should dye Mori infirmitatis est sic mori virtutis infinitae There wanted not other meanes to redeeme man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was meet that by the death of the Sonne of God wee should bee redeemed Sanguine quaerendi reditus animâque litandum No escaping the stroake of the Angel but by sprinkling the Lambes life bloud no meanes to returne from exile till the death of the high Priest Must hee dye then and are the Scriptures so strait in this point O death how bitter is thy remembrance witnesse our Saviour Si fieri potest transeat hic calix but sith for the reasons before named that was neither possible nor expedient sith dye hee must what death doth the Holy Ghost thinke to bee most expedient If hee may not yeeld to nature as a ripe apple falleth from the tree but must be plucked thence there are deaths no lesse honourable than violent shall he dye an honourable death No hee must bee reckoned among the malefactors and dye a shamefull death In shamefull deaths there is a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rid him quickly out of his paine Misericordiae genus est citò occidere No that was not expedient Feri ut se sentiat mori it was expedient that hee should dye a tedious and most painfull death wherein a tract of lingering misery and lasting torment was to bee endured What death is that I need not amplifie even by the testimony of the Holy Ghost the death of the Crosse was for the torture most grievous for the shame most infamous He humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death Could his humility goe on one step further Yes one step even to the death of the Crosse that is a death beyond death the utmost and highest of all punishments saith Ulpian Having in it the extent of torture saith Apuleius The quintessence of cruelty saith the Roman Oratour It is not amisse to know the manner of the execution of this death First after sentence given the prisoner was whipped then forced to carry his Crosse to the place of execution there in the most tender and sinewie parts of the body nailed to the Crosse then lifted up into the ayre there with cruell mercy for a long while preserved alive after all this when cruelty was satisfied with bloud for the close of all his joynts were broken and his soule beat out of his body This was part of his paine I say part I cannot expresse the whole the shame was much more Infoelix Lignum saith Seneca truly and unhappy for untill this time the curse of God was upon him that was hanged It is a trespasse to bind 't is wickednes to beat it is murder to kill Quid dicam in crucem tollere Look we to the originall it was first devised by Tarquinius as the most infamous punishment of all against such as laid violent hands upon themselves Look we to the use of it they accounted it a slaves nay a dogs death for in memory that the Dogge slept when the Geese defended the Capitoll every yeer in great solemnity they carried a Goose in triumph softly laid upon a rich carpet and a Dogge hanging upon a crosse Looke wee to the concomitancy Non solent suspensi lugeri saith the Civilian no teare was wont to be shed for such as were crucified And was it expedient that our Saviour should dye this death It was expedient that the prophesie of Esay might be verified We saw him made as the basest of men and of David A scorne of men and the out-cast of the people and of himselfe They shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock scourge and crucifie him These were prophesies that it should be so yet we want a prophesie that saith It is expedient That we doe not Oportet filium hominis exaltari ut Moses extulit Serpentem for that Serpent lifted up to cure all that looked upon it was an embleme of Christ Thus himselfe who was a high Priest for ever did prophesie of himselfe being now both priest and sacrifice It was expedient that he should dye thus dye to be forsaken of his friends falsly accused by his enemies to be sold like a slave mocked like a foole spit upon like a made man whipt like a theefe crucified like a traitour make up a misery that the sun shamed the earth trembled to behold it yet it was expedient it must be done God hath said it Mee thinkes I heare our Saviour say in this baptisme of bloud as he said in his baptisme of water Thus it becommeth us to fulfill all righteousnes and thus it became him for whom by whom are all things to consecrate the Prince of our salvation through afflictions The prophesies had said it it should be so and it was expedient that he to whom they pointed should fulfill them that so in fulness of truth he might take his leave of the crosse and say Consummatum est those things which were written of mee have an end All this while we see not the reason why he should be thus tormented Goe to Pilate his answer will be I am innocent of the bloud of this man Enquire you of the Scribes and Pharisees their answer will be We have a law and by this law he must dye because he made himselfe the Son of God This was no fault he was so and therefore without robbery or blasphemy might both think and declare himselfe to be so Goe wee further from popular Pilate and the cruell Jewes to God himselfe and though we be but dust and ashes for the knowledge of this truth presume we to aske Cur fecisti filio sic How may it stand with thy justice that he should dye in whom there was found no fault worthy death nay no fault at all the unswer is Expedit mori pro populo yet O Lord wilt thou slay the righteous with the wicked nay which is more wilt thou slay the righteous and spare the wicked nay which is yet more wilt thou slay the righteous for the wicked shall not the Judge of all the world doe right God cannot chuse but do right the wages of sin is death though he have not sinned the people have If the principall debtour cannot pay the surety must if the prisoner dare not appeare the baile must Christ was the surety the baile of the people and so God might permit his justice against sin to take hold on him and hee must dye for the people if he will not have the people dye It being knowne that he dyed for the people it is worth the while to know who these people were for whom he dyed Caiphas had respect to the Jewes only and their temporall good but the Holy Ghost intended the spirituall good of the Jewes primarily though not of them alone but of the people also through the world But is it possible that of all people he should dye for the Jewes Ab ipsis pro ipsis these were they
secondly the civill thirdly the wealthy fourthly the ordinary and found them all very tardy and imperfect in their accounts which that you might not be I but even now delivered unto you the rule of three or golden rule as it is called in sacred algebray whereby you may easily number your dayes and cast up your accounts and infallibly perfect the bookes of your conscience What remaineth but that at your first and best opportunity you fall on this worke cast your accounts privately in the chamber of your heart peruse the booke of your conscience mend what is amisse by unfained and hearty repentance fetch out all the blots and blurres there with the aqua fortis of your teares and if yet there remaine any thing which you cannot well account for to meet your Master before hand upon your knees and beseech him to put it upon his Sonnes score and to satisfie himselfe out of the infinite treasury of his merits or to wipe it out with the spunge that was offered him on the Crosse This if yee practise daily and make even with God every night you shall be perfect and ready when your Master shall call for your accounts and you shall be found of him in peace and he shall then say unto you Well done good and faithfull Stewards yee have been faithfull in a little I will set you over much yee have been faithfull in temporall I will trust you with eternall goods yee have been faithfull in earthly I will commit to you heavenly treasures yee have been faithfull in a Stewardship I will give you a Kingdome enter into your Masters joy Into which God grant we may all enter when we are passed out of this vale of teares through the merits of Christs death and passion by the conduct of his holy Spirit To whom three persons and one God c. PHILIP HIS MEMENTO MORI OR The Passing Bell. A Sermon preached in Mercers Chappell at the Funerall of Master Benet Merchant THE XXII SERMON DEUT. 32.29 O that they were wise then they would understand this they would consider their later end Right Worshipfull c. HEnoch lived by just computation so many yeeres as there are dayes in the yeere viz. 365. and he was the seventh man from Adam and dyed in anno a Sethus Calvis in Chron. Sabbathico the Sabbathick yeere and thereby became a lively Embleme both of this life and the life to come For the labours of this life are governed by the course of the Sunne which is finished in that period of time and the rest of the life to come is evidently prefigured in the Sabbath It is farther written of him in the holy Records of eternity that he b Heb. 11.5 Gen. 5.24 walked with God and was therefore translated that hee should not see death to teach us that they who walke with God all the dayes of their life as he did shall come into no condemnation but immediately passe from death to life from death temporall to life eternall which was not obscurely disciphered unto us in the narration of the seventh dayes creation After the mention of every day in the weeke and the worke thereof wee reade so the evening and the morning were the first day and so the c Gen. 1.5 8 13.19 23 31. second and the rest but after the relation of the seventh dayes creation on which God rested and blessed and sanctified it the former clause is quite d Gen 2.1 2 3. omitted It is not added as in the rest so the morning and the evening were the seventh day because in Heaven whereof the Sabbath was a type there is no morning and evening much lesse night but as it were perpetuall high-noon For the e Apoc. 21.23 Lambe is the light thereof and this Lambe is the f Mal. 4.2 Sunne of righteousnesse which never riseth nor setteth but keepeth still in the midst of the Empyreall Heaven and Throne of God as on the contrary in Hell there is nothing but continuall midnight and everlasting darknesse Thus the wisedome of God justly and the justice of God wisely hath proportioned the rewards in the life to come to the workes of men in this life they that cast off the works of darknesse and put on the armour of light and walk in the light as children of the light here shall hereafter possesse the inheritance of the g Colos 1.12 Saints in light but they who love darknes more than light and have fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse and continually walke as in the darke in grosse and palpable ignorance in gluttony and drunkennesse in chambering and wantonnesse and the like sinnes of darknesse here shall hereafter inhabit the region of perpetuall darknesse and never vanishing shadowes of death O that we were wise then we would understand these things and in the beginning of our race in this world thinke of our h â—â—n ep 30. Ut mortem nunquam timeâ—s semper cogita later end For the beginning of wisedome is the consideration of our end and a forcible meanes to bring us to everlasting life is to meditate continually upon our death To thinke what wee shall be stench and rottennesse and worse if we be not better ashes and cinders of hell will through the power of Christs death make us what we should be that is dead to sinne dead to the world dead in our selves but alive in God How can hee live in sinne who perpetually apprehendeth that hee shall dye eternally for his sinne how can he make a trade of iniquity and a sport of religion and a mock of God and a god of his belly who hath hell torments alwayes before the eyes of his minde i Lament 1.9 Jerusalem remembred not her last end therefore shee came downe fearfully and because wee put from us the evill day it commeth fast upon us It were unpossible to goe on forward as wee doe in the wayes of sinne and pathes of death if wee would dwell but a little while upon these or the like thoughts After a few dayes perhaps this very day yea this houre I shall be called to a strict account of my whole life charged with all the sinnes open and secret that ever I have committed accused by the Divell convicted by mine owne conscience condemned by the dreadfull Judge of quicke and dead to be cast into utter darknesse in hell there to endure such torments for ever as it would breake the strongest heart and conquer all humane patience to feele but for an houre Haec cogitare est vitiis omnibus renunciare to enter into a serious consideration of these things is to chase away all wanton and wicked thoughts and to send a bill of divorce to the world and all her minions the mistresses of our carnall affections but this is the mischiefe as S. k Cyp. de mortal Aeterna tormenta nemo cogitat quae metueret conscientia si crederet si metueret
and godly in this present world Againe if any Spirit tell thee that thou art rich in spirituall graces and lackest nothing when thine owne Spirit testifieth within thee that thou art blinde and naked and miserable and poore beleeve not that Spirit For the Spirit of God is a contest with our spirit q Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee beareth witnesse with our spirit that wee are the sonnes of God and when they both sweetly accord we may without presumption conclude with Saint r Tract 22. in Joh Veritas pollicetur qui credit habet vitam aeternam ego audivi verba Domini credidit infidelis cum essem factus sum fidelis sicut ipse monuit transii de morte ad vitam in judicium non venio non praesumptione meâ sed promissione ipsius Austine The truth promiseth whosoever beleeveth in mee hath eternall life I have heard the words of the Lord I have beleeved whereas I was before an Infidell I am now made faithfull and according to his promise have passed from death to life and shall come into no condemnation It is no presumption to ground assured confidence upon Christs promise Hereunto let us adde the testimony of the effects of saving grace As the testimony of the Spirit confirmeth the testimony of the Word so the effects of saving grace confirme both unto us These Saint Bernard reckoneth to bee Hatred of sinne Contempt of the world Desire of heaven Hatred of our unregenerate estate past contempt of present vanities desire of future felicity And doubtlesse if our hatred of sinne bee universall our contempt of worldly vanities constant and our desire of heavenly joyes fervent wee may build upon them a strong perswasion that we are in the favour of God because we hate all evill that we are espoused to Christ because wee are divorced from the world and that heaven belongeth unto us because wee long for it Howbeit these seeme to bee rather characters of christian perfection than common workes of an effectuall vocation Though wee arrive not to so high a degree of Angelicall rather than humane perfection yet through Gods mercy wee may bee assured of our election by other more easie and common workes of the Spirit in us I meane true faith sincere love of goodnesse in our selves and others hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse striving against our fleshly corruptions godly sorrow filiall feare comfortable patience and continuall growth in grace and godlinesse Tully writeth of l Cic. Verr. 5. Syracuse That there is no day through the whole yeere so stormy and tempestuous in which they have not some glympse of the sunne neither undoubtedly after the travels of our new birth are past is there any day so overcast with the clouds of temptation in the soule of a Christian in which the Sunne of righteousnesse doth not shine upon him and some of these graces appeare in him For if hee decay in one grace hee may increase in another if hee finde not in himselfe sensible growing in any grace hee may feele in himselfe an unfained desire of such growth and godly sorrow for want of it and though hee conquer not all sinne yet hee alloweth not himselfe in any sinne and though he may have lost the sense yet not the essence of faith and though hee bee not assured in his owne apprehension of remission of sinnes yet hee may bee sure of his adhesion to God and relying upon him for the forgivenesse of them with a resolution like that of Job Though he kill me yet will I put my trust in him And this is the summe and effect of what our Christian casuists answere to the second question Quid sit what is the white stone whereby as a certaine pledge grace and glory are secured unto us The third question yet remains Propter quid sit to what end this white stone is given In the maine point of difference betweene the reformed and the Romane Church concerning assurance of salvation that wee bee not mis-led wee must distinguish of a double certainty The one of the subject or of The person The other of the object or of The thing it selfe The certainty of the one never varieth because it dependeth upon Gods election the certainty of the other often varieth because it dependeth upon the vivacity of our faith Even as the apple in the eye of many creatures waxeth and waineth with the Moone and as t Solin Poly-hist c. 56. Uniones quoties excipiunt matutini aeris semen fit clarius margaritum quoties vespertini fit obscurius Solinus writeth that the Margarite is clearer or duskier according to the temper of the aire and face of the skie in which the shell-fish openeth it selfe so this latter assurance waxeth and waineth with our faith and is more evident or more obscure as our conscience is more or lesse purged from dead workes If our faith be lively our assurance is strong if our faith faile our assurance flagges and in some fearfull temptation is so farre lost that wee are brought to the very brinke of despaire partly to chasten us for our former presumption partly to abate our spirituall pride and humble us before God and in our owne spirits but especially to improve the value of this jewell of assurance and stirre us up to more diligence in using all possible meanes to regaine it and keep it more carefully after we have recovered it By the causes of Gods taking away of this white stone from us or at the least hiding it out of our sight for a while wee may ghesse at the reasons why hee imparteth it unto us 1. First to endeare his love unto us and enflame ours to him For how can wee but infinitely and eternally love him who hath assured us of infinite joyes eternall salvation an indefeizable inheritance everlasting habitations and an incorruptible crowne 2. Secondly to incourage us to finish our christian race through many afflictions and persecutions for the Gospels sake which we could never do if this crowne of glory were not hung out from heaven and manifestly exhibited to the eye of our faith with assurance to winne it by our patience 3. Thirdly but especially to kindle in us a most ardent desire and continuall longing to arrive at our heavenly countrey where wee shall possesse that inheritance of a kingdome which is as surely conveighed unto us by the Word and Sacraments as if Almighty God should presently cause a speciall deed to bee made or patent to bee drawne for it and set his hand and seale to it in our sight To knit up all that hath beene delivered that it may take up lesse roome in your memory and bee more easily borne away let mee entreat you to set before your eyes the custome of the Romanes in the entertainment of any great personage whom after they had feasted with rare dainties served in covered dishes at the end of the banquet they gave unto him an Apophoreton or
ardebat cor vestrûm in vobis cùm exponeret vobis Scripturas The second jewel was a Saphir according to the Hebrew derivation from Sepher a booke wherein we may reade both the doctrine and graces of the second Speaker Hic lapis ut perhibent educit corpore vinctos saith Vincentius and was not his doctrine a Jayle-delivery of all deaths prisoners It is a constant tradition among the Rabbins that the tables of stone Bellar. l. 2. de Verb. Dei wherein the ten Commandements were written with the finger of God were of Saphir For although Pliny affirmeth Nat. hist l. 37. that the Saphir is a stone altogether unfit for sculpture yet this can be no just exception against this tradition sith the engraving of the ten Commandements was done by the finger of God above nature Moreover it is cleare out of this Text that the name of one of the Patriarchs was written in the Saphir Such a Saphir was the second Speaker having the Lawes of God imprinted in his heart The third jewell is a Diamond in Hebrew called Jahalom because it breaketh all other stones in Greek Adamas that is unconquerable because it can neither be broken by the hammer nor consumed in the fire nay the fire saith Zenocrates hath not so much power as to stain the colour much lesse impeach the substance of this stone Call to mind among the vertues of a Magistrate conspicuous in this divine Oratour his unconquerable courage unstained integrity and the comparison is already made Pliny reporteth Adamantem sideritem alio Adamante perforari thinke you not that if a man could have a heart as hard as the Adamant this Adamant pointed with sacred eloquence could breake it and make it contrite Lastly Pliny addeth that the Diamond is a soveraign remedy against poyson Et ideò regibus charissimus iisque paucis cognitus in high esteem with Princes if as our gracious Soveraigne hath so all Christian Princes had such Diamonds as this if such Preachers were their eare-rings they should be free from the danger of all poysoned and hereticall doctrine If as the stones placed in the second row agree with the gifts of the Speaker so they sort as well with the doctrines of his Text I am sure you wil all say that this second order of stones is not out of order A most remarkable story of the Carbuncle we have that cast in the fire among live coals it seemeth to have no grace in it but quench the other coals with water it shineth more gloriously in the ashes than ever before so our Saviour in the brunt of his passion while he was heat by the fire-brands of hell Scribes Pharisees Jewes Romans seemed to be dead and lose all his colour beauty nay was indeed dead according to his humane nature his soule being severed from his body but after the consummation of his passion and the extinction of the fiery rage of his persecuters with his bloud in his resurrection he shewed himself a most glorious Carbuncle shining in majesty burning in love After his resurrection in the day of his ascension hee taketh possession of his throne in heaven which Chap. 1. V. 26. in Ezekiel is said to bee like a Saphir stone now sitting at the right hand of God the Father having conquered sin death hell made all his enemies his footstoole he is become the only true orient Diamond in the world whether you take the name from the Greek ἄδαμασ ab ά δαμαω or the Hebrew ×להי from ×לה being invincible himselfe and overcomming all adverse power breaking his obstinate enemies in pieces like a potters vessell with a rod of iron The embossment of gold in which these gems of divine doctrine were set was his Text taken out of A Sermon preached by Doctor John King then Dean of Christ-Church and Vicechancellor of the University of Oxford afterwards Lord Bishop of London upon Easter day in Saint Peters Church in Oxford ESAY 26.19 Thy dead men shall live together with my body shall they rise awake and sing yee that dwell in dust for the dew is as the dew of herbes and the earth shall cast up her dead IT would aske the labour of an houre to settle this one only member I finde such a Babel of tongues at odds about so few words Variae lectiones Whereas we reade terra projiciet or ejiciet the earth shall cast up or bring forth as it doth her herbs and winter prisoners Junius hath Dejecisti in terram Castalio terram demoliris the Seventy Terra cadet S. Jerome Dejicies in terram the Chaldee paraphrase Trades in infernum and for mortuos in Hebrew * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rephaim from a word signifying to cure per antiphrasin the Seventy reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked or ungodly S. Jerome Gigantes stout and robustious against God But to set you in a right and inoffensive way I reduce almost an infinity of distractions to two heads For all of them either speak of the resurrection of the dead indefinitely which they doe that say Terra ejiciet to wit postquam in terram dejecisti For the earth cannot cast up that it hath not and Manium terram demoliris or of the destruction of the wicked one only species of the dead which the Seventy call impios others Giants mighty to transgresse both senses as the Northern and Southern rivers running from contrary points meet in the Ocean so these from sundry and discrepant conceits run into one common place of the generall resurrection save that the latter adde a straine to the former of Gods vengeance and wrath prepared for the wicked Sense twofold Thus having set the letters of my Text together accorded the words it remaineth that their scope and intent be freed from question There is not one of the learned Scribes old or new Jew or Christian whose spirit and pen hath not fallen upon one of these two senses viz. that the Prophet either speaketh of the resurrection of the dead at the last day or of the restitution and enlargement of the people from their present straights in which say they calamity is a kind of death captivity as the grave Gods people as the seed in the ground Gods grace and favour as the comfortable dew to revive and restore them to their wonted being Of these two companies some goe after the literall grammaticall sense lending not so much as the cast of their eye toward the allegory as Strigelius Clarius Brentius Others on the other side of the banke standing for the shadowed resurrection are not so peremptory but si quis aliter sentire mavult per me liber hoc faciat and Calvin himself in his commentary layes out as it were a lot as well for the true as the typicall resurrection Falluntur Christiani qui ad extremum judicium restringunt Prophetatotum Christi regnum ab initio ad finem
