is the blemish will never be wiped off from some of the Ancients who to establish their own Idol of I know not what virginity have written most wickedly and most basely of marriage which both Christ honoured with his first miracle and the holy Ghost by over shadowing the 〈◊〉 virgin As for the Papists that disgrace it they appear herein more like devils then Divines If the same God had not been the authour of virginity and marriage he had never countenanced virginity by marriage as he did in the Virgin Mary CHAP. II. Verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem THe house of bread that bread of life that came down from Heaven and dwelt amongst us in this City of David otherwise called Ephrata that is fruit-bearing and situate they say in the very navell and center of the earth because in him all Nations should be blessed Here was Jesus born by meer accident in regard of his parents who were brought hither by a tyrannicall edict of the Emperour forcing all even great-bellied women to repair to their own City to be taxed though it were in the deep of winter but by a sweet providence of God to fulfill the Scripture and to settle our faith In the daies of Herod the King When the Scepter was departed from Judah and the times were grown deplored and desperately wicked Josoph found his brethren in Dothan 1. in defection so did Christ when he came Scarce were there four or fewer found that waited for the consolation of Israel Then also when among the poor Gentiles a plentifull harvest a very great number of elect were ready ripe Mat. 9. 37. Luk. 10. 2. Joh. 4. 35. Then when cuncta 〈◊〉 continua totius generis humani aut pax fuit 〈◊〉 pactio then came the Prince of peace into the world when all was at peace thorowout the world Behold there came wise-men Neither Kings nor cunning men but sages of the East 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contemplative persons Philosophers interpreters of the Laws of God and men The tale of the three Kings of 〈◊〉 is long since exploded To Jerusalem So misreckoning of a point they mist the haven and had like to have run upon the rocks Had they met with the Shepherds of Bethlehem they had received better intelligence then they could from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem God hath 〈◊〉 the weak of the world to confound the wise Surgunt indocti rapiunt coelum nos cum doctrin is noctris 〈◊〉 in Gehennam None are so far from Christ many times as knowing men Some of the Scribes and Pharisees were very Atheists for they knew neither the Father nor the Son Uspian the chief Lawyer Galen the chief Physician Porphyry the chief Aristotelean Plotinus the chief Platonist Libanius and Lucian the chief Oratours of that age were all profest enemies to Christ. No Church was founded at Athens Acts 17. which yet Demosthenes calls the soul sun and eye of Greece Euripides the Greece of Greece Thucydides and Diodorus the common school of all men the Mart of good learning c. The greatest Clerks are not alwaies the wisest men in the affairs of God Howbeit learned Nathanael Ioseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus masters in Israel were Disciples to our Saviour lest if he had called simple men only it might have been thought quòd fuissent ex simplicitate decepti that they were deceived out of 〈◊〉 simplicity saith one Verse 2. Saying Where is he that is born King of the Iews As presupposing a common notice But the Kingdom of God cometh not by observation neither is it of this world Christ is somewhat an obscure King here as Melchisedech was and his Kingdom consists in righteousnesse and peace and joy in the holy Ghost which the stranger worldling meddles not with The Cock on the dunghill esteems not this Jewel For we have seen his starre in the East Some rumour of the 〈◊〉 of Iacob they had heard and received 〈◊〉 either from 〈◊〉 prophecy Numb 24. 17. who was an East Countrey-man Or from the Chaldean Sibyl or from the Iews in the B. by lonish captivity and now they make their use of it But the Scripture giveth more grace Ium 4 6. Onely take heed that ye receive not the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6. 1. And are come to worship him With a religious worship to kisse at his mouth as the word signifieth and as Pharaoh said to Ioseph they shall all kisse at thy mouth Wo worth to us if we kisse not the Son with a kisse of faith and love sith he is now so clearly revealed unto us not by the sight of one star only as to these but by a whole Heaven bespangled with stars though not in every part yet in every zone and quarter of it as one saith of our Church We have a word of Prophecy how much more is this true of the holy Gospel more sure 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 that came from Heaven in the holy mount saith St Peter whereunto we shall do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a darke place Besides the works of God those Regij professores as one calleth them those Catholike Preachers Psal. 19. 2 3. those reall Postilles of the Divinity Christ is purposely compared to sensible objects as to the Sun Stars Rose Rock c. that through the creatures as so many Optick glasses we might see him that is invisible having the eyes of our minde turned toward Christ as the face of the Cherubims were toward the Mercy-seat Verse 3. When Herod the King heard these things he was troubled At that wherein the Sages and Shepherds rejoiced It is fair weather with the Saints when foulest with the wicked Abraham stands upon the hill and seeth the smoke of the Cities ascend like a furnace Behold my servants shall 〈◊〉 but ye shall be ashamed my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart c. and ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen AElian compareth tyrants to swine which if a man but touch they begin to cry as dreaming of nothing but death forasmuch as they have neither fleece nor milke nor any thing else but their flesh only to forfeit But si praesepe vagientis 〈◊〉 tantùm terruit quid tribunal judicantis saith one If Christ in the earth were so terrible what will he be on the tribunall And all Ierusalem with him Perhaps to comply and 〈◊〉 with the tyrant as the Arabians if their King be sick or lame they all feign themselves so Or as homines ad servitutem 〈◊〉 so Tiberius called the Romanes who gave publike thankes for all even the wicked acts of their Emperours or as fearing some new stirs in the state as the burnt childe dreads the fire Verse 4. And when he had gathered all the chief Priests The true picture of Popish
shall sooner stand still then the trade of godlinesse and that continuall intercourse that is betwixt God and the Christian soul. Verse 32. And Iesus stood still See the admirable power of fervent prayer Christ stands and 〈◊〉 for all the haste of his journey to Ierusalem which till he had finished oh how was he 〈◊〉 Luk. 12. 50 to hear the blinde beggers petition So the sun once stood still in Gibeon and the moon in the vally of 〈◊〉 upon the prayer of worthy Ioshua who set the trophies of 〈◊〉 victorie in the very orbs of heaven Verse 33. Lord that our eyes might be opened Truely the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun 〈◊〉 11. 7 And yet how little is this mercy 〈◊〉 because common Our corrupt natures heed nothing that we enjoy as the eye seeth nothing that lies on it but things at a distance it discerns clearly Bona a tergo formosissima Copy of good things breeds satiety and makes them no dainties till God for our folly many times makes us see the worth of them by the want of them and so commends and indears his favours to us But what a blindnesse is this worse then that of Bartimeus never to see the face but the back only of benefits Verse 34. And Iesus had compassion on them He made their case his own Misericordia sounds as much as misery laid to heart Christs bowels sounded upon the sight and suit of these blinde beggers and this was beyond all almes should he have done no more for them For when one gives an alms he gives somewhat without himself but by compassion we relieve another by somewhat within and from our selves whiles we draw out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not our sheaf only to the hungry Isa. 58. 10. And immediatly their eyes received sight This is not every blinde mans happinesse that yet prayes for sight But there is a better eye-sight then that of the body which if God vouchsafe to any in bodily blindenesse as he did to that blinde boy of Glocester that had suffered imprisonment there for confessing the truth it may be said to such surely as Bishop Hooper the Martyr did to him Ah poor boy God hath taken from thee thy outward sight but hath given thee another much more precious c. The like favour God shewed to Didymus Alexandrinus who though blinde from his childhood yet was not only an excellent Artist but an able Divine and wrot certain Commentaries on the Psalmes and likewise on the Gospels being now saith Jerome who relates it above 83 years of age Trithemius and Bozius report the like things concerning one Nicasius de 〈◊〉 a dutch-man who being struck blinde at three years old became neverthelesse an excellent scholar and skilfull in the laws which he publikely professed at Collen Afterwards he proceeded Master of Arts at Lovain Licentiate in Divinity at the same Vniversity and lastly Doctour of the laws at Cullen where after he had printed his publike Lectures he died and was buried in the Cathedrall-Church Anno Dom. 1491. 17. Calend. Septem CHAP. XXI Verse 1. And when they drew nigh to Jerusalem IN this one verse our Evangelist closely comprizeth all that St John sets down of our Saviours oracles and miracles from his seventh chapter to chap. 12. 12. viz. the history of five moneths and ten daies for Christ rode not into the city till the fifth day before his last Passeover Joh. 12. 12. having the day before been 〈◊〉 by Mary at Bethany Joh. 12. 1. called here Bethpage or the Conduit-house Verse 2. An Asse tied and a colt with her There are that by the Asse understand the Jews laden with the Law and by her foal the Gentiles that wandred whither they would That Canonist made the most of it that said that children are therefore to be baptized because the Apostles brought to Christ not only the 〈◊〉 but the colt too Verse 3. The Lord 〈◊〉 need of them The Lord of all both beasts and hearts for else how could he so soon have obtained the Asse of her master Some read the text thus The Lord hath 〈◊〉 of them and 〈◊〉 presently send them back 〈◊〉 to teach us to be no further burdensome or beholden to others then needs must Verse 4. All this was done that c. Here is the mystery of the history which would otherwise seem to some ridiculous and 〈◊〉 little purpose He hereby declared himself that King of his Church forepromised by the Prophets how poor and despicable 〈◊〉 as the world accounts it Verse 5. Tell ye the daughter of Sion Here was that also of the Psalmist fulfilled God is my King of old working salvation in the midst of the earth Psal. 74. 12. For Jerusalem is by the Fathers observed to stand in the very center and navell of the habitable earth as if it were fatally founded to be the city of the great King Thy King cometh unto thee All in Christ is for our behoof 〈◊〉 benefit 1 Cor. 1. 30. Micah 4. 8 9. Unto thee shall it come 〈◊〉 daughter of Zion even the 〈◊〉 dominion the kingdom shall come to thee daughter of Jerusalem Why then dost thou cry out aloud Is there no King in thee Is thy counsellour 〈◊〉 A Mandamus from this King will do it at any time Psal. 〈◊〉 4. Meek and 〈◊〉 upon an Asse Not upon a stately palfrey as Alexander Julius Caesar c. no such state here Christ Kingdom was of another world He came riding meek and his word the law of his kingdom is both to be taught and received with 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 2. 25. Jam. 1. 21. At Genua in Italy they shew the tail of the Asse our Saviour rod on for 〈◊〉 holy relique and bow before it with great devotion Neither will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be reclaimed from such fond foperies being herein the Italian Asses which feeding upon the weed hen-bane are so 〈◊〉 that they lye for dead neither can they be wakened till 〈◊〉 Verse 6. And the Disciples went With a certain blinde obedience they went on Christs errand though not very likely to speed Their Masters sole authority 〈◊〉 them on against all difficulties and absurdities When 〈◊〉 commands us any thing we may not dispute but dispatch argue but agree to it captivate our 〈◊〉 exalt our faith Verse 7. And put on them their clothes Teaching us to honour God with the best of our substance and to 〈◊〉 our selves wholly to the Lord our God 〈◊〉 stripped himself for his friend David of the robe that was upon him and his 〈◊〉 even to his sword and his girdle Christ suspended his glory for a season laid aside his rich and royall robes 〈◊〉 a cast suit of 〈◊〉 that he might cloth us with his righteousnes And shall we think much to cloth him in his naked members c. to part with any thing for his 〈◊〉 and service And they
