more peculiar manner now his very senses help to nourish his soul and by his eyes his hands his tast Christ is spiritually conveighed into his heart to his unspeakable and everlasting consolation But to put all scruples out of the mind of any reader concerning this point Let that serve for the upshot of all which is expressely set down in the 5th Rubrick in the end of the Communion set forth as the judgment of the Church of England both in King Edwards and Queen Elizabeths time though lately upon negligence omitted in the impression In these words Least yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise we do declare That it is not meant thereby that any adoration is done or ought to be done either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received or unto any real and essential presence there being of Christs natural flesh and blood For as concerning the sacramental bread and wine they remain still in their very natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithfull Christians and as concerning the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ they are in Heaven and not here for it is against the truth of Christs natural body to be in more places then one at one time c. Thus the Church of England having plainly explicated her self hath left no place for any doubt concerning this truth neither is she any changeling in her judgment however some unsteddy minds may vary in their conceits away then with those nice scruplers who for some further ends have endeavoured to keep us in an undue suspense with a non licet inquirere de modo and conclude we resolutely that there is no truth in divinity more clear then this of Christs gracious exhibition and our faithful reception of him in this blessed Sacrament Babes keep your selves from Idols Amen A LETTER FOR THE OBSERVATION OF THE FEAST OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY Sir with my Loving Remembrance IT cannot but be a great grief to any wise and moderate Christian to see zealous well meaning souls carried away after the giddy humour of their new teachers to a contempt of all holy and reverend antiquity and to an eager affectation of novel fancies even whiles they cry out most bitterly against innovations When the practise and judgment of the whole Christian world ever from the dayes of the blessed Apostles to this present age is pleaded for any form of government or laudable observation they are straight taught That old things are passed and that all things are become new making their word good by so new and unheard-of an interpretation of Scripture Whereby they may as justly argue the introducing of a new Church a new Gospel a new Religion with the annulling of the old And that they may not want an all-sufficient patronage of their fond conceit our blessed Saviour himself is brought in who in his sermon on the mount controlled the antiquity of the pharisaical glosses of the law Ye have heard that it was said by them of old thus and thus but I say unto you c as if the Son of God in checking the upstart antiquity of a mis-grounded and unreasonable tradition meant to condemn the truely-antient and commendable customes of the whole Christian Church which all sober and judicious christians are wont to look upon with meet respect and reverence And certainly whosoever shall have set down this resolution with himself to sleight those either institutions or practises which are derived to us from the Primitive times and have ever since been intertained by the whole church of Christ upon earth that man hath laid a sufficient foundation of Schisme and dangerous singularity and doth that which the most eminent of the Fathers St. Augustine chargeth with no less then most insolent madnesse For me and my friend God give us grace to take the advice which our Saviour gives to his spouse to Go forth by the footsteps of the Flock and to feed our Kids beside the Shepheards tents Cant. 1.8 and to walk in the sure paths of uncorrupt antiquity For the celebration of the solemn Feasts of our Saviours Nativity Resurrection Ascention and the comming down of the Holy Ghost which you say is cryed down by your zealous lecturer one would think there should be reason enough in those wonderful and unspeakable benefits which those dayes serve to commemorate unto us For to instance in the late feast of the Nativity when the Angel brought the newes of that blessed birth to the Jewish shepheards Behold saith he I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is borne this day a Saviour If then the report of this blessing were the best tidings of the greatest joy that ever was or ever could be possibly incident into mankind why should not the commemoration thereof be answerable Where we conceive the greatest joy what should hinder us to expresse it in a joyfull festivity But you are taught to say the day conferred nothing to the blessing that every day we should with equal thankfulnesse remember this inestimable benefit of the incarnation of the Son of God so as a set anniversary day is altogether needless know then and consider that the all wise God who knew it fit that his People should everyday think of the great work of the creation and of the miraculous deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude and should daily give honour to the Almighty creator and deliverer yet ordained one day of seven for the more special recognition of these marvellous works as well knowing how apt we are to forget those duties wherewith we are only encharged in common without the designment of a particular rememoration Besides the same reason will hold proportionably against any monethly or annuall celebration whatsoever the Jewes should have been much to blame if they had not every day thankfully remembred the great deliverance which God wrought for them from the bloody design of cruel Haman yet it was thought requisite if not necessary that there should be two special dayes of Purim set apart for the anniversary memorial of that wonderful preservation The like may be said for the English Purim of our November it is well if besides the general tye of our thankfulness a precise day ordaind by authority can enough quicken our unthankful dulness to give God his own for so great a mercy shall we say now it is the work of the year what needs a day As therefore no day should passe over our head without a grateful acknowledgment of the great mystery of God incarnate So withall the wisdome of the primitive Church no doubt by the direction of the holy Ghost hath pitched upon one special day wherein we should intirely devote our thoughts to the meditation of this work which the Angels of heaven can not enough admire But you are told that perhaps we miss of the day since the season
