companion of Beasts from the bosom of his Father to the concave of a Manger is such a descent of humility that we have no more understanding than the very beasts to express it Go man and sit down now in the lowest room thou canst thou canst not sit so low as lay thy Saviour S. Ierome was so much devoted to the contemplation of this strange humility of his Master in this particular that he spent many of his years near the place of this hallowed Manger And S. Luke in S. Ambrose's interpretation pleases himself much in the recounting of this circumstance of his Saviour's Birth and indeed any may so conjecture it that considers how often he repeats it in so little compass thrice within ten verses the 7. 12. and 16. And say I let others seek him in the Courts of Princes in the head of an Army under a Canopy of State in a Cradle of Gold or Ivory I will seek him to day where he was laid whither the Angel sent the Shepherds to seek him where the Shepherds found him in a Manger in a Stable in the humble and lowly heart that in an humble sense of his own unworthiness cries out with Agur Prov. xxx 2. Surely I am more brutish than man and have not the understanding of a man even thinks himself fit for a Manger nay not worthy of it since his Lord lay in it 6. But the Manger is not the worst the dis-respect that forc'd him thither that 's the hardest that there was no room for them in the Inn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eis no room for them mark that 't is not said there was no room no room at all in the Inn but none for them they were so poor it seems and their outward appearance so contemptible that notwithstanding the condition of a Woman great with Child and so near her time they were put away without respect or regard To have fall'n by chance or some accident into so mean a place or have been driven thither by some sudden storm or tempest and so frighted into travel had been no such wonder peradventure but to be driven thither by the unkindness and inhumanity of ones own Countrymen and Tribe too is a trial of humility indeed but to choose to be so for he knew all from the beginning before it came to pass so to contrive all things for it and suffer the uncivil ruggedness of men to drive him out to dwell and lodge among Beasts to have contempt thrown upon his poverty and neglect added to all inconveniences is sure to teach us humility in the harshest usages we meet with He that made all places finds none himself and is content He that hath many Mansions for others in his Fathers house hath not the least lobby in an Inn and repines not at it He that would have given this churlish Host an eternal house in Heaven for asking for cannot have a Cabin for any hire because his parents seem so poor and yet he fetches not fire from Heaven to consume him for his inhumanity How unlike us I pray for whom no downy pallets are soft enough no room sufficiently spacious and Majestick no furniture enough costly no attendance sufficient all respect too little Do we ever call to mind this our Saviours first entertainment in the world or think we are no better then our Master He could have come in state in glory in all magnificence and pomp attended with all respect and honour but would not for our sakes most that we might see what he most delights in and learn it as much by his example as his precept 7. And yet there is a seventh degree of his humility to let all this be done to him in such a publick time and place when the whole world was met together to be taxed where so many were gathered in such a place of meeting as an Inn when the whole City is filled from one corner to another there and then to be so used so despised so scorned as a sign of men and the out-cast of the people ranked with the Horse and Ass to have so many witnesses of affroâ—ts and contempts put upon him to condescend and order so to have it done is the highest of humility for not only to think meanly of our selves but to desire to have all others think meanly of us is so hard a Text that I fear me few can bear it Whatever we suffer or to whatsoever meannesses and under offices we condescend we would not willingly have others think the worse of us for it there is too oft a pride in our good works that lies lurking under them we scarce can throw it off but 't is that 't is that above the rest that we should endeavour to be content to be trampled on and despised for him who was so for us Sum we up now the points of Christs humility to leave his Fathers bosom for the Virgins Womb the great riches in Heaven for great poverty upon earth to wrap up his immensity in Swadling-clothes his Robes of glory in Clouts and Rags forsake his Throne for a Manger the adoration of Saints and Angels for the dis-respects of a surly Host to be seen in this mean pickle to all the world Domine in quis similis tui O Lord who is like to thee who is like to thee may we say this way also in thy humility as well as in thy glory And sure we cannot hereafter any of us grudge to be in rags in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins in Dens and Caves of the earth destitute neglected forsaken repuls'd contemned but humble our selves to the meanest condition without any great reflection upon our Birth or former estates and conditions if Christ shall at any time require it of us seeing the Servant is not better than his Master nor the dry tree than the green and if to him all this was done we should frame our minds at least to a humility ready to undergo it I have run over the plain song of the words the plain lesson of humility that is in them without straining I must back over again to descant out the mysteries that lie under them And she brought forth Before she travell'd she brought forth before her pain came she was delivered of a man-child so prophesied Isaiah Isa. lxvi 7. and so the Fathers do apply it She conceived without corruption and brought forth without sorrow the very Text may bear witness to it for she wrapt it in the Swadling-clothes and she laid it in the Manger says St. Luke No women it seems near to help her for she who needed not the help of man to conceive needed no help of woman sure to bring forth no corruption no sorrow A great mystery none ever like it to begin with But she a Virgin thus bringing forth affords us a second too to instruct us what souls they are of whom Christ is born Pure and Virgin Chaste and Holy only that bring forth him And the
all fuluess is and dwells Col. ii 9. God blessed for ever Rom. ix 5. Let 's make this acknowledgment of him profess and proclaim it as they do here call him the ever blessed Blessed 6. be all his works actions and passions the works of our Redemption Justification Sanctification Glorification which all come to us only through his Name and Merits Attribute we all to him and to his Name Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be the praise and glory of all these great and wonderful things Blessed lastly be all his purposes and intentions towards us he came to reveal his Fathers will unto us bless him for that bless we should all such that make known unto us the will of God Beati pedes Evangelizantium Blessed be the feet of the Ministers of the Gospel much more this great Archbishop of our Souls that sends them He came to glorifie the Father S. Iohn viii to teach us to do so bless him for that He came to save and deliver us from all kind of evil however we wilfully thrust daily into it some or other bless him for that say all good of him that wishes and works all good to us but which is only truly to bless further we all purposes what we can and help them forward that he and we may be glorified by the hand For this blessing is not meerly a form of words we must 1. earnestly and heartily desire God to bless to bless all Christs ways of coming to us that we may joyfully and chearfully and devoutly entertain him Desire God 2. to bless him that cometh in his name him whoe're he be that he sends to us but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially that his coming may come abroad to all the world all come in unto him Desire 3. that man may bless him incite the sons of men to sing praise too unto him Praise him all ye Nations praise him all ye people strive what we can to get all we come nigh to come with us and bear a part in blessing him In a word bless we our selves in him think and profess and proclaim our selves blessed that Christ is come to us that we have our part and portion in him place all our joy all our rejoycing all our triumph that he is with us that the name of the Lord is declared unto us that by his coming the name of the Lord is called upon us that we are now of his retinue that we now belong unto him that he is daily coming in us And for this Hosanna now 3. in excelsis indeed Hosanna to him in the highest sing we it as loud as we can reach as loud as we can cry it And that may pass for the first interpretation of in excelsis that we are to cry it as loud as we can cry it do what we can to express our joy how we can to give him thanks to exalt his praise what we are able in excelsis to the highest of our power so Psal. cxlviii 1. Praise him in the height We all of us in excelsis in our highest yea and 2. the very highest the very most in excelsis of us all the highest of us is too low to praise him worthily yet praise him O ye highest ye Kings and Princes of the earth Kings of the earth and all people Psal. cxlviii 11. come down from your excelsis and lay your Crowns and Scepters at the feet of this King as S. Luke that cometh and submit all your Kingdoms to the Kingdom of Christ make ye all your Kingdoms to bless his that your Kingdoms also may be blessed Nay and yet there are higher then these highest who are to praise him Praise him all ye heavens Psal. cxlviii 4. Praise him all ye Angels praise him all his Hosts ver 2. So S. Luke intimates it when he expresses it peace on earth in Heaven and glory in the highest glory in Heaven for the peace that is made between Heaven and Earth by him that cometh here in the name of the Lord by whom says the Apostle all things are reconciled Whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven Col. i. 20. Hosanna in the highest for this peace with the highest sung be it by Heaven and Earth by Angels and Men the Angels sung somewhat a like Song at his Birth when he was coming into the world according as St. Luke interprets it and will sing it again if we invite them as the Psalmist does to sing with us and we must desire it that God may be prais'd all glory both in Heaven and Earth That 's the way indeed to Hosanna in the highest as it is a Song of Praise but 't is also we told you a prayer that even our praises and the ground of them may continue A prayer 1. to God in excelsis the most highest as the Psalmist speaks Save us O thou most highest No salvation but from those everlasting hills of mercy salvation to be look'd for from none else the very meanest of the multitude know that A prayer 2. for salvation in excelsis that he would deliver us with a high hand work salvation with a mighty arm such as all the world might see it that he would magnifie this King that cometh and exalt his Kingdom that cometh to the clouds set it above the reach and power of malicious men make it grow and prosper maugre all contradiction and opposition of the highest and strongest of the earth A prayer 3. for salvation in excelsis indeed for salvation in the highest Heavens not only to be delivered here but to be sav'd hereafter not only for Grace and Righteousness here of the highest pitch but for glory of the highest order a prayer that God as he has exalted him that here came in his name so he would exalt us all that call upon his name to sit at his right hand in heavenly places in the highest right So these multitudes pray and so pray we so praise they and so praise we Do what we can our selves to praise and bless him and do what we can to get others do it call upon the Angels to joyn with us do it with all our might and strength stretch out our voices scrue up our strings nothing content or satisfie us in our prayers or praises but the highest the highest thankfulness the highest devotion the highest expression and way of both that either the multitudes before or the multitudes that follow Iews or Christians former or latter Saints ever used before us All perhaps cannot spread carpets cloths and garments to entertain him nor have all Boughs of Palms or Olives to meet him with all have not wherewith to make a solemn shew and flourish but all have tongues all may sing Hosanna's to him or if that word be hard all may cry Save us Lord and Blessed be he that came and cometh If we have neither substance to praise him with nor solemn Ceremonies allowed
to the squares of righteousness is to make streight paths both together compleat the preparation which we will consider first in general then in particular first how his way generally is to be prepared then how particularly after a more particular and special way and manner We cannot find how in general to prepare his way better then by the words that follow immediately in the Prophet Isa. xl 4. and are so repeated also by S. Luke iiâ— 5. Every Valley shall be filled and every Mountain shall be brought low and the crooked ways shall be made streight and the rough ways shall be made smooth Every Valley must be filled the empty valleys of our Souls filled up with the fruits of all good works these valleys must stand so thick with such holy corn with all good fruits that they laugh and fing make us sing merrily the praises of the Lord. 2. Every Mountain and Hill must be brought low all our proud high thoughts laid down The greater Mountains and lesser Hills mole-hills as well as Mountains as well great as less and as well less as greater sins cast down our very natural reason and understanding submitted to the obedience of faith 3. The crooked ways must be made streight all our crooked ways distorted actions perverse affections all that is awry or swerving from the rule of Gods Commandments must be rectified and set right 4. All the rough ways made smooth all our roughnesses and unevennesses natural or customary made smooth and level no stones of offence no thorns or bushes hedges or ditches in the way That the way be neither mountainous with pride nor dark with ignorance nor dirty with lust nor thorny with worldly cares nor hollow with hypocrisie nor slippery with riot nor washy with drunkenness nor tedious through slothfulness nor uneven with irresolution and inconstancy Fill the low valleys we must with high heavenly affections and contemplations with high degrees of Piety and Devotion Bring down the hills by humility and obedience Streighten the crooked by righteousness and uprightness Smooth the rough ways with meekness gentleness and charity Rull down the haughty towring thoughts raise up the groveling mind rectifie the perverse intentions smooth the rough and uneven passions of the soul prepare them all remove out of them every thing that may offend and bring them all into the way of the Lord. Thus in general But we have a more particular and special way for we may consider the way of the Lord either as the way of a King for he is both Lord and King coming against us with his Armies or as a King coming to us in his Triumph to honour us and rejoyce with us If we consider the way of the Lord as of one coming against us for destruction prepare we then as the men of Bethulia did against Holofernes Judeth iv 4 5. They sent messengers into all the coasts they possessed themselves beforehand of the tops of the high mountains they fortified the villages laid up victuals for the provision of War and gave charge to keep the passages ver 7. so they prepared do we so too possess we the tops of the mountains by setting our affections upon things above fortifie we the poor villages of our weak natures by strong and holy resolutions gather we together all kind of provision for our souls out of the Holy Scriptures by constant reading and meditation keep all the passages of them with care and vigilance and send out messengers into all the coasts of heaven and earth send up our prayers to the God of Heaven for help our desires to the Saints upon the earth to assist us with their devotions advice and company Prepare we armour too with Vzziah 2 Chron xxvi 14. Shields and spears and helmets habergeons and bows and slings Stand we thus ready armed in the way our head covered with the hope of salvation for a Helmet our breast armed with righteousness for a Breast-plate our body defended with the Habergeon of a holy conversation in our left hand the Shield of Faith and in our right hand Alms far better then the strongest Spear says the Son of Sirach Ecclus. xxix 13. the Sword of the Holy Spirit the word of truth girt to our loins the bow and arrows of the holy fear of Gods Judgments hanging on our shoulders the Cross of Christ for our Sling and himself for the stone to smite our grand enemy in the fore-head and put him to a perpetual shame Thus make ready to entertain him But if 2. he come to us in the way of triumph or grace and favour then prepare we the way as is usual at the entertainment of great Princes Now at such times they sweep or wash the ways and streets they pave they gravel them they rail them in they hang them with Tapestry they strew them with Rushes and Flowers they set guards to fence the ranks and place themselves in order to cry out Vivat Rex or some such thing to receive them with joyful acclamations Let us go and do likewise Wash all our ways with tears sweep them with the besom of confession pave them with pious vows and purposes spread them over with fair amendment rail them in by the obedience of faith and daily caution adorn them by the imitation of the lives of holy Saints set them like so many pictures in Tapestry before thee shrew them with sweet Herbs and Flowers the Roses of Chastity the Lillies of Purity the Balm of Charity the Hyssop of Humility the Violets of Patience the Woodbines of Hope and Love the Bays of Constancy all the sweets of piety and vertue guard the way guard all the ways with attention and godly zeal and make all the streets and ways resound again with the eccho of praises and thanksgivings This it is to prepare his way And thus every way of his we spoke of must be prepared Our Souls so ordered out Meditations of the Law so regulated our Repentance so adorned our Baptisms so accompanied our Obedience so fulfilled Gods Providence and way of dealing with us so accepted with clean hearts grounded resolutions an even temper with care and diligence with exemplary vertue sweetness and moderation zeal and attention humility and thanksgiving All this while make streight must not be forgotten All this must be done now also with upright hearts sincere intentions not in outward form and appearance only not for fear of punishment not for hope of reward and praise not meerly to avoid danger nor yet lastly to be seen of men All these the Pharisees did and yet for all that none of them keeps the Law says Christ. The Law is not fulfilled by the external act the Commandments not kept by the outward performance 't is the inward spirit of Charity when they are done with that that only keeps them 't is that only that makes right ways sound paths without it they are but rotten ways or hollow ones such as Christ will not
