avoidedst it renouncedst it professedst to come to serve Oh the forehead of Malice Goe ye shamelesse traducers and swear that Truth is guilty of all Falshood Justice of all Wrong and that the Sun is the only cause of Darknesse Fire of Cold. Now Pilate startles at the Charge The name of Tribute the name of Caesar is in mention These potent spells can fetch him back to the common Hall and call Jesus to the Bar. There O Saviour standst thou meekly to be judged who shalt once come to judge the quick and the dead Then shall he before whom thou stoodst guiltlesse and dejected stand before thy dreadfull Majesty guilty and trembling The name of a King of Caesar is justly tender and awfull the least whisper of an Usurpation or disturbance is entertained with a jealous care Pilate takes this intimation at the first bound Art thou then the King of the Jews He felt his own free-hold now touched it was time for him to stir Daniel's Weeks were now famously known to be near expiring Many arrogant and busie spirits as Judas of Galilee Theudas and that Egyptian Seducer taking that advantage had raised several Conspiracies set up new titles to the Crown gathered Forces to maintain their false claims Perhaps Pilate supposed some such businesse now on foot and therefore asks so curiously Art thou the King of the Jewes He that was no lesse Wisdome then Truth thought it not best either to affirm or deny at once Sometimes it may be extremely prejudicial to speak all truths To disclaim that Title suddenly which had been of old given him by the Prophets at his Birth by the Eastern Sages and now lately at his Procession by the acclaming multitude had been injurious to himself to professe and challenge it absolutely had been unsafe and needlesly provoking By wise and just degrees therefore doth he so affirm this truth that he both satisfies the inquirer and takes off all perill and prejudice from his assertion Pilate shall know him a King but such a King as no King needs to fear as all Kings ought to acknowledge and adore My Kingdome is not of this world It is your mistaking O ye earthly Potentates that is guilty of your fears Herod hears of a King born and is troubled Pilate hears of a King of the Jews and is incensed Were ye not ignorant ye could not be jealous Had ye learned to distinguish of Kingdomes these suspicions would vanish There are Secular Kingdomes there are Spirituall neither of these trenches upon other your Kingdome is Secular Christs is Spirituall both may both must stand together His Laws are Divine yours civil His Reign is eternall yours temporall the glory of his Rule is inward and stands in the Graces of Sanctification Love Peace Righteousness Joy in the Holy Ghost yours in outward pomp riches magnificence His Enemies are the Devil the World the Flesh yours are bodily usurpers and externall peace-breakers His Sword is the power of the Word and Spirit yours materiall His rule is over the Conscience yours over bodies and lives He punishes with Hell ye with temporal death or torture Yea so far is he from opposing your Government that by him ye Kings reign your Scepters are his but to maintain not to wield not to resist O the unjust fears of vain men He takes not away your earthly Kingdomes who gives you Heavenly he discrowns not the Body who crowns the Soul his intention is not to make you lesse great but more happy The charge is so fully answered that Pilate acquits the prisoner The Jewish Masters stand still without their very malice dares not venture their pollution in going in to prosecute their accusation Pilate hath examined him within and now comes forth to these eager complainants with a cold answer to their over-hot expectation I finde in him no fault at all O noble testimony of Christ's Innocence from that mouth which afterwards doomed him to death What a difference there is betwixt a man as he is himself and as he is the servant of others wills It is Pilate's tongue that saies I finde in him no fault at all It is the Jews tongue in Pilate's mouth that saies Let him be crucified That cruell sentence cannot blot him whom this attestation cleareth Neither doth he say I finde him not guilty in that whereof he is accused but gives an universal acquittance of the whole carriage of Christ I finde in him no fault at all In spight of Malice Innocence shall finde abettors Rather then Christ shall want witnesses the mouth of Pilate shall be opened to his justification How did these Jewish blood-suckers stand thunder-stricken with so unexspected a word His absolution was their death his acquital their conviction No fault when we have found Crimes no fault at all when we have condemned him for capital offences How palpably doth Pilate give us the lie How shamefully doth he affront our authority and disparage our justice So ingenuous a testimony doubtlesse exasperated the fury of these Jews the fire of their indignation was seven-fold more intended with the sense of their repulse I tremble to think how just Pilate as yet was and how soon after depraved yea how mercifull together with that Justice How sain would he have freed Jesus whom he found faultlesse Corrupt custome in memory of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage allowed to gratifie the Jews with the free delivery of some one prisoner Tradition would be incroaching the Paschal Lamb was monument enough of that happy rescue men affect to have something of their own Pilate was willing to take this advantage of dismissing Jesus That he might be the more likely to prevail he proposeth him with the choice and nomination of so notorious a Malefactor as he might justly think uncapable of all mercy Barabbas a Thief a Murderer a Seditionary infamous for all odious to all Had he propounded some other innocent prisoner he might have feared the election would be doubtfull he cannot misdoubt the competition of so prodigious a Malefactor Then they all cried again Not him but Barabbas O Malice beyond all example shamelesse and bloody Who can but blush to think that an Heathen should see Jews so impetuously unjust so savagely cruell He knew there was no fault to be found in Jesus he knew there was no Crime that was not to be found in Barabbas yet he hears and blushes to hear them say Not him but Barabbas Was not this think we out of similitude of condition Every thing affects the like to it self every thing affects the preservation of that it liketh What wonder is it then if ye Jews who prosesse your selves the murderers of that Just One favour a Barabbas O Saviour what a killing indignity was this for thee to hear from thine own Nation Hast thou refused all Glory to put on shame and misery for their sakes Hast thou disregarded thy Blessed self to save them and do they refuse thee for Barabbas Hast thou said
