chiefe agent reason but the instrument whereas in the former way anger is the instrumentall and reason the principall worker so by the anger of man is here understood the anger of the naturall man for if it be of the supernaturall it may be such as Christ and his Holy Saints had when they were angry at sinne and yet meeke to the sinners 21. Many refer this verse onely to the last thing spoken of anger as who should say since anger doth not produce justice it must needs worke the contrary effect namely all injustice amongst which is uncleanness and malice but yet this verse shall be much better referred to all that was said before verse v. 18. of
Illumination of his holy Spirit and was to make the often dead letter of that word to be the life of our Souls for so it must needs be when it brings us that peace which it promiseth namely another manner of peace then the world giveth which is alwayes mixed with war for whoever relisheth what is right hath a true peace within his conscience and so is at no variance or war at all In a word the Gospel being out of the story of our Saviours Life tells us the effect of this fact the fruit we shall receive by the coming of the Holy Ghost by relishing those things that are right and by rejoycing in the consolation of this holy Spirit that comes to read lessons of Divine Love unto our hearts and to wean us from the humane affections we have unto creatures and consequently this Gospel wants no adjusting to the Epistle and Prayer of this solemn day but makes good still our main design in this book The Epistle Acts 2.1 c. 1 And when the dayes of Pentecost were accomplished they were all together in one place 2 And suddenly there was made a sound from heaven as of a vehement wind coming and it filled the whole house where they were sitting 3 And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire and it sate upon every one of them 4 And they were all replenished with the Holy Ghost and they began to speak with divers tongues according as the holy Ghost gave them to speak 5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jewes devout men of every nation under heaven 6 And when this voyce was made the multitude came together and was astonied in mind because every man heard them speak in his own Tongue 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled saying Are not loe all these that speak Galilaeans 8 And how have we heard each man our own tongue wherein we were born 9 Parthians and Medians and Elamites and that inhabite Mesopotamia Jewrie and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia Aegypt and the parts of Lybia that is about Cyrenee and strangers of Rome 11 Jewes also and Proselytes Cretensians and Arabians we have heard them speak in our own tongues the great works of God The Explication 1. THat is to say Fifty dayes after the Resurrection for as the Christian Pasche is a fulfilling that Feast of the Jews which was a figure thereof so likewise the Christian Pentecost is a fulfilling of the like figure of the Jewish Pentecost or of the delivery of the Law upon Mount Sinai by the like confirmation of the Christian Law upon the Mount Sion when the holy Ghost descended purposely for that end But as the Jewish Pasche was on Saturday which was their Sabbath so was the seventh Saturday after their Pentecost and the Christian Pasche being the day after which was Sunday makes the seventh Sunday following to be the Christian Pentecost both to shew Christ did abrogate the Jewish Sabbath by rising on Sunday and the Jewish Pentecost by sending the holy Ghost the seventh Sunday after which proves that the Christian Religion as it was successive to the Jewish so it did abrogate the same By those that were here in the place of the last Supper assembled we are not to understand onely the Twelve Apostles but also the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the rest of the Disciples and friends of Christ then in Jerusalem to the number of about one hundred and twenty as S. Luke recounts and S. Augustine gives a very pious reason for this number saying What Christ did promise onely to his twelve Apostles he performs into a ten-fold multiplyed number for ten times twelve make just one hundred and twenty so Christ to shew his liberality made his promise good ten times over and indeed it is usuall in Almighty God to better the expectation of his creatures 2. The mystery of this noise or sound was that thereby the Jews might come together out of curiosity to see what the matter was when they heard a sudden clap like thunder just over the place where the Apostles were assembled and likewise to raise up the hearts of those within the place to heaven expecting hereupon something of consequence to follow it was sudden for two reasons First to shew it to be a voluntary and free gift of grace such as could not be merited by any our previous preparation thereunto Secondly to shew the efficacy of that holy grace working to all purposes in an instant as we see it did in S. Paul and S. Mary Magdalene both instantaneously converted from notorious sinners and made eminent Saints whence S. Ambrose sayes truly commenting upon the first of S. Luke The grace of the holy Ghost brooks no delayings This sudden sound came from heaven to shew that as Gods throne was there so he came by his holy grace to call and to carry the Apostles and all good Christians thither it came like a huge high wind to shew the effects it was to have when the voices of those it sell upon were heard all the world over from one end to the other as was prophetically foretold by holy David Psal 18. Now we are to note the holy Ghost hath appeared severall times in severall wayes as first like a Pigeon or Dove upon Christ baptized to shew the columbine simplicity of grace and good works next like a Cloud in the Transfiguration to shew the fertility of Christian Doctrine falling like a fruitfull rain upon the barren souls of men and covering them from the nocive sinne of lustfull desires Thirdly like a Breath to shew the manner of Christian conversion was to be by aspiration or breathing of the holy Ghost upon our hearts and giving us thence a spirituall life and this was when at the last Supper Christ breathing upon his Apostles said Receive ye the holy Ghost to remission of sinnes Joh. 20.22 Fourthly as here both like fire and wind the first to shew the holy Ghost did inflame the hearts of men to the love of God and burn up in them all the stubble of their terrene affections the last to shew the efficacy that the Apostles preaching should have to convert all the world and like a whirl-wind blow down the resistance of Princes and Potentates as so many Towers standing in their way and also blow all infidelity all heresie all sects and schisms quite away as so much chaff and drosse in respect of solid doctrine not that there was a reall wind but yet a reall sound or rather an effect as of a reall wind for had the wind been reall being so great it had overthrown the house and done mischief to those within and indeed the Text saith it was a noise like the coming of a high winde nor was it marvell God could produce a sound without a winde for as the fiery tongues were not reall tongues but onely similitudes thereof so was this noise no reall wind but onely a likenesse of it
The whole house was filled with this noise to shew all their hearts who were within should be filled with the Holy Ghost for thus the Text affirms immediately saying vers 4. and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost Note it is said they were Sitting both to shew the rest and quiet Gods holy Spirit bringeth with it and to shew that prayer of expectation and such this was is perhaps best when it is performed sitting thus S. Bernard a great Saint was noted to proceed in his deepest meditations 3. By parted tongues is here understood tongues divided amongst many not in themselues as commonly Painters make them thinking thereby to expresse the activity of fire rising up in many-pointed flames but the reasons why the Holy Ghost would have the forme of a tongue to declare his coming are many First because the Apostles were by this coming confirmed to be the Preachers of the Gospel and the proper instrument of a Preacher is his tongue So the gift of tongues was first expressed by the species of a tongue where we are to note this gift includes three properties the first the knowledge of languages the next the true signification of the words of different languages the third a volubility of tongue adapted to the several articulations requisite to several Languages and consequently a prudence to use all these in a right way The second reason is because a tongue hath a great affinity with a word as therefore the Holy Ghost was the Spirit of the VVord so he came in the species of a Tongue and as by the word of the mind is produced the voyce of the tongue so from the Divine word did proceed the Holy Ghost whence the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. vers 3. sayes no man can say Jesus but in the Holy Ghost The third as the tongue distinguisheth tastes so doth the Holy Ghost truths from falshoods heavenly from earthly things insomuch that St Paul tells us The Animal man doth not perceive the things of the Spirit 1 Cor. 4. Lastly because the tongue is both the best and worst instrument of man Proverb 12. Death and life are in the hand of the Tongue Prov. 16. It is in man to prepare his heart but the government of the tongue is from our Lord wherefore there was great reason to have the gift of the Holy Ghost to tame rule and sanctifie the tongues of men As for the tongues themselves whether they were true fire or true tongues is questioned yet resolved best that they were not truly fire but only fiery forms like unto tongues as some ayr condensed and made into that form and illuminated so as to seem fire but not to burn because it was to set upon the heads of those it fell upon Of their pyramidal form we give many reasons First to shew the Spirit of God only penetrates all deep and hard mysteries Secondly to shew it penetrated the very hearts of those it fell upon and made them cordially love Almighty God Thirdly it made them aspire from earth as high as heaven Fourthly that the very tongues of those who had this gift should penetrate the hearts of men to their conversion Lastly to shew it should give them the discretion of spirits that had this gift to distinguish betwixt good and bad inspirations in themselves or in those they were to direct spiritually And these tongues were rather fiery then of any other kind to shew God is all a flame of Love as Deut. 4.24 Thy God O Israel is a consuming fire And therefore as the Law of Moyses shewing Gods Will was given with the Circumstances of Thunder and Lightening so the Law of Christ now was to be confirmed by the holy Ghost with like signes to shew it was the Will of the same God abrogating the former and constituting this new Law Secondly as all the old Prophets were authorized by circumstance of fire Isaias his lips being touched with a coal of fire became as we read Chap. 6 ver 6. like fire and his words seemed all fiery too and Elias being carried up in a fiery Chariot into heaven 4 Reg. 2.11 and of Hieremias it is said from above he sent fire into mens bones and thereby instructed them Thren 2. v. 13. and Ezechiel foretelling of Christ his Chariot supported by four Cherubims of whom he sayes Chap. 1. v. 13. Their looks were like fire coales all which were but types of the more univocal fire that did accompany the election confirmation and conversation of the Apostles true Prophets of the new law foretellers of heavenly things Thirdly to shew Christ his law was a law of love of charity of coelestiall fire Fourthly to shew the effect of this love was to produce the fire of love divine in all Christian souls Fifthly to shew the spirit of God was searching as fire the most subtle worker and penetratour that is in nature The reason why these fiery tongues were said to sit in the singular number not plurall upon the Apostles was to shew that though the tongues were and must be many for each to have one yet the Spirit giving them was one and not many namely one onely God And this Spirit was rather expressed setting then otherwise to shew the constancy of Gods holy grace and gifts in those he pleaseth to bestow his speciall favours on and their ease and rest in the possession of that Spirit as also that the holy Ghost was to rest in the hearts of the Faithfull to the worlds end 4. They were all replenished whereas before they had received the grace of God now they had the plenitude thereof not all alike but some more some lesse according as was requisite to their callings No marvell then if the Apostles being full of grace and the gift of tongues they could not contain themselves but say The Things which we have seen and heard we cannot but speak nay so much they spake that some believed they were drunk with new wine and so it was indeed with the wine of the heavenly grape the holy Ghost not otherwise and as they were inforced to speak the praises of God by the irrefragable impulse of this holy Spirit so they spake to all purposes that is to the capacity and understandings of all hearers of what nation soever for they spake all kind of languages or tongues which some will understand as if each Apostle speaking a severall language among them all they had all languages others conceive that they speaking onely in their own Syro-Hebraean tongue all the several nations understood them as if their languages had been various as in this manner S. Vincentius Ferrerius preaching in Spanish was understood by severall nations as Italians French Flemish English c. each conceiving they heard him in their native tongue grounded in these words following v. 11. We hear them speaking in our tongues But the true sense is they did really and truly speak upon occasion all languages by the gift
Fishermen knowing and learned Doctours Teachers in fine to all the World convincers and confounders of all humane Learning that stood in opposition to their doctrine Divine and all this in an instant without learning any other Lesson then to dilate to open the affections of their Hearts unto the Holy Ghost where by the Illustration of his holy Grace he reads unto them in a moment all Divinity by onely teaching them the Art of Divine Love by onely giving them indeed the grace to love God only and what is lovely in the eyes of his heavenly Majesty Stay beloved if this be all why may not we hope once a year at least to learn as good a lesson 'T is but renewing every year as on this blessed Day the solemn vowes we made in Holy Baptisme 't is but reiterating now those good purposes we make some times of the amendment of our lives 't is but dilating and opening our hearts to this holy Spirit and begging of him that he will there work in us what we cannot work our selves the new creation of a new Will in us by our renunciation of the old and this by the Illustration of his holy Grace which alone is able to light and lead us up to heaven which alone is able to teach us all Truth and afford us all the comfort that our Hearts can wish The Holy Church would otherwise surely pray to day for some thing else which yet she doth not in the Prayer above The Gospel JOHN 14. v. 23 c. 23 Jesus answered and said unto them If any love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make abode with him 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my words And the word which you heard is not mine but his that sent me the Fathers 25 These things have I spoken to you abiding with you 26 But the Paraclete the holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and suggest unto you all things whatsoever I shall say unto you 27 Peace I leave to you my peace I give to you not as the world giveth do I give to you Let not your heart be troubled nor fear 28 You have heard that I said to you I go and I come to you If you loved me you would be glad verily that I go to the Father because the Father is greater then I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to passe that when it shall come to passe you may believe 30 Now I will not speak many things to you For the Prince of this world cometh and in me he hath not any thing 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father hath given me commandement so do I. Arise let us go hence The Explication 23. THis answer of our Saviour was to the interrogatory of the Apostle Judas Thaddaeus the brother to St. James the lesser demanding ver 22. why Christ was pleased to manifest himself to the Apostles onely and not to the whole world because he said to them The world doth not see me but ye see me which though spoken in the present tense was meant in the future alluding to what the Apostles did after see in him namely his Passion Death Resurrection and Ascension And the reason why he did manifest himself to them and not to the world was as St. Austin observes because they did love him but the world did not so and this I premise to shew that what followes here alludes to this as to the effects which the love of God procures in those that do truly love him as this Gospel begins to day with an effect of love keeping Gods commandements which taken as here it lyes in this Gospel is rather an absolute assertion then a relative answer to a question and yet in truth it was the answer that Christ gave to the question of St. Jude as above in the immediate verse before whereunto Jesus answers saying If any love me he will keep my word as who should say as I loving my Father keep his command of coming into this world to manifest his glory to you that love him and by you to all the world though not immediately to them all as I mean to do to you So do not think that after my Resurrection when the Holy Ghost shall come down and inflame the hearts of many Infidels and Gentiles with the love of God that then I shall onely manifest my self to you alone that are my Apostles and now are onely those that love me no no then I shall be so manifested to others that they will love me as you do and this shall be the testimony that I give you thereof that their love shall be such as by vertue thereof they will keep my Commands my words will be to them dear as now they are to you and as you receiving the holy Ghost receive with him both my Self and my Father for we three are all one inseparable Substance or Essence however distinct and several Persons just so shall the whole Blessed and undivided Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost enter into the hearts of all that love me and keep my Commandments or my word and consequently to them as well as to you shall I be then manifested And in this sense you see this verse is an exact answer to the question of S. Jude which otherwise seems a meer disparate or an incongruous reply to that interrogatory And from hence we may perceive how hard it is to understand the true sense of almost any part of holy Writ unlesse we see clearly the connexion it hath to precedent or consequent parts thereof so what S. Jude meant of his personal or visible manifestation to these few onely that were eye-witnesses of his Actions he means of his spiritual or invisible beeing made known to all the world by his Faith and doctrine received and embraced amongst them through the preaching of the Apostles and their Successours But we must note that coming or going of God who is at all times in all places by reason of his immensity is not to be understood as if he did come or go from one place to another but he therefore is said to come or go because he operates or operates not at all times or in all places alike for his operation is his coming and so every new inspiration of grace we have is as if God made a new visite unto us within the temple of our soules where he delights to be and though he be never separated from us locally since he fills all place yet he is said to come a new into our hearts every time we produce or exercise a new act of love unto him and if we continue one Act all our lives then he doth all that time operate within us and so consequently is said not only to come unto us but even to live with us to
dwell indeed within us which happinesse we cannot receive from any one single Person of the Blessed Trinity but we must own it to them All three since where one Person is of necessity there all the three Divine Persons are also be it by presence or by operation 24. Here we see clearly the cause of our well doing or keeping Gods commands is our loving God and consequently the cause of our not doing well is our not loving him to which purpose St. Gregory hom 30. sayes excellently well To know whether we love God or not ask our Tongues if they speak well of him ask our souls if they imploy their thoughts upon him ask our lives if our actions be directed to his honour and glory if they be doing what he hath commanded or avoiding what he hath forbidden When he sayes The word he speaks is not his the meaning is 't is not onely his but also his Fathers because himself is the word of his Father and consequently as his nature is common with him and his Father so is his operation too wherefore what he sayes to us his Father sayes to him because all he is himself is to be his Fathers word 25. These things have I spoken to you abiding with you while I was with you I told you these things not that they abide by you or that you understand them but it sufficeth for the present I tell them to you though you understand them not you will penetrate these and much more when the holy Ghost shall telling you the same confirm you that he and I are both one God one Spirit one Goodnesse one Truth 26. It may seem strange here that Christ sayes his Father shall send the Holy Ghost to them in his name whereas Chap. 15. the same Evangelist tells us that he said he would send them the same holy Spirit himself in his Fathers name but the very truth is these two seeming several speeches are both to one and the same purpose for as the Holy Ghost doth proceed both from the Father and the Son one coequal Spirit and God with them both so is he equally sent by them both whence these are not contradicting but cohering Truths telling at several times what is most certain true But there are divers senses of these words in my name as first the Father is said to send the Holy Ghost in his Sons name as by the Sons means whose spiration as it is joyntly concurring with the Fathers to the procession of the Holy Ghost so by him joyntly with him the Father sends the Holy Ghost unto us Secondly in his name imports in vertue of his merits deserving for us the happinesse of this comfortable mission or missive comforter Thirdly in his name is as much as to say in his place to supply his visible presence by an invisible comfort equal thereunto that he may finish the work of humane salvation which Christ began and hence it followes he shall teach you all things namely to understand what Jesus told you and what he will have you further to know for establishing his Church over all the world and he shall suggest and prompt to you all things whatsoever I shall say This place is liable to several senses as whether the holy Spirit shall suggest more unto them for government of the Church then Christ told them because he spake much which they could not then understand or whether his suggestion shall onely be an exposition of what they heard before and were not able to penetrate the bottome of it but truly the last sense seemes most genuine because of that which followes namely his suggesting what Christ shall say what he hath unintelligibly already said and shall afterwards intelligibly by the Holy Ghost say unto them yet this sense may be verified though we do not take suggestion to be as a help to understanding but to memory as generally the Expositours conceive of it as if the suggestion of the holy Ghost were a renewing the memory of the Apostles towards calling to mind and upon recalling better understanding the meaning of what Christ had said then they did when they heard him speak what was now revived in their memory by the prompting or suggestion of the Holy Ghost But since in other places the Expositours have declared Christ did not tell the Apostles all that which he meant they should do by the instinct of the Holy Gbost especially for framing and maintaining the Hierarchy of the Church nor for expounding the mysteries of Faith therefore if we take here this suggestion in a larger sense then generally Expositours do we shall not erre as if we extend it to the holy Ghost prompting unto them what our Saviour shall say to him and by him to them now that he is in heaven for as Christ sayes his doctrine is not his own but his heavenly Fathers so it is certain the suggestions of the holy Ghost are not his own but Christ his doctrine whether delivered before by himself and so renewed in the memory of the Apostles by the holy Ghost as all Expositours allow or whether now onely spoken immediately to the Holy Ghost by Christ and by mediation of that holy Spirit to us for assuredly there are many things especially concerning government of the holy Church suggested by the Holy Ghost to the now present Governours thereof which were not spoken by Christ to his Apostles 27. By Christ his peace is here meant that which St. Paul Philip. 4. told us did exceed all humane sense and this he calls his so peculiarly as indeed it can be properly no bodies else but his own since he hath purchased it for us by his having ended all our war with sin death and the devil all such war as can indanger us if our selves be not cowards and cease to fight for this assurance we have as long as we fight we conquer and in conquering possesse that peace which by the Battel of temptation the devill sought to wrest away from us that sweetnesse that tranquillity of soul which a good conscience bringeth with it at all times and to all persons whatsoever This is the peace Christ gave and this he gives not as the world gives peace which is rather perturbation for the more we have of worldly peace and ease the lesse we have of true tranquillity of mind which is then most perfect when we are most at strife with the world and other enemies to Christian peace St. Augustine hath an excellent saying to this purpose He cannot be at peace with Christ who hath any contention with a Christian who is a member of him But the most genuine sense of this place is that he gave the Apostles his own peace immunity from all sin which onely can be the breach of peace with God And therefore he closed this verse with these words let not your heart be troubled at my going from you the presence of my peace shall supply for the absence of my
For as the Act of separated souls is necessarily unalterable like those of Angels so the last Act they had when they were united to their bodies remains eternally and is not unproperly said to be the same Act continued for all eternity and therefore free for ever because at first freely produced when the soul was in state of a viatour and out of that issued into the better state of an impatriated spirit nay though Purgatory intervene yet that remora alters not the nature or freedome of the Act because soules there retain their love to God wherewith they dyed however they suffer for former infirmities of their life past The Application 1. WHat may be to our special and present use in this Gospel is to observe that Holy Church culls it out as the most proper to the now flowing Feast of Pentecost though spoken by our Saviour to his Disciples before his Passion as appears ver 29. above but with intention they should then make memory and use thereof when they had received the holy Ghost as consequently we must do at the celebrating this Festivity The main scope of this Gospel is exhorting us to believe and love and telling us the sign of true love is to keep the word of God and that the effect of this love will be to draw down into our soules the Holy Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost as delighting to live in the hearts of those who love the Son of God and shew their love by keeping his holy word 2. But here is a special stile observable in this Gospel very profitable to be reflected on which is that our Saviour seems here only to relate or speak as v. 25. 26. and to leave it to the Holy Ghost to suggest and teach the true meaning of what he said as if it were a speech too profound for his Disciples to dive into without the help of the holy Ghost If then our B. Lord the wisdome of his eternal Father and consequently the best spokes-man in the world would not what ere he could speak so plain to his Apostles themselves as to be understood by them before the coming of the holy Ghost to explicate his meaning how absurdly shall it be done in those that are ignorant Lay-men to dare to understand or interpret holy writ 3. Hence we must infer that we are bound in the first place to believe the holy Ghost to be coequal God with the Father and the Son who sent him since none but God can be of Gods counsel and tell men the meaning of Gods holy word Again we must infer that it is the love of God who now must teach âs the meaning of Gods holy word and that they are our Wills our Hearts which now must be instructed more then our understandings for these the wisdome of God our Saviour taught by the sight of Faith those the love of God the holy Ghost now teacheth by the fire of charity so that however Faith Rectifies yet it is charity must saintifie the soul how ever Christ Redeemed us yet he was pleased to send the holy Ghost to save us by his sayntifying grace and alas what had it availed us once to have been by God the Father Created once to have been by God the Son Redeemed if we were not more then once by God the holy Ghost sayntified as oft indeed as by sin we are made uncapable of the benefits of our Creation or Redemption Come therefore Holy Ghost come teaching come inamouring come comforting come sayntifying come saving Spirit into the open hearts thou hast of Christians ready to receive thee ready to be inkindled with the flames of thy most holy Love And Praying to day as above most fitly to the sense of this Holy Text. On Trinity Sunday THis Sunday is both the Octave of Pentecost and also the First Sunday after it therefore this week we have the Epistles Gospels and Prayers of two Sundayes for our entertainment and these both if I mistake not the most delightfull of any in the whole year The Antiphon Matth. 28. v. 19. THee God the Father unbegotten thee onely begotten Son thee Holy Ghost Comforter thee holy and undivided Trinity with all our heart and mouth we Confesse we Praise thee we Blesse thee to thee be Glory world without end Vers Blessed art thou O Lord in the firmament of heaven Resp Both praise-worthy and glorious for ever The Prayer ALmighty Everlasting God who hast granted to thy servants in confession of the true Faith to acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity and in the power of Majesty to adore unity we beseech thee heartily that in the firmnesse of the same Faith we may ever be defended from all adversity The Illustration NOw the mysteries of our Redemption are compleat by the contribution of all the Three divine persons of the Blessed Trinity thereunto as of the Father sending his only Son to dye for us of the Son coming and actually dying for our sins and of the holy Ghost descending and sanctifying us with his holy grace to make us sin no more it is most necessary we should close up the said mysteries with a peculiar feast of the same Blessed Trinity and so put a glorious crown upon the work of our Redemption while we begin to work out our salvation from the first root thereof which is our Faith in the most Blessed and undivided Trinity a mystery so unheard of before Christ had taught it to the world that even to this day it is the hardest thing which can be told to men and the thing which the blessed Angels that behold it do not comprehend how the Divine Nature can be personally Trine which neverthelesse is essentially but One. In admiration whereof St. Paul in this dayes Epistle breaks out into a Triple Trinity of his expressing this Triunity saying O depth of the Riches of the wisdome and of the knowledge of God! Loe the first Who ever knew the sense of our Lord or who was ever of his Counsel or who gave first unto him and it shall be restored again Loe the second For of God by God and in God are all things Loe the last of his Triple expressions alluding all of them to the Blessed Trinity as by the Expositours of this Epistle we shall find and consequently must acknowledge it to be included in the Prayer above As also the Gospel is expressing how our B. Lord sent his mission of Apostles with commission to Baptize and teach all the world the mystery of this Blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost So we have this day the best of harmonies in the mystical musick of this book while we find all three parts of holy Churches service to day so neatly woven into one the Epistle Gospel and Prayer all singing forth the praises of the most Blessed and undivided Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost three Divine Persons and one onely God Hitherto the mysteries of our Redemption were all upon
shield before her against all Adversity whatsoever to be firm in her belief of the most Blessed and undivided Trinity Say then the Prayer above and see how well it suits unto this doctrine thereupon The Gospel Matth. 28. v. 18. c. 18 And Jesus coming neer spake to them saying All power is given to me in heaven and earth 19 Going therefore teach ye all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and behold I am with you all dayes even to the consummation of the world The Explication 18. THe Evangelist in this Chapter recounts the apparition of Jesus in Galilee to a great number of Disciples and friends as well as unto the Apostles amongst them who were now so far fled from Jerusalem where formerly they had seen him after he arose from his grave and so confirmed them in the truth of this mystery that though in the precedent verse St. Matthew sayes some of them doubted of this truth that Christ was risen yet the meaning is not that any of the Apostles doubted thereof but some others to whom Christ had never appeared before as now he did to confirm the truth of his resurrection And Jesus coming neer not to those doubting persons but to his Apostles saying as this dayes Gospel begins All power c. But we are to observe though S. Matthew seems in this chapter to conjoyn the power of Mission given by Christ to his Apostles unto this story of his Apparition to them and above three thousand more in Galilee since he resolved to end his Gospel in this eight and twentieth chapter and write no more yet the very truth is those words were not spoken by Christ consequently to this apparition but afterwards upon the Mount Olivet when at his Ascension he gave the Apostles Mission over all the world for his valediction or last farewell unto them and in testimony that this was an Act of high Jurisdiction he tells them at the same time All power is given unto him both in heaven and earth so they need not doubt but he that gave them this Mission to all Nations this commission to preach unto them and to Baptize them had ample authority for his so doing and would by his grace from heaven second their labours over all the earth and make them fruitful to the final salvation of all Nations which was a convincing testimony of his being plenipotentiary between God and man or having plenitude of power both in heaven and earth But we are further here to note that this plenitude of power was not now so given to Christ as if he had not had it before for the Word was no sooner Incarnate then this power was begun in him though he was not pleased to mention the accomplishment or perfection thereof untill by his death and passion he had merited the same and therefore suiting to him not onely as he was God but as he was man the Messias or Saviour of the world and to him alone for to no man else was the amplitude of this power competent nay the very participation thereof is above all merit of any pure humane creature however to Christ the fulnesse of it was but due by reason of his being one person with God who as Creatour of heaven and earth had consequently full power over them both so as he could by the Ministery of his Apostles preaching subject unto himself all the Nations of the earth as stooping to the power of his Faith and Doctrine and afterwards in heaven reward this their Faith this their subjection to Christian discipline with crowns of eternal glory to shew he was chief commandant in heaven also having purchased the same by his bitter death and passion and so being able to make eternally happy in this his glorious Kingdom whosoever he pleased 19. We are here to observe when Christ bids go it is not nay it cannot be in the power of any mortal man to forbid the Ministers of Christ from going to convert nations So this Mission is Divine not humane and gives Commission to execute Gods Lawes maugre all mens prohibitions Go saith he to shew us labour pains travel diligence are the marks of those who preach the word of God nor is this labour limited to any one time or place but extends it self to all times to all nations Go sayes our Saviour teach all nations nay he adds therefore go that is to say Go because I send you that have all power both in heaven and earth go teach ye all nations as I have taught you Whence it followes the command of learning was imposed upon the people while the precept of teaching was laid upon the Apostles and their successours for in these latter it is indeed that Christ after said he would be with them unto the end of the world that is in assisting their Successours he would be with them And very great reason it is that an obligation of hearing should fall upon the people when a command of preaching was imposed on the Priest for a Schollar is acorrelative to a Master as a Son is to a Father since no man can be an actual master unless he have an actual Schollar nor can any man be a father that hath not a child And that it was a command given with an obligation to be put in present execution see how Christ tyes himself to an actual assistance thereof even to the worlds end And as he bids them go and teach all nations the principles of Christian doctrine namely those of the Catholick Church so he bids them Baptize all those whom they instruct and teach in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost to shew them the true mark of a Christian is his belief in the Blessed Trinity which is one onely God and three Divine Persons distinct each from other called Father Son and holy Ghost Nor can there be indeed a more succinct method of this deep mystery then is here expressed when the command of Baptizing in the name and not in the names shewes the unity of God and denyes the plurality of Divine nature or essence and yet the specifying of the Father Son and Holy Ghost shewes the Blessed Trinity which is in that sacred unity Whence we see the word Trinity doth import a Triunity or an Unity of nature in a Trinity of persons whence our Saviour saying by the mouth of his Apostle 1 Epist Joh. c. 5. There are three that bear testimony in heaven the Father the Son and Holy Ghost adds immediately and these Three are all one that is to say these distinct persons are one indistinct and undivided nature essence deity so as though there be three divine persons yet is there but one onely God And no marvel if upon Trinity Sunday both the Epistle and Gospel report unto this sacred mystery for it
to take away all hurtfull things and grant them all availing ones to their salvation but especially this most availing of all the rest to send them true Prophets good and holy Priests such as may teach them as well by the exemplarity of their lives as by the veritie and soliditie of their Doctrine for as the Text commands us to beware of others so the Prayer by consequence must beg for these On the eighth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Luk. 16. v. 3. WHat shall I doe for that my Lord taketh from me the Bailiff-ship To dig I am not able to beg I am ashamed I know what I will do that when I shall be removed from the Bailiff-ship they may receive me into their houses Vers Let my Prayer O Lord c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee propitiously the spirit of thinking alwayes and of doing what is right that as we cannot be without thee so we may live unto thee The Illustration O Beloved what an excellent Prayer is this How deep how sweet how alone able to save us if said with the same spirit that taught it and if performed as well as âaid For if we neither think nor do amisse how can we ever sin and consequently how fail of being saved Again if we onely subsist by the preservation of Almighty God as is most true how can we presume to live unto our selves and not unto him As therefore our beeing is purely and onely by him so ought our living to be purely and onely to him not as it is God help us to our selves as if we had been our own makers or could for the least minute preserve our selves how daring so ever our comportment is as though we were our own and not God Almighties creatures Idolizing dayly to our selves sinning hourely and provoking God to undo his own handy work by damning not annihilating of us were not his mercy above our malice which malice onely can attempt our annihilation I need say no more of the excellency of this Prayer for whilest I strive to amplifie it by other words I do contract it rather then inlarge it which is more patheticall and significant in the short method it observes then any ampliation even by the tongues or pens of Angels can make it and shewes us That as God is but one simple essence in himself yet contains within him all the variety that is possible in infinite millions of creatures or worlds indeed so he can if he please contract into one word the sense and meaning of all the languages of the world and truly much is contracted in this Prayer above I shall therefore say no more in commends of it but onely shew how rarely well it suites with the Epistle and Gospell following how as it were eminentially it contains them both the former in begging first the spirit of alwayes thinking and doing right that so we may be and live to God as the Epistle adviâeth which you see quits us of all obligation to our selves and ties us up to the duty of a spirituall life and of a corporall death both which are petitioned in the Prayer the latter in shewing us how to prevent the danger of such like cheats to our Lord and Master which the Gospell mentions by prepossessing our thoughts with a right addresse of them to our masters pleasure and profit and consequently by preventing our actions towards him to be unjust when we acknowledge we cannot be at all but such creatures as he makes us and thence we can have no hope to be preserved by him in a wicked being which he never gave us nor can we expect he should preserve us in it so the Prayer concludes begging we may live onely to him who onely is the authour of our being The Epistle Rom. 8. v. 12. c. 12 Therefore Brethren we are debtours not to the flesh to live according to the flesh 13 For if you live according to the flesh you shall die but if by the spirit you mortifie the deeds of the flesh you shall live 14 For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God 15 For you have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear but you have received the spirit of adoption of sonnes wherein we cry Abba Father 16 For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God 17 And if sonnes heirs also heirs truly of God and coheirs of Christ The Explication 12. THis therefore is S. Paul's inference or conclusion upon the premises wherein he had said we were by Baptisme regenerate born again not of flesh and bloud but of Christ in whom the Baptized must live as he did in spirit not in flesh and so consequently are no longer debtours to flesh but to spirit and must no longer live to the flesh but to the spirit 13. By the spirit is here understood Christ and his grace not our own soules for though our bodies live by our souls yet our soules must live by Christ who is their life and we must by conformity to his will mortifie both our own bodies and soules too if we will live spiritually in and by him we must dye to concupiscence and inordinate desires for till then they are not mortified but live in us and we by them live fleshly not spiritually 14. To be led by the Spirit signifies that Christ should act in us not onely we in our selves and then we are true Sons of God when we are led by him by his holy Spirit who is our life as he was S. Paul's when the Apostle said Gal. 2.20 he lived now not he but Christ in him But here S. Austin playes prettily upon the word acting We must saith he act our selves and yet let our action be from him rather then from us for then we act well when he makes us act when our action is radicated in him and squared to his holy will So here to be led argues the impulse of his holy Spirit and the voluntary cooperation of our action too for then saith S. Austin we are led by his Spirit when we do as we ought to do 15. The spirit of servitude or servile fear was that which God led the Jewes withal fear of temporal punishments but we are led by a better spirit that of love and so must serve God for love of him rather then for fear of hell and as his adopted children rather then servants so much nobler is our condition then that of the Jewes And this spirit of adoption is no lesse then the holy Ghost himself communicated unto us as v. 6. was said on Sunday within the Octaves of Nativity For as God gave his own Deity to Christ when he made Christ the Son of God so the holy Ghost gives us himself to make us also the Sons of God by adoption in virtue of our Saviours Passion whence we have the priviledge
mercy may be multiplied upon us more often then wâ do multiply our sinnes because it is by the multiplication of that mercy we obtain first grace to repent and then capacity to be pardoned and pittied too as if pardon alone were not enough without God also took pitty on us and did as well by his pitty âxcuse as by his pardon forgive our sins For certainly should not God pitty our frailty he could never so often pardon our iniquity nor multiply as he doth his mercy upon us to prevent our sinning as if yet our ill natures could be overcome by his goodnesse and made to offend so great so good a God no more whereunto there is nothing so much conducing as the multip ied mercy that we beg to day to the end we may at last leave to grasp after the shadowes of comfort we aim at by following our own dictamens and may learn to run after the substance of God Almighties promises and thereby may deserve to be made partakers of his heavenly treasures which are promised to all that will for love of them renounce the empty shadowes of riches which this world affords But it remaines this prayer must suite as well to the other seâvice of the day as this glosse is suitable to the Prayer In brief therefore see the Epistle all upon graces gratis given while the prayer begs that pardon and pitty which we could never hope for did not God give them gratis and multiply his mercies upon us by the gratuite gift thereof See again the Gospel making the pardon and pitty extended to the Publicane more ultroneous and free by Gods having multiplyed his mercy on him least he should with the proud Pharisee boast his virtues who was full of nothing else but vice And consequently see an excellent report between the Prayer and both the other parts of holy Churches service teaching us by these examples to detest the shadowes of worldly pelfe and to run unto the promises of Almighty God thereby to be made partakers of his heavenly treasures The Epistle 1 Cor. 12.2 c. 2 You know that when you were heathen you went to dumb Idols according as you were led 3 Therefore I do you to understand that no man speaking in the Spirit of God saith Anathema to Jesus And no man can say Our Lord Jesus but in the holy Ghost 4 And there are divisions of graces but one Spirit 5 And there are divisions of ministrations but one Lord. 6 And there are divisions of operations but one God who worketh all in all 7 And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every one to profit 8 To one certes by the Spirit is given the word of wisdome and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit 9 To another Faith in the same Spirit to another the grace of doing cures in one Spirit 10 To another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another kinds of Tongues to another Interpretation of languages 11 And all these worketh one and the same Spirit dividing to every one according as he will The Explication 2. THat is to say like so many slaves to sense led on by the evil custome of your Idolatrous Ancestours and of the devil or rather indeed misled by them you went on in a kind of fond zeal to serve dumb Idols that could neither hear nor see much lesse give you any requital of the service you did them but now that you are Christians serving a true a living a liberal God give that great God thanks for this conversion O Corinthians 3. This word therefore is used as a link to tye this and the following verses in sense together as who should say therefore I put you in mind of your conversion from Gentilisme to Christianity that your zeal in the service of the true God may as much transcend what you used to false gods as life transcends death as all things transcend nothing as the shadow the substance for so much a perfect Christian transcends a Gentile And therefore it is impossible that a Christian speaking according to the true spirit of such should say Anathema to Jesus should curse Jesus as the Gentiles perhapâ did curse their Idols when they had not what they expected from them but contrariwise are to blesse praise and magnifie Jesus Christ as the authour of all grace in this life and of glory in the next But the Apostle inculcates this because even the Jewes did curse Jesus as also did the Gentiles amongst whom the Corinthians lived and their Judges to try who were Christians made them do this so least they should follow this ill example the Apostle useth this exhortation to the contrary holding it sufficient obligation not to curse Jesus that one was a Christian See how handsomely the Apostle makes these two opposite to curse Jesus and to call upon the name of Jesus as who should say since the holy Ghost gives you the grace to call upon Jesus you cannot speak in the Spirit of the holy Ghost if you curse Jesus Where note that by calling upon Jesus is not meant the meer prolation of the name or word Jesus but the religious Invocation of that holy name in order to a supernatural end and this none can do but as assisted by the holy Ghost much lesse can you from any other fountain then this vaunt your selves O Corinthians of any other gifts or graces then this I say of the holy Ghost 4. One Spirit One onely holy Ghost giving diversely his several graces to several persons as he pleaseth 5. One Lord Christ Jesus God and man to whom all orders in the Church pay the tribute of their respective services as if from Christ they had their several offices and orders appointed them 6. Note the Apostle here refers grace to the holy Ghost as the fountain thereof ministration service or duty to Christ as Lord of heaven and earth and operation or working to God the Father as the origin and fountain of all things and of their operations And we may not unfitly say the same thing is meant by grace ministration and operation with several respects unto the several persons in the sacred Trinity who as one God is the undivided fountain of all the holy divisions abovesaid and so all things that are done out of God or as Divines say ad extra are equally attributed to the whole Trinity how ever we do piously attribute them also as it were severally to the several persons thereof By God's working all in all is here understood his mutuall concourse to all natural causes and effects and his sole working whatsoever is supernatural in us by means of graces given gratis and of such onely the Apostle here speaks not of graces rendring grateful nor preventing our operation but of such as God gives meerly gratis 7. By manifestation of the Spirit is here understood the gift of the holy Ghost whereby the said holy