day by the course of Holy Church to wish you to look up and lift up your heads to see the Son of man your Redeemer in his second coming coming in a Cloud of Glory That we knowing it is the same Son of man who was once born in a Stable and cradled in a Manger that shall one day come to be the Iudge of Heaven and Earth we might so celebrate his first coming in flesh that when all flesh shall stand before him we might lift up our heads with joy and comfort For many there are which shall hang down theirs such who have not thought aright of his coming into the world or not worthily entertain'd it or not walked with him in it along the stage of his humility or never rightly pondered the terrors of this second coming in the day of Judgment which he himself here Preaches to his Disciples that they might take heed to themselves lest at any time their hearts should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness the Disease that usually infects all our Christmasses and cares of this life the Disease that infects all our days and so that day come upon them unawares but that watch they should and pray always that they might be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of man ver 34. They had but three days before accompanied him to Ierusalem in his progress of meekness and now in one of his returns he begins to tell them of another kind of coming to it in judgment and fury His Disciples who by the sight of such strong and goodly buildings could not conjecture they should end unless the world fell with them ask him presently upon it when those things should come to pass and when should be the end of the world Their Master that he might at once both satisfie and blind their curiosity mingles the signs of the particular destruction of Ierusalem and of the general ruine of the world together that he might the better keep them awake to attend both his general and particular coming and make both them and us at the approach of particular judgments upon Cities or Nations always mindful and prepared for the general judgment of the last day which he here calls the coming of the Son of Man and tells us how to entertain it So that in the Text as the verses so the parts are two 1. Christs coming Then shall they see the Son c. ver 27. 2. The Christians comfort When these things c. ver 28. In Christs coming 1. The time when Then after the signs forementioned then shall they see 2. The generality of it They all that can see shall see his coming 3. The evidence of his coming so plain he may be seen seen by the eye of Faith 4. The certainty They shall see him to be sure 5. The form in which he comes as the Son of man 6. The end to which he comes He comes with power with the power of a Judge for quick and dead 7. The manner of his coming In a Cloud with power and great glory In the Christians comfort 1. Where it begins When these things begin to come to pass then that begins too Then look up 2. To whom it belongs You Disciples do you look up 3. What kind of comfort 't is A looking up a lifting up the head when all heads else droop with fear and grief 4. Whence this comfort arises from what ground it springs for your redemption draweth nigh I go on with all in oâ—der as they lie so that if you remember the words you cannot forget the order and method Then shall c. At Christs coming there we begin but when is that the Heavens shall tell you the Earth shall tell you the Sea shall tell you Men shall tell you The Heavens by signs and wonders by storms and tempests the lights of Heaven shall lose themselves in darkness and forsake their Spheres and their constantest powers shall be shaken out of their course and harmony The Earth shall quake for fear and change its place The Waves shall fright themselves with their own roarings and mens hearts shall fail for fear neither knowing how to stand nor to avoid this dreadful coming When these with all the host of heaven and earth startled out of their natural seats and postures shall have prepar'd and usher'd him the way then shall he come He comes not till all things else have done their motion and have gone their last Nor is it fitting so great a coming should be without an universal preparation where every creature forgetting its own nature begins at last to study his There is nothing that can stand when God comes Heaven it self is at a loss and remembers not its perpetual motion when it but apprehends his approach Every thing is a wonder to it self when he appears If nature it self be thus terrified which groans not for it self but 〈◊〉 what shall we be with all our sins about us how can 〈◊〉 abide his coming Yet then shall he appear when we know not how to appear Heaven and Earth will change their faces Men and Angels will hide theirs only he it is that dares be seen Sins or imperfections make all the creatures cover themselves with some disguises or endeavour it only he who is all purity all perfection comes then to shew himself Yet when this Then shall be when that day and hour shall come no man knows no not the Son of man himself S. Mark xiii 32. as man He that could tell you that come he would and could tell you the immediate signs that would fore-run it knew not then the time when those signs should be or knew it not to tell you That we might always be waiting for his coming Had it been fit for us to know no doubt he would have told us but so far unnecessary it seems to be acquainted with that secret time that he gives us signs which rather puzzle then instruct us signs which we sometimes think fulfilled already signs which have often been the forerunners of particular ruines and fates of Countries and Kingdoms signs which at the same time we fear past already yet think they are not that so by this hard dialect of tokens in heaven and earth we might behold our presumptuous curiosity deluded into a perperual watching for this last coming There were in the Apostles times and there are still in ours men who lov'd to scare the people with Prophesies and Dreams of the end of the world as if this then already were at hand such as would define the year and day as if they had lately dropt out of Gods Council Chamber but we beseech you says S. Paul that you be not troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand 2 Thess. ii 2. Let no man deceive you ver 3. they do but deceive you they vent
the Vse both of the Doctrine and the Day to apply them both and cry out every one of us with St. Paul 'T is I and I and I for whom He came In the Doctrine there are these particulars 1. That Christ Iesus came into the world 2. That He came to save sinners 3. That He came to save the chiefest of them the very quorum primi of them What is it else to S. Paul or us or why does he bring himself in upon no better title 4. That all these are faithful sayings and worthy of acceptation all single such but all together make up a saying worthy all acceptation the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the saying above all sayings the whole Word and Gospel it self the Word after which no word can be said nothing beyond it Of which therefore surely the Vse 2. must needs be great if we throughly apply it and four ways there are to do it in the Text four Vses we are to make of it 1. If a saying a faithful saying it be we then faithfully to believe it 2. If worthy acceptation we then worthily to accept it 3. If it reach the chief sinners too our chief business then with St. Paul humbly to apply it to our own particular not think much any of us to say quorum ego primus not to stick to confess our selves the chiefest among them that are sinners so we may be found chief or second or any one among them that are saved 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a special saying this is not to be wrapt up in silence then nor hudled up within private walls but to be spoken and spoken out cried and proclaimed to all the world And all this lastly I add to be done to day That indeed is not in the Text but 't is in the Time and never better to be done then now to day That 's the right use of this Holy time that to which the Church designs Christmas to proclaim Christs coming into the world to save sinners and to call them in all to come to him To carry on the design I go on now with the Text and begin with the first branch of the Doctrine there that Christ Iesus came into the world 1. That he did so this great day is witness worthy therefore to be kept for ever for a witness of it and they that keep it not to be suspected that they do not think he did nor believe that there was any such matter Yet that such a one there was one Iesus that went about doing good the Iews his rankest enemies will not deny it That that Iesus was the Christ though the Iews will not the Samaritans will confess it S. Iohn iv 43. Christ and Jesus too the Christ the Saviour of the world nay the Christ indeed and the Saviour indeed and they know it they say there Nay of the Jews too many believed it S. Iohn vii 31. believed and justified it Nor did they it without good ground the many Miracles that he did in the confirmation of it the performing what was prophesied of the Messiah Isa. xxxv 6. and lxi 1. The opening the eyes of the blind the making the lame to walk the deaf to hear the dumb to speak the cleansing the Lepers the raising the dead the preaching to the poor the Gospel of peace those pure and holy and comfortable Doctrines that he taught were a sufficient resolution to S. Iohn Baptists question that it was He that should come and we should look for no other S. Mat. xi 3 4 5. no other than He. Indeed we need not for this Iesus is a Iesus of another sort of another manner of spelling 't is observ'd then all former Iesus's then Iesus the Son of Nun or Iesus the Son of Iosedec or Iesus the Son of Syrach this Iehoscuah Iesus or a Iehoscuah for 't is so in the Hebrew is with the points of Iehovah in it a Iehovah Iesus a Saviour that is the Lord as the Angel tells us St. Luke ii 11. A Iesus never the like before a Iesus above every Iesus a name now above every name a name to which Heaven and Earth and Hell must bow never did they to any Iesus else And as this name now above every name so this coming of his above every coming We sometimes call our own births I confess a coming into the world but properly none ever came into the world but he For 1. He only truly can be said to come who is before he comes so were not we only he so 2. He only strictly comes who comes willingly our crying and strugling at our entrance into the world shews how unwillingly we come into it He alone it is that sings out Lo I come Psal. xl 3. He only properly comes who comes from some place or other Alas we had none to come from but the womb of nothing He only had a place to be in before he came Now such a Iesus as this as has God in his name and must be conceived to be also so by the way of his coming may well be the Messiah that should come into the world Iesus the Christ. We need seek no further especially if it be the Iesus that comes to save sinners And he it is says our next particular 2. Nay the Angel said so before he was born He had the name given him for the purpose S. Mat. i. 21. Thou shalt call his name Iesus for why For he shall save his people from their sins Himself professes he came for the purpose to call sinners to repentance S. Luke v. 32. and that 's to save them yea so for them that there 's a non veni to others he came for no other to speak truth there were no other to come for Omnes aberraverunt We were all sinners So if he came for the best of us he yet came for sinners for them or no body But so for such as not for them that were not such so altogether for sinners as not at all for the righteous I came not to call the righteous not them but sinners as it were in opposition to them Indeed Opus non habent they had no need of his coming The whole need not the Physician S. Mat. ix 12. but they that are sick and they are sinners In a word not only so for sinners as before the righteous and as it were against the righteous but so for sinners too as for the worst first for the greatest of them above the least the quorum primi to be the primi the chiefest sinners he chiefly came for that 's the third Point of this great Doctrine of the Text. 3. Look the company he keeps you 'l say so Publicans and Sinners the most emphatical of the name there you find him so often that he is accused for it by the righteous the Scribe and Pharisee S. Mark ii 16. So for the most enormous sinners it seems that the righteous cannot bear it they
or secular respects and motions but a sweetness without sensual daintiness a lustre without lightness a modest look without dejectedness a grave countenance without severity a fair face without fancy eyes sparkling only heavenly flames cheeks commanding holy modesty lips distilling celestial sweetness beauty without its faults figure and proportion and all such as was most answerable and advantageous to the work he came about every way fitted to the most perfect operations of the reasonable and immortal soul the most beautiful then sure when beauty is nothing else but an exact order and proportion of things in relation to their nature and end both to themselves and to each other Take his description from the Spouses own mouth Cant. v. 10 11 12 c. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand His head is as the most fine gold his locks are bushy or curled and black as a Raven His eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the rivers of water washed with water and fitly set that is set in fulness fitly placed and as a precious stone in the soil of a Ring His cheeks are as a bed of Spices as sweet flowers his lips like Lillies dropping sweet smelling Myrrhe his hands are as gold Rings set with Beryl his belly as bright Ivory over-laid with Saphyrs His legs are as pillars of Marble set upon sockets of fine Gold His countenance like Lebanon excellent as the Cedars His mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O daughters of Ierusalem This is our beloved too Solomon indeed has poetically express'd it Yet something else there is in it besides a poetick phrase Beautiful he thus supposes he is to be who was to be this Spouse have the beauty of all beautiful things in the world conferr'd upon him at least to have the finest and subtilest part of all worldly beauties those imperceptible yet powerful species of them which make them really amiable and attractive a head and locks and eyes and hands and feet quantity colour and proportion such as darted from them not only a resemblance but the very spirit of heavenly beauty innocence purity strength and vigour Poets when they commend beauty call it divine and heavenly this of his it was truly so a kind of sensible Divinity through all his parts Shall I give you his colour to make up the beauty He was white pure white in his Nativity ruddy in his Passion bright and glistering in his life black in his death Azure-vein'd in his Resurrection No wonder now to see the Spouse sit down under his shadow with great delight Cant. ii 3. we sure our selves now can do less and yet this is but the shadow of his beauty The true beauty is the souls the beauty of the soul the very soul of beauty the beauty of the body but the body nay the carcase of it And this of the souls he had 2. in its prime perfection 2. Now beauty consists in three particulars the perfection of the lineaments the due proportion of them each to other and the excellency and purity of the colour They are all compleat in the soul of Christ. The lineaments of the soul are its faculties and powers the proportion of them is the due subordination of them to God and one another The colours are the vertues and graces that are in them His powers and faculties would not but be compleat which had nothing of old Adam in them His understanding without ignorance he knew all the very hearts of all thoughts as they rose what they thought within themselves S. Luke v. 22. thoughts before they rose what the Pharisees with other would have done to him had he committed himself unto them Now Tyre and Sidon would have repented had they had the mercy allowed to Corazin and Bethsaida S. Luke x. 13. His will without wilfulness or weakness his passions without infirmity or extravagance his inferiour powers without defect or maim his understanding clear his will holy his passions sweet all his powers vigorous Hear the Wise man describe him under the name of Wisdom Wisd. xvii 22 23 c. In her that is in him who is the Wisdom of the Father is an understanding Spirit holy one onely manifold subtile lively clear undefiled plain nor subject to hurt loving the thing that is good quick which cannot be letted ready to do good kind to man stedfast sure free from care having all power overseeing all things and going through all understanding pure and most subtile spirits and ver 25 26. A pure influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighty the brightness of the everlasting light the unspotted mirror of the power of God and the image of his goodness The powers of his soul being thus pure vigorous and unspotted they cannot 2. but be in order the will following his understanding the passions subordinate to them both all the inferiour powers obedient and ready at command and pleasure He had no sooner exprest a kind of grievance in his sensitive powers at the approach of those strange horrors of his death and sufferings but presently comes out Non mea sed tua Not my will but thine all in a moment at peace and in tranquillity No rash or idle word no unseemly passage no sowre look nor gesture or expression unsuitable to his Divinity throughout his life the very Devils to their own confusion cannot but confess it We know thee who thou art the Holy One of God S. Mark i. 24. To this add those heavenly colours and glances of grace and vertues and you have his soul compleatly beautiful Meekness and Innocence and Patience and Obedience even to the death Mercy and Goodness and Piety and what else is truly called by the name of good are all in him insomuch that the Apostle tells us the very fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily Col. ii 9. No Divine Grace or Vertue wanting in him In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ver 3. In him all sanctity and holiness not so much as the least guile in his mouth 1 S. Pet. ii 22. So holy that he is made holiness and sanctification unto us 1 Cor. i. 30. Sancti quasi sanguine uncti We Saints and holy become hallowed by the sprinkling of his blood In him lastly is all the power and vertue omnis virtus that is omnis potestas all the power in heaven and earth fully given to him S. Matth. xxviii 18. So that now we shall need to say little of the other particular of this first general point of Christs perfect beauty that he is not only Formosus but Formosus prae not only fair but very fair for where there is so much as you have heard exceeding and excellent it must needs be Where the body is compleat in all its parts the soul exact in all its powers the body without any ill inclination natural or habitual the soul without