is litigious uncertain unknown and in likelyhood other then our December and that it is purposely not revealed that it may not be kept As to the first I deny not that the just day is not certainly known The great Saviour of the World that would have his second coming without observation going before it would have his first coming without observation following it he meant to come down without noise without a recorded notice Even in the second hundred so antient we are sure this festivity is there was question and different opinions of the season the just knowledg and determination whereof matters nothing at all to the duty of our celebration Most sure we are that such a day there was and no lesse sure that it was the happiest day that ever lookt forth into the world it is all one to us whether this day or that we content our selves with this that it hath pleased the Church for many hundred years to ordain this day for the commemoration of that transcendent blessing what care we to stand upon those twelve hours that made up the artificial day wherein this wonderful work was wrought which we are sure cannot but be much changed by so many intercalations so long and constant a practise of the christian church upon so holy grounds is no lesse warrant to us then if an Angel from heaven should have revealed unto us the just hour of this blessed Nativity As to the second Surely whosoever shall tell you that God did purposely hide this day from us that it might escape a celebration as he concealed the burial of Moses to avoid the danger of an idolatrous adoration makes himself a presumptuous commenter upon the actions of the Almighty Where did God tell him so Or what revelation can he pretend for so bold an assertion If this were the matter why then did not the same God with equal caution conceal the day of the Passion Resurrection Ascension of our blessed Saviour and of the descent of the Holy Ghost the observation of all which dayes is with no less vehemence and upon the same danger cryed down by these scrupulous persons Either therefore let him say that God would have these other feast dayes observed because he would have them known to the world or yield that he did not therefore conceal the day of the Nativity of Christ because he would not have it observed But you hear it said There is popery and superstition in keeping that day tell those that suggest so that they cast a foul slander upon the Saints of God in the primitive times upon the holy and learned fathers of the Church who preached and wrote for and kept the feast of Christs Nativity with sacred solemnity many hundred years before popery was hatched and that they little know what wrong they do to religion and themselves and what honor they put upon that superstition which they profess to detest in ascribing that to popery which was the mere act of holy and devout Christianity But to colour this plea you are taught that the mystery of iniquity began early to work even in the very Apostlick times and that Antichrist did secretly put in his claw before his whole body appeared Surely there is singular use wont to be made of this shift by those which would avoid the countenance of all primitive authority to any displeasing how ever lawfull and laudable institutions and practises So the Anabaptist tells us that the Baptizing of children is one of the timely workings of the mystery of iniquity So the Blasphemous Nearrians of our time tell us that the mystery of the blessed Trinity of persons in the unity of one Godhead is but an ancient devise of Antichrist working under-hand before his formal exhibition Every sect is apt to make this challenge and therefore it behoves us wisely to distinguish betwixt those things which Men did as good Christians and those which they did as ingaged to their own private or to the more common interest of others what advantage can we conceive it might be to Antichrist that Christ should have a day celebrated to the memory of his blessed Birth and that devout Christians should meet together in their holy assemblies to praise God for the benefit of that happy incarnation and what other effect could be expected from so religious a work but glory to God and edification to Men who can suppose that the enemy of Christ should gain by the honour done to Christ Away therefore with this groundless imagination and let us be so popish so superstitious as those holy Fathers and Doctors of the primitive Church famous for learning and piety who lived and dyed devout observers of this Christian festival But you are bidden to ask what warrant we find in the word of God which is to be the rule of all our actions for the solemn keeping of this day In answer you may if you please tell that questionist that to argue from Scripture negatively in things of this nature is somewhat untheological Ask you him again with better reason what Scripture he finds to forbid it for if it be unlawfull to be done which is not in Gods word commanded then much rather that which is not there forbidden cannot be unlawfull to be done General grounds of edification decency expedience peaceable conformity to the injunctions of our spiritual governors are in these cases more then enough to build our practise upon If it be replied that we are injoyned six daies to labour and forbidden to observe dayes times as being a part of the Jewish paedagogue two common pretenses wherewith the eyes of the ignorant are wont to be bleared know that for the first it is not so much preceptive as permissive neither was it the intention of the Almighty to intersperse the command of humane affaires in the first Table of his royall law wherein himself and his service is immediately concerned In such like expressions maist and shalt are equivalent and promiscuously used that instance is clear and pregnant Gen. 2.16 The Lord saith the Text commanded the Man saying Eating thou shalt eat of every tree in the Garden which our last version renders well to the sense Thou maist freely eat of every tree in the Garden And if the charge in that fourth commandement were absolute and peremptory what humane authority could dispense with those large shreds of time which are usually cut out of the six dayes for sacred occasions what warrant could we have to intermit our work for a dayly lecture or a monthly fast or for an anniversary Fifth of November and if notwithstanding this command of God it be allowed to be in the power of Man whether Soveraine as Constantine appropriated it or spiritual to ordain the setting a part of some set parcels of time to holy uses why should it be stuck at in the requiring and observing the pious and usefull celebrity of this festivall As for that other suggestion of the Apostles
taxation of observing dayes and times any one that hath but halfe an eye may see that it hath respect to those Judaicall holy-dayes which were part of the ceremonial law now long since out of date as being of typical signification and shadowes of things to come Should we therefore go about to revive those Jewish feasts or did we erect any new day to an essentiall part of the worship of God or place holiness in it as such we should justly incurr that blame which the Apostle casts upon the Galatian and Colossian false-teachers But to wrest this forbiddance to a Christian solemnity which is merely commemorative of a blessing received without any prefiguration of things to come without any opinion of holiness annexed to the day is no other then an injurious violence Upon all this which hath been said and upon a serious weighing of what ever may be further alledged to the contrary I dare confidently affirm that there is no just reason why good Christians should not with all godly cherefulness observe this which that holy father styled the metropolis of all feasts To which I add that those which by their example and doctrine sleight this day causing their people to dishonour it with their worst cloathes with shops open with servile works stand guilty before God of an high and sinful contempt of that lawâ—ul authority under which they live for as much as by the statutes of our land made by the full concurrence of King and state this day is commanded to be kept