pieces Envy and ignorance sometimes go together Sure I am ignoratio recti invidia are so placed in Tacitus This we account not as a passion or affection in the minde of man unless it be a voluntary and affected ignorance but as weakness or defect And yet of this the enemy hath raised himself a greater fortune then out of any of the rest There was a time when ignorance was in request the tenth Age from Christ the very next to that wherein hell brake loose a dark and sullen night of ignorance in which the servants of the Husbandman did not only slumber but slept and snorted A seculum obscurum as Baronius a seculum infelix an unhappy Age wherein was little reading and lesse writing saith the Cardinall Bellarmine An age quite destitute of eminent men both for wit and learning as their Bishop Genebrard Can we conceive the enemy let slip the opportunity of so dark a night and slept for company or that he would not husband it to his best advantage when there was either none so vigilant as to watch his doings or so industrious as to commit to writing what they had observed What fitter time then this to sowe the seeds of transubstantiation and adoration of the Host with all those severall points and Articles those uncouth Ceremonies and gesticulations which depend upon it when all divine and humane learning were laid up in silence What fitter time then this to seal up the Bible and take the Scriptures from the Laity when there was such a fair pretence that few or none could understand it What fitter time then this to captivate mens understandings to the Churches dictates and to advance their own traditions into the Chair and Throne of the Word of God when men were taught to the great obloquy and contempt of learning that ignorance was the mother of devotion And in a word what fitter time then this to open and bring forth the tares of Image-worship and invocation of the Saints and prayer for the dead and restraint from marriage the seeds whereof were sowen in those slumbring times which usher'd in this Epidemicall and dismall darkness when men had wilfully sealed up their eyes and professed blinde obedience to the Popes decrees Here was a season for the nonce to spread abroad false Doctrines and unsound opinions The Devill had been an Asse indeed if he had not spyed it And yet it is not easie to determine neither whether the negligence both of Priest and people did not as much promote the purpose of the enemy as did their ignorance Now for this double kind of negligence that which we charge upon the people is circa custodiam personae suae touching the looking to themselves that which we charge upon the Priest circa custodiam gregis sui touching the looking to his Flock â— The people I find faulty in these two respects 1. In not doing of their duties and 2dly In not claiming of their dues The Church in the first Ages of it used every day to celebrate the blessed Sacrament which thereupon St. Ambrose calls quotidianum cibum our daily bread The times were then severe and quick the people pious and devout and few there were that failed to be present at it But when the Sun of peace and liberty shined upon the Church the people grew remisse and careless took cold in their devotions and forbare the Church and left the Priest who by the ancient Canons was to do this Office to say his lesson to himself By this meanes and no other came in private Masses wherein the Priest participates by himself alone not upon any positive constitution which debarres the people but for defect of piety and devotion in them Harding other learned men in the Church of Rome so excuse the matter and not perhaps without just reason But certainly the Priest was to blame the while who either did not call upon them to attend their duties or in default thereof did not proceed against them as he should have done according to the ancient Discipline But more to blame no doubt was the Church of Rome who on complaint of the abuse not only hath ordained no remedy for the recalling of the people to the primitive custom but hath established and confirmed these private Masses maugre all opposition and resistance inflicting an Anathema upon every one that dares dâ—sprove them As then the people were first faulty in the not doing of their duties so we shall finde them as deficient in the second point for the not claiming of their dues For if the question should be asked how and by whom the Laity were first denied the Cup in the blessed Sacrament It must be answered the People lost it by degrees for want of putting in their claim to assert the title for not demanding the performance of our Saviours will delivered and declared in his holy Testament That it was instituted in both kinds by Christ administred by St. Paul in both kindes at Corinth and that it was so used in other places during 600 years and upwards is confessed by Harding in his reply to B. Jewell When and upon what Motives and by whose Authority this innovation was first made is not yet agreed upon among themselves Greg. de Valentia who took much pains in the examination of this business returns an Ignoramus or a minimè constat unto all these Queries and at last is fain to father it upon the usage of the Church and consent of the faithfull For the consent or at the least the not gainsaying of the faithful there is no doubt of that for ought I can finde and that 's the point we now complain of But for the usage of the Church which also he pretends to make up the matter that came in of late Thomas Aquinas who lived about 300 years ago no more hath delivered plainly calicem in quibusdam locis populo non dari that the Cup was not then