make this house the Church of God It is the Gate and Court of Heaven now Christ is here Angels sing round about it all Holiness is in it now Christ is in it Here all the Creatures reasonable and unreasonable come to pay their homage to their Creator hither they come even from the ends of the earth to their devotions a house of Prayer it is for all people Gentiles and all hither they come to worship hither they come to pay their Offerings and their Vows here 's the Shrine and Altar the glorious Virgins Lap where the Saviour of the World is laid to be adored and worship'd here stands the Star for tapers to give it light and here the Wisemen this Day become the Priests worship and offer present prayers and praises for themselves and the whole world besides all people of the world high and low learned and ignorant represented by them This House then is a place well worth the coming to here might the Wisemen well end all their Journeys sit down and rest where the eternal Wisdom keeps its residence here may the greatest Potentates not disdain to stoop and enter where the King of Kings and Lord of Lords vouchsafes to make his Lodging Here only in this blessed Inn where Christ is lodged can the soul truly rest no Wisdom but what is here no Greatness but what is his no house but what is sanctified by his presence no bed but where his right hand becomes our Pillow and his left our covering can satisfie the wearied soul or give so much as one wink of rest or quiet or contentment to it Well may the Wisemen pass by all other houses tocome to this slight all the magnificent Palaces in the earth to take up a lodging in this Inn leave all other sights for this blessed sight and count nothing worth the seeing till they see him nothing but him Wise men will do so still esteem Gods House how mean soever it appear above all houses his sight above all that can be seen count all things dross and dung so they may gain Christ one glance of him one beam of his glorious brightness Any place shall be worth being in where he is no journey tedious that at last brings to him no way troublesome that leads to him Rocks and Mountains easier than flowry plains and Meadows Sands and Desarts pleasanter than the Spicie Gardens of the East and the Hesperian Orchards Ice and Snows and rain and hail and stormy weather the greatest hardships that all these lower Regions can pour upon us more delightful than continual Summers and perpetual Springs than uninterrupted sun-shines and gawdy days if by those endurances we may at length arrive at the feet of Christ. All the injuries and inconveniences that can befall us here are not worth the naming so they bring us to our Saviour O my God let me loose all so I may find him let me want any thing so I want not him let me have nothing so I may have him He is the only thing the Wise men sought and he it is that thus seeking they found and saw at last And when they were come into the house they found the young Child with Mary his Mother And he was a thing worth finding And found he would be because they sought him will be so of us if we seek him diligently carefully and constantly as they did here For the vvords here may as vvell carry the title of a revvard for their pains as of a posture of their faith Some ancient Copies which the Latine follows read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invenerunt they found the Child and thus it seems to speak their success and the recompence of their labour in the search Others they say as ancient read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viderunt they saw the Child which our English follows and though there be no great difference or matter of distinction yet being authorized by our Church we are willing to make use of as being of a larger capacity as well somewhat expressing the Wise mens carriage as their success For we intend to handle both 1. As it presents to us their success A success sufficient to encourage us all to turn perpetual travellers to find Christ in the flesh Christ a Child to find him as soon almost as he can be found a young Child not yet full a fortnight old to find him with his Mother too Christ and the devout soul together Christ and the soul united to find him and Mary together Christ exalted in our hearts for so Mary signifies exalted his Kingdom and Power set up and exalted in our hearts to find all this all this for one poor journey for the pains and labour of so small a number of days and hours is a success than which no journey no undertaking can have better yet all these are here 1. They found first an incarnate God their Saviour in the flesh a sight that the very Angels desire to look into Bow down to look into says St. Peter 1 Pet. i. 12. A sight which all the Patriarchs and Prophets still desired to see but could not A sight which made the very Angels leave their heaven to come down and see and seeing sing for joy A sight which made the Stars rejoyce in their courses and wait upon poor mortals steps that they might be admitted to behold it For indeed what wonder ever saw they like it He that spans the Heavens become a span breadth himself The eternal word without a word to say the infinite wisdom become childishness the incomprehensible greatness wrapt up in swadling-bands He that fills heaven and earth not big enough to fill a Virgins arms He that opens his hand and fills all things living with his plenteousness sucking himself a little milk out of his Mothers Breasts to live by He poor himself who makes all rich God a man Eternity a child who would not travel the world over to see this miracle and think his time and pains never spent so well as then 2. But secondly to have the first sight almost as it were of so happy a wonder adds something to the glory of the success to be admitted among the first into Christs presence to be so honour'd as to be of the number of his first attendants to be with him whilst he is yet a child to wait upon this new-born King and have relation to him from his Cradle to meet with him so young so tender so pliable so easie to be approach'd and dealt with is a success of so much honour and obligement that we may expect any thing from his hands being of his first followers and servants in so tender a condition towards us 3. Thus far the Journey seems sufficiently successful yet not only to find a Saviour in the flesh so near allied unto us and so soon almost as he is so made to us but also thirdly to find him in his Mothers arms fast claspt within our souls for every
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
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
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
them 〈…〉 feet of the meanest Christian soul whom thou at at any time despoiled'st of them and either shrink away confounded with our glory or else be glad of a Resurrection as well as we Whilst those miserable wretches that thou so much courtedst and delightedst in and that thy Prince who rul'd and abus'd thee to all his lusts shall down together into eternal misery when those poor despised Christians whom thou so much maligned'st shall reign in glory Miserable they were not here maugre all the world could do against them they had that peace that joy that contentment still within which the world could neither give nor take away They found an unspeakable as well pleasure as glory in their very afflictions and bitterest sufferings being exceeding glad and counting all joy to be made so like their Master whose Ministers or whose Servants they were with him despising the shame and trouble of a contemptible and afflictive life or death for the joy set before them for the hope they saw at the right hand of the Throne of God Thus feeling nothing that could be truly or properly called misery whilst they took pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake as St. Paul professes he did 2 Cor. xii 10. whilst it all serv'd only to their contentment here and augment their happiness and glory hereafter they sure lost nothing then they are not miserable now who are so faln asleep And lift up your heads ye drooping Christians still they shall not be miserable that so at any time fall asleep but rise and live again and be yet more happy every one in their order every star their glory every star a different ray according to their hope and sufferings here as no men so little miserable here if all things be truly pondered so no men so happy hereafter as the Christians they of all men above all men souls and bodies both Pastor and People all that live and die under the glorious hope of a Resurrection by Christ who place not their hopes or affections in this life but in Him and in the other of all men they most blessed most eternally blessed To which blessed estate after this life ended He who is our Hope and who we hope will keep us in it He in whom we trust and I trust shall do so still not for this life only but the other too but for ever He of his mercy convey and bring us all every one in his due time and order even our Lord Iesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all praise and glory not in this life only but for ever and ever Amen A SERMON UPON Ascension Day PSAL. xxiv 3 4. Vho shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand up in his holy place Even he that hath clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lift up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour WHo shall ascend indeed if none must ascend but he that is clean and pure and without vanity and deceit The question is quickly answered None shall for there is none so dust is our matter so not clean defiled is our nature so not pure lighter the heaviest of us than vanity and deceitful upon the balance the best of us Psal. lxii 9. so no ascending so high for any of us Yet there is one we hear of or might have heard of to day that rose and ascended up on high was thus qualified as the Psalmist speaks of all clean and pure no chaff at all no guile sound in his mouth 1 Pet. ii 22. Yea but it was but one that was so What 's that to all the rest Yes somewhat ' t is He was our head and if the head be once risen and ascended the members will all follow after in their time Indeed 't is not for every one to hope any but such as are of his that follow him that belong to him 'T is a high priviledge that the Psalmist stands admiring at and therefore not for all yet for all that will for a who shall here is a who will set up for all that will accept of the condition Quis ascendet is who will as well as who shall They that will take the pains will do what they can to be clean and pure they shall His innocence and purity shall help out for the rest when they have done their best But if any man will ascend he must do his best must be clean and pure with Christ and through him or he shall not ascend and rise up after him 'T is the Lesson we are to learn from Ascension day to Whitsunday how to ascend after Christ into the hill of the Lord how to rise up in his holy place even to have clean hands and pure hearts not to lift up our minds to vanity or swear to deceive our neighbour to have our hands ascend and our hearts ascend and our minds ascend and our words ascend as into his presence all ascend after him The Psalm is one of them which the Church appoints for Ascension day and I see not but it may very well pass for a kind of Prophesie by way of an extatical admiration at the sight of Christs Ascension So it pass'd with the Fathers and with our Fathers too may so with us for never was it so fulfill'd to a tittle as by Christ and his Ascension He the only he of clean hands and pure heart and holy mouth and holy all he the first that entred heaven that got up the hill that entred into the holy place not made with hands Heb. ix 24 c. Not any doors so properly everlasting as those of heaven nor they ever open'd for any King of glory to come in as it is ver 7. but him I cannot tell how we should expound it otherwise without much more metaphor and figure Yet I will allow it too for the Prophets admiration at the fore-sight of the happiness of Gods peculiar people and their condition that God whose the whole earth is and all its fulness ver 1. should out of all its places choose Sion for his place he whose the World is and all that dwell therein as it follows there should choose out the Iews amongst all the dwellers to dwell among them only to serve him upon that hill that further this God whose all is should still of this all so particularly honour some as to give them the priviledge of his hill and holy place his solemn Worship and Service to go up first into his holy places upon earth and then afterwards ascend into the holy places the heavens for the words mean the one as well as the other Who are they What a sort of people are they that are so happy so much exalted upon the earth and over it 'T is worth the admiring worth the enquiring and we find it presently who they be even such as have clean
dead Earth into Herbs and Flowers Such a wind is this Spirit that gives life to every one that comes into the world for he is the Spirit of Life Rom. viii 2. But that which adds somewhat still to the fuller glory of these effects and must not be pass'd without a note is that 't is Spirit still this wind blows still For however the winds are not always in a noise and bustle yet some spirit of air there is that moves in the deepest stillness Spiritus there is always though not ventus some tender breeze though no gale of wind there is always stirring And if there were not continually some such sweet breathings of the Holy Spirit upon us when those strong and louder blasts seem to be lull'd asleep we were but dead men and might sleep for ever but such there are and we live by them I might but I will not add any more to the Effects either of the Wind or of the Spirit I pass on to their Course and Compass to shew you how far their effects and powers reach The Wind bloweth where it listeth and the Spirit where he willeth And here I must tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vbi vult is a large circuit Vbi is where and Vbi is when and Vult is what you will especially when 't is his who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will Ephes. i. 11. So that 't will be no stretching to say either of the Wind or of the Spirit that it bloweth 1. Where it lists and 2. How it lists and 3. As much as it lists and 4. On whom it lists and 5. When it lists 1. The Wind blows where it lists on this side or on that side or on any side any where and every where The Spirit does so too only with more propriety to Vbi vult doing out of the liberty of its own will what the wind only does out of the subtilty of its nature No place lies exempted from the power of his will It finds St. Paul and Silas in the prison and blows up the organs of their voices into Songs and Hymns It finds Manasses in the dungeon blows there with his wind and the waters flow out of his eyes It finds St. Matthew at the receipt of Custom and blows him out of a Publican into an Apostle It blows St. Peter and St. Andrew out of their Boat to the stern of the Church of Christ. He blows upon some in their journey as upon St. Paul upon others at home as upon Cornelius upon one in the bed upon another at the Mill upon Ionas in the Whales belly No place beyond his compass not the Isles of the Gentiles not the land of Vz not the Deserts of Arabia Here and there even amongst them he blows some into his Kingdom In a word no chamber so secret but it can get into no place so remote but it can reach none so private but it can find none so strong but it can break through none so deep but it can fathom none so high but it can scale no place at all but it can come into and none so bad but some way or other it will vouchsafe to visit It makes Holy David cry out as in an extasie Psal. cxxxix 6. Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit or Whether shall I go then from thy Presence If I climb up into Heaven thou art there if I go down to Hell thou art there also If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the earth even there also shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me No place it seems in Heaven or Earth or Sea or Hell it self can hold him out Nor can any hold him to this or that way of working neither for He bloweth 2. How he lists sometimes louder sometimes softer sometimes after this manner sometimes after that He raises new inclinations or he cherishes the old He changes the tempers of men or disposes them He removes opportunities of doing ill or he propounds opportunities of doing good he scares us with threats or allures us with promises he drives us with judgments or he draws us with mercies he inflames us within or he moves us from without which way soever it pleases him No wind so various in its blowing Different ways he has to deal with divers men and diversities of gifts he has for them too differences of Administrations diversities of Operations 1 Cor. xii 5. To one he gives the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge to another faith to another the gift of healing to another the working of miracles to another prophesie to another discerning of spirits to another divers kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues all from the Spirit says the Apostle in the forecited Chapter Nor was this only for those times He still breaths diversities of gifts and graces as he pleases On some sanctifying graces on others edifying On others both To some he gives a cheerful to others a sad spirit to some a kind of holy lightness to others a religious gravity to one a power wholly to quit the World to another power to stand holy in it to one an ability to rule to another a readiness to obey to one courage to another patience to a third temperance and so to others other graces as he thinks fittest 3. Yet of these gifts to some more to some less not to all alike nay not to the same person always alike neither but 3. as much only as this Spirit will All have not faith alike nor hope alike nor charity alike nor courage alike nor patience alike neither all vertues nor any vertues all alike Upon some the abundance of the Spirit dwells upon others he breaths only some have had exstasies others but only moderate breathings Eliah had abundance of the Spirit yet Elisha has it doubled 2 Kings ii 9. And yet this very same Elisha that presently upon it divides Iordan with the wind of a Mantle and restores waters to their sweetness and earth to its fruitfulness by a cruse of Salt 2 Kings ii 21. in but the very next Chapter cannot so much as prophesie without a Minstrel ver 15. is not so much as in a disposition to receive this divine Spirit without the help of an Instrument of Musick to rally his spirits into harmony and order St. Paul who was but even now caught up into the third Heavens 2 Cor. xii 1. feels by and by such a thorn in the flesh ver 7. that of all that great extraordinary proportion he has no more left him than a poor pittance a mere sufficiency ver 9. 4. And the Person is as much in his own power as the measure is He blows not only what but upon whom he will He is no mans debtor Rom. xi 35. He will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy Rom. ix 18. What
