unto the worlds end The Schoolmen collect a threefold opening of the heaven in holy Scripture and every way through the power and act of Christ Says Ales In baptismo aperta est coeli janua per figuram in passione per meritum in ascensione per effectum 1. The gates of heaven were opened at this Baptism as in a Type or Figure that they should be opened and God will certainly make good whatsoever he did but shadow in a Figure 2. They were opened at the shedding of his bloud upon the Cross as by those means which did meritoriously procure the opening Therefore we sing in the Te Deum When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers 3. They were opened effectually when his own glorious body entred in once into the most Holy of Holies when the heads of the everlasting doors were lifted up at the day of his Ascension And where the head doth sit at the right hand of God the Members of the body having their sins washed clean away shall reign also The Earth never opened in holy Scripture but upon some Curse for the destruction of man The Heavens never opened but that some mighty Blessing might distil down upon us the probatum whereof is in the second general part of my Text for the first Miracle which we have handled did but make way unto the second And after the heavens were opened he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him That John Baptist had this Miracle so clearly in his eye that he saw the Spirit of God I find it not so material to the business of the Text as to insist much upon it For although some observe upon it that the first Witness that preach'd of the Son of God is conceited to be the first Witness that saw the Holy Ghost yet the Miracle hapned not so much for Johns sake as to lead the whole multitude into a right apprehension that Jesus was that holy One which came into the world for the redemption of Israel John was born of a barren woman his Garments very strange and uncouth no better than the skins of Camels clapt about him as they were flay'd from the beast his austerity of life stupendious his Preaching powerful high in estimation so that all the Regions round about came to him to be baptized this drew them to conceit that none could come into the world to be compared with John But Columba columbam docuit the Dove taught the Dove the Spirit taught the Church who was the Christ the Saviour of mankind by the descending of the Dove That which I will speak to this Point briefly shall be brancht out into a threefold inquiry 1. Whether this were a living bird or no more than the figurative Apparition of a Dove 2. How aptly the Spirit came in one figure upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles 3. That the figure of a Dove doth sweetly admonish us of the properties of the Holy Ghost What manner of Dove this was is not a question of such doubtful resolution as the former how the heavens were opened for treading in the path of the Scripture as I adjudge it we may find the truth For three Evangelists say that the Spirit did sit upon him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as it were a Dove then add St. Luke unto it that the Dove came in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in a bodily shape and these put together me seems do strongly prove two things 1. That it was not viva columba a Pigeon out of the Dove-Coats with a living soul for to notifie that there was but the outward fashion and resemblance of such a bird in three Gospels we read it was but quasi columba like a Dove And yet that you may not take it to be mere Phenomenon a shadow to perswade the eye having no substance in truth St. Luke hath not omitted that it was a bodily shape Verae effigies columbae a body created for this service having the true lineaments of a Dove To make both these opinions good by several illustrations And first what need it to be of the true Species of Doves Was not miraculous Omnipotency as much seen to frame such a shape out of the Elements at an instant and to put motion in it to descend upon the head of Christ as if it had been a very foul It was a work which could not be effected but by the infinite and incomprehensible Trinity For the Dove was a representation of the Holy Ghost the voice which came from heaven did speak the Father only the humane nature was united only to the Person of the Son but the Dove the voice the humane nature were the works of the whole Trinity which coequally works all effects in the world You may fully conceive what natural composition this Dove had by those bodily shapes wherein the Angels or God appeared of old to the Patriarchs they were not actuated by a soul but moved about by God or his Angels for the present turn as a Ship is by the Pilot. When their Errand was dispatcht the body vanisht away into air So the use of this Miracle being accomplished at Jordan the Dove was no more seen but instantly resolved into Elements Besides that which came down upon the Disciples at Whitsontide was a cloven tongue like as of fire did ever any man say it was fire indeed So this Apparition upon the head of Christ was like a Dove But for what purpose or necessity should it be a Dove indeed For Christ was man indeed because he took upon him the nature of man to redeem it therefore the reason is forcible that the Holy Ghost should not come down in a Dove indeed because he took not upon him the nature of a Dove to redeem it Secondly I gathered from St. Luke though it had not the life of a Dove yet it had lineaments and compacture of true substance like a Dove Christ came among us bodily in the flesh wherefore says St. Austin to shew that the assumption of a corporeal nature did not make an inequality of persons in the Godhead a voice was heard from heaven in the Person of the Father as if it had proceeded from the instruments of the body and a bodily Dove did descend from heaven in the Person as it were of the Holy Ghost Likewise the coming down is the motion of a body The Spirit is every where and cannot descend to any place which was not filled with his presence from the beginning of the world but in hôc signo in this bodily shape and effigie he came down And mark Beloved the Devil is Spiritus cadens I saw Satan fall like lightning down he tumbles to the nethermost Pit and all that follow him but the Holy Ghost descends like an humble Spirit according as our Saviour bids us place our selves at
confess that we owe both our life and our substance to the Eternal Majesty yet our thankfulness could return nothing to him but it is spilt and consumed to nothing Unto these two blessings which the Jews did enjoy by his mercy long life and rich means to maintain it sanguis adeps we have received two blessings ten thousand times richer first that the Most High did offer up his Son on the Cross for our sakes and then he did as it were sacrifice the Holy Ghost unto Man sending him down in cloven tongues as it had been of fire these are sanguis and adeps the best bloud and the best fat or unction in the world O let us not forget his honour and goodness to make continual mention of it and since the Father hath sacrificed as it were the Son and the Holy Ghost to us let us sacrifice our selves to the holy and individed Trinity both bloud and fat both life and fortunes both soul and substance Secondly by slaying a Beast in Sacrifice the humble Penitent did confess his unworthiness and the guiltiness of his sins which made him deserve to be quite consumed by the anger of the Lord even as the flesh of a Sheep or Goat was burnt in the fire As the Ninevites in their humiliation cast ashes upon their heads that such a spectacle of desolation might speak their mind that they and their City did justly deserve to become ashes and desolation Such a Ceremony in the Injunctions of Penance hath often been imposed upon infamous Delinquents to hold a wax Candle lighted in their hand before the people which was a silent confessing that as the Taper wasted away with the flame so their iniquities made them fit to be burnt in Hell fire but that they hoped the Lord would be merciful The old Manichaeans therefore and the modern Anabaptists had small reason to reject the Books of Moses because he delivered a form of Religion which consisted much in the slaughter of Birds and Cattle I am sure Christ allowed that old way while it was a way to be very laudable both by his Precept Luke v. 14. He bad the Leper whom he had cured Go thy self to the Priest and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded and by partaking no doubt every year as well as at his last Supper of the Paschal Lamb a Rememorative according to the present point in hand that the Children of Israel should confess how their first-born deserved to have been slain as well as the first of the Egyptians were and as well as that Lamb was whereof they eat if justice had been strictly executed upon them as it was upon the Egyptians Certainly this was no small profit arising out of Sacrifice which made a contrite man discern his own sins and unworthiness wherein he compared himself with the Beast that perished And this was wont to be done in the Law by one annual Ceremony more solemn than ordinary wherefore St. Paul says in those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year Heb. x. 3. and in the usual Sin-offering which came often to the Altar according as such as were laden with sins did unburden their conscience And I will interpose one thing in a touch and a way to convince their obstinacy that hold it no way material for the peace of their mind to have the absolution of their sins pronounced unto them by the lips of the Priest such a one for ought I can see in this opinion thinks himself to make a Church alone without the Communion of Saints yet as he is convinced by the power of the Keys committed to the Apostles and their Successors under the Gospel so the Lord did refute him by the Ceremony of the Sin-offering under the Law for one part of the Sin-offering was burnt to God an the Priest had the other part ad significandum quod expiatio peccatorum sit à Deo per ministerium Sacerdotum to prove symbolically that God did remit sins by the ministry of his Priests and therefore God had the main share and the Priest the remaining portion of the Offering But alas though this second reason were very useful to the Jews while they were like Elementary Children fed with Signs and Figures yet now we Christians have other principles stronger meat for what need we confess our unworthiness and what punishment we deserve over the Carkass of a Beast when we see much better what penalty remains unto us if God would be extreme to mark what is done amiss who spared not the life of his only Son when he bore the person of our transgressions And there 's the third reason which is the full and complete use of all the ancient Sacrifices it was to prefigure the immolation the bloudshedding the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ those were the Parables of the Old Testament as I may call them and Christs Death was the intepretation of them all Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world says John the Baptist Agnus qui redemit oves the Lamb that redeemed all the Sheep which hear his voice Behold the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world Revel xiii 8. says John the Divine slain personally under Pontius Pilate but slain representatively from the beginning of the world in the immolation of all those beasts whose blood by faith did embrew the Altar The bloud of Bulls and of Rams the slaughter of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice did all belong to the acknowledgment of the same reckoning which at last was fully discharg'd by the bloud of Christ those were but like petty sums to pay the Interest in the mean time at last the Principal the whole Debt was discharg'd by that most Royal ransom of our Saviour In a word all those bloody Oblations were like John Baptist forerunners of Christ Indentures sealed with bloud that the Redeemer would come and die for his People Not the least Sparrow which was offered for cleansing but might move our Saviour to say unto the Jews If yes believed in Moses ye would believe also in me Now for as much as the Holy Ghost hath made us able to interpret obscure things since the comming of Christ how fluent and facil are these meditations to us to discern our Lord in every clean offering which was offered up by Noah in every Lamb which came to the office of the Sons of Aaron with great difficulty did the Patriarchs pick out that construction When we read of a Sacrifice we see as much in it as if Christs Passion were represented on a Stage Bernard made a pious and an eloquent gradation how faith gathered strength by degrees being a little spark with those that were ordinary Believers before the Law then a candle under the Law lumen in laterna no more as David said in his daies thy word is a Lantern unto my feet and a light unto my paths then like a flaming Beacon in
two observations 1. It appears in St. Matthew that the Angel called him Jesus before he was born yea before he was conceived Luke i. 31. it was Gabriels message to Mary Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus Men called him so after he was born and circumcised Idem quippe Angeli salvator hominis hominis ab incarnatione Angeli ab initio creaturae for the same Lord is the Saviour both of Angels and Men of Angels before he was born from the beginning of the world of Men in the fulness of time after he was born That is the second person in Trinity being the eternal Son of the Father did confirm the good Angels in grace that they should never fall and the same person incarnate being the Mediator of God and Man did redeem the Elect that they should rise again from their sins and reign with him in glory 2. The complete imposition of the name was at his circumcision when he first shed his Blood as if his Death had been foretold as soon as he was born it would cost him blood not a few drops of the foreskin but the very blood of the heart to be called Jesus In Circumcision he was called a Saviour at his Passion the word Jesus was wrote upon the Cross then his enemies confest he was a Saviour In circumcisione non fuit actu perfecto sed destinatione salvator in Circumcision it was told by destination what he should be and incompleatly and by inchoation what he was It was a sign of servitude and of taking the guilt of sin to be Circumcised it was a sign of ignominy and reproach to be Crucified but this name exalted him and defended him against the bad opinion of the world when he was called at the one time in the Temple and entitled on the Cross at the other Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews To drive this point no longer about the honour of the imposition of the name this is the sum Angels and Men had their several shares in the dignity to give this attribute to our Lord but the name was grounded in his own nature of exceeding mercy and in his office of reconciliation therefore God alone could give him this name Innatum est ei nomen hoc non inditum ab humana aut Angelica natura says Bernard the name was bred with him and not imposed by men or Angels A name so royally impos'd must include a great deal of excellency that 's the next point Gallio the Deputy of Achaia was a great scorner of Religion and because Paul magnified Christ and the Jews blasphemed him Gallio said it was a controversie of words and names and he would not meddle with it it was not worth the while The name of Christ was beyond Gallio's reach to judge upon it David makes a great account of that which he did villifie Thou hast magnified thy name and thy word above all things Psal cxxxvii The names of God Jehovah are his names as a Creator and yet to be magnified above all things but the name of Jesus adds above his power of creation his goodness of saving and redemption Nihil nasci profuit nisi redimi profuisset it had been unbeneficial to be created unless we had been happily redeemed His Words his Actions his Miracles his Prayers his Sacraments his Sufferings all did smell of the Saviour Take him from his Infancy to his Death among his Disciples and among the Publicans among the Jews or among the Gentiles he was all Saviour The Jews were under the condition of thraldom at this time when Christ was born under the thraldom of their enemies and the tidings of a Saviour was sweet news at such a season yet the Shepherds could not so mistake that an Infant born but that day could go out with their hosts to subdue their enemies No person upon earth hath such need of a Saviour as a sinner whether it be peace or war Pandora's box of mischiefs all the miseries that can be named are the just reward of a sinner therefore the Angel doth not specifie to the Shepherds from what calamities he should redeem them and be called a Saviour indefinitely and absolutely from all A few particulars would but derogate from the honour of his salvation he sweeps away all evil at once like a Spiders web ab omni malo he saves us from the whole mass of evil a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Jer. xxiii 7. It shall no more be said the Lord Liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought the house of Israel from the North Country the land of Chaldaea Alas both these are easie redemptions to that which calls him Jesus in the New Testament the Lord liveth who saveth his people from their sins there begins his mercy at that point to break the heavy yoke of sin from our necks to repress the dominion of the flesh rebelling against the spirit to take away earthly desires from our will and affections in a word to clear us in Gods Court that our iniquities may no more be imputed to us Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Revel i. 5. 2. He is a Saviour that delivers us from the sting and punishment of sin which is death He destroyed our death by dying on the Cross and repaired our life again by his own Resurrection 3. He is a Saviour that delivereth us from the power of Satan that although the enemy tempt and oppose vehemently yet he should not overcome his Saints Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth John xii 32. and so cast forth that he shall never renew his tyranny again For through death Chrst did destroy him that had the power of death the Devil Heb. ii 14. 4. He is a Saviour that frees us from the wrath of God and when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Rom. v. From sin from death from Satan from the wrath of God These are the four heads of our Redemption and these are the excellencies included in the name of Saviour After these things thus declared methinks the third point should fall in directly without any contradiction Methinks of our selves without bidding men should strive to do abundant reverence at the hearing of this word a Jesus a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. We have not that feeling of our sins which we ought to have nor of the wrath of God for if we had we would hear this name with greater joyfulness but the destruction is not near enough to affect us Hell and damnation are not represented before our face if those things were so nigh that we did feel their horror we would not captiously gainsay that Ceremony of the Church to vail the head and bend the knee and to
of his faith and they are spiritual qualities wonted to go hand in hand Take the Centurion for an example who protested against our Saviours coming under the roof of such an abject sinner and incontinently Christ gave him this Encomium I have not found so great faith no not in Israel Attend to this comparison What means our Saviour That this Centurion was the most faithful of all believers Cajetan I think puts home to the true sense of the words 1. Non dicit non inveniam sed adhuc non inveni He doth not say I shall not find so great faith when after my Ascension the whole mysteries of salvation shall be revealed but as yet in the beginning of my manifestation I have not found so great faith 2. Christ did seek for increase of faith among the Jews by Preaching by Signs and Miracles and he found more in this Centurion than in any other since the time of his Preaching whereof the second year did run on but those words are no denial that there was not greater faith in the blessed Virgin his Mother and in John the Baptist for they believed before he began to Preach and before he began to do Signs and Wonders in Israel Therefore the Centurions faith was greater than any that were drawn to believe by Doctrine and the power of Miracles in which respect John the Baptist transcends the Centurion for he had not heard a word fall from our Saviour's mouth he had neither seen nor heard of any mighty work wrought by his hand nay he did not so much as know his face till even now that he came to Jordan and yet he knows and confesseth that he was the Lamb without spot and wondred that he should come to be wash'd in the Baptism of Repentance Bernard speaks to these words upon it Valde humiliaris Domine Lord thou wert marvellously humbled almost so far that thou couldst not be discerned only John perceived thee who thou wert Qui per utriusque mater ni uteri parietes te cognovit Yet he knew thee through the womb of his own mother Elizabeth through the womb of thy blessed Mother Mary thou couldst not be unknown to him through those double walls but he leapt for joy Here Expositors have made some work for our resolution upon a double doubt I have told you that our Prophet gave Christ a welcom into the world by springing in his mothers womb Yet he professeth that when he came to Jordan he knew him not but he that sent him to baptize told him it was he upon whom the Spirit should descend from heaven like a dove Joh. i. 33. Yet we see in this Text he knew him and forbad him to be baptized before the Spirit descended upon him in any bodily shape St. Hierom hath not waded to the depth of the answer for here he sticks that John at the first view perceived he was the Son of God yet knew not till he saw the visible sign of the Holy Ghost upon him that he should save the world through the cleansing of water This cannot hold for before John had seen him this was part of his Doctrine He that commeth after me shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost S. Austin was troubled with an error of the Donatists that the Baptism of an Heretick or wicked person had no efficacy to cleanse the party baptized This pestilent opinion was fresh in his days to be refuted and very strongly he proves this conclusion That Baptism is of soveraign vertue by the power of him into whose name we are baptized neither is it corrupted through his fault by whom it is administred Therefore as most men use to do he draws this Text to his purpose Innotuit per columbam Dominus non ââ qui se non norât sed qui in âo aliquid non noverat John knew the Messias by the token of the Dove not simply for he knew somewhat before but respectively through that sign He learnt somewhat which he knew not before namely that the vertue of Baptism was not imputed to the Servant but to the Son of God by whom we receive the Holy Ghost This exposition supposeth what we must not grant that so great a Prophet as John was not ignorant how the gift of God which sanctifieth the heart cometh only from the Lord of light St. Chrysostoms answer me seems is best both for soundness and perspicuity When Jesus came to John John did apprehend him by a double knowledge both by a sudden inspiration and afterward by the sluttering of the bird upon his head The infinite wisdom of the Father had so disposed that Christ after his coming out of Egypt lived at Nazareth till about thirty years of age All this while John lived in the Wilderness of Judea had contracted no familiar acquaintance with our Saviour nay had never seen his face till they meet at Jordan left the Pharisees should say when John bare testimony of him all was devised between them as plots use to be laid by them who are of intimate familiarity But as soon as ever the Eternal Son of God shewed his head at the brink of waters the Spirit suggested unto John This is he whose way thou art sent to prepare as when David came out of the field and was brought before Samuel the Lord said in secret to Samuel Arise anoint him this is he And for his further confirmation the Promise was kept which was made unto him about the descending of the Dove whereby he had an experimental object to strengthen his faith and a warrant from that illustrious miracle to preach him to the Jews with greater confidence and authority Therefore he knew him not till even hard before the Dove came down and was completely confirmed when the Dove fate upon him O great faith which embraced the Lamb of God and fell down at his feet in all humility as soon as one spark of illumination was kindled in his spirit before a visible sign appeared and to shew that here after faith shall be rewarded with the vision of God it was given to him to see the Spirit in the form of a Dove Let this be the end of the first general part of the Text. In the next part this holy Saint makes profession of his own vileness and infirmity I have need to be baptized of thee From which words I will speak to these three particulars 1. How far forth it is to be understood that there is a need to be baptized 2. That John was not clean from sin for he makes his moan that he had need to be baptized 3. He looks for that Baptism from none but Christ a testimony of the next Theological vertue As if he had said And now Lord what is my hope Truly my hope is even in thee I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me For the first of these we have need of that which God hath set down by his own
first observed it how Satan did clamber higher and higher in every Tentation and still changed his outward appearance to do the feat the better First as a man he did commiserate humane wants and necessities and insinuates the sin of Infidelity Secondly He transformed himself into an Angel of light and urgeth him to presumption and vain-glory In the last bout having now deceived himself that Christ was not the eternal Son of God he did truly manifest the Luciferian audaciousness and impudency and in his own shape he provokes the most holy one of God to most horrid Idolatry The Thief comes not but to steal says our Gospel and the Impostor of the world comes not but to deceive Totus quantus est mendacium est Every thing in him was lying and fiction and delusion The promises which he made were lying promises the pity which he pretended was lying pity the Scripture which he quoted as he quoted it was lying Scripture and the shape in which he came was a lying shape Alas that man who was made an excellent Creature after the Image of God should degenerate so much in all goodness that his shape should grow a fit coverture to cloak the couzenage of the Devil Might not this be the art of this our capital enemy That since God cursed the Serpent because the Devil came in his shape to tempt our first Parents so the Lord might be exasperated to curse mankind because his only Son was tempted to wickedness in the shape of man Beloved this inference from hence may be our instruction We know not in what form or transmutation Satan will come to seduce our souls therefore be wise as Serpents And since our own shape is not free from his Impostures as it follows in the next verse Mat. x. 17. Beware of men Take heed that beauty tempt you not to wantonness it is but dirt well tempered with bloud Let not pleasing words steal away your heart from the truth that is but to dance when the Devil Pipes Every man that speaks contrary to faith and holiness his mouth is become the instrument wherein Satan speaks his Oracles And so much for that circumstance how he disguised himself in the shape of man After this I will lay hold of one of the main parts of the Text. The Tempter had two ends in casting forth these words before our Saviour Vt cognosceret incognitum ut corrumperet cognitum First to learn more perfectly that which he terribly mistrusted whether Christ were the Son of God and upon this do depend some remarkable observations And to make this Point profitable I begin from hence that Satan had not yet perfectly discovered who our Saviour was and therefore he wrought in this Mine in the first Tentation to find it out Many of the Fathers do acknowledge that this was part of his business and St. Hillary doth well express it Erat Diabolo de metu suspicio non de suspicione cognitio The Devil being rather suspicious than clearly resolved took this course to find it out whether this were the Seed of the woman that should bruise the Serpents head And mark how his words lie to this purpose He did not say since you are hungry bid this stone be made bread that were to entice him to bare gluttony Nor thus you are the Son of God bid this stone be made bread but in a doubting irony If thou be the Son of God It is strange that a Spirit so subtil by nature so intellectual so vigilant to espy Christ in all his ways so able to understand Jacobs Prophesie that the Scepter was departed from Judah and therefore Shiloh should come should hold off so long and doubt of that which was clearly manifest There were some Divines in St. Hieroms time that took a middle way for their opinion how the Inferiour Furies of Hell did long before believe and tremble and had cast it up for certain that this was the Son of God but Beelzebub the Prince of Devils was so much blinded with malice more than all the rest that he continued a time after all the rest in ignorance and Infidelity But this is meerly their own fancy without the suffrage of the holy Scripture The darkness of unbelief was upon all the Angels of disobedience for Satan who is the accuser of the brethren and no doubt complaineth to God that many of his Elect are slow of belief hath this malicious slander retorted upon himself that after many evident tokens better known to him than to weak men he faltred and doubted shamefully as my Text says If thou be the Son of God This was like for like repayed unto him he blinds our hearts with sundry fallacies that we should not know good from evil and God blinded his understanding that he should not discern truth from falshood And that you may not marvel that the Tempter should be dubitative in so manifest a case and knew not which way to incline recollect one thing that did infatuate him he being the Angel of pride and judging all events according to the pitch of his own ambition how could it come into his mind that the Son of God would debase himself with so much humility And so it hath fared ever since those days nothing hath so much hardned their hearts who are slow of belief as pride and insolency For it is the arrogant conceit we have of our own wit which hinders sometimes that we do not subject reason to the knowledge of God I must be careful in this Point that one place of Scripture may not make another obscure especially to leave no shadow of contradiction between one Text and another In this business Jesus fasting forty days in the Wilderness the Devil seems not to understand perfectly that he was Christ the Lord. In the Synagogue of Capernaum Luk. iv 34. the unclean Spirit calls him by his name and title and Country Jesus of Nazareth I know thee who thou art the holy one of God So intelligent above any of the Jews that he is the first that ever called him a Nazarite Nor do I reckon upon these words so much that the evil Spirit said I know thee who thou art for Satan is a liar and must not be credited when he speaks truth But the Evangelist St. Luke says in his own person from the inspiration of God he suffered not the Devils to speak for they knew that he was Christ in the same Chapter verse 41. Beloved distinguish the times and the matter is reconciled Before the encounter of this Tentation the enemy knew him not Christs humility and extreme exinanition did shadow him that he was not discerned After the infamous repulse that Satan suffered in these Tentations and upon the admiration of some other subsequent miracles he was compelled to confess thou art he that art come to torment me and to destroy my Kingdom the holy one of God So Nazianzen exprobrates to the Arians how they resisted that
Angel if his Superiour called him he must come instantly away These are whimsies in the head when the Devil prompts them to do some strange tricks more than ordinary Christians are able even as he would have put our Saviour upon a supernatural shall I say Nay upon a contra-natural exploit because he was the Son of God Whereas the true marks of Filiation and Adoption are these Humility awful Fear Faith that works by Love hate of Vain-glory Denying of our selves giving all honour to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost AMEN THE TWELFTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 6. For it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone THey that meditate mischief against others usually they begin with perswasion and end in hostility their first way is subtilty and their last is violence As Themistocles told the men of Andria that he had brought two great Goddesses with him to exact Tribute of that Island ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Perswasion and Necessity First I pray do it and then you must do it The Devil held our Saviour play all the while he was on the Earth with the same method For a long space he laid his train privily to overcome him with Art and Tentation at length he made his assault openly to bring him to his Death and Passion Vulpes in primo congressu leo in crucifixione at this bout he made towards him like a Fox with many trim perswasions but when he stood out perswasions he rose against him like a Lion as David prophesied They would tear my soul in pieces like a lion while there is none to deliver me In this story of Scripture upon which I insist he practiseth the Arts of the Fox upon which subtil creature Gregory lends this Observation to our present matter Nunquam rectis itineribus sed tortuosis anfractibus currunt they never run straight on when they are hunted but make an hundred windings and doublings that it may be more difficult to trace them So Satan never went right on with any Proposition which he made to our Saviour sometimes he urgeth one way sometimes another comes forward and falls back practiseth like Pharaoh with Moses who profess'd he would deal subtilly with the people of Israel One while Pharaoh makes an offer to let the men of Israel go serve the Lord in the Wilderness but not their Children nor their Cattel then he changeth his Sentence and detains them all Then he gives them leave to take their Children with them but nothing else at last he gives order to let them all be gone Children and Herds and Flocks Bag and Baggage they should have all to be rid of them Beloved there can be no good meaning where there is so much alteration and inconstancy Square dealing stands upon one firm base hold fast to that without being removed Delusions and devices hop about like Ignis fatuus This holds very right on the Tempters part in my Text. You see he shifted ground from the Wilderness to the Temple and then he flies back from the Temple to the Mountains in the Wilderness He tries if he can make him despair then he falls off and ventures to make him presume Upbraids him at first that God would give him no bread Perswades with him by and by that God will give him all his Angels First he would put the working of a miracle into Christs hands command that these stones be made bread Next he refers the work of power to the Angels He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up Thirdly He assumes the doing of great matters to himself All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me He laboured with our first Parents neither to believed God nor the Word which he spake now he makes a shew that he would have Christ both trust in God and in his Angels and in his Word the holy Scripture For it is written He shall give his Angels charge c. The whole verse was thus distributed to you before First in order I propounded the demand which Satan made Cast thy self down 2. Upon what supposition If thou be the Son of God there I ended with the hour 3. Upon what Authority Why upon the warrant of the holy Scripture For it is written 4. Upon what assistance Why the best in the world which here is twofold Supreme and Instrumental The Supreme is God He will give his Angels charge concerning thee The Instrumental helps are the first Instruments of all Creatures the whole host of good Angels In their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone And first I must meditate hereupon at this time that the wicked one hath quoated the best Authority which the Church hath to justifie the lawfulness of his demand Scriptum est enim for it is written Perhaps he had never thought of Scripture at this time but that Christ put him in mind of it in the fomer Tentation and it was his old sin Ero similis altissimo I will be like the most High do every thing as Christ did not out of pious imitation but out of perverse affecting an equality And because Christ had the start of him to fly first to the Word of God therefore the Devil doth both quote Scripture and carry him to the Temple as if he would shew Religion and Sanctity double as much as our Saviour did Joab in his necessity will fly to the horns of the Altar for sanctuary as if the Lord would protect a Rebel that had set up a concurrent against his lawful King So the Devil will fly to the Scripture for a need as if there were any refuge there for him that had been a Traitor to his God Occasio fallendi est maxima ubi est maxima authoritas says St. Ambrose the most perilous way to deceive is under pretence of the greatest authority Therefore the Tempter comes like a Divine with a Psalter in his hand you know how well he counterfeited Samuel putting on the shape of that good Prophet to abuses Saul and here he counterfeits David nay therein he counterfeits the very Spirit of God A man would have thought Satan would have skipt the Book of the Psalms though he had search'd over all the Scripture beside It is the Volume of joy of consolation of alacrity the very Songs of Angels Is any man merry Let him sing Psalms says St. James Is there any use of that sweet harmony for him that lives in perpetual torment But they that mean to abuse the Sacred Text instance in those places where you would least expect to find them From the Commandment to sanctifie the Sabbath day the Pharisees wrung in their exception that it was not lawful for Christ on that day to
their nearest Relations if they be a bar to the Kingdom of Heaven And who cares if revilers call it a drunkenness of the Spirit Thirdly Much Wine gives a great edge to valour and courage In praelia trudit inermes it runs into any danger because it knows not what is danger but there is nothing of such animosity nothing so undaunted as the Spirit of God The righteous is bold as a Lion says Solomon It must needs be that strength is doubled in him because he hath two lives in his heart this life and the life to come What could the world say but that some illapse from heaven was in the breast of the Apostles that those miselli those neglected worms should overtop the terrors of Councils of Prisons of Death of Devils Let such as Rabshekah call it drunkenness it was the boldness of the Spirit Fourthly Wine is a rejoycer of the heart Ecclus xl 20. But what joy is comparable to that which is begotten by the infusion of the Holy Ghost Let the righteous rejoyce and be glad let them also be merry and joyful A good conscience recreated by the Promises of God and assurance of forgiveness of sins is like a volary of sweet singing birds chirping and carolling within the Soul nothing but the pleasant notes of heaven and immortal blessedness When we sing Psalms of chearfulness let Scorners censure it for vanity but it is the new Wine of the Spirit which makes the heart glad Lastly As the airy vapours of wine make a man to broach his secrets and reveal them Arcana recludit so the Holy Ghost coming down this day did open the fountain which was sealed up before the Mysteries of Gods eternal counsel brought to pass in time by the Incarnation of his Son were made manifest to all the world This was it which confounded the Jews that were present to hear those abstruse things of Godliness divulged and they did not understand them The Spirit made the Apostles pour them out and they could not hold they were transported above natural to supernatural reason and they were carried above themselves as men even drunken with great Revelations Upon those words of St. Paul 2 Cor. v. 13. Whether we be beside our selves it is to God or whether we be sober it is for your cause says Bernard Audi sanctam insaniam Festus told Paul he was mad here he professeth little less for the Gospel sake he neither says that he was sober and he doth not contend whether he were beside himself or no. Such as he was he was for the Church sake possessed of the Spirit and full of that new Wine which gave him a tongue of utterance to preach Jesus Christ to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness These uses rise out of an holy and mystical sense of the words and that is no thanks to these taunting Jews who being full of malice a sin that is worse than drunkenness burden the Apostles that they were full of Wine or as the Syrian Paraphrast reads it without mincing these men are drunken The just upright man is laughed to scorn Job xii 4. Isaac the Son of Promise was scoffed at by Ismael the Profane Gen. xxi 9. The Septuagint calls it Ismaels play or sport Illa lusio erat illusio says St. Austin it was his pastime to mock the righteous Be prepared therefore against evil words and reproaches you must have your share of them if your conversation be Christian First you have a Paracletus which is a spirit of comfort to bear them off with patience Then you have a Paracletus for that is the word an Advocate to answer against the Accuser of the Brethren who shall discover your innocence Apoc. xii 10. There is no good action but the Devils claw of scornfulness is upon it At our Saviours Resurrection the Jews made the Apostles Thieves they forsooth had stoln away their Master by night and at the coming of the Holy Ghost they make them Drunkards But this was a baptizing with the Holy Ghost not a sousing with Wine it was somewhat poured on them no strong drink poured in them it was no drunken thing but rivers of living waters springing up to everlasting life and this he spake of the Spirit which they that believed on him should receive Joh. vii it is the fountain of the water of life issuing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. xxii So Moses likened the inspiration of Prophesie to the dew falling on the herbs or to the rain poured on the grass Deut. xxxii It is no distempering heady liquour but the Cordial of joy and the Balm of Gilead If then the effusion of the Spirit was tax'd with drunkenness what do you that think profane persons have devised concerning the Cup of the Sacrament Horrendum dictu because it is our Saviours Doctrine by a figurative speech that the Cup is the New Testament in his bloud the heathen traduced the Christians soon after the Apostles days that they killed a Child in their private Feasts and Sacrifices and drank his bloud And a long time it was before the heathen Magistrates would be perswaded that such as partaked the holy Communion were not murderers Indeed it is true though they understood it not that such as partake unworthily are murderers of their own souls But again if Gods mighty miracle was scoft at when he gave grace to his Apostles to preach so divinely what will profane persons say to our weak Doctrine so much inferiour to theirs Quoties dicimus toties judicamur nothing is more snatcht at to be made matter of idle talk and frumping discourse than that which is delivered in the Pulpit Take heed and remember that Michol was barren who scorned ac David that no Scorner might be begotten of her says St. Ambrose But the Devil hath got a new way to bring both Preaching and Praying into contempt For Preaching let every one practice it that will and then it will come to pass I am sure if not Musto pleni spumâ pleni if they be not full of new wine they will be full of froth Says the Apostle 1 Cor. xii 29. Are all Prophets Are all Teachers Are all workers of miracles It can no more agree that all should be Teachers than that all should be workers of Miracles As for publick Prayer the deriders of sanctity call it not new wine but they call it worse by the name of that homely broth for which Esau sold his birth-right But as the Prophet said to the calumnious Jews against whom do you sport yourselves Against whom do you make a wide mouth and draw out the tongue Against whom do you shoot out Arrows even bitter words Are ye not children of transgression a seed of falshood Isa lvii 4. But this is the derision which Satan would put upon Religion in this unsanctified unpeaceable Age. First take away directly the publick Liturgie of Prayers that the people may have
with the Silk-worm who may live longer in the dust of the earth Why he that is sanctified in Christ shall bequeath his body for a time to the dust but his spirit shall return to unspeakable glory Therefore envy not these Silk-worms which shall flourish for a short time perhaps for less than a month perhaps for less than an hour and then they shall howl and thirst for ever Say thou with Philip Ostende nobis patrem sufficit let these things pass away shew us thy Father and it sufficeth And as faith is sure of Promise so it is hot in Prayer tantò instantior in prece quantò certior in promissione because God is sure to give I will be sure to ask If thou wouldest ask of me says our Saviour to the Woman I would give thee living water The Holy Ghost is donum ex dono given to us not at the first hand but because Christ is given the gift of another gift because God gave his only Son unto the World As it is the natural condition of water to ascend as much as it descends so Christ descended with this grace of living water unto the earth therefore it will ascend again from the earth with us where Christ is gone into Heaven Behold I have set before you in the former verse and my Text vile waters and precious a terrestrial Globe upon which you might study the vanity of things beneath and a celestial Globe to study heaven and the things that are above The former verse begins like Solomon's Ecclesiastes Vanity of vanities and all is vanity This I end as the same Book doth The end of all is fear God and keep his Commandments Will you mind earthly things or is your conversation in Heaven Philip. iii. 19. Lo the Fountain of righteousness is open all that thirst by faith come and drink especially in the Supper of the Lord with humbleness and because we have not a Pitcher to draw and none can help us but Jesus Christ let us turn unto him in Prayer that he would open our mouth wide and fill it with his hidden grace that we may never thirst after the delightfulness of our former sins AMEN THE FIRST SERMON UPON JOHN vi 11. And Jesus took the Loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to the Disciples and the Disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the Fishes as much as they would YOU can turn almost to no part of the whole Gospel but you shall light upon a Miracle They are well called the bright Constellations which shine in the Orbs of the New Testament Yet all Stars are not of the same Magnitude have not the same influence so the Miracles of our Saviour have not all the same remarkable lustre work not all alike upon the understanding and the conscience My Text is the main share of one that hath no little excellency in it Perhaps I may prefer it before the most or equal it with the best But I revere the Word of God I dare make no such comparisons This I may affirm preserving modesty and observing safety that it is of great conteinment It made the Divinity of Christ most conspicuous his power above Moses and the Prophets notorious and his tender compassion most gracious The Disciples were much edified by it the People greatly satisfied and which is the aim of all God was highly glorified It is not usual with our Saviour to upbraid his Apostles with his mighty works yet he did with this Do ye not understand neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets ye took up Mat. xvi 9. It is not usual for all the Four Evangelists to enter the same Story into their sacred Writings yet their Pens have all concurred to recite this miracle Commonly that which is recorded by one or two is omitted by the rest Or if three have endited the same thing the fourth leaves it out saving about the Passion and the Resurrection which are the Pole-stars of our faith and this wonderful multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes the Spirit of God hath inspired them all to make it most famous being so unanimously represented in all the Gospels Thirdly It is not usual to have the wonderful works of Christ anticipated in heathen Prophesies But the Sibyls have prenuntiated in express terms all the circumstances of this miracle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. that the Son of God with five Loaves and two Fishes should feed five thousand in the Wilderness and twelve baskets should remain of the Fragments You will say perhaps this is a little too explicite in all points for a Prophesie It hath been doubted of I confess in all Ages And he was a learned man that thus censured these Sibylline Oracles Quo apertiora sunt eò mihi suspectiora The more clear they be the more to be suspected Yet Lactantius had no such jealousie of them but admires them that they so exactly foretold all the occurrencies of my Text. Yet in case those Verses were not the Sibyls but an interlineation of some Christian Poets it argues strongly that the Interliner thought this Miracle to be a glorious note of the Kingdom of our Saviour Finally It is not usual with the Jews to bear a Testimony to our Lord that his works did shew him to be the promised Messias Some things that he did made them say that he was Elias or John the Baptist or to defend him that he was a good man Other actions forced them to a demur When Christ cometh will he do more miracles But their judgments were quite captivated with this deed for they determine upon it in the fourteenth verse of this Chapter This is of a truth that Prophet which should come into the world This Scripture therefore made so notable by the finger of Christ by the Pen of all the Evangelists by the Oracles of the Gentiles by the Confession of the Jews this is it which I propound unto you and out of these particulars I shall draw forth my doctrine upon it Here are two things chiefly to be attended a preparation to a Miracle and the Miracle it self The preparation is Bodily and Ghostly Bodily in accepit Jesus took the Loaves and likewise the Fishes Ghostly in gratias egit or benedixit he gave thanks The Miracle consists 1. In the distribution that was Christs Act He distributed to the Disciples 2. In the subdistribution that was the Disciples Office The Disciples distributed to them that were set down 3. In the reception that was the Peoples part They did eat and were all filled they had as much as they would A better preparation to a Miracle cannot be imagined than this accepit If Jesus take the work in hand look for a round dispatch For the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand Joh. iii. 35. Had he laid his hand upon it or but touched the bread vertue would have gone out of him