administred unto the people in some certain places An undeniable Argument that it was universally received then in all places else Nor was it ever otherwise determined that I can hear of till the Assembly held at Constance for I can hardly think that it was a Councel decreed it against Christ himself with a non obstante which after was confirmed and ratified in that of Trent Now as the Prophet once complained as was the People then such was the Priest and as the Priest was then such were the People both ignorant alike and both alike negligent The negligence incumbent on the Priests was of two sorts also first in not teaching of the People as they ought to do and 2dly in not applying speedy and peculiar remedies to emergent mischiefs The Priests lips by the Lords appointment were to preserve knowledge and at their mouthes the people were to seek the same so the Prophet Malachi But when the Priest became quite destitute of
of Moses desiring in a pious fervency that he himself might be blotted out of the Book of God upon condition that the peoples sins might be forgiven them Here finde we God the Sonne actually laying down his most precious life not only for his own people and the sheep of his hands but even for those which were not of his Fold and did never know him Alias enim Oves habeo For other sheep I have which are not of this Fold as in the 16. of this Chapter An action beyond all example and such wherein our blessed Saviour went beyond himself Himself had given it for a Maxime that greater love could no man shew then this that a man lay down his life for his friend And yet behold how willingly he gave his life for those who either were false friends or apparent enemies Never did Sheepherd act such a part of goodness never were sheep so much obliged unto the goodness of their Sheepherd O the unsearchableness of Gods mercy the most unlimited extent of his grace and goodness to mortality It had been farre above the possibility either of our merit or requital had he but only bowed the Heavens and come down to visit us It had been such a prodigie as would have startled the most setled mindes of the sonnes of nature to have heard only this that for a good mans sake some peradventure would yet dare to die But God saith the Apostle commends his love to us in this in that whilest we were yet sinners Christ diâ—d for us The Lord and giver of life submits himself unto the death mortem autem Crucis to the reproachful death of the accursed Crosse He yields himself to the most shameful of all deaths the accursed Crosse for the most wretched and unworthy of all his Creatures rebellious man Rebellious man which had so often provoked his God to anger and crucified as it were the Lord of Glory before his comming in the flesh And whâ—ch doth add unto the miracle of his goodness to us divinitatem dat in proemium he died for us that we might live with him for ever and therefore put on our corruption that we might all be cloathed with his immortality Good God! how gladly could I wish unto my self the tongues of men and Angels at this present time that I might speak a little of thy Grace and mercy And yet O Lord the tongues of men and Angels would fall so short of true expression that they would seem no better then a sounding brasse or a tinckling Cymball Thou only hast ability to relate the history of thine own great mercies who hadst alone the power to do them The story of thy sufferings will be then best told when we shall see thee face to face and thou which wert the Argument art the Authour too Christ died then Animam suam posuit pro Ovibus suis and laid down his most precious life to preserve â—is flock Besides his gracious pleasure that so it should be there was in a manner a necessity that so it must be Without the shedding of blood saith the Apostle there is no remission and what blood else could have that efficacy but his that speaks farre better things unto us then the blood of Abel No saving of the sheep but by the blood of the Shepherd no raising of the sonnes of men to the life of righteousness but by subjecting the Sonne of God to the death of nature For our transgressions was he wounded for our iniquities was he bruised the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed saith the Prophet Esay Percutiam Pastorem is salvation here Besides the enemy against whom he fought had been else invincible For as upon some sodain exigents the surest way to conquer is to flee so here the readiest way for him to get the victory was to lose his life Novum ad victoriam iter sanguinis sui semita aperuit as the Historian said of Decius This was indeed a battel of a strange condition in which the Conqueror must first lose his life before he could obtain the victory and live again before he could enjoy it No other way to subjugate the powers of death and ransom his distressed sheep from the hands of Satan but by his death to overthrow him which had the power of death which is the Devil So the Apostle to the Hebrews A miracle saith the Glosse indeed that the Devil should be beaten at his own weapon and being the first that brought in death should be conquered by it Mors enim erat arma per quae vincebat diabolus per en victus est à Christo So the Glosse expounds it Thus punctually hath the Lord our Saviour discharged the duty of the good Sheepherd unto us and somewhat we must do reciprocally in the correspondence thereunto But what that is will be too long a business to be discoursed of at this present The 27. of this Chapter will be a more convenient Theme whereupon to build an Application of the present Doctrine as it relates unto the Pastoral charge of Christ our Saviour in feeding of our souls with the bread of life curing our wounded consciences with the Physick of the Word correcting out obliquities with the rod of Discipline and lodging us in a most safe and secure place whilest we are made partakers of his heavenly comforts But as our present Text relates to the Sheepherds goodness the Application will be here more proper then it can be there the hearing of his voyce and the requital of his goodness in a mutual suffering being of very different natures For questionleâ—s as Christ out of his infinite goodness did willâ—ngly lay down his life for us so may â—e well expect a mutual readiness in us not only to die with him but to die for himâ— also when our â—piritual necessities and the extremities of his Church shall so require The first of these two wayes is by dying with him crucâ—â—ying our sins upon his Crosse burying our corrupt affections in his Grave mortifyâ—ng our earthly members and killing in our selves the whole body of sin This to be done by chastising of our souls with watchings fastings labours patience afflictions sufferings Duties so throughly practised in the former times by many of the Primitive Christians that their very flesh was rarified into spirit and the whole man so fitted for eternal glories as if they did not look to die but to be translated Which duties as they are at all times to be practised by us so most especially on those dayes and times which are designed according to the pattern of pure Antiquity for fasting prayer and such like acts of Christian humiliation though now not only generally neglected by most sorts of men as if there were no difference between Christian libertie and antichristian licentiousness but branded and defamed as superstitious if not somewhat worse So that I
evidently that many of our enemies are in Arms against us But without tarrying for an Answer non expectato Domini responso as my Author hath it one of them puts himself into a posture of Warre and drawes his Sword and gives the onset as if they had sufficiently complied with the Obligation wherein they stood bound to their Lord and Master by telling him before hand what they meant to do But so it was not with the Servants of my present Text all which they did and all they thought they had to do was to make the motion and having made the motion to expect his Answer which as in duty they were bound to conform unto so in compliance with that duty they desisted presently from prosecuting their own projects No sooner had they found by their Masters Answer that they had been mistaken in the time and instruments in and by which so great a business was to be effected but they gave over the pursuit and left the work to be performed by the Heavenly Angel to whom their Master had reserved it No further speech of imus colligimus after their Lord and Master had returned a non And certainly this moderation and submission of themselves to their Masters pleasure shewed exceeding lowly and tends not more unto the commendation of their modesty then of their piety In vain it is for man to dispute with God to stand as 't were on equall termes and expostulate with him if our desires and counsels do not take effect O homo tu quis es qui respondeas Deo For who art thou O man that disputest with God saith the great Apostle It carrieth something in it of that monstrous Warre which rhe Giants made against the Gods in ancient Fables Altaque congestos struxisse ad sydera montes when they heaped hills on hills to come neerer to them to fight it out upon even ground And t is as vain to set our selves against those Powers to whom God hath not only pleased to impart some branch of his Authority but to communicate his name to think that we can binde them by our votes or wishes or circumscribe them by our Counsels It is no Argument of weakness to give way to them who are too strong to be resisted or by resisting whom we shall but agravate our own guilt and ruine Non turpe est ab eo vinci quem vincere est nefas It is no shame said the Historian to yield to him whom it were sin to overcome nor is it a dishonour to submit to those whom Fortune or the Gods rather have advanced above us And therefore they who plunge whole States in Warres and themselves in miseries because their propositions may not passe for Lawes are but like Achitophel of whom it is recorded that he hanged himself because his counsel was not followed It is well said by him in Tacitus Suadere Principi quod oportet multi laboris est that to give good counsel to a Prince is a work of difficulty and he that doth it well hath discharged his duty The issue and success thereof he must leave to God who hath committed to his Substitutes the supreme power of â—udging what is fittest for them to consent unto The vertue of obedience is the Subjects glory And he may well perswade himself that as he had some reasons which induced him to advise one way so there were others no lesse weighty which might incline his Master to pursue another Which reasons if they be made known unto him he may then satisfie himself and others whom it doth concern If not he hath no reason to complain at all Princes being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Statists terme it not bound to render an account of their words or actions further then as they shall be pleased of their own accord to impart the same unto their servants for the removing of such umbrages and discontentments as the rejecting of their Counsels might occasion otherwise This leades from the Masters power unto his Providence in that he did not leave his servants without satisfaction but layed them down a