tender the life of your bodies and soules hearken to a word of exhortation Taste not the least drop of the poyson of sinne for though it put you not to so great torment and be not so present death yet deadly it is and without repentance and saving grace will kill your soules Destroy the Cockatrice in the shell breake the smallest seeds of sinne in your soule as the Emmet biteth the seeds which she layeth up for her selfe that they may not grow againe in the earth Parvulos Babylonis allidite ad petram in quâ serpentis vestigia non reperiuntur Dash the Babylonish babes against that rocke into which no serpent can enter I know not how it commeth to passe that as in nature we see the Adamant which nothing relenteth at the stroake of the hammer is dissolved with the warme bloud of a Goate the Elephant which no great beast dare encounter is killed by a small Mouse creeping in at his truncke and eating his braines and the Lions in Mesopotamia are so pestered with a kind of Gnat flying into their eyes that to be rid of the paine they sometimes teare them out with their clawes and sometimes drowne themselves so the strongest Christians are often over-taken with the least temptations and conquered with a reed nay with a bull-rush To forbeare more examples David was taken by a look only Peter affrighted by the speech of a Damsell Alipius was overthrowne by a shout in the Theater The breach of the Commandement in lesse things even because they are lesse and so might more easily be avoided maketh the disobedience the greater and all sinne is the more dangerous by how much the lesse it is feared Saint Austine maketh mention of certaine flies in Africa so small that they can scarce be discerned from moates in the ayre Quae tamen cum insederint corpori acerbissimo fodiunt aculeo which yet are armed with a most venemous sting those little sins that are so small that we can scarce discerne them to be sinnes are like those Cynifes Saint Austine speaketh of they pricke the conscience with a most venemous sting Now if the sting of these small Flies put the conscience to such paine and affect it with such anguish who will be able to endure the teeth of the Adder or the taile of the Scorpion If whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgement and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councell and whosoever shall say Thou foole shall be in danger of hell fire what punishment is he like to endure who beareth malice in his heart against his brother envieth his prosperity undermineth his estate woundeth his good name nay spilleth his bloud this is a crimson sinne and mortall in a double sense not onely because it slayeth the soule but also because it killeth the body If we shall give an account at the day of judgement for every idle word what answer shall we make for irreligious and blasphemous words for calumnious and detractious speeches for uncharitable and unchristian censures for false witnesse for oathes for perjury I am loth harder to rub on the sores and galls of your consciences and leave them raw therefore my conclusion shall be the application of a plaister unto them which will certainly heale them That which our Saviour after his resurrection promised to those that should beleeve on his Name that if they z Mar. 16.18 dranke any deadly thing it should not hurt them was performed according to the letter to the Disciples in the first ages but in the spirituall sense to all of us at this day If we have drunke any deadly poyson of sinne as who hath not yet through repentance and faith in Christs bloud it shall not hurt us The nature of poyson is to work upon the bloud and to venome that humour but contrariwise the bloud of our Saviour worketh upon the poyson of sinne and killeth the venemous malignity thereof Though the most veniall sins in mens esteeme are mortall in their owne nature yet the most mortall are made veniall by grace No sin mortall but to the reprobate and infidell no sinne veniall but to the elect and faithfull nay no sinne but mortall to the reprobate and infidell no sinne but veniall to the faithfull and penitent Nothing deadly to Gods chosen nay not death it selfe For the sting thereof is plucked out by Christ O death a 1 Cor. 15.57 where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be unto thee O b Hieron epit Nepot Gratias tibi Christe Salvator nos tua agimus creatura quòd tam potentem adversarium dum occideris occidisti Saviour who hast given death his deaths wound by thy death Beloved Christians so many sins as we have committed so many deaths eternall wee have deserved from so many deaths Christ hath delivered us and therefore so many lives if we had them we owe unto him and shall we not willingly render him this one for which hee will give us immortality blisse and glory in heaven with himselfe Cui c. THE GALL OF ASPES OR THE PANGS OF THE SECOND DEATH THE XLV SERMON ROM 6.21 For the end of those things it death Right Honourable c. I Hope time hath not razed those characters out of your memory which I borrowed from time it selfe to imprint my observations upon this Text in your mind Sinne as yee have heard may be considered in a reference to a three-fold time 1. Past 2. Present 3. Future In relation to the first it is unfruitfull to the second shamefull to the third pernicious and deadly The unfruitfulnesse of sinne cannot but worke upon all that have regard to their estate in this world the shamefulnesse of sinne cannot but touch neere and affect deeply all that stand upon their reputation and good name but the deadlinesse or pernicious nature thereof cannot but prevaile with all to beware of it that tender their life here or immortality hereafter If sinne be unfruitfull have no fellowship with the workes of darknesse but reprove them rather If sinne be shamefull hate even the garments spotted by the flesh let not such things be named among you much lesse practised which cast a blurre upon your good name and fame among the Saints of God If sinne be pernicious and deadly flye from it as from a Serpent taste not the wine of Sodome nor presse the grapes of Gomorrah for their wine is the bloud of the Dragon a Job 20.14 and the gall of Aspes which we know is present death The end of those things That is all the pompe and vanity of this world the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye the pride of life all sinfull pleasures wherewith yee surfeit your senses shall have an end and this end is death and this death
and reluctancy nay rather they for Christs sake desired them and rejoyced in them Something then it was above all the torments man can devise much lesse beare that our Saviour felt in his agony and expressed by his bloudy sweat and strong cries Whilest our Saviour was in this wofull plight what doe his Disciples Doe they condole him pray with him arme themselves to defend him Nay in this feare and perplexity of their Master they fall fast asleep at the first after in his greatest danger forsake him only Judas commeth neere him and saluteth him with a kisse O that perfidious treachery should touch those lips in which there was no guile that he should be m Cyp. de bon patient Insultantium sputamina exciperet qui sputo suo caeci oculos paulò ante formastet coronaretur spinis qui Martyres floribus coronat aeternis palmis in faciem verberaretur qui palmas veras vincentibus tribuit spoliaretur veste terrenâ qui indumento immortalitatis caeteros vestit cibaretur felle qui cibum coelestem dedit potaretur aceto qui poculum salutare propinavit spit upon who cured the eyes of the blind with spittle that his face should be smitten with palmes of the hand who putteth palmes into the hands of all that overcome that he should be crowned with thornes who crownes Martyrs with never withering flowers that he should be stripped of his earthly garments who arraies us with celestiall robes that hee should be fed with gall who feeds us with bread from heaven that vinegar should be given to him for drinke who prepareth for us the cup of salvation But before we goe out of the garden we will gather some flowers As the first sinne was committed in a garden so the first satisfaction was made in a garden in that garden there was an evill Angel tempting in this garden a good Angel comforting Adams sentence in that garden was that hee should get his living with the sweat of his browes and in this the second Adam procureth life unto us by the sweat of his whole body Adam was driven out of that garden by an Angel brandishing a fiery blade and our Saviour is fetched out of this with swords and staves and brought into the high Priests palace where he is most injuriously dealt withall they cannot hold their hands off him whilest he is examined before the Judge but contrary to all law and good maners they smite him with staves at his arraignment Yea but they were but rude souldiers or fawning servants Is there any more justice in the high Priest or the Councell who not only take willingly any allegation against him but also seeke out for false witnesses and when they find none that were contests yet they condemne him and that for no ordinary crime but for blasphemy in the highest degree Neither were the Judges more unjust than the people mad against him Away with him say they away with him Crucifie him crucifie him Why what evil hath he done Spare Barabbas not him What save a murderer and murder a Saviour O ye people of Judea and inhabitants of Jerusalem what so enrageth you against him He hath cleansed your lepers he hath cured your blind he hath opened your deafe eares he hath loosened your tongue-tyed he hath healed your sicke he hath raised your dead he hath preached unto you the Gospel of the Kingdome and the glad tidings of salvation and is he not therefore worthy to live He inviteth you to grace Come unto mee all ye that are heavie laden unto glory Come ye blessed of my Father and therefore away with him away with him With these out cries Pilate is overborne as if clamours of the promiscuous rout were to be taken for depositions of sworne witnesses and hee pronounceth the unjustest sentence that ever was given that Jesus was guilty of death After the sentence execution immediately ensueth he is stript starke naked before the multitude what would not an ingenuous man rather endure than this shame his flesh is torne with whips and scourges appointed for slaves so cruelly that Pilate himselfe moved at so lamentable a spectacle sheweth him to the people with an ecce homo either to move them to pity or to satisfie their bloud-thirsty appetite As for the insolencies and indignities offered unto him by the souldiers they are so odious and intolerable that I cannot with patience relate them and therefore I passe with our Saviour to Mount Calvarie where foure great nailes were driven into the most tender and sinewy parts of his body wherewith after he was fastened to the crosse his crosse was set up in the midst betwixt two theeves the Mediatour of God and man now hangeth in the middle betwixt heaven and earth I need not amplifie upon the death of the crosse a death for the torment most grievous most infamous amongst men and n Deut. 21.23 accursed of God himselfe Any one may conceive what a torment it must needs be when the whole weight of the body hangeth upon the wounds in the hands feet But there were foure circumstances which very much aggravated his passion 1. The nature of his complexion for being made of Virgins flesh and thereby of the purest and exactest temper hee could not but be more sensible of excruciating torments than any other 2. The place and time the place Jerusalem the Metropolis of all Judea the time at Easter when there was a concourse of people from all parts of Palestine besides an infinite multitude of strangers that came to see that great solemnity 3. The sight of his mother and dearest Disciple in their sight to be put to so infamous and cruell a death what a corrasive must it needs be This was the sword that pierced his mothers heart and how thinke wee it affected him his compassion was no lesse griefe to him than his passion 4. The insolency of his adversaries now flocking about his crosse and by their deriding scoffes and taunts powring sharpest vinegar into his wounds To endure that which man never did nor could to be put to all extremiy of tortures and torments and not to be bemoaned nay to be mocked at and reviled Others he hath saved himselfe he cannot save Thou that destroyedst the Temple and buildedst it up againe in three dayes come downe from the crosse and we will beleeve thee O this is an hyperbole of misery There are yet foure considerations which put as it were a spirituall crosse upon his materiall and more tortured his soule than the other his body 1. His unconceivable griefe for the obstinacy of the Jewish nation 2. The apprehension of the destruction of the City and Temple with a desolation of the whole Country to ensue shortly after his death 3. The guilt of the sins of the whole world 4. The sense of the full wrath of his Father for the sinnes of mankind which he tooke upon himselfe And now ye have the full dosis
to the cast of a Die for a matter of naught a toy a trifle a jussle a taking of the wall an affront a word Doe wee make so small reckoning of that which cost our Saviour his dearest hearts bloud 2. If Judges all those who sit upon life and death did enter into a serious consideration thereof they would not so easily as sometimes they doe cast away a thing that is so precious much lesse receive the price of bloud For if it be accounted and that deservedly a sinne of a deep die to buy and sell things dedicated to the service of God what punishment doe they deserve who buy and sell the living image of God It is reported of Augustus that he never pronounced a capitall sentence without fetching a deep sigh and of Titus the Emperour that hee willingly accepted of the Priests office that hee might never have his hand dipped in bloud and of Nero that when he was to set his hand to a capitall sentence he wished that he could not write Utinam literas nescirem therefore let those Judges think what answer they will make at Christs Tribunall who are so farre from Christian compassion and hearts griefe and sorrow when they are forced to cut off a member of Christ by the sword of justice that they sport themselves and breake jests and most inhumanely insult upon the poore prisoner whose necke lyeth at the stake If any sinne against our neighbour leave a deep staine in our conscience it is the bloudy sinne of cruelty Other sinnes may be hushed in the conscience and rocked asleep with a song of Gods mercy but this is reckoned in holy Scripture among those ſ Gen. 4.10 crying sins that never will be quiet till they have awaked Gods revenging justice This is a crimson sinne and I pray God it cleave not to their consciences who wear the scarlet robe If there be any such Judges I leave them to their Judge and briefly come to you Right Honourable c. with the short exhortation of the Apostle Put you on the t Colos 3.12 bowells of mercy and compassion and if ever the life of your brethren be in your hands make speciall reckoning of it in no wise rashly cast it away let it not goe out of your hands unlesse the law and justice violently wrest and extort it from you Assure your selves that it is a farre more honourable thing and will gaine you greater love and favour with God and reputation with men to u Cicer. pro Quint. de Aquil Mavult commemorare se cùm perdere potuerat pepercisse quà m cùm parcere potuerat perdidisse save a man whom yee might have cast away than to cast him away under any pretence whom yee might have saved 4. If a malefactour arraigned at the barre of justice should perceive by any speech gesture signe or token an inclination in the Judge to mercy how would he worke upon this advantage what suit what meanes would he make for his life how would he importune all his friends to intreat for him how would he fall down upon his knees beseech the Judge for the mercies of God to be good unto him Hoe all ye that have guilty consciences and are privie to your selves of many capitall crimes though peradventure no other can appeach you behold the Judge of all flesh makes an overture of mercy he bewrayeth more than a propension or inclination he discovereth a desire to save you why doe ye not make meanes unto him why do ye not appeale from the barre of his justice to his throne of grace why doe ye not flye from him as he is a terrible Judge to him as he is a mercifull Father Though by nature ye are the sonnes of wrath yet by grace ye are the adopted sonnes of the Father of mercy and God of all consolation who stretcheth out his armes all the day long unto us Let us turne to him yea though it be at the last houre of our death and he will turne to us let us repent us of our sinnes and he will repent him of his judgements let us retract our errours and he will reverse his sentence let us wash away our sinnes with our teares and he will blot out our sentence with his Sonnes bloud When * Dan. 5.5 Belshazzar saw the hand-writing against him on the wall his heart mis-gave him all his joynts trembled and his knees smote one against the other Beloved Christians there is a x Colos 2.14 hand-writing of ordinances against us all and if we see or minde it not it writeth more terrible things against us What shall wee doe to be rid of this feare Is there any means under heaven to take out the writing of God against us Yes beloved teares of repentance with faith in Christs blood maketh that aqua fortis that will fetch out even the hand-writing of God against us The Prophet recordeth it for a miraculous accident that the sun went back many degrees in the Dyall of y Esa 38.8 Ahaz Beloved our fervent prayers and penitent tears will work a greater miracle than this they will bring back again the z Mal. 4.2 Sun of righteousnesse after he is set in our soules God cannot sin Angels cannot repent onely man that sinneth is capable of repentance and shall wee not embrace that vertue which is onely ours Other vertues are remedies against speciall maladies of the soule as humility against pride hope against despaire courage against feare chastity against lust meeknesse against wrath faith against diffidence charity against covetousnesse but repentance is a soveraigne remedy against all the maladies of the minde Other vertues have their seasons as patience in adversity temperance in prosperity almes-deeds when our brothers necessity calleth upon our charity fasting when wee afflict our soules in time of plague or any other judgement of God but repentance is alwayes in season either for our grosser sinnes or for failing in our best actions if for no other cause yet wee are to repent for the insincerity and imperfection of our repentance I will end this my exhortation as the Prophet doth this chapter * Ezek. 18.30.31 Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your ruine Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you new hearts and new spirits for why will yee die O ye house of Israel saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live yee O Lord who desirest not that wee should die in our sinnes but our sinnes in us mortifie our fleshly members by the power of thy Sonnes death and renew us in the spirit of our mindes by the vertue of his resurrection that wee may die daily to the world but live to heaven die to sinne but live to righteousnesse die to our selves but live to thee Thou by the Prophet professest thy desire of our conversion say but the word and wee shall bee converted
and crucifying the lusts of the flesh than in verbo or signo After these three wayes we must all shew forth the Lords death Till he come To wit either to each particular man at the houre of his death or to all men and the whole Church on earth at the day of judgement This Sacrament is called by the auncient Fathers viaticum morientium the dying mans provision for the long journey he is to take Every faithfull Christian therefore is to communicate as long as he is able and can worthily prepare himselfe even to the day of his dissolution and all congregations professing the Christian religion must continue the celebration of this holy Sacrament till the day of the worlds consummation As often The seldomer we come to the table of some men the welcomer we are but on the contrary wee are the better welcome the oftener wee come to the Lords Table with due preparation There are two reasons especially why wee ought oft to eate of this bread and drinke of this cup the first is drawne from God and his glory the second from our selves and our benefit The oftener we partake of these holy mysteries being qualified thereunto the more we illustrate Gods glory and confirme our faith If any demand further how oft ye ought to communicate I answer 1. In generall as oft as yee need it and are fit for it The x Cypr. ep 54. Quomodo provocamus eos in confessione nominis Christi sanguinem suum fundere si iis militaturis Christi sanguinem denegamus aut quomodo ad Martyrii poculum idoneos facimus si non eos prius ad bibendum in Ecclesiâ poculum jure communicationis admittimus Martyrs in the Primitive Church received every day because looking every houre to be called to signe the truth of their religion with their bloud they held it needfull by communicating to arme themselves against the feare of death Others in the time of peace received either daily or at least every Lords day The former Saint Austine neither liketh nor disliketh the latter he exhorteth all unto 2. I answer in particular out of Fabianus the Synod of Agatha and the Rubrick of our Communion booke that every one at least ought to communicate thrice a yeere at Christmas Easter and Whitsontide howbeit we are not so much to regard the season of the yeere as the disposition of our mind in going forward or drawing backe from this holy Table The sacrament is fit for us at all times but wee are not fit for it y Gratian. de consecrat distinct 2. Quotidié Eucharistiam dominicam accipere nec laudo nec vitupero omnibus tamen dominicis communicandum hortor Ibid. Qui in natali Domini Paschate Pentecoste non communicaverint catholici non credantur nec inter catholicos habeantur wherefore let every man examine his owne conscience how hee standeth in favour with God and peace with men how it is with him in his spirituall estate whether he groweth or decayeth in grace whether the Flesh get the hand of the Spirit or the Spirt of the Flesh whether our ghostly strength against all temptations be increased or diminished and accordingly as the Spirit of God shall incline our hearts let us either out of sense of our owne unworthinesse and reverence to this most holy ordinance forbeare or with due preparation and renewed faith and repentance approach to this Table either to receive a supply of those graces we want or an increase of those we have and when we come let us Eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. For as both eyes are requisite to the perfection of sight so both Elements to the perfection of the Sacrament This the Schooles roundly confesse Two things saith z Part. 3. q. 63. art 1. Ideò ad Sacramenti hujus integritatem duo concurrunt scilicet spiritualis cibus potus Et q. 80. art 12. Ex parte ipsius Sacramenti convenit quod utrumque sumatur corpus scilicet sanguis quia in utroque consistit perfectio Sacramenti Aquinas concurre to the integrity of the Sacrament viz. spirituall meate and drinke and againe It is requisite in regard of the Sacrament that we receive both kindes the body and the bloud because in both consisteth the perfection of the Sacrament And * Bonavent in 4. sent dist 11. part 2. art 1. Perfecta refectio non est in parte tantùm sed in utroque ideò non in uno tantùm perfectè signatur Christus ut reficiens sed in utroque Bonaventure A perfect refection or repast is not in bread only but in bread and drinke therefore Christ is not perfectly signified as feeding our soules in one kind but in both And a Soto in 12. distinct q. 1. art 12. Sacramentum non nisi in utrâque specie quantum ad integram signification em perficitur Soto The Sacrament as concerning the entire signification thereof is not perfect but in both kindes Doubtlesse if the Sacrament be a banquet or a supper there must be drinke in it as well as meate The Popish communion be it what it may be to the Laity cannot be a supper in which the Laity sup nothing neither can they fulfill the precept of the Apostle of shewing forth the Lords death for the effusion of the wine representeth the shedding of Christs bloud out of the veines and the parting of his soule from his body If we should grant unto our adversaries which they can never evict that the bloud of Christ might be received in the bread yet by such receiving Christs death by the effusion of his bloud for us could in no wise bee represented or shewen forth which the Apostle here teacheth to be the principall end of receiving this Sacrament As oft saith he as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup Yee shew forth Christs death In Christs death all Christianity is briefly summed for in it we may observe the justice of God satisfied the love of Christ manifested the power of Sathan vanquished the liberty of man from the slavery of sinne and death purchased all figures of the Old Testament verified all promises of the New ratified all prophecies fulfilled all debts discharged all things requisite for the redemption of mankind and to the worlds restoration accomplished Therein we have a patterne of obedience to the last breath of humility descending as low as hell of meeknesse putting up insufferable wrongs of patience enduring mercilesse torments compassion weeping and praying for bloudy persecuters constancy holding out to the end to which vertues of his person if ye lay the benefits of his passion redounding to his Church which hee hath comforted by his agony quit by his taking justified by his condemnation healed by his stripes cleansed by his bloud quickened by his death and crowned by his crosse if you take a full sight of all the vertues wherewith his crosse is beset as with so
God only knowes Jam ad Triarios res rediit now the whole shock of the army and the maine battell is to advance and upon the sinceritie of the humiliation and fervency of devotion and strength of our united praiers sighes this day dependeth much the safety and life of our State and in it of our Church and in it of our true and incorrupt Religion Let no man goe about with Mercuries inchanted rod to close the eyes of our Argus's let no man sow pillowes under the elbowes of our true Patriots to make them sleep in security lest destruction steale upon us at unawares It is certaine our enemies sleep not and it is most certaine that our crying sinnes have awaked Gods justice it standeth us therefore upon to watch and pray Judgement is already begun at the house of God the Angel hath poured out his viall of red wine upon the Churches of Bohemia and their fields are thicke sowne with the blood of Martyrs the same Angel hath emptied another viall upon the Churches in the Palatinate and the sweet Rhenish grape yeelds in a manner now no liquor but blood a third viall runneth out at this houre upon the reformed Churches in France and our sinnes as it were holloe to him to stretch his hand over the narrow sea and cast the dregges of it on us who have beene long settled upon our lees and undoubtedly this will bee our potion to drinke if wee stretch not our hands to heaven that God may command his Angel to stay his hand If hee have already turned his viall and wee see drops of bloud hanging in the ayre yet the strong wind of our prayers may blow them away and dispell them in such sort that they shall not fall upon us a gale of our sighes may cleare the skie Moses praiers manicled the hands of Almighty God and shall not the united devotions of this whole Land either stay or turne his Angels hand Away with all confidence in the arme of flesh away with all hope in man away with all cloakes of sinne and vizzards of hypocrisie there is no dissembling with God no fighting against him Albeit our land bee compassed with the sea as with a moat and environed with ships furnished with ordnance as with brazen and iron walls though the most puissant Princes on earth should send us innumerable troupes to succour and aide us yet we have no fence for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we lye open to heaven wee are naked to the arrowes of the Almighty and no carnall weapons for succours can stand us in any stead onely the helmet of salvation and the buckler of faith and the powder of a contrite heart and the shot of pious ejaculations may doe us some good It is our pride Beloved that hath throwne us downe and it is humility which must raise us our divisions have weakened us and it is union that can strengthen us our luxury hath imbezelled us and now nothing but fasting and abstinence can recover us our sinnes have made a breach and nothing but repentance can make it up our profane oathes our sinfull pleasures our carnall security and sensuality hath driven away the Spirit of grace and comfort from us and nothing can wooe him to returne backe againe but our vowes of amendment unfeigned teares and sorrowfull sighes Let us therefore ply sighes and b Cyp. ep 1. Incumbamus igitur gemitibus assiduis deprecationibus crebris haec enim sunt arma coelestia quae stare perseverare fortiter faciunt haec sunt munimenta spiritualia tela divina quae protegunt nos Et serm de laps Oportet transigere vigiliis noctes tempus omne lachrymosis lamentationibus occupare stratos solo adhaerere cineri in cilicio volutari sordibus prayers for these are the spirituall weapons we alone can trust to through the intercession of Christs bloud which speaketh better things for us than the bloud of Abel These weapons our Lord himselfe made tryall of in my Text and sanctified them to our use viz. passionate teares and compassionate prayers When hee drew neere to Jerusalem and fore-saw in spirit that shee drew neere to her ruine his eyes melted with teares he beheld the City and wept and his heart breaketh out into sighes Oh that thou knewest Teares trickle not down in order neither are sighes fetched by method Expect not therefore from mee any accurate division or methodicall handling of this passionate Text only in the first place fasten the eye of your observation upon the eyes of our Saviour and you shall discerne in them 1. Beames of love He beheld 2. Teares of compassion He wept over it In the next place bow the eares of your religious attention towards his mouth and ye shall heare from him 1. Sighes of desire Oh or if that thou knewest 2. Plaints of sorrow But now they are hid from thine eyes I have pitched as you see upon a c Hom. Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moist plat or fenny ground wherein that your devotion may walke more steadily I have laid out for you five knolls or steps to rest upon and pawse 1. Venit He came 2. Vidit He beheld 3. Flevit He wept 4. Ingemuit He sighed 5. Oravit He prayed 1. Venit or appropinquavit he drew neere The end of our Saviours life here was the sacrifice of his death he was borne that he might die for us and by one oblation of himselfe on the crosse satisfie for the sinnes of the whole world Now all sacrifices by the Law were to be offered at Jerusalem to Jerusalem therefore hee comes up to finish the worke of our redemption and he maketh the more haste because Easter was neere at hand when he was to eate the Paschall Lambe with his Disciples and to be eaten of them in the mysterious rite of the Sacrament to kill the passover in the type but to be killed himselfe in the truth Oh how farre hath our Saviour left us behind him in his love He came with a swift foot to us we returne with a slow foot to him he made more haste to give himselfe than we make to receive him After hee received the commandement from his Father to lay downe his life for his sheep he rode more cheerfully into Jerusalem and was led more willingly to the altar of the crosse where hee lost his life than we repaire to his holy table there to be partakers of the bread of eternall life He came neere to the City that he might view it he viewed it that hee might weep over it hee wept over it that hee might testifie a threefold truth 1. Naturae of his Nature 2. Amoris of his Love 3. Doctrinae of his Doctrine or prophesie 1. Veritatem naturae the truth of his humane nature He must needs be a true man who out of compassion sheds teares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sic fatur lachrymans Cold stone or metall relenteth not a phantasme
