fish of the sea was tributary to him How should this incourage our dependance upon that Omnipotent hand of thine which hath Heaven earth sea at thy disposing Still thou art the same for thy members which thou wert for thy self the Head Rather then offence shall be given to the world by a seeming neglect of thy dear Children thou wilt cause the very fowls of Heaven to bring them meat and the fish of the sea to bring them money O let us look up ever to thee by the eye of our Faith and not be wanting in our dependance upon thee who canst not be wanting in thy Providence over us LAZARUS Dead OH the Wisdome of God in penning his own Story The Disciple whom Jesus loved comes after his fellow-Evangelists that he might glean up those rich ears of History which the rest had passed over That Eagle soars high and towrs up by degrees It was much to turn water into wine but it was more to seed five thousand with five loaves It was much to restore the Rulers son it was more to cure him that had been thirty eight years a Cripple It was much to cure him that was born blind it was more to raise up Lazarus that had been so long dead As a stream runs still the stronger and wider the nearer it comes to the Ocean whence it was derived so didst thou O Saviour work the more powerfully the nearer thou drewest to thy Glory This was as one of thy last so of thy greatest Miracles when thou wert ready to die thy self thou raisedst him to life who smelt strong of the grave None of all the Sacred Histories is so full and punctual as this in the report of all circumstances Other Miracles do not more transcend Nature then this transcends other Miracles This alone was a sufficient eviction of thy Godhead O blessed Saviour none but an infinite power could so farre go beyond Nature as to recal a man four daies dead from not a mere privation but a setled corruption Earth must needs be thine from which thou raisest his body Heaven must needs be thine from whence thou fetchest his Spirit None but he that created man could thus make him new Sickness is the common preface to death no mortal nature is exempted from this complains even Lazarus whom Jesus loved is sick What can strength of Grace or dearness of respect prevail against disease against dissolution It was a stirring message that Mary sent to Jesus He whom thou lovest is sick as if she would imply that his part was no-less deep in Lazarus then hers Neither doth she say He that loves thee is sick but he whom thou lovest not pleading the merit of Lazarus his affection to Christ but the mercy and favour of Christ to him Even that other reflexion of love had been no weak motive for O Lord thou hast said Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him Thy goodness will not be behinde us for love who professest to love them that love thee But yet the argument is more forcible from thy love to us since thou hast just reason to respect every thing of thine own more then ought that can proceed from us Even we weak men what can we stick at where we love Thou O infinite God art Love it self Whatever thou hast done for us is out of thy love the ground and motive of all thy mercies is within thy self not in us and if there be ought in us worthy of thy love it is thine own not ours thou givest what thou acceptest Jesus well heard the first groan of his dear Lazarus every short breath that he drew every sigh that he gave was upon account yet this Lord of Life lets his Lazarus sicken and languish and die not out of neglect or impotence but out of power and resolution This sickness is not to death He to whom the issues of death belong knows the way both into it and out of it He meant that sickness should be to death in respect of the present condition not to death in respect of the event to death in the process of Nature not to death in the success of his Divine power that the Son of God might be glorified thereby O Saviour thy usual style is the Son of man thou that wouldst take up our infirmities wert willing thus to hide thy Godhead under the course weeds of our Humanity but here thou saist That the Son of God might be glorified Though thou wouldst hide thy Divine glory yet thou wouldst not smother it Sometimes thou wouldst have thy Sun break forth in bright gleams to shew that it hath no less light even whiles it seems kept in by the clouds Thou wert now near thy Passion it was most seasonable for thee at this time to set forth thy just title Neither wâ—s this an act that thy Humanity could challenge to it self but farre transcending all finite powers To die was an act of the Son of man to raise from death was an act of the Son of God Neither didst thou say merely that God but that the Son of God might be glorified God cannot be glorified unless the Son be so In very natural Relations the wrong or disrespect offered to the child reflects upon the father as contrarily the parents upon the child how much more where the love and respect is infinite where the whole effence is communicated with the intireness of relation O God in vain shall we tender our Devotions to thee indefinitely as to a glorious and incomprehensible Majesty if we kiss not the Son who hath most justly said Ye believe in the Father believe also in me What an happy family was this I finde none upon earth so much honoured Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus It is no standing upon terms of precedency the Spirit of God is not curious in marshalling of places Time was when Mary was confessed to have chosen the better part here Martha is named first as most interessed in Christs love for ought appears all of them were equally dear Christ had familiarly lodged under their roof How fit was that to receive him whose in-dwellers were hospital pious unanimous Hospital in the glad entertainment of Jesus and his train Pious in their Devotions Unanimous in their mutual Concord As contrarily he balâ—s and hates that house which is taken up with uncharitableness profaneness contention But O Saviour how doth this agree thou lovedst this Family yet hearing of their distress thou heldest off two daies more from them Canst thou love those thou regardest not canst thou regard them from whom thou willingly absentest thy self in their necessity Behold thy love as it is above ours so it is oft against ours Even out of very affection art thou not seldome absent None of thine but have sometimes cryed How long Lord What need we instance when thine eternal Father did purposely estrange his face from thee so as thou cryedst out of
miserable and not feel it to feel and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealment doth not remedy but aggravate sorrow That with the counsel of not weeping therefore she might see cause of not weeping his Hand seconds his Tongue He arrests the Coffin and frees the Prisoner Young man I say unto thee Arise The Lord of life and death speaks with command No finite power could have said so without presumption or with success That is the voice that shall one day call up our vanished bodies from those Elements into which they are resolved and raise them out of their dust Neither sea nor death nor hell can offer to detain their dead when he charges them to be delivered Incredulous nature what dost thou shrink at the possibility of a Resurrection when the God of Nature undertakes it It is no more hard for that almighty Word which gave being unto all things to say Let them be repaired then Let them be made I do not see our Saviour stretching himself upon the dead corps as Elias and Elisha upon the sons of the Sunamite and Sareptan nor kneeling down and praying by the Bier as Peter did to Dorcas but I hear him so speaking to the dead as if he were alive and so speaking to the dead that by the word he makes him alive I say unto thee Arise Death hath no power to bid that man lye still whom the Son of God bids Arise Immediatly he that was dead sate up So at the sound of the last Trumpet by the power of the same voice we shall arise out of the dust and stand up glorious This mortall shall put on immortality this corruptible incorruption This body shall not be buried but sown and at our day shall therefore spring up with a plentiful increase of glory How comfortless how desperate should be our lying down if it were not for this assurance of rising And now behold lest our weak faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficulty he hath already by what he hath done given us tastes of what he will do The power that can raise one man can raise a thousand a million a world no power can raise one man but that which is infinite and that which is infinite admits of no limitation Under the Old Testament God raised one by Elias another by Elisha living a third by Elisha dead By the hand of the Mediator of the New Testament he raised here the son of the Widow the daughter of Jairus Lazarus and in attendance of his own Resurrection he made a gaol-delivery of holy prisoners at Jerusalem He raises the daughter of Jairus from her bed this Widows son from his Coffin Lazarus from his grave the dead Saints of Jerusalem from their rottenness that it might appear no degree of death can hinder the efficacie of his overruling command He that keeps the keys of Death cannot onely make way for himself through the common Hall and outer-rooms but through the inwardest and most reserved closets of darkness Methinks I see this young man who was thus miraculously awaked from his deadly sleep wiping and rubbing those eyes that had been shut up in death and descending from the Bier wrapping his winding-sheet about his loyns cast himself down in a passionate thankfulness at the feet of his Almighty restorer adoring that Divine power which had commanded his Soul back again to her forsaken lodging and though I hear not what he said yet I dare say they were words of praise and wonder which his returned Soul first uttered It was the mother whom our Saviour pittied in this act not the son who now forced from his quiet rest must twice pass through the gates of death As for her sake therefore he was raised so to her hands was he delivered that she might acknowledge that soul given to her not to the possessor Who cannot feel the amazement and ecstasie of joy that was in this revived mother when her son now salutes her from out of another world and both receives and gives gratulations of his new life How suddenly were all the tears of that mournful train dried up with a joyful astonishment How soon is that funeral banquet turned into a new Birth-day feast What striving was here to salute the late carcase of their returned neighbour What awful and admiring looks were cast upon that Lord of life who seeming homely was approved Omnipotent How gladly did every tongue celebrate both the work and the Author A great Prophet is raised up amongst us and God hath visited his people A Prophet was the highest name they could find for him whom they saw like themselves in shape above themselves in power They were not yet acquainted with God manifested in the flesh This Miracle might well have assured them of more then a Prophet but he that raised the dead man from the Bier would not suddenly raise these dead hearts from the grave of Infidelity They shall see reason enough to know that the Prophet who was raised up to them was the God that now visited them and at last should doe as much for them as he had done for the young man raise them from death to life from dust to glory The Rulers Son cured THe bounty of God so exceedeth man's that there is a contrarietie in the exercise of it We shut our hands because we opened them God therefore opens his because he hath opened them God's mercies are as comfortable in their issue as in themselves Seldom ever do blessings go alone where our Saviour supplied the Bridegroom's wine there he heals the Rulers son He had not in all these coasts of Galilee done any Miracle but here To him that hath shall be given We do not finde Christ oft attended with Nobilitie here he is It was some great Peer or some noted Courtier that was now a suitor to him for his dying son Earthly Greatness is no defence against Afflictions We men forbear the Mightie Disease and Death know no faces of Lords or Monarchs Could these be bribed they would be too rich Why should we grudge not to be privileged when we see there is no spare of the greatest This Noble Ruler listens after Christ's return into Galilee The most eminent amongst men will be glad to hearken after Christ in their necessity Happy was it for him that his son was sick he had not else been acquainted with his Saviour his Soul had continued sick of ignorance and unbelief Why else doth our good God send us pain losses opposition but that he may be sought to Are we afflicted whither should we goe but to Cana to seek Christ whither but to the Cana of Heaven where our water of sorrow is turned to the wine of gladness to that omnipotent Physician who healeth all our infirmities that we may once say It is good for me that I was afflicted It was about a dayes journey from Capernaum to Cana Thence hither did this Courtier come for
be insensible of so great an evil Where death hath once seized who can but doubt he will keep his hold No lesse hard was it not to grieve for the losse of an only Childe then not to fear the continuance of the cause of that grief In a perfect Faith there is no Fear by how much more we fear by so much lesse we believe Well are these two then coupled Fear not believe only O Saviour if thou didst not command us somewhat beyond Nature it were no thank to us to obey thee While the childe was alive to believe that it might recover it was no hard task but now that she was fully dead to believe she should live again was a work not easie for Jairus to apprehend though easie for thee to effect yet must that be believed else there is no capacity of so great a Mercy As Love so Faith is stronger then death making those bonds no other then as Sampson did his withes like threds of tow How much naturall impossibility is there in the return of these Bodies from the dust of their earth into which through many degrees of corruption they are at the last mouldred Fear not O my Soul believe onely it must it shall be done The sum of Jairus his first suit was for the Health not for the Resuscitation of his Daughter now that she was dead he would if he durst have been glad to have asked her Life And now behold our Saviour bids him expect both her Life and her Health Thy daughter shall be made whole alive from her death whole from her disease Thou didst not O Jairus thou daredst not ask so much as thou receivest How glad wouldest thou have been since this last news to have had thy Daughter alive though weak and sickly Now thou shalt receive her not living only but sound and vigorous Thou dost not O Saviour measure thy gifts by our petitions but by our wants and thine own mercies This work might have been as easily done by an absent command the Power of Christ was there whiles himself was away but he will goe personally to the place that he might be confessed the Author of so great a Miracle O Saviour thou lovest to goe to the house of mourning thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted What a confusion there is in worldly sorrow The mother shreeks the servants crie out the people make lamentation the minstrels howl and strike dolefully so as the eare might question whether the Ditty or the Instrument were more heavy If ever expressions of sorrow sound well it is when Death leads the quire Soon doth our Saviour charm this noise and turns these unseasonable mourners whether formal or serious out of doors Not that he dislikes Musick whether to condole or comfort but that he had life in his eye and would have them know that he held these Funeral ceremonies to be too early and long before their time Give place for the maid is not dead but sleepeth Had she been dead she had but slept now she was not dead but asleep because he meant this nap of death should be so short and her awakening so speedy Death and Sleep are alike to him who can cast whom he will into the sleep of Death and awake when and whom he pleaseth out of that deadly sleep Before the people and domesticks of Jairus held Jesus for a Prophet now they took him for a Dreamer Not dead but asleep They that came to mourn cannot now forbear to laugh Have we piped at so many Funerals and seen and lamented so many Corpses and cannot we distinguish betwixt Sleep and Death The eyes are set the breath is gone the limmes are stiffe and cold Who ever died if she do but sleep How easily may our Reason or Sense befool us in Divine matters Those that are competent Judges in natural things are ready to laugh God to scorn when he speaks beyond their compasse and are by him justly laughed to scorn for their unbelief Vain and faithlesse men as if that unlimited power of the Almighty could not make good his own word and turn either Sleep into Death or Death into Sleep at pleasure Ere many minutes they shall be ashamed of their errour and incredulity There were witnesses enough of her death there shall not be many of her restoring Three choice Disciples and the two Parents are only admitted to the view and testimony of this miraculous work The eyes of those incredulous scoffers were not worthy of this honour Our infidelity makes us incapable of the secret favours and the highest counsels of the Almighty What did these scorners think and say when they saw him putting the minstrels and people out of doors Doubtlesse the maid is but asleep the man fears lest the noise shall awake her we must speak and tread softly that we disquiet her not What will he and his Disciples doe the while Is it not to be feared they will startle her out of her rest Those that are shut out from the participation of God's counsels think all his words and projects no better then foolishnesse But art thou O Saviour ever the more discouraged by the derision and censure of these scornfull unbelievers Because fools jear thee dost thou forbear thy work Surely I do not perceive that thou heedest them save for contempt or carest more for their words then their silence It is enough that thine act shall soon honour thee and convince them He took her by the hand and called saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she arose straightway How could that touch that Call be other then effectual He who made that hand touched it and he who shall once say Arise ye dead said now Maid arise Death cannot but obey him who is the Lord of life The Soul is ever equally in his hand who is the God of Spirits it cannot but goe and come at his command When he saies Maid arise the now-dissolved spirit knows his office his place and instantly reassumes that room which by his appointment it had left O Saviour if thou do but bid my Soul to arise from the death of Sin it cannot lie still if thou bid my Body to arise from the grave my Soul cannot but glance down from her Heaven and animate it In vain shall my sin or my grave offer to withhold me from thee The Maid revives not now to languish for a time upon her sick-bed and by some faint degrees to gather an insensible strength but at once she arises from her death and from her couch at once she puts off her fever with her dissolution she findes her life and her feet at once at once she findes her feet and her stomack He commanded to give her meat Omnipotency doth not use to goe the pace of Nature All God's immediate works are like himself perfect He that raised her supernaturally could have so fed her It was never the purpose of his Power to put ordinary
of darknesse Heaven is high and hard to reach Hell is steep and slipperie our Flesh is earthy and impotent Satan strong rancorous Sin subtle the World alluring all these yet God is the God of our Salvation Let those infernal Lions roar and ramp upon us let the gates of Hell doe their worst let the World be a cheater our Flesh a traitor the Devil a tyrant Faithfull is he that hath promised who will also doe it God is the God of our Salvation How much more then in these outward temporal occasions when we have to doe with an arm of flesh Do the enemies of the Church rage and snuffe and breath nothing but threats and death Make sure of our God he shall be sure to make them lick our dust Great Benhadad of the Syrians shall come with his hempen collar to the King of Israel The very windes and waves shall undertake those Mahumetan or Marian powers that shall rise up against the inheritance of the God of Salvation Salvation is rateable according to the danger from which we are delivered Since Death therefore is the utmost of all terribles needs must it be the highest improvement of Salvation that to our God belong the issues from death Death hath here a double latitude of kinde of extent The kinde is either temporal or eternal the extent reaches not only to the last compleat act of dissolution but to all the passages that lead towards it Thus the issues from death belong to our God whether by way of preservation or by way of rescue How gladly do I meet in my Text with the dear and sweet name of our Jesus who conquered Death by dying and triumphed over Hell by suffering and carries the keyes both of death and hell Revel 1. 18 He is the God the Author and Finisher of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Look first at the temporary he keeps it from us he fetches us from it It is true there is a Statutum est upon it die we must Death knocks equally at the hatch of a Cottage and gate of a Palace but our times are in God's hand the Lord of life hath set us our period whose Omnipotence so contrives all events that neither enemy nor casualty nor disease can prevent his hour Were death suffered to run loose and wild what boot were it to live now it is tether'd up short by that Almighty hand what can we fear If envy repine and villany plot against Sacred Soveraignty God hath well proved upon all the Poisons and Pistols and Poniards and Gun-powders of the two late memorable successions that to him alone belong the issues from death Goe on then blessed Soveraign goe on couragiously in the waies of your God the invisible guard of Heaven shall secure your Royal head the God of our Salvation shall make you a third glorious instance to all posterities that unto him belong the issues from death Thus God keeps death from us it is more comfort yet that he fetches us from it Even the best head must at last lie down in the dust and sleep in death Oh vain cracks of valour thou bragst thy self able to kill a man a worm hath done it a flie hath done it Every thing can finde the way down unto death none but the Omnipotent can finde the way up out of it He findes he makes these issues for all his As it was with our Head so it is with the Members Death might seize it cannot hold Gustavit non deglutivit It may nibble at us it shall not devour us Behold the only Soveraign Antidote against the sorrows the frights of death Who can fear to lay himself down and take a nap in the bed of death when his heart is assured that he shall awake glorious in the morning of his resurrection Certainly it is only our infidelity that makes death fearfull Rejoice not over me O my last enemy though I fall I shall rise again O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory Cast ye one glance of your eyes upon the second and eternal death the issues wherefrom belong to our God not by way of rescue as in the former but of preservation Ex inferno nulla redemptio is as true as if it were Canonical Father Abraham tells the damned Glutton in the Parable there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great gulf that bars all return Those black gates of Hell are barred without by the irreversible Decree of the Almighty Those bold Fabulists therefore whose impious Legends have devised Trajan fetcht thence by the prayers of Gregory and Falconella by Tecla's suspending the finall sentence upon a secundum praesentem injustitiam take a course to cast themselves into that pit whence they have presumptuously feigned the deliverance of others The rescue is not more hopelesse then the prevention is comfortable There is none of us but is naturally walking down to these chambers of death every sin is a pace thitherwards only the gracious hand of our God staies us In our selves in our sins we are already no better then brands of that Hell Blessed be the God of our Salvation that hath found happy issues from this death What issues Even those bloody issues that were made in the hands and feet and side of our Blessed Saviour that invaluably-precious blood of the Son of God is that whereby we are redeemed whereby we are justified whereby we are saved Oh that our Souls might have had leisure to dwell a while upon the meditation of those dreadfull torments we are freed from of that infinite goodnesse that hath freed us of that happy exchange of a glorious condition to which we are freed But the publick occasion of this day calls off my speech and invites me to the celebration of the sensible mercy of God in our late Temporal deliverance Wherein let me first blesse the God of our Salvation that hath put it into the heart of his chosen Servant to set up an Altar in this sacred threshing-floor and to offer up this daies Sacrifice to his name for the stay of our late mortal contagion How well it becomes our Gideon to be personally exemplary as in the beating of this Earthen pitcher in the first publick act of Humiliation so in the lighting of this Torch of publick joy and sounding the Trumpet of a thankfull jubilation and how well will it become us to follow so pious so gracious an example Come therefore all ye that fear the Lord and let us recount what he hath done for our Souls Come let us blesse the Lord the God of our Salvation that loadeth us daily with benefits the God to whom belong the issues of death Let us blesse him in his infinite Essence and Power blesse him in his unbounded and just Soveraignty blesse him in his marvellous Beneficence large continual undeserved blesse him in his Preservations blesse him in his Deliverances We may but touch at the two last How is