holy by all English subjects and this power is backed by the charge of God submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake If now after all this I should let my pen loose to the suffragant testimonies whether of antiquity or of modern divines and reformed churches I should trye your patience and instead of a letter send you a volume Let it suffice that ever since the second hundred year after Christ this feast hath without contradiction obtained in the church of God and hath received many noble Elogies and passionate inforcements from the learned and holy Fathers of the church amongst the rest that of Gregory Nazianzen is so remarkable that I may not omit it as that which sets forth the excesse of joyful respect wherewith the antient Christians were wont to keep this day In his oration upon the day of the Nativity of Christ Let us saith he celebrate this feast not in a panegyrical but divine not in a worldly but supersecular manner not regarding so much our selves or ours as the worship of Christ c. And how shall we effect this Not by crowning our doors with garlands nor by leading of dances nor adorning our streets not by feeding our eyes not by delighting our ears with songs not by effeminating our smel with perfumes not with humouring our tast with dainties not with pleasing our touch not with silken and costly clothes c. not with the sparkling of jewels not with the lustre of Gold not with the artifice of counterfeit colours c. let us leave these things to Pagans for their pomps c. But we who adore the word of the father if we think fit to affect delicacies let us feed our selves with the dainties of the law of God and with those discourses especially which are fitting for this present festival So that learned eloquent father to his auditors of Constantinople Whereto let me if you please have leave to add one or two practical instances One shall be of the good Emperour Theodosius lying now for eight moneths under the severe censure of Bishop Ambrose when the feast of the Nativity drew near what moan did that religious Prince make to his courtiers that he was by that reresolute Bishop shut out for his blood-guiltiness from partaking with the assembly in that holy service Histor Trâ—par 〈◊〉 â— c 3â— and what importunate means did he make for his admission had that gracious Emperour been of the diet of these new divines he would have sleighted that repulse and gladly taken this occasion of absence from that superstitious solemnity or had one of these grave monitors been at his elbow he might have saved that pious Prince the expense of many sighes and teares which now he bestowed upon his abstention from that dearly affected devotion The other shall be an history of as much note as horrour Nicephor l. 7. c. 6. too clear a proof of the ancient celebration of this festivall It was under the Tyranny of Dioclesian his co-partner Maximinus that twenty thousand Christans which were met to celebrate the feast of this blessed Nativity in the large Church of Nicomedia were made an Holocaust and burnt together with that goodly Fabrick to ashes on that day Lo so great a multitude as twenty thousand christians of all ages of both sexes had not thus met together in a time of so mortal a danger to celebrate this feast if the holy zeal of their duty had not told them they ought to keep that day which these novellers teach us to contemn Now let these bold men see of how contrary a disposition they are to these blessed Martyrs which as this day sent up their souls like to Manoahs Angel to heaven in those flames After thus much said I should be glad to know since reason there can be none what authority induces these gainsayers to oppose so antient and received a custome in the Church of God you tell me of a double testimony cited to this purpose the one of Socrates the Historian which I suppose is fetcht out of his 5th book of Ecclesiastical story chap. 21. where upon occasion of the feast of Easter he passeth his judgment upon the indifferent nature of all those ancient feasts which were of use in the primitive times shewing that the Apostles never meant to make any law for the keeping of festival dayes nor imposed any mulct upon the not keeping them but left men to the free observation thereof For answer whereunto I do not tell you that this author is wont to be impeached of Novatianisme and therefore may seem fit to yield patronage to such a client I rather say that take him at the worst he is no enemy to our opinion or practise we agree with him that the Apostles would have men free from the servitude of the Jewish observation of dayes that they enacted no law for set festivalls but left persons and places so to their liberty in these cases that none should impose a necessity upon other this were to be pressed upon a Victor Bishop of Rome who violently obtruded a day for the celebration of Easter upon all Churches supposing in the mean while an Easter universally kept of all christians though not on the same day this makes nothing against us who place no holiness in the very hours nor plead any Apostolical injunction for dayes nor tye any person or Church to our strict calender but
who finding an answerable acceptance disposed himself to the place So as we two who came together to the University now must leave it at once Having then fixed my foot at Halsted I found there a dangerous Opposite to the Success of my Ministry a witty and bold Atheist one Mr. Lilly who by reason of his Travails and Abilities of Discourse and Behaviour had so deeply insinuated himself into my Patron Sir Robert Drury that there was small hopes during his entireness for me to work any good upon that Noble Patron of mine who by the suggestion of this wicked Detractor was set off from me before he knew me Hereupon I confess finding the obduredness and hopeless condition of that man I bent my prayers against him beseeching God daily that he would be pleased to remove by some means or other that apparent hindrance of my faithful Labours who gave me an answer accordingly For this malicious man going hastily up to London to exasperate my Patron against me was then and there swept away by the Pestilence and never returned to do any farther Mischief Now the coast was clear before me and I gained every day of the good Opinion and favourable respects of that Honourable Gentleman and my worthy Neighbours Being now therefore setled in that sweet and civil Country of Suffolk near to S. Edmunds-Bury my first work was to build up my house which was then extreamly ruinous which done the uncouth Solitariness of my life and the extream incommodity of that single House-keeping drew my thoughts after two years to condescend to the necessity of a Married estate which God no less strangely provided for me For walking from the Church on Monday in the Whitson-week with a Grave and Reverend Minister Mr. Grandidg I saw a comely and modest Gentlewoman standing at the Door of that house where we were invited to a wedding-dinner and enquiring of that worthy Friend whether he knew her Yes quoth he I know her well and have bespoken her for your wife when I further demanded an account of that Answer he told me she was the Daughter of a Gentleman whom he much respected Mr. George Winniff of Bretenham that out of an opinion had of the fitness of that Match for me he had already treated with her Father about it whom he found very apt to entertain it advising me not to neglect the opportunity and not concealing