reason of his refusall and such a reason as came home to the point proposed But he said nay ne fortè colligentes zizania for fear lest while ye gather up the Tares ye root the Wheat up also with them My second Generall Majoribus nostris nulla reddita ratione rationis est credere said the Heathen Orator It was the easiness and flexibility of some former times to give belief to any thing which was commended to them by their Ancients without examining the grounds and reasons Which though it was a course that did not much conduce to the advancement of knowledge served notwithstanding very well to train the people up in the Schools of obedience But then withall it was observed that though some tendries were so ancient that they grew i refragable some Authors so esteemed of that they grew Authenticall yet to discerning men men of abilities and parts in the wayes of learning neither the Antiquity of the Tenet nor the Authority of the Teacher carried so much sway as did the reason which appeared in these points and tendries Et quanquam in Autore satis rationis est ratio tamen quemlibet magnum Authorem facit In which regard those who have took upon them to be Guides to others and to instruct them in the Arts of life or learning found a necessity at last of making them acquainted with the grounds and reasons of that which they did dictate and prescribe unto them Men being of a reasonable soul by nature are best ruled by reason and then most apâ— to yield obedience when they perceive there is some reason in the point commended to them some reason for the imposition or command which is laid upon them And so it also holds in the Arts of Government the actions of the supreme Powers being then most acceptable when they are pleased to give a reason of those Acts and Results of State in which the Subjects are concerned T is true indeed which the wise Statesman hath observed abditos Principis sensus that the thoughts of Soveraign Princes are most dark and hidden and that to prie into them with too curious eyes is not unlawful only but exceeding dangerous But then withall it is as true that sic volo sic jubeo is but a sorry piece of Rhetorick to perswade obedience and that the Subject yields but a dull conformity to the Commands of his Superiour when the imperiousness of those Commands is not backed by Reason but founded only upon Will The Master in my Text understood this rightly and therefore when he was resolved upon mature consideration of the Servants offer not to give way to their imus colligimus yet he thought fit to make some answer to the vis to let them see the reason why he differed or dissented from them In this we have
Ecclesiae as before I told you out of Hierome to whom our Saviour gave the keyes and the Church afterwards the Crozier or the Pastoralls Staffe the badge and emblem of their Office But neither our Saviour nor the Church gave them any power to take the Sword into their hands or to proceed in ore gladii when they found any thing amisse in life or Doctrine which stood in need of Reformation Look upon which of these you will either upon the Servants or upon the Tares and we shall quickly finde that the Sword and Warre are never more unfitly used then by such men and in such cases For the Tares being sowen in medio tritici amongst the Wheat v. 25. and growing intermingled with it in the blade or stalk v. 26. if the Sword chance to mow them down down go both alike And should the Field be weeded by the hand of Warre impossible it is but that in gathering up the Tares eradicetur simul cum eis triticum the Wheat must needes be rooted up at the self-same time Bonorum malorumque fata mixta merita confusa The wicked and the righteous person the Schismatick and conformable man the Heretick and Orthodox Professor are all alike subject unto those calamities which the Warre brings upon a Nation their Persons their Estates their Families all comprehended in the masse of the same perdition which as they are the ordinary consequents of the Sword and Warre so do they fall most heavily on the Church of Christ when the Sword is put into unskilful hands who neither have a right unto it nor the Art to use it or when the Warre is undertaken and pursued under the mask and colour of Religion When once the Successors of St. Peter as they claim to be laid aside the keyes and betook themselves unto the Sword what havock did they make in the Christian Church how often have they died their Robes in the blood of the Saints And when the Warre begun by the Christian Princes on the Turks and Saracens was turned upon the Albigenses by the Popes of Rome and that the Cruciata was proclaimed against those poor souls only because they differed in some points of Doctrine from the opinions of that Church how many hundred thousands of well-meaning men who made a conscience of their wayes and erred not if they erred at all out of pride but ignorance were rooted up and made a sacrifice to the offended Deities of the Roman Conclave The miseries of those Warres and the nature of them are but a Glasse wherein we may behold the troubles and distractions of these latter times in which the Sword hath been so often made the Judge of controversies almost all the States in Christendom have been imbroiled in Warres under pretence of Reformation That Maxime of Illyricus the Father of the rigid Lutherans as they use to call them terrendos Principes metu seditionum that Princes must be frighted into Reformation by the fear and threatning of seditions that of Gesselius a more rigid Calvinist that if the Prince and Clergy did neglect their duties in the reforming of the Church the people