Houses and Buildings nay rends the Mountains and breaks in pieces the Rocks before it 1 Kings xix 11. But never did Wind so tear up Foundations by the roots never did so strong Buildings fall before that tumultuous vapour as this rushing mighty Wind that this day came down from Heaven hath cast down before it All the high things of the earth Wisdom and Learning and Might and Majesty have faln as easily as so many Paper Turrets at its breath all have given up themselves and thrown all prostrate at the Word of this Spirit so that the whole World stood wondring and amaz'd to see it self so turn'd about by the meer words of a few simple Fishermen without force or eloquence or craft to see it self so tamely submit its glory to the humility of Christ its greatness to his littleness its majesty to his baseness its wisdom to the foolishness of his Cross its ease pleasure to the pains and patience of it But manus excelsi fecit hoc 't is the hand of the most Highest that has done it such a wind could come from none but God such a Spirit can be none but his none but he could do it and it is marvellous in our eyes his power as marvellous as his mercy both of them above any created ones whatsoever Well may such a Wind as this now fill the house as it follows in the fifth Consideration And yet commonly the wind fills the open air and not the houses Common winds do so indeed but this peculiar Wind fills the house and every corner comes in even when the doors are shut or else opens and shuts them as it pleases a sign 't is more than air or airy spirit 't is he only that searches the hearts and reins that can glide so into these close rooms of ours and 't is our happiness it is so that he thus blows into the house of his own accord and power For give me a Ship says St. Chrysostom with all its tackling sails and anchors spread all in order too and let the wind lie still let there be no gale stirring and all its furniture and men are nothing no more is the soul with all its preparations without the blowing of the Spirit nay no more is all our eloquence all our arguments and perswasions the subtilty of our understanding the richness of our conceipt and notion the sweetness of the voice the rhetorick of words the strength of reason the whole tackling and furniture of the Orator or Preacher unless the Spirit come and fill the sail and stretch the canvas and so drive on the Vessel 'T is this implevit we must hold by 't is his filling our empty house our lank and lither sails that blows comfort to us And 't is the enhancing of the benefit which is the last considerable in this similitude of the wind that it fills the house only where they are sitting It is no ordinary or common favour that God vouchsafes in filling our houses with the Spirit he hath not dealt so with any other Nation with any other people than the Christian people It is the Church only and the souls of Christians in it that this mighty wind as rushing and mighty as it is does content and contain it self in All other houses and places stand empty cannot get this Tenant 'T is the property of this Wind and no other to blow where it lists in this house and no other within doors all within the Church none without at all or the sound of it only passes out to call others in that they may see and wonder at the things that are come to pass this day that Iews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians Parthians and Medes and all Nations under Heaven may beaâ— witness of the wonder and if they come in in some sort partake of it too of the wind though not of the tongues of some graces of the Spirit though not of the other Only come in they must into the Church of Christ which is his body before their veins be filled with this Spirit before they feel any motion of it Of the Wind I say such a portion of the Spirit as may breath into them the breath of life but tongues of fire are for those only who were sitting there before fitting as Governors of the Church to whom that baptism of fire was promised who were bid to tarry and expect it and when so enabled to go abroad then and use their tongues and blow the flames of divine love and charity through the World I should now proceed to these miraculous tongues the second representment of the Holy Spirit And me thinks I am unwilling to leave them unspoken of to which we ow our speech But your ears are already filled with the wind yet I hope 't is the proper wind of the day and the sound of it shall not vanish as the wind as ordinary winds and sounds nor my words as the soft air So much the rather in that this Point of the wind comes more home to us than that other of the tongues Tongues were for them that believe not says the Apostle but the Wind the rushing mighty Wind from Heaven to cast down all the strong holds of Sin and Satan for them that believe even for us all The fiery tongues concern the Apostles as a miraculous enabling of them to the work of the Apostleship to the preaching and divulging the Gospel of Christ but the breath and blowing of the Spirit concerns all Christians whatsoever under every notion To that our proper tenure is from this Wind nay so much the more because it is the breath of the Spirit not the tongue that makes us Christian the wind like that in Ezekiel quickens our dead bones into the life of Christ and by it we live to our own Salvation by the tongues only to anothers So having gotten our share already in this Wind from Heaven we may the easier bear the deferring of the discourse of the tongues thence And truly if we can now get the Spirit to blow upon these dead elements and quicken them to us into the body and blood of Christ we shall quickly by the vertue of that blood of the Vine speak with new tongues the Spirit will give utterance and we shall sing the praises of the Lord. That should be indeed the whole business of our tongues to day to be as loud as the loudest wind in our Thanksgivings O ye winds of God bless ye the Lord say the three Children in the fire O ye Children of the Lord bless ye the Lord in the Wind say I in this mighty rushing Wind acknowledge his goodness admire his power confess his praise who thus blows the sparks of grace up in us who clenses our souls from all impure airs and vapours who scatters the clouds of sorrow shews us the fairest face of Heaven who cools and refreshes and revives and purges us and wafts us to our heavenly Countrey by this holy
to digest as well as tast there in the mouth is a kind of first digestion made Ruminate we then and meditate upon Christ when we have tasted him Let it be our business to spend much of our time and days henceforth in meditation of him that 's the way indeed to be filled with his Spirit while we thus digest him and chew upon him in our spirits Nor is 3. fire improper any way to bring to that holy Table The fire of charity is to kindle our devotion there to warm our affections and desires to it There 4. our tongues are to be warm'd into praises that they may run a nimble descant upon his benefits and move apace to the glory of his Name Thus are our tongues to be imployed and thus is the fire to be kindled in us that we may speak with our tongues This is the way to be filled with the Holy Spirit this blessed Sacrament the means to it Come thou therefore O blessed Spirit into our hearts and tongues lighten our understanding with thy heavenly light warm our affections with thy holy fire purge away all our dross burn up all our chaff renew our spirits separate our sins and evils from us unite us in thy love subdue us to thy self teach our hearts to think our tongues to speak our hands to act our feet to move only to thy will settle thy self in us hence forward and dwell with us so teach us with all our tongues and powers to praise thee here upon earth that we may one day praise thee with them in Heaven for evermore A SERMON UPON Trinity Sunday REV. IV. 8. And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come I Need not stretch the Text to reach the Time The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy Holy Holy in it is plain enough to teach the Trinity An Anthem sung here by the Angels and Saints in heaven done so here also by four of the chief Apostles and the Bishops of Iudea signified by the four beasts and twenty four Elders taken up after generally by the Saints on earth commended to us by the Church to day as our Epistle sent from heaven with a pattern in it for our Hymns and Praises to the blessed Trinity Lord God Almighty For 't is a part I must tell you of one of St. Iohn's Visions presenting to us what is done in heaven what Good would have done on earth and what should there be done ere long throughout it beginning at Hierusalem Glory and honour and thanks should be given unto God for the wonders he was doing for his servants for the deliverance he was working for his Church for the judgments he was bringing on their enemies as glory had been of old given him by his Saints and Prophets was now given him by his Apostles and Bishops so it should be given still by the whole Christian Church for ever as he himself was and is and is to come so was his praise and is and is to come we therefore all to learn to bear our parts in that heavenly Anthem against the time we come thither to bear them company Example you see we have here set before us to do it by and a form to do it in better we cannot wish the four Beasts or Cherubims Angels Saints and the Apostles there 's our Pattern for they rest not day and night saying it and Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is and is to come there 's the form we best do it in In each Part we shall observe a kind of Trinity or three Parts in each In the Pattern 1. the Persons 2. their earnestness and 3. their continuance 1. The persons praising God and saying it They the four beasts or living creatures as the words tell us just before 2. Their earnestness in it They rest not saying they cannot rest for saying it cannot rest without the saying it unless they say it say it over and over Holy Holy Holy cannot rest but doing it that 's their rest they take their praising God ◠Their continuance at it day and night it is and without rest and pause is it they are continually doing it saying and doing all to his honour and glory In the Form of Praise we have a sort of Trinity too three things observable 1. The glory or honour given Holy Holy Holy 2. The Persons to whom it is Lord God Almighty Father Son and Holy Ghost yet all three in one one single Lord one only God one alone Almighty and no more so there 's the Vnity in Trinity into the bargain And 3. here are the benefits intimated we praise him for He was our Creator He is our Redeemer He will be our Glorifier So you see Trinities enough in the Text to make it Trinity Sunday in it to fill all the Trinity Sundays after it The sum is that we are all to bear our parts in this holy Doxology to give glory and honour and power to the blessed Trinity with the four beasts and four and twenty Elders from time to time for evermore and that which may here serve well to perswade us to it is the Company and with them we will begin And they c. But who are they The beginning of the verse tells us the four beasts or as it may more genuinely and handsomly be translated the four living creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but what or who are they That 's the question and a hard one too it seems by the variety of opinions probably to be answered rather by conjecture than resolution We shall take the likeliest of them and pass the rest 1. Some by the four living Creatures this they would have the four Cardinal vertues understood by the Lion fortitude by the Calf or Oxe justice by the Eagle temperance and by the Man prudence And then the sense will be that God is most signally prais'd and glorified by a vertuous life no way like that to praise him To do righteousness to walk wisely to live soberly to stand stoutly to God and goodness that 's the true way to give glory to the whole Trinity 2. Others by the four living Creatures apprehend the four chief faculties of our souls to be insinuated with which we are to praise him The irascible intimated by the Lion the concupiscible by the Oxe the rational by the face of man and the Spirit by the Eagle And here the Lesson is that we are to do it to praise God with all our powers set our affections and desires upon it be moved and angry at every thing that comes in to hinder it search all the means our reason can find out to perfect praise and raise up our Spirits upon Eagles wings to perform it to the highest pitch 3. Some by these four conceive the whole world consisting of the four Elements represented to us as praising God The fire by the Lion whose nature is hot
and fiery the earth by the Ox that tills it the air by man that breaths it the water by the Eagle which as other fowl was made out of it Gen. i. 20. All these indeed we find called in by the holy Psalmist to make up the song of praise Psal. cxlviii and by the three Children in the fiery furnace to make up theirs that we may know the Fire and all the Elements Beasts and all Creatures praise him as well as man nay better are readier commonly to do it than he that he is fain even the devoutest he of all of us to cry out to them to come in with their notes to help him out and fill up the Choir 4. Some think Gods title of slow to anger and swift to mercy is by these four here exprest by way of Hieroglyphick by the Oxe slowness by the Lion anger by the Eagle swiftness and by the Man mercy represented to us And without doubt or question in this slowness to wrath and swiftness to have mercy is Gods greatest glory and for them we most willingly give him glory must not cease at any time to give him glory 5. Others suppose it an Hieroglyphick of Christ himself who in his Incarnation appear'd in the form or face of a man in his Passion like a Calf or Oxe for sacrifice in his Resurrection like a Lion the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah in his Ascension like an Eagle and if this pass the meaning is that by Christ Gods glory is most advanced by his Incarnation Passion Resurrection and Ascension heaven and earth is filled with his glory and for this above all the rest for him and his benefits we are to give God the greatest glory there as it were begins all our praise thence the twenty four Elders first throw down their Crowns and fall down and worship as it were acknowledging him the beginning of all the good we receive both of grace and glory Christ the Author and Original of them all But 6. to come a little near These four living Creatures say others represent the four Evangelists that preach Christs Life and Death Resurrection and Ascension into glory The Lion St. Mark for he begins his Gospel as it were with the voice of a Lion roaring in the Wilderness The Calf or Oxe St. Luke who begins his with the story of a Levitical Priest whose Ministry was about the Sacrifice of Calves and Oxen. The Man St. Matthew who takes his rise from the Genealogy of men The Eagle St. Iohn who at the very first soars up on high that we had need of Eagles wings and eyes to follow and discern him By these four indeed Gods grace and mercy Christs name and glory is spread over the face of all the earth and by this we learn that to preach and teach and publish the things of Christ is to give God praise and glory a singular and notable way to do so 7. Some that suppose they yet hit it nearer conceive God here brought in in the Vision sitting as the Bishop of Ierusalem with all the Bishops of Iudea in council all about him as Acts xv it seems they did and these four living Creatures about the Throne to be those four chief Apostles St. Peter St. Iohn St. Barnabas and St. Paul there present rank'd here higher than the rest St. Peter for his primacy set first and resembled by the Lion for his fiery zeal and fervour St. Paul deciphered by the Oxe in respect of his labours more abundantly than they all St. Barnabas intimated by the Man as being a Son of consolation humanity and mercy by the interpretation of his name St. Iohn pointed at by the Eagle for those sublime and high speculations of the Divinity of Christ above all the rest These were the four great Standard-bearers of the Christian Israel for these four living Creatures were born in the standard of old Israel and here alluded to these the four great Champions and Defenders the Planters and Propagators of the Christian Faith of the blessed Trinity of the glory of God and Christ throughout the world And thus we see to undertake the business of the Gospel to take pains and labour to defend and propagate it with all our might and main is an actual and real glorifying of God and Christ. Yet lastly whatever these may be imagined to represent to us or whomsoever to point out or what council or persons or judicature soever to resemble Angels to be sure they were that thus represented the Vision to St. Iohn and as such if we consider them we may conclude all the business with this Lesson that the business of heaven as well as earth of Angels as well as men is to be imployed in Praises and thanksgivings to the Almighty an imployment therefore well worth our time and pains and study Now put all these together and I cannot give you a fuller description of the way to praise and glorifie him than these have given you For to do it as we should is 1. to live vertuously 2. To employ all the powers and faculties of soul and body to his service 3. To call in all the Creatures to help us to do it and to use them to it 4. To reflect often upon both his mercies and his judgments and acknowledge his goodness in them both 5. To meditate upon the Life the Death the Resurrection the Ascension of Christ with all devotion and humility 6. To preach and publish it what we can 7. To defend and maintain it to our utmost power 8. To reckon it lastly an Angels work a heavenly piece of business thus to spend our days and years in giving glory to the most highest And if heaven and earth and all the creatures else besides sinful man become thus the Trumpets of their Creators glory and in all their several ways and orders ambitiously contrive themselves into the instruments of it what strange creatures must we needs be that either neglect it or forget it Heaven and earth says our morning Hymn are full of the Majesty of thy glory we can be no other than hell then that are empty of it that do not resound it Dragons and all deeps says the Psalmist Psal. cxlviii 7. all but the old Dragon and the bottomless deep the deep of hell all praise him else You see what we bring our selves to by our unthankfulness what a sad condition they are in who give not glory unto God who delight not in magnifying and praising him who are against the Hymns and Anthems to that purpose Thus you see it done in the Text by Saints and Angels in the Heavens by Apostles and Evangelists on the Earth Thus de facto so it was then But 't is as well a Prediction of what should be after that not only the present Age of the Apostles and holy Bishops then but the succeeding Ages also of the Church should acknowledge the glory of the undivided Trinity And it fell out accordingly Not