The CHRISTIAN SODALITY OR Catholick Hive of Bees Sucking The Hony of the CHURCHES Prayers from the Blossomes of the Word of God blowne out of the Epistles and Gospels of the Divine Service throughout the yeare Collected by the Puny Bee of all the Hive not worthy to be named otherwise than by these Elements of his Name F. P. Divided into three Tomes whereof this the first Tome onely upon the Sundayes And that subdivided into three Parts The First From Advent to Lent The Second From Lent to Whitsontide The Third From Whitsontide to Advent That of one mind with one mouth you may glorifie God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15. Vers 6. Printed in the year of our Lord MDCLII To the Honourable Walter Mountague Esquire all health and happinesse SIR IT might argue I did acquiesce too much to flesh and bloud should I dedicate this book to any of my Kindred and least it seeme presumption in me to consecrate it unto you I must beseech you to believe 't is none of mine You know I have a gallant Master for this self-deniall who said His Doctrine was not His which yet none could lay claime unto besides his sacred self How justly then may I professe this book is not mine own being all of it upon the matter either Holy Churches Prayers or Holy Text or Holy Fathers Expositions on the same And as such it is rather your Defence than any waies in need of your Protection Now least you should reply I give it then unjustly as mine own to you and more unjustly begg your Patronage thereof as of a stollen Treasure I must confesse it is indeed a pious theft but such an one as the thiefe may take at noone day from the Coffers of the Church without a Sacrifice without a blush though all the world were lookers on and such as you may safely both receive and Patronize with as small remorse as men doe Hony brought unto the Hives which openly the Bees have stollen from the mellifluous flowers of other mens Gardens as I have done the sweet Connexion that I found between the Churches Prayers and Text of Holy Writ when I assay to shew the self-same Spirit annimates them all and makes them speak one sence in diverse Languages or Dialects And this sympathy between the parts of Holy Churches service is what I here present to you as my observation rather than my worke for had it not been there before I could not now have found it out if yet I may not rather feare I loose it when I look to find it by making it appeare lesse than it is for want of being able to shew it to the full But I will not tell you by how many titles I intitle this to you least I force the Lillyes of your modestie to change complexion with the Roses of your other Virtues or least I seeme to flatter you who are not to be flattered and therefore I shall rather silence my obligations to you than betray the secrets of your bounties which your left cannot accuse your right hand of although they both are stealing merrit whilst they give their Almes in ample manner unknown to one another as he well advised who knew the best way how to make benevolences meritorious nor shall I boast your more than ordinary favours showred upon me other waies as tyes to make me give you these my labours abstracting therefore from all self-relation and looking onely on the nature of this booke I find not any man more fit to Patronize it than your selfe because as it associates all the CHRISTIANS of the universe into one SODALITIE so you that are Eminent in making every man your owne will be the greatest help to this Association which I have founded on the Word of God and Prayers of Holy Church two subjects that I know not any one more versed in than you witnesse the excellent store of both which your Missive and your Misscelania doe afford wherein you shew your selfe not onely to have the Scripture lodg'd within your heart but even the genuine sense thereof ingrafted in your understanding as appears by your admirable Explications of the Texts and Applications of them to the purpose that you cite them for which as it was a motive for me to imitate you in so in justice it obligeth me to consecrate this book to you whose whole designe is either Notion or the use of the Holy Text. Againe Sir I looke upon you as a man designed to some thing more than yet the World is privie to for your Pauline Conversion makes me think you are the Vessell of Election which our Nation may one day hope to see as overflowing as I know you are now full of Eminent Perfections this I professe I doe not mind you of to puffe you up with self-conceit for of your self it is with you as with the rest of men made up of nothing but corruption and infirmity but to humble you rather to see how much of Grace doth shine upon the dunghill of Humane Nature while your Conversion from infidelity workes in you an aversion from all singularity and renders you a man partiall to none beneficiall to all that know you even unto those that are above you to who fare the better for your virtues while their Temporalls are raised from the spirituall foundations you have laid Thus from the Court unto the Cart from the Prince unto the Begger God hath adapted you to all his Holy Ends and therefore I that aime at Unanimity in this Sodality at Unity in our Community let me attest for this the Motto of my Book Saint Pauls words to the Romanes CHAP. 15. Vers 6. have made a right addresse when I petition you to Patronize my Labours in aggregating this SODALITIE who are one man most acceptable to all for your Equality or rather Equanimity to every one as if you were Omnibus omnia factus And seriously Sir I doe honour you most for the impartiality of your affections for that you are not biassed so as to runne one way but can and doe plie unto the mark of loving all in him whom all must love which way soever you are throwne upon request of this or that body Rich or Poore Clarke or Lay-man Secular or Regular Priest so much that I believe if I had failed of this my duty in choosing you for Patron of my Book I had been chidden for mistaking in my choyce of him whom all men would have voted for as well as I the design of this SODALITY and your simpathie to that design considered Please therefore I beseech you Sir to Patronize these labours of your humble Servant who am all your own and who beg your Patronage of this first Tome for one reason more than I have heer expressed or then is known as yet to any but my self which you will well approve of when you see to whom the next Tome shall bee consecrated as this is now to you
by him that resteth Honourable Sir Your hugely devoted thrice humble and most commanded servant F. P. APPROBATIO IN signe hoc opus cui Titulus Sodalitas Christiana c. Tribus partibus comprehensum diligenter perlegi in quo nihil Fidei aut Pietati Catholicae adversum invenio quinimo est opus doctissimum Authore dignum necnon varia Eruditione adeo refertum ut Verbi Dei Praecones Auditores Factores facile addiscent unde dies praesertim Dominicos cum Christiana devotione impendant Et ex foelici etiam Sacrorum Textuum precum Leiturgicarum mutua adaptatione harmoniam ad Coelestia allicientem abunde experientur Dignissimum proinde judico ut in publicum prodeat Dabam in Collegio nostro Sancto Bonaventurae Sacro Duaci hoc 16 die Decembris milessimo sexcentissimo quinquagessimo primo Fr. Fran. a S. Clara. S. Th. Professor Emeritus ac Provinciae Minister The Approbation HAving diligently read and considered all the three Parts of this First Tome of the Christian Sodality Composed by F. P. And finding it not onely to have nothing in it dissonant to Faith or Christian Piety but on the contrary all things so apposite for the increasing of each as speakes the Author a great Master of both I cannot but judge it worthy to see the publike light whereby many may be both inlightned and inflamed to know and acknowledge the Head of this Sodality and so bee incorporated which is as I suppose the Authors ambition Given the 5 th of January 1652. by Henry Metham Auncient Bachelour and Professor of Divinity The Approbation I Have diligently perused and read over all the Three Parts of the Christian Sodality composed by F. P. wherein I find nothing contrary to Fayth or Piety but all things speaking the Author learned and elegant The Method and Designe of the whole Work is excellent the Illustrations all though new and beaten out by the Authors meditations yet most accute and happy The Explications all most grave and solid The Applications all most Pious and Patheticall The Prayers for each respective Sunday all most propper and apposite Be it therefore Printed as exceeding profitable both to Priest and People Given at Paris this first of Januaary 1652. old stile Iohn Lancaster Professor of Divinity Theolegall of England And Censurer of Books The first Part Of the FIRST TOME Errata In the Epistle Dedicatorie PAge 3. line 1. For Sacrifice read Sacrilege In the Preface Pa 4. l. ult add so ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã here imports a contraposition without an opposition p. 6. l. 14. for we r. me ibid. l. 24. for we r. me p. 25. l. 5. for ought we r. we ought p. 28. l. 24. for adopt r. adapt In the Book Numb 19. l. 18. r. gave it to the Jewes n. 21. l. 9. r. he makes us n. 45. l. 28. r. is in n. 43. l. 16. r. personality n. 47. l. 18. r. respect n. 50. l. 9. r. premizing n. ib. l. 24. r. those n. 51. l. 4. r. Tetrarch n. 72. l. 35. r. appearing n. 86. l. 1. r modestly n. 105. l. 16. r. act n. 109. l. 4. r. our n. 112. l. 5. r. apostolate n. 114. l. 7. r. recalling ib. l. 16. r. infirmity n. 122. l. 24. r. least one n. 124. l. 8. r. pashing n. 142. l. 1. r. no obligation n. 145. l. 15. r. love is n. 153. l. 7. r. one another n. 161. l. 27. r. faylings are n. ib. l. 28. r. as such n. 162. l. 1. r. explication n. 170. l. 6. r. as if n. 174. l. 28. r. that is to say n. 176. l. 31. r. that to glory n. 189. l. 5. r. of the rock n. 192. l. 23. r. that dilate n. 194. l. 11. r. ought n. 199. l. 26. for of our r. our n. 201. l 2 r. others n. 225. l. 16. add To tempt Job in another kind for another end n. 226. l. 30. r. administer n. 235. l. 30. r. the Text. n. 245. l. 9. r. Arcana n. 248. l. 2. r. but. n. 250. l. 9. r. when n. 253. l. 29. r. creatures n. 256. l. 10. r. not the so much n. 262. l. 20. for an r. a. n. 266. l. 18. r. O that we n. 269. for Tome r. Part. In the Prayers On second Sund. after Advent r. rayse on third Sund. af Adv. r. grace of thy on forth Sund. af Epiph. r. grant In Post Communions In the third Sunday after Epiphany for adopt r. adapt THE Key of the work BY WAY OF PREFACE TO ALL CHRISTIAN READERS WHen I first thought of writing for the Press I was over-prest with a multitude of difficulties as well about the Subject as about the Method and I could never be perswaded to set Pen to Paper before I had armed my self against the common obstacle in all Writers wayes That Books have their Fates from the Capacities of their Readers For I concluded 't was a labour lost to Write and to be laid aside as either not understood or not pleasing to the Reader So I resolved either to Write what might call the Reader aside to make him understand himself as well as me or else to spare my own labour of writing And because I knew no Subject had power enough to command the Reader but that which was of Divine Authority therefore I made choice of Holy Writ and of the Churches Prayers to write upon And finding nothing so common over all the world as a little Book consisting of these two subjects called the Primmer as being the Prime the first or Principle office of a Lay-Christian whereby he makes a demonstration of his dayly bounden duty towards Almighty God in that little abstract of the Breviary which is the Priest his larger Office I conceived nothing so worthy of my paines as to render that little Book intelligible sweet and easie to the People which I perceived was rather said by rote than understood Not that I believe this Primmer was published at first by holy Churches Order without a better Gloss than I can hope to make upon it now but that I conceive devouring time hath eaten out a world of Pious Works that were in being in the Primitive Church and amongst the rest some exposition of the Primmer made or by word of mouth from the Preachers in their Sermons or in their private exhortations by way of Catechisme or else expounded in some book on purpose written to that end as I write this For I cannot think our Pious and our Prudent Mother holy Church would issue out a book of dayly Duty as far above the peoples reach as Heaven is from Earth unlesse the Antiphons Versicles Responsories Prayers Hymnes Lessons and Psalmes thereof were made some way or other intelligible to the common world thus bid to pray Since therefore now I found no exposition of the Primmer extant and yet encountered with the Book in every bodies Pocket in many mens Hands in most mens Mouths that understood not what
they said in saying it and thence grew bold to undervalue it to call it dry and barren Prayer in respect of other Books especially the Manuell consisting indeed of many Prayers derived from the Primmer but more abounding with a greater number made by private persons Pious enough no doubt yet not of such avowed authority as those who made the Primmer Prayers Hence it was I thought no subject fitter to be written on than that which should at once expound the holy Writ and Churches Prayers with all the other parts thereof contained in the Primmer both being so profound and so mysterious as they are Know therefore Christian Reader first The Antiphons are ever such as have report unto the present time or season of the year they are made proper to by holy Church Know secondly they ever are some part of holy Writ appointed by the like Authority or for Epistle or for Gospell of the Day Yet to know this is not enough unlesse you further know the meaning of the word it self that an Antiphon imports as much as a pre-toning of a Tune to follow not unlike the Birds recording in the winter time the tunes they chirp and sing aloud in the summer to the praise of their Creator And hence it is the Chorists or masters of the Quire where holy Office is ever sung in open Churches that allow this happy liberty come up unto the Canon who begins the Psalme and in a low Tone give the Tune to him who takes it thus then sings aloud and leads the Quire after him all singing out the Psalme in loudest voice which was Antiphonized as above pre-toned I mean recorded or pre-tuned by the Chorists first of all Now that you see these Antiphons end here with a Versicle and Responsory as they doe in every Primmer this argues all the Prayers and other parts of holy Churches Service that doe follow are exercises as well of Neighbourly as of Love Divine and that no jar ought to intercede in tempo all affaires between those who are tyed up to a harmony and concordancy in the spirituall duty of good Christians whilst we must be ever ready to answer with a Responsory him that begins with a Versicle to incite us to priase Almighty God and to give a testimony we are at peace with one another before we dare presume to make our joynt petition to the Heavenly Majesty for our own and our neighbours necessities in the following Prayer But of this more anon when we shall say who first prefixt the Antiphons before the Psalmes and Prayers Please gentle Reader onely here to know that hence it was I took the Rise of writing in the Method I observe throughout this Book For since I found the self-same Antiphons that here you have in English to be in all the Primmers of the world in all the severall languages that say this holy Office every day even in the Breviaries of the Priests I did conclude those Antiphons were as Pretonings to the tune of the Mysticall musick of the holy Church that was to follow then when such an Antiphon was read or to speak more plainly these Antiphons did seeme to point out what the Duty was that then we should be at Namely that all the Children of the Church should put in execution the practice of that Doctrine which the Preacher then delivered in the Pulpits when or that Antiphon or else some other part of holy Writ in that dayes service was the Preachers Text. And that we might doe this the better we thought the following Prayer was fitly given to petition grace to doe it Hence I inferred those Prayers must needs extend to more than yet the word Collecta or Collect did import for that betokens onely the collection of the peoples suffrages put into the mouth of the officiating Priest in his own and their behalfs and begging Grace that what the Preachers tell them is their present duty they may execute Religiously But further yet we thought this Prayer this Collect following such an Antiphon and being the open musick which every Christian was to make that day in the ears of the Heavenly Majesty while their hearts were to sing what their lips did say must also keep the Tune of that Antiphon speak I mean to God in the same sense and be as an Epitome or Abstract of the holy Text from whence that Antiphon was taken must be in fine a kind of summe or Quintessence of all the Preaching parts of that dayes Service and must from thence assume the name of Collect as if collecting up in few lines the larger Lessons of the holy Text both in the Epistle and Gospel of that day This I confesse seemed hugely consonant to reason and if it could be made appear would render sure the Prayers of holy Church extreamly proper to the Times and Dayes they were appointed for extreamly reverential extreamly gratefull to the People To see thereby the sweet connexion in all the parts of holy Churches Service This this Beloved is the hard attempt of all the following Book wherein how happy I shall be I know not yet before I hear you say you see it is in some proportion done By the Illustrations of the Prayers shewing how they allude unto how they exhaust indeed the holy Texts both of the Epistle and Gospell of the Day By the Explications of the Sacred Texts shewing how piously safe they are when rightly understood how dangerous when heretically wrested to a contrary sense than in themselves they bear And by the Applications not onely shewing us how to apply the whole Service of the day to our instructions but how to apply indeed our selves to God by a godlinesse of life made sweet and easie to us by the said Applications Now because this sweet connexion of Parts in holy Service is a Jewell rendring the Church extreamly Beautifull in the sight of her sacred Spouse even ravishing the eyes of Men and Angels therefore I shall desire the Reader not to huddle ore this Book as reading it for Recreation but purely for Devotion which yet will recreate the more by how much the lesse thereof is read at once by how much the oftner the Reader turnes to see and to compare the Parts reporting unto one another which generally they doe when in the Print you see the letter to vary the Character to change for ever then the changed letter in the Glosse is part of either Prayer or holy Text to which it doth report and whereunto the Reader shall doe well to turn before he doe proceed to further Lecture that so comparing one place to another he may see the simpathy between the parts compared and seeing this may praise Almighty God in the beauty of his beautifull Spouse the holy Church whose very daily service is a kind of picture of her lovelinesse in the sight of his Heavenly Majesty I doe not undertake to say that all the Churches Prayers are of so deep a sense as
this Book yet is it out of the true Gospell of the Day and the reason why I did presume to alter that dayes Gospell in this Tome is because I intend God willing to explicate the four long Gospels of the Passion that are read in holy Week in my third Tome as was said above in regard they will doe better altogether then apart Besides the Gospell I have here inserted though it be not directly upon the Passion as that of Palme Sunday is yet it reports unto it and is as it were the very mouth to that Red Sea so not incongruously placed here but suiting very well both with the true Epistle and Prayer of that day and is besides the very Gospell read in Blessing of the Palmes But further as to this particular of Antiphons the Reader may be pleas'd to understand that many times the words of these Antiphons are rather the sense of Holy Church than the absolute letter of the Text yet so as part if not all is ever taken according to the letter it self and again whereas I cite one verse onely for such Antiphons as many times runne through sundry verses this is done but for brevity sake since the diligent Reader will easily trace it out in his perusall of the Text it self Nor must our Adversaries presume to tax the Church with corruption of the Text in some of her Antiphons because she doth not alwayes professe to deliver the ipsissime letter but onely the sence thereof which is a priviledge no dutifull Child can deny a pious Mother who as she is the Spouse of Christ hath absolute authority to order the devotion of her Children according to her own pleasure and piety True it is I cannot retrive who set the order of the Antiphons before the Prayers but this we find in the Bull of Pius Quintus before the Breviaries that as the Councell of Trent referr'd the ordering of the Breviary to his said Holinesse so he consulting some Fathers of that Councell and other the best Antiquaries in Rome did let forth the Breviary as now we have it according to the Records in the Vatican containing all the Traditions of the Primitive Church for order of the Publick Prayers and consequently the Antiphons in the Primmer which are these we now treat of being the same with those of the Breviary were undeniably the same which now they are And what ever we may say of these Antiphons in particular at least we shall find Saint Ambrose a celebrated Father and Doctor of the Church to have been the Institutor of that Piety to sing in the Quier an Antiphon before the beginning of every Canonicall Hower in the Priest his Office grounded on the Vision which Saint Ignatius the third successour to Saint Peter in his chair of Antioch had of Angels thus Antiphonising and then alternatively singing sweetly one after another as now the Divine Office is sung in the Quier over all the Catholike Church And for this reason sure the Lay-people have their Antiphons out of the Epistles and Gospels to shew their work of Prayer which followes immediately is grounded on the charity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in whom they are to Love to Pray to doe for each other as they would doe for themselves And hence we may piously presume the Versicle and Responsory following every Antiphon is to incite the Church Militant to answer the Angels of the Church Triumphant inciting us to Pray and praise our Lord with them especially by such a Prayer as doth not onely exhaust the Epistle and Gospel of the Day but accompanies withall the Praying and the Preaching Priest amongst us the Angels and the Saints above us nay the Mediating Jesus Praying then and thus to his Heavenly Father in our behalfs as was said above Forasmuch as concernes the Epistles and Gospels themselves I have not dared to alter them in the least tittle out of a Reverentiall regard unto the Reverend and Learned Translators of the Bible into English though in many places perhaps if the same men were now alive they would themselves render the Language here and there more gratefull especially to curious Eares and yet keep as exact a sense of the Learned Languages of the Originall Tongues as now they have done which yet I dare not be so bold to doe The suiting of these Epistles and Gospels as now the Church hath ordered them was the work of Saint Hierome commanded so to doe by Saint Damasus Pope and Confessour Anno. Dom. 367. and this may suffice for a sufficient glosse upon the respective parts of this Book and why it is framed in this Methode Now the reason why I intitle it the Christian Sodality is because I would by that Name invite every Christian to be a member of it and to make profession of this Practise of Piety which is grounded on the Word of God and on the publick Prayers of Holy Church which certainly were not made without a deep design if yet that were any other than what I have guessed at who shall be glad to hear of a better for I am nothing wedded to my own conceit herein I shall not presume to give any Rules at all to our Sodality though I doe humbly suggest the saying Thrice a day the Trinity of Prayers in the end of every Part of this first Tome for the Reasons above and for this one more which I shall add because by a reverent rehearsall thereof they shall even kiss as it were in little the Picture of our Blessed Lord drawn out of the full Proportion it hath in the Epistles and Gospels of the Day as also by their weekly reading each respective Sundayes work belonging to the week they shall make themselves in a short space perfect masters of so much Scripture and be able not onely to sum it up in their daily Prayers but to season their discourse with it throughout the week throughout the year from year to year indeed throughout their lives Now that they may more zealously doe this I shall desire them to beleive the first Founder of this Sodality was Jesus Christ the Confirmer of it the Holy Ghost the first professed Member the B. Virgin Mary Keeping all the words of her sacred Son within her heart and listing with her self the twelve Apostles all the Disciples and Friends of our Lord Saint Mary Magdalene with her Sister Martha and the other two Maries celebrated for their zeale to Jesus Christ and so making up the Primitiae or first Fruits and Members of this same Sodality which every Christian is inrowl'd a happy Member of at the Holy Font nor can he be dismembred or cast out of this Sodality but by deserving excommunication unlesse he first renounce his Christianity and cast off Jesus Christ by turning Infidell Heathen Atheist Turk or Jew As for designing our Sodality into this method of Prayer abstracting all the other Parts of Holy Churches Services I am so farre from the vanity of
words of the Prophet Isaias are above explicated in the Present tense for the reasons alledged yet they were fitly spoken in the future and prophetically too by Isaias when he foretold what Iohn should say to us in the present tense at his coming or else Isaias might begin with the Baptists voice to say of him prophetically I am the voice of one crying in the Wilderness prepare the wayes of our Lord. Though if in this future tense we allow even the Baptist also to speak it will not be unproper to him for however his principle Office be that of forerunner or pointer out of our Saviour to be the long expected Messias come at last now standing in the midst of them yet he may in a secondary respect be allowed the Title and Office of a Prophet also telling us for the future what will follow if we believe in Christ and cast our cares upon him namely that all shall goe well with us both in the outward and inward man since our Saviour avowes him to be a Prophet though not onely such but more his Fore-runner his humane Angel going before the face of his Divine Humanity to tell us that this Man-Divine Christ Iesus was true God as well as Man who came to redeem and save the whole world The Application 1. AS the Epistle so the Gospel to bids us prepare the way for Iesus his Nativity alluded to all over but clearly mentioned in the close of the Gospel while the Fore-runner of our Lord is set before our eyes to day giving Instructions how to demean our selves in the Sacrament of Confession whereunto the Baptisme of Pennance unto Remission of Sins preached by the Baptist here alludes 2. How that Confession shall be rightly made is told in the penultime or last Verse but one of the Gospell doe as the Exposition of it bids and it will be rightly done at least prepare for it now that you may performe it well at Christmas 3. Now that we may doe this see if the holy Church could frame a fitter Prayer than what She sayes to day If not Then say it as above and so confess there is an admirable Harmony between the Preaching and the Praying parts of holy Churches services On Sunday within the Octaves of the Nativity The Antiphon LUKE 1. ver 25. THe Child Jesus did profit in age and wisdome before God and Man Vers The word became Flesh Allelujah Resp And dwelt in us Alleluja NOte this Antiphon above being much to the same purpose with the 40. Verse of this Chapter which is the last in this dayes Gospel I doe not change it though differing a little from that because I find it thus appointed by the Church The Prayer OMnipotent Sempiternall God direct our actions in thy good pleasure that in the Name of thy Beloved Son we may deserve to abound in Good Works The Illustration HOly Church hath hitherto taught us in our Prayers to Court down God from Heaven and now he is come unto us little in Appearance great in Power an Infant amongst men see how this day our Prayer make Infants of us too such as know not which way to turn but are glad to beg directions of Almighty God that our Actions may be done according to his will and pleasure or rather that his holy will may be our actions for so the words of the Prayer import when we beg that God will direct our actions in his good pleasure as who should say if he so please they shall be well done nor can we indeed please him in our doings if he doe not please to doe well in us For our actions are more his than our own insomuch that when we love God or please him he rather loves and pleaseth himself in us than that we of our selves can love or please his Divine Majesty by any thing we are able to doe And thus we see how with our new-born Iesus we pray like Infants unable to help our selves and for this purpose both the Epistle and Gospel of the day run upon infantile actions the former shewing us that men by Adoption of Grace became new-born Babes of God who were before ancient slaves of the Devill and telling us further how infants must be nurtured and tutoured up even by their own servants as long as they are under age The latter relating how our infant Iesus was this day presented to his Heavenly Father in the Temple as the first gratefull present humane nature durst make a tender of to his offended Majesty in hope thereby to appease his wrath and so confident we are that this will be a present appeasing as well as pleasing that we have no sooner offered him up to his Heavenly Father then we grow bold not onely in the name of this his beloved you to beg we may doe well but presume to hope that in his Name we may even deserve to abound in good workes and with good reason because we acknowledge this infant of Time to be coequal and coeternal God with his Eternal Father and consequently what we doe in his Name since it is more principally done by him than us may merrit the reputation of being abundantly well done and thus we doing it also may deserve to abound in good Works even such as shall not want the happinesse of a plentiful reward of grace in this life and of glory in the next But so that all our desert or merit must be still in his Name as the Prayer professeth inconsequence to what was said upon the close of the two first Prayers in this Book The Epistle GAL. 4. ver 1. c. 1. ANd I say as long as the Heir is a little one he differeth nothing from a Servant although he be Lord of all 2. But is under Tutors and Governours untill the time limited of the Father 3. So we also when we were little ones were serving under the elements of the World 4. But when the fulness of time came God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law 5. That he might redeeme them that were under the Law that they might receive the Adoption of Sons 6. And because you are Sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father 7. Therefore now he is not a servant but a a son and if a son an heir also by God The Explication 1. ST Paul had in the precedent Chapter told the Galathians that the old Law of the Jews was a Paedagogue or Usher rather to the new Law of Christ and so was to cease when the new Law came This doctrine he follows now here closely saying The Jewes that were the chosen people of God his first begotten as it were and so his heirs were by all the help of their Lawes but as little ones in the sight of God that is as children or infants wanting maturity of yeares and ripenesse of judgement to govern themselves and thus were nothing different from servants
thence retrive that sweet connexion we are at a seeming losse of and shall conclude the key we want to open this connexion lyes hidden in the preamble of this Prayer in the very courtship we use when we call upon God as moderating at once heavenly and earthly Things that is making the earthly obedient to his will when he pleaseth to have them suitable to those that are heavenly Things Thus water by the heavenly will of God became this day wine thus all the materiall parts of this dayes service became as it were immateriall that is to say spirituall Thus the Temporall gifts mentioned in the Epistle of Prophecy Ministery Teaching Exhorting Ruling Mercy Love Joy Hope Patience Prayer Almes Hospitality Vnanimity and Humility are made spirituall in being ordained to a spirituall end by conformity in us earthly creatures to the will of our Creator which is effected by vertue of that moderation God hath set between heaven and earth when he so moderates humane minds and actions as they become subservient to his heavenly will Thus carnall pleasure between man and wife is in them limited by Gods holy grace moderating the excesse and intemperance in that pleasure which indeed carnall men commit but spirituall men avoid God moderating fleshly appetites in them so as they shall not intrench upon spirituall duties but give way to serving God though with abridgement of their own delights and this is done when Saint Pauls counsell is followed Let those that have wives be as if they had none 1 Cor. c. 7. v. 29. when God Almighties service so requires as when attending first to prayer they afterwards return to the same corporall pleasure they forsook to pray and this is called a spirituall continence even in the bed of incontinency not as that term imports sin but as it argues lesse perfection than virginity or absolute containing from all corporall commixture but further and more prodigiously yet this miraculous moderation between heavenly and earthly Things is seen when married people have liberty allowed them for their due and seasonable mutuall pleasures with one another and yet withall at the same instant they have a limit set them beyond which they must not passe but like to flowing Seas must ebbe just at their own bounds and fall to the low-water of a non-temptation towards any other carnall pleasure than between themselves Here I say if ever more eminently than other it doth appear God moderates heavenly and earthly Things at once for here is a kind of continuall miracle betwâen man and wife when Saint Pauls counsell is followed as above and since the Story of this dayes Gospel runs upon a marriage and the Prayer concludes with begging peace here is the grant of that petition when man and wife thus moderated live happily together not defrauding one another here is further that peace granted to all sorts of Christians when they apply the Temporall gifts recited in the Epistle to spirituall to heavenly ends and when in the prayer we say Grant us thy peace in our dayes it is no lesse than the peace of that God who at once moderates heavenly and earthly things which we demand Now if any would dive further into that peace let them look back to the seventh verse in the Epistle on the Third Sunday of Advent and to the Explication thereof There they shall see how ravishing how plentifull a peace it is And having thus wrought out our design of connexion here where it was so seeming hard at first but now to flowing from every part like honey from the Combes of this dayes Epistle and Gospel upon the bread of the Prayer let us never despair of as good successe all the year along nor can there be a sweeter Prayer than this thus glossed and in this sense reiterated as often as we find reluctancy in us between nature and grace For then thus to call upon God as moderatour between heaven and earth is to quell all rebellion of nature against grace which God grant we may doe by praying as above The Epistle ROM 12. ver 6. c. 6. ANd having gifts according to the grace that is given us different either prophecy according to the rule of Faith 7. Or ministery in ministring or he that teacheth in doctrine 8. He that exhorteth in exhorting he that giveth in simplicity he that ruleth in carefulnesse he that sheweth mercy in cheerfulnesse 9. Love without simulation hating evill cleaving to good 10. Loving the charity of the Brotherhood one toward another with honour preventing one another 11. In carefulnesse not sloathfull in spirit fervent serving our Lord. 12. Rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation instant in prayer 13. Communicating to the necessities of the Saints pursuing hospitality 14. Blesse them that persecute you Blesse and Curse not 15. To rejoyce with them that rejoyce to weep with them that weep 16. Being of one mind one towards another not minding high things but consenting to the humble The Explication IN regard there was reference made to this place on Sunday last concerning the rule of Faith therefore we shall here take hold of the last part of this verse first and having premised what is peculiarly necessary upon this which is hugely controversiall we shall then proceed in our wonted manner for expounding the rest of the Text. We are therefore here to note That by the Rule of Faith is not understood onely the Apostles Creed branched into twelve Articles as we have received it from age to age but a set Form of life delivered by word of mouth unto the People by the Apostles who had first held Counsels about it amongst themselves and stood resolved all their teaching should be conformable thereunto And this Rule is not as Hereticks will have it the holy Scripture written by the Apostles for this Rule was made long before any Scripture was written and it was never delivered abroad but by word of mouth in their preaching and exhortations so it is properly called the Apostolicall Tradition which is yet even unto this very day the Rule of Faith to the whole Catholick Church to the Decrees of all Councels to the sense or exposition of the holy Scriptures and consequently Scripture cannot be as Hereticks pretend the sole Rule of Faith though true it is there must be nothing nor is there any thing at all in holy Writ contrary to this Rule or Apostolicall Tradition which was much larger than the written Word and therefore it ever was and still is even to the sacred Word a kind of Rule or Test to try it by since before the Apostles issued out their written books of Scripture those books were examined by this Rule of Faith which was framed by common consent of the whole number or Colledge of Apostles whereas all of them did not write nay two onely of the twelve were Evangelists or Writers of the Gospels for Saint Mark and Saint Luke the other two Evangelists were not dignified with the stile
may very well be called Iesus his Mount by a kind of excellency as sufficiently to be known by that name when there is no distinction added to remark any other Mountain by as here there is not and so we may here take the Mountain to import as much as Iesus his Mount specially frequented by him and celebrated abundantly by so sacred a resort thereunto The great Multitudes that are here said to follow him were those present at his Sermon upon this Mount so taken therewith as they could not forsake him but followed him many of them up and down all the Country conversing either with himself with his Disciples or with some that had been cured by him and so never wanting imployment of delight unto them 2. Many doubt whether this cure of the Leper be the same which Saint Mark recounts Chap. 1. ver 40. and Saint Luke Chap. 5. ver 12 for by them it seemes this Miracle was not done immediately after Christ descended from the Mount nor in the Valley near it because Saint Luke sayes it was done in a certain City besides they recount other Miracles before this consequent to Christ his coming down from the mountain aforesaid yet because Saint Matthew seemes the most exact for the series or order of his Sacred History therefore we may rather think the others stood not so precisely upon the order but satisfied themselves to tell what was done by Christ first or last Again Saint Luke may be understood to mean without the City though he say the cure was done in a certain City because it was a cure upon a Citizen whose disease being a Leprosie did force him out of the Town according to the custome of all such foul diseased persons to avoid the danger of infecting others so it being done on or in the Citizen S. Luke may call it a cure done in the City whereunto the Leper did belong and such speeches are frequent for men often say we had a strange cure wrought here in our City such a man for example cured thus and thus though happily the party might bee carried out of Town to his Physitian or Chirurgion so we see a way cleer enough to avoid contradiction amongst the Evangelists however their Stories may seem now and then not to jumpe exactly in all particulars as for example they all three agree in their severall expressions of this Lepers coming to Christ for cure for whereas S. Mark tells us he came bending his knees and S. Luke sayes falling on his face This Adoration S Matthew brings him in with is the conclusion of both those postures as who should say he kneeling down first then falling prostrate on his face adored Jesus as that great God from whom he begg'd his cure knowing his disease was more contagious than any man could heal and by this manner of speech assuring himself it was in the power of Christ while he said unto him If thou wilt thou canst cleanse me of this scurfie Leprosie in which words though he shewed his owne desire of cure yet withall he declared his resignation to the divine will saying If thou wilt thou canst make c. as who should say Gods power is equall to his will and if thou wilt not thy holy will be done for thou knowest better what to will for mee than I doe for my self wherefore O Lord as thy holy will is bee it done with mee but I desire no other power at least to cure mee than thy sacred will Now that this was the meaning of the Lepers words the next Verse shews 3. For behold no sooner had this creature resigned himself perfectly to the will of his Creator shewing therein bee did love God above all things even himself included then in testimony of that truth saying to those who love God all things cooperate for their good he was cured by Christ stretching forth his purest hand upon the impure petitioner and saying I will cure thee since thou sayest so truly that my will is adequate unto my power Bee thou therefore made clean of thy corporall impurity as by Faith I see thou art of thy spirituall infidelity But here we are to observe Christ touched the Leper which as it was a prevarication of the Mosaick Law Levit. 13. so it shewed the abrogation thereof lay in the power of Christ who came to give a more perfect Law unto the People of God Again this touch was in signe of Benevolence lastly it was happily an application of right actives to passives for effecting the cure since the very corporall touch of Christ his sacred hand was of force to cure all diseases but the method of Christs words deserveth here a speciall remark for while he sayes I will he confutes the heresie of Photinus denying Christ to be God and to have for the proof of his omnipotence his omnivolence that is to say all things as subject to his Will as to his Power as also he confutes the Arrian heresie denying Christ to have power of himself or to be God equall to his Father in power and so obliged to command rather in his Fathers name than in his own whereas here he commands the cure as from himself and in vertue of his own absolute power saying Be thou made clean wherefore this place must not be read as some conceive saying I will cure thee no but I will Be thou cured as who should say since thou desirest no greater power than my will loe I will what thou desirest and therefore thus I command thy disease to leave thee Be thou cleansed Lâstly he confutes the Manichaean Heresie teaching Christ to have no reall but onely some phantasticall body which he disproves by the reall and perceptible touch he gave the Leper while by means of that physicall or sensible touch he was pleased to cure him besides Saint Hierome well observes this answer held the stile of the request for the Leper had used the same Phrase saying If thou wilt thou canst so Christ replyes to both saying he will and shewing he can while he commands it to be done as was desired and that as the text saith immediately for the effect of Gods will is the work or deed he will have to be done and so there needs no medium where the will and power are both equall and identified as in God all Attributes are according to that of holy David Psal 148. ver 5. He said the word and all things were thereby made 4. This was not so much a command to him as an example to others how to conceal and not to vaunt their own glory when they doe any thing that is notably praise-worthy while he sends him to the Priest he fulfils the Law Levit. 14. commanding all in such cases to get the testimony of the Priests for their cures so here he shews he will not abrogate the whole Law of Moses or the morall part of it although he did abrogate the servile Ceremoniall part thereof It was