with Abner so do mens abilities fail amain when once they begin to fail till at last God laies them aside as so many broken vessels and cause them to be forgotten as dead men out of minde Psal. 31. 21. Verse 29. But from him that hath not shall be c. See the Notes on Chap. 13. 12. Where the like is spoken but with this difference There our Saviour speaketh of proud men such as arrogate to themselves that they have not Here of idle and evil persons such as improve and imploy not that they have the rust of whose worth shall rise up against them Jam. 5. 3. Verse 30. And cast ye the unprofitable servant That had his soul for salt only to keep his body from putrifying that worthlesse saplesse uselesse man that is no more missed when gone then the parings of ones nails that never did good among his people Ezek. 18. 18. but lived wickedly and therefore died wishedly A way with such a fellow saith Christ from off the earth which he hath burdened c. Verse 31. And all the holy Angels with him He shall not leave one behinde him in heaven 〈◊〉 what a brave bright day must that needs be when so many glorious Sunnes shall shine in the firmament and among and above them all the Sun of righteousnesse in whom our nature is advanced above the brightest Cherub Upon the throne of his glory Perhaps upon his Angels who are called Thrones Col. 1. 16. and possibly may bear him aloft by their naturall strength as on their shoulders Verse 32. And before him shall be gathered all Then shall Adam see all his Nephews at once none shall be excused for absence at this generall Assizes none shall appear by a proxy all shall be compelled to come in and hear their sentence which may be as some conceive a long while a doing It may be made evident saith one from Scripture and reason That this day of Christs kingly office in judging all men shall last haply longer then his private administration now wherein he is lesse glorious in governing the world Things shall not be suddenly shuffled up at last day as some imagine And he shall separate them Before he hears their causes which is an argument of singular skill in the Judge it being the course of other Judges to proceed Secundum allegata probata But he shall set mens sins in order before their eyes Psal. 50 21. with 〈◊〉 of the particulars Verse 33. The sheep on the right hand c. A place of dignity and safety Our Saviour seems here to allude to that of Moses his dividing the Tribes on Gerizzim and Ebal Those six Tribes that came of the free-women are set to blesse the people as the other five that came of the bond-women whereunto is adjoyned Reuben for his incest are set to say Amen to the curses Deut. 27. 11 12 13. Verse 34. Come ye blessed of my Father Pateruè alloquitur As who should say Where have ye been my darlings all this while of my long absence Come Come now into my bosom which is now wide open to receive you as the welcomest guesse that ever accoasted me c. And surely if Jacobs and Josephs meeting were so unspeakably comfortable If Mary and Elizabeth did so greet and congratulate O what shall be the joy of that 〈◊〉 day Inherit the Kingdom prepared Here as in the Turks Court every man is aut Caesar aut nullus as he said either a King or a 〈◊〉 as the Sultans children if they raign not they die without mercy either by the sword or halter From the foundation of the world Their heads were destinated long since to the diadem as Tertullian hath it K. James was crowned in his cradle Sapores King of Persia before he was born for his father dying the Nobles set the crown on his mothers belly but the Saints were crowned in Gods eternall counsell before the world was founded Verse 35. For I was an hungred For in this place denoteth not the cause but the evidence It is all one as if I should say This man liveth for behold he moveth Where it will easily be yeelded That motion is not the cause of life but the evidence and effect of it So here Merit is a meer fiction sith 〈◊〉 can be no proportion betwixt the worke and the 〈◊〉 Verse 36. Naked and 〈◊〉 clothed me Darius before he came to the Kingdom received a garment for a gift of one Syloson And when he became King he rewarded him with the command of his countrey Samus Who now will say that Syloson merited such a boon for so small a curtesie A Gardiner offering a rape-root being the best present the poor man had to the Duke of 〈◊〉 was bountifully rewarded by the Duke Which his Steward observing thought to make use of his bounty presenting him with a very fair horse The Duke ut perspicaci erat ingenio saith mine authour being a very wise man perceived the project received the horse and gave him nothing for it Right so will God deal with our merit-mongers that by building monasteries c. think to purchase heaven I was in prison and ye came to me Many Papists have hence concluded that there are only six works of mercy Visito poto cibo c. whereas indeed there are many more But it is remarkable out of this text that the last definitive sentence shall passe upon men according to their forwardnesse and freenesse in shewing mercy to the family of faith And that the sentence of absoution shall contain a manifestation of all their good works and that with such fervency of affection in Christ that he will see and remember nothing in them but the good they have done See my Common-place of Alms. Verse 37 38 39. Then shall the righteous c. Not that there shall be then any such dialogisme say Divines at the last day but Christ would hereby give us to understand That the Saints rising again and returning to themselves can never sufficiently set forth such a bounty in Christ whereby he taketh all they do to their poor necessitous brethren in as good part as done to his sacred self Verse 40. One of the least of these my 〈◊〉 What a comfort is this that our own brother shall judge us who is much more compassionate then any Joseph What an honour that Christ calls us his brethren What an obligation is such a dignity to all possible duty that we stain not our kindred 〈◊〉 being invited to a place where a notable harlot was to be present asked counsell of 〈◊〉 what he should do He bad him only remember that he was a Kings sonne Remember we that we that we are Christ the Kings brethren and it may prove a singular preservative Vellem si non essem Imperator said 〈◊〉 when an harlot was 〈◊〉 unto him I would if I were hot Generall Take thou the pillage of the field said
will not such men say or do for mony Pecunia 〈◊〉 fecit forma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jamilla promissio temerarios saith Aretius Verse 13. Stole him away while we slept If it were so 1. Ye kept a good watch the while and wanted some 〈◊〉 to slay you for sleeping 2. If all asleep who told you his 〈◊〉 stole him did you sleep waking as lions do or did they make 〈◊〉 little noise that you never heard them about it as 〈◊〉 Francis Drake at Taur apasa in the West-Indies found a Spaniard sleeping securely upon the shore and by him thirteen wedges of silver which he commanded to be carried away not so much as once waking the man Surely here it was neither so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the devil who began at first his kingdom by lying and by lying still upholds it set these fellows awork to say as they were taught any thing for mony though never so absurd and false But mony got on this manner will prove aurum Tolosanum burn in thy purse and bring Gods curse upon all thy substance Verse 14. We will perswade him and secure you Hypocrites have enough if they can collogue with men and escape the lash of the law God is not in all their thoughts or they think they can perswade him and secure themselves Hence that overflow of sinne through hope of impunity and abundance of Atheisme Verse 15. So they took the mony So sequacious are such men to sinne where any thing is to be got by it Balaam will venture hard for the wages of wickednesse Set but a wedge of gold in sight and 〈◊〉 that could stop the Sun in his course cannot stay Achan from fingering it And this saying is commonly reported They were given up to beleeve this lye because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thess. 2. 10. There are that sense it otherwise This saying is commonly reported that is this 〈◊〉 imposture of the Priests and souldiers wretchedly conspiring to cosen the world with such a base lye is sufficiently known for a peece of knavery and is so resented to this day Think the same of the Trent-conventicle carried by the Pope and his agents with so much finenesse c. but so as now all 's come out to their eternall infamy Verse 16. Went away into Galilee They had seen him twice or thrice before at Ierusalem yet took a long journey here into Galilee to see him again Whom having not seen ye love 1 Pet. 1. 8. Austins wish was to see Christum in carne But if we had known Christ after the flesh yet saith St Paul henceforth should we know him so no more 2 Cor. 5. 16. sith the comfortable presence of his spirit is better then his corporall presence and more to our benefit Ioh. 16. 7. By this it is that though now we see him not yet beleeving we rejoyce with unspeakable and glorious joy 1 Pet. 1. 8. and must not think much of a journey 〈◊〉 though it be not to a mountain in Galilee but to the heavenly hills from whence comes our help to see the King in his beauty Christum regem videre in decore suo which was Bedes wish Verse 17. They worshipped him but some doubted Even whiles they worshipped they doubted yet was not their worship rejected The Lord knoweth his still 2 Tim. 2. 19. But they know not him still as here in this text howbeit they are known of him Gal. 4. 9. and their whole way both known and approved Psal. 1. 