too Holy in glorifying of his Angels holy in justifying his Saints holy in punishing the Devils Holy in his Glory and holy in his Mercy and holy in his Justice holy in his Seraphims and holy in his Cherubims and holy in his Thrones holy in his Power and holy in his Wisdom and holy in his Providence Holy in his Ways and holy in his Laws and Holy in his Promises holy in the Womb and holy in Manger and holy on the Cross holy in his Miracles and holy in his Doctrines and holy in his Examples holy in his Saints and holy in his Sacraments and holy in his Temples holy in Himself holy in his Son holy in his Spirit Holy Father holy Son and Holy Spirit Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of Heaven and all the Saints in Heaven and Earth we laud and magnifie thy glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most High Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Glory and Honour and Thanks be unto Thee for ever and ever Amen Amen Amen THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Calling of St. Peter St. LUKE v. 8. Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. A Strange Speech for him that speaks to him 't is spoken from St. Peter to his Saviour One would think it were one of the Gadarens who thus intreated him to depart the Coasts Strange indeed to desire him to depart without whom we cannot be stranger to give such a reason for it a reason that should rather induce us to intreat him to tarry than to go for being sinful men we have most need of him to stay with us but strangest of all it is for St. Peter to desire it and upon his knees to beseech it To desire Christ to go away from us to go from us because we have need of his being with us and for such a one as St. Peter and that so earnestly to inintreat it is a business we well skill not at the first dash Yet if we consider what St. Peter was when he so cried out or what made him to do it or how unfit he being a sinful son of man thought himself for the company of the Son of God we shall cease to wonder and know it is the sinners case for ever so to do to be astonished at miracles not to bear suddenly the presence of our Lord and when we first apprehend it to cry out to him with St. Peter here to withdraw from us for a while for that we are not able to endure the brightness and terrour of his Splendour and Majesty It was a miraculous and stupendious draught of Fish after they had given up all hopes of the least suddenly came to Net which thus amazed St. Peter and his Fellows They had drudged and toyl'd all night and not a Fish appeared but when Christ came to them then came whole showles and thrust so fast into the Net that they brake it to get in as if the mute and unreasonable creatures themselves had such a mind to see him by whose Word they were created that they valued not their lives so they might see or serve his pleasure And yet St. Peter makes as much means that he might see him no longer whom if he had not seen and seen again notwithstanding his desires to the contrary it had been better he had never seen nor been at all But such is our mortal condition that we can neither bear our unhappiness nor our happiness unreasonable Creatures go beyond us in the entertainment of them both according to their kinds though it may be here St. Peters humility speaks as loud as his unworthiness or inability to endure the presence of his Lord. St. Peter we must needs say was not thorowly call'd as yet to be a Disciple this humble acknowledgment of his own unworthiness to be so was a good beginning Here it is we begin our Christianity which though it seems to be a kind of refusal of our Master is but a trick to get into his service who himself is humble and lowly and receives none so soon as they that are such none at all but such whom by the posture of their knees and the tenours of hearty and humble words you may discern for such And to sum up the whole meaning of the words to a brief Head they are no other nor no more than St. Peters profession of his own humble condition that he is not worthy that his God and his Redeemer should come so near him and therefore in an Extasie as it were at the sight of so glorious a Guest desires him to forbear to oppress his unworthy servant with an honour he was not yet able to bear Yet we cannot but confess the words may have a harder sense upon them as the voice of a stupid apprehension or an insensibleness of such heavenly favours as our Saviours company brings with it We shall have time to hint at that anon It shall suffice now at first to trouble you only with two evident and general parts Christs absence desired And The Reason alledged for it I. Christ desired to be gone Depart from me And II. Why he is so For I am a sinful man O Lord. The Desire seems to be the voice of a threefold person and such is St. Peters now 1. Of a man 2. Of a sinful man and yet 3. Of an humble man Me that me here confessing my self a sinful man The Reasons equal the variety of the desires or Desirers Three they are too 1. For I am a man 2. For I am a sinful man 3. For thou O Lord thou art God and I a man 'T is a Text to teach us what we are to whom we speak and how to speak to him And if you go hence home without learning this you may say perhaps you have heard a Sermon but you have learnt nothing by it It shall be your faults if you do not And unless we cry in a sense contrary to St. Peters meaning Depart from us O Lord out of a kind of contempt and weariness of his Word and not out of the conscience of our own unworthiness of so great a blessing then though our words be somewhat indiscreet though we sometimes speak words not fitting for our Saviour to hear though they seem to shew a kind of refusal of him yet being no other than the meer expression of the apprehension of his glorious presence and our own unworthiness Christ will comfort us and call out to us presently as he doth to St. Peter ver 10. not to fear we shall not lose by his Word or Presence nor by our so sensible apprehension of his glory though we be but a generation of sinful men That our desires first may be set right though peradventure not always speak so the desires being the hinge upon
dwell in Mesech if we can keep out of the streets of Gath and Askelon our stay a while upon earth may be desirable And 5. three Tabernacles we may make also in particular One for Christ make all the provision we can for Christ to stay with us use all the ways and means we can imagine to keep him among us his Presence his grace his Gospel his Sacraments his Administrations his Ministers his Religion his Worship still among us Good advice it is and a good thing it is to build Tabernacles and Houses Churches and Chappels that Christ and his may tarry with us Nay and 6. one for Moses too some room we must make for Works as well as Faith the obedience of Faith is the only faith of the Gospel to live according to Gods Precepts and Commandments this part of Moses Law Christ came not to destroy or dissolve but to fulfil himself and to give a new command and grace to us also to fulfil it So lastly one for Elias too The Prophets must not be shut out of doors a Chamber a bed and a Candlestick for them as the noble woman of Shunem provided for Elisha 2 Kings iv 8. that as they pass by they may enter in and bless us A place for the old Prophets that we may confirm our faith out of their writings a place for the Prophets of the Gospel that we may encrease it by their preachings a place too in all our houses for Elias zeal for Gods Worship and Service that that may be restored and advanced in all our families and dwellings in all our habitations a Tabernacle at least in our hearts for the zeal for Gods glory to reside in provided that it be not so heady that it speak it knows not what Thus 't is no ill but good counsel to say Let us build here three Tabernacles if 1. they be only prepared for here but raised in heaven if 2. they be only for Inns and shelters here and not for mansion houses if 3. they be set upon high ground if 4. among good neighbours if 5. made for Christ and 6. Moses and 7. Elias for to keep Christ and his Religion Faith good Works Zeal and Piety among us Let us make such Tabernacles as fast and as much as we will or can we need not fear St. Lukes censuring them for the sacrifices of fools or the actions of men that know not what they do Yet now secondly there is a making Tabernacles and a counselling to do so that will deserve that censure several such making Tabernacles 1. When we would make the everlasting Tabernacles to be here when we raise them no higher than Mount Tabor seek heaven upon the earth living as if there were no other World building our hopes and fortunes here as if we were to continue here for ever then we know not what we do 2. When we will have nothing here but Tabernacles to shelter us when we think much to descend out of the Mount to suffer with our Saviour would not willingly part with any point of honour safety or advantage for him would have Christ glorified before he is crucified contrary to his Fathers Decree upon him and us that we should both first suffer and then enter into glory when we thus shun the Cross and will have nothing but the comfort all for Mount Taber or Mount Olivet peace and quiet and glory and triumph nothing for Mount Calvary any kind of suffering all for being clothed upon not being uncloath'd or disrobed at all 2 Cor. v. 2. would avoid even death it self which we cannot avoid when we can brook no Article of the Faith but the Ascension into glory then you know not what you ask as Christ said to the Sons of Zebedee at another time you know not what you would have ye know not what you say 3. When we speak of making Tabernacles only for our own interests that we may be in them and consider not our brethren when we will be engrossing Christ only to our selves shut all others out or pass by them or at least never think of them or care what becomes of them so we be safe we then also speak we know not what Christ came to redeem the World and not that little pittance of it in the Mount Moses Elias St. Peter and his two Fellows not any only pittance in any Mount a few particular elected mountaineers and leave all the rest in Adams dirty mass He was to be an universal Saviour and pay a general ransom to preach not only in the Mountains of Iudea but in the Cabul the dirty Vale of Galilee to be the God of the Valleys as well as of the hills of those that sate in the vale of the shadow of death Gentiles and sinners as well as those that dwelt in the hill Countries in the Land of light the Iews and other righteous St. Peter knew not what he said nor know they that say thus after him that would be keeping him always in the Mount make Tabernacles bars and fences to keep him from doing his Office to all the World besides To talk of such Tabernacles so cooping up Christ to our own Sect and Company is to talk we know not what 4. When we speak of making Tabernacles to retire our selves from doing our own Office too from performing those duties we owe our brethren which God has designed us to and requires of us we talk not wisely Quid dicâ—â— Sancte Petre says St. Augustine Mundus perit tu secretum quaeris What sayest thou blessed Peter The World is ready to perish and dost thou withdraw from helping to uphold it Dost thou that art to feed Christs Sheep upon the Plains and defend them from the Wolves seek only to keep thy self secure in the Mountains Nor Pastor nor People must so retreat into any Tabernacles to desert the charge that lies upon them of their brothers souls Shall your brethren go to war says Moses to the Children of Gâ—d and Reuben Numb xxxii 6. and shall ye sit here No surely we must down among them and not think of Tabernacles for our selves till we have also made some for them If our retirements hinder us not in our Christian duty we may retreat into our Tents if they do we say and do we know not what to pitch upon any Tabernacles Solitudes or Retreats 5. If we think of making Tabernacles several for Christ and Moses and Elias one for Christ one for Moses and another for Elias think of severing the Gospel Law and Prophets 't is we know not what they all dwell in one together all say the same thing will not be severed Vnum est tabernaculum Evangelii in quo lex Prophetae recapitulanda sunt says St. Hierom There is but one Tabernacle for all those all agree in one together all preach Iesus Christ the Saviour of the World though each in his proper way and fashion 6. No talking of three Tabernacles at any
things beyond the ordinary course of action seem mad though we be sober as the Prophets did sometimes when the Spirit came upon them lay down naked use strange gesture or speak words with Caiphas which at the time we understand not run like mad-men with some Martyrs into flames and fires to blocks and halters upon the sudden powerful and miraculous motion of Gods Spirit or Grace within us These for all that not to be looks for now Yet 't is ever to be noted here that how strange soever the expressions of some holy Saints have been in such excesses though they have not understood themselves yet others have they never spoke non-sense by the Spirit never blasphemy never contradictions to holy Scripture never any thing against Christian Patience and Obedience We have heard of late of the Pattern in the Mount a Church talked of to be form'd according to that Pattern Indeed it seems to have somewhat of St. Peter's Bonnm est of his desire to be with Christ without the Cross to build Tabernacles here for him a new Kingdom upon earth to set up King Iesus a phrase much canted but to this St. Luke gives his dash 'T is a Nesciens quid diceret that neither he nor they know what they say what they would have 'T is meer fear of I know not what a fear where no fear is a meer stupor as St. Mark and a desiring what is not to be desired an expectation of what is not to be expected of nothing but ease and pleasure and glory in Christs service Their present condition and successes make them say and wish they know not what For if we truly examine it we shall find this saying what comes next we heed not what comes from present contentments and successes when all things succeed to our mind then we begin to forget our selves or not to know our selves Worldly felicities commonly so transport us that we know not care not what we say or do our greatness we think shall bear us out We say in our hast too with David we shall never be removed so care not what we say how we behave our selves to God and Man only Bonum est esse hic we set our selves to enjoy our pleasures and build houses for them that shall come after Yet 't is worth the noting that whilst we are thus speaking we speak often against our selves when we do not intend it We call all our great buildings all our great hopes but Tabernacles with St. Peter so as it were presaging their remove that they are of no long continuance and abiding How many have we heard of in their times who have by some sudden word some unexpected expression been the presages of their own ruine and by the slip of some unlucky syllable or two doom'd the period and fore-told the shortness of this Mountain of Glory Of so unhappy speech are we when we begin to talk of any glory or continuance upon the high places of the earth we pitch a word instead of a Tabernacle that takes away all our bonum est esse hic on a sudden even whilst we mean no such matter whilst we know not what we say And as no holy company Moses nor Elias nor Christs own can keep us from all indiscretion in our speech no more then they did St. Peter so neither do they keep us from undoing our selves often with our own language We in a passion say we know not what enough to throw down all our Tabernacles remove all our Bonum est all our goods The more need then with the Psalmist of setting a watch before our lips and a guard before our mouths that we offend not in our tongues that we consider what we say before we say it that we learn to speak before we speak it that we keep our mouths even from good words as the same holy Prophet has it that we do not take up every word that seems good and godly but weigh and ponder it in the ballance of the Sanctuary by Christs Rule and Precept before we utter it And so doing and so speaking we may in all conditions high and low in glory and ignominy in prosperity and adversity in all companies in all places say merrily and cheerfully without danger Master it is good for us to be here and make Tabernacles here for Christ and Moses and Elias to keep them with us we may build in the Mountain or in the Valley without fear of this censure not knowing what we do All will be good unto us all will work for good if we temper our words and speak them soberly and place them rightly and direct them every one to his hic nunc to his proper object and circumstances and Christ will tarry with us and Moses not forsake us and Elias not depart away out of the Mountain from us till we come to the everlasting Hills to eternal Mansions houses not made with hands eternal in the Heavens to dwell with Christ and Moses and Elias and all the Patriarchs and Prophets see them face to face be transfigured and cloth'd in bright shining garments and shine like Stars for ever and ever THE FIRST SERMON UPON All Saints PSAL. cxlix 9. Such honour have all his Saints SO the Text So the day a day dedicated to God in honour of all his Saints Such honour has God allowed them such honour has the holy Church bestow'd upon them Because they are his and as his here they are had in honour because his holy ones Sancti ejus as his Saints or holy ones honour'd with a holy day or if you will God honoured in them on the day For this honour also have all the Saints that all the honour done to them all the honour done by them by the Saints in earth to the Saints in heaven all the vertues of the one all the praises of the other are to the honour and praise and glory of God in all the Congregations of the Saints whether in heaven or earth 'T is not fit therefore any of them should be forgotten from whose memories God receives so much not reasonable to deny them any honour that so redounds to Gods The Psalm gives them it and the Day gives them it God says they shall have this honour and the Church this day pays it and we must pay it if we honour either him or her God or the Church or Father or mother pay it to them all to all to whom 't is due all honour that is due This is a day for us to meet all together to pay it in for them altogether to receive it in We cannot do it to all severally they are too many we may do it to all together We profess a great Article of our faith the Communion of Saints by doing it are therefore surely not too blame for doing it having so good authority so good a ground so good a profession for it For say our new Saints what they will unsaint