storm at sea we are minded of the many dangers sin hath brought upon us so by the check Christ gave to his Apostles wee are taught in dangers to recurr to Faith in him who never failes to succour firm believers in their greatest tribulations 2. As in stormes your Marrinââs cast veâ-board their heaviest lading and commodities to save the ship from sinking so in affliction at the least we shall doe well to lighten the vessels of our soulâ by casting over-board those heavie burdens of most grievous sins which many times in calmnesse of our mindes we dare to carry with us 3. We may piously presume our Saviour never sleeps but unto souls remiss and then doth wake again immediatly when they affrighted at the danger they are in by the least close of his all-seeing eyes I doe call upon him for his succour by their instant prayer Such as the Church to day doth use to teach us how to pray in time of Danger On the Fifth Sunday after the EPIPHANIE The Antiphon MAT. 13. ver 30. GAther first the darnell and bind it together in bundles to be burnt but the wheat gather into my barne saith our Lord. Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer KEepe we beseech the O Lord thy family in continuall piety that resting on the onely hope of heavenly grace it may ever by thy protection be defended The Illustration SEe how this day we are taught to pray as in the Epistle and Gospel we are taught to doe to live all together as one family of God in continual piety resting on the onely hope of heavenly grace for our protection and defence Yes thus to day we pray and to this purpose holy Church doth this day preach for the whole Epistle is upon uniting us all in one affection towards another and exhorting us that whatsoever we doe in word or work all things be done in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ And the Gospel commanding in the Parable of Corne and Cockle that even under pretence of good and bad we make no separation amongst our selves but live and continue lovingly together leaving it to God the master of the family to sever what he likes not from that which pleaseth his divine majestie and this to shew how perfectly we must be all as one amongst our selves all in continuall piety all resting on the hope of heavenly grace all relying upon God to protect and defend us not squaring out our own courses but resting in that which is appointed us by the Master of our family And see while in this prayer Holy Church calleth us all one family we ought to live in peace with all the world and not to graspe from our neighbour as if he and we were of two houses but to esteem him as a domesticke with us as one that eares at the same table of Christ who feeds us commonly with heavenly grace and oftentimes with his own sacred body and bloud the fountaine of grace it self O could we once come to doe as in this prayer we beg we may what an united family of Christians should we be How of divers members should we grow into one perfect body each proportioned to the will and pleasure of our head Christ Jesus How ill doe we then fall into divisions as if our hands would cut off our armes about disputes of divers Interests whereas all our relation is to one master all our hope of preferment must come from him and that hope must be radicated in the proportion of such heavenly grace as he pleaseth to give us so if in him our hopes be rightly fixed they wil bring us all to one happy end he in whom wâ hope protecting and defending us so much the better by how much the more our hope in him is the firmer and by how much the lesse we are solcitous who neither can do nor with so well unto our selves as God doth for us The Epistle COL 3. ver 12. c. 12. PVt ye on therefore as the Elect of God holy and beloved the bowells of mercy benignity humility modesty patience 13 Supporting one another and pardoning one another if any have a quarrell against any man as also our Lord hath pardoned us so you also 14. But above all these things have Charity which is the band of perfection 15 And let the peace of Christ exult in your hearts wherein also you are called in one body and be thankful 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly in all wisdome teaching and admonishing your own selves with psalmes hymnes and spiritual Canticles in grace singing in your hearts to God 17. All whatsoever you doe in word or work all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God and the Father by him The Explication 12. THE Apostle began this Chapter with telling the Colossians that as they were dead in Christ whilst Christ dyed for them so if they meant to rise with Christ from the grave of their sin they must look upward and seek from hence forward such things as were to be found in heaven not what was common upon earth as before they had done and when he had bid them Cast off the old man Colos 3. vers 9. now in this verse he begins to tell them how to vest themselves anew with ornaments fit for the spiritual and inward man and that they may doe this with more alacrity the Apostle bids them doe it under the confidence that they are now the elect and chosen of God his holy and beloved people mâde so by the lavacrum or cleansing of his sacred bloud shed for them and least they might doubt of this he had in the immediate verses before told them they were now in Christ a new creature that though formerly the Jewes were the onely favourites and chosen people of God yet in Christ both Jewes and Gentiles Slave or Free-man all were alike if they did all equally believe in Jesus the Messias and Saviour of them all who had chosen them not onely to Grace but to Glory and this incouragement premised he bids them now put on the bowels of mercy benignity humility modesty patience Virtues not heard of among the Iewes who had hardned their hearts against God who had inhumanely butchered his sacred Sonne who proudly aymed at nothing but worldly pompe who immodestly reviled Iesus to his face who like furies would have stoned and at last tore in pieces their Lord and Saviour so far thây were from patient hearing him tell them Truth not were the Gentiles or Barbarians men of any Vertue at all but either superstitious or savage people so these Colossians being people of no better extract by nature hee had need tell them what Bowels what affections of heart they were by Grace at least to have what inward Vertues what outward deportment 13. As for example supporting one another a thing unheard of by those who aimed at nothing more than
in Evang. upon these words of S. Luke Chap. 21. v. 9. When you hear of warrs and seditions be not troubled at such evils because sayes hee many evils must here fore-run that they may put us in minde of evills without end and so make us avoid Temporary lest we plunge our selves into eternall evils confiding in his that wee serve a God who alâne is able to cull good out of evill 30. Hence therefore the Master bids his men let the weeds grow up with the corn untill harvest let the bad men live together with the good till the day of judgement which is the true harvest indeed that brings home the whole crop of nature rectified by grace into the barn of glorie We are here to note that though formerly the word of God were called the seed or good wheat yet here the just are called by the same name as if the cause weâe âxpressed by the effect for Saints are indeed the fruitfull effects of the Gospel the holy word of God On the other side sinners are the ill seed or cockle in this place specified and by the Reapers we may account are here meant the Angels that are to summon all the world to Judgement and in that summons to sever the cockle from the corn the wicked from the just binding up these in bundles as so many piles of fuell for hell-fire and ranging those as stacks of corn fit to be made bread of life for the heavenly Table of Almighty God The Application 1. SInce it is by his protecting Grace wee must hope whilst we are asleep to bee defended from the enemie who then doth machinate our mischief let it be our parts while we are awake not to sow any cockle our selves of ill manners if not of false doctrine in the field of our soules for then no marvell if while we sleep this ill seed sown by us grow up and choak the good corn sowed in our hearts by the seeds-men of holy Church the Pastors of our souls 2. Since wee are not able to avoid the alternate rest of night after a toylesome day let us at least in the day time stand upon a close guard and be sure not to sleep that is not to loose the presence of Almighty God and fall into the trance of transitory pleasures such as pash us in pieces against the Rocks of sin and under pretence of yeelding us a present momentary dâlight purchase us eternall torments 3. Since we cannot tell even when we doe best whether we deserve love or hatred we have great reason to fear lest we may be separated at the latter day from the blessed as Cockle sit for nothing but hell fire and out of that religious fear let us work out our salvation with trembling by planting in our souls the roots and seeds of vertues and for better doing it Let us pray to day with Holy Church as above to be secured from the danger of damnation by our sole hope in the protecting and saving grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. On the sixth Sunday after the EPIPHANY The Antiphon MAT. 13. ver 33. THE kingdome of heaven is like to leaven which a woman tooke and hid in three measures of meale untill the whole was leavened Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer GRant we beseech thee Almighty God that alwaies meditating those things which are reasonable we may both in our words and deeds doe what is pleasing unto Thee The Illustration I Have met with some prodigious wits of both sexes who conferring with me about this my designe when it was in hand would laughing say I might perhaps as well adjust this Prayer to the Epistle and Gospel of the day as I should be able to perswade them it was other than a meere paradox and if it were possible for men alwaies to meditate upon reasonable things considering how irrationally all the world was commonly distracted so as friends they advised me if I would goe on to change at least this Prayer and put some other in the place of it lesse paradoxicall in it self and more suiteable than this could be either to the Epistle or Gospel of the day which they read over and over before they spent this judgement upon me and my designe To these I answered pleasantly as me thought they spake to me though I perceived they were serious too That if they observed the Gospel it was all Parabolicall and therefore admit that were true they said it was not unsuiteable on this day to have a Prayer Paradoxicall since Parables and Paradoxes were of near allyance but further let me now ask all the world if it be not reasonable the Church should pray most fervently for that which is most hard to doe as it seemes men account it the hardest thing in the world alwaies to meditate on reasonable things and yet the harder this is to doe the more necessary it is to pray for grace at least to enable us thereunto since even âhese prodigious wits would think a man unmannerly that should tell them th y were irrationall soules at any time and yet what difference there is between being irrationall and thinking and doing for the most part unreasonable things I doe not well know sure I am reason alwaies dictates to doe well and as sure I am that a sinne is an irrationall act as it is certainely a thing ill done nay if I had said every sinne were so farre forth against nature as it is against reason I think I should not exceed verity in that assertion and since all that men doe like men they premeditate therefore with reason we pray this day least our actions should prove unnaturall that our meditations or thoughts should be rational for none other are connaturall to men as men though often they creep upon us and so render our actions more bestiall than rationall more unnaturall than naturall To conclude though many of our actions passe among men as rationall which yet are not so indeed therefore we pray to day that really they may be so since God is not deceiveable as man is and since no unreasonable thought or deed can passe with him for reason or be pleasing to him see then if it be not very fitting to pray that corrupted Nature may by Grace be elevated to the operations suiting Nature in her best rectitude when even so she is crooked enough in the sight of God who is Rectitude Essentiall But least while we condescend to satisfie curiosity we forget our maine designe let us see how this Prayer suits indeed with the other parts of this daies service which with the Epistle it seemes to doe whilest petitioning Reason to be the guide of all our actions it puts us in mind of a rationall persisting to doe well since by Gods grace we are called with the Thessalonians to the profession of the same faith which this daies Epistle from first to last exhorts them to continue in maugre
the intervening persecutions that may divert them from it And look what was then said to them for perseverance both in faith and good workes is also to day by holy Church applied to us in this Prayer that beggs us grace ever to think and consequently alwaies to doe well that is reasonable things because none else can be pleasing to Almighty God It remaines onely to shew how this Prayer does also exhaust the Gospel whereunto it is the better suiting if it be as some witts will have it paradoxicall since that is wholly parabolicall yet nothing lesse rationall than is the prayer petitioning reason in all we think or doe for who can deny but the little mustard-seed of Gods holy word is hugely rationall or who can say but the deeper it falls into the earthly hearts of men the faster root it takes growes the stronger up and brings the riper fruit because as well the reason of it as the grace is hugely convincing Againe who can deny but the leaven of the same word hidden in our Soules shall with reason operate upon the whole mass of our bodies and give them a taste thereof harsh perhaps to the corrupted pallats of worldly men but delitious to the relish of God and his holy Angels who delight to taste of such leavened loaves as we call sower when they esteeme them sweet and such are Converts from the Court who are by the leaven of Gods holy word become Princes to Heaven though seeming Clownes to Earth Thus mystically have we adjusted the parabolicall Gospel to the paradoxicall Prayer of this day if wits will have it to be a paradox that men should alwaies meditate on rational things which yet when they do not they cease to be men I will not say what might follow that they become beasts The Epistle 1 THES 1. v. 2. c. 2. WE give thanks to God alwaies for all you making a memory of you in our prayers without intermission 3. Mindfull of the work of your Faith and labour and of the Charity and of the enduring of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father 4. Knowing Brethren beloved of God your Election 5. That our Gospel hath not been to you in word onely but in power and the holy Ghost and in much fullnesse as you know what manner of men we have been among you for your sakes 6. And you became followers of us and of our Lord receiving the word in much tribulation with joy of the holy Ghost 7. So that ye were made a pattern to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia 8. For from you was bruited the word of our Lord not onely in Macedonia and in Achaia but in every place your faith which is to God-ward is proceeded so that it is not necessary for us to speak any thing 9. For they themselves report of us what manner of entering we had to you and how you turned to God from Idols to serve the living and true God 10. And to expect his Sonne from heaven whom he raised up from the dead Jesus who hath delivered us from the wrath to come The Explication 2. THe Apostle speaks not here in the plurall number of himself as Princes and great Persons but in a quite contrary way derogates from himself rather by attributing his own writings joyntly to other his associates and companions as namely here he doth in the first verse of this Epiââle specifie both Sylvanus and Timothy as if he had no more share in this than they and as if what ere he writ they did suggâst or dictate to him as much thereof as came from his own much deeper Spirit an excellent example for all Writers to fellow and attribute their works to their helpers in them rather than to themselves alone besides Sylvanus being Bishop of the Thessalonians there was great reason for the Apostle to consult him in all his proceedings amongst his own Diocesans In their own Bishops name therefore and in his companions who went the circuite with him Saint Timothy whom he had made Bishop of Ephesus the Apostle sayes We give thanks to God for the Conversion of you Thessalonians in our incessant Prayers for your preservation in the Faith of Christ and that by your example others may receive the like Faith and be alike converted 3. Here as in almost all other places of holy Writ we are to note the Apostle joynes good Works with Faith to make it recommendable and availing lest Hereticks should as yet wilfully thây doe mistake and think Faith alone without gooâ Wââks werâ saving whereas it is the active and laborious Faith that brings us to Heaven The Faith which is continually working by Charity that is to doing good deeds for lest they should mistake and think he meant their Faith was onely the Work of God which as it is a gift indeed is true see how immediately he illustrates his own other meaning to the sense above of operative Faith when he addes to the works of their Faith the labor of their Charity as who should say the sole habit of Faith is not enough to those who are able to produce acts thereof and those acts of Faith are then best when accompanyed with deeds of Charity giving life to Faith which without good Works were a dead habit nothing at all availing us But the Apostle proceeds yet further and to make his sense full of perfection adds also to their Faith and Charity which he took speciall notice of their hope in God which made them endure persecution for their Faith and indeed in this Verse he hath artificially and solidly too given the three fittest Epithetes to these three Theologicall Vertues that could be whilst he takes notice of their working Faith their laborious Charity their susteinning Hope whence Saint Chrysostome and others note the Apostle commends not Faith without Workes in the acts thereof nor Charity without Paines in Almes towards the Poor and Sickly nor Hope without Patience or suffering in persecution for Justice And not without reason doth the Apostle here take notice of these three Vertues in the Thessalonians in regard Jason a Thessalonian by name was summoned to the Tribunall of publike Justice as we read Acts 17. ver 6. for having concurred to Saint Pauls escape from his persecutours as also diverse othâr Thessalonians were molested both by the Jewes and Gentiles for their becoming Christians and in this the Apostle commends the work of their Faith for their paines in relieving the Apostles and cherishing all the poor Christians they met with hence he commends their laborious Charity their imprisonment patiently endured for their Religion their sustaining Hope that gave them courage to endure temporall losses in expectation of eternall rewards which he calls the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ that is to say the hope of what Jesus Christ brought us news of eternall Glory For before he came most men lived and dyed like Beasts without regard to any
other life than this sordid one they enjoyed upon earth but it is worthy observation to see the Apostle speak so confidently of our sufferings here before Men as if God for whom these men did see us suffer were as visible in our eyes though we see him not as the men are whom we doe see and truly so it is For God is remarkably seen in all his creatures according to that of Saint Paul Rom 1. ver 20. The invisibles of God by those things that are visible and rightly understood are seen unto us And if we could alwayes have this truth in our minde we should alwayes have God before our eyes as the Apostle avoucheth the Thessalonians had saying they did believe love and hope in the senses above as if they had God the Father and his sacred Son perpetually standing before them and visibly incouraging them to all the good actions of their lives which indeed if every good Christian should perswade himself and square his actions accordingly we should soon see a good world here and a happy reward of our goodness in the next life 4. The knowledge he here speaks of is not that of his Belief and Faith but rather of his experience for it was an evident proof to him that God did love those whom he had Elected to the happy calling of Christianity as it was preached by Christ himself and his Apostles not as now when that terme of election is too loosely and too largely taken God knowes though in truth he alludes here to his knowledge that their Election to Glory will be the reward of their vocation to Grace if they persevere as they have begun to be good Christians so he speaks as by what followes appears literally of their present election to Grace mystically and as by consequence of that glory upon condition of their perseverance 5. For it was a signe of present Grace joyned with a hope of future Glory that he takes notice his preaching did not onely work in force of words with them but in power of Grace also both in the Preachers and in the hearers In the Preachers as confirmed in Grace by the holy Ghost descending upon them and making of poor ignorant men deep Doctors in an instant for this is it he alludes unto saying You know what men we have been among you meaning before the holy Ghost came down upon us and what now we are for your sakes that is to say men illuminated by God for your instructions and exposed to all hazards of our lives for your conversions all which argues the gift of present Grace in the Preachers and the actuall conversions of the hearers argues the same gift of Grace in them and both these give indeed hope of future Glory to them both Note that by the much fulness is here understood the like plenitude of his Doctrine confirmed by like miracles preached by the like impulse of the holy Ghost avowed by the like sufferings for the truth of his Doctrine as was the Doctrine Miracles Preaching and Sufferings of the other Apostles called before him who never had been persecutours of the Church as he was whom they had seen doe all in the same fulnesse of Grace as the other Apostles did and by the Gospel in the beginning of this Verse he means his particular preaching the Word of Christ 6. Here is a strange kind of speech wherein S. Paul puts himself Sylvanus and Timothy as examples to the Thessalonians before Christ when he sayes they were followers of them and of Christ as if he meant for their sakes they had also followed Christ and not them or Christ his sake yet if we reflect upon it this seeming immodesty is hugely modest and extreamly true indeed necessary for however Christ were the Apostles and his other Diciples immediate example and pattern which they followed yet to all the after-Ages the Apostles and their successours to their respective times were the immediate and visible rule of Faith unto the world and the examples whom they first following afterward are called Christians because Christ as he was the first rule to the Apostles so is he the last rewarder of those that believe in him for the Apostles sakes that is by meanes of the Apostles and their successours teaching and preaching the Faith of Christ in regard Christ not being now visibly amongst us gives us leave to follow him by such examples as he pleaseth to send unto us wherewith to supply his own absence namely the governours of holy Church Nor is it any way derogatory to Almighty God that man is instrumentall to his Divine Service as that we say we owe our conversion to such an Apostle to such a Priest to such a holy Man as the immediate and visible cause thereof however we finally place our Faith in Christ and our trust in God who hath given such Gifts such Graces such Powers unto Men as to prevail with their followers to joy in their Tribulation which they suffer for hearing and receiving the Word of God true it is we receive this Word from the mouthes of Men but it is the holy Ghost that moves us joyfully to suffer the Tribulation of all severest persecution rather than not imbrace this Word as Divine however delivered by men unto us because it hath in it an energy a force exceeding all humane power such as inables us to renounce all temporall happinesse in hope of the Eternall which this sacred Word doth promise us 7. See here how the Apostle courts his own Converts by making them in a manner Co-apostles with himself whilst their exemplarity of life is the means of converting others to the Faith of Christ whom the Apostles never did converse withall as here they are said to be worthy of the stile of Co-apostlate over all Macedonia and Achaia great Countries looking upon Christianity as an object of âarest Beauty by reason of the singular Vertues shining in these Thessalonian Matrons to whom this Epistle relates 8. Nay he goes further and to their religious demeanour attributes the Conversion in a manner of all other Nations insomuch as there is no more need as he saith of the Apostles and he adds that as the Thessalonians believe so all the world beliâves seeing in them such remarkable signs of sanctity verity and doctrine 9. They themselves that is to say all those amongst whom we now come have heard of your celebrated conversion from Gentilism to Christianity from plurality of gods so he meanes by Idol gods dead stocks and stones to the Adoration of one sole True and living God from all and unto all eternity And this your conversion is the more famous by reason of the persecutions raised against us and you upon this account who rather chose to die than to desert us though our entrance was persecution and your exit sufferance for the promulgation of the Gospel which teacheth us to adore one onely God 10. And to expect the second coming of his
supernaturall propensions by hearing the most elevating Word of God Symbolically Saint Hilary sayes This leaven of the Gospell was hid in the three measures of meal the Law the Psalmes and the Prophets and now appears in the Trinity of the three Theologicall Vertues Faith Hope and Charity or as others will have it to the three sorts of Believers Beginners Proficients and Perfect who bring forth loaves of fruit swollen to these correspondent proportions of Thirty Sixty or an Hundred fold increase of bigness Allegorically Saint Bernard makes the wombe of the Blessed Virgin Mother of Christ to be the leaven of the Hypostaticall union having a seasoning influence into the three parts of Christ his Soul his Body his Divinity uniting them all in one Person or one loaf made of these three measures of meal as above Anagogically Caesarius Dial. 4. Sayes the woman is the divine wisdome or deity of Christ the three measures oâ meal are all humane natures death and hell and the leaven Christs humanity hid in his grave and in hell whither his humane soul went with his deity seasoning all mankind into the blessed condition of a resurrection from death and purgatory to life eternall in everlasting glory 34 35. There is no more mystery in these two verses than litterally they sound onely this we may observe that as all the whole 77 Psalme of David is a kind of parabolicall or aenigmaticall grave sententious speech because in that psalme he speakes prophetically of this manner of parabolicall speech of Christ therefore to verifie that prophesie Christ here speakes both in grave and truely parabolicall senses though David have much of litterall sence in his said psalme as where he recounts the Benefits God bestowed on the Synagogue or children of Israel in their forty years march with Moses through the red sea and the desert from Aegypt to Canaan the land of promise yet S. Hierome saies that David the type of Christ speakes there mystically as in Christs person promising to his Church infinite blessings namely to man passing through the red sea of his passion and through the desert of this world into the heavenly Canaan or promised land of Glory And for that purpose Christ here ends his parabolical discourse with this second verse of that 77 Psalme of the royall Prophet David I will open my mouth in parables I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world The Application 1. AS it was reason Christ should speak in Parables to verifie what was prophecied of him according to the last Verse in this Gospell so with those Parables he is said with great reason doubtless To utter things hidden from the foundation of the World we may suppose the hidden Mysteries of the Blessed Trinity and of the Incarnation in particular and in generall the workes of Faith whereof Saint Paul in this dayes Epistle mindes the Thessalonians and in them all after Believers For it was indeed the main business our Saviour had to doe upon Earth to plant a Faith in mens mindes whereby they might work out their salvation Hope and Charity assisting the said work of Faith as Saint Paul above cited sayes 2. As it was reason Christ should verifie the Prophets sayings of him so was it reason he should draw the Ignorant multitude to a belief of the greatest Mysteries of Faith by degrees as he did in first speaking Parables and then expounding of them by his Apostles at least in so rationall a way that they easily took all he said for good when they had heard good sense to be wrapt up in his Parabolicall speeches which at first they understood not so what seemed to be spoken to blind their understandings was indeed intended to open them and thus did Christ reasonably condescend when he seemed most unreasonably to transcend the capacities of the People 3. As the Mustard seed of Divine Faith and the leaven of Christian Doctrine have seasoned the whole world with Christianity so is it great reason they being both received into our hearts should in such sort season the little world we are within our selves that all our actions may be answerable to those hidden roots of Religion planted in our hearts as then they will bee when our thoughts are alwayes meditating upon those Christian Duties which in reason we are alwayes bound unto And that we may doe this the Church reasonably prayes to day as above On SEPTUAGESIMA Sunday The Antiphon MAT. 20. ver 6. THe housholder said unto his workmen What stand you here all the day idle but they answering said Because no man hath hired us Goe ye also into my Vineyard and what shall be just I will give you Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer VVEe beseech thee O Lord clemently to hear the Prayers of thy People that we who for our sinnes are justly punished for the Glory of thy Name may be mercifully delivered The Illustration WEe were in the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany taught to pray much to this purpose but we must not think much of repeating the same Prayer when we dayly repeat the same Sins which are the cause of our increased punishments yet we shall finde that danger was there the punishment we deprecated here it is labour either in the race we are by the Epistle bid to run or in the paines the Gospell calls us too in the Vineyard of Christ as if we were hereby given to understand our life in this world is a continuall toil and labour to deserve an eternall rest in the next But further we are to note this Prayer is particularly proper to this day not onely as referring literally in a manner to the Epistle and Gospell but even to the whole Series of holy Churches service upon this Septuagesima Sunday when the Priest in his office is bid begin the story of Genesis thereby to minde us we should from this day begin to serve God as if we were but newly created for that purpose and yet lest we should forget that we were no sooner created than we had by sin annihilated as it were our selves and lost our right of return to that All-being the Creator of Heaven and Earth from whence we came out of our nothing See the Prayer of this Day puts us in minde of our degenerating from God by Sin But withall of our return to him by Repentance if we cooperate with his holy Grace who is ever more ready to give than we are to ask him Pardon Now in regard the Epistle of this day falls from the simile between a Christians life and those who runn a race and mindes us of the Children of Israels going out of Aegypt into the Land of promise of the Cloud and of the Red Sea wherein they were by Moses as it were Baptized as also the Rock which followed them to quench their Thirst and of the Manna from Heaven to be their Food we must observe that this Story
the holy Altar not his reall body as we doe so the true sence of this place is that as they all did eat one figurative bread and had one faith in God so doe we but yet as their faith and food did not carry them all to Canaan so will not faith alone carây us to heaven without good works 4. This verse is harder than the former in regard it will not be easy to shew how they drank of that rock that followed them unlesse we allow they drank of Christs bloud as well as we now doe since Christ is truely the rock that did follow them or came after them and issued out his pretious bloud for us really to drink againe Christ was a spiritual rock as here is said not a reall rock of stone for the true understanding therefore of this place we must know by spirituall rock is here understood a mysticall or typicall rock and such was the reall and naturall rock out of which Moses commanded water with a stroak of his rod and yet that reall rock was but a mystery type or figure of Christ and so in regard of that mystery is called here spirituall because it did praefigure the rock of Christ some therefore say with the Hebrewes that this rock did miraculously follow the children of Israel even to the land of Promise grounded in that text Numb 21. ver 16. Others conceive this to be verified by the water of the rock following the children of Israel at least till they came where plenty of more water was others think following them is veryfied by the obedience the rock shewed to issue out water once at Moses command so by follow they understand obey but this falls short of the gramatticall signification of the word follow so the true and genuine sence of the Apostle is that this rock as it was a type of Christ so the following of this rock is typicall and not reall Spiritual and not naturall as who should say Christ who corporally followed them many yeares after did spiritually now follow them that is in his sacred Deity or as he was God not man marched with them from the beginning to the end and so by his providence still supplyed them with water which was in effect to make the rock follow them so here Christ his divinity was the thing signified by the water out of the rock which did represent the same and to clear this sence the Apostle sayes in plaine termes the spirituall rock here meant by the material or natural rock was Christ Those are his words But the rock was Christ as who should say what we mean by this spirituall rock following them was Christ his divinity for his humanity was not then in being when spiritually he did follow them nor doth it urge against this truth what is further objected they did drink of this rock but the rock they drânk of was the materiall rock therefore that material rock was not onely a type of the spirituall but was truely the spirituall rock since as the drink was materiall water so the rock must be the maâeriall rock for it is answered the water they drank was typicall because it was a figure of Christs Deity and so the materiality of both rock and water hinder not the spirituality of Type or Figure in them both To conclude the Allegory of this place holds thus Christ was this rock who was therefore sayd strucken by Moses because the Iewes were of the Mosaicall Synagogue who struck Christ to death by the Rod of the holy Crosse the bloud of which rock was satiating drink to the true believers and was water of contradiction to the Incredulous Iewes who will not believe in his deity and misbelieving hereticks that deny the reality of his blessed body and bloud in the Sacrament of the holy Altar by whose virtue we are carried through the desart of this world into the heavenly Land of Promise nor will it follow that therefore these words of Christ saying this is my body are to be understood as hereticks pretend This is a figure of my body as here we say this is a spiritual rock that signifies This is a figure of a spiritual rock because Christ doth not say this is a figure of my body or this is my body spiritually meant no but this is my body absolutely and really the same which shall be crucified for your sinns upon the crosse as it was indeed not onely figuratively but really besides the sixth verse of this Chapter cleares all doubt of this point saying in expresse termes These things were done as in a figure to us so here is a plaine profession of a figurative speech in the Apostle we find none such of any figurative speech of Christ when he said This is my body 5. This fifth verse confirmes what was said before That Faith alone without good works was not enough to bring the children of Israel into the Land of Promise and consequently much more are good works necessary to bring us to heaven lest as the greatest part of the Hebrew people perished in the desart so the greatest part of Christians be damned if they lead not lives answerable to their Faith and Religion The Application 1. FRom the first Sunday in Advent to the Nativity of our Saviour the Churches service represents the senility or decrepit age of Judaism weary of old expectation and longing for the coming of new hopes in Jesus Christ Yet to shew the Jews were dear to God he gave them a happy period a glorious Catastrophy in John the Baptist 2. From the Nativity to this Septuagesima Sunday the Holy Church hath fed us with the admirable doctrine of out Infantile Christianity beginning with the Infant Jesus and teaching us how to walk religiously as so many Infants and children of grace 3. From this day to the end of Lent the service runs upon another strain minding us of the forfeiture of our first Father Adam made of that Repose and Rest he was created in and of the toil and labour hee drew upon himself and his whole Posterity by his disobedience so the vicility or perfect man-hood of humane nature is the state wee are now taught to perfect And therefore this Epistle brings us into the school of vertue to day neither as decrepid men nor as new born Infants but as active youths all running of a race to win the Prize of heaven and this to verifie the curse imposed on our Father Adam of eating his bread in the sweat of his brows So that toyl and labour is wee see most justly inflicted on us for the punishment of sin and all the rest we can hope for must be by the meer mercy of our Lord who yet is ready to give us an eternall Rest in the next life for a short race here for a little labour taken to glorifie God by loving our own souls Say then beloved the Prayer above as the fittest Petition for the performance of our present
we lack but also whatsoever we can rationally ask of him who is no niggard of his favours and while the blind man askes his sight we may conceive he askes as much as his life too for a blind man is like a visible death to all other men and a sensible one unto himself since he can feele misery on all sides but see comfort no way to which purpose see Tobias Cap. 5. ver 12. and heare Saint Ambrose Uti tristes sunt c. As the day without Sun-shine is but sad and the nights without Moone-light not so pleasing so is the life of man deprived of the light of his body his eyes for they the Sunne and Moone are as it were the eyes of the world and without their lustre the heavens themselevs do suffer a deformity of blindnesse And S. Austine upon this place saies Tota igitur vita c. Our whole lifes exercise therefore is but to cure this eye of the heart to this end hath Almighty God instituted all the holy Mysteries to this end is the word of God preached to this end tend all Ecclesiastical exhortations c. Let us therefore all cry out O Lord give us the light of Grace to see the turpitude of sinne the vilitie of concupiscence the exilitie of pleasure the atrocity of hell fire the beauty of virtue the happinesse of Paradise the eternity of Glory Amen 42. No marvel our Saviour gave so speedy a reward to so strong a Faith the cause taken once away the effect must needs cease the cause of this corporall blindnesse was spirituall coecity the blind-mans infidelity which taken away by Faith he enjoyes immediately his corporall sight and so hath the effect gone upon surcease of the cause nor need we scruple to make this exposition when our Saviour saies in expresse termes This mans Faith was his cure for if so then Infidelity was his disease 43. We cannot read this story without being moved to imitate the gratitude of the blind man in giving thankes for the benefit received as we shall be forward enough to imitate his importunity in calling to God for help in our necessities and what was his gratitude his following our Saviour magnifying and praysing of him as also did all the people that were witnesse to the benefit received that we would our selves thus testifie our own gratitudes thus get all the world to help us expresse our thanks for such benefits as they all see we receive daily and hourly from almighty God since we have an assurance if we goe as farre with him as this blind man did to his passion to his Cross to his death to his grave he will raise us with him to a new life of grace here and to an eternall life of Glory in the next world The Application 1. AS it was this blind mans Faith that made him corporally whole so was it his love and charity that made him spiritually sound that did shake off the Fetters of his affection to sinne and kept him by that meanes from all adversitie while it fastned him to the purchaser of all prosperity our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2. It was indeed his Charity that made him leave all other company to follow Jesus and to magnifie his Deity by proclaiming his mercy in having delivered him from misery And whither did he follow him To Hierusalem to his Passion to his Death to his Sepulcher 3. O lively Faith that did not die in this poor man when Jesus dying for him left even his Apostles tottering in their Faith O burning Charity that like a flaming lamp hung ore the Sepulcher of Jesus dead and buried Adoring then and magnifying the Divinity which never did forsake the sacred corps of Christs Humanity though his living soul had left his dead body in the grave O admirable way to shake off the shackles of sinne and to keep us free from all adversitie thus firmely to believe thus ardently to love and so to follow Jesus from his grave into his glory O for this purpose well adapted Gospel of Faith to an Epistle of Charity O well adjusted Prayer as above to both On the first Sunday of Advent The Prayer called the Collect. ROwse up we beseech thee O Lord thy power and come away that from the emiâent dangers of our sinnes thou protecting we may deserve to be freed and thou delivering us we may be saved Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen So end all Prayers The Prayer called the Secret MAy these Sacrifices O Lord by their powerfull vertue bring us cleansed and more pure unto their purifying fountain The Prayer called the Post-Communion LEt us receive O Lord thy mercy in the midst of thy Temple that we may prepare for the future solemnities of our reparation with congruous homages On the second Sunday of Advent The Prayer ROwse up our hearts O Lord towards preparing the wayes of thy onely begotten Sonne that by his coming amongst us we may deserve to serve thee with purified Souls The Secret VOuchsafe O Lord to be appeased by our humble Prayers and Offerings and whereas we have no title of merit succour us with thine own supplyes The Post-Communion BEing filled with the food of Spirituall Almes we humbly beseech thee O Lord that by the participation of this Mystery thou wilt teach us to contemn Earthly and to love Heavenly things On the Third Sunday of Advent The Prayer LEnd we beseech thee O Lord thine ear unto our Prayer and enlighten the darknesse of our minde with the Grace thy Visitation The Secret MAy the sacrifice O Lord of our Devotion be continually offered up both to perform the precepts of this sacred Mystery and admirably in us to produce thy saving work The Post-Communion VVEe implore O Lord thy clemency that these Divine helps may expiatâ our sinnes and prepare us to the future solemnities On the fourth Sunday of Advent The Prayer O Lord we beseech thee raise up thy power and with thy mighty vertue come away to our succour that by the help of thy Grace what our sins retard the indulgence of thy propitiation may accelerate The Secret ORdain O Lord we beseech thee being by these present sacrifices appeased that they may avail to our Devotion and Salvation also The Post-Communion HAving received thy bounties we beseech thee O Lord that by frequentation of thy Mystery the effect of our salvation may increase On Sunday within the Octaves of the Nativity The Prayer OMnipotent Sempiternall God direct our actions in thy good pleasure that in the name of thy beloved Son we may deserve to abound in good Works The Secret GRant we beseech thee Omnipotent God that the offering which we have made in the eyes of thy majesty may obtain us the grace of holy Devotion and bring unto us the effect of a blessed Eternity The Post-Communion BY the operation of this Mystery may O Lord our sins be purged and our just desires be accomplished On Sunday within the
end is accomplisht then the whole creatures we are become as was intended purified but least I should be thought to state this sense to my own designe let us heare Saint Leo in his Homily upon this day which the Priest reads in his Office tell us his opinion wherein consists the perfection of our Lenten Fasts Not in the sole abstaining from meat consisteth the integrity of our Fast but in the joynt taking away our affections from sinne thus hee and how shall we give better Testimony of our not being sinners then in doing good works such as may make us Saints see here then the Scope of holy Fast is as it were to starve the body and to feed the Soul for in vaine this forbears to eat flesh if that doe not feast upon Spirituall Cates such as are good works of Prayer Almes-deeds and other sorts of vertues especially recommended in this holy time of Lent nor is it without mystery the Prayer to day begges we may finish by good workes what we indeavour only by Fasting our annuall purifications by this Lenten Abstinence since though we have the grace to keep the fast exactly in point of dyet yet in vaine our bodies fast towards purification of the whole creature which we are unlesse our Soules at the same time feast upon vertues by abandoning all vices in this the Prayer to day observes the method of the Epistle in vaine the Ministers of holy Church receive the grace of God unlesse they make use of the acceptable time the dayes of salvation that now are flowing and this by rendring themselves with good workes pleasing to all men offensive to none unlesse to their Fast they adde the good works expressed in the Antiphon above taken out of the same Epistle and many more which those few referre unto from one end of the Epistle to another nor can we say these are counsels proper for Church-men only since those the expositours understand by Helpers in the Ministery of God because the Apostle layes himselfe open to the Corinthians not only as a Minister of God requiring such perfections as this Epistle mentions but as a patterne to the people to imitate so that all the good workes he tells them Churchmen should be perfect in he exhorts lay-men to practise too as if he would have the sheep equal Saints with their shepheards and indeed this is no strained sense of mine for we see holy Church to day exhibits unto us not only Apostolicall perfection in the Epistle but even that of Jesus Christ himselfe the Master of the Apostles when his forty-dayes Fast is set before our eyes in the Gospell and not that Fast alone but withall the addition of his good workes his Watching and his praying his resisting the strongest temptations that the Devill could accost him with now who that seeth this can say there wants sufficient Harmony betweene the preaching and the Praying part of this dayes service and that ample as can be in an abstract of Prayer exhausting two such large Texts as are the Epistle and Gospell of the first Sunday in Lent The Epistle 2 ad Cor. 6. v. 1 c. 1 And we helping doe exhort that you receive not the grace of God in vaine 2 For he saith In time accepted have I heard thee and in the day of Salvation have I holpen thee Behold now is the time acceptable behold now the day of salvation 3 To no man giving offence that our Ministery bee not blamed 4 But in all things let us exhibite our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in tribulation in neâcssities in distresses 5 In Stripes in Prisons in Seditions in Labours in Watchings in Fastings 6 In chastity in knowledge in longanimity in Sweetnesse in the holy Ghost in charity not fained 7 In the word of Truth in the vertue of God by the Armour of Iustice on the right hand and on the left 8 By honour and dishonour by infamy and good fame as Seducers and True as they that are unknown and knowne 9 As dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed 10 As sorrowfull but alwayes rejoycing as needy but inriching many as having nothing and possessing all things The Explication 1. THe Apostles stiling themselvs Helpers in this verse allude to what was said more plainly in the immediate Chapter before to the Corinthians v. 19. where they were told Christ was the true reconciler of the people to God and his Apostles had given unto them by Christ the Ministery of this reconciliation the Administration of the Sacraments whereby we receive the grace of God and so are reconcil'd to him principally by himselfe Secondarily or Ministerially by his Apostles And the like is done by their Successours the Priests of holy Church to which alludes that saying of the Apostle Coloss 1. v. 24. That his Ministery and sufferings for the Faith doth accomplish those things which are wanting of the Passion of Christ not but that Christ did suffer personally all he was to suffer as head of his Church but that hee was yet to suffer more in his Members and even their sufferings he esteemed his own in so much as he gives the Apostle leave to say his and the other sufferings of Christians are supplies even of what was wanting in Christ his passion to shew us how neer and deer our sufferings are to God while he esteemes them as those of his own sacred Sonne and as thus by suffering for Justice all Christians supply what was wanting of Christ his passion so particularly all Priests by their exhortations and administration of the Sacraments are helpers of Christ in the reconciliation of Christians to Almighty God his favour through the grace of the holy Sacraments dispensed to them by the hands of the Priests who onely have this prerogative of reconciliation between God and Man what by their Sacrifices what by their exhortations and Sacraments which are dispensed unto us While the Apostle exhorts us not to receive the grace of God in vain he destroyes the fond doctrine of heretikes who will have grace alone without cooperation on our behalfe to be sufficient whereas out of this very Text the Catholike Church first teacheth that that Gods grace offers no violence to our free will but that it comes so sweet unto us as it is in our powers to reject or receive it as we please and that further we are taught that by our own free act of cooperation and this gratuite grace joyned together we are made gratefull to God whereas if we have never so much grace given us unlesse we doe freely cooperate therewith it is in vaine received as the Apostle sayes here in plaine termes whatsoever Heretikes pretend to the contrary thereby to make a gap open to their lazy liberties perswading themselves Christ hath already saved them and that it boots not what they doe so they have his grace or rather Faith alone without his grace a doctrine diametrically opposite to