6. Verse 18. All power is given to me Christ premiseth his power and promiseth his presence the better to perswade them to set upon his work his great work of subduing the world to the obedience of the faith Better may this King of Kings say then that King of Spain Sol mihi semper lucet for he is Catholike Monarch The kingdomes of this world and of the other too are become the kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and 〈◊〉 shall reign for ever and ever Revel 11. 15. As for the Saints how can they be but in an all-sufficiency sith all is theirs they being Christs and Christ being Gods what boldnesse may they take to go to Christ as Jacob did to Joseph when he understood that the sway of the whole land was in his hand c See the Note on Matth. 11. 27. Verse 19. Go yee therefore In this my strength as Gideon did against the Midianites and though but a barly cake course and contemptible yet shall ye overthrow the worlds tents yea the strong holds of Satan though you have but lamps and 〈◊〉 in your hands yet shall ye acheive great matters The Apostles were those white horses whereupon the Lord Christ 〈◊〉 went forth conquering and to conquer Britannorum 〈◊〉 Romanis loca Christo patuerunt saith 〈◊〉 The Burgundians much afflicted by the Hunnes sled to 〈◊〉 the God of the Christians whom after a long dispute they 〈◊〉 to be a great God and a great King above all Gods St Francis Drake tells us of twelve Martyrs burnt for Religion at Lima in Mexico not two moneths before his coming thither And he that set forth New-Englands first-fruits assures us of some of those Natives that being converted to the faith lived 〈◊〉 and died comfortably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all nations 〈◊〉 Disciple them make them Christians first and then teach them to observe c. vers 20. as in Baptisme they have promised for otherwise it was pity that font-water was ever spilt upon their faces In the kingdom of Congo in Afrike diverse of those Heathens by the 〈◊〉 of the Portugals arriving there were content to become Christians and to be baptized allowing of the principles of Religion and professing Christ till the Priests pressed them to lead their lives according to their profession which the most part of them in no case induring they returned back again to their Gentilisme As for the 〈◊〉 Converts in Mexico they so litle remember their covenant made with Christ in Baptisme that many times they forget 〈◊〉 very names soon after they have been baptized Baptizing them into the name of c. That is consecrating them unto the sincere service of the sacred 〈◊〉 and confirming them by this holy Sacrament in the faith of the forgivenesse of their sins and in the hope of life eternall This is the end use and efficacy of Baptisme which Piscator saith few of the Fathers rightly understood Those Popish Asles certainly did not who moved this foolish question An asinus bibens ex baptismo bibat aquam baptismi sic asinus dicendus sic baptisatus Pity but these questionites had been present when the young scollar reading publikely the fifth of the first of Corinthians for probation-sake at the Colledge of Bamberg when he came to that passage Expurgate vetus fermentum c. Sicut estis azymi He not understanding the word Azymi
Bernard who seek straws to put out their eyes withall If we break not off our sins by repentance that there may be a lengthening of our tranquillity a removall of our Candleslick may be as certainly fore-seen and fore-told as if visions and letters were sent us from heaven as once to the Church of Ephesus God may well say to us as to them of old Have I been a wildernesse unto Israel a land of darknesse Or as Themistocles to his Athenians Are ye weary of receiving so many benefits by one man Bona à tergo formosissima Our sins have long since sollicited an utter dissolution and desolation of all and that we should be made a heap and a hissing a waste and a wildernesse Quod Deus aveâ—tat Verse 2. And saying Repent ye Change your mindes now at the preaching of the Gospel as they changed their garments at the promulgation of the Law Rent your hearts and not your garments plough up the fallows of your hearts grieve for your sins even to a transmentation as those Corinthians did and as Simon Peter counselled Simon Magus that snake that had cast his coat but kept his poison For although he caâ—ried the matter so cleanly and cunningly that Philip took him for a true convert and baptized him yet Peter soon saw that he was in the gall or venome of bitternesse for the word used Deut. 29. 18. whereunto the Apostle alludes signifieth both and therefore prescribes him an Antidote the very same that John doth here this generation of vipers Repent if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee His wicked thought is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the godly change of minde that the Apostle perswadeth him unto is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that by some mischance hath drunk poison must cast it up again as soon as he can ere it get to the vitals Repentance is the souls vomit which is the hardest kinde of physick but the wholsomest Happy is he that by the dung-port of his mouth in a sorrowfull confession can disburden himself of the sinne that both clogs and hazards his soul to death eternall We râ—n from God by sin to death and have no other way to return but by death to sin For the kingdom of heaven is at hand q. d. Ye have a price put into your hands a fair opportunity of making your selves for ever Will ye like the vine and olive in â—othams parable not leave your sweetnesse and fatnesse your dilecta delicta beloved sins although it be to raign yea and that in Gods kingdome Knowest thou not that the goodnesse of God should lead thee to repentance Is there not mercy with God therefore that he may be feared should not men rent their hearts because God is gracious and turn to the Lord because he will multiply pardon To argue from mercy to liberty is the devils logick and makes God repent him of his favours to such as David did of his kindenesse to Nabal Rather we should argue from mercy to duty as Joseph did to his master in a temptation from deliverance to obedience with David Psal. 116 8 9. And therefore return to our fathers house with the Prodigall because there is bread enough therefore repent because his Kingdome is at hand and would be laid hold on As John Baptist was Christs fore-runner into the world so must repentance be his fore-runner into our hearts Verse 3. For this is he which was spoken of Whether these be the words of the Baptist or of the Evangelist it appears not skils not The most say of the Evangelist concerning the Baptist. By the Prophet Isaias Thus one Testament infolds another as those wheels in Ezekiel And the Law preacheth faith in Christ as well as the Gospel Rom. 10. 6. 7. The voice of one crying Loudly and lustily lifting up his voice as a trumpet or as the sound of many waters Semblably S. Paul was ordained to be a crier 1 Tim. 1. â—1 and so is every faithfull Preacher 2 Tim. 4. 2. He must cry and be instant stand to the work and stand over it Sta cum diligentia saith the Syriack there clangite clamate Jer. 4. 5. Ye have to doe with deaf men dead men living carcases walking sepulchres of themselves Now therefore as our Saviour lifted up his voice when he said Lazarus come forth So must Christs Ministers when they speak to such as lie rotting and stinking in the graves of their corruptions cry aloud Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead that Christ may give thee light Ecclesia the Church is a word in use among the Athenians and signifies an Assembly of Citizens called out of the multitude as it were by name or in their ranks by the voice of the publike Crier to hear some speech or sentence of the Senate The Church in like sort is a company called out of the kingdome of Satan by the voice of Gods Ministers as it were criers to hear the doctrine of the Gospel revealed from heaven There are that observe that John Baptist entered upon his calling in the year of Jubilee which used to be proclaimed by a Crier with the sound of a trumpet and that in allusion thereunto he is called The voice of a crier Prepare ye the way of the Lord. 〈◊〉 the terrours of the Lord to seize upon your souls take not up bucklers against the stroaks of Gods Law bring not your buckets to quench the motions of his Spirit knocking at your hearts by the hammer of his Word Make much of the least beginnings of grace even those they call repressing since they prepare the heart for conversion Open the everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith As Esther leaned upon 〈◊〉 two maids when she came before the King So let the soul 〈◊〉 upon attrition of the Law and contrition of the Gospel so 〈◊〉 the King of glory stretch out the golden Scepter of his grace and we shall live As Iohn Baptist was Christs fore-runner into the world so must repentance be his fore-runner into our hearts for he that repenteth not the Kingdom of God is far from him he cannot see it for his lusts that hang in his light Make his paths straight Walk exactly precisely accurately 〈◊〉 line and by rule walk as in a frame make straight steps to your feet or else there is no passing the strait gate so strait that as few can walk in it so none can halt in it but must needs goe upright Plain things will joyn in every point one with another not so 〈◊〉 and rugged things In like sort plain spirits close with Gods truths not those that are swoln c. The old heart will never hold out the hardship of holines Verse 4. And the same Iohn had his raiment
to do any thing for them or theirs The whole Law is say the Schoolmen but one copulative Any condition not observed 〈◊〉 the whole lease and any Commandment not obeyed subjects a man to the curse And as some one good action hath 〈◊〉 ascribed and assured to it as peace-making Matth. 5. 9. so he that shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all When some of the Israelites had broken the fourth Commandment God challengeth them for all Exod. 16. 28. Where then will they appear that plead for this Zoar for that Rimmon a merry lye a petty oath an idle errand on the Lords day c. Sick bodies love to be gratified with some little bit that favoureth the disease But meddle not with the murthering morsels of sin there will be bitternesse in the end Jonathan had no sooner tasted of the honey with the tip of his rod only but his head was forfeited There is a 〈◊〉 fullnesse in sin a lye in these vanities give them an inch they 'l take an ell Let the serpent but get in his head he will shortly winde in his whole body He playes no small game but meaneth us much hurt how modest soever he seemeth to be It is no 〈◊〉 then the Kingdom that he seeketh by his maidenly 〈◊〉 as Adoniah As therefore we must submit to 〈◊〉 so we must resist the devil without expostulation 1 Pet. 5. 