ad rustic Eloquentiae torcularia non verborum pampinis sed sensuum quasi uvarum expressionibus redundarent For in these the presses of eloquence abound with leaves of words and luxuriant stemmes of extravagant wit but in it with spirituall senses and divine sentences as it were the juice and bloud of the ripest grapes of the Vine of Engeddi It is a point of wisedome in man who hath but little to make it goe as farre as he can and so thriftily instill it in his workes as Nature doth her influences in simples a great quantity whereof is often distilled to extract one drop of pure quintessence whereas on the contrary no plant of Paradise no branch of a plant no flower of a branch no leafe of a flower but affordeth great plenty of the water of life more precious than any quintessence that Art can force out of Nature The finers of gold Chrysost tom 5. homil 37. as golden mouth St. Chrysostome teacheth us deale not only with wedges ingots and massie pieces of gold but with the smallest portions thereof And the Apothecaries make singular use in divers confections even of the dust of gold When Alexander the great managed his affaires in Judea those whom he imployed to gather the most precious oyle of a Plin. l. 12. nat hist c. 25. Succus è plaga manat quem Opobalsamum vocant suavitatis eximiae sed tenui gutta Alexandro magnores ibi gerente toto dic aestivo unam concham impleri justum erat Opobalsamum thought a whole Summers day well spent in filling a small shell taking it as it fell drop by drop from the twigge And if a skilfull Jeweller will not grind out a small spot or cloud out of a rich stone though it somewhat dimme the bright lustre thereof because the substance is so precious shall we lose or sleightly passe by any Iota or tittle of the Booke of God which shall out-last the large volumes of the heavens for * Mat. 5.18 heaven earth shall passe away but no one Iota or tittle of the Word of God shall passe The Jewish Rabines say that great mountaines hang upon the smallest Jods in the Bible And St. b Chrys in Gen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome will not endure a devout Christian to let goe any syllable in the Scripture no nor pricke or point without observation Surely if God so carefully preserve the smallest parcels of Scripture he would have us religiously observe them Else if wee content our selves with a generall handling of the Word of life how shall wee satisfie the Apostles precept of rightly dividing the Word of God * 2. Tim. 2.15 Shew thy self a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth The word in the originall is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dichotomizing the Apostle tyeth no man to a precise Ramisticall method yet is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly cutting or dividing the Word of truth which cannot be done if any sensible part be omitted be it but a conjunctive particle as this Till in my Text which standeth like an hinge in the midst of the sentence turning the meaning divers wayes If it hath reference to the death and resurrection of our Saviour as Cajetan Avendanus conceive it hath in which he brought forth judgement unto victory by condemning the world conquering both death hell then the meaning of the whole is this He shall not strive nor cry c. he shall not offer any violence to his enemies by word or deed although he could as easily destroy them as a man may breake a reed already bruised or tread out the smoaking week of a light ready to goe out of it selfe yet he will not use this power but contrariwise carry himselfe most meekly towards them and by his mildnesse and patience both condemn their fury and conquer their obstinacy If it looke farther forward to the destruction of the City and Temple and the overthrow of the whole Jewish Nation as Theophylact and Musculus imagine expounding Till hee bring forth judgement unto victory till he execute judgement upon them that judged him and fully be revenged of them by the sword of the Romans then the meaning of the whole is Hee shall not breake the bruised reed of the Jewish Nation till by the victory of the Romans he shall execute judgement upon that Nation nor shall he quench the smoaking flaxe of the Aaronicall Priesthood till forty veeres after his death the City of Jerusalem shall bee sacked and the Temple burned downe to the ground and by the propagation of the Gospel and prevailing thereof in all places the dimme light of the Ceremoniall Law be quite extinguished But if the word Untill carry us so farre as the last Judgement to which St. Jerome St. Hilary c Guilliand comment in Mat. Qui diebus carnis suae visus est humilis benignus doctor aderit aliquando Jude◠utetur potentiá absolutâ damnavit hostes suos Guilliandus and many other learned Expositors referre it then the whole beareth this tune See you Jesus now in the forme of a servant how humble and meeke he is so farre from killing and subduing his bloud-thirsty enemies by forcible meanes that hee will not strive with them so farre from lifting up his hand against them that hee will not lift up his voice Hee will not cry nor shall his voice bee heard in the streets complaining against them so farre from wounding the spirit Cic. Catil prim Quos ferro vulnerare oportebat nondum voce vulnerat or hurting the bodies of any men that hee will not breake a bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flaxe The time shall come when you shall see this meek Lambe turned into a fierce Lion He who cryed not upon earth shall thunder from heaven He who came now to suffer in meeknesse shall hereafter come in power to conquer Hee who came in humility to bee judged shall come in Majesty to judge both quicke and dead Hee who came by water and bloud by water to wash our sinnes and by bloud to quench the fire of his Fathers wrath shall one day come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all that beleeve not the Gospel He who in all his life never brake a bruised reed a Beza in Mat. c. 12. Tum rebellia corda confringet non jam clemens humilis sed severus majestate verendus shall after his death and resurrection when he commeth to Judgement if not before rule the Nations with a rod of Iron and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell Hee who here never quenched the smoaking flaxe hee shall hereafter put out the greater lights of the world He shall darken the Sunne and turne the Moone into bloud and shake the powers of heaven and foundations of the earth and the hearts of men and behold he commeth with the clouds and all eyes shall see
of Sion be thou ruler in the middest of thine enemies Whilst our Saviour lived upon earth the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind yeelding a savour of life unto life was kept as it were in a narrow boxe but at our Saviours death the boxe was broken and this precious oyntment poured out and the whole world filled with the smell thereof This doctrine touching the naturalizing if I may so speak of the Gentiles into the spirituall Common-wealth of Israel was implyed in the Metaphor of the Rose of the field Cantic 2.1 I am the Rose of the field Christ is not a garden flower for few to see and fewer to smell unto but a Rose of the field for all to gather that have a hand of faith to touch him but it was unfolded at large to Saint Peter in a vision of a sheet let downe from Heaven knit at foure corners Acts 10.11 12. in which were all manner of foure footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things c. The foure corners of the sheet signified the foure parts of the world all sorts of living creatures all sorts of men of all kindreds nations and languages The sheet in which they were all wrapped is the Church militant In the end of the vision the vessell was received up againe into heaven Acts 10.16 to shew that in the end of the world the whole Church militant shall be transported into heaven and become triumphant St. b Orig. comment in Cant. homil 1. Quemadmodum in Evangelio mulier illa quae sanguine fluebat archi Synagogae filiam curatione praevenit sic Aethiopissa id est Gentium Ecclesia Israel aegrotante sanata est Origen representeth this truth most cleerly unto us through the mirrour of an allegory Though saith he the found of the Gospel came later unto the Gentiles yet the Gentiles prevented the Jewes in giving credit to it and were justified before them as the woman in the Gospel that was sicke of a bloudy issue was healed before the Rulers daughter The daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue was a type of the Jewish Synagogue the woman that was in a long consumption by reason of her continuall fluxe of bloud was an embleme of the people of the Gentiles lying more than twelve ages sicke of a bloudy issue weltring in her naturall filth and bloud Now as Christ going to cure the Rulers daughter was touched by the Canaanitish woman sicke of a bloudy issue and she by that touch was cured so though Christ came first to heale the Synagogue yet the Gentile Church touching the hemme of his garment by faith is first healed and saved The phrase of sending forth judgement expresseth our Saviours readinesse in opening the treasures of heavenly wisedome and unfolding the mysteries of eternall salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he shooteth out casteth out or sendeth forth judgement of his owne accord as a tree doth his fruit or the Sunne his beames Matth. 12.35 A good man bringeth forth out of the treasure of his heart good things Matth. 2.11 The Sages opened their treasures and every Scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a man that is an house-holder which bringeth forth out of his treasures things new and old I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart Psal 40.10 saith David in the person of Christ I have declared thy faithfulnesse and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindnesse and thy truth from the great congregation Ver. 9. I have preached righteousnesse in the great assembly I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest And according to this fore-going type how ready the truth himselfe was to publish the Gospel of the Kingdome appeareth by his taking all occasions from every ordinary occurrent to instruct his Disciples in points of heavenly wisedome as from a draught of fish to admonish them of fishing for soules from Well-water to treat of the water of life from barly loaves to exhort them to labour for the food that perisheth not from burying the dead to reprove those that are dead in sinne from curing the blind in body to rebuke the spirituall blindnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees from a question concerning the materiall Temple to fore-tell the dissolution of the temple of his body and raising it up againe in three daies To conceale any needfull especially saving truth is to bury the gold of Ophir and thereby deprive not only others but our selves also of the benefit and use thereof Wherefore St. c August l. 12. confess Veritas nec mea nec tu◠nec illius est sed omnium nostrûm quos ad ejus communionem publicè vocas admonens nos ut nolimus eam habere privatam ne privemut ea Augustine sharply censureth such as would challenge a peculiar interest and propriety in that which is the common treasure of Gods Church saying The truth is neither mine nor thine nor his but all ours in common whom thou O Lord callest publikely to the communion thereof dreadfully admonishing us not to desire to have it private lest we be deprived of it In speciall the truth of judgement ought not to bee kept in but to bee sent forth For to detaine any private mans goods is but a private wrong but unrighteously to detaine justice which is the Kings or the Common-wealths or rather both their good is a kind of peculatus or publike theft We laugh at the Indians for casting in great store of gold yeerly into the river Ganges as if the streame would not runne currently without it yet when the current of justice is stopt in many Courts the wisest Soliciters of sutes can finde no better means than such as the Indians use by dropping in early in the morning gold and silver into Ganges to make it runne Pliny reporteth of Apis the Aegyptian god whom they worshipped in the likenesse of a Cow or Oxe that hee gave answers to private men è manu consulentium cibum capiendo Taking alwayes some food from their hands otherwise the Oracle was dumbe I need not to prosecute the application in this place where by the testimony of all men and the truth it selfe the streame of Justice if any where runneth cleerly most free from all filth and corruption Therefore I passe from Christ his sending forth judgement to his victory Hee shall send forth judgement unto victory There are two principall acts or to speake more properly effects of our Lords Princely function 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgement and victory judgement upon and victory over all his enemies Wee have them both in the words of my Text Judgement which hee shall send forth and Victory unto which But of what Judgement or Victory the words are to bee construed the learned Interpreters of holy Writ somewhat differ in judgement Some in their ghesses fall short upon the particular judgement and utter
overthrow of the Jewish Nation by Vespasian and his sonne Titus Others deferre the accomplishment of this prophecy till the dreadfull day of the Worlds doome when by the shrill sound of the Archangels Trumpet all the dead shall bee awaked and the son of man shall march out of Heaven with millions of Angels to his Judgement seat in the clouds where hee shall sit upon the life and death of mankinde That day saith Saint d August l. 20. de civitate Dei Ille dies judicii propriè dicitur eo quod nullus erit ibi imperitae querelae locus Cur injustus ille sit foelix cur justus ille infoelix Austin may bee rightly called a Day of Judgement because then there shall bee no place left for those usuall exceptions against the judgements of God and the course of his providence on earth viz. Why is this just man unhappy and why is that unjust man happy Why is this profane man in honour and that godly man in disgrace Why doth this wicked man prosper in his evill wayes and that righteous man faile in his holy attempts Nay why for a like fact doth some man receive the guerdon of a crowne and another of a e Juvenal Satyr Sceleris pretium ille crucem tulit hic diadema crosse or gibbet the one of a halter the other of a chaine of gold These and the like murmurs against the justice of the Judge of all flesh shall bee hushed and all men shall say in the words of the f Psal 58.11 Psalmist Verily there is a reward for the righteous Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth And then Christ may bee said properly to bring or send forth judgement when hee revealeth the secrets of all hearts displayeth all mens consciences and declareth the circumstances of all actions whereby all mens judgements may bee rightly informed in the proceedings of the Almighty and all men may see the justice of God in those his most secret and hidden judgements at which the wisest on earth are astonished and dare not looke into them lest they should bee swallowed up in the depth of them I speake of those judgements of God which Saint g August lo. sup cit Dies declarabit ubi hoc quoque manifestabitur quà m justo Dei judicio fiat ut nunc tam multa ac penè omnia justa Dei judicia sensus mentemque mortalium fugiant cum tamen in hac repiorum fidem non lateat justum esse quod latet Austin termeth Occuliè justa and justè occulta Secretly just and justly secret so they are now but at the day of Judgement they shall bee manifestly just and justly manifest then it shall appeare not onely that the most secret judgements of God are just but also that there was just cause why they should bee secret or kept hidden till that day Lastly then Christ may bee said properly to bring forth judgement unto victory because hee shall first conquer all his enemies and then judge and sentence them to everlasting torments Of which dreadfull Judgement ensuing upon the glorious Victory of the Prince of peace over the great Whore and the false Prophet and the Divell that deceiveth them all from which the Archangel shall sound a retreat by blowing the last trump and summoning all that have slept in the dust to arise out of their graves and come to judgement I need not to adde any thing more in this Religious and Christian auditory Wherefore I will fill up the small remainder of the time with some briefe observations upon the ruine and utter desolation of the Jewish Nation who even to this day wandring like Vagabonds in all countries and made slaves not only to Christians but to Moores Turkes and other Infidels rue the crucifying of the Lord of life and the spilling of the innocent bloud of the immaculate Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World As according to the custome of our country Quarter-Sessions are held in Cities and Shire-townes before the generall Assises so Christ a little more than forty yeeres after his death at Jerusalem and ascension into Heaven held a Quarter-Sessions in Jerusalem for that country and people after which hee shall certainly keep a generall Assises for the whole world when the sinnes of all Nations shall be ripe for the Angels sickle Some of the wisest of the Jewish Rabbins entring into a serious consideration of this last and greatest calamity that ever befell that people together with the continuance thereof more than 1500. yeeres and casting with themselves what sinne might countervaile so heavie a judgement in the end have growne to this resolution that surely it could be no other than the spilling of the Messias bloud which cryed for this vengeance from heaven against them And verily if you observe all the circumstances of times persons and places together with the maner and means of their punishments and lay them to the particulars of Christs sufferings in and from that Nation you shall see this point as cleerly set before your eyes as if these words were written in letters of bloud upon the sacked walls of Jerusalem Messiah his Judgement and Victory over the Jewes 1. Mocking repaid 1. Not full sixe yeeres after our Lords passion most of those indignities and disgraces which the Jewes put upon him were returned backe to themselves by Flaccus and the Citizens of Alexandria who scurrilously mocked their King Agrippa in his returne from Rome by investing a mad man called Carabbas with Princely robes putting a reed in his hand for a Scepter saluting him Haile King of the Jewes Note here the Jewes mocking of Christ repaid unto themselves yet this was not all 2 Whipping repaid The Alexandrians were not content thus scornfully to deride the King of the Jewes they proceeded farther to make a daily sport of scourging many of the Nobility even to death and that which Philo setteth a Tragicall accent upon at their solemnest Feast Note here the Jewes whipping and scourging Christ upon the solemne Feast of Passover repaid unto them 3. Spitting repaid 3. And howsoever their noble and discreet Embassadour Philo made many remonstrances to the Emperour Caligula of these unsufferable wrongs offered to their Nation yet that Emperour because the Jewes had refused to set up his Image in the Temple was so farre from relieving them or respecting him according to the quality he bare that he spurned him with his foot and spit on his face Note here the Jewes spitting on Christ repaid them 4. The Jewes refusing Christ to be their King to flatter the Romane Caesar reveneâ—d on them by Caesar himself 4. In conclusion the Emperour sent him away with such disgrace and discontent that hee turning to his country-men said Bee of good cheare Sirs for God himselfe must needs right us now sith his Vicegerent from whom wee expected justice doth so much wrong us and contrary
thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction death with death and the grave with destruction Howbeit destruction here as it is applied to Israel seemeth not so much to signifie destruction in the vulgar acception that is the pulling downe of the houses or sacking of townes and villages as the dissolution of the state and downefall of the Kingdome of Israel and therefore the point herein to be seriously thought upon is the Soph Pasuck full point and fatall period of all earthly States Societies Common-wealths and Kingdomes All naturall things carry in their stile Corruptible all humane in their stile mortall all earthly in their stile Temporall to distinguish the first sort from things supernaturall which are incorruptible the second sort from things divine which are immortall the third sort from heavenly which are eternall The things which are seene saith the h 2. Cor. 4.18 Apostle are temporall but the things which are not seene are eternall It is the royall prerogative of him who i Apoc. 19.16 17.14 hath written upon his thigh and on his vesture King of Kings and Lord of Lords that his Kingdome is bounded with no limits nor confined to time the eternity whereof is proclaimed in holy Scriptures by five noble Heralds two Kings two Prophets and an Archangell The two Kings are k Psal 45 6. Thy throne O God is for ever David and l Dan. 4.32 Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion Nebuchadnezzar The two Prophets are m Cap. 17.14 His kingdome is that which shall not be destroyed Daniel and n Micah 4.7 The Lord shall reigne from henceforth even for ever Micah The Archangell is o Luke 1.31 32 33. Horat. car l. 1. od 3. Semotique prius tarda necessitas leti corripuit gradum Gabriel whose trumpet soundeth most shrill and giveth a most certaine sound Behold thou shalt conceive in thy wombe and bring forth a sonne and shalt call his name Jesus ver 31. He shall be great and shall be called the sonne of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David ver 32. And he shall reigne over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shal be no end ver 33. Of all other there shal be For all politike bodies are in some sort subject to the condition of natural bodies As these so they have their beginning or birth growth perfection state decay and dissolution And as the statures of men in this decrepit and feeble age of the world are much diminished and their life shortened so even States and Empires fall short of their former greatnesse and are like sooner to arrive to their period naturall end or to speake more properly civill death and dissolution called in my text destruction Some who have taken upon them to calculate as it were the nativitie of the world and erect a scheme of all the living have set the utmost day of the duration of the one and life of all the other to fall within foure hundred yeares according to an ancient tradition of the Jewes fathered upon the house of p Melancthon in Chron. l. 1. p. 10. Sex millia annorum mundus duo millia inane duo millia lex duo millia dies Messiae propter peccata nostra quae multa magna sunt deerunt anni qui decrunt Elias The world shall last sixe thousand yeeres two thousand thereof there shall be a vacuitie or emptinesse two thousand the Law shall continue and the dayes of the Messiah shall make out two thousand more of which if any be lacking by reason of our many and grievous sinnes they shall be lacking The Cabalists favour this conceit and labour to wierdraw it out of the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis where because they finde sixe Alephs or A's which in numerall characters signifie so many thousand yeares conclude the duration of the world from the first creation to the end shall make up just that number of yeeres And many also of our Christian Chronologists streining the letter of q 2 Pet. 3.8 One day with the Lord is as a thousand yeeres and a thousand yeeres as one day St. Peter too farre allot precisely sixe thousand yeares for the continuance of the world at the seventh thousand they beleeve we shall all begin to keepe our everlasting Sabbath in heaven For the period of particular Kingdomes Gasper q Pâ—ucer praesat in Chron. Carion Hanc periodum lege quadam sancitam divinitâ—s magnis Impeâ—iis fatalem esse universales mutationes afferre ostendunt omnium temporum historiae Peucerus observeth that it seldome or never exceedeth 500. years which he proveth by these instances following From the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt to the building of the first Temple we finde much about five hundred yeeres run out the first as also the second Temple stood thereabouts the Assyrians ruled in Asia so long Athens was ruled by Kings Rome by Consuls just so many yeers From Augustus to Valentinian the last five hundred yeeres are reckoned all which time the seat of the fourth Monarchy of the world was fixed at Rome The Church of Rome in a sort continued in her puritie for five hundred yeeres After the Papacie and superstition grew to the height in the westerne parts before the thousanth yeere and five hundred yeeres after the happy reformation begun by Martin Luther Yet neither that tradition of the house of Elias nor the observation of Peucerus are of infallible certaintie r Acts 1.7 which the Father hath 〈◊〉 in his owne power It belongeth not to us to know times and seasons and though often God hath translated Kingdomes within the limits of five hundred yeeres yet not alwayes some have lasted longer as the Monarchy of the Assyrians some farre shorter as the monarchy of the Persians and after them of the Grecians The Christian Kings of Jerusalem finished their course within a hundred yeeres Men may probably ghesse at the circumvolution of great Empires and Kingdomes but neither can the Astrologers certainely foresee by the course of the starres nor Å¿ Bod. de rep l. 4. c. 2. ex Plat. pol. 8. Platonicks define by the accomplishment of the nuptiall number nor Politicians foretell by their intelligence with forreine States nor Magicians determine by conference with their familiar spirits but the Prophets of God onely forewarne by inspiration from him who hath decreed before all time the dayes of man and continuance of families and periods of Kingdomes and ages of the world and lasting of time it selfe That which Belshazzar saw t Dan. 5.25.26 a hand writing upon the wall all Princes and States may see and read in the records of heaven kept in holy Scripture Mene Mene thou art numbred thou art numbred thy yeares are summed thy dayes are appointed thine houre is set Be thou as great and glorious as Nebuchadnezzars Image