the genuine sense of the Apostle in this Text who by grace here understands both the generall benefit of all mankinds redemption or reconciliation to God by Christ his passion and the speciall concourse of holy grace which Christ hath merited for every particular man and which God consequently gives to every one that thereby hee may if he will not in vaine receive it make himselfe an effectuall partaker of the said passion of Christ by cooperating therewith towards his own Salvation whereas otherwise Christ his passion remaines onely sufficient but not effectuall or actually efficatious to every particular mans Salvation 2. This prophesie reports to the second person of the Blessed Trinity thus speaking to his heavenly Father Jsaias 49.8 in the accepted time of his Incarnation and in the saving day of his passion which wrought Salvation to the whole world and when the Apostle tells us that now this acceptable time this day of Salvation is come he meanes the whole time afforded man in this world from the houre of our Saviours Incarnation and passion to the very latter day of doome is all and every minute of it so acceptable so saving that no man can use any the least instant of it in vaine if he please to serve himselfe thereof but may in any time of his whole life in any instant of that whole time by a true conversion of his heart to God and by an aversion of it from sinne save his soule though it were huge presumption in any man that had enough to doe in all his life to overcome his vices and would be so supinely negligent as never to convert his Soule and the affections of his heart to God but at some posting minute when he could no longer injoy the liberty of sinne note also though this be the literall sense of Isaias above yet the mysticall of it is that holy Lent is singled out as the most acceptable time in all the year to work out our Salvation in because we have then the assistance of the whole Church joyntly prostrate with us in Prayer Fasting and Pennance so in case our own indeavours come short yet they may now be carryed on as some men are in crowds being borne up by others when they have no footing of their own to carry them along 3. Here the Apostle seemes to put so much force in the necessity of good life in Christians such as takes off all note of scandall or offence as if all the labour of the Priests were lost unlesse the people did live according to the doctrine of the Church according to the preaching of the Pastours for so he concludes as though their Ministery might be blamed and questioned whether of God or not if the people did not live vertuous lives and without offence because men would be apt to say they were fine teachers fine Masters indeed who breed up such sinfull Scholars as give offence to others 4. And lest the people might pretend it is in vaine for Priests to Preach good life unlesse they also lead the same the Apostle both for this reason and further to let them see they were seduced by following such Preachers as without ordination or Mission tooke upon them that Ministery and did perhaps speake well but doe ill themselves falls tacitly into an Encomiastick of himselfe and of all true Ministers of Gods holy word above what was due to false Ministers by exhorting the people to such good life as they might see example of in him and the rest of the Apostles and Disciples of Christ while he saies let us shew our selves like Ministers of God instructed ordained and sent by him to Preach and lead examples of good life not obtruded upon the world by man pretending Mission and ordination who had none indeed and therefore could not truly be called the Ministers of God as onely the Apostles and their legall successours are all this he means by those words let us live as the Ministers of God then he proceeds to tell the Signes and the Tokens of such or at least the effects commonly following all such true calling ordination or mission that it renders them capable of much patience and lest this vertue should seeme but narrowly communicated by God to his Apostles here is an ampliation of it to all Emergencies or occasions wherein commonly mens patiences are truly tried that so whiles it is not limited to any one occasion or circumstance but extended to all it may appeare to be a mark or an effect of a true Minister of God since it is his gift whose every work is perfect and from this very place to the end of this Epistle the Apostle runs on declaring the marks of a true Minister of God squaring out the excellency and perfection of an Apostolicall man and of his life so that little need more to be said for explaining the verses following now we know they all drive to this end and are spoken in this sense yet now and then I shall observe in each verse something particular when the sense is deeper then it may seem to be at first reading 5. Note in this verse the Apostle exhorts even in persecutions such as was expressed above to use voluntary Mortifications namely Watching and Fasting for they are seldom inflicted as punishments of our Persecutors though even in that sense the hunger of prisons and restless nights thereof caused by the unruly company commonly in such places may also have been glanced at as things the Apostle exhorts to bear patiently 6. Chastity is here of special regard because we see the Ministers of other Churches profess it is not to be of obligation nay they wil have it incompatible with humane Nature and no way possible to be prescribed to Priests or vowed by them So by this particular mark of Chastity the Apostle distinguisheth a true Priest from an usurper of Apostolical Mission and gives this as an eminent splendour in the Catholick Church abounding in many thousands of Priests and Religious persons of both Sexes vowing and most of them doubtless if not all keeping their Vow exactly Knowledge or Science is here of special remark too since it behoves all Priests not onely to know the common Principles of Christian Doctrine but further the genuine sense of holy Scriptures and deepest Mysteries of our Faith so to enable them upon all occasions to teach to preach and to instruct the ignorant By Sweetness is here understood Meekness that since they must meet with all rudeness in nature and know all the harshness of sinners they had need of this Vertue to make their Reprehensions upon occasions more efficacious by the mildness and sweetness wherewith they exhort to good and dehort from evil life 7. By the Vertue of God is here meant either the power whereby sometimes they work Miracles or that fortitude wherewith they run through all difficulties in the practice of Christian Perfection By the Armour of Justice on the right hand and on
intrinsical flowing from the Deity The causes of this Fast were many As that thereby he might satisfie for Adams eating the forbidden Apple That his own humane Soul might be more apt to contemplation by this means That he might sanctifie the Lenten fast of forty days which he knew his Apostles would erect and deliver over for the Church to follow until the worlds end in imitation of this example he had given them When it is said That after forty dayes he was hungry this argues not but he might sooner have felt the want of meat however his divinity supplyed the defect thereof and when he was sensible of hunger afterwards it was not that he could no longer fast but to have the merit of being tempted against his holy purpose and of resisting that Temptation for our future instructions in like occasions 3. The Tempters approaching argues he came visibly in the shape of a man which he had assumed for Christ had his internals so regulated as likewise Adam by Original Justice had that he could not be tempted by any inward Suggestion against Reason nor was Adam what-ere he might have been so tempted but by Eve and she by a Serpent outwardly appearing When the Devil said If thou be the Son of God it argues he was doubtful of it for he had heard the voyce from heaven saying This is my beloved Son when Christ was Baptized as also he had heard how John the Baptist preached him to be the Messias the Son of God and yet seeing him appear to be a man and finding he was hungry as men are he tempts him to break his fast by the subtilty of telling him it would shew him to be the Son of God if he would turn stone into bread to satisfie his hunger 4. Excellent answer giving no advantage to the aggressor but repelling him rather by his own weapons turned upon him by holy Writ saying Man doth not onely live by bread but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God Deut. c. 8. v. 3. and what need he convert the stones to bread to manifest his power who with the least word of his mouth could feed the better part of man his Soul intimating thereby Prayer and Meditation to be as fit a food for the refreshment of a Christian as his daily bread the one enabling him to live eternally the other helping out a momentary breathing onely 5 6 7. The evil Spirit finding Gluttony to be no motive able to prevail with Deity flies to the medium that had wrought upon himself the Titillation of Ambition or Vain-glory when he said he would be like the Highest fondly thinking what prevailed with him in Heaven would work upon our Lord on Earth To be forsooth attended on by holy Angels though in an act of diabolical presumption Precipitation of himself from the pinacle of the Temple Too short a cloak to hide so large a sin as the Revenge thou aymest at beneath it Thou hadst thy self a Fall from Heaven down to Hell which thou wouldst now repay by giving Christ another from off the Temple where God is adored down to the ground where thy High Altar is when men adore low Creatures of the earth before their high Creator This this fond Serpent is thine aym to make thy God lye sprawling on the earth as thou dost lye in everlasting flames and this thou wouldst have done before the doors of all the holy Priests whose houses were about the Temple so to make them scorn and trample ore the God they had adored upon their holy Altars Alas how short is thy Serpentine wisdom of his that is eternal of his that sees thy specious pretexts are all deceits and tells thee so when he replies Thou shalt not tempt thy Lord thy God Deut. 6.16 How canst thou hope to Tempt hereafter any man to evil under shew of good this thou hast got to make poor man thy Master by ayming at the Mastery upon thy God To conclude by the Hands of Angels in this Text is understood their ayd for Spirits have no hands nor any other limbs or parts at all 8 9 10. Alas how poor a thing is Avarice to tempt a God withall say who is able first to give him any thing and it shall be restored Rom. 11. v. 35. Thus creatures seeme to uncreate their God in their foolish imaginations thinking him to be imperfect as themselves needy or indigent as they who yet hath made and given to the universe a being out of nothing But for the devill to presume God should adore him too for that he could not give this is a fondnesse not to be exprest as passing all imagination and so was best returned with a scorn of bidding the fond usurper know his distance go like a Lacquey at the heeles of his creator and well he was not yet reduc't to his first principle to nothing by an immediate annihilation It was indeed high time to tame his insolence when nothing but an homage due to God an Adoration would suffice him No devil no maugre thy pride Thou must adorâ thy Lord thy God and he alone it is that thou and we and all the world must serve His are the Heavens and the earth is his and well it is thou art the Lacquey yet of him thou wouldst have Lorded over if thou couldst It is his greater glory to force thee to thy duty maugre thy proud heart then to deprive himselfe of what is good in thee thy being how bad soever thou art thy selfe and howsover despicablely miserable in that being too 11. Some doe doubt how Christ came backe to his desert of Quarentana when the devill was gone affirming the good Angels carryed him thither as the bad Angel had brought him thence but probably himselfe gave his own Divinity leave to doe that office to his body if yet we may not say it was the effect of his glorified soule and body too for they were both as glorious then as now Sure enough as soon as he was there the Angels as to their Lord and God came offering their attendance however this is for our comfort that after the devill hath tempted us if we resist we may hope the Angels will come to comfort us that need it since they did so to Christ who stood in no necessity thereof at all The Application 1. WE had the honour to be called into the field to day by the Lieutenant Generall the Priest of holy Church but we are led up to the Battaile by the Captaine Generall himselfe our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath already vanquisht all our enemies for as he dyed to conquer death and purchase us eternall life by dying so by his being tempted he secur'd us of the victory in our Temptations if we but resist the Temptor and persisting in our holy purposes Crown the Fast with our Perseverance therein such as Jesus in his hunger gave us an example of although not bound to Fast as we 2. It is a
was to terrifie the people the sweet Law of grace was to be their guide he alone their comfort so that to him they were to stand firme in all distresses of him to receive all reliefes and by him to be brought finally to the eternity of that heavenly glory which here the Apostles had but a transient glimmering of thereby to shew this is not a time or place for comforts but rather for afflictions and that lest we should be dejected by being alwayes in affliction we may hope for the intervening comfort now and then of mysticall Transfigurations by which we shall for a short time take content in the service of God but they passing away againe are to leave us unto the trials of new afflictions till by frequent conformities of our wills to the pleasure of Almighty God we be rewarded with eternall glory for our patient enduring the many Eclypses we found here of heavenly comforts in our Soules by the interposition of earthly tribulations 9. By bidding them tell this vision to no body he forbids their speaking of it not onely to the people but even to the rest of the Apostles lest it might trouble them not to have been present at it and by his resurrection all men would be easily made beleeve he was God who if they had been told it before would have doubted thereof especially when they see him dead and buried so to speak of this Testimony of his Deity before his resurrection were labour lost but by this injoyning silence of his glory and propalation of his death and passion Christ gave us an admirable example to conceale our own praises and to be content with publication of pressures and infirmities since none can have any infamy so great to him as was the ignominy of the Crosse to Christ wherein we see he gloryed whilest he suppressed the fame of his glory till he had suffered the ignominy of his most opprobrious death hence Saint Paul forbids himselfe all other glory then in that of the Crosse of Christ a good lesson for all good Christians to learne and practice to be perfect in The Application 1. SInce there is a day made specially sacred to the Mystery of the Transfiguration the sixth of August when that Feast is celebrated we cannot expect to have this mystery looked on to day so directly as that the Prayer should litterally relate to it suffice it then to find it mystically proper to the Prayer 2. And thus it will be proper enough since we are taught the Transfiguration was at least a transient vision beatificall such as Saint Peter held to be a kinde of Heaven where he was content to build a Tabernacle of aboad and look how unable we are to be chaste so are we in our selves void of all strength to goe to Heaven and have need of a world of guards both interior and exterior to preserve us from the corporall adversities or sins that keep us thence or from the spirituall sins of evill thoughts that shut up Heaven Gates against us 3. To conclude since nothing makes our way securer into Heaven then to carry a Pure Soule in a Chaste body we being taught the cleane of heart are therefore blessed because they shall see God for this cause the Gospel of the transfiguration was very fitly joyned to the Epistle of chastity because the Chaste Body is that Transient Heaven upon Earth which is most delightfull to a pure Soule And as Chastity Transfigures us into a similitude of God whom we shall then live like unto when we see him and therefore like unto him because we see him that we may by the vertue of chastity joyned to our holy Fast be Transfigured into a similitude of his Divine Majesty We pray with holy Church as above On the third Sunday in Lent The Antiphon Luke 11. v. 27. A Certaine woman of the multitude lifting up her voyce said blessed is the wombe that bare thee and the Paps that gave thee Suck But Iesus saith to her yea rather blessed are they that heare the word of God and keep it Vers To his Angells c. Resp That in all c. The Prayer WE beseech thee Almighty God looke downe on the desires of thy humble people and extend the right hand of thy Majesty in our defence The Illustration IF any be to seek here what is meant by the desires we beseech God to looke downe upon of his humble people 't is but casting back an eye to what was declared in the first Sundays Prayer of Lent to be the end of this holy fast and finding it thereto be our purification we shal soon conclude that selfe same end is still and ought ever to be our desires all the Lent long because the continuation of the Fasting Medium argues our constant desire of arriving at the end to which it drives our being Purified by that meanes So thus we see the Torrent of our holy Fast runs never the lesse slowly on because it makes not a noyse in our eares rather it growes the deeper by how much lesse we heare thereof for shallow waters are those that tell us of the stones they fall upon but deep ones silently goe by nor is the stile of humble people any common place but hugely proper to this time of Lent which drawes the whole Christian world upon their knees and not content to have them low as earth while they Fasting watch and pray did in a manner bury them below the earth when on Ashwednesday they were all Sprinkled o're with holy Ashes as if they were not worthy longer to be the upper earth that had so proudly rebelled against Almighty God but must lye lower now and hope by falling downe to rise againe and truly if we reflect upon the words of this Prayer they are exact termes of a most humble Soule who dares not say she hath a will to fast on still and to be purified but onely tels Almighty God 't is her desire and hopes this humble expression will make it be his holy will she shall obtaine her desires because his onely looking on it as she humbly prayes to day he will is able to effect it But lest we forget to shew the Prayer suits as well to the Epistle and Gospell as to the time of Lent we must remember no termes could more directly exhaust them both then what this Prayer is couched in For how can we be followers else of Almighty God as Saint Paul exhorts us to be with the Ephesians unlesse we shew our selves to have learned the lesson of the Son of God without book Learne of me that am meeke and humble of heart which lesson this dayes Prayer repeats when holy Church cals us the humble people of Almighty God and meeknesse ever goes with humility hand in hand so having set our first step right into the track of this Epistle we need not fear the missing of our way for true humility hath root in love and will not stumble
Fornication and Vncleanesse in the Epistle on the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost avarice shall be explicated anon in the fifth verse of this Epistle so we now proceed to the fourth verse as it here followes in order 4. By Filthinesse is here understood obscaenity of words for uncleannesse is properly that which is obscaenity in deeds or actions by foolish talk is understood wasting time in any impertinent discourse that doth not tend to edification of our neighbour by some report or other to Almighty God but busies the mind in idlenesse as the foolish virgins were busied who not so much for doing ill as for not doing well for fooling away their time were shut out of heaven so all the discourse may be called foolish that doth not tend to God more or lesse By Scurrility is here properly understood rusticity or rudenesse in discourse not onely where it is wanton or obscene to which onely sence some men ignorantly apply the word Scurrility but when it is redundant nauseating the hearer unproper to the Subject in hand and to the company present or indeed unmannerly and so offensive to them when too too ridiculous as procuring laughter upon any ill chosen Subject but principally and above all when it is breaking Jests out of holy Scripture or the Fathers or Councels and so making Sacred things the Subject of an idle end which is to raise laughter and mirth from that which should render us most sober and serious whence is grounded that axiome it is ill manners besides that thereof can come no good to jest and scoffe at Holy Things and of Scurrility in all these sences as above the Apostles next sentence is that it is nothing to the purpose meaning nothing at all tending to the Salvation of our Soules which is and ought to be alwayes the scope of all our words of our thoughts and actions not that by this the Apostle forbids civill mirth such as relaxeth the fixed sobriety of our minds meerly for honest recreation sake for such mirth is lawfull as offending neither God nor Man but Scurrility is ever to be avoided and instead of that unlawfull way of mirth in our discourse the Apostle exhorteth to giving God thanks that is by praising his goodnesse shewed either to our selves or others in his marvellous providence over all the world for this is a scope so ample as will ever give abundant way to discourse and so laudable as no man can be offended at it 5. In this verse the Apostle sums up what he had before forbidden and tels us that no such persons as these can hope for heaven his meaning is by being such not but that when they leave and repent they may be saved but here by the covetous person he puts us in mind of what he meant in the third verse above by Avarice namely Jdolatry of the minde for as much as covetous persons make their money their Idol God I say Jdolatry of minde or rather Spirituall Jdolatry because I would shew how impertinently Heretikes translate this place of Scripture when thereby they understand the prohibition of Images or pictures in the Churches which is very far from the sence of this Text where the Apostle forbids to make Riches our God for so he means by calling Avarice adoration of Jdols and such it might be in Catholikes if they did set up their baggs of gold in Churches and worship them but who ever heard they were so fond or how can they by worshipping pictures in memory of the God or Saints they represent be said to love the pictures as the covetous man doth his Idoll his Golden God But we are to note here by Avarice annexed to Fornication and Vncleannesse the Apostle glaunceth at a huge excesse of lust such as makes mens mindes long after carnality as covetousnesse doth fix them wholly upon hoording up of riches and as such covetous men care not to cozen others for lucre of sordid gaine so men wholly addicted to lust care not to cozen other men of their wives and engrosse them to their own adulterous ends and this kind of excesse in lust is properly called Carnall Avarice because as the covetous man is never satisfied with gaine so is this lustfull minde never satiated though the body be rendred even unable to act the desires of a bestiall minde whence the Apostle properly cals it Spirituall Jdolatry because such a man is alwayes adoring this Idoll of his lust It is a pretty art the Apostle useth in the close of this verse to put the Kingdome of Christ and of God together as one joynt thing meaning that those who with Christ here are humble obedient and holy shall in heaven be exhalted rewarded and glorified with him 6. The Apostles meaning here is that whosoever tels you it is needlesse to avoyd your swing of pleasures in this world provided you but beleeve doth seduce and cheat you and therefore be not saith he carryed away with their vaine words who would pretend to make you good Christians by Faith alone though you did not depose or renounce the Sordid Gentilisme of your former corrupted manners and lives these are indeed specious but false allurements so we must take heed we be not cheated by them because for Christians continuing their sinfull courses by relying onely upon Faith alone as sufficient to save them we often see the present effect of Gods anger upon them by the punishments inflicted either on their persons or on their Children and Family even in this life and that is meant by the anger of God here mentioned to fall upon the children of diffidence namely those who are not here confiding in God that he will accept of our renouncing ill manners for his sake as well as our infidelity for in the next life there can be no diffidence when the truth of all things shall be known to all in generall and none can doubt or distrust what they ought to doe but shall either receive reward or punishment for what they have already done 7. Here good Christians are forbidden the participation with lewd ones not in their persons but in their vices 8. And that upon no lesse penalty then of falling back into the same darknesse they were in before they were converted when Gentilisme or Infidelity did not forbid them such lewd courses but held them in the darke of beleeving there was no sin in liberty of life or rather in the licentiousnesse thereof and for this opinions sake the Apostle calls the men that hold it darknesse it selfe and contrary-wise those who depose such errors and become true beleevers he cals them light because they following the light of grace become light it selfe as therefore you are light so walk like children thereof in the light of vertue and sanctity of life 9. For the fruit of the light is that is to say consisteth in all goodnesse meaning in benignity and bounty to others and in justice giving to each his due not defrauding
Hell or an indefinite number meant by this definite of seven for so the malice of the Jews imports when it grew more inraged against the Son of God then all the devils of Hell alone could have expressed had not the more hellish Jew concurred to encrease the same Blessed God! how truly doth this Verse close saying These devils dwell there since we are told the refractory Jew shall never be dispossessed absolutely of this devil till the day of Judgement when Jew and Gentile shall both make up one Church of Christ though but for a little time yet sufficient to verifie the Oracle of Truth There shall be one sold and one shepherd And thus literally we may expound these three Verses mystically the recess and access of this foul Fiend is verified when Baptismal Grace first cast a single devil out of our Souls guilty onely of single Original sin and he by our reiterated actual sins returns again with his increased numbers his sevensold Fiends the seven deadly Sins or some such graceless rabble who made the last of this man worse then the first God send he dwell not in us till the Day of our private Doom as certainly he will unless we cast the waters of Contrition on him to quench the fire of his Malice both against God and us and so smoak him out of his Mansion house by making it a Temple for the God he hates when it is perfumed with the incense of Devotion and adorned with all varieties of Vertues 28 29. It seems there was a huge energy in Christ his delivering himself upon this subject when a pious woman ravisht as it were with admiration of his Sanctity and solidity of discourse cryed out praising and magnifying not onely him but even the womb that bare him and the paps that gave him suck not without special Providence of God ordaining her speech to the praise of the Mother not the Father to shew he had no Father as he was man 30. This did not deny but it was indeed a great blessing for the virgin Mary to have had her Saviour in her wombe but yet it tels us both she and others are more blessed to have him in their Souls and so to make their Soules Mothers to the Words-Spirit or of Spirituall Words is to be much more honourable then to have the word-flesh in their bodily wombe or to be the Spirituall Parent of Christ bringing forth the fruit of his Gospell then the corporall bringing forth his flesh and bloud so the word of God is valued above the body of Christ his Spirit is better then his Flesh And the reason is that to bee Mother of God was a grace gratis given not making gracefull but to heare and keep the word of God is an internall grace rendring one acceptable againe to be Gods Mother did not suffice to save her but to heare and keep Gods word doeth the one proper to her the other common to all Christians The Application 1. WE heard in the first Sundayes Epistle of Lent the Priests were bound to Preach unto us this holy time as in Catholick Countries they do every day now we are particularly minded of our duty to heare them Preach as a work appertaining to the Integrity of our holy Fast And lest we should thinke we had comply'd with our obligation in this particular by a bare hearing of Sermons in Lent see our Saviour adds another branch to integrate this duty namely to keep the word we heare that is to conserve it in our hearts by meditating thereupon and by doing as the Preacher tels us we are bound to do for those only that so heare as they also keep this holy word are they our Saviour proclaimes to be blessed Soules 2. Now as this Active word of God cannot lye still in our hearts so it was fit to day to tell us of casting out a Dumb Devill thereby to minde us we are bound to speak forth the praises of Almighty God this holy Time of Lent as wel as to heare his sacred word delivered to us 3. And because we are not silent only out of sloth to speak forth the praises of God but sometimes out of shame are dumb and will not speake the guilt of some foule sin that lies upon our soules when yet we are bound in confession to discover it at which time we are truly possessed with a Dumbe Devill who by the story of this Gospell is not to be removed but by maine force therefore the most forcible of other words that we call divine and the mighty finger of God himselfe are said to be the only meanes to cast this devil out who lest he enter in to the disturbance of our holy aimes We fitly pray as above to keep him out and so to be defended from him On the fourth Sunday in Lent The Antiphon John 6. v. 3. IEsus therefore went up to the mountaine and there he sate with his Disciples Vers To his Angels c. Resp That in all c. The Prayer GRant we beseech thee Almighty God that we who through the merit of our own actions are afflicted by the consolation of thy grace may be comforted The Illustration SEe how the Lenten Letter of our Holy Fast is silently carryed down the mysticall streame thereof in this present Prayer for why doe we now afflict our bodies with abstinence but because we have justly merited that punishment to be inflicted on us through the merits or demerits rather of our sinfull actions more it is to be wondered how we dare close this Prayer with a Petition of consolation how we can hope to be comforted by his holy grace with whom we are so deeply in disgrace as to lye actually under the lash of his correction but here is the difference betweene Almighty God and man the latter never mixeth favors with his frownes of the former the royall prophet tels us that even whilest he is angry he is mindfull of mercy towards us so hence it is we begge this consolation of his grace to be our comfort even while we are under the affliction due to the demerits of our actions and this with reason because every action that is absolutely ours is mixt with sin and so merits punishment but this obedientiall action of our Holy Fast is rather an act of grace then of nature and thence it is we presume to begge the comfort of that grace which doth enable us to this act of pennance But we have yet a harder taske in hand what relation is there in this Prayer to the Epistle and Gospel of the day where is there here a word of Agar and Sarah Abrah Jsaac or Jsmael Sinai or Sion where a Syllable of a miracle of the multiplication of five loaves and two fishes into food sufficient for above five thousand persons yet these are the Subjects of the Epistle and Gospel and we must finde report to these as well as to the time of Lent in the Prayer above or
claime of God in respect of his own merits but in respect of the merits of Christ elevating mans workes to a height of value more then in themselves they have or can have or to speake more plainly not that man workes his own Salvation by his owne power but that God workes that in man which man alone cannot work in himselfe and which yet by cooperation with Gods holy Grace he may claime not as absolutely due to him but as due to Christ working in him The Application 1. WHilest St. Paul brings us in the very front of this Epistle our Blessed Saviour himselfe the High Priest officiating to day no marvell that the Church erects the Altar of the bloody Crosse for Christ to celebrate upon and this Passion Sunday when the ensigne of the Passion is display'd alone the holy and the bloody Crosse of Christ 2. As little marvel 't is we are to day depriv'd of all the suffrages of Saints in Publick Office of the Priest such as we formerly made open intercession to beseeching their assistance in the close of Lawds and Even-song because we now are to suppose that time is flowing when there were no Saints at all nor any Angels able to relieve us since we see the Saint of Saints the Son of God begins to suffer more decreed to dye hence are the usuall Ornaments removed to day the Churches left with naked wals in Catholike Countries where Rights and Ceremonies are observed the Pictures of the Saints pull'd downe and nothing left us but the bloody Crosse to minde us that Almighty God nev'r look't propitiously on us but when he frown'd upon his Sacred Son and made his Passion our Propitiation 3 Say then beloved what 's our duty now is it to wave the Holy Fast or no is it to seek for dispensations by corrupting our Physitians by deluding Ghostly fathers by flattering indeed by cheating of our selves under pretext of sicknesse or infirmity fie no where these are reall there 's no Fast commanded where they are not dispensation's Null because the Fast obligeth maugre dispensation Cease then O Christians cease to pamper sinners while God suffers for our sinnes looke for no favor but from Christ himselfe take no reliefe but what his sparing hand gives to your bodies now reserving greater graces for your soules as in the Illustration we have heard Adde rather frequent Tears unto your Fast for the accomplishment thereof adde your Compassion to our Saviours Passion because there is no company acceptable to our bleeding Christ but a weeping Christian Thus may we hope for the Propitious look we begge to day when he beholds us the relenting the resigned soules we ought to be whilest holy Church prayes as above The Gospell Io. 8. v. 46 c. 46 Which of you shall argue me of sinne If I say the veritie why do you not beleeve me 47 He that is of God heareth the words of God Therefore you heare not because you are not of God 48 The Iewes therefore answered and said to him do not we say well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a devill 49 Iesus answered I have no devil but I doe honour my Father and you have dishonoured me 50 But I seeke not my own glory There is that seeketh and judgeth 51 Amen Amen I say to you If any man keepe my word he shall not see death for ever 52 The Iewes therefore said now we have known that thou hast a devill Abraham is dead and the Prophets and thou sayest if any man keepe my word he shall not taste death for ever 53 Why art thou greater then our Father Abraham who is dead and the Prophets are dead whom doest thou make thy selfe 54 Iesus answered If I doe glorifie my selfe my glory is nothing it is my Father that glorifieth me whom you say that he is your God 55 And you have not known him but I know him and if I shall say that I know him not I shall be like to you a lyer But I doe know him and doe keep his word 56 Abraham your Father rejoyced that he might sete my day and he saw and was glad 57 The Iewes therefore said to him thou hast not yet fifty yeeres and hast thou seen Abraham 58 Iesus said to them Amen Amen I say to you before that Abraham was made I am 59 They tooke stones therefore to cast at him but Jesus hid himselfe and went out of the Temple The Explication 46. IT was in the presence of the High Priest as well as of divers Doctors and Pharisees that Jesus used this art of proving he might uncontrouleably reprove the people because he knew they could not answer him by recrimination nor put him to the blush of turpitude in a doctor reprehending others who is himselfe faulty in the same kind so Christ here reprehending the abominable sins of the Jews takes the priâiledge he cannot be denied of urging them to tax him if they can with sinne and yet lest his immunity from sinne might not suffice in their esteeme which yet was rooted both in his beatificall vision and hypostaticall union making God and man but one person he futher tels them it is pure verity that he preacheth to them so by these two titles of his veracity and sanctity he claimes beliefe of his doctrine and authority of rebuking their sinnes and he doth not here meane onely a naked delivery of truth but a demonstration of all hee tels them to be undoubted and absolute verity rooted in his owne divine veracity and so not to be any wayes disputed but exacting their firme and constant beliefe whence with great reason he sayes here why doe you not believe me 47. It is here to be noted that the Manichaean Heresie was ill grounded from this place as if there had been some men born of a good and others of a bad Spirit and so they of necessity not of choice were either good or bad since here Christ alludes not to the natural but to the supernatural man Hence when he says he that is of God his meaning is he that is inspired by the Grace of God and of his Spirit such it is that hears the word of God and therefore they heard it not because they followed the inspiration of the evil and not of the good Spirit Now that he meant this as to them ill at that time inspired not ill created or naturally made ill it is evident for diverse of them were afterwards by his death and by his Apostles preaching converted and doubtless saved too whence it follows that as they naturally were not made so bad as no good could come of them so they were by supernatural and not by natural means made the good people which afterwards they became and thus those once good become bad again when leaving the inspiration of the good Spirit they follow the dictamens of the bad one 48. It seems by this manner of speech they were used frequently to call him Samaritane
inward spirit or inspiration of the holy Ghost revealing as it were to man internally this truth by a speciall favour of holy unction of whom it is said 2 Ep. Ioan. cap. c. 2. v. 20. 27. He shall teach all truth and that his unction teacheth us in all things 7. This for is a proper illative he having said before the Spirit bore testimony that Christ was verity since the Spirit is one of the three in heaven that give testimony beyond all exceptions namely Father Son and Holy Ghost which is the very spirit that is mentioned testifying as above in Christ his behalfe so the scope of this verse is that all the three persons of the Blessed Trinity give testimony to man and Angels of Christ his being the Messias the Son of God sent to redeeme the world The Father in his Baptisme and Transfiguration the Holy Ghost by comming downe upon him in the shape of a Dove and by comming as sent from heaven by him after his Ascension to confirme his Apostles in grace on Whitsunday the Feast of Pentecost and the word or second person abundantly in all the mysteries of his life and death and all these three are one not in essence and divine nature onely but even in their Testimonies of him they all concurre in one and the same Truth 8. Saint Iohn having cited three divine or increated testimonies of Christ his Deity addes also three created testimonies of the same Truth the spirit water and bloud which three to make a perfect Analogy between this double Trinity he sayes are all one meaning they have all one root the Sacred Deity in which they are sanctified The water represents the Father the Bloud the Son the Spirit the Holy Ghost for as water was the first principle of all sublunary things as in the first of Genesis the creation declared so is the Father the creator of all the world and as Christ by his own bloud saved us so his Holy Martyrs by their bloud give testimony of him as the Holy Ghost taught all truth to the Apostles and their successors so that Spirit of Truth in the Holy Church beares testimony of his infallible veracity by whose holy Spirit she remaines infallible Take then this created Trinity thus by Water Baptisme by Bloud Martyrdome by the Spirit the charity of God diffused in our hearts and these three are one in way of Testimony or testifying all one thing the Deity of Christ that he was true God as well as man So they are not one in nature as the increated Trinity is but in office or Testimony they are all one and the same yet may we say they are even in nature all one too if wee make the division thus that these three human testimonies were all one in Christ as he was man that is the water and bloud out of his side and the spirit his human soule which he dying gave up to testifie he was a true man and all these three may be said one as being severall parts that integrated one whole Christ 9. This verse begins with an argument of similitude importing if we beleeve men much more ought we to beleeve God not that it implyeth as if the Testimony that holy Church gives of truth were a humane Testimony onely but yet creditable even upon that account and undoubted upon an other that though men speak yet God dictates the Truth unto them and so the Doctrine of the Church is not onely the Doctrine nor Testimony of men but also of God assisting them and thence it makes human-Divines or Divine-Men so in short the sence of this verse is whither the created or increated Trinity bear testimony of Christ his Deity it is the testimony of God himselfe either being or working infallible Truth whence Saint Peter 2 Epist cap. 1. v. 21. Sayes well The holy men of God spake inspired with the holy Ghost * So were those signes when Christ suffered in the Sun Moone Rocks c. Signes of the creator speaking in the creatures 10. For many reasons this is true first because he hath a thing testified by God secondly the testimony of God about that thing for none but God could reveale that truth of Christ being the Sonne of God This was told Saint Peter and thence he was called by Christ Blessed Matth. c. 16. v. 17. thirdly because this testimony is faith it selfe the greatest gift of God lastly because by this gift of Faith a man is regenerate and made of the devils Son to be the Son of God The Priest asking first the baptized if he do beleeve Christ and that professed then baptizeth immediately The Application 1. THe Illustration upon this Prayer gives a great help to the present Application of this Text unto our best advantage according to intention of the Holy Church for seeing by the Paschal Feast we understand the vertues that were proper thereunto we must not exclude the magazine of vertues which men have been hoarding up since Advent but especially those in Lent towards making us more capable of the benefit of our Saviours Resurrection because it is no lesse vertue to conserve what we have gotten then it was to get the thing acquired and wee shall then best conserve those vertues when by frequent Acts thereof as occasion is administred we make them perfect in us and when our selves are perfected by them 2. Now to shew the Church observes a method in her services as the three Theologicall vertues Faith Hope and Charity are the maine roots of all Christianity and of all other vertues whatsoever therefore from this time till we come againe to Advent where we first began the Rules of Christianity there are three seasons set a part for these Three Theologicall vertues which are the three last misteries of humane Redemption the resurrection whereby we are to perfect our Faith the Ascension whereby we are to perfect our Hope and the comming of the Holy Ghost whereby we are to perfect our charity as shall be said at large of each when they occurr 3. Suffice it for the present that this Epistle in the front thereof and quite throughout commends unto us the exercise of our Faith as the most proper vertue now required at our hands since we see the mystery of the Resurrection was a thing so hard to be believed that it cost our Saviour forty dayes paines to make it good by frequent apparitians in divers places unto divers persons for he had else ascended up to heaven as soone as ever he arose from his grave had it not been matter of huge difficulty to make the world from thence beleeve that he was God as well as man because he was risen from the dead and that as he being man did rise againe so they should doe that were men too the good to everlasting Joy the bad to everlasting paine no marvell then our Faith in the Resurrection be call'd the victory which over comes the world in the sence of the