forth fruit So this maiden Mother knew no man she did not conceive after the manner of women but by the power of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost shall over-shadow thee says Gabriel Bene dictum est obumbrabit says Gregory Vmbra enim a lumine formatur corpore i. e. A Deo Virgine The world is full of expression which says the Holy Ghost shall over-shadow her for a shadow is caused by the resplendency of Light and the opacity of a gross body standing between So Christ who is the shadow of our refuge under which we stand to couch our selves from the scorching anger of Gods wrath he was conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin that was the body the Light of Heaven and the Holy Ghost reflecting upon it Verbum fuit pater ejus auditus mater says Fulgentius Upon the word of the Salutation of the Angel and by the Ear of Mary that heard the word between these two alone he was made man and they were unto him like as a Father and a Mother St. Austin says very sweetly that this admirable Creature Mary the Mother of our Lord is in this verse like unto the Church of Christ the Church is often called a Virgin the Virgin the Daughter of Sion I but since so many faithful Sons are born unto the Church by the Preaching of the Gospel how can they be the Sons of the Church or the Church their Mother if she be still a Virgin Very fitly and conveniently as he answers Virgo est parit Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit the Church is a Virgin and yet fruitful of Children for she is like the Mother of our Lord who was a Virgin Mother Why God did make this choice I mean why he chose this Blessed Virgin of the line of David to carry her own Redeemer and ours in her Womb before all the daughters of women ask in Gods name and seek the reason but let this be the ground upon which you build Sapientia aedificavit sibi domum Prov. 9.1 Wisdom did build her self an house God did befit himself with so clean a vessel as there was not a more heavenly creature upon earth neither since nor before her and such a Virgin was the purest casket which might be found wherein to lay up the gem of the world The very body of Christ without the soul was laid up in a tomb wherein never Corps were laid before in a new Tomb and reason good for though the soul was flitted away yet the union between the Body and the Divine Nature was not dissolved and therefore his Sepulchre was a new Sepulchre which was never seasoned with man before O then when the living Body and the Godhead were united into one person very meet and requisite it was that no Child should ever take up that Womb before the Son of God the son of a sinner was not first to possess that place which was ordained for the Son of God Moreover as the Woman Mary did bring forth the Son who bruised the Serpents head which brought sin into the world by the woman Eve so the Virgin Mary was the occasion of Grace as the Virgin Eve was the cause of Damnation Eve had not known Adam as yet when she was beguiled and seduced the man so Mary had not known Joseph Et illa peperit and she brought forth her first born Son And thus you see Sapientia adificavit sibi domum wisdom did build her self an house To make some use of this point unto our selves we see how well the Womb of the Virgin Mary did fit the Birth of Christ but will you know what manner of house wisdom doth build unto her self even unto this day Our Saviour was so well pleased with a Virgin-dwelling for once that ever since he loves to abide and dwell in a Virgin and unpolluted heart Cor simplex est cor Virgineum a plain dealing heart such a one as Jacobs was a charitable well-meaning heart is a single heart that hath no guile such a one is in travel with Christ Cor duplex est cor adulterum an hypocrites heart that hath two faces and speaks with two tongues he conceives mischief and brings forth ungodliness this is an adulterous heart and as concerning the heart of the hypocrite and malicious if any man say loe here is Christ or loe there is Christ believe them not Beloved you see how curiously every feathered Fowl makes a nest to lay her young one art and reason are not able to make such a work as the ingenuity of Nature doth wherefore let it not irk you once again to hearken how to prepare a nest wherein to lay your Saviour Grace is more choice and curious than either Art or Nature Still I am resolved it must be a Virgins breast that is fruitful to bring forth Christ but in my sense Zacheus was a Virgin and perchance living in the state of Wedlock Nay Mary Magdalen was a Virgin in this acception though sometimes a Sinner given to the flesh yet Anna the ancient Widow may pass for this Virgin without a Paradox For as a Virgin is at the dispose of her Father to be given and betrothed so is the virgin soul altogether into the will of God and surely in a sort Christ himself is there for it hath conceived by the Holy Ghost Nothing is wanting that this soul so formed into obedience should be answerable unto Mary but as we read of her it must be of the house and lineage of David Saint Chrysostom said of David's heart it was volumen charitatis a volume of love and charity always chanting and singing zeal and devotion to let your heart say according to the tune of his heart My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise as if it could not be removed from God nor God from it and then it is of the house and lineage of David I have said enough I think to shew what is in some competent sort proportionable in a good Christian to the virginity of Mary that his soul may be made fit to bring forth Christ St. Bernard calls me back a little Respexit Dominus humilitatem Mariae non virginitatem Mary confessed her self that God regarded her lowliness and not her virginity Et illa peperit and the lowly hand-maid brought forth the Babe of exceeding glory Hail thou that art highly favoured says the Angel yea but thrice hail thou that art lowly minded Etiam in coelo stare non potuit superba sublimitas if we will not beware of pride by the fall of men whose examples are often seen why take heed of it by the fall of Angels Heaven would not let pride be unpunished in Lucifer but threw it lower than the earth Christ would not let great humility be unrewarded in Mary but exalted it I may say above the heavens for so you shall perceive by the second part of my Text the strange
of whom it is said in my Text She brought forth c. It is a sign of very bad times when we lose pity and humanity to men and reverence to God THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE ii 8. And there were in the same Country Shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their Flock by night A Year is past since I began to handle this part of St. Lukes Gospel containing the most full and exact History of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Me thinks I am privy to your memory that you call to mind summarily what then was said upon the former Verse 1. The strange condition of the Mother that she brought forth a Son who by nature was no bearer for she was a Virgin 2. The strange condition of the Babe the first begotten Son of God was the first-born Son of flesh and bloud 3. The strange condition of the place that she laid him in a Manger Lastly The strange condition of men that there was no room in the Inn for Jesus and Mary In his name who hath given us leave and life to meet this year also in his holy Temple and for his honour and to glorifie his Son we are come again to the same place and to the same portion of Scripture to celebrate this blessed and most auspicious day of our Saviours Incarnation They that consult with the wisdom of flesh and bloud may marvel that no room of state was made ready for his birth no place taken up to receive such an Infant and his Mother or whatsoever the dwelling were any place rather than a Cratch and a Manger but there is little amends made in my Text for this humiliation and poverty For see what Stage the Angel hath chosen to declare and annunciate him unto the world the City was too rich the Temple too stately the Synagogues had too much of the Pharisees in them Kings Courts were too voluptuous therefore he assembles those together whom he found in the fields and desolate places But as mean as their condition was since an Angel from Heaven entertained conference with them we may justly imploy the exercise of this hour upon them according as they are mentioned in my Text There were in the same Country Shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night and as it followeth In which Text I see no less than seven goodly eares of corn growing upon one Stalk according to the prosperous part of Pharaohs dream For the place in which the Angel chose to publish the Incarnation here are two circumstances 1. It was in the same Country 2. It was in the Field For the time which is the third circumstance it was in the night For the persons two more They were Shepherds that 's the fourth part They were many so many as made a Plural number that 's the fifth Then there are two circumstances of their Office and diligence they watched that 's not all they watched over their Flocks and so we are ascended to the number which I propounded the Text is distributed into seven branches Pastores in eadem regione Shepherds in the same Country at the circumstance we begin There is no place upon earth to which God descended or to which his Angels approached in holy Scripture but it is significative and mystical wherefore names were given to such places by the Patriarchs and Prophets as when the voice for Heaven with held Abraham from sacrificing Isaac it was called Jehovah jireth the Lord shall be seen in the Mount From whence I deduce how these words cannot be empty of some pithy observation in eâdem Regione that the Angel appeared unto the Shepherds in the same Country It was a place between Bethlem and Hierusalem the same parcel of Ground as most agree when Jacob slept and in his sleep saw Angels ascending and descending upon the Ladder and when he awoke he built an Altar and called it Bethel the house of God Now where could the first news of Christs Nativity arive more properly than in the same place where it was first seen in a Vision Where could it be published more aptly than where it was promised to the Patriarchs There Jacob poured oyl upon the top of the stone the first anointing with oyl that we read of in holy Scripture Upon that parcel of Ground not by chance but out of providence he was proclaimed who is called Christus Domini the Christ or the anointed of the Lord. There stood the Altar which was called Bethel the first Altar that ever was called the Church of God and from whence should the news of a Saviour issue but from the holy place which is consecrated and blest to be called the house of God It was long indeed for so the yearning and the desire of the world might think before our Saviour took flesh of the Virgin Mary yet it was not unmindfulness in the Almighty He remembred the oath which he swore to Abraham nay He remembred the desolate place when he appeared to Jacob in eâdem Regione in the same Country The further I look into this apparition Brethren I see more wonder and mystery in it for the whole Country of the Jews was in the same distress and misery at this time into which poor wandring Jacob was cast when he slept by the way-side upon the hard stones for his pillow Esau hated Jacob and compelled him to abandon his Fathers house and to retire into desart places so the overflowing Romans had made themselves Lords of the Land of Jury and brought all Israel under the thraldom of their Dominion But behold as in the pinch of Jacobs extremity his soul saw the Vision of a Saviour so after the same proportion of mercy in the pinch of Israels extremity when the Romans were Lords over them their eyes saw and their ears heard the Annunciation of a Saviour each parcel of comfort landed jump as God would have it in the same model of Ground in the same Country that the Shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night Yet methinks I see another mystery Beloved for the Incarnation of our Lord stands as thick with wonders as the Heaven with Stars and it is this Was not this glorious Babe born at Bethlem Why are not the first news of his birth carried to the same City where he was born It is our discretion to suspect that news and very justly which comes not from the place where the thing was done For answer This is the secret of providence I guess which is hidden under it You know that Christ was conceived at Nazareth and born at Bethlem Lived much at Capernaum but died at Hierusalem These Towns of Nazareth and Capernaum were vulgarly at this day called Galilee of the Gentiles The truth is they were given to the Gentiles to dwell in and by them inhabited in former times they were destined to the Tribes of Israel for upon the Captivity of ten
that heavenly Host who were the first that preacht the Gospel to the Shepherds I take my self off from this discourse in which I might amply proceed lest you say unto me as one said of Hortensius that he advanc'd Eloquence to the skies craftily meaning that himself might be advanc'd as an Eloquent Orator in the commendation If we glory we will glory in our infirmities and in the Cross of Christ not presuming upon that amplification of analogy with Angels I will lay the scene of my reproof beyond the Seas but I would we were quit of the fault at home How many exalted Prelates refuse to do that office to teach Christ especially to poor Shepherds although a Cherubim of Heaven in my Text did willingly submit himself to do the work It troubled the Historiographers among our Adversaries to find out one Pope in almost 100 years that was a pulpit man when he became a Pope that was Pius V and he but rarely I may say of such men as Pliny did of those Emperours who made great suit to be Consuls and then disdain'd to discharge the Function O inscitia verae majestatis concupiscere honorem quem dedigneris dedignari quem concupieris O ignorance of duty to affect that honour which they scorn'd to execute to scorn to execute that honour which they earnestly affected Is an Angel no more than fit to preach Christ and is proud man too good for it 6. The fancies of men have assaye'd to add this for a sixth reason to the former that the noble Hierarchies of Heaven do merit some increase and addition of glory by their care and obsequiousness toward the universal body of the Church of Christ but the matter was better scann'd by Biel who therefore refutes that sentence of Lombard Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus Angelus non habuisset summam suam beatitudinem Then it would follow that the Eternal Felicity of the Thrones of Heaven did depend upon the creation of man for except there had been a Church here below to which they might administer they had wanted occasion to demerit some increase of their glory Indeed it is an opinion that savours of servility and baseness as if they that stand always before the face of God would do nothing but upon gain and advantage Alas they have no other end of their labour but that which every man should have in charity the increase and enlargement of the Triumphant Church in Heaven and therefore our Saviour Luke 12.9 threatens Apostates from the Faith thus He that denieth me before men him will I deny before the Angels of God that is before the greatest friends and well-wishers of our beatitude Lastly It is an observation not to be omitted how St. Austin compares three several ways wherein Christ was manifested to the Shepherds by an Angel to the Wise men by a Star to Simeon and Anna devout people that spent their age in the Temple by the Holy Ghost Simeon and Anna were exceeding faithful such as waited and expected every day the salvation of Israel and therefore the Holy Ghost told them secretly in their hearts as soon as the Babe was brought into the Temple that this was the Lamb of God which should take away the sins of the world The Shepherds I presume were just men but had not so much perfection in the knowledge of the Law to look for and expect a Saviour therefore an extraordinary Nuntio an Angel was sent unto them but the Gentiles utter aliens from the Faith were directed to the Manger by signs and wonders from heaven So says St. Paul 1 Cor. 14.22 Signs are for them that believe not and Prophesies for them that believe And as the axiom is in Philosophy every thing is best collated when it is fitted ad modum recipientis Now the Shepherds were Jews and were taught in the Synagogues concerning the Apparition of Angels the Magi were Astronomers and better knew the course of Stars The book of the Creature was sit to teach the Gentiles but a Divine Spirit was better accommodate to teach a Jew that they might receive the Gospel even as they had received the Law and the Law was delivered says St. Paul by the ministration of Angels And so much for the first general part all the five questions being satisfied which of the Angels this was when he came in what figure and apparition how he did apply himself to the Shepherds and lastly why men were not accepted to do this office but loe an Angel of the Lord. The order which I propounded requires now that I speak of the pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the glory of the Lord shone round about them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the glory of the Lord fitly rendred in this place by the vulgar Latin Claritas Domini a lightsome brightness or splendor which God caus'd to shine in that place making the night unto the Shepherds as clear as if it had been day So when a lightsome pure cloud did appear in the Dedication of Solomons Temple the Text says 1 Kings 8.11 The glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord therefore it was not properly that essential glory of God unto which no man in this life can approach but lux ante gloriam the consolation of a beautiful light which was the shadow and the fore-runner of Glory But it were a great trespass in Art to run into obscurity and confusion when we are to speak of light 1. Therefore I will endeavour to shew how many ways such brightsome apparitions are observable in holy Scripture 2. Why this illustrious Glory did shine round about the Shepherds When God would beautifie and adorn a thing in some excellent manner I find that in a four-fold fashion he scatters and transfuses the beams of light and splendor either upon it or about it 1. Let us reflect our remembrance upon our Saviours Transfiguration his face did shine as the Sun and his rayment was white as the light as white as snow says St. Mark so that no Fuller on earth could make a thing so white Now we know that Christ was not as yet glorified his body had not yet put on incorruption therefore Eluxit splendor à Divinitate it was the pleasure of his Divinity at this instant to alter his countenance and his garment and from the union of his Divine nature this glory did redound upon the outward parts 2. In the Resurrection when our flesh shall become an inhabitant of the heavens not only the face but all the body of man shall look in a triumphant manner like a pillar of light which unspeakable beauty shall result from the soul to the blessing and ornament of the body So I read Dan. 12.3 They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever 3. This claritude and heavenly
life of Christ and so forth we go on with chearfulness to abandon fear The Fathers note it in the Cratch of the Manger where he was laid a place made unclean with the dung of beasts but ipsa stercora mundefecit As his presence did purifie the room albeit the filthiness of the dung so his Nativity hath cleansed as many as believed in him albeit the loathsomness of their iniquities I have but one thing to say more to this point noted as I remember by Gregory out of the Genealogy of his birth Mat. i. thrice fourteen Generations are reckoned up and but four women incidentarily put into the Catalogue Judah begat Pharez of Thamar Salmon begat Booz of Rahab and Booz begat Obed of Ruth and David begat Solomon of her that had been the Wife of Vriah No women cited in the Chapter but these four three of which had been unchast ones very Strumpets to chear up the penitent sinner that their sins and his and the sins of all that believe are done away by him by him that is above all names the Son of God who came into the world to purge us of our filthiness therefore the true mirth of Christmas is to say with David Psal xxiii 4. Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me to save me from destruction Thus far I have enlarged the Angels comfortable Preface to the Shepherds Fear not that they should not be dismayed either at the light of glory which shined about them or at their own unworthiness which was a darkness within them or at the malediction of the Law which pleaded condemnation against them for the Birth of Christ as I have shewed was a remedy to take all malignity from them Perchance if the Angel should come amongst us in these days of slumber and security he might spare that part of his Message For where 's the man that humbles himself as he ought as if there were any evil to come We are all confident and void enough from fear if that be good Therefore I come now to lay the second part of my Text to the former how we should not be afraid not with an immoderate fear not with a desperate damning fear which dogs a sullen unrepentant sinner up and down but there is a pious reverential fear which well becomes the Saints and now I proceed to speak of those particulars The Schoolmen very rightly consider fear two ways Quà donum quà passio gift of the good Spirit of God one way and another way as it is meerly a natural passion And first I will speak of it as it is a gift of the Holy Spirit Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor says Statius not so soundly that fear was the first thing in the world that made a God But I am sure that want of filial and awful fear is the first thing that will make an Atheist and perswade a man there is no God The Prophet Isaiah could say no worse of the Idols made of stocks and stones but that we should not be dismayed at their Godship they could neither do good nor hurt But if we will revereri we must vereri there can be no true worship of God without a sollicitous and most anxious care not to displease his Majesty He that is not conscientiously afraid to offend doth most of all offend When Zacharies mouth was opened and began to divine of this day Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited his people fear fell upon all that were round about him Luke i. 65. it fell upon them indeed even as the Holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles at Whitsontide Acts ii In like manner when the Widows Son of Naim was raised from the dead by the word which Christ spake Fear came upon all that were there and they glorified God Luke xvii 16. Surely they had not glorified God as they ought if that fear had not come upon them One instance more 1 Kings iii. 28. All Israel feared Solomon when they saw the judgment of God was in him And shall not all the World bow down with reverence and astonishment when they know that the power of all judgment is in God himself But as for this filial devout fear perhaps we love to hear of it for the Angels themselves cover their faces with their wings standing before the throne of the most high Isa vi as if the Majesty of God were awful and dreadful unto them And indeed a sollicitousness to do the will of God because he is good and gracious the study of the heart which is wary and circumspect not to decline from his Law if you will call this fillial fear it may become an Angel for David speaks of it as if it should endure in heaven Psal xix 9. The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever This is it to whose perfection we must aspire to live justly and soberly though there were no Hell at all but purely out of the principle of love and zeal to the honour of our heavenly Father and what a becoming thing it is unto Religion to approach to divine Prayers especially to the Table of the Lord with an awful duty as if we were afraid to speak to God or to touch the crums of his heavenly banquet Is not this better than to thrust our selves into such coelestial actions with a sawcy familiarity without fear or wit What is more comfortable than to taste of that Cup which betokens the precious bloud that was shed for our sins And yet the Greek Fathers term it usually ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã tremendum mysterium a mystery to be trembled at when we partake thereof Assuredly we may presuppose that when Mary took the clouts into her hand to wrap about her Infant when Joseph did assist as it were in the office of a Father when the Wisemen offered their gifts when the Shepherds came out of the fields into Bethlem and peept in where Christ was laid to see what was done every action of theirs was mixt with reverent fear and joy they stood amazed they prostrated themselves there was no more spirit left in them as it is said of the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the royalty of Solomon therefore the Angel forbids not but after this sort they should dread the Lord with a filial and reverential fear Nay I go further the Angel would not disapprove of that fear which trembles at the wrath to come and endeavours to live unblameable because God is an avenger of unrighteousness for to discredit this fear by calling it fervile and to dehort Christians from it against which stone some I know do stumble it shall not be my Doctrine I hold it not safe and warrantable If they take fervile fear in that notion in which the Sententiaries do take Attrition that is to be displeased at our sins only because judgment will follow but neither sorrowing that God is
to say he that will afford honour unto Christ but even a bare enough affords him a great deal too little God did not appoint such Glory unto his Son as did just suffice but to teach us with what abundant magnificent reverence he should have been received He makes the whole train of Angels as some say the selected flower of them as others say attend him that his advent may be all in all illustrious Be it so yet I would it were not so that some do grudge and cavil at many points of ornament and decency which they find in our holy Service May not sundry Ceremonies be left out say they and yet our Religion be sound and entire Indeed our Ceremonies are not necessary in themselves we grant it why and what if such great Cathedral Churches had not been built nor such rich costly ornaments bestowed upon the Roof upon the Choire upon the Communion-Table might not Prayers be read and Sermons preacht with poorer habiliments and in meaner places well no man denies but God was faithfully serv'd in Dens and Rocks and Caves of the earth when the Apostles and Prophets were persecuted Besides there are that complain when one Minister may sufficiently and audibly read Service to the Congregation frustra fit per plura what a needless thing it is to have a Choire of Singers discharge that which ordinarily is no more than one mans labour They that make these objections let them consider what errors they fall into they may as well tax God himself for sending a multitude of Angels to congratulate the birth of his Son when two or three would have done the business for out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be justified Why should a reasonable man think it fit to glorifie God with bare scanty provision God hath given us full measure of all his blessings and running over therefore no decent Ceremony is superfluous no rich Ornament too gorgeous no strain of our Wit too eloquent no Musick too sweet no Multitude too great to advance his name who hath exalted us by the humiliation of his Son and made us capable to live with Angels in Heaven because Christ was content to lie among beasts in a manger Yet I am not out of this point concerning the multitude that came Angels came by one or by two at some other famous births in holy Scripture now they come not single or by pairs but they throng together at this Birth because this was no petty Saviour This was he that God gave in his great mercy to call all the ends of the world together from the East unto the West therefore all the dwellers in Heaven muster'd themselves together from one end to another and prophesied by their multitudes what increase the Evangelical Church should have A great multitude of all nations and kindred and people which none could number Rev. vii 9. A great draught of fish inclosed in the net so that the net was ready to break Some Feasts in the Old Law as that of the Passeover and that of Tabernacles had seven days annext to honour them Christmas-day hath twelve days joyn'd unto it to eche out the solemnity why should he not have most days to solemnize it of any Feast for through that holy Incarnation the company ot true Worshippers is infinitely larger than it was before As nothing is hidden from the heat of the Sun so every corner of the earth is disclosed to the light of the Gospel And remember that there is no variation or change in God as he appointed many Angels to sing out his Birth so to this time and for ever he loves to be glorified by multitudes Let two or three be gathered together in his name rather than one separatist alone but if you will multiply those two or three to hundreds to thousands of souls O then his desire is upon them that fear him and upon those thwackt congregations that call upon his name He that invited the guests in the Gospel did not think his Feast well bestowed till his room was full therefore he bid his servants scower the High-ways and bring them in that his number might be augmented I commend your private exercises of Prayer between God and your own heart that your Father that sees you devout in secret may reward you openly But those Prayers which you would have most prosperous and successful send them up in the thickest press of Prayers when a great assembly opens their lips together He that joyns his spirit with the spirit of the Church shall be heard as if he prayed with ten thousand voices Finally to bring this point to the end Angels flock by multitudes to disperse these tidings that Christ is born and who should take up this message after them but they that are called Angels in the Testaments New and Old The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger or the Angel of the Lord of hosts Mal. ii 7. And then the Church is blessed when there is multitudo exercitus a multitude of this Ecclesiastical host a multitude of these Angels upon earth when there are many among you to break the bread of life I know after the old Proverb there may be Multi thyrsigeri pauci Bacchi many Priests and few Pulpit-men many of that office and few that officiate therefore our Saviour bad those that followed him to pray that since the harvest was plenteous and the labourers were few that the Lord of the harvest will send forth labourers into his harvest God will send forth many Reapers at the last to gather his Wheat into his Barn and to burn up the Chaff therefore if there be not many sowers and many labourers the sickle will light upon those to cut them down for weeds that being Angels in the Church and sufficient for multitude did not often tune their musick after their ditty in my Text c. The connexion of the next point will fit well with the former for thirdly they are an host of Angels and therefore many nay they must be very many and more than one rank or file that make an host-like multitude the number of fifty or an hundred would make a full train for messengers but they would be much too few to make an Army As Tigranes scoft at the Roman legions which Lucullus led says he if they come to me for Embassadors they are a fair company if they come against me for an Army they are but an handful A multitude though unarmed are a good safeguard in their populous numbers how much more when they appear in battel array and stand readily charg'd in warlike preparation But I will come in order to the reasons of this apparition There are no creatures so mean and weak but God is able to put strength into them and to raise an invincible host therefore the very Flies and Grashoppers are called his Army and an
Christ Here are species praeliantium voces cantantium the habit of War and the Song of Peace Their habit shews what was before war and enmity against the earth their Song shews what shall be hereafter confidence and courage against our spiritual foes and assurance to get the mastery and so to have joy and peace in the Holy Ghost If Herod and all his partizans were troubled to hear the wisemen ask Where is he that is born King of the Jews what concussion of fear would have been among them to have heard that he brought a multitude of heavenly Souldiers with him into the world they are a defensive guard unto his little flock and though Tyrants rage though Inquisitions be advanced though Leagues be sworn though Armadoes fill the Seas and the Air with their Ships and Sails though the Rulers of the earth take counsel against the Lord and against his Christ yet there is an Army always ready prest in the Air the mighty one hath girt his Sword upon his thigh to deliver his Church in the time of need and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Therefore Solomon says of it thou art comely as Jerusalem and terrible as an Army with banners Cant. vi 4. Some of little Faith may look upon Christ newly born with fleshly eyes and may doubtingly say Nunquid isle salvare potest Israelem Can this Infant restore Israel can this sucking babe lead forth our Armies to vanquish our enemies O see how many legions he can command from Heaven and then say it is a vain thing to trust in the forces of man it is the Lord that hath powers and principalities in store to awe the world loe he cometh with a multitude of the heavenly host Thus much of the Choiristers I have now to speak of the preparation to their musick which is two-fold for it was with much speediness and with much chearfulness with much speediness for suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host The Choire was not long a tuning but the Hymn was sung immediately after the Sermon was ended like a chime that follows a Clock without distinction of a minute one good work follows another incontinently without any tedious pause or lingring respite as Pliny said of the Emperour Trajan in his Panegyrick that the people did often give him extemporary applauses and those sudden acclamations were a sign of their true hearty liking of his government Quae fingendi non habent tempus for being done of a sudden they had no leasure to think how to dissemble or flatter him so it is a sign our heart is right with the Lord when we break out into sudden praises of his goodness upon all occasional meditations When we have received any favour or when the merciful kindness of the Lord comes into our remembrance why do we not break forth into a speedy benediction and thanksgiving at what should we stick certainly every hesitation is a sin every moment of delay is ingratitude it was a Prophetical motion in John the Baptist before he was born as soon as the voice of the salutation of the Blessed Virgin sounded in Elizabeths ears the babe leaped in her womb for joy Quick motions of zeal and devotion are ever most acceptable Procrastinating of time is the ready way to be taken tardy like the foolish Virgins When Abraham entertain'd Angels Gen. xviii he gave them welcome as I may say with Angelical celerity Abraham hastned into the Tent to Sarah Sarah made ready quickly three measures of fine meal Abraham ran into the herd for a tender Calf and gave it to a young man and he hasted to dress it See what an active family here was all upon the speed to do good Nemo piger est in domo charitatis a charitable house had not one sluggish person in it The Cherubims are graven with wings to put wings to our slothfulness our heart should fly as fast to all good works as an arrow out of a well drawn bow The faithful among the Jews had long waited for the joy of their eyes the promised Messias day by day they did expect his appearance and one of their own says it was a chief part of the service and Prayers in the Synagogues to beseech God that his Anointed his Christ would come into the world After this earnest expectation he comes with as much haste and expedition as heart could wish messenger upon messenger one Angel after another and a third telling his errand almost before the second had done And because all the Angels equally wish our salvation one as much as another the whole multitude of them with the same nimble dispatch at the same instant proclaim it That the day-spring from on high hath visited us Yet before I end this point understand the case right the heavenly host did publish these glad tidings suddainly that God should be glorified the earth should have peace and good will should be imparted to sinners not that suddainly and immediately from that moment it should so come to pass Joseph had a dream sent him from God that his Father and his Brethren should bend unto him and he should be possest of great command and so it came to pass but after long imprisonment and much tribulation The Angel Gabriel greeted Mary that she was highly favoured of God the Shepherds honour'd her the Wise men visited her Simeon blest her yet the same Simeon tells her that before her blessedness should be accomplisht a Sword should pierce her own soul So the Angels give suddain intelligence of glad tidings and suddain joy makes the passion the stronger but many years were to turn about before the effects of their message should be fulfilled that is the earth enjoy her peace and God his glory For the speediness of the coming of the heavenly host let this suffice the other circumstance which concurs with the delivery of their message is their chearfulness and alacrity ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they praised God with a merry noise and I must say it since all Expositors have said as much before me they sang chearfully to the God of Jacob They that offer him praise do honour him Psal l. 23. Now after the honouring of God for his own being for the eternal generation of the word for the proceeding of the Holy Ghost the supreme most excellent most glorious work is the Incarnation of Christ This is that noble act for whose sake all voices that have utterance shall magnifie him for evermore Therefore the usual Evening Anthem in Cathedrals I and the Psalms sung in private Parishes I am sure my observation deceives not was wont to be Psal cxlviii Praise ye the Lord from the heavens praise ye him all his Angels praise him all the host praise ye him Sun and Moon praise him all ye stars of light c. And the first Psalm among those proper ones appointed for morning Prayer begins The heavens declare the
glory of God and the firmament shews his handy work About beatitude or final felicity there have been great disputes whether it should consist in action or in contemplation but the best resolution of the problem is that praise consisting partly in contemplating the great goodness of the object to be praised partly in the fruit of the lips which sends forth that honour our blessedness shall consist in giving land to the Holy Trinity and unto the Lamb that sits upon the Throne for evermore Vidisti vilia audi mirifica says St. Ambrose upon these words that which the Shepherds saw with their eyes was a little Infant poorly brought forth into the world and cast aside neglectfully in a corner of a stable but that which they heard with their ears was strange and admirable both that all the tongues of men should glorifie this child and that the Angels who by nature had no tongues assumed bodies for that hour that they might speak with such a mouth with such a voice with such a dialect and language as men use to do and fill the world with praises of his name who made himself an improperium a derision and scorn unto many to take away our infamy and therefore worthy to be praised The Devil feigned the tongue of man to delude our first Parents that they should be made like unto God the good Angels also frame a voice in the air like unto the tongue of man to dissolve the works of the Devil and to teach us that God is made like unto us Let the Serpent hiss at it this heavenly host which consists of our friends and protectors doth sing it out and warble it Coelesti quadam ineffabili modulatione says the ordinary gloss with a celestial harmony far transcending all humane musick and above all possible Relation A Nurses lullaby will sing a Child out of crying and frowardness and make it still but it had need be a singing Angel nay the concent and harmony of all the Angels that should chear up our hearts with the gladness of a Saviour and wipe away all tears from our eyes when before we knew our selves dead in sins and trespasses And it is good to take it at the best sense great comfort it is that these holy Ministers of Heaven came with singing and exultation It was a sign that there was a great change wrought in the world and favour and propitiation come about to the full desire of our heart Angels have been sent with fire and brimstome as against Sodom and Gomorrah with wrath and reproof to make all the children of Israel to weep Judg. ii with a Sword and with the noisom Pestilence when David had sinned in numbring the people but all this horror and dreriment is cast aside by the birth of Christ says St. Chrysostom and Angels come with Anthems and Carols of praise Thus the Lord hath put a song of thanksgiving into our mouth for he hath done marvellous things If Asaph and that Choire did lift up their note with all sorts of musical instruments in the Old Law while the Sacrifice was burning upon the Altar I am sure we have much more cause not in imitation of Asaph but of the Angels to praise the Lord with Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Luther I know not upon what reason unless it were because the Angels in my Text did begin the Gospel with melody he makes Psalmody to be one of the notes of the Orthodox Church of Christ The voice of man certainly is to praise God in its best tunes and elegancies and the reasons why musical notes are most fit and necessary amidst our Christian Prayers are these four 1. Rules of piety steal into our mind with the delight of the harmony The Agathyrsians even to Plato's days were wont to sing their Laws and put them in tune that men might repeat them in their Recreations 2. It kindles Devotion and fills the soul with more loving affections Make a chearful noise to the God of Jacob says David As the noise of Flutes and of Trumpets inspire a courage into Souldiers and enflame them to be victorious so the Psalms of the Church raise up the heart and make it leap to be with God as if our soul were upon our lips and would fly away to heaven 3. An heavy spirit oppresseth zeal and that service of God is twice done which is done with alacrity and our Christian merriment by St. James his rule is singing and making melody to the Lord. When our Saviour and his company were sad the night before his Passion to put away that heaviness they sung an Hymn when they went to Mount Olivet 4. To sing some part of Divine Doctrine is very profitable because that which is sung is most treatibly pronounced the understanding stays long upon it and nails it the faster to the memory It was a Law of Numa among the Romans Nihil oportet in transcursu à diis petere sed ubi vacat est otium we must ask nothing of God by snatches but with sober deliberation And as our Parochial singing of Psalms is very sweet and requisite wherein all or most of the Congregation bear a part so it doth well become Princes Courts and Episcopal Churches to have more curious and sumptuous musick of several Instruments and a skilful Choire appointed to execute it It is semblable to that of my Text where the Angels sung the Service and the Shepherds gave them audience If some wayward humors say this Choiral Musick hath no relish with them it doth not help them in the practice of Religion they understand it not I answer they accuse themselves of many faults in their own complaint 1. That they understand not that which they have by roat if they would mark it 2. They are malicious that would deprive them of that sweetness who are much affected with it 3. It is arrogancy in a high nature to wish that their own ignorant immusical unfashion'd humour should be a prescription to a whole Church To conclude all I come from publick Church Musick to our private delight in holy Songs S. Hierom testifies that in his days as they walkt about the Market as they sailed in Ships as they were busie at Work they sung some holy Ditties It is our solace at home our recreation abroad says St. Basil Neither is it irksome to any but to the evil spirit for the evil spirit went out of Saul when David played upon his Harp and David was no profane Minstrel but a Divine Singer But I read of two sorts of Hereticks that quarrel'd it the Arrians dislik'd singing of Psalms because the Orthodox Christians did use it and the Manicheans because they condemn'd the whole Old Testament Insani sunt adversus medicamentum quo sani esse potuissent They are furious to find fault with that which would have healed their fury But we have learn'd to praise the Lord with our best skill with our
Observation of days touching the very labour of the Cattel in the field and what not It was a burden as the Apostles testifie which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear yet there was sweetness in all this because it was done for the Lords sake though the task had been stricter David did well set forth the condition of the Law unto what great bondage it did captivate a man in these words Behold O Lord how that I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid a servant in extremity of thraldom and therefore it was repeated a Servant born for partus sequitur ventrem he must needs be so that was the Son of an handmaid he was born to be circumcised and to be a debtor to the whole Law Such were all they that boasted themselves to be the only freemen in the world because they were the Sons of Abraham Nay Simeon was not only such a Servant as I have hitherto described bridled under the Pedagogy of Moses Law but out of the relative terms of my Text I will shew that he was in greater subjection and aw for how doth he call the Lord here Not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is a Lord that had power of life and death over his Vassal you shall not find it used again in all the four Evangelists ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Favorinus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is the Lord of a bondman ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of a freeman that is an hired servant I have plaid the Critick enough such servants those ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã were anciently called so not because they were paid for their labour which they did undergo in drudgery but because they were taken by hostility and their lives were forfeited to the Conquerour who had power to slay them yet spared them and resigned them up into their hands that would lay down a ransom for them So Simeon confesseth that God had the power of life and death over him when he might have killed him out of his clemency he spared him Behold a Servant then and such as he was such were all the Jews a man under the yoke of the Law and under the power of death But behold as this day the Deliverer was born and did quite change the copy of our service Christ as God did put the Church under the servitude of the Law but being made man he hath exempted us to the liberty of the Gospel and though we shall all die through that sentence which cannot be repealed yet if we believe that he hath given himself a ransom for us and live unto righteousness we shall not die unto condemnation But that you may know what kind of servants they are that retain to that family whereof God takes the care and administration mind the character of Simeon which the Holy Ghost gives him in the verses preceding my Text for his Calling it is obscurely past over thus there was a man in Jerusalem Galatinus says out of the Rabbins that one Simeon the just was the Master of the great Doctor Gamaliel and that may very well light upon this Simeon Much hath been urged to prove him to be a Priest but to no purpose Salmeron and Tolet alledge that when a child came to be presented to the Lord the Priest took the child out of the arms of his Mother and did not restore him again till he was redeemed for five Shekles of Silver according to the Law Num. xviii but how will they prove that a Child might not light into the arms of some other incidentally as well as into the arms of the Priest Yea but Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary ver 34. that is a Sacerdotal action Nay not always old Jacob blessed Pharaoh and every Prophet is an instrument of Benediction At the last heave says Tolet it is an old tradition of the Church to paint him in a Priestly Vesture an hard refuge when they refer us for a proof to Pictures and not to the Word of God Whether the Priesthood or the Layty may challenge him for theirs I know not one thing I know that he was a just man and waited for the consolation of Israel a pious holy Father a frequenter of the Temple a man uncompounded with the world but this was his righteousness that he lookt for the blessed off-spring God and man whom the Lord would send to redeem his Saints You will say perhaps did not all the Jews expect the Messias What did he more than other men Why herein he did exceed them that they did not look for such benefits from the Messias as Simeon did such spiritual refreshment for the soul and for the spirit Then the common sort of people lookt for Christ afar off he lookt for him just at that time near at hand As Joseph of Arimathea is said to look for the Kingdom of God that is to see Christ incarnate even then in the fulness of time Luke xxiii 51. Again others waited for Christ but carelesly without any earnest affection Simeon even languisht with longing and did passionately desire it St. Austin says that he did continually pray for the coming of Christ and often repeated that of David Psal lxxxv Shew us thy mercy O Lord and grant us thy salvation and then God answered him that he would fulfill his hearts desire Nicephorus tells us a vagrant story that Simeon was reading those words Isa vii Behold a Virgin shall conceive a Son and being sollicitous what that place should mean an Angel appeared and told him he should not die till he had seen that Babe with his eyes of whom Isaiah Prophesied This is certain the Holy Ghost had given him some great assurance of it The Spirit was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 25. not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not only in him but upon him which signifies extraordinary assistance as when it is said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me Isa lxi You see now with what endowments of heavenly graces Simeon was enricht before he called himself the servant of the Lord. His modesty would give himself no better title yet our Saviour speaks better things of those that believed Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends c. Joh. xv 15. It is not the meaning that we shall ever out-grow the name of servant for even at the day of judgment in the time of our reward it shall be said Well done good and faithful servant But here it is we are all servants by debt and nature the Gospel stiles us friends by Covenant and Composition Before Christ was revealed God dealt with them of the Synagogue as with servants he did not reveal the mysteries of the Trinity of the Incarnation of the coming of the Holy Ghost if he did reveal them to the Prophets it was ex privilegio not ratione status it was by
Mother and in his own arms he might not live to see him hanging between two Thieves as if he had said O let me not survive to see the infidelity of mine own Nation O let me not live to see him crown'd with thorns Lastly A mans native Country can never deserve so ill but he will wish it subsistence that it may not utterly be ruined and albeit the sins of Jerusalem would call for vengeance and desolation upon it this loving Patriot desired to be called out of the way that he might not see her made an heap of stones As the Historian says that Anastasius a good Bishop of Rome gave up his breath with a broken heart immediately before the Goths had sackt that imperial City Ne orbis caput sub tali Episcopo truncaretur So Simeon saw that the sins of the Jews were not yet come to the worst but that their hardness of heart rejecting Christ would draw more grievous judgments upon them therefore he desired while matters were not yet come to their extremity now he might depart in peace I know 't is trivial with every rash spirit that is discontented with his fortune to say emori cupio like Clitipho in the Scene I would I were out of the world but it is a good corrective speech of the old mans Prius quaeso disce quid sit vivere learn first to live as you ought and so had Simeon done for in the fourth part of my Text he pleads that he was prepared to die in peace Lord now c. It cannot be conceiv'd of him since we must allow the best men some grains of infirmity but that his heart had been oppressed with many recurrent thoughts between that long space that God did first make the promise unto him unto the actual birth of Christ never did any Father expect the return of his only Son after twice seven years travail from month to month from day to day as he did watch the advent of the Lord continually when he should be presented in the Temple and surely it is likely that Hanna and divers more had heard from Simeons mouth what the Lord had revealed unto him and that his credit suffered a little with good people as if he had deluded them for the riff raff if such a thing were come to their ear no marvail if they taunted him that he was a lying Prophet and that he was possessed with a spirit of wicked divination These assaults from without and the revolvings of his heart from within did make his conscience boil like a troubled Sea because that gracious Oracle which he had received was not yet to come to pass nor like to be fulfilled in the short remainder of his days since his candle was burnt to the socket wherefore at the first glimpse that he viewed the holy one of God in swadling clouts this ejaculation starts from him as if his joy had burst the vessel like new liquors that swell'd within it as who should say I began to be troubled I began to distrust I was afraid that thy promises would fail and by so much the more I was afraid of death now come what will come I am secure and confirm'd my heart is quiet my Faith is built upon a rock Lord now c. just as old Jacob was ready to die for gladness when he saw that Joseph was alive says he now let me die since I have seen thy face because thou art yet alive Gen. xlvi 30. And the content which this holy Prophet took in embracing the Messias who had been so long waited for could not be better exprest than thus that his soul was ready to take leave of the world in peace for as bread imports all manner of sustenance in the phrase of the Hebrews so peace in their signification imports all manner of good that is desirable health plenty honour safety tranquility of conscience comfort in the Holy Ghost all sorts of prosperity heavenly and earthly are no more but peace in their acception therefore the interpretations what Simeon would have are many and all agreeable to pious analogy First Euthymius expounds it of the peace of his thoughts that he did fluctuate before and hang in suspence what God would do but when Christ was born he was resolv'd against all the slights and cavillations of Satan that the Lord was just in all his sayings and holy in all his works There may be security in a bad man I will not deny him that carnal priviledge who refresheth himself with the comforts of this life but there can be no stability in him no setledness against distraction and fluctuation unless by much meditation he do set Christ before his eyes as if he were born in him and endeavour to Incarnate the promises of the word in his soul by Faith as the blessed Virgin gave flesh to the eternal word by bearing him in her womb Secondly Others interpret this peace de pace intrepiditatis he did not fear to be dissolved though his decayed body lay even under the stroke of death he saw nothing why he should flinch but that he might say with David I will lay me down in peace and take my rest Before a Saviour was granted to mankind death was death and Hell to boot now it is but a sleep without all disturbance a repose without all annoyance a releasement out of bonds a transmigration to felicity He therefore that will not die in peace knowing that Christ stands at the right hand of God to make intercession for him and to purchase in his behalf instead of a transitory estate a far abundant exceeding weight of glory the fault is his own Vitam in manibus fero mori non timeo A strange darkness is before the eyes of unbelieving impenitent men at their last gasp their conscience knows not how to answer that objection which it makes to it self Quae nunc abibis in loca My soul whither art thou going in what woe or sorrow shalt thou be entertained hereafter Thus Cain was dejected Every one that findeth me will slay me Gen. iv 14. Thus Nabals dastardly spirit fainted and nothing brought him to death but the fear of death His sordid churlish inhospitable life here and the rest of his undeservings represented nothing but horrors to entertain him in the life to come Sed quis est iste qui de hoc seculo recedit in pace nisi is qui intelligit Deus erat in Christo mundum reconcilians sibi says St. Austin But who is the man that gathers up his feet into his bed sweet and placidly as old Jacob did and dies in peace but he that felt the consolation within him that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself Thirdly The sense holds very well to interpret it de pace gaudii he should be gathered to the dead in great joy because the troubles and thraldoms of his Nation should no more disquiet him For who could doubt of