they wait upon base and sinful flesh It was a great praise that was given to Placilla the Wife of Theodosius in Theodoret's history Neque enim imperii principatu extollebatur c. Her throne had not over-carried her thoughts but inflamed her holy desires the more for the largeness of Gods blessing so much more intended her love to the giver Let me be bold to say we have seen we have seen the incomparable favours of God to your Sacred Majesty we that were witnesses both of the weakness of your Cradle and the strength of your Throne and what loyal heart did not feel the danger of your late Southern Voiage and the safety of your return Go on happily to fear and honour that God who hath so blessed you and us in you Yield still unto the Son of God the faithful kisses of your reverence loyalty observance he shall return unto you the happy kisses of his Divine Love and Favour and after a long and safe Protection the dear imbracements of an eternal welcome to Glory Thus much of the Negation Christ is not our King The Implication follows Christ is not our King because Caesar is The Anabaptist and the Jew are so cross that I wonder how one Amsterdam can hold them both The Anabaptist saies Caesar is not our King because Christ is the Jew saies Christ is not our King because Caesar is Both of them equally absurd Could there be a more ignorant Paralogisme then this wherewith the foolish Jews beguiled themselves as if these two Christ and Caesar had been utterly incompatible This senseless misprision was guilty of all the plots against Christ Herod no sooner hears of a King of the Jews then he startles up and is straight jealous of his Crown the Jews hear of a King and they are jealous of Caesar's Crown the Caesars following hear of a King and they are jealous of the Jews for as Suetonius tels us in the Life of Vespasian Percrebuerat in Oriente toto vetus constans opinio esse in fatis at Judaei hoc tempore rerum potirentur It was an old and constant conceit all the East over that the Jews were about this time destin'd to rule This was on all hands an ignorant an injurious scrupulosity O vain men could they but have known that this was he that truly said Per me Reges regnant By me Kings reign they had concluded Caesar could be no King but from him Earthly jurisdiction is derived from this Heavenly It is he that makes this a Monarch that a Prince that other a Peer Omnis potestas All power is given to him both in Heaven and earth and from him to men Caesar hath his Crown from Christ so farre is Christ from pulling the Crown from Caesar There were two points of State which if they had known would have secured them from these idle fears the Subordination the Diversity of Christs Kingdome and Caesar's Subordination for Christ is the founder of all just Soveraignty he can be no enemy to it Plainly Christ is Caesar's Lord Caesar is Christs Deputy The deputed power is not against the Original but as by it so for it As Caesar was Christs Lord in forma servi ye know his charge Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and the liquid cofer of the Sea shall rather yield the Didrachma then he will not pay it Matth. 17. 27. so Christ is Caesar's Lord in the Soveraignty of his Deity Solus supra Caesarem Deus qui fecit Caesarem None above Caesar but the God that made Caesar as that Father said There can be no Contrariety in Subordination So is Caesar to Christ as Earth is to Heaven under not against it All the life and motion of any earthly creature is from the influences of Heaven without which this whole Globe were nothing but a dull and drossie clod And as here is Subordination one way so Diversity another Pilate question'd our Saviour punctually of his kingdome Art thou a King He denies not but distinguishes My kingdome is not of this world Joh. 18. 36. Lo Christs kingdome was not of this world Caesar's was not of the other here can be no danger of opposition Audite Judaei audite Gentes as S. Austin wittily Hear O Jews hear O Gentiles I hinder not your Dominion in this world for mine is of another Fear not Herod 's vain fear who killed the Infants to rid Christ timendo magìs quam irascendo crudelior more cruel in his fear then in his rage My Kingdome he saies is not of this world Oh come then to that Kingdome which is not of this world come in believing and do not tyrannize in fearing Thus he This King came not into the world to subdue Kings by fighting but to win them by dying as Fulgentius well Neither doth he take away mortal Kingdomes who gives Heavenly as the Christian Poet said aright Upon both these grounds therefore it is a blasphemous inconsequence Caesar is our King therefore not Christ yea therefore Caesar because Christ Religion doth not cross Policy but perfects it rather Give me leave I beseech you to press this Point a little It is Religion that teacheth us that God hath ordained Kingly Soveraignty Rom. 13. 1. ordained it immediately That Position was worthy of a Red Hat Potestas Principis dimanavit à populo Pontificis à Deo in the Recognition of the book de Laicis purposely raised to depress the Dignity of Kings to advance the Priesthood I am sure Samuel when it was said Ecce prafecit vobis Jehova Regem Behold God hath set a Kiog over you 1 Sam. 12. 13. And Kings are wont to have no less title then Unctus Jehove the Anointed of the Lord not unctus populi the anointed of the people 1 Sam. 24. 6. 2 Sam. 1. 14. Daniel could say of God He removes Kings and setteth up Kings Dan. 2. 21. What need I perswade Christian Kings and Princes that they hold their Crowns and Scepters as in fee from the God of Heaven Cyrus himself had so much Divinity Ezra 1. 2. It is Religion that teaches us that the same power which ordained Caesar injoyns all faithful Subjection to Caesar not for fear but for conscience Rom. 13. 5. Tribute to whom tribute honour to whom honour yea all devout prayers for a Nero himself 1 Tim. 2. 2. curbing both the tongue and the heart Thou shalt not curse the King in thy thoughts nor the rich in thy Bed-chamber Eccles 10. 20. It is Religion that teaches us that vengeance shall be sure to follow Rebellion Nuntius crudelis Prov. 17. 21. yea no less then Hell and Damnation Rom. 13. 2. Cursed be they that say Religion is onely to keep men in awe and cursed be he that says there is any so sure way to keep men in awe as Religion Go ye crafty Politicks and rake hell for reasons of State ye shall once find that there is no wisdome nor understanding nor counsel
so confine his election to the pale of the Church as that he did not sometimes look out for special instruments of his glory Whither do these Sages come but to Hierusalem where should they hope to hear of the new King but in the mother City of the Kingdome The conduct of the Star was first only general to Judaea the rest is for a time left to inquiry they were not brought thither for their own sakes but for Jewrie's for the worlds that they might help to make the Jews inexcusable and the world faithful That their tongues therefore might blazon the birth of Christ they are brought to the head City of Judaea to report and inquire Their wisdome could not teach them to imagine that a King could be born to Judaea of that note and magnificence that a Star from heaven should publish him to the earth and that his subjects should not know it and therefore as presupposing a common notice they say Where is he that is born King of the Jews There is much deceit in probabilities especially when we meddle with spiritual matters For God uses still to goe a way by himself If we judge according to reason and appearance who is so likely to understand heavenly truths as the profound Doctors of the world These God passes over and reveals his will to babes Had these Sages met with the Shepherds of the villages near Bethleem they had received that intelligence of Christ which they did vainly seek from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem The greatest Clerks are not alwaiess the wisest in the affairs of God these things goe not by discourse but by revelation No sooner hath the Star brought them within the noise of Jerusalem then it is vanished out of sight