substance he made them richer in grace At whose board did he ever sit and left not his host a gainer The poor Bridegroom entertains him and hath his water-pots fill'd with Wine Simon the Pharisee entertains him and hath his table honoured with the publick remission of a penitent sinner with the heavenly doctrine of remission Zachaeus entertains him Salvation came that day to his house with the Author of it That presence made the Publican a Son of Abraham Matthew is recompensed for his feast with an Apostleship Martha and Mary entertain him and besides Divine instruction receive their Brother from the dead O Saviour whether thou feast us or we feast thee in both of them is Blessedness Where a Publican is the Feast-master it is no marvel if the guests be Publicans and sinners Whether they came alone out of the hope of that mercy which they saw their fellow had found or whether Matthew invited them to be partners of that plentiful grace whereof he had tasted I inquire not Publicans and sinners will flock together the one hateful for their trade the other for their vicious life Common contempt hath wrought them to an unanimity and sends them to seek mutual comfort in that society which all others held loathsome and contagious Moderate correction humbleth and shameth the offender whereas a cruel severity makes men desperate and drives them to those courses whereby they are more dangerously infected How many have gone into the prison faulty and returned flagitious If Publicans were not sinners they were no whit beholden to their neighbours What a table-full was here The Son of God beset with Publicans and sinners O happy Publicans and sinners that had found out their Saviour O merciful Saviour that disdained not Publicans and sinners What sinner can fear to kneel before thee when he sees Publicans and sinners sit with thee Who can fear to be despised of thy meekness and mercy which didst not abhorre to converse with the outcasts of men Thou didst not despise the Thief confessing upon the Cross nor the sinner weeping upon thy feet nor the Canaanite crying to thee in the way nor the blushing Adulteress nor the odious Publican nor the forswearing Disciple nor the persecutor of Disciples nor thine own executioners how can we be unwelcome to thee if we come with tears in our eyes faith in our hearts restitution in our hands O Saviour our breasts are too oft shut upon thee thy bosome is ever open to us We are as great sinners as the consorts of these Publicans why should we despair of a room at thy Table The squint-eyed Pharisees look a-cross at all the actions of Christ where they should have admired his Mercy they cavil at his Holinesle They said to his Disciples Why eateth your Master with Publicans and sinners They durst not say thus to the Master whose answer they knew would soon have convinced them This winde they hoped might shake the weak faith of the Disciples They speak where they may be most likely to hurt All the crue of Satanical instruments have learnt this craft of their old Tutor in Paradise We cannot reverence that man whom we think unholy Christ had lost the hearts of his followers if they had entertained the least suspicion of his impurity which the murmure of these envious Pharisees would fain insinuate He cannot be worthy to be followed that is unclean He cannot but be unclean that eateth with Publicans and sinners Proud and foolish Pharisees ye fast whiles Christ eateth ye fast in your houses whiles Christ eateth in other mens ye fast with your own whiles Christ feasts with sinners but if ye fast in pride while Christ eats in humility if ye fast at home for merit or popularity while Christ feasts with sinners for compassion for edification for conversion your fast is unclean his feast is holy ye shall have your portion with hypocrites when those Publicans and sinners shall be glorious When these censurers thought the Disciples had offended they speak not to them but to their Master Why doe thy Disciples that which is not lawfull now when they thought Christ offended they speak not to him but to the Disciples Thus like true make-bates they goe about to make a breach in the family of Christ by setting off the one from the other The quick eye of our Saviour hath soon espied the pack of their fraud and therefore he takes the words out of the mouthes of his Disciples into his own They had spoke of Christ to the Disciples Christ answers for the Disciples concerning himself The whole need not the Physician but the sick According to the two qualities of pride scorn and over-weening these insolent Pharisees over-rated their own holinesse contemned the noted unholinesse of others As if themselves were not tainted with secret sins as if others could not be cleansed by repentance The searcher of hearts meets with their arrogance and findes those justiciaries sinfull those sinners just The spiritual Physician findes the sicknesse of those sinners wholsome the health of those Pharisees desperate that wholsome because it calls for the help of the Physician this desperate because it needs not Every soul is sick those most that feel it not Those that feel it complain those that complain have cure those that feel it not shall finde themselves dying ere they can wish to recover O blessed Physician by Whose stripes we are healed by whose death we live happy are they that are under thy hands sick as of sin so of sorrow for sin It is as unpossible they should die as it is unpossible for thee to want either skill or power or mercy Sin hath made us sick unto death make thou us but as sick of our sins we are as safe as thou art gracious Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd I Do not any where finde so furious a Demoniack as amongst the Gergesens Satan is most tyrannous where he is obeyed most Christ no sooner sailed over the lake then he was met with two possessed Gadarenes The extreme rage of the one hath drowned the mention of the other Yet in the midst of all that cruelty of the evil spirit there was sometimes a remission if not an intermission of vexation If oft-times Satan caught him then sometimes in the same violence he caught him not It was no thank to that malignant one who as he was indefatigable in his executions so unmeasurable in his malice but to the mercifull over-ruling of God who in a gracious respect to the weakness of his poor creatures limits the spightfull attempts of that immortal enemy and takes off this Mastive whiles we may take breath He who in his justice gives way to some onsets of Satan in his mercy restrains them so regarding our deservings that withall he regards our strength If way should be given to that malicious spirit we could not subsist no violent thing can endure and if Satan might have his will we should
when I see those Devils which are many in substance are one in name action habitation Who can too much brag of unity when it is incident unto wicked spirits All the praise of concord is in the subject if that be holy the consent is Angelical if sinfull devilish What a fearfull advantage have our spiritual enemies against us If armed troops come against single straglers what hope is there of life of victory How much doth it concern us to band our hearts together in a communion of Saints Our enemies come upon us like a torrent Oh let us not run asunder like drops in the dust All our united forces will be little enough to make head against this league of destruction Legion imports Order number conflict Order in that there is a distinction of regiment a subordination of Officers Though in Hell there be confusion of faces yet not confusion of degrees Number Those that have reckoned a Legion at the lowest have counted it six thousand others have more then doubled it Though here it is not strict but figurative yet the letter of it implies multitude How fearfull is the consideration of the number of Apostate Angels And if a Legion can attend one man how many must we needs think are they who all the world over are at hand to the punishment of the wicked the exercise of the good the tentation of both It cannot be hoped there can be any place or time wherein we may be secure from the onsets of these enemies Be sure ye lewd men ye shall want no furtherance to evil no torment for evil Be sure ye godly ye shall not want combatants to trie your strength and skill Awaken your courages to resist and stir up your hearts make sure the means of your safety There are more with us then against us The God of Heaven is with us if we be with him and our Angels behold the face of God If every Devil were a Legion we are safe Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we shall fear no evil Thou O Lord shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of our enemies and thy right hand shall save us Conflict All this number is not for sight for rest but for motion for action Neither was there ever hour since the first blow given to our first Parents wherein there was so much as a truce betwixt these adversaries As therefore strong frontier Towns when there is a peace concluded on both parts break up their garrison open their gates neglect their Bulwarks but when they hear of the enemy mustering his forces in great and unequal numbers then they double their guard keep Sentinell repair their Sconces so must we upon the certain knowledge of our numerous and deadly enemies in continual aray against us addresse our selves alwaies to a wary and strong resistance I do not observe the most to think of this ghostly hostility Either they do not find there are Tentations or those Tentations hurtful they see no worse then themselves and if they feel motions of evil arising in them they impute it to fancy or unreasonable appetite to no power but Nature's and those motions they follow without sensible hurt neither see they what harm it is to sin Is it any marvell that carnal eyes cannot discern spiritual Objects that the World who is the friend the vassal of Satan is in no war with him Elisha's servant when his eyes were opened saw troops of spiritual souldiers which before he discerned not If the eyes of our Souls be once enlightned by supernatural knowledge and the clear beams of Faith we shall as plainly descry the invisible powers of wickednesse as now our bodily eyes see Heaven and Earth They are though we see them not we cannot be safe from them if we do not acknowledge not oppose them The Devils are now become great suitors to Christ That he would not command them into the deep that he would permit their entrance into the swine What is this deep but hell both for the utter separation from the face of God and for the impossibility of passage to the region of Rest and Glory The very evil spirits then fear and expect a further degree of torment they know themselves reserved in those chains of darknesse for the judgment of the great Day There is the same wages due to their sins to ours neither are the wages paid till the work be done They tempting men to sin must needs sin grievously in tempting as with us men those that mislead into sin offend more then the actors Not till the upshot therefore of their wickednesse shall they receive the full measure of their condemnation This day this deep they tremble at what shall I say of those men that fear it not It is hard for men to believe their own unbelief If they were perswaded of this fiery dungeon this bottomlesse deep wherein every sin shall receive an horrible portion with the damned durst they stretch forth their hands to wickednesse No man will put his hand into a fiery Crucible to fetch gold thence because he knows it will burn him Did we as truly believe the everlasting burning of that infernal fire we durst not offer to fetch Pleasures or Profits out of the midst of those flames This degree of torment they grant in Christ's power to command they knew his power unresistible had he therefore but said Back to hell whence ye came they could no more have stai'd upon earth then they can now climbe into Heaven O the wonderfull dispensation of the Almighty who though he could command all the evil spirits down to their dungeons in an instant so as they should have no more opportunity of Temptation yet thinks fit to retain them upon earth It is not out of weaknesse or improvidence of that Divine hand that wicked spirits tyrannize here upon earth but out of the most wise and most holy ordination of God who knows how to turn evil into good how to fetch good out of evil and by the worst instruments to bring about his most just decrees Oh that we could adore that awfull and infinite power and chearfully cast our selves upon that Providence which keeps the Keyes even of Hell it self and either lets out or returns the Devils to their places Their other suit hath some marvell in moving it more in the grant That they might be suffered to enter into the Herd of Swine It was their ambition of some mischief that brought forth this desire that since they might not vex the body of man they might yet afflict men in their goods The Malice of these envious spirits reacheth from us to ours It is sore against their wills if we be not every way miserable If the Swine were Legally unclean for the use of the table yet they were naturally good Had not Satan known them usefull for man he had never desired their ruine But as Fencers will seem to fetch a blow at
the Judge of hearts taxes him for little Faith Our mountains are but moats to God Would my heart have served me to dare the doing of this that Peter did Durst I have set my foot where he did O Saviour if thou foundest cause to censure the weaknesse and poverty of his Faith what maist thou well say to mine They mistake that think thou wilt take up with any thing Thou lookest for firmitude and vigour in those Graces which thou wilt allow in thy best Disciples no lesse then truth The first steps were confident there was fear in the next Oh the sudden alteration of our affections of our dispositions One pace varies our spiritual condition What hold is there of so fickle creatures if we be left never so little to our selves As this lower world wherein we are is the region of mutability so are we the living pieces of it subject to a perpetual change It is for the blessed Saints and Angels above to be fixed in good Whiles we are here there can be no constancy expected from us but in variablenesse As well as our Saviour loves Peter yet he chides him It is the fruit of his favour and mercy that we escape judgment not that we escape reproof Had not Peter found grace with his Master he had been suffered to sink in silence now he is saved with a check There may be more love in frowns then in smiles whom he loves he chastises What is chiding but a verbal castigation and what is chastisement but a reall chiding Correct me O Lord yet in thy judgment not in thy fury Oh let the righteous God smite me when I offend with his gracious reproofs these shall be a precious oyle that shall not break my head The bloody Issue healed THE time was O Saviour when a worthy woman offered to touch thee and was forbidden now a meaner touches thee with approbation and incouragement Yet as there was much difference in that Body of thine which was the Object of that touch being now mortal and passible then impassible and immortal so there was in the Agents this a stranger that a familiar this obscure that famous The same actions vary with time and other circumstances and accordingly receive their dislike or allowance Doubtless thou hadst herein no small respect to the faith of Jairus unto whose house thou wert going That good man had but one onely Daughter which lay sick in the beginning of his suit ere the end lay dead Whiles she lived his hope lived her death disheartned it It was a great work that thou meantest to doe for him it was a great word that thou saidst to him Fear not believe and she shall be made whole To make this good by the touch of the verge of thy garment thou revivedst one from the verge of death How must Jairus needs now think He who by the virtue of his garment can pull this woman out of the paws of death which hath been twelve years dying can as well by the power of his word pull my daughter who hath been twelve years living out of the jaws of death which hath newly seised on her It was fit the good Ruler should be raised up with this handsel of thy Divine power whom he came to solicit That thou mightest lose no time thou curedst in thy passage The Sun stands not still to give his influences but diffuses them in his ordinary motion How shall we imitate thee if we suffer our hands to be out of ure with good Our life goes away with our time we lose that which we improve not The Patient laboured of an Issue of blood a Disease that had not more pain then shame nor more natural infirmity then Legal impurity Time added to her grief twelve long years had she languished under this wofull complaint Besides the tediousness diseases must needs get head by continuance and so much more both weaken Nature and strengthen themselves by how much longer they afflict us So it is in the Soul so in the State Vices which are the Sicknesses of both when they grow inveterate have a strong plea for their abode and uncontrollablenesse Yet more to mend the matter Poverty which is another disease was superadded to her sicknesse She had spent all she had upon Physicians Whiles she had wherewith to make much of her self and to procure good tendance choice diet and all the succours of a distressed languishment she could not but finde some mitigation of her sorrow but now want began to pinch her no lesse then her distemper and helpt to make her perfectly miserable Yet could she have parted from her substance with ease her complaint had been the lesse Could the Physicians have given her if not health yet relaxation and painlesnesse her means had not been mis-bestowed but now she suffered many things from them many an unpleasing potion many tormenting incisions and divulsions did she endure from their hands the Remedy was equal in trouble to the Disease Yet had the cost and pain been never so great could she have hereby purchased health the match had been happy all the world were no price for this commodity but alas her estate was the worse her body not the better her money was wasted not her disease Art could give her neither cure nor hope It were injurious to blame that noble Science for that it alwaies speeds not Notwithstanding all those soveraign remedies men must in their times sicken and die Even the miraculous Gifts of Healing could not preserve the owners from disease and dissolution It were pity but that this woman should have been thus sick the nature the durablenesse cost pain incurablenesse of her disease both sent her to seek Christ and moved Christ to her cure Our extremities drive us to our Saviour his love draws him to be most present and helpfull to our extremities When we are forsaken of all succours and hopes we are fittest for his redresse Never are we nearer to help then when we despair of help There is no fear no danger but in our own insensiblenesse This woman was a stranger to Christ it seems she had never seen him The report of his Miracles had lifted her up to such a confidence of his power and mercy as that she said in her self If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be whole The shame of her disease stopt her mouth from any verbal suit Had she been acknown of her infirmity she had been shunned and abhorred and disdainfully put back of all the beholders as doubtlesse where she was known the Law forced her to live apart Now she conceals both her grief and her desire and her faith and only speaks where she may be bold within her self If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be whole I seek not mysteries in the virtue of the hem rather then of the garment Indeed it was God's command to Israel that they should be marked not only in their
Means out of office The Motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled THE time drew on wherein Jesus must be received up He must take death in his way Calvary is in his passage to mount Olivet He must be lift up to the Cross thence to climb into his Heaven Yet this comes not into mention as if all the thought of Death were swallowed up in this Victory over Death Neither O Saviour is it otherwise with us the weak members of thy mystical body We must die we shall be glorified What if Death stand before us we look beyond him at that transcendent Glory How should we be dismai'd with that pain which is attended with a blessed Immortality The strongest receit against Death is the happy estate that follows it next to that is the fore-exspectation of it and resolution against it He stedfastly set his face to goe to Hierusalem Hierusalem the nest of his enemies the Amphitheater of his conflicts the fatall place of his death Well did he know the plots and ambushes that were there laid for him and the bloody issue of those designs yet he will goe and goes resolved for the worst It is a sure and wise way to send our thoughts before us to grapple with those evils which we know must be incountred The enemy is half overcome that is well prepared for The strongest mischief may be outfaced with a seasonable fore-resolution There can be no greater disadvantage then the suddennesse of a surprisal O God what I have not the power to avoid let me have the wisdome to exspect The way from Galilee to Judaea lay through the Region of Samaria if not the City Christ now towards the end of his Preaching could not but be attended with a multitude of followers It was necessary there should be purveyors and harbingers to procure lodgings and provision for so large a troup Some of his own retinue are addressed to this service they seek not for palaces and delicates but for house-room and victuals It was he whose the earth was and the fulnesse thereof whos 's the Heavens are and the mansions therein yet he who could have commanded Angels sues to Samaritanes He that filled and comprehended Heaven sends for shelter in a Samaritane Cottage It was thy choice O Saviour to take upon thee the shape not of a Prince but of a Servant How can we either neglect means or despise homelinesse when thou the God of all the World wouldst stoop to the suit of so poor a provision We know well in what terms the Samaritanes stood with the Jews so much more hostile as they did more symbolize in matter of Religion no Nations were mutually so hatefull to each other A Samaritane's bread was no better then Swines-flesh their very fire and water was not more grudged then infectious The looking towards Jerusalem was here cause enough of repulse No enmity is so desperate as that which arises from matter of Religion Agreement in some points when there are differences in the main doth but advance hatred the more It is not more strange to hear the Son of God sue for a lodging then to hear him repelled Upon so churlish a denial the two angry Disciples return to their Master on a fiery errand Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them as Elias did The Sons of Thunder would be lightning straight their zeal whether as kinsmen or Disciples could not brook so harsh a refusal As they were naturally more hot then their fellows so now they thought their Piety bade them be impatient Yet they dare not but begin with leave Master wilt thou His will must lead theirs their choler cannot drive their wills before his all their motion is from him onely True Disciples are like those artificial engines which goe no otherwise then they are set or like little Children that speak nothing but what they are taught O Saviour if we have wills of our own we are not thine Do thou set me as thou wouldst have me goe do thou teach me what thou wouldst have me say or doe A mannerly preface leads in a faulty suit Master wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them Faulty both in presumption and in desire of private revenge I do not hear them say Master will it please thee who art the sole Lord of the Heavens and the Elements to command fire from Heaven upon these men but Wilt thou that we command As if because they had power given them over diseases and unclean spirits therefore Heaven and earth were in their managing How easily might they be mistaken Their large commission had the just limits Subjects that have munificent grants from their Princes can challenge nothing beyond the words of their Patent And if the fetching down fire from Heaven were lesse then the dispossessing of Devils since the Devil shall inable the Beast to doe thus much yet how possible is it to doe the greater and stick at the lesse where both depend upon a delegated power The Magicians of Egypt could bring forth Frogs and Blood they could not bring Lice ordinary Corruption can doe that which they could not It is the fashion of our bold Nature upon an inch given to challenge an ell and where we finde our selves graced with some abilities to flatter our selves with the faculty of more I grant Faith hath done as great things as ever Presumption undertook but there is great difference in the enterprises of both The one hath a warrant either by instinct or expresse command the other none at all Indeed had these two Disciples either meant or said Master if it be thy pleasure to command us to call down fire from Heaven we know thy word shall enable us to doe what thou requirest if the words be ours the power shall be thine this had been but holy modest faithfull but if they supposed there needed nothing save a leave only and that might they be but let loose they could goe alone they presumed they offended Yet had they thus overshot themselves in some pious and charitable motion the fault had been the lesse now the act had in it both cruelty and private revenge Their zeal was not worthy of more praise then their fury of censure That fire should fall down from Heaven upon men is a fearfull thing to think of and that which hath not been often done It was done in the case of Sodome when those five unclean Cities burned with the unnatural fire of hellish Lust it was done two several times at the suit of Elijah it was done in an height of triall to that great pattern of Patience I finde it no more and tremble at these I finde But besides the dreadfulness of the judgment it self who can but quake at the thought of the suddainnesse of this destruction which sweeps away both Body and Soul in a state of unpreparation of unrepentance so as this fire should but