the just praises of the Modesty Piety good Disposition and other Vertues that were lodged in that seemly Presence I listned to the motion as sent from God and at last upon due prosecution happily prevailed enjoying the comfortable Society of that meet Help for the space of fourty nine years I had not passed two years in this estate when my Noble Friend Sir Edmund Bacon with whom I had much intireness came to me and earnestly sollicited me for my Company in a Journey by him projected to the Spa in Ardenna laying before me the Safety the Easiness the Pleasure and the Benefit of that small Extravagance if opportunity were taken of that time when the Earl of Hertford passed in Embassy to the Arch-Duke Albert of Bruxells I soon yielded as for the reasons by him urged so especially for the great desire I had to inform my self ocularly of the State and practise of the Romish Church the knowledge whereof might be of no small use to me in my Holy Station Having therefore taken careful order for the Supply of my Charge with the Assent and good allowance of my neerest Friends I entred into this secret Voyage we waited some dayes at Harwich for a winde which we hoped might waft us over to Dunkerk where our Ambassador had lately landed but at last having spent a Day and half a night at Sea we were forced for want of favour from the wind to put in at Quinborow from whence coasting over the Rich and pleasant Country of Kent we renewed our shipping at Dover and soon landing at Calais we passed after two dayes by Wagon to the strong Towns of Graveling and Dunkerk where I could not but finde much horâ—or in my self to pass under those dark and dreadfull prisons were so many brave Englishmen had breathed out their Souls in a miserable Captivity From thence we passed through Winnoxberg Ipre Gaunt Courtray to Bruxells where the Ambassador had newly sate down before us That Noble Gentleman in whose Company I travelled was welcomed with many kind Visitations amongst the rest there came to him an English Gentleman who having run himself out of breath in the Inns of Court had forsaken his Country and therewith his Religion and was turned both Bigot and Physitian residing now in Bruxels This man after few interchanges of Complement with Sir Edmund Bacon fell into a Hyperbolical predication of the vvonderful miracles done nevvly by our Lady at Zichem or Sherpen heavell that is Sharp hill by Lipsius Apricollis the credit vvhereof vvhen that vvorthy Knight vvittily questioned he avovved a particular miracle of cure vvrought by her upon himself I coming into the room in the midst of this Discourse habited not like a Divine but in such colour and fashion as might best secure my travel and hearing my Country-mans zealous and confident Relations at last askt him this question Sir Quoth I put case this report of yours be granted for true I beseech you teach me what difference there is betwixt these miracles which you say are wrought by this Lady and those which were wrought by Vespasian by some Vestalls by Charmes and Spells the rather for that I have noted in the late published report of these miracles some Patients prescribed to come upon a Friday some to wash in such a well before their approach and divers other such Charm-like observations The Gentleman not expecting such a question from me answered Sir I do not profess this kind of Scholarship but we have in the City many famous Divines with whom if it would please you to conferr you might sooner recieve satisfaction I askt him whom he took for the most eminent Divine of that place he named to me Father Costerus undertaking that he would be very glad to give me conference if I would be pleased to come up to the Jesuites Colledge I willingly yielded In the afternoon the forward Gentleman prevented his time to attend me to the Father as he styled him who as he said was ready to entertain me with a meeting I went alone up with him the Porter shutting the Door after me welcomed me with a Deo gratias I had not stay'd long in the Jesuites Hall before Costerus came in to me who after a friendly Salutation fell into a formall speech of the unity of that Church out of which is no Salvation and had proceeded to leese his Breath and labour had not I as civilly as I might interrupted him with this short Answer Sir I beseech you mistake me not My Nation tells you of what Religion I am I come not
others small and scarce visible in the Galaxy of the Church but all are Stars and no Star is without some light If but the Second there are large Tapers and Rush-candles one gives a greater light then the other but all give some Never let them go for either Stars or Candles that neither have nor give light And wo is me if the Light that is in us be darkness how great how dangerous is that darknesse Blessed be God we have a learned able and flourishing Clergy as ever this Church had or I think I may boldly say any other since the Gospel look't forth into the World there have not been clearer Lamps in Gods Sanctuary since their first lighting then our dayes have seen yet why should we stick to confesse that which can neither be concealed nor denyed that there are some amongst so many whose wicke is too much for their Oyle yea rather whose snuffe is more then their Light I mean whose offensive lives shame their holy Doctrines and reproach the Glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ these as we lament so we desire to have top't by just censures but hear you my worthy brethren do not you where you see a thiefe in the Candle call presently for an extinguisher for personal faults do not you condemn an holy calling Oh be you wisely charitable and let us be exemplarily holy Lastly for you Christian hearers think not that this Light may be put off to publick and eminent persons only Each of you must shine too at the least tanquam faces Philip. 2. If they be as Cities up-an Hill the meanest of you must be as Cottages in a Vally though not high-built yet wind-tight and water tight If they be Beacons you must be Lanterns every one must both have a light of his own and impart it to others It is not a charge appropriated to publick Teachers that the Apostle gives to his Hebrewes Exhort one another dayly while it is called to day least any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.13 Even the privatest person may shine forth in good counsell he that is most obscure may and must do good works in his place and improve his graces to others good These these my beloved are the light which we must both have and give not to have were to have no fellowship with God to have and not to give it were to ingrosse and monopolize grace which God cannot abide Hath any of you Knowledge Let him communicate it and light others Candle at his Hath any man worldly riches let him not be Condus but Promus to do good and distribute forget not Hath any man Zeal Zeal I say not fury not frenzy let him not glow only but shine let him say with Jehu Come see my Zeal for the Lord Hath any man true piety and devotion let him like a flaming brand enkindle the next thus thus shall we approve our selves the Sons of that infinite and communicative Light thus shall we so have fellowship with the God who is Light that shining like him and from him here in Grace we may shine with him hereafter above in everlasting glory which the same God grant to us for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous to whom with thee O God the Father and thy blessed Spirit one infinite and incomprehensible Lord be given all praise honour and glory now and for ever Amen A SERMON Preacht in the Cathedral at EXCETER UPON The solemn Day appointed for the CELEBRATION OR THE PACIFICATION Betwixt the Two KINGDOMS Viz. Septemb. 