God would have their eyes lead them so far as till their tongues might be set on work to win the vocal attestation of the chief Priests and Scribes to the fore-appointed place of our Saviours nativity If the Star had caried them directly to Bethleem the learned Jews had never searched the truth of those prophesies wherewith they are since justly convinced God never withdraws our helps but for a further advantage However our hopes seem crossed where his Name may gain we cannot complain of losse Little did the Sages think this question would have troubled Herod they had I fear concealed their message if they had suspected this event Sure they thought it might be some Son or grandchild of him which then held the Throne so as this might win favour from Herod rather then an unwelcome fear of rivalty Doubtless they went first to the Court where else should they ask for a King The more pleasing this 〈…〉 if it had falne upon Herod's own loyns the more grievous it was to light upon a stranger If Herod had not over-much affected greatness he had not upon those indirect terms aspired to the Crown of Jewry so much the more therefore did it trouble him to hear the rumor of a successor and that not of his own Setled greatness cannot abide either change or partnership If any of his subjects had moved this question I fear his head had answered it It is well that the name of forrainers could excuse these Sages Herod could not be brought up among the Jews and not have heard many and confident reports of a Messias that should ere long arise out of Israel and now when he hears the fame of a King born whom a Star from Heaven signifies and attends he is netled with the news Every thing affrights the guilty Usurpation is full of jealousies and fear no lesse full of projects and imaginations it makes us think every bush a man and every man a thief Why art thou troubled O Herod A King is born but such a King as whose Scepter may ever concur with lawfull Soveraignty yea such a King as by whom Kings doe hold their Scepters not lose them If the wise-men tell thee of a King the Star tells thee he is heavenly Here is good cause of security none of fear The most general enmities and oppositions to good arise from mistakings If men could but know how much safety and sweetnesse there is in all Divine truth it could receive nothing from them but welcomes and gratulations Misconceits have been still guilty of all wrongs and persecutions But if Herod were troubled as Tyranny is still suspicious why was all Hierusalem troubled with him Hierusalem which now might hope for a relaxation of her bonds for a recovery of her liberty and right Hierusalem which now onely had cause to lift up her drooping head in the joy and happiness of a Redeemer Yet not Herod's Court but even Hierusalem was troubled so had this miserable City been overtoiled with change that now they were setled in a condition quietly evil they are troubled with the news of better They had now got a habit of servility and now they are so acquainted with the yoke that the very noise of liberty which they supposed would not come with ease began to be unwelcome To turn the causes of joy into sorrow argues extreme dejectednesse and a distemper of judgment no lesse then desperate Fear puts on a visor of devotion Herod calls his learned counsel and as not doubting whether the Messiah should be born he asks where he shall be born In the disparition of that other light there is a perpetually-fixed Star shining in the writings of the Prophets that guides the chief Priests and Scribes directly unto Bethleem As yet envy and prejudice had not blinded the eyes and perverted the hearts of the Jewish teachers so as now they clearly justifie that Christ whom they afterwards condemne and by thus justifying him condemn themselves in rejecting him The water that is untroubled yields the visage perfectly If God had no more witnesse but from his enemies we have ground enough of our faith Herod feared but dissembled his fear as thinking it a shame that strangers should see there could any power arise under him worthy of his respect or awe Out of an unwillingnesse therefore to discover the impotency of his passion he makes little adoe of the matter but onely after a privy inquisition into the Time imployes the informers in the search of the Person Goe and search diligently for the Babe c. It was no great journy from Hierusalem to Bethleem how easily might Herod's cruelty have secretly suborned some of his bloody Courtiers to this inquiry and execution If God had not meant to mock him before he found himself mocked of the wise-men he had rather sent before their journey then after their disappointment But that God in whose hands all hearts are did purposely besot him that he might not finde the way to so horrible a mischief There is no Villan◠〈◊〉 but it will mask it self under a shew of Piety Herod will also worship 〈◊〉 Babe The courtesie of a false Tyrant is death A crafty hypocrite never means so ill as when he
the same power slackned those swathing-bands of death that the feet might have some little scope to move though not with that freedome that followed after Thou didst not onely O Saviour raise the body of Lazarus but the Faith of the beholders They cannot deny him dead whom they saw rising they see the signes of death with the proofs of life Those very swathes convinced him to be the man that was raised Thy less Miracle confirms the greater both confirm the Faith of the beholders O clear and irrefragable example of our resuscitation Say now ye shameless Sadducees with what face can ye deny the Resurrection of the body when ye see Lazarus after four-days death rising up out of his grave And if Lazarus did thus start up at the bleating of this Lamb of God that was now every day preparing for the slaughter-house how shall the dead be rouzed up out of their graves by the roaring of that glorious and immortal Lion whose voice shall shake the powers of Heaven and move the very foundations of the earth With what strange amazedness do we think that Martha and Mary the Jews and the Disciples lookt to see Lazarus come forth in his winding-sheet shackled with his linen fetters and walk towards them Doubtless fear and horrour strove in them whether should be for the time more predominant We love our friends dearly but to see them again after their known death and that in the very robes of the grave must needs set up the hair in a kinde of uncouth rigour And now though it had been most easie for him that brake the adamantine fetters of death to have broke in pieces those linen ligaments wherewith his raised Lazarus was encumbred yet he will not doe it but by their hands He that said Remove the stone said Loose Lazarus He will not have us exspect his immediate help in that we can doe for our selves It is both a laziness and a presumptuous tempting of God to look for and extraordinary and supernatural help from God where he hath inabled us with common aid What strange salutations do we think there were betwixt Lazarus and Christ that had raised him betwixt Lazarus and his Sisters and neighbors and friends what amazed looks what unusual complements For Lazarus was himself at once here was no leisure of degrees to reduce him to his wonted perfection neither did he stay to rub his eyes and stretch his benummed lims nor take time to put off that dead sleep wherewith he had been seized but instantly he is both alive and fresh and vigorous if