then must undertake it licèt ad sanguinem usque pro eo pugnent although they have no other way to effect the same then by raising Warres and stirring up the Subjects against their Soveraigns that of some zelots of our own who now the Sword is drawn would not have it sheathed till it be fully glutted in the blood of Malignants what ruine and destruction hath it brought on the Church of God defiled the Sanctuaries of the Lord and defaced his Temples laid desolate the beauties of our dwelling-places and made us Christians both a derision and a prey to the Turks and Gentiles Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum Such mischiefs have the Sword and the Warre produced under pretence of imus colligimus of gathering up such Tares as have been thought to grow in the Field of God and rectifying such abuses as in long tract of time had risen in his publick worship With how much better judgement was the Question stated in the Heroick times of Christianity when as it was both taught and practised Defendendam esse Religionem non occidendo sed moriendo that the Gospel was to be defended not by blood and slaughter nor by destroying those who opposed the same or harboured any Tenets which agreed not with it but by submitting our own lives to the hand of death in testimony of the truth and a good conscience whensoever the necessities of the Church shall require it of us With how much greater love to the Church of Christ did the good Father give this Comment on the present text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God saith he would not let the Hereticks be destroyed by Warres for fear the righteous person and the true believer should also suffer with them in the same destruction But what will some men say Is there no use of the Sword at all in the confounding of the Heretick or the reclaiming of the Schismatick or the correction of the wicked and flagitious person I say not so the Sword may have its use in all these particulars and Warres be serviceable in some of them But then the Sword must be committed to the hands of the proper Minister not to the Servants of my Text or any Minister of the Gospel of what rank soever and Warres must be denounced and pursued by those in whom the supreme Government of the State is vested to whom it appertains of right Parcere subjectis debellare superbos to be indulgent to the quiet and obedient subject but to pull down the stomach of the proud and rebellious person Each of them hath their several way and their severall weapons in the effecting of this work but each of them must stay the time The Heretick is first to be attempted by the power of the word by which Apollos mightily convinced the Jewes and which St. Paul assures us is exceeding profitable not onely for Doctrine but reproof It is the faithful word as he elsewhere tells us by which the Prelate is inabled not only to exhort but convince gainsayers The same course must be also taken in the recovery of the Schismatick in reduction of the stray-sheep to the Fold of Christ it being the duty of the diligent and careful Shepherd to seek out that which was lost and bring back that which was driven away Which meanes if they should prove to be ineffectual and that the word and Doctrine will not work the cure it then pertains unto the Pastor to have recourse unto the censures of the Church Et flagellorum terroribus vel etiam doloribus revocare to fetch them back again by the Rod of Discipline and if that faile to excommunicate them and deliver them to the hands of Satan Further then this they may not go t is beyond their
feed Jacob his people and Israel his Inheritance Psal 78. v. 70. Nor hath the name of Shepherd been accounted anciently an honorary adjunct only to the greatest Princes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to God himself as Philo hath observed in his Book of Husbandry An observation not so strange in Philo by birth a Jew and so acquainted with the Scripture as it may seem to be in Plato who was a meer stranger to the Covenant And yet in Plato do we finde it and that in termes no lesse expressive then in those of Philo for speaking of the peaceable and happy lives which men are said to lead in the first Ages he gives this reason for it in his Book de Regno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God saith he was their â—hepherd and he did lead them and conduct them as now Princes do whom therefore we are bound to honour in the next degree to the Gods immortal A Speech so excellent and divine that nothing but the written word can go beyond it But behold a greater then Plato is here also for God hath told us by the mouth of his Servant David that he is a Shepherd Dominus Pastor meus the Lord is my Shepherd Psal 23. and hear O thou Shepherd of Israel Psal 80. If therefore God may without diminution of his power and greatness assume unto himself the name of a Shepherd assuredly the Sonne of God will think it no disparagement to be called so too Or if it were what poor and low condition would not he gladly undergo for the sake of man whose bowels yerned so oft within him when as he saw his wretched and neglected people wandring like sheep without a Shepherd And certainly if we consult the Scriptures we shall there finde that God designed him to this Office long time before his incarnation the taking of our flesh upon him for in the 34. of Ezekiel thus saith the Lord about his flock I will set up one Shepherd over them and he shall feed them ipse erit eis in Pastorem and shall be their Shepherd A Prophecie accomplished by our Lord and Saviouâ— in the whole work and business of his life amongst us for being