7. 1641. By JOS. EXON PSAL. 46.8 Come behold the Works of the Lord what Desolations He hath made in the Earth He maketh warrs to cease unto the ends of the Earih c. IT was doubtless upon the happy end of some warr and the renovation of an established peace that this gratulatory Psalme was penned and therefore fits well with our occasion My text then is an earnest invitation to a serious and thankfull consideration of the great works of God in his contrary proceedings with men Desolations of warr and restaurations of Peace we are called first to a generall survay of Gods wonderfull works and then to a speciall view of the works of his justice first what desolation he hath made upon Earth then of his mercy in composing all the busie broils of the World He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the Earth These must be the subject both of our eyes and of my tongue and your ears at this time We must then behold the works of the Lord but that we may behold them we must come and that we may both come and behold them we are invited to both Come and behold We are naturally full of distractions ready to mind any thing but what we should unless we be called we shall not come and unlesse we come and behold we shall behold to no purpose that which our Saviour saith of Martha is the common case of us all we are troubled about many things One is carking about his household affaires another is busying his thoughts with his law-suits another is racking his mind with ambitious projects another is studying which way to be revenged of his enemy and some other perhaps rather then want work will be troubling themselves with matters of State or other mens affaires that concern them not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 busie Bishops in other mens diocess we had need to be call'd off from these vain unmeet avocations ere we offer to behold the works of God else it will fall out with us as it doth ordinarily with our bodily sight that whiles we have many objects in our eye we see nothing distinctly at all Away therefore with all the distractive yea divulsive thoughts of the World and let us Come and behold the works of the Lord as the Vulgar hath it in the next verse vacate videte Come then from thy counting house thou from thy shop-board thou from thy study thou from thy barr thou from the field and behold the works of the Lord. Indeed how can we look beside them What is there that he hath not done What thing is it that he hath not created or what event can befall any of his Creatures which he hath not contrived Or what act can fall from any Creature of his wherein he is not interested So as unlesse we will wilfully shut our eyes we cannot but behold the works of the Lord But there is more in this charge then so as these works are not meant of the ordinary occurrents so it is not a mere sight that is here called for but a serious and fixed contemplation It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I remember Beza distinguishes upon an other occasion a bending of our eyes upon this holy object Solomon the Son interprets his Father David Eccles 7.13 Consider the work
God so marvelous that it is able and worthy to take up all our thoughts but we may not suffer our hearts to dwell in any one work of his but inlarge them to more we may not rest in the contemplation of his mercy only but we must look to his judgments else we shall grow secure we may not rest in the view of his judgments only without meet glances at his mercy els we shall grow to an heartlesse distrust and despair As we say in our philosophy Composita nutriunt only compounds nourish those things which are merely simple can give no nutriment at all so it is in spirituall matters there must be a composition in those objects of contemplation whereby we would feed and benefit our soules our resolution for our thoughts must be the same that the Psalmists were for his song Of mercy and judgment will I sing Now that we may descend to the particularities the Psalmist begins at judgment What desolations c. This is the right method as in the very being of both judgment leads the way to mercy so in the meditation and view of both As it was in the Creation The Evening and the Morning were the first day The darknesse of the night led in the brightness of the morning and as the Prophets word was post tenebras lucem when we are humbled and astonished with the consideration of Gods vengeance upon sinners then and not till then are we meet for the apprehensions of his wonderfull mercies In this regard it is truly verified that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and his judgments are they that make him feared It is the thunder and rain that prepares the hearts of Israel for Samuels good counsel 1 Sam. 12. It is with the hearts of men as with the Earth and the seasons of the fruits thereof If there be too much ease in the winter and the Sun send forth gleames of heat towards the entrance of the spring it brings forth the blossoms hastily which after by later frosts are nipped in the head and miscarry but if there be kindly frosts and colds at the first that hold in the juice of the plants they are in due time drawn forth by seasonable heates and prosper First therefore let us be wrought upon by the meditation of judgments and then we shall be fit for the beneficiall applicatications of mercy We are then here first invited to a Tragicall sight we are carried into the Camera dimorte to see the gastly visage of deaths and desolations all the World over then which nothing can be more horrible and dreadfull you are called out to see piles of dead carcasses to see whole basket fulls of heads as was presented to Jehu a wofull spectacle but a necessary one See therefore what desolations the Lord hath wrought in all the Earth Desolations by warrs how many fields have been drencht with blood One would wonder that so many should have had a bâ—ing upon Earth Our Florignes tells us that in the year 665. there was so great a mortality in this Island that men run up by troups to the tops of the rocks and cast themselves into the Sea and composted with carcasses how many Millions of men have been cut off in all ages by the edge of the sword Desolations by famine wherein men have been forced to make their bodies one anothers Sepulchers and mothers to devoure their children of a span long Desolotions by plague and pestilence which hath swept away as our story tells us 800000. in one City Desolations by inundations of Waters which have covered the faces of many Regions and rinsed the Earth of her unclean inhabitants Desolations by Earth quakes which have swallowed up whole Cityes and those great and populous Desolations wrought by the hand of his Angels as in Egypt in the tents of the Assyrians 185000. in one night in the camp of Israel in Davids pestilence Desolations wrought by the hands of men in Battails and massacres Desolations by Wild-beasts as in the Colonyes of Ashur planted in Samaria Desolations by the swarms of obnoxious and noysome creatures as in Egypt and since in Africk He spake the word and the Grashoppers came and Caterpillers innumerable Ps 105.34 Insomuch as in the consulship of M. Fulvius Flaccus after the bloody warrs of Africk followed infinite numbers of Locusts which after devouring of all herbs and fruit were by a suddain wind hoysed into the African sea infection followed upon their putrefection and thereupon a generall mortality in number fourscore thousand dyed upon the Sea coast see twixt Carthage and Utica above 200000. Desolations every way and by what variety of means soever yet all wrought by the divine hand What desolations he hath wrought whoever be the instrument he is the Author This is that which God challengeth to himself neither will he lose the glory of these great executions We men have a rule in the course of publick administations and we think a politick one that all matters of favour Princes should derive from themselves but all acts of harshnesse and severity they should put off from their persons to subordinate agents God will not stand upon such points he rather professes to lay claim to all the memorable acts of vengeance upon sinfull Nations and People Israels revolt under Jeroboam is owned by him in his message to Rehoboams Captains Ashur is the rod of his wrath He slew great Kings and overthrew mighty Kings He hisseth for the Fly of Egypt and for the Bee of Assyria I say 7.13 Thou hast scattered thine enemies abroad with thy mighty arme Ps 89.11 Good reason that God should claim the propriety of these Acts For they are the noble effects and proofs of his vindicative justice Justice renders to all their own Publick Desolations are due to publick wickednesses And if this should not be done how would it appear that God took notice of the notorious sins of a people or were sensible of their provocations As in outward Government if there were no Assizes or Sessions to judg and punish malefactors how could we think other but that all were turned lawlesse and that no respect is given to law or justice the Wiseman could observe that because judgment is not speedily executed upon wicked men the hearts of men are set in them to do evil But surely if it were not executed at all men would turne Divells But now that God calls sinfull Nations to account for their iniquity by exemplary judgments men are ready to say with the Psalmist Doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the Earth Ps 58.18 God will be glorified even for hell it self Topheth is ordained of old Isa 30.33 2. Even these desolatory judgments are a notable improvement of his mercy There cannot easily be a greater proof of his respects to his own then in sweeping away their enemies Which smote Egypt with their first born for his mercy indureth for ever which overthrew Pharaoh
children as such Not as men not as witty wise noble rich bountiful useful but as Christians showing it self in all real expressions These these are excellent and irrefragable proofs and evictions of your calling and election Seek for these in your hearts and hands and seek for them till ye finde them and when ye have found them make much of them as the invaluable favours of God and labour for a continual increase of them and a growth in this heavenly assurance by them What need I urge any motives to stir up your Christian care and diligence Do but look first behinde you see but how much pretious time we have already lost how have we loitered hitherto in our great work Bernards question is fit still to be asked by us of our souls Bernarde ad quid venisti Wherefore are we here upon earth To pamper our Gut To tend our hide To wallow in all voluptuous courses To scrape up the pelf of the World As if the only end of our being were carnal pleasure wordly profit Oh base and unworthy thoughts What do we with reason if we be thus prostituted It is for beasts which have no soul to be all for sense For us that have ratiocination and pretend grace we know we are here but in a thorowfare to another world and all the main task we have to do here in this life is to provide for a better Oh then let us recollect our selves at the last and redeem the time and over-looking this vain and worthless World bend all our best indeavours to make sure work for eternity Look secondly before you and see the shortness and uncertainty of this which we call a life what day is there that may not be our last what hour is there that we can make account of as certain And think how many World 's the dying Man would give in the late conscience of a careless life for but one day more to do his neglected work and shall we wilfully be prodigall of this happy leasure and liberty and knowingly hazard so wofull and irremediable a surprisall Look thirdly below you and see the horror of that dreadfull place of torment which is the unavoydable portion of careless and unreclaimable sinners consider the extremity the eternity of those tortures which in vain the secure heart sleightly hoped to avoid Look lastly above you and see whether that Heaven whose out-side we behold be not worthy of our utmost ambition of our most zealous and effectuall endeavours Do we not think there is pleasure and happiness enough in that region of glory and blessedness to make abundant amends for all our self-combats for all our tasks of dutyfull service for all our painfull exercises of mortification Oh then let us earnestly and unweariably aspire thither and think all the time lost that we imploy not in the endeavour of making sure of that blessed and eternall inheritance To the full possession whereof he that hath purchased it for us by his most precious blood in his good time happily bring us Amen A Plain and Familiar Explication OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE IN THE SACRAMENT OF HIS Body and Blood Out of the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND For the satisfying of a Scrupulous Friend Anno 1631. THat Christ Jesus our Lord is truly present and received in the blessed Sacrament of his body and blood is so clear and universally agreed upon that he can be no Christian that doubts it But in what manner he is both present and received is a point that hath exercised many wits and cost many thousand lives and such as some Orthodox Divines are wont to express with a kind of scruple as not daring to speak out For me as I have learn'd to lay my hand on my mouth where God and his Church have been silent and to adore those mysteries which I cannot comprehend so I think it is possible we may wrong our selves in an over-cautious fear of delivering sufficiently-revealed truths such I take this to be which we have in hand wherein as God hath not been sparing to declare himself in his word So the Church of England our dear Mother hath freely opened her self in such sort as if she meant to meet with the future scruples of an over-tender posterity Certainly there can be but two wayes wherein he can be imagined to be present and received either corporally or spiritually That he should be corporally present at once in every part of every Eucharistical Element through the World is such a Monster of opinion as utterly overthrowes the truth of his humane body destroyes the nature of a Sacrament implies a world of contradictions baffles right reason transcends all faith and in short confounds Heaven and Earth as we might easily show in all particulars if it were the drift of my discourse to meddle with those which profess themselves not ours who yet do no less then we cry down the gross and Capernaitical expression which their Pope Nicholas prescribed to Berengarius and cannot but confess that their own Card. Bellarmine advises this phrase of Christs