there is to buffeting our selves keeping under our bodies and bringing them into subjection St. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 27. making our eyes and bodies as it were black and blew by watchings and fastings cuffing or buffeting our eyes for looking after our ears for listning to our bodies for doing punishing all our powers and senses for acting any thing that is evil a being buffeted too 2. by Satan when we forget to buffet our selves 2 Cor. xii 7. Cuffing and buffeting sufficient to be found in the Christians exercise 3. Quoiting or casting casting away any weight that hinders us any sin that does beset us Heb. xii 1. removing every stone of offence giving no offence to any in any thing that our Ministry be not blamed 2 Cor. vi 3. that nothing we do nothing we omit neither our doing or our not doing be a stone of stumbling whereby our brother may justly stumble or is offended or is made weak Rom. xiv 21. Throw all such stones out of the way and strive who shall so come nearest that great corner stone Christ Iesus or the mark of your high calling of God in Christ Iesus Phil. iii. 14. 4. Leaping also is to be found among the Christians exercises skipping and leaping for joy at the glad tidings of the Gospel leaping and praising God with the lame man that was healed Acts iii. 8. striving who shall leap farthest in it leaping with Abraham St. Ioh. viii for so the word signifies to see the day of Christ Leaping with holy David before the Ark 2 Sam. vi 16. rejoycing and leaping for joy in the day of our sufferings for Christ St. Luke vi 23. making it one of our daily exercises and businesses to praise and magnifie God and rejoyce in him in all his days and ways and dispensations strive with one another who shall do it most who shall go farthest in it 5. Running we every where meet in the Christians course running the race which is set before us Heb. xii 1. so running as we may obtain in the verse before the Text. Christianity it self is stiled a race the Christian Law the Law of it the Christian the runner his life the course heaven the goal nothing more ordinary Besides these five single exercises in the Grecian there was a sixth mixt or compounded of wrestling and cuffing both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they called it But in Christianity all are joyned all are sometimes exercised together the Christian must be skilled and well exercised in all wrestle against the World the Flesh and Devil wrestle with God cuff and buffet himself suffer the buffettings of Satan too sometimes cast away all weights and stones of hinderance and offence leap and run with joy and eagerness the race which is set before us looking unto Iesus always in all these looking unto him that is both the author and finisher of our faith Heb. xii 2. And being thus wholly to be kept in exercise it will be convenient nay necessary now to fit and prepare our selves so to diet and order our selves that we may so perform them as to obtain the day to get the victory to be temperate in all things as well as any wrestler or runner of them all There are four several interpretations of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we here render temperate The first is what here we find it to be temperate to keep a certain set diet whereby their bodies might be best strengthned and enabled made nimble and active so it signifieth to the Wrestlers To observe a spare and moderate diet such as may most advantage the souls business best subdue the body and quicken the spirit be it abstinence from some or sometimes from all kinds of meat and drink so it signifies to the Christian This the Christians as the other the Wrestlers diet Very exact and punctual were they that strove for the masteries in their observances kept their rules and times and kind of diet I would the Christian now were but half so much to his rule and order Indeed I must confess theirs was not sometimes a moral temperance it was sometimes to fulness yet still such as was prescribed and most conducible to their end If we would observe as much those abstinences which most make to the enabling us in our spiritual race or combat I shall desire no more there indeed fasting and all temperance will come in will be the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Christians being temperate in all things A thing so necessary that St. Ierome says no less than Difficile imo impossibile est ut praesentibus quis futuris fruatur bonis ut his ventrem ibi mentem expleat ut de deliciis transeat ad delicias ut in utroque seculo primus sit ut in coelo in terrâ appareat gloriosus It is hard nay impossible no less says he to enjoy both present and future goods our good things here and hereafter too to fill the belly here and the soul hereafter to pass from pleasure into pleasure from fulness into fulness to be first in earth and heaven too glorious in both He must feed spare here that looks to be fed full there be temperate in all earthly delights and satisfactions that looks for heavenly either in the other world or in this either for the full body stifles the soul and we are not more unwieldy in body when the belly is over full then the soul is then Fulness oppresses even the natural spirits makes us we cannot even breath freely for the while enough to shew us our rational spirits are not likely to be freeer to breath or evaporate themselves to Heaven or Heaven-wards whilst the very natural ones themselves are so opprest From temperance and moderation we cannot be excused neither in meat nor drink nor any thing whatever weakness may excuse from fasting so necessary a disposing of us it is to all Christian piety and goodness yea and a Christian vertue too it self Gal. v. 23. The word may yet 2. be rendred continence so it seems to be taken Tit. i. 8. where 't is distinguished from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sober or temperate and joyn'd next to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy clean or pure A point observed by those agonothletae to abstain from Wine and Women for the time of their providing themselves against those games So the Poet. Qui cupit optatam cursu contingere metam abstinuit vino Venere And our Apostle tells us of such a kind of temporary continence very convenient for those Christians that more especially addict themselves to the Christian exercises particularly of Prayer and Fasting chap. 7. of this Epistle ver 5. But no time but commands Continence and Chastity to all Christians whosoever that no uncleanness be so much as named among them for it becomes not Saints Ephes. v. 3. it becometh not the Gospel of Christ which is a doctrine of all holiness and purity Nothing
choose to come by or rather will choose not to come by right good sound ways they must be if they be his And 2. right streight ways too no turning to the right hand or to the left not do one way in adversity another way in prosperity one Religion when the days are calm and quiet another when the days are stormy and troublesom Rectas facite in deserto so it is in the Prophet and Hebrew Text Isa. xl 3. Make his paths streight in the Desart even when we are deserted of all when we are in the barren and dry Wilderness where no water is no earthly comfort about us in the greatest tribulation we must keep us still to uprightness and honesty that 's the way to Christ however for a while he seem to be far from us thither it will bring us after a while keep innocency and do the thing that is right and that will bring a man peace at the last Yet 3. one path or two made streight is not sufficient semitas 't is an indefinite somewhat a kin to an universal it must be all he that fails or offends in one is guilty of all S. Iames ii 10. If all be not streight all the paths as well as the ways that you have heard all the little ways as well as the great according to our poor power if at least we do not study and endeavour it it is not it is not right Nor is it so or will it be unless we take in 4. the Prophets in deserto too desert and forsake our selves a little renounce our own ways quite seek not our own but his streighten our selves a little of our own lusts and liberties of our own desires and ways that the only way to make his streight and make Christ come streight to us V. We have one point yet behind who it is to whom all this is spoken and is given in charge I confess the Ministers and Preachers of the Word are the publick messengers and harbingers who are sent to prepare the Lords way as S. Iohn Baptist was before him yet every one must sweep his own door For the words are by S. Iohn Baptist preach'd to all Pharisees and Sadduces Publicans and Souldiers and all the people that came to him every one to have a share and so he gives it them S. Luke iii. 10 11. verses and so onward tells people and Publicans and Souldiers what to do sets every one his path his part of the way to prepare and streighten Give me leave to do so too The Ministers of the Gospel they come first they have the greatest share with S. Iohn Baptist to go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way but how To give knowledge of salvation says old Zachary to his people for the remission of sins or somewhat more even to give remission too to give absolution so to give knowledge to the people or instruct them and to absolve them is some part at least of the Ministers share but to Baptize also with the Baptist and to consecrate with Christ himself is to prepare his way too to make way for him to raise the Valleys to comfort the dejected the cast down and afflicted soul against his sorrows the penitent against his sins the fearful against the fear of death the weak hearted against trouble and persecution to encourage them to lift up their heads and look to the recompence of reward to raise up the groveling souls of men from earth and flesh to heaven and heavenly business 2. To cast down the Mountains of Pride and Singularity Schism and Heresie that lift up themselves against the obedience of Christ. 3. To rectifie the perverse and crooked souls of men And 4. to smooth and soften them to lay the way of Christ smooth and plain before them make them know his yoke is easie and his burthen light by continual preaching to them and instructing them so preparing them for the way of Christ. Thus the Minister prepares his way in the peoples hearts sometimes cleansing the young Infants way by Baptism and sometimes rectifying the young and old mans ways by advice and exhortation sometimes clearing them with Absolution sometimes purifying them with the Holy Sacrament some way or other always preparing them against the Lords coming And it lies upon him so to do And 2. for the People There needs no more then has been said The ways already mentioned concern us all There is none so righteous but needs some kind of preparation And he that is not he needs them all And if we consider now the time so much the more in that his coming is nearer whom we prepare for 'T is now but a few days to the day he once came to us in the flesh Let 's think of that and prepare our selves to give him thanks to cry Hosanna blessed is he that cometh blessed this blessed way of his coming and blessed the blessed day of his so coming 'T is not many more days 2. to the coming of his flesh and blood in the Holy Sacrament unto us We are expecting and hoping for it and 't is fit we should be preparing for it Better preparation then you have heard I cannot give you for the one or the other Only I may add in solitudine again Withdraw your selves aside into some desart and solitary place to prepare you in retire in private to your souls and to your business I will bring her into the Wilderness says God concerning Israel and speak comfortably unto her Hos. ii 14. The place to hear the voice of divine and heavenly comfort is in our Solitude When we are alone God only and our selves together Remember then we go into our Closets and there prepare our selves forget no point of the preparation but sweep and cleanse and smooth and adorn our souls with all holy vertues or resolutions and come well guarded with attention care and vigilance that nothing unbeseeming pass from us in the way raise up our spirit with holy thoughts and heavenly desires cast down our souls with reverence and humility come without any roughness or unevenness in our affections or behaviour in our ways or paths so shall the Lord come and come with comfort and take us with him and bring us safely to the end of our way the end of our hope to those things which neither eye hath seen or ear heard or ever entred into the heart of man which he has prepared for them that prepare for him in the City prepared for us in the Heavens A SERMON ON The Third Sunday in Advent S. LUKE xxi verse 27 28. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a Cloud with power and great glory And when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh AND because the day of your Redemption draweth nigh the day in which your Redeemer came in a Cloud of Flesh and Clay we are this
after those things which shall come upon the earth what are all these together to them who are thus by those very things redeem'd out of all their troubles Saint Paul is bold to set up a challenge Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these we are more then conquerours through him this him in the Text that loved us Rom. viii 35. 37. And he goes on yet higher For I am perswaded says he that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus ver 38 39. And if thus nothing can ever separate us from Christs love what should trouble us at his coming whose coming is but to draw us nearer to himself Be not troubled be not terrified says he ver 9. but in patience possess your souls ver 18. for there shall not a hair of your heads perish ver 17. Others may fall and sink and perish but do they what they can against you those that hate you yet care not for it look up look up to me I am coming to redeem you lift up your heads and behold the glory into which I am at hand to lift you up The sum of all now is that in the midst of all your troubles all your amazements all your fears and dangers you first still lift up your heads and look to Heaven for comfort and fetch it thence by prayers and petitions 2. That in the midst of all calamities you yet remember your redemption is a coming and so lift up your heads with joy in the heat and fury of them all knowing that they are nothing else but so many forerunners of your glory Lastly that you look up and lift up your heads with thankfulness that he has thus accounted you worthy to see him in his glory and that your redemption is no further off That having thus begun to look up and lift up your voices in praises and thanksgiving upon earth he may lift you up into Heaven in soul and body at his coming there to sing Allelujahs with the Saints and Angels and the four and twenty Elders to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore there to be partakers of all his Glory A SERMON ON The Fourth Sunday in Advent PHILIPPIANS iv 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand THE Text is a part of the Epistle for the day chosen you may conceive because the Lord that is the time of his coming is at hand A fit preparation thought by the Church for Christmas now so near to prepare us how to entertain the happy day the joyful news of our Lord Christs coming in the flesh To entertain it I say not with excess and riot but moderation not with rude tricks and gambols but softness and meekness not in vanity of clothes but modesty not in iniquity but equity somewhat departing from our own right and seeking occasions to do others right that all men may see and know we behave our selves like Servants expecting their Lords coming according to all the several senses of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated moderation in the Text but stretching further then any one English word can express it A word chosen by the Apostle to comprehend the whole duty if it might be of a Christian preparing for his Lord in the midst of much affliction and long wearied expectation back'd with an assurance that the Lord was now hard by a coming to deliver them The poor Philippians were somewhat sad or sad-like by the persecutions they suffered from the unbelieving Iews and Gnostick Hereticks that were among them many were daily falling off by reason of them ver 18. of the former Chapter and much hurt those dogs as the Apostle calls them ver 2. of that Chapter the concision that is those Hereticks had done or were like to do them But for all that says he Rejoyce and again Rejoyce in the verse before the Text rejoyce too that all men may see it see your joy in the Lord and in your sufferings for him yet so that they may see your moderation in it too that as you are not sad like men without hope so you are not merry like men out of their wits but as men that know their Lord is nigh at hand as well to behold their actions as to free them from their sufferings to see their patience and moderation as well as their trouble and persecution A perswasion it is or exhortation to patience and meekness and some other Christian Vertues which by examining the word you will see anon from the forementioned consideration A perswasion to moderation from a comfortable assurance of a reward the Lord at hand to give it A perswasion to prepare our selves because our Lord is coming A perswasion so to do it that all may know what we are a doing and what we are expecting that they may see we are neither asham'd of our Religion nor of our Lord that we neither fear mens malice nor our Lords mercy that we are confident he is at hand ready to succour and rescue all that patiently and faithfully suffer for him to take vengeance on his enemies and deliver his Servants out of all The time is now approaching even at the doors And if we apply this as we do all other Scriptures to our selves to teach us moderation and whatever else is contain'd under the word which is so rendred and draw down the Lords being at hand in the Text to all Christs comings in Flesh in Grace in Glory it will no way disadvantage the Text but advance it rather improve the Apostles sense and meaning to all Churches and times to prepare them all to go out to meet the Lord when or howsoever he shall come unto them And moderation must be it we must meet him with be the times what they will come the Lord how or when he please know we time or know it not be what will unknown our moderation must be known and yet his coming as unknown as it may be must be consider'd always in our minds it must be that the Lord is one way or other continually at hand Indeed I must confess the times were troublesom and dangerous when the Apostle thus exhorted and comforted the Philippians but the best times are dangerous danger there is as much of forgetting Christ in prosperity as of falling from him in adversity and as much need there is of moderation when all happinesses flow in upon us as when all afflictions fall upon us so the advice cannot be unseasonable And though we call'd the Text St. Pauls advice or the Christians duty in sad times and his comfort in them and so divide the words yet they will reach