7. throw water on the fire of temptation though but to some smaller sin and stamp on it too Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth saith St James A little poison in a cup a little leak in a ship or breach in a wall may ruin all A little wound at the heart and a little sin in the soul may hide Gods face from us as a cloud Therefore as the Prophet when a cloud as big as a mans hand only appeared knew that the whole heaven would be overcovered and 〈◊〉 the King to betake himself to his charret so let us to 〈◊〉 shelter for a company comes as she said when she bore her 〈◊〉 Gad After Jonathan and his Armour-bearer came the whole host and when Dalilah had prevai'ed came the Lords of the Philistims He that is fallen from the top of a ladder cannot stop at the second round Every sin hardneth the heart and gradually disposeth it to greater offences as lesser wedges make way for bigger After Ahaz had made his wicked Altar and offered on it he brought it into the Temple first setting it on the brazen Altar afterwards bringing it into the house and then lastly setting it on the Northside of Gods Altar Withstand fin therefore at first and live by Solomons rule Give not water passage no not a little Silence sin as our Saviour did the 〈◊〉 and suffer it not to sollicite thee If it be importunate answer it not a word as 〈◊〉 would not Rabshakeh or give it a short and sharp answer yea the blew eye that St Paul did This shall be no grief unto thee hereafter nor offence of heart as she told David the contrary way It repented St Austin of his very excuses made to his parents being a childe and to his schoolmaster being a boy He retracts his ironyes because they had the appearance of a lye because they looked ill-favouredly B. Ridley repents of his playing at Chesse as wasting too much time Bradford bewaileth his dullnesse and unthankfullnesse Davids heart smote him for cutting the lap of 〈◊〉 coat only and that for none other intent then to clear his own innocency that in which Saul commended him for his moderation There are some that would shrink up sin into a narrow scantling and bring it to this if they could that none do evil but they that are in goales But David approves his sincerity by his respect to all Gods Commandments and hath this commendation that he did all the wills of God Solomon also bidds count nothing little that God commandeth but keep Gods precepts as the sight of the eye Those venturous spirits that dare live in any known sin aspire not to immortality Phil. 2. 12. they shall be least that is nothing at all in the Kingdom of heaven And teacheth men so As the Pharisees did and all the old and modern heresiarches In the year 1559. it was maintained by one David George that Arch heretike that good works were pernicious and destructory to the soul. The Anabaptists and Socinians have broached many doctrines of devils not fit to be once named amongst Christians The Pneumatomachi of old set forth a base book of the Trinity under St Cyprians name and sold it at a very cheap rate that the poorest might be able to reach it and reade it as 〈◊〉 complaineth In those Primitive times those capitall haeresies concerning the Trinity and Christs Incarnation were so generally held that it was a witty thing then to be a right beleever as Erasmus phraseth it All the world in a manner was turned Arian as St Hierome hath it 〈◊〉 telleth us that the 〈◊〉 being desirous to be instructed in the Christian religion requested of 〈◊〉 the Emperour to send them some to preach the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He being himself an 〈◊〉 sent them Arian Doctours who set up that heresie amongst them By the just judgement of God therefore the same Valens being overthrown in battle by the 〈◊〉 was also burnt by them in a poor cottage whether 〈◊〉 had fled for shelter Heretikes have an art of pythanology whereby they cunningly insinuate into mens affections and many times 〈◊〉 wade before they teach as it is said of the 〈◊〉 It was therefore well and wisely done of Placilla the Empresse when her husband Theodosius senior desired to conser with Eunomius she earnestly disl 〈◊〉 him lest being perverted by his speeches he might fall into his haeresie Shall be least in the Kingdom of heaven That is nothing at all there as Matth 20. 16. Either of these two sins here 〈◊〉 exclude out of heaven how much more both If single sinners that break Gods Commandments and no more shall be damned those that teach men so shall be double damned If God will be avenged on the former seven-fold 〈◊〉 he will on the later seventy-fold seven-fold When the beast and the Kings of the earth and their armies shall be gathered together toward the end of the world to make war against Christ the multitud shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the sword the poor seduced people that were carried along many of them as those two-hundred that followed Absolom out of Jerusalem in the simplicity of their hearts and understood not the matter shall have an easier judgement But the beast was taken and the false Prophet and were both cast 〈◊〉 not slain with the sword and so cast to the infernall vultures to be
then seem to be so Not so every 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these like Ieroboams wife never put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but when they are to speak with the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so holy as at Church and in the presence of those whole 〈◊〉 they reverence Verse 6. But thou when thou praiest enter into thy 〈◊〉 c. The proper place for secret 〈◊〉 as the family is for private praier and the Church for publike Luk. 4. 16. that being 〈◊〉 from company we may more 〈◊〉 descend into our own hearts and be the freer from ostentation and hypocrisie and from discursation and wandering of minde Anima 〈◊〉 fit 〈◊〉 As also for the demonstration of our faith whereby we believe the omnipresence of God Who seeth in secret and 〈◊〉 openly Daniel indeed opened his windows and prayed in an 〈◊〉 room not to be more secret as Pintus mistaketh it but to be more seen and yet not of vain ostentation but of 〈◊〉 and constant profession The King had forbidden it so did Henry the third King of France forbid housholders to pray with their families Daniel did it notwithstanding as aforetime God must be obeyed rather then men as not Scripture only but nature teacheth He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed That had been his custome and should be 〈◊〉 also at morning at evening and at noon called upon God and had his set times for such devotions But the devil as it is probable 2 Sam. 12. 2. had caused him to come from his trench and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wound him He knows well enough that a Christians strength lies in his praier as Samsons did in his hair that it buckleth all our spirituall armour close to us and makes it usefull that a Christian can never want help whiles he can pray as they were wont to say the Pope can never want money so long as he can hold a pen in his hand to command and send for it That secret prayer is a soul-fatting exercise as secret meals we say feed the body The old Serpent feels himself charmed and disabled to doe hurt by these kinde of duties They have poured forth a charm when thy chastening was upon them Isa. 26. 16. Yea he is deeply wounded and driven out of the field by these arrows of deliverance as the King of Syria was 2 King 13. 17. which therefore he keeps what he can from being multiplied and enlarged Fervent praiers are the pillars of smoke wherein the Church ascendeth to God out of the wildernesse of this world and by an humble familiarity converseth yea 〈◊〉 with him as Abraham and Moses did especially when Satan sinne and conscience accuse and standeth as it were upon interrogatories such as are those Rom. 8. 33 34 35. And when thou hast shut thy door So to shut out distractions which yet will grow upon us doe what we can For though the spirit is willing to wait upon God all the while of the duty yet the flesh is weak It being but partly mortified draws away 〈◊〉 thoughts many times and putteth us to St Pauls complaint When I would doe good evil is present with me Satan also will be jogging and interrupting us and will needs be talking to us when we are most busily speaking to God as the Pythonisse troubled St Paul as he went to praier Act. 16 16. Worldly things likewise are so naturall to us and so near our senses heavenly things are so supernall and supernaturall that we cannot without watching our senses and travell of soul stay our spirits long upon them For help herein S. Augustine 〈◊〉 us that the ancient Christans of AEgypt were wont to use only short and pithy praiers and ejaculations such as was that of Elias when he contended with the Priests of Baal charging God in two words with the care of his 〈◊〉 of his truth and of his glory Many other helps there are for the curing and casting out in a comfortable 〈◊〉 these by-thoughts these birds that would rob Abraham of his sacrifice these swarms of AEgypt that our hearts 〈◊〉 be as so many Goshens these creeping things 〈◊〉 as David hath it This among the rest that our Saviour here presenbeth to 〈◊〉 into a secret place as Abraham did into his 〈◊〉 at Beersheba planted for the purpose though that was afterwards abused by the Heathens and therefore forbidden the Israelites Deut. 12. 3 〈◊〉 had his Oratory in the fields where he praied with deep meditation or soliloquie as the word there signifieth Rebeceah upon the strugling of the babes went to enquire of the Lord Gen. 25. 22. that is she went to some secret place to pray and receive some revelation from God say Calvin Musculus Mercer others Jacob had visions of God when he was all alone upon the way Elias praid under the Juniper our Saviour in the garden of Gethsemane and many times in the mount Cornelius in some corner of his house 〈◊〉 on the leades where also he fell into an extasie or trance and saw heaven open His soul was separated after a sort from his body for the time whilest he was talking with God he was so transported and carried out of himself ut 〈◊〉 esset paenè nescia carnis as S. Jerome testifieth of certain devout women of his time For the place we pray in no matter how mean it be so it be secret Where there is a Jeremy a Daniel 〈◊〉 a dungeon a Lions den a whales-belly are goodly oratours Shut the door to thee remembring the weaknesse of thy flesh and the malice of the devil watching how to distract thee Covenant with thy senses and binde them to the good abearance all the while look God full in the face as David did Psal. 57. 7. call in and concenter thy thoughts as men doe the Sun-beams into a burning glasse serve God with thy spirit as Paul did Rom. 1. 9. say All that 's within me praise his holy name Have thy heart at thy right hand with Solomons wise-man lay Gods charge upon it to attend upon him when it roves and wanders call it in and 〈◊〉 it judge and shame thy self for thy distractions and strive to doe better so shall they never be imputed unto thee To be wholly freed from them is a priviledge proper to the estate of perfection Some diseases will not be cured near home but men must repair to the Bath or City for help This infirmity is not to be healeo till we come to heaven No shutting of the door will doe it nor any thing else till the everlasting doors be opened unto us till we enter in by the gates into the City of the living God Pray to thy father which is in secret There are no dumb children in Gods house the least he hath can aske him blessing All are not alike gifted but every godly man prayeth unto thee saith David S. Paul was no sooner coverted
