that Herod had a Son born who was heir to the Crown they could not mean it for then they would never have made a question where he was born but have gone directly to his Fathers Palace Where should he be born else Besides all Herods Sons were grown to manly stature beside none of his children were born to any right of succession for in those days the Kingdom of Judaea was appointed to them who were most in favour with the Court of Rome But the meaning must be Where is that King of the Jews that is born That King of whom we have been told that all Nations shall worship and obey him For else what had they to do with the King of another Kingdom as St. Austin says Nisi â—am agnoscerent regem Judaeorum qui rex est etiam seculorum but that they acknowledge though Jury gave him birth yet all the world and all Ages should do him homage They do not say they came to see him upon his fame or upon any exploit that he ever yet did but upon the presages of that glorious Kingdom which should be his in time to come O the wonderful working of the Lord and O the power of his grace where he gives it an effectual blessing Some relations or traditions these Magi had had perhaps from no better hand than Balaams and his Successors with these poor means and with the help of the Star what Mysteries they pickt out of it God knows they make a better confession of their faith than the Jews did with the helps of all the Prophets Illi consitentur alienum regem isti proprium non agnoscunt yet these strangers did confess a foraign King as it were the Jews denied him though most principally he was their own They were angry to the death at Herod a stranger that he was their King now God opens them a royal way that they may have a King of their own if they will and yet they refuse him It is an argument of no small force to beat down infidelity that the heathen in most parts of the world did speak of an extraordinary King that was to come in that age and some of them directly pointed out Judea for the place Suetonius says that it stirred up the Jews to rebellion because there was a constant saying in all the Eastern Countries Perâ—rebuit in oriente toto vetus constans opinio mark it for these Wise-mens sakes Esse in fatis ut eo tempore Judaeâ profecti rerum potirentur That it was destined that about that time some should come out of Judea that should reign over all the world And that grave Author Cicero says a certain fellow whom he was angry at interpreted Sibyls verses that he whom we had or must have to be our King Appellandum esse regem si salviesse vellemus We must call him a King if we would be saved But he was no such King as Tully feared that would erect a Monarchy and destroy the liberty of the Senate I have been copious before you but lately that Christ was possessed of no temporal soveraignty in refutation that Satan shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world and said All these things will I give thee The Jews were angry with him that he would not meddle with temporal things but they themselves have lost all their temporalties for refusing him Christ was born a King as the world gave testimony in my Text and died a King as Pilate gave testimony in the title upon his Cross Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews Nor was he simply a King allotting him a spiritual Kingdom as I have lately discoursed upon it but a King of Kings anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows I will make him my first-born higher than the Kings of the earth Psal lxxxix 28. His Kingly Office is part of his Mediatorship by which he reconciles us to God and saves us from our sins and cloaths us with righteousness And to understand that point of faith clearly these are qualities of his Kingly Office 1. To choose out his own Subjects that is the members of his Church 2. To give them Laws to keep 3. To provide for their peace and to keep the enemy from them 4. To call all the world before him in the last and universal Judgment But that legislation the appointing of Laws to his Subjects is the most conspicuous part of that Office in this life and believe the Prophet Ezech. for it Chap. xxxvii 24. David my servant shall be King over them and they shall all have one shepherd they shall also walk in my judgments and observe my Statutes to do them You see wherein the Kingdom of the Son of David consists to give us Statutes and Judgments to do them He commands the heavens above as it seems by this Star and who are we that should not obey him Quis est iste rex tam parvus tam magnus nondum in terris loquens in coelis edicta proponens What King is this says St. Austin so little for he is but new born and yet so great an Infant that hath not yet spoken and yet his Edicts are kept in heaven We are willing and content at his Priestly office that he should die for us on the Cross and intercede for us to his Father we are willing he should be our Prophet to teach us and will you make his Kingly Office stand for a Cypher Shall he not give us Law and bind us to his Commandments That Office stands for all the rest and the Wise-men ask about it instead of all beside Where is be that is born King of the Jews So I have done with their Question And I have need to make haste to the first of their Assertions which is very copious in the contents Vidimus enim stellam ejus in oriente for we have seen his Star in the East The particulars to be inquired into are 1. What was the substance of this Star 2. How it appeared in the East 3. What aptitude there was in such a sign or miracle to bring them to Christ 4. Why it is appropriatively called his Star 5. Whether there were no secret illumination an invisible but a better star than this which made them true believers These sayings of the Wise-men troubled all Jerusalem says the next verse and no marvel for they have troubled the whole common-wealth of Learning ever since what this Star should be All Authors meet in one consent that this could be no star fix'd and remaining in the Firmament aloft for how can it be imagined that any of those heavenly lights so remote could point to one Country more than another to a little Village in that Country nay to a Stable in that Village 2. Natural Creatures are no convenient presages of the supernatural works of God Moreover they that swallow it down without mistrust that the Star went along with the Wise-men all the way from the
death was contrived and his accusation laid before Pilate he that maketh himself a King is not Cesars friend I have often both read it and seen it that Pride Vain-glory Faction and I know not what have been laid to the charge of the Innocent by some uncharitable mouths who have spread it so far that for all their innocency they could never wipe off the stain Many times the more they decline those crimes the more occasion is taken to accuse them Every thing that Paul could say or do to purge himself wrought him envy and misreport that he was turbulent and a mover of sedition He could never shake it off with all his meekness and modesty Well if mischief and defamation must have their course the remedy is easie though it be desperate commend your innocency to God The Lord of life himself was haunted with a wrong opinion from the time that Satan made this motion to his death that he had a purpose to be a Monarch and to display his Banner against Cesar in the quarrel of the Jews for their ancient liberty The people would have made him a King Joh. vi and he hid himself out of the way yet that would not acquit him his very Disciples not seldom but even till after his Resurrection till they saw him taken away to heaven lookt for honourable command and superiority under him It cost the sweet Babes of Bethlem their lives that the Wisemen of the East called him a King It lost him his own life as I toucht upon it before that the children of Jerusalem entertained him with that acclamation Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord Luk. xix 38. That question was and is scandalous to the Jews was and is a stumbling-block to some Gentiles what manner of Kingdom belonged to Christ as he was man Before ever the Magi of the East said Where is he that is born King of the Jews The Angel upon the first tidings of his Incarnation told the blessed Virgin his Mother The Lord shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end Luk. i. 32. From hence some Papalins whom I formerly refuted stile him a Temporal King who bequeathed all his Dominions to his chief Apostle St. Peter and he to one that is his Successor if it please God in all but his Sanctity Then the perfidious Jews object since the Prophets say that the Messias shall be a King and sit upon the Throne of David the Messias is not yet come because Christ did not triumph and exercise Lordly authority upon the Throne of David To draw out truth against both these at once like a two edged Sword I lay down these three things 1. That neither the Prophets nor St. Luke do teach that Christ had a Temporal Kingdom 2. That he had Dominion given to him by his Father over all earthly things but not by way of ruling all things like a King in his Kingdom 3. In most proper and safe construction we must say his was a spiritual Kingdom I will be brief in all these especially in the former To make much ado that Christ had no temporal Kingdom were to light a Candle at Noon-day The case is clear for I hope we will believe him rather than his enemies These are his words 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 He meant say some Papalins that the world gave him no Kingdom neither chose him a King yet he doth not deny but he received an earthly Kingdom from God A most empty Objection For Pilate sate his Judge to examine if he made himself a King to injure Cesar The same Pilate liked his answer so well that he told the Jews he found no fault with him But would Pilate have put it up if he had answered no better That he claimed a Kingdom indeed by a right and title derived from heaven frivolous and the Cavil of the Jews comes to nothing that God would set the Messias upon the Seat of his Father David Stretch not the Phrase too far and the meaning is 1. The Messias should come out of Davids Loins 2. And be a King as David was 3. Not after that way an earthly Potentate but after a more noble glorious perfect way than ever David governed And I pray you how could it be that he should be a King over Judah and Israel as David was when that Kingdom was taken away from Davids house before Christ was born and a Prophesie denounced it should never return to that house again So it was foretold to Jeconiah Jer. xxii 30. Write this man barren there shall be no man of his Seed to sit upon the Throne of David and to have power any more in Judah In a word Scripture elsewhere shews that to sit upon Davids Seat was to have the Jews subject unto him not after a carnal way but to be worshipped of them in spirit and to enjoyn them to keep his Laws and Commandments for their salvation So it is Hos iii. 5. They shall seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days Secondly I said Christ had Dominion given to him by his Father over all earthly things but not by way of ruling all things like a King in his Kingdom for by uniting the Humane Nature to the Godhead through the admirable influence of that Hypostatical Union So the very Manhood was made Lord over all things according to those places Mat. xi All things are delivered unto me of my Father And in these last days he spake unto us by his Son whom he made Heir of all things Heb. i. 2. And that you doubt not how he had power over all things as being man united with God he whose name was called the Word of God had a name written on his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. xix 16. Super femur mark that Vpon his thigh that is upon his Humane Nature Now this in him was of a more eminent and sublimed condition than all Regal Authority on the earth It came to him the most glorious way that ever was by the Hypostatical Union not by Conquest Inheritance Election Donation or any earthly sort 2. His power reacheth not only to command the outward actions but the very thoughts and conscience 3. He is over things sensible and insensible Men and Angels quick and dead heaven and earth and the very Regions of darkness 4. When men die their glory perisheth with them but of this mans Kingdom it is often testified there is no end Yea after his death he rose again and then began his Dominion to be most absolute by many exteriour works It was his pleasure oftentimes to exercise
Samaria The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him says Solomon Prov. x. 14. The Jews were very scrupulous with Christs Doctrine lest the Romans should come and take away their Nation in conclusion the Romans did come and lead them away in captivity Timuerunt Judei perdere terram perdiderunt coelum says St. Austin Cowards as they were they were so fearful that they might not lose their possession upon earth that they lost their possession both in earth and heaven But I come to take the instance of the Day into this Doctrine How foolishly how rashly was Herod troubled because such Miracles concurr'd at the birth of Christ lest his Kingdom should be translated from him And Eusebius makes Domitian the Emperour to concur with Herod in this Point for hearing much talk of the Saviour and deliverer of those that put their trust in him he was afraid lest the Christians had a King in store to depose him but afterwards desisted from his persecution being certified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Kingdom was not of this world but an heavenly and Angelical Nothing you see is comfortable to them that have not the true comforter the holy Spirit in their soul I have given my self large scope to run into this Point that I might joyn some Use for your instruction with the celebration of the Day And now I will sum it up when I have discussed one thing how we may know a godly fear which the Angel would allow from a tyrannous molesting fear which He would inhibit And this we must enquire into à posteriori by the several effects on this wise according to Aquinas Vel propter mala quae timet ad Deum accedit vel propter mala quae timet à Deo recedit Either for fear of some loss or harm it approacheth unto God and that 's a religious fear or else for fear of some harm it forgets God and departeth from him and that 's a criminous and a sinful fear The Devils fear and tremble says St. James but they are never the nearer to be good Diabolus habet timorem affligentem non à penâ cohibentem Satan feels some horror that gnaws and torments him but he feels not the blessing of that fear which should discipline him from sin and amend him I will give another difference of this fear according to the gestures of men as they were good or bad Abraham fell forward on his face when the Lord spake unto him in all probability so did St. Paul when at his Conversion the light from heaven did shine about so that he and all that were with him fell flat to the ground and were sore afraid These in their fear fell towards God and towards the throne of his footstool But those ungracious servants of the High Priests that came to lay hold of our Saviour and to bind him as soon as Christ had said unto them Whom seek ye I am he they went backward and fell to the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as old Eli trembled when he heard the Ark was taken and fell backward from his Seat upon the ground and brake his neck This is a naughty fear which recoils from God and runs back from his Commandments Now in the close of this Doctrine I know every man will desire to know what manner of fear this was which the Angel did repel in the Shepherds I answer that in all probability it was mixt of good and bad There was both an affection of reverence in it to the glory of God which shined in the light which was round about them and an immoderate passion of humane frailty which did indispose them to receive any tidings from heaven No face can be seen in a troubled water and no message can arrive intelligently at his ear who is perplexed with trembling and astonishment therefore to quiet their mind that the Word of grace might receive the fairer impression the Angel said unto them fear not Which is the period of my second observation how they should and how they should not fear The third interrogatory which is all I will dispatch at this time is a question that comes nearer to them why they should not fear and that for two reasons Propter nuntium propter nunciatum First in a less principal respect because an Angel came to comfort them but chiefly in a more principal regard because Christ was born to be their comfort A good messenger is a good medicine says Solomon Prov. xiii 17. and the condition of this messenger is very comfortable like a lenitive medicine his congratulation runs as if he had said fear not me as if I were that Cherubin who was appointed to stand at the entrance of the Garden to keep you from the Tree of Life no I am sent to prepare his way who is born of a Virgin this day to bring you into Paradise I have said it be not afraid for I am one that stand always before the face of your father which is in heaven I know that his thoughts are full of mercy and compassion towards you Moses and the Prophets spake concerning Christ to come that he should deliver his people from their sins but they were sinners themselves which had utterly disabled their testimony but that they were inspired from God The Law will reclaim that the same man should be testis and reus the person impleaded for guilty and yet a witness in the fact therefore an Angel who was guilty of no disobedience of no breach against the Law his testimony was unsuspected to testifie the birth of a Saviour Not as if such as they be were stipulatores sureties unto men for the Promises of God for because the Lord can swear by none greater he swore by himself and because he can promise by none greater he promiseth by himself It is not for mans sake or for an Angels sake but for his own truth and mercy sake that we believe Jesus was born in the similitude of man to be Mediator between God and man and since the Son of God hath come among us in the flesh we may reply unto this heavenly Messenger as the Samaritans did to the woman that drew water for Christ Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world But you will object what trust is there in any Creature be he never so glorious that he can promise comfort and say we should not fear Why Beloved we must not set light or despise their help that God hath set to be our Guardians and Defenders to pitch their Pavilions round about us The Prince of the air and his evil Spirits are never wanting to entrap us But what said Elisha to his Servant in the mountain when Chariots of horsemen and heavenly succours do present themselves before him Plures nobiscum there are more that be
it renders thus I will make the kingdom of Davids glory to sprout forth Euthymius pleaseth me who gives the analogy thus the oil was poured out of an horn with which Kings were anointed you can instruct your selves that it was so both in David and Solomon and from thence an horn though an evacuation of nature and a mean thing became an ensign of Kingly Majesty Neither was this known only to the Jews but to the Heathen also so that their Kings did wear it among the honours and ornaments of their head as ours are painted with a mund and a Scepter in their hand Pyrrhus in Plutarch was known in the battail from all his subjects by wearing a Goats horn in his Helm and Villalpandus reports of an ancient piece of coin which had the image of Tryphon the Egyptian Monarch on the face and on the reverse it had his Crest with a Goats horn rising up before it Nay the same Author says that it was the fashion of David to wear the like thing in his head-piece And all this I have alledged because I would not want proofs that an horn was the representation of Kingly Sovereignty The meaning then of Zachary is this that Christ hath abased himself to be incarnate and to become our salvation yet he hath reserved this glory to himself in his humiliation that he will be a Saviour unto none but unto them that accept of him for their King and obey him in all things In almost all books of Scripture he is called a King I will not take so wide a scope to expatiate in but strictly I will touch at a little In Genesis he is resembled in Melchisedech the High Priest but he was also King of Salem In the Psalms yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion In one of the Lessons for the day he shall sit upon the Throne of David and upon his Kingdom Isa ix 7 At his Birth the wise men did inaugurate him in that honour Where is he that is born King of the Jews At his triumph when he rode into Jerusalem Blessed is the Kingdom that cometh in the name of the Lord of our Father David Mark xi 10. At his arraignment when Pilate askt him if he were a King he left him in suspence with this answer thou sayest it Finally upon his Cross he would not let the title be altered but there it stood Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews The right of this Kingdom was given him in his Incarnation promulged by the preaching of the Apostles perfected after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and shall be consummated in the end of the world He is so fully constituted a King by being called the Christ that ever since it is the Dignity of all Kings to be called the Lords Christs Him hath the Lord anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts x. 38. in which words St. Peter hath exprest both his Sacred and his Kingly Sovereignty and to match him for the Texts sake with David in this point you must call to mind that David was thrice anointed first at his Fathers house by Samuel the next time at Hebron after the death of Saul and finally anointed at Jerusalem a King over all Israel So Christ was anointed by shedding of blood in Circumcision by blood again at his Agony in the Garden and thirdly by the great effusion of his dearest blood upon the Cross Or will you lay it thus He was anointed by his Father from heaven anointed by Mary with her box of Spikenard upon earth and lastly his dead body was anointed by the women when it was laid in the Sepulchre So in proportion there is a three-fold Unction to make us Kings and Priests for ever the first of Regeneration in Baptism the second with the blood of Jesus in the participation of the holy Communion and the third of glorification in the Kingdom of heaven but nihil dat quod non habet he that crowns us in glory had title to a crown himself he that makes us Kings was the horn or prince of our Salvation This is the stone of offence against which the Jews stumble that the Kingdom promised so expresly and literally to the Messias was not verified in the person of Christ our Saviour had he sate upon the throne of David with Power and Majesty reason would that they should believe but this is it as they plead which enervates their faith that he who is set forth so often in the name of a King should be born so meanly die so ignominiously and be acquainted in all his life with nothing but weakness and poverty 1. Remember this for the ground of my answer that Jesus Christ was God's only Son and our Lord that is our King is an Article of our Belief and therefore his Kingdom appears only to the eye of Faith and is not to be discerned after an earthly manner in outward pomp and visible glory for then it were no Article of the Creed 2. No humane Kingdom came to him by descent for ought we know he was of the house and lineage of David but it appears not that he was the true and lawful successor in the right line to the Crown of David Armacanus makes much ado to no purpose to derive his pedigree so that the Kingdom of David might truly be hereditary in him I say to no purpose for since the right should come to him by his Mother and she out-lived him that temporal Kingdom had been in her and never descended upon him unless he had survived her 3. Note it that the Prophets who prophesied of the Kingdom of the Messias must not be understood literally that 's not the fashion of Prophesies How then why with Evangelical qualifications and they are clear that his Kingdom is not of this world that he was no King to the prejudice of Caesar his laws pertained to the spirit and conscience he rules over his Church and yet was obedient to Rulers but he had not the temporal seat of David even as David had not the spiritual seat of Christ In a regal Throne he did not sit for he came not to be ministred unto but to minister although he was made heir of all things by virtue of the Hypostatical Vnion Just as David after he was anointed by Samuel was debased a while as the meanest servant But Christ being of the line of David and having an heavenly Dominion given him which had influence into the soul and conscience commanding things in heaven and earth making all things in the world stoop to the word of his truth converting sinners to salvation drawing all the Gentiles to take up his Cross ruling thus for ever and to the worlds end I hope you will say O that the Jews would heed it that this is a more excellent Sovereignty than ever David had therefore God hath made good his promise and transcended it that God had given him the Kingdom of his
David That little nest had hatcht many famous rulers Ibzan that ruled all Israel most righteously and prudently a true Ephrathite as fruitful in his loins as the Country was of all store He had thirty sons and thirty daughters Judg. xii 8. beside him Elimelech and Obed and Isai and David and all his valiant brethren Bethlehem had been an happy Seminary of renowned persons nunc aliquid supra heroas after all the former progeny it brought forth at last one of more heroical virtue even Christ the Lord. And see how many businesses are secretly and unawares administred for divine purposes Caesar Augustus taxeth all the world for acknowledgement of homage and to fill his Exchequer but God did drive it to a greater end that Mary might come with Joseph to the City of David and not be delivered of her Babe out of his own Country Coegit Deus imperatoris edictum prophetiae veritati servire God caused the Emperours Laws and Edicts to make way to the fulfilling of sacred Prophesies Pharaoh allotted the Children of Israel to the land of Goshen to attend his heards and flocks God had another more principal intention to advance his own glory by their abode in Egypt Pilate transmitted our Saviour to Herod and Herod to Pilate again Ad captandam benevolentiam to make themselves as good friends as great men use to be but the judge that sits above all made them both serve for this end that neither this nor that nor any other unrighteous ruler should be able to find any thing but innocency in him who was a â—aâ—b without blemish Gods ends are the magisterial and great ends that set even heathen Princes awork to bring them to pass so the commands of the Roman Caesar did instrumentally serve for this that Christ was born in Bethlehem I proceed to the next circumstance of this Nativity the time set down according to the Kings Reign wherein it fell out in the days of Herod the King To reckon mens Nativities from the years of Consuls or from the Reigns of Kings is a most usual computation their lives are marks of remembrance upon many casualties past to all succeeding ages So certain it is that the worst of Princes as well as the best shall never be forgotten Therefore it is a good advice which the Historian gives that Kings and Rulers have all things at their pleasure and live not in want of any thing while their breath lasts Sed unum insatiabiliter parandum prospera sui memoria but one thing must be studied with all providence that they leave a prosperous memory behind them The two and twenty years of Jeroboams reign the days of Herods reign were dismal times and happier for them to have been buried in silence But as a sulphurous light that smells ill will be seen as well as the sweetest because it is a light so the age of a wicked Prince is a perpetual mark of remembrance as well as better times The mention of Herod will come about though he have no fame but infamy though death gnaweth upon him yet he lives in this Text that Christ was born in the days of Herod the King But I pray you is this all no more but the time simply set down in such a reign when the Nativity fell out Majus opus moveo there goes much more to it than so and if one reason be not enough you shall have two to explicate it First To denote what calamities were in that wretched state of the Jews when Christ came into the world for Herod is remembred at his Birth as Pilate is brought into the Creed to fill up the Article of his Passion He could never have been born under a worse Tyrant than Herod nor likely have suffered under a more unjust Magistrate than Pilate The days of Herod the King those were evil days days of affliction days of taxes days of captivity their children were slain their glory was departed Juda's Scepter clean broken When their case was so pittiful then cometh the Redeemer when it was so dark then riseth the Star As his Birth fell out in the sharpest time of the year in the depth of Winter so it was every where thereabout the very depth of discontent and misery and this had lasted very long Hard affliction and long continuance what can be more intollerable Some Postillers shew their wit upon these words that they are called the days of Herod the King Obbrevitatem temporis in quo reges dominantur for the period of their reign comes quickly about and after a few days are over their glory departs with them and then dust to dust 'T is only God that reigns without computation of days for ever and ever This is a specious conceit but no comfort to Judah for Herod had crusht them under thraldom and slavery almost 30 years before Christ came to comfort them and yet they are called the days of Herod To make you a brief of a long story thus stood the case The Jews had rather have died than be driven from the letter of their Law especially in Ceremonies or judicious statutes Now one of their republick Laws and the very chief was this Deut. xvii 15. That their King must be chosen from among their brethren thou mayst not set a stranger over thee which is not thy Brother And they were so happy that their rulers were of their own stock from Moses to this man that then usurpt upon them But how was it then alter'd certain rulers called Hasamonei were Princes of that Commonwealth a hundred years together after the captivity Of that race one Hircanus at last a sluggish man being their Prince Antipater the Father of this Herod dispatcht many businesses for him and was employed in several Embassies from Jerusalem to Rome In a word Antipater and his Sons did all Hircanus dying Herod was constituted King of the whole land which belonged to all the tribes of Israel first by the gift of M. Antonie then by the power of Augustus and lastly by the confirmation of the whole Senate but the Jews strugled against Herods yoke almost 30 years to shake it off Much effusion of blood it caused and when it could not be remedied they endured it without hope ever to have it helpt So in the height of this sadness and desperation loe Christ was born in the days of Herod the King When all assistance of this world fails then God is nearest When the Seas work tempestuously then Christ is walking upon the waves When the Apostles labour'd hard and could get nothing to sustain them then God fills their nets with store that they are ready to break and when calamities are very bitter and the enemies of the Church in the heighth of their pride then what remains but to say nay to sing it with David The time is come that thou have mercy upon Sion yea O Lord the time is come One of our own Prelates lighted upon a most pithy observation that
all the chief Prophesies about Christ came unto the Israelites when they were most out of heart and needed comfort Jacob's Balaam's Isaiah's Daniel's Haggai's either they were in Egypt or among fiery Serpents in the Wilderness or in Babylon or in some woful plight when Christ was promised but that was a suddain way to stop the course of all sorrow I cannot stand upon it for I must now declare the second reason why Jesus is said to be born in the days of Herod the King to refer the hearers to Jacobs Prophesie that if Herod reign then the Messias must come The tenour of Jacob's Prophesie bears that sense as the most learned Christians say it is extant Gen. xlix 10. The Scepter doth not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come The learned in the Hebrew tongue say that Shebeth is a Tribe as well as a Scepter and the sense may be the Tribe of Judah shall continue distinct until Christs coming whereas the other ten Tribes were scatter'd and confus'd by captivity But the most learned do assent what we translate a Scepter very well imports Princedom The Septuagint hath it A Prince shall not depart from Judah nay the Scripture gives light to that sense in other places Judah is my law-giver Psal lx 9. And again 1 Chron. v. 2. Judah prevailed above his brethren and of him came the chief rulers The Chaldee Paraphrase doth notably make good the words for the Christian cause He that hath dominion shall not be taken away from Judah nor a Scribe from his childrens children until the Christ come whose the Kingdom is and him shall the people obey The Jerusalem targum as I find it quoted by faithful Authors hath as famous a gloss as that Kings shall not cease from the house of Judah nor Doctors that teach the Law until the time that the King Christ do come whose the Kingdom is and all the Kingdoms of the earth shall be subject unto him the best judgments no way prejudicated did ever so interpret it Therefore Herod having wrung the Scepter from Judah this was the time for the Saviour of the world to come Two things are cast cross in the way to elude the Prophesie which doubts I must clear up for the honour of this day First that neither our Saviour or his Evangelists did ever make use of that saying of Jacob in the New Testament to prove that the day of the Lord was come why no more doth any Apostolical Writer in the New Testament apply that act of Abraham's to our Saviours Passion when he took his only Son Isaac to offer him up for a whole burnt-offering Yet the Church reads that Chapter for the first Lesson on Good Friday and did ever so conceive it and that for good reason for Isaac was a Type of Christ In Isaac shall thy seed be blessed But another scruple is more cumbersom to be removed It may seem that the Scepter was departed from Judah even from those days that Zedekiah was carried away into captivity from Zerobabel or a little after to Herod many hundred years some of the stock of Levi had the superiority therefore Shiloh did not come when the government was taken from Judah and then the Prophesie will not serve our turn to apply the Nativity of Christ to the days of Herod upon necessary connexion For answer there are many ways to the Wood as we say proverbially yet but one fair satisfaction that I can meet withal which consists of two heads First that the Scepter which Jacob foretold should not depart till Shiloh came belonged to the whole Nation of the Jews Secondly that appropriatively and principally it belong'd to the Tribe of Judah and upon these two hangs the truth of the Prophesie You know that which agrees with the event and success of a thing is the best interpretation of a Prophesie and upon the event it is manifest the Jews had a Governour of their own lineage from Moses until this Herod whose Father was an Edomite and his Mother an Ishmaelite That short interruption of 70 years in the Babylonish captivity is not considerable in so many hundred years but the Government at sundry ages sometimes fell to the lot of one Tribe sometimes to another From Moses to David the Judges were sometimes Ephramites sometimes Danites of Zabulon of Judah of other stocks promiscuously From David to Zedekiah 470 years the lineage of David had the preheminence from the return of the captivity to this Herod the Hasamonei or Levites sate at the stern but still he was an Israelite born and not a stranger till God appeared in the flesh All that time before it was Regnum Judaicum a Judaical Kingdom though not in the power of a man of Judah Saint Austin saw this was the safest construction Non defuit Judeorum Princeps ex ipsis Judeis usque ad Herodem alienigenam Jâ—dea did not want a Prince that was a a Jew until Herod the Foreigner usurpt upon them and before him in Eusebius days the current went that way says he The prediction of Jacob was not fulfilled while Princes lasted of the Jewish Progeny but from that time that Christ was born there were no Princes Ex Juda aut ex Judaeorum familia either of Judah or of the Jewish blood But because Jacob vented this Prophesie in the benediction of his Son Judah I will add briefly that the glory which was common to all the Jews did fall and rest principally upon the tribe of Judah To make this even you must put many considerations together their name and Nation did flourish most from that time that David a man of Judah was chosen King by God and anointed by Samuel all the Kings from him to Zedekiah for 470 years were of the same family So Judah had the most honourable time of government After they came home out of captivity 't is true that in a little while certain Levites had the principality yet still the glory was Judah's For Jacob foresaw that the whole band of Israelites that come from Babylon should be called Jews from Judah and after for ever Almost the whole Country they liv'd in was only Judah's lot and inheritance The chief Metropolis Jerusalem where the Prince resided was at first indeed in the lot of Benjamin but ever since David's conquest it fell to Judah Except the person of the Ruler all was Judah's the Scepter therefore did not depart from Judah though the person did And those Levites that commanded all were called not the Princes of Levi but of Judah therefore Judah did not lose his glory quite until Herod thrust him from it So that now the great work of the Lord was to come to pass that the Scripture might be fulfilled and Jesus was born in the days of Herod the King My Author whom I follow gives a good instance to illustrate it that the Crown of Spain is devolved by the Marriage of a female