should seem either to receive glory from David or need his name to cover the obscurity of his beginning There is no glory to that of humility nor any so truly honourable as the humble spirit And of Iesse 4. not David to point out as it were the very time of our Messiah's coming even then when there was scarce any thing to be seen or heard of the house of David the Royal Line as it were extinct and Davids house brought back again to its first beginning to that private and low condition it was in in the days of Iesse Thus again would God teach us to be humble in the midst of all our ruff and glory by thus shewing us what the greatest Families of the greatest Princes may quickly come to where they may take up e're they are aware And 2. to give us the nearest sign both of Christs coming and of himself that when things were at the lowest then it would be and that his coming would be in a low condition too in poverty and humility Root and Iesse both intimate as much And lastly if we may with some Etymologists derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and interpret it a gift there will be as good a reason as any why it is here said rather of Iesse than of David even because this root of all this good is to us comes meerly of free gift So God loved the world says S. Iohn iii. 16. that he gave his only begotten Son and not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy says St. Paul this great kindness of God our Saviour appeared towards us this Lord our Saviour appeared to us Tit. iii. 4 5. as a root as a rod as a branch a root to settle us a rod to comfort us a branch to shelter us a root to give us life a rod to rule us in it a branch to crown us for it a close stubb'd root a weak slender rod a tender branch full of loveliness meekness and humility And he appeared as they all do out of the earth watered by the dew of Heaven they have no other Father than the heavenly showers so by the descending of the Holy Ghost upon the Blessed Virgin as rain into a dry ground this holy Root put forth this Branch sprung up without other father of his humanity which is the meaning both of erit in the Text and egredietur in the beginning both of this shall be here and that shall come forth or there shall grow up in the first verse of the Chapter And thus we have the first part of the Text the descent and stock and nature and condition and birth of Christ with other things pertaining to it And now for his design to be set up or stand for an Ensign to the people II. And indeed for that he was born to gather the stragling world into one body to unite the Iew and Gentile under one head to bring the straying sheep into one fold to draw all the Armies of the earth together into one heavenly host that we might all march lovingly under the banner of the Almighty under the command of Heaven Men had long marched under the command of Flesh Earth and Hell God had suffered all Nations saith St. Paul to do so to walk after their own ways Acts xiv 16. But now he commands otherwise commands to repent and leave those unhappy Standards to come in to his Acts xvii 30. And he exempts none debars none all men every where are called to it Acts xvii 30. every nation and every one in every Nation that will come shall be accepted Acts x. 35. every creature says he himself St. Mark xvi 15. Iew and Greek bond and free male and female all one here Gal. iii. 28. Be we never so heavy laden with sins and infirmities under this banner we shall find rest St. Mat. xi 28. Be we never so hotly pursued by our fiercest enemies here we shall have shelter and protection For he is not only an Ensign set up to invite us in but an Ensign to protect us too by the Armies it leads out for us And as it first is set up to call us and secondly to bring us into a place of defence and safety so does it thirdly stand to us and not leave us An Ensign may be set up and quickly taken down but this stands and stands for ever It is not idly said when 't is here said particularly it is to stand Humane forces devices and designs may be set up and not stand at all but God's and Christ's theirs will the gates of Hell it self cannot disappoint them cannot throw down this Banner St. Mat. xvi 18. His counsels shall stand he will do all his pleasure Isa. xlvi 10. They do but fight against God that go about to resist it says Gamaliel the great Doctor of the Law Acts v. 39. And will you know the Staff the Colours and the Flag or Streamer of this Ensign why the Staff is his Cross the Colours are Blood and Water and the Streamer the Gospel or preaching of them to the world The Staff that carried the Colours was of old time fashioned like a Cross a cross bar near the top there was from which the Flag or Streamer hung so as it were prefiguring that all the Hosts and Armies of the Nations were one day to be gathered under the Banner of the Cross to which Souldiers should daily flow out of all the Nations and Kingdoms of the earth By Blood and Water the two Sacraments is the way to him and the Word or Gospel preached is the Flag wav'd out to invite all people in Come we then in first and let not this Flag of Reconciliation of peace and treaty for to such ends are Flags sometimes hung out be set up in vain let it not stand like an Ensign forsaken upon a hill come we in to treat with him at least about our everlasting peace lest it become a Flag of defiance by and by Come we in 2. and submit to the conditions of peace submit to his orders and commands The Septuagint reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here to intimate this He that stands for an Ensign is to be the great Ruler and Commander of the Nations 't is requisite therefore that we come in and obey him Come we 3. to this Standard and remember we are also to fight under it That 's the prime reason of Ensigns and Banners We promise to do it when we are Baptiz'd and it must be our business to perform it It is not for us to be afraid of pains or labour of danger or trouble of our lives and fortunes for Christs service a Souldier scorns it even he who fights but for a little pay and that commonly ill paid And shall we turn cowards when we fight for a Kingdom and that in Heaven which we may be sure of if we fight well Above all 4. if this Ensign stand up for us let
by a Fire Here it was first he visited in person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was but a looking down from heaven till now a looking on us at a distance and that was a blessing too that he would any way look upon such poor worms as we it could not be construed visiting properly till this day came Now first it is so without a figure Yet is not good old Zachary too quick Does he not cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too soon our blessed Saviour was not yet born how says he then the Lord hath visited and redeemed his people Answer we might the good old man here prophesied 't is said so just the verse before and after the manner of Prophets speaks of things to come as done already But we need not this strain to help us out Christ was already really come down from heaven had been now three months incarnate had begun his visit had beheld the lowliness of his handmaid says his Blessed Mother ver 48. The Angel had told her twelve weeks since Her Lord was with her ver 28. of this Chapter Blessed Zachary understood it then no less than his Wife Elizabeth that proclaimed it ver 43. though he could not speak it As soon as he could he does and breaks out into a Song of Praise that was his prophesying for this new made Visit this new rais'd Salvation That word slipt e're I was aware comes in before the time But 't is well it did you might else perhaps have mistaken visiting for punishing so it went commonliest in Scripture till to day It does not here This business has alter'd it from its old acception And yet punishing sometimes is a blessing too 'T is a mercy we oft stand in need of to bring us home to God But it is infinitely a greater when he comes himself to fetch us home as now he does Shall I shew you how great it is Why then 1. It is a visit of Grace and honour that he made us here he visited us as great and noble persons do their inferiours to do them honour Hence Whence it is to me says St. Eliz. that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me c. ver 43. She good soul knew not how to value such an honour nor whence it was Whence then is this O Lord that the Lord of that Blessed Mother my Lord himself should come unto me That 's a far higher honour and no reason of it to be given but that so it shall be done to those whom this great King of Heaven and Earth delighteth thus to honour 'T is a blessing first this that we speak of by which God owns and honours us 2. It was a visit of Charity He visited his people as charitable men do the poor mans house to seek some occasion to bestow an Alms. He went about doing good says S. Peter Acts x. 38. As poor as he was and the Apostle tells us poor he was he had a bag for the poor S. Iohn xii 6. and for our sakes it was he became poor says S. Paul 2 Cor. viii 9. emptied bag and himself and all to make us rich His visit now 2. is a blessing that makes us rich 3. It was a visit of Service too He visited us as the Physician does his Patient to serve his necessity to cure and recover him The innumerable multitudes of the sick and lame and blind and deaf and dumb and Lepers and possessed that he daily healed and cured will sufficiently evince he visited them also as a Physician So 't was a blessing 3. that cures all diseases makes all sound and whole again 4. His visit 4. was a visit of brotherly love and kindness He visited us as David did his Brethren to supply their wants carry them provision and take their pledge 1 Sam. xvii 17. He did so and much more becomes himself by this visit our Provision makes his Body our meat and his Blood our drink and himself our pledge supplies all our defects and wants and enters himself body for body and soul for soul to make all good This a visiting no brother could do more no brother so much 5. His visit 5. was not of petty kindnesses but great mercies abundant mercies too He visited us as holy David says he does the earth Psal. lxv 9 11. Thou visitest the earth and blessest it thou makest it very plenteous Thou waterest her furrows thou sendest rain into the little Vallies thereof thou makest it soft with the drops of rain and blessest the increase of it He not only furnishes our necessities but replenishes us with abundances makes us soft and plump and fat and fruitful by his heavenly dews and showers This 5. a visit of abundant superabundant mercies 6. His visit 6. was a visit of Friendship and that 's more yet He visited us as blessed Mary did her Cousin Elizabeth came to us to rejoyce and be merry with us So acquainted has he now made himself with us by this visit that he now vouchsafes to call us friends S. Iohn xv 15. he eats and drinks and dwells and tarries with us makes it his delight to be among the sons of men This is a visit I know not a name good enough to give it And yet lastly his visit was not of a common and ordinary friendship neither but of a friendship that holds to death He visited us as the Priest or Confessor does the dying man When health and strength and mirth and Physicians and Friends have all given us over he stands by and comforts us and leaves us not till he has fitted us wholly to his own bosom A visit of everlasting friendship or an everlasting visit was this visit in the Text. Thus I have shewed you a seven-fold visit that our Lord has made us made Gods first blessing into seven A visit of Honour a visit of Charity a visit of Service a visit of Kindness a visit of Mercy a visit of Friendship and a visit of everlasting Love All these ways he visited his people and still visits them all the ways he can imagine to bless them and do them good And yet I should have thought I had forgot one if it did not fall in with the blessing we are to consider next Redeeming For he visited us also as he is said to do the children of Israel Gen. l. 24. to bring us out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage He visited us to redeem us or visited and redeemed 2. Now if redeem'd Captives it seems we were And so we were under a fourfold Captivity To the World to Sin to Death and to the Devil The World 1. that had ensnared and fettered us so wholly taken us that it had taken away our names and we were called by the name of the World instead of that of Men as if we were grown such worldlings that we had even lost our natures and our names even the best of us the Elect are sometimes called
exceeding glory Wonder we 1. stand we and wonder or cast our selves upon the earth upon our faces in amazement at it that God should do all this for us thus remember thus visit thus crown such things as we That 2. he should pass by the Angels to crown us leave them in their sins and misery and lift us out of ours That 3. he should not take their nature at the least and honour those that stood among them but take up ours and wear it into heaven and seat it there And there is a visit he is now coming to day to make us as much to be wondred at as any that he should feed us with his Body and yet that be in Heaven that he should cheer us with his Blood and yet that shed so long ago that he should set his Throne and keep his Table and presence upon the Earth and yet Heaven his Throne and Earth his Foot-stool that he should here pose all our understandings with his mysterious work and so many ages of Christians after so many years of study and assistance of the Spirit not yet be able to understand it What is man or the Son of man O Blessed Iesu that thou shouldst thus also visit and confound him with the wonders of thy mercy and goodness Here also is glory and honour too to be admitted to his Table no where so great to be made one with him as the meat is with the body no glory like it Here is the crown of plenty fulness of pardon grace and heavenly Benediction Here 's the crown of glory nothing but rays and beauties Iustres and glories to be seen in Christ and darted from him into pious souls Come take your crowns come compass your selves with those eternal circlings Take now the cup of salvation and remember God for so remembring you call upon the name of the Lord and give glory to your God If you cannot speak out fully as who can speak in such amazements as these thoughts may seriously work in us cast your selves down in silence and utter out your souls in these or the like broken speeches What is man Lord what is man What am I How poor a thing am I How good art thou What hast thou done unto him How great things What glory what honour what crown hast thou reserved for me What shall I say How shall I sufficiently admire What shall I do again unto thee What shalt thou do Why 1. if God is so mindful of us men Let us be mindful of him again remember he is always with us and do all things as if we remembred that so he were 2. Is he so mindful of us Let us be mindful of our selves and remember what we are that we may be humbled at it 3. Does he remember us Let us then again remember him with our prayers and services 2. Has he visited us Let us in thankfulness visit him again visit him in his Temple visit him at his Table visit him in his poor members the sick the imprisoned 3. Has he made us lower then the Angels Let us make our selves lower and lower still in our own sights Is it yet but a little lower then the Angels Let us raise up thoughts and pieties and devotions to be equal with them 4. Has he crown'd us with glory Let us crown his Altars then with offerings and his name with praise let us be often in corona in the congregation of them that praise him among such as keep Holy-day Let us crown his Courts with beauty crown our selves with good works they should be our glory and our crown And for the worship that he crowns us with too let us worship and give him honour so remember so visit so crown him again so shall he as he has already so shall still remember us last and bring us to his own palace there to visit him face to face where he shall make us equal to the Angels we are now below and crown us with an incorruptible crown of glory through Christ c. THE NINTH SERMON ON Christmas-Day S. LUKE ii 30 31 32. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel SAlvation cannot but be a welcome then at any time I know no day amiss But in Die salutis at such a time as this on Christmas-day especially Then it first came down to bless this lower world But salvation so nigh as to be seen is more much more if we our selves have any interest in it if it be for the Gentiles too that we also may come in Far more if it be such salvation that our friends also may be saved with us none perish if it be omnium populorum to 'um all in whatsoever Nation Add yet if it be salvation by light not in the night no obscure deliverance we like that better and if it be to be saved not by running away but gloriously Salvation with Glory that 's better still Nay if it be all salvation on a day of salvation not afar off but within ken not heard of but seen to us and ours an universal salvation a gladsome a lightsome a notable a glorious salvation as it is without contradiction Verbum Evangelii good Gospel joyful tidings so it must needs be verbum diei too the happiest news in the most happy time These make the Text near enough the day and yet 't is nearer What say you if this salvation prove to be a Saviour and that Saviour Christ and that Christ new born the first time that viderunt oculi could be said of him no time so proper as Christmas to speak of Christ the Saviour born and sent into the world He it is that is here stiled salutare tuum Christ that blessed sight that restores Simeons decaying eyes to their youthful lustre that happy burthen that makes Simeon grasp heaven before he enter it Indeed the good old man begins not his Christmas till Candlemas 'T was not Christmas-day with him he did not see his Saviour till he was presented in the Temple The Feast of Purification was his Christmas This the Shepherds the worlds and ours This day first he was seen visibly to the world Being then to speak of salvation which is a Saviour or a Saviour who is salvation 1. First of the Salvation it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Then of its certainty and manifestation so plain and evident that the eye may see it Salvation to be seen More 2. prepared to be seen 3. Of the universality before the face of all people 4. Of the Benefits They are two 1. A light 2. A glory with the twofold parties 1. The Gentiles 2. The Iews Of each both severally and joyntly When we have done with the salvation then of the other sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Saviour himself that 's the prime meaning of salutare here 1. Of his natures
their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more ver 10. 12. a Covenant of pardon and remission such as the Sacrifices of the Law could not give were not able And new Books we have it written in as authentick as those old ones in the Iewish Canon where we may find all seal'd by the testimony of the Spirit Heb. vi the Author of the new Testament as well as of the old 6. The new Church has its new Sacraments Ite Baptizata for Ite Circumcidite Baptism for Circumcision and the Lords Supper for the Passeover in both which of ours there is more than was in theirs in those legal Ceremonies not only outward signs as they but inward graces 7. New Sacrifices the calves of our lips instead of Calves and Goats the sacrifices of Praises and Thanksgivings nay the sacrifice of a contrite heart and humble spirit the sacrificing of our lusts and the offering up of our souls and bodies a living holy acceptable Sacrifice Rom. xii 1. 8. A new Priesthood to offer them an unchangeable Priesthood now Heb. vii 24. Christ our High-Priest and the Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. iii. 6. as so many under-Priests to offer them up to God Christ offer'd himself a Sacrifice offers up also our Prayers and Praises to his Father has left his Ministers in his Name and Merits to do it too and this a lasting Priesthood to last for ever 9. We have a new Altar too so St. Paul Heb. xiii 10. an Altar that they which serv'd the Tabernacle have no power to eat of Take it for the Cross on which Christ offered up himself or take it for the holy Table where that great Sacrifice of his is daily commemorated in Christian Churches Habem says the Apostle such an one we have and I am sure 't is new 10. Temples we have many new the Temples of our bodies 1 Cor. vi 19. those both to offer in and offer up and 2. Churches many for that one Temple so long since buried in dust and rubbish 11. There is above these a new Spirit Ezek. xxxvi 26. not the spirit of bondage again to fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. viii 15. the spirit of love and not of fear the spirit of Sons and not of Servants a spirit that will cause us to walk in Gods Statutes keep his Commandments and do them Ezek. xxxvi 27. a new thing indeed that can make the Beasts of the Field to honour him as the Prophet speaks of it Isa. xliii 19. the Dragons and the Owls to do so the most sensual fierce cruel and dullest natures bow unto him that gives waters in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart Isa. xliii 19. 20. that blows but with his wind and these waters flow Psal. cxlvii 18. this is a new spirit that is so powerful And from this spirit it is that we 12. receive new life and vigour that we walk not under the Gospel so dully and coldly as they under the Law where the outward work to the letter serv'd the turn but according to the spirit in the inward purity of the heart as well as in the outward purity of the body To which lastly there is a new inheritance annexed a new Heaven and a new Earth which we may look for according to his promise 2 St. Pet. iii. 13. And are not these new things all good news worth our rejoycings Can we be ever old that enjoy such mercies are they not enough to revive the dying spirit nay to raise the dead one to set forth his praises who thus renews us as the Eagle renews his mercies to us every morning makes us Kings and Priests gives us easie Laws and pleasing Covenants effectual Sacrifices and saving Sacraments turns our bodies into his Temples and our hearts into Altars makes us a glorious Church and builds us Churches inspires us with a new Spirit and gives us a second life gives us a Kingdom gives us Heaven and all This is the new state under Christ since his coming ended and renewed our years unto us And therefore says our Apostle just before the Text If any man be in Christ he is a new creature all this new work is done upon him that 's the second way we are now to consider the words That in the Christian truly such all old things are past away and all things become new He is dead to sin Rom. vi 2. and he is dead to the Law Rom. vii 4. or if you will sin and the Law are both dead to him they can hold him no longer he is alive unto God Rom. vi 11. new created in righteousness and true holiness Will you have it more particular Why first then the Heathen ignorance and error that is past with them they are enlightned Heb. vi they know God and are known of him they are light in the Lord the very children of it The Heathen sins they are past with them in them they walkt once Ephes. ii 2. such they were some of them 1 Cor. vi 11. but now they are washt but now they are sanctified but now they are justified Nor are they now 2. under so slender a providence as the poor Heathen were God visits them often now and not only now and then and suffers them not to go on or fall back again into the old ways of infidelity But they are not only out of the Heathen condition but out of the Iewish too no more in bondage to the Law The sacrificing of Rams and Goats of all sensual affections is done already the unreasonable part is mortified in them they have been washt and need be wash'd no more they are oblig'd to no differences of meats no Iewish Sabbatizing no Circumcision no one particular place of Worship no legal Rites or Ceremonies Christ having abolished in his flesh the Law of Commandments says S. Paul contained in ordinances Ephes. ii 15. We are now at liberty he has made us free And we are now 3. under a new course of providence God leads us now by spiritual and eternal promises he threatens spiritual and everlasting punishments guides us by a clearer light than Prophesie the evidence of the Word and Spirit ties us not up to the Covenant of Works nor empty Ceremonies these things are past Makes us not rich that he may accept us but accepts us as we are He reckons not of us by our wealth or honour or learning or our parts we know no man so now ver 16. not Christ so now according to the flesh we value not any man now for any thing but holiness and righteousness for so much as he is in Christ. Nor does the Christian value himself now for any thing but for that of Christ which is in him riches he contemns honour he despises learning he submits all outward and externall priviledges and commendations he lays at the foot of Christ devotes them to his commands