entertainment may deserve to lose our thanks Do we pray to thee do we hear thee preach to us now we make thee good chear in our house but if we perform not these things with the fit decency of our outward carriages we give thee not thy water thy kisses thy oyle Even meet rituall observances are requisite for thy full welcome Yet how little had these things been regarded if they had not argued the womans thankfull love to thee and the ground of that love sense of her remission and the Pharisees default in both Love and action do necessarily evince each other True love cannot lurk long unexpressed it will be looking out at the eyes creeping out of the mouth breaking out at the fingers ends in some actions of dearnesse especially those wherein there is pain and difficulty to the agent profit or pleasure to the affected O Lord in vain shall we professe to love thee if we doe nothing for thee Since our goodnesse cannot reach up unto thee who art our glorious head O let us bestow upon thy feet thy poor Members here below our teares our hands our oyntment and whatever our gifts or endevours may testifie our thankfulnesse and love to thee in them O happy word Her sins which are many are forgiven her Methinks I see how this poor Penitent revived with this breath how new life comes into her eyes new blood into her cheeks new spirits into her countenance like unto our Mother Earth when in that first confusion God said Let the earth bring forthgrasse the herb that beareth seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit all runs out into flowers and blossomes and leaves and fruit Her former teares said Who shall deliver me from this body of death Now her chearfull smiles say I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Seldomeever do we meet with so perfect a Penitent seldome do we finde so gracious a dismission What can be wished of any mortall creature but Remission Safety Faith Peace All these are here met to make a contrite Soul happy Remission the ground of her Safety Faith the ground of her Peace Safety and Salvation the issue of her Remission Peace the blessed fruit of her Faith O Woman the persume that thou broughtest is poor and base in comparison of those sweet savours of rest and happinesse that are returned to thee Well was that ointment bestowed wherewith thy Soul is sweetned to all Eternity Martha and Mary WE may read long enough ere we find Christ in an house of his own The foxes have holes and the birds have nests he that had all possessed nothing One while I see him in a publican's house then in a Pharisee's now I finde him at Martha's His last entertainment was with some neglect this with too much solicitude Our Saviour was now in his way the Sun might as soon stand stil as he The more we move the liker we are to Heaven and to this God that made it His progresse was to Hierusalem for some holy Feast He whose Devotion neglected not any of those sacred Solemnities will not neglect the due opportunities of his bodily refreshing as not thinking it meet to travell and preach harbourlesse he diverts where he knew his welcome to the village of Bethanie There dwelt the two devout Sisters with their Brother his Friend Lazarus their roof receives him O happy house into which the Son of God vouchsafed to set his foot O blessed women that had the grace to be the Hostesses to the God of Heaven How should I envy your felicity herein if I did not see the same favour if I be not wanting to my self lying open to me I have two waies to entertain my Saviour in his Members and in himself In his Members by Charity and Hospitablenesse what I doe to one of those his little ones I doe to him In himself by Faith If any man open he will come in and sup with him O Saviour thou standst at the door of our hearts and knockst by the solicitations of thy Messengers by the sense of thy Chastisements by the motions of thy Spirit if we open to thee by a willing admission and faithfull welcome thou wilt be sure to take up our Souls with thy gracious presence and not to sit with us for a momentany meal but to dwell with us for ever Lo thou didst but call in at Bethany but here shall be thy rest for everlasting Martha it seems as being the elder Sister bore the name of the House-keeper Mary was her assistant in the charge A Blessed pair Sisters not more in Nature then Grace in Spirit no lesse then in flesh How happy a thing is it when all the parties in a family are joyntly agreed to entertain Christ No sooner is Jesus entred into the house then he falls to preaching that no time may be lost he staies not so much as till his meat be made ready but whiles his bodily repast was in hand provides spiritual food for his Hosts It was his meat and drink to doe the will of his Father he fed more upon his own diet then he could possibly upon theirs his best chear was to see them spiritually fed How should we whom he hath called to this sacred Function be instant in season and out of season We are by his sacred ordination the Lights of the world No sooner is the candle lighted then it gives that light which it hath and never intermits till it be wasted to the snuff Both the Sisters for a time sate attentively listening to the words of Christ Houshold occasions call Martha away Mary sits still at his feet and hears Whether shall we more praise her Humility or her Docility I do not see her take a stool and sit by him or a chair and sit above him but as desiring to shew her heart was as low as her knees she sits at his feet She was lowly set richly warmed with those Heavenly beams The greater submission the more Grace If there be one hollow in the valley lower then another thither the waters gather Martha's house is become a Divinity-school Jesus as the Doctor sits in the chair Martha Mary and the rest sit as Disciples at his feet Standing implies a readinesse of motion Sitting a setled composednesse to this holy attendance Had these two Sisters provided our Saviour never such delicates and waited on his trencher never so officiously yet had they not listened to his instruction they had not bidden him welcome neither had he so well liked his Entertainment This was the way to feast him to feed their ears by his Heavenly Doctrine his best chear is our proficiency our best chear is his Word O Saviour let my Soul be thus feasted by thee do thou thus feast thy self by feeding me this mutual diet shall be thy praise and my happinesse Though Martha was for the time an attentive hearer yet now her care of Christ's entertainment carries her into the Kitchin Mary sits still Neither was
forsaking Here thou wouldst knowingly delay whether for the greatning of the Miracle or for the strengthning of thy Disciples Faith Hadst thou gone sooner and prevented the death who had known whether strength of Nature and not thy miraculous power had done it Hadst thou overtaken his death by this quickning visitation who had known whether this had been only some â—ualm or extasy and not a perfect dissolution Now this large gap of time makes thy work both certain and glorious And what a clear proof was this beforehand to thy Disciples that thou wert able to accomplish thine own Resurrection on the third day who wert able to raise up Lazarus on the fourth The more difficult the work should be the more need it had of an omnipotent confirmation He that was Lord of our times and his own can now when he found it seasonable say Let us goe into Judaea again Why left he it before was it not upon the heady violence of his enemies Lo the stones of the Jews drove him thence the love of Lazarus and the care of his Divine glory drew him back thither We may we must be wise as serpents for our own preservation we must be careless of danger when God cals us to the hazard It is far from God's purpose to give us leave so farre to respect our selves as that we should neglect him Let Judaea be all snares all crosses O Saviour when thou callest us we must put our lives into our hands and follow thee thither This journey thou hast purposed and contrived but what needest thou to acquaint thy Disciples with thine intent Where didst thou ever besides here make them of counsel with thy voyages Neither didst thou say How think you if I goe but Let us goe Was it for that thou who knewest thine own strength knewest also their weakness Thou wert resolute they were timorous they were sensible enough of their late peril and fearful of more there was need to fore-arm them with an exspectation of the worst and preparation for it Surprisal with evils may indanger the best constancy The heart is apt to fail when it findes it self intrapped in a suddain mischief The Disciples were dearly affected to Lazarus they had learned to love where their Master loved yet now when our Saviour speaks of returning to that region of peril they pull him by the sleeve and put him in minde of the violence offered unto him Master the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again No less then thrice in the fore going Chapter did the Jews lift up their hands to murder him by a cruel lapidation Whence was this rage and bloody attempt of theirs Onely for that he taught them the truth concerning his Divine nature and gave himself the just style of the Son of God How subject carnal hearts are to be impatient of Heavenly verityes Nothing can so much fret that malignant spirit which rules in those breasts as that Christ should have his own If we be persecuted for his Truth we do but suffer with him with whom we shall once reign However the Disciples pleaded for their Masters safety yet they aimed at their own they well knew their danger was inwrapped in his It is but a cleanly colour that they put upon their own fear This is held but a weak and base Passion each one would be glad to put off the opinion of it from himself and to set the best face upon his own impotency Thus white-livered men that shrink and shift from the Cross will not want fair pretences to evade it One pleads the peril of many dependants another the disfurnishing the Church of succeeding abettors each will have some plausible excuse for his sound skin What errour did not our Saviour rectifie in his followers Even that fear which they would have dissembled is graciously dispelled by the just consideration of a sure and inevitable Providence Are there not twelve hours in the day which are duely set and proceed regularly for the direction of all the motions and actions of men So in this course of mine which I must run on earth there is a set and determined time wherein I must work and doe my Fathers will The Sun that guides these houres is the determinate counsel of my Father and his calling to the execution of my charge whiles I follow that I cannot miscarry no more then a man can miss his known way at high noon this while in vain are either your disswasions or the attempts of enemies they cannot hurt ye cannot divert me The journey then holds to Judaea his attendants shall be made acquainted with the occasion He that had formerly denied the deadliness of Lazarus his sickness would not suddenly confess his death neither yet would he altogether conceal it so will he therefore confess it as that he will shadow it out in a borrowed expression Lazarus our friend sleepeth What a sweet title is here both of death and of Lazarus Death is a sleep Lazarus is our friend Lo he saies not my friend but ours to draw them first into a gracious familiarity and communion of friendship with himself for what doth this import but Ye are my friends and Lazarus is both my friend and yours Our friend Oh meek and merciful Saviour that disdainest not to stoop so low as that whiles thou thoughtest it no robbery to be equall unto God thou thoughtest it no disparagement to match thy self with weak and wretched men Our friend Lazarus There is a kinde of parity in Friendship There may be Love where is the most inequality but friendship supposes pairs yet the Son of God saies of the sons of men Our friend Lazarus Oh what an high and happy condition is this for mortal men to aspire unto that the God of Heaven should not be ashamed to own them for friends Neither saith he now abruptly Lazarus our friend is dead but Lazarus our friend sleepeth O Saviour none can know the estate of life or death so well as thou that art the Lord of both It is enough that thou tellest us death is no other then sleep that which was wont to pass for the cozen of death is now it self All this while we have mistaken the case of our dissolution we took it for an enemy it proves a friend there is pleasure in that wherein we supposed horror Who is affraid after the weary toiles of the day to take his rest by night or what is more refreshing to the spent traveller then a sweet sleep It is our infidelity our impreparation that makes death any other then advantage Even so Lord when thou seest I have toiled enough let me sleep in peace and when thou seest I have slept enough awake me as thou didst thy Lazarus But I goe to awake him Thou saidst not Let us goe to awake him those whom thou wilt allow companions of thy way thou wilt not allow partners of thy work they may be witnesses they cannot
how apt passionate mindes are to take all occasions to renew their sorrow every Object affects them When she saw but the Chamber of her dead Brother straight she thinks there Lazarus was wont to lye and then she wept afresh when the Table There Lazarus was wont to sit and then new teares arise when the Garden There Lazarus had wont to walk and now again she weeps How much more do these friends suppose the Passions would be stirred with the sight of the Grave when she must needs think There is Lazarus O Saviour if the place of the very dead corps of our friend have power to draw our hearts thither and to affect us more deeply how should our hearts be drawn to and affected with Heaven where thou sittest at the right hand of thy Father There O thou which wert dead and art alive is thy body and thy Soul present and united to thy glorious Deity Thither O thither let our access be not to mourn there where is no place for sorrow but to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious and more and more to long for that thy beatifical presence Their indulgent love mistook Marie's errand their thoughts how kind soever were much too low whiles they supposed she went to a dead Brother she went to a living Saviour The world hath other conceits of the actions and carriage of the regenerate then are truely intended setting such constructions upon them as their own carnal reason suggests they think them dying when behold they live sorrowful when they are alwaies rejoycing poor whiles they make many rich How justly do we appeal from them as incompetent Judges and pity those misinterpretations which we cannot avoid Both the Sisters met Christ not both in one posture Mary is still noted as for more Passion so for more Devotion she that before sate at the feet of Jesus now falls at his feet That presence had wont to be familiar to her and not without some outward homeliness now it fetches her upon her knees in an awful veneration whether out of a reverend acknowledgment of the secret excellency and power of Christ or out of a dumb intimation of that suit concerning her dead Brother which she was afraid to utter The very gesture it self was supplicatory What position of body can be so fit for us when we make our address to our Saviour It is an irreligious unmannerliness for us to goe less Where the heart is affected with an awful acknowledgement of Majesty the body cannot but bow Even before all her neighbours of Jerusalem doth Mary thus fall down at the feet of Jesus so many witnesses as she had so many spies she had of that forbidden observance It was no less then Excommunication for any body to confess him yet good Mary not fearing the informations that might be given by those Jewish Gossips adores him and in her silent gesture saies as much as her Sister had spoken before Thou art the Christ the Son of God Those that would give Christ his right must not stand upon scrupulous fears Are we naturally timorous Why do we not fear the denial the exclusion of the Almighty Without shall be the fearfull Her humble prostration is seconded by a lamentable complaint Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died The Sisters are both in one mind both in one speech and both of them in one speech bewray both strength and infirmity strength of Faith in ascribing so much power to Christ that his presence could preserve from death infirmity in supposing the necessity of a presence for this purpose Why Mary could not thine Omnipotent Saviour as well in absence have commanded Lazarus to live Is his hand so short that he can doe nothing but by contaction If his Power were finite how could he have forbidden the seizure of death if infinite how could it be limited to place or hindered by distance It is a weakness of Faith to measure success by means and means by presence and to tye effects to both when we deal with an Almighty agent Finite causes work within their own sphere all places are equally near and all effects equally easie to the infinite O Saviour whiles thou now sittest gloriously in Heaven thou dost no less impart thy self unto us then if thou stoodst visibly by us then if we stood locally by thee no place can make difference of thy virtue and aid This was Mary's moan no motion no request sounded from her to her Saviour Her silent suit is returned with a mute answer no notice is taken of her error Oh that marvellous mercy that connives at our faulty infirmities All the reply that I hear of is a compassionate groan within himself O blessed Jesu thou that wert free from all sin wouldst not be free from strong affections Wisdome and Holiness should want much work if even vehement passions might not be quitted from offence Mary wept her tears drew on tears from her friends all their tears united drew groans from thee Even in thine Heaven thou dost no less pity our sorrows thy glory is free from groans but abounds with compassion and mercy if we be not sparing of our tears thou canst not be insensible of our sorrows How shall we imitate thee if like our looking-glass we do not answer tears and weep on them that weep upon us Lord thou knewest in absence that Lazarus was dead and dost thou not know where he was buried Surely thou wert further off when thou sawst and reportedst his death then thou wert from the grave thou inquiredst of thou that knewest all things yet askest what thou knowest Where have ye laid him Not out of need but out of will that as in thy sorrow so in thy question thou mightest depress thy self in the opinion of the beholders for the time that the glory of thine instant Miracle might be the greater the less it was exspected It had been all one to thy Omnipotence to have made a new Lazarus out of nothing or in that remoteness to have commanded Lazarus wheresoever he was to come forth but thou wert neither willing to work more miracle then was requisite nor yet unwilling to fix the minds of the people upon the exspectation of some marvellous thing that thou meantest to work and therefore askest Where have you laid him They are not more glad of the question then ready for the answer Come and see It was the manner of the Jews as likewise of those Egyptians among whom they had sojourned to lay up the dead bodies of their friends with great respect more cost was wont to be bestowed on some of their graves then on their houses as neither ashamed then nor unwilling to shew the decency of their sepulture they say Come and see More was hoped for from Christ then a mere view they meant and exspected that his eye should draw him on to some further action O Saviour whiles we desire our spiritual resuscitation how should we labour to
bring thee to our grave how should we lay open our deadness before thee and bewray to thee our impotence and senselesness Come Lord and see what a miserable carkass I am and by the power of thy mercy raise me from the state of my corruption Never was our Saviour more submisly dejected then now immediately before he would approve and exalt the Majesty of his Godhead To his groans and inward grief he adds his tears Anone they shall confess him a God these expressions of Passions shall onwards evince him to be a man The Jews construe this well See how he loved him Never did any thing but love fetch tears from Christ But they do foully misconstrue Christ in the other Could not he that opened the eyes of him that was born blinde have caused that even this man should not have died Yes know ye O vain and importune questionists that he could have done it with ease To open the eyes of a man born blind was more then to keep a sick man from dying this were but to uphold and maintain Nature from decaying that were to create a new sense and to restore a deficiency in Nature To make an eye was no whit less difficult then to make a man he that could doe the greater might well have done the less Ye shall soon see this was not for want of power Had ye said Why would he not why did he not the question had been fairer and the answer no less easie For his own greater glory Little do ye know the drift whether of God's acts or delaies and ye know as much as you are worthy Let it be sufficient for you to understand that he who can doe all things will doe that which shall be most for his own honour It is not improbable that Jesus who before groaned in himself for compassion of their tears now groaned for their incredulity Nothing could so much afflict the Saviour of men as the sins of men Could their external wrongs to his body have been separated from offence against his Divine person their scornful indignities had not so much affected him No injury goes so deep as our spiritual provocations of our God Wretched men why should we grieve the good Spirit of God in us why should we make him groan for us that died to redeem us With these groans O Saviour thou camest to the grave of Lazarus The door of that house of Death was strong and impenetrable Thy first word was Take away the stone Oh weak beginning of a mighty Miracle If thou meantest to raise the dead how much more easie had it been for thee to remove the grave-stone One grain of Faith in thy very Disciples was enough to remove mountains and dost thou say Take away the stone I wis there was a greater weight that lay upon the body of Lazarus then the stone of his Tomb the weight of Death and Corruption a thousand rocks and hils were not so heavy a load as this alone why then dost thou stick at this shovel-full Yea how easie had it been for thee to have brought up the body of Lazarus through the stone by causing that marble to give way by a sudden rarefaction But thou thoughtest best to make use of their hands rather whether for their own more full conviction for had the stone been taken away by thy Followers and Lazarus thereupon walked forth this might have appeared to thy malignant enemies to have been a set match betwixt thee the Disciples and Lazarus or whether for the exercise of our Faith that thou mightest teach us to trust thee under contrary appearances Thy command to remove the stone seemed to argue an impotence straight that seeming weakness breaks forth into an act of Omnipotent power The homeliest shows of thine humane infirmity are ever seconded with some mighty proofs of thy Godhead and thy Miracle is so much more wondred at by how much it was less exspected It was ever thy just will that we should doe what we may To remove the stone or to untie the napkin was in their power this they must doe to raise the dead was out of their power this therefore thou wilt doe alone Our hands must doe their utmost ere thou wilt put to thine O Saviour we are all dead and buried in the grave of our sinfull Nature The stone of obstination must be taken away from our hearts ere we can hear thy reviving voice we can no more remove this stone then dead Lazarus could remove his we can adde more weight to our graves O let thy faithful agents by the power of thy Law and the grace of thy Gospel take off the stone that thy voice may enter into the grave of miserable corruption Was it a modest kinde of mannerliness in Martha that she would not have Christ annoyed with the ill sent of that stale carcass or was it out of distrust of reparation since her brother had passed all the degrees of corruption that she saies Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four daies He that understood hearts found somewhat amiss in that intimation his answer had not endeavored to rectifie that which was utterly faultless I fear the good woman meant to object this as a likely obstacle to any further purposes or proceedings of Christ Weak faith is still apt to lay blocks of difficulties in the way of the great works of God Four days were enough to make any corps noisome Death it self is not unsavory immediately upon dissolution the body retains the wonted sweetness it is the continuance under death that is thus offensive Neither is it otherwise in our Spiritual condition the longer we lie under our sin the more rotten and corrupt we are He who upon the fresh commission of his sin recovers himself by a speedy repentance yields no ill sent to the nostrils of the Almighty The Candle that is presently blown in again offends not it is the snuffe which continues choaked with its own moisture that sends up unwholsome and odious fumes O Saviour thou wouldst yield to death thou wouldst not yield to corruption Ere the fourth day thou wert risen again I cannot but receive many deadly foils but oh do thou raise me up again ere I shall pass the degrees of rottenness in my sins and trespasses They that laid their hands to the stone doubtless held now still awhile and looked one while on Christ another while upon Martha to hear what issue of resolution would follow upon so important an objection when they finde a light touch of taxation to Martha Said not I to thee that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the glory of God That holy woman had before professed her belief as Christ had professed his great intentions both were now forgotten and now our Saviour is fain to revive both her memory and Faith Said not I to thee The best of all Saints are subject to fits of unbelief and oblivion the onely remedy whereof must