then they so that the floods of 〈◊〉 and oppositions cannot come so much as at their feet or if they reach to the heel yet they come not at the head or if they should dash higher upon them yet they break themselves Shall not prevail against it No though the devil should discharge at the Church his 〈◊〉 ordinance say they were as big as those two cast by Alphonsus Duke of Ferrara the one whereof he called the earthquake and the other Grandiabolo or the great devil Whether may the Catholike Church erre in fundamentals It is answered that 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Church of Christ taken for his mysticall to 〈◊〉 upon earth and complete number of h select cannot erre in matters fundamentall yet the externall visible part of the Church may erre because the truth of God may be locked up within the hearts of such a company as in competition of suffrages cannot make a greater part in a generall Councel so that the sentence decreed therein may be a fundamentall errour Verse 19. And I will give unto thee the keyes i. e. I will make thee and all my Ministers stewards in my hous 1 Cor. 4. 1. such as Obadiah was in Ahabs house as Eliakim in Hezekiahs upon whose shoulder God laid the key of the house of David so that he opened and none shut and shut and none opened Isa. 22. 22. Now let a man so think of us Ministers how mean soever and we shall not want for respect Verse 20. That they should tell no man viz. Till the due time Every thing is beautifull in its season saith Solomon Taciturnity in some cases is a vertue as here The Disciples might preach that Christ the Son of David was come to save the world though they might not particularly point himout as the Son of the living God which when Pilate himself heard he was afraid saith the text and sought to deliver him Verse 21. How that he must go to Jerusalem He must necessitate non simplici sed ex supposito It being supposed that God had decreed this way and no other to glorifie himself in mans salvation by the death of his dear Son wherein the naked bowels of his 〈◊〉 were laid open to us as in an anatomy it was necessary that Christ should be killed and raised again at the third day Voluntu Dei necessitas rei And be killed and raised again That we might live and raign with him for ever who else had been killed with death as the 〈◊〉 is Rev. 2. 23. that is had come under the 〈◊〉 of the second death David wished he might have died for Absolom such was his love to him Arsinoe interposed her self between the 〈◊〉 weapons sent by 〈◊〉 her brother to kill her children The 〈◊〉 not only feeds her young with her own bloud but with invincible constancy abides the flames of fire for their preservation Christ is that good shepherd who gave his life for his 〈◊〉 He is that true Pellican who saw the wrath of God burning about his young ones and cast himself into the midst thereof that he might quench it He was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification which began in his death but was perfected by his resurrection Verse 22. Then Peter took him Took him by the hand led him apart as we do those we are most 〈◊〉 with in great courtesy and secrecy to impart to them things of greatest importance Peter was strongly possest with a fond conceit of an earthly kingdom and as Joseph dreamt of his preferment but not at all of his imprisonment so neither could Peter think or hear of Christs being killed whom he had even now confessed to be the Christ the son of the living God See here how easily we slide by the deceitfulnesse of our hearts from the mean to the extream Peter having made a notable profession of his faith and being therefore much commended by Christ presently takes occasion to fall from the true holinesse of faith to the 〈◊〉 of presumption in advising his Master to decline the crosse And began to rebuke him saying No he did not rebuke him saith Maldonat the Jesuite but friendly counselled him only as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were not to chide and charge as masters do their servants even with threatnings and menaces But these patrons of Peter as they pretend will not abide that he should be blamed for any thing Baronius blusheth not to say and so to put the lie upon the holy Ghost himself that Paul was out in reproving Peter Gal. 2. 14. and that it had been better manners for him to have held his tongue Others of them have blasphemously censured S. Paul in their Sermons as a hot-headed person of whose assertions no great 〈◊〉 was to be made by the sober 〈◊〉 and that he was not secure of his preaching 〈◊〉 by conference with S. Peter neither durst he publish his Epistles till S. Peter had allowed them Verse 23. Get thee behinde me Satan Come behinde as a 〈◊〉 ciple go not before me as a teacher understand thy distance and hold thee to thy duty by moving in thine own sphear that 〈◊〉 be not thus 〈◊〉 eccentrick another Satan who sets thee a work thus to tempt me as he once did Eve to seduce Adam here Maldonat is hard put to 't to save 〈◊〉 blamelesse and saith that Get thee behinde me is an Hebrew phrase and imports no more then Follow me But when he comes to consider that Christ calls him Satan and that it would not be 〈◊〉 that Christ should bid Satan follow him he is 〈◊〉 to confesse that it is the speech of one that bids another be packing out of his presence with indignation like that of Christ to the tempter Mat. 4. Get thee hence Satan Prosit 〈◊〉 sternutatio 〈◊〉 Maldonate 〈◊〉 art an offence unto me Thou doest thy good will to 〈◊〉 me in the course of my calling as Mediatour wherein say some he sinned more grievously then afterwards he did in denying his Master and was therefore so sharply rebuked So when 〈◊〉 was sollicited by Criton to break prison and save his life by flight Friend Criton said he thine earnestnesse herein were much worth if it were consistent with uprightnesse but being not so the greater it is the more trouble 〈◊〉 I know not said that 〈◊〉 Martyr by what reason they so called them my friends which so greatly laboured to convert pervert me Neither will I more esteem them then the Midianites which 〈◊〉 times past called the children of Israel to do sacrifice to their Idols But the things that be of men Erewhile it was of Satan now of 〈◊〉 How 〈◊〉 is it to descry a devil in our best friends sometimes as 〈◊〉 the French Martyr did in his parents Satan suborns such as may do much with us and works in them effectually for our hurt as a Smith doth in his forge Ephes. 2.
George Carpenter who was burnt at Munchen in Bavaria Verse 26. For what is a man profited If there could saith a reverend Divine be such a bargain made that he might have the whole world for the sale of his soul he should for all that be a looser by it For he might notwithstanding be a bankrupt a beggar begging in vain though but for a drop of cold water to cool his tongue Is it nothing then to loose an immortall soul to purchase an everliving death The losse of the soul is in this verse set forth to be 1. Incomparable 2. Irreparable If therefore to loose the life for money be a 〈◊〉 what then the soul What wise man would fetch gold out of a fiery crucible hazard himself to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a few waterish pleasures give his soul to the devil as some Popes did for the short enjoyment of the Papall dignity What was this but to win Venice and then to be hanged at the gates thereof as the Proverb is In great fires men look first to their jewels then to their lumber fo should these see first to their 〈◊〉 to secure them and then take care of the outward man The souldier cares not how his buckler speeds so his body be kept thereby from deadly thrusts The Pope perswading Maximilian King of Bohemia afterwards Emperour to be a good Catholike with many promises of profits and 〈◊〉 was answered by the King that he thanked his Holinesse but that his souls health was more dear to him then all the things in the world Which answer they said in Rome was a Lutheran form of speech and signified an alienation from the obedience of that Sea and they began to discourse what would happen after the old Emperours death Or what shall a man give in exchange He would give any thing in the world yea 10000 worlds if he had them to be delivered But out of hell there 's no redemption Hath the extortioner pilled or the robber spoiled thy goods By labour and leisure thou maist recover thy self again But the soul once lost is irrecoverable Which when the guilty soul at death thinks of oh what a dreadfull shreek gives it to see it self lanching into an infinite Ocean of scalding lead and must swim naked in it for ever How doth it trembling warble out that dolefull ditty of dying Adrian the Emperour 〈◊〉 vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis Qua nunc abibis in loca Horridula sordida tristia 〈◊〉 ut soles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 27. In the glory of his father with his Angels Great will be the glory of the man Christ Jesus at his second coming He shall come riding on the clouds not that he needs them but to shew his soveraignty environed with flaming fire mounted on a stately throne attended by an innumerable company of Angels for they shall all come with him not one of them left in heaven who shall minister unto him in this great work irresistibly justly speedily Rev. 15. 6. Christ himself shining in the midst of them with such an exuberancy and excesse of glory as that the Sun shall seem but a snuff to him This glory howsoever it is here called the glory of the father because he is the fountain as of the Deity so of the divine glory wherewith Christ is crowned Phil. 2. 9. 1 Tim. 3. 16. yet is it his own glory as he is one with the Father and the holy Ghost and so it is called Mat. 25. 31. Joh. 17. 5. Now if Israel so shouted for joy of Solomons coronation and in the day of 〈◊〉 espousals that the earth rang again If the Grecians so cried out 〈◊〉 Soter to Flaminius the Roman Generall when he had set them at liberty that the very birds 〈◊〉 at the noise fell down to the earth Oh how great shall be the Saints joy to see Christ the King in his beauty and bravery at the last judgment Verse 28. Which shall not taste of death The Saints do but taste of death only they do no more but sip of that bitter cup which for tasting of that forbidden fruit in the Garden they should have been swilling and swallowing down for ever Till they see the Son of man c. This verse is to be referred to the transfiguration recorded in the next Chapter where some of them had the happines to see Christ in his kingdom that is in his 〈◊〉 glory whereof they had a glimpse CHAP. XVII Verse 1. And after six 〈◊〉 LUke saith about eight daies after It comes all to one For Matthew puts exclusively those daies only that went between and were finished but Luke puts the two utmost daies also 〈◊〉 the reckoning Jesus 〈◊〉 Peter James and John So Matth. 9. when he raised the damosell he took with him these three only haply as best beloved because bold 〈◊〉 more zealous then the rest or the better to fit them for further triall great feelings oft precede great afflictions Howsoever it is no small favour of God to make us witnesses of his great works and so let us take it As all Israel might see Moses go toward the Rock of Rephidim None but the Elders might see him strike it That God 〈◊〉 his Sonne before us that he fetcheth the true water of life out of the Rock in our sight is an high prerogative And no lesse surely that we are 〈◊〉 transported in prayer carried out of the body in divine meditation and lost in the endlesse maze of spirituall ravishments that we returne from the publike ordinances as Moses did from the mount with our faces shining that we are transfigured and transformed into the same image from glory to glory and that the Angell of the covenant doth wondrously during the time of the sacrifice whiles Manoah and his wife look on c. These are speciall priviledges communicated to none but the communion of Saints And bringeth them up into 〈◊〉 high mountain The name of this mountain no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by common consent it was mount Tabor which Josephus calleth 〈◊〉 whereof Hierom writeth copiously and elegantly in his commentary upon the fifth of Hosea Our Saviour when he had some speciall work to do went usually up into a mountain to teach us to soar a 〈◊〉 in great performances especially and to be heavenly-minded taking a 〈◊〉 or two ever and anon with Christ in mount Tabor treading upon the Moon with the Church Rev. 12. 1. having our feet at least where other mens heads are on things on earth Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise delighting our selves in high flying as Eagles never merry till gotten into the aire or on the top of trees with the lesser birds Zacheus could not see Christ till he had climbed the figtree Nor can we see the Consolation of Israel till elevated in divine contemplation till gotten up into Gods holy hill The people tasted not Mannah till they had left