these are all old worn tatter'd things not worth the taking up nothing now worth any thing but Christ nothing but Christ and those new things those graces are in him Thus old things are past with the true Christian but 2. all things also are become new in him He has a new heart and a new spirit he has no more a heart of stone but a heart of flesh a soft tender pliable heart a meek and well disposed spirit a loving spirit he is no more what he was the old ego he has a new understanding things look not to him as they did of old he vilifies the world and worldly things His affections new he affects not what he did before he contemns all things below He is a King and rules over his passions he is a Priest and sanctifies them with his Prayers he lives under a new Law the Law of the Spirit and not the Flesh he makes every day new Covenants with God A Member of the Church he is and the Kingdom of God is now within him He is a great adorer of the Sacraments of the Church and daily offers up himself a Sacrifice to God his Soul and Body and all he has and pours out his praises His Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost and the Altar of his Heart burns with the continual fires of Devotion and Charity He now lives no more but Christ lives in him that 's the new life he leads and it leads him into glory A new thing of which he has a glimpse and a kind of antipast here that makes him relish nothing else but cast all behind his back as old rags and dirt to press forward to the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus Phil. iii. 14. This is the new Creature the new man in whom old things are past away and all things become new And shall all things become new and not we shall all old things pass away and we remain in our old sins still every thing be cloth'd with a new lustre we only appear in our old rags still Certainly we cannot judge it reasonable Better use I hope we will make of this days Text of this New-years lesson Put off says the Apostle concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of our minds and put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. iv 22 23 24. 'T is his counsel must be our practise The time past of our life may suffice us says S. Peter 1 Pet. iv 3. to have wrought the will of the Gentiles It is sufficient it is sufficient 'T is time now we unlearn our old lesson unravel our old work leave off our old course of life and begin a new to live henceford to righteousness and not to sin to God and not to men The new entred year calls for it the Text calls for it the Blood of Christ spent at his Circumcision lately past which yet this day and some days still to come commemorate cries for it that we would no longer count the blood of the new Covenant an unholy thing but betake us to it and live by it after a new fashion in newness of life I call you not to legal washings but the washings of Baptism and Repentance not to Iewish Feasts but Christian Festivals not to sacrifice Lambs and Sheep but your Souls and Bodies not to old Ceremonies but the new substance the Righteousness of Jesus Christ. Let him now begin his new reign in you let his new Commandment of Love be obeyed by you his Church purchased so dearly not be cowardly deserted by you keep his Covenant frequent his Temples adorn his Altars reverence his Priests follow the guidance of his Holy Spirit when he inspires good motions into your hearts amend your lives and become all new men in Jesus Christ. And when all these old things shall pass away and the new Heaven and Earth appear when he that sits upon the Throne Rev. xxi 5. shall make all things new then shall we be all made new again even these old decayed ruines of our bodies too and both souls and bodies clothed with the new Robes of Glory that shall never pass away but be ever new ever glorious for evermore THE SECOND SERMON ON THE Circumcision St. LUKE ii 21. His Name was called Iesus ANd to Day it was that He was called so when eight days were accomplished for his circumcising And they did well to call him so for it was the Name the Angel named him before he was conceived in the womb And he could be called by no better For Nomen super omne nomen says St. Paul of it Phil. ii 9. A name it is above every name for above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come Eph. i. 21. A Name that has all things in it that brings all good things with it that speaks more in five letters than we can do in five thousand words speaks more in it than we can speak to day and yet we intend to day to speak of nothing else nothing but Iesus nothing but Iesus The sooner then we begin the better And to begin the sooner we shall set upon it without either the Circumstances before or after in the verse or the Ceremonies either of Preamble or of Division of the words Only for Method sake and memory I shall shew you the fulness and greatness of this Name in these seven Particulars 'T is a Name of Truth and Fidelity 'T is a Name of Might and Power 'T is a Name of Majesty and Glory 'T is a Name of Grace and Mercy 'T is a Name of Sweetness and Comfort 'T is a Name of Wonder and Admiration 'T is a Name of Blessing and Adoration A faithful mighty glorious gracious comfortable admirable blessed Name it is given Him to Day to be called by but to be called by and to be called upon by us for ever that we also may be filled with the truth and power and glory and grace and sweetness and wonder and all the blessings of it This is the sum of what we have to say of this Great Name and now we go on with the Particulars A Name it is first of veracity and fidelity of faithfulness and truth This Iesus is but the old Ieshua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much mentioned so often fortold so long expected all the Scripture thorow The Greek termination of◠only added that we might so understand that all those Types Prophesies and Promises were now terminated and at an end in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Iesus the Greeks and Gentiles taken in too to fulfill all that had been before named or spoken any way concerning him The testimony of Iesus is the very spirit of Prophesie Rev. xix
earth the Son of the Almighty Father clothed with flesh like unto us Four Vowels and two Consonants shall his name consist of and the number of them be eight unites eight tens and eight hundred that is 888. So here 's wonder upon wonder to make it wonderful 3. In the Latin we have five letters IESVS and by the old short way of writing among the Romans of the first letter for the whole word the subtle fanciers of the Cabala will tell us these five letters in the Name of Iesus intimate the fulness of its perfection that it is jucundum efficax sanctum verum salutiferum that it is full of joy efficacy sanctity verity and salvation Thus you see we have so rendred it as to find the Mystery in English name that it is a sweet and joyful Name an efficacious and powerful Name a sanctifying and justifying Name a Name verifying all Types and Prophesies and Promises and a salutiferous and saving name too Five glories to himself five benefits to us by it or as I may have otherwise as fully exprest them Justification Election Sanctification Victory and Salvation And now let the Iew come with his Rasche Theboth with his first letter for a word and write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Iesus meaning thereby maliciously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let his Name be blotted out it will fall upon himself His name will surely be blotted out of the Book of Life who goes about to abuse this or who has not his portion in the Name of Iesus I should add one Mystery more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the Hebrew Name of Iesus is say they a letter with three equal fangs joyn'd all together and may denote the Trinity where the three Persons are equal and all united And then we have a mysterious Name indeed the whole God-head Trinity in Vnity in it and yet a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides as we told you before for the Humanity So a perfect Saviour of both Natures expressed perfectly in his Name God and Man and all the whole Trinity employed in the business of our salvation A wonderful Name indeed But 2. 't is also wonderful without a Cabala full of plain wonders as well as of mysterious 1. 'T is a new Name and yet Ioshuah the Prince and Iosuah the Priest and Ioshua or Iesus the Son of Syrach had the same name all and is it not then a wonder that it should yet be new But theirs were given them by men this him by an Angel Theirs signified only a temporal deliverance this spiritual and temporal both their 's a particular this a general salvation Theirs lastly meerly signified this very name effects also our salvation and deliverance 2. A name that no man knew but himself Rev. xix 12. No man can tell the wonders of it No man can pronounce it right neither without an immediate assistance from above 1 Cor. xii 3. No man can say the Lord Iesus but by the Holy Ghost 3. The wonders that are wrought by it make it truly wonderful that in it or by it or through it such mighty things both are and have been done even by men that only outwardly profest it and only sounded the letters of it as you have heard already 'T is wonderful lastly sure that it should force even the Devils to bow down to it not only depart their Lodgings to give it room but even be compelled themselves to worship it yet so we find it Phil. ii 10. Those things under the earth that is the Devils also so doing and confessing And shall we now think much to do as much to do what all things in Heaven and Earth and under it even in Hell too do to it bow the knee and worship it It is a Name says the Apostle given him to that purpose for us to pay our duty and homage to ver 9. 'T is a Name of blessing and adoration says our last point Venerandum nomen Iesu a Name to be blessed and adored First then bless we God for his holy Name for the benefits and comfort we receive by it Bless we 2. the Name it self praise and magnifie and glorifie and give thanks unto it They are the expressions of the Holy Pen Psal. cxlv 2. cxxxviii 2. lxxxvi 9. cxl 13. they are not mine so you have authority enough to do it if you think the Holy Ghost knows how to speak Bless we 3. our selves in this Name when we lie down and when we rise up when we go out and when we come in for in thy Name O blessed Iesu shall we tread them under that rise up against us Nothing shall be able to hurt or damage us when we put our selves under the protection of it If afflictions and troubles press hard upon thee and embitter all thy days this Name is the tree whose wood will sweeten the bitterest waters cut down a branch of it and throw it in Do thy sins and conscience rent and tear thee this Name is the Oyl to lenifie and cure them pour it out upon them Art thou to encounter death it self in this Name thou shalt overcome it deliver up thy soul but in it 'T is a Name of truth and fidelity thou canst not distrust it 'T is a Name of might and power thou mayest rest upon it 'T is a Name of Majesty and glory thou must exalt it 'T is a Name of Grace and Mercy thou must praise him for it and commit thy self unto it 'T is a Name of sweetness and comfort thou must rejoyce and be glad in it 'T is a Name of wonder and admiration thou must admire and declare it 'T is a Name of adoration thou must now adore it too Bow the knee says the Apostle or bow down at it Holy and reverend is his Name says the Psalmist Psal. cxi 9. And if reverend it may be rever'd it may be worshipped I speak not of the syllables and letters but of the sense When we hear the Name of Iesus I suppose there is none so little Christian but that he will confess I may lift up my heart and praise him for the mercy and benefits that I remember and am put in mind of by it and where I bow my soul may I not bow my body The Text is plain enough That at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow Phil. ii 10. Should though they do not or else shall when they will not and where they would not when they come among those that are under the earth and was ever more need to do it than in an age where 't is doubted whether he be or God or Saviour where it is question'd so often whether there were ever such a Name to be sav'd by and we not rather sav'd every one in his own Is it not high time to revive this honour to it that the world may know we acknowledge him to be God to be the Lord and are not ashamed to confess it But to sift
and I may say so uncertain a Journey could no whit deter them from their purpose to Ierusalem they will through all these difficulties But after all this pains to lose the Star that guided them to hear nothing at Ierusalem of him they sought to be left after all this at a loss in that very place they only could expect to find him and hear nothing there but a piece of an obscure Prophesie without date or time to be left now to a meer wild-goose search or a new Knight-errantry and yet still to continue in their search is an extream high piece both of Faith and Love that considers no difficulties that thinks much of no pains that maugre all will set afresh upon the pursuit that will be overcome with nothing is resolved come what will to find what they believe and desire such a piece of faith and love that we later Christians cannot Parallel How would a Winter journey scare us from our faith A cold or rainy morning will do it a little snow or wind or rain or cold will easily keep us from coming to the house where Iesus is from coming out to worship him How would so long a voyage make us faint to hear of it How would the least danger turn us back from the House of God Alas should it have been our cases which was theirs here if we could not presently have found him at Hierusalem the Royal City or had we lost the Star that led us how had we sate down in sorrow or returned in despair We would have thus reasoned with our selves Alas we are come hither and have lost our labour Certainly had this King been born it would have been in the Royal City or there certainly the news had been but there we hear of no such matter there neither any believes or regards or thinks of such a birth What then do we do here enquiring seeing his own people so much neglect it Surely the Star that led us hither was but a false fire of fancy and we are quite misled Nay and it appears no more so that if we would still go on our wandrings we know not whither we had best return Thus should we have reasoned our selves from Christ fainted and given over quite 'T is the fashion with us thus to reason our selves out of our Devotion and Religion 'T is the fashion too to object any thing to save our pains in Christs business Others Customs or others Negligences or others Ignorance are sufficient excuses to authorize ours and if perchance we want a guide though every man now thinks himself sufficient to guide and direct himself in all Points of his Religion yet even this he cares not for this he refuses and rejects shall yet serve him for an excuse for his negligence and irreligion nay God himself shall sometimes bear the blame his taking away or else not giving us a Star and light to guide and lead us his not giving us sufficient grace shall be pretended the cause why we come not to him When did not our own coldness more chill our joynts than the cold of Winter were we not afraid of every puff of wind when we are called to do any good did not the fear of I know not what only fancied and imagined dangers make us cowards in our Religion did we not fondly reason our selves out of our patient expectance of Christ did we not guide our selves more by the Fashions Customs and Ignorances of others than by the constancy of that which is only just and good did we not forsake our guides while we prefer our own carnal reasons interests and respects and lose the Star the Guide that heaven had sent us to conduct us by going to Hierusalem by addicting our selves to the vanity and fashion of Court and City by asking counsel of Herod of Scribes and Pharisees meer Politicians and Pretenders of Piety and Religion or Iewish Priests men addicted wholly to their own way to Iudaizing observations Iâ—daizing Saâ—batizing Christians were it not for these our doings and compliances with flesh and bloud the Star would not fail to guide us Gods grace would shine unto us the day star would arise in all our hearts and conduct us happily and safely too into the house where we should truly find Christ. The truth is if our coming to Christ if our Religion may cost us nothing nor pains nor cost nor cold nor heat nor labour nor time nor hurt nor hazard nor enquiry nor search then it may be we will be content to give Christ a visit and entertain his Faith and Worship but not else if it may not be had nor Christ come to without so much ado let him go let all go so we may sit at ease and quiet in our warm nests come of Christs Worship and of his house what will Yet thither it is 3. to his house that these Wisemen make with all their eagerness Many stately Buildings and Royal Palaces no doubt they had seen by the way fitter far for a King to be born in than the Inn they found him in but at these they stay not they and their Star rest not any where but at this house here indeed they may both heaven and earth set up their rest this house truly the house of God which now contained the God of heaven and earth To teach us that we are not to look to outward appearances nor judge always according to sight Christ may lie in the poorest Cottage in the meanest Inn as soon as in the highest Palace Nay in the low humble soul in the Beggars soul as well as in the Kings whose bodily presence as St. Paul speaks is weak and whose speech contemptible you shall sooner find him than under the gilded roofs of a vain-glorious vertue on a self-conceited and boasted Religion and Piety Indeed where ever the Star stands whatever house the heavenly light encompasses there must we alight and enter we must not think much of the meanest dwelling that heaven points out of the poorest condition that God designs us to That house is glorious enough that Christ is in that habitation and condition happiest how poorly soever it appear which the finger of God directs us to and the light of his countenance shines on and encompasses O my soul enter there always O my soul where God points out unto thee where the heavenly light shines over thee however earth look on thee Thou shalt find more contentment in a Stable amongst beasts in the meanest imployment than in the highest Offices of state and honour in an Inn amongst strangers than with thy brethren and kinsfolk at home in a thatcht Hovel in the poorest hardest lodging meanest dwelling and lowest condition than in the fairest house the sweetest seats the softest bed the most plentiful estate if God by his special finger or Star of providence guides thee to it out of his secret wisdom and Christ be with thee in it I do not wonder Interpreters