that all this while stopped that Gracious mouth thou speakest to him that cannot fear those faces he hath made he that hath charged us to confesse him cannot but confesse himself Jesus saith unto him Thou hast said There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence He that is the Wisdome of his Father hath here given us a pattern of both We may not so speak as to give advantage to cavils we may not be so silent as to betray the Truth Thou shalt have no more cause proud and insulting Caiaphas to complain of a speechlesse prisoner now thou shalt hear more then thou demandedst Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven There spake my Saviour the voice of God and not of man Hear now insolent High Priest and be confounded That Son of man whom thou seest is the Son of God whom thou canst not see That Son of man that Son of God that God and man whom thou now seest standing despicably before thy Consistorial seat in a base dejectednesse him shalt thou once with horrour and trembling see majestically sitting on the Throne of Heaven attended with thousand thousands of Angels and coming in the clouds to that dreadfull Judgment wherein thy self amongst other damned malefactors shalt be presented before that glorious tribunal of his and adjudged to thy just torments Goe now wretched Hypocrite and rend thy garments whiles in the mean time thou art worthy to have thy Soul rent from thy body for thy spightfull Blasphemy against the Son of God Onwards thy pretence is fair and such as cannot but receive applause from thy compacted crue What need have we of witnesses behold now ye have heard his Blasphemy What think ye And they answered and said He is guilty of death What heed is to be taken of mens judgment So light are they upon the balance that one dram of prejudice or forestalment turns the scales Who were these but the grave Benchers of Jerusalem the Synod of the choice Rabbies of Israel yet these passe sentence against the Lord of Life sentence of that death of his whereby if ever they shall be redeemed from the murder of their sentence O Saviour this is not the last time wherein thou hast received cruel dooms from them that professe Learning and Holiness What wonder is it if thy weak members suffer that which was indured by so perfect an head What care we to be judged by man's day when thou who art the Righteous Judge of the world wert thus misjudged by men Now is the fury of thy malignant enemies let loose upon thee what measure can be too hard for him that is denounced worthy of death Now those foul mouths defile thy Blessed Face with their impure spittle the venemous froth of their malice now those cruell hands are lifted up to buffet thy Sacred Cheeks now scorn and insultation triumphs over thine humble Patience Prophesie unto us thou Christ who it is that smote thee O dear Jesu what a beginning is here of a Passion There thou standst bound condemned spat upon buffetted derided by malicious sinners Thou art bound who camest to loose the bands of death thou art condemned whose sentence must acquit the world thou art spat upon that art fairer then the sons of men thou art buffeted in whose mouth was no guile thou art derided who art clothed with Glory and Majesty In the mean while how can I enough wonder at thy infinite Mercy who in the midst of all these wofull indignities couldst finde a time to cast thine eyes back upon thy frail and ingratefull Disciple and in whose gracious eare Peter's Cock sounded louder then all these reproaches O Saviour thou who in thine apprehension couldst forget all thy danger to correct and heal his over-lashing now in the heat of thy arraignment and condemnation canst forget thy own misery to reclaim his errour and by that seasonable glance of thine eye to strike his heart with a needfull remorse He that was lately so valiant to fight for thee now the next morning is so cowardly as to deny thee He shrinks at the voice of a Maid who was not daunted with the sight of a Band. O Peter had thy slip been sudden thy fall had been more easie Premonition aggravates thy offence that stone was foreshewed thee whereat thou stumbledst neither did thy warning more adde to thy guilt then thine own fore-resolution How didst thou vow though thou shouldst die with thy Master not to deny him Hadst thou said nothing but answered with a trembling silence thy shame had been the lesse Good purposes when they are not held do so far turn enemies to the entertainer of them as that they help to double both his sin and punishment Yet a single denial had been but easie thine I fear to speak it was lined with swearing and execration Whence then oh whence was this so vehement and peremptory disclamation of so gracious a Master What such danger had attended thy profession of his attendance One of thy fellows was known to the high-priest for a Follower of Jesus yet he not onely came himself into that open Hall in view of the Bench but treated with the Maid that kept the door to let thee in also She knew him what he was and could therefore speak to thee as brought in by his mediation Art not thou also one of this mans Disciples Thou also supposes the first acknowledged such yet what crime what danger was urged upon that noted Disciple What could have been more to thee Was it that thy heart misgave thee thou mightest be called to account for Malchus It was no thank to thee that that eare was healed neither did there want those that would think how near that eare was to the head Doubtlesse that busie fellow himself was not far off and his fellows and kinsmen would have been apt enough to follow thee besides thy Discipleship upon a bloodshed a riot a rescue Thy conscience hath made thee thus unduly timorous and now to be sure to avoid the imputation of that affray thou renouncest all knowledge of him in whose cause thou foughtest Howsoever the sin was hainous I tremble at such a Fall of so great an Apostle It was thou O Peter that buffetedst thy Master more then those Jews it was to thee that he turned the cheek from them as to view him by whom he most smarted he felt thee afar off and answered thee with a look such a look as was able to kill and revive at once Thou hast wounded me maiest thou now say O my Saviour thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes that one Eye of thy Mercy hath wounded my heart with a deep remorse for my grievous sin with an indignation at my unthankfulnesse that one glance of thine hath resolved me into the tears of sorrow and contrition Oh that mine eyes were fountains and my cheeks channels that
suffered till now now thy bloody Passion begins a cruell expoliation begins that violence Again do these grim and mercilesse Souldiers lay their rude hands upon thee and strip thee naked again are those bleeding wales laid open to all eyes again must thy Sacred body undergoe the shame of an abhorred nakednesse Lo thou that clothest man with raiment beasts with hides fishes with scales and shells earth with flowers Heaven with Stars art despoiled of cloaths and standest exposed to the scorn of all beholders As the First Adam entred into his Paradise so dost thou the Second Adam into thine naked and as the First Adam was clothed with Innocence when he had no cloaths so wert thou the Second too and more then so thy nakednesse O Saviour cloaths our Souls not with Innocence only but with Beauty Hadst not thou been naked we had been cloathed with confusion O happy nakednesse whereby we are covered from shame O happy shame whereby we are invested with glory All the beholders stand wrapped with warm garments thou only art stripped to tread the wine-presse alone How did thy Blessed Mother now wish her veile upon thy shoulders and that Disciple who lately ran from thee naked wish'd in vain that his loving pity might doe that for thee which fear forced him to for himself Shame is succeeded with Pain Oh the torment of the Crosse Methinks I see and feel how having fastned the transverse to the body of that fatal Tree and lai'd it upon the ground they racked and strained thy tender and sacred Lims to fit the extent of their fore-appointed measure and having tentered out thine arms beyond their natural reach how they fastned them with cords till those strong iron nails which were driven up to the head through the palms of thy Blessed hands had not more firmly then painfully fixed thee to the Gibbet The tree is raised up and now not without a vehement concussion setled in the mortise Woe is me how are thy joynts and sinews torn and stretched till they crack again by this torturing distension how doth thine own weight torment thee whiles thy whole body rests upon this forced and dolorous hold till thy nailed feet bear their part in a no lesse afflictive supportation How did the rough iron pierce thy Soul whiles passing through those tender and sensible parts it carried thy flesh before it and as it were rivetted it to that shamefull Tree There now O dear Jesu there thou hangest between Heaven and earth naked bleeding forlorn despicable the spectacle of miseries the scorn of men Be abashed O ye Heavens and earth and all ye creatures wrap up your selves in horrour and confusion to see the shame and pain and curse of your most pure and Omnipotent Creator How could ye subsist whiles he thus suffers in whom ye are O Saviour didst thou take flesh for our Redemption to be thus indignely used thus mangled thus tortured Was this measure fit to be offered to that Sacred body that was conceived by the Holy Ghost of the pure substance of an immaculate Virgin Woe is me that which was unspotted with sin is all blemished with humane crueltie and so wofully disfigured that the Blessed Mother that bore thee could not now have known thee so bloody were thy Temples so swolne and discoloured was thy Face so was the skin of thy whole body streaked with red and blew stripes so did thy thornie diadem shade thine Heavenly countenance so did the streams of thy blood cover and deform all thy parts The eye of Sense could not distinguish thee O dear Saviour in the nearest proximity to thy Crosse the eye of Faith sees thee in all this distance and by how much more ignominy deformity pain it finds in thee so much more it admires the glory of thy mercy Alas is this the Head that is decked by thine eternall Father with a Crown of pure gold of immortall and incomprehensible Majesty which is now bushed with thorns Is this the Eye that saw the Heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descending upon that head that saw such resplendence of Heavenly brightnesse on mount Tabor which now begins to be overclouded with death Are these the Eares that heard the voice of thy Father owning thee out of Heaven which now tingle with buffettings and glow with reproaches and bleed with thorns Are these the Lips that spake as never mans spake full of grace and power that called out dead Lazarus that ejected the stubbornest Devils that commanded the cure of all diseases which now are swoln with blows and discoloured with blewnesse and blood Is this the Face that should be fairer then the sons of men which the Angels of Heaven so desired to see and can never be satisfied with seeing that is thus foul with the nasty mixtures of sweat and blood and spittings on Are these the Hands that stretched out the Heavens as a curtain that by their touch healed the lame the deaf the blind which are now bleeding with the nailes Are these the Feet which walked lately upon the liquid pavement of the sea before whose footstool all the Nations of the earth are bidden to worship that are now so painfully fixed to the Crosse O cruell and unthankfull mankind that offered such measure to the Lord of Life O infinitely mercifull Saviour that wouldst suffer all this for unthankfull mankind That fiends should doe these things to guilty souls it is though terrible yet just but that men should doe thus to the Blessed Son of God it is beyond the capacity of our horrour Even the most hostile dispositions have been only content to kill Death hath sated the most eager malice thine enemies O Saviour held not themselves satisfied unlesse they might injoy thy torment Two Thieves are appointed to be thy companions in death thou art designed to the midst as the chief malefactor on whether hand soever thou lookest thine eye meets with an hatefull partner But O Blessed Jesu how shall I enough admire and celebrate thy infinite Mercy who madest so happy an use of this Jewish despight as to improve it to the occasion of the Salvation of one and the comfort of millions Is not this as the last so the greatest specialty of thy wonderfull compassion to convert that dying Thief with those nailed hands to snatch a Soul out of the mouth of Hell Lord how I blesse thee for this work how doe I stand amazed at this above all other the demonstrations of thy Goodnesse and Power The Offender came to die nothing was in his thoughts but his guilt and torment whiles he was yet in his blood thou saidst This Soul shall live Ere yet the intoxicating Potion could have time to work upon his brain thy Spirit infuses Faith into his heart He that before had nothing in his eye but present death and torture is now lifted up above his Crosse in a blessed ambition Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome Is this the voice of a Thief
or of a Disciple Give me leave O Saviour to borrow thine own words Verily I have not found so great faith no not in all Israel He saw thee hanging miserably by him and yet styles thee Lord he saw thee dying yet talks of thy Kingdome he felt himself dying yet talks of a future remembrance O Faith stronger then death that can look beyond the Crosse at a Crown beyond dissolution at a remembrance of Life and Glory Which of thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to thee in these thy last pangs After thy Resurrection and knowledge of thine impassible condition it was not strange for them to talk of thy Kingdome but in the midst of thy shamefull death for a dying malefactor to speak of thy reigning and to implore thy remembrance of himself in thy Kingdome it is such an improvement of Faith as ravisheth my Soul with admiration O blessed Thief that hast thus happily stolne Heaven How worthy hath thy Saviour made thee to be a partner of his sufferings a pattern of undauntable belief a spectacle of unspeakable mercy This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Before I wondred at thy Faith now I envy at thy Felicity Thou cravedst a remembrance thy Saviour speaks of a present possession This day thou suedst for remembrance as a favour to the absent thy Saviour speaks of thy presence with him thou spakest of a Kingdome thy Saviour of Paradise As no Disciple could be more faithfull so no Saint could be happier O Saviour what a precedent is this of thy free and powerfull grace Where thou wilt give what unworthinesse can barre us from Mercy when thou wilt give what time can prejudice our vocation who can despair of thy goodnesse when he that in the morning was posting towards Hell is in the evening with thee in Paradise Lord he could not have spoken this to thee but by thee and from thee What possibility was there for a thief to think of thy Kingdome without thy Spirit That good Spirit of thine breathed upon this man breathed not upon his fellow their trade was alike their sin was alike their state alike their crosse alike only thy Mercy makes them unlike One is taken the other is refused Blessed be thy Mercy in taking one blessed be thy Justice in leaving the other Who can despair of that Mercy who cannot but tremble at that Justice Now O ye cruell Priests and Elders of the Jews ye have full leisure to feed your eyes with the sight ye so much longed for there is the blood ye purchased and is not your malice yet glutted Is not all this enough without your taunts and scoffs and sports at so exquisite a misery The people the passengers are taught to insult where they should pity Every man hath a scorn ready to cast at a dying innocent A generous nature is more wounded with the tongue then with the hand O Saviour thine eare was more painfully pierced then thy brows or hands or feet It could not but goe deep into thy Soul to hear these bitter and girding reproaches from them thou camest to save But alas what sleabitings were these in comparison of those inward torments which thy Soul felt in the sense and apprehension of thy Fathers wrath for the sins of the whole world which now lay heavy upon thee for satisfaction This oh this was it that pressed thy Soul as it were to the nethermost hell Whiles thine eternall Father lookt lovingly upon thee what didst thou what neededst thou to care for the frowns of men or Devils but when he once turn'd his face from thee or bent his brows upon thee this this was worse then death It is no marvel now if darkness were upon the face of the whole earth when thy Fathers face was eclipsed from thee by the interposition of our sins How should there be light in the world without when the God of the world the Father of lights complains of the want of light within That word of thine O Saviour was enough to fetch the Sun down out of Heaven and to dissolve the whole frame of Nature when thou criedst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh what pangs were these dear Jesu that drew from thee this complaint Thou well knewest nothing could be more cordial to thine enemies then to hear this sad language from thee they could see but the outside of thy sufferings never could they have conceived so deep an anguish of thy Soul if thy own lips had not expressed it Yet as not regarding their triumph thou thus powrest out thy sorrow and when so much is uttered who can conceive what is felt How is it then with thee O Saviour that thou thus astonishest men and Angels with so woful a quiritation Had thy God left thee Thou not long since saidst I and my Father are One Are ye now severed Let this thought be as farre from my Soul as my Soul from Hell No more can thy Blessed Father be separated from thee then from his own Essence His Union with thee is eternal his Vision was intercepted He could not withdraw his Presence he would withdraw the influence of his comfort Thou the Second Adam stoodst for mankind upon this Tree of the Cross as the First Adam stood and fell for mankind under the Tree of Offence Thou barest our sins thy Father saw us in thee and would punish us in thee thee for us how could he but withhold comfort where he intended chastisement Herein therefore he seems to forsake thee for the present in that he would not deliver thee from that bitter Passion which thou wouldst undergoe for us O Saviour hadst thou not been thus forsaken we had perished thy dereliction is our safety and however our narrow Souls are not capable of the conceit of thy pain and horror yet we know there can be no danger in the forsaking whiles thou canst say My God He is so thy God as he cannot be ours all our right is by Adoption thine by Nature thou art one with him in eternal Essence we come in by Grace and merciful election yet whiles thou shalt inable me to say My God I shall hope never to sink under thy desertions But whiles I am transported with the sense of thy Sufferings O Saviour let me not forget to admire those sweet Mercies of thine which thou powredst out upon thy Persecutors They rejoyce in thy death and triumph in thy misery and scoff at thee in both In stead of calling down fire from Heaven upon them thou heapest coals of fire upon their heads Father forgive them for they know not what they doe They blaspheme thee thou prayest for them they scorn thou pitiest they sin aganst thee thou prayest for their forgiveness they profess their malice thou pleadest their ignorance O compassion without example without measure fit for the Son of God the Saviour of men Wicked and foolish Jewes ye would be miserable he will not
oh when in the height of his pain and misery thou heardst him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me what a cold horrour possessed thy Soul I cannot now wonder at thy qualms and swoonings I could rather wonder that thou survivedst so sad an hour But when recollecting thy self thou sawest the Heavens to bear a part with thee in thy mourning and feltest the earth to tremble no less then thy self and foundst that the dreadful concussion of the whole frame of Nature proclaimed the Deity of him that would thus suffer and dye and remembredst his frequent predictions of drinking this bitter cup and of being baptized thus in blood thou beganst to take heart and to comfort thy self with the assured exspectation of the glorious issue More then once had he foretold thee his victorious Resurrection He who had openly professed Jonas for his type and had fore-promised in three daies to raise up the ruined Temple of his Body had doubtless given more full intimation unto thee who hadst so great a share in that sacred body of his The just shall live by Faith Lo that Faith of thine in his ensuing Resurrection and in his triumph over death gives thee life and chears up thy drouping Soul and bids it in an holy confidence to triumph over all thy fears and sorrows and him whom thou now seest dead and despised represents unto thee living immortal glorious The Resurrection GRace doth not ever make show where it is There is much secret riches both in the earth and sea which never eye saw I never heard any news till now of Joseph of Arimathea yet was he eminently both rich and wise and good a worthy though close Disciple of our Saviour True Faith may be wisely reserved but will not be cowardly Now he puts forth himself and dares beg the Body of Jesus Death is wont to end all quarrels Pilate's heart tells him he hath done too much already in sentencing an innocent to death no doubt that Centurion had related unto him the miraculous symptoms of that Passion He that so unwillingly condemned Innocence could rather have wished that just man alive then have denied him dead The body is yielded and taken down and now that which hung naked upon the Cross is wrapped in fine linen that which was soiled with sweat and blood is curiously washed and embalmed Now even Nicodemus comes in for a part and fears not the envie of a good profession Death hath let that man loose whom the Law formerly over-awed with restraint He hates to be a night-bird any longer but boldly flies forth and looks upon the face of the Sun and will be now as liberal in his Odors as he was before niggardly in his Confession O Saviour the earth was thine and the fulness of it yet as thou hadst not an house of thine own whiles thou livedst so thou hadst not a grave when thou wert dead Joseph that rich Councellor lent thee his lent it so as it should never be restored thou took'st it but for a while but that little touch of that Sacred Corps of thine made it too good for the owner O happy Joseph that hadst the honour to be Landlord of the Lord of life how well is thy house-room repai'd with a mansion not made with hands eternall in the heavens Thy Garden and thy Tombe were hard by Calvary where thou couldst not fail of many monitions of thy frailty How oft hadst thou seasoned that new Tombe with sad and savory meditations and hadst oft said within thy self Here I shall once lye down to my last rest and wait for my Resurrection Little didst thou then think to have been disappointed by so Blessed a guest or that thy grave should be again so soon empty and in that emptiness uncapable of any mortal in-dweller How gladly dost thou now resign thy grave to him in whom thou livest and who liveth for ever whose Soul is in Paradise whose Godhead every where Hadst thou not been rich before this gift had enriched thee alone and more ennobled thee then all thine earthly Honour Now great Princes envie thy bounty and have thought themselves happy to kiss the stones of that rock which thou thus hewedst thus bestowedst Thus purely wrapped and sweetly embalmed lyes the precious body of our Saviour in Joseph's new vault Are ye now also at rest O ye Jewish Rulers Is your malice dead and buried with him Hath Pilate enough served your envie and revenge Surely it is but a common hostility that can die yours surviveth death and puts you upon a further project The chief Priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate saying Sir we remember that this Deceiver said whiles he was yet alive After three daies I will rise again Command therefore that the Sepulcher be made sure till the third day lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the people he is risen How full of terrors and inevitable perplexities is guiltiness These men were not more troubled with envie at Christ alive then now with fear of his Resurrection And what can now secure them Pilate had helpt to kill him but who shall keep him from rising Wicked and foolish Jewes how fain would ye fight against God and your own hearts How gladly would ye deceive your selves in believing him to be a Deceiver whom your consciences knew to be no less true then powerful Lazarus was still in your ey That man was no phantasme his death his reviving was undeniable the so fresh resuscitation of that dead body after four daies dissolution was a manifest conviction of Omnipotence How do ye vainly wish that he could deceive you in the fore-reporting of his own Resurrection Without a Divine power he could have raised neither Lazarus nor himself with and by it he could as well raise himself as Lazarus What need we other witnesses then your own mouths That which he would doe ye confess he foretold that the truth of his word might answer the power of this deed and both of them might argue him the God of Truth and Power and your selves enemies to both And now what must be done The Sepulcher must be secured and you with it An huge stone a strong guard must doe the deed and that stone must be sealed that guard of your own designing Methinks I hear the Souldiers and busy Officers when they were rolling that other weighty stone for such we probably conceive to the mouth of the vault with much toile and sweat and breathlesness how they brag'd of the sureness of the place and unremovableness of that load and when that so choice a Watch was set how they boasted of their valour and vigilance and said they would make him safe from either rising or stealing Oh the madness of impotent men that think by either wile or force to frustrate the will and designs of the Almighty How justly doth that wise and powerful Arbiter of the world laugh them to scorn in