appointed by Almighty God to be the Shepherd of his people he caused the first tidings of his Birth to be proclaimed to a company of shepherds chose a stable or a sheep-coat rather as most Fathers think to be the place of his Nativity Conversing here amongst us men he took unto himself the name of a Shepherd being styled so in this Chapter twice and talking of his Sheep throughout the whole After all this being to take his farewel of us for as much as did concern his bodily presence he left no greater charge unto his Disciples then Pascite oves meas to feed his sheep One further evidence to this purpose we will make bold to borrow out of Plutarchs works who tells a Story of one Thames that as he sailed towards Greece was by a strange voyce but from whence he knew not commanded to make known when he came on Land that Pan the Shepherds God was dead This Pan the Authour takes to be the sonne of Mercury and Penelope when the Gentiles worshipped But they which looked with more advice into the matter conceive it rather to be meant of the Sonne of God and the Virgin Mary who much about the time which that Authour speaks of did suffer death upon the Crosse for our redemption and was indeed the true God Pan chief Shepherd of the soul of man A Shepherd then our Saviour was there 's no doubt of that we might have took it absolutely on his Ipse dixit But how he doth discharge the office is in the next place to be considered And this we shall the better see by looking for a while on the Country-shepherd whose duty doth consist in three points especially 1. In the feeding 2. In the ordering And 3. In the guarding of the sheep committed to him For feeding first there is no question to be made but that it is a part of the shepherds office The very name doth intimate so much unto us for Pastor à pascendo a shepherd is so called from feeding and that not in the Language of the Latines only but in Greek and Hebrew This duty mentioned in the Georgicks Luciferi primo cum sydere frigida rura carpamus in which he doth advise his shepherd that at the dawning of the day he unfold his sheep and drive them out into their Pasture And this exemplified in Jacob and the sonnes of Jacob honest shepherds all it being said of Jacob in the Book of God that he did feed the Sheep of Laban of Jacob's sonnes that they did feed their Fathers flocks in Sichem And finally this took for granted in Almighty God in his expostulation with the Priests and Prophets of the House of Israâ—l nonne greges à Pastoribus pascuntur should not the Shepherds feed the Flocks That Christ doth punctually discharge this duty is past all controversie The Prophet hath foresignified that he should so do I will set up one Shepherd over them and the Evangelists declare that he did so do For what were all those heavenly Sermons those frequent exhortations unto faith and piety which he so often made unto them but a spirituall feeding of the inward man a sweet refection of the soul a celestiall nourishment His feeding of so many thousands by a few Loaves of Bread and two small fishes what was it though a signall miracle compared with those many millions which he doth feed continually with the bread of life We need not doubt of the success when he that fed them with the Word was the Word it self or of the spreading of the Gospel when he that was the Preacher was the Gospel too or of the nourishment of the Guests in the fruits of godliness when he that carved unto them the life of bread was of himself the bread of life For he indeed was magnus ille panis qui mentem replet non ventrem that holy bread which feedes the soul and not the body as the Father hath it the living bread as himself tells us of himself which came down from Heaven of which whosoever eateth he shall live for ever Which bread if it be meant of Christ who is God the Word we then partake it principally in the Sacraments but if we understand it of the Word of God as St. Hierome doth we must then look for it in the Scriptures By these two meanes the preaching of Gods holy Word and the administration of his Sacraments are we still fed and nourished unto life eternal if not by Christ himself the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief Shepherd as St. Peter calls him yet by those under-Officers those inferior Ministers to whom he hath intrusted that most weighty duty First for the preaching of the
of Samuel and the 15th Chapter Melior est obedientia quà m victimae to obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of Rams Where auscultare obedire to hearken and obey are plainly used as words of the same signification the same in sense though not in sound and therefore when Almighty God did give this testimony of our Saviour This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and then immediately subjoyned audite ipsum hear ye him it is not to be thought that he required no more then their outward ears That had been to invite his followers to that very fault which he blamed in others which was audientes non audiunt the people heard his word and yet heard it not i. e. they heard the Word but did not do it They onely hear his Word aright which do hear with profit which if we do we shall not onely hear his word as is here commanded but shall so hear his voice as to follow him which is most chiefly here intended but of this we shall speak more anon In the mean time we must take notice of the object which we are to hear Audite ipsum hear ye him so saith God the Father audite vocē meam hear my voice so saith God the Son and both these are one Ipse there which is God the word is here vox mea or the word of God both most apparently