their reward Three now we have to go through Procidentes Adorârunt Obtulêrunt the three acts or parts or points of Worship we are to perform to Christ each in its order as it lies and first of Procidentes their Prostration Here it is we first hear of any worship done to Christ and this falling down this prostration the first worship as if no other no lesser adoration could serve turn after so great a blessing as the sight of a Saviour as if his taking on a body challeng'd our whole bodies now his coming down from Heaven our falling down upon the earth his so great humiliation our greatest expression of our humility Many sorts of adoration have been observed greater and lesser Bowing the head Exod. i. 10. Bowing the body Gen. xviii 2. Bending the knee Isa. xlv 23. Worshipping upon the knee Psal. xcv 6. God thus worshipped by them all And falling down before him is no news to hear of neither in Scripture or Antiquity whatsoever niceness or laziness or profaneness of late have either said or practis'd against it They were Wise men here that did it yet it is well that the Scripture calls them so I know who have been counted fools superstitious fools for as little a matter for the same though I cannot but wonder to see as much done in a complement to a thing worse than a reasonable man whilst God himself is denied it Indeed it may be if we compare the persons we shall quickly see the reason These in the Text were Wise men of credit and reputation men of some quality men that understood themselves and knew the language of Heaven and can turn the Stars to their proper uses that think not much of much pains to find a Redeemer that know how to use a King and serve a God that run readily at the first call of Heaven to pay this worship Your selves can inform you what they are that deny it I shall not tell you Poor ignorant Shepherds may perhaps through ignorance or astonishment omit the Ceremony and be pardon'd so they go away praising and rejoycing but great learned Clerks cannot be excus'd if they pretermit it but neither the one nor the other if they deny it Ignorance will be no sufficient plea for the one nor a distinction or a pretence of scandal for the other in a point so plain as perpetual custom from the beginning of the world and plain words of Scripture make it Abraham falls upon his face in a thankful acceptance of Gods promise Gen. xvii 17. His servant Eleazar bows down and worships Gen. xxiv 26. Old Iacob did as much as he could towards it on his bed Gen. xxi 31. And the people of Israel Exod. iv 31. and this before the Law was given And Moses before the Law was written fell down before the Lord as he tells the people Deut. ix 18. So it was no Iewish Law or custom then but even a point of the Law of Nature though practis'd also by the Iew by David Ps. v. 7. by Solomon 2 Chron. vi 13. by Ezekiel ch xi 13. by Daniel ch vi 10. by all the Prophets by all the people all the children of Israel together bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement and worshipped and praised the Lord 2 Chron. vii 3. Christ himself allows the people to do as much to him takes it and takes it kindly from them Iairus the Ruler of the Synagogue falls at his feet St. Mark v. 20. Mary does as much St. Iohn xi 31. Others often do the same and none forbidden it nay he himself does it to his Father St. Mark xiv 35. fell down and prayed and do we then think much to do it The very Saints in Heaven where there is nor shadow certainly nor Ceremony fall down before him even before the Lamb. Rev. v. 8. and xi 16. and xiv 4. and are we too good to do it Is the practice of all ages of Heaven of Earth and Christ too not strong enough to bow our stubborn necks Is there Iudaism and Superstition in Heaven in Christ too Oh then let me be superstitious I am content to be so to be called so by any generation upon earth But to make it yet more evident if it can be nature it self in the midst of its corruptions keeps yet this impression undefac'd and more plainly professes this Reverence due to the Deity than even the Deity it self Never did any the most blind and foolish Heathen yet acknowledge a God but presently they worshipped him with their bodies Nay never did any ever pretend either honour or respect to man but he exprest it some way by his body by some gesture or other of it And must God that made it and Christ that redeemed it only go without it must man be reverenc'd with the body and the Devil serv'd with it and God be put off with the worship of the soul which yet neither can express it self nor think nor do any thing without the body whilst it is in it It was thought a good argument by S. Paul to glorifie God in our body as well as in our spirits and in old Manuscripts I must tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body only is because they are God's he hath bought them with a price 1 Cor. vi 20. good reason then that he should have them The body is for the Lord ver 13. of that Chapter Who then should have it but he 't is for no body else he only can claim it others do but borrow it or usurp it let him therefore have it 't is his own and it cannot be bestowed better he knows best to use it how to keep it fear we not Indeed it is so unreasonable to deny it him so unprofitable to the very body to keep it from him that I know not why we should expect to have it either safe or well when we deny it him Who can keep it better who can easier lift it up when it is down raise it up when it is fallen preserve it in health and strength than he And are we such fond fools then not to present it always to his protection and lay it at his feet who if he tread upon it does yet do it good Though we were Hereticks of the highest impudence and denied his God-head yet confessing his humanity we can do no less than give the worship of our bodies to him We can give him nothing less I may without breach of charity I fear suspect that this generation that are so violent against the worship of the body will e're long neither confess his God-head nor his Man-hood turn Arian and Manichee both together and prove a kind of mixed Hereticks unheard of hitherto beyond all the wickedness and folly of all their former predecessors come so far at last to think all done in a fancy or a dream make all the work of our redemption come
of the body is but the body of worship The soul that is it that enlivens it the spirit and soul of it that completes it the inward intention direction submission and reverence is that which makes all to be accepted To fall down in humility with the body and lift up the soul with pride to give an outward respect to him and inwardly neglect him to do the worship cursorily or in a complement without attention or good meaning is to use Christ as the Souldiers did worship him in a mockery cry Hail King and smite him to give a Crown of Thorns and a Scepter of a reed to make a puppet or a may-game of him or with Herod pretend to worship and mean nothing less seem devout forsooth in all haste but nourish profane and murtherous that is sinful careless or Atheistical thoughts against him They do best joyn'd God hath joyned them and one word hath joyned them and when joyned we best understand them and soul and body being so nearly joyn'd why should we go about to separate them The Prophesies foretel them both as to be solemnly performed to him All Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall do him service Psal. lxxii 11. and ver 15. Prayer shall be made ever unto him and daily shall he be praised The Gospel that assures it was done and the Apostle tells us that God had so ordained it should be given him a name which is above every Name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should how of things in heaven things in earth and things under the earth Phil. ii 9 10. If all things in heaven and earth do do it then spirits and bodies too For bodies are things and spirits are things and in heaven and under the earth there be no bodies in earth there is both so there sure to be done by both And this name had not been long given before these wise men come to do it reverence before it was given they came not presently after they come not before that they might know how to call him they were to worship yet presently after that we might know it was in his name only that the Gentiles were to trust at which to bow and worship To worship him to worship his Name or at his Name is but the same in Scripture or little difference Yet if we owe him worship we owe also a respect unto his Name we are not to take it vainly or count it light but pay a reverence to it as to his for therein also we worship him As we worship his Humanity as it is united to his Divinity so his Name too we may well worship that is reverently esteem and speak of it and so express it spiritually rejoyce too at the hearing of it without fear of Superstition or Idolatry We else but poorly and lamely worship him God knows if we give no respect at all to his Name or any thing that belongs to him We may as well be afraid to worship him at all now since he hath taken on a body lest we should commit Idolatry to it being a creature as to fear Superstition in worshipping at his Name before his foot-stool as the Scripture sometimes speaks when the adoration on both hands is only directed to and terminated in his Godhead If any then as alas too many be so little Christians as to give to Iesus or his holy Name or his holy Altars and Sacraments no more reverence than does a Turk or Pagan let not us for Christs sake bear them company we have better examples here before us nay we have Angels too before us at the work When he brought his first-begotten into the world he said And let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. i. 6. and certainly they do it they fulfil his command and do his pleasure And are we then too holy to do it Is it a command upon them whom the benefit does no way so much concern and is it left at our pleasure who have the most reason in the world to do it to whom chiefly this Christ was born and given may we choose whether we will worship him or no and yet be the greatest gainers by it and the more holy by not doing it Faith 's the business they tell us no matter for any thing besides only believe and all is done Well but is Faith the business and is it not a strong belief indeed this that can bring men out of their own Country and that a far one too through Arabian Desarts in the depth of Winter only to worship and is it not as high a piece of Faith notwithstanding that poor outward contemptible appearance of Christ yet to fall down and worship him and believe him to be their God and Saviour and to trust the guidance of a Star or the word of an obscure Prophesie or an inward motion from Heaven before their own eyes and all sense and reason To leave his Country and to believe against hope and reason was counted to Abraham for Faith Heb. xi was so to these Wise men of the Text will be to all that follow their example Our Worship is but the expression of a Faith fides facta or fides faciens Faith done We worship therefore we believe or we believe and therefore worship And therefore thirdly offer too Open our treasures the treasures of our Faith and present our gifts And when they had opened their Treasures c. The ancient Fathers have here observed both Letter and Mystery and I am no wiser I shall do so too The Letter is plain enough to tell us that God looks to be worshipped with our Goods as well as with our Bodies and our Souls and that those whom he leads by his Star or Spirit any that will come to Christ must no more come empty handed than those that come to God Exod. xiii For God he is and God he gave us them God therefore every person in the God-head to be served with them the first-fruits it should be in all reason and in justice all it might be but some part or offering out of them howsoever I shall open the Wise mens treasures and shew you them the out-side of them the Letter first Treasures they are called before they are opened that we may learn God is not only to be served with mean things and ordinary ware Nothing can be too good for him the treasures of our Hearts and the treasures of our Cabinets and Coffers are never better opened than for him David would not offer what cost him nought and Araunah when he does but understand God's business toward gives like a King 2 Sam. xxiv 23. The Israelites hard hearted Israelites are yet so tender of Gods Service that they pluck off their Jewels and golden Ear-rings for the Service of the Tabernack The first Christian Emperours give their stately Halls to make Churches and nothing is thought too costly by pious souls for God's worship Are the treasures
Hymn of his goodness an Anthem of his love a Psalm of his mercy and in sweet numbers carol forth his praise set our heads to do it our hearts to endite it our pens to write it our voices to sing it and with the three Children in their Song invite all the creatures in Heaven and Earth Angels and men all the sensible and insensible creatures to bear us company so to make a full noise of all kinds of Musick to set forth his praise Do it with our hands too do that which will exalt his praise Then 't is benedixit complete when it has benefecit next it We speak best when we do best when our lives and actions speak it Benedixit bene vixit are not so near of sound for nothing A holy life is not more truly Gods blessing to man than again it is mans chiefest and most acceptable blessing God Many ways may this blessing God be performed by us but as we stand now with some relation to this days blessing the blessed Eucharist the feast of blessing the cup of blessing as the Apostle stiles it I shall shew you now you have taken it what blessing is more peculiarly required after it Three acts of blessing there are to be performed after this act of so taking Christ into our arms and for it three points of blessing for this great blessing of the Holy Communion Thanksgiving Oblation and Petition Bless him and give thanks to him Bless him and offer up his Son to him again and our selves with him offer his Son in our own arms him and our selves Bless him and present our petitions to him our prayers as well as praises Or in the language of the Text Benedicamus Speak well of him do somewhat for him and bring our requests and petitions to him You see I need not run out of the Text for any kind of blessing First then Bless him with your tongues Speak good of his Name and let your lips speak forth his glory and wonderous works tell the world what he has done for you what great and mighty things Salutem ejus evangelizate Psal. xcvi 4. Tell it out for good tidings the tidings of great joy Be always speaking always telling it Call to all the creatures to bear you company every thing to rejoyce with you Tell your happiness to the Woods and Mountains in your solitary retirements tell it to the Towns and Villages speak of it in all companies tell it to the young Men and Maids old Men and Children all Sexes and Ages what God has done for your souls Tell it to the Summer and Winter both in your prosperity and adversity let nothing make you forget your thanks Tell it to the Frost and Fire in your coldnesses and in your fervencies and zeals to the Earth and to the Waters in your drinesses of soul and in the sorrows of your hearts praise him in all conditions Tell it to the Angels and Heavens as you are about your heavenly business Tell it to the Fowls of the Air even in the midst of your airy thoughts and projects that they may be such as may set forth his glory Tell it to the Priests and Servants of the Lord to solemnize your thanksgiving Tell it to the Spirits and Souls of the righteous to bear a part with you in your Song and intreat them all all estates and orders all conditions and things to bring in each their blessing to make up one great and worthyblessing for this days blessing to rejoyce and sing exult and triumph with you for this happy arm-full of eternal blessings this day bestowed upon you Begin we the blessing blessing and honour and power and glory and thanks and praise and worship and great glory be unto God for ever and ever and let all the creatures say Amen Bless we him secondly with our Offerings Hold we up first our hands and bless him hold we up our hands and vow and resolve to serve him from henceforth with hand and heart and all our members offer him our vows and resolutions holy ones strengthen our hands and renew our purposes to serve him now henceforward with a high hand maugre all the pleasures and profits of the world say what they will against it with a strong hand do they what they dare or can against us Bless him and resolve to bless him for ever and every day renew we still our resolutions that our hands may be so strengthened by them that none may be able to take him out of our hands 2. Catch we fast hold of him with our hands when we bless him clasp him fast by a lively hope as assured that all our hope is in him all our hope in holding him clasp we him fast and bless him 3. Spread your arms and bless him with your Faith Open your souls and every day more and more let him come in let it be your continual exercise more and more to trust him to rely upon him 4. Open your hands and cast down your blessings upon the poor He that blesses the poor blesses God What you have done to them says Christ you did to me St. Matth. xxv Open your hands and bless God 5. Cross your hands and beat your breasts Bless him with your hands a cross as humbly acknowledging your vileness and unworthiness of so great a favour as his presence as the seeing and touching and handling and â—asting him He truly blesses God on high that thus makes himself low 6. Fill your hands and bless him bless him with a full hand both your hands full of blessings blessings of all sorts all good works and vertues An universal obedience is the onliest blessing God Simeon being interpreted is obedient and he it is that here blesses the obedient soul that at any time only truly blesses God 7 Wash we yet our hands before we either open or spread or hold up or cross or clasp or fill them Wash we before we bless wash away our impurities with our tears bewail and bemoan our defects and weaknesses and imperfections which in our receiving have been too many that by this hand our oblation and blessing may be offered with pure and unspotted hands and hearts 8. Clap we then our hands and bless him do it with joy and not with grief we may do it well when we have so washt them first Let it be our way of blessing to do it chearfully to settle our selves to all the works of piety and obedience of faith and hope and charity and humility and in a word to an universal righteousness with all the purity we can with all the strength and resolution we are able Bless with a chearful and ready hand set our selves ever hereafter merrily to this work But remember we all this while we so use our hands to bless that we so open and shut so spread and cross them that we let not Christ go out the while Offer we up our selves and him together Resolve we