they do but let him goe he walks so as if he had ailed nothing and receives and gives mutual gratulations I leave them entertaining each other with glad embraces with discourses of reciprocal admiration with praises and adorations of that God and Saviour that had fetched him into life Christ's Procession to the Temple NEver did our Saviour take so much state upon him as now that he was going towards his Passion other journies he measured on foot without noise or train this with a Princely equipage and loud acclamation Wherein yet O Saviour whether shall I more wonder at thy Majesty or thine Humility that Divine Majesty which lay hid under so humble appearance or that sincere Humility which veiled so great a glory Thou O Lord whose chariots are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels wouldst make choice of the silliest of beasts to carry thee in thy last and Royal Progress How well is thy birth suited with thy triumph Even that very Ass whereon thou rodest was prophesied of neither couldst thou have made up those vaticall Predictions without this conveyance O glorious and yet homely pomp Thou wouldst not lose ought of thy right thou that wast a King wouldst be proclaimed so but that it might appear thy Kingdome was not of this world thou that couldst have commanded all worldly magnificence thoughtest fit to abandon it In stead of the Kings of the earth who reigning by thee might have been imployed in thine attendance the people are thine heralds their homely garments are thy foot-cloth and carpets their green boughs the strewings of thy way those Palms which were wont to be born in the hands of them that triumph are strewed under the feet of thy beast It was thy greatness and honour to contemn those glories which worldly hearts were wont to admire Justly did thy Followers hold the best ornaments of the earth worthy of no better then thy treading upon neither could they ever account their garments so rich as when they had been trampled upon by thy carriage How happily did they think their backs disrobed for thy way How gladly did they spend their breath in acclaming thee Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Where now are the great Masters of the Synagogue that had enacted the ejection of whosoever should confess Jesus to be the Christ Lo here bold and undaunted clients of the Messiah that dare proclaim him in the publick road in the open streets In vain shall the impotent enemies of Christ hope to suppress his glory as soon shall they with their hand hide the face of the Sun from shining to the world as withhold the beams of his Divine truth from the eyes of men by their envious opposition In spight of all Jewish malignity his Kingdome is confessed applauded blessed O thou fairer then the children of men in thy Majesty ride on prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things In this Princely and yet poor and despicable pomp doth our Saviour enter into the famous City of Jerusalem Jerusalem noted of old for the seat of Kings Priests Prophets of Kings for there was the throne of David of Priests for there was the Temple of Prophets for there they delivered their errands and left their blood Neither know I whether it were more wonder for a Prophet to perish out of Jerusalem or to be safe there Thither would Jesus come as a King as a Priest as a Prophet acclamed as a King teaching the people and foretelling the wofull vastation of it as a Prophet and as a Priest taking possession of his Temple and vindicating it from the foul profanations of Jewish Sacriledge Oft before had he come to Jerusalem without any remarkable change because without any semblance of State now that he gives some little glimpse of his Royalty the whole City was moved When the Sages of the East brought the first news of the King of the Jewes Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and now that the King of the Jews comes himself though in so mean a port there is a new commotion The silence and obscurity of Christ never troubles the world he may be an underling without any stir but if he do but put forth himself never so little to bear the least sway amongst men now their blood
the time for Shilo to come No power was left in the Jewes but to obey Augustus is the Emperor of the World under him Herod is the King of Judaea Cyrenius is president of Syria Jurie hath nothing of her own For Herod if he were a King yet he was no Jew and if he had been a Jew yet he was no otherwise a King then tributary and titular The Edict came out from Augustus was executed by Cyrenius Herod is no actor in this service Gain and glory are the ends of this taxation each man profest himself a subject and paid for the priviledge of his servitude Now their very heads were not their own but must be payed for to the head of a forrein Seate They which before stood upon the termes of their immunitie stoop at the last The proud suggestions of Judas the Galilean might shed their blood and swell their stomacks but could not ease their yoak neither was it the meaning of God that holinesse if they had been as they pretended should shelter them from subjection A Tribute is imposed upon Gods free people This act of bondage brings them liberty Now when they seemed most neglected of God they are blessed with a Redeemer when they are most pressed with forrein Soveraignty God sends them a King of their own to whom Caesar himself must be a subject The goodnesse of our God picks out the most needfull times of our relief and comfort Our extremities give him the most glory Whither must Joseph and Marie come to be taxed but unto David's Citie The very place proves their descent He that succeeded David in his Throne must succeed him in the place of his Birth So clearly was Bethleem designed to this honour by the Prophets that even the Priests and the Scribes could point Herod unto it and assured him the King of the Jews could be no where else born Bethleem justly the house of bread the bread that came down from Heaven is there given to the world whence should we have the bread of life but from the house of bread O holy David was this the Well of Bethleem whereof thou didst so thirst to drink of old when thou saidst O that one would give me drink of the water of the Well of Bethleem Surely that other water when it was brought thee by thy Worthies thou pouredst it on the ground and wouldst not drink of it This was that living Water for which thy soul longed whereof thou saidst elsewhere As the Hart brayeth after the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God It was no lesse then four daies journey from Nazareth to Bethleem How just an excuse might the Blessed Virgin have pleaded for her absence What woman did ever undertake such a journey so near her delivery And doubtlesse Joseph which was now taught of God to love and honour her was loath to draw forth a dear wife in so unwieldy a case into so manifest hazard But the charge was peremptory the obedience exemplary The desire of an inoffensive observance even of Heathenish authority digests all difficulties We may not take easie occasions to withdraw our obedience to supreme commands Yea how didst thou O Saviour by whom Augustus reigned in the Womb of thy Mother yield this homage to Augustus The first lesson that ever thy example taught us was Obedience After many steps are Joseph and Mary come to Bethleem The plight wherein she was would not allow any speed and the forced leisure of the journey