Table and you strike one string of any one of them the strings in the other that carry the same note though untouched give some sound at the same instant in like manner all the Fridayes throughout the yeere especially those that fall in Lent ought to sound out some of the Notes of the dolefull song that was pricked on that day not with a penne but with a speare the burden whereof was Christ crucified Doct. 5 Crucified In this word the Apostle briefly casteth up the totall of Christs sufferings the particulars whereof were his 1 Feares and sorrowes 2 Indignities and disgraces 3 Tortures and torments His agony and bloody sweat his betraying and taking his arraigning and condemning his stripping and whipping his mocking and spitting on his pricking and nailing to the crosse The crosse had foure parts 1 An arrectorium which was the maine tree fastened in the earth and standing upright towards heaven 2 Scabellum a planke to which the feete were nayled 3 Lignum transversum a crosse piece of wood whereto the hands were nayled 4 Verticem the top or place above the head where the inscription was put To the dimensions of which parts the m Eph. 3.18 Apostle seemeth to allude in his sacred Mathematickes that saith hee you may bee able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height The bredth seemeth to have reference to the lignum transversum the length to the arrectorium the depth to the scabellum and height to the vertex of the crosse Those who are conversant in Jewish antiquities observe that crucifying succeeded in place of strangling among them wherein the speciall providence of God is to bee marked that although the Romanes changed the forme of the death yet they changed not the Tree hee that was crucified as well as hee that was strangled hanged upon a tree and thereby became n Deut. 21.23 accursed by the law A circumstance whereof the Apostle maketh a most comfortable use saying o Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree The consequents of sinne are three 1 Shame 2 Paine 3 Curse All these Christ suffered on the crosse for us 1 Pain in his being nailed racked and pierced 2 Shame in being placed betweene two theeves and that naked on their solemne feast day on which there was a concourse of innumerable people at Hierusalem 3 The curse in hanging upon the tree being fastened thereto with nailes which is properly crucifixion or crucifying In summe to bee crucified is to bee put to a most painefull ignominious and accursed death first to bee stript starke naked stretched upon a gibbet or crosse there to have foure nayles driven into the most tender and sinewy parts of the body then to bee set up and exposed to open shame to bee a spectacle of misery to the world to Angels and to men and so to hang upon his owne wounds with continuall increase of torments till either extremity of famine hath exhausted the vitall spirits or extremity of paine hath rended and evaporated the substance of the heart into sighes and groanes All this the Sonne of God suffered for us and yet this is not all For wee must not thinke that Christs hands and feete were onely crucified which yet alone were fastened to the crosse his eyes were after a sort crucified when hee beheld the Disciple whom hee loved together with his deerest Mother weeping out her eyes under him his eares were crucified when he heard those blasphemous words others hee hath saved himselfe hee cannot save if hee be the Sonne of God let him come downe from the crosse his smell was crucified with the stench of Golgotha his taste with gall and vinegar and last of all and most of all his heart was crucified with foure considerations that entred deeper into his soule than the nayles and speare into his body These were 1 The obstinacy and impenitency of the Jewes 2 The utter destruction of Hierusalem and the Temple 3 The guilt of the sinnes of the whole world 4 The full wrath of his Father For Christ charged himselfe with the sinnes of all the Elect and therefore his Father layd a most heavie burden of punishment upon him so heavie that in bearing it he sweat blood so heavie that hee complaines in piteous manner p Mat. 26.38 my soule is heavy unto death yea and seemes to buckle under it crying out q Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee All this Christ suffered for us and yet this is not all for r Cyprian de patientia qui adoratur in coelis nondum vindicatur in terra hee that is adored in heaven is not yet fully revenged upon earth Revenged said I nay hee is still wronged hee continually suffereth in his members and after a sort in himselfe by the contemners of the Gospell mis-believers and scandalous livers Because the crosse is the trophee of Christs victory over sinne death and hell Satan hath a deadly spite at it and as hee hath done heretofore so hee doth at this day employ all his agents to demolish and deface it namely by 1 Jewes 2 Gentiles 3 Papists 4 Separatists or Non-conformitants all foure enemies to the crosse of Christ 1 The Jewes make it a stumbling blocke 2 The Gentiles a laughing stocke 3 The Papists an Idoll 4 The Separatists a scarre-crow 1 To the Jewes it is an offence 2 To the Gentiles foolishnesse 3 To the Papists superstition 4 To the Separatists and Precifians an abomination As it was the manner of the Spartanes in the worship of Diana to whip naughty boyes before her altars so I hold it an act of piety and charity to scourge these foure sorts of men before the crosse of Christ in my text and first the Jew who maketh a stumbling blocke of the crosse Use 1. cont Jud. O unbelieving Jew why dost thou stumble at that which is the chiefe stay of an humble and faithfull soule is it because the crosse of Christ casteth an aspersion of innocent blood spilt by thy ancestors Repent for their sinne and thine owne and by faith dippe thine hand in this his blood it hath this wonderfull vertue that it cleanseth even those hands that were imbrued in it He is quickned saith Saint Cyprian by the blood of Christ even who a little before spilt Christs blood Is it because thy glorious fancy of the temporall throne of thy so long expected Messiah cannot stand with the ignominious crosse of Christ reprove this thy folly and convince this thine errour out of the mouth of thine owne Prophets which have beene since the world began Ought not Å¿ Dan 9.26 Messiah to bee slayne after sixty two weekes ought not Christ to suffer such things and so to enter into his glory what is written of him and how readest thou in
thy noble Prophet of the royall race t Esa 53.8 5. He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgressions of my people was he stricken He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes wee are healed therefore was Barabbas acquitted and Jesus condemned to the scourge and the crosse Againe ver 12. hee powred his soule unto death and hee was numbred with the transgressors therefore Jesus was executed with two malefactors the one on the right hand the other on the left Againe hee bare the sinne of many and made intercession for the transgressors therefore Jesus when they crucified him said u Luk. 23.34 Father forgive them for they know not what they doe How readest thou in Moses law * Deut. 21.23 cursed is he that hangeth on a tree therefore Jesus who became a curse for us hung on the tree of the crosse Againe all things by the law are purged by sprinkling of blood with a bunch of Hyssope therefore Jesus blood was x Joh. 19.29 shed upon the crosse and a bunch of Hyssope there offered unto him How readest thou in the booke of Psalmes y Psal 22.21 they gave me gall to eate and when I was thirsty they gave mee vinegar to drinke therefore Jesus said on the crosse I thirst and they filled a spunge full of vinegar and put it on a reede and gave him to drinke Againe z Psal 22.18 they parted my garments among them saith David Christ his type and on my vesture did they cast lots therefore after Jesus * Mat. 27.35 gave up the Ghost the souldiers parted his garments and cast lots Christ was fastened to the wood of the crosse as a Gen. 22.9 Isaak was bound to the faggot Behold the type accomplished and the scripture fulfilled hee b Esa 53.10 made his soule an offering for sinne be not faithlesse but believe Christ was lift up c Num. 21.9 upon the crosse as the brazen serpent was set up upon a pole for a signe Behold the type accomplished and the scripture fulfilled d Zach. 12.10 they shall looke upon him whom they have pierced be not faithlesse but believe Christs flesh was torne bruised pierced and as it were broached on the crosse as the paschall Lambe yet without any bone broken Behold the type accomplished and the scripture fulfilled e Psal 22.16 they pierced my hands and feet and thou f Psal 34.20 keepest all my bones so that not one of them is broken Be not faithlesse but believe sith every circumstance of Christs passion is a substantiall proofe every indignity offered unto him is an Axiome every nayle and thorne a poignant argument every marke and scarre in his flesh a demonstration à signo and his extension on the crosse a declaration and ostension that hee is the true Messiah The Jew hath his payment I now take the Gentile to taske Vs 2 Contr. Graec. Gentiles who maketh a laughing stocke of the crosse O foolish Greeke why dost thou esteeme the doctrine of the crosse foolishnesse in which all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge are hid The Abderites tooke Democritus for a man besides himselfe but Hypocrates that great Physician made them know that they were out of their wits not the Philosopher The folly O Greeke is in thy judgment not in the doctrine of the crosse the shadow is in thine eye or the dust in thy spectacle and not in the object for hadst thou a single eye and a cleare spectacle thou mightst see the crosse beset with foure Jewels 1 Wisedome in the height and top 2 Humility in the depth and basis 3 Obedience on the right side 4 Patience on the left Thou mightest see by God his infinite wisedome light drawne out of darknesse and good out of evill and order out of confusion Thou mightest observe in it infinite justice and mercy reconciled thou mightest admire glory conquered by shame power overcome by weakenesse wisedome confounded by folly death killed by dying the grave destroyed by being buryed in it and hell by descending into it Yea but thy pride will not brooke to have any faith in a man crucified or to hope for salvation from him who could not save himselfe from the accursed tree Indeed if he had beene inforced thus to die if he had not laid downe his life of his owne accord and made his soule an offering for sinne thy objection had something in it considerable but sith he dyed by power and not of infirmity for though to dye simply be of infirmity yet so to dye to lay downe his life at his own pleasure and take it up again was of power sith being in the form of God he g Phil. 2.8 humbled himselfe to death even the death of the Crosse and in it triumphed over death hell and the Divell stop thy mouth for ever from blaspheming the crosse or rather open it to the everlasting praise of him that dyed on it whose misery if thou beleeve is thy happinesse his ignominy thy glory his death thy life his Crosse thy Crown Thou eternizest the memory of Codrus Curtius the Decii and D. Claudius for devoting and sacrificing themselves for their Country how canst thou then but much more love and honour yea and adore Jesus Christ who Codrus-like put on the habit of a common souldier or rather servant and dyed in the battaile to gaine us an everlasting victorie over all our enemies Curtius-like leapt into the Hiatus or gulfe of death and hell to save mankinde from it Decius and Claudius-like devovit se pro terrarum orbe gave himselfe up to death for the life of the whole world Use 3 And so I let the Greeke passe the Romanists turne is next who maketh an Idol of the Crosse Contra Papist O superstitious Papist why dost thou vow pilgrimages and creepe on all foure to the Crosse Why dost thou fall downe at it and often lash thy selfe before it Why dost thou kisse it and weepe upon it and make a woodden prayer to it saying Ave lignum spes unica all haile thou wood of the Crosse our onely hope Was the Crosse crucified for thee Did thy gilt crucifix die for thee Hast thou not heard how the Gentiles of old traduced the Christians quod h Minutius Fâ—elix 〈◊〉 Oâ—â— 12 10. Crucis erant religiosi that they religiously worshipped the Crosse and what answer the godly Fathers in those purest times returned unto them Cruces nec habemus nec optamus we neither have Crosses nor desire them Didst thou never heare what S. Helena the renowned mother of great Constantine did when she discovered the true Crosse to which our Lord was nailed by the inscription St. Ambrose telleth thee i Orat. de obit Theod. Invenit titulum Regem adoravit non utique lignum quia hic est
about it or if musicall termes sound sweeter in your eares here is 1 Planus cantus or the ground Christ 2 Discantus or the division is become the first fruits of them that slept The notes in the descant must answer those in the planus cantus so they doe here The first fruits to Christ Is become to is risen Them that slept to the dead The ditty hath three parts or sentences 1 The doctrine of resurrection is certaine for Christ is risen 2 The prerogative of Christ is singular is become the first fruits 3 The condition of the dead is happy they are them that slept and rest now from their labours Now seemeth here to have more of the Conjunction than of the Adverbe and to bee rather a particle of connexion than a note of time For Christ was not newly risen when Saint Paul wrote this Epistle but many yeeres before The proper and precise Now of Christs resurrection when hee might have beene said to bee now or new risen was the third day after his passion being the first day of the weeke Whence I observe the agreement of the time with the truth not in substance onely but in circumstance also The types were the Paschall Lambe and the first fruits Now as Christ our passover was slayne the very day in which the Paschall Lambe was to bee killed so hee being also the first fruits ver 23. rose againe the very day in which the first fruits were by the law to bee offered Saint r Bern serm in domin Pasch Bernard a little varieth the note yet maketh good harmony On the sixth day on which hee made man hee redeemed him the next day being the Jewish sabbath hee kept his sabbath rest in the grave the third day which was the first of the weeke-dayes he appeared The first fruits of them that slept Of which day I neede say no more to kindle your devotions and stirre up your religious affections than ſ Serm. de resur Maximus Taurinensis hath long ago in his meditations piously ejaculated A blessed day first discovering unto us the light not of this world but of the world to come farre happier than that day in which man first saw the light of the sunne For on that day man was made to travell on this day to rest on that day hee was sentenced to death on this day freed from feare of death on that day the sunne arose upon the just and unjust this day the sunne of righteousnesse rose onely upon the just illius diei splendor etiam sepulchra illuminat that day shined only upon the living this also upon the dead as it is written Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Christ u l. 4. divin instit Lactantius interpreteth the King Unctus nomen est imperii anointed is the name of soveraigne majesty Saint * Tract 2. in Johan Christus sacramenti nomen est quomodo si dicatur sacerdos Austine expoundeth it a Priest others a Prophet for Prophets were also anointed Saint Bernard alluding to this name maketh Christ a tender Chirurgian curing our wounds non ustione sed unctione not by lancing or searing but by anointing and plastering The Heathen in Tertullians time expounded it x Tertul in apologet bonum benignum good and bountifull ne sic quidem malè and not amisse saith hee if wee regard the sense and application of that attribute to our Saviour For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kinde and gracious and profitable to man because y Phil. 1.21 in life and death advantage but amisse if wee respect the derivation For Christ is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ungo and answereth to the Hebrew Messias of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to anoint and peculiarly it designeth the Sonne of God and Saviour of the world For albeit others were anointed besides Christ and called the Lords anointed yet Christ alone was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Christ 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In verity 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After a singular manner 1 In verity or truth for all Kings Priests that were anointed before him were but types of him and that in part how holy soever they were hee is the onely true Christ anointed and appointed by God to save lost man 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to excellency or after a singular manner he is the Christ 1 Others were anointed by men he immediatly by God z Psal 45.7 God even thy God hath anointed thee 2 They with a lesse measure of graces he with a greater incomparably greater with oyle of gladnesse above thy fellowes 3 They to beare one office or two at the most he to beare three Melchisedech was a King and a Priest but no Prophet Samuel a Prophet and a Priest but no King David a King and a Prophet but no Priest Christ was all three a Priestly King as Melchisedeck a Kingly Prophet as David and a Propheticall Priest as Samuel I conceive the Apostle here made choice of this name Christ above others because it best fitted his purpose and implyed some cause of his resurrection For as anointing or embalming dead corpses keeps them from putrefying so Christ by the divine unction was preserved from corrupting in the grave because there was no corruption in his soule his body could not corrupt or at least God would not suffer it as the Prophet speaketh * Psal 16.10 thou wilt not suffer thy holy One to see corruption Now if his body must not bee left nor corrupt in the grave because it was a Act. 2.24 impossible for him to be held with the sorrowes of death he must undoubtedly have risen againe as it followeth Is risen In the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 raysed viz. by the right hand of his Father elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee is risen of himselfe neither is there yet any contradiction For the Father and the Sonne are one in nature and consequently the power of the Father who is God is the power of the Sonne who is one God with him Id resurgit quod prius cecidit that is properly said to bee raised or rise againe which before fell and that is the body which is therefore called in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in latine cadaver a cado Christs resurrection then or resuscitation from the dead must bee the enliving his dead corps and lifting it up and bringing it up out of the darke sepulchre into the light which is a kinde of second birth and not unlike to his first For as that was his proceeding out of the Virgins wombe so this was out of a Virgin tombe the difference was onely in this as b Petrus Chrysolog serm pasch de resur ser 14. Chrysologus acutely hath observed the wombe
right string 't is worth your hearing Christus primus surrexit in incorruptione the rest before they were raised began at least to corrupt it is sayd of Lazarus expressely that he x Joh. 11.39 stanke but God suffered not his holy One to see corruption they rose in their naturall and corruptible bodies Christ in an incorruptible and as the Apostle calleth it a spirituall body ver 44. 2 That which Cornelius A lapide answereth is considerable that though Christ were not primus tempore the first that rose in time yet that he was primus in intentione Dei the first in Gods intention 3 Aquinas comes yet nearer the matter Christus primus sua virtute resurrexit Christ was the first that rose himselfe by his own power they before Christ were raysed by others If any thing be yet lacking S. Bernard and Beza will supply it alii suscitati sunt mortui sed iterum morituri other dead were raised but dyed againe like drowned men which rise up twice or thrice from under water but sinke againe to the bottome Christus simul resurrexit aeternam beatamque vitam recepit Christ at once rose and obtained an eternall and blessed life y Rom. 6.9 Christ being risen from the dead dieth no more death hath no more power over him Whereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may bee added that others rose as private men Christ as a publike person and the cause of all other mens rising either univocall as of all the Elect who rise as hee did to happy eternity or equivocall as of the reprobates who are raysed to eternall misery They who rose before Christ were either singular types of him or as common sheafes of the heape Christ was the first that ever rose in the nature and quality of the first fruits to sanctifie the whole harvest of the dead in him who are here called Them that slept z Aristot lib. de mirabil auscult Aristotle writeth of certaine serpents in Mesopotamia which doe great mischiefe to strangers but do no hurt at all to the inhabitants such is death it hath power to sting those that are strangers and aliens from the common-wealth of Israel it hurteth not at all the naturall Israelites which are fellow-citizens with the Saints of the houshold of faith Those which are without God in the world and without Christ though within the visible Church have cause to feare death because like the Phalangium in a Strab. l. 2. geog 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strabo it stings them to death in such sort that they dye either laughing or madde that is either making a jest of judgement and hell and the life to come or distracted in some fearefull fit of desparation And as Diogenes when hee felt himselfe falling into a slumber a little before his death said pleasantly * Eras apoph Diog. Frater me mox est traditurus fratri suo one brother is now delivering mee to the other hee meant sleep to death so it is most true of these scoffers at God and all religion dying impenitently that their temporall death delivers them over to eternall death the elder death to the younger but longer liver the first death to the b Ubi mors vivit finis incipit Greg. Morah in Job second but upon those who are in Christ and have part in the first resurrection the second death hath no power and in that regard the first death is not terrible unto them nay so farre is it from being terrible that even lying on their death-beds they insult both upon death and the grave with holy sarcasmes c 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Graec. liturg The immortall entred into a single combate with death on the crosse and gave death a death wound even by his death and now death is no more death to the godly but a sleep e Mat. 9.24 The damosell is not dead but asleepe our friend Lazarus is f Joh. 11.12 but asleepe Stephen though hee came to his end by a violent meanes yet it is said of him that g Act. 7.60 he fell asleep And I would not have you ignorant brethren saith S. Paul concerning them which are h 1 Thess 4.14 asleep and so in my text they who before were called the dead now after the mention of Christs resurrection are termed Them that slept Which words are not so to bee understood as if their soules slept with their bodies till the day of judgement That is a drowsie heresie out of which Calvin shaketh some in his time whom he calleth by the right name * Soule-all-night-sleepers Psychopamychistas but in three other respects 1 Because they rest from their toylesome labours as those that sleepe wee say are at their ease 2 Because they neither minde nor at all meddle with any affaires of this life either good or bad as those that are fast asleepe i Hom. Il. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the time neither thinke nor often so much as dreame of any thing in the world 3 Because they shall certainely be awaked by the shrill sound of the last Trumpet as those that sleepe at night are awaked againe in the morning by the Weytes your City musicke Do you believe all these things I know you do Why do you then take on in such grievous manner when your friends are taken away from you by corporall death Why doe you make their death-beds swimme with your teares non amisistis sed praemisistis you have not lost them but sent them to bed before you they are but asleepe they shall awake againe they are but as seede sowne in the earth they shall rise out of it againe Bern. in Cant. Occidit me Deus cum succidit Gervasium meum I know that where hearts have bin knit together they cannot be rent asunder without exceeding great pain and unexpressible griefe neither do I find fault with naturall affection much lesse condemne the Christian compassion of those who k Rom. 12.15 weepe with them that weepe It is for a Stoicke or rather a stocke to bee without all sympathy of others sorrow or sense of his owne losse l Cic. pro dom ad Pont. eam animi duritiam sicut corporis quod cum uritur non sentit stuporem potius quam virtutem puto Our Lord and Master reads us another lesson who himselfe m Joh. 11.35 wept for Lazarus and whosoever reades if yet for teares hee be able Davids lamentation for Jonathan Saint Ambroses for Satyrus Nyssens for Saint Basil Nazianzens for Gorgonia Augustines for Nebridius and Bernards for Gervasius will finde that the heat of love is contrary to all other For all other dryeth but this the greater it is in the heart the moister the eyes are Yet love must not exceede proportion nor teares measure n Hieron in epitaph Paulae grandis in