learning of the world hath busied it self about conjecture this is evident truth and no conjecture that they were Gentiles far remote from the Temple at Jerusalem which God had chosen out above all the earth for the holy place of his honour This is the reason that makes Twelfth-day so great a Feast throughout all the world because in the person of the Wise men a door of Faith was opened unto the Nations that knew not God As a Star is an heavenly body that is common to all Coasts and Climates to illuminate them so the Birth of Christ was attended by a Star because all people should partake of his Grace and Gospel Behold ye the Philistines and they of Tyre with the Morians loe there was he born Psal lxxxvii 4. As who should say it should be no prejudice to us that he was born among the Jews in the City of David for his blessing shall be with us as much as if he had been born in every Country of the Gentiles They that believe in Christ they are his Country-men They that hear the word of God and keep it they are my Mother and my Brothers and my Sisters says our Saviour The Prophet Jonas who was a Type of Christ in none of his smallest works but even in his glorious Resurrection he was sent to the Gentiles of Ninive to denote that through Christ that great Prophet whom the Lord would raise up the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven should be opened to the Gentiles But this is stale now and little thought upon because the sound of the word hath gone forth into the ends of the world for sixteen hundred years who considers this merciful loving kindness as he ought though at the first every small thing was admired and it was marvellous in mens eyes to see any partakers of the heavenly gift but the very natural branches of the stock of Abraham Christ himself wondered at the Centurions Faith for he was not of the house of Israel he was astonisht at the importunity and zeal of the Syro-phenisian O woman great is thy faith at the Samaritan who being a Samaritan was thankful when nine others were forgetful These were rare occurrences in the beginning And when St. Luke brings in his Shepherds to visit Christ in his manger he doth not say ecce pastores behold there were Shepherds of the Jews that saw the Birth of our Lord but St. Matthew lays an index of wonder upon these Gentiles Ecce Magi Behold there came Wise men of the East to Jerusalem A great change as ever was in the world to be remembred on this day with most festival Thanksgiving but never to be forgotten Every Nation loves to know above all other Antiquities when her people were converted to the Faith as our Country reckons from King Lucius the French from Clodoveus but the whole world from this day from the coming of the Wise men of the East to Jerusalem But the end of this strange work should especially be kept in mind and with that I end this point Our Saviour told the Pharisees to what end God called the Gentiles The kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Mat. xxi 43. From hence I move a little forward with their motion to the next thing observed Venerunt they came as if the Star had said unto them seek ye my face and they had answered with David Thy face Lord will I seek As soon as ever Christ was born cum natus est at that instant they set forward and made no delay Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day says the Wise man Ecclus. v. 7. Remigius says that the Wise men were brought through the air by an Angel to Jerusalem as Habakkuk was taken up when he carried meat to the Reapers but what needed a Star to direct them if they had not beaten out the way of themselves the Scripture says not they were brought but they came they trod out a long journey with much chearfulness though with much distress to their wearied bodies but where the carkass is thither will the Eagles be gathered and no happiness in any place but to be with the Lord. These were honourable persons and of great account in their own Country though they were not Kings as I have adjudged it before they could have spared their own labour and have sent their servants into Judea to have brought them tidings what strange thing had happened and truly there are too many that would have excused themselves by messengers the way being so long and tedious between them and Christ If it be far to Church from our own home 't is too common to mutter at it and to maunder at a little way every one would have a Chappel of Ease at his next door as if it were fitter for Christ to come to them than for them to come to Christ You forget in the mean time that God considers your bodily labour the molestations and inconveniences which you suffer in the flesh for his word sake To do your Masters work with so much tenderness and easiness to your own person is negligence and self love and as you sow you shall reap Herod I pray you mark it at the eighth verse of this Chapter he would not move out of Jerusalem to look out Christ himself and yet Bethlehem was but six miles off but he sent the Wise men to Bethlehem and bad them search diligently for the Child and when they had found him bring him word but because he sate still himself and set others about it he never found our Saviour Oleaster ad olivam non oliva ad oleastrum veniebat says St. Austin The wild Olive must come to the natural Olive to be ingrafted into it the natural Olive must not go to the wild Olive Venite qui laboratis Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden The fountain must not come to the thirsty man but the thirsty man must come to the fountain to drink The place where the blessed babe lay the Maker of his Mother is worth the seeing to this day worth their travel that have resorted to it from West and East how much more worthy of a journey ten thousand times when the glorious Infant himself was in the place Most justly did our Saviour condemn the whole world that the Queen of Sheba came from far to hear the Wisdom of Solomon and yet the Gentiles did not flock so fast as they ought to have done when a greater than Solomon was upon the earth Tully speaks it of Crassus the Orator as I remember being lately departed we came into the Senate house to look upon the place where that renowned Senator was wont to stand What part of Bethlehem or Jerusalem or Galilee is not a thousand times more worth the viewing where any thing can be recalled to memory of Christs Birth or Miracles
Heir to the house of Austria but the dominion is still Spanish So the power was devolved upon the Levites but the dominion was still Judah's until Shiloh came So I have done with the occasion of these Wise mens coming because Christ was born which birth I have examined from the place and the time from the place Bethlehem and the time in the days of Herod the King I do not profess to deal with the sayings of the Wise men at this time the consideration of that verse will be an hours work at the least but I will borrow a little with your patience for the use of the day out of their question which is most natural to be spoken of on this high Feast of Christmas where is he that is born the King of the Jews God that told them by a Star that his Son was born could have told them where he was born and have saved them that labour to ask it but the Lord thought it more expedient to let them be ignorant for a while to prove their diligence how they would search it out When they came to Judea they found not out Christ straight no more shall we be perfect men in Christ upon the first gust and illumination of heavenly things Yet we think commonly when we have gone a little way we are at our journeys end we have found out all that can be found and for the rest let nature work and grace too if it will It is not good laying hold of that place of the Prophet Isa lxv 1. I was found of them that sought me not Some are so happy but all have not that favour from God Seek and ye shall find is the Text we must trust to Those are the righteous indeed of whom David speaks This is the generation of them that seek thee even of them that seek thy face O Jacob. I proceed they sought and askt for this blessed Infant but at the wrong place for they took in at Jerusalem and sought him there It seems the position of the Star guided them to the Land of Judea and then their own apprehension made choice of Jerusalem before any other City A King was born Jerusalem the imperial habitation they concluded like men certainly he is housheld there This was the mistake a humane error but as St. Austin speaks to it Ratione duce non invenitur qui de Caelo revelatus est Reason was no good Harbinger to appoint him his lodging whose birth was revealed from heaven My ways are not your ways nor my thoughts your thoughts says the Lord Isa lv His birth was private but his passion publick At Bethlehem you shall hear of his Nativity and at Jerusalem of his Passion All the while they were lodg'd in Jerusalem the Star which guided them obscur'd it self because they were out of the way While they followed humane conjectures they were disappointed of their heavenly direction Yet it cannot be withstood but that God had some secret hand in it that they askt this question in Jerusalem before they fell upon the right place The Fathers meditation is more plausible than solid that it was an expostulation with the Princes of Judah why they had not lodg'd their King that was born in the chief City and in their chief Palace Cur in praesepi jacet non decumbit in templo cur non fulget in purpura sed squalet in pannis why should he lie in a manger and not in the most holy place of the Temple why is he wrapt in poor habiliments and not in Purple and Gold but this expostulation need not for he came not to challenge the world that they did not attend him with pomp and honour but because they would not believe in him that was sent to save them These following are more substantial answers First to Jerusalem they came and so to the Priests because howsoever God may call some by revelations and visions yet he sends them afterwards to be confirmed by the Doctrine of his Priests and Prophets So Paul saw a light from heaven at first as these men saw a Star but Paul was sent to the Ministry of the word to Annanias to preach unto him So Cornelius began with the vision of an Angel but he was made a complete Christian and Baptized by the Ministry of Peter Beloved though God give extraordinary helps to call us to salvation yet wise men will go to the Scribes to ask of them where Christ is The Priests lips shall preserve knowledge But as one says now every artisan thinks he is a whole convocation of Scribes in his brain and can tell as well as they Secondly By going to Jerusalem the Scribes did tell them where Christ should be born but went not to see him or seek him themselves Divinas literas portabant non adjutorium salutis suae sed ad testimonium nostrae they cited Scripture to save the Gentiles but not to save themselves they direct others and themselves are cast-awayes like way-stones that shew others their journey but themselves are immovable and stir not Thirdly They were not sent to the Shepherds that could tell them but they came to others that their question might stir up others to search him that were yet in ignorance And the questions of the ignorant are profitable oftentimes not only to the ignorant but also to their teachers The question about the inheritance of the Daughters of Zelophahad made Moses study to resolve it and gave him more understanding in the Law Fourthly The Magi askt very boldly at Jerusalem Where is he that is born King of the Jews They speak as of a thing supposed to be known thinking the Jews must know all Prophesies about their own King better than the Gentiles for unto them were committed the Oracles of God But quite otherwise God sent the Gentiles to be Preachers of these things unto the Jews and so they are unto this day and that of David is verified on our part Thou hast made us wiser than our teachers To end for this time Ubi est where is Christ then avant ubiquitie he is not every where and it is against the simplicity of the Gospel to put plain capacities to find out an ubiquity by the Lutheran subtilties of their communion of properties that the divine nature gives the humane nature all that it hath But for a plain use to you if it be askt where is Christ I will answer it four ways First The heavens have received his bodily presence send up your Prayers unto him there Secondly Where two or three are gathered together in his name he is in the midst of them So that if you be a sound orthodox part united to the body of the Church he will give you of his Spirit that you shall find him there Thirdly He gives us to know that every poor afflicted member stands for his own person Ecce illic Christus If you will distribute plentiful alms to your poor neighbours against
John should leap at the presence of our Saviour in his mothers womb and though it were an extraordinary case yet it demonstrates that the Holy Ghost can inhabit in a babe that is yet unborn or newly brought forth into the world Choose ye which of these opinions you will or choose ye neither and only be contented to believe concerning little ones that theirs is the Kingdom of heaven and therefore they ought to be baptized for unless ye be born again of water and the holy Spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven That is the stop of the first general Point the circumstance of time 1. Then when the people were full of repentance and did yearn for grace 2. Then when they began to conceit too much of John that he was the Christ 3. Then when our Saviour was of the ripe age of Priesthood and had seen thirty years in the world Then came c. It is time now to draw forward to the next general circumstance after what manner our Saviour would be baptized with the Baptism of John The Point is full of much matter even as Jordan it self in the time of harvest But I will obey the limits of the hour and handle two things briefly making my self your debter for the rest as God shall give occasion to pay it I frame therefore two questions on this sort 1. Upon what ground John did begin this new ceremony of Baptism never heard of before 2. What was the dignity or if you will call it so what was the vertue of Johns Baptism I address my self to the former To bring a new institution into the Church nay to bring in a new Sacrament of repentance for remission of sins this was more strange than if a new star had appeared in the Firmament What a confidence was in this great Prophet to call all Judea and the Regions round about unto him to receive Baptism And yet no print or footsteep in all the Law of Moses where such a Ceremony was commanded Nay if they had mark'd it it was to break the staff of the Law of Moses for upon the entertainment of a new Ceremony never heard of before it did betoken that old Rites and Customs were in their declination and near unto abolishing Besides is it not very strange that the learned Priests the wrangling Pharisees the ignorant people all with an unanimous consent should submit themselves to this new Ordinance and yet such an Ordinance as was confirmed by no miracle from heaven for John wrought no miracle the true wonder was that so many thousands should flock after him to be baptized without a miracle Yet the truth is that the most strict defenders of their own Law and the best Interpreters of it did not gainsay the new use of Baptism as unlawful for the Pharisees sent unto John and asked him Why baptisest thou if thou be not that Christ nor Elias nor that Prophet They do not quarrel the Ordinance of Baptism but what authority John had to baptize Two things are to be observed out of the forenamed Text for our satisfaction One that it was not belonging to the Office of any Priest or Prophet in the Old Testament to baptize unto remission of sins Another thing is that the Jews expected the washing of water to cleanse them from their sins under the Kingdom of Christ as S. Hierom thinks they collected it Isa iv 4. The Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion as who should say Circumcision was a seal upon Male children only the water of regeneration under Christ shall belong to Females also Again Ezekiel speaking of the blessings that shall abound in Christ Chap. xxxvi 25. seems clearly to express this new Sacrament Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness Moreover I cannot say whether the Rabbies of deep learning had the knowledge to understand that their Forefathers were by a figure baptized in the red Sea and in the Cloud which went along with them in the Wilderness So St. Paul expounded it by the Spirit of God But the Pharisees and it seems all the people were perswaded that when the Messias came they should be baptized for the remission of their sins either by himself or by some great Prophet who should be his Associate Therefore if John were the Christ they confess he may baptize or if he were Elias he might baptize For Malachy foretold Chap. iv 5. Behold I will send Eliah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Or if he were that Prophet he might baptize not any Prophet inspired from God that is not the meaning but the same whom Moses speaks of Deut. xviii 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken The Jews had no particular name for this Prophet the plain meaning is that Prophet is Christ himself Now Johns answer to the Pharisees was twofold what he was not and what he was He denies that he was the Christ or Elias himself who shall come perhaps before Christ as an Apparitor at the day of Judgment or that Prophet Then they object that he must not baptize nothing must be innovated in the Church without divine authority but they wilfully forgat what he said he was The voice of a Crier to prepare the ways of the Lord why co jure as the fore-runner of Christs Kingdom he betokened a new work was beginning and a new Ceremony of grace appointed and he baptized as many as came to Jordan and did confess their sins Praecursionis ordinem servavit nascendo baptisando says Gregory he shewed himself to be Christs Harbinger that went before him in Birth in Preaching and in Baptism Now ye see by what priviledge John did quite alter the old Mosaical Rites and began to baptize and I cannot omit how graciously by these means God did turn their superstition into a blessing To begin with the heathen who perceived in natural causes that water gives growth to Plants and Seeds and fecundity to all things but they forgat God who made it a fruitful part of nature and conceited that there was somewhat divine in that Element more than in any other not could they be contented to rest upon that which every man knows that a clean river would wash the dust and sweat from their body but were so foolish to souze themselves every morning thrice over head and ears in some pure Fountain as if it had some inherent vertue to cleanse the filthiness of their souls The Pharisees being more superstitious in their generation than any other Jews followed the heathen close Mar. vii 3. They eat not except they wash often if they come from Market except they wash they eate not and therefore they quarrel some of the Disciples that they eat with defiled that is with unwashen
Prophet by prostrating himself did bring life again into that which was dead so Jesus by making himself an ignominious reproach to the world did justifie and acquit those who were appointed to everlasting death Thus you see why our Saviours answer strikes upon the circumstance of that present time Suffer it to be so now He came in the form of a Servant and as long as he emptied himself in that shape he would do the duties of a Servant Sine modo now I will be baptized of thee in water hereafter I will baptize my Church with the Holy Ghost and with fire As yet I stand for one of the multitude as yet the Holy Spirit hath not descended upon me to make me manifest to the world that I am the Son of God therefore suffer it to be so now Mark I beseech you how in the lowest depression of a servant he keeps the Majesty of a Lord For he makes himself a servant by his own command Sic volo sic jubeo it is my own pleasure to make my self a worm and no man yea a very scorn and derision of them that are round about me As Cesar did not lessen his own dignity because he would both command as General and yet work in the trenches like the meanest Pioneer Dux consilio miles exemplo and as Helen the Mother of Constantine was not under the honour of a Princess because she would dress the Blains and Ulcers of poor Cripples in the Hospital So the mighty Son of God was not diminished in his glory because he put himself into the rank of abject ones by his own yielding and accord not by compulsive necessity His obedience did not spring from any legal servitude as one whose Parents did beget him in bondage nor from any penal servitude as one that was enthralled by trespasses or violent captivity But he did put his neck into the yoke and did appoint himself certain years of misery and abasement therefore he lays his authority upon the Prophet that it should be so Suffer it to be so now And is not this example worth the learning That God is better served by him that hath a yielding spirit and will stoop in humility than by him that is stiff to maintain the honour of his person and will not condescend for the advantage of much good from his place and dignity You shall have them that will defend Augustine the Monk that would neither veile his head nor bend his knee to the Brittish Monks of this Island that were met to receive him Forsooth such courtesie did not become him because he was the Nuncio of the Apostolical See There was a great Clerk that bolstered up the fiery humour of Pope Paul the Fifth in the Venetian quarrel and bad him keep his dignity inviolable whatsoever became of peace with this Text to enflame him Arise Peter kill and eate O if there be any such evil Monitor that provokes you to stiffness and stubborness by the consideration of your Greatness and Principality answer him with our Saviour Sine modò frater whatsoever I be in pre-eminence of honour let me forget it now many things unworthy our person must be swallowed up for the glory of God When Shimei reviled David Abishai would have had his head for it suffer it to be so now says David though he were the King of Israel I must pass it over without revenge it is the Lord that will afflict me There are such as will blow coals especially to incense great men if their inferiours chance to trespass Are you not noble Of ample fortunes Of great power and reputation And will you not crush an underling that affronts you But such injuries as your bloud could not put up your office which you sustain must remit that you are members of Christ linkt together in love which is the bond of perfection Christs Office of Mediatorship made him be contented with those abasements which where far unworthy of his Majestical person But suffer it to be so now c. This Point which I have latest handled was the strict command of Christ over John Baptist as his Lord in that which follows as a Preceptor he teacheth his Disciple and gives him reason that he might know upon what ground he must obey Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness in which reason so many words so many notations six in all which will require discussion 1. What signification the word righteousness hath 2. What is required to fulfil it 3. How it was fulfilled in this Baptism for our Saviour hath put an Emphasis upon the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thus I must fulfil it 4. How it can be said that the coming to Johns Baptism was the fulfilling of all righteousness 5. Why the Proposition speaks of more than one of us in the Plural 6. That Christ did fulfil all righteousness at this time not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in a strict necessary rigour but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for decency sake because it did become him So you see every word is ponderous and observable Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness Of these as the scantling of the time will permit The significations of the word righteousness or justice are four First It is the name of all vertue taken in the lump where none is wanting So did the Philosopher state it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Justice is not a part or a fragment of Vertue but the whole continent of it And so it is to be found in God only and in no other Creature And thus our Saviour did fulfil all righteousness because we had fulfilled all manner of wickedness And so St. Chrysostom understands this place that to make our peace with God Christ was tied to the exact performance of all the Commandments Secondly Justice is one particular branch of Vertue which is thus defined Constans perpetua voluntas jus suum cuique tribuendi A constant and perpetual resolution to give every man his own And St. Paul puts it in one Precept Rom. xiii 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Render therefore to all men their dues And Christ was most respectful to see that every one had their own both in heaven and earth according to that most admirable principle Give unto Cesar that which is Cesars and to God that which is Gods Thirdly Justice is taken for faithfulness in our word and being exactly true in our promises and certainly lying is a fraudulency most opposite to Justice Thus did our Saviour shine in righteousnes full of grace were his lips neither was any guile found in his mouth Yea let God be true says the Apostle and every man a liar that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and overcome when thou art judged Rom. iii. 4. Fourthly Righteousness doth many times very properly signifie that integrity which is found in a man according to that special Office which he sustains There is a particular Justice belonging to every state and condition of
of Adam the Sacrament of waters had not been ordained as if we were refined with Fullers Sope. There are but two Baptisms spoke of in the New Testament the one of Water the other of Fire and both are put together for the use of our impurities that all defilement may be driven out Molliora per aquam duriora metalla igne expurgantur If there be spots in Linnen or in any thing that is soft and supple we take them out in water if it be dross in stubborn Metals we decoct it and scum it off in a furnace of fire So our nature is most soft and supple to contract every kind of iniquity as easily as a cloath is stain'd And our heart is hard like iron stubborn and refractory to forsake iniquity therefore God applies Water and Fire to purge us to the bottom Water in the outward Laver Fire in the inward Spirit so by Christs humility who vouchsafed to dip himself in such water as we do he merited of his Father that we should be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire Non mundari voluit sed mundare Jordanem says St. Ambrose he came not to be cleansed but to cleanse the River Jordan and all other waters for the mystical washing away of sin Unus mersit sed lavit omnes unus descendit ut ascenderemus omnes One Jesus dived into the River that we might all rise up from the death of sin one man descended into the Pool in great humility that we might all ascend up into glory Therefore if any man ask why he that was whole in every part would step into Bethesda as if he were diseased why the immaculate Son of God would wash with sinners Let him take this answer That he was brought to Baptism even as the Spirit came down upon him anon after from heaven in the shape of a Dove It was not for want of the Spirit before or that any thing could be added to that plentiful grace which did inhabit in him but to call for the Holy Ghost that it might rest upon his Church So it was not for want of cleanness that he suffered such a Ceremony at Jordan to be done unto him as belongs to them that are impure but to make the Sacrament vertuous and powerful for them that should take it after him Pro nobis Christus lavit imò nos in corpore suo lavit all our defilements if we repent and believe are wash'd away upon his body There were certain legal cleansings with water in the Statutes of Moses Figures of things to come and ordained to satisfie for pollutions that hapned through chance and ignorance but Christ submitted himself to the Ordinance of the New Testament and avoided them For 1. They were Figures what should he do with such things that was the very truth 2. They appertained to the polluted What reference could they have to him that is immaculate 3. They were appointed for trespasses of ignorance What application could they have to him who knows all things in heaven and earth and under the earth And lest he should be mistaken for one in the rank of sinful men as if he came to be baptized for the same end that we do John pronounceth him holy after the strictest manner in another Gospel not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says St. Chrysostom behold him that is without sin but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã behold him that taketh away the sin of the whole world his soul must needs consist of nothing but untainted righteousness He did communicate in his Last Supper with his Disciples and this was his difference from them he took the Bread when he had blessed it Ad spirituale solatium non ad augmentum gratiae not to augment grace and charity as we do but for the delight of his Spirit So it delighted him to sanctifie the waters of our new Birth to the washing away of our sins Vnde ista vertus aquae St. Austin speaks like one astonisht Whence comes it that the poor Element toucheth the skin and mundifieth the heart But even from him whose hem of his garment an impotent woman took in her hand and Christ perceived that vertue was gone out of him and as you must not conceive any Physical inherent vertue was in his cloaths to stop an issue of bloud as there is in some stones and herbs which in their substance are medicinal so you must not mistake as if Christ had sanctified all Rivers that a strange hidden vertue is infused into such water as is blessed to baptize whereby ex opere operato by the meer aspersion the soul should become unpolluted but by this act of our Saviours it was ordained and instituted to be the matter of that Sacrament which should sanctifie the Children of God Neither doth the Doctrine of this reason stretch so far as if God could not have caused Jordan and all other Fountains to take away pollution though Christ had never been washed in his own Person for that immortal Laver is the medicine of our souls because the vertue of the Holy Ghost is upon it Spiritus novit locum suum as many of the Fathers when the world was first made the Spirit moved upon the waters and he keeps the same place in our New Birth when we are made again children I mean by adoption and grace and so far of the second reason Thirdly It appears from hence what the Prophet Isaiah foretold Chap. liii 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all because he hath received our sins upon him and offered himself as bail for us to his Father to discharge us from malediction therefore he was baptized in the form of a sinner and was reckoned among those that had need to be wash'd for their sins In all things it behov'd him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and a faithful High Priest Heb. ii 17. Nazianzen makes all things consist in these three Points man may be said to be born thrice 1. A miserable Infant from his mothers womb 2. He is regenerate and born again by water and the holy Spirit 3. He is brought to life again at the last day when the Grave shall give up the dead in every one of these Christ was made like unto man by his Nativity by his Baptism by his Resurrection But to be made like unto us in Baptism was more against his dignity than both the rest in some comparisons His Mother brought him forth indeed in the form of a poor helpless Infant yet you will grant that to be an Infant is the order of nature and not a misery He did overcome death at his Resurrection nothing was ever done more triumphantly he did overcome such enemies which to that time had been unvanquishable but he came to Baptism in the person of many sinners that as he had honoured our nature in his Birth so he might purifie it in Baptism to be made sin
the Feast Go and sit down in the lowest room but litterally descension is infallibly the motion of a body And otherwise the wonder had herein consisted not that such a Dove was seen but that such a strange spectacle appeared to John and to all the multitude which was not to be seen John did see the object it did not phantastically in a shadow deceive him as if he saw it And it is a touch worthy to be observed by the way that my Text says he saw the Spirit which is a clear Metonimy of the sign for the thing signified for in truth he saw no more than the outward sign of the Spirit To call the holy Spirit by the attribute of the Dove is a Sacramental signification not an essential mutation just such a form of speech as when Christ brake bread at his Last Supper and said unto his Disciples This is my body I proceed to that which follows how aptly the Spirit came in one figure at this time upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at this day of Pentecost upon the Apostles If I would rake old Heresies out of their dead embers to refute them here I had occasion The Arians extorted from hence that Christ did receive the mighty gift of Sanctification at this Baptism and other admirable graces of the Spirit which he had not before If they were worth the refuting I could tell them Joh. i. 14. As soon as ever the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us he was full of grace and truth On the contrary the Macedonian Hereticks men of corrupt minds did make a difference of dignity between Christ and the Holy Ghost as the body of a man was more excellent which belonged to Christ than the body of a Dove wherin the Spirit sate upon him Then belike if an Angel should come in the shape of a man or of an Eagle which is more glorious than a Dove he should also have the preheminence But the blindness of the error came from hence that they did not distinguish how Christ took upon him the nature of a man but the Holy Ghost did not assume the nature of a Dove Let these blasphemies go let them rot and consume with the Authors which invented them the Father the Son and the Spirit are all one in Glory equal in Majesty coeternal Upon occasion of Baptism the Master sent forth his Disciples saying Go and baptize all Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Can I pass by the surpassing wit of St. Austin upon that place Non in nominibus sed in nomine patris ubi unum nomen est ibi unus Deus Not in the names but in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Where there is but one name and no more there is but one God and no more As in like argument St. Paul Gal. iii. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ Let me return into my own path which I am to beat that Christ had one sign of the Holy Ghost coming down upon him and the Apostles had another Upon which diversity thus I find the Fathers exercising their wits in several meditations First The Spirit sate upon our Saviours head in the shape of an whole entire creature in no other figure but a tongue upon the Apostles which is no more than a little part of the body for we receive the grace of God by scantlings and pittances and small measures the whole Spirit flowed into Christ in all abundance In like manner Gregory shews the odds between his fulness and ours in Analogy between the head and other members of the body A body hath the sense of touching only and no more the head is the continent of all the five senses Ita membra superni capitis in quibusdam virtutibus emicant ipsum caput in cunctis virtutibus flagret So the Saints have several gifts and ornaments divided among them some in one kind some in another but the head of the Church hath all flourisheth with all those vertues united in himself which are parted among his members Secondly The tongues of holy men and Prophets did often promise grace and reconciliation to the world and therefore a tongue did sit upon them as it were a Crest of Armory a Dove when time was did actually exhibit that God was pacified and appeased when he had been wroth I mean the Dove which returned to the Ark with a dry Olive branch in her mouth in token that the waters were dried up and that Noah and his Family might come forth with safety Therefore a Dove most properly did belong to Christ Most properly I say but more transcendently says St. Chrysostom now than ever The first Dove did comfort the world ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that punishment was taken away this Dove is a sacred pledge that grace and blessings shall be bestowed upon us Now it appeared not to bring one man and his family safe into the possession of the earth but to bring all Believers safe into the possession of heaven Thirdly The Spirit came not to Christ in fire for he was full of Zeal nor yet in the shape of a tongue for full of grace were his lips But discite quia mitis learn of me because I am meek and gentle therefore says Bernard the Dove came to testifie the placidness of the Lamb. Quod agnus in animalibus columba in avibus such as the Lamb is among the beasts of the field such is the Dove among the fouls of the air Fire is stern and formidable Christ would have none of that that which sorts with consolation to recreate a trembling conscience was his peculiar choice therefore the third Person descended like a Dove and sate upon him Fourthly The tongues wherein the Apostles received the grace of God were cloven and divided not to signifie a rent and a division Linguarum distantiae non sunt schismata but because there is a diversity and a dispreading about of the gifts of God Then comes down one single Dove to honour Unity Spiritus sanctus divisus in linguis unitus in columbâ says St. Austin it was pride which caused that diversity of tongues it was the Holy Ghost through the humility of Christ which sanctified that diversity Quod turris dissociaverat Ecclesia collegit Babel the Tower of pride scattered the world the Church which is the Tower of humility gathers the world together But the Dove was the Ensign of our Saviours Kingdom standing for the unity of the Spirit which is the bond of peace Fifthly The Holy Ghost was made manifest to the Chruch first in a Dove at the feast of Christs Baptism afterward in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide to betoken it is the same Spirit which requires innocency in the
possible for the Devil to understand how the union of the Godhead did determine that indifferency of the will only to good and did exempt it from all possibility or inclination to evil and the rage of malice dulling the sharpness of his intellectual parts he proceeds upon the Premises the second Person of Trinity is become flesh and born of a woman that in the same nature wherein mankind sinned they might be redeemed but if this fleshly nature could be contaminated with sin God would dissolve the Hypostatical Union and cast it off Dissolve the Union and he cannot be the Mediator between God and man and then the Sons of men shall be left without hope of redemption for ever And it may be the Devil had that foolish forecast in his mind when he stirred up Judas to betray him that by his death he might dissolve the union between his Godhead and our humane nature If any man will answer these Scholastical discourses and say the Devil hath no where revealed his own counsels I reply again we need not be ashamed of the modesty of St. John Rev. ii We have not known the depth of Satan but this one thing is not dubitable he would have tempted Christ to sin We can all easily discern the Devils deformity out of this Sermon what a grievous crime it was to sollicite God to do unjustly but what if this be our own fault many times dearly Beloved Will you not diligently amend it for the time to come When you see it is the blackest crime in the Devil 1. He that sweareth by the name of God and lies what doth he but implore the name of God to bear false witness to his Perjury Would man make God sin for his sake And is not man a Devil Again he that pretends he hath made a Vow unto the Lord and that his Vow constrains him to do some wicked thing doth he not make God the impulsive cause of his abomination Another prays for nothing more heartily than that the Lord will pour out his vengeance upon those whom he hates although they be innocent What is that else but to say Do thou kill that man for my sake who art a most just God whom it becomes not me to hurt that am a most wicked sinner And though we have not Satans opportunity to tempt Christ himself face to face yet remember that Kings are Gods Vicegerents upon earth and whosoever wrongs their ear with any corrupt communication or flattery he comes the nearest of any man to this sin in my Text to tempt God himself to evil Non ab acervo sed à semente furantur says Plutarch They that propound evil things to the Ruler of the People they do not steal from the Barn or from the Stack but from the seed-corn it self and by the Civil Law that is double thievery There are under parts likewise of this Tentation and certain insinuating ways to wriggle it in which are fit to be discovered First He closeth with Christ upon a most artificial obtestation If thou be the Son of God It is good Oratory you know to importune a man to do a thing by that which he will not for shame deny If you be an Israelite serve the Lord if Christ be your Master follow peace and humility These are deep adjurements So Satan turns this Rhetorick upon our Saviour If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread But Beloved be strong to resist these adjurations when they are turned upon you as stones of offence It is vulgar and trivial to cog a sin into a man with these lispings if you love me let me obtain this at your hands if you be my friend deny me not as you are a Gentleman refuse me not in this or another evil association retort such evil adjurements as these in the name of God I know no such sweetness in love and friendship as to serve God together in the unity of the same Spirit I know no such obligation upon the honour of a Gentleman as to keep a good conscience Sell not your soul away for a few fair words for which so dear a price was paid as the bloud of Christ What other device do you mark Why two in one word Command that these stones says Satan Mark what a great believer the Devil is turn'd it is in your power you can command it Nay it is in the Greek Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã say the word God made all things by the word of his power and you are that Word if you say it it is done As if he would profess such a faith as the Centurion was commended for dic verbo say the word and my servant shall be healed Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum I will not make a long Narration for the honour of Religion what mischiefs have been brought to pass by colour of Religion but I will tell you for a warning of such hypocrisie that as the curse of Jacob stuck close unto his Sons who made Circumcision their stratagem to kill the Sichemites so the curse of God shall stick close to them who cheat and betray and sow discords devour Widows houses make merchandise of holy things upon pretence of Sanctity For how is God abused by this fraudulency when he may truly say many sins are done which had never been committed if there had been no Religion in the World The other insinuation is the facility of doing it he perswades to that which is as easie as to breath speak but half a word and these stones are made bread Sin indeed is like suretiship it is an easie thing to get into bands but very troublesom to get out of them Facilis descensus Averni It is a wide gate and no rub in the way that leadeth to damnation but these foul actions which are so easie to wicked men that they cannot avoid them the Lord makes them very difficult to them that are regenerate and born again He hath set a watch before their lips so that they cannot speak the word which is dishonourable to his holy name or if they do speak it it is with much reluctancy and by this you shall know that heavenly grace is in your heart when you cannot do those things at all or at least with much unwillingness which the children of Satan do with great facility This touch and away for those three insinuations upon which the Devil did slide in his tentation Hitherto I have spoken upon no more but in general that the Prince of Devils attempted to make Christ a sinner And whereas his allurement in particular partly struck upon Gluttony partly or rather upon Infidelity how he urged unto Infidelity shall be deferred unto a larger explication and I will only add a few words upon his tentation to Gluttony before I conclude A marvellous subtil beginning he propounds nothing but that which nature necessarily calls for the most spiritual the most holy men in the
that can turn stones into bread is it not as easie for him to turn hunger into satiety And had this been a good Angel as he was I believe the worst of the bad should he instruct Christ what to do Sus Minervam Who hath been the Counsellor of the Lord Says the Prophet Quid illi consilium tuum cui sua sufficit virtus What Spirit can teach him wisdom who giveth wisdom to the simple and hides these things from the wise and prudent Now argue if there be any thing but infidelity to ask such a sign for the Devils sake The working of a miracle is ever destinated to win some to the faith that were weak before or upon some other divine reason to promote Gods glory Where the Fathers glory could not be advanced by signs and wonders the Son kept his miracles to himself No sign was wrought before Herod though he did much desire it for his heart was set upon perverseness to withstand the power of God And Christ did not many mighty works in his own country because of their unbelief And so says St. Cyprian it had been against all rule and equity to have wrought a miracle in the Desart Coram inemandibili Diabolo before that Fiend of hell who is incorrigible and uncapable of faith He that can turn water into wine can turn stones into bread but the Devil is so obdurate in malice past all grace and repentance that the very stones in the street shall sooner confess that Jesus is the Christ than he will give glory to the Living God Chrysologus plays his part again upon this Point You that haunt the Wilderness to tempt the Son of God what would you do with a sign from heaven Cui nihil subvenit ad salutem cui totum restat ad paenam cui signa proficiunt ad ruinam Nothing will help thee nothing will resore thee All the good that is done in thy presence shall turn to thy punishment All the miracles that ever were wrought shall make for thine everlasting torment And so I have shewed whether the Tempter called for stones to be made bread for Christs sake or for his own sake every way it was unjust every way it was the note of Infidelity So far I have taught you from the first Point that the scope of this first temptation was the sin of Infidelity and from thence I have illustrated that above all other mischiefs Satan suggests deceitful perswasions that God careth not for us and labours to dissolve the confidence which we have in God Now this is the sum and head of the second general part of the Text that we must strive to take away the Devils I F this spirit of distrust and have affiance in Christ that we are the Sons of God And because this Doctrine comes all to one pass with that which is called certitude of Salvation a Doctrine which in my judgment is abused very often both by them which defend it too rigidly and by them that oppose it totally therefore I will institute a methodical tractate upon it in these five members 1. That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful touching the remission of their sins in this life 2. The Holy Ghost doth beget this assurance in them by causing them to examine what good fruits they have produced already from a lively faith and do resolve to produce thereafter 3. This comfortable assurance is not the formal act of justifying faith but an effect which follows it 4. This assurance is not alike in all that are regenerate nor at all times alike 5. No mortified humble Christian must despair or afflict his heart because scruples arise in his mind so that he cannot attain to a strong confidence or assurance in Christs mercies He that can attain but to a conjectural hope or some beginnings of gracious comfort shall be blessed before God who will not quench the smoaking flax And upon all these I will be very plain because it is a necessary Treatise for the weaker capacities You shall hear the first conclusion again and the proofs upon it That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful that their sins are remitted There are two degrees of justifying faith the one is a lively assent to the general promise of the Gospel that Christ came into the world to save all those that believe The other is the application of it to a mans self that he is thine and my Saviour By the former we are justified before God by the latter we are perswaded in our conscience and in some measure assured of our justification The former degree is the work of the Spirit regenerating us the latter is the Spirit of adoption sealing it to us after we have believed Every man is bound upon pain of damnation to have the first degree of faith to give assent to the Promise of the Gospel And the second degree may be attained unto out of the former and ought to be endeavoured for the great increase of our love and obedience to God and for our own most singular comfort yet it is not commanded to all the faithful upon pain of damnation Many times a true justifying faith but a weak and imperfect faith cannot get so far therefore I said the Holy Ghost did beget this assurance in some measure in many of the faithful I had said false if I had said in all And I called it you must mark an humble assurance for first it hath many quiverings and trepidations many symptomes of fear and trembling no rash and audacious presumption Secondly It grows out of the acknowledgment that for sundry iniquities we deserved the condemnation of the Law For they that feel not their misery will neglect their misery and never care to apply Christ unto themselves But the humble will seek the Lord and rejoyce in his saving health and then they have not only an intellectual but a fiducial assent to the Promises of the Gospel and that fiducia or assent doth arise out of the very nature of true faith yet I do not say that true faith in all that have it doth put forth this act as it ought and as it may but every faithful man hath such a foundation upon which he may build an actual assurance if he will rightly consider his own state to which God hath called him the Lords custody over him and the faithfulness of the divine Promises The efficient cause of this fiducial perswasion I said was the Holy Ghost and I am sure I have it from our Saviour Joh. 14.20 at that day that is after the sending of the Holy Ghost you shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you Can any thing be plainer Indeed general Promises are particularly applied by the Sacraments which seal unto us the bloud of Christ that it was shed for the sins of this and that