causeth disappointment the end was worse then the way there was no rest in the way there was no room in the Inne It could not be but that there were many of the kindred of Joseph and Mary at that time in Bethleem for both there were their Ancestors born if not themselves and thither came up all the Cousins of their blood yet there and then doth the holy Virgin want room to lay either her head or her burthen If the house of David had not lost all mercy and good nature a Daughter of David could not so near the time of her travel have been destitute of lodging in the City of David Little did the Bethleemites think what a guest they refused else they would gladly have opened their doors to him which was able to open the gates of Heaven to them Now their inhospitality is punishment enough to it self They have lost the honour and happinesse of being host to their God Even still O blessed Saviour thou standest at our doors and knockest every motion of thy good Spirit tells us thou art there Now thou comest in thine own name and there thou standest whiles thy head is full of dew and thy locks wet with the drops of the night If we suffer carnal desires and worldly thoughts to take up the lodging of our heart and revel within us whiles thou waitest upon our admission surely our judgement shall be so much the greater by how much better we know whom we have excluded What do we cry shame on the Bethleemites whilest we are wilfully more churlish more unthankfull There is no room in my heart for the wonder at this humility He for whom Heaven is too streight whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain lies in the streight cabbin of the womb and when he would inlarge himself for the world is not allowed the room of an Inne The many mansions of Heaven were at his disposing the Earth was his and the fulnesse of it yet he suffers himself to be refused of a base cottage and complaineth not What measure should discontent us wretched men when thou O God farest thus from thy creatures How should we learn both to want and abound from thee which abounding with the glory and riches of heaven wouldst want a lodging in thy first welcome to the earth Thou camest to thine own and thy own received thee not How can it trouble us to be rejected of the world which is not ours What wonder is it if thy servants wandred abroad in sheeps skins and goats skins destitute and afflicted when their Lord is denyed harbour How should all the world blush at this indignity of Bethleem He that came to save men is sent for his first lodging to the beasts the stable is become his Inne the cratch his bed O strange cradle of that great King which heaven it self may envy O Saviour thou that wert both the Maker and Owner of Heaven of Earth couldst have made thee a Palace without hands couldst have commanded thee an empty room in those houses which thy creatures had made When thou didst but bid the Angels avoid their first place they fell down from Heaven like lightning and when in thy humbled estate thou didst but say I am he who was able to stand before thee How easie had it been for thee to have made place for thy self in the throngs of the stateliest Courts Why wouldst thou be thus homely but that
by contemning worldly glories thou mightest teach us to contemn them that thou mightest sanctifie poverty to them whom thou calledst unto want that since thou which hadst the choice of all earthly conditions wouldst be born poor and despised those which must want out of necessity might not think their poverty grievous Here was neither friend to entertain nor servant to attend nor place wherein to be attended onely the poor beasts gave way to the God of all the world It is the great mysterie of Godlinesse that God was manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels but here which was the top of all wonders the very beasts might see their Maker For those spirits to see God in the flesh it was not so strange as for the brute creatures to see him which was the God of spirits He that would be led into the wildernesse amongst wilde beasts to be tempted would come into the house of beasts to be born that from the height of his divine glory his humiliation might be the greater How can we be abased low enough for thee O Saviour that hast thus neglected thy self for us That the visitation might be answerable to the homelinesse of the place attendants provision who shall come to congratulate his birth but poor shepherds The 〈◊〉 of the earth rest at home and have no summons to attend him by whom they reign God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty In an obscure time the night unto obscure men shepherds doth God manifest the light of his Son by glorious Angels It is not our meannesse O God that can exclude us from the best of thy mercies yea thus far dost thou respect persons that thou hast put down the mighty and exalted them of low degree If these shepherds had been snorting in their beds they had no more seen Angels nor heard news of their Saviour then their neighbours their vigilancy is honoured with this heavenly vision Those which are industrious in any calling are capable of further blessings whereas the idle are fit for nothing but temptation No lesse then a whole Chore of Angels are worthy to sing the hymn of Glory to God for the incarnation of his Son What joy is enough for us whose nature he took and whom he came to restore by his incarnation If we had the tongues of Angels we could not raise this note high enough to the praise of our glorious Redeemer No sooner doe the Shepherds hear the news of a Saviour then they run to Bethleem to seeke him Those that left their beds to tend their flocks leave their flocks to enquire after their Saviour No earthly thing is too dear to be forsaken for Christ If we suffer any worldly occasion to stay us from Bethleem we care more for our sheep then our souls It is not possible that a faithfull heart should heare where Christ is and not labour to the sight to the fruition of him Where art thou O Saviour but at home in thine own house in the assembly of thy Saints where art thou to be found but in thy Word and Sacraments yea there thou seekest for us if there we hast not to seek for thee we are worthy to want thee worthy that our want of thee here should make us want the presence of thy face for ever The Sages and the Star THE Shepherds and the Cratch accorded well yet even they saw nothing which they might not contemn neither was there any of those shepherds that seemed not more like a King then that King whom they came to see But oh the Divine Majesty that shined in this baseness There lies the Babe in the stable crying in the manger whom the Angels came down from heaven to proclaim whom the Sages come from the East to adore whom an heavenly Star notifies to the world that now men might see that Heaven and earth serves him that neglected himself Those lights that hang low are not far seen but those which are high placed are equally seen in the remotest distances Thy light O Saviour was no lesse then heavenly The East saw that which Bethleem might have seen oft-times those which are neerest in place are farthest off in affection Large objects when they are too close to the eye doe so overfill the sense that they are not discerned What a shame is this to Bethleem the Sages came out of the East to worship him whom that village refused The Bethleemites were Jews the wise-men Gentiles This first entertainment of Christ was a presage of the sequel The Gentiles shall come from far to adore Christ whiles the Jews reject him Those Easterlings were great searchers of the depths of Nature professed Philosophers them hath God singled out to the honour of the manifestation of Christ Humane Learning well improved makes us capable of Divine There is no Knowledge whereof God is not the Authour he would never have bestowed any gift that should lead us away from himself It is an ignorant conceit that inquiry into Nature should make men Atheous No man is so apt to see the Star of Christ as a diligent disciple of Philosophy Doubtless this light was visible 〈…〉 onely they followed it which knew it had more then Nature he 〈…〉 that is wise for his own soul If these wise men had been acquainted with all the other stars of heaven and had not seen the Star of Christ they had had but light enough to lead them into utter darkness Philosophy without this Star is but the wisp of Errour These Sages were in a mean between the Angels and the Shepherds God would in all the ranks of intelligent Creatures have some to be witnesses of his Son The Angels direct the Shepherds the Star guides the Sages The duller capacity hath the more clear and powerful helps the wisdome of our good God proportions the means unto the disposition of the persons Their Astronomy had taught them this Star was not ordinary whether in sight or in brightness or in motion The eyes of Nature might well see that some strange news was portended to the world by it but that this Star designed the birth of the Messias there needed yet another light If the Star had not besides had the commentary of a revelation from God it could have led the wise-men onely into a fruitless wonder Give them to be the offspring of Balaam yet the true prediction of that false Prophet was not enough warrant If he told them the Messias should arise as a Star out of Jacob he did not tell them that a Star should arise far from the posterity of Jacob at the birth of the Messias He that did put that Prophesie into the mouth of Balaam did also put this illumination into the heart of the Sages The Spirit of God is free to breathe where he listeth Many shall come from the East and the West to seek Christ when the Children of the Kingdome shall be shut out Even then God did not
way of the Sea beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people which sate in darknesse saw great light The Sun is not scornfull but looks with the same face upon every plot of earth not onely the stately palaces and pleasant gardens are visited by his beams but mean cottages but neglected boggs and mores God's word is like himself no accepter of persons the wilde Kern the rude Scythian the savage Indian are alike to it The Mercy of God will be sure to finde out those that belong to his Election in the most secret corners of the world like as his Judgments will fetch his enemies from under the hills and rocks The good Shepherd walks the wildernesse to seek one sheep strayed from many If there be but one Syrophoenician soul to be gained to the Church Christ goes to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon to fetch her Why are we weary to doe good when our Saviour underwent this perpetuall toyle in healing bodies and winning Souls There is no life happy but that which is spent in a continuall drudging for edification It is long since we heard of the name or nation of Canaanites All the Country was once so styled that people was now forgotten yet because this woman was of the blood of those Phoenicians which were anciently ejected out of Canaan that title is revived to her God keeps account of pedigrees after our oblivion that he may magnifie his mercies by continuing them to thousands of the generations of the just and by renewing favours upon the unjust No Nation carried such brands and scars of a Curse as Canaan To the shame of those carelesse Jews even a faithfull Canaanite is a suppliant to Christ whiles they neglect so great Salvation She doth not speak but cry Need and desire have raised her voice to an importunate clamour The God of mercy is light of hearing yet he loves a loud and vehement solicitation not to make himself inclinable to graunt but to make us capable to receive blessings They are words and not prayers which fall from carelesse lips If we felt our want or wanted not desire we could speak to God in no tune but cries If we would prevail with God we must wrestle and if we would wrestle happily with God we must wrestle first with our own dulnesse Nothing but cries can pierce Heaven Neither doth her vehemence so much argue her Faith as doth her compellation O Lord thou Son of David What Proselyte what Disciple could have said more O blessed Syrophoenician who taught thee this abstract of Divinity What can we Christians confesse more then the Deity and the Humanity the Messiaship of our glorious Saviour His Deity as Lord his Humanity as a Son his Messiaship as the Son of David Of all the famous progenitors of Christ two are singled out by an eminence David and Abraham a King a Patriarch and though the Patriarch were first in time yet the King is first in place not so much for the dignity of the Person as the excellence of the Promise which as it was both later and fresher in memory so more honourable To Abraham was promised multitude and blessing of seed to Davidâ—â—rpetuity â—â—rpetuity of dominion So as when God promiseth not to destroy his people it is for Abraham's sake when not to extinguish the Kingdome it is for David's sake Had she said The Son of Abraham she had not come home to this acknowledgment Abraham is the Father of the faithfull David of the Kings of Juda and Israel There are many faithfull there is but one King so as in this title she doth proclaim him the perpetual King of his Church the rod or flower which should come from the root of Jesse the true and onely Saviour of the world Whoso would come unto Christ to purpose must come in the right style apprehending a true God a true Man a true God and Man any of these severed from other makes Christ an Idol and our prayers sin Being thus acknowledged what suit is so fit for him as mercy Have mercy on me It was her daughter that was tormented yet she saies Have mercy on me Perhaps her possessed childe was senseless of her misery the parent feels both her sorrow and her own As she was a good woman so a good mother Grace and good nature have taught her to appropriate the afflictions of this divided part of her own flesh It is not in the power of another skin to sever the interest of our own loyns or womb We finde some fouls that burn themselves whiles they endeavour to blow out the fire from their young And even Serpents can receive their brood into their mouth to shield them from danger No creature is so unnatural as the reasonable that hath put off affection On me therefore in mine for my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil It was this that sent her to Christ It was this that must incline Christ to her I doubt whether she had inquired after Christ if she had not been vexed with her daughters spirit Our Afflictions are as Benhadad's best counsellors that sent him with a cord about his neck to the mercifull King of Israel These are the files whetstones that set an edge on our Devotions without which they grow dull and ineffectual neither are they stronger motives to our suit then to Christ's mercy We cannot have a better spokes-man unto God