to the Members of his body and it was laudible in him to wish some trial that he might encounter the Devil and spoil him of his Kingdom Tentationem exoptare in eo qui succumbere nequit est laudabile say the Schoolmen It was an heroical magnanimity in Christ to wish tentations so might fall upon him because he could not be vanquished And therefore some gather an observation contrary to St. Chrysostom that our Saviour went into the Wilderness and fasted forty days and after was an hungry destinating that the Devil should find him out Obviam procedit Diabolo quem scit non pug naturum nisi lacessitum He went out to dare the Tempter because he knew he would not come on and fight unless he were provok'd yet it is the sounder way to collect that for our instruction when we should examine this Story Christ did not go in a bravado or a challenge to offer himself to be tempted but the Spirit led him as who should say this was not Curtius in foveam a precipitated intrusion Let not man expose himself to temptation Dubia est victoria who knows that carries the badge of Adams frailty in his body whether he shall come off with victory or captivity Happy is that man and the Lord shall bless his integrity who will not come near the suburbs of sin for no man can keep the Commandments unless he be careful to avoid the first invitations of evil and to shun the farthest and remotest impediments of obedience Have you seen little children dare one another which should go deepest into the mire But he is more childish that ventures further and further even to the brim of transgression and bids the Devil catch him if he can I will but look and like says the wanton where the object pleaseth me I keep company with some licentious persons says an easie nature but for no hurt because I would not offend our friendship I will but bend my body in the house of Rimmon when my Master bends his says Naaman I will but peep in to see the fashion of the Mass holding fast the former profession of my faith Beloved I do not like it when a mans conscience takes in these small leaks it is odds you will fill faster and faster and sink to the bottom of iniquity I have read of a Bishop that was performing the Office of Baptism to many that were converted from Gentilism and when a Virgin came near the Font of an extraordinary beauty he desired a substitute to discharge the place for he would not please his eyes no not for a few minutes to look upon such an object as allured his fancy What a careful Christian this was that kept off occasions of sin and would not suffer them before him as David charged his treacherous Son Absalom to keep a distance and not to come near Jerusalem Hannibal that approved Souldier placed himself in a battel where many Darts of the enemy flew round about him and when some commended him that he ventured his person upon the mouth of danger you mistake says Hannibal I am more ashamed of my self this day than ever I was in my life that being the General of the Field I came in peril to be wounded This is well applied to every Souldier that fights under Christs Banner when we are run into tentations it is good and blessed to come off with the least impairment to our innocency But why did you come so near the flame that you were in peril to be scorched Job comforted himself that he had kept his eyes from wandring Jeremy was careful neither to lend upon Usury nor to borrow upon Usury In a word when Tentations fall upon you by Gods permission resist them manfully but if you mean to be led by the Spirit do not wittingly and daringly fall upon tentations This is the sum of the third observation I defer the fourtn to a larger tractate To God the Father c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the VVilderness to be tempted of the Devil THis Text you see will not let me go I have been parting from it twice and still it invites me to stay As the Levite took his farewel at Bethlem sundry times and could not get away Judg. xix And now I have good cause to tarry being led by the leading of the Spirit Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile with him go with him twain says Christ Mat. v. 21. And if the Spirit of God compel us to go with him one Sermon we will go with him twain it cannot be irksom or weary to follow such contemplations But it is fit I should satisfie you where I stick in this verse for the present that I do not proceed how Christ was tempted wherefore he was tempted by whom he was tempted when he was tempted I have rid my hand of these discourses Likewise I have passed thus far how Christ was marshalled into the field by the divine impulsion of the Holy Ghost Here I resume my task into my hands where I left it That which remains for me to survey and for you to exercise your attentions upon is this First Since Christ himself was led by the Spirit when he went forth to fast and pray and to fight against the Devil therefore I will make enquiry how the grace of God doth lead us to eschew evil and to do good And secondly I will bring you along to consider the place whereon our Saviour planted himself to encounter his enemy it was the Wilderness How all men whom God calls to the saving truth by the preaching of the Spirit are led by the Spirit that is governed and directed by his grace is the Doctrine with which I begin in which intricate subject I confess my self to be in a Wilderness before I come to the last part of my Text if ever there were a question which troubled the whole world it is this How the will of man is guided unto Salvation by the supernatural help of God It is run into a Proverb that there are three things almost impossible to be traced The one how a King doth govern his Kingdom the secret reasons of state make the course of his actions so obscure Cor regis inperscrutabile says Solomon The other how grace doth govern the soul And the third how God doth govern the world We are sure divine motions move within us and yet we know not how they move Our Saviour did admonish us it would be a hard matter to understand when he spake of the Holy Ghost who doth regenerate us The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes What impression a spiritual quality doth or can make upon a spiritual substance Philosophy cannot judge of it but so far as the Scripture opens the mysterie Divinity may examine it and faith must believe it In these labyrinths
to be the Cabinet Counsellors both to great and petty Princes not only in Europe but beyond the Line in Peru and Goa in more Kingdoms than I think verily the Devil shew'd our Saviour The general Constitutions of their Order as we may read them in print do strictly command them in severest manner no way to meddle in State matters or in Kings affairs But verte folium I would we could see the other leaf of special instructions for in their practice the world never saw the like Corporation for stickling in all Kingdoms and Civil Governments but I leave them with him that useth to shew all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them upon the top of a Mountain Thirdly this is the Tempters way if not to shew to the eye yet to buz into mens thoughts and to possess them with strong apprehensions that they are not unlikely to get Kingdoms and Glory and Exaltation fools men with imaginations of strange fortunes and advancements as the Bramble in Jothams Parable thought it self fit to be a King over the Trees of the Wood and the Thistle in another Parable would have the Cedars Daughter married to his Son The Holy Ghost thought it fitter to deliver these senseless impossible ambitious projects of men in Parables than to speak plainly how folly and melancholy make some men suck at the Dugs of hope and fill themselves with wind and vanity Luther expresseth this madness in this phrase that every man hath a Pope in his belly It seems the truth of his saying may go far if such mean persons as the Mother of Zebedees Children the Wife of a silly drudging Fisherman could make such a Petition that one of her Sons might sit at the right hand of our Saviour in his Kingdom the other at his left Who had greater fortunes than David and who did expect less Psal 131. I do not exercise my self in great matters which are too high for me but I refrain my soul and keep it low like as a Child that is weaned from his Mother he restrained his soul and would not let it wander in ambitious speculations he weaned it as a Child from his Mother from the Earth which is the Mother of us all and from her transitory abundance But though all which Satan did shew could not move Christ one jot yet in the next point the amplitude and generality of the object I am sure is worth our admiration he sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the World and St. Luke adds that he did not carry him about in any long travail but so suddenly that it is exprest in a momentary motion in the twinkling of an eye There hath been some shame and disorder some soul blur upon every Realm and Territory in the earth therefore the Devil durst shew all and every parcel without any prejudice to his own proceedings The description of a Platonique Common-wealth an Vtopia or new Atlantis is to be found in ink and paper but never among men There have been treacheries tyrannical intrusions disinheriting the true and lawful Successors deposing of anointed Princes in every Government of the world such horrid things have passed every where to get Kingdoms by blood and violences and all kind of cruelties that Kingdoms so set forth are fit only for the Devil to shew 't is pity any History should record them qua terra patet fera regnat Erinnys as David said the whole earth is full of darkness and cruel habitation Satan hath quite marr'd this world and made it fit for himself and for his own children to look upon Omnis seculi honor est diaboli negotium says St. Hilarie that is all kind of honor is so degenerated and stained that the wicked Fiend makes it his business to represent it all unto our Saviour Nay but Satan shewed all the Kingdoms and the glory of them therefore none of their soils and deformities Very right indeed as St. Ambrose catcheth at that word ostendit regna gloriam celavit taedia labores he shewed the best outside of Kingdoms the pomp power attendance and riches but he did not represent within this pleasing object the multitudes of cares the distractions the fears and jealousies all those restless vexations that dance within the circle of a Crown and cannot be separated from Soveraignty well be it granted that these were kept out of sight I concur with St. Ambrose that they were yet I deny that he was able to shew the true and essential glory of the Kingdoms of the world for the first original beauty and integrity which they had is quite gone irreparably lost and never to be recalled All the foundations of the earth are out of frame saies the Psalmist the ancient Land-marks are removed all Nations have been invaders have been invaded every man means for his own ends and not for the publick peace is loathed if it be long kept Princes would over-rule and Subjects would but half obey how can the glory of Kingdoms be shewn when almost nothing is in that fashion wherein God ordein'd it Do you think a large Territory of Land a fruitful Soil a rich People a ruffling Gentry a war-like Nation terra potens armis atque ubere glebâ do you think I say that these are the original and essential glory of a Kingdom belike Satan would have ye believe so and since he could shew no more my Text speaks after his meaning and purpose He shewed him all the Kingdoms c. But admit he had not presumed to medle with the glory of the Earth it is enough to take up our admiration that he shewed every quarter and parcel of it yea and that in the twinkling of an eye and upon this whether miracle or delusion I will spend the time arguing two wayes in what manner this could not be done in what manner possiby it was done but since the Scripture is silent concerning the modus no man must define resolutely thus it must be done First then it must not be conceiv'd as if Satan did or could shew any thing which was not manifest to Christ before Ostensio fit quasi ignoranti to take upon him to shew the world unto Christ was to suppose there was ignorance in him before whom all things lye naked and unto whom all the foundations of the world are discovered the attempt comes to one pass as if a mortal man would teach an immortal Angel what incomprehensible glory is laid up in heaven nay the odds are far greater if I would go about to amplifie it The metaphysical Maxim is duo accidentia ejusdem speciei non possunt esse in eodem subjecto as two sweetnesses cannot be in the same lump of sugar nor two hardnesses in the same piece of steel so the knowledg of all the Kingdoms of the world was in Christs mind before in him were all the treasures of wisdom therefore the Devil could not cause any knowledge there for two knowledges of the same
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
to the Law of Ceremonies Wherefore says St. Austin Sicut hyemi aestas succedit sensim addito calore c. As Summer doth succeed Winter and brings heat to thaw the Ice which went before and gives light also to clear the darknes of the short days so the Messias was presented to the world to set on fire the frozen hearts of them who were but half believers and did also enlighten those mystical observations But whosoever shall scan our Saviours Sermon in the Mount Matth. v. Let him report if such a Teacher do deserve ill of the Law of Moses if such an Interpreter could pervert the Nation Every Text thereof was so mis-expounded that like the Pool of Bethesda there was no vertue remaining in it unless the Angel of the Covenant Christ Jesus himself had troubled it Touching then the perverting of the Nation you see the report is malicious Yet take this for your instruction that those Romish Emissaries Priests and Jesuites who shall lurk in thievish corners to pervert Religion where Scripture is in every tittle received and Gods Laws unviolated they that privily teach a Doctrine against Allegeance and Fidelity should be sharply chastised since the very Jews did think that man that did pervert the Law of Moses deserved to be crucified In the third impeachment envy is cast upon our Saviour that he forbad to give Tribute unto Caesar What neither allow God his Temple nor the King his Tribute These are faults indeed if they could be proved Alas nothing less Could he be an enemy to Tribute who was a friend to Publicans Especially in such a Common-wealth where they were Vassals by War not only Subjects by Allegeance Can he deny that which was due whose Discipline was so famous to part with our Coat also if our Cloak were taken from us First reconcile these contradictions and then accuse him I will give Pilate no Bribe to absolve him but only the Penny upon which he preached Give unto Caesar that which is Caesars and unto God that which is Gods But because Christ would not have such witness as might speak for him he borrowed the money of a fish wherewith he paid the Tole-gatherers the dumbest creature of all that are sensible In the days of Alexander the Great says Josephus the Jews were so forward to pay Tribute that when Alexander took great delight in the Prophecy of Daniel which was applied to his own Conquests he promised any favour to the Jews which they should request They asked no more than to be exempted from the seventh years Tribute because they sowed no Lands in that year nor reaped any Harvest But for the other six years the heart of the people was as the heart of one man to pay a portion of their yearly encrease Why was the memory of that Age so soon forgotten Covetousness encroached every day they payed their Tribute but with a single hand and cursed with a double heart and no man was so filthy in their eyes as a Tole-gatherer and a Publican Beloved the Treasury of the Prince is the vena porta which conveys bloud and life to all the veins of the body of the Realm The justice which protects you at home it is the Kings expence the peace which you have abroad with forrein Nations the burden lies upon his Revenue The Magnificence of the Kingdom the maintenance of the Navy the relief of noble Families decayed the rewards of good Subjects all these are an exhausting of his Treasury Our common happiness might unhappily be dissolved if these were not publickly maintained I will but name the Fable and leave the Application to your selves The Mule was overladen and the Horse that stalked refused to ease him of the superfluity of his burden till at length the Mule sunk down dead and then the Horse was fain to carry home both the burden and the Corps of the Mule We are to impart Subsidies says St. Austin not so much in the name of Kings as in the name of Fathers of our Country Gratius est nomen pietatis quà m potestatis and God forbid but we should relieve out Fathers The Athenians says Plutarch for private vertues were the best of all men But in publick vertues the Lacedaemonians carried away the glory And who had not rather see a Kingdom flourish than a Family When Constantius the Father of Constantine was upbraided by Embassadors of Asia for his poverty his Subjects to take away that defamation piled him up such an Exchequer in three days that the world had not a more plentiful A good man says Seneca accounts himself rich because he hath the Air to breath in the Sea to sail upon Neque quicquam magis esse suum judicat quà m cujus illi cum humano genere consortium That blessing wherein all men did partake he did esteem his own most properly If I would proceed in this Argument I might be copious in the praise of our own Nation especially of this most illustrious and magnificent City wherein there have been at all times so many chearful givers and who would be guilty of such a crime which the Jews did think worthy to be crucified The last accusation pretended was not against the Coffers but against the Crown of Cesar that he made himself a King A cunning piece of villany For as Joseph was accused for an Adulterer by Potiphars Wife because he would not be an Adulterer So Christ is accused for making himself a King because he would not be a King when all the people sought to cast that honour upon his shoulders Joh. vi My Kingdom is not of this world says Christ Why what a Gods name is his fault then Had Cesar any Land in another world In hoc mundo regnum habet non de hoc mundo says St. Austin He had infinite power and authority in this world but it was not of this world but of an eternal Kingdom True Prophets and true Priests have been always the trustiest servants to Kings and religious Kings have been always the advancers of Priests and Prophets See their interchangable affection in doing mutual honour one to another in holy Scripture The Prophets have entituled their Books the Books of the Kings and King Solomon hath called his divine Book the Book of the Preacher And would Christ who was the Chief Priest and the anointed Prophet cast any indignity upon Caesar Kings are the Images of God and the highest powers says Nazianzen do resemble Images drawn to the feet the middle sort of Rulers are likened to Pictures drawn but to the waste the lowest in authority are like Pictures drawn but to the neck and shoulders but all in some sort are the Image of God And would Christ deface his own Image By reason indeed of the Omnipotency of his Divinity there was some Regal Majesty glittering upon earth in Christs humanity Augustus Domini appellationem sicut maledictum exhorruit says Suâ—tonius Augustus took it for a scoff to be called
Christ God reigns in Kings as in his Deputies and they reign in God as in their Author and Authorizer and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says S. Chrysostom the chief Dignity of their States that they hold not their Sovereignty from any mortal means but immediately from God Per me Reges regnant Prov. viii 15. Solomon acknowledgeth that he held his Tenure of one and but of one that was greater than himself Of him that is the Root of all Majesty according to the determination of the Prophet Daniel The Kingdoms are Gods and to whom be will he giveth them Dan. iv 14. And God is highly to be blessed that hath given such power unto men for better not be at all than not to be under Rule and Government For it is not as Core the Ringleader of the great Sedition thought that Moses took too much upon him because he guided the People with a faithful hand he took upon him that Authority which God had given to his Vicegerent and they that question'd it did not rise up against Man but against the Ordinance of God Omnia per illum all things are of him as St. Paul says Rom. xi 30. but all things are not of him as Kings do reign by him other Creatures have their dependance one of another in the connexion of natural causes but the Power of Sovereign Majesty is not mixed with Earthly Causes but hath an immediate copulation with the Power the Providence the Constitution yea and the Castigation of God if it do not decree righteousness For God is the Judg he patteth down one and setteth up another Psal lxxv 6. If there be any cavillation therefore with free Princes as there was with Moses Who made thee a Ruler we will answer it by remotion of false and pretended Causes 1. Satan hath arrogated the disposition of all earthly Magistracies to himself as Luke iv 6. when he had shewn unto Christ all the Kingdoms of the world and the Glory of them says he All this power will I give thee for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Execrable Spirit he dares assume that which is proper to the Almighty to speak the word and the whole world shall have a new face of Government and that he could remove Kings as our Saviour said that by faith his Disciples should remove Mountains he remembred how suddenly himself was deposed from glory that he fell like lightning And when God pleaseth all the Kingdoms of the World shall have as sudden a transmutation when he shall come in Glory to take all Power and Dominion into his own hand and to judg both the Quick and the Dead But in the mean time the Thrones of Kings are establisht in Heaven and Satan is a liar with an Hyperbole of impudency to say that it lies in him to manage or alter those Governments which God hath put in order O how many have gone to Witches and Necromancers and rak'd Hell to be informed how it should fare with the succession of some State or Empire so did Valens in the Ecclesiastical History so did Julian the Apostate and nothing did sway with him more to apostatize than because some Heathenish Priests foretold by Demoniacal Divinations that the Empire should descend upon him What can be more repugnant than this course to Honour and Religion it is God that makes the Day wherein Kings reign and not the Prince of Darkness that is condemned to eternal night it is God that is highly exalted above the Heavens and not Lucifer who is faln from glory and is debased beneath the Earth But secondly what say we to Intruders that make their own Day and exalt themselves in the Throne of Dominion as Adoniah exalted himself saying I will be King 1 Kings i. 5. and as Athaliah did take the Scepter into her own hand when God did never give it her why mark the lamentable end of them both and then you will perceive the irregularity of their action Let not the smoak glory that it riseth up of it self for so it vanisheth infelicity must be the event of that promotion where God doth not say friend sit up higher Thirdly lest Tyrants should snatch this honour to themselves there are such as have thought of a Remedy worse than the Disease namely that the Ratification of all Principality should depend upon the voice of the People and the continuation upon their good liking with a quamdiu se bene gesserit to have and to hold his Governance no longer than the popular opinion shall commend his good behaviour their reasons are first because when men and women multiplied and began to fill up the Body of a Common-wealth it was their own act and consent to put their necks under the yoke of a King Admit it were so yet you will not say but it was God and his inspiration that directed them to make a Supreme Head unto their Body for all order proceeds from that wisdom which comes from above Neither is it fit to be granted that it savours of the wisdom of God or of the well-order'd reason of man that in the first foundation of Kingdoms the Subjects set a Ruler over them to hold from thenceforth according to their windy and phantastical approbation The Bond which is made in Marriage is knit by the act and consent of man and woman yet being once made it doth not depend upon their consent but it holds of God In like sort at first were Kings espoused to their Kingdoms God did give the Bride as I may so say to the Husband and so the connexion is indissoluble Again howsoever it holds in other Republiques yet in that wherein God especially delighted I mean the Israelitish when the People thought it honourable for them to have a King like other Nations they did not call an Assembly and appoint themselves a King but they referred the matter to the Lord and he selected Saul out of all their Tribes to go in and out before them Secondly such as have meditated nothing but the confusion of an Anarchy have thus mutter'd if none but God doth make the Day of Annointed Princes then none but He can unmake them none but He can chastise them for injustice and violence Then how shall the cause of the poor be revenged when the Man of the Earth exalteth himself against him What an irreligious manner of arguing is this as if there were no hope of justice and redress if the cause be committed to God only When Samuel told the People that it would fall out that their Kings whom they desired would be very burdensom to them and inflict sore oppressions upon their State says he Clamabitis in illo die you will cry out in that day he doth not say you will reject your King and set up another but you have no other remedy but to cry out unto the Lord and forasmuch as your sins have deserved that oppression the Lord will
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 Hildibrand◠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
in the beauty of holiness few or none would break the publick Order and decent Customs of his Church but the whole Congregation generally rose and sate fell down or kneel'd and were uncovered together He liked Ceremony no where so well as in Gods House as little as you would in your own was his phrase but could by no means endure to see in this Complemental Age men ruder with God than with Men bow lowly and often to one another but never kneel to God He thought Superstition a less sin than Irreverence and Profaneness and held the want of Reverence in Religious Assemblies amongst the greatest sins of England and would prove it from many Histories that a careless and profane discharge of Gods Worship was a most sure Prognostick of Gods anger and that Peoples ruin When a Stranger Preached for him upon a Sunday he would often read the Prayers himself and with that reverence and devotion that was very moving to all his Auditors And upon Wednesdays and Fridays he would frequently do the like and thereby engaged many to resort better to them always assuring them God would soonest hear our Prayers in the Communion of Saints Sometimes when he had occasion to go into the City and saw slender Congregations at Prayer he would much wonder at his Countrymen that had so little love to holy Prayer but when he heard of any that would not go to Church to Prayer unless it were accompanied with a Sermon he would nor scruple to say he scarce thought them Christians and never deemed any Divine to be really famous and successful in his Preaching who could not prevail with his People to come frequently to Sacraments and Prayers He was a great lover of Psalmody and above all a great admirer of Davids Psalms so full of Divine Praises and of all Religious Mysteries great helps to Contemplation apt to beget a Divine Charity being a perfect supply for all our wants joyful to Angels grievous to Devils filling the heart with spiritual delights and a kind of representation of the Celestial felicity That he constantly call'd upon his People to be present at them and at all parts of the Churches Prayers remembring them that after our Blessed Saviour had cast our the Sheep and Oxen yet he still called His House the House of Prayer to shew that though those Sacrifices were at an end yet this should never end and therefore the Apostles themselves after his death resorted to the Temple at the Hours of Prayer He ever took great care to procure a grave and able Curate a Master of Arts at least for the instruction of the younger sort in the Church Catechism Visiting of the Sick Burial of the Dead Preaching of Funeral Sermons Christnings and Marriages These he generally left to the Curate for his Perquisits and better encouragement and would often complain that in great Parishes there was not competent maintenance to keep many Curats under the Parish Priest that might be able to live at the Altar and better discharge all private and domestick duties of piety sorrowing that herein Popish Countries were better provided for who had ten for one that wait at the Altar there more than we have among us and therefore though he would much recommend daily visiting of the Flock from house to house yet found it was impossible for one Minister to perform the Publick and Private Duties both Private Baptisms he would never countenance unless in Cases of necessity or some great convenience as being expresly contrary to the Constitutions of our Church and greatly derogatory to the dignity of the Sacrament to be dispensed in a Parlour or a Chamber and not with that Solemnity that our initiation into Gods Church required and therefore greatly commended the Lutherans who baptized none at home but the sick and the spurious Funeral Sermons though he rarely preached himself yet he defended them to be no Novelty brought in with the Reformation for John Fisher Bishop of Rochester hath one in Print for Henry the Seventh and in Edward the Sixth his time an Herse was set up in St. Pauls Church for King Francis the First of France and a Funeral Sermon likewise preached for him by Dr. Ridly Bishop of Rochester While he lived in this Parish he would give God thanks he got a good Temporal Estate Parishioners of all sorts were very kind and free to him divers Lords and Gentlemen several Judges and Lawyers of eminent quality were his constant Auditors whom he found like Zenas honest Lawyers conscientious to God and lovers of the Church of England and very friendly and bountiful to their Minister Sir Julius Caesar never heard him preach but he would send him a broad Piece and he did the like to others and he would often send a Dean or a Bishop a pair of Gloves because he would not hear Gods Word gratis Judge Jones never went to the Bench at the beginning of a Term but he fasted and prayed the day before and oftentimes got Dr. Hacket to come and pray with him This strict Judge condemned one for stealing a Common-Prayer Book out of his Church whom he could not save the Judge would by no means forgive him because of the sacredness of the place but accepted well of his Intercession and said he should prevail in another matter and when the Doctor saw he could not succeed he thanked the Judge for his severity Anno 1631 the Bishop of Lincoln made him Archdeacon of Bedford whither he ever after went once a year commonly the Week after Easter and made the Clergy a Speech upon some Controversial Head seasonable to those Times exhorting them to keep strictly to the Orders of the Church to all regular conformity to the Doctrine and Discipline by Law established without under or over doing asserting in his opinion that Puritanism lay on both sides whosoever did more than the Church commanded as well as less were guilty of it And that he only was a true Son of the Church that broke not the boundals of it either way About this time of King Charles the First 's Reign it was justly said Stupor mundi Clerus Anglicanus and whereas in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reformation Siquis's had been set up in St. Pauls If any man could understand Greek there was a Deanry for him if Latine a good Living but in the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James the Clergy of the Reformed Church of England grew the most learned of the World for by the restlessnes of the Roman Priests they were trained up to Arms from their youth and by the Wisdom and Example of King James had wrote so many learned Tractates as had almost quite driven their Adversaries out of the Pit and forced them to yield the Field So that now we were only unhappy in our own differences at home But above all the Bishop admired that People should complain in those days for want of Preaching wherein lived
nothing but the ruine that came He was naturally of a very pleasant and chearful temper but sad news made his soul retire a great way further into him and quite of another humour Indeed no man was more troubled and angustiated in mind for the miseries and distresses of this Church and Kingdom I have often heard his deep Sighs and his great Complaints when he did profess he did only breath but not live I have seen the heaviness of his eyes when he spake nothing his grave and ripe wisdom made him apprehend Fears more deeply than other people did But when his Majesties sufferings in Person came no man could conjecture the load of sorrow that was upon him He would say he felt his old heart wither within him and could not but sigh away his spirit he would often repent He had done no more by Preaching and Writing to prevent it and after the Kings Death frequently desired nothing else but to depart from this world of sin and suffering crying out Satur sum omnium quae video aut audio But next to the Death of his Royal Majesty he would bewail the cutting up the pleasant Vine of the Church of England and alienating the Churches Patrimony together with those of the King Queen Loyal Nobility and Gentry whereby the whole Kingdom of England was then in the hands of unjust Possessors For the Citie 's abetting this bloudy War He was now grown to a strong aversation toward London the place where he was born baptized bred and nothing could ever move him to go thither more until the Earls of Holland and Norwich both requested his Assistance at their expected deaths The Earl of Holland was very penitent for that he had deserted so good a Master in the beginning of the Wars Norwich was very chearful in the comforts of a good Conscience He would much admire how God sometimes gives secret admonition of things contrary to all humane expectations for the Earl of Holland had many Messengers came and told him they had Votes enough and to spare for his life yet nothing would perswade him but he should die within a few days and so he did The Earl of Norwich that knew of no friends yet would not believe but he should escape and so he did After this he return'd to his Rural retirement to end his Old Age in continual Prayer and Study omitting all exercise of body whereupon he fell into a great fit of sickness and upon his recovery the famous Dr. Harvy enjoyned him two things to renew his chearful conversation and take moderate walks for exercise assuring him that in his practise of Physick since these times he observed more people died of grief of mind than of any other disease and that his studious and sedentary life would contract him frequent sickness unless he used seasonable exercise Whereupon afterwards for his healths sake he would every Morning before he setled to his study take large walks very early to make him expectorate phlegm and other cloudy and fuliginous vapours whereby he afterwards continued Vegete and healthful to the last At this time he did much good in the Country by keeping many Gentlemen firm to the Protestant Religion who were much assaulted by lurking Priests who sought to perswade them that it was then necessary to joyn with the Roman Church or else they could be of none for they saw as the others said the Protestant Church quite destroyed But the good Doctor advised them better that the Church of England was still in being and not destroyed rather refined by her sufferings God then tried us as Silver is tried in the hot fire of persecution which purifies but wastes not Then especially our Church resembled the Primitive which grew up in persecutions and as the Earth is said to be the Lords in all its Fulness so the Church of England was the Lords in all its penury and emptiness And in these lowest of times he was full of faith and courage that himself should still live to see a better world one day and would greatly blame any of the Kings Friends who despaired of seeing the time of the restitution of all things His opinion was the Youths at Westminster spun a Spiders Web that could not last long and therefore was very confident of his Majesties return and would instance in Josephs case who was sometime sold for a slave imprisoned as a Malefactor yet afterwards advanced to be Governour of the Kingdom and in David who was hunted over all the Mountains of Israel yea and forced to fly his Country too and yet after brought to the Throne and also in Caius Marius who was forced to hide himself in the Flags of a Fenny ditch from the pursuers of Sylla so that the Historian asks Quis eum fuisse Consulem aut futurum crederet Who would ever have thought him to have been Consul or should live to be Consul again And therefore when any would say There was but little hope he would answer Tum votorum locus est cum nullus est spei They ought to pray the more and Prayer was a good reserve at the last cast Accordingly he would acknowledge that his many cares for the welfare of the King and Church of England did often send him to his Prayers but gave God thanks that his Prayers did always expel his cares After a day spent in Prayer he would tell an especial Friend he found in himself a marvelous illumination and chearfulness in the Evening and that as usually thick clouds in Winter cause dark weather till they were dissolved in rain or snow but then the Sun would shew himself and the air grow pleasant again So sorrows and cares cloud the mind and soul till we are able to dissolve them into devotion and holy Prayers and then post nubila Phoebus and professed nothing more contributed to his divine joys than his often reading and meditation upon Davids Psalms which he conceived they had done very wisely who set them in the midst of the Bible as the Fourth Commandment for Religious Assemblies was by God himself in the midst of the Decalogue In those doleful days that was done in St. Paul's London which Selymus threatned to St. Peter's at Rome to Stable his horses in the Church and feed them at the High Altar whereupon our Doctor was very confident their ruine grew ripe apace and not long after hapned the death of Oliver of which being suddenly told and the manner of it he only said as Tully of a Villain Mortem quam non potuit optare obiit and that we should see within a little while all the world would stink of him and disdain his Arbitrary and bloudy usurpations and accordingly in a very short time we saw all things incline to work about the happy revolution towards the accomplishment whereof no man was more active in stirring up the Nobility Gentry Clergy and People to desire a free Parliament and Petition General Monk
to that purpose whereby he should be a Benedictin Monk or a Blessing to the Nation and not a Dominican Dominari in exercitu He preached before the Commissioners at Croydon and first read the Common-Prayer himself to them at that great meeting for the peace of the Country And afterward when his Royal Majesty was restored he laid aside his long Antipathy and came up to London where one going to congratulate his coming thither so he answered he did his own for he hoped in God he did not appear as a Porpoise only once in twenty years before a great storm but as an Halcyon for a sign of fair weather and when he was restored to his ancient Parish and Church again being one day visited by many sequestred and banished Friends returned again with himself whom he pleasantly called his Charonitae a By name which the Romans gave to them who were restored to their Possessions and Country after they had been proscribed by Sylla As if Charon had wafted them over the Lake of Death and brought them back again At the same time he gave to God great thanks for the opportunity of meeting them again in that place and prayed God that they might all take notice first of the real faults that brought down the late sad Judgments and be sure to repent of them and then also secondly take into consideration the supposed faults or scandals that seem'd to do it and as far as was meet take care likewise to prevent them for the time to come He had been installed one of the Residentiaries of St. Paul's Church a little before the beginning of the Civil War to which he was now restored whereby he was frequently called to preach there where he could not spare to tell his Country-men sometimes of their faults That however his Majesties most gracious Act of Oblivion had delivered them from all humane Penalties yet unless they abhorred those sins so easily forgiven by the most merciful and most courteous King in the world yet the Anger of God would find them out and though his Majesty had obliged the Royal Party to forget their sufferings yet the Presbyterians were ever bound to remember their doings But his deserts were too eminent and well known to be long in any Orb less than the highest in our Church therefore my Lord Chancellor sent to offer him the Bishoprick of Glocester which he begg'd his Majesties and his Lordships leave to refuse answering as Cato He had rather Future times should ask why Dr. Hacket had not a Bishoprick than why he had one Afterward it pleased his Majesty to confer upon him the Bishoprick of Lichfield and recommend that most ruined Cathedral City and Diocess to his prudent Circumspection and Government He first thought that now in his old age the Charge was too great for him but because Caesar had commanded it he would resign up himself to his Majesties Commands and willingly put his neck to the burden of the Chair and to his best abilities not be wanting in his duty to God and the King But he found in himself a great reluctancy to leave his old people in City and Country he had so long lived there that now the place was grown natural and stuck to him like the Bark to the Tree but again would sometime say Holbourn was not the same Parish he left it a new Generation for the most part rose up in twenty years that knew not Joseph nor the piety and conformity of ancient times and that probably young men might suit better with young men and therefore would accept his Sovereigns gracious offer and yet always retain a paternal affection and care for them too and would thereupon shew how vain some Canonists were in prescribing an eternal obligation between Pastor and People whereas he forsakes not the Church who serves it in another place but in some circumstances it is his duty to remove when better qualified for that other Church and his removal duly required of him For we are not to consecrate our studies and labours to Places but to Persons not to any particular people only but to the glory of God and best advantage of the Catholick Church He received his Consecration December 1661. upon the same day that he had forty three years before received his first Orders and the Spring following he took his journey to reside upon his Charge with great congratulations of the loyal Gentry and most dutiful salutations of the Orthodox Clergy and unconceivable joy and satisfaction of all people When his Lordship came to Coventry he was entertained with a Latin Speech made by Sir Thomas Norton Baronet and in holy Orders and again upon his first Entrance into Staffordshire by Mr. Powel Schoolmaster of Stafford with Another to which his Lordship presently in the same language gave an elegant reply to every particular The whole Clergy upon this first meeting were of opinion that his Majesty had still the old Apostolical spirit of discerning having sent to them a Prelate so wise and learned as they could scarce have wished one altogether so fit for themselves and 't is not to have been doubted if the sole election had been in themselves but that the Diocess would have chosen him as unanimously as the people of Constantinople did Nectarius to whom no man dissented insomuch that some say the place wherein they held the Election was ever after call'd Concord from the universal approbation of the Fact It is much to be admired that the people who for the most part are none of the best Judges in those antient times should oftentimes choose so luckily who yet sometimes chose men to be Bishops as St. Ambrose of Millain Synesius Bishop of Cyrene and Nectarius an Arch-Bishop at Constantinople besides others who had scarce received any former Orders and were some of them not well instructed in all parts of Christian Religion nor indeed baptized St. Hierom a learned but sharp Writer might well gird at this practise Heri Catechumenus hodie Pontifex but against our Bishop there lay no such exceptions who would sometimes rejoyce like Greg. Nazianzen that he had not been made a Bishop before long labour and much pains spent in preaching and converting others to the Christian Faith and gave God thanks he had run through all the lesser Offices had been long Scholar and Fellow of a Colledg then been made Deacon Priest Chaplain which was equal to Curat and sometime Vicar of a poor place afterwards Parson Doctor Prebendary Archdeacon and Residentiary of St. Pauls and had discharged all these with great pains in his own person in the heat of the day both in time of peace and persecution so that he did not leap but by his merits orderly arise to his Episcopal honour and dignity The City of Litchfield has its name from the old Saxon Lice or Carcase because of the great multitude of Christians thereabouts slain in the Persecution of Dioclesian which are in
yet upon the birth no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would serve the turn the joy was too big for the Language of man to deliver How shall we then express our selves for the honour of the day Preaching is our present business but words were too little and therefore the Angels turn'd Musicians and sung it Musick was not enough and therefore Wise men brought Gifts unto the Cradle Neither were Gifts the way for you may see by the cratch and the swadling clouts that He affected Poverty The Tongues of men that is Preaching and Prayer the Tongues of Angels that is Musick and Singing the courteous Gifts of the Eastern men Gold Myrrh and Frankincense all are fit for the solemnity of these twelve days but not all sufficient This happy day made an end of the woful Captivity of the Sons of men under sin and Satan See how far David went when none but the Tribe of Judah came back from the Captivity of Babylon When the Lord turned the Captivity of Sion then were we like to them that dream This is the greatest strain of joy as we may interpret it I do not mean that we should doubt whether we were verily preserved from the captivity of Sin by the birth of Christ whether it were so indeed or but a dream like the Poets amorous fancy Credimus an qui amant ipsi sibi somnia fingunt or as Livy said of the Grecians when the Romans sent them unexpected liberty after their hard thraldom Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur they were amazed as if they were not awake but sleeping but I would have your Soul transported as it were with an Extasie of devotion as if Zeal and the Love of Jesus Christ put you in a dream imagine strongly that this day is not the Anniversary to be celebrated after many years but the very day it self of Christs Nativity Cannot you think that this Church is the Cratch that received the Babe O cui cuncta possunt invidere marmora Cannot you think your selves to be those Shepherds whom the Angels sent of the good Errand to look out a Saviour Who had not rather be one of them Shepherds than any King in the world Then strongly possess your souls that you see the Son of God that you stand over him and behold him as he is wrapped in swadling clouts lying in a Manger O that we could so deeply perswade our Soul that this Text is no report but a vision before our eyes So we must do or else it is not full Christmas joy it is no true Angelical devotion And then you shall see in this verse Mary laid of her Child O the passing exaltation for flesh and bloud to be such a Mother and the Child laid in a Manger O the wonderful humiliation of the eternal God to be such a Son But that every part of the Text may be handled apart by it self in his own order I will insist upon these five things 1. Here is the strange condition of the Mother Et illa peperit and she brought forth a Son who by nature was no bearer for she was a Virgin 2. The strange condition of the Babe ejus primogenitus the first begotten of God was the first born Son of flesh and bloud 3. The strange condition of the Birth that it was without the curse of woman without the pangs of travail the Fathers collect it from hence that as soon as the Babe was born she could wrap him in swadling clouts a manifest sign that there was no debility or weakness in her 4. The strange condition of the place of the Nativity She laid him in a Manger Lastly the strange condition of men that there was no room in the Inn for Jesus and Mary these are the parts of my Text With great reverence be it spoken I may call them the swadling clouts wherewith I must wrap my Saviour First Let us consider the strange condition of a maiden Mother Et illa peperit and she brought forth a Son who by nature was no bearer for she was a Virgin A Doctrine which the Heathen and Pagan men will not admit and which the Incredulous Jew to this day after his manner derides The Heathen were so confident that a Virgin could not bring forth that as Orosius reports when Augustus Caesar had rest round about from all his enemies He shut up the Gates of Janus his Temple and called it the Temple of peace and enquiring from their Oracles of Sorcery how long it should stand shut it was answered Quousque Virgo pariet untill the time that a Virgin brings forth a Son The Messengers thought this answer to be as if he had said it should stand shut for ever and so they wrote upon the Gates Templum pacis aeternum The Temple of peace was eternal Let me dispute the case with a meer natural man How doth the harvest of the field enrich the Husbandman It is answered By the Seed which was sown in the ground Say again How came Seed into the world to sow the ground Surely you must confess that the first Seed had a Maker who did not derive it from the Ears of Wheat but made it of nothing by the power of his own hand Qui sine seminibus operatur semina c. says St. Austin then God could make a man without the Seed of man in the Virgins womb who made Seed for the corn before ever there was earing or harvest Nay there is an instance for it in the little Bees as the Poet doth Philosophize they do not bring forth their young ones as other Creatures do by the help of Male and Female together but they gather the seed which begets the young ones from the dew of leaves and herbs and flowers and so they bring them forth Nec concubitu indulgent nec corpora segnes in Venerem solvunt and therefore the Bee by some is called the Emblem of Virginity And as for the unbelieving Jew the darkness and blindness of his heart cannot put out the light of Isaiahs Prophesie Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son for what though the word in the Original signifie not only a Virgin but any woman of a young and tender age Yet in that place as St. Hierom says very well it must be nomen integritatis non aetatis a name of Virginal integrity and not of young age or else you drown the astonishment which the Prophet doth so much exaggerate and amplifie I will give you a Sign why what sign is it for a young woman to bear a Child No extraordinary one I am sure Nay says he Ecce Virgo behold and wonder at it Behold a Miracle which shall never be wrought but once in the world This was Virga Aaron florida nec humectata Aarons Rod which was not watered and yet being a dry stick which had the help of no sap to make it fruitful it flourisht and put out and brought
Luk. i 43. Whether John Baptist learnt this humble confession of his Mother Elizabeth or whether the Mother spake it in the Spirit of her Son which was in her Womb I know not but I am sure in the like phrase of speech John gave back when Christ came near unto him I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me Indeed if none had adjoyn'd themselves to our Saviours company but such as had deserved it they should have done like the Jews Joh. viii 9. all men convicted by their own conscience for their unworthiness should forsake him one by one and leave Jesus alone See how God brings Light out of Darkness the best encouragement of a dastard fearfulness the comfort of these poor men was that they saw nothing in themselves to comfort them and their reward was great because they knew they did not deserve it We use to say that no man is the nearer to death because he makes his Will and bequeaths his body to the earth So no man is the further from heaven because he doth heartily confess himself a miserable sinner that deserves the condemnation of Hell-fire If that will please the Lord as sure it will better than any burnt Sacrifice who will not say with David Adhuc ero vilior I will yet be more vile than thus and I will be base in my own sight This day is a very Catechism of humility ask me any question about a lowly and an humble mind and I will shew how this day shall answer it Suppose it were demanded what is humility I would say a conformity to the likeness of Christ incarnate Vt videret homo quem sequeretur Deus factus est homo Few ensamples of that vertue upon earth therefore that man might see whom to follow God was made man But proceed we in Interrogatories Is not perfect humility abhorrent from the Pomp of the World Yes so was our Saviour who was born without the Pride and Riches of Magnificence Will it display it self in vain attire No he was wrapt in swadling clouts Is it t◠be found ordinarily in stately Mansions and Kings Houses No he was laid in a Manger Doth it thirst after the applause of the World No upon his first manifestation he was made known to the meanest Shepherds in the field Did he seek his own praise No the Carol of his Nativity was Glory be to God on high Did he molest and trouble others Was he disdainful as proud men use to be No the other part of the ditty speaks him otherwise Peace on earth and good will towards men May a mirable abject Wretch dare to encounter his dreadful Messengers Yes with a gladsom courage it will be an advantage to their lowly mind that they are guilty of their own indignity Nolite timere fear it not The third thing which makes every joynt of an humble sinner to quake is Legis maledictio the Curse of the Law and unless that be strucken off we shall fear though all the Angels of Heaven sang Halelujah and bade us be chearful but this is the greatest piece of alacrity which the birth of Jesus brings with it that it bids us not to fear the Curse of the Law With this parcel of comfort St. Paul supplies that which is strictly wound up in the Angels Message God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Gal. iv 5. Yet in a more emphatical Phrase Gal. iii. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us First St. Hierom observes upon it he was factus non natus not born but made a Curse For two things are to be considered in the Manhood of Christ Both that he was an immaculate Lamb full of grace and truth and so he was born in the blessing and favour of his Father This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. iii. And also that he took our person and our guilt upon him and so the maledictions due to all Mankind were translated upon him This was the Scape-goat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that carried away the malediction of our sins into the Wilderness that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life 2. He was not made maledictus but maledictum not accursed but a curse for us Some expound it by an Hyperbole that he took upon him maledictionis cumulum the whole mass of accursedness but I like it better to be interpreted a Metonymy semblably to that Text 2 Cor. v. 21. God made him that is his Son to be sin for us Peccatum non peccatorem not a sinner but a Sacrifice for sin so he was not accursed but for our sakes made a Sacrifice of malediction 3. It is remarkable that it is said Factus est maledictio pro nobis not nobiscum It is one thing to be a debtor for debtors another thing to be a debtor with debtors No part of his own debt was in the debt which he paid but it was for us men and for our salvation O miserable condition of mankind but for this most merciful ransom As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse and as many as break the Law are under the Curse How could we be exempted I do not say from common but even from desperate fear unless the Angel had said Fear not here is a Propitiation for your sins Will you please to attend how Christ was made somewhat for our sakes very differently four manner of ways 1. Factus est aliquid pro nobis nobiscum He was made somewhat for us and with us also So this day he was made man for our sakes and we are also men as he was the Children have partaked of flesh and bloud 2. Factus est aliquid pro nobis non nobiscum He was made somewhat for us but not like as we are he was made sin for our sakes but not sinful as we are him that knew no sin God made sin for our sakes 3. Factus est pro nobis non quod sumus sed esse debemus He was that for us which we cannot be now but that which we shall be hereafter For us he rose from the dead ascended up to Heaven is glorified with Angels was made obedient to his Father in all things and we have confidence in Christ that such we shall be these things he was made that we might be the righteousness of God in him 4. Factus est pro nobis quod nunquam erimus He was made that for us which is proper to his own Royalty and which we shall never be So he was made our High Priest our Mediator our Redeemer our Sacrifice to make attonement for our sins but factus pro nobis that he was made for us is the base and ground of all there began the death of sin by the
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
perfume the sweetness overcomes our sence Here 's one line for a copy and enough to be taken out at one time Vnto you is born this day c. The Text cannot be divided into equal parts for here is one word among them which not only in this place but wheresoever you find it it is like Saul higher by head and shoulders then all the rest As Painters and Guilders write the names of God in glass or upon the walls with many rays and flaming beams to beautifie it round about so the name of Saviour is the great word in my Text and all that is added beside in other circumstances is a trail of golden beams to beautifie it First then with reverend lips and circumcised ears let us begin with the joyful tidings of a Saviour 2. Here 's our participation of him in his Nature natus he is born and made like unto us 3. It is honourable to be made like us but it is beneficial to be made for us and natus vobis unto you is born a Saviour 4. Is not the use of his Birth superannuated the virtue of it long since expir'd no 't is fresh and new as a man is most active when he begins first to run hodie natus he is born this day 5. Is he not like the King in the Gospel who journeyed into a far Country extra orbem solisque vias quite out of the way in another world no the circumstance of place points his dwelling to be near in civitate David he is born in the City of David 6. Perhaps to make him man is to quite unmake him shall we find him able to subdue our enemies and save us since he hath taken upon him the condition of humane fragility yes the last words speak his excellency and power for he is Christus Dominus such a Saviour as is Christ the Lord for unto you is born this day in the City of David c. The beginning of our days work is from that word which magnifies him that is the word of God above all things for he is a Saviour Time was when the children of Israel had rather Moses should speak unto them than God Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we dye Exod. xx 19. Now let Israel say let not Moses speak with us nor the Law for then we shall surely die Above all tongues let the Angel speak with us that proclaims a Saviour and we shall surely live If all comfort in the world were forgotten nothing but darkness and weeping and captivity over all the earth yet here 's a word which is enough to turn all that sorrow into gladness yea to turn Hell it self into Heaven This day is born unto you a Saviour it comprehends all other names of Grace and blessing as Manna is said to have all kind of sapors in it to please the taste When you have call'd him the glass in which we see all truth the fountain in which we taste all sweetness the ark in which all precious things are laid up the pearl which is worth all other riches the flower of Jesse which hath the savour of life unto life the bread that satisfieth all hunger the medicine that healeth all sickness the light that dispelleth all darkness when you have run over all these and as many more glorious titles as you can lay on this one word is above them and you may pick them all out of these syllables a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Abraham could endure to live in a strange Land nay he could endure to want his only Son Isaac if God pleas'd Elias could want his bodily sustenance for forty days John Baptist could want the comfort of all society in the Wilderness Peter could leave all he had and want his substance Paul could live in bonds and want his liberty Paphnutius could want his eyes yea the Martyrs for Christs sake could want their lives but they could not be without the redemption of their soul they could not want a Saviour The Prophet Isaiah hath foretold that the heaven and earth should joyn their strength together to make a Saviour Isa xlv 8. Drop down the heavens from above and let the earth open and let them bring forth salvation that 's the effect and the 15. verse speaks of the person O God of Israel the Saviour The heavens must drop down from above and the earth must open and concur beneath the whole universe must be put together the Divine Nature and the Humane tantae molis erat to make a Saviour To confuse the Jews with this place I have read of a learned Scribe of theirs one Rabbi Accados who wrote thus before the coming of Christ that the Messias should come into the world to save men and the Gentiles should call him Jesus or the Saviour of the world Indeed the Gentiles did not only do so after our Saviours ascension into Heaven being taught unto it by the Apostolical preaching but in the time of Idolatry which is very strange Tully says in the 4. Oration against Verres that he saw an Image at Syracuse in Sicily with this Inscription upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour and he admires at the strong significancy of the word Hoc quantum est magnum est ut latine exprimi uno verbo non possit to give salvation or to be a Saviour is such an appellative that all the Latine tongue was not furnished with a word to set it forth But what if their language could have fit it that 's nothing unless the soul do unite it to it self and write it upon the tables of the heart But that the name may not be an empty sound to us as it was to them consider these three things 1. With what honour it was impos'd 2. What excellency it includes 3. What reverence it deserves For the first of these an honour in the imposition of a name will ever stick by the person and the origen hereof came from the chiefest that is above all Phil. ii 9. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name It was ever of old in the right of the Father to give a name unto his child Zachary when he could not speak call'd for writing tables to appoint the name of John the Baptist therefore Christ having no Father on earth his Father gave him a name from Heaven His Father gave it but he did commit it to the trust of an Angel to bring it for the Angel was the first that ever mention'd it to Joseph the husband of Mary in a dream Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins Matth. i. 21. God gave it the Angel brought it and men did assign it the eighth day when he was circumcised his name was called Jesus which was so named of the Angel before he was conceived in the Womb. Hereupon Bernard casts in
Deum gubernat amoris omne regnum est Love did rule God himself love swayed all things in the world We know and admire the meaning that the love of the Son turn'd the enmity of the Father into peace it turn'd threatnings into forgiveness and death into life Poise every thing in a right scale and mark the heavy weight of our undeservings and the nature of man might stink in Gods nostrils which had so much offended him to believe a Serpent nay to believe the Devil in a Serpent rather then the lively Oracle of his own mouth Yet love took away that distastefulness which the whole Trinity had conceiv'd against sinful flesh and the second Person became flesh for our sakes and was made sin for our sakes by imputation that we might be made sons and righteous before God nay that we might be made the righteousness of God Rom. v. The Athenians were proud of Pompey's love that he would write his name a Citizen of their City for a princely person to accept a freedom in a mean Corporation is no little kindness how much more doth it aggravate the love of Christ to come from heaven and be made a Citizen of this vile earth to be born after a more vile condition than the most abject of the people 2. It is not so proper to say God did love us by Christ for God is love and in himself and for his own goodness sake he could not but love the work of his hands but this is the true and proper understanding of it that notwithstanding his love to his own justice through the merit of our Saviours humility he forgave us our sins therefore his love toward mankind and his love toward his justice went hand in hand and could not be parted He satisfied the vehemency of his love toward sinful man that he gave his Son to be born of a Virgin and to become our Mediator he satisfied the love he hath to his own Justice and the hatred he hath against sin when he did impose this office of a Mediator upon his beloved Son not without shedding of blood Justice cried out it was meet mercy should not rule all Adam and his posterity ought to dye or who will answer for them not an Angel or Spirit and therefore not the Son of God as he is God for God is a Spirit Meet it is every one should bear his own burden the nature that sinned let it bear the curse of its own sin Mans nature had sinned mans nature ought to suffer but that which our nature should bear our nature by a fit adequation of recompence could not bear Our sufferings were not enough to satisfie the wrath of God due to sin The Son of God is a most valuable person but not passible man is passible but not valuable the one nature ought to suffer but could not the other could suffer but ought not That he might be liable to all contempt he was born a Saviour and made a child that he might be able to pay the price he was perfect God as well as perfect man a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. 3. Love and Justice are mightily declared that a Saviour was born and the eternal Wisdom of the Father comes in for her part to be magnified It is beyond our understanding to say nay but that the Father might have made a creature fit to satisfie his Justice to have clearly paid the price of our Redemption and so to have spared his Son yea but wisdom interpos'd it was not fit that man should owe his redemption to any other than to whom he owed his creation for the value of that benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer better than our Creator So Bernard Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio quam creatio Therefore God would not so dispose the mystery of our souls health that occasion should be given to love an Angel or Saint better than himself the King of Glory The Son that sits at his right hand by whom he made the worlds let him restore all things and the blessing of our Creation Redemption and all other good gifts shall meet in one center This is pretii difficilimi decentissima solutio say the Schoolmen a most convenient payment of a most difficult ransom 4. The boundless power and infinite virtue of the Godhead I confidently pronounce it did never appear so much in any other work as when a Saviour was born He that knew no beginning but was from all eternity to begin to be a man he that speaks to the world in thunder to cry in a cradle Verbum infans he that decketh himself with light as with a garment to be wrapt in swadling clouts he that opens his hand and filleth all things with plenteousness to suck for a few drops of milk at a womans breasts we are able to answer nothing to this but with the Angel to cry out Rev. v. 12. Dominion and power to the Lamb and to him that sitteth on the throne for evermore And so far of the second point The next word to be consider'd in the Text is like the flesh-hook which the Priest had to draw a portion of the Sacrifice unto himself To you a Saviour is born says the Angel Vobis natus the good turn shall be yours the blessing yours you ought to be affected with joy at this wonderous work for he is your Saviour Tell the Shepherds that a Saviour is born and they cannot but understand he is de nobis like unto us in nature but tell them unto you a Saviour is born that 's a great deal more than they understand that he is born for their redemption It is honourable to be made like us but advantageous in the highest degree that he was made for us Let us work upon this mine and here we shall find the precious mettal fit to pay the price of our debts to God in our steed when we were bankrupts First we learn from hence he was born to you and not unto himself to your glory to his own abasement and exinanition for his own part he was begotten of God before all times so noble a Nativity that when the Father bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. i. 6. Therefore for himself he needed no other birth to be born at all especially to be thus basely born in the manger of a stable He took a body as it were sown in dishonour that we might reap the harvest and be magnified Likewise he is called a Saviour not in respect of his own person indeed he was his own destroyer and our Saviour when the High Priests servants sought to lay hold of him in the Garden neither doth he go about to escape or to deny himself but whom seek ye I am he No man would put himself into the hands of barbarous enemies that meant to be his own Saviour all the salvation that he
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
commanded to be made unless he had dominion over them that is unless he were Lord over them before they were made Rom. iv he calleth things that are not as things that are therefore he hath authority as a Lord over things that are not as much as over things that are The fair conclusion of it is the actual relation of the Creatures to his dominion began in time but their subjection to his will and power is for ever therefore God is the Lord from all eternity Whatsoever distinction may be put between these names yet when we praise God let us do as Zachary doth joyn them both together when we confess him let us do so likewise as Jonas did I am an Hebrew who worship the Lord God that made heaven and earth When we say our Belief let us do the same even as the Nicene Fathers did before us I believe in one God and in one Lord Jesus Christ And if you please your selves to distinguish accurately upon such Titles because St. Paul hath said that there be Gods many and Lords many let us distinguish between them and this supreme one the Lord God of Israel who is blessed for ever more Christ says the Scripture calleth them Gods to whom the word of God came Joh. x. 34. That Scripture is Psal lxxxii 6. I have said ye are Gods and ye are all the children of the most high From thence and from my Text you may state a profitable difference 1. Dixi I have said ye are Gods he hath said it and that made them so unless he had Godded them they had had no such pre-eminence What they have it is by entitling and nuncupation 2. Dixi Dii estis there are many of those Gods not only every Prince and Ruler chalengeth it by his Crown but every Christian hath his interest in it by adoption of filiation So I cited it from the mouth of our Saviour before the Scripture hath said they are Gods to whom the Word of God came 3. Estis ye are for a while ye are and after a while ye shall go from hence and be no more seen ye shall die like men but the true God abideth for ever 4. These heathen Semi-gods these that carry that badge upon earth shall not only die like men but like sinful men for it follows in the Psalm that when they fall God shall arise to judge the earth after they have judged they shall be judged upon it hereafter how they have judged But O man thou must not reply against the God of heaven his judgments are indisputable 5. The ever blessed God is praised in every thing that pertains unto him he is praised in all places of his dominion he is praised in all his works He hath done all things well say the people of Christ but among the actions of the best men Sunt bona sunt quaedam mediocria sunt mala plura Among some good there is much evil among some flourishing sprigs of praise there are divers dead boughs of frailty 6. These Nuncupative Gods preside over Civil Governments each of them is a golden head over his own Political body but Christ only is head of the whole Church from whence the whole body increaseth with the increase of God he alone is the Lord. And it is likewise upon some remarkable appropriation that the Psalmist says the Lord is his name he bears it certainly with many notorious marks of difference from all the Lordlings in the world First The dominion of man is joyned with some servitude in the Master for he that stands in need is a servant to his own necessities and the Master stands in need of the drudgery of the labouring man as much or more perhaps than that drudge stands in need of the wages of the Master But all our service is of no use or benefit to the King of heaven I said unto the Lord thou art my God my goods are nothing unto thee Psal xvi and therefore says St. Austin God did not make the world from all eternity to shew that he did not want the help of his Creature Secondly All things serve the Lord above nothing is hidden from the Scepter of his dominion but man in the highest Office upon earth is confined to a small scantling of authority he can command the body of his Vassal but not his soul He cannot command his Grass to grow or his Trees to bear or his Cattel to encrease or the weather to be seasonable But as the people said in admiration of the Miracles of the Son of God Who is this that commandeth the Winds and Seas and they obey him Thirdly All the Lordship upon earth is subalternate and dependant from a greater command Masters do that which is just unto your Servants knowing that you also have a Master in heaven Col. iv There is but one Lord and none but he that is responsive to no other the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Our Saviour though an unscrutable Abyssus of humility assumed that unto himself Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am Joh. xiii 13. Such a Lord to whom all the Sons of men do bow and obey Such a Lord that though he were Davids Son yet David in spirit calleth him Lord The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstoole Lord of all things by the Essence of his Godhead Lord of all things in his Manhood by the Hypostatical Union but by special interest Lord of all those whom he redeemed with his most precious bloud Lord God of Israel in which numbers as soon as ever he believed Thomas concluded himself saying My Lord and my God As we have the Humanity of Christ expressed in the two subsequent actions so we have as surely his Divinity set forth in these Titles the Lord God of Israel But that God that filleth the heaven of heavens and that Lord who hath stretcht out the line of his power over the whole earth he is Canton'd in this Text to a little Region of the earth but a Molehill in respect of the extent of his Majestie the Lord God of Israel It was not with Zachary the Priest in this elegant Canto as it useth to be with other Poets who out of affectation do strain their Poetry to make honourable mention of their own Country where there was neither cause nor merit But this holy Prophet had sufficient warrant from the Spirit which cannot err to nominate him the Patron of this people rather than of any other the God of Israel and that for two reasons Propter notitiam verbi propter promissiones seminis benedicti First The Oracles of the Scriptures were committed to them and God was not truly worshipped any where but in the Synagogues of the Hebrews and therefore says the Psalmist Notus Deus in Israele God is well known in Israel there they knew him that he was to be adored that he
Father David I lay the point now with all evidence and perspicuity against the infidelity of the Jews 1. God did promise the Scepter unto Judah Gen. xlix 2. Judah had it in David and Solomon 3. It was threatned to be taken away and never restored again and so it was in Jeconiah 4. Whereas the family droopt and decayed the promise was that it should reflourish in Christ 5. That it should be a Kingdom greater than ever was before extended from the flood unto the worlds end Lastly that it should stand and dure for ever In all things the Gospel consents with Moses and the Prophets and the blind Jews that will contradict it even Judah shall be scattered with this horn Zach. i. 21. and be broken in pieces with the Scepter of this Kingdom but as the Prophet infers well if I be Lord where is mine honour and if Christ be a King where is our obedience God hath anointed him with his horn of power to be a King O that the unction of his Grace may distil upon our hearts that we may serve and fear him Concupiscence says I will reign Ambition says I will reign the Devil says I will reign the world says I will reign but a good Christian will say Non habeo regem nisi Dominum Jesum There is no King that shall command my conscience but Jesus Christ he is the horn of my salvation The points remaining shall take up no long time the next that I come to is the verb of action how God did raise up this horn of salvation you may know the meaning of this by our own vulgar phrase for it is our usual saying that God raiseth up friends to a miserable man when his relief and deliverance come through those means which he never expected The house of David had ennobled the Kingdom of Israel more than any other tribe or kindred that came out of the loins of Jacob is freed the Nation from the oppression of the Philistines expulsed the Jebusites out of the Imperial City reared up the stupendious fabrick of the Temple contrived the service of the Priests and Levites into admirable decency brought them into great respect with Foreign Princes All this came to them by the Son of Jesse and Solomon that succeeded him But in process of time the lineage of David was quite eclipsed that stately horn was broken especially when Herod ruffled it the poor remnant of the kindred pluckt in their head and durst not with any safety own themselves to be of that progeny Loe the inconstant state of humane things the sons and daughters of David who were the Princes of that Kingdom were become poor artisans and inmates in by-places and nothing was so beneficial to them as to be forlorn and despicable Now chops in another alteration more strange than all that had been before a Virgin of a most private fortune in that stock not lookt upon not thought upon to repair that decay she conceives a Son by the power of the Holy Ghost in whom the honour of David's house was more exalted than if he had subdued all those Countrys which Cyrus and Alexander made tributary to their Empire This is according to that Prophesie which James applied to our Saviour Acts xv 16. in that solemn Council of the Apostles after this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down and I will build again the ruines thereof and will set it up This kindred in whom the Majesty of Judah did once rest nothing could be laid more flat than it in the revolution of a few ages and of a suddain this diminution was repaired no flesh and blood was ever more advanced than that house if they did not bid defiance to their own honor that Jesus Christ came from them according to the flesh This did David foresee and presageth it to his own generation Psal cxxxii I will make the horn of David to flourish but the Verb decomposit in the Septuagint is most significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will make it sprout up again as when a tree is cut down and the stock appears to be dead but a little branch springs out of the root grows high and tall and fills up a better room than the trunk which was felled But the Jew complains to this day that he can perceive no such redintegration of the house of David O who is so blind and sensless as that Nation who would not receive him that came to be their glory and being plagued for their unbelief they will not perceive their punishment and misery the horn is raised up and the beast out of which it grew will not own it or acknowledge it But the promise of God cannot be made of none effect through their infidelity There is room enough beside in the world to receive him though his own exclude him the horn is raised up though the Rebels of the house of David reject him The condition of our humane nature was most innocent and Angelical in the first Creation we sinned we fell our boughs of glory were lopt away our fruit of holiness was shaken from it our substance was involved in the general curse of the earth to bring forth nothing but thorns and briars Thus we continued a despised mass of corruption till our horn was exalted in the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Then was our nature advanced to one hypostasis with God himself as if a Giant should bear up an Infant upon his shoulders so we that pass'd for no better than blood temper'd with dirt are become as it were emulous with the thrones of heaven by this assumption of our manhood into his person because he took not upon him the seed of Angels but the seed of Abraham And as all that are born of women have some access of dignity because Christ took the similitude of our nature so the Church superabounds in two priviledges first as Gregory notes upon such words as these 1 Sam. 2. that it is said to the Priests of the Gospel whose sins ye remit they shall be remitted c. yet the like was never said to the Priests of the Law because remission of sins was brought to pass by him that was made man therefore from that time forth men were made the Ministers of Pardon and Absolution that 's the horn of the Church the power of the Keys Secondly God hath replenished us that are called by his name with a great abundance of the Holy Ghost and since Christ was made flesh he hath poured out of his spirit upon all flesh Loe these are the ascensions by which we climb up into heaven through this mercy that the Lord God of Israel hath raised up unto us an horn of salvation Now follows the third part of the Text to the end the Jews might know that this was the Messias which they expected here 's his lineage exprest according to the words of the Prophets he was raised
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