one sinner how much more when a world of sinners is perfectly ransomed from death and restored to Salvation Certainly if but one or two appeared all rejoyced all triumphed Neither could they but be herein sensible of their own happy advantage who by thy mediation are confirmed in their glorious estate since thou by the blood of thy Cross and power of thy Resurrection hast reconciled things not in earth onely but in Heaven But above all other the Love of thee their God and Saviour must needs heighten their joy and make thy Glory theirs It is their perpetual work to praise thee how much more now when such an occasion was offered as never had been since the world began never could be after when thou the God of Spirits hadst vanquished all the spiritual powers of darkness when thou the Lord of Life hadst conquered death for thee and all thine so as they may now boldly insult over their last enemy O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Certainly if Heaven can be capable of an increase of joy and felicity never had those Blessed Spirits so great a cause of triumph and gratulation as in this day of thy glorious Resurrection How much more O dear Jesu should we men whose flesh thou didst assume unite revive for whose sake and in whose stead thou didst vouchsafe to suffer and die whose arrerages thou payedst in death and acquittedst in thy Resurrection whose Souls are discharged whose Bodies shall be raised by the power of thy rising how much more should we think we have cause to be over-joyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceiveable Mercy Lo now how weak soever I am in my self yet in the confidence of this victorious Resurrection of my Saviour I dare boldly challenge and defie you O all ye adverse Powers Doe the worst ye can to my Soul in despight of you it shall be safe Is it Sin that threats me Behold this Resurrection of my Redeemer publishes my discharge My Surety was arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave had not the utmost farthing of mine arrerages been paid he could not have come forth He is come forth the Summe is fully satisfied What danger can there be of a discharged Debt Is it the Wrath of God Wherefore is that but for sin If my sin be defraied that quarrel is at an end and if my Saviour suffered it for me how can I fear to suffer it in my self That infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen Is it Death it self Lo my Saviour that overcame death by dying hath triumph'd over him in his Resurrection How can I now fear a conquered enemy What harm is there in the Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin that is pulled out by my powerful Redeemer it cannot now hurt me it may refresh me to carry this cool Snake in my bosome O then my dear Saviour I bless thee for thy Death but I bless thee more for thy Resurrection That was a work of wonderful Humility of infinite Mercy this was a work of infinite Power In that was humane Weakness in this Divine Omnipotence In that thou didst die for our sins in this thou didst rise again for our Justification And now how am I conformable to thee if when thou art risen I lie still in the grave of my Corruptions How am I a lim of thy body if whiles thou hast that perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over me if whiles thou art alive and glorious I lie rotting in the dust of death I know the locomotive faculty is in the Head by the power of the Resurrection of thee our Head all we thy Members cannot but be raised As the earth cannot hold my body from thee in the day of the Second Resurrection so cannot sin withhold my Soul from thee in the First How am I thine if I be not risen and if I be risen with thee why do I not seek the things above where thou sittest at the right hand of God The Vault or Cave which Joseph had hewn out of the rock was large capable of no less then ten persons upon the mouth of it Eastward was that great stone rolled within it at the right hand in the North part of the Cave was hewn out a receptacle for the body three handfuls high from the pavement and a stone was accordingly fitted for the cover of that Grave Into this Cave the good Women finding the stone rolled away descended to seek the body of Christ and in it saw the Angels This was the Goal to which Peter and John ran finding the spoils of death the grave cloaths wrapped up and the napkin that was about the head folded up together and laid in a place by it self and as they came in haste so they return'd with wonder I marvel not at your speed O ye blessed Disciples if upon the report of the Women ye ran yea flew upon the wings of zeal to see what was become of your Master Ye had wont to walk familiarly together in the attendance of your Lord now society is forgotten and as for a wager each tries the speed of his legs and with neglect of other vies who shall be first at the Tomb. Who would not but have tried masteries with you in this case and have made light touches of the earth to have held paces with you Your desire was equal but John is the yonger his lims are more nimble his breath more free he first looks into the Sepulcher but Peter goes down first O happy competition who shall be more zealous in the enquiry after Christ Ye saw enough to amaze you not enough to settle your Faith How well might you have thought Our Master is not subduced but risen Had he been taken away by others hands this fine linen had not been left behinde Had he not himself risen from this bed of earth he had not thus wrapped up his night-cloaths and laid them sorted by themselves What can we doubt when he foretold us he would rise O Blessed Jesu how wilt thou pardon our errours how should we pardon and pity the errours of each other in lesser occasions whenas yet thy prime and dearest Disciples after so much Divine instruction knew not the Scriptures that thou must rise again from the dead They went away more astonished then confident more full of wonder as yet then of belief There is more strength of zeal where it takes in the weaker Sex Those holy Women as they came first so they staid last especially devout Mary Magdalene stands still at the mouth of the Cave weeping Well might those tears have been spared if her Knowledge had been answerable to her Affection her Faith to her Fervour Withall as our eye will be where we love she stoops and looks down
interposed Hadst thou merely respected thine own Glory thou hadst instantly changed thy grave for thy Paradise for so much the sooner hadst thou been possessed of thy Fathers joy we would not continue in a Dungeon when we might be in a Palace but thou who for our sakes vouchsafedst to descend from Heaven to earth wouldst now in the upshot have a gracious regard to us in thy return Thy death had troubled the hearts of many Disciples who thought that condition too mean to be compatible with the glory of the Messiah and thoughts of diffidence were apt to seize upon the holiest breasts So long therefore wouldst thou hold footing upon earth till the world were fully convinced of the infallible evidences of thy Resurrection of all which time thou only canst give an account it was not for flesh and blood to trace the waies of Immortality neither was our frail corruptible sinful nature a meet companion for thy now-glorified Humanity the glorious angels of Heaven were now thy fittest attendants But yet how oft did it please thee graciously to impart thy self this while unto men and not only to appear unto thy Disciples but to renew unto them the familiar forms of thy wonted conversation in conferring walking eating with them and now when thou drewest near to thy last parting thou who hadst many times shew'd thy self before to thy several Disciples thoughtest meet to assemble them all together for an universal valediction Who can be too rigorous in censuring the ignorances of well-meaning Christians when he sees the domestick Followers of Christ even after his Resurrection mistake the main end of his coming in the flesh Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdome to Israel They saw their Master now out of the reach of all Jewish envie they saw his power illimited and irresistible they saw him stay so long upon earth that they might imagine he meant to fix his abode there and what should he doe there but reign and wherefore should they be now assembled but for the choice and distribution of Offices and for the ordering of the affairs of that state which was now to be vindicated O weak thoughts of well-instructed Disciples What should an Heavenly body doe in an earthly throne How should a spiritual life be imployed in secular cares How poor a business is the temporal Kingdome of Israel for the King of Heaven And even yet O Blessed Saviour I do not hear thee sharply controll this erroneous conceit of thy mistaken Followers thy mild correction insists rather upon the time then the misconceived substance of that restauration It was thy gracious purpose that thy Spirit should by degrees rectifie their judgements and illuminate them with thy Divine truths in the mean time it was sufficient to raise up their hearts to an expectation of that Holy Ghost which should shortly lead them into all needful and requisite verities And now with a gracious promise of that Spirit of thine with a careful charge renewed unto thy Disciples for the promulgation of thy Gospel with an Heavenly Benediction of all thine acclaming attendance thou tak'st leave of earth When he had spoken these things whiles they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight Oh happy parting fit for the Saviour of mankind answerable to that Divine conversation to that succeeding Glory O blessed Jesu let me so farre imitate thee as to depart hence with a blessing in my mouth let my Soul when it is stepping over the threshold of Heaven leave behind it a legacy of Peace and Happiness It was from the mount of Olives that thou tookst thy rise into Heaven Thou mightest have ascended from the valley all the globe of earth was alike to thee but since thou wert to mount upward thou wouldst take so much advantage as that staire of ground would afford thee thou wouldst not use the help of a Miracle in that wherein Nature offered her ordinary service What difficulty had it been for thee to have styed up from the very center of earth But since thou hadst made hills so much nearer unto Heaven thou wouldst not neglect the benefit of thy own Creation Where we have common helps we may not depend upon Supernatural provisions we may not strain the Divine Providence to the supply of our negligence or the humoring of our presumption Thou that couldst alwaies have walked on the Sea wouldst walk so but once when thou wantedst shipping thou to whom the highest mountains were but valleys wouldst walk up to an hill to ascend thence into Heaven O God teach me to bless thee for means when I have them and to trust thee for means when I have them not yea to trust to thee without means when I have no hope of them What hill was this thou chosest but the mount of Olives Thy Pulpit shall I call it or thine Oratory The place from whence thou hadst wont to showre down thine Heavenly Doctrine upon the hearers the place whence thou hadst wont to sent up thy Prayers unto thy Heavenly Father the place that shared with the Temple for both In the day-time thou wert preaching in the Temple in the night praying in the mount of Olives On this very hill was the bloody sweat of thine Agonie now is it the mount of thy Triumph From this mount of Olives did flow that oyle of gladness wherewith thy Church is everlastingly refreshed That God that uses to punish us in the same kind wherein we have offended retributes also to us in the same kind and circumstances wherein we have been afflicted To us also O Saviour even to us thy unworthy members dost thou seasonably vouchsafe to give a proportionable joy to our heaviness laughter to our mourning glory to contempt and shame Our agonies shall be answered with exaltation Whither then O Blessed Jesu whither didst thou ascend whither but home into thine Heaven From the mountain wert thou taken up and what but Heaven is above the hills Lo these are those mountains of spices which thy Spouse the Church long since desired thee to climbe Thou hast now climbed up that infinite steepness and hast left all sublimity below thee Already hadst thou approved thy self the Lord and Commander of Earth of Sea of Hell The Earth confest thee her Lord when at thy voice she rendered thee thy Lazarus when she shook at thy Passion and gave up her dead Saints The Sea acknowledged thee in that it became a pavement to thy feet and at thy command to the feet of thy Disciple in that it became thy Treasury for thy Tribute-money Hell found and acknowledged thee in that thou conqueredst all the powers of darkness even him that had the power of death the Devil It now onely remained that as the Lord of the Aire thou shouldst pass through all the regions of that yielding element and as Lord of Heaven thou shouldst pass through all the glorious contignations thereof that so every knee might bow
and felicity if his absence could be grievous his return shall be happy and glorious Even so Lord Jesus come quickly In the mean while it is not Heaven that can keep thee from me it is not earth that can keep me from thee Raise thou up my Soul to a life of Faith with thee let me ever injoy thy conversation whiles I exspect thy return A SERMON OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING For the wonderful Mitigation of the late Mortalitie Preached before His Majestie upon His gracious Command at His Court of Whitehall Jan. 29. 1625. and upon the same Command published by JOS. HALL Dean of Worcester Psal 68. vers 19 20. Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death YEa blessed be the Lord who hath added this unto the load of his other Mercies to his unworthy servant that the same Tongue which was called not long since to chatter out our Publick Mournings in the Solemn Fast of this place is now imployed in a Song of Praise and the same Hand which was here lifted up for Supplication is now lift up in Thanksgiving Ye that then accompanied me with your tears and sighs accompany me now I beseech you in this happy change of note and time with your joyful Smiles and Acclamations to the GOD that hath wrought it It is not more natural for the Sun when it looks upon a moist and wellfermented earth to cause Vapors to ascend thence then it is for Greatness and Goodness when they both meet together upon an honest heart to draw up holy desires of gratulation The worth of the Agent doth it not alone without a â—it disposition in the Subject Let the Sun cast his strongest beams upon a flint a pumice he fetches out no stream Even so the Greatness and Goodness of the Almighty beating upon a dry and hard heart prevailes nothing Here all three are happily met In God infinite Greatness infinite Goodness such Greatness that he is attended with thousand thousands of Angels a Guard fit for the King of Heaven such Goodness that he receives Gifts even for the rebellious In David a Gracious heart that in a sweet sense of the great Goodness of his God breaths out this Divine Epiphonema Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation c. Wherein methinks the sweet Singer of Israel seems to raise his note to the emulation of the Quire of Heaven in the melody of their Allelujahs yea let me say now that he sings above in that Blessed Consort of glorious Spirits his Ditty cannot be better then this that he sung here upon earth and wherein we are about to bear our parts at this time Prepare I beseech you both your eares for David's Song and your hearts and tongues for your own And first in this Angelical strain your thoughts cannot but observe without me the Descant and the Ground The Descant of Gratulation Blessed be the Lord wherein is both Applause and Excitation an Applause given to God's Goodness and an Excitation of others to give that Applause The Ground is a threefold respect Of what God is in himself God and Lord Of what God is and doth to us which loadeth us daily with benefits Of what he is both in himself and to us The God of our Salvation which last like to some rich Stone is set off with a dark foyl To God the Lord belong the issues from death So in the first for his own sake in the second for our sakes in the third for his own and ours as God as Lord as a Benefactor as a Saviour and Deliverer Blessed be the Lord. It is not hard to observe that David's Allelujahs are more then his Hosannas his thanks more then his suits Oft-times doth he praise God when be begs nothing seldome ever doth he beg that favour for which he doth not raise up his Soul to an anticipation of Thanks neither is this any other then the universal under-song of all his Heavenly Ditties Blessed be the Lord. Praised as our former Translation hath it is too low Honour is more then Praise Blessing is more then Honour Neither is it for nothing that from this word Barac to bless is derived Berec the knee which is bowed in blessing and the cryer before Joseph proclaimed Abrech calling for the honour of the knee from all beholders Gen. 41. 43. Every slight trivial acknowledgement of worth is a Praise Blessing is in a higher strain of gratitude that carries the whole sway of the heart with it in a kinde of Divine rapture Praise is in matter of complement Blessing of Devotion The Apostle's Rule is that the less is blessed of the greater Abraham of the King of Salem The Prophets charge is that the greater should be blessed of the less yea the greatest of the least God of man This agrees well Blessing is an act that will bear reciprocation God blesseth man and man blesseth God God blesseth man imperatively man blesseth God optatively God blesseth man in the acts of Mercy man blesseth God in the notions in the expressions of thanks God blesses man when he makes him good and happy man blesseth God when he confesseth how good how gracious how glorious he is so as the blessing is wholly taken up in agnition in celebration in the one we acknowledge the Bounty of God to us in the other we magnifie him vocally really for that Bounty Oh see then what high account God makes of the affections and actions of his poor silly earth-creeping creatures that he gives us in them power to bless himself and takes it as an honour to be blessed of us David wonders that God should so vouchsafe to bless man how much more must we needs wonder at the mercy of God that will vouchsafe to be blessed by man a worm an atome a nothing Yet both S. James tels us that with the tongue we bless God and the Psalmist calls for it here as a service of dear acceptation Blessed be the Lord. Even we men live not Cameleon-like with the aire of thanks nor feed ere the fatter with praises how much less our Maker O God we know well that whatsoever men or Angels doe or doe not thou canst not but be infinitely Blessed in thy self before ever any creature was thou didst equally injoy thy blessed Self from all Eternity what can this worthless loose filme of flesh either adde to or detract from thine Infiniteness Yet thou that humblest thy self to behold the things that are done in Heaven and earth humblest thy self also to accept the weak breath of our Praises that are sent up to thee from earth to Heaven How should this incourage the vows the endeavours of our hearty thankfulness to see them graciously taken Would men take up with good words with good desires and quit our bonds
he that put it into the heart of his Gracious Servant to command a Ninive-like Humiliation What pithie what passionate Prayers were injoined to his disconsolate Church With what holy eagernesse did we devour those Fasts How well were we pleased with the austerity of that pious Penitence What loud cries did beat on all sides at the gates of Heaven and with what inexspectable unconceivable mercy were they answered How suddenly were those many thousands brought down to one poor unity not a number Other evils were wont to come on horseback to goe away on foot this mortality did not post but flie away Methought like unto the great ice it sunk at once Only so many are stricken as may hold us awfull and so few as may leave us thankfull Oh how soon is our Fasting and mourning turned into Laughter and joy How boldly do we now throng into this House of God and fearlesly mix our breaths in a common Devotion This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvailous in our eyes O thou that hearest the prayer to thee shall all flesh come And let all flesh come to thee with the voice of Praise and Thanksgiving It might have been just with thee O God to have swept us away in the common destruction what are we better then our brethren Thou hast let us live that we may praise thee It might have been just with thee to have inlarged the commission of thy killing Angel and to have rooted out this sinfull people from under Heaven But in the midst of judgment thou hast remembred mercy Our sins have not made thee forget to be gracious nor have shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure Thou hast wounded us and thou hast healed us again thou hast delivered us and been mercifull to our sins for thy names sake Oh that we could duly praise thy Name in the great Congregation Oh that our tongues our hearts our lives might blesse and glorifie thee that so thou mayest take pleasure to perfect this great work of our full deliverance and to make this Nation a dear example of thy Mercy of Peace Victory Prosperity to all the world In the mean time let us call all our fellow-creatures to help us bear a part in the Praise of our God Let the Heavens the Stars the winds the waters the dews the frosts the nights the dayes let the Earth and Sea the mountains wells trees fishes fouls beasts let men let Saints let Angels blesse the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Blessed blessed for ever be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Oh blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things and blessed be his glorious Name for ever and ever and let all the earth be filled with his glory Amen Amen One of the SERMONS Preached at Westminster on the day of the Publick Fast April 5. 1628. TO The Lords of the High Court of Parliament and by their appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Esay 5. vers 4 5. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes And now goe to I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof IT is a piece of a Song for so it is called Vers 1. Alas what should Songs doe to an heavy heart Prov. 25. 20. or Musick in a day of Mourning Howling and lamentation is fitter for this occasion Surely as we do sometimes weep for joy so do we sing also for sorrow Thus also doth the Prophet here If it be a Song it is a Dump Esay's Lacrymae fit for that Sheminith gravis symphonia as Tremelius turns it which some sad Psalms were set unto Both the Ditty and the Tune are dolefull There are in it three passionate strains Favours Wrongs Revenge Blessings Sins Judgements Favours and Blessings from God to Israel Sins which are the highest Wrongs from Israel to God Judgments by way of Revenge from God to Israel And each of those follow upon other God begins with Favours to his people they answer him with their Sins he replies upon them with Judgments and all of these are in their height The Favours of God are such as he asks What could be more The Sins are aggravated by those Favours what worse then wilde Grapes and disappointment And the Judgments must be aggravated to the proportion of their Sins what worse then the Hedge taken away the Wall broken the Vineyard trodden down and eaten up Let us follow the steps of God and his Prophet in all these and when we have passed these in Israel let us seek to them at home What should I need to crave attention the businesse is both Gods and our own God and we begin with Favours Favours not mean and ordinary not expressed in a right-down affirmation but in an expostulatory and self-convincing Question What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Every word is a new obligation That Israel is a Vineyard is no small favour of God that it is God's Vineyard is yet more that it is God's Vineyard so exquisitely cultivated as nothing more could be either added or desired is most of all Israel is no vast Desart no wilde Forest no moorish Fen no barren Heath no thornie Thicket but a Vineyard a Soile of use and fruit Look where you will in God's Book ye shall never finde any lively member of Gods Church compared to any but a fruitfull tree Not to a tall Cypresse the Embleme of unprofitable Honour nor to a smooth Ash the Embleme of unprofitable Prelacie that doth nothing but bear Keyes nor to a double-coloured Poplar the Embleme of Dissimulation nor to a well-shaded Plane that hath nothing but Form nor to a hollow Maple nor to a trembling Aspe nor to a prickly Thorn shortly not to any Plant whatsoever whose fruit is not usefull and beneficial Hear this then ye goodly Cedars strong Elmes fast-growing Willows sappy Sycomores and all the rest of the fruitlesse trees of the earth I mean all fashionable and barren Professors whatsoever ye may shoot up in height ye may spread far shade well shew fair but what are ye good for Ye may be fit for the Forest Ditches Hedg-rows of the world ye are not for the true saving soil of God's Israel that is a Vineyard there is place for none but Vines and true Vines are fruitfull He that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit saith our Saviour John 15. 5. And of all fruits what is comparable to that of the Vine Let the Vine it self speak in Jonathan's Parable Jud. 9. 13. Should I leave my Wine which cheareth God and man How is this God cheared with Wine It is an high Hyperbole yet seconded by the God of truth I will
the advantages of Greatness what unequal levies of Legal payments what spightfull Sutes what Depopulations what Usuries what Violences abound every where The sighs the tears the blood of the poor pierce the Heavens and call for a fearfull retribution This is a sour Grape indeed and that makes God to wring his face in an angry detestation Drunkennesse is the next not so odious in the weaknesse of it as in the strength Oh wofull glory strong to drink Woe is me how is the World turned Beast What bouzing and quaffing and whiffing and healthing is there on every bench and what reeling and staggering in our streets What drinking by the Yard the Die the Douzen what forcing of pledges what quarrels for measure and form How is that become an excuse of villany which any villany might rather excuse I was drunk How hath this torrent yea this deluge of excesse in meats and drinks drowned the face of the Earth and risen many cubits above the highest Mountains of Religion and good Laws Yea would God I might not say that which I fear and shame and grieve to say that even some of them which square the Ark for others have been inwardly drowned and discovered their nakednesse That other inundation scoured the World this impures it and what but a Deluge of Fire can wash it from so abominable silthinesse Let no Popish Eaves-dropper now smile to think what advantage I give by so deep a censure of our own Profession Alas these sins know no difference of Religions Would God they themselves were not rather more deep in these foul enormities We extenuate not our guilt whatever we sin we condemn it as mortal they palliate wickednesse with the fair pretence of Veniality Shortly They accuse us we them God both But where am I How easie is it for a man to lose himself in the sins of the time It is not for me to have my habitation in these black Tents let me passe through them running Where can a man cast his eye not to see that which may vex his Soul Here Bribery and Corruption in the seats of Judicature there Perjuries at the Bar here Partiality and unjust Connivency in Magistrates there disorder in those that should be Teachers here Sacriledge in Patrons there Simoniacal contracts in unconscionable Levites here bloody Oaths and Execrations there scurril Prophanenesse here Cozening in bargains there breaking of Promises here perfidious Underminings there flattering Supparasitations here Pride in both Sexes but especially the weaker there Luxury and Wantonnesse here contempt of Gods Messengers there neglect of his Ordinances and violation of his Daies The time and my breath would sooner fail me then this wofull Bed-roll of wickednesse Yet alas were these the sins of Ignorance of Infirmity they might be more worthy of pity then hatred But oh the high hand of our presumptuous offences We draw iniquity with the strings of vanity up to the head up to the eare and shoot up these hatefull shafts against Heaven Did we sit in darknesse and the shadow of death as too many Pagan and Popish Regions do these works of darknesse would be lesse intolerable but now that the beams of the glorious Gospel have shined thus long thus bright in our faces Oh me what can we plead against our own confusion O Lord where shall we appear when thy very Mercies aggravate our Sins and thy Judgments How shouldst thou expect fruit from a Vineyard so chosen so husbanded and woe worth our wretchednesse that have thus repai'd thee Be confounded in thy self O my Soul be confounded to see these deplored retributions Are these grapes for a God Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unjust Hath he for this made us the mirrour of his Mercies to all the World that we should so shamefully turn his graces into wantonnesse Are these the fruits of his Choice his Fencing his Reforming his Planting his Watch-tower his Winepresse O Lord the great and dreadfull God keeping the covenants and mercies to them that love thee we have sinned and committed iniquity and have rebelled by departing from thy precepts and from thy Judgments O Lord righteousnesse belongeth to thee but unto us confusion of faces as at this day We know we acknowledge how just it may be with thee to pull up our Hedges to break down our Wall to root up our Vine to destroy and depopulate our Nation to make us the scorn and Proverb of all Generations But O our God Let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy Jerusalem thy holy mountain O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and doe Defer not for thine own sake O our God for thy City and thy people are called by thy Name But alas what speak I of not deferring to a God of mercy who is more forward to give then we to crave and more loath to strike then we to smart and when he must strike complains Why will ye die O house of Israel Let me rather turn this speech to our selves the delay is ours Yet it is not too late either for our return or his mercies The Decree is not to us gone forth till it be executed As yet our Hedge stands our Wall is firm our Vine grows These sharp monitions these touches of Judgment have been for our warning not for our ruine Who knows if he will not return and yet leave a Blessing behinde him Oh that we could turn unto him with all our heart with Fasting and with weeping and with mourning Oh that we could truly and effectually abandon all those abominable Sins that have stirred up the Anger of our God against us and in this our day this day of our solemn Humiliation renew the Vows of our holy and conscionable obedience Lord God it must be thou onely that must doe it Oh strike thou our flinty hearts with a sound remorse and melt them into tears of penitence for all our sins Convert us unto thee and we shall be converted Lord hear our Prayers and regard our tears and reform our Lives and remove thy Plagues and renew thy loving countenance and continue and adde to thine old mercies Lord affect us with thy favours humble us for our sins terrifie us with thy Judgments that so thou maist hold on thy favours and forgive our sins and remove thy Judgments even for the Son of thy Love Jesus Christ the righteous To whom c. Postscript SInce it seemed good to that Great Court to call this poor Sermon amongst others of greater worth into the publick light I have thus submitted to their pleasure And now for that they pleased to bid so high a rate as their Command for that mean piece I do willingly give this my other Statue into the bargain This work preceded some little in time that which it now follows in place not without good reason Authority sends forth that this Will and my Will hath learned ever to give place to Authoritie Besides my