death we sate in before St. Luke i. 78 79. His is the only time the time of the Gospel the only time of salvation Here it began and hence now it goes on 2. for ever for St. Iohn calls it Evangelium aeternum Rev. xiv 6. the everlasting Gospel the salvation not to end even with the world to the end of it sure to continue Moses his Law had but its time and vanished and whilst it had could not pretend so far as to make it day cloud and shadows and darkness all the while The times of the Gospel are the only lightsome day and a long one too it seems for our Sun has promised still to shine upon us and be with us ever to the end of the world St. Mat. xxviii 20. But some more remarkable points of this time there are we must confess that of the Apostles was 2. the very especial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intended here the Now in the Text When the time of acceptation was at the fullest when whole families together Acts xvi 34. and xviii 8. thousands at a clap Acts ii 41. whole Towns and Countries came thronging in so fast as if this very now were now or never when Handkerchiefs and Aprons and the very shadow of an Apostle carried a kind of salvation with them Acts v. 15. and xix 12. when there was not only a large way opened for all sinners to come in but all ways and means made to bring them in when there were fiery tongues both to inflame the hearts of the believers and to devour the gain-sayers when there was a Divine Rhetorick always ready to perswade Miracles to confirm Prophesie to convince miraculous gifts and benefits to allure strange punishments to awe sinners into the obedience of Christ and the paths of salvation when the time of that great deliverance too from the destruction of Ierusalem and the enemies of the Cross of Christ so often reflected on through Saint Paul's Epistles was now nigh at hand and the fast adhering to Christ the only way to be accepted and taken into the number of such as should be saved from it Yet 3. this Now is not so narrow but it will take in our times too 'T is true those of the Apostles were furnished with greater means and power yet ours God be thanked want not sufficient We have the Word and Sacraments and Ministers and inward Motions daily calls and ready assistances of the Spirit It may be too somewhat more than they a long track of experimental truths and long sifted and banded reasons and an uninterrupted Tradition and a continued train of holy and devout examples a vast disseminating the Christian Principles and the perpetual protection of them we have to make them more easie to be accepted and tell us that 't is Now still the day of salvation And yet 4. even both in our times and the Apostles there has been a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some signal and peculiar time cull'd out of the rest and set apart for this Reconciliation the great affair that sets the Ecce upon it If I tell you but of St. Augustin's Tota Catholica Ecclesia or St. Leo's Institutio Apostolica or St. Ieromes Secundum traditionem Apostolorum or St. Ambrose's Quadragesimam nobis Dominus suo jejunio consecravit for this holy time we are in the time of Lent that they all call it Apostolical at the least and St. Ambrose fetches it from our Lord and consecrates it from Christ himself and that it was always purposely designed for the time of reconciling sinners and all the offices belonging to it I shall need say no more to prove this Now in the Text is not ill applied when applied to this very time Most reasonable it is 1. that some such there should be design'd some time or days determined for a business of so great weight we are not like else to have it done we would be apt enough to put it off from time to time and so for ever Were there not some set days I dare confidently affirm God would have but little worship paid him thousands would never so much as think of Heaven or God And if it be reasonable some time be set us there is 2. no time fitter than where we are 't is the very time of the year when all things begin to turn their course when Heaven and Earth begin to smooth their wrinkled brows and withered cheeks and look as if they were reconciled 'T is the spring and first-fruits of the year which upon that title is due to God and fittest to be dedicate to his Service and the business of our souls 3. 'T is the time when the blood begins to warm and the contest is now in rising between the Flesh and Spirit which now taken up at first and quell'd may be the easier reconciled to peace and the body subdued into obedience to the soul and so Gods grace not received in vain 4. The spring in which it is 't is tempus placitum the pleasant time o' th' year fittest then to fit with the tempus placitum in the Text fit to be employed to set our selves to please God in to make it perfectly such And sure we cannot be displeased that the Church 5. has thought so too chosen it as the fittest Surely it is or should be the more acceptable for that And if this time besides has all times in it that Solomon himself could think of Eccles. iii. 1. It must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too every way acceptable and all of them it has 1. There is says he a time to be born c. and so goes on this is both a time to be born in and a time to die in Lent a time to die unto the world and to be born and live to Christ. 2. 'T is a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted to plant vertue and to pluck up vice 3. 'T is a time to kill and a time to heal to kill and mortifie our earthly members and to heal the sores and ulcers that sin hath made by a diet of fasting and abstinence 4. 'T is a time to break down and a time to build to break down the Walls of Babilon the fortresses of sin and Satan and to build up the Walls of the New Ierusalem within us 5. 'T is a time to weep and a time to laugh to weep and bewail the years we have spent in vanities and yet rejoyce that we have yet time left to escape from them 6. 'T is a time to mourn and a time to dance to manifest our repentance by some outward expressions and thereby dispose our selves every day more and more for Easter Joys 7. 'T is a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together to remove every stone of offence and as lively stones to be built up as St. Peter speaks into a spiritual house 8. 'T is a
to unsaint the Saints to deny them their proper titles to level them with the meanest of our Servants We might learn better manners from the Angel here manners I say if it were nothing else for we dare not speak so to any here that are above us and we think much to be Thou'd without our titles by that new generation of possessed men who yet with more reason may call the best man thou then we the Apostles Iohn or Thomas But to descend to a particular survey of these Titles here Thou that art highly favoured so our new Translation renders it Full of grace so our old one hath it from the Latin Gratia plena and both right for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will carry both Grace is favour God's Grace is divine favour high in grace high in his favour full of his grace full of his favour all comes to one Now there is Gratia Creata and Increata Created grace and uncreated grace Created grace is either sanctifying or edifying the gifts of the Holy Spirit that sanctifie and make us holy or the gifts that make us serviceable to make others so The first to serve God in our selves as Faith Hope Charity and other graces The second to serve him in the Church such as the gift of Tongues of Prophesie of Healing and the like of each kind she had her fulness according to her measure and the designation that God appointed her For sanctifying Graces none fuller Solo Deo excepto God only excepted saith Epiphanius And 't is fit enough to believe that she vvho vvas so highly honoured to have her Womb filled vvith the body of the Lord had her soul as fully fill'd by the Holy Ghost For edifying Graces as they came not all into her measure she vvas not to preach to administer to govern to play the Apostle and therefore no necessity she should be full of all those gifts being those are not distributed all to any but unicuique secundum mensuram to every one according to his measure and employment and not at all times neither so neither is she said to be less ful for vvanting them There is one fulness of the Fountain another of the Brook another of a Vessel one fulnes of the Sea another of the River another of the Pond and yet all may be full Christ himself is said to be full of the Holy Ghost and St. Stephen is said to be full and others said to be full yet Christ as the Sea or Fountain they as the Rivulets or Rivers and yet all as they can hold 'T is so in Earth 't is so in Heaven And vvith such a fulness as the Brooks or Rivers is our Virgin full and with no other Where any edifying Grace vvas necessary for her she had it as well as others more perhaps than others Where it vvas not necessary it vvas no vvay to the impairing of her fulness though she had it not as the banks of the Rivers rose or the Channel was enlarged so were those graces but inter mulieres among women at the end makes me incline to think the fulness of Apostolick endowments do not any way belong to her women not being suffered in the times of the Apostles but to teach their children or servants at home never thought so full of the Spirit as to be sent to blow it all abroad And indeed it is not said here full of the Spirit but full of Grace and that is commonly understood of sanctifying Grace of which it is very convenient that we believe none fuller than she and the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not inforce it much higher in the business of created grace But in respect of the increated Grace that is of Christ with whom she was now so highly favoured as to be with Child none ever so filled with Grace indeed This was a grace of the highest nature of which created nature was never capable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well rendred highly highly favoured for 't is most highly can be imagined and this is her first title O thou that art highly favoured high in Gods grace and favour so high as to be made his Mother then sure made a fit receptacle for so great so holy a guest by the fulness of all grace and goodness From this follows the second Title Blessed blessed of God blessed of men blessed in the City and blessed in the Field Cities and Countreys call her blessed Blessed in the fruit of her body in her blessed Child Iesus Blessed in the fruit of her Ground her Cattel her Kine and her Sheep in the inferiour faculties of her soul and body all fructifie to Christ. Blessed her Basket and her Store her Womb and her Breasts the Womb that bare him and the Paps that gave him suck Blessed in her going out and in her coming in the Lord still being with her The good treasure of Heaven still open to her showring down upon her and the Earth fill'd with the blessings which she brought into the world when she brought forth the Son of God Blessed she indeed that was the Conduit of so great blessings though blessed most in the bearing him in her soul much more than bearing him in her body So Christ intimates to the woman that began to bless the Womb that is the Mother that bear him St. Luke xi 27. yea rather says he they that hear the word of God and keep it As if he had said she is more blessed in bearing the word in her soul than in her body But blessed she is Elizabeth by the Holy Spirit fell a blessing her when she came to see her And she her self by the same Spirit tells us all generations shall call her blessed ver 28. So we have sufficient example and authority to do it And I hope we will not suffer the Scripture to speak false but do it And 3. do it to her above all women Benedicta tu in mulieribus That 's her third Title Most blessed none so blessed none ever had Child so blessed none ever bore or brought forth Child as she Benedicta in mulieribus Blessed among women She indeed only blessed all others subject to the curse of in dolore paries of conceiving and bringing forth in sorrow She wholly free from that she a perpetual Virgin before and in and after Child-birth Christ came into her Womb insensibly came forth as it were insensibly too without groan or sorrow to her Blessed 2. among women they all henceforth saved by her Child-bearing notwithstanding she that is woman shall be saved in child-bearing 1 Tim. ii ie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by her child-bearing says a learned Commentator not their own but hers by the Child she bore and they therefore shall call her blessed Blessed 3. among women that is none more blessed then the best the highest of them none above the Mother of God none sure so good as she which now brings me to consider the grounds of all this honour
away as the wind and empty air you are to come to it with prepared hearts to open your ears to spread your hearts to entertain it to bring the boughs of Olives peaceable and pliant dispositions boughs of Palms conquered passions bows of Cedar constant resolutions boughs of Myrtle loving affections to it and from Mount Olivet to Ierusalem remember it is from the Mount of Peace to the City of Peace that you may not forget to come in the unity of the Churches peace without Schism or Faction or schismatical and factious intentions if you look to meet Christ there 2. In both Olivet and Ierusalem you see there is a mystery the branches and garments cover mysteries all the way are kind of Sacraments and in the Blessed Sacraments it is we receive Christ Iesus Throw we then our garments in the way cast all our own from us that we may have none but Christ bring Palms and Pines and Olives Cedars and Myrtles and Willows all thick and all green verdant pleasing graces vertues and affections to them spread them all at the foot of the Altar that 's the Ass that Christ rides on the holy elements they that carry him they that convey him to us There 's our conquerour let us bring Palms there 's our peace-maker let us bring Olive-branches there 's the Lord our righteousness let us bring the upright Pine there 's our sweet-smelling savour in the eyes of God our eternal redemption let us bring Cedar-boughs there 's the great Physician of our souls let us bring him Balm there 's our love let 's bring him Myrtle there 's the well-spring of our life let 's bring Willows there 's the fulness of our good and happiness let 's bring him the branches of thick trees That we may do it better remember this way is the way to the Cross this procession to his passion This the way his Cross and Passion the meditation we are to receive him in Let us readily strip our selves of all our garments for him who is stript presently of all his for us Let us cover him with Palms and crown him with Olives let us make it our business and delight to be always strewing his way before him to be doing all our endeavours we can to entertain him Let us leave no branch of vertue out spread them as thick as possibly upon this earth of ours cover our selves with them that we may be the way our souls and bodies the way for him And now you see I hope how fit Palm-Sunday is to usher in the Passion to precede the receiving Christ the very Trees of the Wood have told you it I shall do no more spread the boughs no further 'T is you now must strew them or I have but hitherto strewed in vain The work is not to be done singly by the Preacher 't is the multitude that is to do it too 't is to be done in publick 't is to be done in private 't is to be done by the Apostles 't is to be done by the people 't is to be done by men women and children old and young poor and rich all to bear a part by the way if they hope to come to the happy end every one either to spread his garment or strew a branch or bring a sprig some one thing some another but all something to the honour of Christ to do it with much solemnity and respect outward and inward all of it as to one that deserves all that we can do to strew our souls to strew our bodies to fill our hands to spread all our powers and affections to entertain him to strew our souls with Palms and Olives Pines and Cedars Myrtles and Willows patience and meekness uprightness and constancy love and repentance and all holy vertues as thick as full as fair as may be think nothing too much nothing enough to do or suffer in his service Then shall our garments truly cover us and keep us warm then shall our trees bring forth fruit when boughs and garments are thus employed then shall our ways be strewed with peace every one sit under his own vine and drink the wine of it then shall our branches cover the hills and stretch out unto the River He that is the Branch in the Prophets stile shall so spread them for it give us the tree of life for these liveless boughs and for the spreading our garments over him spread his garment over us the robe of his righteousness the garment of glory where strewing our garments and branches with this great multitude in the Text we shall with that great multitude in the Revelation of all Nations which no man can number stand before the Throne and before the Lamb clothed with white garments and palms in our hands singing and saying Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen A SERMON UPON Good Friday 1 COR ii 2. For I determined not to know any thing among you save Iesus Christ and him crucified ANd this being Passion day I am determined not to preach any thing among you to day but Iesus Christ and him crucified I cannot preach any thing more seasonable nor you hear any thing more comfortable nor any of us know any thing more profitable St. Paul himself thought nor he nor his Corinthians could determined so here ex Cathreda And the Holy Church has thought and determined so too to send no other Epistles to preach no other Gospels to us this week thorow than of Iesus Christ and him crucified as if the sum of the Gospel the Gospel it self were nothing else no other knowledge worth the knowing at least at this time these days to be thought of or intended Not but that we may lawfully have other knowledges besides intend other knowledges too at other times in their proper times not but that we may know more of Iesus Christ himself than his being crucified but that all the knowledges of him tend hither Iesus and Christ his salvation and Office clearest seen here best determined hence that all other knowledges are to be directed hither to Iesus Christ are but petty and inconsiderable in respect and only worth the knowing when Christ is in them and we with Christ crucified in them or affections mortified and humbled by them that especially at this time nothing is so fit to take up our thoughts to employ our meditations nothing not of Christ himself no act or story of him as his crucifixion And yet the Text affords us a plainer reason and account of this so determined knowledge from the two Pronouns I and You. None so fit for this I for an Apostle a Preacher a Divine to be determined to to determine from to be determined by as Christ and him crucified nothing so fit to fasten his resolutions against the crosses and thwartings he is like