should say we deserve true Praise if for conscience of God towards God for Religion sake we sustain that sorrow which falls upon those who are unjustly molested for commonly this breeds affliction to most men yet Christians ought to make this their comfort or their glory and grace in the sight of God and men For saith the Apostle in the next Verse What glory is it if sinning you suffer for conscience to God may be understood that God is conscious or knowing of our unjust sufferings and so in his justice will one day do us right Again for conscience to God is that by so doing we be cleer in our conscience before Almighty God or lastly and best of all if need be to dye for vertues sake rather then be beaten out of it by any threats whatsoever and to this the Apostle alludes for many slaves that in those days became Christians were by their masters beaten some of them to death and yet indured patiently the tyranny of their earthly masters rather then they would gall their consciences towards God their heavenly master by receding from that vertue which he gave them the grace to conserve even unto death The Application 1. UPon what other account then that of the Christian Faith can St. Peter hope to make us believe we that are made of the Elements of this World are Strangers and Pilgrims here and are to refrain from the Pleasures of the World is it not because we believe that Jesus Christ hath by his bitter Death and Passion purchast us a better inheritance is it not because at our Baptism we make a profession of this our Faith and renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil assuredly it is 2. Again from what other Root then that of our Christian Faith are we ty'd up to so strickt a conversation amongst Gentiles amongst the mis-believers but because we that believe rightly are bound to do uprightly and religiously when he is onely counted a just man who is a true believer as we reade Rom. 1.17 He is just who lives according to Faith he means the Christian Faith where note the word Liveâ imports outward Actions for we do not otherwise know whether a man be dead or alive but by outward operations 3. To conclude whence is it else that the true children of God are obliged to obey even mis-believing Superiors but because all Power being from God those that are his children must obey it and are by the Principals of their Faith and of Christian Doctrine obliged thereunto for since the Ruler of our Souls St. Peter the Vicar of Christ himself doth teach us this Doctrine assuredly he had it from that spirit who teacheth all verity and since the first Light of Truth is that of Faith which brings all erring souls in to the right way to Heaven the way of Justice grounded in Faith Therefore we most fitly pray as above that all who bear the names of Christians may reject unchristian deportments and do Christian actions such as the Light of Faith leads them to The Gospel Iohn c. 16. v. 16. c. 16 A little while and now you shall not see me and again a little while and you shall see me because I go to the Father 17 Some therefore of his Disciples said one to another what is this that he saith to us A little while and you shall not see me and again a little while and you shall see me and because I go to the Father 18 They said therefore what is this that he saith A little while we know not what he speaketh 19 And Jesus knew that they would ask him and he said to them Of this do you question among your selves because I said to you A little while and you shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me 20 Amen Amen I say to you that you shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce and you shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy 21 A woman when she travaileth hath sorrow because her hour is come but when she hath brought forth the childe now she remembreth not the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world 22 And therefore you now indeed you have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce And your joy no man shall take from you The Explication 16. THis place is diversly understood by some of the day of Judgement which Christ calls a little while because to God all time is but a moment yet in regard he had immediately before comforted the Apostles that though he was to leave them he would send unto them the Holy Ghost another Comforter who should teach them all truth and that what ere he taught them he should receive it of him therefore it is most probable our Saviour here alluded to his Passion Resurrection and Ascension which being at hand when he spake these words and consequently he being by his Death to disappear a while and a little afterwards namely three days he was to rise again when they should see him a while again that was for fourty days after which he was to ascend unto his Father probably I say this was the most literal Sence of the Words a little c. 17. 18. No marvel if they understood not this Riddle and so brok out into these two Verses following full of doubt what his meaning might be 19. He knew indeed they desired to ask him being grieved and sad at the news of his departure yet were loath to be so bold so he knowing their meaning not by any outward actions of theirs but by his Deity which did see the secrets of their hearts was pleased to satisfie them and yet he did this by sweetning their sorrow with diverting them from one Riddle to another opening the first by the last as appears in the next Verse 20. Wherein he tells them as in the two Sences above Verse 16. That his Disciples and all good men should here weep while the bad men of the world did rejoyce but that as the temporal sorrow of the just should be turned into eternal joy so the temporal joy of the unjust should be turned into eternal grief or rather that you who are my friends shall weep to see me suffer and dye while my enemies the Jews shall rejoyce thereat you being sad in the mean time but as by my resurrection your sorrow shall be turned into joy so their joy shall be turned into sorrow and confusion not for love to me but for shame of themselves 21. For divers reasons the sorrow of the Disciples at Christs death was compared to the pains of a woman with childe and their joy at his Resurrection to the joy of a woman delivered of a Son after a hard labour First because both these Griefs were very Bitter Secondly both Short Thirdly both full of Danger Fourthly both converted into after Joy suitable to their Sorrows Fifthly because as
the same childe was first cause of pain so he is cause of comfort the like of Christ dying and rising again Sixthly both joys are excessive Great whereas they take away all sense of Sorrow So here the Passion of Christ is in this Parable supposed to be the labour or travail of the Apostles dolorous as a womans in childe-bearing and his Resurrection is supposed to be as the Birth of a Son to them after so hard a labour as they were in whilest all the world jeered and scorned them for hoping after so impossible a comfort as it was thought when the Apostle calls it a scandal to the Jews and to the Gentiles a folly St. Augustine is so acute upon this place as to say Christ compared the Apostles sorrow for his Passion to the pains of a woman in labour of a Boy and not of a Girl because those are the greatest labours of women and again he makes a special remark that the Text saith here the Mother forgets her pains not because a Boy is born but a man one that is to be the Support and Prop of her house when her self can no longer live for saith St. Augustine Christ was as it were born by his Resurrection to the World not as a Childe but as a Man conquering Death winning eternal Glory to himself and to all his Posterity to all Saints of Heaven who are the Children of his Grace 22. This Verse applies all the rest by way of Repetition to the Senses as above while it tells the Apostles this shall be their Case about him this their Grief at his Death this their Joy at his Resurrection like the travail and comfort of a woman first in labour then delivered of a Son But when he adds this Close That their joy no man shall take from them he means neither in this world nor in the next for such shall be their joy to see Christ risen who was dead that even the menace of Death to themselvcs shall be comfortable out of their assurance to share with Christ in the joy of his Resurrection if they partake with him in the pains of Death by dying for his sake Whence St. Paul boasting said who shall part us from the Love of God Nakedness the Sword Persecution Rom. 8.35 No no the love of Christ and hope of Heaven are comforts above all afflictions whatsoever whence we reade of the Apostles that they went rejoycing from the bench of the Iudges because they were held worthy to suffer contumely for the name of Iesus Act. 5.41 And this to shew that no man could takâ away that joy which God gave them as the Text above hath told us The Application 1. IT is worthy our observation that amongst so many passages as were between Christ and his Apostles after his Resurrection this days Gospel is taken out of Saint Iohn Evangelist his Story of our Saviours Actions reporting what he said to his Apostles immediately before his Death For we see the Expositors upon the first Verse of this Gospel tell us all that is here said alludes to the Death Passion and Resurrection of our Lord as well as to his Ascension and to the coming of the Holy Ghost Then certainly our Mother Church reads us this Lesson to day with intention to draw from us such like Acts of Faith as our Saviour desired the Apostles should make when he told them he was shortly to dye and shortly to rise again 2. And since this Parable aims at raising consolation in the Apostles hearts out of the disconsolate Death and Passion of their Lord and Master by vertue of the Faith they had in his future Resurrection after his Death Assuredly it is now our parts that are Christians to make the Cross of Christ our chief content the Death of our Saviour the onely hope we have to live and his Resurrection the ground of our Faith that by vertue of his Blessed and Incorrupted Body risen from his Grave our corrupted flesh and blood shall rise again and be made partakers of those heavenly Joys which he hath prepared for all that do firmly believe in him and live according to the Rules of Christian belief 3. Note that amongst those Rules a Principal one is read unto us this day of believing firmly that all the sorrows this world can afford us are not able to rob us of the future joys prepared for us in Heaven if from erring Infidels we become right believing Christians and live according to the light of Truth The Faith of Jesus Christ that is if we do such Actions in Vertue of that Faith as We pray to day we may do say then the Prayer and see how pat it is to this Doctrine of the Church On the fourth Sunday after Easter The Antiphon Joh. 16. v. 5. I Go to him that sent me but because I have spoken these things unto you sorrow hath filled your hearts Alleluja Vers Tarry with us O Lord Alleluja Resp For night draweth on Alleluja The Prayer O God who makest the mindes of thy faithful to be of one accord grant unto thy people that they may love what thou commandest and desire what thou doest promise that amongst worldly varieties there we may fix our hearts where are true joys The Illustration O Beloved what a Prayer is here what an elevated language doth the holy Ghost speak in to day behold hold a whole Sermon in a few lines what preacher needeth other Text then this Prayer to dilate upon even till the day of Judgement shall I speak a big word upon this Prayer be it but with us as this day we pray and we are even with God himself at our journeys end and why should we despair thereof since in vain we are bid to pray for this if it were not by Prayer to be obtained beg it then beloved on your often bended knees beg it earnestly fervently heartily and doubt not but it will be granted for God doth not feed us with fond hopes of what he will not grant if we so a k it as we ought But stay how comes it that with so much plenty of Spirit we finde to day so little seeming connexion with the Epistle and Gospel which yet I am confident will prove both as it were eminentially contained in this admirable Prayer And first observe how suitable it is for holy Church to pray thus when we are now in the time that Jesus Christ prepared his Apostles to be content to leave him or at least that he should leave them How often did he command them resignation on all occasions to the will of Almighty God was not this the very form of his Prayer Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Matth. 6.10 Hence the Church begs to day that we who believe in Christ may live all of one minde and since it is morally impossible so many men should be consenting all in one therefore we see the prayer gives that to God saying it is he
our being by the word of truth begotten since the Apostle doth close this verse with telling us how to make our selves more apt to receive the word of truth into our soules or as who should say since wee are begotten voluntarily by the word of truth let us endeavor by all meanes to preserve in us this regeneration this inborne word in us this filiation to God this adoption to glory and by the name of uncleanness the Apostle here alludes to concupiscence drawing us from the life of this word unto the death of sinne by the name of malice hee alludes to the sinne of anger before inculcated as hindering our justice such as by meekness we produce in our selves and so preserve the inbred word our filiation to God which must be our finall salvation of our soules by taking in or receiving the ingraffed word is here meant keeping it for this was spoken to those who were already Christians and the allusion is pretty which is here made to a graft for as by ingrafting on the body of an Apple-tree the gardiner if he please brings forth a Plum or Peare so the word of God ingrafted into our soules brings forth the fruits of grace which are the Seeds of better fruit of glory if any aske what is this ingrafted word we may say it is God incarnate for his incarnation is as it were an ingrafting or inoculating God into the hearts or soules of men since as the graft is alwayes of a better kinde then the Stock it is ingrafted on so the Divinity is much more sweet and fertil then our sowre Crab of humane nature whereas by the Hypostaticall union God and man in Christ became one person as the Tree and the graft become one body when the Sap unites and cements them together againe as all grafts are first cut from their own homogeneall Stock before they be ingrafted into another so the second person of the Trinity was taken as it were out of the hosome of his eternal Father to be ingrafted in the wombe of the Blessed Virgin Mary and so was brought out of his heavenly to be planted in our earthly Paradise or rather wilderness indeed for such it was when he came downe to earth and as from the sowre Stock of a Crab-tree we must first cut a branch before we can ingraft a better fruit upon it so was there cut off from Christ his humane hypostasis and he made to subsist by the hypostasis divine besides as the graft and the Stock are bound together till they fasten into one another so by the hypostaticall union was the divine graft bound to our stock of humane nature that thereby God and man might grow into one person consisting of two natures others will have this ingrafted word to be the Blessed Sacrament united to our Soules others understand it to be Christ crucified on the Cross others contend it is the word of God ingrafted by the Preachers into the hearts of the Faithfull The Application 1. THe two first verses of this Epistle point directly at the gift of Faith which is indeed the Best and most perfect gift eminentially called the gift of God and is such a Light to our Reason as can come from none but the Father of Lights in it selfe the Blessed Trinity but as to us we may say it comes from the Father of our Light that is of our Faith our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath indeed voluntarily begotten us by the word of Truth the Holy Writ the Record of our Faith whereby we have our first beginnings of being God Almighties creatures 2. The two next verses tell us with what Alacrity and Promptitude we should hear this Sacred word of God as also with what Patience we should bear the Rebukes and Checks it gives our Consciences when it reprehends our vices In plaine termes we are told that to be Angry at any holy reprehension is an evident signe of our not being Right beleevers since by our operative Faith we are made just as we have often been taught and nothing is less consistent with justice then Anger 3. The last verse tels us what effects Faith ought to work in us namely Purity Love and Meekness for without these we are not capable of saving our soules by the ingafted word of God in us which yet of it self is sufficient to save us if received with that Purity which renounceth all mixture of Heresie Schisme or Infidelity for these are the Obstructions to the unity of minds which Faith worketh in the soules of true beleevers making them therefore all of one minde because they are all of one pure and impermixed Faith such as is only in the Catholicke Church and the effect whereof is to make them therefore love even the hardest commands of that good God they do beleeve in and to covet ardently what he promiseth unto them in requitall of their love who amongst all the allurements in this world fix their hearts only upon heavenly joyes which are promised in the next world not on such shadowes of joyes as we possess here in a word not to fix their hearts upon our present loanes but upon our future promises for God here doth not properly give us any thing how ever he lends us all we have his gifts are for eternall enjoyment not for temporary uses onely Now that we may doe this see how fitly Holy Church Prayes as above The Gospel John 16. v. 5 c. 5 But I told you not these things from the beginning because I was with you And now I goe to him that sent me and none of you asketh me whither goest thou 6 But because J have spoken these things to you sorrow hath filled your hearts 7 But J tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I goe for if I goe not the Paraclete shall not come to you but if I goe J will send him to you 8 And when he is come he shall argue the world of sinne and of Iustice and of Iudgement 9 Of sinne because they beleeve not in me 10 But of Justice because I goe to my Father and now you shall not see me 11 And of judgement because the Prince of this world is now judged 12 Yet many things I have to say to you but you cannot bear them now 13 But when hee the spirit of truth commeth hee shall teach you all truth for hee shall not speake of himselfe but what things soever he shall heare he shal speake and the things that are to come he shall shew 14 He shall glorifie me because he shall receive of mine and shall shew to you The Explication 5. TO understand what the Apostle meanes in this verse we must know the meaning of the foregoing words and though many wil have these things to report unto what went before namely our Saviours having told them they should be persecuted and punished to death for his sake after he was gone which he told them of that when it
we did firmly believe he would not forbid us any pleasure but as knowing it were hurtful to us certainly we should refrain all forbidden things and embrace all that were commanded by him 3. As when our Saviour would have a Proof of Saint Peters love he bid him prove it by keeping his commands so if Christians will make it appear they are all of one Faith they must be consequently all of one minde they must all do as that one Faith teacheth them And what that is no tongue of men or Angels can better express then is declared in the Prayer above let us say it then beloved fervently and practice it faithfully so that we be right Believers true Lovers and happy Saints On the fifth Sunday after Easter The Antiphon John 16. v. 24. ASke and you shall have that your joy may be full For my Father loveth you because you have loved me and have beleeved Alleluja Vers Tarry with us O Lord Alleluja Resp For night draweth on Alleluja The Prayer O God from whom all good things doe proceed grant unto thy humble supplyants that we may thinke on those things which are Right thou inspiring us and thou governing us we may put the same in execution The Illustration WHat a home Prayer is here that rectifies at once all our Thoughts and Actions too at least beggs a rectitude in them all and no marvel for t is now Rogation week we enter into asking week in which the Holy Church appoints this Prayer it is that week when our Saviour bid his Apostles and in them us too ask what they could wish before he left them to work out that salvation which he is going to secure them of in Heaven according to their working And 't is a Petition large enough to all purposes for if we always think and do rightly we cannot fail of being saved nor will it clog our Saviour in his ascending up to Heaven that by this Petition all the world tye themselves fast about him since we know his own words When I shall be exalted from the earth I will draw all things to my self Joh. 12.32 Again it is no marvel since here we ask of God to inspire us to think on those things which are good that we first confess all good things proceed from him for indeed from our selves we know there cannot come any one good thought as little marvel it is that we begg he will govern us in putting our good thoughts in execution in doing the good which by his Grace we think to do for so little are the good deeds we do our own that it is both from God we are inspired to think of doing good and to put our good thoughts in execution And yet so good God is that he accepts as our works what he alone inables us to do When will man do this what master is there that doth not look for the profit and honour too of all the pains his servant takes whereas God gives us not onely the honour of our own labours but the profit also of his own pains taken in our behalfs whilest Heaven is given to man in consideration of the Death of Christ But we must see how this Prayer suits with the other parts of this days service and first with the Epistle of St. Iames truly it is so suitable that it exhausts it entirely while we pray we may not onely think well but do well also as St. James in the first verse of this Epistle bids us saying Be doers of the word of God not hearers onely and the like is of all the other Counsels given in this Epistle for as they are the inspirations of the holy Ghost so we pray to day we may be governed in the execution thereof As for the Gospel which is all of asking truly the Prayer is very pat to it which asks no less then all that can be wisht to save a soul namely always to think always to do well and surely this Petition is as the Gospel bids it should be in Christ his name when we ask it as professing Christ to be the very God from whom all good proceeds 1 Cor. 11.12 and when in that profession most pleasing to his heavenly Father we secure our selves of the grant that we demand since when the Apostles understood and believed Christ was God they rested satisfied that his recess from them to his heavenly Father was for their good and that by sending God the holy Ghost unto them they should be well repayed for the absence of God the Son since God who is every where cannot be absent any where and thus ends the Feast of Resurrection when the last Prayer proper thereunto is a leave taking of Christ risen from his Grave and a preparation to his ascending up to Heaven while we ask before he goes all we can want or wish when he is gone The Epistle Iac. 1. v. 22 c. 22 But be doers of the word and not hearers onely deceiving your selves 23 For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer he shall be compared to a man beholding the countenance of his Nativity in a Glass 24 For he considered himself and went his way and by and by forgat what an one he was 25 But hee that hath looked in the Law of perfect liberty and hath remained in it not made aforgetfull bearer hut a doer of the worke this man shall be Blessed in his deed 26 And if any man thinke himselfe to be religious not bridling his tongue but seducing his heart this mans religion is vaine 27 Religion cleane and unspotted with God and the Father is this to visite pupils and widdowes in their tribulation and to keepe himselfe unspotted from this world The Explication 22. HE alludes here to the ingrafted word mentioned in the verse before and by doers understands workers according to the exigence of the said word as working sanctity and perfection into your soules for that is the end of hearing Gods word to make it the motive and meanes of our perfection since Christ did not know better then he did doe nor did he teach more then himselfe did practise deceiving your selves that is saying Christ hath done enough for us we need onely now to hearken unto him to beleeve in him and be baptized by him for it is written such shal be he saved yes if they performe in deeds what they beleeve in their soules but to frequent the Churches meerely to heare Sermons and not to put in practice the Doctrine there delivered that is to seduce our selves for our Saviour gave nor his blessing to those onely that heard but to those that hearing kept his holy word obeyed his commands followed the counsel given them by their good Angels their ghostly Fathers or spiritual advisers These and onely these make the hearing of Gods word a blessing to them 23. By this comparison Saint Iames makes the word of God to be as a glass to a man
shewing him the features and deformities of his soule according as he is truly in himselfe good or bad for that is the property of a glass to represent truly the object which is set before it and the Apostle in effect here says those that run to Churches or to their ghostly Fathers to hear onely what they say and do not put in execution their Counsels are like a man note t is not said a woman too too frequently looking there seeing his native his natural countenance not then his painted face in a glaâs for what indeed follows of this meer sight nothing but what is said in the next Verse forgetfulness which cannot tend to perfection and such an introspection men make into their souls by reading or hearing the word of God if there they persist and do not study to perfect themselves thereby and truly the Law or Word of God is rightly called a Glass because it represents to us that image of perfect creatures which God would have us to be it tells us what reward our Vertues shall have what punishment our Vices 24. The reason why a man sooner forgets his own face then anothers is because he never sees his own but by reflected Species in a Glass which are therefore weaker and less vigorous then if they came directly to his eye as those of another mans countenance do both directly and more frequently seen by any man then his own So no wonder if a man see and consider himself never so exactly for a time that he soon forgets himself and covets to see himself again whereas he much more perfectly remembers the Face and Features of anothers person then his own Now though it be needless for a man to look much into a material Glass which can onely shew him the outward man yet it is very recommendable for him to look into the spiritual Glass of Gods Word to read or hear that often thereby to see what is wanting to that ornament of Grace or Vertue which should render him a perfect image of our Saviour Jesus Christ but besides this often looking on himself he must be doing and practising upon himself namely adding this Vertue taking away that Vice or else he onely looks and forgets what he see or what he should make himself to be Note there are three kindes of hearers of Gods word the lazy the active the contemplative the first heare onely and forget indeed contemne the next heare and obey the third heare and dye imbracing it with all the powers of their soules and never let goe their imbracement again many are the Analogies betweene a glass and the word of God for first as in a glass is seene not a picture of a thing but the thing it selfe by a reflected species though not by a direct one soe by the word is seene the wil of God nay God himself since the word of the minde is seene by the word of the mouth as in a glass Againe as flat or plaine glasses represent the species equall to the object but convex or round glasses represent them less then they are and both the further off the weaker they represent them so the word of God plainly sincerely and without any crooked intention hearkened unto or read represents truly the will of God unto us but if we make this word a convex glass one swollen up with a bulk of pride or ambition to wrest it to our crooked senses then it represents the wil of God abridged shortned or lessened not entirely and plainely as it is in it selfe whence preachers must learne to be sincere and faithfull in the exposition of holy writ Againe as concave or hollow glasses placed against the Sun are apt to cast a heat and burne whatsoever combustible matter is neere them so the word of God looked on with an humble eye a dinted heart wherein it makes the hollow of a sweet impression sets on fire all the inordinate appetites to sinne burns up all the stubble of vicious inclinations and renders a soule burning bright in flames of love to Almighty God 25. By this verse it is cleer that the word of God is the glass here alluded unto because the Law of perfect liberty is that word of God the Law and life of Jesus Christ whereby we are made children of God not slaves to empty ceremonies onely as they under the slavish Law of Moses were he that hath looked fixedly not slightly into the glass of perfect liberty and hath remained in it not made a forgetfull hearer this man shall be blessed in his deed because his deed shal deserve a blessing by being such as this glass represents it should be note by perfect liberty is not here understood liberty to doe what we list so we beleeve aright as Luther hence pretended but first by liberty is here understood that which freeth us from the servility of the Mosaical Law next that which freeth us from the slavery to sinne and the devil thirdly that which freeth us from compulsion or feare but leaves us free to doe wel out of pure love to God not for fear of hel fourthly that liberty which by resurrection we shal have from death when we arise to life everlasting further by the close of this verse saying that man shall be blessed in his deed is meant he shal have the blessing here of grace in the next world of glory and that his blessing shal be given to his doing not to his contemplating what is to be done 26. By this place Saint James alludes to what he said in the nineteenth verse of this Epistle of being quick to heare and slow to speak and not to be angry for by the laxity of the tongue the hands are as it were tyed up from action and those men seldom do wel that are alwayes talking or vaunting in many words the little good they doe in deeds so that one kinde of doing the Law is a religious silence for religion imports as much as a binding up of the Law which consisteth in observing or doing it not in talking of it by the word bridling our tongues is insinuated as if the tongue were an unruly beast alwayes running away from reason unless bridled in thereby by seducing his heart is understood making it erre for a talking man seldome deceives others but often himselfe since they see the sin of petulance in his heart and so regard as little what he saith as himself doth what he speaks who is never doing wel whilest he speaketh too much or ill and such a mans religion is truly vaine by religion is here understood either that vertue of religion which makes a man render all his actions good towards God and his neighbor and is the first of moral vertues as charity is the first of divine ones or true Christianity profession of the true faith for even that is vaine if it be not made avayling by good workes annexed thereunto though here the Apostle his genuine sense is
Master in his passion so lest we by surprizing sloath or by sleeping in Prayer be overtaken in our other actions he puts a watchfulness before our eyes especially in Prayer as the best remedy to help us to stand upon a close guard in all our other actions and indeed the life of man especially of Christians ought to be a perpetuall watchfulness because our adversary the devil is alwayes going the round about the wals of this world like a ravenous Lyon to seeke whom he may devour asleep 1 Pet. c. 5. v 8 or which is all one not standing the sentinel of a watchfull guard against him which guard is then best when we are found upon it Praying nor is there indeed any armour more of proofe against all temptations then a watchfull Prayer 8. Yet to shew the divine vertues transcend the morall ones Saint Peter in this verse sayes but above all conserve among your selves mutuall charity by which it is evident the Apostle here speakes of charity as it imports a love to our neighbor which then is in the height when we are content to dye to doe him good Saint Bernard explicates this well in saying we are all Cosins allyed in blood meaning the blood of Christ our Father equally shed for all of us that are his children and allyes and it seemes Saint Paul ad Coloss 3. v 14. Concurres with Saint Peter in this Doctrine even in the same termes in a manner saying but above all things I have recommended be sure to have charity which is the chaine or band of perfection which our Saviour sets out in life-colours saying love one another as I have loved you and to incourage us the more to this mutuall charity the Apostle tels us it covers the multitude of sins meaning all our sins whatsoever for as Christ was said to dye for many importing all and as many shall rise in the day of Judgement intending all that then rise so by the multitude of sins is here meant all sin whatsoever since an act of perfect charity taking away affection to any one sin doth even by that meanes blot all sin out of the soule yet some will have no charity able to this effect but onely the charity of God which not onely covers but takes away all sinne from those soules whom he hath predestinated to salvation others contend it is the charity of Christ which covers in his fight the sinnes of his elected Servants by applying his passion to them and his holy grace so efficaciously as they shall by this means cease to sin but certainely neither of these senses can be that of the Apostle in this place who expresseth himself to meane mutuall charity and that is properly betweene man and man declared in Acts of mercy and goodness towards one another and this charity doth not onely cover the proper sins of them that love their neighbor but even the common sins of all their neighbors whom they love our own as we cannot love man for Gods sake but wee must love God much more and who ever loves God truly not onely covers but flyes and hates all sinne our neighbors because as hatred detects so charity hides the sinns of our neighbors as we read Hatred stirreth up strifes but charity covereth all sins Proverb 10.12 it onely remaines to tell how many wayes sinne is hidden by charity first by being quite blotted out as Saint Mary Magdalenes were to whom much all were forgiven because she loved much Luk. c. 7. v. 47. Next by palliating when we out of charity excuse and make the best of mens actions Thirdly when we doe not onely excuse them but actually binde them up as Chirurgeons doe soares to cure them so we doe when besides the excuse we make for our neighbors sins we further oblige them by doing good unto them for the ill they have done to us and this is an efficacious way indeed to cure their soares of sinne as well as to cover them and by binding them to us we do as it were our selves take upon us their sins and so God looking on our good sees not their bad whom we have rendered grateful to him for our sakes as Christ did render us all grateful to his heavenly Father when he took our sins upon him and thus covered us from his wrath and fury Lastly then we perfectly cover our neighbors sinne when we doe not onely heale the wound thereof but heale it so close so perfectly that no scar remaines no memory is in us of the wrong he did us nor is suffered if we can help it to be in any other of like wrongs done to them 9. By being hospitable without murmuring he meanes we should be so loving to all as we doe not murmur that wee are oppressed with the number of the needy or poore that want our help and the Apostle here reflects particularly on the niggardly mindes of the Inhabitants of Pontus who were extreame narrow in their almes and would extend the little they gave to very few whereas he would have charity large and extended to all 10. This verse shewes how large our charity should be when we are bid to give almes or doe good to others according to the proportion of grace that we receive from God and by grace is here understood not that which justifies the single man to God but that which is gratis given to us and so must be gratis communicated to others good and profit not to our own end for it is avarice so to give as we aime at receiving more from others then we part with from our selves and the very words of the Text are against self ends while they bid us administer to one another which is quite opposite to taking for our selves againe as Gods graces to us are manifold so must our administration of them to others be else we cannot give as we receive which yet was the first rule of this verse telling us how to give 11. Here the Apostle summes up all the kindes of charity under two the one in words the other in deeds or the one preaching teaching exhorting the other giving almes visiting the sick or doing all other workes of mercy corporal and here we see the rule that preachers are tyed unto of speaking not their own but the word of God or what the holy Ghost shal dictate not what humane fansie shal suggest and we see in the primitive Church the Holy Ghost inspired some to exhort others to sing hymnes of praise others to prophecy and each one this to doe with humility and meekness not with pride and ostentation with zeale and fervour not tepidly or dully according to that of David Thy word O Lord is very hot even as fire and what by office the preacher is to doe out of charity the people are to imitate and as they heare nothing from the Priest but what belongs to God so all their conversation should be of God and of heavenly things thereby to
inflame one another to acts of Love and praise of God The rule of Ministery we see must be the same with that of preaching if we give it must be as from God not from our selves because by giving we intend to do good to others and since all goodness comes from God we must be sure to give rather in his then in our own or any other name for all gifts are originally from God the authour of them all and if we have any thing to give it is not our own but is lent us purposely to share part thereof to others be it a gift of nature or of grace That in all things which we say or doe God may be honoured and glorified not wee our selves magnified and how honoured by Jesus Christ who first taught us this perfection of referring all we say or do to Gods honour and glory for before Christ came all was vanity and pride nothing was done but for humane ends for selfe respects or the like whereas Christianity teacheth a quite contrary Doctrine to referre all to God and to arrogate nothing at all unto our selves Hence observe how besides Faith good works are necessary to salvation which yet the Libertines and Sectaries will not allow of The Application 1. LAst Sunday we were taught it was the proper duty of a Christian to exercise continuall Acts of Hope betweene the Ascension and the coming of the Holy Ghost See consequently now how the very first words of this dayes Epistle set us upon the two prime Acts of Hope Prudence and watchfull Prayer The first to shew we are not to be foolishly beaten off our Principles of Faith teaching us by practicall Prudence to worke out our salvation in Hope we shal not labour it in vaine The second to declare that Prayer without watchfulness is of small or no account at all since therefore our senses ought to be shut up in time of Prayer that the foule free from distraction of all sense may be like to her selfe in the state of separation from the body still fixt upon Almighty God as the blessed spirits of Saints and Angels are in Heaven 2. Nor is it without some Reason the method of this Booke allows but ten dayes onely for the speciall inculcation exercise of Hope First because Hope stil goes on hand in hand with Faith and Charity and cannot fail if those two be continued since it is impossible firmely to believe in God and ardently to love him without a constant Hope of enjoying him And secondly because it seemes mystically done of Holy Church to shorten the time of Hope thereby to make us see God cannot be long from those that long to be with him and are in constant expectation of his coming for we see that after onely ten dayes watchfull Prayer or exercise of Hope our Saviour sent the Holy Ghost to his Apostles not that he had promis'd it so soone but that he could not finde in his heart to defer it any longer And beloved if after the longest day of Time we enjoy a blissfull eternity how speedy a reward shall we esteeme it to be of our Hope and expectation in regard the abundance of the gain will recompence the longest delay thereof much after that sort as our Saviours first coming did recompence the four thousand years expectation of his Birth and Death for the Redemption of the World when we here the Prophet Habacuc c. 2. v. 3. say in his name I will come and I will not stay nay though I delay my coming yet I will not tarry Why because when I come I will reward beyond all expectation 3. Lastly we must not omit to mark that so soon as ere we Hope in God we ought to fasten Acts of Love unto that Hope for so the second Verse of this Epistle teacheth us hanging many links of Charity to that onely one of Hope presented to us here as we may see whilest the whole Epistle all but the first Verse thereof which is of Hope runs upon nothing else but ranking Charity into her several Acts that so the Holy Ghost now every hour expected may finde he comes where he 's as well beloved as hoped for nor can we indeed expect that he will enter into souls who love him not who have not their Wills devoted to him who have not their hearts sincerely set upon his Service according to the Rule of Christian Doctrine And for this purpose Holy Church as having our Reasons now illuminated and regulated by faith Praies as above that our Wills by the gift of Hope may be devoted and our hearts by Charity sincerely bent unto the service of his heavenly Majesty Hope and Charity residing in the Will as Faith doth in the understanding The Gospel Iohn 15. v. 26 27. Cap. 16. v. 1. c. 26 But when the Paraclete cometh whom I will send you from the Father the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall give Testimony of me 27 And you shall give Testimony because you are with me from the beginning Chap. 16.1 These things have I spoken to you that you be not scandalized 2 Out of the Synagogues they will cast you but the hour cometh that every one which killeth you shall think that he doeth service to God 3 And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me 4 But these things I have spoken to you that when the hour shall come you may remember them that I told you The Explication 26. NOte here though the Greek Hereticks take hold from hence to say the Holy Ghost doth not proceed from the Son but onely from the Father because Christ saith the latter in express terms yet the very truth is that procession and mission in the Divine Persons import all one thing and therefore the Father is never said to be sent at all wherefore Christ saying he will send the Holy Ghost it argues his procession is equally from both as his mission was The Paraclete is as much as to say the Comforter whose coming is both to comfort all Christians and to give testimony to all the world of that Doctrine which Christ had preached he is called the Spirit of Truth First because he proceedeth from the Son who is called the wisdom of his heavenly Father as also the Way the Truth and the Life Secondly because his coming made manifest the Truth of Christ his Doctrine of his being the Messias the Son of God the Saviour of the World Thirdly because he is the truest and most excellent Spirit in respect of whom the Angels the Souls of men and the Winds are but Analogical Spirits as being such onely by participation whereas the holy Ghost is so by Essence Fourthly because for this third Reason he is worthy of all Faith and Credit Fifthly because he gives Testimony of the New Testament which was brought us by a Spirit of Liberty and Truth whereas the Old was brought by a
mysteries which we have faithfully received we may be purged from sinne and delivered from all dangers On the fifth Sunday after Easter The Prayer O God from whom all good things do proceed grant unto thy humble supliants that we may thinke on those things which are good thou inspiring us and thou governing us we may put the same in execution The Secret REceive O Lord the Prayers of the faithfull with the oblations of their sacrifices that by these offices of pious devotion we may passe into eternall glory The Post-Communion GRant unto us O Lord who are filled with the vertue of the heavenly Table that wee may desire those things which are right and receive what we desire On Sunday within the Octaves of Ascension The Prayer OMnipotent Eternal God grant us ever to have our wills devoted and our hearts sincerely bent unto the service of thy Divine Majesty The Secret MAy the Immaculate Sacrifices purifie us O Lord and afford unto our souls the Vigor of supernal Grace The Post-Communion BEing replenished with thy holy Gifts grant unto us we beseech thee that we may always remain in thanksgiving FINIS THE THIRD PART Of the first TOME On the Feast of Pentecost OR On WHIT-SUNDAY The Antiphon ACTS 2. v. 1. ON this day are compleat all the dayes of Pentecost Allelujah This day the holy Ghost did appear to the Disciples in fire and gave unto them gifts of graces sent them over all the world to preach and testifie that he which shall believe and be baptized shall be saved Alleluja Vers The Apostles did speak with divers tongues Alleluja Resp The wonderfull works of God Alleluja The Prayer O God who on this day hast taught the hearts of the Faithfull by the Illumination of the holy Ghost grant unto us in the same Spirit to relish those things that are right and ever to rejoyce in his consolation The Illustration IF we look back to the three last Sundayes-prayers we shall find them all as it were preparatives to this which we now make to day of relishing those things that are right and rejoycing in the consolation of the holy Ghost And indeed our B. Saviours whole life and death had no other aim then by making God man to winn man into an affection of deity and of being content to become God and when by the last mystery of humane redemption as far as lay on our Saviours part his glorious Ascension we were brought to devote our wills and our hearts affections sincerely to the service of Almighty God now we are led into that holy School and unto that heavenly Master where we shall be taught how to set our hearts right to his heavenly Majestie and this by the Illumination of the holy Ghost which that we may do the better see how to day we pray that in the same Spirit we may relish those things which are right and rejoyce in the consolation thereof as if in this School flesh and bloud were to have no place which had so far and so long mis-led us and indeed the very Apostles themselves so long as they looked upon Jesus Christ as man they did not relish the pure service of Almighty God they were not set right in their hearts affections they doted upon flesh and bloud and so fell into the errours thereof S. Peter of denying Christ in his afflictions S. Thomas of doubting of his Resurrection but we never heard that after the coming of the holy Ghost any of the Apostles fell into those or any other errours in the rectitude of their service towards Almighty God but were alwayes in the right and took content in nothing that was wrong or swarving from the doctrine of their Master our Saviour Jesus Christ And why this Because the holy Ghost who was the Spirit of Truth had possessed them and taught them all truth and made them not onely relish it but disrelish all things that were contrary thereunto Nor is it without reason that erring man in his most solemn prayer should beg the grace of God to relish what is right for we never please our selves with what we do not relish nor do we ever relish what displeaseth us whereas to relish what is right is to relish at least what is pleasing unto God however it doth oftentimes nor please our selves and therefore in this grand day when we are to be weaned from the nurse of flesh and bloud and brought into the school of Spirit and are to ask our Master a boon now we see his hands full of bounty and benevolence we are taught to beg that we may relish and take content in whatsoever is right towards God be it never so averse to our selves because our teeth being set on edge with flesh and bloud and our mouths quite out of taste with Spirituall food nothing is of more import to us then that we may relish such meat as we must hereafter live and nourish by Spirituall consolations not earthly delectations any more for the first set us and our hearts affections right to God the last draws us headlong to death Now it will be the least of our cares to day to adjust this prayer unto the Epistle since this is altogether of the coming down of the holy Ghost into the school of spirituall comfort where he is to reade his lessons to mens hearts as this prayer tells us and as we read Jerem. 31.33 I will write my law in their hearts whence it is holy Church to day takes the Antiphon out of the Epistle rather then out of the Gospel and yet rather makes it then takes it for though the sense be the same neverthelesse the letter is not so which perhaps was mysteriously contrived to shew that as soon as the holy Ghost came down to teach the Church was able of her self to reade a lesson to her children and immediately we see S. Peter preached but indeed as the Gospels ever tell us the stories of our Saviour's life so the Acts of the Apostles tell us the history of the holy Ghost first that of the fact when and how he came next that of the effect how prodigiously he wrought in the hearts of those he did descend upon so the Epistle being to day out of the Acts of the Apostles is as the gospel of the holy Ghost made the place whence Preachers take their texts or whereunto at least they drive the design of all their Sermons And to this the prayer is apparently suited yet it is not therefore unsuitable to the Gospel also of the day wherein S. John tells us in our Saviours name he that loveth me observes my words which is in effect to say doth relish my words doth relish that which is right for nothing more right then the word of God since we may take that for verity and rectitude it self especially being taught us by the holy Ghost who this Gospel tells was to come purposely to teach us truth the truth of that word by the