must all appeare before his tribunall which is so certaine a thing to come to passe that Saint y Apoc. 20.12 13. John in a vision saw it as present And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the bookes were opened and they were judged according to the things wrote in those bookes Now for the terrour of that day I tremble almost to rehearse how it is described in holy Scriptures by S. z Apoc. 20.11 John I saw a great white throne and him that sate on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and by Saint * 1 Pet. 4.17 Peter The time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God and if it begin there what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel and if the righteous shall scarce bee saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appeare It is hard to say whether the antecedents are more direfull or the concomitants more dolefull or the consequents more dreadfull The antecedents are formidable The a Mat. 24.29 Sunne shall be darkened and the Moone shall be turned into bloud and the starres shall fall from the skies and the powers of heaven shall bee shâ—â—â—â— b Luk. 21.25 26. In the earth shall be distresse of Nations and perplexity and the sea and tâ—â— waters shall roare and mens hearts shall faile them for feare and for looking after those things that are comming on the earth The concomitants are lamentable Behold he c Apoc. 1.7 commeth in the clouds and all eyes shall see him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him And yet the consequeâ—â— are more fearfull than either the antecedants or concomitants For the bookes of all mens consciences shall be spread abroad and every man shall answer for all the d Eccles 12.14 workes that he hath done nay for every e Mat. 12.36 word he hath spoken nay for every thought purpose and intent of the heart For when the Lord commeth he will bring to light the f 1 Cor. 4.5 hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart Having set up a faire light I will now take away some blockes and râ—â—â— that lye in the way of my discourse The first is that God executeth judgement in this world and therefore Salvianus hath written a booke Deâ—â—â—â—â— senti Dei judicio of Gods providence over his Church and present judgement Doth hee not open his treasures to the righteous and poure downe the vialls of his wrath upon the wicked in this life Doth not Saint Paul affirme that those that beleeve are g Rom. 5.1 justified already And Saint John that those that beleeve not are condemned h John 3.18 already What place then remaines for a future tryall Secondly immediately upon our death our soule is carried either by good Angels into Abrahams bosome or by evill into the dungeon of hell what then need they come to the generall assizes who have received their doome at the quarter sessions Thirdly if all mens consciences shall bee ripped up and all their secret sinnes be discovered in the face of the Sunne at the day of judgement that day cannot be but dreadfull to the most righteous man on earth yet Christ saith to his Disciples i Luke 21.28 When these things come to passe lift you up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh and they in this regard long for his second comming and pray continually Come Lord k Apoc. 22.20 Jesu come quickly The first rubbe is thus removed though Gods judgements overtake some yet not all in this life For the afflictions of the godly and the prosperity of the wicked were a great eye-sore to l Psal 73.12 David and m Jerem. 5.28 Jeremy Moreover God hath rewards both temporall and eternall the former he dispenceth in this life the later in that which is to come Hee that beleeveth is justified already before God and in the sense of his owne conscience for he hath peace with God And in like manner hee that beleeveth not is condemned already in Gods decree and hee hath received also the sentence of condemnation within himselfe as a fellon is hanged in the law and may know what his sentence shall be before it bee executed or pronounced against him This hindreth not but that the publike sentence shall passe upon both at the last day for eternall salvation or damnation The second is thus removed Immediately upon death every soule knoweth what shee is to trust to but this it not knowne to the world Besides the body must bee rewarded or punished as well as the soule therefore partly to cleare the justice of God in the sight of men and Angels partly to render to the body and soule that have been partners in evill and good their entire recompence after the private session at our death God hath appointed a publike assizes at the day of judgement The third rubbe is thus taken away The day of judgement is both terrible and comfortable to the godly terrible in the beginning comfortable in the end terrible in the accusation by Sathan comfortable in the defence by Christ our Advocate terrible in the examination but comfortable in the sentence Yea but their sores are laid open and they are fowle their debts are exhibited and they are very many their rents in their conscience are shewed and they are great It is true their sores are laid open but annointed with Balsamum their debts are exhibited but with a faire acquittance signed with Christs bloud their rents in their conscience are seene but mended and filled up with jewels of grace It is farre otherwise with the wicked their sores appeare without any salve their debts appeare but no acquittance their rent in their conscience appeareth and remaineth as wide as ever it was being never made up or mended by repentance therefore they cry n Apoc. 6.16 to the mountaines fall on us and to the hills cover us from the presence of the Lord and from the wrath of the Lambe This point of doctrine is not more evident in the proofe than profitable in the use which is threefold 1. To comfort the innocent 2. To terrifie the secure 3. To instruct all First to comfort the innocent For many that have walked sincerely before God have been censured for hypocrites many innocents have been falsly condemned many just men have suffered for righteousnesse sake and many faithfull Christians have been adjudged to mercilesse flames for their most holy profession To all these the day of judgement will bee the brightest day that ever shone on them For then their innocency shall break out as the light and their righteous dealing as the noone day then they shall have the hand of their false accusers and judge their Judges then they shall see him for whom they have stood all their life time and strived even to bloud Every losse they have sustained for his
his bloud f Ephes 2.14 For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken downe the middle wall of partition betweene us Through him we have an accesse by one Spirit unto the Father ver 18. Now therefore we are no more strangers and forreiners ver 19. but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God g Ephes 3.6 Fellow heires and of the same body and partakers of God his promise in Christ by the Gospell Now as there is one shepheard so but one sheepfold and for this very cause Christ is called Lapis angularis the corner stone because the Gentiles and Jewes like two sides of a wall joyne in him and are built up to make a holy Temple unto the Lord which is his visible Church Neither are the Gentiles onely admitted into the terrestriall Jerusalem and Church militant but also into the celestiall and Church triumphant For so we reade that after there h Apoc 7.4.9 were sealed an hundreth and fourty and foure thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel Loe a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lambe cloathed with white robes and palmes in their hands Before Christ came into the flesh there was as it were a small wicket open in heaven for the Gentiles at which some few entered one by one as Jethro and Job and Melchizedeck and the King of Nineveh and the Queene of the South and some other but since the death resurrection and ascension of our Lord wee reade of a i Apoc. 4.1 great doore opened in heaven at which great multitudes may enter together Even from the beginning of Christs comming into the flesh the Gentiles went in equipage with the Jewes For when the Angell preached the incarnation of Christ to the Jewes a new Starre preached it to the heathen Sages that all men might know according to Simeon his prophesie that k Luke 2.32 he was no lesse a light to lighten the Gentiles than the glory of his people Israel For this cause we may conceive it was that he was borne in an Inne not in a private house and baptized in the river Jordan not in a peculiar font and suffered without the walls of the City to make it manifest unto us that the benefit of his incarnation baptisme death and passion is not impropriated to any sort of people nor inclosed within the pale of Palestine but like the beames of the Sunne diffused through the whole world Thus farre we all teach universall grace that is the grace and favour of God offered unto all by the preaching of the Gospell not the grace they call sufficient conferred upon all since Adam's fall This secret belongeth unto God to whom he will make this offer of grace effectuall but that which he hath revealed belongeth to us and our children that l Tit. 2.11 12 13. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and wordly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ The m 2. Tim. 2.19 foundation of God remaineth firme having this seal God knoweth who are his not we We therefore who are dispensers of the mysteries of salvation must be open handed unto all and indifferently tender unto them the pretious pearle which the rich Merchant man sold all that he had to buy First because it is Christs expresse command that we should doe so Goe saith Christ preach to all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Or as we finde his words related by Saint Marke n Marke 16.15 Goe yee into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned 2 Next Because the Elect could not be called by us who cannot discerne them from the reprobate if we preached not the Gospell to all without exception Howsoever therefore our preaching to the reprobate doth them little good proving no better unto them than a savour of death unto death yet our labour is not in vaine in the Lord because in every assembly we may piously hope there may be some if not many of the Elect to whom the Word will prove a savour of life unto life 3. Lastly By thus propounding conditions of peace and a desire of reconciliation on Gods part through Christ unto all the reprobate are debarred of that excuse which otherwise they might use viz. that they would have embraced Christ if he had beene offered unto them and have walked in the light of the Gospel if it had shined upon them Tullie speaketh of a Panchrestum medicamentum a remedy for all diseases and Plinie of Panaches a salve for every sore Such a catholike medicine such an universall salve is the death and passion of Christ not only sufficient for all but also soveraigne and effectuall unto all but then this potion must be taken this salve must be applied Obser 2 And so I fall upon my second note that though the promises of the Gospel are generall without exception yet they are not absolute without condition The hidden Manna and the white stone and the new name are promised to every one that is so qualified The promises of the Gospel are generall that none should dispaire but yet conditionall that none should presume Eternall life by the ministery of the Gospel is offered unto all but upon condition of faith o John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have life everlasting Pardon and remission of sinnes is promised unto all but upon condition of repentance and new obedience p Ezek. 18.21.22 If the wicked will turne from all his sinnes that he hath committed and keepe all my statutes and doe that which is lawfull and right he shall surely live hee shall not die All his transgressions that he hath committed they shal not be mentioned unto him in his righteousnesse that he hath done he shall live Rest is offered unto all but upon condition of submission to Christs yoake q Mat. 11.29 Take my yoake upon you and learne of me for I am meeke and lowly in heart and you shall finde rest unto your soules Salvation is offered unto all but upon condition of r Mat. 13.13 perseverance he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved An incorruptible crowne is promised unto all but upon condition of faithfulnesse Be Å¿ Apoc. 2.10 thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the crowne of life Fishermen in their draw-nets use both lead and corke lead to pull downe some part of it under water corke to
the flames of fire are the conquerers c Pareus in Apoc Corporaliter victi sunt spiritualitèr vicerunt dum in verá Christi fide ad mortem us◠perstiterunt Paraeus expoundeth this riddle The servants of Christ who seale the truth with their blood are in their bodies mastered but in their soules undaunted and much more unconquered whilest notwithstanding all the tortures and torments which the malice of man or devill can put them to they persist in the profession of the true faith unto death For this is the d 1 Joh. 5.4 victory of the world even our faith In that famous battell at Leuctrum where the Thebans got a signall victory but their Captaine Epaminondas his deaths wound Plutarch writeth of him that he demanded whether his buckler had beene taken by the enemy and when hee understood that it was safe and that they had not laid hands on it hee died most willingly and cheerefully Such is the resolution of a valiant souldier of Christ Jesus when hee is wounded even unto death hee hath an eye to his shield of faith and finding that out of the enemies danger his soule marcheth out of this world singing Saint Pauls triumphant ditty e 2 Tim. 4.7.8 I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is layd up for me a crowne of righteousnesse To cleare the summe which I have beene all this while in casting Christian victory is a prerogative of the regenerate purchased unto them by Christs death and resurrection whereby in all conflicts and temptations they hold out to the end and in the end overcome on earth and after triumph in heaven First it is a prerogative of the regenerate for none but those that are f 1 Joh. 5.4 borne of God overcome the world Secondly this prerogative is purchased unto them by Christ and therefore the Apostle ascribeth the glory of it to his grace g 1 Cor. 15.57 Thankes bee unto God who giveth us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thirdly this victory is not in one kinde of fight but in all whether Satan the world or the Devill assault us whether they lay at our understanding by sophisticall arguments or at our will by sinfull perswasions or at our senses by unlawfull delights whether our profession bee oppugned by heresie or our unity by schisme or our zeale by worldly policy or our temperance by abundance or our confidence in God by wants or our constancy by persecution or our watchfulnesse by carnall security or our perseverance by continuall batteries of temptations in all wee are more than conquerours through him that loved us h Rom. 8.35.36.37 What or who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword as it is written For thy sake wee are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more than conquerours c. Obser 6 None can overcome who fighteth not valiantly none can fight valiantly unlesse they be trained up in Martiall affaires and provided of good and fit armour both for offence and defence this spirituall armour is got by instant and constant prayer and reading and meditating on Gods word and wee put it on by due application of what wee read and heare and wee use it by the exercise of those divine vertues above mentioned from whence the severall pieces of our armour take their names Moreover that a man may conquer his enemie three things are most requisite 1 Exasperation 2 Courage 3 Constancy Exasperation setteth him on Courage giveth him strength and Constancy holdeth out to the end Exasperation is necessary because anger as Aristotle teacheth is the goad or spurre of fortitude neither indeed can any man maintaine a hot fight in cold blood And this is the cause why wee are so often put to the worst in our spirituall conflicts because wee fight like her in the Poet Tanquam quae vincere nollet wee fight not in earnest against our corruptions but either in shew onely dallying or faintly without any earnest desire of revenge Saint i Aug. confess l. 8. c. 7. In exordio adolescentiae petieram chastitatem sed timebam ne me nimis citò audiret citò sanaret à morbo concupiscentiae quem malebam expleri quam extingui Austine before his thorough conversion prayed against fleshly lusts but as he confesseth with great anguish sorrow of heart for his insincerity so aukwardly against his will that secretly hee desired that his lust should rather be accomplished than extinguished As it was then with him so it is with too many that take upon them the profession of Christians and would thinke it foule scorne to bee taken for other than true converts When the voluptuous person offereth a formall prayer to God to extinguish the impure flame of lust rising out of the cindars of originall sinne Satan setteth before his fancy the picture of his beautifull Mistresse and as the Calor ambiens or outward heat in a body disposed to putrefaction draweth out the naturall heat so this impure heat of lust draweth out all the spirituall heat of devotion and so his faint prayer against sinne is turned into sinne In like manner while the covetous man prayeth against that base affection in his soule which ever desireth that wherewith it is never k Aristophan in Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sen. ep 15. Si quid in his esset solidi aliquando implerent nunc haurientium sitim concitant Horat. carm l. 2. od 2. Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops nec sitim pellit nisi causa morbi fugerit venis aquosus albocorpore languor satisfied Mammon representeth unto him the rising up of his heapes and swelling of his bagges by his use-mony whereby his heart is tickled and so his prayer also turneth into sinne Thus all sinners that are not brought to a perfect hatred and detestation of their bosome sinne even whilest they pray against the forbidden fruit hold it under their tongue and their carnall delights suffocate their godly sorrow Spirituall courage is most necessary that is confidence in God and in the power of his might This confidence is the immediate effect of a lively faith which S. John calleth l 1 Joh. 5 4. the victory of the world When Christ bad Peter come to him walking on the sea upon the rising of a storme Peters faith began to faile and no sooner his heart sanke in his body but his feete also sanke in the water even so when any storme of persecution ariseth for the word when wee see our selves encompassed on every side with dangers and terrours and our faith faileth wee presently sinke in despaire if Christ stretch not out his hand presently to support us and establish our heart in his promises 3 Thirdly constant perseverance is most needfull for though all vertues runne in
eternity yet I deny that this is any good description of time because every description ought to be per notius by something that is more known whereas eternity is farre more obscure than time it selfe all men have a common notion of the one few or none of the other Neither doe they give any better satisfaction who define time by duration For albeit there is a time of duration of every thing and a duration also of time it selfe yet duration is not time duration is the existence of any thing in time not the terme or time it selfe They define time most agreeable to the Scriptures who affirme it to be the continuall fluxe of moments minutes houres dayes weekes moneths yeeres ages from the creation of the world to the dissolution thereof after which the u Apoc. 10.6 Angel sware that time should be no more But I need to speake no more of time at this time because the word in my text is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 time but season or as it is here rendered The accepted time The season is that in time which light is in the aire lustre in metals the flower in plants creame in milke quintessence in hearbs the prime and best of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there being a threefold season 1. Naturall which Husbandmen observe in sowing Gardeners in planting and graffing Mariners in putting to Sea Chirurgians in letting bloud Physicians in purging c. 2. Civill of which the Poet speaketh Mollissima fandi tempora which all humble suppliants observe in preferring petitions to Princes and great Personages 3. Spirituall which all that have a care of their salvation must observe in seeking the Lord while he may be found The Apostle in this place pointeth to this third and his meaning is Behold now presse hard to get into the kingdome of heaven for now the gate is open now labour hard in Gods vineyard for now is the eleventh houre now put up your petitions to the Prince of peace for now is the day of audience now provide your selves of spirituall merchandize for now is the mart now cast your selves into the Bethesda of Christs bloud for now the Angel troubleth the water now get a generall pardon for all your sinnes under the broad seale of the King of heaven for now is a day of sealing When the King commeth saith St. x Chrys in hunc locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome there is no time for sessions or assises but for pardon and favour Behold now the King is come to visit his subjects upon earth and from his first comming to his last the day of grace continueth Behold now is this accepted time He calleth it an accepted time saith St. y Ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome because now God accepteth them to favour who a thousand times incurred his displeasure It is called in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a time of good will and favour as Calvin rendereth the words who biddeth us marke the order first a time of grace is promised and after a day of salvation to intimate unto us that salvation floweth from the meere grace and mercy of God We are active in sinne to our owne damnation but meere passive to the first grace we draw on damnation with the cart-ropes of vanity but God draweth us to salvation with the cords of love The speciall point of doctrine to which this ecce or index in my text pointeth is that we ought to take speciall notice of the time of grace beginning at the birth of our Saviour and ending to us at the day of our death and to all men that shall be upon the earth at the consummation of the world As the celestiall spheres are wrapt one in another and the greatest which the Philosophers terme the Primum mobile invelopeth all the rest so the parts of time are enclosed the lesser in the greater houres in dayes dayes in yeeres yeers in ages and ages in the time of the duration of the world To explicate then to the full the time of our Lords birth it will be requisite to treat 1 Of the age of the world 2 Of the yeere of the age 3 Of the day of the yeere in which the true z John 1.9 light that lighteneth every man that commeth into the world first shined on the earth 1 Of the age of the world The Jewes according to an ancient tradition received from the house of Elias make three ages of the world as it were so many stages of time 1 From the creation to the law 2 From the law to the Messias 3 From the comming of the Messias to the end of the world To each of these they allow two thousand yeeres counting thus 1 a Carion in Chron. Duo millia vacuum 2 Duo millia lex 3 Duo millia Messias post mundi deflagratio Saint y Aug. de civit Dei l. 22 c 30. Post hanc tan quam in die septimo requi escet Deus cum eundem septimum diem quod nos erimus in seipso faciet requiescere Austine doubleth these files and maketh reckoning of sixe ages 1 From Adam to the Deluge 2 From the Deluge to Abraham 3 From Abraham to Solomon 4 From Solomon to the captivity 5 From the captivity to Christs birth 6 From Christs birth to the day of judgement after which in the seventh we shall all keepe an eternall Sabbath in heaven By both which computations it appeareth that the birth of our Saviour fell late towards the declining and end of time as b Maxin Taur hom 6 de nativ In fine temporum natus est ille cujus aeternitatem nulla saeculorum tempora comprehendunt Maximus Taurinensis observeth Here the wit of man which like the Sea will still be working though oftentimes foaming out his owne shame curiously enquireth why the desire and joy of all mankind was so long delayed why he was so late born whose birth was of more importance than of all the Potentates Princes Kings Emperours and Monarchs of the whole world Was not Christ the bright morning starre how came it then to passe that he appeared not till the afternoone if not evening of the world Was not he the bridegroome whose * Marriage song Epithalamium Solomon by the spirit of prophesie endited in the booke of Canticles how could hee then heare his dearest Spouse breathe out so many sighes and shed such abundance of teares in so many ages still longing for his comming and crying c Cant. 1.1 Let him come into the flesh and kisse mee with the kisses of his lips Was not hee the good Samaritan which healed the wounded man after Moses the Levite and Aaron the Priest passing by left him as they found him and did him no ease at all how then could this tender hearted Chirurgian suffer wounded mankinde to lie so many ages weltring in his owne bloud and
finde here casually in my Text what I so long sought for similitudines auri golden resemblances to wit borders of gold with studs of silver For as e Sanctius in hunc locum Aurum ut ait Aquinas significat sensum spiritualem argentum eloqum nitorem illud suppedi tat Scriptura hoc ars concionatoris Aquinas teacheth us the gold mystically signifieth the Spirits meaning the studs of silver the Preachers art gold representeth the precious doctrine they delivered silver the perspicuity of their speech and bright lustre of their stile As for the number the Text saith borders in the plurall number and if Solomon continue his former comparison of a troupe of horses in Pharaohs charret in the precedent Verse which were foure after the custome of all Nations when they rode in state Ergo erit ille dies quo tu pulcherrime rerum quatuor in niveis aureus ibis equis the borders by consequence must needs be foure And herein the mysticall ornaments of the Spouse are corresponding to the typicall ornaments of her Husband As the f Exod. 28.17 breast of Aaron a type of Christ was adorned with foure rowes of precious stones so the necke and breast of Solomons Queen the Churches type is decked here with foure borders of gold See then here as it were the modell of my intended frame The friends of the Spouse who present her with foure borders of gold with studs of silver are the foure Preachers whose Sermons may be compared to the borders in my text in a fourefold respect 1 Of the number foure Borders foure Sermons 2 Of the order the Borders were set immediatly one under another the Sermons preached one after another 3 Of the matter the Borders were made of gold the Sermons consisted of Scripture doctrine like unto g Apoc. 3.18 gold tryed in the fire 4 Of the forme the Borders were enameled with silver or set out with spangles of that metall and in the Sermons Scripture doctrine was beautified with variety of humane learning and adorned with short sentences of ancient Fathers like O's spangles or studs of silver Pomiferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant Omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta Aurea perpetuâ semper dignissima vitâ THE FIRST BORDER OR THE PASSION SERMON The first presented the Spouse with a Border of gold with Studs of silver wrought upon the text Zech. 13.7 Awake O sword against my shepheard and against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of hostes smite the shepheard and the sheepe shall be scattered And thus he put it on ILlius Doctoris libentiùs audio vocem saith devout Bernard non qui sibi plausum sed qui mihi planctum movet The first Sermon preached on good Friday by master Warberton now Dean of Wels abridged Me thinkes whilest you are here assembled to celebrate the memorie of our Lords death I see a great concourse as it were to a funerall Sermon I shall therefore intreat you Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. to prepare rather your hearts to be wounded than your eares to be tickled and at this time to lay aside all expectation either of Art or Learning and yeeld your selves wholly to religious Passion It is the observation of St. Austine and Gregorie that the foure beasts mentioned by St. John mystically represent the foure maine acts of Christ a Apoc. 4.7 or workes of mans redemption His 1 Incarnation 2 Passion 3 Resurrection 4 Ascension For at his Incarnation he tooke our nature upon him and was found in shape as a Man In his passion as a Bullocke he was slaine for sacrifice In his resurrection he was a Lion In his ascension as an Eagle We here consider him as a Bullock sacrified upon the altar of the Crosse Which as it is the greatest mystery that ever was revealed to the world so the Pen-men of the holy Ghost have bin most laboriously employed to publish it in all ages figuring it in the Law foretelling it in the Prophesies of the Old Testament and representing it most lively in the history of the Gospell I have to doe with a Prophesie somewhat darke before the light of the Gospell shone upon it Awake O sword c. which words in the Prophet are a Prosopopaeia made by God or an Apostrophe to his sword to whet it selfe and be stirred up against a man of meane condition in the estimate of the world A shepheard yet in some relation to himselfe my shepheard of a strange composition and quality a man that is my fellow and it extendeth to the smiting of this shepheard and scattering his whole flocke The parts are two 1 The Speaker the Lord of hostes 2 The speech Wherein observe 1 Direction O sword 2 Matter Wherein 1 Incitation Wherein 1 The act Awake 2 The object described by 1 His office shepheard 2 Person which is my fellow 2 Commission Wherein 1 The act smite 2 The effect the sheep shal be scattered First we are to speake of the Speaker the Lord of hostes The Lord of hostes is a name of power and soundeth like a thunder his Generall is Death his great Captaines Plague Famine and the Sword his Arsenall the whole world and all creatures in heaven earth and hell his Souldiers ever ready pressed to fight his battailes Quantus Deus Dominus exercituum saith St. Bernard cui inservit universa creatura Onely rebellious man standeth out in such defiance to his Maker that the creatures which were ordained to be under his dominion are often awaked and summoned to be armed for his destruction Awake O sword As all the creatures are Gods souldiers so when hee imployeth them against man they are called his swords The wicked is said to be his h Psal 17.13 sword and the i 1 Chron. 21.27 pestilence also When the Lord is pleased to execute his wrath he never wanteth instruments or meanes he hath a sword for Saul and an oake for Absalom and a roape for Achitophel and a gibbet for Haman and a worme for Herod and thus for the generall The particular intent of the Spirit leadeth mee to another consideration viz. that of this great blow here threatned to the shepheard God himselfe is the Author Deus erat qui pastorem percuti jubebat saith Maldonat quod per alium facit ipse facit Yea but God never awaketh his sword to smite but for sinne and in this shepheard there was no sinne of his owne the sword therefore lies sleeping in the scabbard and must now bee summoned to awake Awake O sword Chereb gnuri To the act of mercy wee are all apt to importune God with clamours Up Lord but to the act of justice if we should provoke him who were able to stand before him To this he is enforced after a sort to provoke himselfe Wherein observe first his unwillingnesse to strike till he is provoked his sword sleepeth secondly his hast and resolution