measure and order in them to profess none that are wicked or only vain and curious and to no profit to submit our knowledge to faith and our determination to the Churches not to over-value them or our selves by them but only make them hand-maids to guide us to the Cross of Christ and there with Mary Magdalen and the good women stand weeping at it not to know any of them otherwise to resolve and determine nothing of Christ by them and not to know them where they will know no submission and order I come now to our knowledge and 't is indeed the only saving one Iesus Christ and him crucified nothing save that nothing to that For you may now take notice that it is not an absolute determination not to know a decree for ignorance but a determination with a But not any thing save then save something something to be known still Some have been blam'd for making Ignorance the mother of Devotion yet themselves that blam'd them have advanc'd it to be the mother of Religion now whilst they set up meer ignorants I might say more to be the Apostles of it fit teachers I confess of their Religion which so much abhors the Cross of Christ as to cast it off their own shoulders upon other mens and the name of Iesus as to reckon it superstition to respect it But this great Preacher of the Cross as much as he seems determined not to know had yet languages more than all these Corinthians he writes to tells them of it too 1 Cor. xiv 18. though he will not boast of it disputes even in Corinth in the Synagogue of the Iews Acts xix 8. and in the Schools of the Gentiles ver 9. quotes Heathen Poets too to the men of Athens Acts xvii 28. and to Titus Tit. i. 12. that we may know that the preachers of the Gospel may read other Books besides the Bible shall never read that to understand it if they do not 'T is only in some cases and with some persons we are not to make profession of them and meerly too upon private determination as our own wisdom and prudence shall direct us not that God or Christ has determined the least against it God would have his people to seek his Law at the mouth of the Priest Malachy ii 7. and adds the reasons because his lips should keep knowledge And Christ Iesus though he made poor simple Fishermen his Apostles to divulge his Gospel yet he would not have the blind lead the blind for fear of falling both into the ditch St. Matth. xv 14. and therefore promises to give them wisdom St. Luke xxi 15. such wisdom as all their adversaries should not be able to gain-say and sends down the Holy Ghost with the gifts of tongues to sit upon them all so little is there to be said for the ignorant and unlearned mans teaching from them who before they went about that work were so highly furnished and endued And though the Apostle here resolve the Corinthians to make no profession of those great knowledges yet it is to shame them only from the great estimate and confidence they set upon them and reduce them to humility and into order and to edifie them that he chooses and prefers to speak among them but five words in a known tongue before all languages to no purpose And indeed all tongues are too little to speak of that the Apostle is here about Iesus Christ and him crucified all knowledges not sufficient to make us know him and teach him as we should We had need have all tongues and knowledges all words and eloquence to set it forth Well then at least let us about it to see what it is to know Iesus Christ and him crucified 'T is the determination of this determined knowledge to Christ to Christ Iesus to Christ Iesus crucified to this only and no other object among them A knowledge this the most profitable the most happy the most glorious even eternal life it is to know Iesus Christ St. Iohn xvii 3. Nor does his Crucifying abate any thing of the glory of it St. Paul makes it his only glory Gal. vi 14. with a God forbid that he should glory in any thing as here not know any thing else but in the Cross of the Lord Iesus Christ. Indeed hence flows all our happiness the wound in his side is the hole of the rock in which only the soul can lie secure the water that issued out thence is the only laver to cleanse it in the blood the only drink it lives by the wood of the Cross the only tree of life the title of it better to us than all the titles of the earth the reproach of it better than all the honours of the world the pains of it sweeter than all the pleasures under heaven the wounds better cordials and restoratives to a sick soul than all the Physick nature or skill affords There is not a grain of that holywood but of more worth than all the grains of Gold that the Indies can afford There is not a vain in that crucified Body of Iesus but it runs full with heavenly comfort to us There is nothing in Christ crucified but man glorified Who indeed would not be determined to fix all his knowledge here to dwell here for ever but so immense and vast is this happy subject that I must limit it yet I shall give you notions that you may improve whilst I tell you to know Christ crucified is to know him as we do other things by the four causes of it the efficient the material the formal and the final So to know him is to know who crucified him for what he was crucified how it was he was crucified and to what end he was crucified It was his own love that mov'd him to it it was God that sent him and delivered him up to it it was Iudas that betrayed him to it it was both the Iews and Gentiles that had the hand in doing it And what know we hence but this his infinite goodness Gods unspeakable mercies mans base ingratitude this mystery in all how vastly Gods purposes and mans differ in the same business how infinitely good and gracious God is even where men are most wicked and unthankful Know we then the material cause of his sufferings for a second and the matter for which he suffer'd was our iniquities for the transgressions of my people says the Prophet was he smitten Isa. liii 8. And to know this is to deplore it to abhor and detest our selves who were the causes of so vile using the Son of God Know we 3. and consider the formal cause the manner of his crucifying a death most cruel most lingring most ignominious to have his back all furrowed with whips and rods to hang naked upon the Cross by the hands and feet and them nailed to it through the most tender parts where all the organs of sense are quickest to be given vinegar and
not find him she called to him but he gave her no answer Cant. v. 6. and thereupon tells the Daughters of Hierusalem ver 8. that she is sick of love that is so perplext and troubled at his absence that she is not able to hold up her head any longer no more than these are here Nothing certainly but doubts and perplexities can involve us vvhen vve have either lost our love or fear it to be sure nothing but doubts vvhen vve have lost him vvho is the only truth that can resolve us nothing but perplext ways when we have lost him who is the Way Which way can we resolve on when our way is gone What can we think can hold him whom the Grave cannot If in a seal'd Sepulchre under a mighty stone the dead body be not safe where can we think to sit down in security To lose a token or remembrance of a friends how are we troubled but to have his body stoll'n out of the Sepulchre his Grave rifled and his ashes violated how impatiently would we take it You cannot blame them for being much perplext for so great a loss I shall shew it greater in the Mystery The body is the Church and to have that taken from us the Church that glorious Candlestick removed and born away we know not whither what good soul is there that must not necessarily be perplexed at it What way shall we take when they have taken away that which is the Pillar of the truth and should lead us in it Whither shall we go when we know not whither that is gone where they have laid it or where to find it Poor ignorant women nay and men too may well now wander in uncertainties as they do full of doubts and perplexities full of cares and troubled thoughts which way to take what Religion to run to what to leave and what to follow seeing the body to which the Eagles use to flock the most Eagle-eyed the most subtile and learned used to be gathered is removed away and we have nothing to gather to scarce a place to be gathered together in Well may we now fear 2. what will become of us and what God means to do to us how he intends to deal with us having thus suffered our Lord to be taken from us Afraid they were that they had lost him quite I pray God we may have no cause to fear the same fear When Christ was but asleep the Apostles were afraid at a blast of wind that rose St. Mat. viii 25. and cry out they perish whilst he but sleeps Any thing scares us if Christ watch not over us not the visions only of the night but the very noises of the day any light air or report afrights us and blows us which way it please to any side any faction out of fear What hold then is there of us what little thing will not scare us when he is absent quite When his body the Church is removed from us where can we stay our wavering souls or fix our trembling feet Christ was no sooner dead and gone but away run all his Disciples into a room together and shut up themselves for fear of the Iews St. Ioh. xx 19. so coward-like and faint-hearted are we all when the Captain of our Salvation is slain before us nor can it be other all our life being hid in him and all our spirit only from his presence Part of these womens fear at least was at the sight and congress of the Angels Even Angels themselves do but scare us if the Lord of the Angels be not by us Nay even God himself is but a terror to us and a consuming fire without Christ 't is with him only under the shadow and shelter of his wings that we dare approach that inaccessible light that consuming fire Lose we Christ and we lose all our confidence in heaven all the ways of access to heavenly things all the pleasure and comfort of them we are nothing but agues and fears and frights not courage enough even to look up we with these perplexed souls go 3. bowing down our faces to the earth Thou didst hide thy face from me says holy David and I was troubled the very hiding of Gods face sore troubled him What think you to hide his whole body would do then Why then he goes mourning all the day long Psal. xxxviii 6. So did the two Disciples that went to Emaus ver 17. they walkt sadly and talkt sadly and lookt sadly like men disconsolate and forlorn such as were ashamed to shew their faces in the City after this was come to pass durst not look any body in the face upon it Alas how could it be otherwise with them All their hope was gone he that they lookt should have redeemed Israel could not redeem himself nay his body stoln out of the Grave and conveyed they knew not whither Well may they bow down their faces to the earth having now little hope above in heaven he being gone and lost by whom they only hoped and expected it Indeed if he be either so gone from us that we have no hope to find him or he be found in that condition in which there is no hope as there is none in a dead Saviour where ere he be no wonder if our faces then bend wholly to the earth if we look no further Let us take our portion in this life for we are like to have no other without Christ and Christ risen too hither it is we fall no looking higher not an eye to heaven so much as in a Prayer if we have not per Dominum Iesum Christ Iesus at the end of it in and thorough whom only we can with confidence look for a blessing thence and without whom at the end the Prayer is to no end or purpose II. Yet in as sad a Condition as this we speak of we are not utterly without hope if we again look upon the words at a second view For now 2. they as well decipher to us the condition of those that seek as of those that have lost their Lord and Master We may be as much perplext in our search as at our loss as vvell afraid to miss as startled at our loss as vvell bowdown our faces to the earth in seeking as in sorrovving And thus in the second vievv of the Text it is They had lost their Masters body and vvere now not only troubled at the loss but hovv to find it vvhere to look it Surely take but avvay his body the Church and the vvisest of us vvill scarce know to find him one vvill run this vvay another that vvay after him one vvill stand vveeping at the Sepulchre and think that a sad melancholy posture and business is Religion only another vvill run thence from the Sepulchre as fast as he can and think the finding Christ so easie a business that it does not require either a groan or a sigh others vvill be vvalking to Emaus up and dovvn
novv to one Sect novv to another and from Hierusalem most commonly from the City of peace out of the bonds of unity every one by himself vvhich vvay pleases him if Christs body the Church be once removed out of our sight Our best vvay is vvith the Disciples into our Chambers altogether till vve can get a better place vvith all the company vve can make to our Devotions and our Prayers or if vve vvill step out a vvhile to the Sepulchre let it be but to pay a tear upon it to vent out troubled souls to express hovv vve are troubled at our sins that have made us lose our Lord or at our negligence that he is slipt from us vvhilst vve vvere asleep lull'd in soft pleasures or at our slovvness that vve come so late to seek him that he is gone before vve come This is so to seek as to be perplexed thereabout and there is no true seeking him vvithout it But 2. vvith fear too vve are to seek him with reverence and godly fear Heb. xii 28. that the only acceptable service and seeking of him with fear and trembling Phil. ii 2. no hope either of Saviour or Salvation without it Afraid of the two men in shining garments they were here and if Angels habited like men too and in so chearful attire be so terrible vvhat think you is that excellent Majesty if vve cannot see those our fellovv servants as they stile themselves Rev. xxii 9. vvithout fear for vve seldom read of the appearing of an Angel but either coming or going he strikes some terror hovv say some among us that in the approaches to God vve need not be afraid Alas deluded souls they conceive not God or Christ as either of them should be conceived they neither seriously consider the Majesty of God or Christ nor their ovvn unvvorthiness nor hovv hard a thing it is to find Christ that are not afraid either to miss him in the search by their unskilfulness or lose him by their sins He that looks to be comforted by an Angel must not think much to be afraid hovv great a claim soever he conceives he hath in Christ. Perfect love indeed says the Apostle casts out fear but 't is servile fear and no other Mary Magdalen to vvhom Christ bears vvitness that she loved much yet she also is afraid The more for that she loved so much for the more vve love the more vve fear to lose the thing vve love the more vve love the more vve fear to offend the person vvhom vve love nay the more vve fear to miss and the more earnest vve are too seek the more likely are vve to find vvhat or vvhosoever vve set to seek for Seek him vvith filial fear or love and fear that 's the second Yet if vve seek Christ vve must also thirdly seek him vvith our faces bowed down to the ground and that is 1. the fashion of those that seek earnestly and so he must be sought vvith all the earnestness vve can And it is 2. a token of diligence in the search much like that of the poor woman that sought her groat that lighted a candle swept her house rak'd in the dust look'd into every corner peer'd into every chink to find it Do we so in seeking Christ light up the candle of Faith kindled from the flame of love sweep we the houses of our souls with the besom of repentance look vve into our dust consider vvhat vve are made of vvhat poor dusty things vve are ransack every corner of our hearts every crany of our thoughts that so vve may if not find him there yet make all clean for him against he comes and vve shall commonly find he vvill come gliding in vvhen vve think not of it vve shall hear of something rising in our dust after vve have so rais'd it by the breaking and contritions of repentance And it is 3. the posture of humility and of the humble he vvill be found they shall not miss of him vvhoever do to them his grace St. Iames iv 6. to them his vvays Psal. xxv to them his dvvelling The lovver vve bovv dovvn before him the higher vvill he lift us up And lastly the face bowed down to the earth is the look of them that mourn we must seek him as his Father and Mother did seek him sorrowing sorry that we have been so long without him that we so carelesly lost him then after a day or two we shall be sure to find him nay if our sorrow begins as here in the morning of the day if we begin betimes to be exceeding sorrowful the morning shall not pass e're we hear at least some tidings of him nay we shall not stir from the Grave but we shall hear it e're we go some good Angel or other shall bring us some glad message or other from him and tell us where he is So it follows as they were perplexed behold two men stood by them in shining garments and as they were afraid and bow'd down their faces to the earth this news they tell them that He is risen God never faileth them that seek him says the Psalmist never them that seek him as these did with careful and troubled souls such he never does refuse Psal. li. with reverence and godly fear such he never does reject vvith earnestness vvith diligence vvith humility vvith godly sorrow those he visits presently either by himself or by his Angel And which 2. is very observable and as comfortable as they were perplexed and as they were afraid and bowed down says the Text that is even when they began to be so before their perplexities had misled them or their fears undone them or their faces lick'd the earth as they began only to hang their heads and their spirits began to faint and their souls to be troubled two men on a sudden whence they cannot tell and which way they came there they knew not but there they stand to disperse both their sorrows and their fears by what they have to tell them Three grand points we observe in this apparition of the Angels to make up that great success that those who faithfully and devoutly seek Christ may promise themselves upon it 1. They see a Vision of Angels 'T is their good hap ever to meet blessed Spirits who seek the Lord of Spirits to meet them here to be with them ever hereafter to meet one or two of them here at times to meet ten thousand times ten thousands of them hereafter To meet them here even at the Sepulchre in the midst of sorrow even then to receive comfort from them even in the Grave in our greatest afflictions To meet them 2. like young men so says St. Mark sprightly and able to defend us To meet them 3. in shining garments tokens of some exceeding joy and gladness which we may expect and shall find from them To meet them 4. standing by us that is ever ready to comfort and assist us To meet
5. two of them together not one single comforter alone but comfort upon comfort deliverance upon deliverance spiritual and temporal one at the right hand and another at our left But lastly hereafter to be sure we shall meet them in full Choires when we rise out of our Sepulchres then like young men indeed both they and we then to be always so never die again never grow old nor our garments neither but have them always shining The next point of the good success is to receive direction from them Two parts of it there are first to recal us from the wrong and then secondly to set us right Why seek you the living among the dead he is not here that 's the correction of our judgments and affections He is risen that 's the setting them to the right For a Traveller when he is out of the way to be told he is so is a thing any of us would take well and when we are stragling out of the way to Heaven going out of that safe and fair and happy way into the bogs of the world and mires of lusts and ditches of Hell to have an Angel one of a thousand as Iob speaks but a messenger of the Lord of Hosts to call out to us that we are wrong is certainly a happiness if we understood it and such God sends always to them that seek him truly if they will but turn their heads at the call and look after him Well but what says he that so calls out to us Why why seek you the living among the dead what 's that I. They seek the living among the dead that seek salvation by the Law of Moses long since dead and buried II. They seek the living among the dead that seek it by the works of nature by the power of them Nature without Grace is dead Verebar omnia opera mea says holy Iob there is not in us one poor work to trust to III. They seek the living among the dead that seek salvation that think to be sav'd by a meer outward holiness by the outward body of Religion without the inward life by forms of godliness whether they be meerly ceremonial performances of Religion or great shows and pretences of godliness without the power of it in their lives and conversations They lastly seek the living among the dead that seek Christ upon worldly interests that take up their Religion upon by-respects that do it for carnal or worldly affections But say the Angels He is not here Christ is not here Christ the Saviour is not that is our salvation is not to be found in the Law of Moses or by the Law of Works or in meer external performances or great pretences or in worldly and carnal hearts they are but Graves and Sepulchres all which we too much and too often bury our souls in and stand weeping by and are much perplexed at if we cannot find it there but must be forc'd from thence to a new search as here are the women are to leave these kinds of seeking all of them and betake us now to think of him as risen thence For so the Angels say he is He is risen And in this he both tells us what to conceive of him and at the same time to put off all our perplexities and tears and sorrows to rejoyce with him He is risen Risen and not rais'd others indeed have been rais'd from death the Sareptans Child the Widows Son one of these Mary's Brother Lazarus but none risen but he he rais'd himself they did not so he rais'd them all must raise us all too will raise us by his Resurrection For Risen that is 2. his Body risen that is we members of it to have part also in his Resurrection for if our Head be risen the Members also will follow after Must 3. in the interim follow him so raise our thoughts above the earth as to seek him now above to seek those things which are above that 's it the Angel directs us to by telling us he is risen so pointing us where now to fix our thoughts to leave the Sepulchre to bemoan it self to cast off all the ways and paths of death to throw off all worldly perplexities fears and sorrows or in the midst of them to take a ray at least from their shining garments and put on the looks of joy and gladness This both the direction they give us and the joy they make us partakers of To tell us he is risen whom we seek he is alive whom we bemoan for dead he that is our head our hope our love our life our joy our comfort our crovvn of rejoycing he in vvhom vve trusted vve may trust still hope still joy in him still for he is risen and alive That 's the close vve are novv to make to day that the ansvver vve are to give to the Angels speech that the application of the Text to make it full run vve once more over it Grovv vve then first as sensible as we can of our sad condition vvithout Christ hovv the Grave the last place of rest from all troubles has nothing in it vvithout him hovv our souls cannot be at quiet vvithout him hovv our hearts cannot but tremble vvhen he is gone our spirits faint our faces look sad and heavy dull and earthy vvhen he is from us Let us upon this â—it dovvn and vveep and be troubled and tremble at it that we may not at any time give him occasion henceforvvard to desert us or leave us comfortless at the Grave but send his Angels thither to direct and to conduct us to his joyful presence When we are thus made sensible what we are without him we then secondly certainly will make after him with all care and reverence all earnestness and diligence all humility and devout repentance troubled at his absence fearful of our own unworthiness and truly humbled for our sins that drove him from us perplext to lose him fearful to offend him vigilant to seek him that so at last we may recover him for you see he is recovered from the Grave and may again be by us recovered to our souls This the duty both our own necessities and the opportunity of this great day require of us The business we are next to go about exacts as much We are with these women come here to seek the Lords body and I shall anon give you news of greater joy than here the Angels did the Women They say he is not here but he is risen I say but he is risen and is here will be here by and by in his very Body Your eye cannot see him but your souls may there see and taste him too Lift up then your heads O ye immortal gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors that the King of Glory may come in Look up and lift up your heads for your salvation draweth nigh Bow down your faces no longer to the earth neither look here as to an earthly