would ever suffer unlesse he were so insolent as to condemn his Judge or another body guilty as himself We must not therefore take it in this sense but rather thus Judge not falsly of another and you shall not be condemned of such false judgement Condemn not your neighbour falsly and God will not condemn you for that particular guilt of false condemnation or make the best interpretation of other mens actions and God will make the best of yours also when he comes your Judge Yet we have an excellent example in the Adulteresse escaping even the just sentence of the old law by our Saviours bidding those that were without sin to cast the first stone at her whereby every man slunk away and none was left to execute that severe law upon her and sure it is to this example the Evangelist alludes when he forbids rash Judgement in us under the notion of our own being to come to Judgement also and of our hope to escape well at the dread Tribunal of Almighty God if we endeavour to clear our own seen consciences rather then passe a Judgement upon the unseen sins of others But the close of this verse puts a period to this difficulty Admit others do offend God or you yet judge them not condemn them not forgive rather on your parts and by this means you shall obtain from God forgivenesse of your offences to his Divine Majesty O who would not forgive a trivial fault in hope to gain thereby a pardon for his own haynous offences 38. Give you temporal almes and you shall have given to you spiritual treasures not onely according to the small proportion of your gift but according to the good measure of God whose hand is alwayes full and who never gives his gifts to halfes but doth presse down his graces upon us and shakes a world of his favours together even untill they run over and inables us to spare others part of his holy gifts to us whilest his Divine Majesty pleaseth to make sinful men instruments of sanctity in others And that for temporall Almes we receive spiritual treasures the following words of this verse declare saying those abundant proportions shall he given into your own bosomes which are the Vessels of spiritual gifts and graces as other mens hands are the receptacles of our temporal Almes and what followes tells us that according to the measure of our Almes we shall receive a measure of graces for little almes a little grace though in comparison of temporal gifts with those that are spiritual the least grace is a pressed shaken running over measure in respect of a little almes if therefore our almes be great by this account the graces proportionable thereunto will be infinite which is in part declared when we are told charity covers a multitude of sinnes So the sum of this verse is to exhort us to giving almes according as we will hope for our own sins to be forgiven and for the grace of God covering our sins to make us able to sanctifie others whilest we adde to our temporal almes an addition of spiritual instruction both by the exemplarity of our lives and by our teaching the ignorant if need be their duty towards Almighty God as this lesson we shall alwayes teach when we give Almes that 't is God who gives while our purses are open to the relieving of the poore since God hath placed the portion of the poore in the rich mans hands 39. This similitude was here aptly introduced because it is alluding to that which went before of rash Judgement one against an other since it is the part of a Judge to be himself clear of all the faults he condemns others of to be indeed the eye of the people or rather ever in the peoples eyes so they will never run in danger of the Law but follow the conduct of their leading Judge in the part of Innocence and Justice But if they will take upon them to be Judges of other mens actions then they put out as it were their own eyes and become blind guides of others and consequently both fall into the ditch of danger if not into the bottomlesse pit of hell fire 40. This simile followes fitly upon the former for as a guide is a kind of master in the way he guideth others so if the guide be blind the guided who follows not so much in vertue of his own eyes as in belief of his guides knowledge must needs perish in that trust reposed in his guide if the guide doe perish missing his way by his own blindnesse So a master in that art he undertakes to teach must needs be supposed better versed then any of his schollars are in the same Art for so long as he is able to teach he is a master and so long as others learn they are schollars and consequently in this sense no schollar as he is a schollar or a learner can know more then his master all which notwithstanding absolutely speaking the man that is at first but a schollar in an Art may arrive at last to a perfection in that Art much above his master but this must be by his own better industry or by some other greater helps then any his master was able to afford him and then he is no schollar as to that particular wherein he excells his master but rather his master may in that become his schollar So when it is said every one shall be perfect if he be as his master it is understood in that which the master can teach and wherein the schollar was to learn not in any other particular And truly this place is a good incitement towards humility in those who think themselves grand masters and knowing men for even such may stoop to learn some speciall truths or experiments of far lesse knowing or lesse experienced men then themselves and in these smaller acquisitions the greater men must be content not onely to learn but even to esteem they acquire a kind of perfection by what they have thus learned from those who in other matters are hugely their inferiours 41. Here the Apostle lookes back to the rash judgement he had before forbidden as who should say why dost thou censure judge or condemn little faults in thy neighbour being thy self guilty of farre greater Is this mercy is this perfection is this to love thine enemies no it is to tyrannize over thy friends who give thee better example then thou followest though they are not themselves free from fault For by the more and beam are here understood the faults on both sides the mote being the little fault in one mans eye rashly judged of by him that hath a beam a greater mote or fault in his own eye And this example was well made in the eye which never sees it self but is alwayes looking upon other objects and censuring them for deformed or beautifull according as they please the eye just so do those who judge rashly of others and never
given us in the Blessed Sacrament whereof this Gospel was but a figure according to the exposition of the best Expositours of Holy Writ For look how to day four thousand persons were corporally fed with multiplied loaves so are millions of soules dayly fed with the body of Christ multiplied under millions of consecrated hoasts and as by this food is chiefly nourished in us all that is good so by the practice of Piety as the prayer petitions in the close is maintained in us what by the aforesaid blessed Sacrament is nourished as who should say in vain we take this spirituall nutriment if after it we do not maintain the grace it gives us by the continuall study and practice of Piety wherefore to make this Prayer accomplished we beg in the close thereof that God will maintain in us by our practice of Piety the good nutriment we receive by the blessed Sacrament Thus wee see how admirably the Prayer is adapted to the other parts of this dayes service and withall we are taught that the perfection of a Christian life consists in the continuall practice of Piety and devotion The Epistle Rom. 6. v. 3. c. 3 Are you ignorant that all we which are baptized in Christ Jesus in his death we are baptized 4 For we are buried together with him by Baptisme into death that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also may walk in newnesse of life 5 For if we become complanted to the similitude of his death we shall be also of his resurrection 6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne may be destroyed to the end that we may serve sin no longer 7 For he that is dead is justified from sin 8 And if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live together with Christ 9 Knowing that Christ rising again from the dead now dieth no more death shall no more have dominion over him 10 For that he died to sin he died once but that he liveth he liveth to God 11 So think you also that you are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Explication 3. TO be baptized in Christ is to be christned according as Christ hath commanded in the name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost to be baptized in his death is as much as to say in representation of his death and that our Baptisme hath force and vertue from the merits of his death and passion and signifies that as Christ died on the Crosse to this naturall life so the baptized die to sinne and live to Christ which is a life opposite to that of a sinner 4. This verse adds more to the Analogie saying we are not onely dead to sinne in Baptisme but thereby also buried with him in proof of our death to sinne So that the Trine Immersion used in Baptisme alludes to the three dayes that Christ lay buried in his grave as our sinnes in Baptisme lie drowned under the water thereof And for this cause holy Church makes a solemn Baptisme yearly on Easter eve to shew that thereby those who died were buried with Christ do also rise with him by the glory of his heavenly Father that is to glorifie him to a new life in him in testimony whereof the baptized have a white garment cast over them called the Chrisome to shew the purity of their souls and are advised to carry the same inward purity with them to the tribunall of Christ as a proofe of their fidelity to their vow in holy Baptisme of renouncing the world the flesh and the devill so to conserve their puritie or newnesse of life to the which the Fathers exhort earnestly when they inculcate the frequent memory of our baptismall vow which they ground in these words so we also may walk importing so we may persevere in that purity 5. See how this verse insists further upon the consequence of our spirituall resurrection even in this life by our spirituall death and buriall as above shewing that our newnesse of life by Baptism is like the ingrafting us into the stock or tree of Christ whence we are to receive all our future sap or nutriment so that as his death to naturall life was the way to his resurrection in like manner our death to sinne is the way to our resurrection with him and as we see graftâ following the changes of the tree they are ingrafted in seem in the winter to die with it in the spring to revive with it so do we by Baptisme in Christ seem to die with him in the winter of his passion but revive in the spring of his resurrection 6. Then we know indeed our old man to be crucified with Christ when the new man lives in him By the old Man understand custome of sinning renounced by Baptisme by the body of sinne understand here the whole masse of our sinnes by the destruction of it understand not the palliation of it onely by imputative Justice as heretikes do but the absolute death thereof by inherent justice infused by baptismall grace into our souls 7. And this sense is confirmed by the next verse saying he that is dead meaning to sinne is justified from sinne lives by the infused Justice which hath killed and not onely covered sinnes in the baptized 8. This verse imports our future life eternall which we firmly believe we shall injoy with Christ if here we die with him to sinne 9. The sense of the precedent verse is confirmed by this following that tells us death shall as little reign over us in the next life if we truely die to sinne in this as it did over Christ once risen from his grave and yet withall alludes to the constancie we ought to have in good works even in this life that having once had the happinesse to live spiritually here we should disdain to die again by relapse into sinne and so to let death dominear ever us whom once we had slain by grace Note here the strange goodnesse of our Saviour who being God was content to let death once dominear over him on the Crosse that we might for ever after triumph with him over death 10. Here Christ is not to be understood to die to sinne as we doe but to die for sinne not his own but ours and that once for all our sinnes Where he is said here to live to God understand with God a blessed and immortall life as also that by so living he may perpetually praise and glorifie Almightie God since as he died for sinnes abolition so he lives for Gods glorification 11. 'T is reason we should think our selves dead to sinne when by Baptisme we renounce it and living to God when by the same Baptisme we live in him But it is a high expression of the alteration which the Apostle exhorts unto in advising us to think we are dead to sinne for as dead men have no motion
the answer thereunto those who before knew not the number of them should by knowing how slender it was admire the miracle the more that followed when out of the mystical number of seven loaves four thousand persons were fed For mystical they were as having relation to the seven Sacraments which are so many several conduit-pipes of Gods grace into our soules whereby they are spiritually fed as those four thousand men were temporally with seven loaves they Were figures also of the seven-fold grace of the Holy Ghost giving to us seven special vertues three Theological four Cardinal in holy Baptisme as also of the seven gifts beside of the same holy Spirit 6. That the ground was the Table whereon our Saviour made his feast is no marvell for so in the law of nature men sate at meals to shew the superfluity of costly tables was as little agreeable to God as the excesse of their dishes also were and therefore here is onely bread and fish to feast upon since nature being content with little grace will not make her any meanes of excesse That he brake and blessed the bread before it multiplyed argues the vertue of his Benediction to have caused the multiplication so in the beginning of the world he blessed the creatures which he bid encrease and multiply to shew their multiplication was the fruit or effect of his Benediction That he gave not the bread himself to the people but to his disciples to distribute argues his breaking to the world the bread of his holy word not immediately by himself but by his Apostles and their Successours 7. The addition of fishes to the bread of this banquet argues that Priests must alwayes adde unto the word of God the pulpe or pap of good life that so our food may be in all kinds nourishing to soules 8. That hungry people did eat their fill no marvel when God allowed plenty That they took up the scraps was to instruct us never to permit the least of Gods Blessings to be wasted or lost much lesse the least of Gods words here signified by the crums falling from the Preachers mouth That there were seven basquets full of fragments no marvel neither since there were seven loaves at first and so it was fitting the Blessing of multiplication should appear in each by the reliques of every one of them as also to shew that all Almes to the poor are rewarded with abundance remaining to the giver 9. This verse onely recounts the number of those who were present at the feast and shared in the miracle who were not dismissed till each of them were satisfied and had their fill to shew that God leaves none of his servants unrewarded for their paines of loving and following him wheresoever he goes The Application 1. IT is admirable to see the fecundity of Gods holy Spirit how aptly the Prayer above corresponds to these two Texts that seem far differing from one another yet are both driving at all the same ends of increasing Religion in us and of nourishing the good things it bestowes upon us by the practise of Piety Which Piety we see was a special gift of the Holy Ghost infused into us in holy Baptisme and for the which we can no wayes be answerable to Almighty God but by the continual study or practise of it and doubtlesse this Piety is then very well practised in one particular thereof when men frequent the Blessed Sacrament which is the truest nourishment of goodnesse in us that can be imagined 2. Nor is this other then a genuine sense of the present Texts both of the Gospel and of the Prayer to day For all Expositours agree that this miracle alludes to the Blessed Sacrament whereby not onely many thousands but infinite millions of soules are fed and thereby nourished in the perfection of that Religion which by holy Baptisme as above they made profession of So that here by the practise of Piety we are to understand the frequent Communion 3. True it is we were told upon Sunday within the Octaves of Corpus Christi that this Communion was then given us as the figure thereof was given under the Juniper Tree to Elias for a food sufficient to carry us through the long way we had then to go before we came to Advent but that notwithstanding we may receive it as frequently as holy Piety moves us thereunto For this advantage the substance hath above the shadow the thing figured above the figure of it that what was once done to suffice for the nature of a figure may be often exercised in the thing figured because the love of grace is perfected by the frequent exercises of those acts that do confer grace whence it is that holy Church obligeth us once a year at least and that about Easter to receive this Sacrament as a viaticum unto us for the journey we are to make in the long way of vertue all the year after Neverthelesse by way of practising Piety our pious Mother allowes the frequent Communion besides permits us to eat of this heavenly food this bread of Angels as often as our devotion moves us thereunto by permission of our Ghostly Fathers not otherwise which to those that have many worldly businesses may be every moneth or three weeks it being now thereabouts since the Octaves ended of the Blessed Sacrament that now we have a memory of that holy mystery again and may be a good ground for Priests to regulate this devotion by yet this may be more or lesse frequent as the discretion of the ghostly Fathers shall order according to the progresse their penitents make in vertue by this and other Practises of Piety For to permit more frequent communion to those that do not daily advance in vertue were rather to give way to a dangerous singularity then to the practise of a profitable Piety since more regard must be had to a worthy receiving then to the frequency thereof Say now the Prayer above and see if both it and the Gospel be not exactly exhausted by this special Practise of Piety called frequent Communion On the seventh Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Matth. 7.18 A Good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit nor an evill tree good fruit Every tree which yieldeth not good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire Vers Let my prayer O Lord c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer O God whose providence is so disposed as it never can be frustrated remove we humbly beseech thee all things that are hurtfull and grant whatsoever may be beneficiall unto us The Illustration This prayer doubtlesse is very well suited to the present calamitous times we live in when we have no other helm to steer us out of the sea of troubles we are in but that Providence we now call upon which is so disposed as however we seem tossed in the waves of destruction it will infallibly bring us to the safe port of salvation if we sail or hold
the devil therefore holy Church as strucken with an admiration at the wonder of it to see souls saved upon so huge an odds as three such enemies to one poor man or three millions to one rather considering every one of these three principall enemies have millions of instruments to damn a soul by and not knowing what else to attribute this unto then to the admirable Providence of Almighty God who hath so contrived that those whom he hath chosen to be his amongst the multitudes of men shall make their very dangers their security their very sinfull flesh the instrument of their saintity and salvation by the sole helping hand of charity Therefore I say it is the Churches prayer gives this prodigious work to the sole Providence of Almighty God and begs that by this never-failing Providence all lets to our salvation may be taken away and all helps possible afforded thereunto The Gospel Matt. 7. v. 15. c. 15 Take ye great heed of false prophets which come to you in the clothing of sheep but inwardly are ravening wolves 16 By their fruits you shall know them Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles 17 Even so every good tree yieldeth good fruits and the evil tree yieldeth evil fruits 18. A good tree cannot yield evil fruits neither an evil tree yield good fruits 19 Every tree that yieldeth not good fruit shall be cut down and shall be cast into fire 20 Therefore by their fruits you shall know them 21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven he shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven The Explication 15. BY false prophets are here understood any that undertake to teach or preach false doctrine By their coming unto us is understood they are not sent lawfully but pretend mission By the clothing of sheep is meant their false pretence of sanctity liberty of conscience expounding Scripture and the like whereas they inwardly are wolves that devour souls under pretext of saving them 16. Their fruits are commonly licentiousnesse of life obstinate heresie schisme from the true Church These the thorns of their pretended vines the thistles of their pretended fig-trees 17. That is to say a true prophet or teacher teacheth good doctrine and leads a good life a false teacheth bad lessons and liveth lewdly too 18. This is parabolically spoken in order to the will of man and so holds not ever but for the most part unlesse taken in the compounded sense that is a good will whilest it remains good cannot produce evil fruit though it may cease to be good and then produce evil 19. What is here said in the future tense is in the third chapter of S. Matthew spoken by the Greek Text in the Present tense as who should say every tree that yields not good fruit is presently cut down and cast into the fire as if it had cut it selfe downe and cast it selfe into the guilt of hell fire by mortall sinne And it is onely Gods infinite mercy that whilest we yield bad fruit whilest we sinne mortally we are not presently damned for so we deserve to be And in the same third chapter the hatchet is said to be placed at the root of the tree to cut it instantly down meaning Christ is come whose Law is ready to passe upon us whose sentence is ready to be pronounced upon every mortall sinne for then we are spiritually dead and after death judgement is instantly ready nay our own guilty consciences do even immediately pronounce our sentence of damnation unlesse God give us grace to repent and amend by producing good fruits again 20. If they live well and do good workes you may know they are true teachers if not they are false ones 21. See the modesty of our Saviour Christ who rather names his Fathers will then his own although they are alwayes both one and the same God and both equally produce the same effect of salvation if equally observed and obeyed But to the first part of this verse 't is not every one that calls upon God or undertakes to preach his word that is saved no he must bring forth the good fruit above required and what is that good fruit the will of God he must square himself and his actions thereunto and then he shall be saved by crying onely or knocking at heaven gates nay wee need not cry nor knock at all if we bring a key to open the doore if we have cast our own inordinate wills into the form of the will of God and so made unto our selves a key to open heaven gates withall to enter whensoever we die The Application 1. AS in the Epistle above Saint Paul bid the Laymen beware of their greatest internall enemies or evils their own flesh so in this Gospell Saint Matthew bids the same Lay-people take great heed of their most dangerous externall enemies the false Prophets meaning false Teachers and Preachers of Gods holy Word We are therefore as in the Illustration was observed by this dayes doctrine armed against all enemies whatsoever internall or externall by the prudence of holy Church collecting at once all the motives that may be to increase our love and charity to Almighty God in shewing us how his infinite Providence hath secured our way to Heaven by pointing out every danger that we can encounter in the way 2. And as the Lay-man hath no better guides to heaven then those that preach and teach the Word of God unto him that catechise and instruct him in the Principles of Christian Doctrine that offer sacrifice to God for him and administer the Sacraments of God unto him because with these guides it is he trusts his very soul so in regard there are that doe usurp this office of Prophets of Teachers and Preachers to the very bane poyson perdition and damnation of souls it was hugely necessary the divine Providence should arme us against this worst of evils by giving us a rule to know these impudent usurpers by these false Prophets from the true ones which knowledge we shall have by looking on the fruits of one and the other them that bring good fruit we are to follow them that bring forth bad to flie 3. Now because holy Church hath not made the Lay-man absolutely Judge in this particular therefore while her Doctours preaching on this Text give all the signes of true and false Prophets she contents her selfe the Lay-men have recourse to God Almighties Providence herein and that they onely follow those who make their works answerable to their Doctrine who doe as well as teach the will of God For as they onely are true lovers of him who keep his Commandements so such onely are to be the Lay-mens guides And to the end they may have such and may be freed from others They pray to day this may be an act of God Almighties speciall Providence over them
more since there is no more time to work salvation in then that between his birth and his coming to judgement 12. This verse seems added lest any should conceive the former menaces did not belong to him in particular for such is the condition of humane frailty that who to day is a Saint may tomorrow be a sinner and therefore the Apostle bids us all stand upon our guard 13. This Greek phrase of the imperative moode Let not c. is to be understood in the Latine and English as if it were in the preterperfect tense of the indicative and would say hath not that is the temptations you have had were but mere humane namely to contention to lust to liberty and the like such as are common to all mankind but are easily avoyded by the help of grace bestowed on us by our faithfull God who as the following words assure us will not desert us in our temptations nor let us be tempted above our strength much lesse doth God as Calvin sayes thrust us on or tempt us himself nor doth he as Luther will have it impose things impossible on us to whom his grace as to Saint Paul it was is all sufficient and from whom he never takes the said grace till we reject it or by our consent to sin expell it Contrary God permits us not to be tempted but that we may thereby gain greater force to endure yet further assaults as who should say the issue of our temptation is if we will our victory and inabling us to a new if need be to a greater combat for thus much import the last words of the verse that we may be able to sustain these and yet greater onsets if we will our selves use the grace which God gives us to resist them with The Application 1. THe summe of this Epistle is to tell us Christians that what punishments were inflicted on the little children of Almighty God the Jewes who had onely the Alphabet the Elements of religion bestowed upon them will if we commit the like sins befall us too that a e the Men the Combatants the Champions of Jesus Christ honoured by him so far as to have the perfection of religion taught us by himself not onely in the delivery of his holy word unto us but in the example of his sacred person doing before our eyes much more then he expects from us because we should have no excuse from doing our endeavours in some sort at least to follow his saving footsteps 2. It will therefore behove us that are now marching our long journey through the desert of this world to the kingdome of heaven upon the feet of Christian charity to behave our selves as we were passing some narrow and loose bridge standing o're a precipice of deepest waters full of rocks sure to pash us in peices or to drown us if we fall for to this reflection the 1âth verse and close of this Epistle lead us And by this means we shall be sure to beg both faith and hope to lead our charity over this dangerous passage lest while she thinks she stands she fall upon the sharpest rock of all before our eyes to day Idolatry by idolizing to her own inventions in seeking of her self not looking after Jesus Christ in her devotions or upon the splitting rock of Fornication by pouring out her affections on the alluring creatures of the world which she hath made by her baptismal vow solemnly sacred to Almighty God alone or into the deepest pit of Tempting Christ in her prayers by praying to God for things she should renounce and not enjoy her own inordinate desires and so indeavouring to give God law instead of begging favour at his hands to make her self God instead of captivating her rebellious will to his holy pleasure or lastly into the desperate swallowing gulf of Murmur by repining at God Almighties bounties when she sees any prosper whom she loves not especially when this murmuring arrives to the malice of envying her neighbours spirituall good 3. O beloved if this be the frequent practise of Christians who pretend charity to be their guide how ought the reflection of it to strike us into a religious awe into a holy fear into a dread indeed lest while we make a shew to men of saintity we practise iniquity And therefore holy Church to day hath made a prayer so excellently suiting to this purpose that it alone said with a heart which beats according to the lip that saies it will suffice to cure us of those evils and to secure our charity she shall hold her footing o're the narrow bridge of danger If while she prayes she perfectly renounce her own desires and beg of God Almighty only that which is agreable unto his holy will and pleasure The Gospel Luke 19. v. 41. c. 41 And as he drew near seeing the city he wept upon it saying 42 Because if thou hadst known and that in this thy day the things that pertain to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes 43 For the dayes shall come upon thee and thy enemies shall compasse thee with a trench and inclose thee about and straiten thee on every side 44 And beat thee flat to the ground and thy children that are in thee And they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation 45 And entring into the Temple he began to cast out the sellers therein and the buyers 46 Saying to them It is written That my house is the house of Prayer but you have made it a den of thieves 47 And he was teaching daily in the Temple The Explication 41. HEre our Saviour shewed the tender bowels of his humane nature when drawing near Jerusalem the head city of his own chosen people whither he was sent by his heavenly Father to redeem them and all the world besides seeing by his al-seeing eye that maugre the exclamations of the children and people who shewed his way into the City yet he should by the chief commanders there be crucified in requital of his love he fell a weeping mixing the wine of his triumph with the water of his tears to shew us how to temper our pleasures here Three causes there were of our Saviours tears upon this city The first the blindnesse obduracy and ingratitude of his chosen people that would not receive their Messias and Saviour The second the revenge of God upon them by Titus who was to be their destruction by this ingratitude The third the losse as it were of all his own labours upon his best beloved children most of the sons of that city 42. That is if thou o my beloved city didst know as I do and that in this thy day when I come to give thee a kisse of peace from heaven being sent unto thee by my eternall Father when I enter thy gates to redeem and save thee which is indeed a thing appertaining to thy eternall
Ghost is made manifest who is the Authour of all supernatural gifts The profit whereunto these gifts are given is rather to the Church then to him that receives them for gratuite graces ever avail the Church but not so him who receives them as miracles may be wrought by a sinner who doth not profit by them perhaps at all yet the Church doth 8. By the word of wisdome is understood the power to explicate deep mysteries of Faith as of the B. Trinity Incarnation praedestination or the like By the word of knowledge or science is understood the power to direct mens actions or manners that they be rational at least Thus S. Augustine lib. 12. Trinit cap. 14. 15. distinguisheth between wisdome and science or knowledge 9. By Faith here is not understood that act of Theological vertue which is common to all Christians but an act of particular confidence in God whereby it is believed he will by vertue of that our confidence work a miracle being asked so to do by such a Faith as is able to remove mountains Others understand by Faith here a deep understanding inabling to contemplate and explicate the mysteries of Faith 10. By miracles here are understood those which are extraordinary and are exercised not onely upon the body but even on the soules of men such as was that of S. Peter upon Ananias and Saphyra commanding them to dye By discretion of spirits is meant when God gives one man the grace to see into the very thoughts and intentions of others to know when an action is done by a good or evil spirit by God or the devil a gift to be begged by ghostly Fathers and conducing to their conduct of soules These gifts S. Hilarion was noted to have By interpretation of languages is understood a special gift frequent in the primitive Church whereby men illuminated for that end did give the true sense of Scripture and of those who being ignorant yet had the gift of Tongues and to spake more then themselves well understood but were by Interpretârs expounded 11. Namely as that Spirit as the holy Ghost pleaseth The Application 1. St. Paul in this Epistle first puts the Corinthians and ân them all other Christians in mind of the horrid Nothing that they were before their conversion from Gentilisme to Christianity And his aym in this is that as nothing was more abominable to the Gentiles then the name of Jesus Christ so nothing ought to be more reverential to Christians then that most sacred and most saving name insomuch as S. Paul concludes it is an Apostacy from God a relapse to Gentilisme not onely to use irreverence to the name of Jesus but to conceive we have any other life or being then what is purchac'd in that sweetest name 2. Notwithstanding true it is we have life often given us by the holy Ghost the special giver indeed of holy grace which is the âife and being of a Christian and hence it is S. Paul had no sooner inamoured the Corinthians on the Name of Jesus then he falls instantly upon the gifts of the holy Ghost sent from his heavenly Father and from his sacred Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to multiply on us the mercies of Almighty God as if to have been once redeemed by Christ had not satisfied his infinite goodnesse without he had also made this Redemption copious by sending his holy Spirit to re-redeem us by his graces from the relapses into sinne that render our first redemption fruitlesse unlesse it had been more copious yet by the multiplyed mercies of the holy Ghost applying the Passion of our Saviour to us by some new gift of grace bestowed upon us as often as we take religious breath into our bodies by calling on the Name of Jesus with an aweful reverence thereunto as befits all Christians to do and for this purpose it is S. Paul falls into the enumeration of the gratuite gifts of God the graces that are meerly gratis given not such as are usual and absolutely necessary for our sayntification or justification but such as rather serve to shew the multiplication of Gods holy Power and Mercies over us 3. Blessed God! how art thou perpetually out-doing thine own goodnesse by thy continual effusion of thy self upon our iniquity how art thou giving daily more and more manifestation and consequently much more admiration to the blessed Angels and Saints in heaven by multiplying thy mercies on us sinners here in earth whom all those happy spirits may give a thousand thousand times for lost when they see how we run after nothing but the sordid gain and pleasure of the world the sweets that poyson the contents that damne our soules and yet by the multiplication of thy mercies we are sweetly forc'd maugre the impulse of devil flesh and bloud to let go all our hold on the possessed shadowes of this world and to run after the promised substances of the next But how my God are we forc't to this by the manifestation of thy Power in the multiplication of thy mercies according as was said before in the Illustration Say now beloved the Prayer above and see if it be not excellently well adapted to this holy Text and to this application of the same unto our best improvement The Gospel Luke 18. v. 9. 9 And he said also to certain that trusted in themselves as just and despised others this parable 10 Two men went up into the Temple to pray the one a Pharisee and the other a Publicane 11 The Pharisee standing prayed thus with himself God I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men extortioners unjust advouterers as also this Publicane 12 I fast twice in a week I give Tythes of all that I possesse 13 And the Publicane standing afar off would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven but he knocked his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner 14 I say to you this man went down to his house justified more then he because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted The Explication 9. 10. By a Pharisee is understood a proud by a Publicane an humble man in this place 11. By the word standing the pride of the Pharisee is insinuated With himself 't is true for he prayed neither with nor to God for his prayer is rather a vaunting of his own then a seeking of Gods glory And his insolence is great whilest he sayes he is not as other men as who should say all besides himself are sinners had he said as some other men there had been lesse arrogancy yet too much and out of this arrogancy he passeth a rash Judgement upon the Publicane whom he points out for a notorious sinner and insinuates himself to be just 12. By twice a Sabbath is understood twice a week as naming the principal day for the whole week By Tythes of all he possesseth he meanes not onely
the vice of a persecuter which was in none but himself though more may be attributed to his doing as much in a lesse time as the rest did in longer space being he was last called With me that is laboureth with me and not as the Heretickes translate the grace which is with me or in me I not laboring my self but relying on the past labours of Christ thus vainly they but the holy Church understands the Apostle to mean his joynt labour with the grace of God The Application 1. St. Paul in this Epistle recapitulates the arguments by which he brought the Corinthians to believe the hardest point of Faith that then was agitated the resurrection of our Saviour for it was upon preaching that doctrine this Apostle was chiefly persecuted and for defence whereof he suffered martyrdome 2. But as we see this Epistle in the beginning requires that charity accompany the faith of this great mystery so in the close thereof humility attends on charity while S. Paul first calls himself an abortive and the least of the Apostles more one not worthy of that celebrated Name nor daring to ascribe unto himself the fruits of any his greatest labours but attributing all to the grace of God effectually operating in him all those things whereunto he thought himself did very poorly cooperate Thus must faith and humility accompany our charity in her now long march to Advent in all her way to Judgement it self 3. What can be the result of this mystery other then that which naturally followes the unexpected proof of the least expected and most unbelieved thing in all the world the Resurrection of our Saviour A joy no doubt ineffable in those that were his friends and had no hand in any of his sufferings and a confusion on the other side in all that had contributed unto his death a sorrow and a fear if not a deep despair indeed that their sinne of Deicide was sure enough unpardonable So should it be with us beloved who although we cannot kill our Christ again yet do attempt to crucifie him by the very least of many mortall sinnes that we commit against his heavenly Majesty notwithstanding our own conscience tells us we doe therein worse then ever did the Jewes for they pretended zeal in all they did whereas we know we sinne for want of zeal for want of love to him who died for love of us What remedy but that which holy Church to day hath found when we hear the Preachers tell us of the frights and feares the sadnesse and confusion of the Jewes in such a case that then We pray not onely as we did on Sunday last to have Gods mercy multiplyed but even powred out upon us as his precious bloud was powred upon the Jewes that by such a showre of mercy the sinnes our conscience fears may be pardoned and the favours we dare not aske may be granted for the reasons given in the preamble of the Prayer and in the end of the Illustration above The Gospel Mark c. 7. v. 31. 31 And again going out of the coasts of Tyre he came by Sidon to the sea of Galilee through the middest of the coast of Decapolis 32 And they bring to him one deaf and dumb and they besought him that he would impose his hands upon him 33 And taking him from the multitude apart he put his fingers into his eares and spitting touched his tongue 34 And looking up unto heaven he groaned and said to him Epheta which is be opened 35 And immediately his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosened and he spake right 36 And he commanded them not to tell any body but how much he commanded them so much the more a great deal did they publish it 37 And so much the more did they wonder saying He hath done all things well he hath made both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak The Explication 31. THis literall narration of Christ going from coast to coast and by the Sea side alludeth to the change which grace maketh in those who follow the calling of Almighty God that they must leave their former customes and go by new coasts even rough and dangerous seas of persecution up mountains of dangers and difficulties to enjoy the quiet of a good conscience 32. By deaf understand mystically those who will not obey the commands of God and holy Church by dumbe those who will not praise Almighty God in their actions nor in their thoughts but like mutes spend their time in silencing Gods praises They ask him to lay his hands on them because they had experience he did use to cure the diseased by that means 33. He tooke him apart because this corporall cure alludes to the conversion of the soul and the best means of conversion to God is an aversion from the world a retyring from evill company By his fingers put into the deaf mans eares understand the holy Ghost opening the infidels understanding and making him believe the word of God when he hears it Besides the holy Ghost is often intimated by the finger of God as Ex. 8.19 alibi By spitting here is meant Christ his wetting his own finger with his own spittle so notes the Greek Text not that he did spit into the dumb mans mouth And Christ his spittle is not an unfit cure of dumbnesse since by the moisture of the tongue speech is much perfected and aridity is an impediment to speech Thus even God works miracles by the aptest instruments in nature for them 34. By his looking to heaven we are minded that from thence comes all the power we have to heare the word of God and to speak his praise By his groaning he showes how God seems to lament the miseries of those souls which are infected with the contagion of sin By his saying Epheta be thou open to the deaf ear he shewes himself to be God as curing by command 35. No marvel God commanding the cure was done but by his speaking right we are told the cure was perfectly done and not palliated And indeed then it is most evident Gods operation is perfect in us when it brings us from wrong to right from sick to sound but mystically when from sinners we are brought to be right perfected Saints and surely needs must he speak right whom God had cured of his dumbnesse Though some will have it hence that this man was not quite dumb but had onely a stammering in his speech or a weaknesse in that organ not suffering him to speak plain but to babble as children do that first learn to speak Yet by right speaking may here be well understood the cured mans speaking perfectly the praises of God and rightly glorifying his Divine Majesty thereby 36. The word command here is not to be taken strictly or arguing a precept but rather a request so there was no sin in breaking it but rather as S. Augustine insinuates a virtue and that obedience too for
he admires the art of Christs command to speak here under the precept of silence these are S. Augustines words lib. de consens Evang Our Lord by prohibiting would teach and inform us with how great fervour they upon whom he imposeth his commands ought to preach him when as those that were forbidden could not hold their peace No marvel then if the more they are thus forbid the more they preach his praises His commanding them to tell no body was rather for instruction then to have any reall force of a command upon the parties healed because the intent of this commanding silence was that when by Gods peculiar grace we are enabled to do any good or laudable action we should rather suppresse then spread it abroad lest thereby we be vaingloriously moved to arrogate unto our selves the praise of the action which is due to Almighty God as the principal agent while we are onely instrumental thereunto 37. They had indeed reason to wonder at his modesty who forbad it and at their gratitude who could not forbear to speak his praises that had done all things so well which he undertook as himself could not afterwards hinder them in a manner from well doing to publish his wondrous works It is a sign Christ did not effectively command them to silence since the more he bade them hold their peace the more they published his praises For indeed had it been his pleasure they should have been silent they would as little have spoken against his will even after the tongue was by him untyed as they could speak before he had untyed the same but to shew us even Gods temporal blessings have spiritual influences upon us therefore after their corporal cures these men became advanced in spirit in faith in hope in love of Almighty God as appeared by their frank uttering of his praises unto all the world and shewing in their doing well towards God that God had done all things well in them as this text expresseth when he had cured their infidelity of soules together with the diseases of their bodies The Application 1. SInce the Expositours upon this holy Text conclude the literal story of it mystically doth report to us and that the natural deafnesse in this man signifies the unnaturall deafnesse in us Christians to the Word of God to the whispers of the holy Ghost into our understandings to the knocks he gives of holy inspirations at our hearts whilest we deny to let him in we may very well fear it is worse with us Christians then it was with this deaf and dumb Infidel or Jew for he no sooner received his natural speech and hearing then he and all that did behold the miracle broke out into the praising God into the commending of our Saviour saying He hath done all things well he hath made the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak 2. O beloved how often is it for want if not of Faith at least of active charity quite otherwise with too too many Christians who instead of praising and glorifying God become like stocks and stones of whom the Royal Prophet sayes They have mouthes and speak not they have cares and hear not Such indeed are those who in confession will pretend sincerity and commit a sacriledge by revealing many sins and yet concealing one or other which renders all the rest unpardoned as well as that concealed how ere they seem to go away with absolution Such again they are who hearing the Name of God revil'd by some blaspheming miscreant will either seem not to have heard the blasphemy or else not dare to reprehend it as they should for every Christian is a champion of our blessed Lord and ought to bid defiance unto all that dare abuse his holy name 3. Since therefore it is by the abundance of pity on us that God hath called us to be not onely Christians but Catholicks which was an act of highest Grace we have reason so long as we are in this his high esteem to beseech him to pour out his farther mercy on us and to forgive us this our wilfull deafnesse this our stubborn dumbnesse which our conscience hath cause indeed to be afraid of and that he will adde besides more favour to us then we dare presume to ask considering how often and how grievously we have offended his heavenly Majesty Yes beloved sure enough it was for some at least thus deaf thus dumb amongst us that holy Church to teach us the practise of charity makes all her children Pray to day as above in consequence to what the Preachers are to say upon this holy Text by way of application to us all On the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Luk. 10.30 A Certain man went down from Hierusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who also spoyled him and giving him wounds went away leaving him half dead Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer OMnipotent and most merciful God from whose bounty it proceedeth that of thy faithful people thou art worthily and laudably served grant unto us we beseech thee that we may run unto thy promises without offence The Illustration WHo doth not feel this Prayer to ravish with delight when we therein are minded that it is a far greater preferment to serve Almighty God then it can be to have the title of the best and greatest Masters in the world If for no other respect at least for this alone that whomsoever God doth entertain into his service himself indeed becomes a servant unto him and payes him so bountiful wages as if he were rather ambitious to purchase then to accept of his service and further seems even to contract with him to do the work himself in case the servant be not able to perform it although besides the bounty of this present stipend that he gives he also adds vast promises of further indeed of eternal and infinite reward Nor do I say this gratis here for every title of it is avouched in the prayer above when we acknowledge it proceedeth from the bounty of our most merciful God that he is worthily and laudably served of his faithful people and when in lieu thereof we beg that we may run unto his further promises besides his bounteous wages here without offence by so worthily so laudably serving of him in this world as not to loose the future promises of an infinite reward in heaven And what is that to be no more his servants but his heires O gallant servitude indeed O Princely Master Stay here a while beloved do not overslip this advantageous pause I shall beseech you make ere you go on Be it on this That it proceedeth from the bounty of our heavenly Master we earthly creatures do worthily and laudably serve him and are faithful to his service What bounty else is this but his abundant grace first to enable us to endeavour next if we fail of performance to make the service worthy though and