desire to save the labour of Transcriptions I found it not unfit the World should see what Preparative was given for so stirring a Potion neither can there be so much need in these languishing times of any discourse as that which serves to quicken our Mortification wherein I so much rejoyce to have so happily met with those Reverend Bishops who led the way and followed me in this Holy Service The God of Heaven make all our endeavours effectuall to the saving of the Souls of his people Amen A SERMON PREACHED To his Majestie on the Sunday before the Fast being March 30. at White-hall In way of preparation for that holy Exercise By the B. of EXCESTER Galat. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live c. HE that was once tossed in the confluence of two Seas Acts 27. 41. was once no lesse streightned in his resolutions betwixt life and death Phil. 1. 23. Neither doth my Text argue him in any other case here As there he knew not whether he should chuse so here he knew not whether he had I am crucified there he is dead yet I live there he is alive again yet not I there he lives not but Christ in me there he more then lives This holy correction makes my Text full of wonders full of sacred riddles 1. The living God is dead upon the Crosse Christ crucified 2. S. Paul who died by the sword dies on the Cross 3. S. Paul who was not Paul till after Christ's death is yet crucified with Christ 4. S. Paul thus crucified yet lives 5. S. Paul lives not himself whiles he lives 6. Christ who is crucified lives in Paul who was crucified with him See then here both a Lent and an Easter A Lent of Mortification I am crucified with Christ an Easter of Resurrection and life I live yet not I but Christ lives in me The Lent of my Text will be sufficient as proper for this season wherein my speech shall passe through three long stages of discourse Christ crucified S. Paul crucified S. Paul crucified with Christ In all which your Honourable and Christian patience shall as much shorten my way as my care shall shorten the way to your patience Christ's Cross is the first lesson of our infancy worthy to be our last and all The great Doctor of the Gentiles affected not to flie any higher pitch Grande crucis Sacramentum as Ambrose This is the greatest wonder that ever earth or heaven yielded God incarnate was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but God suffering and dying was so much more as Death is more penal then Birth The God-head of man and the blood of God are two such Miracles as the Angels of Heaven can never enough look into never admire enough Ruffin tells us that among the Sacred Characters of the Egyptians the Cross was antiently one which was said to signifie eternal life hence their Learneder sort were converted to and confirmed in the Faith Surely we know that in God's Hieroglyphicks Eternal Life is both represented and exhibited to us by the Crosse That the Crosse of Christ was made of the Tree of Life a slip whereof the Angels gave to Adam's son out of Paradise is but a Jewish Legend Galatine may believe it not we but that it is made the Tree of Life to all believers we are sure This is the only scale of Heaven never man ascended thither but by it By this Christ himself climb'd up to his own glory Dominus regnavit à ligno as Tertullian translates that of the Psalm Father glorifie thy name that is saith he Duc me ad crucem Lift me up to the tree not of my shame but of my triumph Behold we preach Christ crucified saith Saint Paul to the Jews a stumbling-block to the Greeks foolishnesse but to them which are called Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1. 23. Foolish men that stumble at power and deride wisdome Upbraid us now ye fond Jews and Pagans with a Crucified Saviour It is our glory it is our happinesse which ye make our reproach Had not our Saviour died he could have been no Saviour for us had not our Saviour died we could not have lived See now the flag of our dear Redeemer this Cross shining eminently in loco pudoris in our foreheads and if we had any place more high more conspicuous more honourable there we would advance it O blessed Jesu when thou art thus lifted up on thy Cross thou drawest all hearts unto thee there thou leadest captivity captive and givest gifts unto men Ye are deceived O ye blinde Jews and Painims ye are deceived it is not a Gibbet it is a Throne of Honour to which our Saviour is raised a Throne of such Honour as to which Heaven and earth and hell do and must vail The Sun hides his awfull head the earth trembles the rocks rend the graves open and all the frame of Nature doth homage to their Lord in this secret but Divine pomp of Crucifixion And whiles ye think his feet and hands despicably fixed behold he is powerfully trampling upon Hell and Death and setting up trophees of his most glorious Victory and scattering everlasting Crowns and Scepters unto all Believers O Saviour I do rather more adore thee on the Calvary of thy Passion then on the Tabor of thy Transsiguration or the Olivet of thine Ascension and cannot so effectuously blesse thee for Pater clarifica Father glorifie me as for My God my God why hast thou forsaken me sith it is no news for God to be great and glorious but for the Eternal and ever-living God to be abased to be abased unto death to the death of the Cross is that which could not but amaze the Angels and confound Devils and so much more magnifies thine infinite Mercy by how much an infinite person would become more ignominious All Hosannas of men all Allellujahs of Saints and Angels come short of this Majestick humiliation Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Revel 5. 13. And ye Honourable and beloved as ever ye hope to make musick in Heaven learn to tune your harps to the note and ditty of these Heavenly Elders Rejoice in this and rejoice in nothing but this Cross not in your transitory Honours Titles Treasures which will at the last leave you inconsolately sorrowfull but in this Cross of Christ whereby the world is crucified to you and you to the world Oh clip and embrace this pretious Cross with both your arms and say with that blessed Martyr Amor meus crucifixus est My Love is crucified Those that have searched into the monuments of Jerusalem write that our Saviour was crucified with his face to the West which howsoever spightfully meant of the Jews as not allowing him worthy to look on the Holy City and Temple yet was not without a mysterie Oculi ejus super Gentes respiciunt
sacred Trumpet to his lips Never was it never can it be more seasonable then now now that we are fallen into a war of Religion now that our friends and Allies grone either under miscarriage or danger now that our distressed neighbours implore our help in tears and blood now that our God hath humbled us with manifold losses now that we are threatned with so potent enemies now that all Christendome is embroiled with so miserable and perilous distempers oh now it hath seasonably pleased your Majesty to blow the Trumpet in Zion to sanctifie a Fast to call a solemn Assembly The miraculous successe that God gave to your Majesty and your Kingdome in this holy exercise may well incourage an happy iteration How did the publick breath of our Fasting-prayers cleanse the aire before them How did that noisome Pestilence vanish suddenly away as that which could not stand before our powerfull Humiliations If we be not streightned in our own bowels the hand of our God is not shortned O Daughter of Zion gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in ashes make thee mourning and most bitter lamentation Fast and pray and prosper And in the mean time for us let us not think it enough to forbear a meal or to hang down our heads like a bulrush for a day but let us break the bands of wickedness and in a true contrition of Soul vow and perform better Obedience Oh then as we care to avert the heavy Judgments of God from our selves and our Land as we desire to traduce the Gospel with peace to our posterity let each man humble one let each man rend his heart with sorrow for his own sins and the sins of his people shortly let every man ransack his own Soul and life and offer an holy violence to all those sinfull corruptions which have stirred up the God of Heaven against us and never leave till in truth of heart he can say with our blessed Apostle I am crucified Ye have seen Christ crucified S. Paul crucified see now both crucified together I am crucified with Christ It is but a cold word this I am crucified it is the company that quickens it He that is the Life gives it life and makes both the word and act glorious I am crucified with Christ Alas there is many a one crucified but not with Christ The Covetous the Ambitious man is self-crucified he plaits a crown of thorny cares for his own head he pierces his hands and feet with toilsome and painfull undertakings he drencheth himself with the vineger and gall of discontentments he gores his side and wounds his heart with inward vexations Thus the man is crucified but with the world not with Christ The Envious man is crucified by his own thoughts he needs no other gibbet then another man's prosperity because anothers person or counsel is preferred to his he leaps to hell in his own halter This man is crucified but it is Achitophel's Crosse not Christ's The Desperate man is crucified with his own distrust he pierceth his own heart with a deep irremediable unmitigable killing sorrow he paies his wrong to God's Justice with a greater wrong to his Mercy and leaps out of an inward Hell of remorse to the bottomlesse pit of damnation This man is crucified but this is Judas's Crosse not Christ's The Superstitious man is professedly mortifiâ—d The answer of that Eremite in the story is famous Why dost thou destroy thy body Because it would destroy me He useth his body therefore not as a servant but a slave not as a slave but an enemy He lies upon thorns with the Pharisee little ease is his lodging with Simeon the Anachoret the stone is his pillow with Jacob the tears his food with exiled David he lanceth his flesh with the Baalites he digs his grave with his nails his meals are hunger his breathings sighs his linen hair-cloath lined and laced with cords and wires lastly he is his own willing tormentor and hopes to merit Heaven by self-murder This man is crucified but not with Christ The Felon the Traitor is justly crucified the vengeance of the Law will not let him live The Jesuitical Incendiary that cares only to warm himself by the fires of States and Kingdomes cries out of his suffering The world is too little for the noise of our Cruelty their Patience whiles it judgeth of our proceedings by our Laws not by our executions But if they did suffer what they fâ—lsly pretend as they now complain of ease they might be crucified but not with Christ they should bleed for Sedition not Conscience They may steal the Name of Jesus they shall not have his Society This is not Christs Cross it is the cross of Barabbas or the two malefactors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 15. 7. All these and many more are crucified but not as S. Paul was here with Christ How with Christ In partnership in person In Partnership of the suffering every particularity of Christs Crucifixion is re-acted in us Christ is the model we the metal the metal takes such form as the model gives it so are we spred upon the Cross of Christ in an unanswerable extension of all parts to die with him as the Prophet was upon the dead child to revive him Superstitious men talk of the impression of our Saviours wounds in their Idol S. Francis This is no news S. Paul and every believing Christian hath both the lathes and wounds and transfixions of his Jesus wrought upon him The Crown of thorns pierces his head when his sinful conceits are mortified his lips are drencht with gall and vineger when tharp and severe restraints are given to his tongue his hands and feet are nailed when he is by the power of God's Spirit disabled to the wonted courses of sin his body is stripped when all colour and pretences are taken away from him shortly his heart is pierced when the life-blood of his formerly-reigning corruptions is let out He is no true Christian that is not thus crucified with Christ Woe is me how many fashionable ones are not so much as pained with their sins It is no trouble to them to blaspheme oppress debauch yea rather it is a death to them to think of parting with their dear Corruptions the world hath bewitched their love That which Erasmus saith of Paris that after a man hath acquainted himself with the odious sent of it hospitibus magìs ac magìs adlubescit it grows into his liking more and more is too true of the world and sensual minds Alas they rather crucifie Christ again then are crucified with Christ Woe to them that ever they were for being not dead with Christ they are not dead in Christ and being not dead in Christ they cannot but die eternally in themselves for the wages of sin is death death in their person if not in their surety Honourable and beloved let us not think it safe for us to rest in this miserable and
deadly condition As ye love your Souls give no sleep to your eyes nor peace to your hearts till ye find the sensible effects of the Death and Passion of Christ your Saviour within you mortifying all your corrupt affections and sinful actions that ye may truly say with S. Paul I am crucified with Christ Six several times do we find that Christ shed blood in his Circumcision in his Agonie in his Crowning in his Scourging in his Affixion in his Transfixion The instrument of the first was the Knife of the second vehemence of Passion of the third the Thorns of the fourth the Whips of the fifth the Nails of the last the Spear In all these we are we must be Partners with our Saviour In his Circumcision when we draw blood of our selves by cutting off the foreskin of our filthy if pleasing Corruptions Col. 2. 11. In his Agony when we are deeply affected with the sense of God's displeasure for sin and terrified with the frowns of an angry Father In his Crowning with thorns when we smart and bleed with reproches for the name of Christ when that which the world counts Honour is a pain to us for his sake when our guilty thoughts punish us and wound our restless heads with the sad remembrance of our sins In his Scourging when we tame our wanton and rebellious flesh with wise rigor and holy severity In his Affixion when all the powers of our Souls and parts of our body are strictly hampered and unremovably fastened upon the Royal Commandements of our Maker and Redeemer In his Transfixion when our hearts are wounded with Divine love with the Spouse in the Canticles or our Consciences with deep sorrow In all these we bleed with Christ and all these save the first onely belong to his Crucifying Surely as it was in the Old Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without bloodshed there was no remission Heb. 9. 22. so it is still and ever in the New If Christ had not thus bled for us no remission if we do not thus bleed with Christ no remission There is no benefit where is no partnership If Christ therefore bled with his Agony with his Thorns with his Whips with his Nails with his Spear in so many thousand passages as Tradition is bold to define and we never bleed either with the Agony of our sorrow for sin or the Thorns of holy cares for displeasure or the Scourges of severe Christian rigour or the Nails of holy constraint or the Spear of deep remorse how do we how can we for shame say we are crucified with Christ Divine S. Austin in his Epistle or Book rather to Honoratus gives us all the dimensions of the Cross of Christ The Latitude he makes in the transverse this saith he pertains to good Works because on this his hands were stretched The Length was from the ground to the transverse this is attributed to his longanimity and persistance for on that his Body was stayed and fixed The Height was in the head of the Cross above the transverse signifying the exspectation of supernal things The Depth of it was in that part which was pitcht below within the earth importing the profoundness of his free Grace which is the ground of all his beneficence In all these must we have our part with Christ In the Transverse of his Cross by the ready extension of our hands to all good Works of Piety Justice Charity in the Arrectary or beam of his Cross by continuance and uninterrupted perseverance in good in the Head of his Cross by an high elevated hope and looking for of Glory in the Foot of his Cross by a lively and firm Faith fastening our Souls upon the affiance of his free Grace and Mercy And thus shall we be crucified with Christ upon his own Cross Yet lastly we must goe further then this from his Cross to his Person So did S. Paul and every Believer die with Christ that he died in Christ For as in the first Adam we all lived and sinned so in the second all Believers died that they might live The first Adam brought in death to all mankind but at last actually died for none but himself the second Adam died for mankind and brought life to all Believers Seest thou thy Saviour therefore hanging upon the Cross all mankind hangs there with him as a Knight or Burgess of Parliament voices his whole Burrough or Country What speak I of this The arms and legs take the same lot with the head Every Believer is a lim of that body how can he therefore but die with him and in him That real union then which is betwixt Christ and us makes the Cross and Passion of Christ ours so as the thorns pierced our heads the scourages blooded our backs the nails wounded our hands and feet and the spear gored our sides and hearts by virtue whereof we receive justification from our sins and true mortification of our corruptions Every Believer therefore is dead already for his sins in his Saviour he needs not fear that he shall die again God is too just to punish twice for one fault to recover the summe both of the surety principal All the score of our arrerages is fully struck off by the infinite satisfaction of our Blessed Redeemer Comfort thy self therefore thou penitent and faithful Soul in the confidence of thy safety thou shalt not die but live since thou art already crucified with thy Saviour he died for thee thou diedst in him Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifies Who shall condemn It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and lives gloriously at the right hand of God making intercession for us To thee O Blessed Jesu together with thy Coeternal Father and Holy Spirit three Persons in one infinite and incomprehensible Deity be all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen ONE OF THE SERMONS Preached to the LORDS OF THE High Court of Parliament In their solemn Fast held on Ashwednesday Feb. 18. And by their Appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Acts 2. 37 38 40. 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 38. Then said Peter unto them Repent and be baptized c. 40. And with many other words did he testifie and exhort them saying Save your selves from this untoward generation WHO knows not that Simon Peter was a Fisher That was his trade both by Sea and Land if we may not rather say that as Simon he was a Fisher-man but as Peter he was a Fisher of men he that call'd him so made him so And surely his first draught of Fishes which as Simon he made at our Saviours Command might well be a trade Type of the first draught of men which as Peter he made in this place for as then the nets were ready to
crack and the ship to sink with store so here when he threw forth his first drag-net of Heavenly Doctrine and reproof three thousand Souls were drawn up at once This Text was as the sacred Cord that drew the Net together and pull'd up this wondrous shoal of Converts to God It is the summe of Saint Peter's Sermon if not at a Fast yet at a general Humiliation which is more and better for wherefore fast we but to be humbled and if we could be duely humbled without fasting it would please God a thousand times better then to fast formally without true Humiliation Indeed for the time this was a Feast the Feast of Pentecost but for the estate of these Jews it was dies cinerum a day of contrition a day of deep hunger and thirst after righteousness Men and Brethren what shall we doe Neither doubt I to say that the Festivity of the season added not a little to their Humiliation like as we are never so apt to take cold as upon a sweat and that winde is ever the keenest which blows cold out of a warm coast No day could be more afflictive then an Ashwednesday that should light upon a solemn Pentecost so it was here every thing answered well The Spirit came down upon them in a mighty wind and behold it hath ratled their hearts together the house shoo◠in the descent and behold here the foundations of the Soul were moved Fiery tongues appeared and here their breasts were inflamed Cloven tongues and here their hearts were cut in sunder The words were miraculous because in a supernatural and sudden variety of language the matter Divine laying before them both the truth of the Messiah and their bloody measure offered to that Lord of Life and now Compuncti cordibus they were pricked in their hearts Wise Solomon says The words of the wise are like goads and nails here they were so Goads for they were compuncti pricked yea but the goad could not goe so deep that passeth but the skin they were Nails driven into the very heart of the Auditors up to the head the great Master of the Assembly the divine Apostle had set them home they were pricked in their hearts Never were words better bestowed It is an happy blood-letting that saves the life this did so here We look to the figne commonly in Phlebotomy it is a signe of our idle and ignorant Superstition S. Peter here saw the signe to be in the Heart and he strikes happily Compuncti cordibus they were pricked in their hearts and said Men and brethren what shall we doe Oh what sweet Musick was this to the Apostles ear I dare say none but Heaven could afford better What a pleasing spectacle was this anguish of their wounded Souls To see men come in their zealous Devotions and lay down their moneys the price of their alienated possessions at those Apostolick feet was nothing to this that they came in a bleeding contrition and prostrated their penitent and humbled Souls at the beautiful feet of the Messengers of Peace with Men and Brethren what shall we doe Oh when when shall our eyes be blessed with so happy a prospect How long shall we thunder out God's fearful judgements against wilful sinners How long shall we threaten the flames of Hell to those impious wretches who crucifie again to themselves the Lord of life ere we can wring a sigh or a tear from the rocks of their hearts or eyes Woe is me that we may say too truely as this Peter did of his other fishing Master we have travailed all the night and have caught nothing Surely it may well goe for night with us whiles we labour and prevail not Nothing not a Soul caught Lord what is become of the success of thy Gospel Who hath believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed O God thou art ever thy self thy Truth is eternal Hell is where it was if we be less worthy then thy first Messengers yet what excuse is this to the besotted world that through obduredness and infidelity it will needs perish No man will so much as say with the Jews What have I done or with Saint Peter's Auditors What shall I doe Oh foolish sinners shall ye live here always care ye not for your Souls is there not an Hell that gapes for your stubborn impenitence Goe on if there be no remedy goe on and die for ever we are guiltless God is righteous your Damnation is just But if your life be fickle death unavoidable if an everlasting vengeance be the necessary reward of your momentany wickedness Oh turn turn from your evil waies and in an holy distraction of your remorsed Souls say with these Jews Men and Brethren what shall we doe This from the general view of the occasion we descend to a little more particularity Luke the beloved Physician describes Saint Peter's proceeding here much after his own trade as of a true spiritual Physician who finding his Country men the Jews in a desperate and deadly condition gasping for life struggling with death enters into a speedy and zealous course of their cure And first he begins with the Chirurgical part and finding them ranck of blood and that foul and putrified he lets it out compuncti cordibus Where we might shew you the incision the vein the lancet the orifice the anguish of the stroke The Incision compuncti they were pricked The Vein in their hearts Smile not now ye Physicians if any hear me this day as if I had passed a solecisme in telling you these men were pricked in the vein of the heart talk you of your Cephalica and the rest and tell us of another cistern from whence these tubuli sanguinis are derived I tell you again with an addition of more incongruities still that God and his Divine Physician do still let blood in the median vein of the heart The Lancet is the keen and cutting reproof of their late barbarous Crucifixion of their Holy and most innocent and benigne Saviour The Orifice is the ear when they heard this Whatever the local distance be of these parts spiritually the ear is the very surface of the heart and whosoever would give a medicinal stroke to the heart must pass it through the ear the sense of discipline and correction The Anguish bewrays it self in their passionate exclamation Men and brethren what shall we doe There is none of these which my speech might not well take up if not as an house to dwell in yet as an Inne to rest and lodge in But I will not so much as bait here onely we make this a through-fare to those other sacred prescriptions of saving remedies which are three in number The first is Evacuation of sins by a speedy repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second the soveraign Bath or Laver of Regeneration Baptisme The third dietetical and prophylactical receipts of wholesome Caution which I mean with a determinate preterition of