stench and worms and rottenness then any dead body whatsoever full of infamous and stinking sins worms of conscience and worms of concupiscence rotten resolutions and performances continuance in sin is the sleep of death Holy purposes and resolutions are the rising out of it Walking thenceforward in the ways of righteousness is going into the holy City and the letting our righteousness so shine before men that God may be glorified is the appearing unto many And the order is as like our justification or spiritual Resurrection well resembled by it God first for the merits of Christs Death and Passion breaks ope the stony heart looses the fetters of our sins and lusts all worldly corruptible affections in us opens the mouth of it to confess its sins then the soul rises as it were out of its sleep by the favour of Gods exciting grace and comes out of sin by holy purposes and resolutions resolves presently to amend its courses then next it goes into the holy City by holy action endeavour and performance so goes and manifests its reconcilement to the Church of God and at last makes its Resurrection repentance and amendment evident and apparent to the world to as many as it any where converses with that all may bear witness to it that it is truly risen with Christ now lives with him This the order this the manner of our first Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of Grace Our second Resurrection to the life of Glory is but this very Resurrection in the Text acted over again As soon as the consummatum est is pronounced upon the world as soon as Christ shall say as he did upon the Cross all is finished the end is come the Arch-Angel shall blow his Trumpet the Graves open the earth and Sea give forth their dead and the dead in Christ shall rise first then they that be alive at his coming For if we believe that Iesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Iesus shall God bring with him 1 Thess iv 14. and they shall come out of their Graves and go into the Holy City the new Ierusalem that is above and there appear and shine like stars for ever Indeed the ungodly and the wicked shall arise too and appear before the great Tribunal but not like these Saints for into the holy City they shall not come Rise and come forth they shall but go away into some place of horror some gloomy valley of eternal sorrow some dark dungeon of everlasting night some den of Dragons and Devils never to appear before God but be for ever hid in the arms of confusion and damnation As for the godly the holy City is prepared for them for us if we be like them Saints and Angels are the inhabitants of this holy City no room there for any other if our bodies then be the bodies of holy Saints then into the holy City with them and not else no part in the new Ierusalem if no part in the old no portion above if none below no place there with Angels if no communion here with Saints no happiness in heaven if no holiness on earth They are the bodies of the Saints you hear that go into the holy City they that rise from the sleep of sin and awake to righteousness that rise from the dust of death to the rays of glory And this now may hint us of our duty to close with them for the close of all It has been shewed before what is the first Resurrection without which there is no second namely a life of holiness a dying to sin and a living unto God And this is a Resurrection we are not meerly passive in as in the other We must do somewhat here towards our own Resurrection at least to finish it We must open our mouths which are too often what David stiles the wicked mans throat even open Sepulchres and by confession send out our dead our dead works confessing our iniquities we must awake out of our sins and arise and stand up by holy vows and resolutions rear up our heads and eyes and hearts and hands to heaven seek those things that are above if we be risen with Christ get up upon our feet and be walking the way of Gods commandments walking to him get us into the holy City to the holy place make our humble appearance there express the power of Christs Resurrection in our life attend him through all the parts of it all our life long This the great business we are now going to requires of us more particularly to come to it like new rais'd bodies that had now shaken off all their dust all dusty earthly thoughts laid aside their Grave-cloths all corrupt affections that any way involv'd them and stood up all new all fitly composed for the holy City drest up in holiness and newness of life thus come forth to meet our new risen Saviour and appear before him This the way to meet the benefits of his Passion and Resurrection for coming so with these Saints out of their Graves Christs Grave also shall open and give him to us the Cup and Patine wherein his body lies as in a kind of Grave shall display themselves and give him to us the Spirit of Christ shall raise and and advance the holy Elements into lively Symbols which shall effectually present him to us and he will come forth from under those sacred shadows into our Cities our Souls and Bodies if they be holy and his grace and sweetness shall appear to many of us to all of us that come in the habit of the Resurrection in white Robes with pure and holy hearts Here indeed of all places and this way above all ways we are likeliest to meet our Lord now he is risen and gone before us this the chief way to be made partakers of his Resurrection and the fittest to declare both his Death and Resurrection the power of them till his coming again And to declare and speak of them is the very duty of the day the very Grave this day with open mouth professes Christ is risen and gives praise for it that it is no longer a land of darkness but has let in light no longer a bier of death but a bed of sleep But shall thy loving kindness O Lord be known in the dark or shall the dead rise up again and praise thee yes holy Prophet they shall they did to day and if his loving kindness shall not be known in the dark the dark places shall become light now the sun of righteousness has risen upon them But shall the dead rise up again and praise him and shall not we shall the graves open and shall not our hearts be opened to receive him nor our mouths to praise him for it Was it the business of the dead Saints to day to rise to wait upon their Lord and shall not the living rise to bear them company shall the whole City ring of it out
and rule these resolutions desires and endeavours two Lights he makes true rectified reason and supernatural grace to guide them what to do at all seasons days and years and many little Stars many glimmerings of truth begin then to discover themselves which before did not After all this 5. the sensitive faculties in their course and order bring forth their living creature according to their kind submit themselves to the command of the superiour reason And then lastly when the Spirit has thus totally renewed the face of the earth of our mind and affections is the new man created after the likeness and image of God in righteousness and true holiness This the course this the order of the Spirits coming He comes moving upon the waters of repentance and first enlightens the darkness of our souls he orders all our faculties and powers he makes us fruitful to good works he daily encreases divine light and heat within us he reforms our sense subdues our passions regulates our reason sanctifies them all comes in light comes in grace comes in truth comes in strength comes in power that we might in his strength and power come one day all in glory And now he that thus created the old World and still creates the new new create and make us new and pray we all with holy David Psal. li. 10. Create O Lord in us new hearts and renew right spirits within us Cast us not O Lord for ever though we are now full of errors from thy presence and keep not thy holy Spirit from us but let thy Spirit of truth come down and guide us out of our wandrings give us the comfort of his help again guide us again into the ways of truth and stablish us there with thy free Spirit and that for the merits and mercies of thine only Son who here promised to send him and this day accordingly sent him to guide us to himself from grace to grace from truth to truth from truth below to true happiness above Jesus Christ our Saviour To whom c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON Whitsunday St. JOHN xvi 13. Howbeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come He will guide you into all truth AND He this day began to guide has continued guiding ever since will go on guiding to the end began it with the Apostles continued it to the Church and will continue it to it to the end of the World Indeed he that looks upon the face of the Christian Churches now would be easily tempted to think that either the time was not yet come that it should be fulfilled or that it had been long ago and his promise come utterly to an end for evermore For so far are we from a guide into all truth that we have much ado to find a guide in truth false guides and false spirits are so rise so far from being guided into all truth that 't is neerer truth to say into all error as if this guide had quite forsaken us or this promise belong'd not at all to us Yet for all that to us it is For the truth is 't is not this Guides this Spirits fault but ours that this all truth is so nigh none at all He will guide still but we will not be guided And into all truth too he will but we will not we will have no more than will serve our turn stand with our own humour ease and interest that 's the reason why he guides not now as in the days of the Apostles the first times the times of old We will not let him we cannot bear it as it is in the verse before or worse we will not bear we will not endure it every one will be his own guide go his own way make what truth he pleases or rather what him pleases the only truth every one follow his own spirit that 's the reason why we have so little of the Spirit of Truth among us There are so many private spirits that there is no room for this Yet if into all or indeed any truth that 's worth the name of saving we would be guided to this One we must return to one spirit or to no truth There is but one Trurth and one Spirit all other are but fancies He that breaks the unity of the Spirit that sets up many spirits sets up many guides but never a true one chance he may perhaps into a truth but not be guided to it and as little good come of it where the analogie of Scripture and Truth must needs be broken by so many differing and divided spirits 'T is time we think of holding to one Spirit that we may all hold the same Truth and in time be led into it all The only question is Whether we will be led or no If we will not the business is at an end If we will we must submit to this Spirit and his guidance his manner and way of guiding By so doing we shall not fail in any necessary saving truth He will guide us into all truth Which that he may as I have heretofore out of the former words told you of his coming so shall I now by his assistance out of these latter tell you of his guiding for to that intent and purpose he came to day and comes every day came at first and comes still comes 1. to guide to guide 2. into truth 3. into all truth 4. even you and all into it yet 5. to guide only not to drive or force us to guide after his own way and fashion not our fancie of which lastly we need not doubt or make a question he will do it So that now the Parts of the Text will plainly rise into these Propositions 1. That though Christ be gone he has not left us without a guide but has sent Him that shall guide us still 2. That He that shall do it is He that very He that is the Spirit of Truth just before No other can 3. That guide therefore into truth he will no other will 4. That he will guide not into this truth or that truth only but into all 5. That he will guide even us too You and you and you us as well as those that were before us all 's but You. 6. That he will do it yet but after his own way and fashion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the way he comes after as he comes so will he guide set us a way to find the truth and guide us after that way and no other 7. That for certain so it is He will Howbeit he will though yet he has not though yet we peradventure will not or cannot endure to be guided yet when we will set our selves to it He will guide us into c. it shall be no fault or failure of his for he for his part will is always willing The sum of all is this to assure us 1. that notwithstanding all the errors and false spirits now abroad there is a Spirit of Truth still
blessed Spirits now inhabite those everlasting hills To put all together Thither they ascended up like clouds by the secret and spiritual operation of divine grace there they dwell like clouds their souls like the upper part of the cloud light and glorious though their bodies like the lower darkned in the grave There they move like clouds in heavenly order Thence they descend like clouds in the still showers of their happy examples that in them as in a glass we may see the power of faith the glory of their Lord who has made earth ascend beyond its nature and dwell above it And yet for all this is it but Nubem still a Cloud not a Star The Saints shall shine as stars Dan. xii 3. and methinks it being Nubem Martyrum the Martyrs flames should rise better into stars than clouds Should and shall in the Resurrection till then Nubem still some degree of darkness at least a less degree of light And whatsoever to themselves for us perhaps 't is necessary it be a cloud For had we not need of this dark word When did not God on purpose cloud their glories from our eyes were it not for this nubem this cloud that covers them man as subject to superstition as prophaness would quickly find out some excellencies for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fall down and worship Or if not necessary yet more convenient far For 1. a Star would only guide us a Cloud both guide and refresh us And 2. guide us better For Stars only appear in the night Clouds night and day we can see them so best follow them The Sun-beams put out star-light Prosperity cannot see a Star so small a glimmering ray A Cloud come it night or day in prosperity or adversity we perceive that presently so a cloud to teach us in all estates how to demean our selves like devotion in its ancient innocence Abrahams cloud when the days are calm and clear Iobs when the day is swallowed up in a tempestuous night So never destitute of a cloud 3. Clouds not Stars They are none but the Magi wise learned men can follow the Stars and their courses but every Peasant sees which way the Clouds move So if Stars they had been for none but wise learned men to follow now the poor Country man has a cloud to run by And yet how easily soever we perceive the track of the Clouds yet if there be a scatter'd multitude we are as easily distracted 'T were best to have but Nubem in the singular but one cloud 't is so Many drops but one cloud though the materials fetcht from several quarters The Martyrs all one Cloud to shew their unity all and each confessing witnessing one and the same truth for truth is but one So not St. Iudes clouds they not only empty no stillicidium Doctrinae in them no good to be learnt from them but clouds too in the Plural some moving this way some that way no constant course in division too one coursing against the other at such enmity is evil with it self 'T is only good and good men that keep together in nubem in peace and unity and by that you shall know them Be it a Cloud and but one Cloud the more probable still too small it may be to command the eye and then what are we the nearer Nubem not Nubeculam no diminutive will that do it If that will not tantam will So great a cloud Why how great So great that St. Paul ver 32. of the former Chapter tells them the day would fail him to shew them it all as if so great a cloud could not but shut up the day in darkness Our first Fathers of the World had no cloud to guide them nothing but natures dusky twilight This cloud begain to rise in the time of the Patriarchs but to appear in the time of Moses like Eliahs cloud at the red Sea went before him thence into Canaan covered the whole Land of Iudaea in the time of the Prophets So these Hebrews had cloud enough yea but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have more Even those Hebrews to whom this Epistle was sent they are in the Cloud About that time this cloud rising in the East spread its wings presently into the West and had almost in an instant fill'd up the corners of the World so that if you now ask again how great so great I cannot tell you Primitive Christians they in the number you will not wonder at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it become a cloud of Martyrs Indeed the Law of Moses had its Martyrs too Witness Isaiahs Saw the three Childrens fiery Furnace the emptied skins of the tortur'd Maccabees But since the time of Christ his servants have engrossed the name as if they only were the Martyrs and filled up tantam to the brim Their multitudes tireing the wit of cruelty and their patience overcoming it as if from the streams and rivers of their bloud heaven might now enskarfe it self in a scarlet cloud Well talk we may of Martyrum what we will yet if Nubem be not first they will be but Stultae Philosophiae all this while no better 'T is the order in the Text Nubem first then Martyrum First clouds lifted up to heaven in their thoughts and conversations and all in one the Sons of peace and unity if you can see Christ in the cloud then Martyrs if you will Schism and faction or discontented passion yield no Martyrs You shall know a Martyr by Nubem if that go first But taking Martyrs thus all are not Martyrs All died not for their faith but all are Testes Witnesses Witnesses of the Power Witnesses of the Mercy Witnesses of the Justice of God Of his Power in delivering them from sin of his Mercy in saving them from punishment of his Iustice in rewarding them with glory Witnesses to this curramus 1. to witness the possibility that this Race we are to speak of by and by may be run this Propositum the prize won for ab esse ad posse run the one they have and won the other long ago 2. To testifie the easiness that even the weaker Sex Sarah and Rahab the weakest age the three Children the army of Innocents have run it 3. To testifie the dignity that both King and Priest and Prophet David and Samuel and Daniel thought it worth the pains 4. To testifie the universal necessity all ages young and old all Sexes men and women all degrees high and low to run this race none excused And that you may not mistrust their testimony what is required to the best witness you have in them 1. That he knows what he speaks and what knowledge like theirs that speak by experience that now feel the reward of truth 2. That he will and dare speak it and these have fear'd no torments for it they are Martyrs of