time by doing homage to Almighty God So by this account all Sundayes Holy dayes require an exercise of these three virtues Theologicall and consequently all the time of private prayer is to be spent in actual exercise of these because that prayer is an addresse to God as all the time of persecution that being suffered for Gods sake all the time of troubles for those are caused by sinne against Almighty God and must have end by saintitie so by this account all our life time must be a practice of these virtues an increase of them indeed as the onely means to make us saints to make us capable of God Almighties promises by loving these his easie his sweet his saving commandements which are the continual exercise of these Theologicall virtues whereby we are made capable of his heavenly promises And least it should be with us as with these nine ungratefull Lepers cured from their Leprosy which is a type of all sinne whatsoever but especially of the foulest of all others Infidelity Therefore holy Church to day to prevent all sin in her Christian children and above all the sin of ungratefull infidelitie commends unto us the Prayer above that by often saying this Prayer we may exercise the noblest and most essentiall virtues that belong to Christianitie and by their increase make our selves worthie of our Saviours promises to all good Christians On the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Matth. 6. v. 33. SEek first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and all things shall be given you besides Vers Let my prayer O Lord c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer KEep we beseech thee O Lord thy Church with perpetuall propitiation and since without thee humane mortalitie faileth let it alwayes by thy helps be withdrawn from such things as are hurtfull and directed to those that are saving The Illustration HOw excellently well is the much of the Epistle and Gospel contained in the little of this Prayer wherein we confesse it is by the perpetuall propitiation of our Saviours passion without which our humane mortality would be alwaies failing as the onely help conducing to support us that we can be withdrawn from the works of the flesh and directed to walk in the Spirit that is to say taken off from those things which are hurtfull and directed to those that are saving And what else is the whole Epistle but an exhortation to leave off the works of the flesh and to pursue the fruits of the Spirit Again what are the two masters which the Gospel saies we cannot serve at once but the flesh and the spirit what the drift of all the Gospel but to dehort from one and exhort unto the other So here Epistle Prayer and Gospel speak all one thing how severall soever the language be of each and no marvell because the spirit of Almighty God is able to animate all the creatures of the world Act. 17.28 For it is he in whom we live are moved and have being Now having thus made good our main affair of this work the mutuall connexion of parts in holy Churches service it rests onely to elucidate a word or two in the Prayer above to render the same in it self perfectly understood The first is the perpetuall propitiation wherewith we beg the Church may be kept for though above we called that propitiation an effect of our Saviors passion yet here we must further give a reason why we did so call it and also why we in the Prayer affirm the same to be a perpetuall effect thereof Know therefore it is the effect of his passion because it is not onely a satisfaction for sinne but also a pacification of Gods wrath against mankind who by sinne had provoked Almightie God to a high indignation against the whole race of men And therefore we call this propitiation perpetuall because it is infinite in duration as well as in power of appeasing for though it be now above 1651. years since our Saviour did actually suffer yet the virtue of his suffering is still vigorous and shall be to the worlds end because it was the suffering of God as well as of man and therefore must needs have an eternall operation that is be able for all eternity to appease the wrath divine and in this sense we say the preservation of the world in being is the continuation of the act whereby it was created so the preservation of mens souls from the wrath of the heavenly Father is the continuation of the passion of his sacred Sonne The next phrase of this Prayer which we are to clear is that wherein we say without our perpetually propitious Lord Humane mortalitie would fail as if there were any other mortalitie then humane that were capable of the benefit of our Saviours passion of his perpetuall propitiation Truely no there is not for since it was onely Humane nature that he assumed and by assuming it was pleased to redeem the same we say rightly well no other mortalitie was capable of the benefit of this redemption not but that other natures are mortall as all terrestriall creatures are in the very rigour of death or mortalitie because they all die by way of corruption and if we say the celestiall spirits are mortall too because they may be held to die when they fell from heaven to hell from the state of grace to the state of damnation we shall not speak improperly and truly the phrase of this Prayer seems to allude to that mortality of the blessed spirits when therein we are taught to affirm that our Saviours passion was a propitiation peculiarly provided for the subsistence onely of humane mortalitie since it was a remedy provided onely to recover so often as they chance to fall mortall men and not any other mortall creature besides either terrestriall or celestiall And thus the stile of humane mortalitie is most apposite because man onely had the happinesse of mercy to be shewed him for his sins which was a favour never done to any Angel whatsoever and this mercy is just the same which this present Prayer avoucheth begging that our humane mortalitie which needs must fail without it may have the benefit of our blessed Saviours perpetuall propitiation by the application thereunto of his bitter death and passion which will afford it helps to avoid what is hurtfull and to follow what is saving The Epistle Galat. 5. v. 16. c. 16 Brethren I say walk in the spirit and the lusts of the flesh you shall not accomplish 17 For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh for they are adversaries one to another that not what things soever you will these you do 18 But if you be led by the spirit you are not under the Law 19 And the works of the flesh be manifest which are fornication uncleannesse impudicitie lecherie 20 Serving of Idols witchcrafts enmities contentions emulations anger brawles dissentions sects 21 Envies murthers
you shall receive or reap corruption But the common sense is that the fruit of carnality is disease corruption death damnation that of spirit vertue life everlasting glory and salvation 9. The Apostle here exhorts to a perseverance in doing good the Priest constantly continuing to teach the Lay to learn to relieve his teacher and to work according as he is taught as if incessant reward were not otherwise to be hoped but for incessant labour So as we may understand this in two sorts we shall reap in due time in the next world if we do not cease our labours in this or we shall even in this world reap incessant reward in due time for our labours here if we labour constantly and slack not our zeales since it is the end that crownes the work either with grace in due time here or glory in due time in the next world 10. That is whilest we have time to sow the seeds of good works let us do good to all people Christians or Heathens not onely to those we catechize though principally to Christians as being domesticals and of one house with us fellow servants in the Church of Christ the true house of God The Application 1. THe last Sundayes service and this do seem to be almost the same onely that was a more general Application to all mankind this to the chosen sort of men who make up the mystical body of Christ his holy Church Wherefore S. Paul in this Epistle makes his addresse particularly to the Priests and Pastours of our soules from the first verse to the end of the fifth at the sixth he begins to tell the sheep their duty to the shepherd and so continues to the end of the eighth verse in the two last verses he concludes with an exhortation to them of perseverance in their Christian duties bidding them do good to all men whatsoever but especially to one another to the domesticals of Faith to those who have not onely Christ their Father but do professe his holy Spouse the Church to be their Mother 2. We see by the Illustration above that the Priests office to us is double the one to cleanse us by administring the holy Sacraments unto us the other to defend us by preaching praying and offering up their daily sacrifices for us Hence we must conclude our duty consists in preparing our selves worthily for receiving those Sacraments from the hands of the Priests lest we incurr the censures of unworthy receivers no lesse then our own damnation if it be the Sacrament of the holy Altar that we do receive and if any other of them there hangs a curse at least upon all who perform the work of God negligently as all unworthy receivers of any Sacraments do or the negligent hearers of any Sermons or of Masse which is the sacrifice as well of the people as of the Priest and these are peculiarly indeed the works of God as being instituted by his sacred Son nay more they are the works of his continued mercy towards us and so surpasse all other his works whatsoever because we are told his mercy is above all his works 3. Hence the Priest is put in mind further then in the Explication above with what a holy intention attention reverence and zeal of soules he ought to administer any Sacrament and also how with the like regards he ought to preach or offer up his sacrifices thereby to comply with the trust of Sayntity which both God and man have put into his hands lest he incurr the odious brand of becoming like the people so the Priest for how ever both are sinners to God yet the Priests are set apart as Saints to the eyes of men and they peculiarly were those he bade be holy as himself was holy who made them dispensers of the mysteries of God unto the people Lastly hence the Lay-men are minded with what humility reverence fear and trembling yet with what confidence comfort obedience with what Faith what hope what love with what adoration with what zeal to God Almighties honour and glory they ought to receive the holy Sacraments to hear the Word of God to assist at the sacrifice of Masse which is not onely a commemoration but even a renovation a repetition in a mysterious way of our Saviours death and passion so they are to look upon the Priest going to the Altar with the same devotion as if they did behold our Saviour going to be crucified Now that both may do this our holy Mother prayes to day as above for that special gift of God that bounty whereby it is performable that ardent charity which sets on fire the world of flesh and makes it flye out into flames of holy love unto his heavenly Majesty for by this love it is that the Church militant is govern'd and by the same love God is glorified for all eternity in his Church Triumphant The Gospel Luk. 7.11 11 And it came to passe afterwards he went into a City that is called Naim and there went with him his disciples and a very great multitude 12 And when he came nigh to the gate of the City behold a dead man was carried forth the onely son of his mother and she was a widow and a great multitude of the City with her 13 Whom when our Lord had seen being moved with mercy upon her he said to her Weep not 14 And he came near and touched the Coffin and they that carried it stood still and he said young man I say to thee arise 15 And he that was dead sate up and began to speak and he gave him to his mother 16 And fear took them all and they magnified God saying that a great Prophet is risen among us and that God hath visited his people The Explication 11. THis was a fair Citie in Galilee within two miles of mount Thabor and so had the name of Faire for Naim imports as much This made the sadder funerall and the more gladsome miracle being in so vast so famous a City into which so great a multitude such a train of people followed our Saviour 12. This seeming chance to man of two such multitudes meeting those within and those without the City at the funerall was designed by God to render more authenticall the miracle God thereby more glorified and Christ the more beloved though it is to be noted that the Jews and Romans too had their burials alwayes out of the Cities unlesse rarely for Kings who were buried in the Citie of Sion David building a place for that purpose Note this onely sonne was also her onely child hence the mothers sorrow was greater to lose in him all the whole hopes of her house being a widdow of note and so past hopes of more of that family 13. By saying to her weep not he shewed his compassion of her sorrow was such that he meant to take away the cause of her tears by restoring her son to life again and so doubtlesse she believed when he
instead of purifying our intentions of honouring as we ought to do one onely God when even under that pretence by the contagion of factious doctrine we Idolize to as many devils as mislead us in the wayes of faction and division For prevention whereof holy Church fitly prayes as above that our intentions may be purified by the unity thereof by intending Gods honour only in those services that are pretended done for Gods sake and not our own interest On the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Matth. 9. v. 7. THe sick then of the palsie took up his bed in which he lay magnifying God and all the people which beheld it gave praise to God Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer LEt O Lord the operation of thy mercy direct our hearts because without thee wee cannot please thee The Illustration IF any man doubt what is meant by the operation of our Lords mercy mentioned in this prayer S. Paul in the first verse of this daies Epistle will tell him it is the actual grace of God which the Apostle alwayes gives thanks for as being the cause of the Corinthians conversion of their being enriched in all things appertaining to Christian religion so as to want nothing but the revelation of Christ in glory whom already they beheld in grace as also of their perseverance without crime till the day of doom in that belief unto which by this grace they had been called This is the summ of the Epistle and undoubtedly this is the sense of the prayer begging that as by the operation of Christ his mercy the Corinthians became Christians so we that are by the same meanes of the same profession may by the same help have our hearts directed by the operation of our Saviours mercy towards us by the encrease of his grace within us And indeed that encrease is also properly the operation of his mercy too for the first gift thereof was rather the exhibition then the operation of his holy grace and yet to us it seems like an operation of it too within his own bowels and so as we said above the exhibition of it in our eyes is as the effect of his mercie upon himself but the encrease thereof is the operation of it upon us to whom it is exhibited so by the exhibition of this grace we become children of God and by the encrease thereof we grow to be his champions to live his Saints and die his Martyrs rather then renounce the Faith of Christ Thus we see the first clause of this Prayer hath exhausted the whole Epistle of the day Now that the Gospel should be by the close thereof exhausted too would seem strange if already stranger mysteries had not appeared in the mysterious prayers of holy Church And certain it was for the depth of their spirit that S. Gregory the great collects them all together into a book intituled of Sacraments that is to say of Mysteries as in the preface of this book was hinted not that the stile of Churches prayers is other then plain and easie but that the depth of their meaning is prodigious We have examples in the simple stile of Thomas à Kempis authour of the following of Christ the plainest and the deepest book that ever was written next to holy Writ the fullest of common places and yet the most home to every mans particular that reads it So it is with the Churches prayers they are in words simple and facil but in sense such as the deepest understanding may not be able to sound the bottome of them For instance see how the whole story of the Gospel is wound off by the onely close of this daies prayer if yet the former clause thereof were not appropriable thereunto For what imports the pressing into Jesus presence of the paralytick and those who from the houses top did drop him down into the room where Jesus was when they found not entrance any other way but an infinite faith they had of being cured by the least touch of his sacred person and this to satisfie our selves with the letter of the story not recurring as we might to the mystery thereof What I say means this passage else then a remonstrance of this paralyticks faith in Jesus Christ And who doth not see the close of this prayer excellently well allude to faith since we read that without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 Do not we Christians then implicitely beg if not the gift which we have already at least the encrease of faith when we end this prayer with confessing We cannot without God please his Divine Majestie that is to say as without the gift of faith we can be no Christians at all so without the encrease thereof through the operation of Christ his mercy in us we cannot become good Christians such as by works of charity still encrease our faith in Jesus Christ and by that encrease deserve with the paralytick as well the remission of our sins as the cure of corporal diseases since without such remission we cannot please Almighty God and without him no such remission can be had that is without his mercy operate first upon him to pardon us and then upon us when pardoned to offend no more not that this operation of Gods mercy upon himself is any new act but ever is ever was and will be one and the same act in him seeming new to us by the new effects it produceth in us So every way is it an undoubted truth that without him we can no wayes please him And thus do we still adjust the prayers of holy Church unto the other service of the day The Epistle 1 Cor. 1. v. 4. 4 I give thanks to my God alwayes for you for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus 5 That in all things you may be rich in him in all utterance and in all knowledge 6 As the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you 7 So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace expecting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ 8 Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ The Explication 4. IN these words S. Paul gives thanks to God incessant for the grace of Christ which was given to the Corinthians who thereby were made Christians An excellent lesson and ought to be frequently practised by us to acknowledge that our perseverance is a continuation of our vocation to Christianity 5. In all things appertaining to your religion Rich in him rich by him that doth enrich you every hour by preserving you in the same vocation he hath called you unto In all utterance in all your words whereby is preached this faith In all knowledge in all true spiritual understanding the doctrine of Christ as who should say I thank God that hath by mine and by Apollo's preaching afforded you all understanding and true sense
unto her self she beggs the operation of his mercy in her may be the demonstration of her love to him because without him she cannot please him however he seems mercifully not to be pleased without us cooperating with him to his ends which are our own felicities On the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Matth. 22. v. 11. ANd the King went in that he might see those who were set and saw there a man not clothed in his wedding garment and saith to him friend how camest thou hither not having thy wedding apparell Vers Let my Prayer O Lord c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer ALmighty and mercifull God vouchsafe propitiously to exclude all things which are adverse unto us that being set at liberty both in mind and body we may with free souls execute those things that appertain unto thee The Illustration WHo can enough admire the depth of the Holy Ghost that in this prayer nay even in one emphaticall word or two thereof hath summed up not onely the Epistle and Gospel of the day but the whole story in a manner of our humane generation For what else do we find in the Epistle but S. Paul advising the Ephesians to put on the new man and cast off the old what else in the Gospel but a very good reason given us for doing thus by the parable of him who was not onely shut out of the wedding room because he had not put on his nuptiall garment but also was cast into outward darknesse c. And what doth this mind us of lesse then of old Adams story cast out of paradise because God found him there without his wedding garment without his originall justice Now that the prayer above doth sweetly summe up this will not perhaps so easily appear untill we find some transcendentall word or other which unlocks all the mysterious meaning of the prayer What if the word exclude go far in doing this when we beseech our almighty and mercifull God that he wil vouchsafe propitiously to exclude al things which are adverse unto us Certainly when all adversity is excluded from us God hath given us a fair testimony that we are included in his favour and have no bar between us and our eternall happinesse O! had Adam been so happy to have said this prayer and to have had the graunt of his petition the serpent excluded out of Paradise which we see was a huge adversity let in unto him our danger had not been as now it is to be shut out of heaven gates for want of our wedding garments and cast into outward darknesse into the pit of hell unlesse we may by praying as above obtain to have all things excluded which are adverse unto us lest if any one of all adversities enter in upon us we prove as weak as frail as Adam did and let that one enemy cast us out of all our felicity temporall and eternall For while we let in but any one he fetters us immediately he hampers our affections and makes us silly fools to doat upon our own undoing Whence we pray that all adversity may be excluded and that by this means being set at liberty both in mind and body we may with free souls execute those things which appertain to Almighty God for free souls import such as are not fetterred with the shackles of adversity and sinne If any ask what those things are which appertain to God why nothing more then we are told in the Epistle and Gospel to put off the old man and put on the new such as is according to God created in justice and holinesse of truth that thereby we may be capable of the happy appertaining to so great a master so good a God and consequently such as hath excluded lying anger theft and together with all his other sinfull children the devil himself not giving him any the least place in the soul And when we have put off the old man therefore called old because he is sinfull as old Adam was then we may hope to have put on the new or to speak more properly to the letter of the prayer though this be a good sense thereof then God will put us on the new For 't is indeed he that must create us he that must renew us in the spirit of the mind he that must make us just and give us the holinesse of truth ours is the negative his the positive part of sanctity we must first by his holy grace decline evil and then he will make us by virtue of the same grace do good we must not lie not be angry not steal in a word not sinne as this Epistle tells us for these things appertain to the devil and then we may hope to be the new created Saints whom the Gospel admits with wedding garments in to the wedding feast But in regard we find difficulty in our declining evil or in our not sinning therefore the prayer petitions that God will vouchsafe propitiously to exclude all adversities out of doors and by all adversity we mean all sinne for if he leave it to us we shall certainly let sin in and by so doing cause Almighty God to shut us out of heaven gates and cast us into outward darknesse for want of our wedding garment the livery of the new man who according to God is created in justice and holinesse of truth who is not onely called but elected too selected for eternall happinesse by God having excluded all adversity from him and made him freely execute those things which appertain to his Divine Majesty to be holy here and glorious in the life to come The Epistle Ephes 4. v. 24. c. 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind 24 And put on the new man which according to God is created in justice and holinesse of truth 25 For the which cause laying away lying speak ye the truth every one with his neighbour because we are members one of another 26 Be angry and sinne not Let not the sunne go down upon your anger 27 Give not place to the devil 28 He that stole let him now not steal but rather let him labour in working with his hands that which is good that he may have whence to give unto him that suffereth necessity The Explication 23. HE had in the verse before bid them lay aside according to their old conversation the old man c. And now he bids them be renewed in the spirit of their mind not to be as formerly corrupted according to their own desires of errours but to have their souls fixed upon truth and justice such as from bastards of the devil made them true children of God and from wicked to be just for as thus they were changed from old to new by holy baptisme so now he exhorts them to renew in themselves the same spirit of their minds which they then were endued withall and which by the corruption of humane conversation had decayed in part
honest ends not for lucre or unjust sordid gain the temptation whereof will cease if we make it the end of our labour to do works of charity to others such as is relieving them in their necessity And if to this end even Church-men labour they will not want the example of it given them by the Apostles who did practise the same as well as preach it The Application 1. St. Paul not knowing what better counsel to give his Ephesian Converts when he found some of them relapsing towards the old man then to bid them be renewed in the spirit of their minds and to put on the new man which according to God was created in Justice and Holinesse seemes in this to have left it as a rule of Christian perfection that the Ephesians should endeavour to be continually the Saints which first they were when God by holy baptisme snatcht them out of the bondage of the devil and made them free-born Citizens of the heavenly Hierusalem clad in the richest robes of Saintitie the purest Innocency 2. And surely holy Church can have no other aym by reading us this lesson to day then to mind our charity of walking in that saving path of Innocency by renewing her baptismal vow her holy covenant with Almighty God of loving him above all things and her neighbour as her self of renouncing the world the flesh and the devil with all their lying passion malice and injustice forbidden to all Christians in the holy Text above 3. Now because this is easier said by Preachers then done by the people and because it is impossible for men of themselves to do the least good at all the Royal Prophet saying there is not one that doth it therefore holy Church finding her children by S. Paul exhorted to no lesse perfection then the highest of Saintity and remembring that as when Adam was in Paradise God to ease his way to Saintity had shut out all Adversity both of mind and body from thence all disturbance and grief of soul all rebellion of sense against reason all disasters of the body in a word all mortality it self so the same God having pleased to bring us in to a Paradise of grace our prudent Mother hopes his divine goodnesse will also shut out all adversity from thence that we may not by disturbance either in mind or body be hindered from executing his commands better in this paradise of grace then Adam did in the paradise of Earth yet withall our holy Mother knowing the difficulty of this work to procure us this tranquillity useth all her best arts and for this end Prayes to God that it may be if not ours at least his own handy-work and if not feisible by his ordinary Power that yet it may be done by his Omnipotency or by that which yet to us is greater by his mercy and lest that mercy be mistaken she conjures him by the highâst of his mercies by his bitter death and passion by that mercy which doth not onely satisfie the rigour of his Justice but renders him Propitious also to us Say but the Prayer above and see if it be not home to all this purpose The Gospel Matt. 22. v. 1. 1 And Jesus answering spake again in parables to them saying 2 The Kingdome of heaven is likened to a man being a King which made a marriage to his son 3 And he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage and they would not come 4 And again he sent other servants saying tell them that were invited behold I have prepared my dinner my beeves and fatlings are killed and all things are ready come you to the marriage 5 But they neglected and went their wayes one to his farme and another to his merchandize 6 And the rest laid hands upon his servants and spitefully entreating them murdred them 7 And when the King did hear of it he was wroth and sending his hosts destroyed those murtherers and burnt their City 8 Then he said to his servants the marriage indeed is ready but they that were invited were not worthy 9 Go ye therefore into the high wayes and whomsoever you shall find call to the marriage 10 And his servants going forth into the wayes gathered together all that they found bad and good and the marriage was filled with guests 11 And the King went in to see the guests and saw there a man not attired in a wedding garment 12 And he said to him Friend how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment but he was dumb 13 Then the King said to the wayters binde his hands and feet and cast him into the utter darknesse there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth 14 For many are called but few elected The Explication 1. BY this way of parables Christ did often instruct and illuminate the Jewes who were very intentive to any parabolical sense and much pleased therewith 2. By the Kingdome of heaven is here understood the Church militant which is truly a Kingdome purchased by the blood of Christ and the time when this marriage was made was when Christ became man who being the second person of the blessed Trinity was espoused to his holy Church So the King here mentioned is God the Father sending down his Son to be married to his said Spouse the holy Church 3. The servants meant in this verse were the Patriarks and Prophets of the old Law who could not prevail with the Jews to come unto the wedding feast that God had by these his servants invited them unto 4. The servants in this verse were the Apostles their disciples and all missionary Priests of the new Law of Christ These were bid tell the people invited and with great reason the wedding feast was ready for so the word dinner here imports By the beeves and fatlings are understood the Sacrifices Sacraments Sermons Martyrdomes and all other spiritual food prepared for souls in holy Church 5. By these are understood men preferring the world before God and so refusing to be reconciled for fear of loosing their estates by the penal lawes of man made against the followers of the Law of Christ The farm and merchandize are here set down in lieu of all other worldly occupations withdrawing soules from the service of God 6. These are such as did not onely refuse themselves to become good but proceeded farther in their malice by opposing others in their way of vertue in a word by persecuting the people of God the true Church of Christ Such were those who put to death the Apostles such they who now execute the Priests that succeed the Apostles in the ministery of Gods holy Word 7. This verse tells us that God perceiving the wickednesse of those who persecuted his Saints as the Jewes had done his sacred Son sent in his wrath Titus and Vespasian to destroy the Jewes to sack Jerusalem and therein to pull down the Temple of Solomon the miracle in a manner of the world So
that the Princes Armies were the hostes in this verse mentioned who after they had sackt did burn the City of Jerusalem 8 This verse alludes to the turning a way Gods face from the Jews his chosen people and casting his eye upon the Gentiles which signifies the transmigration from the Jewish Synagogue to the Church of Christ from the old Law to the new And he sayes truly dinner was ready indeed because Christ was then crucified and yet after that his resurrection ascension and coming of the Holy Ghost the stiffe-necked Jewes would nor be made believe in him so then the Apostles were sent from the unworthy Jewes to the Gentiles 9. Into the high wayes into all the nooks and turnings of the whole world into all Nations with Commission to make no such distinction as formerly God made between Jew and Gentile but to preach and teach the Word of God to all in general and to every one in particular of what Nation soever to every creature of the whole world Mark 16. v. 15. 10. This verse alludes to the performance of this Commission when holy Church sayes in honour of the Apostles Rom. 10.18 The sound of their lips went into every Nation and even to the worlds end their words were heard inviting as they were commanded bad and good that is not denying as Reformists do but that true faith may consist with evill manners that bad men may be yet true Christians or which is all one that in the Church of Christ there are sinners as well as Saints who are not therefore secluded the Church because they are of evil life but are still exhorted to mend By the marriage being filled with guests understand here the Church of Christ was full of true believers of all Nations whatsoever 11. This verse points at the day of Judgement which is the last day of the nuptial feast of Jesus Christ when God coming to view his guests brought into the Church out of all Nations shall espy one wanting his wedding garment wanting his robe of innocence and sanctity of life wrought by charity in his soul and rendring his faith meritorious in the sight of God by the good works of his charity By this one is literally and eminently here meant the reprobated Jew who at the day of Judgment shall be more confounded then any other Nation whatsoever so here is not had regard to faith as distinguished from charity since the onely obstinate Jew is understood to have no faith at all how ever he come thither to receive his doom with others that are then to be judged but his reprobation shall be signal and remarkable when he shall be as it were the onely man picked out to be thrust into the pit of hell Though by one man mentioned here is also signified that at the day of Judgment there shall not one be permitted to enter into the Kingdome of heaven who hath not on him the wedding garment of sanctifying charity hence each one ought to have a great care lest he be the one singled out to eternal perdition since in that vaste multitude not one can hope to lie hid from the sight of the Judge 12. By being dumb is here understood not being able to alleadge any excuse why he should not be damned Yet even in this inexcusable delinquency the text by the word friend out of the King mouth expresseth it is purely our own faults we are not saved for God on his part is our friend and so calls us when we obstinately persist in professing enmity to his Divine Majesty 13. By the Waiters here we may not unfitly understand the divels who wait indeed to snatch away as many soules to hell as they can By the binding his hands and feet is understood the cessation of all future action and place is then onely left for passion for enduring endlesse torments The darknesse of hell is therefore called utter darknesse because there is neither light of reason nor of grace nor place left in the damned to be saved by any meanes Though S. Gregory calls it outward darknesse which is more after the Latine text because it is a darknesse added to the darknesse of the heart and soul wherein the damned creature lived which as contradistinguished to that of hell S. Gregory calls inward darknesse where no light of grace did shine within the soul 14. This is a fearful conclusion for whereas the parable speaks but of one rejected this verse intimates very few are saved that is though many are called into the lap of the Church yet but few are placed in the bosome of Christ and there rewarded with eternal glory namely those onely who by good works and godly life added to their faith have according to S. Peters counsel made certain their vocation and election too 2 Pet. 1.10 certain indeed to God but not so to their knowledge who at most can have but a certain hope thereof so long as they live The Application 1. THe Parable of this Gospel seems nothing else but a deeper inculcation to us of the doctrine delivered above in this dayes Epistle inviting us to an innocency of life in this Paradise of grace by inviting us to a saintity of a far better life in the Paradise of glory 2. For what are all these excuses pretended here against our going to heaven but that which the Epistle forbids a meer practise of lying both to God and man So the Prophet had reason to say Iniquity gave her self the lye by pretending excuses from her bounden duty which ought to be nothing else but the serving God and the saving of her soul thereby What is the laying hands on Gods servants and murdering those that invite us to heaven but the Anger and giving place to the devil both forbidden in the Epistle what our stealing away the grace of our soules by the hands of sin which was a treasure given us to work out both our own and our neighbours salvation also by but a plain practise of the prohibited Theft in the last verse of the Epistle with making the theft a sacriledge to boot by robbing God of his glory and of his Saints whilest we concur to their damnation whom Jesus sayntified by his bitter death and passion 3. What then remaines but that as these falsities passions malices thefts are meerly the devices of the devil the multiplicity of his invented adversities to disturb the quiet of our minds and bodies by that they may not be free to serve God with a prompt obedience to his commands his meer bolts indeed to shut us for ever out of our best Paradise of glory so the Church by the practise of veracity patience goodnesse and honesty bids us work counter to the devil And for this purpose prayes to day that God will by the bolt of his efficacious grace shut out the devill with all his adversities from our soules and bodies that so by a tranquillity of serving God in the Paradise of grace in
this life our charity may enter into a security of enjoying him in the Paradise of glory in the life to come On the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon John 4.52 BVt the father knew that it was the same hour in the which Jesus said thy son liveth and he believed and his whole house Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer VVE beseech thee O Lord thou being pacify'd grant unto thy faithful pardon and peace that they may be both clean from all offences and serve thee with secured soules The Illustration WHat is remarkable in this Prayer is the filial language of it to the heavenly Father of whom we beg first that he will please to be pacified for the offences of his children next that he will not onely pardon the said offences but further grant unto us the highest of all favours his blessed peace the same which surpasseth all understanding as we have heard formerly and the reason why we are not content with pardon unlesse we have also the peace of conscience to boot that which is never struck up between God and man without a kisse of love the close of this prayer tells us because as by pardon we are cleansed from all offences so by peace we are made able to serve his Divine Majesty with secured souls And of what are we secured of his undoubted reconciliation to us by the kisse of love which sealed a happy peace between us Blessed JESU how fond the holy Ghost is of us that inspires aged men to demean themselves in their devotions like little children sitting in the laps of their loving parents For such is the language of this prayer even as in a word or two we said to God Almighty Kisse and be friends for without a kisse of love it is impossible to hope for peace of conscience to serve God with souls secured that we are in his favour But that this glosse may appear to be as congruous to the other service of the day as to the prayer above see how by S. Paul the holy Ghost speaks to us to day as to little children bidding us walk warily and be wise redeeming lost time and wisely now leave to run after the rattles of our own inventions and learn to understand what is the will of God to forbear the riotous company of sinners and to converse with Saints those that are not glutted with the wine of worldly pleasures but filled with the grace of the holy Spirit which makes them never speak in other language then in psalmes hymnes or spiritual canticles sung in their hearts to our Lord God or then in some thankesgiving to him in the name of Jesus Christ that hath made us subject to one another without any other fear then of our Lord and Saviour from whom we are confident to obtain pardon of our sins testified with a pledge of peace given us by a kisse of love as often as we shall like dutiful children demand it And if we take the Gospel in that mysticall sense wherein the Expositours do explicate the parable thereof we shall find this glosse we have made to be hugely suitable thereunto For the Expositours will have the soul of man to be the Lord or little King who demands of her father Christ the great King of heaven cure of a sick son a depraved will and imployes all the senses as so many servants sent to beg this cure when the soul renounces the world the flesh and the devil in holy baptisme and is by that Sacrament as by a touch of the virtue of our Saviour cured of her ague her inordinate desires and appetites and this at the seventh hour that is to say by the seven-fold healing Spirit of the holy Ghost we shall then see this prayer is penned in a language speaking though in other tearmâ the very sense of this Gospel too For what doth the pardon begged in the prayer allude unto but original sin remitted by holy baptisme and actual sin forgiven by the Sacrament of penance and to the pledge of peace sealed with the kisse of love when by the Sacrament of the holy Eucharist we see our selves not onely set as it were like darlings in the lap of Christ but even the blessed Trinity delighted to dwell in our hearts cleansed as above from all offence and serving God with secured soules that then all is well between us and our heavenly Father when in testimony thereof his Divine Majestie makes our soul here his temporal throne that we may hope to have his bosome our eternal tabernacle in the world to come And thus we see how particularly this Prayer is grounded on the other service of the day what ever common place of piety it seems to be to those that will not study the special mysterie thereof The Epistle Ephes 5. v. 15. 15 See therefore brethren how you walk warily not as unwise but as wise 16 Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil 17 Therefore become not unwise but understanding what is the will of God 18 And be not drunk with wine wherein is riotousnesse but be filled with the Spirit 19 Speaking to your selves in Psalms and hymns and spirituall canticles chaunting and singing in your hearts to our Lord. 20 Giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father 21 Subject one to another in the fear of Christ. The Explication 15. THe Apostle here speaks to the Ephesians out of the abundance of his care when he bids them see how they walked as if the least trip in them now they had so clear a day so bright a sun-shine to walk in as is that of the Gospel were unsufferable in regard the word of God was like a lanthorn to their footing Psal 118.105 shewing them where they might fix everystep securely and walk converse warily as if they were to render an account not onely for every idle action but for every idle word Mat. 12.36 since they had the honour to be instructed by Jesus Christ the wisdome of the eternal Father how to lead their lives here so religiously wary as that they need not fear to live eternally happy in the next world And not to do this S. Paul here tels them is folly and they that do so are not wise but fools to wast away that precious time in idlenesse which was given them to work out their salvation in with fear and trembling lest by loosing any part of the time allotted them for this end they might by sudden death be prevented in that very losse of time they made and so with the foolish virgins be shut out of heaven as not ready nor fit to enter in when the Bridegroom comes by with whom or never they must be admitted in 16. And that the Apostle in the verse above intimated their regard to a good use of time in their conversations this verse restifies bidding them not onely have a care to