sancti factum est ut quae obscura sunt in Scripturis per apertiora possunt illustrari says St. Austin God hath compounded easie places with difficile that you may have some fruit ready to reap and some to be gathered and expected hereafter unto the ends of the world As we read of Manna that it was saporous to all Palates and every man might taste in Manna whatsoever he loved to taste so the Scripture hath all good relishes in it taste and try and it wants nothing which is delightful for the soul unto salvation No Book in the world hath so many rewards for vertue no Edicts set forrh by all the Princes of the world so many punishments for iniquity no store-house among all the Papers in the world so full of consolation such lofty wisdom delivered in all simplicity such fortitude commanded with so much sufferance and patience such strict justice observed with so much equity and forgiveness is not to be found elsewhere beneath the Sun save in those Volumes of the Holy Ghost Let your eyes love to gaze upon this Fountain as the Doves in the Canticles are said to gaze upon the waters and if you will gaze upon them with a Dove-like innocency you will read them for these five ends First You see in my Text that Christ quotes them to repel the Devil He fought against the Flesh by fasting against the wicked World by retiring into the solitary Wilderness but against the Devil with the authority of the Word of God You shall seldom meet with an Apollos that is mighty in the Scripture with such a one as Antonius of Padua who was called Arca Testamenti by them that admired his cunning in the Scripture his memory was like the Ark wherein the Law of God was laid up seldom shall you find such a man but he will over-master at least the very criminal and notorious suggestions of the Devil Secondly Read them to learn Christ and his glory in them for this end our Saviour directed the Pharisees to Moses and the Prophets and the Beraeans are stiled more noble than those of Thessalonica because when Paul preached Jesus they searched the Scriptures whether those things were so Acts xvii 11. Thirdly Read them for the consolation of that glory which is laid up for you These things were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. xv 4. All the Traditions in the world beside leave the mind fluctuating and miserably uncertain into what state hereafter the soul shall be received Fourthly Read them to be instructed in the study of Piety and good Works to the glory of God Thou hast known the Scriptures from a child to make thee wise unto Salvation says Paul to his Timothy in that 2 Epist iii. 15. In all the exhortatives and Pandects of Laws which the Heathen made there was not only the omission of some excellent vertues but the permission the very institution of some notorious vices Fifthly Read the Scriptures not to engender questions as very many do but to produce Peace and to be the end of all Controversies To keep up Discords when the Law and Gospel is in our hand to decide them nay to enflame the more because we have waters from the Well of life to quench them is Satans imperial device he is now grown so cunning to wring what he list out of the sacred Text that he presumes Scriptum est shall little hurt him And to the end the Scripture may be more unapt to cut off Controversies the sharpest Controversies in the Church are raised upon the very Scripture As 1. upon the incorruption of the sacred Text. 2. Upon the validity of Translations 3. By augmenting them with Apocryphal Books that are not inspired by the Holy Ghost 4. By interposing they are an incomplete rule without unwritten traditions 5. That they prove nothing indubitably without the unanimous consent of pure antiquity 6. That all the Lay part or at least the unlearned are to be interdicted the reading and possessing them as well because of their obscure sense as because the ignorant may suck out of them the venom of Heresie 7. They jossle the Church and Scripture together which should be superiour 8. They have wrangled themselves almost into Atheism that they know no way but by an historical faith or mans testimony that this is the Writ of God Thus because the Scriptures are given to overthrow the Kingdom of Satan Satan hath done his endeavour by these bad instruments to overthrow the Scriptures But I say again Beloved let us read them not to increase the rent of the Church but to moderate contentions and to stop the gap Thus St. Austin in a sweet strain of concord to please both God and man Fratres sumus quare litigamus Non intestatus mortuus est pater c. We are brethren and therefore should not strive especially since the Will and Testament of our Father is before us to end all branglings Men fall out sometimes about the goods and inheritance of the dead but if a Will be found the quarrel is quickly taken up read how your Father hath bequeathed all things and you can ask no more Brethren we have the first and later Testament of our Father open them peruse them How do you read there Will you not stand to his Will and Ordination Why the Law will compel you As for a Father upon earth Jacet in monumento valent verba ipsius sedet Christus in coelo contradicitur testamento ejus He is rotten in his grave and yet his will given under the testimony of man quiets all suits Christ sits in heaven for ever and shall not his Testament confirmed by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost be an end of all Controversie So far I have pointed at the utility in reading and well using the holy Scripture because the Scripture is the seat of Christs Argument as I called it And more particularly he doth honour the Law so far as thrice together to quote none other but the words of Moses Moses whom above all the men in the world Satan hated as appears by his striving with the Angel about the body of Moses to advance the Text of Moses against Satan was lapides loqui not to turn stones into bread but to turn his words into stones and to cast them at him Moses is truly called Oceanus Theologiae the Ocean from whence all the Prophets since his time did borrow their divinity Aquo seu fonte perenni vatum divinis ora rigantur aquis Moses his Pen was the first that ever drew History For when Alexander the Great took Babylon his Preceptor Aristotle was most diligent to preserve and examine the most ancient Histories in the Babylonian Libraries and their Computations come short of Moses above two thousand years Moses his subject so admirable as none to be compared The Creation of the world the first foundations of
these did foully err and hold that a man being conscious to himself of some sin that was worthy death might put himself to death that it was an act of justice yea and a Martyrdom and upon this ground whether shouId I say more foolish or more impious they Canonized Judas for a Martyr But St. Austin shews that their Argument jars against two common principles Nemo potest esse judex reus It is incompetible that the same man should be both the guilty person and the Judge 2. Nocentem hominem privata potestate occidere non licet It is murder for any private man not authorized by a lawful Magistrate to execute death upon a Malefactor Judam execramur quamvis sceleratum hominem occidit Judas was a Malefactor and could not kill a worse man than himself yet that sin alone without the rest was damnation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the slaying of himself Remember the Commandment Thou shalt not kill Whom not Neither your self nor your neighbour for you have no more power to hurt your self than another the body is Gods and the Temple of the Holy Ghost And who gave you leave to pluck down a Temple Nature inclines a man to the conservation of himself and what a detestable thing it is to violate the chief Maxime of Nature Which is this in St. Pauls words No man hates his own flesh but loves and cherisheth it No man indeed but he that makes hast to be no man that he might the sooner be a Devil The Heathen went thus far that a man is put into this world as a Souldier is put into some File or some place of the Watch from that station he must not stir till his General calls him Et majori supplicio afficiendus est desertor vitae quà m desertor militia And is not he more worthy of punishment that leaves the place where God did put him before he was summoned than he that comes off from the Watch before the General calls him If the love of your soul the dreadful expectation of Hell-fire will make you decline a sin take heed of this for Gods sake above all others All other sins when they are committed have yet some leasure to beg mercy and at what time soever a sinner c. but how can the Lord put such a sin out of his remembrance where it is impossible there should be time to repent Vt laqueo respiratio it a prohibetur desperatione spiritus sanctus as Bedae said of Judas they stop their own breath and with that desperate act exclude the Holy Ghost from inspiring any sanctified cogitation into them What can befal a man in this world to defie Heaven and Earth at once And to die the death of the damned without redemption Bethink your selves judiciously it cannot be want torture or calamity for though these be very sharp especially to those that are impatient yet they are not so smartful as the stinging of a Bee nor the biting of a Flea compared with the Lake of Brimstone into which they irrecoverably send their own soul that let out of the body with their own violent hand Nor should it irke a man to stay Gods leasure till he be dissolved for any reproach or ignominy that he hath incurred for so your former dishonour is not forgotten but ten times more divulged and increased See how publick shame which followed such desperate persons after their death did work with some of Miletum as Plutarch reports it Many of the Milesian Virgins through the perswasions of some Diabolical Philosophers hanged themselves To stop this unnatural fury when no reason would revoke them the Magistrates made a Law that the bodies of all such should be left naked in the open Market-place for ten days and the fear of that worldly shame did for ever after rectifie those who were living that they held their hands from violence But what other impulsive cause can be named Can the remorse of sins past breed such a destructive melancholy in any mans disposition God forbid This is to cast Mountains upon Mountains and to make all worse Sins are not covered by heaping one upon another but blessed is the man whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered There is another life given to expiate your iniquities and not your own even the bloud of Christ Repent you seriously and be merciful unto your self and then God will be merciful unto you Yet Achitophel with all his politick reach could not make use of these plain notions but confounded himself partly with the guiltiness of his rebellion partly with the fear of his reputation For it is very likely he shuffled his Game thus If Absalon overcome King David Hushai hath given the better counsel and so I shall live in disgrace If David prevail which is very likely he will take away my life because of the pernicious Plots which I have laid against him See how this witty Wretch could forget that David was a merciful Prince and did not execute one of his enemies in cold bloud But God lets the wits of the wisest turn addle who meditate to be Authors of their own ruine and to cast themselves down from a Pinacle upon the Devils suggestion But God keeps all those from this sin whom he means to have converted and be saved The Jaylor took out his Sword and was ready to have faln upon it but Paul cried out at the instant Do thy self no hurt and soon after he was baptized and believed he and his house Paul may loath this world and desire to be dissolved but he must wait the Lords leisure and not hasten his dissolution It was the blessing of the Lord upon mankind Increase and multiply To replenish the world is a Benediction to take one of Gods Servants away unless by the hand of justice and that the Magistrate doth in the person of God is a Malediction What spirit was in the Tridentine Fathers to make the second book of Machabees Canonical Wherein Razias is commended in most fluent phrases that killed himself I know St. Austin says Razii mors narratur non laudatur it is but a narration of the fact not an Encomium Let any child read Chap. xiv toward the end of it and judge if he be not extolled for it with most artificial commendation The same Father is more Orthodox in another place that pious reason is to be preferred before examples Quae tantò dig niora sunt imitatione quantò excellentiora pietate which are no further worthy of imitation than they excel in Piety And again I may say Why did the Roman Martyrology Canonize the Virgins of Aquileia Who drowned themselves to avoid certain barbarous Ravishers For as Aquinas treats upon the fact 1. Fornication were a less sin than violent murder 2. If they had not refused that carnal sin as much as they could yet Repentance might have wash'd away the spot of that crime in the other act of unnatural
lest he pluck the house about our ears Do we provoke the Lord to anger are we stronger then be O provoke him not lest he swear that ye shall not enter into his rest but with holy reverence and stedfast faith submit your selves to his revealed will Amen THE FOURTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 8. Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high Mountain and sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them THe Scripture makes mention that there is a season at the return of the year when Kings go forth to battel This is not the time all men know it well enough quite contrary now it is usual that the wearied Souldier should draw himself out of the Field into Garrison But all times and seasons are alike unto our Adversary the Devil all the changes and quarters of the year will serve his turn to fight against us who walks about continually seeking whom he may devour Wherefore I bring him out before you to let you see how he laid about him in his last skirmish for this third is his last tentation As the Carthaginians in their third Punick War lost their City and Kingdom to the Romans and never bore Arms more so you shall see Satan so repulsed at this onset that he left the Field to the Conquerour and never after propounded any blasphemous tentation in a visible shape to the Son of God David was much imboldned to fight with Goliah and assured himself of Victory because he had grappled with two savage beasts and slain them both and thus spake chearfully to Saul Thy servant slew both the Lion and the Bear and this uncircumcised Philistin shall be as one of them So the first tentation was unto our Saviour like a ravenous gluttonous Bear Command that these stones be made bread The second was like a ramping and a roaring Lion all boldness and presumption Cast thy self down from a Pinacle of the Temple Now he that escaped both these out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear shall triumph most victoriously over this great Goliah in the last and most bewitching tentation which begins in this form Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and sheweth him c. How divers is Satan from himself How unlike is this course to that which he took before Since Christ was so tender of his safety that he would not fall head-long the Tempter casts his Net on the other side of the Ship and promiseth as much as any man can wish in this world that loves himself The odds therefore are very great between the former motion Cast thy self down from a Pinacle of the Temple and between this motion Behold all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them c. The one is Passio corruptiva make away your self utter ruine and corruption This is Passio perfectiva the perfection and solace both of the eye and the heart to see the pride of the earth and all the excellency of it as upon a Theater The ways indeed are divers but the malicious intention is the same or rather far greater in this which I will demonstrate piecemeal as I handle the several particulars of which these are to be considered in this present Verse 1. The importunity of Satan he is upon our Saviour again Again the Devil taketh him up 2. The variety of his shifts from the Pinacle of the Temple he taketh him up to an exceeding high Mountain 3. Note by what gate or passage he would enter his tentation by the eye Ostendit illi he shews a goodly object unto him 4. The dignity of the Object he shews him Kingdoms 5. For the amplitude and generality All the Kingdoms of the world 6. In their most amiable and desirable shape he shewed them in their glory All the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them 7. Satan shewed himself to be an arch Juggler or Praestigiator as Artists call it for St Luke adds that he shew'd all this in a moment of time these are all distinctly to be handled and first of his importunity Again the Devil taketh him up c. A close Solicitor and a diligence worthy to be commended if it had been in a good cause But they that are in a wrong way are most zealous in their course and negotiate for hell more urgently than we do for heaven Many a soul is lost for want of teaching and instruction it is very dreadful to remember how God will require it at our hands but in this Satan triumphs that never any soul escap'd him for want of instance and prosecution And I hold it for a true Position that many times he is assiduous to subvert good men where there is no hope of speeding to provoke God to be angry with our lazy negligence upon the comparison I believe the Devil never thought to proceed so far as to a second tentation with our Saviour much less to a third but to get what he lookt for at the first motion yet since he found an hard match of it and was twice repulsed with such evidences of Scripture as could not be answered he redoubles his boldness and thinks in the end to weary out our Saviour as Dalilah did Samson with importunity St. Paul besought the Lord thrice that the Messenger of Satan might depart from him The one prayed often the other prick'd him often The evil Spirit vied it with the good Apostle the one exceeded in the number of devout Prayers the other was not one whit behind in the number of fleshly tentations St. Austin compared the Devil to a Mastive Dog Qui nec percussus ab hominis laceratione separatur Beat him thrust him away stave him off break his teeth in his head yet he flies upon you till he have torn and devoured you So this incensed Adversary never to be reconciled will not be quite driven from you with Vows with Fastings with Supplications but listens to hear you say as one discouraged with perplexity I am weary of my groaning untill this tyranny be overpass'd But that tyranny is uncessant the hatred of the Devil hath no stint expect it be ready for it and let it not sting your conscience with horrour if you find somewhat within you always warring against the Spirit tentations are not like some diseases which are not incident to a man above once in his life scape once and secure for ever but like hereditary infirmities which are ever recurring to torment the flesh A quotidian is more like to be cured if it be well look'd to than an Ague whose Paroxysms keep longer distance Nor shall the Tempter again or his importunities bow down our neck under the yoke of sin these quotidian fits shall not weaken the inward man if the fear of the Lord be ever in our heart and his name often between our lips to conjure down the Regiment of the Prince
spake upon all the Kingdoms of the World this could not be done in the twinkling of an eye But no man can read an Author but he will find many such hyperbolical speeches The Syrian Paraphrast translates St. Luke in brevissimo tempore Satan did it in a trice in a very short time beyond the imagination of man to think how it should be done so quickly that 's the meaning of the Holy Ghost It was his subtilty to hurry over things that Christ might have no time of deliberation but be surprized of a sudden before He could give a well meditated answer I know it may be descanted upon likewise that such things told upon relation could not move any mans appetite so well as to muster them before the eye Segnius irritant animos dimissa per aures c. therefore I say this was a mingle of tentation all that could be was shewed unto the eye and the rest was supplyed by narration Use which of these last opinions you will or if none do satisfie yet believe the Text to be true for that must be believ'd though the manner be unsearchable The Lord will come at the blast of a Trumpet and all flesh shall be gathered together in the twinkling of an eye and then all mysteries shall be opened to us among other things that are not yet discover'd how the Devil took our Saviour up into an exceeding high Mountain and shew'd him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them in the twinkling of an eye THE FIFTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 9. And saith unto him All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me BErnard meditates upon our Saviours suffering on the Cross that there were tria pungentia three sharp pointed Instruments that ran into his flesh But the first more lightly The second much more sensibly And the last made a further entrance into his body than all the rest The thorns platted on his head raced the skin the Nails went through his hands and feet But the Speare made a ruder and a deeper wound through his side into his very heart So these three Tentations of the Devil succeed one another like those tria pungentia every one had a sharper point and a greater sting to do mischief than the other but it was not possible they should stick like thorns and nails in the Son of God The tentation to make stones of bread was an advice to make bad provision for the sustenance of this life there was Spina necessitatis Satan would have prickt Christ on with the thorns of want and necessity The tentation to cast himself down from the top of the Temple was to draw him to a violent and a presumptuous death as bad as that nail if he could have fastned it which Jael struck into the head of Sisera The third tentation is a mash of all the venom which the Devil had left Peccata peccatis producta here are sins hanging upon sins one at the end of another to make up the length of a Spear In a word here is a brood of sins in a nest four apparently without all subdivisions First Peccatum habendi he offers him the sin of Covetousness to give him all the Possessions of the world Secondly Peccatum regnandi he would rub Ambition upon him and put into his hands all the Kingdoms and Power of the world Thirdly Peccatum malè credendi he would seduce him to believe that all these things which God alone brings forth from his treasure were his to dispose Fourthly Peccatum turpiter adorandi he durst ask that which is so horrid that it is able to curdle a mans bloud to repeat it that Christ would fall down and worship him Aquinas builds the gradation of these three Tentations on this sort First The evil Spirit demanded no more of Christ Quà m quod appetunt quantumcunque veri spirituales which the holiest men in the world and most endowed with the Spirit must use but to refresh and feed his body Secondly He required that which holy men ought not to do yet it is incident through frailty now and then for holy men to do it to jump down from a Pinacle out of ostentation and to be gazed upon for vain glory But he climbs up in the third tentation to such a motion as never any spiritual and holy man can commit to be bribed with wealth and honour to forsake the Lord and to adore his foulest enemy Therefore in both the former temptations he began with this preface If thou be the Son of God but he leaves out those words when he makes this Proposition in my Text for the Son of God would never commit such black Idolatry though he could give more than all yet he laies all at the stake for this venture All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Though Satans Kingdom be not divided yet his Tentations may But first I will read you my Text as St. Luke hath enlarged it that we may miss nothing which the Spirit of God hath uttered upon these words Thus that Evangelist Chap. iv 6. All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine Now I suppose we may charge these particulars upon the Text made up out of both the Evangelists First Wherein the enticement of this tentation consists why in giving in most liberal remuneration pretended Dabo I will give Secondly What and how much he will give and that is twofold As a Mammonist of Wealth he will he says put into his hands all the Riches and Possessions that the eye can see All these things will I give thee And as a Lucifer of pride he tells him that he will give him title to all the honours of the world all this power will I give thee and the glory of them Thirdly he shews Christ his evidences Quo jure by what right and authority he can make over all this unto him In these words For that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Fourthly and lastly Every Bait hath his Hook under it So this promise is laid upon a most impious condition if Christ will fall down and worship him Set your minds now upon these things and I will deliver them in their order Every tentation had some clawing provocation in it peculiar to it self now the sharpness and dangerousness of this tentation is in giving that is the first Point Dabo tibi I will give thee that is a speeding word we must confess it to the shame of the world Every one is a friend to him that bringeth gifts says Solomon All Satyrical Invectives Fables or Morals Writings of every cut and fashion are full of this that these things which Satan requires are commonly to be bought Worship Homage and what you
that Psalm they that are just and faithful in their sayings he that speaks the truth from his heart v. 2. he that hath used no deceit in his tongue v. 3. he that sweareth to his neighbour and disappointeth him not though it were to his own hinderance v. 5. David desired to know by some sign whether he should come into the presence of Saul or fly from him Why Jonathan kept his word with David Jonathan desired that David would be merciful to his Posterity after him David sware unto him and kept his word with Jonathan But be you just in your promises to your brother and God will make good unto you the promise of eternal life the Lord is faithful in all his sayings and holy in all his works The next collection from hence shall be this that the Devil would not offer less than all he had to win a Soul he would not offer a trifle for that which he knew was the most precious thing upon earth And it is a little excuse though far from a good answer when a man is fetcht into a sin for a great bewitching recompence pretio octuplicis stipendii illectus as that famous Renego pleaded for himself that he was enticed back to the Church of Rome with a stipend eight times greater than he had in England but to be enticed from our heavenly Father like a Child with toyes of no estimation it accuseth us that we do not value our own soul at so good a rate as the Devil doth What a narrow mean reward was that for which the lying Prophets did change the service of God Ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread Ezek. xiii 19. What will you give me sayes Judas and I will betray him And you do not find that he did drive the Market with the Priests and Elders but took the first sum that they appointed him Anima lucri cupida etiam pro exiguo perire non metuit sayes Leo. A greedy covetous mind will damn both body and soul for a little money What could Esau have taken less than a mess of pottage especially made of lentiles the meanest pittance of relief that a beggar looks for at every door and what had Esau in this world to exchange for it so precious and valuable as his Birthright the Law shews the dignity thereof that all the first-born were peculiarly consecrated and given unto God Exod. xxii 29. they were next in honor to their Parents they had a double portion of their Fathers goods Until the Law was given the first-born administred the Priesthood in the Family that was a sacred thing and yet more sacred he was a type of Christ for Christ is called the first-born among many brethren Rom. viii 29. Moreover and above it was a type of our adoption and being heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven See what a vile exchange Esau did make for all this heavenly dignity that the Holy Ghost for good cause calls him a prophane person who for one meals meat and for such a course meal sold his birthright Heb. xii 16. If we will prostitute our selves so cheaply to the Prince of darkness and ask less than for shame he can offer to put our selves into the bondage of iniquity mark what will follow the Lord will debase us as we have debased our selves thou sellest thy people for nought and takest no money for them sayes the sweet Singer of Israel or as Moses told the Israelites if they sold themselves to commit iniquity they should be sold for slaves and no man would buy them Deut. xxviii 68. But for all this I must give you to know in my next admonition though Satan offer'd all that is in this world yet he did not offer enough for that which he would gain namely to win a soul every thing under the Sun comes short of that appretiation much more in this case it is to be considered that if our Lord Jesus could have been supplanted which was impossible all mankind had perisht for upon his righteousness and upon his perfect obedience did depend our Crown and our Salvation if therefore one soul is worth the whole world and more what could be valued against all the souls in the world But I will instance upon this for our use there is nothing so valuable that should bribe a man to commit the least sin against our Heavenly Father You will smile at the Indian Savages that part with gold and spices and amber for glass beads and saffron brouches yet whosoever sins for the mammons of iniquity barters for a far more unequal merchandise you change immortality for death eternal joy for continual care a certain treasure for uncertain riches the most happy fruition of the Creator for less than the felicity of a dream aut transeunt nobis viventibus aut dimittuntur nobis dormientibus the living may lose all they have got by injustice but for certain the dead cannot keep it What is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away Luke ix 25. if he lose himself the word following is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the vulgar read it detrimentum sui faciat from whence a good Expositor sayes there is no comparison in the purchasing of earthly things non solùm cum damnatione aeternâ sed etiam cum jacturâ gratiae Dei though damnation and hell fire were not incurr'd to suffer the loss of the Holy Spirit and of the Grace of God Wherefore all that Satan could shew and let him shew as many worlds as Alexander could wish all is not worth such a cringe as he would have the Son of God to make to bow down and commit Idolatry We read of one Apostle so abounding in charity to his own Nation that he could be content to lose his part of heaven cupio anathema esse pro fratribus it was St. Paul who was willing to be anathema for his brethren that God might be glorified in all the people of Israel but he would not exchange the least degree of his sanctity and faith in Christ for all the muck in the world Joseph had rather lose that was comfortable to him in this life liberty good name yea the garments from his back then be defil'd with lust I have no instance fit to come after that of Moses Hebr. xi 24. who by faith refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Philo sayes of him that Thermut the only child and daughter of Pharaoh being long married and quite barren wanting issue to succeed fained her self big and at last to be delivered of Moses whom she found in an ark of bulrushes exposed to be drown'd him she brought up for her adopted child to inherit all the Kingdoms of Egypt But because Idolatry reigned in that place he could not
all intermeddle with the disposition of earthly Kingdoms either to restrain or depose Princes though tyrannical or heretical or blasphemous Their conversion is to be zealously prai'd for in the mean time their yoke is to be born with patience and we must kiss the scourge of God The Sorbon Divines of Paris do generally carry this badge and the Protestant Churches unanimously speak this Language The second Tenent is that the Temporal Soveraignty of the whole world is inherent in the Office of Christs Vicar as they call him to give change alter or confirm the Titles of particular Princes as his infallible judgment shall lead him Let every brain that is not distempered judge what a Doctrine this is Non sani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes The third Tenent which Cardinal Bellarmine and the Jesuitical Pack maintain is a modification of the former The Pope hath no temporal Soveraignty at all annexed by vertue of the Papacy but Indirectè in ordine ad spiritualia indirectly and to remove the impediments of the common good especially of the Church he might send to the people by his Briefs that they owe no subjection to a wicked King that he could take off their Oath of Fealty and free them from Perjury that he hath power to excommunicate such Princes and translate their Kingdoms from them to such as he shall adjudge to be more Catholick Whether he will arm the Son against Father the Brother against the Brother a Rebel against his true King all these have been done why it lies In scrinio pectoris he may collate the Dominions of such Princes on whom it liketh him Pray you how much doth this opinion differ from the second You may easily find it is but white money turned into Gold and comes all to one payment For the Bishop of Rome is made the Judge himself when a Kingdom wants a fit Governour for the good of the Church for the wholsom administration of Justice since therefore all Regal Authority hangs upon Papal discretion it comes all to one pass with that most impudent second opinion which says the Power and glory of the Kingdoms in the world are absolutely in his donation It is no toying in so main a cause as this which concerns the Crowns and Scepters of all Sacred Princes therefore I will demonstrate that I plead against them according to the charge of their own Bill Thus Baronius to begin with him who speaks his mind in these words for his holy Father whom our Lord Jesus Christ the King of glory hath constituted a Prince over all the Kingdoms of the world Augustinus Triumphus All Power and Royalty is subdelegated from the Pope to other Princes No man can give him any Soveraignty which he had not by right before Nec Constantinus dedit quicquam Sylvestro quod non prius erat suum says he The Canonists talk of Constantines donation to Sylvester giving him the temporal Principality of Romania he gave him nothing but that which was his own before that and all beside was St. Peters Patrimony And some of them stake Scripture to prove it but most untowardly as that all power is from God therefore all power Regal and Imperial from Christs Vicar Yet more sinistrously from those words If I be lifted up I will draw all men after me that is if I had an Army strong enough I would recover all the Seigniories of the earth into mine own hand Practice is a plainer Argument than Book-words I will satisfie you then in that Alexander the Sixth a giver that will do but small credit to the gift but such as he is take him with all his faults he bestowed the whole West-Indies upon Ferdinand King of Spain Ex merâ liberalitate motu proprio as the Patent ran Their own Histories say that Athabaliba King of Peru maintained his Royalty by fighting against that Grant till he was taken Prisoner in Battel and then cried out that Pope could have no vertue or reverence to the God of heaven that gave away another mans Dominions from him but I will bring the case home That Bull which Pius the Fifth signed with his own Seal wherein he excommunicated the most blessed Queen Elizabeth hath this Line in it touching his own authority to use that incomparable Lady so unchristianly Hunc unum super omnes gentes omnia regna principem constituit God had constituted him over all Nations and over all Kingdoms O what vaulting spirits are these which run in the Veins of wretched man This forgetful Prelate grant him his own asking from whence his original came and it is from a most humble Apostle whose actions being all of them recorded not any one do lean toward Soveraignty or Principality Yet his Successor in challenge exalted above all that is called God will be a parallel Line and side with him in my Text who makes nothing to dispose of all the Regal Dignities in the world All this power will I give thee c. Let this be enough which I have said to have been discoursed upon the immensity of that honour which Satan challenged to be in his Jurisdiction I proceed to shew upon whose shoulders he would be content to lay it upon our Lord and Saviour Tibi universam hanc potestatem As for the thing it self he wisht that Christ had it in good earnest I make no doubt of it namely that his fortune had been to be an earthly King to be a Caesar Caesarum the Conquerour of all the Dominions in the world rather than such a one he suspected him for that Messias that came to redeem his People and to invite the Nations far and wide over all the earth to the fear of the Lord. Let him be all in all in a temporal Kingdom rather than Saviour that came to erect the spiritual Kingdom of faith to the subversion of the powers of darkness Conceive now unto your selves as if he had spoken more largely on this wise to Christ I find you hungry and forlorn in this Wilderness neither train to attend you nor food to cherish you Alas that such a one as you should be thus negglected 't is pity you are not honoured enough according to the great gifts of sanctity that are in you Why you are worthy to be Lord of the whole world if promotions went by desert And will you live in Famine and Scorn and Humility and at last be crowned with thorns and crucified Nay follow my directions and you shall be crowned with Gold and sway the whole Universe with a Scepter All this power will I give thee and the glory of them It came to pass with our Saviour after this Proposition as it befell chaste Joseph in the house of Potiphar He would not be incontinent yet upon defamation of incontinency he was clapt up in Irons So Christ would no such Kingdom as Satan offered yet upon suspicion that he went about to make himself a King his
fell down to Images in Churches whereupon he took them down and brake them to pieces about the year 600 He writes to Gregory the first to know how he liked it Gregory answers you do very well to teach your people not to worship those Images but you might have let them remain for Ornament Thus Pope Gregory the first but before 160 years after Pope Gregory the third maintain'd tooth and nail against the Eastern Bishops they were to be worshipped What 's answered to all these authorites why the Fathers condemned the using Images after an unlawful manner they might even distinguish as well of lawful lying and lawful treason and adultery as to tell us a tale of lawful idolatry No Scripture no Tradition no Antiquity stands for them and verily no Reason for why is not every man adored for being the true Image of God as well as a Statue hear a subtilty man is capable of some civil reverence in himself if he were worshipped it would fall out the worship would be terminated unto him for himself but a portable God of mettal or stone deserves no honour for it self therefore it cannot likely be mistaken how all the veneration done to it is done for Gods sake what will they say then to such Images and Crucifixes as have moved their head and eyes miraculously such as have sweat like men spoke like men such things are often done by tricks and jugling is not that a scandal to the ignorant to make them bend the whole act of worship to the very Image as the Gentiles were often deluded by the Devil when he made his Idols and Oracles speak Thus they lay baits to destroy the soul of their weak brother to advance their own inventions And for the credit of all Miracles wrought before Image-worshipping let Biel speak sometimes such things are effected by the working of Satan to delude superstitious Devotaries Deo permittente exigentâ talium infidelitate God permits it for their destruction and their own infidelity deserves it I am almost concluding mark what honour God hath peculiarly call'd for to himself and that 's to worship a thing religiously to impart it unto it He bad his Church of Israel kneel toward the Ark of his glory and worship him The people did not see the Ark for it was within the Veil but they were bidden to worship the Lord before his Footstool or before the Ark. Now to translate this manner of adoration to their own Will-worship to worship God before Images as He willed that himself in the Old Law should be worshipped looking towards the Ark is all one as if they had sacrificed to their Images which is confest idolatry But I pray you what satisfaction shall be made to my Text it satisfied the Devil and put him to silence Thou shalt worship c. Thus they shuffle with it when Christ says exclusively God only is to be worshipped all persons are excluded that claim latria but not appertinences or concomitances such as Images that are adored for the example sake Belike by this answer it must be so his Devilship must not be served or cringed but if he can turn himself into the shape of an Image of Christ or one of the Saints he might have his asking You see into how many shapes he turned himself in these Tentations he can change himself into an Angel of light and why not as easily into as fine an Image as ever Nebuchadonoser's was Thus their own wit may bring them to do the fowlest act in the world to fall down and worship the Devil How much better are our souls and our Religion in safety when we ascribe all praise glory service and worship to him only that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for evermore AMEN THE TWENTY FIRST SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 11. Then the Devil leaveth him and behold Angels came and ministred unto him THat Conquerour that had given his Enemy a great overthrow was wont to set up a signal of his Conquest in the same place for every Passenger to look upon and it bore the name of a Trophee Therefore I will call this Text the Trophee of our Saviours Victory which he got of the Devil A Trophee advanced by the Holy Ghost to let us see the Adversary whom we chiefly fear is vanquishable and may be put to flight Never was such an Enemy subdued never were the weapons of holy Scripture used so skilfully before never did such fruit and benefit redound to the whole world from any victory and yet with what little ostentation is this great enterprize concluded Then the Devil leaveth him and behold Angels came and ministred unto him This is the way of God to do famous acts and not to noise it to men with all circumstances of exaggeration as we do now adays They are praised in these times that are Animalia gloriae that desire to do things worthy of renown that they may be praised And better let them spunge up fame than things famous should be omitted Yet there is a more Christian way than this For that divine learning which we gather from the Gospel leaves such impressions of modesty upon all worthy actions of Christ or of the Saints that their good works are never set out with the trappings of eloquence to adorn them barely related to be imitated and never garnish'd to be applauded This Text and every story which the Evangelists have recorded touching the miracles of Christ shall justifie this saying of his Joh. viii 50. I seek not mine own glory as Ennius said of Scipio Affricanus quantam columnam faciet populus Romanus quae res tuas loquatur What a great Pillar must the people of Rome make if all thy noble exploits were engraven upon it So I may say What a great Volume must the Holy Ghost have written if every Miracle of our Saviours had been amplified with a due compensation of glory That labour as I said is spared to teach us to be prodigal in doing good and thrifty in seeking praise Let a man do things laudable for vertue 's sake and no other respect and honour will follow him when his carkass is rotting as hair and nails and excrementitious parts of the body will grow when that body is dead and consuming So this Trophee of the great victory against Satan so I call'd my Text is as plain and modest terms as could be endited But as I doubt not but the Angels glorified our Saviour for it then so we will speak of the might of those marvellous acts now as the four and twenty Elders do Rev. xi 17. We give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee great power and hast reigned and let us add because thou hast subdued our grievous enemy in all his tentations And according to that great humility and modesty which I said was very notable in this report of our
the second branch his associates are Peter John and James ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he took them to see his glory it was his association St. Mark adds by way of emphasis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he took three only and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã privatim he sequestred them apart from this world that they might see his glory Thirdly he prepar'd himself for this illustrious accident in great humility inter precandum he had prostrated himself before his Father in prayer And then fourthly this majestical glory came upon him two waies quoad vultum quoad vestitum in his person in his apparel in his flesh an astonishing radiancy the fashion of his countenance was altered in his cloaths an admirable purity his raiment was white and glistering I cannot be copious upon so many particulars of some more largely of the most succinctly In the first circumstance of all the Spirit of God hath noted out the Time and therefore I must not balk it no not in any of the three respects post dicta post dies post itâr First after those sayings says my Text inquiry shall be made what words those be and with whom he had that communication which went before the demonstrance of his glory in two preceding verses in this chapter Christ exhorted his Disciples and many others to the assurance of his Cross and that they might know he was able to recompence their sorrows who endured affliction for his name sake yea and would recompence it he speaks thus The Son of man shall come in his own glory and in his Fathers and of the holy Angels and I tell you of a truth there he some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God He refers the multitude to look for the last day of judgment when he would come in infinite Majesty to call the World before him but he refers certain nameless persons to expect after a while a pregustation of some heavenly apparition wherein they should see how he would be cloathed with power and excellencie when he came to sit upon his Throne and to call the Nations before him they should not taste of death till they saw a spectacle of the Kingdom of God in his transfiguration This was the occasion which made him exhibit his body with that glorious lustre in the Mount and yet some have ignorantly distorted those words to another purpose There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God what doth it mean say they but that John the Disciple whom Jesus loved should live till the last day of judgment as the report went among the Brethren how that disciple should not die Thus Theophylact and the counterfeit Hypolitus that error which hath run through so many Pens grew from hence that when Peter being told with what death he should glorifie God asked What should become of his fellow Disciple John Christ gave him no clear satisfaction because his question deserved it not but only thus If I will that he stay till I come what is that to thee follow thââ me Let it be but probably discovered what coming Christ speaks of and there is no great perplexity in the saying Attend therefore this coming is nothing less than that great coming in personal Majesty at the last day but his coming in wrath and judgment against the Nation of the Jews to punish them and quite to extirpate their seed from Jerusalem Touching this coming by the fury of the Romans to execute his vengeance St. James speaketh to the faithful converted from Judaism and then sore afflicted by the Synagogue Be ye patient and stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Jam. v. 8. Whereas therefore antient stories have delivered unto us that all the other Apostles were swept away by Martyrdom before the final destruction of Jerusalem onely John outlived that time even till the reign of Trajan This then is a plain meaning of our Saviour's answer if I will that he live till that dismal day when I come to destroy this people which hath crucified me what is that to thee Peter thou shalt never see that day but prepare thy self before for a speedier Martyrdom And to what use should the Apostle live a mortal life upon earth unto the end of the world and yet never appear to any man he lived to see the coming of Gods judgments against the holy City and he together with Peter and James lived to see a mirror of celestial glory in the Transfiguration that 's the meaning of our Saviour's promise going before my Text There be some standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Kingdom of God It follows to be noted in the observation of the Time that after these sayings he fulfilled his word neither at the instant nor after a long distance but about an eight days after these sayings It was neither so quickly dispatcht before they had meditated upon it nor so long put off that they could forget it be it about an eight days or about eight thousand ages it is but a little while to God who measures all things by Eternity Now in these words which are the very front of the story there are two days odds in the relations of the Evangelists St. Luke you hear sayes about an eight days after St. Matthew and St. Mark after six days Doth not this account differ no not a whit six days complete did go between his sayings and his mighty work St. Matthew and the other speak of that time only but in a part of one day he had said there be some standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Kingdom of God in part of another day He took those three up into the mountain and so St. Luke computes exactly 't was about an eight dayes after those sayings So hath the Divine wisdom disposed that the same thing should be repeated in several Gospels with some alteration of phrase but with no difference or contradiction and that for two causes When outwardly there seems to be some disagreement between the Text of one Evangelist and another these difficulties do whet our industry to study the book of God there must be knots and mysteries hard to be understood ut homo semper discat Deus semper doceat that man may alwayes learn and God may always teach unto the end of the world 2. Says another si per omnia consentirent nemo putarent eos seorsim scripsisse if they had all jumpt in the same words quite throughout as some say of the 72 Interpreters in the Old Testament it might have been imagined that the Gospels were not writ at distinct times and in distinct places now the dissonancy of their phrase doth warrant us to say that the Evangelists did not cast their heads together when they committed the Scriptures to writing but wrote apart and yet the same spirit