in the same estate wherein they were before These that follow this latter sense read the text thus by an alteration of points Ye which have followed me shall in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in his glory fit upon twelve thrones c. Ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones As so many Kings Kings they are here but somewhat obscure ones as Melchisedech was but shall then appear with Christ in glory far outshining the Sunne in his strength higher then all the Kings of the earth When Daniel had 〈◊〉 the greatnesse and glory of all the four Monarchies of the world at last he comes to speak of a Kingdome which is the greatest and mightiest under the whole heaven and that is the Kingdom of the Saints of the most high So glorious is their estate even here what 〈◊〉 it be then at that great day And if the Saints every of them shall judge the Angells What shall the Apostles do surely as they 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 men in this world so shall it fare with them at the generall Judgement Verse 29. Shall receive an hundred sold In reference to Isaacks hundred-fold increase of his seed Gen. 26. 12. or that best of grounds Mat. 13 Those that do pillage us they do but husband us sow for us when they make long forrowes on our backs Psal. 126. and ride over our heads Psal. 66 12 Gordius the Mattyr said It is to my losse if you bate me any thing in my suffrings Crudelitas vestra nostra gloria said they in Tertullian your cruelty is our glory and the harder we are put to it the greater shall be our reward in heaven Nay on earth too the Saints shall have their losses for Christ recompensed either in mony or monies-worth either in the same or a better thing Iob had all doubled to him Valentinian for his tribuneship the Empire cast upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostate who had put him out of office for his religion Q. Elizabeth whose life 〈◊〉 a long while had been like a ship in the midst of an Irish sea after long restraint was exalted from misery to 〈◊〉 from a prisoner to a 〈◊〉 Optanda nimirum est jactura quae lucro majore pensatur saith Agricola It is 〈◊〉 a lovely losse that is made up with so great gain 〈◊〉 Q. Elizabeth forknown whiles she was in prison what a glorious raign she should have had for 44 years she would never have wished her self a milk maid So did but the Saints understand what great things abide them both here and hereafter they would bear any thing chearfully An hundred 〈◊〉 here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life hereafter On who would not then turn spirituall purchaser Well might St Paul say godlines is profitable to all things Well might the Psalmist say In doing in suffering thy will there is great reward Not for doing it only but in doing it for Righteousnes is its own reward St Mark hath it thus He that leaveth house brethren sisters father c. shall receive the same in kinde house brethren 〈◊〉 father c. That is 1. He shall have communion with God and his consolations which are better then them all as 〈◊〉 that Italian Marquesse that left all for Christ avowed them and as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when his City was taken by the Barbarians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us to God Lord let me not be troubled at the losse of my gold and silver for thou art all in all unto me 2. He many times gives his suffering servants here such supplies of their outward losses in raising them up other friends and means as 〈◊〉 abundantly countervail what they have parted with Thus though David was driven from his wife and she was given to another God gave him a friend Jonathan whose love was beyond the love of women So though Naomi lost her husband and children Boaz 〈◊〉 and Obed became to her instead of all The Apostles left their houses and houshold-stuffe to follow Christ but then they had the houses of all godly people open to them and free for them and happy was that Lydia that could entertain them so that having nothing they yet possessed all things They left a few friends but they found 〈◊〉 more where ever they came Wherefore it was a 〈◊〉 sarcasme of Iulian the Apostate when reading this text he jearingly demanded whether they should have an hundred wives also for that one they had parted with 3. God commonly exalts his people to the contrary good to that evil they suffer for him as Ioseph of a slave became a ruler as Christ that was judged by men is Judge of all men The first thing that Caius did after he came to the Empire was to 〈◊〉 Agrippa who had been imprisoned for wishing him Emperour Constantine embraced Paphnutius and kissed his lost eye The King of Poland sent 〈◊〉 his enerall who had lost his hand in his warres a golden hand instead thereof God is far more liberall to those that serve him suffer for him Can any son of Iesse doe for us as he can Verse 30. But many that are first c Because Peter and the rest had called for their pay almost afore they had been at any pains for Chtist he therefore quickeneth them in these words bidding them bestir themselves better left others that are now hindermost should get beyond them and carry the crown Lay hold on eternall life saith Paul intimating that it is hanged on high as a garland so that we must reach after it strain to it So run that ye may obtain Look you to your work God will take care of your wages you need never trouble your selves about that matter CHAP. XX. Verse 1. For the Kingdom of heaven c. THat last sentence Christ further illustrateth and enforceth by this following parable Peter and the rest were in danger to be puffed up with the preconceit of their abundant reward 〈◊〉 chap. 19 28 29. This to prevent and that they might not stand upon their tearms and tiptoes they are again and again given to know that 〈◊〉 that are first shall be last and last first Which 〈◊〉 out early in the morning God is found of them that seek him not Isa 65. 1. Yea the Father seeketh such to worship him Ioh. 4. 23. he solliciteth suitours and servants A wonderfull condescension it is that he looketh out of himself upon the Saints and Angels in heaven Psal. 113. 6. How much more upon us poor earth-worms Labourers into his Vineyard Not loiterers Iacob saw the Angels some ascending others descending none standing still God hath made 〈◊〉 to play in the waters not so men they must be doing that will keep in with God Verse 2. For a penny a day Not for eternall life for this those murmuring merit-mongers never had who yet had their peny but something what ever it were that gave the labourers good content that it was for which each of them followed Christ
well-rooted 2 Epist. 1. 12 13. And Austin adviseth preachers so long to presse the same truths till they read in their hearers very visage that they resent and relish them Unto ten virgins Virgins without number Cant. 6. 8. Professours at large good and bad one with another Which took their lamps The solemnities of Marriage were anciently performed and celebrated by night Luk. 12. 35. 〈◊〉 Problem and the bridegrom brought to his lodging by the virgins bearing burning lamps before him Verse 2. Five were foolish That is some were wise and some others foolish and these last usually the most imprudent improvident afterwitted oculos habentes in occipitio that foresee not a following mischief but come in with their fools Had I wist with their Si praescivissem as the Lion in the fable The Spaniards say of the Portugals that they are pocos y focos Few and foolish But of foolish virgins that is of 〈◊〉 professours that have no more then an outside there are not a few but more then a good many in all places Cant. 6. 8 9. Verse 3. Took their lamps and took no oyle Empty casks 〈◊〉 figtrees pretenders only to the power of godlinesse of whom it may be said as Livy saith of the Athenians that they waged warre against Philip the father of Persius King of Macedonia so these against the devill the world and the flesh literis verbisque quibus solis valent These carry Uriah's letters about them destructory to themselves For if Religion be not good why do they professe it If it be why do they not practise it To such it may fitly be said as Archidamus to his son rashly conflicting with the enemy without sufficient strength Aut viribus adde aut animis adime so either adde practise or leave profession And as Alexander having a souldier of his own name and this souldier being a coward he came to him and said either leave off the name of Alexander or be valiant so let these Nominals either lay by their lamps or take oile with them Verse 4. But the wise took 〈◊〉 That is true faith in their 〈◊〉 which as oile is spredding softning suppling soaking Christ putteth not upon his a washy colour of profession a blockwood blew but he dyeth them in grain with true grace and holinesse Verse 5. While the bridegrom tarried Tarry he doth 1. To exercise our patience 2. To eneager our desires 3. That his elect may be all gathered 4. That the mystery of iniquity may be fullfilled 5. That the prophecies may be accomplished c. They all slumbred The wise ones also slept but their hearts waked they slept but half-sleep they napped and nodded they 〈◊〉 with open eyes as the lion doth the spirit was willing to wake but the flesh was weak and over-wayed it They slumbred but it was by candle-light they had their lamps burning by them which the foolish had not Verse 6. There was a cry made By the trumpet of the Archangell and the voice of God say some Interpreters and Hierom reports it for an Apostalicall tradition that Christ shall come at midnight But of that houre no man knoweth saith the Judge himself Others there are that expound this cry of the Preaching of the Gospel according to that voice of the cryer Prepare ye the way of the Lord c. Matth. 