Assyrians led barefoot in shew of their slavery Isaias went three dayes barefooted Isa 20.3.4 which he needed not have done but for this propheticall end whereas the Apostle intimates here our slavery is past and our servitude also in regard we are of slaves to the devil made now children of God and so need go no longer barefooted But the truest meaning of this place is that by being shod we shew a promptitude both in hearing preaching and practising the Word of God as who should say this promptitude were the best preparation to bring in Christianitie to all parts of the world And the Gospel of Christ is rightly called a Gospel of peace because it brings tidings of humane redemption of fraternall dilection and of salvation to those that walk therein 16. In all things imports here above all things that we must take up the shield of true faith for that is it indeed which not onely shews us to be Christians but defends us against all enemies of Christ by breaking the darts and arrows of the devil which are shot against us and are born off by this buckler of faith are received confidently and shattered against it assuredly for no temptations enter the body or the soul that are received upon this buckler By the fierie darts of the most wicked one are understood the temptations of the flesh which the devil leads us into and such are those of burning lust but easily quenched by believing God's grace is sufficient to extinguish them in us as it was in S. Paul 2 Cor. 12. v. 9. 17. By the head-peice or helmet of salvation the Apostle means the hope of heaven given us by Christ his passion for as a helmet secures the head as the chief part of man so this hope of heaven settles all our thoughts rectifies our intentions and squares our actions to the right end that makes them saving and encourageth us for the hope we have of heaven to rush in upon any danger which is between vs and that blessed home as men whose heads are armed with a helmet do break into the thickest shower of their enemies darts or swords By the sword of the spirit or spirituall sword is understood the Word of God the Gospel the doctrin of Jesus Christ whether written or delivered by the oraculous mouths of his twelve Apostles and from thence brought down unto this very time we live in 2 Thessal 2.15 Isa 59.20 21. and which shall be handed over from us to all after ages by the teachers and preachers of the Holy Church With the edge of this sword Christ slew the devil tempting him in the desert as we read Matth. 4. when he said not in bread alone but in every word that falls from the mouth of God man is fed and kept spiritually alive And thus we see a Christian souldier compleatly armed by the Apostle from head to foot with spirituall armour and weapons not onely sufficient for defensive but even to secure him in an offensive warr against his greatest adversaries The Application 1. THe 2 first verses of this Epistle give us warning of the worst encounter charity hath had as yet in all her tedious march hear how they bid her fortifie arm and stand the enemy the devil But God be thank'd ther 's a friend at hand The mighty power of our Lord. The 3d verse tels us 't is not Major Generall the Flesh who rallies still a new how oft soever we beat him out of the field nor the Leivtenant Generall the World but Captain Generall himself the worst of all the Divells hell can arm against us The spirituall of wickedness in the celestialls bids the Battel now the same that never comes to field without his Rectours Princes Potentates and all the forces he can muster up The Explication above hath fitted us to the fight and taught us the use of our armes 2. Now Charity defend thy self and us put up thy Royal standard that of Heavenly Grace fixt to the Cross of Christ See how they charge thee on thy right wing first hark how their canons roar against thy Faith while it is Deity indeed they fight against with Infidelitie Atheistry Paganisme Turcisme Heresie Judaisme Sects and Schismes as many as there are fancies in mens fickle brains See at the same time how they charge thy left wing too Thy hope of everasting happinesse This they would fool thee out of by their onely facing thee with Liberty thy birth-right with honour pleasure profit treasure and command possessions better as they say then thy best of expectations ought to fright thee from But all the main charge is against thy Faith and this too given by the Captain-General the spiritual of wickedness in the celestials he that having lost himself would lose thee too he that 's asham'd thou should'st enjoy the happinesse he is deprived of because he could not love his Maker better then himself See then the Battail's at an end if charity can love God can crown her with the victory over him that lost the day for lack of love Be sure thy faith can never fail if thou be constant in thy love since all belief is rooted in charity so we are taught Ephes 3.18 Whilest we have Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith rooted and founded in charity the same is of the Deity and all the other mysteries of Faith we do believe and all of Hope So whilest our charity keeps her Body close her virtues round about her those we call the works of love her wings are safe the day the field 's her own maugre all the enemies assaults for say beloved though we should admit which yet we must not do that Invisibles are slender motives to make us relinquish all the present pleasures of the world yet of the two Invisibles those that tie us up to goodness here are safer certainly then those that let us loose to all iniquity So by force of reason charity hath woon the day while she believes hopes in and loves the unseen Deity by having seen the sayntity of his sacred Son and in that faith that hope that love defies the unseen enemy to Deity the Devil whose seen iniquities affright us from the ruine he invites us to 3. To conclude if holy Church on the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany upon the danger of the enemy man assaulting her by night but to sow poysonous seed upon her wholesome corn did Body then and draw her self into her Guards no marvell that to day upon a greater onset she Bodies too and puts her self into her Ranks and Files indeed into Battalia and now begins her prayer in the self same words as then though being yet to make a further march she variâs in the latter end of her petition And because she knows the divine protection will no longer continue to set her free from the worst of adversities those spiritual iniquities that would fain cut up Religion by the roots and fool us out of doing
their end is destruction And that you may know he means the Libertines above mentioned he tells you they are such whose God is their belly who worship Dagon not Jesus Christ who delight in venery and gluttony But see the sequel of such worldlings their glory sayes the Apostle is their confusion it shall fare with them as with their God Dagon it did 1 King 5.4 whose head and hands fell from him upon the approach of the Ark brought by the Philistaeans into the Temple of their God Dagon while the people rested themselves leaving this broken-God nothing but the trunk of his body to shew that the preservation of his sordid parts were rather a confusion then a glory to them whilest the instruments of glory the head and the hands betokening glorious resolutions and heroick actions were destroyed And indeed what so contemptible so uselesse as a man without hands or head so while Dagon was thus preserved he had reserved onely his infamy to be his future glory and this in token the Libertines that are his Adorers can expect no other end then what is infamous as this Let therefore such miscreants fear to come near the Christian Ark the Tabernacle of the holy Altar lest they be in the sight of God at least regarded but as Dagons ignominious Statue before the Ark. 20. See how farre S. Paul is removed from those sordid those earthly cogitations when he tells you his conversation is in heaven his thoughts are fixed on Almighty God and by this means teacheth us that ours should be so too the form or rule of Christianity being to meditate heavenly not earthly things and to hope for no good but what descends from heaven upon us whence we may expect to see our Saviour Jesus Christ coming to bring us at the latter day the superabundant reward of all our dayes spent here in a holy conversation 21. And see the manner how he will impart this reward declared in these words that follow by reforming the body of our humility when our abject vile and contemptible bodies shall become beautifull noble and glorious in the sight of God by having them reformed transfigured into another accidentall not essentiall form but remaining shaped as now they are they shall of corruptible become incorruptible of passible impassible of earthly celestiall of lumpish agile of dark lightsome and thus reformed or transfigured they shall be configured conformed also to the body of Christ his gloây as who should say they shall be like or conformable to the glorious body of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ So immensely doth he love man that in requitall of the humane nature which he took of us we shall take as it were divine nature from him while our bodies shall by heavenly glory be like to that of Christ which hath its splendour not as ours from a created but as his from an increated glory by the irradiation of his divinity through the cloud of our humanity there being no personall difference in Christ between God and man however his two natures differ as much as the creature doth from the Creatour And how this ineffable alteration is made the Apostle tells us in the close of this verse namely by that operation of Christ whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Happy subjection to that power which glories to exalt what it is able to subdue and yet loseth not the glory of subduing death while it gives eternall life to our dead bodies and glory to our corruption Cap. 4. v. 1. It is indeed an apt rise he takes to incourage the Philippians in this fourth chapter to stand firm to his principles to his rules of good life which in the former chapter he sayes he framed for them when for their so doing they shall have the reward as above No marvell he calls them his dearest when he professeth they are his joy his crown the fruits of his labours which God will reward with the joyes of heaven and with a crown of glory which shall have in it a precious stone of speciall beauty for every soul he hath converted And by this we see besides the essentiall Beatitude which consists in seeing God those that are the means of others souls salvation shall have an accidentall glory given them as a particular reward due unto them not onely for every soul they have been a means to save but also for every good deed wrought by those souls who have followed the examples of Gods Saints but how that accidentall glory differs from the essentiall is hard to say the words we allow the things we know not See how he inculcates here perseverance in good works Stand persist continue my dearest sayes the Apostle as you have begun and then you make your selves and me happy indeed since it is the end that crowns the work so to begin well little avails without you persevere in well-doing unto the end 2. These were two remarkably famous women among the Philippians for saintity of life and for exhorting of people to the same by their good examples so the Apostle takes speciall notice of them thereby to incourage them to go on and others to follow their footsteps and lest their difference in the wayes of piety and devotion might make a division of minds in them he exhorts them to be of one mind to direct their devotions to one end of Gods glory onely for that is to be of one mind in our Lord not to affect singularity but solidity of devotion they being otherwise free enough from faction or discord of mind though some impertinently inferre hence they were at variance 3. It is left by Expositours uncertain who this dear companion was though all concurre he was some holy man whom also S. Paul here exhorts as he did holy women before but sure enough it is not his wife though some hereticks will have it so yet without all ground since the Apostle in another place professeth he was not married but commends those who remained single as himself was Neither doth it follow that women in those dayes did preach the Gospel as well as men though here the Apostle sayes Euodia and Syntiche did labour with him in the Gospel did suffer for their faith for their belief in Jesus Christ and for following the doctrine of the Gospel and did incourage all others to do the like by harbouring the Apostles and by relieving those Christians that were in want O that the Ladies of these dayes would give Priests occasion by following the examples of these two Ladies to record their holy memories as the Apostle hath done those of these two pious women Clement here mentioned is the same who was the fourth Pope succeeding Cletus who had Linus for his predecessour that was S. Peters immediate successour The close of this Epistle is liable to misconstruction some make it the ground of their errour saying that those who are once in grace can never fall from thence and
that number who according to holy Davids example Psal 118.109 have their soules alwayes in their hands that is to say who make account their every thought word or deed ought to be such as together with the same they are ready to deliver up their very souls into the hands of their Creatour and those souls so regulated as in this sodalitie we are taught according to the pattern of the blessed Virgin Mary Luke 2.19 who conserved in her heart every word that fell from the mouth of her sacred Sonne and as we shall then appear to conserve the same when out of the abundance of his holy word lodged in our hearts we make our mouths to speak and this we do whilest all our prayers are abstracts of the Word of God and all our conversation answerable to those prayers as if we can observe the methode of this book they will be And if beloved you but look upon the first contriver of this devotion Saint Gregory the great you will not undervalue it because it had so mean a reviver as my self Know it was he that called the Prayers of holy Church Mysteries Sacraments and surely for this one reason amongst the rest because they did mysteriously couch the sense of holy writ as we have hitherto assayed at least to shew and as to day we hope to make it appear this prayer above contains the sum of both Epistle and Gospell following though I confesse no soul would think it at first sight for in all the book there is not any prayer which holds a lesse visible proportion with the holy Text then this and yet if I mistake not we shall find it comes as home as heart can wish to our designe when once we shall resolve what is meant by the fruit of the divine work for that 's the key to all the treasure of Devotion couched in this prayer What if we say that fruit is our salvation since this is a work so truely divine that there is none indeed but God himselfe can bring forth such a fruit and yet so good a God we serve that he is pleased we shall our selves prepare this fruit and serve it up unto his heavenly Table while we are bid pray this day that since our understandings are already sufficiently instructed in our duties what they are and ought to be to God our wills may be stirred up to a performance of those duties to the more diligent preparing the fruits of the divine work the salvation of our soules that by redoubled diligence we may receive the greater remedies of God Almighties mercies meaning so much of his grace in this life as may secure us of his glory in the life to come which when with all the diligence imaginable we do obtain 't is still a mercy to us and must be gratis given or else we may justly fear to go without it so great a work it is to save a soul and therefore well is it called a work divine But what are we the nearer now for adjusting this Prayer unto the Epistle and Gospell of the day Admit this be the genuine sense of the Prayer above what report hath it to Judgement which is the subject of the Gospel Why this at least that the best preparative to save a soul is to remember the dreadfull day of doome and therefore when the Prayer beggs to have our wills stirred up to a more diligent preparing the fruits of the divine worke the salvation of our soules the Gospell puts us fitly in minde of the day of Judgement so to fright us into this diligence least through our sloth the Judge do want that crop of fruit which then he comes to gather And thus we seem to draw a little more neare at least to the end of our designe But if we reade the latter end of the Gospell comparing the day of Judgement to the sprouting out of a figg-tree we shall come nearer yet and if we hearken to the Expositours upon the 32 and 33 verses of this Gospell how sweetly they expound that Parable we shall then come fully home to the sweetest harmonie imaginable between the Gospell and the Prayer And for the Epistle it is nothing else but an exhortation of Saint Paul to the Colossians and in them to us how to prepare our soules to salvation even in the very language of the Prayer for example how to fructifie in all good works that we may at the latter day of doome whereof the Gospell minds us now be made worthie to partake of the lot of Saints to be delivered from the power of darkenesse and translated into the Kingdome of the Sonne of Love in whom we have redemption the remission of sinnes in a word the salvation of our soules or the ripening of that fruit which we must with all diligence prepare for the heavenly Table as beeing the worke of our heavenly Lord. When I say we doe consider this then we shall need no more to seek for a connexion between the preaching and the Prayer of holy Church to day in this period of our work wherein we were almost at a losse even now that we stood in greatest need of making good our whole designe in the close thereof And who can marvell now that this sweet Prayer should be suitable to the sower day of Judgement when we see that dreadfull story in the Gospell closed up with the gladsome Parable of a fruitfull Spring And why to shew that to the Blessed the day of doome is a time oâ Joy and that the just alone are of consideration with Almightie God In a word please but to reade the Expositours upon that point as in the glosse below you find them and tell me then whether this Prayer doe want connexion unto that glosse of theirs if not then you will grant the Prayers of holy Church to be as Saint Gregory calls them Sacraments mysteries indeed of Pietie but such as when explained are sweet as honey and facile as we can desire For what more easie now then to see this Prayer alludes to Judgement in the same sense that holy Church desires her children should be ready for it that is to be prepared fruit for the heavenly Table and by that preparation to be worthie to receive the greater remedies of God Almighties mercies at the day of Judgement against the corruption of humane nature namely his gifts of glory added to those of grace And thus we shall close up the Ring of our devotion with the same Christian dutie we began it whilest mindfull of the day of doome we pray our wills may be raised up to an alacritie in our Christian dutie as they were by the same spirit of Prayer raised upon the same subject on the first Sunday of Advent which this foure and twentieth Sunday after Pentecost inclines unto in like manner as all parts of a circle bow to meet each other with a plie to circularitie and so the dutie of a Christian is then best performed
mans day that is of humane judgement in a point of Spirit for thus the day of man is often taken as by Jeremiah it was Chap. 17. v. 16. when being derided by the people who contemned his Prophecies he cryed out Thou knowest O Lord I desire not the dayes the applause of men nor regard their judgements of me Suffice it I have delivered unto them what thou hast to me revealed So in this sense S. Paul here cares not for the judgement of the Corinthians whether they like his preaching or not but is content that he tells them the genuine sense of his Lord and Master Christ Jesus and yet least he may by this speech seem arrogant See how hee takes off all suspition of vanity in himself by what follows saying Though I am not troubled O Corinthians at what you thinke or judge of me yet neither am I so vain as to presume I am without fault and so I neither will nor dare to judge my self this place might disswade Heretikes from presuming they are certain of their future salvation and of their being here in the state of grace if themselves thinke so assuredly S. Paul might better justifie himself and yet we see he does not indeed he dares not doe it 4. While in this next verse he saith though I am not guilty particularly of any infidelity vanity or ostentation in preaching for still he prosecutes that sense which yet generally may be understood of any sin neverthelesse I am not justified therein he will not justifie himself but he that judgeth me is our Lord and to him I must leave it to judge who not onely sees and knows all hearts but perfectly knows them too that is sees further and clearer into all mens hearts than any one man can see into his own 5. Here the Apostle referrs not onely his own judgement of himself and of his Ministery but even the judgements of all men whatsoever to the latter day of Doom for then and not till then Our Lord shall come and inlighten the hidden things of darkness by laying all things open and this not onely as some Hereticks will have it whether we believe right or wrong but also whether we doe good or bad deeds according to our Faith For so by the plurality of hidden things here mentioned to be revealed then is clearly meant in those words of the Apostle insomuch that Hereticks fondly pretend unto a certainty of their rectitude in Faith more than they can doe unto a rectitude in their works and therefore flatter themselves that be their works the counsels of their hearts what they will yet since it is by Faith men are justified and since they pretend to know certainly that they doe rightly beleeve they therefore scruple not to sâcure themselves of salvation be their lives never so bad being their Faith as they say to their certain knowledge is right For the Holy Ghost hath taught us a contrary doctrine to this presumption in Ecclesiastes Chap. 9. v. 1. A man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred So Prov. 20.9 Who can say my heart is clean So Job 9 21. If I bee simple or Innocent yet my soul knoweth it not So Jer. 17. v. 9. Wicked is the heart of man and inscrutable unlesse to God alone To conclude the sentence of Judgement shall not onely passe upon our Faith whether that be right or wrong but upon our works the Counsels of our hearts for every one shall in that day receive according to his works and Luke 20. we receive what our works deserve and in the mean time till the day of generall judgement come the Apostle forbids to judge each other since neither he nor any man can securely and rightly judge himself but then look who hath done and deserved well the praise shall be to every one of God though mistaking men have judged those perhaps worthy of blame whom God shall declare to be praise-worthy because he finds them to have been faithfull to the Ministery or trust which he reposed in them So here we see from first to last St Paul his true sense in this place is upon fidelity in the dispensers of the Mysteries of God and declares that no man but God can judge in that particular as being an office not appertaining to men but to God himself and unto him alone I must here advertise you that the Apostle in the next Verse declares that he useth his own and Apollo's name but figuratively thereby to represent to the Christians their faults in pretending to have one more light of grace than another or to be one better able than another to understand the Scriptures shewing it is a thing they ought as little to presume of in themselves as to censure whether he or Apollo did more faithfully perform the trust of God reposed in them by their ministery of dispensators of his Mysteries The Application 1. THe closing Advent season claimes a due regard in this dayes service so the prayer begins alluding unto that and ends besides with the accustomary reference to the Epistle of the day How like the out-cryes of the ancient Prophets is the stile of Holy Churches prayer to day They cryed out thus O Wisedome O Adonai O Root of Jesse O Key of David O Rising Sun O King of Nations O Emmanuel c. Come and save us thou that art our Lord God And we promising all these exclamations pray as above O Lord we beseech thee raise up thy power and with thy mighty vertue come away to our succour c. meaning all the power and all the Vertue included in those Attributes of Wisedome Adonai King and Saviour which the Prophets gave him as above 2. And least our sins do chase away the coming Jesus see this Epistle points us to the Priests of holy Church as to the Ministers of Christ and dispensers of the Mysteries of God Meaning of the Holy Sacraments that blot out sin and give us grace to bid our Saviour welcome 3. Hence we conclude the Pastors and the People are admonished to buckle to their severall Devoirs to day these in administring these in receiving of the Holy Sacraments and yet each having done his dutie neither to presume he hath done well enough but both referring of themselve to God his Judgements for the future and expecting his mercies for the present And to pray as Holy Church above appoints That our sinnes doe not retard the coming of his mercy towards us The Gospel Luke 3. ver 1. c. 1 ANd in the fifteenth year of the Empire of Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate being governour of Jewrie and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee and Philip his brother Thtrarch of Iturea and the Countrie of Trachonitis and Lysanias Tetrarch of Abilina 2. Vnder the High Priests Annas and Caiphas the word of our Lord was made upon John the son of Zacharie in the desart 3. And he came into all the countrie of Jordan preaching the Baptism
so now they think they have reason and do well in so reproaching of him because first they had observed he did frequently converse with Samaritanes next that he was bred up in Nazareth a City in Galilee neer to Samaria whence the Jews of that place were esteemed to be much like the Samaritanes Lastly and most literally that the Religion of the Samaritanes was mixed partly with Judaism partly with Gentilism since they did worship the god of the Assyrians from whom they were descended as well as keep the Rights of the Synagogue and for this cause the Jews held them Schismaticks and so detested their Sacrifices that to call Christ a Samaritane was to shew they did detest him too which appeared by their adding he was also possâssed by some Devil and spake as mad men do that are in diabolical frenzies But the truth is they did really believe he was some Devil himself because he laid claim to be the Messias and to be the Son of God which they looked upon him for as if he had been Lucifer himself and Christ understood their meaning to be thus when in the next Verse he tells them 49. He neither is nor hath in him any Devil because in telling them he is the Son of God he doth not boast his own descent so much as that he gives the honour and glory of all he doth unto his heavenly Father and for this Act of his they seek to disgrace and to dishonour indeed to revile him O unparalleld meekness and deep reply in one word to both their calumnies for though he mention not Samaritane in this Reply yet by saying he hath no Devil in him he includes the other since the Schism of the Samaritanes made them slaves of the Devil wherefore he replies onely to the Slander cast upon his Father by calling him Devil to shew he regards not much the abuse they committed against himself as he was man but as he was the Son of God whence he must needs vindicate his Fathers if not his own cause 50. How well might he say this who had professed he came hither by command of his Father that he preached his Fathers not his own Doctrine and the like I do therefore said he not seek my own but my Fathers honour and glory it sufficeth me that I know when the hour of his holy Pleasure is come he will clarifie glorifie me as afterwards he did when Christ said unto him before his Transfiguration the hour is come clarifie thy Son Joh. cap. 17. v. 1. and as then he did honour him by manifesting his glory and avouching him to be his Son so the other part of this Verse will be verified when he shall judge as God and punish those that revile his said Son not that in this place Christ reflected on the general Iudgement which is referred to himself but unto the private Judgement that God makes either by punishing temporally the sins of the people as he did in the destruction of the Jews by Titus and the Romans for having crucified Christ or eternally if he reserve their punishment till the hour of their death for Christ is not properly said to come as Iudge to every Soul dying but to all Souls at the latter day So our private Iudgements are the Sentences of God rather then of Christ upon us yet not to the exclusion of Christ neither 51. Whereupon turning to his own veracity rather then regarding their falsehood he says Amen Amen Truly Truly or since I am God and cannot lye be mens opinions what they will yet really and truly be it so that whosoever shall hear and keep my Word shall never dye eternally for so he would taste eternal death but though he dye temporally through the separation of his Body from his Soul yet he shall not dy eternally that is he shall not sin mortally which can onely cause eternal death and even that death of the body I shall take away too when at the general Resurrection I shall give both corporal and spiritual life everlasting to those Blessed who have inviolably kept and observed my word by living as I have given Law unto them 52 53. By this Reply we may see they understood not the true Sence of Christs meaning when they think to obtrude the lye and the Devil upon him by shewing he hath asserted a manifest lye in saying who believe in him should never dye for say they though thou were God yet would it not follow to hear thy word and keep it were enough to render one immortal since Abraham and the Prophets did hear and keep Gods Word and yet are dead whereas he never meant they should not dye temporally but that they should not dye eternally or which is all one dye in deadly sin nor can indeed the other Sence be rationally inferred out of the Letter of the Text which alludes onely to eternal death No marvel they should wonder at his pretending to be greater then Abraham whom they were content to make Head of the Synagogue by reason he was the First Believer for this proceeded not onely out of their affected but indeed out of their reall ignorance that Christ was God as well as Man and so they held it absurd he should pretend to an immunity not granted to the best of them as then they to argue against him were content to admit Abraham to be he being indeed the Father of all Beliefe the first Believer of all the Synagogue for they went not to Adam nor to the Faithful under the Law of Nature though indeed Moses was the first Member of the Synagogue framed into a Body for Abrahams Beliefe was Personal onely Moses his was Legal 54. The beginning of this Verse is his Answer to the close of the last as who should say he did not make nor boast himself to be much though he might with modesty and truth enough have done it so he doth not desire any other or more glory then what his Father gives him and says if he desire more it proves null alluding to the Judgements of Courts that never take the Testimony of any Party in his own Cause and so now that he is in contrast with them he pretends not to his own Testimony of himself but remits all to his Father whom they did confess to be their God and consequently beyond all exception to be believed 55. Observe he tells them they do not know his Father though they confess him to be their God when they heard him speak and profess Christ was onely his beloved Son and bid them hear that is believe him for then they did not or would not take notice this voyce came from heaven from God the Father as it did indeed But the literal sence of this place is that though they knew there was but one God and did believe in him yet they did not know that God who was one in Essence was Trine in Persons and consequently did beget the word his eternal
Son and that from these Two loving each other did proceed the Holy Ghost the third Person of the Blessed Trinity in this Sence he said they did not know him and in this Sence he professeth he did know him and that if he should say otherwise he should be a lyer as they were lyers who had called him Devil and Samaritane yet particularly that they did not thus know him to be as well Father of Christ Jesus as to be one onely true God But says Christ I know him thus and more then this I keâp his Word that is in the best literal Sence I am his Word though this place may bear the other Glosses too that Christ as Man obeyed the Precepts of his Father and that as the Jews did shew they were not of God because they did not give ear to his Word meaning his Laws and Commandments therefore he said they were not of God but rather of the Devil whose suggestions they did adhere unto and follow 56. Abraham your Father from whom you glory to be descended in your Faith he himself was glad to see me nay did long desire it and when he had the happiness of my sight he leapt for joy and yet you that boast your selves to be his children are so degenerate as seeing me and perpetually conversing with me you rejoyce not but reject and revile me most blasphemously Many expound this Place diversly some will have the day of Christ which Abraham did long for and exulted to behold to be the time of the eternal generation of the Word of God others the day of his Living upon Earth others the instant of the Incarnation of God in his Mothers Womb others the Day of his Passion which wrought all mankindes Redemption and all these very well And they differ as much in expounding the Time when Abraham injoyed this desire by actually seeing this day some affirming that by Faith he see this day when he obeyed God in Sacrificing his Son which was a Figure of Christ his being to dye for our Sins others that he see it by Revelation as Prophets do things to come others that he knew it and see it when Simeon came to Limbus and told Abraham he had held Jesus in his hands as also when Zachary St. Anne the Blessed Virgins Mother and St. John Baptist told him they had seen him and likewise by the Angels of God telling him thereof as the like Angels do tell Souls in Purgatory what doth daily comfort them but the best way of all is that God for a reward of his Obedience gave him the happiness both by Revelation and Elevation of his Souls Faculties to see Christ Born as the Saints in Heaven Now see all we do if yet this may not be done as some conceive by the very natural Faculty of a Soul able of her self to know all things naturally as soon as she is out of the body or as St. Stephen Act. cap. 7. v. 55. from Earth though clogged with his body did see Christ up as high as Heaven by the like Elevation nor doth this lessen the Joy Abraham had therein to see and know no more then an other separated Soul since his joy was answerable to his expectation longer then that of any other and if we say more earnest perhaps we shall not do others wrong because as the promise of all our happiness was made to Abraham in his Seed so questionless his share of joy was greater because he had thereby the fulfilling of the promise made to him above two thousand years before and although all who receive a benefit equally divided are equally happy yet if among these any one had the happiness to be able to say this benefit was derived to them by vertue of a promise made to him in all their behalfs sure he hath somwhat more of Joy even in his equal share admit he had no more then others have This then was Abrahams Case though if this were not the Text doth not deny all the rest that see the day of Christ with Abraham did exult thereat with him but here it was enough to the purpose that Christ told them how careless soever they were of the honour yet their Father Abraham rejoyced at it 57. It is not hence to be inferred that Christ did live as some have pretended almost fifty years for the reason they said he was not yet fifty was to be sure they would not fall short of the years he had lest our Saviour might have intrapt them as they desired to do him so they named a time much beyond what he had lived and therefore he could not as they conceived possibly have seen Abraham whence they would inser he did lye and was not to be believed not reflecting nor indeed knowing he as God was elder then Abraham how much younger soever he were as man 58. And by this Answer of Christ it is evident he spake of knowing Abraham not as man for so he was Abrahams Junior but as God who as such created Abraham and all the world besides and therefore he doth not say of himself I was before Abraham but I am before him thereby to shew that in God there is no difference of the time no not any time at all but all that is in him is eternal and so cannot be said to have been or that it shall be but that it is whence we see God giving himself a name Exod. 3. says I am who I am so now Christ speaking of himself as God not as man says before Abraham was I am which was as high an expression of his Deity as he could use and for that cause the Jews not believing but even hating him run and 59. Took up stones to pelt him immediately to death as the highest blasphemer in their opinions that possibly could be For it was according to the Law Blasphemers should be stoned to death Levit. 24. v. 16. though indeed they were so doting on their Father Abraham that even for Christ to have preferred himself before him onely was enough for them to have stoned him to death if he had not declared also that he was God and the Creator of Abraham for so his words imported and so it was indeed by our Saviours hiding himself is here understood his hindering the Faculty or Power of their optick Nerves or withdrawing his concurse as God from their Faculty of seeing him though he left them power at the same time to see all things else besides himself as perfecttly as ever if yet we may not more rationally say this was done by hindering his body from reflecting any species to their eyes for this every glorified Body shall be able to do So it is not hence to be conceived Christ did hide himself by running into any corner or covert for thither their malice would have pursued him but that he did by his omnipotency work a miracle that they seeing should yet not see him who stood in the midst of them
any legall servitude imposed on man as punishment of his sins against God for this servitude tooke hold on the Individuals of humane nature not of the nature it selâe and since our Saviours Individuall person was one with that of God the second person of the Blessed Trinity he was not a Servant by any legall servitude falling on his person and so even his humane nature though servile as a creature was not yet servile as a sinfull man because he had not the least guilt of sinne in him and thus we see in captives humane nature is no slave though the man that is taken be made so when then we say humane nature was corrupted in Adam we doe mean every childe of Adam received a contagion or corruption from him and yet humane nature in the line of a creature to God was not corrupted so as to be a less perfect creature then it was before for that had been to corrupt the Essence not the Persons of mankinde whereas sin onely corrupted his State and not his Essence the Persons contracting Humane Nature and not the Nature of man it self for if so Christ being man made of that Humane Nature must have been corrupted in that nature at least which yet he was not By the Similitude of man in this verse we are to understand literally the external shape of man not the accidental or phantastical as the Hereticks said but the substantial and real shape though St. Augustine takes it here as for the predicament of habit which consists in Garments or Clothing and likens Christs Humanity to be as a Garment covering his Divinity or as Iron is made fiery or as Gold is made a Statue and even in that Sence the thing is as true as it is ingeniously expressed by St. Augustine By being made as man is not to say onely like man and not to be truly such but like here signifies to be so like as it is the very same as if a Statue should from a dead Stone be made move as a man moveth eat as a man eateth speak as a man speaketh why still by every one of these gradations the Statue becomes more like a man then it was before and when at last it had all the Faculties of a man it became as man indeed that is to say not onely like but really and truly man In this Sence our Saviour was said to be as man as if we said though he were truly God yet he did not appear to be so but appeared onely to be as man which truly he was as well as he was God 8. This humility was not an Act of God the Son to God the Father for so there is no commanding Power in the one over the other but of his Humanity both to his own Divine Person and to his heavenly Father too by dying on the Cross in vertue of this command Christ did humble himself as low as could be in regard no death was so vile and contemptible as that on the Cross was in the esteem of man in those days though since even for reverence no man is executed in that kinde so Christs Humility made this contempt become reverentiall 9. For the which Act of Humility and Obedience God hath exalted him his Humanity for his Deity could not be exalted and given him a name Here we are to note Calvins pervisity who took such a hatred against the Church for the Doctrine of merit that he hence denied Christ the honour of meriting this Exaltation by his Humiliation but says that for which is to be taken consecutively or consequently not causally as who should say after his Humility God rewarded him by exalting of him but not for his Humility or for the merit thereof which yet is an abominable Impiety and Heresie whereas we allow Christ by his Death not onely to have merited for mankind redemption whereof himself had no need who was from his first Conception Blessed by his Hypostatical Union but even for himself the Glory of his Body and the endowments of a glorious Body the highest place in Heaven above Saints and Angels nay the very setting at the right hand of God the Power to Judge all the world and the dominion over Heaven and Earth which were not onely due to him as united to his Deity but as merited by his Passion further he merited to have a name that is above all names and such a name it was when Christ was called God and the Son of God the name of the Messias so famous in this world lastly the name of Jesus and Redeemer of all mankinde which name though it were given him in circumcision yet it was not divulged to all the world till he was crucified so then he was truly said to have merited that name of Saviour and many times names are given to foretell what such men will merit before they dye thus was the Blessed Name of Jesus given to Christ foretelling how richly he would deserve to be called Saviour of the world 10 In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow because this name is greater then ever any other was for Jehovah which signified God creating and was the greatest that ever had before been heard of is not so great as God redeeming and that is meant by the name of Jesus whence the Church boldly says it had nothing availed us to be born unless to have been redeemed had made our birth availing to us So it is a greater abuse to blaspheme the name of Jesus then the name of God because God gave us more Grace and Benefit by our Redemption then he did by our Creation and Jesus includes both God and Saviour which God alone doth not whence the very Angels who were not redeemed bow their knees to the name of Iesus as convertible with that of God and therefore all mankinde hath much more reason so to do for the Devils they would refrain to honour it perhaps if they could but as it is they cannot since if no otherwise they must adore Man in the Person of God ever since Iesus took Humane Nature upon him 11. And every tongue not onely all Nations upon the Earth first or last shall confess that our Lord Iesus is in the Glory of his Father but every tongue of Angels and Devils as well as of Men and by saying he is in the glory of God the Father is understood more then that he sâtteth at his right hand namely that he is equal in Glory to God the Father since Iesus is not onely Man but joyntly God withal So that the summity or highest pitch of Iesus his praise is indeed this that the Man Iesus being God as well as Man is though as man much inferiour yet as God even equal to the Heavenly Father in Glory Power Majesty Goodness and all the other Attributes Divine which are given to Almighty God The Application 1. MOrtification Prayer and Alms-Deeds Perseverance in good Purposes The Fear of God and Holy Poverty were
the good works that help to Sanctifie the First weeks Fast of Lent Chastity of Body and Purity of Soul The Second The Love of Enemies Declining evil Talk and evil Company Hearing the Word of God keeping it in our Hearts and Speaking forth the Praises of our Lord The Third Alacrity of Soul joyn'd with Contrition Decency and Order in the Rights of Holy Church and the Fruit of Joy if not all the other twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost after Communion the Fourth Compassion and a perfect Resignation to our Saviours Passion Integrity and Innocency of Life The Passion Week Adde now to these this Holy Week to make the Fast Compleat Patience Humility and Obedience besides the Contempt of the World recommended in the following Gospel so shall we do as we are taught this holy Time of Lent and as we Pray we may to share in the Joyful Resurrection according as we Fasting thus condole with Jesus in his Sacred Passion 2. Let not the first Verse of this Epistle stagger us beloved seeming to require not onely these three Vertues from us for the accomplishing our Holy Fast but those in some degree of perfection answerable to the like Vertues in our Blessed Saviour so that it is his Invincible Patience his Profoundest Humility and his most Prompt Obedience we are to imitate His Patience St. Paul 2 Thes 3. presumes to bid us pray for saying Our Lord direct our Hearts in the Charity of God and in the Patience of Christ His Humility himself bids us imitate Matth. 11. v. 29. Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart His Obedience we come neerest to at greatest ease in loving one another since he says Joh. 15. ver 12. This is my Precept That you love each other as I lov'd you and this obedience we bring neerest home to his when as he dy'd for us all in obedience to his heavenly Father we dye for one another in Testimony of our obedience to this his Precept as all Martyrs do or when we rather choose to dye to Nature by not sinning then to Grace by breaking our obedience to his least Commands 3. Thus shall we with a general view see what we ought to have been at this time of Lent and with a particular regard behold our present duty proper to this Holy Week that being dead to sin we may live to Grace that being buried with Christ we may rise with him to Glory since onely they deserve to share with him in the Joy of his Resurrection who by imitating of his Vertues are partakers with him in his bitter Death and Passion According as we pray above we may The Gospel Matth. 21. v. 1 c. 1 And when they drew nigh to Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto Mount Olivet then Jesus sent two disciples 2 Saying to them Go ye into the town that is against you and immediately you shall finde an Ass tyed and a Colt with her loose them and bring them to me 3 And if any man shall say ought unto you say ye that our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them go 4 And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying 5 Say ye to the daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting upon an Ass and a Colt the fole of her that is used to the yoke 6 And the Disciples going did as Jesus commanded them 7 And they brought the Ass and the Colt and laid their garments upon them and made him sit thereon 8 And a very great multitude spread their Garments in the way and others did cut boughes from the trees and strewed them in the way 9 And the multitudes that went before and that followed cryed saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord. Hosanna in the highest The Explication 1. NOte that St. Mark Mark 11. ver 2. and St. Luke Luke 19. ver 29. relating this Passage mention Bethania which yet is here omitted the reason they speak of it was for that Bethania Bethphage and Ierusalem are all three neer together and St. Iohn Cha. 12. v. 1. makes mention of our Saviours Supping the night before in Bethania so they name the place whence he came as well as those he passed by and went unto Jerusalem whereas St. Matth. mentions onely those places he passed by which were Bethphage and Mount Olivet before he came unto the valley of Josaphat which lay just in view of the City through which valley runs the river Cedron As for Bethphage it is so called as signifying the Mouth of the valley because it is placed just at the entrance into Iosaphat and is as it were the mouth thereof so it is called the House of the Mouth in the Hebrew Tongue because through a little narrow passage out of Bethphage close by the Mount Olivet they go into the valley of Iosaphat and then at a Golden gate in to the Temple which stands without the City of Jerusalem Hence Bethphage is thought to be the place where the Priests of the Temple living all provisions for Sacrifices were made ready Lambs Goats Oxen Pigeons Turtles and the like and therefore Christ was pleased to pass this way through the Golden gate into Jerusalem to shew he was the lamb of God who came to be sacrificed for the sins of the people and that it was his sacred Person whom the Paschal Lamb did prefigure As also for this cause he came from Bethania when he had a little before raised Lazarus from his grave and passed now triumphantly through the valley of Josaphat into the earthly Jerusalem to declare that in the same valley he was to come much more triumphantly as Judge over all the dead who should at the latter day be raised and carrying the Blessed onely with him into the heavenly City of Jerusalem would leave the wicked to eternal confusion as those who now conspired his death after this Triumph were to be left over to utter destruction both ââey and their famous City what two Disciples were sent is not certain some say Philip and Peter some Peter and John it boots little who they were though the two latter are more likely because they were those for certain that went afterward to provide the Pascal Lamb which Christ did eat with his Disciples 2. Whether Christ spake these words between Bethania and Bethphage or after he came past Bethphage is uncertain if before then probably he meant by the Town against you Bethphage if after then he meant some little village by it for certainly all agree it was not meant of Jerusalem because in the Latine it is called a little Castle 3. In this verse is shewed both the Deity of God and his Dominion or power over all things the first that he could see things absent the second that he could command them to be presently brought unto him without any contradiction onely