this blessed time loe there is Christ 4. Behold a Table prepared for us of which food Christ hath spoken it This is my Body which is given for you and this is my Blood Which is shed for you and loe there is Christ O Lord entertain thy faithful servants at that heavenly banquet and make us partakers of the benefit of thy Nativity Circumcision Passion Resurrection and all other fruits which thou hast ordained for our salvation Amen THE FIFTEENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION MAT. ii 2. Where is he that is born King of the Jews For we have seen his Star in the East and are come to worship him FRom two several Prophets and both of them Kings I collect two things of much praise in a wise man First Solomon says Sapiens diriget gressus suos A man of understanding walketh uprightly or ordereth his steps aright Prov. v. 21. Secondly David says A good man guideth his words with discretion Psal cxii 5. So that I find by both these put together that Wisdom consists in these two Points to order our ways and to order our words with understanding After this manner did these Wise-men in my Text whose matters are come the third time to be handled before you They spared not to make a difficult journey in the hardest time of the year to seek out Christ so devoutly they guided their ways and they did not forbear to confess Christ before ever they saw him and to tell Herod to his face there was another King of the Jews so much greater than he that not men but the very Stars were subject unto him nor should the people where he was born only do him homage but the remotest strangers of the world came to worship him So with their words they glorified God as much as with their journey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom Mark the magnanimous vertue of these men that so tedious a journey should not detain them from coming nor such a Tyrant as Herod deter them from speaking so adventurous in their way as to be commended and using such liberty of speech as much more to be approved I have cast the words you know into a method of Treatise before fitting several parts to the chief days of the late Feast You may remember I made three Points of consideration out of the Text in all I observed the journey of the Wise-men as they were holy Pilgrims the words which they spake as they were Christian Orators and the occasion of both The occasion is the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod the King that found us work on Christmas day it was proper for it Secondly Their person and their journey come after Behold Wise-men came from the East to Jerusalem that subject belonged to Twelfth day as you call it or the feast of the Epiphany and then I dispatcht it Now follows the oratory or speech of these Eastern Embassadours in the last place and that will come out of season at no time Where is he that is born c. From hence you may note for our order of proceeding that the Wise-men make one question and give two assertions The question was Vnâ—m necessarium more necessary than all other questions they could make were they never so wise Where is he that is born King of the Jews The assertions they lay down are thus First what God had wrought for them We have seen his Star in the East Secondly What God had wrought in them And are come to worship him Where is he that is born King of the Jews So stands the question but are they aware in what times and before whom they ask it Herod had begg'd away the Jews Kingdom from them tried all courses to settle it in his own Race that it might never return to a Jew born the most suspicious man that ever I read of lest by some secret practice or open violence his Kingdom should be taken from him and are these Wise-men that come to pull the Lion by the beard and to tell Herod to his face they come to worship one that was born King of the Jews Neqâ—e vultus instantis tyranni mente quatit solidâ Can they bring forth their Message And will it not put them out to deliver it before such a man of bloud I believe that our Wise-men now adays would have been more reserv'd But to come to a point I will not deny but these Sages thought their tidings would have been receiv'd with great gladness but put it to the true exigent that they found it otherwise and that all Jerusalem was troubled with their news Do you find that they faultred for fear or went from their word Nothing less but continue in it to hear what the Synod of Scribes would say upon it and if the Lord had not warned them in a dream they had return'd back to Herod to tell him they had found the Babe and they had worshipt the true King of the Jews and let him do his worst The love of God constrained them and they must speak though if God had not prevented it had brought mischief upon their head True wisdom I see is no such cautilous thing as the World takes it for no such politick head-piece that will keep silence for its own safety though truth and religion and all good Government suffer for it The Son of Syrach was an Oracle of prudence in his time and this is his counsel Refrain not to speak when there is occasion to do good and hide not thy wisdom in her beauty Eccl. iv 23. He that hath proceeded to the complete act of Martyrdom to lay down his life for Christs name the Learned in all Ages have promised them rewards of great consequence as that Martyrdom hath in effect the whole Sacrament of Baptism in it and infers remission of sins Origen set the opinion on foot which all the Shcool-men have followed But the Scripture on which they ground is as comfortable for them that confess Christ to their great peril as for them that lose their lives in that quarrel Mat. x. 32. Whosoever shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my father which is in heaven Christ will confess him to be his and receive him for his whosoever shall bear his name before Princes though it be to his own hazard and calamity Then it remains that these persons deserve the stile of Wise-men who took courage against the clamor of Jerusalem and the frown of Herod and confidently confest the Lord saying Where is he that is born the King of the Jews And as this resolution of theirs is to be extolled so the knowledge wherewith they were illuminated is to be admired that these Philosophers of the East strangers to Jerusalem strangers to the Law of God should give our Saviour the true stile of a King and of a King though but newly born They did not mean
is in the new Temple of Jerusalem above the Stars that doth secretly teach the heart As the times go the efficacy of grace had need be stiffly maintained against bare outward means Mark the consent of antiquity upon this Point Non satis fuisset stella nisi adfuisset fides illustratio sancti spiritus says St. Ambrose they had never moved so far for the Star alone without the illumination of faith and the holy Spirit Fulgentior veritatis radius eorum corda perdocuit says Leo certain impulsions and illustrations of the holy Spirit gave them understanding and will to come to Christ Deus direxit eos tam in viâ morum quà m in viâ pedum says Chrysologus God did direct them both in their inward and in their outward ways The natural man is not able to discern the things that belong to God let these alone to themselves and shew them a bright Lamp from heaven and they would have thought of any thing as soon as of this question Where is he that is born the King of the Jews Suppose they had certain Traditions in their Schools that when such a Star was seen the Messias was come into the world yet no man could apply himself to seek out Christ and worship him but by the Spirit of God Every man is full of his conjectures who should deliver the expectation of the Messias to those remote Gentiles whether Daniel or some other Prophet that was in the Chaldean Captivity Or whether Balaam who lived in the Mountains of the East a thousand years before Daniel Nay another Author puts it upon Seth that he left a Prophesie concerning such an occasion which should fall out against the birth of Christ and that the Wise-men of the East appointed twelve men of their Colledge to watch that Star every year from the beginning of Autumn to the Winter and when one of those twelve died they supplied the number that their Watchmen might never fail Some Predictions they had I will not contend about it preacht to the outward ear yet this had been but sounding brass and empty words if the Lord had not secretly moved their heart What you will say and was the Spirit diffused even among the disperced of the Nations that lived without the Law Yes Beloved that was more than seldom seen as the spirit of grace was in Cornelius to send up Prayers and Alms to heaven before he knew what it was to be baptized unto remission of sins in the bloud of Christ The spirit of direction was upon Cyrus an heathen 2 Chron. c. ult 22. he was admonisht from God to build the Temple The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus the King of Persia And the spirit of Divination or Prophesie was upon the wicked Soothsayers of the Philistins 1 Sam. vi 9. they divined if the Cart in which they put the Ark of the Lord went up straight to Bethshemesh to its own Coast then the Lord had laid evil upon them for detaining it and so it came to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom God did make the Event answer to the Prediction of those wicked Soothsayers No opposition therefore in this but the Spirit bloweth where it listeth even among the dispersed of the heathen even among these Wise-men of the East Dedit aspicientibus intellectum qui prestitit signum The grace of God was in their understanding and his signs and wonders in their outward eye And so much of their first Assertion what God had wrought for them We have seen c. Said I even now that the benediction of the Spirit was upon them So it is evident by the last part of my Text their second Assersion what God had wrought in them and are come to worship him Many might come a journey to see him as well as they for that Herod that cut off John Baptist his head desired of a long time to see him Many might see the Star as well as they and be never the better for sundry saw as great signs and miracles that never believed Many of the Scribes knew where he was to be born and were able to tell the Wise-men when they knew not the matter lies not therefore in venimus or in vidimus but in adoramus this is their praise and this is their piety that they came to worship him and that they profess they will worship him though they knew him to be but an Infant new born and never scan the case in what condition they may find him The Queen of the South came as far as these men did but she found a King in all Royalty and such a glorious Court as never was the like these men found a Child in a Cratch the poorest and most unlikely birth that ever was to prove a King no sight to comfort them not a word that came from him for which they were the wiser and yet they were as good as their word they did fall down and worship him and more than worship him present him with their gifts Why should not they humble themselves to the earth when they saw the Stars above did obey him and wait his attendance You will say If we could see such a Star as they did the obstinate would be more convinced to do him worship but it will be more acceptable to worship him though we have not seen Beside They adored him when he was so little in his humiliation who will be slack to perform that homage now he is so great in his glorification I will rather regard the time than dispatch all that remains But one thing is to be spoken of that some take the very foundation of this Point from us namely that the worship of the Wise-men was no religious worship they came not to exhibit a pious veneration to Christ as to the Eternal Son of God but they saluted him with their bended knee as the Persian manner was to behave themselves before their Kings But why should Persians tender such civil worship to one that was none of their own Kings but the King of the Jews One would answer it thus to ingratiate themselves into him betimes if happily he should become the Oriental Monarch in his elder years A conjecture too slight for his great judgment that uttered it Is it possible that wise men should conceive in him no more than a man and yet do him all Princely honour lying in the Cratch of a Stable Are they such men as were admonisht in a dream by the divine Oracles which way to return home and yet shall we interpret their actions politically and not after a divine manner St. Chrysostom says They did both adore him in Bethlehem and preach of his heavenly Kingdom when they came home into Persia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Ambrose is for the same they worshipped him being a little babe in swadling clouts Vtique parvulum non adorassent si parvulum tantum credidissent But
such excellent things which we cannot attain to perform that we may be excited to pray unto him for succour with a vehement and a flagrant devotion 4. He commands and he fulfils and he rewards crowning his own gifts and no works of ours that glory may be ascribed to his name for evermore The Synodal Epistle of all the Affrican Bishops St. Austin being one of the Society encourages me that these answers are far more reasonable than the objection Jubet Deus homini ut velit sed Dominus in homine operatur velle jubet ut facias sed operatur facere He hath charged us to will that which is good but he effecteth that willingness in man he says Do and thou shalt live his grace enables thee to do and thou shalt live for ever Let this suffice to teach you how we are led by the Holy Spirit in converting grace and I think it most comfortable to put our hope in God and not in our selves Cursed is every one that putteth his trust in man Jer. xvii 5. To dispach all I will be brief in the fifth Point how we are led by subsequent grace and sanctification which co-operates and assists us after our conversion this is that truth wherein all dissensious parts conjoyn and accord That Voluntas liberata concurrit ad bonum opus eliciendum cum gratiâ divinâ the will of man having conquered the dominion of sin by converting grace is made free and then it freely conjoyns it self with Gods grace to produce a good effect Then it lies upon our own diligence never wanting the directing vertue of the Spirit to increase the good gifts of Sanctification by acts of often doing well then we do further and promote those holy inspirations to a plentiful or unplentiful increase This is not passively to be led by the Spirit but to walk in the Spirit as it is Gal. v. 16. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh In a word this distinction reacheth over all which can be said upon this matter There are some actions which principally concern the well being of a justified man without which regeneration cannot consist these are they the turning of the heart to God a true belief a faithful conclusion of our life in the fear of God and the peace of a good conscience justifying grace doth so attend the production of these actions that the Lord in his own good time makes us able for these things willing to do and actually to perfect those necessary parts of salvation Other works of obedience as to do this or that good to shun this or that evil all these especilly and particularly considered do not concur to our saving health as to the very making or marring of it In the practice of all these particular good instances the motions and conduct of the Spirit are never wanting to them that are regenerate more or less but sufficient to have kept them blameless in every particular but in many of these we sin often and are wanting to the co-operation of grace through our own stubbornness in the will and sensuality in the affections I will conclude You see how diversly we are led by the Spirit how many sundry ways we are assoiled from Sin and Satan by the direction and efficacy of grace The natural man is able of himself to bring forth no spiritual good work The Lord doth totally and with no assistance of vitiated nature bring forth the first good preparatory grace in the will From thenceforth unto conversion this previous preparatory grace is made effectual or uneffectual by mans free-will In the act of conversion and renovation wherein all the controversie about free-will is moved the Lord doth turn our heart unto himself the will for the act being the passive subject and at the same instant it is the cause of a good action in turning it self to God in subsequent grace unto the end of our life the will being made free from the dominion of sin works together with the motions of celestial inspiration This is the sum of all If any thing be delivered too briefly impute it to the compass of the time If any thing be hard to be conceived impute it to the deep discourse of the matter If any thing be defective in the discourse give Gods grace the glory of all and impute it to my infirmity THE FOURTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1 2. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungry MAny things were rightly applied by him that compared the success of the Children of Israel upon their entrance into the Land of Canaan with the circumstances of this combate between Christ and Satan 1. the Israelites were miraculously brought through the Red Sea so the first glorious Apparition of our Saviour which went immediately before this business was the Baptism which he received of John in Jordan 2. The Israelites pass from the Red Sea into a great and solitary Wilderness So our Saviour was led after his Baptism into the greatest Wilderness of Judaea a place uninhabited by man for he was with the wild beasts Mar. i. 13. Then the Israelites were in great distress for foot hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them And Christ had nothing to eat in that place he fasted forty days and forty nights and was afterward an hungry 4. As the Israelites were pined with hunger so they had bloudy Wars with all the Nations of Canaan many a time have they fought against me might Israel then say So many a time did the Legions of Hell attempt me might our Lord and Saviour say yea many times did the powers of darkness compass me about but they have not prevailed against me On the one side here was first the Red Sea then a journey into the Wilderness then scarcity of Food then War and fighting So on the other side here was first a Baptism then a sequestring into the Wilderness then a long Fast and then a long conflict with the Prince of Devils Moreover the men of Israel did appear in that forlorn and despicable fashion before the Canaanites that they were much scorn'd and vilified so God provided we seemed in their sight but as Grashoppers said Caleb and Josuah this drew the Kings of Canaan forth to beat them back and so were overwhelmed in their own pride and cruelty Thus in all points did our Saviour deal with Satan the Eternal wisdom against the wisdom of the Serpent He flies into the Wilderness as one abandoned of the World there he continues in great necessity as one whom none would succour not a morsel of food supplied him by God or man Adversarium non virtutis jactatione sed infirmitatis ostentione provocat thus he provokes and draws Satan out against himself not by a boasting challenge but by the appearance of
keep this Fast And let me tell you we do not keep the same time that our Saviour did The learnedst Calculators of time ascribe his Baptism to the sixth of January immediately he began his fast which continued to the middle of February For the most part we begin our Lent where he ended but many times later Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit that is the answer the custom of the Church hath so confirmed it So the observation hath descended to us from hand to hand and our own Church treading in the steps of pure antiquity hath admitted it Beloved the days of the year which are of especial observance are either days of joy or days of fasting and sorrow The chief day of joy is that wherein Christ rose from the dead and it appears that the Apostles appointed it for the solemnity of Christian meetings weekly and called it the Lords day but God left it indifferent to the Church to appoint themselves their own days of fasting and mourning and repentance for we owe all our gladness to God but we owe all our griefs and sorrow to our selves And indeed Fasts are things to be dispensed with to sundry persons and upon divers occasions therefore Almighty God left these things to the discretion of Authority in particular places A great tyranny is exercised in this matter when the Roman Church which is but one particular of the whole will prescribe Laws of abstinence from meats to all other Churches The lesser Churches indeed for uniformity sake were wont to have a respectful regard to the Ceremonies and Adiaphorous Rites which Imperial Cities and Patriarchal Sees did follow Not I say as if the richer and mightier Church did or could bind the smaller to the prestation of her customs but because in things honest and without exception it was meet that the noblest places should be rather imitated than descend to imitate others But O the advantages that Pride will take courtesie in a while was turn'd to necessity and the Roman Bishops did dare to challenge all Churches for Heretical that do not profess uniformity with them in all Fasts and Ceremonies But all the Inke in Italy is not enough to blot out the Canon of the Council of Chalcedon consisting of six hundred Bishops that the Churches of Constantinople because the Emperours kept their chief Palace there should have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal Priviledges with the Church of Rome And it is a Story known to all Divines when Monacha St. Austins Mother came to Millain St. Ambrose kept Institutions of Fasts divers from the Church of Rome and was never quarrelled for it Look among all the reasons of the Fathers which perswaded the fast of forty days I find not one that says itwas expedient to be kept because so it seemed good to the Roman Pontifical Authority The Institution depends upon a custom received from one to another in particular Churches A Constitution it is then propagated unto us from age to age The next quaere is whether it be a lawful Constitution That is whether the Church hath power to make Laws for appointed times and qualities of Fasting That the Magistrate may bid a Fast according to the convenience of some seasonable occasion it finds no contradiction unless perhaps some Anabaptistical fury doth oppose it So did Ezra so did Esther so did the King of Nineveh so says Joel Proclaime a Fast call a solemn assembly and in all occasions of woe and calamity to forget our food for a time and to intend nothing but spiritual exercise I know no Christian Church in the world but doth practice it But admit there be no extraordinary woe apparently like to fall upon us either by Sword Famine or Pestilence may not certain times and revolutions of the year challenge an abstinence and parsimony in our diet if the Church will have it so as Friday in every week some Saints Eves in every Month the Ember Fast as we call it every Quarter the Lenten abstinence and prohibition of some meats every year I have said enough before the Primitive Antiquity was very constant and regular in these observations de facto now I will refer you to the proofs of holy Scripture that it may be done de jure Zach. vii 5. There it appears that for the space of seventy years while the Children of Israel were in Captivity in all that space as the year turn'd about they did solemnize Fasts in the Fifth and in the Seventh Month not by Gods Law we find no such Precept but by their own Ecclesiastical Ordinances When ye fasted in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me Their hypocrisie is blamed because they did not humble themselves before the Lord as they ought but the Ordinance was irreprovable The next stone that I will move is that Text Luk. v. 33. The Disciples of John complain that they fasted and the Pharisees fasted but the Disciples of Christ did not fast What Fast is this which they object unto him For it can be no Statute of Gods Laws Who would have kept it sooner than Christ and his Disciples For he came to fulfil the Law and not to break it It could be no Fast of private devotion for it had been most injurious to cavil with Christ for pretermitting their private Fasts it follows therefore that they were Fasts publickly kept enacted by the Synagogue observed not only by the Pharisees but by godly men Johns Disciples Only Christ did dispense with his train because the Children of the Bride-chamber were not to mourn while the Bridegroom was with them and to shew that he was above the Synagogue Moreover it is very strongly probable that all the Jews were bound by their own rules and by no other to fast upon every Sabbath until the sixth hour of the day Josephus their own Historian testifies so much the Gentiles among whom they lived did deride them for it and the Scripture gives us some light for it Neh. viii 3. The ears of all the people were attentive to the Law from morning until noon-day and at the twelfth verse they were dismissed and went to meat But our judicious Hooker argues very learnedly upon Mat. xii 1. Christ walking through the fields the Disciples pluckt the Ears of Corn The Pharisees challenge them for doing that which was not lawful to be done on the Sabbath day The bodily labour to rub the Corn was no such great trespass that it should offend them wherefore nothing could displease them but the breaking of the Fast before the sixth hour and our Saviours answer doth apologize not for their bodily labour not for making bold with another mans Corn it was no theft for the detriment was not valuable but he defends them that they satisfied their hunger by the example of David when he eat the holy bread And thus the Scripture approves the Doctrine which I teach that it is lawful for the
the Church The first institution of Marriage the Fall of man and the Promise of Christ And God chose him above all men to receive his Commandments out of the dark Cloud for which his excellency hath been renowned above all men in all Generations But as the chief Lesson in all the Prophets is the coming of Christ in the flesh so none more express for that than Moses If you believed Moses you would believe in me says our Saviour In every of his Five Books he hath left some notable instance for this a Beacon upon an hill The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. iii. Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us in the Paschal Lamb Exod. xii The Serpent lifted up in the Wilderness even so the Son of man was lifted up Num. xxi In Leviticus all the Ceremonial Sacrifices were Types of him especially the Scape-goat But above all Deut. xviii A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me hear him This is that Prophet who is the chosen quiver out of which Christ takes his shafts Mallens doctrinâ Moses quà m miraculis pugnare Our Saviour had rather convince the Devil with Moses than with Miracles And above all the Scripture or above all other works of Moses Christ hath refuted the Devil only out of the Book of Deuteronomy at every turn that he spake unto him Whether Moses were anciently divided into a Pentateuch or five several Books whereof this is the last I concur with them that doubt it This is certain the seventy Interpreters were the first that called it Deuteronomy for the Jews gave the Five Books no other names but the first words of the Book A singular and most select piece of Scripture it is containing the whole body of godly practice and true Religion for the King for all Magistrates for the Priests and for the People It is Moses his Cygnaea cantio the last exhortation which he made before he took his leave of the world And it is supposed there is more Divination in the Spirit in the nearest enlightnings before death than at other times as if the soul were almost out of the earth and a little in heaven The great Prophet took such abundant care to preserve it and to put it into the hands of all men that it was wrote in stone for an eternal memorial Deut. xxvii 3. Every seventh year it was to be read to all the people at the solemn Feast of Tabernacles Deut. xxxi 10. The King was enjoyn'd to keep a Copy of it and read it all his days Deut. xvii 18. And after he had spoke it he wrote it and delivered it to the Priests Ruminate upon this that you shall not find such instances for the memorial of any other sacred Book and that Christ drew only out of this fountain to quench the fiery darts of the Devil and although comparisons I know are odious between one book of Gods Word and another yet some excellency will redound out of the premises to this Scripture in every mans imagination It took the name of Deuteronomy because when the Law had been delivered before this is a repetition of the Law again Nunquam nimis dicitur quod nunquam satis dicitur Moses was not ashamed to preach the same things over again no more was Paul To me says he it will not be irksome to you it will be profitable The Law had need to be repeated often for our rebellion and depravation and perhaps because the oldest men of Israel were all dead in the Wilderness for the sin of murmuring who had first heard the Law it was fit to propound it again to the new Generations That I may not be too tedious in this I will only add what St. Hierom says Deuteronomy or the second Law is a prefiguration of the Gospel or Evangelical Law Sic habet quae priora sunt tamen novae sunt omnia de veteribus So the Gospel doth antiquate no moral thing which is old and yet old things in the Law become new in Christ by the faith of the Gospel Heaps of Expositors follow this hint that Christ retorted Texts of Deuteronomy upon Satan for this reason because it affords a kind of shadow of the Gospel A weak reason for so many to be in love with since it was not God that imposed the name of Deuteronomy on that Book but men that did interpret it Why that Book was only in Christs mouth upon this occasion let no man take upon him to determine but it will teach us to search diligently for some excellent Treasure in those Lines which were thought worthy to be applied and them only by the wisdom of the Son of God And thus much for the seat of the Argument and for these words It is written Before I come to the words themselves we must pass over the second Point that the application of them is drawn to Christ The place originally is to be read thus Deut. viii 3. He humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with Manna which thou knewest not neither did thy Fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live It was Christs pleasure to have himself comprehended in this rule our case is his case he will fare as we fare he trusts in Gods blessing as we ought to trust in it in a word he answers altogether as man and not as God As the Israelites had no Corn or Harvest in the Wilderness to make bread yet they had sustenance equivalent or better which fell from above round about their Tents so Christ intimates the same providence could help him though he wanted bread which supplied the Iraelites of whose stock he was descended He could have confounded Satan with his Majesty and power but it was more tormentuous to the Adversary to be thrown off as with the weakness of mere man and his humility This is not it which Satan look'd for to hear Christ answer him by the title of man and far less did he look for it that he should get the upper hand of him in that title a triumph which is most molestious to his pride above all other punishments Here it began that he should be subject to mans nature yet it was that nature co-united in one person with God but hereafter all the band of Hell shall be turned over to the children of men who have been the children of God that they may insult over them Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world says St. Paul 1 Cor. vi 2. Nay know ye not that we shall judge Angels Not only comparatively because our works are better than theirs as the Ninivites and the Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment against the unbelieving Jews Mat. xii But directly our suffrage shall go to their eternal condemnation
Such another example is scarce to be found as that of David whose Cup was filled brim-full God magnifies his bounty towards him by the mouth of Nathan I gave thee thy Masters house and the house of Israel and Judah 2 Sam. xii 8. yet these were but the narrow Territories of the Land of Canaan far from this insatiable Possession All these things will I give thee The prodigal Child in the Parable though a most rank consumer yet this evil Spirit had not entred into him for he desired no more of his Father than the portion of goods which fell unto him But the Devil cuts out no portions for his Minions he disciplines every one of them to aim at all that can be gotten to be like a rouling Snow-ball ever gathering and growing bigger and bigger Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari There is no such bridle as shame and modesty in the heart of him that makes haste to be rich I say he wants the bridle of shame I do not recal my word Either cruel Usury or pestilent Couzenage or base Corruption or sordid Penuriousness or unchristian slackness in Charity some of these must concur to raise up a mountain of Wealth from a mean beginning When Sylla that powerful Roman made very witty Apologies for those evil courses he took to oppress the Commonwealth one choak'd him with an unanswerable Objection that he could not be througly good that had scrap'd so great wealth together and was born to nothing God will bless and reward industry with gainful success that is to be presupposed and granted for the encouragement of those that are diligent in an honest Calling but these boundless gatherers that would know no end of getting have their Bank in the Devils Mart for it is he that bids them carry more and more that they shall never have load enough All these things will I give thee St. Austin very truly lays the crime of Covetousness not upon that abundance which a good rich man hath but upon the corruption of his will and upon that which he would have Avaritia est esse velle divitem non jam esse divitem It is no breach of Gods Commandment to be rich but to long and thirst for more They that will be rich says St. Paul fall into temptations and snares and many hurtful desires Dives qui fieri vult citò vult fieri Let fortune come in quickly though the Devil lead it by the hand Beware of these swelling purchasing imaginations that are ever reckoning upon more confine your heart to moderate contentation if you will live in peace Nay St. Chrysostome says the less you desire and want the less you shall live like a mortal man and the more like an immortal Angel Quanto paucioribus indigemus tanto magis Angelis appropinquamus But above all remember that God directs the soul to be contented with a little the evil Spirit would have you ingross the whole earth and perhaps he could suggest devices how a luxurious man might be able to spend all the wealth in the world if he had it but immense Projections for riches come from the motion of the evil one All these things will I give thee In the next place let us declare against these words of Satan that his gift is not more spacious than it is unjust He presents before Christ the whole earth and the fulness thereof and our Saviour look'd upon all those things not with the eye of concupiscence but as a Physician looks upon a disease without any passion of infirmity But Satan would be his very gracious Benefactor and put all into his hands Would he undertake it But what should become of that portion and possession in which every man was estated The poor man that had but one Ewe Lamb should he lose that Naboth that had but one field of his Fathers Inheritance should he be turned out of that Should the very Nervs of all Justice be crackt in sunder Meum and tuum be banish'd out of the world to make up this Donative This is like the condition which Saul required of David he would make David his Son-in-Law if he would give him two hundred fore-skins of the Philistins David must not only provide him that which was none of his own but be the destruction of two hundred men to give Saul a Present So Satan would rob the whole world to make up an excessive liberality A Legerdemain which he devised from the beginning to give that which was none of his own as when he gave Eve the forbidden fruit which God had both planted and reserved And this is the most tyrannical and unconscionable injustice in the world to wring and extort from one and to cast it away as wastefully and profusely upon another This was the familiar sport which the ancient Comaedians made it was sport with them that knew not God for a lustful young man to cozen his own Father and lavish it all upon some sumptuous Harlot This is the most remorseless prodigality of our own times to steal with one hand and to scatter it away most excessively with the other How many ungodly borrowers take up upon credit that which they can never restore and leave the Lender in the lurch to his utter undoing and this wicked shift is made not through necessity to satisfie nature but to be bountiful to such Ravens as pick from him upon his Creditors cost An incloser of Commons that draws out his sin the longer by depopulating the whole Village turns forth a swarm of poor People to the mercy of the wide world by whose ruins he advanceth his own Posterity Aristotle says that a Prodigal that gives away nothing but his own and draws himself dry by such neglectful spending is rather a fool than a vicious person but that Prodigal abounds as much with viciousness as the other doth with folly that cares not from whom he takes that he may be giving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is vicious indeed for 't is the Devils vein of giving saies my Text he considers not this mans right or that mans in his goods and chattels or what belongs to the Widow or Orphan absolutely all these things will I give thee Ina and Offa and some other Saxon Kings that reigned in this Island but they especially were the greatest Patrons to this Church of England that ever it enjoyed either before or since their dayes perhaps it would pose any Histories in the world to shew the like Yet I must tell you that the Bishop of Rome hath been a great giver to Religious Maintenances in this Kingdom and which is very strange it cost him nothing he was never the poorer For he gave away the greatest part of the Tythes in the Kingdom from the Parsonages and preaching Ministry to maintain contemplative men as they call'd them in Abbeys and Monasteries This was the first spawn of Impropriations now this is giving
and confer it upon our Saviour I will look back no farther upon that which I have deliver'd already but the other half of his gift to which now I must proceed smels more rank of boasting for if it please you he will turn all the Kingdoms of the world into one Monarchy and settle it upon Christ all this power will I give thee and the glory of them This will bring his ends to pass indeed or nothing he that will not be bought with honors no not with great advancements no not with Princely Royalties to swarve from righteousness you may turn him loose against all the enticements of Hell for a Christian that is unvanquishable But the Tempter hath sound out by long experience that such pure matter is rarely to be found in the dross of this world he sees that men do seldom deny him any thing if he can accomplish the desires of their aspiring thoughts He makes good bargains of his petty promotions how much more of his greatest There are enough and too many that for a little command a vulgar title for a mean remove will turn their backs to God and their faces to Satan There are undergrowing ambitions which shall not need to be carried to the top of a mountain and have Kingdoms shewn unto them let them be lifted but to the lowest Steeple in a Diocess and they will commit Simony and forswear it To be a Ruler over thousands will shake an ambitious mans honesty very far to compass it nay to be a Ruler over ten which is the lag end of all honor some will violate their conscience rather than go without it what if it were to be but Doeg the chief Heardsman of Saul to have the greatest superiority over beasts Why Doeg was both a promoter and a blood-sucker for that contemptible promotion The twelve Disciples Christ himself walking just before them fell out among themselves into hot words and contention quis esset major which of them should be the greater If one had been the greatest as in very good sense they were all equal what should he have got by it to be the chief over eleven that had left all and were worth nothing If the Tempter be aware of this as our infirmities are not hid from him that men will tread virtue under foot to crawle up to a petty advancement then he would easily think this provocation in my Text were irresistable all this power and glory will I give thee and all the Kingdoms of the world If Balaac will say to some I will promote you to great honor as he did to Balaam all the Angels of heaven should not hinder them from going to it ambitious persons will break through the hedg of all honesty for a title of high preeminence and when their indirect courses carry them down to the deep their fancie flatters them that they go up like Elias in a whirl-wind to heaven There was nothing hanging with Christ upon his Cross except a title over his head Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews And why a great title crucified with him though he deserved that Inscription and a far greater than Pilat or all the world could invent yet above all the sins of men ambition and great titles which too often are obtained by crooked courses they deserve to be crucified Mans thoughts fly upward like the sparks from the fire Core and Dathan cannot endure to be less than the greatest Every man would be a Moses in the Common-wealth every man an Aaron in the Church Brethren forget brethren in way of Soveraignty as Joseph's brethren did consent to kill him or sell him away rather than bow unto him Absolon a Son and Subject abjures his duty to his Father and his Prince Athaliah defrauds her own child to get the supreme authority in her own hand This strugling for greatness especially for a Crown and Scepter hath occasion'd more iniquity more flagrant sins than any one storm that ever was rais'd Si violandum est jus regni causâ violandum sayes C. Caesar he would do no body wrong for less than to gain a Kingdom but he thought it impossible for a man to temper himself in that tentation that had opportunity And why should the appetite of supreme honor bewitch a man sooner than any thing else from the fear of God and draw him from it because power and glory are two such specious and attractive things which are intrinsecal to the dignity of Princes and Satan I warrant you did not forget to cast those two words in Christs way All this power will I give thee and the glory of them There is power in Princes as well to advance where they like as to punish offendors and reason good they should be serv'd with all humble reverence and have the highest glory on earth ascrib'd unto them because they are set over us for our good to maintain publick peace and true religion The power which Pharaoh had oh how it pleaseth an hauty spirit he tels Joseph what he would do for him in this phrase without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all Egypt Gen. xli 44. or that majestical terror which Nebuchadonosor put upon all that were under him nothing more greedily sought for Says Daniel to Belsbazzar The most high God gave Nebuchadonosor thy Father a Kingdom and glory and honor whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down Dan. v. 19. Satan knew that to manage such power as this is a whetstone able to set akeen edg upon any mortal appetite But if any one love to govern with a soft hand and affect not the execution of that awful power to put terror upon inferiours yet the glory with which Soveraignty is bespangled will rob a man of his heart and steal it from him Who would refuse to be a Solomon his Palace was beyond all buildings his Throne so costly that there was not the like made in any Kingdom the Meat of his Table the Attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel the Queen of Sheba had never seen or heard of the like Such pomp as this would make a man believe he had built his nest in the stars Satan thought his tentation struck home when he promised such glory as this unto our Saviour How much more was this motion most perswasive when he beleaguer'd him with this offer to pluck the fairest feather out of every Monarchy and invest him with it where there was any power or any glory fit for his wish it should be cast upon him David had a Kingdom of much power yet of little glory for his reign was full of trouble and rebellion Hezekiah had a Kingdom of much glory great treasures great magnificence in his house yet it was of small power for he was an Homager and a Tributary to the King of Assyria and he sent him word that