3. And here clames ut Stentora vincas Cry aloud spare not c. Verse 7. And trimmed their lamps The 〈◊〉 also made a fair flourish and held themselves haply in case good enough for heaven deceiving their own hearts or rather deceived by them whiles they use fallacious and specious 〈◊〉 Jam. 1. 26. to make themselves beleeve their peny to be good silver when asit is nothing better then a slip Verse 8. Our lamps are gon out They were not lighted lamps 〈◊〉 sparks of their own 〈◊〉 phantasticall fire an ignis fatuus a painted flame which neither heats nor lights The glow-worm seems to have both heat and light but touch it and it hath neither Alchymy gold may seem brighter and 〈◊〉 then true gold but it can neither passe the seventh fire nor comfort the heart as a cordiall so here A man may live by a form but he cannot dye by it They that kindle a fire but not of Gods sanctuary and compasse themselves about with specious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may walk here for a while in the light of their 〈◊〉 and in the sparks that they have kindled But when 〈◊〉 done this is all they shall have of Gods hand they shall lye 〈◊〉 in sorrow Isa. 50. 11. Verse 9. Lest there be not enough c. The best have nought to spare what ever Papists fancy of the Church-treasury The righteous is scarcely saved at death he findes all he could do little enough though he began betime and 〈◊〉 himself to his utmost hard and 〈◊〉 gets he to heaven though he hath instantly served God day and night Act. 26. 7. with a kinde of 〈◊〉 and vehemency But go ye rather to them that sell Salsa est derisio non cohortatio like that Isa. 47. 13. As if God should say to Papists Go to your Indulgencers pardon-mongers Aneylers or to carnall Gospellers Go to your parasiticall-preachers that have soothed you up in your sinnes and ye loved to have it so or at the best have shot off a few potguns only against grosse sinnes and licked you whole again presently with I hope better things of you c. Verse 10. And they that were ready went in c. The bridegroom waits no mans leisure Love is 〈◊〉 of delaies leaps over all impediments those mountains of Bether or division that it may have not a union only but a unity with the beloved And the door was shut Opportunity is headlong and once lost irrecoverable It behooves us therefore to be abrupt in the work of repentance Dan. 4. 27. as a work of greatest haste lest we cry out as he once All too late all too late or as a great Lady of this land did lately upon her death-bed Time time a world of wealth for an inch of time We want not time so much as waste it Remember that upon this moment depends eternity God hath hang'd the heaviest weights upon the weakest wiers Verse 11. Afterward came also the other Virgins The greater number by ods that stand trifling and bafling with Christ and their souls futuring their repentance Epimetheus Postmasters semper victuri in Seneca's sense Ioho saphat in temporalls was 〈◊〉 wise too late 2 Chron. 18 31. 20. 36 37. and paid for his after-wit howbeit in spiritualls he was a wise virgin made sure work for his soul which was an high point of heavenly prudence Verse 12. Verily I say unto you I know you not i.e. With a knowledge of approbation or delight Verbanotitiae apud Hebraeos secum trahunt affectum See more above in the Note upon chap. 7. v. 23. Verse 13. Watch therefore
would cut his own 〈◊〉 But he brake promise for shortly after he hang'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same time Foxford Chancellour to the 〈◊〉 of London a cruell persecutour and butcher of the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his chair his belly being burst and his guts falling out before him as likewise Judas his did Cum 〈◊〉 singularicrepitus fragore as the word imports Act. 1. 18. 〈◊〉 makes mention of a covetous Bishop of Misna in Germany who had the devil for his deathsman And D. Morton late Bishop of Durham reports a story of his own knowledge of one Sir Booth a bachelour of Arts in S. Iohns Colledge in Cambridge who being Popishly affected took the 〈◊〉 bread at the time of the Communion and forbearing to eat it conveyed and kept it closely for a time and afterwards threw it over the Colledge wall But a short time after not enduring the torment of his guilty 〈◊〉 he threw himself headlong over the battlements of the Chappel and some few hours after ended his life The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmity some shift or other a man may make to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calamities But a wounded spirit who can bear 〈◊〉 18 14. 〈◊〉 no fighting with a mighty fire no bearing up 〈◊〉 storm Iob when once wet to the skin 〈◊〉 the day of his birth and thinketh it better to be strangled or hanged then longer to endure it And yet God was but in 〈◊〉 as it were with Iob in comparison of Iudas Verse 6. It is not lawfull c. They would not suffer the price of bloud to lie in a chest but the bloud it self they could well enough suffer to lie in their consciences So our modern Pharisees the Popish Prelates will not be present when the Martyrs are condemned to death but have an hypocriticall form of interceding for them to the secular powers when as they themselves have delivered them up to the Judges to be executed 〈◊〉 suis praejudiciis damnarunt as one speaketh having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excommunicated and adjudged them worthy of death Verse 7. To bury strangers in Romans and others with whom they would have nothing common no not so much as a buriall place Isa. 65. 4 5. God 〈◊〉 of a people that remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments which say stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier then thou c. sick 〈◊〉 were of a Noli me tangere strict in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of foul sinnes There are that tell us that the nature of this Potters field is such as if a strangers body be laid in it it consumes it to the bone in four and twenty hours which it doth not to the body of any Jew This if it be true saith one it seems God would have the earth thus markt to preserve the memory of the bloudy mony by which it was purchased and therefore he gave it a vertue to consume strangers bodies ere they could corrupt refusing the Jews to shew how they had lost their priviledge to their own land by crucifying their Lord and strangers began to be possest of it Also to teach us that his hope is nearest incorruption who is the greatest stranger from the sin of the Jews that is 〈◊〉 Christ. Verse 8. Was called the field of bloud Not the buriall-place for strangers as they would have had it called thinking thereby to have gotten 〈◊〉 an eternall commendation for their love and liberality to strangers but the field of bloud so the Vulgar would needs call it much against these Masters mindes for a lasting monument of their detestable 〈◊〉 which they thought to have carried so cleanly that the world should have 〈◊〉 never the wiser and therefore they would not 〈◊〉 Christ themselves as they did Steven but to decline the envy delivered him up 〈◊〉 Pilate to be put to death It is hard if hypocrites be not by one means or other detected how else should their names rot Verse 9. Then was fulfilled Those blinde Pharisees not only observed not the sayings of the Prophets which they daily read but un wittingly also fulfilled them By Ieremy the Prophet Indeed by Zachary the Prophet but either 〈◊〉 had two severall names as was ordinary among that people or else what 〈◊〉 had preached 〈◊〉 long after 〈◊〉 to writing as did likewise Obadiah c. The price of him that was valued A goodly price 〈◊〉 there upon God for all his pastorall pains with that perverse people and 〈◊〉 upon Christ who is hereby proved to be God for all his inestimable worth and incomparable love to lost man-kinde If we be at any time undervalued as we are sure to be for the world knows us not 1 Ioh. 3. 2. what so great a matter is it Was not the Lord Christ infinitely under-rated Verse 10. And gave them for the Potters field To the Potter saith Zachary in the house of the Lord. What the Prophet sets down in short and more obscurely the Evangelist expounds and applies to Christ the antitype So true is that observation of Divines that the old Testament is both explained and fulfilled in the new by a happy harmony Verse 11. And Iesus stood before the Governour The best therefore and most innocent may be brought before Magistrates and accused of high treason which ever was as Lipsius observeth out of Tacitus Vnicum crimen corum qui crimine vacabant 〈◊〉 was held the Kings enemy Ieremy laid by the heels for a 〈◊〉 to the State Paul stiled a pest Luther a trumpet of rebellion Beza a seedsman of sedition c. Christs accusers here shamelesly appeal him of matters that were evidently ntrue This Pilate saw and therefore sought so many waies to deliver him Verse 12. He answered nothing Here the nimble Lawyer would have presently argued as the Popes Legat did at the meeting of the Princes at Smalcaldia in Germany He brought Letters from the Pope to the Electour of Saxony and because the Electour gave him not a present answer he inferred Qui tacet consentire videtur Melancthon being by made answer Hoc est sophisticum est regula juris 〈◊〉 non valet inconjecturalibus Nam dicit videtur argumentum videtur solvitur per non videtur Christ therefore answered nothing because they alledged nothing but notorious lies and such as he saw well the Governour himselfe saw thorow and therefore tried so many policies to set him free Verse 13. Hearest thou not c. Yes well enough but there is a time when a man should be as a deaf man that heareth not and as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth Ego 〈◊〉 Dominus ut tu linguae said he in Tacitus to his obstreperous adversary If I cannot command thy tongue yet I can command mine own ears And the prudent will keep silence in an evil time saith Amos. See the Note above on Chap. 26. 62. Patience and silence were Isaac's apology to Ishmael Sile