tenants and that at the will of the Lord. Wee have but jus ad rem not dominion in rem a right onely of favour from the proprietarie and Lord in heaven and that liable to account Doe we not laugh at the Groome that is proud of his masters horse Or some vaine Whifler that is proud of a borrowed chaine So ridiculous are we to be puffed up with that whereof we must needs say with the poore man of the hatchet Alas master it is but borrowed Therefore if God have laden any of you with these earthly riches be you like unto the full eare of corne hang downe your heads in true humilitie towards the earth from which we came Hitherto of the high-mindednesse that followes wealth now where our pride is there will be our confidence which is forbidden in the next place And trust not in uncertain riches To trust in riches is to set our heart on them to place our joy and contentment in them in a word to make them our best friend our patron our idoll our God This the true and jealous God will not abide and yet nothing is more ordinarie The rich mans wealth is his strong Citie saith Solomon and where should a man thinke himselfe safe but in his fort Silver answereth to all saith Solomon that we grant although we would be loath it should answer to truth to justice to judgement but yet mammon vants to conquer all according to the old Greeke verse fight with silverlances and you cannot faile of victorie to pacifie all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a gift in the bosome appeases wrath to procure all secular offices titles and dignities I would I might not say claves altaria Christum And let me tell you indeed what mammon can doe He can unbarre the gates of hell to the unconscionable soule and helpe his followers to damnation this he can doe but for other things howsoever with us men the foolish silver-smithes may shout out Great is mammon of the worldlings yet if wee weigh his power aright we shall conclude of mammon as Paracelsus doth of the Divell that he is a base and beggarly Spirit For what I beseech you can he doe Can he make a man honest or wise or healthy Can he give a man to live more merrily feed more heartily sleepe more quietly Can he buy off the gout cares death much lesse the paines of another world a Pro. 11.4 Riches availe not in the day of wrath if we leane upon this reed it shall breake and runne into our hands He that trusteth in riches shall fall Prov. 11.28 Take heed therefore as you love your soules how you bestow your trust upon riches you may use them and serve your selves of them yea yee may enjoy them in a Christian moderation God will allow it That praise which the Jesuits Colledge in Granado gives of their Sanchez that though he lived where they had a very sweet garden yet he was never seene to touch a flower and that he would rather die than eat salt or pepper or ought that might give rellish to his meat like to that of some other Monkes that they would not see the Sunne nor shift their clothes nor cleanse their teeth carries in it more superstition and slaverie than wit or grace Wherefore hath God made these creatures but for use This niggardlinesse is injurious to the bounty of their Maker We may use them we may not trust in them we may serve our selves of them we may not serve them we may enjoy them we may not over joy in them We must be so affected to our goods as Theodorick the good King of Aquitaine was with his play in bonis jactibus tacet in malis ridet in neutris irascitur in utrisque philosophatur But if we will be making our wealth a rivall unto God the jealousie of God shall burne like fire against us Now as the disdainefull rivall will be sure to cast reproaches upon his base competitor so doth God upon riches hee calleth them uncertaine yea uncertaintie it selfe Trust not in Uncertaine riches Were our wealth tied to our life it were uncertaine enough for what is that but a flower a vapour a tale a shadow a dreame of a shadow a thought a nothing Yet our riches are more uncertaine than life it selfe our life flies hastily away but many times our riches have longer wings and out flie it It was a wittie observation of Basil in Psal 61. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that wealth rowles along by a man like as a headie streame glides by the bankes time will molder away the very banke it washeth but the current stayes not for that but speeds from one elbow of earth to another so doth wealth even whilest we stay it is gone Our life is as the tree our wealth is as the leaves or fruit the tree stands still when the leaves are fallen Yea many one is like the Pine tree which they say if his barke be pulled off lasteth long else it rots If therefore life and wealth strive together whether is more uncertaine wealth will sure carry it away Job was yesterday the richest man in the East to day he is so needy that he is gone into a Proverbe As poore as Job Belisarius the great and famous Commander to whom Rome owed her life twice at least came to date obolum Belisario give one halfe penny to Belisarius O miserable uncertainty of this earthly pelfe that stands upon so many hazzards yea that falls under them who would trust it who can dote upon it what madnesse is it in those men which as Menot sayes like unto hunters that kill an horse of price in the pursuit of an hare worth nothing endanger yea cast away their soules upon this worthlesse and fickle trash Glasses are pleasing vessels yet because of their brittlenesse who esteemes them precious nor flowers though beautifull because they are fading No wise man bestowes much cost in painting mud walls what meane we my beloved to spend our lives and hearts upon these perishing treasures It was a wise meditation of Nazianzen to his Asterius that good is to no purpose if it continue not yea there is no pleasant thing in the world saith he that hath so much joy in the welcome as it hath sorrow in the farewell Looke therefore upon these heapes O yee wise hearted Citizens with carelesse eyes as those things whose parting is certaine whose stay is uncertaine and say with the worthie Father By all my wealth and glory and greatnesse this alone have I gained that I had something to which I might preferre my Saviour with whose words I conclude this point Lay not up for your selves treasures on earth where moth and rust doe corrupt and theeves breake thorow and steale but lay up for your selves treasure in heaven But trust in God Man cannot be without a stay and therefore the same breath that withdrawes one refuge from us substitutes a better
have delivered up those blasphemous Heretickes into the hands of the Magistrate who beareth not the sword of justice in vaine 9 Ninthly if these pious resolutions of the ancient Fathers and noble acts of religious Princes serve not as matches to kindle the zeale of godly Magistrates against the enemies of our Religion the heathen shall one day rise up against them the ancient Romans who had this law written among the rest l Leg. 12. tab Deos privatos nemo habeat Let no man have a private Religion to himselfe the Athenians who banished Protagoras for that atheisticall speech of his de diis Sintne an non sint nil habeo dicere I can say nothing concerning the gods whether there are any or not and put Socrates to death m Plato in apolog Socr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he made question of the truth of that Religion which the State professed In a word all nations of the world shall condemn them of whom n Seneca sent Violatarum religionum apud diversas gentes diversa statuitur poena apud omnes aliquo Seneca writeth truly that for the profaning violating or corrupting the worship of God there are divers punishments appointed in divers places but in all Countries some or other And not without cause for if it be a scandall to a State to suffer theeves murtherers to go unpunished are Hereticks to be set free who rob men of that pearle of truth which the rich merchant man sold all that he had to buy who are guilty of spirituall homicide wherewith St. o Tract 11. in Johan Videtis qualia faciant quâ—lia patiuntur occidunt animas affliguntur in corpore sempiternas mortes faciunt temporales se perpeti conqueruntur Austine directly chargeth them You see what these miscreants doe and what they suffer and have they thinke you any just cause to complaine of the punishments that are inflicted on them They kill the soules of men and smart for it in their bodies by their damnable doctrine they bring men to eternall death and yet grudge that they suffer a temporall Doe not all wise men account Religion to bee the foundation which beareth up the whole frame and fabricke of State And is it possible a building should stand upon two foundations Religion is the soule which animateth the great body of the Common-wealth and will it not prove a monster if it be informed with divers soules The Church and Common-wealth have but one centre any new motion therefore in the one must needs make a commotion in the other In which regard Mecoenas advised Augustus to punish severely all Innovators in matter of Religion p Non solum deorum causâ sed quia nova quaedam numina hi tales inducentes multos impellunt ad rerum mutationem not only out of a regard of pietie but also for reason of State What mutinies what heart-burnings what jealousies what bloudy frayes and massacres may there be feared where Religion setteth an edge upon discontent And all that dye in these quarrels pretend to the Crowne of Martyrdome I forbeare multiplicity of examples in this kind our neighbour Countries have bin for many yeeres the stages whereon these tragedies for Religion have been acted and God alone knowes what the catastrophe will be There was never so great mischiefe done at Rome by fire as when it took the Temple of Vesta and mingled it selfe with the sacred flame q Ovi fast l. 6. Ardebant sancti sceleratis ignibus ignes Et mista est flammae flamma prophana piae Even so if the wild-fire of contention mixe it selfe with the sacred fire of zeale and both burne within the bowels of the same Church it is not a river of bloud that is like to quench the direfull flame Therefore r Ep. 166. Julianus reddidit Basilicas haereticis quando templa Demonus eo modo putans Christianum nomen posse petire de teâ—â—â—s si unitati Ecclesiae de qua lapsus fuerat invideret sacrilegâ—s diâ—â—â—nsiones liberas esse pâ—rmitteret Julian the Apostata as S. Austine reports having a desire to set all Christendome in a combustion cast a fire-ball of contention among them by proclaiming liberty to all Heretickes and Schismatickes to set abroach their damnable doctrines hoping thereby utterly to extinguish the name of Christians But to come neere to our Adversaries and turne their owne ordnance upon them Did Queene Mary in her short reigne exempt the servants of God of any age or sexe from the mercilesse flames of the fire Doe not Bellarmine Allan Parsons Pammelius Maldonat and generally all Jesuits set their wits upon the rack and stretch and torture them to maintaine the rackes and tortures of Popish Inquisition Of what hard metall then are their foreheads made who dare supplicate for a toleration in a Protestant state able to suppresse them Why should they not be contented with their owne measure though all the world knoweth the sweet benignity and clemency of our gracious Soveraign abates them more than the halfe Here me thinkes I heare the soules of the slaine under the Altar cry How long Lord holy just dost not thou revenge the bloud of thy servants spilt as water upon the ground by the Whore of Babylon which to this day out-braveth thy Spouse having dyed her garments scarlet red in the goare of thy Saints and Martyrs of thy Son Jesus Christ Righteous Lord wee have been made a spectacle of misery to Angels and men wee have been killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter wee have been spoiled of all our goods banished our native soile we have been hewen asunder wee have been slaine with a sword we have been whipt scourged cast into dungeons with serpents burnt at a stake to ashes some of us digg'd out of our graves and martyred after our death and she that hath thus cruelly butchered thy servants sits as Queene arrayed in purple and scarlet and fine linnen and carouseth healths to the Kings and Princes of the earth in a cup of gold and after shee hath made them drunke with the wine of her abominations she committeth spirituall filthinesse with them in the face of the Sun Cupio me patres conscripti clementem non dissolutum videri saith the wise Oratour I wish that mercy to which all vertues as Seneca observeth willingly give the place and yeeld the garland may be still the prime gemme in our Soveraignes Crowne I plead for mercy which must be our best plea at Christs Tribunall but I desire it to bee well thought upon whether it be mercy or not rather cruelty to spare those who spare not your sonnes and daughters but daily entice them and by their agents conveigh them over beyond the Sea to sacrifice not their bodies but their soules their faith their religion to the Moloch of Rome * Plin. nat hist l. 8 c. 22. Arcades scribunt ex
knowing it to be the faith and patience of the Saints Fiducia Christianorum resurrectio mortuorum saith Tertullian If our hope were in this life onely wee were of all men most miserable saith Saint Paul And the rather doth the Spirit ascertaine this doctrine because it hath many enemies Atheists Libertines and sundry sorts of Heretickes besides The Atheist thinketh there is no resurrection because hee seeth no reason for it to whom though it were sufficient to answer with Gregory Fides non habet meritum ubi ratio humana praebet experimentum and with Saint Ambrose Credimus piscatoribus non dialecticis yet to reason a little with these unreasonable men in the words of Saint Paul Acts 26.8 Why seemeth it incredible unto you that Christ should raise the dead Is it not as easie to restore life as to give it at the first to raise man out of ashes as to create him at first out of the dust Considera autorem tolle dubitationem saith Saint Austine The Libertine would have no resurrection that hee might still enjoy the pleasures of sinne and sacrifice to his belly but for him there is first a Text of counsell 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to live righteously and if that will not serve a Text of judgement Phil. 3.19 Whose end is damnation whose god is their belly Of Heretickes that professedly oppugned the doctrine of the resurrection some taught that there is no resurrection at all as the Saduces some that the resurrection was already past as Hymineus and Philetus Satan is a subtle Serpent and turneth divers wayes to get in his head Before Christs death hee worked powerfully in the children of disobedience in Judas to betray him in the Pharisees to accuse him in Pilate to condemne him but after knowing that the time was come that the Prince of the world was to bee cast out by the death of Christ hee was much troubled and laboured by all meanes to hinder Christs Passion Utinam ne in nemore Pelio hee wisheth there were no wood in all the world to make a Crosse of hee workes remorse in Judas giveth him a halter to hang himselfe hee employes Pilates wife to send to her husband to have nothing to doe with him When hee was fast nailed to the Crosse hee setteth the Jewes upon him to see whether they could perswade him to descend from thence After this hee spreads abroad a rumour that Simon Cyreneus was crucified for him or if hee were crucified that it was but in appearance onely and that hee was falsâ pendens in cruce Laureolus and when his resurrection was so palpable that it needed no other argument than the amazement of the watch and Pilates letter to the Emperour hee suborned a desperate rout to sweare that his Disciples stole him away by night After all this hee stirred up certaine Heretickes who taught that albeit Christ were indeed risen yet that wee were not to expect any future resurrection because the resurrection was past already But all these shall find that there is a resurrection for them to wit Resurrectio ad condemnationem John 5.29 Use 1 Is it so that Christ our head is risen then shall wee his members rise also For hee is primogenitus mortuorum primitiae dormientium the first fruits are carried already into the celestiall barne and the whole crop shall follow And this may bee a staffe of comfort to all drouping and fainting soules ut tali exemplo animati sub ictu passionis as Cyprian speaketh non retrahant pedem that they draw not backe but courageously goe on forward to make a good profession as being secure Christi milites non perimi sed coronari bonam mortem esse quae vitam non perimit sed adimit ad tempus restituendam in tempore duraturam sine tempore This was Jobs comfort I know my Redeemer liveth and of other distressed ones who would not bee delivered that they might bee partakers of a better resurrection An ancient father giveth these words for a Christians Motto Fero taceo spero Fero meam crucem ut ille suam taceo quia tu Domine fecisti spero quia utique fructus erit justo Use 2 Is Christ risen from the dead then wee that are his are risen with him at least in the first resurrection if therefore yee are risen with Christ seeke the things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of his Father This indeed ought to bee so but wee finde it otherwise never more preaching of the resurrection and never lesse fruit For all seeke their owne and none the things that are Jesus Christs So that Bernards observation fitteth our time Vides omnem Ecclesiasticum zelum fervere pro solâ dignitate tuendâ honori totum datur sanctitati nihil and againe all men learned and unlearned presse to Ecclesiasticall cures Tanquam sine curis quique victuri sint cùm ad curas pervenerint The Apostle telleth us Qui Episcopatum desiderat bonum opus desiderat non dignitatem saith Saint Jerome sed laborem non delicias sed solicitudinem non crescere fastidiis sed decrescere humilitate Nay not onely opus but onus also in Saint Bernards judgement though perhaps some Atlas's may thinke they never have load enough But are the Laity more excusable who buy and sell the poore for shooes and gay apparrell and strong drinke to whom mee thinkes I heare the poore cry Et vos vanitate peritis nos spoliis perimitis How many are there of them who ingrosse the Lords portion and bestow hallowed things upon worse than vanity Wee have a saying against them also out of the same Saint Bernard De patrimonio crucis Christi non facitis codices in Ecclesiâ sed pascitis pellices in thalamis adornatis equos phalerantes pectora capita deaurantes Is this our resurrection from sinne Saint Paul giveth this lesson with a memento Remember saith hee O Timothy that Christ is raised from the dead It is a truth as stable as the poles of Heaven that wee shall have no part of the second resurrection to the life of glory if wee have not a good part in the first to the life of grace And I have the keyes of Death and of Hell They are well called keyes of Hell because there are Inferorum portae mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of Saint Matthew Matth. 16.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are many opinions about these keyes some will have them to bee two Clavis cognitionis and Clavis authoritatis but Allensis and the Schoolemen denie knowledge to bee a key except in an improper speech Quia requiritur ad usum clavis and they doe well to denie it for what key of knowledge had that Priest of whom the Master of the Sentences maketh mention who baptized in nomine Patria Filia Spiritua sancta Bonaventure ingenuously confesseth Quidam in Ecclesiâ habent clavem quidam claviculam quidam nullam
Court of justice in which the lesser flyes are strangled but the greater easily breake through them And bee the lawes of any Commonwealth or Kingdome never so exact yet Seneca his observation will bee true Angusta est justitia ad legem justum esse it is but narrow and scanty justice which extendeth no further than mans law A man may be ill enough and yet keepe out of the danger of the lawes of men which are many wayes imperfect and defective but the law of God is no way subject to this imputation it is perfect and as the Prophet David speaketh c Psal 119.96 exceeding broad it reacheth to all the actions words and imaginations of all the sonnes of Adam not a by syllable can passe not a thought stray not a desire swerve from the right way but it falleth within the danger and is lyable to the penalties annexed to it which are most certaine and most grievous 1 Externall in the world 2 Internall in the conscience 3 Eternall in hell The arguments that are hence drawne to deterre men from sinne and wickednesse are of a stronger metall and have another manner of edge than reason can set upon them d Heb. 4 12. For the word of God is quick and powerfull sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The Hyperbolicall commendation which the e Cic. de orat l. 1. Fremant licet omnes dicam quod sentio bibliothecas omnes Philosophorum unus mihi videtur duodecim tabularum libellus si quis legum fontes capita viderit autoritatis pondere utilitatis ubertate superare Orator giveth of the Romane lawes published in twelve Tables of right belongeth to this member of the Apostles exhortation it hath more weight of reason and forcible arguments of perswasion to holinesse of life and detestation of vice in it than all the discourses of morall Philosophers extant in the world Hence we learn that their losses who trade with Satan are inestimable and irrecoverable that wicked and ungodly courses and means to gain thrive by not onely deprive us of the comfortable fruition of all earthly but also of the possession of all heavenly blessings that even small offences when they come to light are sufficient to cover the sinner with shame and confusion that all the filthinesse that lyeth in the skirts of the soule shall be discovered in the face of the sun before men Angels that not only outward acts but inward motions and intentions not only loud crying sins but also still and quiet that lye asleep as it were in the lap of our conscience not only hainous crimes and transgressions of an high nature but also those seeming good actions that have any secret filthinesse or staine in them if it bee not washed away with the teares of our repentance and blood of our Redeemer shall bee brought into judgement against us and wee for them condemned to death both of body and soule in hell No tragicall vociferation nor the howling and shricking of damned ghosts can sufficiently expresse the horrour and torments of that endlesse death which is the end of sinne What sinne hath proved for the time past yee have heard wee are at this present to consider what it is for the present it hath beene unfruitfull what fruit had yee it is shamefull whereof ye are now ashamed Shame is defined by f L. 2. Rhet. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle Agriefe and trouble of minde arising from such evils as seeme to tend to our infamy and disgrace somewhat more fully it may bee described A checke of conscience condemning us for some intention speech or action whereby wee have defiled our conscience before God or stained our credits before men This affection is in all men even in those that are shamelesse and impudent who are not so called because they are without this irkesome passion but because they shew no signe thereof in their countenance nor effects in their lives As impossible it is that in the conscience of a sinner g Rom. 2.15 thoughts should not arise accusing him as that there should bee a fire kindled and no sparks flye up To pollute the conscience with foule sin and not to be ashamed is all one as to prick the tenderest part of the body and to feele no paine h Suet. in Tib. Tiberius who let loose the raines to all licentiousnesse yet when hee gave himselfe to his impure pleasures caused all the pictures to bee removed out of the roome and Alexander Phereus that cruell tyrant when hee beheld a bloody Tragedy in the Theater and therein the ugly and monstrous image of his barbarous cruelty drawne to the life was so confounded therewith that hee could no longer dissemble his terrour of minde nor expect the end of that dismall Scene Now how deepe an impression shame and infamy make in the soule wee may perceive by those who preferred death before it i Xen. l. 7. Cyr. Paed. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Panthea solemnly wished that shee might bee buried alive rather than constrained to staine her blood and good name by keeping company with any how great soever hee were contrary to her vow to her dearest Abradatus And k Ovid. Epist Phillis Demophoonti Phillis having lost her honour voweth to make amends for it by her voluntary death Stat necis electu tenerum pensare pudorem Which Lucretia also practised flying out of the world to shun the shame thereof and spilling her blood which the tyrant had a little before stayned and Europa thought one death too light a revenge for wronged chastity Levis una mors est Virginum culpae If shame and infamy were not the sharpest corrasives to a guilty conscience the Prophet David would not so oft use these and the like imprecations against the enemies of God Let them be confounded and perish that are l Psal 71.11 83.17 against my soule and let them bee counfounded and vexed evermore let them bee put to shame and perish let mine adversaries bee clothed with shame and let them cover themselves with their owne confusion as with a cloake Yea but if shame and confusion are the very gall and wormewood of Gods vengeance against the wicked most bitter to the taste of the soule what construction are wee to make of those words of the Prophet m Ezek. 36.32 O yee house of Israel bee ashamed and confounded for your owne wayes doth the Prophet here give them counsell to pull down Gods vengeance upon themselves Nothing lesse To cleare this point therefore wee must distinguish of shame which is taken 1 Sometimes for a vertuous habit and disposition of the minde consisting in a mediocrity betweene two extremes impudency in the defect reproved in the Jewes by the Prophet n Jer. 8.12