the dead continued forty days upon earth teaching the things of the life to come until the time even now at hand that he ascended into glory After that powerful Testimony which they have given what can be said more If all our dead Friends should be returned unto us they could add nothing to that which they have testified and to that which the faithful witness in heaven hath signified in holy Scripture I mean the Spirit of God This is the peevishness of our humane Wisdom yea rather of our humane folly to earn for tidings from the dead as if a Spirit departed could declare any thing more evidently than the Book of God which is the sure Oracle of life This was Sauls practise neglect Samuel when he was alive and seek after him when he was dead What says the Prophet Should not a people seek unto their God Should the living repair to the dead Nay rather to the Law and to the Testimony Isa viii 19. Among the works of Athanasius I find though he be not the Author of the questions to Antiochus a discourse full of reason why God would not permit the soul of any of those that departed from hence to return back unto us again and to declare the state of things in Hell unto us For what pestilent errors would arise from thence to seduce us Devils would transform themselves into the shapes of men that were deceased pretend that they were risen from the dead for what will not the Father of lies feign and so spread in any false Doctrines or incite us to many barbarous actions to our endless error and destruction And admit they be not Phantasms and delusions but the very men yet all men are liars but God is truth I told you what a Necâomancer Saul was in the Old Testament he would believe nothing unless a Prophet rose from the grave to teach him there is another as good as himself in the New Testament and not another Pattern in all the Scripture to my remembrance Luke xvi 27. The rich man in Hell urged Abraham to send Lazarus to admonish his Brethren of their wicked life Abraham refers him to Moses and the Prophets He that could not teach himself when he was alive would teach Abraham himself being in Hell Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent The mind is composed with quietness to hear the living the Apparitions of dead men beside the suspicion of delusion would fill us with gastly horror and it were impossible we should be fit Scholars to learn if such strong perturbations of fear should be upon us How much better hath God ordained for our security and tranquility that the Priests lips should preserve knowledge I know if God shall see it fit to have us disciplined by such means he can stir up the Spirits of the Faithful departed to come among us So after Christs Resurrection many dead bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves and went into the holy City and appeared unto many This was not upon a small matter but upon a brave and a renowned occasion But for the Spirits of damnation they are tied in chains of darkness there is no repassage for them and it makes more to strengthen our belief that never any did return from Hell to tell us their woeful tale than if any should return It is among the severe penalties of damnation that there is no indulgence for the smallest respite to come out of it The Heathen put that truth into this Fable The Lion asked the Fox why he never came to visit him when he was sick Says the Fox because I can trace many beasts by the print of their foot that have gone toward your Den Sir Lion but I cannot see the print of one foot that ever came back Quia me vestigia terrent omnia te advorsum spectantia nulla retrorsum So there is a beaten and a broad road that leads the Reprobate to Hell but you do not find the print of one hoof that ever came back When I have given you my judgment about Apparitions of the dead either descending from Heaven or ascending from Hell I must tell you in the third place I have met with a thousand stories in Pontifician Writings concerning some that have had repassage from Purgatory to their familiars upon earth Notwithstanding the reverence I bear to Gregory the Great I cannot refrain to say He was much to blame to begin such fictions upon his credulity others have been more to blame that have increased such Legends and they are most to be derided that believe them O miserable Theology if thy Tenents must be confirmed by sick mens dreams and dead mens phantastical apparitions To end this Point and the first general part of my Text together a thousand guiles and deceits may entrap them that build any thing upon dead mens news but this Apparition of Moses and Elias was warrantable from all delusion because they stood by Christ and because of their communication which was Prophetical I come to speak of that in the second place They spake of his decease c. Upon which subject these particulars shall be succinctly handled 1. That the Cross of Christ is all in all and before any thing in the world to be spoken of 2. It was spoken of even in the midst of this Apparition of glory 3. Moses and Elias came purposely to speak of it 4. They spake of it in no disconsolatory phrase but much to our comfort that it was a decease 5. They spake of it compleatly in all circumstances that it was to be accomplished 6. They designed out the place where all the Prophets had been slain before and where the Sacrifices were slain every day in the Temple And spake of the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem To begin with that which is the leading Lesson whether Moses and Elias directed their words to Christ or to his Disciples is uncertain if they communed with Christ as with more probability they did yet their talk was so audible and distinct that the Disciples heard it a Lesson at which they were alwayes ready to stop their ears yet now it is beaten into them line after line with many repetitions that the Cross of Christ is all in all and before any thing else in the world to be spoken of These two Saints who were enlightned with all knowledge befitting their glorified estate could have uttered lofty discourses about the Trinity about the highest Heavens about the distinctions of Angelical Offices and the like but they understood themselves and us so well that this is the Epitome of all saving knowledg the Decease which Christ should accomplish at Jerusalem 't is that which will open Heaven 't is that which will glorifie us 't is that which will exalt us to the society of Angels and nothing else O let my heart dwel often upon the wounds of my Saviour
Davids words Hei mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est Alass for me that I see any more days upon earth when I cannot see that we have kept that peace in the Church which we have received from our Fore-fathers And I forget not the Poetry of Theodore Beza he lived so long till he had made Elegies upon the Funerals of all his learned Friends at last he heard of a choice pair Gualter and Lavater that they were dead to honour whose memory thus he begins Semper ego infelix lugenda in funera fratrum vivam superstes omnibus Shall I unhappy out-live all my Brethren to make Epitaphs upon them He that sees many days and nights sees many calamities And therefore one said elegantly of John the Apostle who out-lived all his fellows but died not a Martyr as they did that to live to such an extreme old age was his Martyrdom Longaevitas Johanni Martyriam quoddam fuit Surely God multiplies the days of a good man oftentimes that he may please him the more by desiring death Do not deplore with Micah of Mount Ephraim that our false Gods are taken away but that we are so long kept from the true God Of this good desire of dissolution and departure Peter would deprive himself by affecting a phantastical kind of felicity in Mount Thabor Master it is good c. I call it fantastical felicity because it ariseth from the love of the flesh which thinks all is well enough when it is removed far enough from sorrow and trouble therefore I ask in the third place An bonum sit non effligi If that condition of life be well chosen in this world which appears as this did to Peter to be exempted from all affliction Solomon said no and he is to be believed when he speaks by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost Eccles vii 2. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting those were two diverse things in his days but now every house of mourning must be an house of feasting and banqueting but he adds Sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better What a petty Kingdom had this Apostle chosen for himself and his fellows a Paradise as he thought without thorn or briar no labour in it no exercise no adventuring for Christ no profit for the Church somewhat like Monastical Recluses every one in his Tabernacle and in such places where there is least stir there is the greatest tentation Is this the holy ground whereon he would set his feet and never depart No it was better for him when he walked unto his Master upon the waters of tribulation Danger is the best Centinel in the world to make us watch our enemies Fear is the best warning-bell to call us often to Prayer Tribulation is the best Orator to perswade us to humility O Lord in trouble have they visited thee and they poured out a Prayer when thy chastising was upon them Isa xxvi 16. If any man be afflicted let him pray says St. James but if any man be not afflicted let him fast and pray for he is in the greater danger Plato was requested to draw a book of Laws for the Commonwealth of the Cyrenians he said he would take time and they asked him how long He answered Till some great calamity befall the City for hitherto they had been so happy that no Law giver could appoint them such Rules as were fit to govern them And surely St. Austin was not of St. Peters mind he would not have chosen to inhabit in a Mountain devoid of all misery for he had proved the world and found it true Mundus ille periculosior est cum se allicit diligi quà m cum secogit contemni This world will bring more hurt about when it allures us to love it than when it vexeth us to hate it A pretty Fable is that in the Moralist of a man that sought Pearls upon the Sea-shore at a low tide he lighted upon many shells of good Pearl able to enrich him and he ventured upon the Shelves for more and more till the Tide came round about him and he could not scape with his life O says he I should have learnt wisdom of the God of Nature who cast these Gems loosely and regardlesly upon the Sea-shore as things rather to be lost than found At last he besought a fisherman who came that way to take all his Pearls for his pains and save his life in his Cock-boat As he was taken in an ambush of the Sea in the midst of his good fortune so mischief arrests the worldly man in the midst of prosperity When Peter was scourged by the High-Priests when he was imprisoned by Herod when he was under Nero in the Lions paw that devoured him these were good times for the health of his soul that as the outward man perished the inward man might be renewed dayly But to be in a brightsom pleasant habitation Grave est molestum est periculosum est says Gregory It was dangerous it was obnoxious to many inconveniences which will appear yet further by the fourth question An bonum sit in terrâ manere Is there any rest upon earth on which we may say It is good c. 4. Where shall the Dove rest his foot If we would be contented with the present state we enjoy yet all things will change and though all things should remain as they are and never change yet we would never be contented The Sea is a new Sea every Tide the earth is a new earth every month or every quarter at the longest distance the same mutability whirls us about and the things that we possess Whether I be upon Sea or Land upon Mount Tabor or upon Mount Hermon I carry my self about and shall be weary of it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he was a Cynical Philosopher indeed that ran over every kind of life as unsatiated with it but it was not Philosophy but the state of flesh and bloud that taught it him The City had no Recreation The Country no Society Studies of Arts were laborious Navigation perilous run over all the world and he would ask for somewhat which he wanted what content then could Peter take in one Hill though it were furnish'd with a most desirable Vision How quickly would it have cloy'd him to have been long there like a Lark hopping upon one turf of grass Though God prepare for us a new Heaven and a new earth yet he must give us a new heart likewise to delight in them forever For it is not the object alone but the disposition of the soul which receives it that must make us say When I awake up after thy likeness I shall be satisfied with it The Poets set down this case of St. Peter in a pretty Fiction that the Goddess Calypso offered Vlysses her pleasant Island to live there always and to be immortal upon it
light enough for being secret any more The sootiest Coal when it flames is a very visible object and when once Christ brings our works to the great Conflagration of the last day then they shall no more lie hid but be revealed both to our shame and to our condemnation The next thing of observation in this cloud was that it overshadowed them So they saw a diminishment of that light which was in Christs body transfigured by little and little and it somewhat took off the amazement of the Apostles by abating the splendor which troubled them by little and little but of that enough before All that have taken pains to expound this miracle do generally accord herein Obumbratio Dei est symbolum divinae protectionis Where God doth cover any thing with a miraculous shadow it promiseth that the Divine Protection is round about it Leonidas the Grecian was told that his enemies came marching in such full Troops against him that their Darts when they threw them up would cover the light of the Sun Leonidas puts it off with this stout courage Tum in umbrâ pugnabimus then will we fight in the shade A couragious word and made very fit for a Christians mouth Believe in the Lord and we are all under his custody and defence beseech him to stretch his wings upon us and the Holy Ghost will overshadow us In umbrâ pugnabimus to that shadow we betake our selves to shun the fire of anger and the heat of concupiscence under that shadow will we fight against our Ghostly enemies We have two Regenerations or new births a spiritual an eternal The spiritual Regeneration which begets us again to life when by nature we were dead in sin is Baptism At that Sacrament the Holy Ghost came in the shape of a Dove to resemble innocency The eternal Regeneration is the Resurrection of the body and I have often told you that the Transfiguration is a model of a body risen from the dead and at that mysterious work the Holy Ghost came in a cloud that overshadowed them to signifie protection and safeguard in eternal security Beloved the protection of the holy Spirit consists not in Walls and Bulwarks but in a shadow in a refrigerium that comforts the heart and of all protections it is the strongest and the surest I do not say it is a resisting defence that we shall not be hurt that we shall not be spoyled that we shall not be killed then let Peter have staid where he was still and kept out of harms way for ever but the shadow of the Holy Ghost is an Antidote against the fury of the world it possesseth a stout Christian Champion with patience that he cares not to be hurt And what can trouble him who is strengthned in the inward man that he is above the malice of the world He that can overcome his own weakness is a great deal too hard for his enemies strength Gather us under thy grace O Lord as the Hen doth gather her Chickens under her wings and though heaven and earth should knock together our shadow would save us from destruction Fond fear the furthest from reason of all our passions Why did not the Disciples know their own strength and assurance when this cloud did overshadow them Did not the Lord declare that he took them into his protection And yet they were affraid But we are all so guilty now we deserve the effects of wrath that we distrust God to be angry when he takes upon him to save us Like a man that chooseth a runnagate Arabian to convoy him in the Desarts wore afraid of his convoy than of his enemies But we do ever deal with our gracious Father as if he were persona malae fidei one that broke truce and to be suspected We are jealous of his love jealous of his providence jealous of his protection The Proverb says That a friend wrongfully suspected turns an enemy And if we will not believe that God will be our Saviour we shall know he will be our Destroyer Be not affraid as his Disciples were when his merciful cloud did overshadow them I must suppose and I wish I may not be deceived that you have not forgot how I entreated at large that Moses and Elias preached at large upon our Saviours decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem that put the Disciples which heard it into a passion and no more of that again for brevity sake Another wave of fear came upon the neck of that in this Miracle when the Lord with his own voice spake in honour of his Son from heaven You must expect to hear of that upon the handling of the next Verse though after some pause of time perhaps when God shall give a fitting opportunity but that which occasioned them to fear in my Text was that all that good company whose presence delighted them so much was entring into the cloud and they were afraid they should part one from another Our last English Translation which I confess is a very accurate one and I seldom disagree with it yet in this place it is able to confound the Reader thus we have the words They feared as they entred into the cloud Who would not think this were the meaning that they feared as themselves entred into the cloud Yet it is not so for the Greek hath cleared it by using two several Pronouns in this verse the cloud ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã overshadowed them the Apostles Peter John and James but they feared ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is plainly spoken of others not of themselves and we might thus have translated it to make all clear They feared when those entred into the cloud Euthymius refers those to be only Moses and Elias the common Exposition is that Christ also was one of those and when Peter and the other two saw their Master and the two Prophets enter into the clouds and themselves left apart they were afraid perhaps they should be quite separated from Christ and those glorified Saints I told you before how loath they were to part with Moses and Elias but it went a thousand times more against their mind to part with Christ A Cloud was a very suspicious thing that it was prepared to take him away for ever especially if the Cloud were advanced above the ground above the top of the Mountain as Clouds usually are then if Christ had entred into it those who were present would surmise he is going up on high for ever Moses his body was taken away God knows how and till this day no man knows what became of it Elias went away in a whirlwind many sought for him but he was not to be found And why might not the Disciples being in a great fear have this Cloud in a jealousie that it came to take away their Lord There is a certain Commentator of eight hundred years antiquity by name Ratbertus Paschasius who says that although this Cloud did not take him up
emulation may go out for want of combustible matter and in this case not he that violates the peace by stickling much but he that obeys and holds his peace deserves the greater reward This power our Saviour exercised over his Apostles to tie their tongues for a time that they should not publish the glory of his Transfiguration till men were fit to receive it He charged them they should tell no man of the things which they had seen I would but so much humility might be marked from hence as would repress insolence and vain boasting Christ laid his command upon this matter rather than upon any other and imposed silence upon all the three Witnesses that they should not blab the Vision of his Excellency abroad How much unlike is this to them who had rather lose an ounce of their blood nay the sweet odour of virtue than an hour of fame and popularity And so much good as is done and not openly known and divulged is soon repented Where shall we find such a modest temper as that of St. Paul so much admired by Theophylact after fourteen years he tells the Corinthians of the Revelation which God granted him and of his Rapture into Paradise and in all that space he did never impart that celestial honour which was done him either to friend or stranger and then he was ashamed that he was put to it says he I am become a fool in glorying ye have compelled me but what fools are they then that will make such proud boasting without compulsion Jospeph being but a child he did as a child and having the inspiration of two several Dreams he could not hold but made all his Brethren acquainted with them to his own affliction He dreamt a dream and told it to his brethren and they hated him the more Therefore in his riper years though God had given him the spirit of Prophesy he would not divulge himself that he had the interpretation of Dreams He bad Pharaoh's Butler remember him when he was in place And according to the old Saw qui bene latuit bene vixit he conteined himself from manifesting the Gift of God which was in him till the Butler could not choose but call him to mind to put Pharaoh's heart in peace Elizabeth hid her self five months after the Lord had made her conceive a Child miraculously to the astonishment of all the World that great Prophet John the Baptist The Blessed Virgin was saluted by an Angel from Heaven conceived by the Holy Ghost visited by the Wisemen from the East she encountred every day many strange celestial Tokens and yet made no noise of these things to the World but kept all these sayings in her heart Luke ii 51. The mighty power of God will shine and shew it self at last be not ambitious to have it displayed for your own ostentation Christ refrained to have the Vision of the Transfiguration presently notified He charged them c. Generally the Fathers consider the Apostles but as Novices in sacred matters who were yet but in training up and as deficient in those abilities which were requisite to handle such a mysterie Sacred things saies the Greek Proverb must not be toucht ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with unwashen hands This made the ancient Fathers of the Church as fearful to come into a Pulpit as our raw Scholars now adays are forward You need not charge these hasty Predicants as our Saviour did his Disciples not to speak of that for a certain time which they know I would they could be admonished not to be so bold to speak of that which they know not I am not certain for the greater part of such that they have seal but I will bear them record with St. Paul it is not according to knowledg But will you know the spring head from whence this abuse ariseth How can they preach unless they be sent And why was Authority so overseen to send them licentiâ sumus omnes deteriores it is the licence which enables for those things wherein they have no ability Yet again another Text of St. Paul rubs my memory multa licent quae non expediunt there are too many such licences granted which are not expedient If men would let knowledg ripen in them before they speak and not blurt out any thing with extemporary barbarism the Word of God preached would not come so much in contempt for a Parable is an undecent thing in the mouth of a fool Prov. xxvi 9. Our Saviour destined a large space of time to have the cogitation of his great Works mellow in the thoughts of Peter James and John before they testified them to the World which is another reason why they must not speak of that which they had seen till the Son of man was risen from the dead Another reason shall stand in the last place of this point it is fit that they and none but they should preach of Christs Glory who are affrighted with nothing The Apostles were very timerous and would desert a good Cause if they were strongly opposed you know the infirmity of Peter that could not answer the challenge of a silly Damosel but denied his Master This was in diebus illis when the Holy Ghost had not yet come down upon him in the shape of a fire afterward he durst speak the truth though he had been in the midst of fire nay he could not repress the Gospel his will was overcom and could not revolt if the literal sense of the Text be right as sure it is We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Act. iv 20. Grace was as it were turned into nature in them now as in the Angels confirmed in grace says the ordinary Gloss Vino coelesti ebrit se continere non poterant says Lyra the Scoffers of Jerusalem said they were full of new wine it was indeed by a figure a celestial wine with which their spirit was inebriated and as a drunken mans tongue will not ly quiet so in this resemblance they were such that could not but speak the Gospel of Jesus Christ they were these times of courage which Christ had destin'd that in them his Transfiguration should be revealed openly Moses found not constancy in himself and therefore would have balked Gods Message says he Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh So the eleven Disciples were so fearful after out Saviours death that they shut the doors upon themselves where they were assembled for fear of the Jews and after the Resurrection we read that Christ did many times erect their courage which was dejected with these words Be not afraid and therefore he said unto them Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem until ye be indued with power from on high Luke xxiv 49. When that power had possessed them with spirit and resolution they had leave to unfold this mysterie and not before he charged them saying Tell the Vision to no man till the Son
integrity of our Saviour against scandalous accusations when his lips were closed but as a Rest in Musick is not the close of the Song but a seasonable stop to make the next relish more graceful and harmonious so after the pause of silence which our Saviour made you shall now see the better how false and malicious the crimes of enditement were Before Cajaphas the High-Priest as I told you this only was objected that he threatned to destroy the Temple Three other capital crimes are laid against him Luke xxiii 2. that he perverted the Nation that he denied Tribute unto Caesar that he made himself the King of the Jews Here are two great sins against the Ecclesiastical Weal to pluck down the Temple and to pervert the Religion and two outrages against civil peace to pay no Tribute and to encroach upon the Title of the Kingdom let him be crucified a Gods name that pleads guilty to such abominations but if no more can be said against Jesus and we can shew in every particular that all this was forgery then let Pilate wash his hands and protest before them all that the life which they would take away is the bloud of a just person We heard him say He would destroy the Temple Never was such a syllable spoken Is not this the Temple wherein He bestowed his first blould at Circumcision a pair of Turtle Doves for a Sacrifice at his Mothers Purification Did He not shed his tears over this House of God in that pathetical lamentation O Jerusalem Jerusalem did He not spend his disputations with the Doctors his Sermons among the People his Prayer unto the Father and all under that holy Roof And now is his zeal turned to his reproach that He would pluck down the Sanctuary a while before did He not scourge the prophane Merchants and clense the Temple and now is He suspected for laying waste the dwelling place of the Most high Nay let them offer Swines flesh there let them change money and sell Doves I would rather bear with Superstition with Prophanation than with extreme Sacrilege O beware Beloved to open the lead of the Roof or to rent the walls of that Habitation where Gods Altar was inclosed He shall offend less that throws down any Mansion House in the World than he that cuts up but the Bramble-bush if he knew it wherein the glory of the Lord appeared 'T is pity that the stony hearts of men should suffer holy Buildings to moulder and crumble away into desolation I see a compassionate example before mine eyes O ye rich men of the World who is your God that you do not repair it But those Sons of Belial who prevent these ruins which time would bring upon the Houses of God 't is more pitty they should see the grey hairs of age in peace Surely as the Heavens which are the upper Court of Gods House shall melt away and be dissolved only by the power of God so Churches and Oratories here below which are the nether Courts of his Sanctuary should never be defaced in this World by any arm of flesh till the whole earth shall pass away and Gods own finger deface these Monuments of glory See but the hypocrisie of these Jews and Herodians they that are so careful a Temple should not be destroyed are furious to destroy the body of a man which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Like the Popish Inquisitors most bold and zealous to curse those hotspurrs in our Kingdom who threw down a Church in their wrath and broke down the walls in their blind affection yet they themselves made havock of holy Praelats and did persecute their lives unto death and this was called Justice and Catholigue Religion to conclude this Accusation And why do they impeach our Saviour that He would destroy a Temple no such matter God knows Solvite templum hoc what means that why the Temple of his Body Why then who but they themselves do destroy the Temple which He spake of meaning the Temple of his Body The crime then you may perceive as it was objected against our Saviour it was slanderous but take this to the advantage of your instruction what judgment will God pour upon them who rob the Altar and spoil the Patrimony of the Church since these unconscionable Jews do confess that whosoever would destroy a Temple deserves to be crucified Yet Pilate was a Gentile and perchance would not heed the eracing of Gods House therefore to make the Romans look about them they have a second Objection in store That He would pervert the Nation Not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as some read it the Nation of the Romans but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã our Nation Forsooth they fain an Accusation that he taught contrary to the Law of Moses and if new Doctrine be publisht let the Rulers look to it for this is as apparent as the light of the day that new Religion is ever new Rebellion but I do not say so of old Doctrine renewed It is a strange stupidity which the Devil puts into some mens heads you cannot perswade them to change for the better Simonides would rather learn the art of Forgetfulness than the art of Memory Velleius the Epicuraean was afraid of nothing more than to have learned Problems cast into his head which might rouze him out of ignorance Gryllus was so well in a Hogsty that he was unwilling to leave his swinish life and turn man again Are there not a thousand examples of wanton Ladies that had rather be Girls and Younglings than grow into years of understanding and discretion So the Jews had rather be ever kept under the Paedagogie of the Law than be perfect men and cast off the yoke of Ceremonies and live in the liberties of the Gospel Nisi cessassent ceremoniae non discernere licuisset hodie quorsum essent institutae says our learned Calvin had not those Shadows and Figures ceased in their due time when Christ brought a body into the world they had seemed impertinent we had never known for what they were instituted The Levitical Ceremonies were so obnoxious to alteration that the Schoolmen have set down their state in no less than five Conclusions 1. They were ever mortales the Covenant of these Observations was to fade away and not to endure for ever 2. From the time of John Baptist to the Burial of our Saviour they were moriturae inclining to dissolution 3. Upon the Commission which the Apostles had to preach the Gospel at the Feast of Pentecost they were mortuae quite dead and expired 4. As the Corps of a great Personage is not interred but in a decent time after his departure so till the weakness of the Jews was well instructed they were sepeliendae laid out to be buried But lastly when the faith of Jesus Christ was preached unto all Nations they were mortiferae not only dead but deadly unto him who should distrust in Christ and make himself a debter
holden of it A Resurrection Text out of the first Sermon that ever the Apostles Preached upon the Resurrection preached in their full vigour of sanctification immediately after they had received the Holy Ghost to let us know that Whitsunday was principally ordeined for this end to make Easter-day famous over all the world for when God filled Peter and all that were gathered together with that new wine of the Spirit which is mentioned in the begining of the Chapter what did it produce in the first instant what effect did immediately flow from it as an essential property read and mark from my Text onward to the end of ver 36. this is the nail altogether struck upon this is the Theme gone over and over that God had raised up Jesus the Book of the Psalms did prove it and the Disciples were witnesses of it O mystery of mysteries and wonder of Miracles the first lesson of faith the Corner-stone of the Building the most necessary Pillar of the Gospel indeed the bloudy passion of our Saviour which was delivered us in the former verse and the victory over death after that bloudy Passion which I shall instance upon in this verse these two are the supporters of all Christianity take away these two Pillars as Samson broke down those that held up the Theatre of the Philistins and you ruinate the whole Tower of Faith and demolish it to nothing Very fit it was therefore that all the tongues wherewith the Holy Ghost had endowed the Apostles with utterance to speak should concur in this one point and go no further in their first days labour namely that Christ was become the first fruits of them that slept that his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh see corruption And because this Sermon of St. Peters in the forenamed respects is such an illustrious testimony of our Lords resurrection therefore both Eastern and Western Churches have selected this Chapter of old to be the second Lesson for the Evening Prayer of this great Festival so our Liturgie reteins it which never recedes from good antiquity and where our Church hath gone before me in her judgment I thought it meet to follow her at this time in my duty and to parcel out my Text from that great variety which the Chapter affords upon this occasion in these words c. The division that I will give you upon this verse shall be easie to conceive and that will help out some things which are a little difficult in the handling of the parts First here is the Resurrection of our Saviour barely and positively affirmed whom God hath raised up Secondly the complement of it God loosed withall the pains of death Thirdly the necessity of it for it was not possible that He should be holden of death He humbled himself and became obedient to death therefore He was raised up He undertook the death of the Cross being fast bound in misery and iron but as fast as they bound him God loosed him from those pains neither were these things arbitrary accidental obnoxious to any human impediment but contrived and fixed by Gods inevitable Decree ought not Christ to suffer and so to enter into his glory says the mouth of truth and wisdom There is an oportuit upon both he must suffer and he must overcome those sufferings Oportuit the former must be and it was impossible he should fail of the latter Or you compose this Text with the Points of the former Text immediately connexed with it and see the amends made by Gods mercy for the Jews fury Ye have slain that holy one says the Apostle but what follows God hath raised him up Ye have taken and crucified him but see the alteration God hath loosened all the pains and pangs of death He must not escape your hands it was permitted unto you from above he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God And he must escape all his ghostly enemies sin and death and hell for it was impossible he should be holden of them Whom God hath raised up Since the world began there was never any thing opposed so much as this that Christ rose again the third day according to the Scriptures For what shall we think of others when the Apostles of our Lord did not only suspend their belief when tidings were brought of it but with some disdain rejected it For when Mary Magdalen and Joanna and Mary the Mother of James did tell the Eleven what the Angel had testified their words seemed to them as idle tales and they believed them not Luc. xxiv 11. Nay when Christ had appeared to ten of that company Thomas only being out of the way they could not all perswade him that they had seen the Lord alive Was ever any Tenet of faith so difficultly received even into the hearts of the best men Then you may be sure that when this good seed fell into worse soil it was miserably choaked with thorns A sudden and a strong Faction combined against it instantly after it began to sound abroad Acts iv 2. The Priests and the Captain of the Temple and the Sadduces were grieved at no other part of their doctrine but this That they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead Josephus says that as long as the Sadduces continued till they were all destroyed they became as horrid and savage as beasts in cruelty raging against those that affirmed the immortality of soul and body When that Doctrine spread it self abroad and came to the Philosophers of Athens Some censured Paul for a babler some for a setter forth of strange Gods Acts xvii 18. And St. Chrysostome says upon it that Anastasia which signifies the Resurrection was accounted a God which the Christians only worshipped The same Paul opening the knowledge of the Gospel before Festus and King Agrippa that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead Festus broke out in reviling at that passage Paul thou art beside thy self much learning doth make thee mad I would the opposition had gone no further but St. Austin and Epiphanius in their Catalogues of Hereticks rehearse more Adversaries against the Resurrection of Christ than any other doctrinal Point that concerns our Salvation Simon Magus wrote many books against it Basilides a venemous Dogmatist taught that Christ as he was led to be crucified vanished away by Art and Praestigiation and that Simon of Cyrene who bore his Cross some part of the way was put to death in his stead but that Jesus did never die and therefore was never raised from the dead The dross of so many Heresies was stained through these wicked wits that the Church might enjoy truth more triumphantly after such great resistance But let me go on with the Apostles question Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead He that created the soul and body
and Man especially how to remake him and restore him again being consumed to ashes And therefore says Beda very well Mirati sunt discipuli de exiccatione arboris quia omnia ejus miracula antehà c erant ad bonum the Disciples did marvail exceedingly to see the Figtree cursed and wither away our Saviour did never meddle with any thing before but it was the better for him The Jews talkt of their priviledg to have one Prisoner let loose against the Feast and that was a sweet one the seditious Barabbas the true King of the Jews did let loose a Prisoner indeed against the Feast and that was holy Lazarus for this Miracle was wrought not long before the dolorous day of his Passion as you may see by the sequel of the Gospel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says St. Chrysostom as who should say this was but an introduction to make the world believe in that great sign which followed the resurrection of the dead Non est admirationi una arbor cum tota sylva in eandem altitudinem excrescit says Seneca no notice is taken of one tall Cedar when all Lebanon is full of the like so we do not spend much admiration now upon the raising up of Lazarus because many dead bodies arose and appeared in the holy City yet upon the first delivery of this man from the Goal of death having been four days dead it was a thing not heard of and a matchless Miracle Demetrius as he was a most devillish Statesman so this was one of his Maxims as bad as any whosoever they be that stand in your way cut them off it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã like those things which must be granted in the Art of Geometry before they can proceed any further The High-Priests and Pharisees had got this godly Lesson from their Father the Devil and because all the world did stare upon Lazarus as upon the great work of Christ needs must they consult how to kill him Was there ever a more foolish Senate when they saw Christ could raise him again as oft as he pleased yet the Projectors of the Sanhedrim set their wits and their cunning how to put Lazarus to death O happy man if he do fall into their hands if Christ will give them leave to cut him off Four days together hath he been dead that God and his blessed Son may be glorified in his suscitation once already did he loose his life for the honour of his Saviour let him be tormented be imprisoned be crucified the second time for Christs sake and who was ever so happy as Lazarus to make one poor life serve for a couple of Martyrdoms indeed it were an hard case as St. Austin sets it down ut idem homo semel nasceretur bis moreretur to be born once and to die twice and therefore St. Chrysostom would mollifie the matter that at this time of four days sleep ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he was rather reposed in his Mothers Womb than in a Sepulcher but his condition in very deed was not pitiful but very fortunate to be born but once and to die twice for Gods honour But here is one question first and more will follow Was Lazarus stone dead as we say the Soul quite separated from the Body and the spirit departed or was it anima sopita but a Soul laid a sleep the functions being discharged from working for a time and no more If it were not so yet it is able to pose a man why Christ should say unto Mary and Martha non est infirmitas ad mortem this sickness is not unto death in the 4. verse of this Chapter to the Question afterwards to the Text in the first place The Scripture would be satisfied and so it shall Mors non imminebat ad mortem sed ad miraculum says Lira very well how shall I expound it to you the languishment of his sickness did not encroach upon him that death might close up his eyes for ever but to disclose a Miracle As Aristotle said he would have death called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the termination of life but not the end as if we liv'd only to die so this infirmity was not unto death as you would say to make it the end of the work but that God and his Son might be glorified To the Question then Totus Lazarus de monumento exit qui totus ibi non erat says St. Austin dead he was then and his Soul undoubtedly departed his Sisters that had tried their best for his recovery would not send him forth rashly to his Grave but that all conclusions whether any breath remained were first examined Nay should you take a living man and bind him with grave Cloths head and foot enough to smother him and lay him in a cold Rock of Stone so long in such sharp weather when after this time the High Priests had a Fire within doors in their Hall enough to starve him and let him want food four days enough to famish him I say though he had been laid in quick you would never more have heard of him till the general Resurrection and therefore Jesus said unto the Disciples plainly in verse 14. Lazarus is dead No Parable no figurative speech alas it was too true our Lord himself wept his friend Lazarus was departed Jesus said plainly Lazarus is dead Profundè mortuus sed altus est Christus in misericordiâ Christs mercy was deeper than the grave or he had never seen the day more Do not graceless Sinners the accursed seed of Cham do they not tremble at this says St. Austin Si amicus Christi moritur inimicus quid patiatur He is descended into the Grave whom our Saviour loved whither shall they go into what Bottom shall they be cast if there be a bottom whom he hates and refuses There is yet another Problem riseth up in this Text as well as Lazarus What say you to the Disciples that caught the words from our Saviours mouth as if Lazarus had been cast into a slumber our friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go to wake him I go to wake him What so far as Judea It is strange to think that the Disciples would believe a man went so far to raise up one that slept And yet when Christ spoke like a Divine they answered him like Physicians If he sleep he shall do well Utrumque verum Christus dixit Lazarus mortuus Lazarus dormit mortuus vobis dormit mihi all was true that Christ said both ways he spake good Divinity Lazarus is dead he was so dead to them that could not recover him Lazarus is asleep he was so no more than in a sleep to him that could restore him Do you not a little marvel that the Apostles should so misinterpret Christs meaning and take his words in at the left ear Why were they so slow to understand that to awake from
Pollinctores quia pollutos ungerent But among divine Writers all do embrace this as a strong conjecture and indeed not to be denied that the Servants of God embalmed and anointed the dead both in the Old and New Testament in honour of the Resurrection So Joseph commanded the Physicians to embalm his Father So certain devout Widows washed the body of Tabitha and laid her forth in an upper Chamber Acts ix 37. Let me not omit how Christ himself did approve of that Ceremony while he was living A woman broke a box of Oyntment of Spikenard very precious upon his head and when some had indignation at it he forbad his Disciples to trouble her saying She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying Mar. xiv 8. That woman spent her cost upon him when he was alive to give her thanks Mary came to pour her Spices upon his Grave when she thought he was dead true Love is munificent to them who are dear unto it when they live but more abundantly when they are deceased Now carry your attention with you to the third part of the Text that no season was so fit to be watch'd as this which the women laid hold of The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalen This coming was upon the third day after Christ had been laid in the Grave and it was upon the same day which from thenceforth was called the Lords day wherein our holy Assemblies every week do meet together these two things are fit to be examined before I leave the Treatise of this Point From the beginning of the world was there never any thing of so great expectation as the success of this day whether that which Christ had so often foretold should come to pass that he should die and the third day he would rise again How busie were the women to come abroad and try what they could learn And I verily think the waves of the Sea rowl not about so fast in a Tempest as the thoughts of the Disciples beat within their heart and earned within them between fear and hope whether the day were like to prove glorious or uncomfortable well God did rather go beyond his own word than come a whit behind it He made this third day the most memorable Feast that ever the Sun shined upon It was a third day when Joseph released his brethren out of Prison Gen. xlii 18. On the third day in the morning after the people had come to Mount Sinai the Law of God was delivered Exod. xix 16. On the third day Esther put on her Royal Apparel and stood before Ahasuerus and desired him to be good to her Nation Esther v. 1. On the third day Abraham came to the place where his faith was tried and Isaac was restored back again alive when the sacrificing knife had been at his throat Gen. xxii 4. To come near to the mark the third day Jonas was cast safe upon the Land out of the belly of the Whale and that was the sign which Christ gave to the Jews able to convince all infidelity as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale and then came forth alive so Christ burst open the Monument the third day and appeared unto many Reason may be busie to enquire why the Son of God prefix'd such a space of time for his Resurrection before he would quicken his flesh rather than any other Certainly there is but one modest conjecture which is this he would lie no longer than some hours of a third day in the grave lest he should keep the weak faith of his Disciples too long in suspense yet sooner he would not open his monument lest his enemies the Jews should pretend he was but cast into a swoon by the sharpness of pain and not truly dead These following I will allow for ingenuous allusions and no more that our Redeemers body was bereaft of life unto the third day to appease the offended justice of every Person in Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Ghost to signifie that we were dead in sin by thought word and deed To bring unto eternal life them that believed either under the Law of nature under the Law of Moses or under the new Covenant of grace To restore the three parts of spiritual life unto us Faith hope and charity Tria sunt omnia says another three days are the sum of mans life both here and for ever A day of labour in this World a day of rest in the Grave a day of reward in the Resurrection If there be any Son of Adam that would have a fourth day Dies otii in hâc vitâ A day of ease and pleasure in this life such a one is Lazarus quatriduanus putet It may be said of him as the two Sisters said of Lazarus their Brother He hath lain four days in the ground and begins to smell Three days are all labour rest and reward these are allusions I said to the Resurrection of Christ upon the third day One thing is very observable to match this circumstance of the New Testament and an accident which fell out in the Old Even this very day wherein Christ arose and gate dominion over death the same day which was the third day after the eating of the Passeover Moses brought the Children of Israel through the Red Sea unto dry Land certainly intimating that they went through death to life and so did Christ St. Peter hath a Text 1 Epist 1.10 which doth authorize me yet to search further and more diligently about the time of this Resurrection Saies he The Prophets have enquired and searched diligently what manner of time the Spirit of Christ did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow And surely there is a great mystery coucht in the circumstance of time that the Evangelists have differently set down other observations that concurred upon the Resurrection but all of them in one phrase do agree in these words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that this wonder was wrought upon the first day of the week ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vna Sabbati The Jews gave such honour to their Sabbath that every day following had the denomination from it the first second and the third day after the Sabbath and so unto the sixth The Latine Church in their Liturgies hath given the same honour to Easter Day for Easter day by principallity being called Feria the Holy Day The Latines from it call the days of the week primam secundam tertiam Feriam and so unto the sixth Our vulgar English calls the first day of the week Sunday and all other days following are denominated from some of the Planets we received such Language in this Island from our Forefathers who were Paynims and knew not God but we differ from them in the intention they did it out of Idolatry to the Sun and Moon c. we to signifie that God made the Host