corporall presence should be very sparingly and warily taken up in the hearing of their people but my intention only is to satisfie those Sons of the Church who disclaiming from all opinion of Transubstantiation do yet willingly imbrace a kind of irresolution in this point as holding it safest not to inquire into the manner of Christs presence What should be guilty of this nice doubtfulness I cannot conceive unless it be a misconstruction of those broad speeches which antiquity not suspecting so unlikely commentaries hath upon all occasions been wont to let fall concerning these awful mysteries For what those Oracles of the Church have divinely spoken in reverence to the Sacramental union of the signe and the thing signified in this sacred business hath been mistaken as literally and properly meant to be predicated of the outward Element hence have grown those dangerous errors and that inexplicable confusion which hath since infested the Church When all is said nothing can be more clear then that in respect of bodily presence the Heavens must contain the glorified humanity of Christ untill his return to judgment As therefore the Angel could say to the devout Maries after Christs resurrection seeking for him in his grave He is risen he is not here so they still say to us seeking for his glorious body here below He is ascended he is not here It should absolutely lose the nature of an humane body if it should not be circumscriptible Mar. 16.6 Glorification doth not bereave it of the truth of being what it is It is a true humane body and therefore can no more according to the natural being even of a body glorified be many wheres at once then according to his personal being it can be separated from that Godhead which is at once every where Let it be therefore firmly setled in our souls as an undoubted truth That the humane body of Christ
only hold it fit out of our obedience to the lawes both of our church and kingdome to continue a joyful celebration of a memorial day to the honour of our blessed Saviour But that other authority which you tell me was urged to this purpose I confesse doth not a little amaze me it was you say of King James our learned Soveraigne of late and blessed Memory whose testimony was brought in before the credulous people not without the just applause of a Solomon-like wisdome as crying down these festivals and in a certain speech of his applauding the purity of the church of Scotland above that of Geneva for that it observed not the common feasts of Christs Nativity and Resurrection c. Is it possible that any mouth could name that wise and good King in such a cause whom all the world knowes to have been as zealous a patron of those festivals as any lived upon earth and if he did let fall any such speech before he had any Downe upon his chin whilst he was under the serule what candor is it to produce it now to the contradiction of his better experience and ripest judgment Nay is it not famously known that it was one of the main errands of his journy into his native Kingdome of Scotland to reduce that church unto a conformity to the rest of the Churches of Christendom in the observation of these solemn dayes One of the five Articles of Perth and to this purpose was it not one of the main businesses which he set on work in the Assembly at Perth and wherein he employed the service of his worthy Chaplain Doctor Young Dean of Winchester to recall and re-establish these festivalls And accordingly in pursuance of his Majesties earnest desire this way was it not enacted in that Assembly that the said feasts should be duely kept Doubtlesse it was and that not without much wise care and holy caution which act because it cannot be had every where and is well worthy of your notice and that which clears the point in hand I have thought good here to insert the tenor of it therefore is this As we abhorr the superstitious observation of Festival dayes by the Papists and detest all licentious and profane abuse thereof by the common sort of professors so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down of the Holy Ghost was commendably and godly remembred at certain particular dayes and times by the whole church of the World and may be also now Therefore the Assembly ordaines that every Minister shall upon these dayes have the commemoration of the foresaid inestimable benefits and make choice of several and pertinent texts of Scripture and frame their doctrine and exhortation there to and rebuke all superstitious observation and licentious profanation thereof I could if it were needful give you other proofes of King James his zeal for these dayes but what should I spend time in proving there is a sun in the Heaven and sight in that Sun The name of that great King suffereth for his excesse this way Shortly then the Church of God his anointed law antiquity reason are for us in this point and I doubt not but you will gladly be on their side away with all innovations and frivolous quarrels we were divided enough before and little needed any new rents The God of peace quiet all these distempers and unite our hearts one to another and all to himself Farwell in the Lord. TO My Reverend and worthily Dear Friend M r. WILLIAM STRUTHERS One of the Preachers of EDINBOURGH THe hast of your Letters my reverend and worthy Mr. Struthers was not so great as their welcome which they might well challenge for your name but more for that love and confidence which they imported thus must our Friendship be fed that it may neither feel death nor age The substance of your Letter was partly Relation and partly Request For the first Rumour had in part prevented you and brought to my ears those Stirs which happened after my departure and namely together with that impetuous Protestation some rude deportment of ill-governed Spirits towards his Majesty Alas my dear Brother this is not an usage for Kings they are the nurses of the Church if the child shall fall to scratching and biting the brest what can it expect but stripes and hunger your Letter professes that his Majesty sent you away in peace and joy and why would any of those rough-hewn Zelots send him away in discontentment But this was I know much against your heart whose often protestations assured me of your wise moderation in these things How earnestly have you professed to me that if you were in the Church of England such was your indifferency in these indifferent matters you would make no scruple of your ceremonies yea how sharp hath your censure been of those refractaries amongst us that would forgo their stations rather then yield to these harmeless impositions So much the more therefore do I marvell how any delator could get any ground from you whereon to place an accusation in this kind But this and the rest of those historicall passages being only concerning things past have their end in my notice Let me rather turn my pen to that part which calleth for my advise which for your sake I could well wish were worthy to be held such as that your self and your collegues might find cause to rest in it howsoever it shall be honest and hearty and no other then I would in the presence of God give to my own soul Matters you think will not stand long at this point but will come on further and press you to a resolution What is to be done will you hear me counselling as a friend as a Brother Since you foresee this meet them in the way with a resolution to intertain them and perswade others There are five points in question The solemn festivities The private use of either Sacrament Geniculation at the Eucharist Confirmation by Bishops For these there may be a double Plea insinuated by way of comparison in your Letters Expedience in the things themselves Authority in the commander some things are therefore to be done because they are commanded some others are therefore commanded because they are to be done obedience pleads for the one justice for the other If I shall leave these in the first rank I shall satisfie but if in the second I shall supererogate which if I do not I shall fail of my hopes Let me profess to you seriously I did never so busily and intentively study these rituall matters as I have done since your Letters called me unto this task Since which time I speak boldly I made no spare either of hours or papers Neque enim magna exiliter nec seria perfunctorie as I have learned of our Nazianzen and besides this under one name seemed a common cause and