serious lesson of the vanity of earthly delights worldly comforts we reade in many Texts of Scriptures heare in divers Sermons see in daily spectacles of men troubled in mind at their death yet we never thoroughly apprehend it till Gods rod hath imprinted it in our bodies and soules then finding by our wofull experience that earthly felicity is nothing but misery masked in gaudy shewes and that all the wealth of the world together with all carnall delights cannot ease a burthened conscience nor abate any whit of our paine we begin to distaste them all we grow out of love with this life and entertaine death in our most serious thoughts Here the eye of faith enlightened by divine revelation seeth beyond death the celestiall Paradise in it a chrystall ſ Apoc. 22.1 2. river of the water of life by it a tree of life which beares twelve sorts of fruits and besides these a heavenly City shining with t Apoc. 21.18 19. streets of gold and foundations of pearle and precious stones the sight wherof leaveth an unspeakable delight in the soule which sweetneth all temporall afflictions and stirreth up in us an unspeakable desire of those solid comforts and substantiall joyes u Ramus in orat Heliogabalus was wont to set before his parasites a banquet painted on cloth or carved in wood or cut in stone and whatsoever hee fed upon in truth they had drawne before them in pictures and images such are the joyes and delights which the Divell the World presenteth unto us false shadowie vaine The true are to be found no where but in heaven where those joyes are in substance which we have here but in shadowes x Aug. confes l. 2. c. 5. Fornicatur anima quae avertitur abs te quaerit extra te ea quae pura liquida non invenit nisi cùm redit ad te pure which we have here polluted full which we have here empty sincere which wee have here mixt perpetually flourishing which we have here continually fading to these substantiall full pure sincere everlasting joyes God bring us for his Son Jesus Christ his sake Cui c. THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN THE XLVII SERMON APOC. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. THat which Pliny writeth and experience confirmeth concerning hony-combes that the thinner and weaker hony runs out of them at the first but the thickest and best is pressed squeezed out of them at the last we find for the most part in handling Texts of holy Scripture compared by the Prophet a Psal 19.10 David to hony-combs the easier more vulgar observations flow out of them upon the lightest touch but we are to presse each phrase and circumstance before we can get out the thickest hony the choicest and most usefull doctrines of inspired wisedome The more we sucke these combes the more we may the hony proveth the sweeter the combe the moister and which is nothing lesse to be admired the spirituall taste is no way cloyed therewith Wherefore with your good liking and approbation I will presse again and againe these mellifluous combes in our Saviours lips dropping celestiall doctrine sweeter than hony to delight the most distempered taste and sharper than it to cleanse the most putrefied sore I rebuke and chasten there is the sharpnesse and as it were the searching vertue of hony As many as I love there is the sweetnesse Parallel Texts of Scripture like glasses set one against another cast a mutuall light such is this Text and that Deut. 8.5 Thou shalt also consider in thy heart that as a man chasteneth his sonne so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee and Job 5.17 Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty and Prov. 3.11 12. My sonne despise not the chastening of the Lord neither bee weary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a father doth the sonne in whom he delighteth and Hebr. 12.7 If yee endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sonnes for what sonne is he whom the father chasteneth not As a Musician often toucheth upon the sweetest note in his song Paven or Galliard so doth the holy Spirit upon this and therefore we ought more especially to listen to it For 1. It convinceth the Papists who over-value crosses and afflictions accounting the bearing of them satisfactions for sinnes For with a like pride whereby they cry up their actions to be meritorious they would improve their passions to be workes satisfactory by satisfactory intending such as make amends unto the justice of God wherein they as much over-reach as they supererogate or rather superarrogate in the former Satisfactions to our brethren for wrongs done unto them by restitution mulct or acknowledgement of our fault with asking forgivenesse for it we both teach and practise but they shall never be able to satisfie us in this point that any thing they can doe or suffer can satisfie God Neither can our actions satisfie his law nor our penall sufferings his justice none can satisfie for sinne but he that was without sinne nothing can recompence an infinite transgression but an infinite submission or to speake more properly the submission and passion of him that was infinite It cost more to redeem sinnes than the world is worth and therefore they must let that alone for him who f Esay 63.3 trod the wine-presse alone Before I noted the difference between chastisement and punishment in the one a compensation of wrong done to the person or law is intended in the other a testifying of love and a care of amendment of the party chastened Who would ever be so unreasonable as to thinke that a few stripes given by a tender-hearted father to the childe whom he most dearly affecteth were a satisfaction for the losse of a Diamond of great price yet our sufferings hold not such a proportion For what are our finite and momentary sufferings to the offence given to an infinite Majesty Nothing can be set in the other scale against it to weigh it downe but the manifold sufferings of an equall and infinite person the eternall Sonne of God Neither will it help our adversaries any whit to say that Christ satisfied for the eternall but not for the temporall punishment of our sinnes For this is all one as to say that our Redeemer laid downe a talent of gold for us yet not a brasse token or payd many millions of pounds yet not a piece The Apostle said hee gave himselfe a g 1 Tim. 2.6 ransome for all will they deny it to be a sufficient one or was there any defect in his good intention They have not rubbed their foreheads so hard as to affirme any such thing Well then let them tell us how that man is perfectly ransomed by another who is still kept in prison till he have discharged part of his ransome himselfe This very conceit that they merit by
them What Christ speaketh of riches may be said of the rest If honours if promotions if all sorts of worldly comforts abound to us let us not set our hearts on them let us neither accept the greatest preferments with his curse nor repine at the greatest afflictions with his love As Fabritius told Pyrrhus who one day tempted him with gold and the next day sought to terrefie him with an Elephant which before he had never seen Yesterday I was no whit moved with your gold nor to day with your beast So let neither abundance transport us nor wants dismay us neither prosperity exalt us nor adversity deject us but both incite us to blesse God In prosperity to praise his bounty and in adversity his justice and in both his provident care over us And the Lord of his infinite mercy informe us by his Word of the true estimate of the things of this life that we neither over-value earthly blessings nor under-value crosses and afflictions that we be neither lifted up with the one nor depressed with the other but alwayes even ballanced with his love And because the bitter cup of trembling cannot passe but first or last we must all drinke it let us beseech him to sweeten it unto us and strengthen us with cordialls of comfort that we faint not under his rod but endure with patience what he inflicteth in love and overcome with courage what he suffered for love that following his obedience and bearing his crosse we may enter his Kingdome and weare his Crowne Cui c. THE LOT OF THE GODLY THE XLVIII SERMON APOC. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. I Have discovered unto you in the opening of this Text foure springs of the rivers of Paradise for the comfort and refreshing of all that are heavie laden and wearied in their travell to the celestiall Canaan and often scorched with the heat of heart-burning sorrowes and griefe The first arising from the authour of afflictions The second from the nature of afflictions The third from the subject of afflictions The fourth from the end of afflictions 1. God sendeth afflictions I. 2. Afflictions are chastenings chasten 3. Chastenings are the lot of all his children as many 4. All his children thus chastened are beloved as I love 1. God hath a hand in the scourging his children I. Let us therefore 1. Submit under his mighty hand in patience 2. Lay our hand on our mouth in silence 3. Lift up our hands to him and in prayer turne to him that smiteth us 2. All our sufferings are chastenings of our heavenly Father for our amendment Let us therefore 1. Be instructed by them 2. Take comfort in them 3. Be thankfull for them 3. Chastenings are the lot of all Gods children therefore let 1. None repine at them 2. All looke and prepare for them 4. God striketh his children not in anger but in love therefore let us 1. Seeke to be of the number of his children 2. Embrace his love 3. In like manner chasten those whom we love The water of the two former springs we have tasted heretofore let us now draw out of the third which is so great and spacious that all Gods children may bathe in it together As many God scourgeth every sonne whom he receiveth not exempting his best beloved and only begotten Sonne For the * Esay 53.5 chastisement of our peace was laid upon him he was chastened for our sinnes but wee for our amendment In every part of Gods floore there is some chaffe affliction is the fanne to cleanse it in all the gold of the Sanctuary there is some drosse affliction is the fire that purgeth it in all the branches of the true Vine there are some superfluous stems affliction is the pruning knife to cut them off in all the members of the mysticall body there are some peccant humours affliction is the pill to purge them We are all too greedy of the sweet milke of worldly pleasures therefore God weaneth us from them by annointing the teat with wormwood When the Angel in the a Apoc. 14.17 Apocalypse had recorded all the troubles and calamities and miseries that should fall in the last times he closeth up all with this epiphonema Here is the patience of the Saints as if the Saints were to beare them all who certainly beare the greater part For besides common evills in which most men if not all have their part though usually Benjamins portion is the greatest I meane losse of goods decease of friends captivity banishment imprisonment sicknesse and death there are many heavie crosses laid upon the Saints of God which the children of the world never see and much lesse feele the weight of them Many have written learnedly of the divers sorts and formes of materiall crosses wherewith the bodies of Gods children have been tortured by persecuting Tyrants but none yet hath or as I am perswaded can describe the spirituall crosses wherewith many of them have been and are daily martyred in minde I will set five before you and let every one adde his owne particular crosse unto them they are 1. Derision 2. Indignation 3. Compassion 4. Spirituall desertions 5. Godly sorrow 1. Derision for as Ismael derided Isaac and as Michol scoffed at David so they that are b Gal. 4.29 borne of the flesh mocke at them that are borne of the spirit and this scorne and derision so grievously afflicted many of Gods children that it is called in Scripture c Heb. 11.36 persecution and a great triall Others had triall of cruell mockings and as he that was borne of the flesh persecuted him that was borne of the spirit so it is now 2. Indignation at the prosperity of the wicked which was a great eye-sore as wee heard before to d Job 21.7 8 9.10.11 12 13. Job e Psal 73.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12. David and f Jer. 12.2 Jeremy 3 Compassion for the miseries of Gods chosen 2 Cor. 11.28 29. 4 The state of spirituall desertion when God seemeth for a time to withdraw the comforts of the Spirit from them Psal 22.1 2. 5 Godly sorrow when they are cast downe to the ground with the weight of their sinne and have a quicke sense and feeling of the displeasure of their heavenly Father The three former scourges draw many teares from their eyes but the two latter life-blood from their hearts and if God stayed not his hand and in the depth of their sorrowes refreshed them with comforts they could not but be swallowed up in the gulfe of despaire For the more a man feareth God and is sensible of his love the more tender hee is to beare his wrath and the tenderer hee is the arrowes of God pierce deeper and sticke faster in the soule which none can plucke out but hee that shot them g Ovid. de trist l 1. Qui vulnera fecit Solus Achilleo tollere more potest The reprobate
last of all by Antichrist and his adherents Yee see by this Epitomy of her story the reason of her complaints n Cant. 1.6 Regard mee not because I am blacke for the sunne hath looked upon mee the sonnes of my mother were angry against mee o Cant. 5.7 The watchmen that went about the City found me they smote mee and wounded mee and tooke away my vaile from me Stay me with flaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sick for love Hereby also you may give a fit motto to those emblemes in holy Scripture A lilly among thornes A dove whose note is mourning A vine spoyled by little foxes and partly rooted out by the wild bore of the forrest A woman great with childe and a fiery dragon pursuing her According to which patternes Saint Jerome frameth his p Rubus ardens est figura ecclesiae quae flammis persecutionum non consumitur sed viret magis Hier. in verb. Exod. 3.2 A bush burning yet not consuming and as fitly Saint Gregory draweth her with Christs crosse in her hand with her challenge there unto Ecclesia haeres crucis The Church is an inheretrix of the crosse And it appeareth by all records hitherto that she hath possessed it and if wee examine the matter well wee shall finde that Christ had nothing else to leave her at his death For goods and lands upon earth hee never had q Mat. 8.20 The foxes saith hee have holes and the birds nests but the sonne of man hath not where to lay his head His soule hee bequeathed to his father his body was begged by Joseph of Arimathea his garments the souldiers tooke for their fee and cast lots upon his vestments onely the crosse together with the nailes and gall and vinegar bestowed upon him at his death hee left her as a Heriot For these withall the appurtenances scourges cryes sighes groanes stripes and wounds hee bequeathed to her by his life time in those words r Joh. 16.33 Mat. 10.17 18. 24.9 10 11. Joh. 16.10 In the world yee shall have troubles they shall persecute you in their Synagogues and scourge you and yee shall bee hated of all men for my names sake insomuch that they that kill you shall thinke they doe God good service Yee shall weepe and mourne but the world shall rejoice Upon which words Å¿ Lib. de spectac c. 28. Vicibus res disposita est lugeamus ergò dum ethnici gaudeÌ„t ut cum lugere coeperint gaudeamus ne paritèr nunc gaudentes cum quoque paritèr lugeamus delicatus es Christiane si in seculo voluptatem concupiscis imò niâ—iâ—is stultus si hoc existimas voluptatem Tertullian inferreth God hath disposed of joyes and sorrowes by turnes let us mourne when worldlings rejoice that when they mourne wee may rejoice Thou art too dainty and choice O Christian if besides the joyes of heaven laid up for thee thou lookest for a liberall portion of delights and pleasures in this world nay thou art too foolish if thou countest there is any true pleasure in such things wherein they place their happinesse I need not presse many texts of Scripture which yeeld this sharp juice as t Psal 34.19 Many are the troubles of the righteous u 2 Tim. 3.12 All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution * 1 Pet. 4.17 Judgment begins at the house of God this verse alone which I now handle is sufficient to cleare Christs afflicted members from all note of heresie and imputation of reprobates For if afflictions are chastisements of Gods children and tokens of his love I rebuke and chasten as many as I love then are they not necessarily judgements for sinne messengers of wrath much lesse proper markes of heretickes and reprobates The kingdome of heaven is not necessarily annexed to earthly crownes nor is eternall glory any way an appendant to worldly pompe To conclude affluence of temporall blessings is no note of the true because store of afflictions is no note of the false Church Which truth is so apparent that many Papists of note have expresly delivered it in their annotations upon holy Scripture as u Stap. in verb Joh. In mundo pressuras habebitis Stapleton the Rhemists and x Mald. in Mat. 5. Facit solem orire supâ—r bonos malos unde perspicuum est hominum aut nationum prosperos successus nullum signum aut testimonium esse verioris aut purioris religionis Maldonate God causeth his Sunne to rise upon the just and upon the unjust whence saith the Jesuite it is evident that the prosperity of men or nations is no certaine signe or argument of the truth or purity of religion which they professe Howbeit as Praxiteles drew Venus after the picture of Cratina his Mistresse and all the Painters of Thebes after the similitude of Phryne a beautifull strumpet so Bellarmine being to paint and limme Christs Spouse took his notes from his own Mistresse the Romane Phryne the whore of Babylon and mother of fornications Looke upon the picture of that strumpet drawne to the life by Saint John Apoc. 17. and let your eyes bee Judges I saw saith hee a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast vers 3. full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten hornes vers 4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and pretious stones and pearles what is this but Bellarmine his note of temporall felicity having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations of which it seemeth the Cardinall dranke deepe when he tooke the pencill in his hand to pourtray the true Church else hee could not be so out in his draught nor so utterly forget not only what others but himselfe also had formerly set downe in this point For in his solution of an objection of Martin Luther who stood in the opposite extreme affirming afflictions to bee an inseparable note of the Church hee confesseth freely that the Church in the beginning and in the end was in great straights and for this purpose to shew that persecutions though they eclipse the glory of the Church yet can never utterly extinguish it hee alledges such remarkable passages out of the ancient Fathers as these y Justin Mart. in apolog Persecution is but the pruning of Christs vine and z Tertul. in Apologet the blood of Martyrs is as seed and * Leo Ser. 1. de Pet. Paul the graines that fall one by one and dye in the earth rise up againe in great numbers If the Church runne into superfluous stemmes without the pruning knife of afflictions if the blood of martyrs turneth into seed to generate new Martyrs if the Church in her nonage had many sore conflicts and shall have greater in her old age certainly abundance ease pleasure and glory which make up temporall felicity are no notes of her for a L. 1. de
that any one Divell should get possession of our hearts yet seven nay a legion may be cast out by fasting and prayer God forbid that any of us should be long sicke of any spirituall disease yet those that have been sicke unto death have been restored yea those that have been long dead have been raised God forbid that wee should forsake our heavenly Fathers house and in a strange countrey waste his goods and consume our portion yet after we have run riot and spent all the gifts of nature and goods of this life and lavished out our time the most precious treasure of all yet in the end if we come to our selves and looke homewards our heavenly Father will meet us and kill the fat calfe for uâ— Therefore if wee have grievously provoked Gods justice by presumption let us not more wrong his mercy by despaire but hope even above hope in him whose mercy is over all his workes Against the number and weight of all our sinnes let us lay the infinitenesse of Gods mercy and Christ his merits and the certainty of his promise confirmed by oath As I live I desire not the death of a sinner if hee returne he shall live Oh saith Saint a Bern. in Cant. Quis dabit capiti meo aquam oculis meis fontem lachrymarum ut praeveniam fletibus fletum stridorem dentium Bernard that mine eyes were springs of teares that by my weeping here I might prevent everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell What pitie is it that we should fret and grieve and disquiet our selves and others for the losse of a Jewell from our eare or a ring from our finger and should take no thought at all for the losse of the Jewels of Gods grace out of our soules We are overwhelmed as it were in a deluge of teares at the death of our friends who yet are alive to God though dead to this world but have we not a thousand times greater reason to open those floodgates of salt waters which nature hath set in our eyes for our selves who are dead to God though alive to the world St. b De laps Si quem de tuis chatis mortalitatis exitu perdidisses ingemisceres dolenter fleres facie incultâ veste mutatâ neglecto capillo vultu nubilo ore dejecto indicia moeroris ostenderes animam tuam miser perdidisti spiritualitèr mortuus es supervivere hic tibi ipse ambulans funus tuum portare caepisti non acritèr plangis non â—ugitèr ingemiscis Cyprian hath a sweet touch on this string If any of thy deare friends were taken away from thee by death thou wouldst sigh thou wouldst sob thou wouldst put on blacks thou wouldst hang doâ—ne thy head thou wouldst dis-figure thy face thou wouldst let thy haire hang carelesly about thine eares thou wouldst wring thy hands thou wouldst knock thy breast thou wouldst throw thy selfe downe upon the ground thou wouldst expresse sorrow in all her gestures and postures O wretched man that thou art thou hast lost thy soule thou art spiritually dead thou survivest thy selfe and carriest a dead corps about thee and dost thou not take on dost thou not fetch a deepe sigh hast thou not a compassionate teare for thy selfe wilt thou not be thy owne mourner especially considering that all thy weeping and howling for thy friend cannot fetch him backe againe or restore him to life whereas thy weeping for thy selfe in this vale of tears and seriously bewailing thy sinnes may and by Gods grace shall revive thy soule and recover all thy spirituall losses and that with advantage Experience teacheth us that the presentest remedie for a man that is stung in any part of his body by a Scorpion is to take the oile of Scorpions and therewith oft to annoint the place sinne is the Scorpion that stingeth our soules even to death if we apply nothing to it yet out of this Scorpion sinne it selfe and the sorrow for it an oile or water may be drawne of penitent teares wherewith if we annoint or wash our soules we shall kill the venome of sinne and allay the swelling of our conscience c Pind. od 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a most soveraigne water which will fetch a sinner againe to the life of grace though never so farre gone It is not Well water springing out of the bowels of the earth nor raine powred out of the clouds of passion but rather like a d Cyp de card Chris op De interioribus fontibus egrediuntur torrentes super omnes delicias lachrymis nectareis anima delectatuâ— non illos imbres procellosae tempestates deponunt ros matutinus est de coelestibus stillans quasi unctio spiritus mentem deliniens post affectio se abluit lachrymis baptizat dew falling from heaven which softeneth and moisteneth the heart and is dried up by the beames of the Sun of righteousnesse Have not I a desire that the wicked should turne from his wayes and live When a subject hath rebelled against his naturall Soveraigne or a servant grievously provoked his master or a sonne behaved himselfe ungraciously towards his father will the Prince sue to his subject or a master to his servant or a father to his sonne for a reconciliation Will not an equall that hath a quarrell with his equall hold it a great disgrace and disparagement to make any meanes that the quarrell may be taken up will he not keepe out at full distance and looke that the partie who as he conceiveth hath wronged him should make first towards him and seeke to him Yet such an affection God beareth to us that though we silly wormes of the earth swell and rise against him yet he seeketh to us he sendeth Embassadours to e 2 Cor. 5.19 20. treat of peace and intreate and beseech us to be reconciled unto God For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be reconciled unto God Stand not out my deare brethren resigne the strong holds of your carnall imaginations and affections deliver up your members that they may serve as weapons of righteousnesse and yeeld your selves to his mercy and yee shall live Turne and live Should a prisoner led to execution heare the Judge or Sheriffe call to him and say Turne backe put in sureties for thy good behaviour hereafter and live would he not suddenly leap out of his fetters embrace the condition and thanke the Judge or Sheriffe upon his knees And what think ye if God should send a Prophet to preach a Sermon of repentance to the divels and damned ghosts in hell and say Knock off your bolts shake off your fetters and turne to the Lord and live would not hell be emptied and rid before
world this City Propertius will tell you to be Rome Septem urbs clara jugis toti quae praesidet orbi 3. The ornaments of Antichrist are scarlet and purple gold jewells and precious stones which the Pope weares especially on high dayes 4. The time of Antichrist his rising is fore-told to be after the division of the Romane Empire after which it appeares by all stories that the Pope grew to his greatnesse 5. The vices of Antichrist are these especially 1. Pride he shall exalt himselfe above all that is called God that is Princes and doth not the Pope so who admitteth them to kisse his feet arrogateth to himselfe a power over them to depose them and dispose of their kingdomes 2. Idolatry or spirituall fornication the great Whore is said to commit fornication with the Princes of the earth and doth not the Pope intice all Kings and Princes to idolatry which is spirituall fornication 3. Cruelty the Whore is said to bee drunke with the bloud of Saints I need not apply this note both their owne and our stories relate of many thousands by the Popes meanes put to death for the profession of the Gospel under the names of Lionists Waldenses Albigenses Wickliffists Hussites Lutherans Calvinists and Hugonots 4. Imposture Antichrist shall come after the power of Sathan in all power of signes and lying wonders and who pretend miracles and abuse the world with Legends of lyes but the Popes adherents 5. Covetousnesse through covetousnesse hee shall with feigned words make merchandize of you Now the wares wherewith the Whore of Babylon deceiveth the world what are they but her pardons indulgences hallowed beads medalls Agnus Dei's and the like 6. The Beast is said to have e Apoc. 18.11 hornes like a Lambe and to speake like a Dragon and to exercise all the power of the first beast This agreeth to the Papacy and Pope who resembleth Christ whose Vicar he calleth himselfe and arrogateth to himselfe Christs double power both Kingly and Priestly He exerciseth also the power of the first beast to wit the Romane Empire described by seven heads and ten hornes because as the first beast the Romane Empire by power and temporall authority so the Pope by policy and spirituall jurisdiction ruleth over a great part of the world 7. It is written of the Whore of Babylon that the Kings of the earth should give their power to her for a time but that in the end they should f Apoc. 17.13 16. hate her and make her desolate which we see daily more and more fulfilled in the Papacy I will be as briefe in the application as I have been long in the explication of this Scripture Babylon is figuratively Rome and Rome is mystically Babylon The Edomites the instigators of the Babylonians and partners with them in the spoyle of the Israelites may well represent unto us Romish Priests and Jesuited Papists rightly to be termed Edomites from Edome signifying red or bloudy For a bloudy generation they are as appeareth by their treasonable practices against Queen ELIZABETH of happy memory and our gracious Soveraigne now reigning These verily seeme the naturall sonnes of Esau who hated Jacob because God loved him and sought to destroy him and his posterity because their father blessed them even so they hate our Jacob and seeke to root out his posterity because God hath blessed him with so many crownes and crowned him with so many blessings They had thought in their mindes as we reade Genes 27. The daies of g Gen. 27.41 mourning will come shortly and then wee will kill Jacob. But blessed be the God of Jacob who delivered his annointed from the power of the sword The more I looke upon the Edomites or Esauites the more likenesse I find between them and our unnaturall countri-men Jesuited Papists The Edomites pretended that they were of the elder house of Isaac and these pretend that they are of the elder Church which is the house of God The Edomites though they were brethren to the Jewes yet they behaved themselves towards them like mortall enemies even so our English Papists though they are our kinsmen and countri-men yet since Pope Pius his excommunication of Queen ELIZABETH they have proved the most dangerous enemies both of our Church and State even in this resembling the Edomites that as they not only vexed and persecuted the people of God themselves but also instigated the Babylonians against them so these not content to plot treasons sow sedition stirre up rebellion in our kingdome have dealt with forraine Kings States to invade our Kingdome and root out both Church and Common-wealth What pity is it that our Rebecca should have her bowells rent within her by two such children striving in her wombe It followeth In the day of Jerusalem Jerusalem had a day after which she slept in dust the daughter of Babylon appointed a day for England a fatall and dismall day a blacke and gloomy day or rather a Gomorrhean night in which a hellish designe against our Church and Common-wealth was attempted and if God himselfe had not miraculously defeated it it had been acted a designe to destroy both at once with fire and brimstone not falling downe from heaven but rather rising up from hell I meane a deep vault digged by the myners of Antichrist and fraught with juysses billets barres of iron and 36. barrells of gun-powder like so many great peeces of Ordnance full charged and ready to bee shot off all at once to blow up the house of Parliament with the royall stocke and the three estates of the Kingdome Remember O Lord the children of Edome in that day or rather for that day in which shall I say they said Raze it raze it to the very foundation they more than said it or cried it they would have thundered it out they assayed it they did what they could to raze it For they planted their murdering artillery at the very foundation of it Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was furious nay barbarous nay prodigious to cut off root and branch at once to beat downe City and Temple with one blow to snatch away on the sudden the King and Prince Queen and Nobles Bishops and Judges Barons and Burgesses Papists and Protestants Friends and Enemies and carry them up in a fiery cloud and scatter their dismembred members or rather ashes over the whole City O daughter of Babylon worthy to bee destroyed because thou delightest in destruction happy shall he be that taketh thy young children and monstrous brats viz. treasons plots conspiracies and unnaturall designes against Prince and State and dasheth them against the stones To draw towards an end and to draw you to a reall thanks-giving to God for the deliverance of the three estates of the Kingdome like the three children from the fiery furnace heat by the daughter of Babylon God hath done great things for us this day whereat wee rejoyce let