shall indeed drink of the cup But not of that bitter cup of his Fathers wrath which he drank off in his passion Only the Saints fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ Colos. 1. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yee shall be baptized And come out of the waters of affliction with as little hurt as a babe doth out of the water in baptisme by the help of divine grace Verse 42. They which are accounted to rule All earthly ruledomes are but shewes and shadowes to that of God Qui videntur imperare They doe but seem to rule Verse 46. Blind Bartimaeus Named and celebrated in the Gospel when many mighty Monarchs are utterly forgotten or else lie shrouded in the sheet of shame Verse 48. The more a great deale True faith works its way through many obstacles as the clouded sun doth Verse 50. And he casting away his garment Though a beggar he stood not upon the losse of his coat but for joy of his calling 〈◊〉 it from him So Joh. 4. 28. Heb. 12. 1. CHAP. XI Verse 2. Whereon never man sate AS if it had been done on set purpose Here was a wheel within a wheel Ezek. 1. the better to convince the stubborn Jewes of his Kingly office Verse 3. Say ye that the Lord hath need of him See here six severall arguments of our Saviours Deity 1. That he knew there was such an asse-colt 2. That he sent for it 3. Fore-saw that the masters of the colt would question them that fet it 4. That he professeth himself the Lord of all 5. That he could tell they would send the colt 6. That accordingly they did so Verse 12. He was hungry This and that he knew not but that there were figs on the tree declare him to be true Man Verse 13. The time of figs was not yet viz. Of ripe figs but if he could have found but green figs only he would at that time have been glad of them Hee looked for somewhat from that great shew of leaves But the old Proverb became true Great bruit little fruit Verse 17. My house shall be called c. He inveighs against the same fault with the same arguments as before Joh. 2. Verse 21. And Peter calling to remembrance So the fig-tree bare farre better fruit now that it was dryed then when it was green and flourishing 〈◊〉 nos Patres tum docentes tum labentes The Saints teach us as by their instructions so by their infirmities Verse 25. And when ye stand praying Severall gestures in prayer are described not prescribed in Gods Book The word here rendred stand importeth a presenting ones self before the Lord whether he stand sit or kneel c. Verse 30. From heaven or of men answer me So when the enemies of Reformation demand what we mean by so doing ask them what they think of that we doe Is it from heaven or of men If from heaven why doe not they approve it If of men why doe not they disprove it by the Scriptures Bucer and Melancthon framed a form of Reformation according to the truth of the Gospel with the approbation of the Peers and States of Cullen but the Clergy though not able to contradict it by good reason yet rejected it with slander and said that they had rather chuse to live under the Turkish Government then under a Magistrate that embraced that Reformation CHAP. XII Verse 1. A certain man planted c. SEe the Notes on Matth. 21. 33. Verse 3. And beat him Properly they hilded him but by a Metonymie they beat him Sie 〈◊〉 vulpem 〈◊〉 pellis 〈◊〉 AEtrahatur So men beat a Fox that they may the better hilde him Verse 4. Wounded him in the head Caput 〈◊〉 they brake his head Theophylact interpreteth it They completed their villany and spent all their spite upon him Verse 6. They will reverence my 〈◊〉 They will surely be 〈◊〉 to look him in the 〈◊〉 This is the proper signification of the word But sin had 〈◊〉 an impudency in their faces that they could blush no more then a Sack-but Verse 13. To catch him in his words As Hunters catch the beast in a toyl as Fowlers catch the bird in a snare as Saint Matthewes word here signifies Fistula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dum decipit auceps Verse 14. To give tribute This tribute the Jewes then paid to the Romanes as now they doe to the Turks for the very heads they wear And yet they had the face to say to our Saviour Joh. 8. 33. We never were in bondage to any man But perhaps these Jewes were of the Sect of Judas Gaulonites who would not be drawn by any torments to acknowledge any Lord upon earth beleeving that God only was to be held their Lord and King Verse 24. Not knowing the Scriptures And yet they alledged and argued out of Scripture but upon a false ground viz. that the state of men should continue in the other world such as it is here as to eat drink marry generate c. Verse 26. I am the God of Abraham Therefore thy God also if thou walk in the foot-steps of faithfull Abraham Rom. 4. 23 24. Verse 28. Asked him which is the first All Christs Disciples must be 〈◊〉 Questionists and doe the same to learn that this Scribe here doth for a worse purpose Verse 29. Is one Lord This the wiser Heathens as Pythagoras Socrates Plato and Aristotle with his Ens Entium miserere mei if that were his acknowledged Exod. 34. 14. Thou shalt worship 〈◊〉 other god Where the word Acher rendred Other hath R greater then ordinary to shew the greatnesse of the sinne of serving others gods and to set forth a difference between Acher Other and Echad One God One in Three and Three in One. Verse 34. Answered discreetly That he was better then the Pharisees used to be He was Egregiè cordatus homo and began to lift up his head out of the mud toward heaven Verse 35. How say the Scribes They were great Genealogists how was it then that they were no better versed in the Genealogie of Christ that they could give no better an account of his two-fold nature Of other things one may be ignorant and yet be saved Not so here Verse 36. Said by the Holy Ghost The Psalmes then are a part of holy Writ by Christs own testimony who also Luk. 24. 44. divideth the Old Testament into the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalmes Yea Psalmorum liber 〈◊〉 utilia sunt ex omnibus continet saith Augustine after Basil The Psalmes are a treasury of all holy truths Verse 38. Love to goe in long clothing Down to the heels as Senators or Counsellors A garment that Christ himself ware as being a Citizen or free Denison of Capernaum But he loved not to go in it as these Pharisees these glorious Masters of
peace Pax quasi pactio conditionum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à connectendo in unum Christ is the great Peace-maker but only to the elect called here the Men of Gods good will When he was born Cuncta atque continua totius generis humani aut pax fuit aut pactio Verse 15. Let us now goe even unto Bethlehem They did not reason nor debate with themselves saith Bishop Hooper Martyr in a Letter to certain good people taken praying in Bow-Church-yard and now in trouble who should keep the wolfe from the sheep in the mean time but committed the sheep to him whose pleasure they obeyed So let us doe now that we be called commit all other things to him that called us He will take heed that all shall be well He will help the husband comfort the wife guide the servants keep the house preserve the goods yea rather then it should be undone he will wash the dishes rock the cradle c. Verse 16. Found Mary and Joseph c. They though of the bloud royall yet lay obscured not thrusting themselves into observation but well content with a low condition Beata Virgo in vili stabulo sedet jacet sed quod homines negligunt coelestes cives honorant inquirunt saith Stella The humble person is like the violet which growes low hangs the head downwards and hides it selfe with its own leaves And were it not that the fragrant smell of his many vertues betrayes him to the world he would chuse to live and dye in his self-contenting 〈◊〉 Verse 17. They made known abroad True goodnesse is communicative there is no envie in spirituall things because they may be divided in solidum One may have as much as another and all alike These shepherds as those lepers 2 King 7. 9. said one to another Wee doe not well this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace c. Verse 18. Wondred at those things Yet made little benefit of what they heard All the world wondred after the Beast Revel 13. 3. And it was a wonder there was no more wondering at the birth of our Saviour if that were true especially that besides the Wise-mens starre Mat. 2. and the Angelicall musick in the air c. among the Gentiles a voyce was heard The great God is now about to be born And that at Rome the likenesse of a woman carrying a child in her arms was seen about the sunne c. These things are storied Polydor Virgil reports out of Orosius that on the very day of Christs nativity Augustus Caesar caused proclamation that no man should stile him Lord any longer Manifesto praesagio majoris Dominatus qui tum in terris ortus esset as presaging a greater then himself then born Verse 19. Mary kept all those things Her soule was as an holy ark her memory like the pot of Mānnah preserving holy truthes and remarkable occurrences Verse 20. As it was told unto them God to shew that he respected not persons revealed this grand mystery to shepheards and Wise-men the one poor the other rich the one learned the other unlearned the one Jewes the other Gentiles the one neer the other far off Verse 21. For the Circumcising of the Child Christ would be Circumcised and so become bound to fulfill the Law that hee might free us that were under the Law Gal. 4. 5. Verse 22. And when the dayes of her purification She was rather sanctified then polluted by bearing Christ yet wrangleth not with the Law nor claimeth an immunity Now if she were so officious in ceremonies what in the maine duties of morality According to the Law This Law of Purification proclaimes our uncleannesse whose very birth infects the mother that bare us She might not till the seventh day converse with men nor till the fortieth day appear before God in the Sanctuary nor then without a burnt-offering for thanksgiving and a sin-offering for expiation of a double sin viz. of the Mother that conceived and of the Son that was conceived Verse 23. That openeth the womb This proves that Mary brought forth Christ in a naturall way and not utero clauso by a miracle as Papists would have it to prove their fiction of Transubstantiation Shall be called holy to the Lord God requireth the first-born as usually best-beloved that together with our children he might draw to himself the best of our affections Verse 24. A pair of Turtle-doves Christs Mother was not rich enough to bring a Lamb. Let this comfort poor Christians I know thy poverty saith Christ but that 's nothing thou art rich Revelations 2. 9. Smyrna the poorest Church hath the highest commendation Verse 25. Just and devout Or wary and cautelous one that takes heed and is fearfull of being deceived in that which he takes for right and currant Waiting for the Consolation of Israel That is for Christs comming This was the sugar wherewith they sweetned all their crosses this was the Dittany by tasting whereof as Harts do they shoke of all the peircing shafts of their afflictions Some Jewes conclude the Messiah when he comes shall be called Menahem the comforter from Lam. 1. 16. Verse 26. It was revealed unto him By an immediate Oracle The Idolatrous heathens made use of this word to signifie their impious and diabolicall Oracles The abuse of a word taketh not away the use of it Verse 27. And he came by the spirit c. So still the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Psal. 37. 23. He sets his spirit as a Tutour to direct and convince 〈◊〉 into all truth Simeon likely had done as Daniel did Chap. 9. 2. found out by diligent search that the fulnesse of time was come and is therefore thus answered from heaven Verse 28. Then 〈◊〉 he him up in his armes The blessed 〈◊〉 armfull that ever the good old man had in his life The Patriarchs saluted him but afar off Heb. 11. Verse 29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant Simeon having laid in his heart saith one what he lapt in his armes sung 〈◊〉 dimitt as I fear no sin I dread no death I have lived enough I have my life I have long'd enough I have my love I have seen enough I have my light I have served enough I have my saint I have sorrowed enough I have my joy Sweet babe let this Psalm serve for a 〈◊〉 to thee and for a funerall for me Oh sleep in my armes and let me sleep in thy peace Dying Velcurio broke out into these words Pater est amator 〈◊〉 Redemptor Spiritus Sanctus Consolator quomodo itaque tristitiâ affici possim Dying 〈◊〉 said Ego 〈◊〉 Sanctorum minimus credo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christum salutem 〈◊〉 Verse 30. For mine eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A great satisfaction So it was to Job Chap. 42. 5. when he could say I have heard of thee by the hearing of the