it be possible it may rise up no more Why do not we spend the whole quiver of Gods threatned vengeance upon wilful sinners And thus must we bait the beast Is it a Drunken beast we are committed with Wo to them that rise up early to follow strong drink Esa 5. 11. Wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink to make him drunk Abac. 2. 15. The cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned to that man vomitus ignominiosus ad gloriam verse 16. Oh it is a bitter cup this of the Lords right hand whereof he shall wring out the dregs unto that soul so as in stead of quaffing the excessive healths of others he shall drink up his own death and eternal confusion Is it a Gluttonous beast Wo to him his God is his belly his glory shall be in his shame and his end damnation Phil. 3. 19. Whiles the flesh is yet between his teeth ere it be chewed the wrath of the Lord is kindled against him Numb 11. 33. Yea but it goes down sweetly Oh fool the meat in thy belly shall be turned into the gall of Asps within thee Job 20. 14. Vae saturis Wo be to the full for they shall hunger they shall famish to death and dye famishing and live dying and have enough of nothing but fire and brimstone Is it a Ravenous beast a Covetous oppressour His tooth like a mad dogs envenomes and emphrensies so saith Solomon that knew the nature of all beasts Oppression makes a wise man mad Eccles. 7. 7. Tabifici sunt Ps 79. 7. Wo be to you that joyn house to house Es 5. 8. Wo be to the mighty sins of them whose treadings are upon the poor that afflict the just that take bribes and turn away the poor in the gates Amos 5. 11 12. Therefore the Lord the God of Hoasts saith thus Wailing shall be in all their streets and they shall say in all high-waies Alas alas verse 16. They have robbed their poor Tenants and oppressed the afflicted in the gate therefore the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them Is it an Unclean beast Whoso committeth adultery with a woman destroyeth his own soul Prov. 6. 32. A fornicator in the body of his flesh will never cease till he have kindled a fire Ecclus. 23. 16. His fire of lust flames up into a fire of disease and burns down into the fire of Hell Is it a Foul-mouth'd beast that bellows out Blasphemies and bloody Oaths There is a word that is cloathed about with death God grant it be not found in the heritage of Jacob Ecclus. 23. 12. A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house verse 11. Thus must we lay about us spiritu or is yea gladio spiritûs and let drive at the Beast of what kind soever But if we shall still find that which blind Homer saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the worse hath the better and that this spiritual edge shall either turn again or through our weak wieldance not enter the stubborn and thick hide of obdured hearts give me leave most Gracious Soveraign and ye honorable Peers to whom is committed the sword of either supreme or subordinate Justice to say that both God and the world expects that this Beast of sin should be baited by you in another fashion It is not for nothing that God hath set you so conspicuously in this great Amphitheatre where the eyes of Angels and men are bent upon you and that he hath given into your hands the powerful instruments of death If this pernicious beast dare contest with our weakness and oft-times leave us gasping and bleeding on this pavement yet we know that it cannot but fall under the power of your mercy yea your vengeance Oh let it please you to rouze up your brave and Princely spirits and to give the fatal blow to presumptuous wickedness If that monster of impious Sacriledge of atheous Profaneness of outragious Inordinateness dares lift up his hated head in the sight of this Sun let him be straight crushed with the weight of that Royal Scepter let him be hewn in pieces with the sharp sword of your Sacred Authority As we abound with wholesome Laws for the repressing of vice so let it please you in an holy zeal to revive their hearty and effectual execution that the precious Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we profess may not be either shamed or braved by insolent wickedness that Justice and Peace may flourish in our Land and that your Crown may long and happily flourish upon that Royal head until it shall receive a late and blessed exchange for a Crown of Glory and Immortality in the highest Heavens Amen THE OLD RELIGION A TREATISE Wherein Is laid down the true State of the difference betwixt the REFORMED and ROMANE CHURCH and the blame of this Schism is cast upon the true Authors Serving for the Vindication of our Innocence for the setling of wavering mindes for a Preservative against Popish Insinuations With an ADVERTISEMENT for such Readers as formerly stumbled at some passages in the Book By JOS. HALL B. of Exon. LONDON Printed by James Flesher in the year M DC LXI TO My new and dearly-affected CHARGE the Diocese of EXCESTER All Grace and Benediction THE truth of my heart gives me boldness to profess before him who onely knows it that the same God who hath called me to the over-sight of your Souls hath wrought in me a zealous desire of your Salvation This desire cannot but incite me to a careful prevention of those dangers which might threaten the disappointment of so happy an end Those Dangers are either Sins of Practice or Errours of Doctrine Against both these I have faithfully vowed my utmost endeavours I shall labour against the first by Preaching Example Censures wherein it shall be your choice to expect either the Rod or the Spirit of meekness Against the latter my Pen hath risen up in this early assault It hath been assured me that in this time of late Vacancie false Teachers catching the fore-lock of Occasion have been busie in scattering the tares of Errours amongst you I easily believe it since I know it is not in the power of the greatest vigilancie to hinder their attempts of evil Even a full See is no sufficient barre to crafty Seducers their Suggestions we cannot prevent their Success we may This I have here assay'd to doe bending my style against Popish Doctrine with such Christian moderation as may argue zeal without malice desire to win Souls no will to gall them And since the commonest of all the grounds of Romish deceit is the pretence of their Age and our Novelty and nothing doth more dazle the eyes of the simple then the name of our Fore-fathers and the challenge of a particular recital of our Professours before Luther's revolt I have I hope fully cleared this coast so
it For as that Father elsewhere In thy sight shall none living be justified He said not no man but none living not Evangelists not Angels not Thrones not Dominions If thou shalt mark the iniquities even of thine Elect saith S. Bernard Who shall abide it To say now that our actual Justice which is imperfect through the admixtion of venial sins ceaseth not to be both true and in a sort perfect Justice is to say there may be an unjust Justice or a just Injustice that even muddie water is clear or a leprous face beautiful Besides all experience evinceth our wants For as it is S. Austin's true observation He that is renewed from day to day is not all renewed so much he must needs be in his old corruption And as he speaks to his Hierome of the degrees of Charity There is in some more in some less in some none at all but the fullest measure which can receive no encrease is not to be found in any man while he lives here and so long as it may be encreased surely that which is less then it ought is faulty from which faultiness it must needs follow that there is no just man upon earth which doeth good and sinneth not and thence in Gods sight shall none living be justified Thus he To the very last hour our Prayer must be Forgive us our trespasses Our very daily endeavour therefore of increasing our Renovation convinceth us sufficiently of Imperfection and the imperfection of our Regeneration convinceth the impossibility of Justification by such Inherent Righteousness In short therefore since this Doctrine of the Roman Church is both new and erroneous against Scripture and Reason we have justly refused to receive it into our Belief and for such refusal are unjustly ejected CHAP. VI. The Newness of the Doctrine of Merit MErit is next wherein the Council of Trent is no less peremptory If any man shall say that the good works of a man justified do not truely merit eternal life let him be Anathema It is easie for Errour to shroud it self under the ambiguitie of words The word Merit hath been of large use with the Ancients who would have abhorred the present sense with them it sounded no other then Obtaining or Impetration not as now earning in the way of condign wages as if there were an equalitie of due proportion betwixt our Works and Heaven without all respects of pact promise favour according to the bold Comment of Scotus Tolet Pererius Costerus Weston and the rest of that strain Far far was the gracious humility of the Ancient Saints from this so high a presumption Let S. Basil speak for his fellows Eternal rest remains for those who in this life have lawfully striven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not for the Merits of their deeds but of the grace of that most munificent God in which they have trusted Why did I name one when they all with full consent as Cassander witnesseth profess to repose themselves wholy upon the mere Mercie of God and Merit of Christ with an humble renunciation of all worthiness in their own works Yea that unpartial Author derives this Doctrine even through the lower Ages of the Schoolmen and later Writers Thomas of Aquine Durand Adrian de Trajecto afterwards Pope Clictoveus and delivers it for the voice of the then present Church And before him Thomas Waldensis the great Champion of Pope Martine against the miscalled Hereticks of his own name professes him the sounder Divine and truer Catholick which simply denies any such Merit and ascribes all to the mere Grace of God and the will of the giver What should I need to darken the aire with a cloud of witnesses their Gregory Ariminensis their Brugensis Marsilius Pighius Eckius Ferus Stella Faber Stapulensis Let their famous Preacher Royard shut up all Quid igitur is qui Merita praetendit c. Whosoever he be that pretends his Merits what doth he else but deserve hell by his Works Let Bellarmine's Tutissimum est c. ground it self upon S. Bernard's experimental resolution Periculosa habitatio est Perilous is their dwelling-place who trust in their own Merits perilous because ruinous All these and many more teach this not as their own Doctrine but as the Churches Either they and the Church whose voice they are are Hereticks with us or we Orthodox with them and they and we with the Ancients The Noveltie of this Romane Doctrine is accompanied with Errour against Scripture against Reason Sect. 2. Against Scripture THat God doth graciously accept and munificently recompence our good Works even with an incomprehensible Glory we doubt not we deny not but this either out of the riches of his Mercy or the justice of his Promise But that we can earn this at his hands out of the intrinsecal worthiness of our acts is a challenge too high for flesh and blood yea for the Angels of Heaven How direct is our Saviours instance of the servant come out of the field and commanded by his Master to attendance Doth he thank that Servant because he did the things that were commanded him I trow not So likewise ye when ye shall have done all things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants Unprofitable perhaps you will say in respect of meriting thanks not unprofitable in respect of meriting wages For to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt True therefore herein our case differeth from servants that we may not look for God's reward as of Debt but as of Grace By Grace are ye saved through Faith neither is it our earning but God's gift Both it cannot be For if by Grace then it is no more of Works even of the most Renewed otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work should be no more Work Now not by works of Righteousness which we have done at our best but according to his Mercy he saveth us Were our Salvation of Works then should Eternal life be our wages but now The wages of sin is Death but the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sect. 3. Against Reason IN very Reason where all is of mere Duty there can be no Merit for how can we deserve reward by doing that which if we did not we should offend It is enough for him that is obliged to his task that his work is well taken Now all that we can possibly doe and more is most justly due unto God by the bond of our Creation of our Redemption by the charge of his Royal Law and that sweet Law of his Gospel Nay alas we are far from being able to compass so much as our duty In many things we sin all It is enough that in our Glory we cannot sin though their Faber Stapulensis would not yield so much and taxeth
as Hulda tels him but that his eyes might not see all the evil which should come upon Jerusalem We cannot have a better Commenter then S. Augustine If saith he the Souls of the dead could be present at the affairs of the living c. surely my good Mother would no night forsake me whom whiles she lived she followed both by land and sea Far be it from me to think that an happier life hath made her cruel c. But certainly that which the holy Psalmist tels us is true My Father and my Mother have forsaken me but the Lord took me up If therefore our Parents have left us how are they present or do interesse themselves in our cares or businesses And if our Parents do not who else among the dead know what we doe or what we suffer Esay the Prophet saith Thou art our Father for Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knows us not If so great Patriarchs were ignorant what became of that people which came from their loyns and which upon their belief was promised to descend from their stock how shall the dead have ought to doe either in the knowledge or aide of the affaires or actions of their dearest survivers How do we say that God provides mercifully for them who die before the evils come if even after their death they are sensible of the calamities of humane life c. How is it then that God promised to good King Josiah for a great blessing that he should die beforehand that he might not see the evils which he threatned to that place and people Thus that divine Father With whom agrees Saint Hierome Nec enim possumus c. Neither can we saith he when this life shall once be dissolved either enjoy our own labours or know what shall be done in the World afterwards But could the Saints of Heaven know our actions yet our hearts they cannot This is the peculiar skill of their Maker Thou art the searcher of the hearts and reines O righteous God God only knows abscondita animi the hidden secrets of the soul Now the Heart is the seat of our Prayers the Lips do but vent them to the eares of men Moses said nothing when God said Let me alone Moses Solomon's argument is irrefragable Hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place and doe and give to every man according to his wayes whose heart thou knowest For thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men He onely should be implored that can hear he onely can hear the Prayer that knows the heart Yet could they know our secretest desires it is an Honour that God challengeth as proper to himself to be invoked in our prayers Call upon me in the day of thy trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me There is one God and one mediator betwixt God and man the man Jesus Christ One and no more not only of redemption but of intercession also for through him onely we have accesse by one Spirit unto the Father and he hath invited us to himself Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Sect. 3. Against Reason HOw absurd therefore is it in Reason when the King of Heaven cals us to him to run with our Petitions to the Guard or Pages of the Court Had we to doe with a finite Prince whose eares must be his best informers or whose will to help us were justly questionable we might have reason to present our suits by second hands But since it is an Omnipresent and Omniscious God with whom we deal from whom the Saints and Angels receive all their light and love to his Church how extreme folly is it to sue to those Courtiers of Heaven and not to come immediatly to the Throne of Grace That one Mediator is able and willing also to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Besides how uncertain must our Devotions needs be when we can have no possible assurance of their audience for who can know that a Saint hears him That God ever hears us we are as sure as we are unsure to be heard of Saints Nay we are sure we cannot be all heard of them for what finite nature can divide it self betwixt ten thousand Suppliants at one instant in severall regions of the world much lesse impart it self whole to each Either therefore we must turn the Saints into so many Deities or we must yield that some of our prayers are unheard And whatsoever is not of faith is sin As for that heavenly glasse of Saint Gregorie's wherein the Saints see us and our suits confuted long since by Hugo de S. Victore it is as pleasing a fiction as if we imagined therefore to see all the corners of the earth because we see that Sun which sees them And the same eyes that see in God the particular necessities of his Saints below see in the same God such infinite Grace and Mercy for their relief as may save the labour of their reflecting upon that Divine mirrour in their speciall intercessions The Doctrine therefore and Practice of the Romish Invocation of Saints both as new and erroneous against Scripture and Reason we have justly rejected and are thereupon ejected as unjustly CHAP. XV. The Newnesse of Seven Sacraments THE late Councill of Florence indeed insinuates this number of Seven Sacraments as Suarez contends but the later Council of Trent determines it Si quis dixerit aut plura c. If any man shall say that there are either more or fewer sacraments then seven viz. Baptisme Confirmation c. or that any of these is not truly and properly a Sacrament let him be Anathema It is not more plain that in Scripture there is no mention of Sacraments then that in the Fathers there is no mention of Seven Cardinall Bellarmine's evasion that the Scripture and Fathers wrote no Catechisme is poor and ridiculous no more did the Councils of Florence and Trent and yet there the number is reckoned and defined So as the word Sacrament may be taken for any holy significant rite there may be as well seventy as seven so strictly as it may be and is taken by us there can no more be seven then seventy This determination of the number is so late that Cassander is forced to confesse Nec temerè c. You shall not easily find any man before Peter Lombard Which hath set down any certain and definite number of Sacraments And this observation is so just that upon the challenges of our Writers no one Author hath been produced by the Roman Doctors for the disproof of it elder then Hugo and the said Master of Sentences But numbers are ceremonies Both Luther and Philip Melanchthon professe they stand not much upon them It is the number numbred which is the thing it self mis-related
thou abasest thy self to behold the things both in Heaven and Earth It is our glory to look up even to the meanest piece of Heaven it is an abasement to thine incomprehensible Majesty to look down upon the best of Heaven Oh what a transcendent Glory must that needs be that is abased to behold the things of Heaven What an happinesse shall it be to me that mine eyes shall be exalted to see thee who art humbled to see the place and state of my blessednesse Yea those very Angels that see thy face are so resplendently glorious that we could not overlive the sight of one of their faces who are fain to hide their faces from the sight of thine How many millions attend thy Throne above and thy Footstool below in the ministration to thy Saints It is that thine invisible world the Communion wherewith can make me truely blessed O God if my body have fellowship here amongst Beasts of whose earthly substance it participates let my Soul be united to thee the God of Spirits and be raised up to enjoy the insensible society of thy blessed Angels Acquaint me before-hand with those Citizens and affairs of thine Heaven and make me no stranger to my future Glory LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp HOW small things may annoy the greatest Even a Mouse troubles an Elephant a Gnat a Lion a very Flea may disquiet a Giant What weapon can be nearer to nothing then the sting of this Wasp Yet what a painfull wound hath it given me that scarce-visible point how it envenomes and ranckles and swells up the flesh The tenderness of the part addes much to the grief And if I be thus vexed with the touch of an angry File Lord how shall I be able to indure the sting of a tormenting Conscience As that part is both most active and most sensible so that wound which it receives from it self is most intolerably grievous there were more ease in a nest of Hornets then under this one Torture O God howsoever I speed abroad give me Peace at home and whatever my Flesh suffer keep my Soul free Thus pained wherein do I finde ease but in laying honey to the part infected That Medicine only abates the anguish How near hath Nature placed the remedy to the offence Whensoever my Heart is stung with the remorse for sin only thy sweet and precious Merits O blessed Saviour can mitigate and heal the wound they have virtue to cure me give me Grace to apply them that soveraign receipt shall make my pain happy I shall thus applaud my grief It is good for me that I was thus afflicted LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon WIth what terrour doth this Malefactor stand at that Bar his Hand trembles whiles it is lift up for his triall his very Lips quake whiles he saith Not guilty his Countenance condemns him before the Judge and his fear is ready to execute him before his Hangman Yet this Judge is but a weak man that must soon after die himself that Sentence of Death which he can pronounce is already passed by Nature upon the most innocent that act of Death which the Law inflicteth by him is but momentany who knows whether himself shall not die more painfully O God with what horror shall the guilty Soul stand before thy dreadfull Tribunall in the day of the great Assizes of the World whiles there is the presence of an Infinite Majesty to daunt him a fierce and clamorous Conscience to give in evidence against him Legions of ugly and terrible Devils waiting to seize upon him a gulf of unquenchable Fire ready to receive him whiles the Glory of the Judge is no lesse confounding then the Cruelty of the Tormenters where the Sentence is unavoidable and the Execution everlasting Why do not these terrors of thee my God make me wise to hold a privy Sessions upon my Soul actions that being acquitted by my own heart I may not be condemned by thee and being judged by my self I may not be condemned with the World XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock. How harshly did this note sound in the eare of Peter yea pierced his very heart Many a time had he heard this Bird and was no whit moved with the noise now there was a Bird in his bosome that crowed lowder then this whose shrill accent conjoined with this astonished the guilty Disciple The wearie Labourer when he is awakened from his sweet sleep by this natural Clock of the Houshold is not so angry at this troublesome Bird nor so vexed at the hearing of that unseasonable sound as Peter was when this Fowl awakened his sleeping Conscience and called him to a timely repentance This Cock did but crow like others neither made or knew any difference of this tone and the rest there was a Divine hand that ordered this Mornings note to be a Summons of Penitence He that fore-told it had fore-appointed it that Bird could not but crow then and all the noise in the High Priests Hall could not keep that sound from Peter's eare But O Saviour couldst thou finde leisure when thou stoodst at the Bar of that unjust and cruell Judgment amidst all that bloody rabble of Enemies in the sense of all their fury and the exspectation of thine own Death to listen unto this Monitor of Peter's Repentance and upon the hearing of it to cast back thine eyes upon thy Denying Cursing Abjuring Disciple O Mercy without measure and beyond all the possibility of our admiration to neglect thy self for a Sinner to attend the Repentance of one when thou wert about to lay down thy life for all O God thou art still equally mercifull Every Elect Soul is no lesse dear unto thee Let the sound of thy faithfull Monitors smite my ears and let the beams of thy mercifull eyes wound my heart so as I may go forth and weep bitterly XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts WHen I bethink my self how Eternity depends upon this moment of life I wonder how I can think of any thing but Heaven but when I see the distractions of my Thoughts and the aberrations of my life I wonder how I can be so bewitched as whiles I believe an Heaven so to forget it All that I can doe is to be angry at mine own vanity My Thoughts would not be so many if they were all right there are ten thousand by-waies for one direct As there is but one Heaven so there is but one way to it that living way wherein I walk by Faith by Obedience All things the more perfect they are the more do they reduce themselves towards that Unity which is the Center of all Perfection O thou who art one and infinite draw in my heart from all these stragling and unprofitable Cogitations and confine it to thine Heaven and to thy self who art the Heaven of that Heaven Let me have no life but in thee no care but to injoy thee no ambition but thy Glory Oh make