give him at her Brothers house at Bethany as she was wont to do she called him Rabboni and as she was wont to do she would have toucht him but where there wanted Reverence Christ corrected her mildly Touch me not But as for these Women that prostrated themselves at his feet with Adoration to worship him they had leave to touch because in heart they had tasted the fruit of life The Ark of God would not endure Vzzah's touch he died for it but the Priests that came near it with holy access had authority to touch it and it was the dignity of their Office Not to roll this stone any longer that good Saint Mary Magdalen was mistaken as if Christ lived again no otherwise than as her Brother Lazarus did to converse in the world as he had done before Touch him not with the finger of that little Faith But they that saw some greater excellency in him than before and fell low on the ground before him they may hold him by the feet Yet there is one Interpretation beside which casts no imputation at all upon Mary Magdalen and I like it the better 't is thus Christ had great use of her to dispatch her to his Disciples it being expedient to send her upon that errand yet she was loth to depart surmising that she should see him no more therefore when our Saviour would have her to insist no longer in expressing her love says he Touch me not I am not yet ascended to my Father which is to this effect I am not yet ascending or going away you shall have more time to converse with me hereafter but now it will do more good to my Disciples to hear I am risen than for you to stay and touch me depart insist no longer in these expressions of Love touch me not I am not quite going away to the Father But for these Women who made no such fond delay but laid their hands on his feet and worshipt him and rose again no such Interdict was upon them as Touch me not which is the Sum of this Point And the next thing they did confirms me that the holding his feet was unblamable and a sanctified action for they worshipt him If when the first begotten was brought into the world it is said Let all the Angels of God worship then when the first begotten from the dead came into Jerusalem his excellency proclaims it let all that behold his glorified presence worship him The wise men fell down before his Cradle and ador'd him when he lay in a poor and despicable manner and this was their wisdom to see the brightness of the Godhead in the dark Lantern of his Humanity Nay the evil Spirit having possessed the body of him that lived in the Tombs fell down before him and with a loud voice said what have I to do with thee thou Son of God most high Luke viii 28. Hell it self is not so refractory but that the Spirits of darkness confess he is to be worshipped and they did it It was not their own body but in that body over which they had command they did that function of their own accord before they were bidden Yet it was not thanks-worthy in them because they executed no more than the duty of the outward gesture I do highly commend the lowly service and inclination of the body O let down your body to the very ground before your Maker as these women did a man cannot be too reverent to his God And as a Plaister of cordial Ingredients laid to the stomach or an Unction well fomented upon the skin without comforts the spirits within and makes us more chearful in our vital operations so outward reverence helps us greatly against the dulness and drowziness of our heart the lifting up of the eyes and hands makes a man ask in prayer more passionately the knocking of our breast provokes our repentance to a more eager indignation against our selves the bowing down the head and knee makes us the better to understand the great distance between God and us the uncovering of the head fills us with that necessary consideration in whose presence we stand Glorifie God with your body 1 Cor. vi 10. Tertullian and St. Cyprian read it portate Deum in corpore vestro Carry God in your body that is bear your Religion openly in the observance and humility of your body Christ is the Husband of the Church an Husband to the Soul of every Christian now this is gained from the similitude that the Wife is the Husband 's both in her body and in her affections so we are Christ's as well in our bodily worship as in our spiritual adherence to him But because the act of worship as concerning that which the head the knee the hand do execute may be used to our superiours in civil demeanor as well as in religious usance to God it is the addition of sanctity conceiv'd in the heart and mind which makes it Religious Adoration for the complete definition of it is thus adoratio est veneratio talis exterior quae ex corde pio religioso procedit that is that 's the adoration due to God and to him alone which with the exterior veneration of the body proceeds out of the pious and religious intention of the heart If you yield any token of outward obeysance and mean it to him who hath created you who hath given you all that you have who rose from the dead that we also might rise with him then it is raised up from civil homage and it becomes Divine Worship These apprehensions were in the hearts of these women and thereupon their bodies bowed down in lowliness and so it wants not one grain of due weight but that it was the worshipping of the Lord Jesus From those things which were personally performed by the women I remove forward to all that which was personally performed by Christ and that is conteined in his action or his words his action is but in this one passage Behold Jesus met them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is not to overtake one or to come behind them but to meet them full but as our phrase is therefore it hath somewhat in it diverse from that Apparition which was made to Mary Magdalen and it can not be the same for he stood behind her and she turned about to look upon him but when he presented himself to these Women he met them face to face They were going to tell his Disciples and he that was no hindrance to their journey stood in their way Behold and marvel at it for the hope of the Resurrection was out of their heads they came to embalm his dead Body not to see him living Or suppose we that the Angels had lately persuaded them to that Faith that he was alive again yet to speak indifferently they had no cause to expect him in that place or any where near to Jerusalem for the Angel told them thus in the 7. verse
upon them to make them loiter from their daily necessary labour but it was an high solemnity as fell out in all the year Dies celeberrimus sanctissimus as the Vulgar Latin reads it Lev. xxiii 21. where we read that then they should proclaime and call an holy Convocation So I have summed up the three occasions of this Feast in the Old Law first to give thanks for their deliverance from bondage Secondly to honour the day wherein first they received the Law at Mount Sinah and thirdly to offer up the first fruits of their Harvest will you see now how aptly the gift of the Holy Ghost was distributed at the same time When the day of Pentecost c. First Whereas the Jews did celebrate at the Feast of Pentecost their enfranchisement from the house of bondage so the benefit of liberty was augmented this day much more than ever it was before This Satan knew well enough and therefore the longest thing wherein he held the Church in ignorance was about the sending of the Holy Ghost long after the name of Christ and his power was received whole Cities and Societies confessed they had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost or not Ignorance in those Points which are necessary to salvation is the greatest thraldom and captivity in the world False Prophets says S. Paul do lead captive silly women laden with sins 2 Tim. iii. 6. I spake not only of such as sate in the darkness of death and were lost these were like Samson in fetters having their eies put out but the Disciples the flower of Christs train saw nothing in holy mysteries as they ought to see till the influence of this glorious day cleared there eye-sight their eyes were held their hearts were held they knew not which way their Redemption was brought about and how Israel was restored Our Saviour took out but one Text in all the New Testament it is out of Isaiah and it is to this very purpose that the Spirit of God redeemed us out of the captivity of ignorance the place is extant Luk. iv 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised This comes home to the matter I am sure Yet moreover this is a day of restitution unto liberty because it dissolved the Church from the tye and yoke of Levitical Ceremonies from those multitude of Statutes which overwhelmed the people with observation As Pharaoh was drowned in the red Sea so the tenure of Mosaical Ceremonies was drowned in the bloud of Christ which was shed upon the Cross and on this Feast we received the Seal of the Spirit that we were rid of them all So far I have demonstrated that at this time we shook off the bondage of Ignorance and Ceremonies which makes it a feast of Pentecost to us Christians as well as it was to the Jews Secondly You shall find the other correspondency marvelously kept between the Law and the Gospel Christ at his death was slain not only as the Paschal Lamb but even when the Lamb was slain on the Feast of Passeover Now from the Feast of Passeover or rather from the second day of sweet bread reckoning fifty days the Children of Israel came to Mount Sinah and there received the Law which was kept ever after with a most sacred memorial so fifty days after Christ rose from the dead the Apostles and the Church received the Spirit of Sanctification And I am sure we have much more cause to renown our Pentecost than the Jews had to honour theirs If the Law which was the ministration of death was so thankfully remembred how much more the dedication of the Gospel For this day as the Fathers say very well was the first dedication of Christs Catholick Church upon earth They were made the Sons of the bondwoman by the Law we are made the Sons of the free-woman by the Spirit We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but we have received the spirit of adoption Rom. viii 15. A sinner could have no comfort in the Pentecost of the Jews they had the Law and that condemned them this was miserable comfort We have gladsom tidings this day not from Sinah but out of Sion which bids us live by faith in Christ In no other Feast of the Jews might Leaven be eaten it was an hainous transgression but the two loaves of the first fruits were to be baked with Leaven which were dedicated to God at this Feast Lev. xxiii 17. Expositors say no more to it but thus Leaven was put into the dough of new corn Vt panes sapidiores essent to make it more savory certainly so vulgar an interpretation is much under the meaning of the Holy Ghost I would rather say it had a mystical construction that Leaven was allowed at this Feast to intimate that the Holy Spirit would bear with the leaven of our nature with our sins of frailty and infirmity And it is observable that this is the number of the Jubilee every fiftieth year was the Jubilee year which was a time with the Jews to restore all men to their Lands which were sold away by ill-husbandry and a general forgiving of all debts So this day was a true Jubilee for remission of Trespasses it was at this time that Peter preach'd remission of sins to all that did repent and believe to all without exception for says he the Promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call So I have shewed that we received the divine Spirit of grace at Sion at the same time that they received the terrible Law at Sinah which makes it a greater Feast of Pentecost to us Christians than it was unto the Jews Thirdly We agree no less with them in the next similitude for keeping this day The Israelites according to the early maturity of corn in that climate began to put their Sickle at this time into Wheat Harvest so the Apostles from this day forward went forth to reap that which the Prophets had sown gathering much fruit unto eternal life and bringing the Wheat of God into his Garner unto the everlasting praise of the glory of his grace Their Barly Harvest such was the condition of their Soil and Husbandry begun at Easter their Wheat was begun to be cut down seven weeks after at Whitsuntide and the latter was called Tempus primitiarum the Time or Festival of First-fruits which were presented to the Lord. So God breathed his spirit into man at the creation of Adam that was the first Harvest which spirit being choked by him and coming to nothing this day there was a second emission of the spirit into man fully to restore and renew him again Now the two Loaves
xiv 8. Briefly the Gospel was now to launch forth and to flote upon the waves of many trials and persecutions and therefore it had need of a Helm to turn it about whithersoever the Governor listeth and that little Helm is the tongue Jam. iii. 4. I told you even now that the wantonness of the eye had a gracious vision to amend it so here came a remedy from Heaven to correct the iniquity of our mouth which is the very forge of Hell and a tongue descended from above to sanctify it As the Devil can put no worse thing into us than an evil tongue and then it becoms the worst member that we have Jam. iii. 6. so God can send us no better thing from the store of his mercies than a tongue to praise him and then David calls it in the old Translation of our Psalms the best member that we have Psal cviii 1. We had need to let that Prayer come in often among our earnest supplications that God would touch our lips with a coal from his altar as he sent a Seraphin with that blessing to the Prophet Isaiah It is very meet that we consider in our vote with the Psalmist Set a watch before my mouth pone ostium circumstantiae as the vulgar Latin hath it make such a door for my mouth that I may look to every circumstance of every syllable that passeth out Oret lingua ut dometur lingua Says St. Austin O let the tongue pray for it self that it may be ruled how often trips it in swearing how often doth it murmur in discontent in boasting above measure in pride lofty in anger furious in perjuries blasphemous in curses bitter in vain talking never quiet glib as honey in hypocrisie subtle in lying smooth in deceiving impudent in flattery What a happy thing it is to have a fence about the lips that no such evil spirits as these may come in or out and notwithstanding all these exorbitancies of the mouth to which we are so obnoxious God can purifie our speech and season it with salt that it shall not corrupt For if man by wit and industry can tame wild beasts which he hath not made can not the Lord much more tame the tongue which he hath made a Watch can suppress and curb those in that would break out of their holds and the Lord can make such a door for our lips as shall inhibit all the petulancy of vain breath and shut and open for his own glory Ostium aperitur clauditur says Gregory unto it a door is made to let our friends and familiars in but to keep out theevs and robbers so the tongue must be open to confess our sins and shut if hypocrisie shall attempt to excuse them the mouth must be open unto the praise of God and barred against our own commendation it must be open to teach the humble but shut and silent if the obstinate will not learn for answer not a fool in his folly says Solomon He that openeth and no man shutteth he that shutteth and no man openeth can give us this power from above to speak unto his praise and to be silent unto evil therefore the Holy Ghost descended in the apparition of a tongue To pierce further as far as observation will give me leave upon this point as the tongue naturally is an instrument of two functions of speaking and of tasting so these extraordinary tongues were destined for two properties to preach the Gospel and to discern spiritual things in their true gust and sapor The first intent was to give the Apostles a door of utterance to proclaim salvation to all that were prepared to hear and that all men should confess with boldness that Jesus is the Christ The Spirit came in the former verse like a rushing mighty wind that was for inspiration for the Apostles own sakes to sanctifie themselves but the gift of tongues was for elocution to impart the benefit to more than themselves This is the antient gloss of the Fathers upon my Text especially Gregorie's and that in two places Pastores primos in linguarum specie spiritus sanctus insedit quia quos repleverit de se protinus loquentes facit the Holy Ghost sat upon the first Pastors of the Church in the shape of a tongue for whomsoever of that rank the Divine Spirit fills he opens their lips to preach the Lord Jesus In both of St. Pauls Epistles to Timothy one of his Injunctions upon a Bishop is that he should be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã apt to teach In his admonitions to Titus the same lesson again A Bishop must be able by sound doctrin to exhort and convince gainsayers Tit. i. 9. and St. Hierom says very truly how that character is more appropriated to a Bishop than all the rest the rest ought generally to be found in all holy Christians not to be given to filthy lucre nor to quaffing of wine to be the Husband of one Wife to be hospital just unblameable but this is intrinsecal first to Episcopal then to Priestly vocation to be cymbolum mundi the loud Cymbals of the world the tongues of the Church to be apt and painful to teach And therefore Espencaeus though of the Roman party exclaims much against the Pontifician Bishops for giving Monks and Friars licence to preach who are no Successors of the Apostles and therefore never received an Evangelical tongue in their Predecessors but says he the Prelates that ought to do that work themselves will not and therefore they grant licence to those to teach the Gospel who ought not but he cries out unto them to live according to St. Pauls Canons charged upon those two famous Bishops Timothy and Titus and then eant Episcopi se a docendi necessitate si possint excusent mark that Reverend Fathers says he and excuse your selves if you can from the necessity of preaching No there is no excuse for these tongues descended now after a mighty rushing wind quasi exeuntes è loco tonitrui as if they had been bolts after a clap of thunder to signify that these are the Trumpets which God sends forth to call us to repentance before the day of Judgment Ante adventum judicis ipsi clamando gradiantur says Gregory And howsoever some may justly attain to such place in the Church as to sway the Staff of Government in their hand yet they must remember that they are never released of this duty that their tongue must edify In the old Book of Ordination in this Church as well as in the Church of Rome the Bishop Elect at his Consecration had the Bible given him in one hand to teach and the Pastoral Staff in the other hand to govern the Flock It was never meant he should let fall the Book out of one hand and hold the Staff in both nay beware he be not beaten with the Staff that lets go the Book Latratu baculo rabies luporum deterrenda est
utterance ALL the joy which we celebrate for the famous acts of Christ is irksom to the Devil and the particular Solemnities which we keep are grievous to those that shut their eyes against the truth Upon the yearly day of our Saviours Nativity the Jew is sad and displeas'd because he believes not that he that was born of Mary a pure Virgin was the Son of God and the Messias whom their Fathers lookt for that should sit upon the Throne of David for evermore Upon the high Feast of his Resurrection the Sadducee gnasheth with his teeth because he denieth that the dead can be raised to life So upon this triumphant Feast wherein we abound with comfort for the sending of the Holy Ghost the Pelagian is malecontented who is an enemy to the efficacy of Grace and the more cause we have to maintain the dignity of it and to be throughly disciplin'd what the Holy Ghost hath wrought for our Soul because the Church is miserably soured of late in all places with the leaven of Pelagius Again as all the parts of our Saviours Mediatorship were several degrees to advance our Salvation and like the several steps of Jacobs Ladder to bring us nearer and nearer to Heaven so in this comparison the sending of the Holy Ghost is the loftiest degree and as it were the top of the spire which is next neighbour to the Kingdom of Glory for as man in his first creation had but an incomplete being till the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so man in his reparation was but incompletely restored till Christ did send the Comforter to infuse into him the breath of sanctification This day therefore is the concluding Feast of all the great days wherein we rememorate the noble works of our Lord and to go further this Text is the upshot of all the blessings that were conferred upon the Church in this happy day Christ took our nature upon him that he might die for our sins he suffered and was crucified that he might reconcile all such to his Father as would repent and believe repentance and faith to please God cannot enter into the heart of the natural man by his own abilities a power from Heaven must be the means to bring that about which is so repugnant to our corrupt nature Traverse over the mystery of our Redemption and you shall find that the work is at a stand till supernal grace poured in do draw it forward as Physicians say that spiritus est ultimum alimenti the last concoction and the most refined part of our nourishment is that which makes the spirits so the donation of the Holy Spirit is the accomplishment and final resolution of all the benefits which we partake in Christ And the last payment collated by that precious liberality to enrich the Church for ever is here in my Text nay indeed it was but a preparation before the talent of grace was not tendred till now That which was set forth in figure in the former verses is here exhibited in real substance Before a rushing wind made a noise here was the very thing imparted which was shadowed by the wind before certain firy tongues made a glittering that sat upon their head now their own tongues became most fluent and voluble with wonderful eloquence In brief to the exact building up of the Church two things were requir'd which are not wanting but abound in this verse First that the Lord should speak unto the Heart Secondly that he should speak unto the Ear by an invisible word and by a visible He spake invisibly to the Heart when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost he spake visibly to the Ear when his Ministers began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Nay more to gather a Society together whose Labours should be dispread over all the world it was expedient that the Lord should confer both ordinary and extraordinary Gifts upon them His ordinary Blessing and indeed nothing is blest without it is some quantity of Sanctification his extraordinary Blessing is twofold to send such as are not lightly sprinkled but filled with the Spirit and to speak with divers Tongues that their sound may go forth into all the World Yet again to shew the Amplitude of Gods allowance to his Primitive Church he makes a double provision first for every Disciple as he is one Member of this Body and so all and every one of them were filled with the Holy Ghost and then he provides for all the Members of his Body junctim in one union and communion they began c. so that here 's the inward and the outward blessing the ordinary and the extraordinary the particular and the universal The inward ordinary and particular blessing is this that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost If you look for the provision with which the Primitive Church was stored look for it in this Chapter and you will find out upon judicious survey that there are three things which make it plenteous with all manner of store Pastores Verbum and Spiritus First certain Pastors allotted to the sacred Function to guide the souls of the People 2. the Word of life which is put into their mouth to be preacht unto all Nations 3. The Spirit of grace accompanying the Word to make it fruitful and prolificous in the hearts of them that hear it and obey it That some were ordeined Pastors and Bishops to teach and rule the Church that 's clear the Apostles met together in Jerusalem with one accord as Christ had appointed and the Cloven Tongues which came from Heaven sat upon each of them that was their Commission to take their Bishoprick upon them that the Word was delivered unto them which they should preach and Elocution to impart that Word to every Kingdom and Language that 's as clear Eight times in this one Chapter St. Peter quotes the Scripture of the old Testament and with divers tongues according to the capacity of all the Nations and Languages that were met together and that the Holy Ghost was infused with much abundance at the same time that 's as clear and pregnant as the rest 't is twice gone over in my Text both in the beginning and in the end they were filled with the Holy Ghost and the Spirit gave them utterance A Church without lawful Pastors is but a Synagogue of Schismatiques a Pastor without a Tongue is but an Idol Shepherd or a dumb Dog a Tongue without the power of the Spirit is but sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal As St. Paul said of the three grand Theological Virtues Now abideth Faith Hope Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity so I say of these necessary parts that constitute the Church the Ministry the Word and the Spirit but the chiefest and most excellent of these is the Spirit In some strange manner God may have a Church without a consecrated Priesthood as when Adam and
these persons and to this season not to these persons for it is most likely that none but the Apostles were partakers of the Divine illumination which came from Heaven upon this day and the Apostles no man calls it in question had the talents of that grace delivered unto them which saved their souls Ir is a masterless and a false fame that any castaways were in the number of these that were filled with the Holy Ghost Christ himself is said to be full of the Holy Ghost Luke iv 1. and the Blessed Virgin gratiâplena full of grace and St. Stephen the Captain of all Martyrs full of the Holy Ghost Acts vi and Barnabas the Son of Consolation full of the Holy Ghost Acts xi None but such as were peerless Saints are deigned with that praise to give this scruple a full satisfaction regard the time and season wherein this dew of heaven did drop down into the Fleece of wooll it is the day so long before promised wherein the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh the scaturigo the first spouting out of the Spirit and do you think that this being the original from whence the spring began that all the best Balsams and Liquors did not flow into them that received it I resolved therefore that these persons in my Text did not only partake such gifts as made them wonderful in the eyes of the world but such also as made them holy and acceptable in the sight of God that is it did not only speak in their tongues but it was diffused in their hearts To end this matter remember what manner of spirit that is which God bestows it is from above it is holy it is not our own but Christs a Spirit from above and not from beneath as St. Paul says Now we have received not the spirit of this world but of God 1 Cor. ii 12. Spiritus mundi est per quem arripiuntur phanatici says St. Ambrose that 's the spirit of this world with which phanatical men are led which drives them into contention or vain glory but they are enemies to peace and savour not the things which belong to God And since we are bidden to deny our selves if we will be Christs Disciples we must also deny our own private Spirit and submit our selves to the Spirit of the Church which is the Spirit of God for our Saviour hath promised to be with it unto the end of the world Take heed of this hot windy humour which makes some cleave pertinaciously to their own imagination and attribute far more to their own ignorant judgment than becomes them The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets but if any one think that some new mysteries are revealed to him which the Church never heard of before and begin to trouble our peace with his falsesly pretended raptures and enthusiasms I say unto such in Ezekiels words Woe unto the foolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing Thus far I have spoken of the Gift which was given to the Apostles to supply the room of Christ himself now he was gone and ascended into Heaven Hominem portavit in coelum Deum misit in terram says St. Austin he carried away his Manhood into Heaven and instead thereof he sent down God unto the Earth I mean the Holy Ghost and this Gift more worth than all the world beside is his usual and continual favour but the measure of it is more than ordinary repleti sunt omnes they were all filled with the Holy Ghost And Leo did very well to mark it that this was not spiritus inchoans but cumulans not the initiation but the accumulation of the Spirit the augmenting of the old stock which the Apostles had in a good quantity before not the beginning of a new They had the Spirit before as appears particularly in St. Peter when Christ told him he had prayed that his faith might not fail therefore he had a portion of faith In general it is most manifest that Christ breathed on them all and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost But as it appears by Elisha's request to his Master Elias there are single and there are double Portions of the Spirit there is a single Talent of Grace given to one Servant two to a second and five Talents committed to him that was most entrusted by his Master there are such as have a little of this Manna in their Omer and them that have it top full And these that received the Holy Ghost at this Feast were such as were not sprinkled but replenished with it quibus nulla pars animae mansit carens spiritu sancto says Cajetan the fruits of sanctification did not grow thinly in them here a berry and there a berry upon the top of a bough but pious conformity to Gods will obedience and the fear of the Lord were in every faculty of their soul and body The Romanists oftentimes put in such impertinent cautions that their bedging in of some needless exception lays waste the truth of God Among others of that bad stamp this is one that the Apostles and other holy men are said to be filled at this time with the Holy Ghost because an Increase was put to that which they had before but the Blessed Virgin was so full before that she received not any new addition or if she received a new distillation of it now illud erat ut in nos tantum effunderet says Lorinus it was for our sakes that it might overflow and be transfused from her to us even as Christ was full of grace and truth from the first moment that he was incarnate and yet for our sakes the Spirit came upon him when he was baptized in Jordan Matth. iii. a most scandalous comparison between the Infinite and the Finite between the Creator and the Creature for though Christ thought it no robbery to be equall with God Philip. ii yet it is a great robbery of the Divine honor to make the Blessed Virgin equal with Christ But to keep to mine own work the Apostles had an earnest penny of the Spirit before but they came to the fulness of it by degrees first they were baptized and so had an introduction unto sanctity afterward Christ breathed on them that was their proficiency last of all came this mighty rushing and cloven tongues as it were fire and sat upon each of them that 's their perfection by nature and of themselves they were of the earth earthly but they were regenerate and born again in Baptism that 's an Element above the Earth The next step of their heavenly promotion was that the Lord breathed on them so the Air is above the Water In conclusion the Holy Ghost came down upon them in fire this is a sign that they were now full to the brim for that 's the Element which is above the Water and the Air and is the next to Heaven And well may it be called a
fulness not that the Vessel of any of their hearts was so replenisht but that God could have poured in more if it had seemed good unto him for nothing but the essence of God is all sufficient and can admit of no augmentation but never was there such copious measure of it either diffused among the Israelites in the Old Law no nor imparted to us Christians since this Generation did leave the world Rupertus says upon it it was now now when this Ocean of the Spirit was poured out that the Devil was bound and cast into the bottomless pit though that is rather to be ascribed to the virtue of Christ's Passion and to his bloud shed upon the Cross When Mary poured a Box of Spiknard very precious upon our Saviour's head Judas grumbled and said quorsum perditio to what end is so much waste and lest any profane person should so gibe at this blessing and say to what end was so much plenty and superfluity of the Spirit take these reasons with you for your use and instruction and I will begin with two Maxims of reasons 1. Si natura non deficit in necessariis multò minùs spiritus sanctus if Nature is furnisht with all instruments and faculties fit for its work surely the Holy Ghost would not be scanty in any thing that should conduce to resound the Glory of God over all the world 2. Speculative men tell us tantum medii sumendum est quantum ad finem conducit he that is a wise Appointer will lay forth so much means as will bring the end to pass Put these together and it will follow that here was neither too little nor too much nothing wanting nor yet to spare The work of the Apostles was the greatest Task that ever was put upon mens shoulders Christ gave them one Commission which might be discharg'd with some moderate pains and adventures to preach unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel Their second Commission might seem unto flesh and bloud insupportable Go and teach all Nations c. How much ground was to be trod how many deaths to be hazarded how many subtle Philosophers to be convinced we preach unto them that are brought up in Religion and are glad to hear us they were sent to those that stop their ears at them and could not endure the name of Christ their heart therefore their judgment their courage their patience did require a far other proportion of the Spirit than will suffice a common Christian their filling must be more abundant because they were to empty it out to so many And unto whomsoever God hath imparted more copious grace let him not despise his Brethren but let him use that plenteous Gift for the benefit of many for the edification of the Members of Christ's Body or else the blessing that did adorn him will condemn him The next thing we learn is that we must strive and contend and pray for the fulness of the Spirit it is not every Modicum and pittance of it which will content him that truly loves the Lord. The Son of Syrach says of that wisdom which sanctifieth all things They that eat me shall be hungry and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty Ecclus xxiv 21. And very certain none so eager to have more grace as they that have a liberal portion already None so instant to get ten Talents as he that hath received five Let Elisha have some enlightnings of a Prophetical Spirit and then he makes bold to ask that a double portion of Elias his Spirit may rest upon him Gregory says it is the property of the fruits of the Spirit Cum non habentur in fastidio sunt cum habentur in desiderio They that have them not either never miss them or think vilely of them they that have them do insatiably desire them It is a sign of a disdainful lothsomness in nature to come to the Fountain of living waters and to do no more but sip and wet our lips with it He that hath a truly heavenly gust of it pleno se proluit alveo As St. Paul phraseth it We are all made to drink into one spirit 1 Cor. xii 12. Still we shall call for more and more not because want and driness doth afflict us but because desire doth please us Nemo primo statim die ad satietatem potatur spiritus sancti says Calvin no man is made Christian enough in a day to go to the Kingdom of heaven unless it be in such a rare example as that was of the penitent Thief It is a false spirit that says unto any mortal man it is well if you can keep at this stay and prove no worse I know the greatest part of indifferent Christians are so affected to carnal content that if it were possible to measure out to a drachm what quantity of righteousness would serve them to be endued with that they might attain salvation they would reach so far if the grace of God would assist them but would take no care to seek any further I say if they knew the trick how to make just a Saint and no more they would spare a labour for seeking beyond that Point and for the rest sacrifice to carnal security Christianum esse probant minimum esse non probant as St. Hierom speaks they do not love a man unless he be a Christian And again they will not love him if he be a vehement and an earnest Christian to serve the Lord. Certainly it is a sign that there is no sanctification in that conscience where there is not a studious longing of the soul for an augmentation The learned among the Heathen love to talk of strange Creatures and Plutarch tells of a fish whereof if a man taste but a little it is hurtful if he eat it up all it is medicinal True or false be his story it comes fit to be applied a little holiness will vanish away like a morning mist as Hosea speaks nay it is prone to turn to mans hurt for when there is but little of it it turns to hypocrisie but as God hath given us plenteous redemption in Christ so we must return him plenteous faith and plenteous obedience with all our heart and with all our soul and love our neighbour with a plenteous love even as we love our selves and that is to be filled with the Holy Ghost Let this be the conclusion of the first part of my Text the inward donation of the Spirit the outward exercise of it remains to be handled They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance The Spirit which is signified by the wind and inspiration is necessary to all Christians who are invited to faith But as it appears in Tongues so it was requisite for them only that were sent to teach all Nations That is if God had meant only to make good men of them the wind would have sufficed but intending to make good Apostles of
speak the Oracles of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã rational discourses 1 Pet. iv 11. So our Saviour promised his Disciples I will give you a mouth and wisdom not a mouth only but wisdom with it so that all your Adversaries shall not be able to gainsay it Luk. xxi 15. Finally the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the person of an Evangelical Priest The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should speak a word in season Isa l. 4. And so to end all let us send up our tongues of praise and thanksgiving to heaven to the gracious God that did send down the blessing of these Tongues to his Church upon earth And the same Lord Jesus exalt us to his Church Triumphant where with one song and with one voice we shall sing glory to him for evermore AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 12 13. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this Others mocking said these men are full of new wine MEntion being made in the former part of this Chapter what effects the Mission of the Holy Ghost as upon this day wrought in the Apostles the next thing which is disclosed in these two verses is what entertainment it found in the World What entertainment should it find but joy and gladness and thanksgiving it was a shower of grace that fell from Heaven and every drop of it more valuable than an Orient Pearl which made the whole earth barren and unfruitful before spring out with spiritual increase that from thenceforth the Wombs of Mothers should not bring out men but Saints It was not as upon the sixth day of the week in the Creation of the World that God did breath into man the breath of Life but upon this first day of the week he breathed into his Church the breath of Righteousness and filled it with the seeds of future Glory From the Feast of the Passover the Jews were to number seven weeks and then they kept a most solemn day called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost that 's this very day instituted to recognize how at that time they came out of Egypt from the Bondage of Pharaoh and received the Law which was delivered upon Mount Horeb. But to expunge the memory of that occasion God did superinduct a far greater blessing upon this Festival day and poured out his Spirit in a bountiful and miraculous manner upon his Disciples at Jerusalem Was there a season appointed to congratulate the deliverance of the Jews from the Captivity of the Body and doth not this Mercy exalt it self above the other that they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise to be enfranchised from the slavery of Sin and the Devil Was the remembrance of the Law a perpetual rejoycing though it were a killing Letter and is it not ten thousand times more comfortable to receive the power of the Holy Ghost which enabled them to keep the Law Did they take it kindly and chearfully to receive the Law written in Tables of Stone And is not the change a great deal better on this day to have it written in the fleshly Tables of their Heart Then the Lord gave them but one Talent and they made but small multiplication of it nay they were the Servants in the Parable and who but they that bound it up and buried it in a Napkin Lo here are five Talents delivered unto us a greater Sum than ever the Children of Men received before And answer me now in equity what entertainment the Mission of the Holy Ghost should receive in the World Not to deceive your expectation with many words the case is thus The best of the Jews that came to the God-speed of this days work profest ignorance and knew not what to make of it the worst of them exhaled envy and rancour out of their malignant minds and jeared at it And they were all amazed and were in doubt c. The parts must needs arise to these two heads Grande miraculum Grande ludibrium First a great Miracle for it wrought these three things first Amazement they were all amazed secondly Doubt they were in doubt thirdly earnest Search and Inquisition for they said one to another what meaneth this But though the greater part were thus affected and therefore it is said they were all amazed meaning the greater number yet divers turn'd it to mockery and said these men are full of new wine First the sending of the Holy Ghost was construed to be a great Miracle by all that saw the effects of it in the Apostles and in the beginning it is exprest by a passion that took away their reason for a time ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they were amazed then it troubled their reason they doubted and finally it exercised their reason for they asked after it Amazement is a word to express the highest and most sudden admiration that can take a man when astonishment doth seize upon the faculties of the mind and bind them up for a little space that they have no power to exercise themselves as if they were Planet-blasted The Latin word Attonitus is he that is scared with a sudden clap of thunder so that he is stupified for a while but the Greek word in my Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã goes further for the right signification is they were beside themselves or they were in an extasie So our Saviour's Kinsmen being themselves out of their wits with ignorance thought that our Saviour was transported when he preached the Gospel and knew not what he said therefore their opinion was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he is beside himself Mark iii. 21. Ecstatici qui non sunt in potestate mentis they that are amazed have not their mind present for the time it is dizied and confounded so that this Miracle wrought upon the Jews after the highest pitch of admiration Let us interpret it to the best that joy did overcome them to see the riches of all goodness poured out upon the Sons of men Their Forefathers were astonisht with fear at the delivery of the Law and they are astonisht with joy at the coming of the Holy Ghost The Gift it self the Persons that received it the Operation which it did exercise in them to speak the glory of God in all Tongues and Languages all are transcendently wonderful that the wit of a natural man especially is not able to comprehend them The Gift it self in the first place is so celestial that the Lord himself is not more wonderful in all his works than in sending the Holy Ghost so hidden from the knowledg of the world so rare to be found so beneficial to mankind that he that marvels not at it is himself a Miracle Are you amazed at things which are secret and very abstruse in their nature none more close and unperceivable than this As the wind passeth by and is not perceived so God breaths the
not hear you Hitherto I have made it good against Satan and all infernal Sorceries against Tyrants that attempt to exalt themselves and against all popular Factions that would seem to have an interest in the making and marring of Princes that God is the initial cause the conserving cause the sole Fountain and Author of all Supreme Sovereignty There is but one Adversary more to struggle with in this point that Hildibrandâ spirit in the Church of Rome who either directly or indirectly claims authority to himself to take account of the Government of Kings and when he pleaseth to break their Scepters with a Rod of Iron It is no toying in so main a Cause as this therefore I will demonstrate that I charge them right 1. The great number of the Canonists defend without any circumlocution that the Temporal Soveraignty of the whole world is inherent in the Office of Christs Vicar to give change alter or confirm the Titles of particular Princes as his infallible judgment shall lead him Thus Baronius who speaks his mind in these words for his Holy Father whom our Lord Jesus Christ the King of Glory hath constituted a Prince over all the Kingdoms of the World Says Augustinus Triumphus all Power and Royalty is subdelegated from the Pope to other Princes no man can give him any Soveraignty which he had not before nec Constantinus dedit quicquam Sylvestro quod non prius erat suum says he some talk of Constantines donation to Sylvester that he gave him the Temporal Principality of Romania he gave him nothing but that which was his own before that and all beside was St. Peters Patrimony But Practice is a plainer Argument than Book-words Alexander the Sixth a Giver that will do but small credit to his Gift but such as he is take him with all faults he bestowed the whole West-Indies to Ferdinand King of Spain ex merâ liberalitate motu proprio as it is in the words of the Bull. Their own Histories say that Athabaliba King of Peru maintained his Dominions by fighting against that Grant till he was taken prisoner in battel and then cried out That Pope could have no reverence to vertue or to the God of Heaven that took away another mans Kingdom from him You see now that this Successor of St. Peter as he would be stiled lays claim to that which St. Peter never dreamt of to belong to him for how could his imagination comprehend such things when he knew they were disclaimed by Christ Joh. xviii 36. My Kingdom is not of this world if it were my Servants would fight for me that I should not be delivered to the Jews but my Kingdom is not from hence God gave unto Christ the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession that is to dilate his Spiritual Kingdom over all the world but neither that himself or his Apostles should excel in any Temporal Dignity It remains therefore against all opposite Parties that the Kingdoms of the World are the Lords and he doth set his Annointed in their Thrones out of his holy Hill and therefore when Popes of old did write to Kings their usual stile was to wish them health in eo per quem reges regnant in him by whom Kings do reign that is in God above And all this is to declare that David held his Crown from none but God because upon the Solemn Feast of his Inauguration it is said This is the Day which the Lord hath made All Kings are made by God yet not all alike there is more of the Divine mercy and favour in the making of David a man after Gods own heart than in making of Saul one whom it repented God that ever he made him more of his sacred workmanship in the making of Melchisedech a King of Righteousness than in the making of Nimrod a King of Violence They that sow the fruits of righteousness in peace those are reges primae intentionis Kings in whom God and Man do especially delight and they that have been compassed about with most cruel Wars abroad and with most terrible Enemies and Treasons at home and yet have waded prosperous out of all these dangers those are reges primae providentiae Kings of miraculous providence above the trivial current and you that have read the two Books of Samuel and the first Book of Chronicles meet with a thousand passages what memorable marks the Lord had set upon the person of David which of you doth note the mean condition out of which he did rise and the Throne to which he was exalted but you will say digitus Dei you do mark the print of Gods finger in the work collect the imminent dangers which he escaped the fury of Saul the Hosts of the Philistins the Duel with Goliah the Plots of Ahitophel the overawings of the Sons of Zeruiah the almost inevitable Conspiracy of Absalon and finally the Usurpation of his other Son Adonijah even while he was upon his Death-bed and you will say there was never any Potentate begirt with so many assaults and brought off with such safety that there was not an hair of his head did perish As David's Day hath these characters in it so we are to glorifie the sweet Providence of God that our Royal Sovereign's Day hath none of them For first the mean Parentage of David did much prejudice him it was a word of contempt that he could not claw off to be called the Son of Jessai the Son of a poor Yeoman in Bethlem But his Majesty's Throne hath been the Throne of his glorious Ancestors for many Generations and a concurrence of the best blood in the world doth meet in himself and in his Royal Progeny For domestical Enemies God be praised for the terms of eleven years of his most Religious Reign never any durst shew their faces if they should I trust we should see their heads shewn for a direful spectacle to after Ages But whereas the blessed Princes that upheld our Reformed Religion have been hemmed about with Treasons upon Treasons every one of them God hath so confounded them in their malicious devices that His Sacred Majesty hath hitherto gone in and out before us without the least whisper of any infernal attempt against him no Prince in this Island that profest the same Reformed Faith being able to say as he can that neither popular commotion nor secret conspiracy hath hitherto reacht itself against his Royal Person and God grant such safety to himself and such true and loyal hearts to his People and that gracious protection will make us see that the Buckler of the Most High is on every side of him and that his name is written in the Book of Life Another thing is David was very much exercised in wars against the Philistins and his Sword did never come out of the Field without a Conquest but the best Victory is bought with the price of much bloud and therefore
ours is both a more joyful condition to enjoy the halcyon days of peace than to be renowned for the most triumphant days of war As Seneca said of the innocent days of Saturns Age that there were no terrible Battels fought by seditious Princes odium omne in feras verterant they kill'd none but wild Beasts in hunting so it is far more Christian in our days to hear it talked that Dogs do chace Stags than that Men devour Men as they do in our neighbour Nations But as David was the first King of Israel that maintained a Navy of Ships at Sea both to procure safety and honour and wealth to his people so it will be written of our Dread Soveraign that he hath matched if not exceeded all his Predecessors in that glory Touching the Personal Qualities of David Gifts of Virtue and Grace I confess they were rare and will admit but of few Comparisons never such an Enditer of holy Songs never any did exceed him in Zeal and Piety never since the world began did any Monarch heap up such a mass of Treasure to build up the Temple an hundred thousand Talents of Gold a thousand thousand Talents of Silver and Gold and Silver without number 1 Chron. xxii for ordering the Service of God in the disposition of the Priests in settling the sacred Musick he was so exquisite as the like was never heard of and in ordering all temporal affairs he was wise as an Angel of God says the woman of Tekoa for his mercy in forgiving offendors you shall not meet with the like till you ascend up to God himself how soon did a few courteous words in the mouth of Abigail cool his anger when he was in a most chaffing indignation what horrid revilings did he put up which Shemei cast upon him how indulgent he was to have spared Absolom the lewdest Son that did ever rise up against a Father When God did give such Ornaments to his Servant it may well be said that he made the day wherein he crowned him and for our due acknowledgment of Gods favours poured upon the head of our Augustious Sovereign you cannot deny but he is religious pious temperate gentle prudent good in all respects as David was but blemished with none of his vices But I will not make my Sermon a Cento of his deserved Praises not for that reason which Plato gives that it is folly to commend any man while he lives ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because man is a changeable creature and may alter from good to worse I fear not this I see such constancy and stiff perseverance in all virtuous ways in our Illustrious King but partly because all Encomiastick Exercises are censur'd for flattery and do soon prove scandalous to the Auditors partly because the Temple is a place selected for the Praise of God and not of Man but I will confidently say that since we are so prosperous a People in a religious wise just chast merciful and temperate Sovereign no Nation under the Sun all things duly weighed hath more cause to confess than we this is the day which the Lord hath made And I may well say hitherto I have spoken of a Benefit now I am come to our bounden thankfulness we will rejoyce and be glad in it as who should say this is the Day which God made for this very end that we should rejoyce and be glad in it As the Lord loveth a chearful Giver so he loveth a chearful Receiver of his mercies he would have us consign it in our countenance and gesture that it pleaseth us and delights us exceedingly to be partakers of his Propitiations And surely this is no hard request no heavy yoke I am certain to require us to rejoyce and be merry with them that keep holy day to accommodate our selves to the season It becometh the righteous to be glad it becometh them to be merry and joyful says our Psalmist If we descend into the consideration of our manifold sins we had need of a long Lent set apart to bewail them nay the Church very anciently provided that every week in the year we should cast up that reckoning and singled out two whole days Wednesday and Friday for fasting weeping and mourning Yet since there is nothing worse for our proficiency in sanctification than to be swallowed up in grief and melancholy therefore it is the will of our Father that we should recreate our selves in solemn Festivals for the remembrance of his benefits which my Text calls to rejoyce and be glad The same passion of Exhilaration perhaps is set forth in both these terms yet it is usual to ascribe them severally the one to the Body the other to the Soul referring joy to the Body and gladness to the Soul for we owe our selves to God in both and we must honour him both in the inward and in the outward man Cor meum caro mea they go both together Psal xvi 9. therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope In such times as great Benefits are to be celebrated we must not think it enough to joy in our bosom it must break out into some sensible tokens and yet again we must not have a clear face and a cloudy overcast heart but let our Body and Soul be equally devoted to triumph in the name of the Lord. I dare not open too wide a gap for mirth lest instead of thanksgiving it prove to be licentiousness Solomon among other varieties would prove his own heart with mirth and pleasure and behold it turned to vanity Eccl. ii no passion more obnoxious to degenerate into vice therefore gaudete in Domino let the Lord be in the joy both of Body and Soul and forget not that the speakers in my Text promise not a carnal but a religious Festival wherein the Lord should be praised For the 27 verse of this Psalm in our reading promiseth a Sacrifice to God upon that Day in his holy Temple Bind the Sacrifice with cords unto the horns of the Altar but the Septuagint ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. and it is followed by the Vulgar Latin which reads it Constituite diem solemnem in condensis usque ad cornua altaris appoint an holy day that the People may stand thick in the Temple from the Porch up to the horns of the Altar Some part of the day must be spent in the Church upon our Solemn times or else our rejoycing is not sanctified It is the mirth of Fools or rather of Mad-men to suppose that Christmas Holidays are well kept with gaming and revelling that Whitsun Holidays were made for nothing but Wakes and Dancing that the Solemnity of May-day being the Feast of two Apostles Philip and Jacob consists in decking up houses with green boughs or as in old time the Common People celebrated Allhollan-day with nothing but ringing of Bells Lawful Exercises and Pastimes may be used to refresh both the body and