from another at the first asking and never draw sword for it nor give battel to resist it It was a short Motto which Pompey gave touching his speedy victories in Asia yet the work was longer a doing than so Veni vidi vici he came towards them and looked them in the face and vanquisht them Yet Satan pretended to make briefer work than this Motto execrable spirit he dares to assume that which is proper to the Almighty to speak the word and the whole World should have a new face of government and that he could remove Kings as Christ said his Disciples by faith should remove mountains be thou cast into the sea and it should be gone Perhaps he remembers how suddenly himself was deposed from glory I saw Satan fall like lightning sayes our Saviour which flasheth through the air and is out before you could think of it and when God pleaseth all the Kingdoms of the Earth shall have as sudden a transmutation when he shall come in glory and take all power and dominion into his own hand to judg both the quick and the dead But in the mean time the Thrones of Kings are established in Heaven the powers that are they are from God and it is not in the strength of Satan to confuse those Governments which God hath put in order therefore he is a lyar with an hyperbole of impudencie to say all this power will I give thee c. Yet by these words Ambition is accused to be an unstinted sin for why should Satan offer all but that he knows it to be an unlimited passion which is not satiated with one Crown but would subject every corner of the world unto it self The Sun can endure the Moon to partake with it in giving light unto the earth the Sun to govern the Day and the Moon to govern the Night but amongst these proud imperious Spirits some can endure no Superiour and some no equal Every one that is not their Vassal is held their Enemy Fire is a raging Element and would turn all other Elements into it self if God should not temper and asswage it So if God should not raise up Adversaries to oppose some mens Ambition they would bruise the four quarters of the world with a rod of Iron Is it not enough to write this word under a terrestrial Sphere for an Empreza of large Dominions Sol mihi semper lucet it is always day in some of his Realms if the Sun set in one of his Kingdoms it is shining in another Is not this enough I say But further to betray a mind that aims at all these Letters were engraven upon a Gate at Rome at a solemn time of Triumph Vnus Deus unus Papa unus rex catholicus I will not interpret them out of Latine for I hope they shall never be turned into English I think if God should create a new earth which never was made before some would lay claim to it As Fr. Victoria and sundry other Divines stretcht their learning to prove it out of the Gospel that the whole Tract of America possess'd before by millions of Owners but newly discovered to Europe did every whit belong to the King their Master The cares the anxieties the watchings that a good Ruler suffers to keep a small part of the earth which God hath given him in Justice and the love of true Religion The Eagerness the Fury the Phrensie that the Ambitious hath to clasp and compass all that God hath made here beneath which is more wide and ample by far than it is possible for one mans forcast and providence to keep in order None shall be more willing than Satan to make one man Lord of all for that is the ready way to mar all And when that enemy of our peace hath stoln away our content he cares not what we compass though it were all the power and glory in the world for without it we shall seem losers to our selves and such as are always wanting When Eve was Lady and Mistress of the whole world without a Competitor yet because there was a Godship higher than that estate she was not satisfied with her portion but would try conclusions to be like unto God knowing good and evil But to contract this Point I give it this minatory farewel He that extends his Ambition to get all power and all glory he that knows no top in that honour that he would mount to shall be cast down into misery that hath no bottom into the bottomless pit It is but late that I told you in a former Sermon upon this Text that when the Tempter made an overture to Christ of all the Riches in the Universe that the gift was not more spacious than unjust for it cannot be supposed how one man should be seized of all that is in the world by his proper right but by ejecting all Possessors in the world and respectively every private man from that Inheritance which he held before And that the wicked one may be constant to himself at all times alike stark naught he deals worse in this half of his liberality than in the former for if he intend to make Christ the Catholick Monarch of the world and give him all the power and glory of it it must need fall in that all the Kings and Princes of the world must be deposed from their Soveraignty and strike sail to the new erected A discovery not to be passed in silence It hath been defended by many Pens of late that Gregory the Seventh was the first that ever broach'd the Doctrine and Practice together that the Anointed of the Lord might be unking'd and stript of all their Royaltie by the effulminations of the Romans Pontife Loe you now that the learned of the Protestants should be so much over-seen in Antiquity for here is a Classical Author in my Text that holds that opinion about a thousand years a little over or under before Hildebrand had his honour For that Gregory the Seventh flourished much about a thousand years after Christ that very time which the Spirit of God said should be fulfilled and then Satan should be let loose after that one thousand years for a little season But as I said Hildebrand was not the first broacher of that disloyal Paradox here is his chief in my Text and to confirm what I say Matthew Paris our own Historian of great fame avers that the said Pope at his death which was in banishment cried out of his own wicked ways and treacherous Principles against his Lord the Emperour and confessed that the Devil set him on to disturbe the whole world with mutiny Yet how little the Successors in the Papacy have profited by his repentance I will tell you by that which is disputed daily in the School of one Tyrannus that I may allude to that of St. Luke Acts xix 9. Those Dogmatists are divided three several ways Some consciencious Romanists have taught that the Pope may not at
of the Serpent and nothing can be truer than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or application that one sin is never hatcht alone especially if it be a great one but it hath a train to follow it God challeng'd his people that they had broken the bond of marriage between him and their soul not with one adultery and no more but the Prophet chargeth Jerusalem fornicata es cum multis amatoribus thou hast committed fornication with many lovers that is with many sensual pleasures Upon this consideration virtue is compared to salt have salt in our selves sayes Christ to his Disciples of which you cannot take up one corn alone upon your knifes point but many grains will cleave together and upon the same respect wickedness is compared to the sands of the sea one mote is very rarely severed by it self sand is a Noun Collective which supposeth many motes of dust for there is not any sin but respectively to divers parts of disobedience it may be call'd by divers names David emplung'd himself into many crimes what with Bathsheba what with Vriah what with Joab whom he made his evil instrument Peter fell into three denials one after another He that will praise the Lord as he ought in the uprightness of his life must honor him upon a ten-stringed Lute upon all the Commandments and he that wilfully fails in one instance will put every string out of tune for he that committeth one sin is guilty of the whole law These funiculi peccatorum cords of vanity sins entwisted one within another come into my mind from this third Tentation in my Text so that Tertullian is justified in his saying by this practice multiplicia spiritus incitamenta jaculantis the rebellious spirit hath more than one shaft for his bow a quiver full at least as it is Psal xi 2. For lo the ungodly bend their bow and make ready their arrows within their quiver For what sin hath not the Devil committed in these words All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me furtum perduellio mendacium blasphemia they are all here in the height of their offence Furtum the largest theft that ever was committed he would give all the substance in the world to Christ but then he must rob the right owners Perduellio a most foul attempt of treason he would give him all Kingdoms and honour but then he must depose all just and lawful Princes Mendacium not a plain lie but a very monster of untruth as St. Luke hath it in large for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Lastly Blasphemia a blasphemy that vies beyond all the rest if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine Now I have added to make up my Text at this time how easily God doth cut off all these heads of Hydra at once with his revenge and justice for this short rebuke of Christ is enough to controul the Devil with all his sins about him Get thee hence Satan or as St. Luke Get thee behind me Satan The words then which I have read amount to four parts the Gift which I have entirely dispatcht the Giver the Condition the Repulse The Gift furtum both to rob private men of their peculiar and Kings of their Royalty The Giver mendacium a lye without all shame that all the honors of the world were at his dispose The Condition blasphemia he bargains that Christ should earn all this by falling down to worship him But the Repulse is justitia Gods vindicative justice Get thee hence Satan words of anger and revenge as I will shew anon but first I will disclose what a great giver Satan would make himself All these things will I c. Twice as it appears in the two former Tentations the Devil used all his cunning to discover if Christ were the Son of God and since our Saviour would not reveal what He was Satan is the more bold to make himself the Son of God as if he were that holy one to whom the Father had committed all power in Heaven and in Earth All these things will I give thee This will be the easiest way to sift this saying wherein the wicked one usurps to himself that he advanceth to all honors to consider what likelihood of truth there is in those words by accident and secondly what great unlikelihood Marvel not that I give it for a conclusion granted that there is some colour and likelihood for Satan to say this is deliver'd to me and to whomsoever I will give it for he is the Prince of the power of the air that spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience and whosoever is successful in promotion by iniquity the Devil did sway the event so far that he calls himself their Benefactor Abimelech and Zimri got Kingdoms by treachery Joab wrought himself into Abners honor to be Captain of King Davids Host by murder Jason and Menelaus in the book of Machabees strived one against another for the High Priest-hood by Simony there are not so many names of honour as there are sins crying sins sins died in scarlet that have purchast them The infelicity of it is so general of such long continuance and so desperate against all hope of redress that Satan speaks as if he had forgot that this power was ever out of his hand For upon the event we may lament it but cannot deny it he brings the basest instruments into private favour with mighty men he bestows offices he presents to Churches Difficile est Satyram non scribere no abuse in the world will provoke a suffering spirit sooner than this to be satyrical nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es we may be asham'd and our ambition blush for it that the most hateful of all Gods creatures should have cause to boast that all manner of dignities and titles depend on his beneficence yet the world is not so bad but that he is a shameless slanderer in that saying far be it from us to number the righteous with the wicked to bestain all dignified persons with an evil reproach as he doth to condemn all the worthies of David that wickedness was their original because sometimes Satan hath a predominant faction among them He was a great Prince indeed in the Emperor Tiberius his Court scarce any advancement escapt him but went through his hands ad Consulatum non nisi per Sejanum aditus neque Sejani voluntas nisi scelere quaerebatur Every one that would be Consul us'd Sejanus for his preferment and every one that would have preferment Sejanus us'd him for some criminous villany Thus the eloquence of the Historian exaggerates the naughtiness of the times yet a little after when things grew much worse rather than mended in the reign of Nero Paul had many friends and Christ had many faithful servants even in Caesars Houshold The Spirit of God in the holy Scripture doth but very rarely amplifie
the Monopoly of Scepters and Diadems at his command All these things will I give thee And before whom could he have told this tale to be taken in a lye so soon as by driving this bargain with Christ as if a thief should steal Plate and offer to sell it to the owner or a Plagiary filtch a great deal out of a book and rehearse it for his own before the Author so the Tempter had rob'd Christ of that Honor and Majesty which was most properly his own I mean he rob'd him of it by the blasphemy and falshood of his tongue and then brings it to Christ to barter it away for other merchandise Autori quae autoris sunt repromittit What theft more palpable than this the Father gives all things by the Son by him He made the worlds by him He hears the prayers and supplications of the Church by him He gives us health and salvation by him He gives Rulers and Princes to go in and out before his People and yet Satan intrudes as if he were our Mediator in part at least in setling Thrones and Monarchies he was the means for those things and it was his hap I say the more to discredit his impudency to tell this tale to our Saviour from whom truly and indeed the Kings of the Earth do hold their Royalty Vtrobique regnatur per Christum he sets the Crown on their heads that wear them both in this world and in the world to come Observe it that He rides upon the white horse with many Crowns upon his head Revel xix 12. This is a Vision and this is the interpretation of it that those that honor him He will honor he settles the Royalty on whom He pleaseth not one or two Kingdoms and bequeatheth the rest to the fortune of war to the free choice of popular elections much less is any such good thing deliver'd up to our adversary the Devil Christ had many Crowns on his head for the whole earth shall stand in aw of him he lifteth up whom he pleaseth and setteth him with the Princes of his people When Wisdom proclameth that of Solomon which I laid for my first ground in this point by me Kings reign indefinitely it is to be understood of God but restrictively of Christ the second person in Trinity he is appropriatively the wisdom of the Father he is meritoriously and by way of an Impetrator the conduit pipe of all benefits to high and low rich and poor therefore we endear all our prayers to God with this conclusion per Christum Dominum nostrum through Christ our Lord. But what dulness was in the Manichaeans to fall upon such Texts as this and to build upon them that the God of Heaven made all invisible blessings and that Satan had divisum imperium cum Jove he was Lord of all visible and material things What are any of these the sooner his because he said they were deliver'd to him and to whomsoever he would he gave them Why it was as cheap in his mouth and he could have said it with the same labour that he could help whom he pleased to the Kingdom of Heaven It is the Most High that ruleth in the Kingdom of men and he appointeth over it whom he will Dan. v. 21. The cause of preservation is the cause of constitution God rules the hearts of the Subjects to obey and gives them commandment for allegeance and fidelity if any commotion be like to rise the Lord stilleth the raging of the sea and the madness of the people from God is the power of soveraignty and through his good spirit the duty of obedience but Satan stirs up seditions jealousies and cross humors in people never to submit therefore he plucks down the Kingdoms of the world and obscures the glory of them he is not the founder of order but of confusion O but sayes the Manichaean if Satan have not the total managing of these Powers beneath yet a share cannot be denied him They that govern by tyranny and injustice they that lift up themselves in their pride against heaven shall we not yield that these are of his ordination No why the Prophet Hosea says chap. viii 5. Ipsi regnaverunt sed non ex me they have set up Kings but not by me they have made Princes and I knew it not In my opinion the literal and textual answer to that place is that they chose unto themselves Heathen Idols Gods of silver and gold and forsook the Lord Howsoever this distinction giveth unto Caesar that which is Caesars and unto God that which is Gods Regnaverunt non ex me quoad viam sed quoad potestatem that evil way which they chose to follow that perverse manner by which they reigned and troubled all was not from God but he gave power to Manasses to Rehoboam to Ahab as well as unto David unto Josiah and to the best Kings that rul'd with righteousness Or as another limits it a Deo bono sunt potestates a malo Angelo potestatis ambitio the Power on earth is Gods the ambition to usurp that Power is the Devils Take that which is thine Satan and leave the rest to Christ When occasion is given to speak of a wicked Magistrate the Phrase is Hos xiii 11. I gave them a King in my anger angry I was when I gave him but I gave him though and that which He gives we must take it and keep it be it scourge be it blessing it is most foul rebellion to say the Lord shall not fasten evil upon us we will not keep that which the Lord hath given us And so much for the claim of the Giver in my Text whom we have found to have no right or title to deliver unto any one the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them Indefinitely all Kings reign by Christ good and bad but the justice of the good more peculiarly is from the grace of God the tyranny and ambition of the worst is from the suggestion of Satan and nothing about them is his but that which is worse than nothing the iniquity of Princes Now I proceed The gift was furtum theft in the highest degree that which he profer'd was not his to bestow the giver mendacium he falsified his evidencies and laid title to that which was only Gods to bestow The condition now follows to be handled which is fire and sulphur mixt together blasphemy and idolatry he requires that Christ should fall down and worship him Let me begin upon this point as Solomon said when Adonijah askt Abishag to wife Let him ask the Kingdom also Satan himself was not able to speak such another word I think for horror and impiety it exceeds that sin for ought we know by far which provokt the Lord at first to cast him out of Heaven into chains of eternal darkness For Isaiah tells us in the Parable of the King of Babylon chap. xiii the insolency of that sin consisted in these
boni nostri An infinite perfection of excellency on which all things do depend for their first being and for their last happiness So St. Austin Haec est religio Christiana ut non colatur nisi unus Deus quia non fecit animam beatam nisi unus Deus Religious prostration seeks out no object but such as can make the soul blessed for ever and that is the only Lord. St. Hilary In maledicto est religio creaturae All Religion done to a Creature is accursed That Weather-cock Spalatensis after much search in antiquity confesseth that Nazianzen in the Greek Church Gregory the Great in the Latine Church knew of no other Religious Worship but that which is called Latria the veneration of God Nay their great Schoolman Aquinas I will make him the Judge against himself Religio est virtus exhibens famulatum Deo in iis quae specialiter pertinent ad Deum Religion is a vertue which doth perform all Ministry to God in those duties which peculiarly belong to God Go now and say against all these reasons and testimonies there is some kind of Religious Worship pertaining to a Creature I have heard some interpret it thus it is not denied but we are to give honour to the blessed Angels and Saints yes verily God forbid else Then they encroach that we are taught by our Religion to give them that honour therefore that honour which we do give them is Religious A most unlearned Assumption Religion teacheth the Children to honour the Parents yet it is not Religious honour but Civil that is given to our Parents Religion teacheth a Mariner or Plowman to follow his Calling diligently yet those are not religious but worldly businesses Religious Worship is the actus elicitus the immediate act which flows from Religion but all other honest civil Offices are actus imperati à latria Actions wherein Religion governs us and teacheth us but they are not properly called religious In a word no such excellency can be apprehended in a Creature to have religious honour done unto it for Religion binds the soul for ever to that it worships and that is only to God Therefore I conclude the first Dogmatical part of my Text that Christ included all kind of religious honours exempted none when he said Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve And when the Pontificians profess to ascribe a Religious Dulia but no Latria to a Creature their Practice and their Doctrine cannot agree if they yield Religious Worship of what kind soever to any thing save unto the Lord our God if it be not Idolatry it is gross Superstition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The glory of a pious heart be given to God alone and not to God and the ever blessed Virgin joyned together as the Jesuites generally conclude all their Books with that Blasphemy There is more of my task behind though but little of it can be spent in this hour to demolish the errors of them that have offended against this Imperial Law Thou shalt worship c. Sundry false opinions have beaten upon these words as upon an Anvil open enemies and deceitful friends have risen up against it Some are totally some in half some are quarter Idolaters but the least corn of that sin is as heavy as a Milstone to plunge them without repentance into damnation In many of the Errors to be refuted I will be at a word and dispatch in some I will insist the longer where I find them worth my labour Those transgressors that worship not God alone are of three sorts The first are such as make another God than the Lord of heaven and earth in their own heart and worship that invention The second are they that kneel unto the true God and yet reserve some part of Religious Worship for his glorified Creatures as the Blessed Virgin the Angels the Saints both living and departed both themselves and their very Reliques shall have some part of their Adoration Thirdly Beside the honour which they give to the invisible God they find out a way to worship him in visible works of their own hands in Images in the figure of the Cross in the Elements of the Lords Supper All these are Aberrations for there is but one truth against them all Thou shalt worship the Lord c. First God loseth all his honour at their hands that frame a new God in their own heart and do all their service to it like the Ephesians that hallowed no other power in heaven and earth but a Goddess of their own acceptation Great is Diana of the Ephesians This is the most gross Idolatry of all other which professeth not the true God one whit and professeth that to be a God which hath no subsistence but the Metal of Gold or Silver or any other stuff upon which the Artist exercised his invention This is the foul and apparent transgression of the first Commandment but to worship the true God in a manner contrary to that he hath commanded in a piece of bread or in an Image is Idolatry by reduction and against the Second Commandment But the transgression of the Heathen was most vicious that knew no God but the works of their own hands The Scripture says they sinned more grievously that worshipped Baalim than they that worshipped the true God in Jeroboams Calves For Jehu called the Israelites that worshipped God in those Calves the worshippers of the Lord. But when Ahab was not content with that sin but was seduced by his Wife Jezabel who came of the Idolatrous Zidonians says the Lord as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat he went and served Baal and worshipped him 1 Kings xvi 23. It is more pestilentious you see to worship a stark Idol than to worship the true God in an Idol though both are abominable But I will not speak of that stupid Idolatry of the Heathen whose own folly hath laught it out of the world if the workman could have put life into his work the Statue would have worshipped him for making it All those puppit Gods are faln down like Dagon of the Philistins and the Jewish Writers observe well that Dagons feet and hands were broken off from his body Partes adorationis abscissae sunt The Philistins worshipped that stock with their bended knee and their hands lifted up therefore the Idol lost his hands and knees Furthermore Dagon fell down upon his face Non tantum jacens sed super os jacens ut videretur adorare arcam Domini He was laid in a posture as if prostrate before the Ark of God as if the Heathen and all their vain inventions should be turned into the praise of the true God Worship him all ye Gods I will close this Point with a Paradox They which most abhor all Pictures and Images at this day they which hate them more than they should do even in
of a King No Soothsayer no Palmester no judicial Astrologer is able to tell any man the event of his life what honours and promotions shall betide him But he unto whom all the wisdom of the world is foolishness Christ hath manifested not in word but in sign the true state of the blessed for ever they shall shine like the Stars in the Firmament or like the Sun it self at Noon day And because this may seem to be an Hyperbolical comparison I will raise you up higher in your thoughts though I shall seem to speak strangely that the Sun comes short of that enamouring fair light wherewith the bodies of the just shall be cloathed that are raised in incorruption My reason is strong enough for the Sun is not made to stand for ever in heaven but when the whole heavens shall be rouled away with a noise that mighty Planet shall melt away with heat therefore it cannot shine so beautifully and divinely as that body which shall be immortal and have no seeds of change or corruption in it Alas I am so far from aggravating any thing that if I had a thousand tongues and inventions I should speak faintly and depressively of that supernal Palace which is filled with light which no man now can approach you must conceive that which I cannot urge in speech All the light which is in this world is but like a Glow-worm to the day in respect of that Mirror of marvellous light in the heavenly Jerusalem where millions of millions of Saints shall be gathered together and every Saint shall shine more sweetly and Majestically than the whole Globe of the Sun what a ravishing object will this be What an unutterable concurrence of illumination especially when the sence of the eye shall be perfecter than the Eagles a thousand sold and no whit dazled to behold it O Lord what good things hast thou laid up for them that fear thee And thus you see what the Transfiguration in our Saviours countenance did portend Light of grace in this world Light of glory in the next And light of mercy and comfort in respect unto them both We know that God dispenseth all things much better than we can reach into the cause yet I will suffer an ignorant man to aske Why did not Christ appear at all times upon earth thus glorious with the Majesty of his Divine Nature shining in his face Then the Jews and the whole world would have received him and never doubted Would they are you sure And yet we are sure Peter denied him John and James forsook him albeit they had seen the glory of his Transfiguration But Beloved it was more fit to be darken and shadow over his excellency as he used to do otherwise the earth could not have told how to have conversed with him how to have entertained him how to have looked upon him if he had openly manifested himself to be the eternal Son of God as clearly as we know it now adays Besides it was not necessary for him to be always illustrious it was necessary for him to die and suffer therefore he came into the world like Codrus the Athenian into the Army with rags and poverty in vile estimation that the High Priests and Pharisees might proceed against him as against a wretched man and a Malefactor His ordinary fashion of life upon earth was shame and dishonour he took a turn for once and no more to have the fashion of his countenance altered in glory Non pristinam formam amisit sed qualitatem mutavit or as Cajetan this transformation was neither assuming a new substance nor turning his face into new Figures and Lineaments but brightning the outward superficies with a new lustre of glory And Tertullian argues it to be true when the Lord retired to a mount and did as it were cast a new robe of light all over both upon his face and garments Lineamenta Petro cognoscibilia servaverat Peter after he awoke out of sleep did still acknowledge him by his Lineaments there was the ancient feature of his visage without any alteration Yet I conceive that in the Resurrection of the Just every Countenance which had disfigurement in it or any monstrous disproportion shall be new shap'd and fashion'd Because that great workmanship of God which abideth for ever shall be conspicuous to all eyes with most exact decency and comliness One thing more may yet be expected from me to be spoken of for the finishing of this Point St. Luke says that his countenance was altered and his rayment glistered Was that all Was his face only glorified with light and not the rest of his body There are some that hold how his whole body was transfigured and bedeckt with light and that the radiancy of the body did shine through the garments and make them brightsome and they think that St. Matthews Text doth favour this opinion for he speaks of a total transfiguration first and then of the shining of the face He was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the Sun The matter is not great which way the truth stands But I assent to that which is the more probable Tenent that the rays of splendour did issue out from no part of his body but from his face only For which of the Evangelists hath put forth a word that any part of his body his face only excepted did shine with brightness Nay hath not St. Mark Epitomised St. Matthews meaning most intelligibly He was transfigured before them and his rayment was white as snow He spake of the Transfiguration but in one word because it was but in one part of the body that is in the face And I urge it strongly from the final cause The end of his being transfigured was not to dignifie his flesh with that dignity which he shall have when it is exalted in glory for then very fit all the body should have been amassed into an excellent shape but the time was not yet come The end was to exhibit a taste of that future glory which the Saints shall have in the Resurrection and for that end more need not be required than St. Luke hath explicitely set down in my Text His countenane was altered and his rayment was white and glistering As the face of Christ did bear the greatest share of ignominy at his passion being buffeted being spit on being prickt with thorns so the honour of his Transfiguration did light upon his face rather than upon any other part of the body because Gods reward shall make amends in every kind for the despite of Satan The Jews did strip him of his Garment and arrayed him with a robe of scorn and then led him to be crucified So God to shew that his his Son deserved no such ignominy made his garments to shine with unspeakable purity As Lapidaries say of a true Diamond that whereas other precious Stones have some colour in their Superficies well known by name as the
of man be risen from the dead In the fourth general member of the Text as they were enjoyn'd so my Text says they kept secrecy they told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen When I first entred upon this part of the Gospel I told you that the Latin Churches keep an annual Feast in memory of the Transfiguration upon the sixth day of August for this reason the Transfiguration it self fell out in the beginning of the Spring a few weeks before our Saviours Passion The three Disciples which saw it being admonished to be private in that which they had seen till more convenient time confessed it not in five moneths following unto their fellow Disciples and then made a solemn publication of it upon the sixth of August which day thereupon had some sacred honour done it Obedience is a virture of great necessity even in the smallest things and they that are subject to obey must not examin with what little prejudice a small command may be broke but rather consider with what great ease it may be kept Things forbidden says the School are of two sorts Quaedam prohibentur quia mala quaedam sunt mala quia prohibentur some things are absolutly evil in themselves and therefore are prohibited as Murder and Adultery some things are prohibited by just authority and therereupon respectively become evil as the eating of the forbidden fruit in Paradise if God had not expresly prohibited that Tree to man it had been no sin to taste of it So our Saviour made that sinful by his command which otherwise had been harmless to be spoken of if he had not encharged his Disciples to obsequiousness and they performed that secrecy which they undertook not envying their Brethren the relation of the things which they had seen but observing that time of restraint which their Master had prefixed And thus they reap praise even out of their infirmity that although they were unfit to speak of such transcendent miracles as yet yet they knew their duty to hold their peace Dearly Beloved the wonderful works of our Lord were never brought to pass to be hid like a Candle under a Bushel and to remain alwayes undiscover'd no it was Pauls defence before Felix and Agrippa that every thing which belonged to Christ was advanced to the open view These things sayes he were not done in a corner The Heathen had their sacra Cereris Eleusinia non divulganda the Ceremonies and Rituals of Ceres never to be divulged the more shame for those Idolaters to have such filthy abominations in their Temples which they durst not publish Christ did only sequester his secrets for the most apt times of manifestation Dies dici eructat verbum one day certifieth another Time is the most prudent Master in the world In those days appointed for silence Peter and John and James did shut up the secret committed unto them but only in those times and now it is left to be preached to all Nations as to you at this time ever since the Resurrection of the Son of God The Catechumeni in the Primitive Church that is the novice Christians instructed in the Rudiments of Faith and not yet baptized were not permitted to be present in the Church at the celebration of the Lords Supper such as are baptized have admittance to partake of all Mysteries when they can examine themselves because they are baptized into the Faith of his Resurrection And yet there is a Veil drawn before our eyes till the times of great accomplishment I mean the Resurrection of the body then we shall be filled with the glory of the Lord which shall enlighten us to behold all things that conduce to our eternal happiness AMEN FOUR SERMONS UPON THE PASSION OF OUR SAVIOUR THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE PASSION MAT. xxvii 24. I am innocent of the bloud of this just Person see you to it AS Pilate sate in Judgment upon our Saviour so are we met together this day to sit in judgment upon Pilate The Ruler marveled when his Prisoner stood before him and said nothing for himself But now is the time to speak it was Christs good pleasure to leave his cause to be defended by us who should live in after Ages and wheresoever the Gospel is preached throughout the world the Word doth testifie now in every mans mouth Christ is pittied and Pilate is censured When they reach'd a Reed unto our Saviour they put an Emblem in his hand says St. Hierom that their own infamy should be endited against them to after Ages Calamum tenet in manu ut inimicorum sacrilegium scriberet The Reed was in his hand to pen the sacriledge of his enemies But Pilates crime shall be the least part of our Meditation that which I would require to be the fruit of your attention is to beware of committing the same faults which we tax in another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reproach retorted upon our selves is a double infamy For as the Orator said of the Faction of Augustus and Antony when Caesar was treacherously slain Tyrannus occidit tyrannis vivit the Tyrant was suppressed but not the Tyranny so when Pilate shall have sentence against him we must every man also arrain his own infidelity which thinks it self innocent of the bloud of Christ or else I must tell you plainly that you do condemn the Hypocrite and acquit Hypocrisie He that says he did not crucifie Christ is his greatest crucifier he that will confess that they were his blasphemies which spat upon his face his Briberies that nailed his hands to the Cross his gluttony and drunkenness that gave him Gall to drink his wrath and malice that pierced him in the side his disobedience against Magistrates that bruized him in the head his wanton Apparel that stript him of his Robe he that will not only die with Christ in his arms as old Simeon did but acknowledge that Christ died by his arms he shall find peace at the last and righteousness with the God of his salvation What became of our Saviours Reed and of his Robe we find in holy Scripture they were taken from him by the Souldiers but it is not written whether any man took up the Crown of thorns as if that were our share or any mans else who is goaded with true compunction And to say truth all the sins which we do commit let us make the best of them are but thorns and briers but if we confess them in humility and ask pardon in tears and contrition then they are corona spinea a crown of thorns Before I begin either to judge Pilate or to examine our selves I must tell you of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a figure of confusion which is most proper to the Devils Rhetorick For in one and the same breath nay in the self-same period he will do three divers things Lie and tell truth and Prophesie Lie like himself tell truth like a believer and Prophesie