cometh Usurpation of others Rights violation of Oaths and Contracts and lastly erroneous Zeal are guilty of all these publick Murders Private mens injuries are washt off with tears but wrongs done to Princes and publick States are hardly wip'd off but with blood Doubtlesse that fearfull Comet did not more certainly portend these Wars then these Wars presage the approach of the end of the World The earth was never without some broils since it was peopled but with three men but so universal a combustion was never in the Christian world since it was O Saviour what can I think of this but that as thou wouldst have a generall Peace upon thy first coming into the World so upon thy second coming thou meanest there shall be a no lesse generall War upon earth That Peace made way for thy meek appearance this War for thy dreadfull and terrible XCVIII Upon a Childe crying IT was upon great reason that the Apostle charges us not to be children in Understanding What fools we all once are Even at first we crie and smile we know not wherefore we have not wit enough to make signs what hurts us or where we complain we can wry the mouth but not seek the breast and if we want help we can only lament and sprawl and die After when some months have taught us to distinguish a little betwixt things and persons we crie for every toy even that which may most hurt us and when there is no other cause we crie only to hear our own noise and are straight stilled with a greater and if it be but upon the breeding of a tooth we are so wayward that nothing will please us and if some formerly-liked knack be given to quiet us we cast away that which we have if we have not what we would seem to like We fear neither fire nor water nothing scares us but either a rod or a feigned bug-bear we mis-know our Parents not acknowledging any friend but the Taylor that brings us a fine Coat or the Nurse that dresses us gay The more that our riper years resemble these dispositions the more childish we are and more worthy both of our own and others censure But again it was upon no lesse reason that the Apostle charges us to be children in Maliciousness Those little Innocents bear no grudge they are sooner pleased then angry and if any man have wronged them let them but have given a stroke unto the Nurse to beat the offender it is enough at the same instant they put forth their hand for reconcilement and offer themselves unto those arms that trespassed And when they are most froward they are stilled with a pleasant Song The old word is that An old man is twice a childe but I say happy is he that is thus a childe alwaies It is a great imperfection to want Knowledge but of the two it is better to be a childe in Understanding then a man in Maliciousness XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sickness IT was my own fault if I look'd not for this All things must undergoe their changes I have enjoyed many fair daies there was no reason I should not at last make account of clouds and storms Could I have done well without any mixtures of sin I might have hoped for entire Health But since I have interspersed my Obedience with many sinfull failings and enormities why do I think much to interchange Health with Sickness What I now feel I know I am not worthy to know what I must feel As my times so my measures are in the hands of a wise and good God My comfort is he that sends these evils proportions them If they be sharp I am sure they are just the most that I am capable to endure is the least part of what I have deserved to suffer Nature would fain be at ease but Lord whatever become of this carkasse thou hast reason to have respect to thine own Glory I have sinned and must smart It is the glory of thy Mercy to beat my Body for the safety of my Soul The worst of Sickness is Pain and the worst of pain is but Death As for Pain if it be extreme it cannot be long and if it be long such is the difference of earthly and Hellish torments it cannot be extreme As for Death it is both unavoidable and beneficial there ends my Misery and begins my Glory a few groans are well bestowed for a preface to an immortal joy Howsoever O God thy messenger is worthy to be welcome It is the Lord let him doe whatsoever he will C. Upon the challenge of a Promise IT is true an Honest mans word must be his master when I have promised I am indebted and debts may be claimed must be payed but yet there is a great deal of difference in our ingagements some things we promise because they are due some things are onely due because they are promised These latter which are but the mere ingagements of Curtesie cannot so absolutely binde us that notwithstanding any intervention of unworthiness or misbehaviour in the person exspectant we are tied to make our word good though to the cutting of our own throats All favourable promises presuppose a capacity in the receiver where that palpably faileth common Equity sets us free I promised to send a fair Sword to my friend he is since that time turn'd frantick must I send it or be charged with unfaithfulness if I send it not O God thy Title is the God of Truth thou canst no more cease to be faithfull then to be How oft hast thou promised that no good thing shall be wanting to thine and yet we know thy dearest children have complained of want Is thy word therefore challengeable Far far be this wicked presumption from our thoughts No These thy promises of outward Favours are never but with a subintelligence of a condition of our capableness of our expedience Thou seest that Plenty or Ease would be our bane thy Love forbears to satisfie us with an harmfull Blessing We are worthy to be plagued with prejudicial kindnesses if we do not acknowledge thy Wisdome and care in our want It is enough for us that thy best Mercies are our dues because thy Promises we cannot too much claim that which thou hast absolutely ingaged thy self to give and in giving shalt make us eternally happy CI. Upon the sight of Flies WHen I look upon these Flies and gnats and worms I have reason to think What am I to my infinite Creator more then these And if these had my Reason why might they not expostulate with their Maker why they are but such why they live to so little purpose and die without either notice or use And if I had no more Reason then they I should be as they content with any condition That Reason which I have is not of my owne giving he that hath given me Reason might as well have given it to them or have made me as reason-lesse as
impregnable by the obstinacie of treacherie then strength of nature surrendred to the King and Saint Peter Neither is any so foolish as to ascribe this glorious Victory rather to happiness then to vertue By your long siege of many moneths you have taught us that Europe oweth your French Legions no lesse commendation for their constancy then for their expedition your Army going clear away with the Victory over your enemies by slighting all dangers and enduring all hardness devoteth their life unto You and promiseth You an absolute trimph of conquered Heresie The waters of the Ocean made a noise and were troubled fighting for the besieged Rebels they made choice of death rather then a surrender undermining treacherie approaching even to Your Majesties tents Hell all opened her mouth vomiting out troops of mischiess and dangers to the end so rich a Fort might not be taken away from their Impietie The Lord stood on thy right hand thou hast not onely overcome the forces of thine enemies but thou wert able also to put a bridle upon the Ocean aiding them Let us all give thanks to Almighty God who hath delivered thee from the contradictions of the unbelieving people Howbeit sith You are not ignorant with what care the fruits of victories ought to be preserved lest they perish there is no doubt but that in a short time all the remainder of the Hereticks that have got stable-room in the French Vineyard shall by You be utterly discomfited The Church desireth that this Diademe of perfect renown be put upon that helmet of Salvation wherewith the Lord mighty in battell seemeth to cover the head of Your Majestie for we believe shortly that all tumults being appeased in France the glistering Ensign of Lewis the Conqueror shall shine to the captive Daughter of Sion rehearsing the French Trophees and beholding the brightness of your lightning lance God who performeth the desire of them that fear him prosper our desires and the prayers of the Catholick Church Our Nuntio who was an eye-witness of Your Princely glory in your tents will be a faithfull Interpreter of our Pontificall gratulation to your Majestie on whom we most lovingly bestow our Apostolicall Benediction Given at Rome at S. Mary the greater under the Seal of the Fisher the eight and twentieth day of November in the year of our Lord 1628. and the sixth year of our Pontificate TO My much respected Friend Mr Doctor Primrose Pastor of the French Church in London and Chaplain to his most Excellent Majestie SIR OUR Friend Mr. Tourvall a Frenchman shewed me erewhile a Latine printed Epistle of Pope Urbane written as their manner is in a swelling and bloody style and lately sent to Lewis the French King wherein after the good Pope had loudly chaunted forth a song of Triumph for his Majesties Victory over Rochel abundantly congratulating both the King and Nation he thence proceeds in most barbarous manner to that bloody word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Smite Cast down earnestly urging and inforcing the utter extirpation of all the Hereticks as he calls them stabling in France When I had read it I could not contain my self but must suddenly vent mine indignation in these few lines I take up pen in hand therefore and do not meditate but pour forth this Answer Such as it is receive it Reverend Sir and peruse it and at your discretion give it either Light or Fire Farewell From your Friend JOS. EXON TO POPE URBAN THE EIGHTH JOSEPH Bishop of EXCESTER wisheth Right Wits and Charity WHY may not the meanest Bishop be bold to expostulate with a Pope I crave no leave neither need I I take our antient liberty I wis there was no such distance of old betwixt Rome and Eugubium or between my Ex and the chanell of Tiber. Hear now therefore Pope Urbane that which ere long thou shalt hear with horror and confusion of face before that dreadfull Tribunall of Christ These bloody blots of thine little beseem the Shepherd of a Christian Flock What is it for thee like a grim Herald to give the Summons to War Is it for thee to excite Christian Princes already too much gorged with blood to the profligation and fearfull slaughter of their own Subjects Were the Keyes for this cause committed to thy charge that thou shouldest open the Iron gates of War and the Pale gates of Death Tell me thou shadow of S. Peter didst thou take these French Protestants for Malchus whose ears while thou wouldst have cut off thy sword by a light mistake glanc'd upon their throats Or was it lately voiced to thee from heaven concerning these wretched Animals stabling in France Arise Pope Urbane Kill and eate Art thou the Pilot of the Churches peace and talkest of nothing but glittering helmets swords and spears instruments of war bloodshed What noise could the howling of the She-Wolf of thy Romulus have made if this direfull note of thine become the Bell-weather of S. Peter's fold Well since thou wilt bespaul bedribble the ashes of unhappy Rochel and scatter with thy disdainfull breath the despised dust of that forlorn City yet withall call to minde a little how not many Ages are past since the time was that the hereditary Sceptre of this thy now Lewis broke open the gates of Rome demolished the walls dispersed and slew the inhabitants and shut up thy great Predecessour laden with bitter scoffes and execrations in his blinde dungeon Neither shall many years run on again unlesse my presaging thoughts too much deceive me before the Angel shall shout forth and the amazed world shall congratulate the fall of thy Rochel's case shall ere long be thine own O thou most accursed City Blessed shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast rewarded us yea happy he that shall take thy little ones and dash out their brains against the stones In the mean time sport thy self at our miseries laugh at our tears make merry at our sighs sing at our groans and applaud our torments But know for all this there is a just avenger that looks down from his Heaven upon us whose rod we at once kisse and exspect his vengeance Plead thou our cause O God yea thine own only thine why should not our confident Innocence appeal to thy Judgment If there be any thing in the whole composure of our most Sacred Religion hitherto professed by us that hath issued out of the impure fountain of mans brain let it even perish with the authors yea let it utterly perish O Lord and be banished into that Hell whence it came But if we never dared to obtrude any Doctrine upon the Christian world but that alone wherewith thou didst of old inspire thy Prophets and Apostles and by those thine infallible pen-men didst faithfully deliver over to thine own people surely then either it must be our happiness to erre with thee the God of Truth or thou dost and wilt still ever maintain with us this thine only True and Evangelicall
was but a sport in respect of the torments in dying Lo here a Beast yea not Bestia but Fera a Savage beast yea worse then either Did ever man doe thus to beast If a Baptista Porta have devised a way to roast a Foul quick or some Italian executioner of gluttony have beaten a Swine dead with gentle blows to make a Cardinals morsel every ingenuous man is ready to cry out of this barbarous Tyranny yea the very Turks would punish it with no less then death yea if a Syracusan boy shall but pick out a Crows eyes those Pagans could mulct him with banishment Nay what beast did ever thus to man nay did ever one beast doe thus to another If they gore and grasp one another in their fury or feed on each other in the rage of their hunger that is all they do not take pleasure in saucing each others death with varieties or delaies of pain None but man doth thus to man and in none lightly but the quarrel of Religion False Zeal takes pleasure in surfeits of blood and can injoy others torment Hence are bloody Massacres treacherous Assassinations hellish Powder-plots and whatever stratagem of mischief can be devised by that ancient man-slayer from whose malicious and secret machinations good Lord deliver us As the enemies of the Church are Fera a Beast so they are coetus a Compaany yea a multitude Well may they say with the Devil in the possessed man My name is Legion for we are many a Legion of many thousands yea Gad for an hoast cometh an Hoast of many Legions yea a combination of many Hoasts Gebal and Ammon and Amalek the Philistins with them that dwell at Tyre Ashur also is joyned to them Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church of the malignant a Church yea a world mundus in maligne Divide the world with our Learned Breerwood into thirty parts nineteen of them are Pagans and they are enemies Of those eleven that remain six are Mahumetans and they are enemies Of those other five that remain there is an Antichristian Faction that challenges universality and they are enemies Stand now with me upon the hill and take a survay of the enemies see them lye scattered like grashoppers in the valley and tell me whether the Church have not reason to say Lord how many are they that rise up against me Yet when all is done that no man may be discouraged if we have but our eyes opened with Elisha's servant to see the hoast of Heaven glittering about us we shall boldly say There are more with us then against us Yet if these that are against us were many and not united it were nothing A large showr loseth it self whiles the drops are scattered in the sands but many drops met make a torrent yea an Ocean Here is coetus their heads their hearts their hands are laid together And why do not we learn wit and will of those that hate us why are we several whiles they are conjoyned why should partial Factions and private fancies distract us when the main Cause of God is on foot Beleague your selves ye Christian Princes and Potentates combine your selves ye true-hearted Christians and be gathered by the voice of Gods Angel to a blessed and victorious Armageddon But why fera arundinis the beast of the reeds I do not tell you of S. Jerome's descant upon bestia calami the beast of the quill that is writers for falshood though these these are the great Incendiaries of the world and well worthy of the deepest increpation Here doubtless either the beasts of the reeds are the beasts that lye among the reeds as Cassiodorus hath given us an hint Leones domestica canneta reliquerunt The Lions have lest the reedy thickets or else the reed is here the spear or dart We know some regions yield groves of reeds ye would think them so many saplings or samplars at the least arborescere solent calami as Calvin These were of use in warre for darts or spears The vant-gard therefore of David's enemies are Spear-men or Darters for they were wont to dart their spears as you see in Saul 1 Sam. 20. 33. And why this In a sword-fight we come to close hand-blows such as a quick eye and nimble hand may perhaps avoid but the spear and dart strikes afarre off pierces where it strikes smites unseen unevitably For the remoteness violence irresistableness of the blow are the enemies of the Church described by the spear and dart where they cannot come they send dangerous emissaries headed on purpose to wound the best State to death felt ere they can be seen and so soon as they are felt killing What doe these but follow their General whose spiritual weapons are fiery darts Ephes 6. 16. Much and lamentable experience hath this State if ever any had of these mischievous engines of commotion that have been hurled hither from beyond the Alpes and Pyrenees What is the remedy but the same which is against the Devil the shield of prevention Stir up your vigilant care O ye great Leaders of Israel by the strict execution of wholesome laws to avoid the dint of these murderous subornations And when ye have done your best it must be the Lord of hoasts the great protectour of Israel that must break the bow and knap the spear in sunder Psal 46. 9. Their second title is Bulls for their ferocity for their strength The Lion is a more Lordly beast but the Bull is stronger and when he is enraged more impetuous Such are the Enemies of the Church How furiously do they bellow out threats and scrape up the earth and advance their crest and brandish their horns and send out sparkles from their eyes and snuffe out flames from their nostrils and think to bear down all before them What should I tell you of the fierce assalts of the braving enemies of the Church whose Pride hath scorned all opposition and thinks to push down all contrary powers not of men only but of God himself Let us break their bonds and cast their cords from us Who is the Lord that I should let Israel goe Where is the God of Hamath and of Arpad where are the Gods of Sepharvaim Hena and Ivah have they delivered Samaria out of my hand who are they among the Gods of the Countries that have delivered their country out of my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand saith proud Rabshakeh 2 Kings 18. 34. Heark how this Assyrian Bull roars out Blasphemie against the Lord of Hoasts and all the rest of that wild herd have no less grass on their hornes stay but a while and ye shall see him with'd and halter'd and stak'd and baited to death Here only is the comfort of the poor menaced Church that the mighty God of Israel who sayes to the raging Sea Here shalt thou stay thy proud waves can tame at pleasure these violent beasts or break their necks with their own fury So
let thine enemies perish O Lord. These Bulls are seconded with their own brood the Calves of the people Who are they but those which follow and make up the herd the credulous seduced multitude which not out of choice but example join in opposition to God Silly calves they go whither their dams lead them to the field or to the slaughter-house Blinde obedience is their best guide Are they bidden to adore a God which they know the baker made they fall down upon their knees and thump their breasts as beating the heart that will not enough believe in that pastry-Deity Are they bidden to goe on pilgrimage to a Chappel that is a greater pilgrim then themselves that hath four several times removed it self and changed stations as Turselline considently they must goe and adore those wandring walls Are they bidden to forswear their Allegiance and to take armes against their Lawful and native Soveraign they rush into the battel without either fear or wit though for the aide of a sure enemy which would make them all as he threatned in Eighty eight alike good Protestants Very calves of the people whose simplicity were a fitter subject for pity then their fury can be of malice were it not that their power is wont to be imployed to the no small prejudice of the cause of God And would it boot ought to spend time in perswading these Calves that they are such to lay before them the shame of their ignorance and stupidity Hear now this O foolish people and without understanding which have eyes and see not which have eares and hear not Jer. 5. 20. How long will ye suffer your selves to be befooled and beslaved with the tyranny of Superstition God hath made you men why will ye abide men to make you vitulos populorum the calves of the people We must leave you as ye are but we will not leave praying for your happy change that God would consecrate you to himself as the calves of his altar that ye may be offered up to him an holy lively reasonable acceptable sacrifice in your blessed Conversion Amen The last and worst title of these enemies is The people that delight in warre Warre is to the State as Ignis and Ferrum the Knife and the Searing-iron to the body the last and most desperate remedy alwaies evill if sometimes necessary it is not for pleasure it is for need It must needs be a cruel heart that delights in warre He that well considers the fearful effects of warre the direption of goods the vastation of Countries the sacking and burning of Cities the murdering of men ravishing of women weltring of the horse and rider in their mingled blood the shrieks and horror of the dying the ghastly rage of the killing the hellish and tumultuous confusion of all things and shall see the streets and fields strewed with carkasses the chanels running with streams of blood the houses and Churches flaming and in a word all the woful tyrannies of death will think the heathen Poets had reason to devise Warre sent up from Hell ushered and heralded by the most pestilent of all the Furies every of whose haires were so many snakes and adders to affright and sting the world withall Little pleasure can there be in such a spectacle It is a true observation of St. Chrysostome that warre to any Nation is as a tempest to the Sea tossing and clashing of the waves together And fain would I hear of that Mariner that takes delight in a Storm The executioners of peaceable Justice are wont to be hateful no man abides to consort with a publick Headsman and what metal then shall we think those men made of who delight in cutting of throats and joy to be the furious executioners of a martial vengeance where besides the horror of the act the event is doubtful The dice of Warre run still upon hazard David could send this message to Joab The sword devoures at randome so and such 2 Sam. 11. 25. Victory is not more sweet then uncertain And what man can love to perish It is true that Warre is a thing that should not but must be neither is it other then an unavoidable act of vindicative Justice an useful enemy an harsh friend such an enemy as we cannot want such a friend as we entertain upon force not upon choice because we must not because we would It challenges admittance if it be just and it is never just but where it is necessary if it must it ought to be Where those three things which Aquinas requires to a lawful warre are met Supreme Authority a warrantable Cause a just Intention a Supreme Authority in commanding it a warrantable Cause in undertaking it a just Intention in executing it it is no other then Bellum Domini Gods warre God made it God owns it God blesses it What talk I of the good Centurion the very Angels of God are thus Heavenly souldiers The wise Lacedamonians had no other statues of their Deities but armed Yea what speak I of these Puppets the true God rejoyces in no title more then of the Lord of Hoasts In these cases say now Blessed be the Lord who teaches my hands to warre and my fingers to fight But if Ambition of enlarging the bounds of dominion Covetousness of rich booties emulation of a rival Greatness shall unsheath our swords now every blow is Murder Wo to those hands that are thus imbrued in blood Wo to those Tyrants that are the authors of this lavish effusion every drop whereof shall once be required of their guilty Souls God thinks he cannot give a worse Epithet to those whom he would brand for death then Wicked and blood-thirsty men David might not be allowed to build God an House because he had a bloody hand the cause was holy yet the colour offends How hateful must those needs be to the God of Mercies that delight in Blood the true brood of him that is the man-slayer from the beginning There are strange diets of men as of other creatures whereof there are some that naturally feed on poison and fatten with it and it may be there are Cannibals that finde mans blood sweet yet I think it would be hard to finde a man that will profess to place his felicity in a cruel hazard So doth he that delights in warre and if no man for shame will be known to doe simply and directly so yet in effect men bewray this disposition if they be first osores pacis haters of peace as the Psalmist calls them Ps 120. 7. stubbornly repelling the fair motions and meet conditions thereof if secondly they take up slight and unjust causes of warre as it is noted by Suetonius of Julius Caesar which this Iland had experience of that he would refrain from no occasion of warre if never so unjust contrary to the better temper and resolution of wiser Romans then himself who would rather save one Subject then kill a thousand Enemies if thirdly they