many Ages that went before you I see a spectacle to be commiserated in this old Fabrick before mine eyes O that God would stir up many Nehemiahs among you to re-edifie his Temples and Churches which are decaied and impoverished Hearken to another Proposition In the Republick of the Jews in the Fiftieth year the year of Jubilee the Land which was sold away from any Tribe returned again to the Tribe and to his Family that sold it You see and I hope do pity it at least into how many Tribes the portion of the Church is divided how many Impropriations have almost laid waste the dwelling places of God God stir up a religious heart in many of you to imitate those Worthies who have bequeathed of their Wealth to regain unto the Tribe of Levi that which was so sinfully alienated from them Fifty and fifty years and more to them are run out and still our Inheritance is in the hand of Srangers and there will remain unless by your bounty you will repossess the Church again in those holy demeans which by divine right belong unto it It is worth your knowledge to give you notice how riches came first into the world says Abulensis in his question upon Genesis Cain and Abel and Seth burnt whole burnt-offerings in the open field upon the floor of the earth unto the Lord the great fire of those Sacrifices melted Gold and Silver in the veines of the earth lying near unto the Superficies and purged it from dross as in a refining Furnace which being congealed men found out the use of it and how precious it was and so by this mans conjecture Riches were first found out by doing Honour unto God and is it not most natural to repay them back again for Gods honour and to expect a better recompence The Text I confess doth most properly touch upon the Cleargy themselves upon the Priests of God Honorantes Honorabo they may claim it especially as their due for I told you the Message was delivered by an Angel to Eli the High Priest and to his Sons who had succeeded him in the Priesthood if they had been righteous Let the Sons of Aaron especially praise the Lord with the two Silver Trumpets Verbo vita their painful doctrine and their pious and peaceable life and then if all other honour fail they shall be thrice honoured when the Archangel shall call them out of the Grave with his Trumpet to the Resurrection of the Just If you will see an honourable Priest indeed read the Ninth Chapter of Ecclesiasticus It is the praise of Simon the Son of Onias What a declaration is there What a Description of his glory Beyond all the Eloquence that ever I met with in humane Oratory if the delight of the Subject do not deceive my judgment Such Honour in his Robes when he was cloathed with the perfection of Glory such Majesty in the manner of his Sacrificing such shouting with the Musick of the Temple how the High Priest stretcht his hands over the Congregation and gave them the blessing of the Lord with his lips then how the People bowed their face to the ground and worshipped the Lord lastly how Simon himself was honoured in the Congregation shining like a Rainbow in a cloud of dew They that will please themselves let them read it and learn both what it is for the Bishop to ravish the People with devotion and for the people to return all reverence and honour to the Bishop I know this Doctrine is against the stomach of a troublesom Faction in the Church If God and the King should give Honour unto his Priests every day they would grudge against it every hour No Honour or Lordship for that Coat say they as if because our Saviour called the Disciples the Salt of the earth we must be all set like the Salt at the lower end of the Table If Joseph were honoured in the sight of all the Egyptians that laid up food in Pharaohs Granary shall no honourable place belong unto them that lay up spiritual food in the Temple for the people of the Lord Can you turn this Text and say it was not preach'd to Eli Them that Honour me I will Honour Let me answer one Objection and so I will end this first part What is this that God saith Honorantes Honorabo he will Honour his Saints when such as have filled the Commonwealth with outcries and the Church with abominations are Rulers and Potentates in every Age When the rich Glutton is cloathed with Purple and fine Linnen every day they that make this complaint let them turn about and look where they are in Earth or in Heaven One asked Aesop why the Weeds grew faster than the Flowers in his Garden says the wise man Quia terra est horum Noverca illorum Mater The Earth is own-Mother to my Weeds and Stepmother to my Flowers So says Christ to his Disciples Doth the World hate you And no marvel you are not of the World your Conversation is in Heaven But will you have a Paradox indeed God never gave honours to a wicked and pestilent person Why but how came he to have them Is not all Honour from God Yes but they were not given to him Dati sunt Avo Proavoque dati seris nepotibus says Seneca they were given to the good Grandfathers or Forefathers that used them well or they are prepared for the Sons or Nephews who will use them better hereafter Mamercus Scaurus was a known Adulterer and yet the Romans chose him Consul not intending to give him Honour but forsooth his Father had been an excellent Senator Et indigne fert populus Romanus sobolem ejus jacere they were loth to disgrace his dissolute Son And surely God will much more respect the thousand Generations of them that love him and keep his Commandments for the honours which a dangerous person hath are not his own they are hatcht for the Children yet unborn that the promise may coextend only to the just Them that honour me I will honour All this while we have been in the first part of Pharaohs Dream among the goodly Kine and in a golden Harvest now we come to the second to the lank ears of Corn to the ill-favoured Cattle to those that cast Gods honour behind their backs till he cast them away into utter darkness for so says the other member of the Text They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Theodoret in his Ecclesiastical History having discoursed briefly upon the life of Julian the Apostate brake off abruptly and would not speak of his Successor the Christian Emperour Jovinian till he had begun a new Book and a new Treatise it were a great Trespass says he to write their Acts and Monuments upon the same Paper So I affected this method I confess to spin a new Web as it were and to frame a new discourse when I came to them who are the contemners of Gods
to be sought out in a higher rank Great astonishments are quite above our nature Aquinas hath contrived them into three sorts First The wonder lies in substantiâ facti in the very thing done as when the Sun went backward Secondly The thing may be natural in it self but admirable and past our power if we consider the subject upon which it is wrought as for the blind to see for the dead to be raised up to life Thirdly and lastly Both the thing performed is ordinary and done with ease upon the subject but the manner of doing it makes the wonder as for a Fever to be cured in a moment Of all these three the first in order is the greatest in substantiâ facti such was this in my Text and no meaner that it should not kill and empoyson Aesculapius among the heathen the very deity of Physick his Emblem was a Serpent as the glory of his Cures and the very utmost of his Art Now when Miracles have but two ends say the Schoolmen to do honour to the Word of God and to confirm it that is the first or to honour the life of him that works in the Ministry in the justice of both causes never was there more need than at this time of a Miracle Here was the poor Island of Melita which Publius and the Roman Army had found out long ago to destroy it but the Gospel was not heard of before this day to save it St. Paul that should plant the faith was cast ashore by shipwrack as one neglected of God bound over a close Prisoner as one hated of his Countrymen suspected by the Barbarians to be a Murderer then his cause was tried by the word of the Lord it was time to shake Vipers into the fire and feel no harm Thus Christianity began by a Miracle in the Island of Melita and perchance long ago so it began with us but now we do not so learn Christ when the boughs of the Church are grown and spread like the goodly Cedar trees Nehemiah and all the People shouted for joy when the Foundation of the Temple was laid but from thenceforth they built with silence no exclamations were heard When faith had scarce made entrance into Jerusalem our Saviour came in strangely when the doors were shut but being once in he went plainly to work with Thomas Put thy finger into my side and be not faitless but faithful This is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a fit wedge to drive out the jugling Divinity of the Papists What do you tell us of your Legend of wonders in Compostella Thousand Miracles and more thousand Murders in India Images that turn their eyes about and Statues that weep and sweat Saints limb'd out in bloudy straws Strange Exorcisms of Devils When the worst was but the Toothach or a Fever As Apelles said to another Painter none of the best workmen but one of the quickest that bragg'd he made twenty Pictures every day and shewed the Patterns I wonder says Apelles you do not make twice twenty of this sort So the Miracle that I take hold of is this why the learned Fatherhood invent no louder or more unlikely miracles But take it to you work Signs and Wonders perchance by the secret operation of Satan Et eorum spirituum operatione videbantur admirandi à quibus sunt damnandi says their own Master Lombard And they lookt for admiration by the power of those Spirits by whom they shall receive damnation As the Rivers of Paradise are without Paradise and run into divers parts of the world so the gifts of Miracles and the gifts of Tongues are like those Rivers which run both within and without the Church ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says St. Chrysostome Signs and Wonders are not so near to Gods House as the Porch is unto the Temple except there be holiness to the Lord in Aarons Breast as well as Buds of Almonds in his Rod. Remember Jannes and Jambres remember Simon the Sorcerer yea the very Divels do Miracles says Lombard Ne tale aliquid facere fideles pro magno desiderent lest the Faithful should seem to desire to do the like as if it were some great matter If not Magnum then surely not Maximum the greatest note of a Church Especially if it be true which St. Austin says Omni miraculo quod fit per hominem majus miraculum est homo If man be a greater wonder than can pass through the hands of man then certainly a regenerate man is the greatest power of God his Prayers and Charity and Faith are more excellent than to shake a Viper into the fire and feel no harm Grant O Lord such Wonders unto thy Church whereby thy name may be glorified in true holiness and cloath thy Priests with health as thou didst thy Servant Paul and because we look for a greater deliverance Quis me liberabit Who shall deliver me from the body of this death Let us say assuredly as he did even Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN THE FIRST SERMON UPON ENOCH GEN. V. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him DAys appointed for Repentance and Humiliation you know these to be of that institution but those are times to do and not to say therefore I have read a Text unto you rather of Deeds than Sayings an active Example and not a verbal Exhortation And it is an Example of no mean pitch you will like it the better for that one Star differs from another in glory and one Saint differs from another in sanctity and perfection There were Pillars in Solomons Temple and golden Chapiters on the top of the Pillars so the Patriarchs of old the Apostles in the Christian Ages were Pillars of the Church all of them Pillars but such as bore the chief praise for using the gifts of grace with all advantage to Gods glory these are the golden Chapiters upon the tops of the Pillars I will promise you to make it good by that which I shall say anon that I have propounded unto you one of the golden Crowns upon the top of the Pillars as heavenly and as happy a president as can be found out of a meer man as compleat a Pattern as can be chosen out of all the Sons of Adam and who would not write by the best Copy In the most ancient Epistle of Clemens the Roman written to the Corinthians lately made publick to the world out of the Princely store-house of this Kingdom that holy Father moves the Corinthians with this extimulation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Let us look stedfastly towards them who have perfectly ministred in holy service to the excellent glory of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not to the Catalogue of Saints in the middle Region but to them that walked highest above this world And in the very next words following Ecce homo behold the man of his choice to whom he gives precedency above all others ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã let us take out
and the names of the Stars and Constellations and with flat Romances about the good Angels falling in love with mortal Creatures things most unworthy to be fathered upon Enoch that walked with God Therefore St. Jerom moderates the variance Non probavit librum totum Judas sed illud duntaxat testimonium St. Jude did patronize no more of that Book but that Prophesie which he copied out into his Epistle As St. Paul gave no divine authority to certain heathen Poets but only to those particular Verses which he borrowed To come to a point It sounds nearest to truth that Enoch was no such Prophet as left Canonical Records because Christ was wont to argue against the Jews from Moses and the Prophets allowing Moses for the most ancient Prophet that delivered Scripture to the Church by inspiration A late Capuchin Frier hath laboured to prove as he thinks solidly as I think very superficially that Monkish Fraternities and Covents were the first invention in the Church and in his sense to be a Prophet is all one as if Enoch had been of some Colledge or religious Order separated from the ordinary Sons of God Out of his own conjectures he doth erect two strict sodalities of Religion in those ancient days From Enos the Enoscaei such as professed silence from all talk and sequestration from all men And from Cainan the Cinaei or Kenites such as lived in a regular but an active Vocation More of this in due time but we read of no vow or affected institution of life into which the Patriarchs entred we read of some illuminated Prophets or Prophet among them and that was Enoch As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began Luk. i. 70. 3. His next mark of glory follows That he was an example of repentance to all Generations They that are careful to expound these words in Ecclesiasticus accurately are divided in the sense Some have searched among the Rabbines for their opinions of this and one of them says that wickedness did abound in the Age of Enoch the foul crimes of Sorceries and Witchcrafts had begun to shew their blade and Lamech was the seventh from Adam in the Race of Cain a Bigamist and a Murderer His sins in all likelihood were scandalous and contagious at that time over a great part of the earth and for these iniquities the Lord drowned the third part of the habitable world in Enochs time and Enoch threatned an universal Deluge to all flesh if they did not repent which indeed came to pass so his Doctrine and Prophesies gave notice of Repentance to all Generations But Procopius says upon this Text and he had it from some Jewish Scribes that this holy man had been very incontinent and vicious before he begat Methusalah but after that he proved so relenting a Convert laid hold so fast on God because he knew what a misery it was to lose him that his few years of repentance did God more faithful service than almost a thousand years of innocence in the best of the Patriarchs Which aspersion upon this holy Saint since it hath no ground to build upon it is answered well enough by Cajetan Enoch is twice commended in this Chapter that he walked with God in this Text and within two Verses before it the ingemination of that puts it into more probability that he was a constant follower of good works from his youth up till the time that God translated him Leaving these far-fetch'd conjectures this is the most sutable exposition to the words as I apprehend repentance is often taken for all that sanctification and righteousness which is in man that is born and conceived in sin Acts v. 31. God hath exalted Christ to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins but God gives a new heart and a new spirit to Israel and new obedience when he gives them forgiveness of sins To repent is properly reverti à peccato to return from a sinful life but sometimes it is avertere à peccato to turn a side from the broad way which leadeth to perdition though the Child of God never went astray in it So Enoch having a corruptible body which pressed down the pious alacrity of the soul and doing those things by frailty sometimes which he ought not to have done his innocency and holiness is called repentance whereupon the Son of Syrach calls him an example of repentance to all Generations 4. To be a Prophet to be an example of repentance both of these gives us an introduction to understand this Phrase that he walked with God but the true key that opens it is the fourth thing Vpon the earth was no man created like Enoch says the Son of Syrach A Cedar among other fair trees a great Star among other lesser lights a most sanctified man among many just ones like the man in the Parable that was the truest servant to his Master exceeded him that gained but two Talents exceeded him that gained five Talents he made return of ten Talents to his Lord and bore the praise away from them all that had done very well before him upon the earth was no man created like Enoch We commend those from our lips that are inter non pessimè malos not so bad as the worst But God commends them from his mouth that are inter optimos praecipui the most excellent of them that are the best Reuben was kinder towards Joseph than the rest of his Brethren so Reuben tells them of it Gen. xlii 22. yet he was but unnatural Jehu was a truer worshipper of God than the Priests of Baal yet wanted much of sincerity Gamaliel was more favourable to the Apostles than the rest of the Judges yet he did them unjustice and was an unbelieving Pharisee The Kingdom of heaven is not to be look'd for upon assurance that there are greater sinners than you but hereby you shall try if the love of God be in you when you pant and strive with all your soul and with all your might that none may be better It is a pitiful and indeed a dishonourable praise to point out a man and say he is religious devout or conscionable as the world goes Hath God ever promised to take measure from that form as a bad world goes how he will give a man an heritage with the Angels in the world to come To be an Hercules among the Argonautes I mean the first Champion in the Lords cause in the first file a Peter among the Disciples Lovest thou me more than these An Elias among Prophets a Moses an Aaron among his Priests and Samuel among such as called upon his name an Enoch among the Patriarchs upon the earth was no man created like him this is the pitch we must desire to grow unto and not to say with the Proverb Occupet extremum scabies All is well if you be not the worst of a wicked company Whatsoever you know or hear of
relate but that he finished this life I cannot say it His years are numbred before my Text like other mens three hundred sixty five just as many years as there be days in an usual year after the motion of the Sun not that this reckoning is the term of his life but the term of that time that he conversed with men As Tertullian glosseth upon St. Pauls words I am crucified with Christ How crucified and yet live Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia by the reformation of his life not by the loss of his life So Enoch had a period when he left to be with men Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia By an exaltation to a better life not by the corruption of his body As the men of Israel would not let Jonathan suffer death though Saul had given Sentence against him What say they shall Jonathan die that hath wrought such great salvation in Israel So when the Spirit of the Lord had testified what a Prophet Enoch was a perfect obedient that abhorred Will-worship a stiff maintainer of Gods part against the Devil and all his Instruments ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a friend a familiar acquaintance a walker with God Upon this testimony Mercy opposeth Justice and though the Lord had said to Adam and to all that were in his loyns Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return What says Mercy shall Enoch die an example of repentance to all Generations So the stroke of death was diverted that he saw not the Grave and Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him The partition which I framed upon the whole Verse was on this wise first how uncorrupt Enoch was in his ways he walked with God and secondly that he did not see corruption And this second Point which is reserved for this hours labour is to be handled in two several heads the former I will call Enoch's passage out of this world He was not The latter his reposure in another world For God took him His place was left empty among the Patriarchs below and he filled a room among the Thrones and Angels above Upon these two I shall handle many particular Doctrines before you And he was not a concise phrase you see and brevity will breed obscurity especially put this unto it that it is a form of speech which is not used again in this sense to my remembrance in all the Scripture But the sense is made plain by St. Paul Heb. xi 5. By Faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death He had a passage out of this world without any dissolution of the soul from the body In the same body that he pleased God says Irenaeus he was translated being never uncloathed of the flesh that he might put on immortality That this truth may be carried the clearer I will debate it a little with them that oppose it and with them that qualifie it Some of the Hebrew Rabbines as I find them quoted because they consult not with the authority of the New Testament think they are not convicted by the Old Testament but that they may conclude how Enoch died and was taken away in an early Age as those times went much sooner than his Forefathers As if this Verse did rather bemoan him for his untimely departure than renown him for some glorious favour which did befal him The phrase indeed if we look no farther will bear it both in sacred and in heathen Writings to say of one departed fuit he was but is not this was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a fair way of language to avoid an unpleasing word Yet the phrase doth not always stand in that sense but hath a double acception and both in one verse that you may the better carry it away Gen. xlii 36. Jacob there bemoans himself for the waat of two Children Joseph is not and Simeon is not the one he took to be dead indeed the other to be in fast hold and taken from his eyes removed where he could not come at him as Enoch was but no more So the Chaldee Paraphrase explains the meaning of Jacob Joseph non superest Simeon non est hic Joseph is quite lost and Simeon is not here The phrase then accords very well with that place of the Hebrews by faith Enoch was translanted that he saw not death And my Text must incline to that exposition for two reasons First that the Lord took him stands for a consequent that he was pleased in him it is the reward as you would say that he walked with God not that there is a necessary and perpetual coherency in it that whosoever walks with God should be exalted into Paradise and not see corruption but Enochs righteousness by a priviledge of favour was so requited a favour then being understood in those words it cannot be the sentence of death upon him it is impossible Secondly in this Chapter the last word that the Holy Ghost gives of Adam is Et mortuus est and he died so of Seth so of Enos so of Cainan so of all the Antecessors of Enoch wherefore unless Enoch had some other issue out of this world diverse from the rest which was by translation without death why should it be said of him so differently from all others he was not for the Lord took him So I have corrected the great error of those Hebrew Doctors who would lay Enochs honour in the dust But I suppose the general Exposition of the Jews was right and according to St. Pauls doctrine For Paul wrote to the Hebrews that he saw not death knowing the tradition was commonly so received among them and the Chaldee Paraphrast who lived straight after Christ was of the same judgment beside one of great note among them says he was disarrayed of the foundation corporal and cloathed with the foundation spiritual which words I conceive do jump with those who oppose not the Scripture that he saw not death far be it from them but they have a qualification for the meaning of it that death is taken two ways most properly for the separation of one essential part of man from the other the body from the soul a loath to depart it is a most unwelcom dissolution a punishment upon the sin of our first Father which was remitted to Enoch improperly it is no more but the separation or extinction of corruptible qualities from the soul and body one whom I named even now called it the disarraying of a man from the foundation corporal and so Enoch was purified altered made quite another man in the very moment that he was wrapt up to heaven This evacuation of corruptible qualities from the flesh is called death by some very good Authors in our own Church and so Procopius much more ancient than they Mirabili modo mortis defunctus est ad vitam coelestem translatus it was a rare and admirable kind of death he suffered
Creature rather than a worshiping of the Creator that he esteemed it was granted the Ceremonial Church because it could not be shifted For since it was to be feared that the Israelites had cast their eye upon those fond customs of the Gentiles and did affect to imitate them rather than they should sacrifice to false Gods God did permit they should sacrifice to his name to prevent Idolatry But I answer The most ancient and primitive use of sacrificing such as Noahs was in my Text is not so to be slighted For a bad thing by a toleration is not made half a vertue nay after toleration it still remains more than half a Vice Moses did allow a Bill of divorce for the hardness of mens hearts but that which is allowed for the hardness of the heart is yet a sin after the allowance the connivance of the Law cannot make any fashions of pride excusable and the farming out of Stews for Pensions cannot make Fornication venial But I pray you what Idolatry was suspicious in Abels time or at this time when Noah came new out of the Ark And yet even then Sacrifice was and was a sweet savour And the ground of the objection is mistaken for who can ever prove that the Children of Israel had learnt the formes of sacrificing in the Land of Egypt It is impossible For the Egyptians hated sacrificing and killing of Cattel wherefore Moses would not consent to Pharaoh to sacrifice to God in that Land Says he Shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us And the Egyptians continued such long after Christ when the Satyrist fell thus upon them Nefas illic foetum jugulare capellae carnibus humanis vesci licet c. This hath declared that the Ordinance of Sacrificing from the beginning was not a bare toleration to divert men from laying their Offering upon the Altars of their Idols But to make all perspicuous we are to harken to the judgment of Irenaeus and St. Hierom that Sacrificing was an holy Worship which God did like and allow from the beginning of the world and for many Ages there was no prescription for the manner all holy men had their freedom for quantùm and quomodo for how much for when it should be done but when the seed of Abraham proved recreants and fell in love with the superstition and worse than superstition then and not before was the Levitical Law drawn out at large to command all the true Worshipers of God to follow that written prescription in all their Sacrifices That is when the Molten Calf was set up by Aaron and the People to provoke God when they offered burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings unto it the Lord saw it was time no more to leave them to themselves to offer indefinitely and indeterminately how they list but after that he bound them to those Levitical rules whereof Moses made an entire book Says God ye shall break down the Altars and Groves of the Gods of the heathen but the Lord will chuse a place for you and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings ye shall not do after all things that we do here this day every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes That is their ancient liberty in sacrificing after what manner they pleased was restrained after the adoration of the Calf for fear of further Idolatry Sacrifice therefore was not barely a toleration for avoidance of Idolatry in the first institution but properly had many parts of Religious Worship in it which are these First the mind of him that brought the offering was bent to honour God that he was the giver of all things and the end to which all things were to be referred Which reason the Schoolmen very well put into this Proposition Emanant ex fide sacrificia quae amplissimè de Deo sentit The Religion of Sacrificing proceeds out of Faith which esteems most devotionately of Gods excellent greatness and in the act of Sacrificing it is carried up to worship God in his invisible glory And surely some Litany or Collects of Prayers were said at the same time with such like Ejaculations in them as these We lay this gift on thy Altar O Lord to acknowledge that every living thing is thine this is a Testimony that thine is the Power and the Dominion over all things let every thing do thee service for thou art the Saviour both of Man and Beast the life of every thing upon earth is in thy hand but thou alone art immortal thou art the same and endurest for ever or such a form of supplication as came from Davids mouth when he offered for the building of the Temple Who am I and what is my people that we shall be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own hand have we given thee Now the rudeness of the old World I may say did require these lessons to be taught and repeated often in visible figures in lessons that might be felt as well as heard which were fit to be written not in ink alone but even in the bloud of Sheep and of Goats A visible sign is a fair mark of remembrance for them that are slow to learn They that distrust their memory will wear a gimmal ring nay a thread or a rush about the finger to bring business into mind which might have been forgotten And God distrusting mans memory put him into the way of sacrificing a good shore or support for such a use so by that object which did incur into all the senses the Divine honour was kept in an everlasting remembrance Well then in this very service wherein they brought somewhat unto the Altar yet it was the Lords purpose to give and not to take Nothing is left to him in an whole Burnt-offering no more than a Prince gets when his Subjects make Bonfires at or upon the memory of his Inauguration Julian the Emperor scoffing at all the Royal Cesars that had been before him gives Antoninus Pius the praise before them all for this saying He being askt by Silenus what was the end of his life and of all his actions he answered to imitate the Gods And wherein consists that imitation says Silenus Antoninus rejoyns ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to stand in need of little and to be beneficial to many that 's the true blazon indeed of the Divine dignity to want nothing and to do good to all Gods honour was recognized in sacrifice that was the end of it but our Goods and Oblations were nothing to him and therefore the elementary part of their gratitude was consum'd to nothing It was a Law not to be broken for the bloud of every Sacrifice to be spilt before the Altar and the fat to be burnt in the fire the bloud stood for the life which we breath the fat for the abundance of all increase which we enjoy now we ought to
perfection of virtue that the Lord may say this my Son is like Joseph the comfort of old Israel a Plant which I set in a lucky hour it brings forth fragrant flowers of obedience of alms of charity to delight me and as old Isaac said I smell the savour of my Son like the savour of a Field which is newly mown from which all dispreading weeds and luxury are quite cut down You flow with vain delights but that is Gods contristation You please your selves with filthy communication but St. Paul says you grieve the Holy spirit Ephes iv You are sportful and merry even till calamity comes upon you but the security of Jerusalem causeth Christ to weep Properly grief and vexation are not incident to God or to the Eternal Spirit you shall know to your cost that when our voluptuous life is chang'd to howling and gnashing of teeth Angels shall sing about his Throne without ceasing but wicked men do what lies in them to put Christ to sorrow and sadness as earthly Parents eat their own heart and macerate themselves when their Children will not be ruled by their authority Comment thus I beseech you upon all your unlawful pleasures Can there be any rellish in that joy wherewith you grieve your Redeemer any sweetness in that sacriledg wherein God is impoverished Will you sing placebo to any man to grate the ear of the Most High Will you perfume your self for the Chamber of a Curtezan and stink in the nostrils of the Lord no I will abandon all my delights that He may be pleased in my mortification I will mourn continually in repentance that He may smile at it the zeal of his House shall eat me up I will burn with devotion that He may smell a sweet savour The dolor and smart of any present calamity doth not trouble a righteous man so much as that he feels the wrath of God upon him so prosperity peace health nay Heaven it self make him not so happy as to collect from the sense of his benefits that the Lord is delighted with him This is the Nuptial Song which we look for when we are married to the Lamb as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall the Lord rejoyce over thee Isa 62.5 Here it is to be admonished that nothing is so savoury and delightful which we do as what the Lord doth himself non tam delectatur ut aliquid accipiat quà m ut aliquid det his love is very bountiful and better pleased to give than to take Therefore in no place of Scripture did his joy break forth so gaudily as in the Parable where he bad his Servants kill the fatted Calf to bid his penitent Child welcom home whereupon says Chrysologus immolabat vitulum i. filium gaudebat he rejoyced in the death of his own Son for our sakes because his mercy was free to have mercy on whom He pleased in that propitiatory Sacrifice The Jews would bring thousands of Rams to the Altar at this day the Lord will have none of them because they will not bring them in the faith of that Sacrifice wherein alone He is well pleased If abundance of Oblations would have made a grateful steam to mount up to Heaven they had done it long agoe Josephus says against Appio that 5000 of their Levites took their turn every week to attend at the Altar I am sure much Sacrifice must be brought to employ so many hands but non est mihi voluntas in vobis says Malachi I have no pleasure in you nor in your gifts surely because they offered not up unto him the savour of his Son All manners of Religions do not please God that were in effect to say that all kind of smels had an odoriferous fragrancy You must plow with Gods Heifer present him with faith in the death of his own dearly beloved Son and your imperfect righteousness being perfum'd with that incense the Lord will take it for a sweet savour and call it perfect obedience Let me now make you partakers of the third Proviso that a rank stink steams from Beasts and Fowl burnt in the fire yet the piety of Noah did ascend up in a sweet smell to Heaven therefore let not such good things stink in the nostrils of men that did delight the Lord. It is Gods direction to gather tares in bundels so I will muster together the corrupt examples of those that were as senseless as Davids Idols They had noses and smelt not or at least they were so full of the putrefaction of their own sins that they complained there was an ill sent where indeed there was the fragrancy of most excellent virtue Pharaoh called Religion an idle mans Exercise says he ye are idle ye are idle and therefore ye would go into the Wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord. Michol scoff'd at David for being in an extasie of joy that the Ark was brought into Jerusalem The Pharisees disliked every good thing that Christ did and observe it I beseech you from thence they provoked the most dreadful words that ever came from Christs mouth He that sinneth against the Holy Ghost it shall neither be remitted to him in this world nor in the world to come Judas smelt no sweet savour in the ointment which a most pious woman poured upon our Saviour's head but complained quorsum perditio haec to what purpose is this waste The scoffers of Jerusalem said the Disciples were full of new wine when they preached the Name of Christ in all tongues and languages New wine at Whitsuntide was never heard of for there are scarce new leaves upon the Vine at that season I wept and chustned my self with fasting and it was turned to my reproof says the holy Penitent It is altogether a fault that we will not commend nay that we will gibe and deride at that which is very good and devout in them that are of a contrary faction Sectaries whose courses I abhor yet somethings should not be scoffed at that they are diligent to come to Church that they read the Scriptures that they are not accustomed to rash and odious swearing let not these things be reckoned with their justly condemned hypocrisie Pontificians whose errors I decry yet their observing Canonical hours of Prayer their obedience to obey Ecclesiastical Laws their desire to kindle zeal by visiting those places where our Lord and Saviour frequented let these things be separated from their Superstitions As Seneca said of Learning quicquid bene scriptum est meum est whatsoever was well written by any man he took for his own as freely as if he had invented it so I say of Religion quicquid bene gestum est meum est whatsoever is praise-worthy in any Sect I will not scoff at it but imitate it When the Pharisees boasted of some of their good deeds haec oportuit fieri says our Saviour this is well this ought to have been done and not other things left undone Holofernes could not dislike
of the Israelitish Midwifes but good deeds also which like the Alms of Cornelius shall reach up to Heaven The Sea hath raged horribly and swallowed the Innocent the Stream hath gone even over his Soul that we might restore it again as mercifully as the Whale did Jonas with the increase of our substance that we might cast our bread as Solomon preached upon the waters God hath suffered an heavy sickness to wast away the afflicted and to consume his bones not that the Dogs should be more merciful than Dives and lik the poor mans sores but that our liberality might make him whole Canaan and the Patriarchs were well nigh famished with hunger what because God had forgotten to be gracious and had shut up his loving kindness in displeasure Not so but that Egypt might relieve them with their Granaries The Husbandman soweth seed in the ground and the encrease comes up thereafter God giveth it a body and to every seed his own body but the merciful man soweth a Loaf of bread in the belly of the hungry and it shall rise up again unto a plentiful Harvest Christ was made poor says Paul that we might be made rich and for the good use of our riches he hath made many poor There are few so hard-hearted but will protest with an oath if our Saviour had been incarnate in these our days how they would have strived to make him welcom their choisest Palace should have received him and his Diet should have been whatsoever the Earth and Sea afforded I says Tertullian Porrigat manum Jupiter accipiat if Jupiter himself would ask alms he should have it every man can say so Alass to promise this excess to him who needs it not is a kind of spiritual bribery Keep your costly Mansions to your selves and afford him some sustenance in an Hospital Take the plenty of the Earth to your own Table in sobriety and temperance and feed him with your Alms Basket If he say loe here is Christ or loe there he is and that every distressed Christian is nourished for his sake you may believe him Haec est tunica quam dedisti mihi Martine it is an old Story in Sulpitius the good Bishop Martinus cloathed a Criple with his Coat in the day time and in the Dreams upon his Bed he saw Christ himself wear it and thank him for it Such there are whom otherwise we may call good men but spoil their good parts as Crassus did with the love of money and having closed their Ark will not suffer so much as a Crow to fly out of it they will not believe this Divinity that to spend well upon Earth is to lay up treasure in Heaven Such a mans eyes are made of Spittle and Clay but not by Christ and they love to behold nothing but Gold which is indeed a refined Clay burnt well like a Brick by the heat of the Sun and the influence of the other stars Now there are but two common pretendments to make us spare our Purse and keep our hand withered in our bosom Semper aliquid curtae deest rei we have nothing to spare we have but five loaves and two fishes and what are they among so many O can you forget those mighty Mites which the poor Widow cast into the Treasury Three things says St. Gregory are incruenta sacrificia Sacrifices well pleasing unto God without drop of bloud shed Castitas in juventute sobrietas in ubertate liberalitas in paupertate a Chast Youth unspotted touching the Flesh Sobriety in Plenty and Liberality in Poverty And this is the Devils Topicks to perswade us we must repay nothing back again unto God unless He would give us as much as we could wish for Plato thought he made a charitable Common Wealth when by his evil Law to permit promiscuous lust no man knew another whether he were Stranger or Brother or of nearer Consanguinity So hath God knitted his Church together that we are all Christs and Christ is ours and yet we feel not the afflictions of Joseph they are nothing to us Nay it were well if we were not readier to give Stones than Bread and for a Fish a Scorpion This was Nabals Largess to David he told him he was a Runnagate from Saul his Master The next excuse against Charity is the great abuse of all good deeds and the wrong employment But though men be evil and the dayes are evil and the bounty of holy men is oft times wrong employed yet the Churches of God are no Transgressors why do the Rich men of the World nothing for them Do you expect that the Holy Ghost should come down again like a mighty rushing wind and enter in that every Wall and Window is left naked and decayed especially in famous Cathedral Churches to the injuries of the weather Good God! what was the zeal of our Fore-fathers that they should build more unto Religion than we can keep in reparation When St. Paul pleaded for a Collection for the poor Saints of Jerusalem feed them says he with your plenty who are enriched with their abundance With what abundance did the Apostle mean O say the Friers with the abundance of their good works and zeal as a bought or borrowed sanctity No such matter but for the abundance of the Words sake which first came out of the bosom of Jerusalem But all the Gospel which is preached in our Cathedral Churches cannot procure them so much benevolence as to preserve them from the curse of desolation that one stone be not left upon another And I would the innocent stones could fall down from their high Pinacles into the bowels of the earth from whence they were digged then were they safe and would be at rest again but now great men take them up and we must say in charity that which made God a Chancel serves to build them up a Kitchen or a Stable O if you will not be so merciful as your Father which is in Heaven be but as merciful as your Forefathers upon Earth who were zealous for the House of the Lord. But these things should rather be done then spoken Therefore let this suffice for mercy which is the first part of my Text. Now a complete Christian is not like a small Vessel which recovers his Haven with one Sail alone with Mercy only If you will have Religion to be ponderibus librata suis full poised on every side magna est veritas praevalet truth also is a prevailing part let not mercy and truth forsake thee And what is truth says Pilate but he would not stay to take his answer Why the Spirit is truth says St. John 1. Ep. v. I am the truth says Christ John xiiii God is Truth and in him is no error In a word your holy Faith is the Truth that which is armatura lucis the Armour of Light with St. Paul Rom. xiii that which is stronger than all things says Zorobabel in his Parable But
she nor any Unbeliever can know till they have tasted the good gift of God Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Go now and ask our Saviour Art thou greater than our Father Jacob that gave us this Well The Well was Jacobs perhaps but not the water he digged the Cystern but God gave the Spring that flowed into it this might have been alleged But what profit had come to the winning of a Soul if Christ had made comparisons between himself and his Servant It was his purpose at this time not to wrestle with Jacob but with the Woman of Samaria he came not to diminish the honour of his Saints but to magnifie the power of the Holy Ghost Petit potum ut det potum He met with one that was backward in courtesie and would not draw a Pitcher of water to cool his thirst yet he is forward in mercy and profers living water to quench the flame of her sins He drops by little and little upon her stony heart until he opened that hard rock that waters of salvation might flow out And first his Doctrin bred admiration in this Woman then a desire to learn then a sudden spark of faith which confessed that Jesus was the Messias then confusion for her sins then repentance and surely then godly sorrow and then tears and so she drew those waters before she was aware after which our Saviour thirsts above all others the tears of unfeigned repentance She denied him to take the pains to draw a draught out of Jacobs Well but he enforced her to draw out more precious liquors than those were from the bottom of her heart These are the words now read unto you which wrought that great effect and did pierce into her soul And let me say of that weak Instrument by whose tongue the Lord at this time doth make an offer unto you of that immortal Fountain as sometimes Gregory did when he exhorted many great persons to the contempt of the World and invited them to eat and drink with Christ in his Kingdom Etsi ego ad invitandum indignus appareo sed tamen magnae sunt deliciae quas promitto I am most unworthy to bid you come unto these waters and drink but the delicious Fountain which I promise to them that thirst after righteousness is worthy to invite you To handle it succinctly and to your edification there are four Branches of the Text to be propounded 1. The Subject to which all is to be referred is a water of a most different condition from that which is mentioned in the former verse 2. Who is able to draw it none but Christ it is a water that he gives and none beside him 3. How it is to be taken even as a soveraign and a delightful Receipt for the health of the Soul and the very soul of health it must be drunk 4. The exceeding benefit and virtue which amounts to that value that the whole World hath not riches enough to purchase it if it were to be bought for whosoever drinketh of it he shall never thirst To begin with these and the Touchstone upon which all other parts of the Text shall be tried is this What this mystical water is which our Saviour prefers so much before Jacobs Well Christ calls it living water at the tenth verse of this Chapter that 's a sweet Epithet indeed and yet it hath a more amiable description in the words that follow my Text a Well of water springing up unto everlasting life These are names of much elegancy and much obscurity but that we find a clear explanation of them in the seventh Chapter of this Gospel ver 38. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive So the Scripture hath written upon this water what it is that you may know it from any other it is the gift of Grace that cometh from above that sanctifieth our hearts and cleanseth us from all our sins it is the working of the Spirit which knits us unto Jesus Christ and makes us Heirs of Salvation God the Holy Ghost doth abase himself to be resembled to many of these inferior things for our understanding No man can miss to remember how the Spirit did appear in cloven tongues as it were of fire Acts ii 2. In another place Jo. 3.8 he is likened to the air The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that is born of the spirit And here his name passeth down a descension beneath that and is termed water only the earth is too base an Element whereunto the Holy Spirit should be compared leave that to man and to his corruptible constitution The Fire the Air and Water have some infinitude in them after a sort quod suis terminis non continentur says the Philosopher they are diffusive bodies which are not properly bounded or circumscribed in any Figure as the Earth is therefore all their names are borrowed to signify some disposition of the Divine Spirit toward us whose Vertue is most diffusive and whose Majesty incomprehensible But in each of the Testaments Old and New the first time that we read of the Holy Ghost he was joyned unto the Waters in the first day of the Creation the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Gen. i. 2. and upon the first manifestation of Christ that he shewed himself abroad to be the Messias of the World the Spirit sat upon his head when he was baptized at Jordan in the shape of a Dove And it is not vain to consider that when the Holy Ghost came down in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide yet St. Peter applies the place of the Prophet Joel to that occasion which speaks as if it had been water effundam spiritum In the last dayes I will pour out of my spirit to all flesh By that which is said already I have brought it to this the Scripture doth very much aim at this Comparison to be considered why the vertues and operations of the Holy Ghost are called Water and the choice of the Comparison I think are these particulars First as waters poured upon Hills will not stay upon their tops but runs down to the lowest places and fills the Valleys beneath so the Graces of God descend to the lowly and humble in heart and abide not with the proud Nay David says it will be the better for it if it be but a little Valley a diminitive thou makest fruitful the little Valleys thereof with the drops of rain Centurio quantò humilior tantò capacior says Bernard the Centurion lay very flat and low at our Saviour's feet and where was there a man that had a larger portion of the heavenly benediction for Christ said of him I have not found so great faith