of Heaven ut gentilis deprecatione ultio sanguinis istius à nobis ablata sit that the vengeance of his blood should be denounced against Israel and the Nations excused but yet Pilat was but mungril good and therefore his hand was in this bloody passion as well as the men of Jerusalem both Jew and Gentile did concur to his sufferings says Origen ut pro persecutoribus qui oraret gentiles non excluderet that when he prayed for his Persecutors the Gentiles might be at one end of his persecution and be partakers of his Prayers Had Pilat been as malicious as the Jews we poor souls had been liable to the vengeance of his blood had Pilat stopt his ears against the outcries and never yielded to the passion we had not been in the number of those Persecutors for whom he made intercession therefore this luke warm Magistrate began with Jacobs voice but ended with the hands of Esau neither could he say he was innocent of the blood of this just man Nay then I must tell you to forget Pilat a while were you all in this Assembly dearly beloved of none other but of the very choice and flower of the resurrection of the just a Rank of Patriarchs an Army of Martyrs a Company of holy Prophets yet Qui omnes conclusit sub peccato omnes conlusit suh homicidio he that doth lay sin to every mans soul doth lay the murder of our Lord and Saviour to every mans charge for the redemption of sins And then are you better than your forefathers Are you more righteous than the Prophets that you alone are innocent No you are also the crucifiers of your Redeemer and if your consciences do not say so bear witness of my words for an action of slander Solum peccatum homicida est Not Pilate but hypocrisie not Caiaphas but Simony not Herod but incestuous lust not the Souldiers but Bands and Troupes of Rapines and Blasphemies were the murderers of Christ When a Bullock was slain for a sin Offering to make an attonement for the whole Congregation Lev. iv 25. All the Elders of the City says Moses shall lay their hands upon the head of the Bullock that they being the representative body of all Israel might testifie that every soul in Israel was accessory to the death of the Sacrifice This was a figurative expression how the whole Generation of mankind did concur to be guilty of the bloudy Oblation of the Son of God As the trial hath been seen upon murderers when they have drawn near to the Carkass which hath been slain by their hands either fresh bloud from the wounds of the Carkass or an issue of their own bloud hath betrayed them as some say so let me question you when you stand before Christ especially when he stands before you in the holy Sacrament do not your hearts bleed within you to express your guiltiness of his Passion O give the flux a passage to come out I do not say in bloud but in tears which are the bloud of the soul The bleeding of the Vine draws away the life of the tree and leaves it barren of the Clusters which should hang upon it but the flowing of tears makes us fruitful to bring forth many Bunches of good works not the Clusters of an earthly but of an heavenly Canaan And now let me ask you as I would ask of men that shun those places out of horrour wherein they have spilt anothers bloud I say Why do you love this world so much wherein you have killed Christ Why are you not aweary of this place What can please us in such a soyl which should be unto us all as Aceldema was to Judas the Theater to act sins and therefore the field of bloud Wherefore do we not rather say with Tertullian Nihil nostri refert in hoc mundo nisi de eo quà m citò excedere We Christians have nothing to do in this earth but to make haste to forsake it for a better especially abandon the thoughts of deadly revenge do not wish for more bloud at any hand we have all spilt enough already in the funerals of our Saviour were he not both a Sacrifice slain for us as he is a Sacrifie slain by us more than ever we could answer for Make not your revengeful heart like Golgotha where Christ was crucified a place of dead mens sculls But least any man should be swallowed up with too much grief because he is endited for this hainous crime the bitter death of his Saviour let him take this for his comfort to put gladness in his heart it is not one death that our Lord Jesus doth stand upon Passus est quia voluit he never shrinks for one death but stretched out his arms upon the Cross to embrace it Take heed only that you do not crucifie him anew Nay mistake me not here though you sin ten thousand times over yet he can die but once for you but my meaning is the Summa totalis of all mens sins did abase the Son of God to the ignominy of the Cross yet this dolorous day was from Gods preordination But that we may not crucifie him anew first Do not neglect his death as if it were some common and uncommiserated anguish Secondly Do not run into admiration of your own merits as if had there been all such as you in the world his Passion had been spared Lastly Do not presume upon grace as if Remission of sins were a safe Indulgence for sins to be multiplied They that do commit such things are guilty not once but often to crucifie the Lord of life To conclude then against Pilates falshood and hypocrisie three things do concur in the crucifying of our Saviour Destinatio passionis executio passionis iteratio passionis In the Predestination of Christs Passion God did look upon all mankind the Elect especially as lapsed into sin and therein Pilate was not innocent The execution of his Passion upon earth was committed by the envy of the Priests the cruelty of the Souldiers and the power of Pilate What though his mind did not consent Yet he lent them his authority Herod was not willing it seems to have John Baptists head but it comes all to one pass if Herodias must have her content and therefore in the execution was not Pilate innocent The iteration of his Passion lights upon those who make an impenitent end and do not apply his sufferings to their sin-sick conscience and since Pilate lived a Vagabond for ever after and died like a desperate cast-away either by drowning at Vienna or falling upon his own Sword at Lions that is the difference of the History neither in this respect nor in any else could he say I am innocent of the bloud of this just person And so I pass to the second general part of my Text from this lie which Pilate told to his true testimony concerning Christ that he was a just person Yet I commend this disposition in
consult with Nature ask her if she do not sometime use superfluity for the greater elegancy of her workmanship plura ad unum assumit sicut duos oculos Why might not man have been a Cyclops why might not Nature have spar'd an eye but if she will make pairs where a single instrument might serve why should we limit God's grace and scant it to just as much passion as would fit the turn since there is plenteous redemption with our God Seconly Per suavitatem peccavit homo per asperitatem maximam satisfecit it seems there was some delicious relish in the fruit forbidden as it was very pleasant to the eye The taste of Adam was of a most sapid and quick mixture the Apple was of the most refined composition being the food of Paradice and Gods own Plantation these could not but leave a touch upon Adams lips sweeter than the Honey-comb or Manna in the Wilderness Now set the Scale of justice in an equal poise the transgression was sweetness the satisfaction must be bitterness the transgression was pleasure in the highest degree the satisfaction must be grief in the very gall of bitterness but what so bitter as death especially the Cross that death of malediction Thirdly this is the Master-piece among Lombards reasons but a flower pickt from St. Austins Garden Deus justitiâ voluit Diabolum vincere non potestate the Dragon and his Angels do plead against Michael and his Angels that the Judgment might be proportioned to the Crime committed But what did Satan accomplish by his impleadment God doth not deal like Pilate and the corrupt Judges of the world shift the Law out of their sight when it doth not serve the turn and stand a tip-toe upon their Power and Prerogative He doth not deal with Justice as Festus did with Paul Go thy wayes I will speak with thee at another time Justitiâ ' vincere voluit non autoritate Satan is confounded by Gods Justice not by his Authority Fourthly and lastly as Draco the rigid Magistrate wrote his Laws in blood so Christ that innocent Lamb wrote the Instructions of patience in his own blood Let the great Rabbies of Divinity dispute it whether one drop of our Saviours blood could not save as many Worlds as there be sins in this World that is infinite yet he took his share of all sorts of persecution ut nobis praeberet exemplum patientiae that when we are persecuted and stung with fiery vermin we might look upon the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness and be comforted with patience For now by the Examples of his Sufferings when my Soul languisheth with any calamity I will turn me to my Lord and lay my wounds to his wounds my tears to his tears and my mouth dipt in gall to his mouth and my disgrace to his reproaches Finally in all my afflictions I will seem as it were to read his Title upon the Cross Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews I have drawn out my Clue very far to enlarge the true testimony that Pilate gives of Christ though he forbore to open the trial of his integrity which had he undertaken his arm was strong enough to disarm his Persecutors and to delude his Enemies but compassion of our misery made him draw out a long line of torments to stripes to buffettings to death to consummatum est till all was finished We may well give his tender heart that honourable title which St. Chrysostom gave unto St. Paul a volume of charity Is there any weak conscience in this place that marvails at our Saviours proceedings and makes it his own case whether it be fit to plead innocency before the Magistrate or whether wrongful accusation should be endured without an answer for such a man I give this Doctrin for his resolution As the Passover was divided into two Portions part thereof was to be eaten and that part which remained to be burnt with fire so among the actions of Christ some are to be eaten that is drawn into example as his Prayers his Purse of charity for the Poor his converting of Publicans to the fear of God some are to be consumed with fire that is to be adored with faith and zeal but not to be drawn into imitation as his miraculous fasting his walking upon the seas and this compassionate silence before Pilat he would not speak to shun death that our hearts and tongues might be blessed through his name to praise and magnifie him for ever For as Caesar said of his Souldiers when they were offered conditions to depart with safety Caesaris milites salutem dare solent non accipere that they used to give such benefits not to receive them so Christ came into the world not to take his life as the gift of Pilate but to give life to every one that should repent and believe in the Gospel I have one bough yet to prune off in this branch and then I will proceed Great bundles of Wast-paper are printed every moneth and discharged against us by the busie-headed Jesuits to disparage the integrity of our Reformed Religion for the most part such slight and unlearned stuff that we may say in another sense than Christs Disciples did of Solomons Building Lord what manner of stones be these yet if every Scribler be not answered the Chalenger goes out of the field and cries victoria I think it was Crassus the Roman that replied not one word to a foul-mouth'd fellow who railed on him by the way till he came to his own dores Light him home says Crassus to his Servant and bring him to his Lodging Beloved it doth become our patience to shew the same contempt to these idle Pamphleters and it becoms our Profession to shew them as much curtesie that is to light them home to the Kingdom of Heaven if they will hear our Doctrin When Israel fought with Amelech but the victory was swayed by the hands of Moses held up by Aaron and Hur It was not the hand which fought says Nazianzen but the hand which did not fight that conquered Amelech And it is said of Scaevola non retentis sed amissis manibus he put the Etruscans to flight not by using his hand but by burning it off so though we give a Truce and respite to the Pen which should write yet the patience which doth not write and the mildness which neglects their bitter words shall confound our Adversaries We dare lanch into the Seas as the learned Writings of this Kingdom can testifie our Ship that is our Religion is sound and will hold out water against all objections It is our modesty to harbor sometimes in the Haven to shun Pirats and stormy winds lest we should encounter with ignominious Rabsheka's and be perswaded it is no loss of reputation unto us no gain unto our Enemies that we stand dumb like Jesus before the Jews and say nothing at the Bar of Pilate I have prosecuted my method thus far to avouch the
of our Saviour with Eutyches and thought the Son of God to be passive to have been scourged and crucified Which opinion when one of his Sectaries would have propounded to Philarchus an Orthodox man Philarchus did thus ingeniously put him off and told him that he had haste of other business and could not intend him for even hard before he had received Letters that Michael the Archangel was dead That is a Fable replies the Eutychian an Archangel is not subject to frailty and mortality Is not an Angel replies Philarchus And would you perswade me that the Deity of Christ is mutable and obnoxious to change Ejus latus then did not concern the nature of God and for the nature of man the part being bereaft of a soul as well he might have smote his Spear upon the trunk of the Cross Well might Isaiah say that he was a Lamb dumb before the Shearers could any Lamb be more dumb His teeth were set his mouth closed up as the world thought for ever and yet is Christ in the hands of the Shearer I will scourge him says Pilate and let him go What Pilate Think you that such Adversaries will be answered with a scourging Though you crucifie him they will not let him go Who knows what immanity had been shewn if Joseph had not hasted to take down the body The living it was wont to be said the living are they at whom malice shoots and not the dead Livor post fata quiescit Nay such as could never obtain a good report from the world while they lived among us fame hath renowned them when they were laid in their graves As Theodoret said of St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was more desired after his death than when he dayly lived among them Our Saviour was not so lucky his Persecutors are the same first and last both while he breaths and when his Soul was departed in his Examination they change his Raiment and put a Reed in his hand and then they mock him As he was drawing on and at the last gasp of life they say he call'd upon Elias as if he had prayed to Saints and then they mockt him and when he bowed down his head like fruit which is mellow ripe and droping off from the Tree then a Souldier thrust a Spear into his side Most savage men they sport themselves with that flesh which is the eternal glory of our nature And what cause was in it that Christ would suffer this after passion what fruit was there of such a Wound for the School-men say the Church was not redeemed with the bloud which came out of this Wound neither was it washed clean with this water quia post mortem non est locus meriti after the Epilogue of his bloudy Agony that he cried out all was finished no part of his Passion say they was meritorious What need we subscribe to so much curiosity but the fruit even of this Wound was threefold First to shew that Christ doth compassionate and hath a fellow-feeling with the Members of his Church unto the ends of the World Think you that he never was wounded since he was taken down from the Cross yes he was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the World and is a Lamb that will be wounded unto the ends of the World Why did you not feed me and cloath me you uncharitable Matth. xxv Why do you persecute me Saul Acts ix he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Zach. ii O what a tender thing it is not only to be in the body but in the very eye of Christ in the apple of his eye are not the bowels as tender as the eye perchance more tender Therefore a Christian Poet said of Savanorola the Martyr that Christ did beg to have his own Bowels sav'd that they might not be consumed with fire Parcite sunt isto viscera nostra rogo 2. If they have called the Master Beelzebub what will they call the Servants if they have ignominiously abused the dead Body of Christ then certainly Tyrants will dishonour the dead Bodies of his Servants But what were Wicklif or Bucer or Fagius the worse for it We that live feel the indignity done unto them says St. Austin but they have no feeling of it themselves no passion affecteth the dead for this disgrace but we are they that are affected with compassion Lysimachus in Tully threatned Theodorus to crucifie him and to let his body rot upon the Tree meâ nihil refert humi ne an sublimis putrescam says Theodorus a poor revenge what is it to me whether my body rot under ground or above ground If Heathen men were so resolute that accounted the body quite lost then will we be much more couragious whose Saviour was so despitefully handled in times past and who have hope of the Resurrection in times to come 3. The art of patience and sufferance it is instar omnium none so useful as it to them who must take up the Cross would you be ready for the fiery Trial as Paul was when he was wrapt up into the third Heavens whether in the body or out of the body he knew not would you pass by your torment in the flesh as Christ did this wound which he never felt Consepeliamur cum Christo let us die with Christ let us be buried with Christ Colos ii 12. If two sleep together they have heat says Solomon but how can he be warm that is alone True says St. Ambrose si duo dormiant if you sleep with Christ your faith will be warm your courage warm Frigidus est qui non moritur cum Christo he shall be bitten with frost he shall be nipt with every storm that doth not sleep that doth not die with Christ Give me any other reason if you can why the Martyrs went oftner to death with Psalms in their mouths than with tears in their eyes but because they were dead unto the World And what is it to them that are dead though a Souldier thrust a Spear into their side I have done with the first general Part conteining four Circumstances of the Malice of the living Now let us lay our mouth to the sacred Stream the blessing which issued from the dead forthwith came thereout bloud and water This is the Honey-comb that came out of the Carkass of Samson's Lion this is it even the price of our sins which is the bloud of the Lamb. At Evening you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red as you shall find it prognosticated Matth. xvi How is it made red or how doth the day grow clear rubet coelum Christi sanguine says St. Austin our Redeemer hath dipt his bloud upon the Sky as upon the door posts Exod. xii and then the day is clear the Sun of consolation shines upon us When an Offering for sin was offered up the Priest was commanded to dip his finger
foreknowledg of God Now that the righteous God in whom such counsel and such foreknowledg do reside should deliver up his most innocent Son and our dear Saviour unto death that 's a mystery to be weighed with modesty the Text says positively God did deliver him yet we know there is no injustice in the Most High therefore this scruple is worth the scanning First of all it is an harsh and offensive speech that some use who perhaps mean well that God did appoint and preordain Judas to betray his Lord and the Jews to crucifie him and the reasons which they use to excuse the Phrase as if God thereby were not made the Author of sin seem to me to want sufficiency Zuinglius says justo non est lex posita you can set God no Law therefore whatsoever you attribute unto him is no sin because sin is the violation of a Law Beloved there are some things which cannot consist with Gods glory and that 's an eternal Law as we may call it observed by God to do nothing against his glory He cannot ly He cannot deny himself thus the scripture speaketh And Abraham talking face to face with God says he God forbid that the Judg of all the world should do unjustly Would thou punish the righteous with the wicked as who should say that were to thwart the eternal Law which must not be infringed This lays the opinion of Zwinglius flat There is another pretence from very venerable Authors that God purposeth and ordaineth the same act which man executeth but man hath an evil end in it so it becomes iniquity to him whereas God intends a pious end and therefore concurs not to mans iniquity and they give a fair instance of their meaning out of my Text. Christ was delivered of his Father to save the World that was the merciful and gracious work which was God's destination but he was delivered of the Devil to make the Jews guilty of his death of Judas for lucre sake of the Priests and Pharisees for envy of Pilate for fear the scope of Pilate of the Jews of Judas was extremely distorted so they became guilty of a mighty sin in the same work wherein God was righteous This will not down with me I confess for safe Divinity for first it favours that opinion of some Libertines too much that it is no crime but praise-worthy to do evil that good may come of it Secondly it cannot be shifted according to this opinion me-thinks but that God ordains man to fall into that act wherein he cannot choose but have a bad intention and most diverse from the good purpose of God And it is but a lame leg to hold up an halting cause to interpose that God can work good out of evil and bring light out of darkness therefore though He preordains evil He will wind it up well to his own glory for surely they do not think of God as they ought that He is all pure and holy that think sin must be referred to God either as an efficient cause of it or predestinately as a deficient cause to declare his honor Why God stands not in need of our good works to set forth his praise O my God my goods are nothing unto thee says the Psalmist much less doth he want our sins and our transgressions to make him glorious Thus I have premised that they have not my consent that say that God ordained or decreed that Judas should betray our Lord and that the Jews should blaspheme him and despitefully entreat him thus rather I would propound it to you in a far safer way as I conceive God did not decree those criminous actions of Judas Herod Pilate c. but He did decree the Passion of Christ and did settle it in his sixt and eternal counsel that he should shed his bloud as a Propitiation for the World actio displicuit passio grata suit I am led along with the judgment of Leo the Great in this point Thus he Did the iniquity of them that persecuted Christ arise out of Gods Counsel and Decree and that heinous treason worse than all villainy Did the hand of Divine preparation arm them to it this must not once be imagined of that supreme justice that governs all things Multum diversum multumque contrarium est id quod in Judaeorum malignitate est praecognitum quod in Christi passione est dispositum that is there is great dissimilitude between these two how God foresaw the malignancy of the Jews but it was his own disposing and ordination that Christ should suffer therefore it comes to this sense He was delivered to death simply without addition of a death procured by sin through the determinate counsel of his Father but the conspiracy and envy and bloudy outcries that concurr'd in his death the foreknowledg of God did apprehend it would be carried with that violence and decreed to suffer it Non inde processit voluntas interficiendi unde moriendi says the same Father God did not will after the same manner to have his Son die and to have him barbarously crucified To allot him unto death was very just because that Lamb of God did take upon him the iniquity of us all and Leo adds that God could have commanded some holy Prophet to have sacrificed Christ before him even as He commanded Abraham to offer up his only Son Isaac and the Lord of life and death might have permitted Abraham to strike the stroke without impiety but to allot him to such a death wherein factious Enemies delighted themselves in his pains that cannot consist with such a God as hates the least impurity But my Text you will say declines it not but that both his death and his deliverance into the hands of the Jews that is the manner of his death both of them were ordained of God and so they were but with this correction of the proposition omnia vel ordinata sunt à Deo ut fiunt vel ordinatum non impedire quò minus fiant all that is good is ordained of God that it shall be and all beside that is evil is ordained of God that it shall be suffered to be and in those things which are to be referred to permission I mean all the works of the Devil I do not exclude the determinate counsel of God nay it must necessarily be present at it Quicquid permittit Deus consultò volens permittit there is Justice and Wisdom and Counsel from above imployed about those things wherein God is highly displeased For first no sinner in the world can say he was so permitted to enter into sin that no impediments were cast in his way to avert him some illumination he had some instruction to draw him back some remorse of conscience though not in such measure as did infallibly prevail upon his crooked will Even Judas himself was deterred from his Satanical proceedings by the prediction of his Masters mouth one of you shall
of a Trumpet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Paul meaning no doubt some shrill clamour because the Son of God would have his Resurrection an Article of the Creed and Faith is of things not seen Yea because he did meditate nothing but to abase and obscure himself and to do us honour O glorious voice which summoned Fishermen from their Ships Publicans from their trade Matthew from the Custom-house Paul from the bloudy City of Damascus and Lazarus from the Tomb. To hear him pray there was Rhetorick in that to incline every heart unto Piety To see Lazarus reviv'd there was Logick in that a demonstration of his Divinity To hear him cry aloud there was Musick in that no note was ever so sweet no tune of such a relish as the voice of our Saviour In Demosthenis scriptis magna abest pars Demosthenis It is said that much of Demosthenes is lost in his Writings because the matter was set forth with such a graceful utterance And surely unless we supply it with faith much of our Saviours Miracles is lost to us for want of living in that Age when we might hear that loud voice which commanded the Miracle It is not a superfluous phrase when we read it often that Jesus opened his mouth and saith Aperuit os suum qui in veteri lege aperire solebat ora Prophetarum God did open the Prophets mouths in the old world but he opened his own mouth and told his own tale in the Gospel O what contention of spirit What earnestness our Saviour did use when he did watch a good turn for any of his poor Members He would venter to break his own sides rather than not to break the gates of death which did lock up Lazarus whom he loved as Antigonus rent his Lungs and so died with incouraging his Souldiers Duritia vincenda est non suadenda says Tertullian you must not use fair means and perswasions to them who are in a Lethargy of sin Like old Eli to Hophni and Phinehas What my Sons I hear an evil report Qui timidè rogat negare docet he that asketh any thing faintly teacheth you how to deny him Qui timidè redarguit peccare docet and he that chides faintly teacheth you to despise him and puts on audacity to sin the more Where is the courage of Elias Where is the tongue of St. Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His life was like a flash of lightning and his doctrine like a clap of thunder As fast as the Pharisees could throw stones at St. Stephen he threw darts of rebuke at them Stiff-necked uncircumcised in heart despisers of the Law this was to speak against sin like a Commander and a Magistrate not like a Petitioner This was to cry with a loud voice to speak as it were under correction against Sacriledge usury corruption and the like to touch them as if you were loath to be understood God will say it is not Preaching but Libelling What labour What contention was this The softest whisper had it not been enough to command Satan and Hell and the Grave As Pompey said of his own power in Italy Si tellurem pede pulsavero copiae militum prodibunt So soon as he did but tread upon the earth it would serve him with a puissant army So Christ if He had but trod upon the Serpents head upon the Grave stone would it not have sufficed to have ransomed Lazarus and all the bodies that were buried Yes it had sufficed But this is dignum proclamatione fit for a loud voice to proclaim it Prayer like a good Angel went before it Publication like the Trumpet of Fame comes behind it You know it well says Paul to Agrippa speaking of the Resurrection it was not done in a corner Two Angels appeared in the Tomb where Christ rose from the dead Angelus nuncius Dei resurrectio erat annuncianda Angels are the Messengers of heaven and this is the prime and principal message Go tell Peter go tell my brethren How sollicitous was Christ to have it told Every one he met was sent to publish it And they that nestle in their Cells and forget this office summon them like dead men to come out of their Monuments Lazarus come forth This was matter for a loud voice then and business for the Pulpit now the suscitation of Lazarus but do you not disgrace the dignity of a Preacher when every petty vain occasion doth challenge the honour of a Sermon before it If ever there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good work marr'd for being done unseasonably Now it is when grace before meat will not serve the turn but every luxurious feast must have the Benediction of a Preachers pains before it Quis te ferat caenantem ut Lucullus concionantem ut Cato Much less is it to be endured that some body must make a Sermon because Lucullus hath made a Supper It is such a flout upon our Calling me thinks as the Chaldeans put upon the Jews in their Captivity they in the height of their jollity must have one of the Songs of Sion I have done with the Dignity of this work I proceed now to the Divinity thereof which is brancht out into these three powerful circumstances Mortuus excitatur a dead man is raised 2. Lazarus four days dead is raised 3. Lazarus who was bound is raised and comes forth Mortuus excitatur behold that principally a dead man is raised It is noted in Hierusalem that she was implacable against the Prophets of the Lord for twice our Saviour called upon her O Hierusalem Hierusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee and yet her anger would not cease no not for a double Admonition It is noted of St. Paul that his mind was most bitter against the Saints for Christ was fain to toll on both sides once and a second time to summon him by his name Saul Saul why persecutest thou me The persecuting Rage of Hierusalem was invincible the Malice of Saul was hardly bridled both more headstrong than Death it self Non sustinuit mors secundas voces Domini says St. Austin Death was obedient at the first Command our Saviour called but once and no more Lazarus come forth Could you blame St. Peter whose heart earned and was sorrowful that Christ said the third time Peter lovest thou me One word is enough to make Hell it self fly open O Lord are our Hearts more hard than Hell that thou hast so often spoken and still they are shut up Lewis the 11 th of France was wont to say that he passed away his time in making or marring of men an honest confession for whether they be Kings or meaner persons their power is prone as well to root up as to plant as well to pluck down as to set up a Building But Christ hath not only passed away time but meditated from all eternity how to make the World
word of the power of Christ which coupled again those parts divorced the soul and body not by breathing a new life into the body but by breathing out a loud voice Lazarus come forth Such as had been but banished their Country in the days of Caesar the Dictator and were restored again by the grace of Augustus and Antony were called Charonitae as if they had been wasted back again into this world when they were quite extinguished Those Roman Potentates would be esteemed Gods of another world that could unlock a man from the fetters of banishment needs then must he be greater than the Kings of the earth whose authority can break the bars of death and bring the Prisoners forth from the captivity of corruption The Scythians says Lucian swear by these two Idols as the Gods of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Wind and by the Sword Hic spirandi est autor ille mortis The one gives breath to live the other takes life away Now that which gives life and that which takes away life can be no less than a God say the very Scythians These heathen knew no more of Gods power than to give life and to take away life Had they known what it was to restore life again that would have been the chief power of divinity even in their estimation Majus est restituere quà m dare quantò miserius est perdidisse quà m omnino non accepisse It is more admirable to restore the soul again than to create it at the first because it is more miserable for the body to have lost a soul than never to have received it The great Clerks the Athenians could not tell what to make of the infinite power of the Resurrection It is pretty that St. Chrysostome observes upon them Acts xvii when Paul preached unto them and mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Resurrection of the dead they thought this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been a God the unknown God at whose Altar they did worship Evil men can abuse that which is good God can make good employment of that which is evil Death upon the first sin was named to be a punishment It is Meritoria in Martyribus and I may say Gloriosa in resurgentibus it is made an instrument of great reward unto the Martyrs and the passage to an Article of faith to believe in the Resurrection We call them that are dead in the Lord Abraham and Isaac and Jacob alas there are no such now Abraham dissolved into dust is no longer Abraham the soul cannot be called Abraham only the whole man both soul and body but so sted fastly do we trust the dead shall rise again Quod defunctorum animas nominibus suppositi appellamus says Thomas We speak of the dead as if they were now alive because they shall live again even as Christ spake to the corps of Lazarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as to a Corps but as to one living not as to one that was dead but as to ears that could hear Lazarus come forth And it is well says the Father that among all the Corpses in the dust Christ pickt him out by name as who should say now I will have none but Lazarus to come forth others shall appear in their time otherwise all the Legions of the dead had come to light and stood thick upon the earth from the East unto the West Indeed the souls under the Altar cry our Quousque Domine fain would they stand before him like Enoch and Elias so eager they are and vehement instantly to have tongues to speak and hands to hold up and knees and heads to bow as if they were not contented that their days to come for those things were days of eternity We shall meet together all in the same Livery cloathed with bodies of youth according to the measure of our Saviours Age Eph. iv Alexander out of a surly Magnificence Soli Antipatro Phocioni salutem scripsit in Epistolis never wrote in the top of his Letters I wish you long life and prosperity but only to Phocion and Antipater But God will direct his voice to every member of his Church one summon shall call forth Abraham and Isaac and all the world which at this time begins for a relish of faith but with this person alone Lazarus come forth And thus much for the first thing wherein the power of his Divinity appeared Mortuus excitatur a dead Man was raised Now that Lazarus after four days was raised that he which was bound came forth of the Grave is discourse for some other time Thus much only in a word upon the present occasion The next thing that you shall read concerning Lazarus after he was raised is this he sate at Supper with our Saviour in the second verse of the next Chapter Why behold the Supper of the Lord there is the next place where you are to meet with Christ after you are risen from your sins and the preparation of this Table to replenish your hungry souls with grace is as great a testimony of our Saviours Divinity as to raise up Lazarus Tu das epulis accumbere Divum it is the highest power of God which he confers to his Church upon earth to give them leave to meet together before the food of Angels As Manna melted away with the Sun-rising and new store fell upon earth the next morning which is a kind of Resurrection so you that have quenched Gods Spirit that have melted away his grace and let it putrifie for want of good employment this is the Morning this is the Season to gather a new Omer full that you may cherish and increase your faith Which that you may do c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN xi 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths and his face was bound about with a Napkin THis is an Easterday Text notwithstanding that the party intreated of is Lazarus for as John Baptist was born a little before the birth of Christ and John was the Forerunner of his Nativity so Lazarus rose from death but a little before Christ rose and was the Forerunner of his Resurrection The Jews Passover was nigh at hand so you shall read in the 55. verse of this Chapter certainly it was not long before Christ the true Paschal Lamb was offered upon the Cross that this Miracle was done Feriâ sextâ ante Dominicam de Passione says one the Friday before Passion Sunday which is nine days past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom he put them into admiration with this work before this great day of admiration came Nor have we a Praeludium only how our Saviour should conquer death in this Chapter but you shall resent and perceive some resurrection wrought upon every person that had interest in this story First the news of Lazarus death was brought unto Christ beyond