then our own misery That alone sues and pleads and importunes for us This which sets off men whose compassion is finite attracts God to us Who can plead discouragements in his accesse to the throne of Grace when our wants are our forcible advocates All our worthiness is in a capable misery All Israel could not example the Faith of this Canaanite yet she was thus tormented in her daughter It is not the truth or strength of our Faith that can secure us from the outward and bodily vexations of Satan against the inward and spiritual that can and will prevail it is no more antidote against the other then against feavers and dropsies How should it whenas it may fall out that these sufferings may be profitable and why should we exspect that the love of our God shall yield to forelay any benefit to the Soul He is an ill patient that cannot distinguish betwixt an affliction and the evil of affliction When the messenger of Satan buffets us it is enough that God hath said My grace is sufficient for thee Millions were in Tyre and Sidon whose persons whose children were untouched with that tormenting hand I hear none but this faithfull Woman say My daughter is grievously vexed of the Devil The worst of bodily afflictions are an insufficient proof of Divine displeasure She that hath most Grace complains of most discomfort Who would now expect any other then a kinde answer to so pious and faithfull a petition And behold he answered her not a word O holy Saviour we have oft found cause to wonder at
against the Lord. It was a true and well-grounded resolution of Constantius That they cannot be faithful to their King who are perfidious to their God Let the great Caesars of the world then know that the more subject they are to Christ the more sure they are of the Loyalty of their Subjects to them Neither is there in all the world any so firm and streight bond to tye the hearts of their people to them as true Religion to God To conclude therefore Christ is not Caesar's rival but Caesar's Lord and Patron Caesar rules by his Laws Christ by Religion If Execution be the Life of Laws I am sure Religion is the life of Execution In short Religion is the strongest pillar of Policy the base of the Palace the feet and armes of the Chair of State the frame of the Councel-bord As ye love your Peace ye Great ones make much of it plant it where it is not enlarge it where it is maintain it at home incourage it abroad And if distressed Religion shall come with her face blubber'd and her garments rent wringing her hands and tearing her hair and shall prostrate her self at the feet of earthly Greatness for lawful succour with veni opitulari come and help as Macedonia in the Acts wo be to the power that fails it and blessed thrice blessed from Heaven be that hand that shall raise her on her feet and wipe off her teares and stretch out it self mightily for her safe-guard Let me never prosper if that hand make not that head immortally glorious For us blessed be God we live here in the warm Zone where the hot beams of the Sun of Righteousness beat right down upon our heads But what need I tell your Sacred Majesty that in the North-west part of your Dominions there are some that live in the frozen and dark Climate of Ignorance and Superstition whose eyes have seldome if ever been blest with so much as an oblique irradiation of the Gospel I know the bowels of your Princely compassion cannot but be stirred with the misery of these poor Cimmerian souls that have not so much light as to wish more Oh may it please your Gracious Majesty to shine into those darksome corners by improving your Soveraign Authority to the commanding of a Learned and Powerful Ministry amongst them Let true Religion be letled in them and true Religion shall settle their hearts to your Majesty more then all conquests lawes violences oaths indearments whatsoever And for these happy Regions which are comfortably illuminated with the saving Doctrine of Jesus Christ may it please you to forbid their impuration by the noisome fogs and mists of those mis-opinions whose very Principles are professedly rebellious as being well assured that the more your Majesty shall advance the Spiritual Kingdome of Christ the more he shall advance the strength and glory of your Temporal the more perfectly he is your Christ the more unmoveably shall you be his Caesar And may he still and ever be yours and you his till earth and time be no more till he shall have delivered up his mediatory Kingdome into the hands of his Father To whom c. THE DEFEAT OF CRUELTY PRAIED FOR And laid forth in a Sermon preach'd at a Solemn Fast at White-hall By JOS. HALL Dean of Worcester c. Psal 68. 30. Rebuke the company of Spear men the multitude of the Bulls with the Calves of the people till every one submit himself with pieces of silver Scatter thou the people that delight in warre THE same Psalme that lately yielded us a Song of Thanksgiving now affords us a Prayer for Victory Such variety of spiritual Flowers grows in every bed of this Divine Garden Our occasions cannot change so oft as God can fit us with change of notes The last verse before my Text was a prediction of Kings bringing Presents to God this is a Prayer for dissipation of enemies It is not for nothing that the Psalmist interrupts his Prophecy with a Petition Hostility blocks up the way to Devotion Even the Laws of God are silent in the clashing of Armes That Kings may bring presents to God God must give an happy cessation of armes to them It is not long since we saw the Lords Anointed approach to this altar of God with presents of Thanksgiving for our late deliverance from the raging Pestilence Now we come to sue and expect that God would crown his Royal head with garlands of Victory and rebuke the company of spear-men the multitude of Bulls with the calves of the people and scatter the people that delight in war May it please you first to see the Enemies then the Defeat The Enemy is described by a threefold title 1. Fera arundinis the company of the spear-men or beasts of the reeds 2. The multitude of Bulls with the calves of the people 3. The people that delight in warre The Defeat is double Increpa and Dissipa Rebuke and Scatter Rebuke is for the two first yet not absolutely but with limitation Till they submit themselves with pieces of silver Dissipation is for the last Scatter the people that delight in warre Those that will be unjustly warring are worthy of rebuke but those that delight in warre are fit for nothing but confusion To begin with the first Why doth the same Hebrew word signifie a Beast and a Company Is it because the Multitude is bellua multorum capitum a beast of many heads Or is it because of the sociable nature even of brute creatures which still affect to herd and flock together For lest any man stumble at the word that which is here translated fera is by the same hand turned pecus ver 11. Both the senses doe well a Beast or a Company The one implyes the qualities of the Churches Enemies that they are of a fierce and bestial disposition the other their number and combination For the former Who can express the savage Cruelty of the enemies of the Gospell Look into the ancient story of the infancy of Christianity ye shall see how men set their wits on the rack to devise torments To shew you that in a painted table which poor Christians felt would be a spectacle of too much horror What should I lay before you their Gibbets Wheels Stakes Caldrons Furnaces and all their fearful pomps of death What should I tell you of men dressed every way that meats were for the palate Here was slaying frying boiling broiling roasting baking haching and all possible kinds of hideous forms of Murder To forget all old immanities what should I shew you the flames of our late Marian times what should I bring you into the holy inquisition and shew you there all the bloody engines of torture an Hell upon earth what should I present you with the whips halters and knives of Eighty eight or raise up your hair with the report of those Spanish Cruelties which were exercised upon our men in the Indies during the late warre Death