it 3. Witnesses should be men of rank and quality their worth has plac'd them above the clouds 4. They are authentical habentes circumpositam the Spirit has set them round about us to that intent and he is the Spirit of Truth So far now from doubting of our guide that we wave Nubem and pass to habentes the second relation they have to us not only to direct us but to bear us company And indeed what is Nubem and Nubem tantam and Nubem Martyrum and Nubem testium to us without Habentes except it be ours yea and habentes nobis if we have it not along with us What are the glorious Angels themselves to us but flames and two-edged Swords without this Habentes if we have them not for ministring Spirits What are the Triumphant Saints to us however dazled with their own glories without Habentes if they be none of ours if they be not members of the same Church of the same Religion with us Cast off your Religion quite if you can claim no portion in the Saints if you have no Martyrs What is it then that some so often ask what have we to do with Saints 'T is well besides the Habentes that we have an Impositam from the Vulgar Latine that it is imposed upon us some necessity of it sure and that we have a Circumpositam from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that not only we have this Cloud but that we have it put about us not of our own putting on Habentes it might be we might have it of our own chusing or fancying we know who have so Clouds of their own making Saints of their own canonizing but impositam or circumpositam it cannot be except some body put it on us and who is it that makes the clouds a garment for this earth but he that makes the Clouds his Chariot Who can dispose of the Saints but the King of Saints So then a sufficient excuse we have for Habentes God it is that compasses us with this Cloud of Witnesses And if they compass us they will be near about us by and by that they may behold our doing to be spectators of our course and Witnesses to that too to rejoyce at our speed to congratulate our success to receive us with the triumphs of glory And yet methinks the Apostle mentions Saints that are gone before how come they now to be round about us Angels indeed are ministring Spirits perhaps some of them may pitcht about us Angelus Domini in circuitu timentium Psal. xxxiv 8. The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him but how can the Saints be said to compass us about May it not be a Metaphor to shew their multitude because there are so many that we cannot turn our eyes any where about us but we see them The Phrase is Davids in another case The sorrows of death compassed me Psal. xviii 4. at every hand on every side at every turn I cannot avoid them Or is it that they guard us round with their Quousque Domine quousque their earnest prayers for their afflicted Brethren Or is it that being there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth St. Luk. xv and they with the Angels make up the Choir and heaven it self encompass us they therefore are said to compass us Or is it that their Graves and Sepulchres are round about us and we as it were still encompassed with their bodies and they as it were did still encompass us in their bodies The word may seem on purpose as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is jaceo and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is circumjacentem lying round about us The Sepulchres of the Saints do so this day As if St. Paul had meant that from the sight and nearness of the resting places of their sacred ashes we should every day be put in mind with thankfulness to acknowledge the riches of Gods goodness in our deceased brethren and learn those vertues whereby their bones now flourish out of their Graves and their memorials live for evermore Least as Abels bloud from the earth so their dust from their silent dormitories should cry out against us Not Suppositam now no supposed cloud 't is true 't is real if it encompass us Such Saints there are without a supposition they die not all when they go hence something there is still to make the God of Abraham the God of the living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is and circumpositam it should be not sub nor super not superpositam not set over us they as Lords and Masters of our faith to make what Articles they lift but circum about us as fellow Witnesses and Companions One more not Praepositam not set before us to run to either for mediation or intercession He that regards the clouds thus shall not reap no thanks I am sure The Prayer of the humble pierceth the clouds Ecclus. xxxv 17. flies higher 'T is the Prayer of the self conceited however it seem a voluntary dejection and humility that is stifled in the middle Region and if you mark it there 's no Aspicientes here no looking of up to them habentes is all that 's here aspicientes is kept till the next verse for IESVM For if this cloud dim our eye sight and we instead of being compassed about with them compass them about by Pilgrimages Adoration or Invocation our best way is to the next words Deponentes pondus to cast off that heavy mist that sits upon our eye lids or to the next verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turn our eyes from them and look to IESVS the Author and finisher of our faith I hope by this time we know what to do with Nubem what use to make of this Cloud of Martyrs for habentes it is and we have it not for nothing Are they Clouds why habentes first Let 's have them in account for such for something more than earth Habentes in honore let us think and speak reverently of those happy spirits have their vertues in remembrance their remembrances in honour them in our thanksgivings their monuments and ashes in so much respect to keep them from the prophane scattering hand to put us in mind of their exemplary Piety and a Resurrection Habentes nobis next to have them to our selves to apply them home for imitation to ascend up in our thoughts like clouds to heaven in our affections to inhabite there to live and move there in all our actions that Christ may be seen in all our doings To learn from habentes nubem good company from Nubem something heavenly from Nubem in the Singular peace and unity to learn the degree from Tantam from Testium the open profession of our faith and from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 courage and constancy To do all this habentes circumpositam is the way to place them
encouraged and confirmed him in it 4. His profession at it Behold said he I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God In those words he professed his faith and proclaimed his vision of it By this manner of considering it we shall do St. Stephen right and Christmas no wrong remember St. Stephens Martyrdom and yet not forget Christs being at it celebrate St. Stephens memory and yet no way omit Christs He being here to be lookt on as encourager of St. Stephens Martyrdom as much as St. Stephen for his Professor and Martyr By all together we shall fully understand the requisites of a Martyr what is required to make one such to be full of the Holy Ghost to look up stedfastly into heaven to look upon Christ as there and as boldly to profess it to be full of Grace and Spirit full of Piety and Devotion full of Faith and Hope full of Courage and Resolution all proportionably requisite to the spiritual Martyrdom of dying to the world and leaving all for Christ requisite too all of them in some measure to dye well at any time the very sum of the Text to be learn'd hence and practis'd by us If I add all requisite to keep Christmas too as it should be kept with Grace and Devotion with Faith and courage also against all that shall oppose it that our Christmas business be to be filled with the Spirit and not with meats and drinks to look up to Heaven to look up to Iesus and never to be afraid or ashamed to profess it there is nothing then in the Text to make it the least unseasonable I go on therefore to handle it part by part The first is St. Stephens accommodation to his Martyrdom how he stands fitted for it And surely he could not be better Full of the Holy Ghost Ghost is Spirit and what more necessary to a Martyr then a spirit The dreaming sluggish temper is not fit to make a Martyr he must have Spirit that dares look Death soberly in the face Yet every Spirit neither will not make a Martyr there are mad spirits in the world they call them brave ones though I know not why that rush headily upon the points of Swords and Rapiers yet bring these gallant fellows to a Scaffold or a Gibbet the common reward of their foolish rashness which they mis-reckon'd valour and you shall see how sheepishly they die how distractedly they look how without spirit The spirit that will bear out a shameful or painful death without change of countenance or inward horrour must be holy Where the Spirit is holy the Conscience pure the Soul clean the man dies with life and spirit in his looks as if he were either going to his bed or to a better place 'T is a holy life that fits men to be Martyrs But spirit and a holy Spirit is not enough to make a Martyr neither though the Martyrs spirit must be a holy one yet to dispose for martyrdom the holy Spirit must come himself with a peculiar power send an impulse and motion into the soul and spirit that shall even drive it to the stake And every degree of power will not do it it must be a full gale of holy wind that can cool the fiery Furnace into a pleasing walk that can make death and torments seem soft and easie Full of the Holy Ghost it is that Stephen is said to be e're we hear him promoted to the glory of a Martyr The Spirit of holiness will make a man die holily and the holy Spirit make him die comfortably but the fulness of him is required to make him die couragiously without fear of death or torment cruelty or rage By this you may now guess at Martys who they are not they that die for their folly and their humour not they 2. that die without holiness not every one 3. that dies as we say with valour and spirit not they that die upon the motion of any spirit but the holy one that one holy Spirit not they that die in Schism and Faction against the unity of this Holy Spirit the peace of his Holy Church none of these die Martyrs die Souldiers or valiant Heathen or men of spirit they may but men of the holy Spirit Martyrs they die not They only die such that have lived holily die in holy Cause in a holy Faith and in the peace of holy Church as in the Faith of one Holy Spirit ruling and directing it into unity upon good ground and warrant and a strong impulsion so to do without seeking for or voluntarily and unnecessarily thrusting themselves into the mouth of death And yet there are strange impulses I must tell you of the spirit of Martyrdom which ordinary souls or common pieties cannot understand Only we must know that the spirit of Martyrdom is the spirit of Love the very height of love to God which how that can consist with the spirit of Schism whereby we break the unity of Brethren or how a man can so highly love God as to dye for him and hate his Spouse the Church or his Brethren is inimaginable Some other engines there may be as vain-glory an obstinate humour of seeming constant to a false principle an ignorant and self-willed zeal which may sometimes draw a man to die but if the fulness of peace and charity does not appear there is no fulness of the Holy Ghost and they make themselves and their deaths but Martyrs that is witnesses of their own folly He that pretends to be a Martyr must have more then a pretence to the Spirit of charity II. And not to charity only but to devotion too He must 2. prepare himself for it stedfastly look up to Heaven nay into Heaven too fill his Spirit with divine and heavenly provision for it with St. Stephen here Who 1. looks up to Heaven as to his Country whither he was a going He longs earnestly to be there His soul with holy David's has a desire and longing to enter thither He that looks but seriously up to Heaven and beholds that glorious Building those starry Spangles those azure Curtains those lustrous bodies of the Sun and Moon that vast and splendid circumference of these glistering dwellings cannot but thirst vehemently to be there soul and flesh thirst for it O how brave a place is Heaven how brave even but to look on But if he can look as here it seems St. Stephen did into heaven too and contemplate the happy Choirs of blessed Saints and Angels the ineffable beauty of those inward Courts the ravishing Melody and Musick they make the quiet peace and happiness that pleasure joy and fulness of satisfaction and contentment there the majestick presence and blessed sight of God himself with all the store-houses of blessedness and glory full about him his very soul will be even ready to start with violence out of his body to fly up thither He that looks thus stedfastly looks
into Heaven cannot now but look askew upon the earth To look up into Heaven is 2. to despise and trample upon all things under it He is not likely to be a Martyr that looks downward that values any thing below Nay he dies his natural death but unwillingly and untowardly whose eyes or heart or sences are taken up with the things about him Even to die chearfully though in a bed of Roses one must not have his mind upon them He so looks upon all worldly interests as dust and chaff who looks up stedfastly into heaven eyes all things by the by who eyes that well The covetous worldling the voluptuous Gallant the gaudy Butterflies of fashion will never make you Martyrs they are wholly fixt in the contemplation of their gold their Mistresses their Pleasures or their Fashions He scorns to look at these whose eyes are upon Heaven Yet to scorn there but especially to fit us against a tempest or a storm of stones there is a third looking up to Heaven in Prayer and Supplication It is not by our own strength or power that we can wade through streams of Blood or sing in flames we had need of assistance from above and he that looks up to Heaven seems so to beg it It was no doubt the spirit of Devotion that so fixt his sight he saw what was like to fall below he provides against it from above looks to that great Corner-stone to arm him against those which were now ready to shower upon his head It is impossible without our prayers and some aid thence to endure one petty pebble But to make it a compleat Martyrdom we must not look up only for our own interests for we are 4. to look up for our very enemies and beg Heavens pardon for them He that dies not in Charity dies not a Christian but he that dies not heart and hand and eyes and all compleat in it cannot die a Martyr Here we find S. Stephen lifting up his eyes to set himself to prayer 't is but two verses or three after that we hear his prayer Lord lay not this sin to their charge This was one thing it seems he lookt up so stedfastly to Heaven for A good lesson and fit for the occasion so to pass by the injuries of our greatest enemies as if we did not see them as if we had something else to look after then such petty contrasts as if we despis'd all worldly enmities as well as affections minded nothing but heaven and him that St. Stephen saw standing there All these ways we are to day to learn to look up to Heaven as 1. to our hop'd for Country as 2. from things that hinder us too long from coming to it as 3. for aid and help to bring us thither as 4. for mercy and pardon thence to our selves and enemies that we may all one day meet together there The posture it self is natural 'T is natural for men in misery to look up to Heaven nay the very insensible creature when it complains the Cow when it lows the Dog when he howls casts up its head according to its proportion after its fashion as if it naturally crav'd some comfort thence 'T is the general practice of Saints and holy persons Lift up your eyes says the Prophet Isa. xl 26. I will lift up my eyes says Holy David Psal. cxxi 1. And distrest Susanna lifts up her eyes and looks up towards Heaven ver 35. Nay Christ himself sighing or praying or sometimes working miracles looks up to Heaven who yet carried Heaven about him to teach us in all distresses to look up thither in all our actions to fetch assistance thence If we had those thoughts of Heaven we should I know how little of the eye the earth should have Vbi amor ibi oculus where the love is there 's the eye We may easiy guess what we love best by our looks if Heaven be it our eyes are there if any thing else our eyes are there 'T is easie then to tell you St. Stephens longings where his thoughts are fixt when we are told he so stedfastly lookt up to heaven And indeed it is not so much the looking up to Heaven as the stedfast and attentive doing it that fits us to die for Christ. 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a kind of stretching or straining the eye-sight to look inquisitively into the object To look carelesly or perfunctorily into Heaven it self to do it in a fit to be godly and pious now and then or by starts and girds will not serve turn to mind seriously what we are about that 's the only piety will carry it Plus vaâ—â—t hora fervens quam mensis tepens One hour one half hour spent with a warm attention at our prayers is worth a month a year an age of our cold Devotions 'T is good to be zealous says St. Paul somewhat hot and vehement in a good matter And it had need be a stedfast and attentive Devotion that can hold out with this But. To stand praying or looking up to Heaven when our enemies are gnashing their teath upon us and come running head-long on us to have no regard to their rushing fury nor interrupt our prayers nor omit any ceremony of them neither for all their savage malice now pressing fiercely on us but look up stedfastly still not quich aside this looks surely like a Martyr The little Boy that held Alexander the candle whilst he was sacrificing to his Gods so long that the wick burnt into his finger and yet neither cried nor shrunk at it lest he should disturb his Lords Devotions will find few fellows among Christians to pattern him in the exercise of their strictest pieties Let but a leaf stir a wind breathe a fly buzz the very light but dwindle any thing move or shake and our poor Religion alas is put off the hinge 't is well if it be not at an end too What would it do if danger and death were at our heels as here it was Oh this attentive stedfast fastning the soul upon the business of heaven were a rare piety if we could compass it This glorious Martyr has shew'd us an example the lesson is that we should practise it But all this is no wonder seeing he was full of the Holy Ghost That Almighty Spirit is able to blow away all diversions able to turn the shower of stones into the softness and drift of Snow able to make all the torments of Death fall light and easie If we can get our souls filled once with that we need fear nothing nothing will distract our thoughts or draw our eyes from Heaven Then it will be no wonder neither to see next the Glory of God and Iesus standing at the right hand of God I call'd this point St. Stephens confirmation or his encouragement to his death He that once comes to have a sight of God and Christ of Gods Glory and Christ at the right hand of