that her Lords body was gone but then Christ appears first unto her whom she took to be the Gardener Presently she goes and tells the Disciples she had seen the Lord. The other women who had fled from the Sepulcher and were amazed said nothing to any man of that which the Angel before did bid them say for they are yet incredulous and then comes in St. Lukes relation that they looked again into the Sepulcher and the two men in white whom they saw said unto them Why seek ye the living among the dead He is not here but he is risen And as St. Matthew adds he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him Then they returned and told all these things to the Eleven but they seemed to them as idle tales And as these women went to tell the Disciples Christ did meet them according to the Angels promise and saluted them and they held him by the feet and worshipped him These rumours went abroad into every mans mouth and toward the setting of the Sun Christ adjoyned himself to Cleophas and the other Disciple as a waifaring man and was known of them in the breaking of bread whereupon they return to Jerusalem and tell the Disciples Now the Disciples had a message sent them to go into Galilee and there they should see the Lord but out of fear and incredulity they durst not move out of doors Therefore on the same day at Evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst of them and said peace be unto you This was the fourth Apparition which he made on this very day A day of so many noble acts and chances that it is able alone to make an history and a history of that great moment that St. Paul writes as if a lively and effectual assent to this Article of the Creed to this one Article were able alone to make a Christian Rom. x. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And although there are other limbs of truth which make up the body of Christian Faith yet if any man ask me about Faith as one askt Christ about the Commandments which is the first and greatest Commandment So in the Point of belief if any one shall say which is the first and great Article of the Creed I would boldly reply this before any other The third day he rose again from the dead The matter then which it behoves us to speak on at this solemn Feast for the quality it is the very Essence and Elixar of our faith and for the quantity so copious that above all the narrations of the Gospel it is most venerable and delightful for the variety of the story I have passed already as the year hath come about into these Points how Mary Magdalen and the other women brought sweet Odours and Spices on the first day of the Week to embalm his body and that as they were on their way three strange motions came to pass the one in the whole Element of Earth the foundations whereof were opened behold there was a great Earthquake and then the heavens were opened for an Angel came down from thence and then the Grave was opened by the rouling away of the stone Now follows the Text which I have read in order wherein is contained this section of the story the Angel puts on a terrible appearance and removes away those that would not believe and so makes room for those that came devoutly prepared If the Band of Souldiers had staid at the Sepulcher these godly women durst not approach for fear of violent ravishment nor durst the Disciples have come near lest these hirelings should spill their bloud But to prevent all outrage the Angel put on a look like lightning and made the hearts of these miscreants faint and when they were driven off the zealous women and the Disciples were admitted to see this glorious work which the Lord had wrought and to testifie what they had seen to all the world The two verses which enter us into this part of the story may be thus distinguished The first is a description of Gods Watchman of his coelestial guard His Countenance was like lightning and his Rayment white as snow The second is a description of Pilates Watchmen and his Roman Guard For fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men Gods Angel is notified by his Visage His Countenance was like lightning and by his Rayment it was white as snow Pilates Ruffians are much betrayed by outward fear for fear of him the Keepers did shake but the inward damp of conscience was most terrible they became as dead men Of these particulars that God may be glorified and you edified You have seen the figures of many Angels and Cherubims about the Tombs of Princes and great men carved by the Art of the Statuary but all the histories of the world afford not such an instance that a very Angel sate upon a Grave-stone excepting this occurrence at our Saviours Resurrection St. Luke says that the women saw two men cloathed in white St. Mark says it was a young man cloathed in a long white garment but they were not very men that came from the dead as Moses and Elias were seen in the Mount at the Transfiguration they were true Angels in the visible shapes of men who took it now for a dignity to be seen in a body because our body was exalted to be incorruptible in the Resurrection of Christ Whether then they be called Angels or men all is one but when St. Matthew mentions one Angel and St. John reckons two when St. Mark says there was one young man in white St. Luke says there were two men in shining garments Is not this a discord No not at all There was but one Angel that spake to the women now St. Matthew and St. Mark refer us only to that person that was the speaker St. Luke and St. John labour to tell us the number of those witnesses that were present and testified of his Resurrection and they were two This is no difference when some write of the singular person of that Angel which spake and others in the plural person of those Angels that witnessed You have heard the reason why this Angel is called a man and why but one is named though there were two in place now I will put this unto it that he came to the Sepulcher neither as a man alone nor as an Angel alone but as an Angel and a Man John Baptist the fore runner of the Nativity came poorly clad with a vesture of Camels skins and a leathern Girdle about his loyns his Errand was to witness to the Son of God coming to us in great humility but this Angel who is the fore-runner of the
worship that which was base and despicable like Gods of Silver and Gold then cause might be shewn why flesh and bloud should disdain it O Beloved it is the King of Kings and the excellency of Jacob He sits upon a Throne that is circled about with a Rainbow Rev. 4. A Rainbow was his first Covenant which He made to spare the World and reason good that his Throne should be compassed about with Mercy Next unto the Rainbow sate Twenty four Elders that had Crowns of Gold upon their heads supposed to be Twelve Patriarchs and Twelve Apostles that propagated his glory unto all Nations both Jews and Gentiles as who should say All Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall do him service To shut out all objections It is certain that Majesty and Dominion lose the hearts of men that should obey and purchase Envy and Hatred which cannot shift it self sometimes into Lowliness and Humility O see and be astonished at it if God have not submitted himself to the fashion of man For as the Ark of God when it was in the Wilderness had Pelles caprinas supra byssinum a Covering of Goats hair upon the silken Curtains which were costly and precious So the Lord Almighty who most properly is cloathed with light as with a garment hath also put on flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones that by all means He might allure us unto his Love sometime adoring him in Honour sometime admiring his Humility And I give them over as past all good that are as stubborn as Cato of whom it is said Dictatorem odit nec minùs Caesurem He neither lov'd the Dictator in his great Office nor Caesar in his private Calling that are not affected with the poor Nativity of the Son of man nor with the excellency of God in the highest heavens Love Jesus that was made man or where is thy thankfulness Honour and praise his name that ruleth over all or where is thy devotion I know it will be more profitable to my Hearers to instance in those particulars of Honour and Worship wherein God especially is delighted and I propound these four to your Christian practice 1. We must magnifie his Name 2. Obey his Word and Commandments and thus far the Angels go with Man and no farther but it is not enough for us Angelis dimidium mundi factum est sed nobis totum Heaven is but half the World which is made for Angels but Heaven and Earth the whole compass of the World is made for Man Therefore 3. in the third place we must give reverence to his Sacraments as to the Seals of his Love and Mercy And 4. obey his Magistrates Let us draw this division to some rule that you may be sure it is full and complete First you know God is to be considered in his own Essence bare and naked by it self next these three Attributes and properties are most inward unto it his Wisdom his Goodness and his Power Now the Essence of God is declared by his Names his Wisdom is revealed in his Word his Sacraments convey his goodness unto us and Kings and Princes bear the Image of his Power and Authority If any man can find out more ways to honour the Lord let him go on and prosper I had rather praise his name upon a ten-stringed Lute with David than with St. Peter set up three Tabernacles and no more and come short of one of those which I have propounded But first of the honour due unto his Name As the Sun is the cause of our knowledge to distinguish the hours of the day upon the Dial and yet we know not our time by the Sun it self immediately but by the shadow it casteth So the Essence of God is the cause of all things and yet we have not his Essence but his Name revealed unto us this is the Oracle of the inward Temple and the Star that leads unto holy Bethlem where Christ is laid Unto this Name we should lift up our hands in Prayer and for this Names sake stretch them out in Alms unto the poor And as David ask'd if there were any of the Race of Jonathan left to whom he might shew mercy and Mephibosheth was brought unto him an impotent Cripple but the Son of Jonathan So let us enquire if there be any thing of the Lord remaining among us if all be not lost by the Fall of Adam that we may do honour unto it alas it is but a small thing it is but the Name of our God but let us make much of it as he did of Mephibosheth let it be in great esteem and veneration When I speak of the honour due unto his Name I mean the honouring of God himself at the mention of his Name Our Mother-Church of England as careful that I may not enter into comparisons as any Church in the world to take away the yoke of superfluous Ceremonies and yet very provident to make the body of man submit it self to a decent outward worship of holiness hath prescribed unto us by a Canon that while we are in Gods House at the mention of the Name of Jesus we should do reverence with the Knee and uncover the Head I know not by what peevishness of some or by what presumption of others it is more neglected in many Congregations of this City than elsewhere throughout all the Realm Doth that Name which imports Salvation and Redemption from your sins no more affect you Or do you give no more obedience to the Church-Authority Are you not Fidelis in minimo faithful in a small matter How do you look that your heavenly Father should appoint you to be faithful over much I am not ignorant that some have made Sorcery rather than Religion and Blasphemy than Devotion of the holy Name of Jesus as among others that Frier that said when our Saviour did bend his head upon the Cross it was not as the Scripture says to give up the Ghost but he did bow it unto the Title Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews And Pope John the Twentieth gave an Indulgence to any body for the pardon of one enormous sin that should do reverence at the hearing of that Name yet on the other side me thinks they set light by their Salvation that neither will do reverence themselves nor love to see if in another at the mentioning of that holy name To make a difference between the names of God that one is more holy than another it is not my opinion and I think is scarce honesty in the Schoolmen to distinguish as they have done that when we call God the Just one Omnipotent Wise and the like they are Attributes belonging to the Divine Nature from everlasting and therefore to be respected with the highest Adoration but when we call him Lord Creator and Redeemer what 's that but Jesus they are Nomina in tempore à Deo sumpta relative names assumed since the beginning of the
are Clavis Ecclesiae sera Coeli Baptism the Key to open a door and give us admittance into the Church of Christ and the Eucharist is such a confirmation of grace that it is like a bolt that shuts us up into Heaven What reverence what devotion can be too much for such blessed mysteries Mistake me not when I speak of Reverence and Devotion I mean nothing less than Adoration and Worship to the Elements I allow not nay I abhor Popish Elevation and Procession I fear this lifting up of the Host ever since the Devil took up Christ to a Pinacle of the Temple I detest their gamish and gaudy Procession as if our Saviour did think it an Honour to ride upon the Popes Palfrey as Haman did upon King Ahasuerus Horse away with such ridiculous gesticulations But I am ashamed on the other side that there should be such froward Persons such unthankful Receivers of the Sacrament of thankfulness in our Church that deny the duty of their knee to the Supper of the Lord their feet stand stiff like the two Pillars which upheld the Theatre of the Philistines and Samson can scarce pluck them to the ground The very Devil durst not deny the truth in this Point Ask him what it is to honour Mat. 4. to fall down and worship As Maecoenas spake of a Roman that being amazed forgot to kneel unto Caesar when he came in his presence Hic homo timet timere Caesarem so these men are afraid lest they should over-reach themselves and give God more honour than his due It was an excellent speech of Scipio Africanus who being to ride in honour refused to sit in an Arch Triumphal Quia seni praetereunti non potuit assurgere if an old man passed by he could not rise up and do him reverence Beloved the Table of the Lord is a time of great triumph and solemnity and God is not passing from us but coming to us and is this all the honour that we will do him to stand upon stilts rather than kneel Will neither the apprehension of Christs Passion move us at that time Nor that Prayer which is used that body and soul may be preserved unto everlasting life will not that make us fall down Nor the consideration how Christ did humble himself for us unto the death of the Cross will not that make us humble Let it be the reproach of such profane men that Manna is faln down from Heaven round about our Tents and they will not stoop to gather it The fourth and last Honour which redounds to God is to obey the powers which are ordained of God It is good Divinity every day it is the proper Theam of this day O Lord make it a victorious and joyful day to thine Anointed Servant and our most gacious Soveraign many and many years and make it an happy and a triumphant day to his People that are under him and to their Children that are yet unborn Nazianzen speaking of Kings and Rulers to be the Images of God says that Monarchs and Kings in respect of God were like Pictures drawn clean throughout to the Feet the middle sort of Governours to Pictures drawn to the Girdle the third rank and lowest in authority to Pictures drawn but to the neck and shoulders but all in some sort are the Images of God only Christ is the express Image of his Person that sate down at the right hand of his Majesty Heb. i. O let Man who is made according to the similitude and likeness of Gods own goodness be faithful and Loyal to obey Kings and Princes in whom he hath imprinted the Image of his power and authority Mary Magdalen sate at our Saviours feet his Disciple John came nearer to his head and leaned upon his breast so God hath put all the world under his feet but Kings and Rulers lean as it were upon his breast as coming nearer to his love Now as the Altar was a refuge for them that fled unto it so Kings being as it were united unto God by an invisible copulation they are like priviledged persons always next unto the Altar and the hand of violence must not hurt them He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that honoureth you honoureth me But the Jesuit is more subtle than any beast of the field and he puts in a quarrel against Gods Anointed that if any prove an Heretick or a scandalous person to the Church nolumus hunc regnare then he hath lost the privilege of his Unction and his Scepter shall be broken by the Popes effulminating Authority I cannot answer this traiterous opposition better than by an Embleme of a Diamond with this word dum formas minuis He that pares a Diamond to make it give a better lustre and to point it artificially impairs the worth and value of the Diamond so to cut such large allowance from the due which God hath granted without that qualification to his Vice-gerents under pretence to make their Kingdom more beautiful and religious is the next way to break the neck of all Soveraignty it were well we had less of their art and more of their honesty As Agesilaus wrote to the Judges in the behalf of Nicias if Nicias his Cause be good let justice prevail if his Cause be wrong let favour prevail but be sure that Nicias prevail So say I if the Scepter of the King be a Scepter of mercy and righteousness God be blessed it is then we will honour it for righteousness sake if it should go wrong and not as we would have it so it hath far'd with other Common-wealths the Throne of the King is established in heaven and we must honour it for Gods sake but be sure the King be honour'd and obeyed There is a Fable which Plutarch hath to this purpose the Tail of the Snake began to cavil with the Head because the Head did always lead the way and direct the Body which way it list The Tail would not be contented unless it might go formost by course and the Head come sometimes behind but what followed upon this new contrivance the Tail prickt it self in thorns the Body was bruised every part offended and at last the Head was intreated to take upon him to lead and then the whole body was contented Beloved our part is to pray to God that the Head may run on in the right way like the matchless Pair that went before the mirrour of women pious Queen Elizabeth and the most excellent and learned of all wise Princes that ever were or shall be blessed King James Our part is to submit our wisdom to the secret counsels of the King and to demonstrate our faithfulness and love more amply by how much the times are like to be dangerous and troublesome but for the Tail to go formost it is a dishonour to God who hath given the Crown and Scepter to the King and it can breed nothing but disorder and confusion To sum up these four
things now whereof I have spoken when we have magnified the holy name of God and kept his Laws and duly reverenced his Sacraments and obeyed his Magistrates then are we mounted in Quadriga Domini in the Charriot of the Lord as Elias was to fly up to heaven But alas what are we when all this is done that we should be said to honour God When Homer described the Feasts of his petty Gods and what they did eat says an Heathen upon it Misellos Deos quando illis dimensum homines suppeditant the Gods were in a pittiful case if they had nothing to eat but what men afforded them so it were a disloyal opinion to think so of God that we could give him any honour which he had not before Manu tuâ tibi damus Domine says St. Austin We give thee O Lord but we took it from thine own hand to give thee All our reasonable service which we do to God is like an whole Burnt-offering which is quite consum'd and nothing of it remaining to feed the Lord. Rivers and Fountains innumerable run into the Mediterranean Sea Nec putant saporem maris nec remittunt quidem says Seneca they make not the Sea sweet nor one whit less brackish than it was before So it is with the service which we pay to God He was as glorious before Man was made as ever He was since so many Kings were created to praise him It is an argument of Excellency to have honour and our God is excellent above all things but it is an argument of some defect in nature to grow greater by receiving honour doth the Sun grow clearer or the Moon brighter or the World larger than it hath been Extollere se quae justam magnitudinem implere non possunt Whatsoever is come to its full growth cares not for more nor cannot enlarge it self So God receives no encrease of glory by all the piety of Prophets Martyrs and Apostles either in the Militant or the Triumphant Church but we shall receive a true increase of happiness by the honour which God hath promised in the second member of the Division propounded Honor à Deo all honour is from God wherefore He saith honorantes honorabo Honorabo I will honour I need not crave your attention to this Doctrine it is a word that will make more men cast up their eyes to heaven than all the ten Commandements the conversation of the whole world aspires upward and we are all like men clambring up an hill some are helpt up by their friends hands some by a prosperous wind some catch hold of the boughs and bushes no man despiseth himself to stay beneath The Bramble thought it self fit to make a King Judg. 9. The Thistle would have the Cedars Daughter married to his Son 2 King xiv The little Spider says Solomon would be in Kings Palaces and the proud Eagle builds his Nest in the Stars Obad. ver 4. Vain Astrologers that meddle with Heaven no further I am afraid but by star-light range among the Planets to find out honorabo what preferment themselves shall come to or those wise men that sent them to look It was an excellent answer of Cardinal Pool to this purpose and well known to many One skilful in Astrologie told him that he had calculated his Nativity and great things were portended him It may be so says the Cardinal but I was born again by Baptism and so you must calculate my Nativity from that day and then tell me if you can what honours shall redound unto me as who should say it is neither Nature nor Planets nor good luck but God alone that brings to advancement Ego honorabo I will honour Promotion says the Psalmist cometh neither from the East nor from the West that is says the Gloss neither from this House of Heaven nor that corner of the Planets or as another commenteth neither by the fall of one man nor by the rising of another but ego honorabo I will honour Let me declare this Blessing of God in particulars The Life of man is divided into three Ages First here is our Conversation upon earth whose Honours we call Political Promotions and Advancements but the days of this life are few and evil and the Honours are as short The second Life is the voice of Fame when we are dead according as we live in the good report of men or be quite forgotten And the last Life is the Life of Glory Tendimus huc omnes haec est domus ultima the first Life may be Obscurity and the second Infamy but our Soul shall be satisfied abundantly if the last Life be Glory Thus you see God hath dispersed his blessing of Honours 1. In Title and Preeminence 2. In a Blessed memory 3. In a Crown of glory Observe it in the first that there is a two-fold end why God gives honours to some peculiar persons in this life in utilitatem humilitatem first to derive some publick benefit from one man and secondly to work humility from a worthy spirit He that will be the greatest among you saith our Saviour Mark viii let him be as the least of all that 's for humility and as Servant unto all that 's for use and ministry The first end of every mans high calling is to be a helper unto many When God gave Moses and Daniel and David to the world he gave it a mighty gift but when he set these men with the Princes of his people it was as great a miracle in his love as with a few loavs to feed thousands in the Wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Synesius and to place a good King in a Kingdom is the shortest and most compendious way in Gods providence to amend all men See what a wild fancy Plato had in this point but fit for the purpose He taught that the most pure and active Souls descended from Heaven and of their own accord took upon them the shape of humane Bodies upon earth only to make good Law-givers and Magistrates and having established a prudent Common-wealth return'd to God from whence they came there was honour undergone for the profit of others I would you did reign says the Apostle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. iv 8. that we might reign with you I hope no man thinks that Paul was ambitious all his aim was for the propagation of the Gospel Here was honour desir'd to do good to the Church Olim officium erat imperare non regnum says Seneca once it was a place of some employment not a bare Title to be honourable And in that one action for my part I did like Cato more than in any other when he sued to be Tribune of the People He was ever backward in seeking preferment but at that time the Common-wealth was in great distress and had need of an honest Magistrate A good man seeks for Honours for the good of others as the Moon gets nothing for her self but new labours
rage the People tumult the Kings and Rulers of the Earth take counsel God is despised and beset round as it were with the Bulls of Basan How shall this strong conspiracy be broken Why in the fourth verse the Lord laughs and hath them in derision Do you make a question how all these shall be oppressed Non est res difficilis aut laboriosa ludendo facturus est quoties libuerit says Calvin It is no hard matter to bring to pass the Lord will do it at leisure nay as it were with sport and pastime The wicked can look for no other but to be put to shame hereafter and lightly esteemed For as they that honour God are called Oves à dextra Sheep on the right hand oves propter fructum naturae mansuetudinem Sheep for that they yield fruit to the Shepherd and because of the innocency and patience of their nature So the despisers have their Name Haedi à sinistrâ Goats on the left hand Quia salaces per praecipitia incedunt says Origen Because of their petulancy and that they walk in slippery places ready to break their necks Finally says St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is not mocked that is not without retorting scorn for scorn for they that despise him shall be lightly esteemed Now from all contempt of his glory from all contempt of his Word and Commandment Good Lord deliver us AMEN A SERMON Preached upon the Gowry Conspiracy BEFORE KING JAMES PSAL. xli 9. Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread hath lift up his heel against me THere is one way says Plutarch in Demetrius to make the whole world the better one course to be taken to put shame into all mens faces that they dare not sin It is but thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to suffer the acts of evil men to pass unregistred let their names be known and their deeds set forth in black colours that they who could find pleasure in a sinful life may be discouraged by an infamous memory Cum de malo Principe posteri tacent manifestum est eadem facere praesentem says Pliny It holds not only in Princes but in the manners of all men When we dare not speak of the vices of other men it is a sign they are rise among ourselves Can we then pass over this high and unsufferable wrong done to an innocent person in my Text Such a complaint as can hardly be match'd in all the Scripture For say that one friend hath parted from another as Demas lest St. Paul or that Ziba being trusted did fail Mephibosheth or that Jobs acquaintance whom he fed with his Morsels did shun him in the days of his sorrow yet for all these crimes to meet in one man disloyalty against friendship treachery against trust ingratitude against daily benefits this is strange quod nulla posteritas probet sed nulla taceat fit to be blazon'd that for infamies sake the most prostigate may fear to do the like This is my Scope there is the Center where I will fix the foot of my Compass and whatsoever I do add more is the Circle drawn about it In the days of King Davids persecution you would think the Text were sit for none but him Expositors indeed are not all of one mind to say who it is that is pointed out for this disloyal enemy Perchance his ungracious Son Absolon an untimely Usurper perchance Joab the Captain of his Host trusted with the command of all his Forces and yet complotting with Adonijah to supplant Solomon against the Fathers affection But most likely and you shall hear at this time of no other it was the great States-man Achitophel admitted into the secrets of his bosome and rewarded with the best honours of his Court even he his own familiar friend in whom he trusted which did eat of his bread did lift up his heel against him In the days of our Saviours humiliation the Text doth so fit his turn and that St. John saw in the thirteenth of his Gospel and did so apply it that at the first blush you will say it doth directly serve to express his pittiful case and the wickedness of Judas who did betray his Master Judas that followed him when he had no where to lay his head and could a friend do more Judas that dispensed his Alms to the poor surely the greatest trust that could be laid upon any servant by so charitable a Lord Judas his guest at all times and more especially a partaker of his Last Supper take him with all these titles and yet did he lift up his heel against his Master One interpretation more of this Text is revealed in this our Age. And it is verified in application to none so fitly as to our most renowned Soveraign in the happy and successful deliverance which God gave unto him this day against his enemies his Companion in recreations his confederate in counsels of the same unanimity of Religion that had broke the same bread at the Communion Table did rise up against the Lords Anointed But he that lifted up his heel was supplanted himself and cast down praised be God for evermore You see here are three examples of Traitors so notorious that we who live may almost be ashamed of Mankind and there are three examples of them who suffered so innocently that we may be proud there were men so good to endure it Wherefore I will draw my discourse into such a method that neither Achitophel may be forgotten that wronged King David nor Judas omitted that betrayed his Master nor those wicked Imps let alone in silence whom this day bath made notorious to Generations Achitophels treachery hath the precedency in time and therefore it shall be handled in the first part in whom you shall see three things 1. How odious it is to violate friendship yea mine own familiar friend 2. How hateful it is to wrong the trust reposed in us My friend in whom I trusted 3. How impious it is to forget the benefits we have received to spurn against him that seeds us He that ate of my bread hath lift up his heel against me Judas his Apostacy is the second part of my Text and in him let Hereticks discern how grievous it is to wound their Saviour whom they have served and let our Runnagates to Rome and Rhemes consider what a lamentable backsliding it is to leave the sincere Altar whereon they have eaten the body of Christ and drank his bloud I would our own Island had not brought forth such men as make up the third part of my Text in whose desperate attempt you shall see how the best alive are not only like to spill their good turns upon barren sands but also to lose their life their country their liberty even where they had cause to look for nothing but due homage and fidelity An first attend unto Davids complaint c. Yea mine own
Cardinal his Exposition is thus Si descendero in infernum hoc est si profundum malorum confiteri nolo If I keep close in my breast the secret of my sin yet God will reveal it to my confusion Si ascendero in coelum si de justitiâ meâ superbiero Though I extoll my own works as high as my Saviours merit yet my righteousness shall be found an abomination The Chaldee Paraphrase leads us to this interpretation when the Army of the King of Babylon shall come though you hide your selves in Vaults and Caves yet your flight shall be in vain Quamvis ad aras fugitis though you clime up to the Altar as Joab did yet the Sword of Benaiah shall cut you short Lyra's opinion is the third and divers from the others Si recurrerint ad consulendum Daemones pro suâ evasione sicut Saul fecit Though they dig into Hell and consult with Witches and Sorcerers as Saul did yet all shall come to nought and then Si ascenderint in coelum sanctos invocando though they call upon all the Saints in heaven yet shall not that superstition help their cause But had Lyra or Hugo lived in these our days or for eighteen years past had any wrote upon Amos but a Jesuit one interpretation beyond all these must needs have met them in the face they could not shun it For to dig into Hell and to climbe up into heaven they are all in all both root and branches of that most execrable Powder-plot Wherefore you may conceive as if the Prophet Amos had thus spoken Though they dig into Hell or though they undermine our Kingdom with vaults and Sellarage their impious labour shall come to nothing but to their own utter shame Yea though they climb up into Heaven though they canonize the enemies of God and the King and make Saints and Martyrs of them whom justice did execute yet their sin shall be revealed in this world and remembred to their condemnation in the world to come If thy body were equal to thy mind says one to Alexander Alterâ manu orientem alterâ occidentem tetigisses A short reach and nothing to this stratagem Never was any work composed of such contrarieties that had the Devil at one end and the Saints at the other Hell at the bottom and Heaven at the top They mount up to heaven they go down again to the deep says David Psa cvii. And in the next verse he concludes that Mariners upon such giddy motions stagger like drunken men and are at their wits end What Shall I not much more be bold to say of these men that dive into Hell and would be inthroned in Heaven are not they at their wits end Are they not drunk with the cup of abominations You see then I have two ways to seek out these Powder Conspiratours toward Hell and thither you may trace them by their digging toward Heaven but they never came thither for all their climbing Were there no more Garnets upon earth nay no more well-wishers to such treasons in this our Realm than there are in Heaven it were a blessing that would deserve the solemnity of another Holy-day wherefore I will turn me to the left hand only and seek them out where I am sure I shall not miss that is in the first part of the verse Though they dig c. Who they were whom the Prophet Amos speaks of it bears no great sway in our present occasion Who indeed but the Children of Israel Being now in Gods sight as Ethiopians in the seventh verse of this Chapter Idolaters that swore by the God of Dan and Beersheba and by the sin of Samaria in the latter verse of the former Chapter And you know now-adays who are like unto them that were once an elected Church and the Israel of God but now have almost overtaken the Heathen in a kind of mimical Idolatry But let them pass with that fault and God amend them it is not pertinent to the work of this day My provision upon these words shall be laid out in this rank and order 1. Here is the negotiation of the wicked that they dig there wants no pains there wants no secresie 2. Here is the object of their imployment and that is Hell 3. There is a twofold end implied why they undertake such a business either for their own refuge as I told you out of Hugo and the Chaldee Paraphrase Or rather to undermine others which is more agreeing to Lyra. 4. Here is the frustrating and the defeating of their work Thence my hand will take them out snatch them from their thievish corners and take his Chosen out of all their trouble Beloved to what toil iniquity puts men to 1. They dig and labour 2. To what secresie What dread of conscience They dig into Hell 3. How unprofitable is the event For when all is done they are apprehended by the hand of God not unlike St. Peters fishing Luk. v. 5. Master says he we have toyled hard and all the night and caught nothing Which is like St. Pauls gradation who calls them works unfruitful works and works of darkness Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness I begin with the Action wherein two things are to be observed the labour and the Secresie Digging it imports labour sin it self it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and most burdensom it is to them who are servants to obey it Whatsoever we do as we are men it is an action under one of these three heads For it is either an action of Phansie and prevents the concurrence of the will and is neither good nor bad Or secondly it is an action of the will but rash and sudden and prevents advice and deliberation which impeacheth both the value of a good deed and diminisheth the malice of a bad for as touching sudden passions and temptations that take us unawares there hath always been some mitigation in the Laws of Man and pardon no question before the judgment of God Or lastly the will hath dwelt some time upon her object and consulted and delighted in it and then if the work be amiss this is that which as St. Paul says makes sin exceeding sinful And now beloved this is that which our great Adversary desires in us to make us lay the Cockatrice Egg and hatch it and bring it up to put us to fodere to dig and take pains to be sinful To make the Prodigal Son bind himself Prentice and feed Swine a strange homage and a most base attendance to plow up iniquity as the Prophet speaks and to reap ungodliness Egypt was the Type and Figure the very platform of Satans Kingdom There is nothing but gathering stubble and groaning under task-masters making brick and more brick if we flinch under the burden And the heathen when they would make us believe that they had peep'd into Hell and seen all make no relation but of toil and hard
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
in hand to drive the money changers out of the Temple than to correct the Publicans and Tole-gatherers at the Custom-house who were the greater Extortioners A tree that was made to bear fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire if it continue barren but wild Plants from which neither Figs nor Olives were expected God never threatens them with the Axe but lets them stand till they decay with age and rottenness This is the reason of it that although God had no more in Sodom for his share but a very little houshold yet one of his own Domesticks that look'd back upon Sodom perish'd as well as those his Enemies that never came out But if God spared not his own what remains for them that were never folded up in his flock never called by his name Si flagellantur filii quid debent sperare servi nequissimi says S. Austin If the Sons of the Family be scourged what can Runnagates hope for If King Josias a Saint worth all the men of Judah beside was brought to an untimely end that stroke was but a forerunner that all the stubborn Nation beside should soon after be cast out into a most woful captivity Quando justis non parcitur propter perficiendam purgationem non parcetur impiis tanquam sarmentis praecisis ad combustionem so St. Austin goes on in a sweet similitude If God do not forbear the Righteous but prune them off sometimes to trim the tree certainly the unrighteous shall not be endured who are dead sear boughs and most combustible for the fire Vpon the Land of my people shall come up thorns and briars how much more upon all the houses of the joyous City Isa xxxii 13. As waters are still and shallow near the Spring-head but run with the swifter Current as they are further off so the indignation of Divine Justice which begins calmly in the Church which is near to God will increase more violently among the out-casts of Satan among whom at last it will end Says St. Peter 1 Epist iv 17. The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God The House of God shall be punished and severity begins at them but it is not finis eorum that is not their final doom nay it is no more but a twitch by the way but punishment in St. Peters own words is the end the last cast of impenitent sinners What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel Inchoatur ira judicii divini à correptione justorum ut in reproborum damnatione conquiescat so Gregory in reference to St. Peter The Rod of Gods Power begins with the chastisement of the Just that it may give over in the damnation of Reprobates And as Gregory expounds St. Peter so our Vulgar English Margin makes St. Peter to expound Solomon Prov. xi 31. Behold the Righteous shall be recompenced in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner Finally as God spares not the nearest to him so let us take up the same justice my meaning is let no man spare himself Proximus egomet mihi If thy right eye offend thee thine own eye thy right eye pull it out and cast it from thee Beati qui cum omnium misereantur sibi nunquam penitus ignoscant says Salvianus Happy are they that are pitiful to all men only they will not pity themselves but avenge themselves of themselves that God may shew them mercy Secondly She became a Pillar of Salt even she that was one of four that were brought out of Sodom to be delivered and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. I will not move that question hereupon that one did to our Saviour in the Gospel Luk. xiii 23. Lord are there few that be saved No answer can be given to this directly but either curious or uncomfortable Our Saviour replies unto it in that same place thus Strive to enter in at the straight gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able But because St. Matthew says of that straight gate that leadeth unto life few there be that find it Therefore Cajetan says that in effect our Saviour rejoyned to that mans question few should be saved Ex angustiâ portae significans paucos esse qui salvantur the narrowness of the way did signifie how few should hit upon that path that conducteth to eternal life But I had rather take in light at another window and receive St. Austins Exposition that Christ did purposely decline to give punctual and affirmative satisfaction to that question deriving his words to this scope rather to make us study which way every man may be saved than to know how many or how few shall be saved Ad questionis vaniloquium nihil dicit sed transfert suum sermonem ad rem magis necessariam He would not reply to such an impertinent interrogatory but raised doctrine out of it more necessary to edification Let not that curious investigation then lie in our way what a small number of souls four were in respect of so many thousands that were burnt to ashes in the destruction of four Cities and yet how much that portion decreased because one of them four was cut short by the way rather I will turn the Point into this consideration that the Devil is always detracting and abating from that small portion and remnant which God hath set apart for himself Could our Saviour have chosen fewer than Twelve Apostles to testifie over all the world what they had heard and seen And yet the Devil entred into one of these to make him the guide unto those that betrayed Jesus God cantonized out for himself but Twelve Families or Tribes out of all the Kingdoms of the Earth with whom he made a Covenant by Sacrifice and Ten portions of those Twelve revolted both from God and the King and fell into Idolatry and Treason I might be infinite both in Sacred and Humane Histories but our own experience is as sure a touch unto us The Christian Faith you know is received but into few Regions of the habitable world I may say according to Nathans Parable that Europe was unto God as that only Ewe Lamb all that the poor man had but the Devil is like that rich one that had many Flocks and Herds besides in all places under the Sun yet you see what a great stride Mahomet hath stept into Europe though the Church complains of her small number as Micah did Woe is me I am as when they have gathered the Summer fruits as the grape-gleanings of the Vintage there is no cluster to eat yet the envious one would abate the Lord of that small Remnant among all the Inhabitants of Sodom he thought four too great a number to escape and one of them relapsed and became