Faith are those Principles of Christian Religion and Fundamental Grounds and Points of Faith which are undoubtedly contained and laid down in the Canonicall Scriptures whether in expresse termes or by necessary consequence and in the Ancient Creeds universally received and allowed by the whole Church of God IV. There cannot be now-a-dayes any new Rule of Faith V. As there cannot be any new Rule of Faith so there cannot now be any new Faith It is not therefore in the power of any creature under Heaven to make any Point to be of Faith which before was not so or to cause any Point not to be of Faith which formerly was so VI. He cannot be an Heretick who doth not obstinately deny something which is truly a Point of Faith or hold some Point contrary to the foresaid Articles of Christian Faith VII There are and may be many Theologicall Points which are wont to be believed and maintained and so many lawfully be of this or that particular Church or the Doctors thereof or their Followers as godly Doctrines and Probable Truths besides those other Essential and main matters of Faith without any prejudice at all of the common Peace of the Church VIII Howsoever it may be lawfull for Learned men particular Churches to believe and maintain those Probable or as they may think Certain Points of Theologicall Verities yet it is not lawfull for them to impose and obtrude the said Doctrines upon any Church or Person to be believed and held as upon the necessity of Salvation or to anathematize or eject out of the Church any Person or company of men that thinks otherwise IX Notwithstanding any such unjust Anathema denounced against any such Person or Church whosoever holds those Principles and Essential Points of Christian Faith however he be in place far remote from all the Visible Churches of Christ and neither know not or receive not those other Positions of Theological determination is throughly capable in such condition of Christian Communion and if many such be met together under a lawfull Pastor there cannot be denied unto them both the truth and title of a true Visible Church of Christ X. The Church of Rome is onely and at the best a Particular Church XI All Christian Churches are no other then Sisters and Daughters of that great and Universall Mother which furnisheth both Heaven and earth of equall priviledge in respect of God and his Faith save onely that each one is so much more honourable as it is more pure and holy It is not therefore lawfull for any one of them in regard of the businesses of Faith to take upon her self the power and command over any other or to prescribe unto any of them what they must necessarily believe upon pain of damnation XII Those issues of Controversie in regard whereof the Reformed Catholicks are wont to be condemned and anathematized by the Romane Church are far from Principles of Christian Faith neither are any other than their own Theologicall Positions and the institutions and devises of that particular Church XIII The Reformed Catholicks have not offered to bring in any new Opinion or Doctrine into the Church but only labour and endeavour to procure some late superfluous additions to the Faith to be cashiered rejected XIV Vainly therefore and unjustly is it required of them that they should shew the succession of their Religion and Church as raised upon a quite other foundation to be derived from the Apostolick times to the present since all that they professe is a desire to purge the very same Church of God from certain new Errors and Superstitious rites wherewith it is miserably defiled XV. Out of all which Premisses it necessarily followeth that the Romane Church which upon these grounds sticketh not to exclude true Christians differing from them in matter of such Doctrines from the Church of God and eternall Salvation is justly guilty of great insolency and horrible breach both of Charity and Peace and that the Reformed notwithstanding this rash and unjust censure of theirs forasmuch as they do inviolably hold all the Points of the truly ancient and Christian Faith do justly claim unto themselves a most true and perfect interest in the communion of all Christian Churches and eternall Salvation XVI There is no lesse danger in adding to the Articles of Christian Faith then in diminishing them or detracting from them XVII Those Points which the Romane Church is wont to adde and forcibly to put upon all Catholicks as well the Reformed as those whom they term their own are such as are grounded on her own mere authority XVIII The Reformed Catholicks do justly complain and prove that those Points which the Romane Church imposeth and urgeth as the meet additions both of Faith and Divine worship are neither safe nor agreeable to the holy Word of God and plead it to be utterly unjust that those accessory Points of their devising or determining wherein every Church should be left free and at her due liberty should be imperiously thrust upon them notwithstanding their vehement and just resistance XIX It argues a palpable self-love in the Romane Church and must needs at the last draw down a grievous Judgement from God upon her that this Particular Church will needs make her self uncapable of any better condition in that she vainly brags that she cannot erre and fearfully accurseth and sends down to hell all those that profer her the least endeavour of the means of her remedy and redresse XX. Upon all these grounds it is plain that the Reformed Catholicks are in a safe estate and that contrarily the Romane are in a miserable errour and fearfull danger and lastly that it is only through their default that the Church of God is not reduced to an happy Purity and Peace 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things AN ANSWER TO POPE URBAN'S INURBANITIE Expressed in a BREEVE sent to LEWIS the French King exasperating him against the Protestants in France Written in Latine by the Right Reverend Father in God JOSEPH Lord Bishop of Excester Translated into English by his Son ROBERT HALL Master of Arts in Excester Colledge in Oxford LONDON Printed by JAMES FLESHER 1661. A BREEVE of Pope Urban the Eighth sent to Lewis the French King upon the taking of ROCHEL OUR most dear Son in Christ we send you greeting and Apostolical Benediction The voice of rejoicing and Salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous let the wicked see this and fret and let the Synagogue of Satan consume away The most Christian King fighteth for Religion the Lord of hosts fighteth for the King We verily in this Mother-City of the world triumph with holy joy we congratulate this your Majesties Victory the trophees whereof are erected in Heaven the glory whereof the generation that is to come shall never cease to speak of Now at the length this Age hath seen the Tower of ROCHEL no lesse