they whom they please dishonour they all the old Saints how they list 1. God has his Saints says our Text and ver 5. Saints in glory Saints in their beds or in their graves his they are and Saints they are though there His Saints 2. have and shall have honour A signal special honour 3. it is they have This honour such honour as the former verses spake of All of them 4. have it All his Saints have it 5. from him are to have it from us gloria sit so some read Let this honour be given to all his Saints that 's the last and all five so many parts of the Text. I go on with them in their order I. God has his Saints Saints in heaven St. Mat. xxvii 52. Saints upon earth Psal. xvi 3. Saints in glory ver 5. and Saints of grace Saints at rest in their beds of honour and Saints in the bustle of noise and trouble The stranger men they that engross the title to themselves strike all the Saints out of the Kalendar and will not call them so whom God has call'd so Yet if to be Saints be to be holy the title is their due that are in heaven they are the holiest If to be Saints be to be called effectually they are called to purpose that are already there If to be Saints be to be separate to God from the drossie multitude they are of the highest separation If to be Saints be to be established if Sancti be Sanciti there are none so sure so established as they who are in heavenly glory And dare men be so bold to rob them of this honour so proper and peculiar to them that 't is but a kind of an impropriety to give it to any here below which yet both Scripture and their own tongues give to some below yet to none but such as are in Communion with those above and as far only as they are in it God has a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood a holy Nation a separate or peculiar people a people to shew forth his praise called out of darkness into his marvelous light to do it says St. Peter 1 Pet. ii 9. St. Paul and the rest of the holy Epistlers say as much call Believers Saints ever and anon and these have fellow-Citizens Eph. ii 19. Saints in an inheritance of glory Eph. i. 18. worth the knowledge says St. Paul and now 2. worthy honour too II. For his Saints have honour are persons of honour Kings and Priests Rev. i. 6. Heirs of a Kingdom St. Iam. ii 5. Sons of God St. Iohn i. 12. Children of the most Highest Psal. lxxxii 6. So that if the Sons of Kings or Kings themselves if men in highest Office or the nearest relation to the highest Princes be men of honour the Saints are they who are so honourably related to and so highly employed by the King of Kings Who are first honoured by him with such titles as his friends St. Ioh. xv 15. as his anointed Psal. cv 15. as his Sons and Daughters Who 2. are so his that he reckons what is done to them is done to him receive them and receive him despise them and despise him St. Luke x. 16. the very least of them not excepted St. Mat. xxv 40. Who lastly are so entrusted by him that he admits them into his secrets Psal. xxv 13. makes them of his Privy Counsel Prov. ii 32. an honour without question of the first and highest rank Enough however to teach us 1. not to despise them whom God thus honours though they here walk in rags and are fed with crumbs and look desolate and though they are covered with poverty and encompassed with afflictions and had in derision and a Proverb of reproach whilst they are here and when they depart hence seem to die and their departure is taken for misery they are honourable for all that such as the Great King delights to honour and must not be despised Sufficient 2. it is to teach us not to dishonour our selves with any unworthy action or behaviour 'T is not for persons of honour to do things base and vile indeed to live or act like men of ordinary and mean condition Nor is it for any of them that are called to be Saints to employ themselves in the drudgeries and nastinesses of sins in the low poor businesses of the earth to work in Mines and Metals or make that our business here For 3. this honour is to teach us to do honourable things higher thoughts and higher works to live like Saints like such as are to inherit the earth Mat. v. 5. to reign and rule in it not to serve it like such as are to inherit heaven too and are therefore to have our conversation there to do all things worthy of it nothing but what becomes the Kingdom of Christ especially seeing it is not only meer honour ordinary honour but a signal special honour that is here given to the Saints Gloria haec est or Gloria hic est omnibus sanctis ejus This honour have all his Saints or He is the honour of all his Saints What it is we shall best gather by the Context out of the foregoing verses III. 1. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people ver 4. There 's the honour of a Favourite 2. He will beautifie them with salvation in the same verse there 's the honour of his salvation as David speaks in another place there 's a second honour 3. Let the praises of God be in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hands to be avenged of the heathen c. ver 6 7. there 's the honour of Conquerours that 's a third 4. To execute upon them the judgment written ver 9. There 's the honour of judges that 's a fourth 5. Look back again Let the Saints be joyful in glory ver 5. there 's the honour of glory of eternal glory that 's a fifth 6. Let them rejoyce in their beds or sing aloud upon their bed there 's the honour of eternal peace and security or the security of their honour 7. Lastly Gloria hic est for the Pronoune is Masculine in the Hebrew He is the honour of his Saints God is their honour so the Text may well be rendred there 's the infinity of their honour Honor infinitatis or honor infinitus their infinite honour that 's the last So here 's the Saints honour like Wisdom with her seven Pillars strongly built firmly seated magnificently set forth upon them They have the honour of being favourites the honour of being ever and anon honourably saved and delivered the honour of being Victors the honour of being judges a glorious secure infinite honour the Saints have 1. This honour that they have is the honour of grand Favourites God is well pleased in them taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants his delight is placed in them the Lords delight is in them that fear him Psal. cxlvii 11. He deals with
St. Luke vi 23. the reward of their Inheritance both together The greater honour to be so honoured as to have glory it self call'd their reward strange honour to them to have honour entitled to them as their due But honour joy and glory given to them in their beds to have joy and glory conferr'd upon them in their beds to have it as it were with ease with lying still and to enjoy it with security without fear of rousing from it and in the very beds of dust the dark Chambers of the grave the Mansions of death it self to have this light and glory shine upon them to have security and peace ease and pleasure establisht on their glory and those melancholy rooms that are hang'd with worms and rottenness enlightned with the beams of perpetual joy and comfort is a vast addition to their glory Yet this they have not only an immarcessible and incorruptible crown of glory 1 Pet. v. 4. laid up for them 2 Tim. iv 8. but their very bones flourish out of the grave Eccl. xlvi 12. and even the lodgings of their very ashes seem to exult with a kind of joy to be made the receptacles and cabinets of those Jewels of the Almighty and their Sepulchres and Memorials are blessed for evermore Ecclus. xlix 10. The very places where they come are joyful at their shadows as they pass by Miracles have been done by their shadows whilst they passed by Acts v. 15. and when their bones have lain a while silent in the grave the dead have yet been raised by them to life again 2 Kings xiii 21. Thus his Saints have honour in life and death and after death then when they seem to have been some while nay a long while raked up in dust and quite forgotten Nay lastly Gloria hic est their honour is infinite too 't is a masculine glory All other glories and honours are but Feminine weak poor things to it God is their glory honoured they are with his blessed Presence honoured with his sight with his embraces they see him and enjoy him This is the very glory of their honour the height and pitch of all for in thy presence is joy and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore honour advanced into eternal glory And this honour also have all his Saints some in spe and some in re some in hope and some in deed all either in promise or in possession All his Saints some way or other more or less are partakers of it that 's their honour at the full extent an honour wherewith this day is great which is a great considerable also in the Text that this honour of the Saints as special a one as it is is yet also universal some way or other belonging to all the Saints IV. Some way or other I say for this honour 't is to be confest at first is not equal to them all One star differs from another star in glory 1 Cor. xv 41. One Saint differs from another in his honour There is a Sun and Moon greater and lesser stars in the firmament of Saints There are Coelestial and Terrestrial Saints Saints wholly busied in the work of heaven and Saints who intermeddle also with the works of earth Contemplative Saints and active Saints There were Saints before the Law there were Saints under the Law and Saints still after it Patriarchs and Prophets Martyrs and Apostles all were Saints Iews and Christians and Gentiles too have Saints among them And all have their honour The Iews literally to the very words the Christians mystically to the higher sense and meaning greater honour these because more abundant grace than they The Gentiles Proselyâ—es they come in also for their share Beloved and favoured by him all delivered by him some way or other all Conquerours at least over their ghostly enemies all of them to be judges all at last and prepared to glory and honour and Gods Presence after all There are false Saints many as there are false Gods many and false honour there is too that is by some men given to both the false and true ones yet this no reason to scrape the true ones out of the Kalendar nor deny the true honour that is due to them If God say the Saints have honour est erit for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Complutensian Bibles read it as others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they have and shall have I cannot but think that man too bold that dares contradict it that dares annul the Festival or memorial of All Saints of any Saints together or asunder or rob them of the honour that God has given them Holy they are Saints is nothing else and the Scripture so often calls them holy that 't is Infidelity to doubt it Impudence to question it and Atheism to deny it and therefore Sacriledge it must needs be too to violate their honours or plunder them of that which God has given them for this honour says he here himself or his Spirit for him have all his Saints V. Have it from God first are therefore 2. to have it from us too Have it from God for he has promised it Those that honour me I will honour says he 1 Sam. ii 30. and honour them he does 1. He speaks of them with honour throughout the holy Page and tells forth their praise builds there as it were a lasting Monument to their memories 2. He gives them titles of honour calls Abraham his Friend Enoch in a manner his Companion one that continually walk'd with him Iob his Servant with an Emphasis with a Quis similis in all the earth David his dear heart as one would say a man after his own heart The true Israelites the precious Sons of Sion Lam. iv 2. and all his Saints his Jewels Mal. iii. 17. Jewels made up and laid up in Cabinets in the Cabinets of the highest Heaven 3. He gives them high and honourable employment to Moses to be faithful in all his house his High Steward there to Ioshua and Ieptha and Gideon and David to be Generals of his Wars and fight his Battels to Solomon to be his Master Builder and the Overseer of his Works to all his Saints to be his Courtiers and tread his Courts honourable all Nay 4. he makes them all as it were Masters of his Requests grants Petitions often upon their score Thus for Abraham my Servant for the oath I sware unto Isaac for my Servant Davids sake 1 Kings xv 4. at the Petition of my Servant Iob Iob xlii and the like says God I will do this or that Many many things God did for Israel for their sakes many times withheldâ—his his Judgments and bestow'd his Mercies for their only sakes and with us he deals so too grants us many favours and blessings for some of our holy fore-fathers sakes which he would not give us for our own 5. He so honours them that he seldom discovers any of their faults or but easily
glances at them or but favourably speaks of them as in that remarkable expression 1 Kings xv 5. where he calls Davids Murther and Adultery the matter only of Vriah the Hittite yet recounting of their vertues he is alway full and large Lastly He sometimes honours them with miracles even at their Sepulchres as he did Elisha 2 Kings xiii 21. makes Napkins and Handkerchiefs from their bodies Acts xix 12. Nay their very shadows Acts v. 15. cure diseases and unless we will believe nothing but what we see done before us in our own days many great miracles have been done at the Sepulchres of the Martyrs God so honouring the memory of their faith and patience to the glory of Christianity and the glorious propagation of it through the world and there have been thousands of Witnesses to attest it And now if God so honour them as if he delighted to honour them it cannot seem strange if I now go on to tell you we are to honour them too It cannot be a sin in us to do that which God does before us that we may do it the better I must confess there has been a fault and still there is some in giving more honour to Saints and Martyrs than their due not robbing Peter as we say to pay Paul but robbing God to give to St. Paul St. Peter St. Mary and other Saints Yet there is a fault in others too to rob the Saints under pretence to give to God But is there not a mean between them Sure sure there is We may give each their due God his and the Saints theirs and all will be well For Praise God in his Saints the beginning of the next Psalm as we may read it and some understand it and may so without offence it coming especially so close to this honour of the Saints may seem to call upon us to give this honour to them And Psal. lxviii 35. may be as well God is wonderful in his Saints as God is wonderful in his holy Places for ought that I can guess by the Sense or Context and a good reason to praise him for them and in them too as well as in his Sanctuary we may praise him I hope for all the wonders that he does for the Children of men be they in heaven above or in the earth beneath And indeed there is an honour due in both to the Saints that dwell on earth as it is Psal. xvi 3. and to the Saints that dwell in heaven Distinguish we but the honour as the Scripture does and find out the several senses of it there and we may know to give each their own We shall begin below see how we are to honour the Saints that are in the earth To honour is 1. to esteem and value one Good men are to be valued be their condition never so mean or poor that 's one duty we owe the Saints whilst they live here and there is good reason for they are very Pillars of the earth and bear it up Psal. lxxv 3. Ten righteous men you know would have saved even Sodom and its four neighbour Cities 'T is good we should prize them high that are more worth one of them than half a City To honour one 2. is to perform the offices of Charity unto him thus we are bid to honour all men 1 Pet. ii 17. to go one before another in giving honour Rom. xii 10. especially then to do it to the houshold of faith men of Piety and Religion 3. To honour is not only to value or to love but to delight to be with to seek their company Honorare timentes Dei Psal. xv 4. to make much of them that fear the Lord never to think our selves so well as in their company All my delight says the same Psalmist is upon the Saints that are in the earth and upon such as excell in vertue Psal. xvi 3. he was never pleased but when he was with them Nay even Saul as bad as he was yet honour me says he I pray thee to Samuel 1 Sam xiv 30. before the Elders of my People and turn again with me his company he must needs have and an honour he acknowledges it to have the company of such a man a holy Priest or Prophet The world now is of another opinion no company so contemptible men are never well till such a one is gone never merry till these holy men are out of doors so far are men from thinking themselves honoured with their Society or willing to honour them with theirs any company rather than such as they they make us melancholy say they they make us sad and dull they trouble us with discourse we do not like with God and Heaven and Vertue and Religion such hard businesses and we know not what But for all that 't is a duty we owe both to our selves and them to give them this honour be they never so poor or despicable and David you hear made it his delight as well as Saul his honour to receive this honour from or give this honour to such men as they 4. To honour is to maintain them too when they have need Honour Widows says St. Paul 1 Tim. v. 3. that is maintain them out of the Churches Stock and they that labour in the Ministry are to be honoured with double honour 1 Tim. v. 17. maintenance and respect out of the Churches Stock and out of ours Honour is thus taken too in the fifth Commandment and we sin against the Commandment both of God and men when we deny this honour where it is due or whensoever the poor Saints stand in need of it Thus you see what it is to honour or how you are to honour the Saints below to set a high value and esteem upon them to perform all offices of Love and Charity unto them to seek their company and take pleasure to be in it and as occasion serves to express the honour and respect we bear them by some outward real Testimonies and Effects We will see now how we are to honour the Saints above To Honour then as it may relate to them is to give them a respect above other men to look upon them as the Courtiers of Heaven as persons in highest place as the Inhabitants of glory as such as are always praying for us Rev. vi 9. such as are following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Rev. vii 14 15. Nebuchadnezzar himself at the hearing of the interpretation of his Dream could not refrain himself but he must even worship Daniel in whom he saw the wisdom of God so eminent Dan. ii 46. We cannot hold our selves sometimes but that we must needs express some especial respect or other to some who either amaze us with their stupendous abilities of nature or works of grace And is it only strange and irregular to give honour to those glorious Saints whose excellencies are so great whose vertues have been so full of wonder I cannot see why their memories