roved at random so I would not put it upon Philosophical Inquisition how she became a Pillar of Salt He that wrote of the marvelous works of God that occur in Scripture and calls himself St. Austin bids it be observed that there is an hidden vein of salt in every mans body as appears by the tears in our eyes and the rheum in our mouth and that this salt Spring did overflow all the body in an instant as God commanded and turned the whole substance into its own malignity Aben Ezra the Rabbine says that she felt part of the punishment of Sodom for as it is Deut. xxix 23. The whole Land is brimstone and salt and burning So that the fire that came down from God upon those Cities had salt and sulphur in it and she was scorched with those salt sulphurious flames and made a Pillar of salt Not incinerated as the word is as if a sudden flash of fire had wasted her into small corns of salt as into ashes for then the translation should have been not statua but cumulus not a Pillar but an heap of salt and so indeed it was translated before St. Hieroms time but when he visited the Holy Land and saw this Figure with his own eyes he mended the errors of all former Copies and translated it a Pillar of salt Nor was it of the nature of that salt which we make by Art and sometimes compact it into Pyramidal shapes and other Figures that you know fall away into dirt if wet take it but this lump into which Lot's Wife was congealed endured all injuries of Rain and Snow Therefore it was that which we call Sal metallicum the Metal of salt which is a durable stubborn stone which kept the shape of an humane body as the Reporters say continually lick'd upon by the Herds of Cattel that grazed in those places to provoke their appetite by the saltish sapour yet not at all diminished Nunquam pluviis nec diruta ventis says Tertullian but that Poem of his hath such prodigious additions that I shame to rehearse them Burchardus says that this fatal Monument was to be seen in his days not three hundred years past between Engadi and the Red Sea The Jerusalem Targum undertook to Prophesie almost 1600 years ago that there it was to stand untill the Resurrection And therefore I conjecture that Luther had met with none of these reports for he says that the Pillar of Salt into which she was turned was presently destroyed with the City of Sodom and pash'd to pieces with thunder But all Geographers who have wrote upon it testifie there was the very taste of salt in it literally it was a Pillar of salt Others that love to find more in the Scripture than there is in the Letter say it is not so called because it was of a saltish Element but for another respect 1. Because it was to stand for long continuance and a Pillar of Salt is as much as an incorruptible Pillar so Numb xviii Gods eternal Covenant with his people is called a Covenant of Salt for Salt is a preservative from Corruption 2. As Salt makes Viands taste well upon the palate so the sight of this dreadful Monument was to put the savour of Gods judgements in the thoughts of them that called it to mind Humilibus fidelibus quoddam praestitit condimentum ut sapiant aliquid says St. Austin Every notable punishment that a sinner incurs in the eyes of all the world it is salt unto the wise to make them cautious In me quis intuens pius esto as it was engraven upon the Monument of an Egyptian King who went down with much sorrow to his grave because of his Sacriledge so look upon this pair that came out of Sodom upon Lot and his Wife Hic perfectè mundum deserit illa tepide he renounced the vain world perfectly and devoutly and it went well with his life She said she would renounce it and did not persevere and she died relapsing Though she was foolish she may make us wise though she were evil yet her salt is good Let her unsavouriness be our seasoning There are yet two Points to be dispatcht The one of terrour that this was a momentaneous and a sudden death The other of some alloy that though it were a mortal yet we cannot say it was a final destruction She that is her body was concrete into salt in an instant the soul you know could admit of no such transmutation but it was violenced out of the flesh in the twinkling of an eye O if she had suspected her eyes should have been closed for ever at that turning her self about she would not have look'd back for all the world If Ananias had imagined he should have breathed his last while he was forging a lie to deceive the Holy Ghost he would not have retained a denier of his possessions but cast it all at the Apostles feet No man would be an unrepentant sinner to day but that he hopes for to morrow No man can be so desperate to sin so fast but that he thinks his Age runs away but slowly The Devil knows there is no way to advance his Kingdom but to set a false glass before us that we have long to live Perswade your selves that your days are numbred and the strength of sin is evacuated I never heard of more constancy in any man of this kind than Thuanus records to have been in a Landgrave of Hessen within these forty two years for the space of ten years and more before he departed he composed himself to die every night with all the solemnity of taking of leave of Children Friends and Family confessing where he had offended that day and asking pardon of his worst inferiours and so he left very little room for any sin to enter because he prepared himself to give place unto death and to admit it every moment Beloved against death we cannot fortifie our selves against the suddenness of death we may and yet our labour is to put off death and to live always which is impossible and nothing is less studied than to mitigate the mischief which may come by sudden death and that is possible and necessary But I will not close my Text in a disconsolate key She became a Pillar of salt that is her body became a hard rock and her breath was stopt before she could cry Ah Lord God or ah be merciful Surely death in the very act of sin is most terrible especially put this unto it that it was no common Visitation But from hence shall we leave her among those that went down into the nethermost pit Gods gentleness and mercy will not let me say so Christ prevented such censures when he gave us some comfort of their salvation on whom the Tower of Siloam fell suddenly How the soul may commend it self to the compassion of God in the very moment of egress and out passage it is within the hope of
Heathen described justice in their Idol Jupiter it was Aquila cum fulmine an Eagles eye to discern a fault a Thunderbolt to strike a Malefactor and the way thereof is as the way of an Eagle in the air when at the highest pitch we cannot see him Wherefore address we attentions to hear the cause how that man perished c. I have seen malum sub sole says Solomon evil under the Sun He might well tell it for a wonder that such a difference should light together The Sun builds up nature like a Giant Psal xix and evil pulls it down as fast like a Monster It was the vision of Moses at Mount Horeb Exod. iii. a flame of fire in a bramble bush and he that will look like a Prophet shall see there is nothing among us but Flamma splendoris divini or spina peccati I renounce the Manichees I make not two main causes good and evil but I say every thing shews the brightness of Gods glory shining in his works or the thorns and briars of sin in the defacing thereof such thorns were the sinful Jebusites I would the world were as free from it as the Song of Solomon wherein the name is not once to be read lest it should breed a discord in the tunes of love There must be sin there must be heresies but sin what art thou Alas that every man can sooner sin than tell what it is When we talk of it then it grows upon us when we forget it it encreaseth more when we hate it then we sin because we do not hate it as we ought but call it in one word as St. John doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the breach of Gods Law and you have said enough Me thinks Moses made the definition when spying the trespass the Calf they worshipped in Horeb He cast the Tables from him as who should say the Law is broken Only here is the difference the Tables were crackt in few pieces perhaps but the Law hath been ground like the Idol into powder so that a remnant is not kept whole in man St. Paul Rom. iii. reduceth sin into every part of us both soul and body as unto certain common places or you may call it the Geography of wickedness There is none that understandeth thus our reason is ignorant none that seeketh after God our will is disobedient If the Leaven be so bad what hope remains in the lump Our tongues have used deceit and the kisses of our lips envenom like the Asp Our feet are not lazy but swift to shed bloud Our eyes not dim but wanting before them the vail of reverence There is no fear of God before our eyes Our throat not cramm'd up or strangled but wide as an open Sepulchre Was Goliah more furnisht to do evil with that tomb of brass upon his body Was Esau more rough and hairy from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot Or that Hermogenes whom the Wits of Greece plaid upon that the Rasor knew not where to begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all his body was but one lock As we bring bloudy bodies into the world Tabe polluti occisis magis quà m natis similes says Plutarch so we bring a most wretched soul That as Marius could shew no honourable Pedigree for a Consulship to the Senate but thirty six wounds in his Breast so we cannot shew the glory of our immortal and heavenly created soul her Pedigree from God by reason of the wounds which stick fast upon it Aristotle said our soul was like a fair skin of Parchment wherein nothing was written O that it had been so they are rather like Ezekiels book within and without written with woes and lamentations or as Plato speaks of Dionysius his soul that it was scribled all over with evil Characters What an enditement may be made of this cause then when iniquity is a blemish all over as the whole bird was dipt in bloud Lev. xiv which was an Emblem of our pollution No words can sufficiently describe it but as one speaks of the Spanish Tyranny over the Indies the best Rhetorick was to besmear a bloudy leaf to express it Sin in its Essence is confederate with death and punishment It is the obedience of dumb creatures to chastise it The Earth waxed evil in bringing forth Plants and fruits when the choicest mold of it did fail in Adam it would not be so fruitful for a Sinner as for an Innocent The Prophetess Deborah knew so much Astrology that the Stars in their course fought against the Tyrant Sifera Et navicula Petri in quâ erat Judas turbabatur says St. Ambrose the Sea stormed at Peters Ship when Judas was in it but these are senseless scourges and God applies them What need I speak of Phinehas his righteous passion that killed the Princely Adulterer If the Angels might have their will no Tares should stand in the field they would root up every thing that had not the blade of Wheat But these are all heavenly Souldiers and holiness provokes them Well let the Devil be the judge and he delights both to accuse and punish Put it to evil men and they think Naboth should die for cursing God and the King The vilest persons for the most part are the Satyrs of the time and tax all the world like Angustus Nay put it to the sinner himself put it to Cain and Judas they find no favour no mitigation I dare say in the Court of their own conscience Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur Let me lead you on with this distinction betwixt in and propter to perish in iniquity and for iniquity Sin is not always the propter the moving cause of Gods chastisements but sometimes the triall of an heroick faith so it was in Job Sometimes the confirmation of grace so it was in St. Paul the Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him that Gods grace might be sufficient for him But in iniquitate is certain truth the wrath of God lights not but where transgressions have gone before Thus the Disciples were at a loss Joh. ix Did this man sin that he was born blind How was that possible in his Mothers Womb But was the sin of his Father or the guilt of his Mother imputed to him The imperfect fruit of the Womb could do no evil the offence of his Parents must not be thought his evil Rabbi quis peccavit Nec ille nec parentes says our Saviour neither for his nor his Parents sins was he born blind but that the works of God might be made manifest in him That was the cause and yet a mote had not troubled the eye of this blind man but that a beam of sin had possessed it before in his Mothers Womb I mean by original corruption Alas that we should be grown big enough for punishment before we are born to nature Sabores being but a breeding at the death of his
Sacrilegious It is unadvised Martinism and nothing else that frowns against the sumptuousness of the Church Build up an Ark a Gods name out of the spoils of Egypt we are not warned to destroy with Achan O let him perish alone in his iniquity This shall serve to be spoken for the first part of my Text the iniquity which betrayed Achan unto the vengeance of God which iniquity consisted of scandal against all the Host of Israel disobedience against Joshuah covetousness against his own foul the subject of the punishment follows And first if we dare look upon our own death and are not afraid to see our own bloud spilt homo periit I must tell you man perished in iniquity Do you call to mind what Mordecai said to Esther Think not that thou shalt escape in the Kings house there is no sanctuary in earth but that all must die or all men must be changed says St. Paul For as it was written upon Hectors Tomb Non Hector illic Troja sed tumulo jacet so we may endite upon the Grave of Adam homo periit here lies Man and his Posterity Surely if the Jews returning from Captivity could not chuse but shed tears to see the building of the Second Temple having remembred the glory of the First So who can look upon mankind in the state of misery without pity and compassion that can remember him in the days of peace and innocency Should we consider what variety and new delights Adam and Eve had before them to meditate upon the beauty of their own original righteousness the Tree of the Garden wherein all the beasts of the Forrest do move Heaven and Earth spick and span new to look upon and we may say as Epaminondas did concerning a worthy Captain that died in the Camp at Leuctra Quomodo vacavit huic in tantis negotiis mori How could this man spare any leisure to sin and die A strange misfortune Adam was set to dress the Garden of Eden and proved the first weed thereof in his own person wherefore Joseph of Arimathea built his Tomb like a birds nest in his Garden in remembrance that a trespass committed in a Garden was the first occasion of Tombs and Epitaphs and is it not usual to this day to cast up our Graves after the similitude of beds in Gardens In the state of innocency our meditation should have been only concerning the immortality of the Soul and Body but now we are constrained to study this Lesson as much as any for our healths sake homo periit how Man comes to die and read learned Lectures upon our own Carkases and Anatomies And it is not in vain that we place the heavy remembrance of an Anatomy before our Almanacks as if we were to prefix that Memorandum for a Diary before every day of the year homo periit that our flesh is come unto corruption and that our days are consumed in vanity Yet the fear of common calamity is most often forgot in every mans private security To tell you that man is come to destruction it is but a name and a sound and a second notion and seems to be nothing to us in particular We sit in our glory among Gods threatnings like King Solomon in his Throne among dead Lions which could not bite us But point out at Achan or Saul or any sinner set apart for the view of the World and it will work upon us Mark it if it be not true for who ever put on sackcloth or cast ashes upon his head for St. Peters Prophecy that all the World and the works thereof should be burnt with fire and the Elements melt away with heat But if Jonas denounce fire against one City and say Nineveh shall be destroyed then Nineveh will prevent those ashes which her Enemies would bring upon her and fulfil Jonah's Prophesy in the ashes of repentance O come not to view Gods Judgments as vain people do to the execution of some Malefactor that know who it is must suffer and that they shall stand by and fare no worse but to behold it but look upon Gods threatnings as upon some curious Picture which in thy fancy seems to look upon thee only and have such a touch of conscience at iste periit that man perished as King Belshazzar had in his Feast of wine when Gods hand wrote upon the Wall he perswaded himself that index digitus the finger pointed at no other but himself alone Now let us go one step lower to Pilates Ecce homo behold the man Behold Achan the Son of Zerah that man perished not alone in his iniquity Achan that had out-lived the corruption of his young years and was grown in age able to go to warfare to have many Children to know how to steal from God and dissemble with Joshua doth his hoary head go down with peace into the Grave King David reprieved Shemei his bitter Enemy unto the Reign of King Solomon Solomon reprieved him till his fault was almost out of mind Quem saepe casus transit aliquando invenit did his head go down with peace into the Grave Like the Web of Penelope all that hath been wrought in the year may be ravelled out in a night Crescant says God to the Tares Matt. xiii nay let them grow and sprout up and then cut them down and cast them dry into the fire Secondly He that was spared among all the dangers of the Wilderness is consumed in the City He that could escape the Pilgrimage of fourty years is doom'd to die in Canaan He that was not devoured in the fire of Taberah is burnt in the Valley of Achor As Aristotle speaks of Homers Poetry when he set up Walls for Troy in one Book and pluckt them down in another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murum Peoeta quem finxit delevit So God can deal with us set us up or pluck us down but we are less than Walls They that walk in the night preserve the flame of their Torch or Candle from winds and Casualties abroad which notwithstanding they put out when they return to their home So Achan that walked over the Sea when the Bridg was under water and liv'd among Scorpions and was not consumed in the Sedition of Dathan nor slain in the Battels of Moab yet in portu naufragium the Vessel is not cast away in the Ocean Sea but in the Haven and his light is put out at home in the long expected Canaan Thus Judgment follows Judgment as Antigonus said when he spoiled Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alexander cut down the rich ears of Corn and he pluckt up the Stubble after him so the Armies of rebellious Sinners had been mown down in the Wilderness Achan and some few more were pluckt up like Stubble when Judgment seemed to pass them over Note this thirdly in Achans person mischief did light upon him not in the hunger and thirst of the Wilderness not in his poverty but having compiled much riches
Earth or in the Sea since my flesh hath been the consumption both of Sea and Land And again since we are born to that care and distress that every day must have his several necessity of hunger and thirst be not luxurious upon one entertainment as if at once you would spend all the brood of nature and leave nothing for to morrow To morrow must be cared for You cannot say to your appetite this is thy stint and hereafter thou shalt have no more It was but poor provision to send Hagar and her Child away with one Bottle of water into the desart Wilderness when the Bottle was spent her desire did come again upon her like an armed man for whosoever c. Yet this is not meant altogether to throw us into affliction that we must cater for the stomach every day It makes us often cast down our eyes upon the necessities of the Poor it makes us often lift up our eyes to the providence of our Heavenly Father it compels the Societies of men to seek out many industrious Vocations and to disrellish idleness In these regards it was an extravagant Prayer which the Woman of Samaria made in the next verse Sir give me such water to drink as I may not thirst neither come hither to draw But in some particular persons Gods vengeance is bent sore to vex their appetite where water nor wine nor any liquor hath vertue to satiate their thirst when that which they drink doth them no good but it is as if they had taken nothing As God gave bread to the Israelites but sent leanness withal into their souls So Haggai brought news of the Lords wrath unto the people c. i. v. 6. Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled Some Heathen Lawgivers attempted to rate every private Family in their Cities what they should spend at their Board and at last one of the wisest of them concluded there could be no rule given in that case because an heavenly hunger sometimes lights upon some men which devours in excess and is not satisfied It is the grace of God which gives meat in due season so that health and comfort go together with it I will borrow this Similitude to give it light Sometimes when we go to Physick for any Disease we are bidden to seeth such and such herbs in running water and then to drink the water We know it is not the water helpeth the sick man but the decoction of the infusion So it is not bread or drink consider'd barely in it self which doth nourish the body but the blessing of God infused into it When the Lord is pleased not to bless your victuals with his goodness soak what you can into your skin you shall thirst as if you never drank and again if He will let his power be shewed in our weakness you shall have the gift to abstain from all manner of liquors as if you never thirsted Spiritus sanctus aliquando supplet locum cibi potus in corpore says St. Hierom the Holy Ghost is called our Food not only in a mystical sense but sometimes God makes his Spirit supply the place of bodily refection that we shall not need to ask for it He that corroborated Elias to eat nothing for fourty days could have continued that Miracle upon his Servant for ever I will not reach for an instance beyond that Story which was the occasion of my Text. Our Saviour came hungry and thirsty to Jacob's Well sent his Disciples into the Town to buy provision in the interim demands drink of a strange Woman yet falling into a Divine discourse with this Woman forgets his hunger and thirst and when food was come he did not regard it And I am not incredulous of such Stories which report of long continued Fasts in devout men who spent their time so earnestly in Prayer that they put their body to an agony if not to an exstasie in these the Spirit did support the Fabrick of Nature instead of corruptible things It is a good thing says St. Paul that the heart be established with grace and not with meats Heb. xiii 9. To conclude this Argument God shewed in his Prophet Elias that he can find out sundry ways to uphold the state of our flesh One way Elias was fed by a miraculous multiplication of Oil and Meal with the Widow of Sarephath 2. By the Ministry of the Ravens in the Wilderness 3. By putting strength into his bones and marrow forty days to need no reparation And fourthly by using the Creature with temperance and sobriety at his daily repast so he did feel the continual urging of the appetite as all men do upon the face of the earth For whosoever drinketh c. So far upon the Text litterally and upon no other waters but such as the Woman of Samaria drew out of Jacobs Well In the Allusion Interpreters make it extend to all kind of worldly pleasure wherein our heart rejoyceth This one piece of natures store which gives but imperfect content stands for all the rest qui unam noverit omnes noverit It is in every thing else under the Sun as it is in this one Creature our thoughts are not quiet when they have enjoyed them no not a day you cannot gulp so much down of these earthly delights but ye shall thirst again The first thing which must be noted hereupon is the ground of the Similitude that all these vanities which we affect are justly compared to waters that slide away Whatsoever those fancies be that ensweeten your affections towards them they come unto you like that young Prophet whom Elisha sent to Jehu to Ramoth Gilead says Elisha Thou shalt anoint him King over Israel then open the door and fly and tarry not Salute him with good luck and be gone Good fortune as we call it sends no body of her errand but they dispatch as suddenly and fly away If any man that loves this World expostulate with himself that his pleasures dodg him as thus When will my delights continue for a time when shall I have rest from thirsting after more and enjoy that which is past O says the Tempter it will come anon you shall see it by and by Alass what a sickness is expectation which is no better than a doting delusion As the Mother of Sisera looked out at a Window to see her Son come home in triumph and she speaks to her wise Ladies in Debora's Song Why are his Charriot wheels so long a coming Look not after transitory delights as if a thing which is always in fluxu could be made permanent the Devil and all his Alchymistry cannot fix this Mercury A River may be shut up by a Frost and when the Sun thaws the ice the stream runs his current again So if you can attain to mortifie your heart as I think old Barzillai did whose affections to all worldly alacrity were Ice and Marble he cared not he said to
which hath five barley loaves and two fishes that he did belong to him and his fellow Disciples 't is neither in the Book nor in the nearest likelihood Baronius says that it is descended by Tradition that this Lad was St. Martialis who became an holy Martyr and was Bishop of Limoges in France Whosoever the party was if it be yielded as no man can refuse it that these Viands were his own how came they into Christs hands without bargain and sale for ought we read When Offertories were frequent in the Church every Sunday a voluntary oblation presented to the Lord by all that could give then the answer to this scruple was quickly understood If this were St. Martialis piety revealed it self in him in his tender years for I may safely say he surrendred these things up unto Christ as a willing Offertory as soon as he knew that our Lord did ask for them No offices of Religion will vanish away insensibly so soon as those that be chargeable For can any man tell how free Oblations are quite laid down and disused among us unless it be at some Solemn Festivities and Magnificent Funerals no reason but that two much thrift hath marr'd our thankfulness Abel and Noah and Abraham did not forget it in those Sacrifices which they offered up unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law of nature egg'd them on gratitude provokt them say the Clementine Constitutions to which I can give no less than the antiquity of the fourth Century The Israelites beside their Tithes and First-fruits and other Ceremonies to which they were taskt were left to their own discretion for the Choice Vow and the Freewill Offering and they perform'd it sumptuously knowing that it was a glory due to the name of the Lord to bring an offering into his House of their own accord Psal xcvi 8. The lights that shined in this piety under the Gospel was the poor Widow that cast her two Mites freely into the Corbâ—n Mary Magdalen that poured a Box of Spicknard upon Christs head of great estimation beside the Wise men of the East that cast their Gold and Myrrh before his Cradle and Nichodemus that dedicated his hundred pound weight of Aloes and Spices to his dead Body in the Sepulchre It were ostentation of reading to point to free Oblations out of Antiquity for there was no Age or Church without them Happy was he whose life was accounted so unreprovable that the Bishop would suffer him to bring a Gift to the Altar Sycophants Drunkards Whoremongers unjust Judges all scandalous persons were turned back disgracefully with their Oblation in their hand and it would not be taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but such as possessed any substance by lawful increase they did voluntarily bring a Portion to the Lord to acknowledg their Tenure that they held all from him and their debt that they owed all unto him And this is pressed unto you by putting the case if Jesus took the loaves by free donation But what shall we say if he commanded them before they were offered to him Bring them hither to me so he speaks in St. Matthew By what Title did he require them be brought unto him or by what authority did he take them if another had the right possession even by that authority wherein he was invested in the dominion of all earthly things by that Prerogative whereby he sent for the Ass and the Colt when he rid into Jerusalem Bring them unto me and if any man say ought unto you ye shall say the Lord hath need of them and straight way he will send them By that propriety which he had in the Gadarens Swine by that right which he had in the Figtree which he cursed manifest signs that he did dispose of all things as he pleased without asking leave of the owners Belike say some Papalines there was a temporal Soveraignty in our Saviour over all things here beneath and this did rest upon St. Peter after him and is now immanent in St. Peters Successors all the Kingdoms of this World are theirs nec Constantinus dedit quickquam Sylvestro in strict justice Constantine gave nothing to Pope Sylvester for he was Lord of all before a poor plea for so proud a purchase And surely Pilat was more just in this point than those flattering Canonists The Jews exclaimed against our Saviour that he made himself a King Pilat could find no such fault in him but pronounced him innocent And well he might for all things were given unto him by the Father yet not by ruling all things like a King in his Kingdom but by uniting the humane nature to the Godhead and that ye doubt it not but that he had power over all Creatures as he was Man by the influence of that hypostatical union he had a name written on his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords Revel xix 16. super femur mark that upon his thigh that is upon his humane nature Now what should I call this Dominion of Christs whereby he was made Heir of all things Heb. i. 2. Surely it surpasseth all description and it hath no name But I am sure he held it not after a Regal way as David and Solomon were Kings in Israel It was transcendent above humane Majesty commanding Men and Angels Heaven and Earth Quick and Dead things sensible and insensible yet withall he was most subject to Rulers paying Tribute to Cesar and refusing to divide a small Inheritance between them that were contentious A mystical Kingdom and not to be exprest ruling over all and yet most obedient to Magistrates commanding every thing under Heaven and yet ministring to his Servants seized of no Inheritance yet having right in every Inheritance quod de suo non habuit sumpsit de alieno says St. Austin of these Loavs he had not bread of his own but that which another had became his own there was a justice paramount wherein no mortal Creature succeeds him which gave him interest in all things Therefore without offence or injury to the owner he took the Loaves But if he had them from his Disciples amicorum omnia communia then he might usurp them without any litigious brabble moved against his power and that the possession was theirs may be as true as the contrary the truth inclines rather to that side as I conceive because our Saviour said unto them date vos illis give ye them to eat and they and none else took away the twelve Baskets of that which remained And was this the purveyance which they had made against hunger five barley loaves and two fishes little enough and coarse enough God knows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom this was the Phylosophy and austere temperance of the Disciples they abhorred luxury and superfluity Yet do you miss nothing to make up the Meal where was their drink the fish is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by our Evangelist
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. She is a Jerusalem a visible fair City that 's her external Communion 2. A Jerusalem above that 's her internal Sanctity 3. A Jerusalem that is free which is her supernal Redemption 4. A Mother that 's her Fruitfulness 5. The Mother of us which comprehends her Unity 6. The Mother of us all which expresseth the Universality Somewhat upon each of these as God shall assist me that the hour may be profitable to the hearers Jerusalem is the Substantive or fundamental word that bears up the whole Text and it is as musical a word as most that run upon syllables but it offers more pleasantness to the understanding than to the ear full of happy signification a name given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher Plato was wont to say to accommodate to the Church Apostolical that unless God had foreseen that his saving truth should first grow up within the walls thereof it had never been called Jerusalem The first mention of it is to be required from Josh x. i. where we read that Adoni-zedek King of Jerusalem was afraid of Joshua when he had taken the strong City of Ai Yet I will not say that it was called Jerusalem in those dayes when Adoni-zedek lived It had two names before and the best Antiquaries of the Jews confess it is not spoken of by their Wise-men which name preceded The Rulers thereof whose mention is of the oldest time are Melchi-zedek and Adoni-zedek that is the King of Justice and the Lord of Justice so that the City was formerly called Zedek or Justice that without controversy but because through the corruption of our manners Justice may set mens teeth on edg when it is too severe and inflexible therefore it was also called Salem or the Border of Peace Melchisedech kept his chief Court there and he was King of Salem and Priest of the most high God And thus in the times fore-gone augusto augurio for a more fortunate Auspice it was known by the names of Zedek and Salem Justice and Peace both which were fulfilled in Christ our Lord who suffered there to satisfie his Fathers Justice and made our peace by the Propitiation in his bloud Things by-past so long agoe for the most part are all uncertain and it is not known whether it were David the renowned Conqueror of that City or some other holy Prophet that enlarged the short word Salem and made it Jerusalem Whosoever it was if our Doctors hit him right he had an excellent reason for it In this place the mighty Hill was called Mount Moriah in the dayes of Abraham Thither he brought his onely Son Isaac to sacrifice him as the Lord commanded but when the Ram caught by the horns did excuse his Son he called that high place Jehovah Jireth the Lord will be seen in the Mount This Jireth prefixt before Salem makes it Jerusalem as who should say this City the Church will bring you to the vision of peace Or thus let her be comforted in her persecutions Deus providebit pacem God will provide peace So that Justice Peace and Providence are the flowers that spring out of her names a sign that some great Blessing was hatching within her Circuit which was brought forth when the first Flock of Christ the great Shepherd was folded there who were sent from thence to baptize all Nations Neither have we of the New Testament encroached upon this Name without leave the Psalms the Prophets all that went before have given us authority for it To cite one for all those words of Jeremy come next to my mind At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord and all the Nations shall be gathered unto it We are the Parties spoken of and we are that Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord. Not to rob them of it that first possessed the Name but that both of us might be marked with one stamp as with a Seal of Unity It was Jerusalem before unto them of the Circumcision and still it is Jerusalem unto us of the Uncircumcision The Law and the Gospel are at no discord unless they be perversly mistaken the one was Christ veiled the other is Christ reveiled they make not two Churches no more than an Infant and one of full age make two diverse men it is the same bough that bears the flower and the fruit they are both Jerusalem No conjunction in the World was intended by God to be more amicable than between us two that we should be one People one Body one Sheepfold one City one Jerusalem any thing what you will which was of multitude and will hold fast together and become the same How often is our Peace-maker called a Corner-stone that he might grow with us both into one frame of building he stretched him to both Walls that both might rest in him Yet for all this none under Heaven are worse agreed than we through the envy of the Devil Socrus Synagoga divisa est contra nurum Ecclesiam says St. Austin It is as our Saviour foretold the Mother-in-law the Synagogue is divided against the Daughter-in-law the Church and the Daughter-in-law the Church is divided against the Mother-in-law the Synagogue But the scandal of the rupture is theirs and the curse of it is upon them which will never escape them that affect schismatical separations and to be holy after their own cut It were lamentable to tell you what the Polity of the Jews is at this time a spiritual Sodom is an harsh word but we that march after the Standard of Christ are an holy Jerusalem Which word must needs gather up our mind into many notions wherein Jerusalem of old and the Catholick Church do symbolize both of them the Seats of the Oracles of God both of them the Thrones of the Priesthood both of them sown with the bloud of Martyrs both of them illuminated by Prophets immediately sent from God there the Lepers that were cleansed after due Rites performed were received into the Congregation here contrite sinners after due penance performed receive their absolution to that Kings brought Presents and Proselytes came from far to this the most glorious Monarchs have afforded their bounty and protection In the one Christ was sacrificed for the sins of the World but the new Jerusalem and none but it doth partake the merit of his Sacrifice If fancy will take scope these Analogies are without number therefore I pass them by And I refer my self to two things especially how the Name descended upon the Church First While the old Tabernacle stood Jerusalem was the chief place wherein men called upon the Name of the Lord. Secondly Out of the same Sion went forth the New Law and Jerusalem was the Mother of the first born in Christ For the first as you would call a School of good letters Athens a place of good Military Education Lacedaemon and a Country of intemperance and luxury Babylon so because the Worship of God