the same Indeed it is not to be thought that he which is the Word should more conveniently express himself in any other way then by his voice for howsoever that of the Apostle be most unquestionably true that God at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto our Fathers by the Prophets yet still we are at locutus est Deus that God spake unto them speak he could not properly but by a voice nay if we look upon it well we shall surely find that the first external action ascribed to God in holy Scripture is dixit Dominus the Lord spake and that was a miraculous kind of speech indeed he spake not onely words but works He spake the word and it was made he said the word onely and they were created From that time forwards unto this God never did express himself in a cleerer way then by that of speaking either in dreams and visions as unto the Patriarcks or Angelorum atque hominum ministerio by the tongues of holy men and Angels as unto the Jews till in the last dayes locutus est nobis in filio he spake unto us by his Son the heir of all things This is that He and his that Voice which we are to hear and well it is and most agreeable to our infirmities that he should speak to us by a voice For should he speak unto us now as at the giving of the Law in Sinai in thunder and lightning what flesh were able to abide it Or should he speak unto us in a cloud of darkness cum clangore Tubae and with the sound of a Trumpet what ear were able to endure it Speak thou unto us said the Jews to Moses and we will hear but let not God speak to us lest we die i. e. let not the Lord so speak unto us that we dare not hear or shew himself in such a terrible way unto us that we dare not approch unto him Indeed it is not often that God speaks otherwise unto us then in a still and gentle voice such as the Jews call Bath-col filia vocis a small slender voice such as Job calleth vocem aurae lenis a still silent voice such as may charme but not astonish and which is fitter to invite attention then to excite our fears Now of this truth we find a very pregnant instance in the history of Elijah as it is represented to us in the Book of Kings God called upon him to go forth and stand upon the Mount before him then it follows And behold the Lord passed by and a great strong wind rent the Mountains and broke in peeces the Rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind an Earthquake but the Lord was not in the Earthquake and after the Earthquake a Fire but the Lord was not in the Fire and after the Fire a still small Voice sibilus aurae tenuis as the vulgar hath it and in that voice the Lord appeared unto the Prophet and signified his will unto him Which as it doth most excellently expresse the manner of Gods speaking to his people in the former times so is it as it were as history of those wayes and means by which the Lord hath spoke to us to us particularly of this Nation in these latter dayes The time was when the Lord passed by us in a mighty wind a wind that blew down violently before it those majestick structures which had been consecrated anciently to religious uses and the service of God but sure God was not in that wind next he passed by us in an Earthquake in King Edwards dayes an Earthquake or Commotion as the vulgar reads it by which the very foundations of the State were almost utterly subverted by rebellions and the whole fabrick of the Government dissolved by potent factions At non in Commotione Dominus but the Lord was not in that Earthquake Post commotionem Ignis after the Earthquake came a Fire a cruel and devouring Fire a Fire more raging then the Babylonian Furnace not heated for three onely but for thrice three hundred a Fire intended for the utter ruine of Gods Saints and Servants though it proved rather in the event a fiery Chariot such as was that provided for Elijah for their conveyance into Heaven At non in igne Dominus I am sure God was not in that Fire At last he shewed himself unto us in sibilo aurae tenuis in a still small voice a voice of comfort and of consolation a voice which for these eighty years hath spoken far better things unto us then the blood of Abel a voice which we must hearken to with fear and reverence as did Elijah to that still small voice which appeared unto him as being vox Dei there and vox mea here no difference at all between them But what may some men chance to say How shall we know whether the voice that speaks unto us and which we go so greedily to hear be the vox mea of the Text since every one pretends to the like Commission and hath a dixit Dominus in his mouth be he who he will The readiest way to satisfie this doubt is to look back upon the story of Elijah and resolve our selves for if the Preacher speak unto you in a still small voice if he deliver nothing to you but the truth with soberness verba veritatis sobrietatis as the Apostle calls them then doubt you not but God is present in that voice