complexa gremio jam reliquà naturà abdicatos tum maximé ut mater operiens nomen prorogat tiâ—ulis c. Pliny calleth the earth our tender mother which receiveth us into her bosome when wee are excluded as it were out of the world and covereth our nakednesse and shame and guardeth us from beasts and fowles that they offer no indignity to our carkasses Now because it is to small purpose to bestow the dead in roomes under ground if they may not keep them Abraham wisely provided for this for hee laid downe a valuable consideration for the field where the cave was Were laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a summe of money As Abraham here bought a field out-right and thereby assured the possession thereof to his posterity so by his example the Synagogue under the Law and the Catholike Church under the Gospel especially in dayes of peace secured certaine places for the buriall of the dead either purchased for money or received by deed of gift and after they were possessed of them sequestred them from all other and appropiated them to this use onely by which sequestration and appropriation all such parcells of ground became holy in such sort that none might otherwise use or imploy them than for the buriall of the dead without sacriledge or profanation As the holy oyle ran from Aarons head to his body and the skirts of his garments so holinesse stayeth not in the Chancell as the head but descendeth to the whole body of the Church and the Church-yard as the skirt thereof Mistake mee not brethren I say not that one clod of earth is holier than another or any one place or day absolutely but relatively only For as it is superstition to attribute formall or inherent holinesse to times places parcells of ground fruits of the earth vessell or vestments so it is profanenesse to deny them some kind of relative sanctity which the holy Ghost attributeth unto them in Scripture where wee reade expresly of holy ground holy daies holy oyle and the like To cleare the point wee are to distinguish of holinesse yet more particularly which belongeth 1. To God the Father Sonne and Spirit by essence 2. To Angels and men by participation of the divine nature or grace 3. To the Word and Oracles of God by inspiration 4. To types figures sacraments rites and ceremonies by divine institution 5. To places lands and fruits of the earth as also sacred utensils by use and dedication as 1. Temples with their furniture consecrated to the service of God 2. Tithes and glebe lands to the maintenance of the Priests 3. Church-yards to the buriall of the dead Others come off shorter and dichotomize holy things which say they are 1. Sanctified because they are holy as God his name and attributes c. 2. Holy because they are sanctified 1. Either by God to man as the Word and Sacraments 2. Or by man to God as Priests Temples Altars Tables c. Of this last kind of holy things by dedication some are dedicated to him 1. Immediately as all things used in his service 2. Mediately as all such things without which his service cannot be conveniently done and here come in Church-yards without which some religious workes of charity cannot be done with such conveniency or decency as they ought The Church is as Gods house and the yard is as the court before his doore how then dare any defile it or alienate it or imploy it to any secular use for profit or pleasure To conclude all Church-yards by the Ancients are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dormitories or dortories wherein they lye that sleep in Jesus Now it is most uncivill to presse into or any way abuse the bed-chamber of the living and much more of the dead What are graves in this dormitory but sacred vestries wherein we lay up our old garments for a time and after take them out and resume them new dressed and trimmed and gloriously adorned and made shining and Å¿ Mar. 9.3 exceeding white as snow so as no Fuller on earth can white them These shining raiments God bestow upon us all at the last day for the merits of the death and buriall of our Lord and Saviour Cui c. THE FEAST OF PENTECOST A Sermon preached on Whitsunday THE LXIII SERMON ATCS 2.1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all together with one accord in one place SAint a Hom. in die ascens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome comparing the works of redemption with the works of creation observeth that as the Father finished the former so the Sonne the later in six dayes especially in memorie whereof his dearest Spouse the Catholique Church hath appointed six solemnities to be kept by all Christians with greatest fervour of devotion and highest elevation of religious affections These are Christ his 1. Virgin birth 2. Illustrious Epiphanie 3. Ignominious death 4. His powerfull resurrection 5. His glorious ascension 6. His gracious sending downe of the holy Ghost The day of 1. His incarnation by which he entred into the world 2. His manifestation on which he entred upon his office of Mediatour 3. His passion on which he expiated our sinnes 4. His resuscitation by which he conquered death the grave 5. His triumphant returne into heaven on which hee tooke seizin and possession of that kingdome for us 6. His visible mission of the holy Ghost in the similitude of fiery cloven tongues on which he sealed all his former benefits to us and us to the day of redemption This last festivall in order of time was yet the first and chiefest in order of dignity For on Christs birth day hee was made partaker of our nature but on this wee were made partakers after a sort of his in the Epiphany one starre onely stood over the house where hee lay on this twelve fiery tongues like so many celestiall lights appeared in the roome where the Apostles were assembled on the day of his passion he rendred his humane spirit to God his father on this hee sent downe his divine spirit upon us on the resurrection his spirit quickened his naturall body on this it quickened his mysticall the Catholique Church on the ascension he tooke a pledge from us viz. our flesh and carried it into heaven on this hee sent us his pledge viz. his spirit in the likenesse of fiery tongues with the sound of a mighty rushing wind After which the Spouse as Gorrhan conceiveth panted saying b Cant. 4.16 Awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon my garden that the spices therof may flow out let my Beloved come into his garden eat his pleasant fruits The wind she gasped for what was it but the spirit and what are the fragrant spices shee wishes may flow but the graces of the holy Ghost which David calleth gifts for men in the eighteenth verse of the 68. Psalme the former part whereof may furnish the feast we
Priest Christ Jesus entred after his death and there appeareth for us the curing of all bodily diseases by the word of Christ the healing of all spirituall maladies by his word preached Now if other miracles were significant and enunciative how much more this of tongues Verily he hath little sight of celestiall mysteries who cannot discerne divine eloquence in these tongues diversitie of languages in the cleaving of them and knowledge and zeale in the fire As S. John Baptist was so all the dispensers of Gods mysteries ought to z Bernard in verb. Christi Ille erat lucerna ardens lucens lucere vanum est ardere parum lucere ardere perfectum bee burning and shining lamps shining in knowledge burning in zeale There are three reasons assigned by learned Commentators why the Spirit manifested himselfe in the likenesse of fierie tongues 1. To shew his affinitie with the Word such as is between fire and light the Word is the true light that enlighteneth everie one that commeth into the world and here the Spirit descended in the likenesse of fire 2. To shew that as by the tongue wee taste all corporall meats drinks and medicinall potions so by the Spirit wee have a taste of all spirituall things 3. To teach us that as by the tongue wee speake so by the Spirit wee are enabled to utter magnalia Dei the wonderfull works of God and the mysteries of his kingdome It is not yee that a Matt. 10.20 speake saith our Saviour but the Spirit which speaketh in you which Spirit spake by the month of the Prophets that have beene since the world began Our mouthes and tongues are but like organ-pipes the breath which maketh them sound out Gods praises is the Spirit And those that have their spirituall senses exercised can distinguish betweene the sound of the golden bels of Aaron and of the tinckling b 1 Cor. 13.1 Cymball S. Paul speaketh of for sacred eloquence consisteth not in the enticing words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the Spirit and power The fire by which these tongues were enlightened was not earthly but heavenly and therefore it is said As of fire Christ three severall times powred out his spirit upon his Apostles first c Vers 1.16 Matthew the tenth at their election and first mission the second is d Vers 22. John the twentieth when he breathed on them and said Receive yee the holy Ghost and thirdly in this place At the first they received the spirit of wisdome and knowledge at the second the spirit of power and authority at the third the spirit of zeale and courage As many proprieties as the naturall Philosophers observe in fire so many vertues the Divines will have us note in the Spirit given to the faithfull they are specially eight Illuminandi of enlightening 2. Inflammandi of heating 3. Purgandi of purifying 4. Absumendi of consuming 5. Liquefaciendi of melting 6. Penetrandi of piercing 7. Elevandi of lifting up or causing to ascend 8. Convertendi of turning For darknesse is dispelled cold expelled hardnesse mollified metall purified combustible matter consumed the pores of solid bodies penetrated smoake raised up and all fuell turned into flame or coale by fire 1. Of enlightening this Leo applyeth to the Spirit 2. Of enflaming this Gregory worketh upon 3. Of purifying this Nazianzen noteth 4. Of consuming this Chrysostome reckons upon 5. Of melting this Calvin buildeth upon 6. Of penetrating this S. Paul e 1 Cor. 2.10 The Spirit searcheth all things pointeth to 7. Of elevating this Dionysius toucheth upon 8. Of converting and this Origen and many of our later writers run upon 1. Fire enlighteneth the aire the Spirit the heart 2. Fire heateth the body the Spirit the soule 3. Fire purgeth out drosse the Spirit our sinnes 4. Fire consumeth the stubble the Spirit our lusts 5. Fire melteth metals the Spirit the hardest heart 6. Fire pierceth into the bones the Spirit into the inmost thoughts 7. Fire elevateth water and fumes the Spirit carrieth up our meditations with our penitent teares also to heaven 8. Fire turneth all things into its owne nature the Spirit converteth all sorts of men and of carnall maketh them spirituall These operations of the Spirit God grant wee may feele in our soules so shall we be worthy partakers of Christ his body and by him be sanctified in body and soule here and glorified in both hereafter To whom c. CHRIST HIS LASTING MONUMENT A Sermon preached on Maundy Thursday THE LXVI SERMON 1 CORINTH 11.26 As often as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup yee doe shew the Lords death till he come WHen our Saviour was lifted up from the earth to draw all to him and his armes were stretched out at full length to compasse in and embrace all true beleevers after he had bowed his head as it were to take leave of the world and so given up the ghost a souldier with a a John 19.34 speare pierced his side and forthwith came there out water and bloud Which was done to fulfill two prophecies the one of b Exod. 12.46 Moses A bone of him shall not be broken the other of c Zech. 12.10 Zechary They shall looke on him whom they pierced as also to institute two d Chrysost Cyrillus Theophilact in hunc locum Damascenus lib. 4. de fid c. 10. Aug. l. 2. de Symb. c. 6. tract 9. in Johan Sacraments the one in the water the other in the bloud that ran from him the one to wash away the filth of originall sinne the other to purge the guilt of all actuall The hole in Christs side is the source and spring of both these Wells of salvation in the Church which are continually filled with that which then issued out of our Lords side For albeit he dyed but once actu yet he dyeth continually virtute and although his bloud was shed but once really on the crosse yet it is shed figuratively and mystically both at the font and at the Lords board when the dispenser of the sacred mysteries powreth water on the childe or wine into the chalice and by consecrating the bread apart from the wine severeth the bloud of Christ from his body In relation to which lively representation of his sufferings the Apostle affirmeth that as oft as we eate of that bread and drinke of that cup wee shew the Lords death till he come In the Tabernacle there was sanctum sanctum sanctorum a holy place a place most holy so in the Church Calendar there is a holy time all the time of Lent and the most holy this weeke wherein our blessed Saviour made sixe steps to the Crosse and having in sixe dayes accomplished the workes of mans redemption as his Father in the like number of dayes had finished the workes of creation the seventh day kept his e Bernard in dic Pasch Feria sexta redemit hominem ipso
accounts and cleere them a holy tenth of the yeere to be offered to him the sacred Eve and Vigils to the great feast of our Chrisâ—â—an passover Your humbling your bodies by watching and fasting your souâ—es by weeping and mourning your rending your hearts with sighes the resolving your eyes into teares your continuall prostration before the throne of grace offering up prayers with strong cryes are at this time not only kind fruits of your devotion speciall exercises of your mortification necessary parts of contrition but also testimonies of obedience to the Law and duties of conformity to Christs sufferings and of preparation to our most publique and solemne Communions at Easter To pricke you on forward in this most necessarie dutie of pricking your hearts with godly sorrow for your sinnes I have made choyce of this verse wherein the Evangelist S. Luke relateth the effects of S. Peters Sermon in all his auditours 1. Inward impression they were pricked in heart 2. Outward expression men and brethren what shall we doe What Eupolis sometimes spake of Pericles that after his oration made to the people of Athens d Cic. de clar orat In animis auditorum aculeos reliquit he left certaine needles and stings in their mindes may be more truly affirmed of this Sermon of the Apostle which when the Jewes heard they were pricked at heart and not able to endure the paine cry out men and brethren what shall we doe The ancient painters to set forth the power of eloquence drew e Bodin l. 4. de rep c. 7. Majores Herculem Celticum senem effingebant ex cujus ore catenarum maxima vis ad aures infinitae multitudinis perveniret c. Hercules Celticus with an infinite number of chaines comming out of his mouth and reaching to the eares of great multitudes much after which manner S. Luke describeth S. Peter in my text with his words as it were so many golden chaines fastened first upon the eares and after upon the hearts of three thousand and drawing them up at once in the drag-net of the Gospell Now our blessed Saviour made good his promise to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt catch live men and this accesse of soules to the Church and happie successe in his ministeriall function seemeth to have beene fore-shewed to him by that great draught of fish taken after Christs resurrection the draught was an f John 21.11 hundred fiftie and three great fishes and for all there were so many yet saith the text the net was not broken The truth alwayes exceedeth the type for here were three thousand great and small taken and yet the net was not broken there was no schisme nor rupture thereby for all the converts were of one minde they were all affected with the same malady they feele the same paine at the heart and seeke for ease and help at the hands of the same Physitians Peter and the rest of the Apostles saying Men and brethren what shall we doe Now when they heard these things they were pricked Why what touched them so neere no doubt those words g Ver. 23 24. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and fore-knowledge of God yee have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine whom God hath raised up having loosened the paines of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it This could not but touch the quickest veines in their heart that they should be the death of the Lord of life that they should slay their Messiah that they should destroy the Saviour of the world Of all sinnes murder cryeth the loudest in the eares of God and men of all murders the murder of an onely begotten sonne most enrageth a loving father and extimulateth him unto revenge in what wofull case then might they well suppose themselves to be who after S. Peter had opened their eyes saw that their hands 〈◊〉 beene deepe in the bloud of the Sonne of God Now their blasphemous words which they spake against him are sharp swords wounding deeply their soules the thornes wherewith they pricked his head and the nailes wherewith they pierced his hands and feet pricked and pierced their very heart They were pricked in heart That is they were pierced tho row with sorrow they tooke on most grievously Here lest wee mistake phrases of like sound though not of like sense we must distinguish of spiritus compunctionis and compunctio spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h Rom. 11.8 a spirit of compunction reproved in the unbeleeving Jewes and compunction of spirit or of the heart here noted by S. Luke the former phrase signifieth slumber stupiditie or obstinacie in sinne this latter hearty sorrow for it the former is a malady for the most part incurable the latter is the cure of all our spirituall maladies Now godly sorrow is termed compunction of the heart for three reasons as i Lorin in Act. c. 2. Dicitur dolor de peccato admisso quod est compunctio vel quia aperitur cordis apostema vel quia vulneratur cor amore Dei vel quia daemon dolore invidiâ sauciatur Lorinus conceiveth 1. Because thereby the corruption of the heart is discovered as an aposteme is opened by the pricke of a sharp instrument 2. Because thereby like the Spouse in the Canticles wee become sicke of love as the least pricke at the heart causeth a present fit of sicknesse 3. Because thereby the Divell is as it were wounded with indignation and envie When they heard these things they were pricked in heart when they were pricked in heart They said As the stroakes in musicke answer the notes that are prickt in the rules so the words of the mouth answer k Cic. 3. de Ora. Totum corpus hominis omnes ejus vultus omnesque voces ut nervi infidibus ita sonant à motu quoque animi sint pulsae to the motions and affections of the heart The Anatomists teach that the heart tongue hang upon one string And hence it is that as in a clocke or watch when the first wheele is moved the hammer striketh so when the heart is moved with any passion or perturbation the hammer beats upon the bell and the mouth soundeth as we heard from David l Psal 45.1 My heart is enditing a good matter and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer And from S. Paul m Rom. 10.10 With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the tongue confession is made unto salvation And from our Saviour n Luke 6.45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Many among us complaine that they are tongue-tied that when they are at their private devotions their words sticke
to an account to consider how deeply thou hast engaged Gods justice to poure down the vialls of his vengeance upon thee for thy rebellion against his ordinances thy corporall and spirituall fornication thy resisting the spirit of grace thy peremptory refusing of the meanes of salvation thy persecuting the truth even to the death and imbruing thy hands in the bloud of Gods dearest servants sent to thee early and late for thy peace Jerusalem had a day and every City every Nation every Church every congregation every man hath a day of grace if he have grace to take notice of it hath an accepted time if he accept of it and he may find God if he seek him in time It was day at Jerusalem in Christs time at Ephesus in S. Johns time at Corinth Philippi c. in S. Pauls time at Creet in Titus time at Alexandria in S. Markes time at Smyrna in Polycarps time at Pergamus in Antipas time at Antiochia in Evodius and Ignatius time at Constantinople in S. Andrew and Chrysostomes time at Hippo in Saint Austines time now in most of these it is night it is yet day with us O let us worke out our n Phil. 2.12 salvation with feare and trembling whilest it is o Heb. 3.7 13. called to day if the Sun of righteousnesse goe downe upon us we must looke for nothing but perpetuall darknesse and the shadow of death Although Ninevehs day lasted forty daies and Jerusalems forty yeers and the old worlds 120. yeers and although God should prolong our daies to many hundred yeeres yet we should find our day short enough to finish our intricate accounts That day in the language of the holy Ghost is called our day wherein wee either doe our own will and pleasure or which God giveth us of speciall grace to cleare our accounts and make our peace with him but that is called the Lords day either which he challengeth to himselfe for his speciall service or which he hath appointed for all men to appeare before his Tribunall to give an account of their own workes A wicked man maketh Gods day his owne by following his owne pleasures and doing his own will upon it and living wholly to himselfe and not to God but the godly maketh his owne daies Gods daies by imploying them in Gods service and devoting them as farre as his necessary occasion will permit wholly to him Wherefore it is just with God to take away from the wicked part of his owne daies by shortening his life upon earth and to give to the godly part of his day which is eternity in heaven I noted before a flaw and breach in the sentence as it were a bracke in a rich cloth of Tissu If thou knewest in this thy day what then thou wouldst weep saith S. p Homil. in Evang Gregory thou wouldest not neglect so great salvation saith q Comment in Evaâ—g Euthyrtius it would bee better with thee saith Titus Bostrensis thou wouldst repent in sackcloth and ashes saith r Brug in Evang Brugensis But I will not presume to adde a line to a draughâ— from which such a workman hath taken off his pensill and for the print I should make after the pattern in my Text and now in the application lay it close to your devout affections I may spare my farther labour and your trouble for it is made by authority which hath commanded us to take notice of those things that belong to our peace viz. to walke humbly with our God by fasting and prayer wherefore jungamus fletibus fletus lachrymas lachrymis misceamus let us conspire in our sighes let us accord in our groanes let us mingle our teares let us send up our joynt praiers as a vollie of shot to batter the walls of heaven let all our hearts consort with our tongues and our soules with our bodies what wee doe or suffer in our humiliation let it be willingly and not by constrant let our praiers and strong cries in publike be ecchoed by the voice of our weeping in private who knoweth whether God may not send us an issue out of our present troubles by meanes unexpected who knoweth not whether he may not have calicem benedictionis a cup of blessing in store for those his servants beyond the sea who have drank deep of the cup of trembling Christ his bowells are not streightened but our sins are enlarged else it would be otherwise with them and with us I have given you a generall prescription will ye yet have more particular recipe's take then an electuary of foure simples The first I gather from our Saviours garden Let your Å¿ Luke 12.35 loines be girt and your lamps in your hands Let your loines be girt that is your lusts be curbed restrained and your lamps burning that is your devotions enflamed Gird up your loines by mortification discipline and have your lamps burning both the light of faith in your hearts and of good workes in your hands The second I gather from S. John Baptists garden t Matth. 3.8 Bring forth fruits meet for repentance or worthy amendment of life let your sorrowes be * Cyp de laps Quam grandia peccavimus tam granditer defleamus answerable to your sinfull joyes let the fruit of your repentance equall if not exceed the forbidden fruit of your sin wherein ye have most displeased God seek most to please him Have ye offended him in your tongue by oathes please him now by lauding and praising his dreadfull name and reproving swearing in others Have ye offended in your eies by beholding vanity and casting lascivious glances upon fading beauty enticing to folly make a covenant from henceforth with your eies that they cast not a look upon the world or the flesh's baits imploy them especially from henceforth in reading holy Scriptures and weeping for your sins Have ye offended in thought sanctifie now all your meditations unto him Have ye offended in your sports let now your delight be u Psal 1.2 in the Law of God let the Scriptures bee your * Aug. l. 11. confes c. 2 Sint deliciae meae Scripturae tuae nec fallar in iis nec fallam ex iis delicacies with S. Austine meditate upon them day and night make the Lords holy-day your delight Esay 58.15 and honour him thereon not following your owne waies nor finding your owne pleasure nor speaking your owne words The third I gather from S. James his garden x Jam. 4.10 Cast down your selves before the Lord and he will lift you up The Lion contenteth himselfe with casting downe a man if he couch under him and make no resistance he offereth no more violence Corpora magnanimo satis est prostrâsse Leoni It is most true if we speake of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah for hee will not break a bruised reed much lesse grind to powder a contrite heart If Ahabs outward humiliation who notwithstanding had sold himselfe