truth is our cloud and theirs are not alike Ours but Analogical at the most The Apostle had to speak to Hebrews to perswade them to the Race of Christian faith and to them he was to fit his speech They would not so soon from their beggarly rudiments A cloud they always had in all their journeys and a cloud they would have now or they would not stir a foot St. Paul raises up a cloud in the preceding Chapter yet a little to wean them from sense though a cloud he calls it it will prove no such cloud as their dull eye gaz'd after but a cloud of Saints Indeed need he had to tell them of a guide from heaven that a few verses before had told them of so ill entertainment upon earth stoning sawing in sunder desarts dens and caves nothing but torment and affliction Ideoque had been a poor inference could expect but cold welcome without a nubem tantam And yet what avails a guide though sent from heaven if this same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some weight about us overwhelm us or the way be so bespread with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such snares that every step we stumble and fall into inextricable dangers Were it not for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he shews us how to quit our selves of all the cloud might walk alone for all the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for all us too For as they so we pretend often we would run but that we have no guide here 's a cloud to conduct us then we have no company here are Saints to go with us No body to encourage us here are Witnesses to behold us Then we are too pursie and unweildy for the course why off with that superfluous weight yea but the way is full beset with briers and thorns down with them too well but the way is tedious let 's run with patience no more than so but we have nothing to run for yes there 's something set before us that 's worth the running for we shall easily find that too in Propositum So then here 's I. The Guide of our way a Cloud of Witnesses II. The Companions of our Course a Cloud of Witnesses that compass us habentes nobis having it with us or being compassed with it III. The Spectators of our Course a Cloud of Witnesses about us habentes circum positam IV. The impediments of our speed 1. One that hinders us from setting forth Every weight 2. The other that entangles us by the way The sin that doth so easily beset us V. The removal of them both by laying aside or casting away VI. The running of our course Let us run with patience VII The Race to be run The Race set VIII The crown of our labours Set before us IX The influence of the Cloud upon all or the inference from it Ideoque curramus Seeing a cloud we have and such an one a cloud of Witnesses that will not lead us about as that cloud did Israel in the Wilderness but breve per exempla the shortest cut without staying now by the way at lugens in infernum or Sinus Abrahae but hence immediately into Canaan seeing the Cloud so great the Guide so good the Company so full the Spectators of so high account the Hinderances so easily put by the Course so facile the Race so short the Prize so glorious how can we but run like lightning after them You see the parts 'T is fit the Guide should lead the way the Cloud first When time was there was Columna Nubis Moses his cloud Israels guide to Canaan Canaan is gone and Nubem non habentes we have no such cloud we There is another â—t nubem iniquitates Isaiahs cloud a thick cloud of transgressions a winter cloud that sticks by us a morning cloud that rises with us at the first dawning of our days and God make it too as a morning cloud to pass away I would I could not say here habentes nâ—bem that we had not this neither but this I can Ideoque habentes it is not no good conclusion thence we have it not to follow it sets in darkness What cloud then Why Nubem testium St. Pauls new cloud a cloud of Witnesses of holy Saints who by the glory of example lead us more happily to heaven than theirs did them to the Land of Promise A cloud for their multitude but that we let alone till we come to tantam A cloud for the likeness of their Production their Seat their Nature and Effects Their Production first Clouds though heavens near acquaintance now are but refined earth or water divested of its grosser body and were not the departed Saints a while since prisoners in these clay houses now bereft of their happy tenants One of the best of them in his own esteem no better than dust and ashes 2. Why then how got they up so high The clouds they get not up themselves 't is the Sun that draws them upward And trahe me curram post te is the voice of the Spouse Some celestial influence we must have the best of us something without us from above to lift us up to heaven nature cannot reach so high II. Like they are in their Seat and situation 1. Clouds are above the tops of the mountains and the highest Pinacles of the earth are too low for an habitation for these sublime Spirits Nor earth nor all the mountains the high places and preferments of the earth could content them nothing under heaven nothing but heaven You know the desire Bring me into thy holy hill into thy dwelling 2. But if we look upon the Saints of Iudah they were clouds indeed and Types of Christ who in them appear'd as the Sun under a cloud the cloud between the eye and him His birth in Issac his name in Ioshuah his death in Samson his reign in Solomon Omnia haec illis contigerunt in nube still a cloud between III. There is a third Analogie between their Natures and Effects 1. Clouds they do not move themselves 'T is Spiritus spirat the wind that drives them And the Saints they do not move themselves neither 't is Spiritus spirat the Holy Ghost 2. But which is more to us Clouds they keep off the Sun from too much sweltring too much parching us This we get at least by the examples of the Martyrs that however the heat of Persecutions and Afflictions scorch us we are refresh'd in this that no temptation takes us but what is and has been incident to the most beloved Darlings of the Almighty As comfortable this to an oppressed Soul as a cloud of rain in the time of drought as a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest 3. And as they comfort so they teach us too The clouds drop down and distill upon man abundantly says Elihu Iob xxxvi 28. and the doctrines of holy lives drop as the rain their speeches even yet distill as the dew whose
ever This last indeed is beyond proportion eternity for time all blessings for a few Precepts the wine of Angels for abstinence from the bloud of the Vine for want of houses upon earth eternal dwellings in the heavens You see the Reward is full of blessings I shall observe their triple proportion in running over them 1. Such then first is the Reward of their Obedience that it lengthens days The world thinks it shortens them if by it you take away any thing from your flesh bate any thing of your diet either in quantity or quality when the King or Church commands to do so 'T was not so here and without doubt it is not Obedience hath the promise of length of days in the Commandment 'T was the reason that Ionadab gave his Sons to obey him ver 7. That you may live many days It was a blessing of long days upon themselves That 's the First But it ends not so Upon their children too reaches to them is a blessing of succession This is to live beyond our selves to sprout afresh out of the dust to have posterity And a Posterity that shall not fail wither or crumble away that 's more If it be a male succession 't is more still Non deficiet vir not a man fail you Female generations lose the name and so the succession fails even while it lasts It does almost so when it passeth into a collateral line This fails not that way neither Not vir de stirpe it continues in a direct line from the root Tremellius's Translation sets it higher Non exscindetur vir Of all this Progeny there shall not so much as a man be cut off Die they must by the necessity of nature but not a man cut off by violence that however it far'd with the captive Jews in Babylon not any of these should fail there but return to their Tents in peace that a fair and even succession it should be that after many days pass on calmly and quietly to their Fathers tombs in peace gathered to their Fathers 'T is well this such a blessing upon Posterity But when not only succeeding generations participate the blessing but Ionadab and his Father Rechab too passed Ancestors receive a new accession of glory by it this is a blessing not upon the Sons only but upon deceased Fathers too And all this you may look for upon the like obedience A long life a lasting a continued a male a lineal an unblemish'd Posterity all redounding back again to your own glory This the first proportion that which is given for your Obedience to your Father 2. The second is greater stans in conspectu a Posterity high enough to be seen placed in the eye of the world men famous and renowned in their Generations This is but to stand on high before the Kings and Princes of the earth In conspectu meo is higher that stands before God a Posterity as virtuous as honourable Stand before him and in place near him near his Sanctuary the place of his presence plac'd there so it seems 1 Chron. ii 5. Placed on high and near him as near as the title of Gods can make them made Judges of the earth so stare in conspectu is sometimes interpreted This is a second proportion answering to their obedience to commands They shall be Commanders Under command they kept now they are above it above the people equal with the Princes of the earth A famous a pious an honourable Posterity the second reward of Obedience 3. All this is much exceeding much Yet honour and virtue are created things and therefore mutable may fail at last Theirs shall not Stans in conspectu In honour they shall be and in honour they shall stand In virtue they shall be and in virtue they shall stand standing is a posture of continuance Stand and stand in his sight dear as the apple of his eye That must not be touched no more must they and then nothing can change them to be sure Cunctis diebus puts all out of question They shall stand so all their days says the Text. What speak I of days Stand so for ever continue ever Christians succeed into their order and obedience they survive into Christians live in them for ever When succession shall have done successive motions have their periods and all days shall have an end yet then Ionadab shall not want a man to stand then before him and see his face for ever This is indeed the last Reward a firm a perpetual an eternal succession And now we are come up to the tops of the Mountains the everlasting hills Eternity is a Circle and there we wind about in everlasting rounds There we turn about to the beginning of the verse the Lord speaking and confirming all that so the certainty may embrace with the eternity That you may see I tell you no more than God himself will make good Thus saith the Lords of Hosts the God of Israel He hath promised it and shall he not bring it to pass He has said it and shall it not be done Said it by his Prophet and Prophesie though it sometime wants light yet never certainty He engageth his honour Thus saith the Lord Kings will not fail upon the word of their honour He engageth his power Thus saith the Lord of Hosts he that doth what he will in heaven and earth He engageth his goodness his tried experienced goodness Thus saith the God of Israel their God who can witness he never broke his promise nor fail'd his word But doth God take care only for the Rechabites Or says he it for your sake too For yours also doubtless 't is the Reward of Obedience where ere it is found as it is in the Text. Will you give me leave to enquire Has the King at any time commanded some of your superfluities and has he obtain'd them have you been content to part with any of your delights in diet apparel in your houses to endure some abridgments to obey him to supply him Have the Inferiour Magistrates demanded the execution of the Laws and have you assisted them Has the Church required your presence your order and assistance for I speak not now of your private Fathers and can you say with these Rechabites we have obeyed and kept all their Precepts and done according to all that hath been commanded us Then and not till then dare I warrant you You and your seed shall stand before him for ever For it is not a Reward only to private and personal obedience but the obedience of Cities of Nations too Obedient Cities and Kingdoms as well as Families shall not want men to stand before him for ever but disobedient and rebellious shall For Kingdoms Cities and Countries have their fates and when they have rent this bond of union that kept them to their head they must expect their Funerals You then to look to it Remember that of the Prophet How is the faithful City become a harlot
cannot but afflict us at his coming so it is we must see him See we must though but to see the justice of our own damnation Nothing can be more certain then this sight sight it is the surest sense and to see him at his coming is to be certain of it at the least but to see the Son of man at his coming is certainly with evidence and to be bound to see it to have such a tie upon us such a condition on us that we shall see it whether we will or no is a certainty with a necessity upon it That so no man may doubt of a final retribution whilst he is certain he shall one day see him who will reward every man according to his work Let not then the unjustly oppressed innocent let not the less prosperous godly spirit droop or the glorious and yet triumphing sinner the prosperous Rebel or thriving Atheist pride himself in the success of his Sins for he is coming that shall come and make the just mans eyes run over with joy and happiness for his fore-passed tears and fill the others eyes with shame and confusion for all their glory It may be long before he comes but come he will at last and his reward is with him 5. But who is this that comes so the Prophet once so we now or in what shape will he appear God is the Judge of all the earth and who is it that can see God Or if he has committed all judgment to the Son as it is S. Iohn iii. Yet who can see him either being of one substance with the Father the same individual and invisible Essence That therefore he may be seen he comes in the form of the Son of man This was that which Daniel foresaw in his night visions Dan. vii 13. one like the Son of man coming with the Clouds of Heaven that which S. Peter told Cornelius that he it was who was ordain'd to be the judge of quick and dead Acts x. 42. Not as he was Lord of Heaven and Earth or as he was the eternal off-spring of the Deity for so he could not be ordain'd he himself being from all eternity but as the Son of man for he hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man St. John v. 27. That was it by which he obtain'd the Throne of Judgment having in that form both done and suffered all things for our salvation God thinking but just that he should be our Judge who came to save us from judgment that he should judge us who had been partaker of our infirmities and knew our weaknesses and would by the compassion of nature easier acquit us or with more evidence of justice condemn us himself having once been subject to the like humane though not sinful passions This is the form in which all eyes may see him all Nations behold him nor shall the scars of his wounds be covered but that even by them we may acknowledge our crucified Saviour is become our Judge Who whilst he judges us in the form of man will condemn us for nothing above the power of man And yet even by his actions as he was man will he condemn ours His Humility our Pride his Abstinence our Gluttony and excess his Patience our Impatience his Chastity our Lusts his paying Caesar beyond his due our undutiful with-drawings from him in a word his Goodness Piety and Devotion our ungodliness impieties and prophaneness And as it is a mercy thus to be judg'd by one who is sensible of our frail condition so is it a glory besides that our nature is so high exalted as to be the Judge of the world not of men only but Angels too What favour may we not expect when he is our Judge who is our Saviour who will not lay aside our nature in his Glory that he may retain that sympathy and compassion to us which was taken with it when he took it from us 6. I shall not here need to spend much time to tell you 6. what he comes for who have told you so often of a day of Judgment and the Son of man to sit on the tribunal His coming is to Judgment for he comes with power and that power of a Judge Only I must tell you 2. that his motion is no faster then an easie coming So loth is he to come to Judgment so unwilling to enter into dispute with Flesh and Blood that he delays the hasty prayers of the afflicted Saints under the Altars of Heaven seems a little to with-hold the full beams of mercy which he has laid up for the Saints rather then to post to the destruction of the wicked Yet for the elects sake to hasten he does a little and therefore he makes a Cloud the Chariot of his Power that when he once begins to come he may come quickly And not so only but come in Glory which is the last observable in his coming in a Cloud with Power and great Glory In a Cloud he ascended Acts 1. and the Angel told the Disciples there that he should so come as they saw him go In the Clouds say the other Evangelists they speak of more then one His cloud is not a single cloud there are attendant clouds upon it Angels surround his Throne S. Mat. xxv 31. the Trumpet of the Archangel sounds before him 2 Thess. i. 7. his Throne is a throne of Glory S. Mat. xix 28. and his Apostles Thrones are round about him and all things are in subjection under his feet 1 Cor. xv 27. Thus is he rewarded with Majesty and Glory for his meekness and humility that we seeing the recompence of those despised vertues may learn to embrace them by so strong incentives and allurements What will ye one day say O ye obstinate Iews when you shall see his Glory whose poverty you so despised What will ye do at his Throne of Judgment who would not receive him in his Cradle of Mercy How will his enemies bemoan themselves with them Wisd. v. We fools thought his life madness and his end without honour How is he now numbred among the children of God the first born amongst many brethren Fools indeed to count him what we did for he shall come again with Majesty and Glory Glory is a word by which Christ seems as it were ever and anon to refresh the fainting spirits of his Disciples which are ready to betray their Masters to despair upon the apprehension of the fears and terror which their Lord had told them should precede and accompany the latter day This word recalls their spirits that they begin to look up again and lift up their heads For having thus as it were amaz'd their thoughts and unhing'd their patience he setles them again with some special comfort that when these things begin to come to pass they should look up and lift up their heads for however it fall out to others their Redemption draweth nigh Never
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