and t is your Christian duty to give ear unto it but if he speak unto you in Fires and Earthquakes in Storms and Tempests or like the sons of Boanerges call for fire from Heaven it is a shrewd conjecture that God is not there Those voices savour of a different spirit from the Lord our Sheepherd whose lips dropped Myrrhe who spake unto his people in so mild a way that his reproofs were gentle his corrections sweet No Fire nor Storm nor Earthquake in that sacred voice wherein he speaks unto his Flocks nor can it stand indeed with his pastoral Office or with the safety of his sheep that it should be otherwise The sheep is naturally of a timorous and weak condition easily frighted from their food should they be terrified with the cries of Wolves though false and counterfeit or the continual barking of the dogs though perhaps their own In which regard the Poets often represent the Sheepherd with his pipe and songs and his flocks feeding round about him Stant oves circum c. Such is the voice we are to hear a still silent voice vox aurae lenis or sibâ—lus aurae tenuis a still small voice a voice proceeding from a meek and humble spirit and yet it is not vox preterea nihil not a bare voice onely which we are to hear but there 's a guide also whom we are to follow audire vocem ejus will not serve the turn if we do not sequi The voice but leads us on to him whom we ought to follow and we are bound to hear his voice for no other reason but that we may the better know how to follow him my next particular and very briefly to be handled Oves meae vocem meam audiunt sequuntur me my sheep hear my voice and they follow me i. e. they do so hear his voice as to follow him They stand not gazing after him like men astonished as did the men of Galilee at his ascention or as Elisha did upon Elijah at his assumption but are still going and in motion if they follow him And if we follow him as we ought to do in all the paths of piety and vertue which he hath pleased to lead before us we shall be hearers of his voice there 's no doubt of that and hearers of it to the purpose And I said well if we do follow him through all the paths of piety and vertue which he hath pleased to lead before us for many things our Saviour did in which it is impossible we should follow him or else not necessary if we could Miracles and such works of wonder as he wrought daily by the power of his Divinity are objects of our Faith onely and our admiration and in these we cannot follow him Particular actions whether of Ceremonie as his sitting whilst he taught the people or Circumstance as his administring the Sacrament in an upper Chamber are left arbitrary and in these we need not follow him But in all Morall duties whatsoever as Prayer and Fasting and Alms-deeds in pardoning such offences as are done unto us and humbling our selves under the mighty hand of God in these he hath commanded an obedient imitation and in all those we ought to follow him If therefore Christ hath taken up his Crosse and is gone before us it is no small part of our obedience to take up our Crosses also and to follow after Oportet primum haec pati we must first suffer all these things Afflictions Persecutions Buffetings Revilings yea and Death it self before we enter into glory As he hath led the way before us in all the works of Godliness and the fruits of Mercy what better can become us then to do so too to tread in his most sacred steps as he makes us able Himself hath so commanded and we must obey Be ye followers of God as dear children saith the great Apostle i. e. as children love to imitate the gestures speech and other actions of their Parents so must we follow the example of our heavenly Father sequimurque patrem non passibus aequis St. Peter to the self same purpose that Christ hath left us an example ut sequamur vestigia ejus that we should follow his steps And though St. Paul doth in another place exhort those of Corinth that they should be followers of him yet he subjoyned this limitation sicut ego Christi as I am of Christ Were it not for this tie sicut ego Christi we might be Pharisees in our youth and Persecutors in our age as too many have been and justifie our selves in both by St. Pauls example So that however that of the Poet be exceeding true vivitur exemplo melius that men are guided easier by example then they are by precept yet it concerns us all to be very careful in choosing of the patterns which we mean to imitate and not to follow any man how great soever further then he doth follow Christ the chief Lord of all And certainly our Saviour did not limit and restrain this duty and tie it to himself alone without special reason He knew none better the faulty humour of the sheep how apt they are out of their natural inclination to run that way which some of their unruly fellows have first led before them though contrary to the direction of their Sheepherd and many times to their own ruine and destruction Ubi mares viam ducunt reliquus grex facilè sequetur Aristotle long ago did observe this in them in his Historia Animalium and it holds good still in our own observation Thus is it also with us men we are all apt to follow bad example especially the example of some noted Bell-wether and few there are which are not very much in love with the faults and errors of their betters which as it may advise all those of more eminent ranck to have a special care of their wayes and actions because their actions many times are made exemplary so may it lessen those of the lower sort that to be governed by the example of frail sinful men is at the best a simple and sheepish quality O Imitatores stultum pecus said the Poet truely the reason is because the best men have been guilty of notorious crimes and therefore should we make their lives a general pattern unto ours we may be drunk with Noah and incestuous with Lot swearers with Joseph Murderers with David Idolaters with Solomon Persecutors with Paul Deniers of the Lord with Peter and indeed what not 'T is not sequuntur then which is here commanded an art of Imitation onely which is here required for then our Saviour had not told us in their commendation Alienum autem non sequuntur that they would not follow after strangers 'T is the word me that makes all sure the following of the Lord our Sheepherd and of none but him which in the end will bring us unto life