it is 1 Cor. vi 11. But ye are washed but ye are sanctified In that sacred Laver we are sprinkled with the bloud of Christ and so made Saints Sancti quasi sanguine tincti it is a bloud which purifieth from uncleanness for of old they that desired to be purified did dip some part of their body in the bloud of the Sacrifice Baptism is Pactum vitae purioris cum Deo a Covenant with God to lead a pure and unspotted life a sequestration of that which is holy from all profane abuses it is jus gentium says Tully a national and received Law throughout all the world Vt ne mortales quod Deorum immortalium cultui consecratum est usu capere possint that no man usurp that for common uses which was consecrated to the service of the immortal Gods so that a Saint is as much as one that is washt and made clean in Christ and engaged unto holiness all the days of his life 3. For the confession of the true doctrines sake which flesh and bloud could not reveal unto us but our Father which is in heaven our reward was to be called the faithful the faithful of the circumcision Acts x. 45. and in many places beside This continued our note of distinction more than any other in ancient Liturgies and so remains in some of our own Collects as grant we beseech thee merciful Lord to thy faithful people pardon and peace And it stuck more close to the Church than any title in St. Cyprians days as appears by these words Quid Christiana plebs faceret cui de fide nomen est What should Christian people do in this case whose name is given them from the Faith So I have represented to you that in the earliest days of the Gospel the Disciples were called Brethen from their sincerity of love Saints from the purification of Baptism Faithful from that Orrhodox truth which they professed and hope in Christ which St. Paul hath put all together in one verse To the Saints and faithful Brethren in Christ which are at Colosse chap. i. ver 2. But as St. Paul says By honour and dishonour by evil report and by good report we approve our selves the Ministers of Chrisft And they that scoffed at the way of salvation did load us with contumelious taunts that they might soil our Profession The first bitter arrow that our Enemies shot forth was to call us Nazarens Tertullus the spruce Orator was aware of that and charged St. Paul that he was a ring leader of the Sect of the Nazarens Act. xxiv 5. Surely they delighted the more in this Nickname because of that opprobrious by word can there any good come out of Nazareth St. Hierom says that the spiteful Jews had no other term for the Christians in his days and how in that term they cursed us thrice every day in their Synagogues Now when they thought to gall us both with their curse and their venemous scorn Epiphanius says that the Apostles liked it well enough to be called Nazarens ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã their intention was to put the name of Nazareth upon him where the Angel Gabriel saluted the Blessed Virgin and where she conceived Christ and they were contented It seems so for because they held it no disgrace Julian the Emperor would not call them Nazarens but Galilaeans and proclaimed it says Nazianzen that they should plead or be empleaded by no other name throughout all his Dominions the name of Christian says the same Father it grated his ear some Divine Majesty was in the syllables that it put horror into his conscience but for his own quiet and their wrongs he thought it better to call them Galilaeans his slanderous intention was all that was ill in it for the appellation it self was not slanderous an Angel of God directed his Message to them in that form Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven Act. i. 11. But here was the secret gibe one Judas of Galilee a Firebrand of sedition had lodged an ill opinion in many of the Jews who were born in that Region that such as paid Tithes to God were not to pay Tribute to Cesar neither ought they to call any one their Lord but him that created Heaven and Earth In plain meaning he and his Consorts of Galilee were errant Rebels and though none were so far from faction and disobedience as these modest Disciples yet to perswade the World that they had an Anti-monarchichal grudg in their bosom this Apostate called them Galilaeans Lastly because the Orthodox Champions of the Church confounded the obstinate Gentiles with certain verses cited out of the Books of the Sibyls therefore in despite they invented the name Sibyllistae and pointed at us for the Disciples of those Prophetesses the Sibyls whereas it was their own doing to make us urge them with those proofs since they would not believe the Old Testament and the Prophets of the Lord. I cannot forget how Albertus Pighius played such a wise part or rather a far worse being the first that called our Reformed Divines Scripturarios Scripture-men because they grounded all their Doctrin upon the written word of the holy Scriptures yet in my judgment Sibyllist was not so ill a scoff as Scripturarian Now you know from that which hath been spoken what good Titles adorned the Primitive Saints and how their Enemies drew their name with a black coal in terms of scurrillity the bad appellations vanished away by the brightness of their vertue the good ones were like a scanty Robe too short to cover all their excellency they bore the Cross of Christ gladly and triumphantly wherefore this eximious Inscription was given them which is here in my Text all other names were but as a trail of golden beams to beautify this which includes them all Christian 'T is very much that no Author is mentioned here who was so lucky to impose this name which will be glorious no doubt in all the World as long as the Sun and Moon endure Carthusian hath his opinion that Infidels were the Inventers in disdain at Christ whom that pious Generation worshipped Comestor imputes it to the converted Greeks and Gentiles to the end that they and the believing Jews might have one common cognizance There are more than enough that think it may proceed from St. Peter whose first Episcopal See was at Antioch and then they think they have engrossed all Christians to be under the Pastoral charge of him and his Successors his Successors at Rome they mean and not at Antioch Turrian the Jesuit is far more reasonable sayiââ that the Nomenclator is not known but that the name was ratified by a Synod of Apostles for he mentions a Synod held at Antioch in which these three Canons passed 1. That none should be circumcised for Baptism was the true Circumcision made without hands 2. That all Nations that believed might be collected into the Catholick
was performed after the best form and exactness within the Precincts of this City therefore those that emulate the Jews in an holy way to magnify the Lord Jesus and to advance his Name in their reasonable service they carry this good report to be called the Jerusalem of God Obadiah's Cave conteined most Orthodox Prophets Capernaum had a Synagogue to preach in perhaps as good Sermons delivered there as in all Judea Joppa had many devout people in it Bethany afforded a Family which exceeded all others in love to our Saviour but if you will shape unto your selves the beautiful Churches of Christ you must pass by these reserving much praise unto them all for that wherein they did very well and you must extend your thoughts to the flourishing Profession of Gods Name at Jerusalem Thither the Tribes went up that they might worship together in their most populous Assemblies not like some in our days that keep at home when the Convocations of the Lord require their presence and flatter themselves with their own sufficiency as if they needed no Prayers to commend them to Heaven but their own But one Simon Stylita mounted up in his Pillar by himself is not an whole Jerusalem To keep Religion in life there is nothing more needful than that such as are of the Visible Church have communion and society one with another Beside in this Metropolis of the Land of Canaan the degrees of the holy Priesthood were conspicuous from the chief Pontif to the meanest Levite Not all fellows as Core would have it And why not every one as good as Aaron This would make Babel and not Salem Demetrius his concourse for all the World Act. xxix no man was tied to say by your leave to his Companion for every man was a Master of the Mutiny Let not the pride of them that cannot get preeminence cry down the Authority of them who have commanded from the Apostles to this Age And remember that St. Jude hath pointed out some who were Spots in the Church not in the Synagogue that perished in the gainsaying of Core Now Core's gainsaying if you will expound it to the Letter can be nothing else but a seditious attempt against Ecclesiastical Dignity Beside the sound of Jerusalem brings to our remembrance all Divine Offices that were done in the Temple to celebrate his glory who is wonderful above all wherein we succeed them either in the same or by clothing their Figures with a Substance They had appointed hours of Prayer day by day in the Publick Congregation for their sakes that will find out a little time between Morning and Evening to step out of the affairs of the World into the Courts of Heaven they had the Law preached and expounded with uncessant diligence there were no less than 460 Synagogues within the Circuit of that City in the days of Josephus so many Pulpits to inculcate Doctrin into the People It seems they had a form of Catechizing by that Conference which was held between our Saviour and the Doctors they had Psalmody according to the most skilful Musick of David and Asaph they had Incense to learn us devotion they had Sacrifices to teach us mortification The exercise of all which indeed was much kept down under captivity and during Antiochus his Persecution But in the days of peace and liberty it had this external face of holiness And that our solemn and outward Profession of Gods worship should be suitable to this decency and splendor and not shuffled up as if we took our Platform from such an obscure Village as Bethphage or Emmaus it is incited to do all things after a sacred comeliness and magnificence by the name of Jerusalem So it is and yet these Mosaical fashions are passed away But it is an indelible Character belonging to that place from whence the Church rejoyceth to take its name that the first foundations of Christianity were laid in Jerusalem for as Seneca said of the Heavens dignum idoneum spectaculum si tantum praeteriret it was a gay and a goodly sight though it did no more but move above our head and pass away how much better was it to us by the virtue of its light and influence So Jerusalem is famous for that Levitical Worship of God which is passed away and vanished but much more glorious for the influence dispersed from thence over all the World by the Apostolical preaching for out of Sion went the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isa ii 3. Let us do it all favour says the Emperour Justin the Elder to Pope Hormisda for it is Mater Christiani nominis the Mother the Foundress of our Christian Profession We may take leave I think to discourse a little upon the wisdom of Gods good pleasure why this was the Brood-nest wherein the first Assembly was hatched that taught the Gospel First says Leo Vt ubi passus est Christus ignominiam ibi subiret gloriam Christ chose Bethlem for his Nativity but populous Jerusalem for his Passion where many might behold his opprobrious Death Lo in that soil where he became a scorn and dirision to them that were round about him he ascended into Heaven for Mount Olivet browed upon Jerusalem there he sent down the Holy Ghost there Faith and Repentance began to be preached in his Name there St. Peter made his first Sermon among devout men that were gathered together of every Nation under Heaven As there had been the Golgotha of his Humility so there he advanced the Standard of his Glory 2. Since our Saviour began to take his Kingdom upon him where should he proclaim himself first but in his Royal City there was the Court of David and of Solomon and meet it was that His Court should be there who was to sit upon the Seat of his Father David And it jumps well that he did not take possession of Jerusalem presently after he was baptized no not till he was crucified He did not actually reign in full Majesty till he triumphed over Death in his Resurrection From thenceforth the Royal Robe of Immortality was upon him and his Scepter in his hand to crush his Enemies and this was made known in the chief place of Gods Worship in the Gates of Jerusalem 3. Had the Gospel been preached in the beginning near about us in Europe or in Affrica or elsewhere far from that Country where Christ preached and suffered and rose again the news would have been strange and Unbelievers would have replied who are your Witnesses of these things But in the first utterance of Christian Faith to preach of his Passion within sight of Calvary of his Doctrin within the Temple of his Resurrection hard by Joseph of Arimathaea's Garden This was a demonstration of truth that it vented it self where it was best known Much unlike unto them who tell us in these parts what Miracles their Disciples do in India and tell them in India what Miracles they
from your holy Mothers Lacte gypsum miscet as the old Proverb is the World is a Stepmother whose Milk is infected with poison no redress for such but as it was said of the Shunamites Child when he complained of his head Take the Child unto his Mother as St. Peter exhorts desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby the end of it is to grow and encrease not to stand at a stay true Piety never thinks so well of it self as if it needed no augmentation that 's Pharisaical hypocrisie He that gets nothing loseth much he that doth not add to his talent will forfeit it and lose it Says Bernard did not all the Angels which Jacob saw upon the Ladder that reached up to Heaven either ascend or descend Inter ascensum descensum inter profectum defectum nullum est medium There is no medium between proficiency deficiency between going backward or forward Either you are continually mending in all parts of Religion by the fatness of this milk or you will consume away like a shriveled Changeling But the Nurse will not be wanting in suppeditating milk if you are not wanting to your self in the wholsom concoction And now to end this Point I pronounce unto you that you can expect no greater miricle from God than to have such a Mother and such a Nurse First Were you not dead in Adam and then this Mother took you into her womb and brought you forth alive most stupendious Nay must you not die unto sin and be crucified to the world before you could be born again Quid difficilius cognitione quà m ut homo nascatur moriendo says St. Austin And what is the effect of her nourishment but continually to draw you from death to life Et amplius est suscitare semper victurum quà m suscitare iterum moriturum says he Was it miraculous in Elias or in the Apostles to raise the dead unto life that should die again How much greater is it to raise them unto life that shall never This benefit begins with the Church as our Mother and continues with us through her Ministry as our Nurse This is that Jerusalem whis is the Mother of us all Thus far I have drawn out before you the blessing of the Mother upon those whom she brings forth now while this benefit is fresh in our memory it is good time to shew what obedience the Children do owe to this Mother That is to her Laws to her Censures to her Determinations To her Laws of outward Order to her Censures of Discipline to her Determinations of Faith For the first to tread lightly in their steps that have gone before me Prudence and Reason find out what is fit for the well reigling and comly demeanour of them that are knit together in any body And when authority is joyned unto it and imposeth it it is a Law There must be an Order agreed upon touching our manner of union and living together in Commonwealths And grave and well-governed men are most nice to see those fashions of order inviolably observed And is not this equally to be heeded nay much more in our Ecclesiastical Oeconomy For the persons to whom we associate our selves in the Church are not only holy men but God and Angels Shall we not have Laws of agreement to go all one way and to do the same thing in Rites and Ceremonies Can there be such that would not be ashamed to see distraction and confusion in the holy Sanctuary Is there any possibility of drawing a Congregation together without Rules and Advertisements to proceed thus and thus in the administration of the Lords Service And for those Rites which are in force among us hath not this Church proceeded with most sanctified moderation to ease Christian people of that superfluity whereof they complained at the extirpation of Popery and to retain such only as were most expedient and carry no shadow of scandal but to them that are hot and contentious Since we must have Orders of Decency his wits are broken that thinks otherwise why not these which are established and to which your consent is included by reason of them that were Agents in your behalf and present at their confirmation for we were alive in our Predecessors and our Successors shall live in us It skills not what Vtopia some have framed in their own heads In positive Laws mens private fancies must give way to the higher judgment of the Church which is in authority a Mother over them And do not say you are an obedient Child since you do that which your heavenly Father requires why not also what your spiritual Mother requires Since the one bids nothing repugnant to the other I hope there is none in this Climate but explodes the Anabaptists opinion that all Christian Liberty is lost if any Laws be imposed upon the people but the Gospel of Jesus Christ Beside what is required for order and good carriage in the Church God hath given the power to settle it What is done is done by his leave and by that light of Nature and Reason given to frame such Constitutions and therefore do not prevaricate as if God were not disobeyed in that obstinacy which conforms not It is commendable and necessary for every man single to profess the substance of true Religion contained in the Scriptures But it is also required at their hands to observe the Circumstances and Decencies of it comprehended in positive Laws when they are in society with others It was in a Circumstance and a Ceremony that St. Paul checks the Corinthians What despise ye the Church of God 1 Cor. xi 22. You cannot call Jerusalem your Mother with a sober reverence if you decline her Piety and Authority in Constitutions indifferent Secondly The power and the wisdom of the Church meeting together must use the rod though unwillingly towards them that must be made examples to others by shame and punishment For such as will not be softned with love and the Spirit of meekness Shall I come to you with a rod says the Apostle Dread the anger of your Mother provoke not her displeasure to smite you with Abstentions Anathemaes Excommunications Remember how the incestuous person was swallowed up with desperation when her Censure was upon him If Esau lift up his voice and wept when he had not the blessing of his Father what sorrow will it beget in a Child that is not past feeling or leadenly stupid to have the curse of his Mother The ancient forms of humble Penants used by the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are so disused that their custom will seem strange to be repeated When they were sequestred from the Prayers and Sacraments of the holy Church for scandalous and flagitious actions they cast themselves down before the entrance of the Church groveled upon the ground full of tears and lamentations and besought every Christian that passed by
world must have somewhat to content hunger therefore supposing that there is most Angelical sanctity in Christ yet since there is humane infirmity likewise it must be repaired with sobriety Nay if any religious purpose of fasting hinder him yet what holy man did fast for any long space but he would take bread and water of affliction sometimes That it seems did not dissolve the religion of his Fast Is not this a fair curtain to draw before the mischief of his tentation Nay many Expositors are so puzzeled with the legerdemain of this craft that they conclude that sin of Gluttony was not so much as aimed at or alas there is small likelihood that one should sin in gluttony by eating bread when he was an hungry And as small likelihood that he should sin if he made bread miraculously out of stones when he was pressed unto it by Famine For twice he multiplied the Loaves and Fishes miraculously in the Wilderness when he had compassion of the People who were ready to faint for want of bread and who did ever find fault with it Theophylact was driven into such a straight with this objection that he answereth Christ was tempted to gluttony because he was tempted to superfluity Cum panis unus sufficeret postulavit lapides in panes converti When one loaf would have sufficed to have asswaged his hunger the Devil demanded no less than all the stones that were before them to be made bread and the Relators of the holy Land say that in that Desart where Christ fasted called the Mountain of Quarantena divers stones black in colour and large in quantity are shewed unto travellers as the very stones remaining to this day at which the Devil pointed in his tentation St. Matthew it is true relates that the Devil spake Plurally Command that these stones be made bread St. Luke tells the same story in the Singular number Command that this stone be made bread It is well reconciled as if the Tempter had over-reacht himself at first and made an unreasonable motion and then comes off if it like you not to change all these stones yet at least be pleased to turn this one into bread Since therefore the Tempter at last moved for no more than the supply of one loaf of bread wherein lies the suspicion of gluttony that he perswaded him to that In a word thus it was No man could have called it intemperance in Christ if being very hungry after a fast of forty days he had made bread and brought it miraculously out of the hard stones but upon occasion of hunger to obey the Devil in procuring our meat it had been a grievous gluttony He that cannot abstain and should marry because the Devil bad him to him it were incontinency He that should use lawful recreation because the Devil bad him to him it were voluptuousness He that should rest his weariness when the Devil requested him to it to him it were idleness So to eat bread upon his motion whom we must fly and abhor it would come into the rank of the deadly sins and pass by the name of Gluttony We deceive our selves if we think so well of Satans kindness that he is tender of our health and would not have us fast too long rather he desires our death and that all humane nature were dissolved into dust and ashes what cares he to have stones turned into bread But to have men turn'd into beasts into Swine that wallow in fulness of bread and luxury If he can get Sodom to delight in fulness of bread he knows their end will be fire and brimstone Signum panis petit qui signum jejunii pertimescit says Chrysologus He loves to see the miracles of bread and feeding he cannot abide to see the miracle of fasting and temperance Your sobriety shall make the Devil drunk with wrath because he cannot overcome you And when the Tempter is vanquished and hath given us over yet the judgment of God is to come his dreadful judgment which is to be feared if we live in riot and wantonness But will you not fear that judgment Mark our Saviours counsel after a long description of the wofulness of that last day thus he concludes Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares Luk. xxi 34. Mark I pray you how Satan useth to speed those with his courtesie that will be obnoxious to him Instead of some relief for hunger he brings stones Lapides esurienti offert humanitas talis est semper inimici sic pascit mortis autor sic invidus vitae What man is there of you whom if his Son ask bread will he give him a stone Mat. vii 9. It were no humanity indeed but look for no better courtesie from the Fiend of Hell A stone and bread are most opposite substances Hawks may take pebles for casting but there is no nutrition in them yet this is our enemies courtesie you want bread here is a stone for you ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thus the Author of death will feed you who envies the life of men But our God is very liberal he openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness he openeth and never shutteth his bowels of compassion against his children he with-holdeth no good thing from them that lead a godly life On the contrary Satans service is most bare and wretched The Prince of Poets sets Famine and Scarcity next to the suburbs of Hell Vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci malesuada fames turpis egestas Judas presently gave up all that he got in the Devils service and his life to boot in a most hideous death But Honesty howsoever some wicked Proverbs say it ends in beggary I say if it be kept constantly without halting it is seldom a looser in this life but I am sure it is an infinite gainer in the life to come Serve the Lord therefore with zeal and innocency and your wages shall not be denied you I know he will outbid all the world all the Princes of the world and Satan himself the Prince of riches Did he ever put such a scoff upon the hungry as make you bread out of stones He opened the hard rock indeed so that waters flowed out for his people but he did not bid them bite upon the rock for bread but he rained down Manna from heaven Convert your hearts and your thoughts to the holy Sacrament Doth God put us off there Command that stones be made bread No he makes bread become the body of his dearly beloved Son by the application of faith and he that eateth of it worthily shall be made one body with Christ and live for ever AMEN THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 3. If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread OUR present business
having such near relation I have found out most principal Texts for them both this year out of the same Chapter for Easter day Ver. 24. whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death For Whitsunday in that notable portion of the story which I have read unto you And I told you upon the last great solemnity that Whitsunday was principally ordained for this end to make Easter day famous over all the world But the principal fruits of this day are three if we may comprehend an Ocean of graces in so small a number In the zeal of our Prayers we passed them over in the Morning Collect and that Collect extracted them from the Epistle and Gospel appointed Thus you may perceive that the Service of the Church of England is the treasure of my observations The Collect runs upon these three Points Teaching Illumination Consolation God which upon this day hath taught the hearts of thy faithful people for heavenly Doctrine began to be made common to all the world from this day Yet many hear the Word but most unprofitably therefore it follows that God hath sent us the light of his holy Spirit to have a right judgment in all things And many have the benefit of true Doctrine and the help of Illumination but with much sorrow and persecution therefore the Holy Ghost came down also that we might rejoyce in his holy comfort Thus far the contents of that short Prayer have helpt me The Gospel for the day runs altogether upon the last branch upon Consolation I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter The Epistle falls upon the two former upon Doctrine and Illumination and that in two sensible miracles For Doctrine that a sound came from heaven as of a mighty wind to foreshew that the sound of the Word should go forth into all Lands for Illumination that cloven tongues appeared and sate upon them as it were of fire The noise was as a Trumpet to wake the World the firy Tongues as so many lights to let them see their visitation Thus the Holy Ghost is presented to both the senses to the Ear as to the sense of faith to the Eye as to the sense of love The Ear is the ground of the Word and Doctrine and that gives the first admittance to Faith and therefore the Holy Ghost began his operation there according to my Text and that in these particulars to be considered 1. That God caused a sound to be heard upon the descending of the Holy Spirit 2. The manner of the sound is resembled to a Wind. 3. To a sudden wind 4. To a rushing mighty wind 5. It was from heaven 6. It filled all the house where they were sitting All these particulars are worthy of my labour and your attention That there came a sound from heaven at the mission of the Holy Ghost is the first thing remarkable A sound first to call in them that were without Secondly To demonstrate the Office of them that were within As the chiming of Bells calls us together to Church so an audible sound from heaven was a warning to the Jews to flock to that place where the Apostles were gathered together The Master of the Feast in the Gospel sent forth his Servants and invited the Guests and bad them be told what preparation he had made for their coming so the men of Jerusalem had as sensible an invitation to draw them to the great Feast of the Gospel as if a Canon had been discharged in their Ear. Or if they were yet unprepared to taste of such Manna as fell from heaven into their lap yet the Lords doings were so palpable before them that their consciences must be extremely stupified with malice if they made an ill interpretation of others that were then filled from above with the great power of God And indeed Oecumenius says that the sound did pierce the ears of all that were in the City that such as were curious to know the reason might come and see ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that the open manifestation of the miracle might preserve it from calumny But you will say it did not gain the good opinion of the Jews for all the gift of Tongues had such a forerunner not vox clamantis but sonus intonantis not the voice of a Crier but a peal of thunder to bring it into the world yet the people did disgrace it with a vile imputation of drunkenness True it proved as ill as could be expected but says St. Chrysostome if they said the Apostles were full of new Wine when these signs concurred what would they have said without them The most graceful and melodious sounds in the world are lost to deaf men and though a clamour and a cry from heaven were come down as it is in my Text yet it moved not those that like the deaf Adder had stopped their ears The Serpent in that place is called in the Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by Antiphrasis or the contrary because it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an unperswaded Creature all Art and Charming is spent in vain it will not listen it will not mitigate its venomous wrath and so the Translator Apollinarius says upon it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that when the Adder is mischievously angry for the time of his violent anger and while that lasts he is stark deaf though he can hear by nature So such as are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Tit. i. 16. Disobedient and reprobate to every good work though they have the sense of hearing by nature yet when they are violently set upon infidelity and stubbornness they give no more attention to the sound that comes from heaven than do the stones of the Temple When Stephen preached so divinely to the Jews that the heavens opened in the time of his Sermon Acts vii 56. as if way had been made for the Angels and Saints to be his Auditors even then when the gates of heaven stood wide open at the grace of his words they that should have given him best attention stopped their ears and ran upon him But the sin of them that will not hear let it lie upon their own head they cannot say but there hath been a Trumpet among them to awake them from the sleep of sin The sound which God hath sent forth is shrill and loud to call in those that are without And he that hath ears c. But secondly the Spirit came in a very audible sound to declare what a door of utterance should be opened from thenceforth to the Messengers of Christ That their sound should go out into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the World Rom. x. 18. The Gospel preached to every creature under heaven Col. i. 23. How many were in that lamentable condition like the Disciples at Ephesus that had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost Angels themselves began to be Preachers when a door of entrance was
opened that the Word should run swiftly throughout all the world when good tidings were diffusive great joy unto all people The sound came flying upon the wings of the wind that there was neither Speech nor Language upon the earth but their voices were heard among them The Law made a great din when it was published there came thunder with it and the noise of a Trumpet louder and louder Yet this noise was spread in the Desart of Sinai in a desolate and uninhabited Region But this sound which hapned when the Gospel was authorized to be preached in every Nation it had audience in the most populous place of all Judaea in the City of Jerusalem As who should say it was a communicable sound which should be received into the Imperial Cities of all Kingdoms I draw this only observation from it to your holy practice that the Lord loveth fragorem vocis not a whispering silence but an exalted voice a loud exclamation to praise him Open confession of Gods name is an effect individually connex'd with a true lively faith so says David Psal cxvi I believed and therefore I spake There are three things hateful to God which jar against it 1. Hypocritical profession when the protestation of the mouth is not rooted in the heart 2. Abnegation of the Faith whether they deny the truth for fear or for resolved Apostasie 3. There is another way to sin against the confession of the Faith and that is malum silentium not to glorifie God openly in our profession when it concerns his honour in whose person the Psalmist speaks I kept silence yea even from good words but it was pain nay it will be pain and grief unto them St. Paul complains of those Christians that were of Rome in his days that none would openly declare themselves of his side in the time of persecution At my first answer none stood with me but all forsook me I pray God it may not be laid to their charge 1 Tim. iv 16. The Lord would not have it lurk only in the secrets of our breast that we are Christs Disciples but that it should resound abroad to his glory for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation And let Gods service be performed on all sides on the Priests part and on the peoples with fervor and strength of voice like the sound of many waters You may pray tacitly in the heart but sure the holy Spirit came not from heaven like a vehement sound to teach you to fumble in the mouth and scarce to open your lips when you are in Prayer Prayer is a calling upon God Call upon me in the time of trouble Psal l. Nay a roaring for very disquietness of heart says the same Prophet in another place Our humble Petitions are called Vituli labiorum Heb. xiii Their lips will offer their sacrifice aloud if the true incense of zeal do burn within for our Saviour says Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A troubled soul I grant it sometimes cannot utter it self sometimes a dumb-born Prayer is very powerful as Hannah the Mother of Samuel is the great instance of it but in the ordinary way assuredly the more strength of voice we put to our Supplications the more we shake off the drowsiness of the flesh the more we stir up the grace of the holy Spirit which loves that the Eccho and chearful sounds of the voice should ascend up to heaven But the Scripture doth not leave at this that there came a sound from heaven it goes further and tells us the manner of the sound that it was like unto that noise which is caused by a vehement wind ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as if the wind had blown but it was but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as if it were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Oecumenius that you might not imagine the holy Spirit to be a corporeal breathing like the vaporous substance of the wind therefore the quasi is very significant that it had but the similitude of the wind Yet it is very inquirable why like that more than any thing else If we had been left to guess what sound it was why might not we have imagined it to be the purling of some soft streams Or the humming of Bees about their Hive Or the voice of harpers playing with their harps Rev. xiv 2. None of those it was but as the fragor of the wind And when God declares his vertue in some sensible object you must perswade your reason there is some great relation between the sign and the thing signified Did not our Saviour illustrate unto Nicodemus our Regeneration or new Birth from the blasts of the air Joh. iii. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the voice thereof and knowest not whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit Yet more feelingly when he did infuse into his Apostles the power of the Holy Ghost bequeathing them that great Sacerdotal priviledge Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained Was it not conveyed by blowing upon them like the wind by insufflation Joh. xx 22. He breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost Now I will tell you together where both the mystery and the use of it do consist First As the breath which we send forth comes from the warmth of our Lungs and of our bowels within so the Spirit proceedeth from the substantial love of the Father and of the Son What was the meaning then of that sensible expiration But that as the breath which he vented out came from his Humane Nature so the Holy Ghost which he breathed on his Disciples came from his Divine Nature And this must follow to give it you by the way that Christ is very God for who but God can communicate the Holy Ghost For it was Gods Promise that He and none but He would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh Isa xliv And it stands as well proved that the Holy Ghost is God for the prime and supreme power to remit sins is the Holy Ghosts he was given to the Disciples for that end and none can forgive sins but God alone Secondly Christ communicated his spiritual gifts by breathing to shew that he even the same Lord was the Author both of our temporal and eternal life For in the Creation the Lord breathed into mans nostrils the breath of life Gen. ii 7. But this life shall pass away and the body shall crumble into dust Why behold the breath of the Lord will go forth again to cause a joyful Resurrection as it is in the Prophets vision of the dry bones Ezek. xxxvil 5. Thus saith the Lord unto these bones Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live Yet if this body wherein sin reigns and inclines it only to
denial but that they have brought the Point to the true Touchstone I quoated somewhat out of St. Ambrose before that the bodies of some who gave up their life for the Faith were interred in the Church under the Lords Table which with reference to the representation of the Sacrifice of Christ Crucified is figuratively called an Altar St. Austin confirms it There let their dead corpses be interred where the death of our Lord is continually celebrated And in later years when they studied for increase of Ceremonies every principal Church under the Pontifician command hath a Vault under the Altar where the supposed Reliques of the Martyrs or the Reliques of supposed Martyrs are reserved Out of these Ritual Forms the Jesuits interpret St. John that he saw the Souls of them that were slain for the word whose bodies lay encombed under the Altar and whose Reliques were kept there in custody They had need of a long Figure to bring these ends together Neither shall they ever perswade me that St. John bends his aim at a Custom of Sepulture which began above two hundred years after he wrote his Prophesie No toleration can be found for the burial of the Martyrs in those holy places till the Pacificous Reign of Constantine the Great And how did the Church understand this Scripture in the mean time A Modern Writer of our own handles it much more learnedly to the same relation He notes it very acutely that the Theater wherein St. John saw all his Visions hath a resemblance in every part to the Camp of Israel and to the Tabernacle of Moses in the Wilderness it is enough to have named it Now the Apostle being acquainted by the Spirit what innumerous Troops of Martyrs should be slaughtered he saw as it were the Altar of burnt-offerings belonging to the Tabernacle and the Saints that were sacrificed to God were under it not as ashes are underneath that fall through a grate but they lay like beasts newly slain at the foot of the Altar that is sprauling upon the ground before the Altar The Soul then is taken by Synechdoche here for the whole man or according to the usual style of Scripture for the body of the man The conjecture I think may pass for probable and judicious There is but one thing to disparage it it is but one mans conjecture But if you will hear that which hath judgment to commend it and multitude of Authors it is likely to be found among them that in the third place refer this figuratively to the condition of their Spirits Yet I mean not him that says the Ark and the Covering thereof did represent Gods Mercy Seat but the Altar did represent his Justice for it was the place of fire and bloudshed and that these souls were under the Altar that is under the Justice of God to be avenged of their Adversaries It is nothing so for as it appears by them that fled unto it for refuge the Altar was a place of Propitiation The Altar here by the greatest number of votes is He that mitigates the stern Justice of his Father Jesus Christus Agnus propter mactationem Altare propter propitiationem He is all by whatsoever we are reconciled to God the Altar the Priest and the Sacrifice St. Gregory proves it that the Altars of the Levitical Service were express Types of him for either they were to be made of rude earth Temeraria de sespite altaria in Tertullians words or of rough and unpolisht stones Exod. xx Wherefore of earth but to betoken the Incarnation of our Lord Quicquid offerimus Deo in altari terreo i. e. in fide Dominicae incarnationis solidamus Whatsoever we bring unto God lay it upon the earthen Altar upon this faith that Christ was incarnate to save his people from their sins When the Altar was made of stone it was rough and unpolisht and in those materials likewise we shall meet with Christ For he was the Living Stone in Daniel cut out of the Mountain without hands neither was he polisht by Art by Education or by any thing that man can put into him as he came from the Quarry from the Womb of his Mother he was full of Grace and Truth This standing is firm that the term of Altar agrees well with our Saviour many reasons may be easily rendred why the souls of the Blessed were under the Altar 1. Says Estius a little too slightly They have not yet attained to be like the glorious body of Christ they have not resumed their Carkasses as He is risen from the dead they are yet below His dignity and so under the Altar 2. The Just that died in the Lord in the Old Law are said to be in Abrahams bosom because they professed the Faith of Abraham so they that died in the Faith of the Gospel that Christ is the Altar upon whom all our works that please God are to be offered up their Souls are under that Altar 3. As Lazarus the poor man full of Piety is said to be in Abrahams bosom as if he were placed in heaven next to Abraham so the godly Martyrs are next to the Altar for dignity of glorification next to Christ himself and wheresoever the Carkass is thither will the Eagles be gathered together Luk. xvii Lastly Which takes me most the persecuted Saints had no shelter on earth to defend them now their souls are at rest disquieted with no fear under the protection and custody of Christ Under him we are in safety upon earth and no man can take his sheep out of his hand and under his Wings we shall be safe in Heaven for ever yea and though we have the faith of Martyrs to spend our life for the love of God yet our hope is not in ourselves but to be covered with the Altar to run to Christ as to our Shield and Buckler without his Merits to assoil us from our sins Martyrs cannot appear before the face of God O prepare your selves to come unto this holy Sanctuary He that comes with an hypocritical Conscience to partake of the Altar of the Lords Table he shall find no place for his Soul under that Altar which is above And take heed of high imaginations and exalted thoughts Our state in Heaven is subter and not super And all subters in this World are not worth a good mans thought to reflect upon them Let me be an underling let me be abased let me go down to the lowest Room let my Spirit aim at nothing but to be Templum sub altari the Temple of God here that hereafter I may rest under the Altar in life everlasting AMEN A SERMON UPON REVEL vi 10. And they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the Earth NOthing may seem more out of order than these words are at the first reading but their true scope is to put that in
frame which the wise men of the world did think most out of order Some will say in their first cogitations upon my Text Are these the Souls of the First-born in Heaven that make such a clamour against their Persecutors Can they indeed be so eager of revenge Tantae ne animis coelestibus irae Besides Are they so passionately addicted to their own desires that they will not stay the prefixed time which God hath set but challenge him for slackness Vsque quo How long dost thou put us off Again What imperfection is this which they pretend as if they knew not how long it were till Christ would take the Kingdom into his hand and judge the proud after their deserving How do they know as they are known if they be kept so short of divine revelation But to stifle these Cavillations take special notice that you lose the whole Chain of this Prophesie if you hold not fast by this Link that St. John was in a rapture and taken up to the Heaven in the Spirit where the passages which he met withal were not really transacted but he seem'd to see the souls which were slain and he seemed to hear the moans which they made which is nothing else but a Prosopopaea where the Spirits of the Martyrs are imaginarily brought in as if they demanded the suppression of violent men that had spilt their bloud which doth not evince that any infirmities or disorderly affections are in them which may rashly be supposed but to set two things streight in our opinion which many Philosophizing heads did champ upon as if they were crooked in the Divine Providence First The righteous are taken away and no man regardeth it as the Prophet says Their days are cut short by violence and cruelty and yet their Persecutors live and are mighty What did the Heathen say to this who had good report for their Moral Conversation Is there no Justice in heaven Or doth it set no price upon the bloud of Just men Yes here is the best assurance that can be demanded a Scene as it were acted in heaven wherein is represented that the wrongs of the Saints are fresh in memory and shall never be forgotten Yet this is not all As this Scale is hoised up so there is another that must down as fast and that is principally aimed at in this Text. An Oppressor whose hand hath been very heavy upon another he is always jealous that in the turn of the Wheel his malice may be requited For none so miserable but in the Revolutions of Fortune may call his injuries to an account if he live What is the Method therefore of them that are profound Graduates in Malice Why mortui non mordent Let not thine Adversary live if you love to be secure dispatch him As Bassianus insulted over his Brother Geta when he had killed him Sit Divus frater meus modò ne sit vivus as long as my Brother lives not I care not though he be among the Gods Or as Jezebel cheared up Ahab that the worst was past Arise eat and take possession Naboth is not alive but dead This is a Maxim then in the Devils Politicks if you hunt for the destruction of any man your safety is in his utter extirpation This is as false as God is holy and true It is palpable that my Text labours especially with this Doctrine That the poor oppressed is more likely to obtain redress against his enemy when he is dead than when he was alive His Soul is then most precious to the Lord his Prayer most flagrant he is so near to Christ that he is next to the Altar his understanding is so enlightned that he knows what to ask and never fail Do their Oppressors think that these can do no harm because their bones lie scattered before the pit I would not be in Ahabs case though Naboth be dead and not alive for no worldly good would I provoke the clamours of such as these for they cry with a loud voice c. Here you have a Petition then put up to a mighty King by some persons that had sustained injury and after that garb I will divide it First As it useth to be in such petitory Writs consider we to whom the Supplication is preferred to one from whom there lies no appeal the King of Kings and Lord of Lords And the words are so laid together that the Souls under the Altar do beseech him by his three mighty Attributes Per potentiam per bonitatem per trigam gloriae He is the Lord therefore they implore him by that power which can do all things He is Holy therefore they solicite him by that goodness which detests Oppressions He is Truth and therefore they urge him by those Promises made which he cannot but accomplish It is the Lord holy and true into his hands they commend their Petition Secondly The manner of Petitioning is with vehemency and importunity With vehemency for they cried with a loud voice With importunity for they expostulate that it is not yet done How long Lord c. Thirdly Their asking and request is for no petty injury but for their bloud to judge and avenge their bloud Lastly The parties against whom they complain are expressed by contempt of their condition They dwell upon earth And now tell me if the Eagle hath not cause to fear though he hath torn these innocent Doves to pieces in his talons In what peril do those Grantortoes live that have slain the poor Servants of Christ heaps upon heaps When such a God is besought by the souls of such dear servants with such zeal and vehemency upon so great an injury and against such worldlings whose best project is to live upon the earth what will this come to in the end But the restauration of the afflicted the destruction of their Persecutors unto these tears for their joy in the nethermost Hell unto the others joy for their tears in the Kingdom everlasting Having thus distributed the Text into portions I go back to that which I put in the first rank the Petition is preferred to the Lord to the Lord that is holy and true And those words are both an invocation of praise and an obtestation by those sacred properties of the Divine Nature that their desire might be effected He that makes his address to God let him begin with his praise let him commemorate his excellent greatness let him delight to rehearse his Titles of Majesty without these your Petition is headless it hath no Exordium to induct it into the Court of grace extol him in his noble Attributes before you begin to exhibite your desires and the everlasting doors will be lifted up to let you in for the Lord cannot refuse his own glory As David bears you up to it in the last Psalm the Trumpet the Harp the Cymbal the Organ all Instruments of Musick are in the Tongue of him that doth praise the Lord. They were no babies