of God This beholding therefore is with mentall eyes and not with every suddain glance but with deep considerations so to see them as both the Hebrew and the English phrase elsewhere to lay them to heart Wherefore hath God set us here on this greatstage of the world but that we should be spectators of the marvailous acts that are here done 1. Surely they are worth beholding for they are all like his well becoming his infinite power wisdom justice So hath God done his wondrous works that they ought to be had in perpetuall remembrance Beauty and excellence is abstractive where ever it is There is not one act of either his creation or administration wherein there is not the footsteps of an omnipotence and an infinity of providence Every thing works according to his ability As the man is so is his strength and as his strength so his actions Alas we weak creatures produce weak and feeble and imperfect acts neither can we possibly do other for such as the cause is such must the effects needs be God therefore who is all power justice wisdom goodnesse must needs produce acts answerable to such an agent therefore behold the works of the Lord. 2. Wherefore were our eyes given us but for this very purpose they were not given us for the beholding of vanity not for the ensnaring or wounding of the soul but for the use and honour of the Creatour and wherein is that attained but in the beholding of the works of the Lord hence it is that they can behold all things but themselves and discern those things worst which are closest to them and see not by sending forth any vertue from themselves but by intromitting of those species which are sent in to them shortly that God who hath made all things for himself hath in the making of this most excellent and usefull peece had an eye to his own glory in our beholding of his works which if we neglect to do we do what in us lies frustrate Gods purpose and intention in creating them 3. Add to this that the Lord delights to have his works beheld for he knowes the excellency and perfection of them and knowes that the more they are seen and noted the more honour will accrue to the Maker of them like as some skilfull Artizan some exquisite Limner or Carver when he hath made a Master-piece of his Art he doth not hide it up in some dark corner where it may not be seen but sets it forth in the best light and rejoyces to have it seen and admired Thus doth the Almighty when the Creature was first made because there was no other eyes to see it he lookt upon it with great complacency and rejoyced in his own handywork It being the Epiphonema to every days work when he comes to the relation of the particularities of his workmanship And God saw that it was good and in a recapitulation or winding up all God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good Gen. 1.31 But when the Angels were created and saw the glorious handy work of God they did presently applaud the marvailous works of their Maker when the morning Starrs sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Job 38.7 And when after that man was created he joyned with those glorious spirits in viewing and magnifying the works of his Creatour And so he should do God was well pleased that he should do so Alas we men who are conscious to our own infirmity let passe many things from us which we care not how little they are viewed and scanned for we know there may be flawes found in our best performances which at the first blush appear not we hear sometimes a discourse which as it passes through the ear sounds well and seems to carry a good show of exquisiteness which if it be set down and come to an accurate examination may be found defective in this point in that redundant here mis-placed there inconsequent even course tapestry may afarr off show well which when it comes to be close viewed discovers an homelinesse in texture and faults enough both in shapes and colours But as for the works of God In wisdom hast thou made them all saith the Prophet The more they are scanned and tryed the more pure and precious they will appear and as Solomon expresses it Man shall find nothing after him Eccl. 7.14 And the God that knowes this loves that we should in all humble and modest-diligence search into and behold his works 4. There is great reason that we should carefully behold the works of the Lord because none but we can do it of such infinite variety of Creatures there is none but the rationall and intelligent viz. Angels and men that can so much as take notice of what God hath done no not of themselves that sence whereby they are led cannot reach so high as a thought what is before them they see so farr as their downward eyes will reach and make towards that which serves their appetite and avoid what they apprehend may hurt them but as for their Maker or for their own condicion or their fellow Creatures they are not capable of any glimpse of knowledg thereof And even of reasonable Creatures what a World is there that are as insensible of the works of God as if they were utterly insensate Pagans Infidels Worldlings that are carried by no other guide then mere bruit Creatures are and affect no other light then that of sense Alas what is it to them what God doth or what he doth not How much then doth it concern us whom God hath illuminated with any measure of knowledg and furnisht with any measure of grace to be inquisitive into the works of God and to give glory to him in all his actions 5. This shall not be so much advantage to God alas what can we add to the infinite as benefit to our selves it is here as with those that dig in some precious mine the deeper they go the richer they are hence it is that the most contemplative have been noted for most eminent in grace and surely it is their fault if they be not so for they should be the best acquainted with God and with their own duty shortly then seeing the works of God are so excellent and well-worth beholding since our eyes were given us for this use since God delights to have his works viewed since there are so few that are capable of giving this glory to God since in beholding the works of God we do most advantage our selves both in knowledg and holiness let us as we are here invited Come and behold the works of the Lord. His works in all the variety of them not some one work but all as the works of his creation so of his administration too the divers yea contrary proceedings of God therein in the changes of his favours and judgments I confess there is and may be some one work of