First-born he will be ever should be of all our thoughts will be acknowledged so whensoever born primogenitus one before whom none for that only is the sense of First-born here not referring to any after but to none before Col. i. 14. begotten before any creature in honour above all creatures endued with all the rights of primogeniture even as man also Now three things belonged to the First-born Son the Priesthood the preheminence or regal Dignity and a double or larger portion He is the High-Priest of our profession Heb. iii. 1. The great High-Priest of the Christian Profession and Religion He 2. the Head of his Church Col. i. 18. To whom all power is given in heaven and earth S. Mat. xxviii 18. He 3. also anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal. xlv 8. A portion of grace far above others S. Iohn i. 16. That in all things he might have the preheminence being the First-born as well of the dead as of the living says S. Paul Col. i. 18. All these mysteries we have wrapt up in the title of the First-born that by it he is intimated to be our Prince our Priest our elder Brother one in whom all fulness who should be therefore so acknowledg'd and us'd be first entertain'd in our affections be the first birth our souls should travel with and our affections and actions bring forth But there are more wrapt up in his being wrapt in Swadling-clothes then can readily be exprest All the benefits that came by him were wrapt up and not understood till the Clothes both of the Manger and the Grave were unwrapt by his Resurrection He seem'd not what he was shewed not what he came for until then All the while before nothing but folds and things folded up the Cross made up or involved in his Cratch for of the form of a Cross the Cratch some say was made mans salvation in Gods Incarnation the Churches growth in the Virgins bringing forth many brethren in the First-born among them His Glory 2. that was wrapt up in those Clothes his God-head in the Man-hood the Word in Flesh Eternity in days Righteousness in a body like to a body of Sin Wisdom in the infancy of a Child Abundance in Poverty Glory in disrespect the Fountain of Grace in a dry barren dusty Land eternal light in Clouds and everlasting life in the very image of death will you see the Clothes that hid this treasure not from men only but from Devils The espousals of just Ioseph and holy Mary hid Christs Conception of a Virgin The crying of an Infant in a Cradle the bringing forth without sorrow The Purification her entire Virginity The Circumcision his extraordinary Generation without any sin His flight conceal'd his Power his Baptism his unspotted Innocence His open Prayers to his Father his infinite Authority and Equality with him His sad sufferings obscur'd his perfect Righteousness The poverty and meanness of his life the height and greatness of his Birth and the ignominy of his Death the immensity of his Glory His Gospel 3. that was wrapt up in Clothes that seeing we might see and not presently understand a mystery kept secret since the world began his Doctrine wrapt in parables his Grace covered in the Sacraments the inward Grace in the outward Elements his great Apostolick Function in poor simple Fishermen his Vniversal Church in a few obscur'd Disciples of Iudea the height of his knowledge in the simplicity of Faith the excellency of his Precepts in the plainness of his Speech and the Glory of the end they drive to in the humility of the way they lead well may the Prophet exclaim Vere tu es Deus absconditus Psal. lv 15. Verily thou art a God that hidest thy self O God of Israel the Saviour Well may we admire thy folds and wrappings up O God and not strive to pry into thy secrets thy goings out and thy comings in and all thy counsels are past finding out to thee only it belongs to know them to us to obey and submit to them and adore them Yet 4. he was thus wrapt up to shew us our condition that the beauty and sweetness of Christianity as well as Christ of Christians as well as Christ appears not outwardly or but in rags We cannot see the Christians strength for the weaknesses that surround him nor his joy for the afflictions that encompass him nor his happiness for the worldly calamities that oppress him nor his wisdom for the foolishness of Preaching that so much delights him nor his riches for the poor condition he is sometimes brought to nor his honour for the scoffs and reproaches of the world he often labours under He seems unknown when he is well known dying when he only lives kill'd when he is but chastned sorrowful though always rejoycing poor yet making rich as having nothing and possessing all things 2 Cor. vi 9 10. Thus the Christian you see is wrapt up as soon as he is born nay and his very life also is wrapt up with Christ in God Col. iii. 3. Nay lastly our practice and duty is wrapt up with him He is wrapt up in poor Clothes that we might be wrapt up in stolâ primâ the best Robe his Robe of Righteousness that we might put on the white Linen of the Saints Wrapt up again 2. he was his hands and feet bound up like a Childs that by the vertue of it our hands and feet might be loosed to do the works of Christ and run the way of peace he is made a Child that we might be perfect men in him he brought forth that we might bring forth the fruits of good works and godly living The next mysteries lie coucht with him in the Manger where in a strait and narrow compass he lies that he may open Heaven wide to all believers all that keep a strait and strict watch over their ways and actions Where 2. uses to lie the Beasts provender there lies he also who is the bread that came down from Heaven to feed us who are often more unreasonable than the Beasts they know their owner the Oxe and Ass does so says God but my people do not theirs they will but satisfie nature we burthen it they will but eat and drink to satisfie men are grown so sensual they cannot be satisfied We have made our selves fit for the Manger which made Christ lie there to see if he could fill us seeing nothing can 3. In the Manger among the Beasts that we might sadly consider what we have made our selves and change our sensual lives now he is come into the Stable to call us out 4. There he lies in a place without any furniture or trimming up that we might by the place be instructed that the beauty of Christ wants no external setting out that 2. his beauty is omnis ab intus all within and his Spouse is all glorious within Psal. xlv That 3. our eyes might not be diverted from him by
grace not of desert That 't is 4. yet a receiving sufficient full every one enough and that not single grace neither but one for another one after another one upon another That 't is 5. a general business all receiving somewhat some grace or other and that seldom or never by it self none without receiving That 6. it is from Christ from him it is from his grace and from his fulness that we receive whatever we receive That lastly grace for grace it is for some end and purpose it is that we receive it receive grace that we may say grace give thanks and acknowledge it 2. Receive grace that we may shew grace receive grace from God that we may shew it unto men 3. Receive grace even for grace it self to increase and grow in it daily more and more till both it and we come both to perfection Of all these this is the sum that in Christ there is fulness all fulness fulness in both natures fulness that contents not it self till it have fill'd others till it fill us all That from this fulness we receive receive all we have all we have though not all he has all sorts of graces fitting for us and all gratis are therefore to give thanks for it as we have received so to repay again grace for grace And of all this is the scope the Exaltation of Christ and of his grace the scope of the Text the Sermon and the day 'T is but making it yours too and then all will be full And that it may so I begin now particularly to open to you all this fulness where I am first to shew you whose it is His fulness 1. His you know is a Relative must relate to somewhat that is before His to some that was spoken of before who 's that one to whom Saint Iohn bare witness that he was before ver 15. long before in the beginning ver 1. but was fain to draw nearer e're we could see him or his fulness to draw himself into the flesh e're we could fully discern his grace or behold his glory was made flesh the word made flesh ver 14. the only begotten of the Father become the only born of a Virgin Mother before we hear of any one full of grace and truth This word this eternal word this only begotten Son of God is He this His belongs to yet this fulness then fully His when he was made the Son of Man In that first appeared the fulness of his love the fulness of his Word and Promise the fulness of his Grace and Mercy the infinite grace and favour done to our flesh the fulness of his truth and reality above all those empty types and shadows which more amus'd then fill'd the world The body that 's of Christ says the Apostle Col. ii 17. the full body of truth full bodied grace never till he took a body to make it full The Law that could not fill us the very life of things there was poured out at the foot of the Altar and all the rest went into smoke The Prophets they could not fill us with any thing but expectation fill us with good words but alas they are but wind would have proved so too had not he embodied them All the world could not fill us the fulness of time was not come upon it till the Son of fulness came all that was in it till he came was vanity and emptiness could neither satisfie it self nor us 'T is Christ that filleth all in all Ephes. i. 23. He the end of the Law the completion of the Prophets the fulness of the World To him it is that this fulness is attributed to the fulness of Christ Ephes. iv 13. In him it is it dwells Col. i. 19. So it pleased God says the Apostle there so to gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are in earth even in him Ephes. i. 10. Fulness must needs be his in whom all things are gathered altogether in whom earth and heaven together 2. Thus the fulness you see is his and it being the fulness of Heaven and Earth you see in general what his fulness is In particular it cannot be measured It is as high as Heaven what canst thou do deeper then Hell what canst thou know the measure of it is longer then the earth and broader then the Sea Job xi 8 9. There is no end of his fulness no more than of his greatness In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. ii 3. all wisdom and knowledge treasured up in him all in the very knowing him all the very treasures of wisdom and knowledge the choicest to be found there all even hidden and obscured by his swallow'd up in that he knows all and to know him is to know all the highest Wisdom the deepest knowledge is but silliness and ignorance in respect of his hides it self at the comparison as lesser lights do at the Suns glaring Beams in him is all knowledge and in the knowledge of him is all wisdom hidden and contained In him 2. is the fulness of grace Full of grace are thy lips Psal. xlv 3. and if the lip 's full the heart 's not empty for out of the abundance there the fulness here the very stature of fulness Ephes. iv 13. In him 3. is the fulness of truth ver 14. so full that he is stil'd the very truth it self St. John xiv 6. I am the truth the truth of the promises all the promises since the Creation All the promises of God are in him yea and in him Amen 2 Cor. i. 20. The truth of all the Types and Shadows and Sacrifices from the worlds first cradle the true Paschal Lamb the true Scape-Goat the true High-Priest Adam and Isaac and Ioseph and Ioshua and Samson and David and Solomon were but the representations of him or what was to be more substantially done by him They are but the draughts and pictures he the substance all the way To him they all related had not their offices actions or passions scarce their very names fulfilled but in him all their fulness was in him Their truth and all truth besides the doctrine of truth never fully delivered never fully revealed or known till he came with it We knew it but in pieces we saw it but in clouds we heard it but in dark and obscure Prophesies till he came a light into the world to manifest it all 't is then we first hear of the whole will of God and the declaring that the whole counsel of God Acts xx 27. truth was not at the fulness till he taught it Nor 4. was his the fulness of wisdom and knowledge grace and truth but of the Spirit too not by measure St. Iohn iii. 34. but immeasurably full He all the graces of the Spirit and all of them to the full in him The Spirit himself proceeds from him St. Iohn xv 26. he must therefore
'T is worthy of it 1. for the Person it brings to us one that is fairer then the children of men Psal. xlv worth entertaining Worthy 2. for the way it brings him to us in an humble and familiar way such was his coming he comes into the world like other men that we may the easier approach him and so the more readily entertain him Worthy 3. for the good things it tells us he brings with him for the salvation he comes with to us a thing worth accepting Worthy 4. for the persons it brings all this good to or for the extent and fulness of that goodness that 't is to sinners sinners indefinitely and at large sinners of all sizes all degrees and latitudes this certainly worthy all acceptation by all to be accepted for all interessed in it And 5. to be accepted too with all acceptance all the best ways we can imagine with soul and body with hand and heart with all the expressions of love and reverence and joy and thankfulness love of his Beauty reverence to his Humility joy in his Salvation and thankfulness for the freeness and fulness of it If a friend come but a long Journey to us we give him all the welcome we can make and think nothing enough This friend came to us as far as Heaven is from us farther then all the corners of the earth If a great person come to visit us we meet him with all the respect and reverence we can contrive none too much This is the greatest person can come to us If there come one to save to when we are now ready to perish how do our hearts leap and our spirits dance for joy how glad are we nothing can be more Here 's one comes to do it and to do it to the utmost that none or nothing of us may be lost what can we now do to him again who is and does all this for us All we can do is all too little all expressions too low to receive him with and this saying that thus assures him to us worthy to be written in tables of Gold with pens of Diamonds to be written however on all our hearts never to be raz'd out nor ever to be brought forth but with devotion and reverence with exultation and joy And now I am fallen upon my second general the use we are to make of this faithful saying and a four-fold use it will be to believe To accept to apply to proclaim it I add to make this the day to begin it in I This is a faithful saying we are first therefore to believe it such it is to them that believe to others not St. Paul I confess says only to them especially cap. iv 10. But that especially is onely too for Christ is effectually the Saviour of none else The Saviour truly of all come down for all set up for all yet not any sav'd by him but Believers for all that Nor all they neither only such as are careful to maintain good works Tit. iii. 8. This saying not faithful but to Believers nor any Believers faithful but such as shew it by good works Thus St. Paul limits the words This is a faithful saying in those two last cited places that we may not cheat our selves out of the Text or the good things in it Indeed if we believe not yet he abideth faithful in himself he and all his sayings too that 's a faithful saying too 2 Tim. iii. 11. 13. But nor he nor any of his sayings faithful to us whatever in themselves if we be not faithful and believing if we distrust either the beginning or end of his coming to us or by our sins or foolish scruples or despairs thrust our selves out of our interests in any of them For the second Use we are to make of this saying is not only to believe it but to accept it Vse 2. Now to accept it is very highly to prize and value it and well we may 't is worthy of it Prize it we then as we do Jewels as that Merchant in the Gospel did the Pearl sell all to buy it there 's none to it Lay it up safe as we do treasures that neither Moth corrupt nor Thief steal it from us nor Sin nor Satan rob us of it there 's no treasure like it Keep it as we do the Records and Tenures of our Estates part with it upon no score Our state in heaven depends upon it 'T is our title to it Lord where were we without this assurance to save sinners where all our hopes if this were lost whereto all our treasures if this were gone We had need prize and value it and keep it sure and this is to accept it And yet to give it all acceptation is somewhat more To accept it as Tertullus tells Felix they did his noble deeds Acts xxiv 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always and every where and with all thankfulness Do we it then 1. not now and then not to day only or one day or two but every day every day we rise every opportunity that presents it self on every occasion that appears that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do we it again 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all places engrave it upon our doors carve it upon our posts write it upon our hands profess it every where we come not in our Closets and our Chambers only but in the Church in the High-Priests Palace in Pilates Hall at the Pillar and at the Cross no where asham'd or afraid to own it Do it 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thankfulness And how is that by some good deeds sure as well as words Present we him ever and anon with some good thing or other now a basket of good Fruits so St. Paul sometimes stiles good works Now a bottle of good Wine the Wine of devout and pious tears Now with a present of Gold or Silver to adorn his House or his Attendants Now with a garment to clothe his naked members Now with a dish to feed his poor and hungry Children Now with this gift now with another This is the way of thankfulness among men that they call good acceptance among themselves These and all the ways we can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so some Greek Copies read for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will take all in But above all our souls and bodies a living Sacrifice will be the most acceptable present we can make him Rom. xii 1. and indeed the fittest for him that came to save them This will do well yet 3. St. Paul's quorum ego primus the Apostles applying the only bad word in the Text with an emphasis to himself his reckoning himself the chief of sinners shews us the best way to apply this faithful saying to our selves the confessing our selves no ordinary sinners The third Use of the Doctrine of the Text. But thou O blessed Apostle the chief of sinners What then O Lord are we Primo primi the chief of
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
acknowledging of Gods blessings the first part of ours so sure a point of it that Confiteri to acknowledge or confess the blessing or him that sends it is above sixty times in the Book of Psalms set down for blessing And whole Psalms you have that are nothing else but an enumeration and catalogue of blessings the 66. the 103. the 104. the 105. the 107. the 136. And the more particular we are in it the more we bless him You have heard how particular Zachary is in it here He hath visited he hath redeemed c. given us nine particulars leaves neither gift nor giver unacknowledged Honourable it is to do so honourable to reveal to reveal the works of God says the Angel Iob xii 7. honourable to him honourable to us we cannot honour God without it nor expect honour from him if we will not acknowledge it Come and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul is the best way to begin our blessing 2. But it is but to begin it We must go on to the next way of blessing set close to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Benedictus from Benedicere both tell us there is much of it in words Only verbum is factum and dicere is facere sometimes in the holy page So we must take both words and deeds to do it with The word by the hand of thy servant as the Scripture sometimes speaks is the best way to bless him with Yet to our benedicere in the first sense first And to do that to give him good words is the least that we can give him let us be sure then not to grudge him them Confess we that he is good and gracious and merciful full of mercy plenteous in goodness and truth Streighten we not his visits stifle we not his Redemption coop we not up his salvation to a corner suffer we it to run large and full that the whole world may bless him for it Let us 2. speak it out Gods blessings were not done in a corner no more must ours Publick and solemn they would be And the Church has made it and Text part of the publick service that every one might bear a part in blessing God Every one of us and every thing of us too our souls and all that is within us heart and mind and all All within us and all without us our lips praise him our mouths praise him our hands praise him our flesh praise him our bones say who is like him all the members of our body turn themselves into tongues to bless him Bless we him 3. in set Hymns on purpose in good votes and wishes that his Church may prosper his Name be magnified his Glory advanced to the highest pitch for bene dicere is bene vovere too And sanctificare is no less To bless is sometimes to sanctifie So God blessed the seventh day is God hallow'd it and to sanctifie a day or place to bless him in is to bless him by his own pattern that he hath set us well said if well done I dare assure you to set apart both times and places to bless him in 2. But dicere is not all sung never sweetly said never so well The Lord bless thee in common phrase is the Lord do good unto thee Indeed Gods blessing is always such his benedicere is bene facere His saying is a doing his blessing a making blessed 'T is fit our blessing should be somewhat like it To himself indeed we can do no good He neither wants it nor can be better'd by it To His we may Though not to his head yet to his feet The poor we may bless them And the blessing them is blessing him for inasmuch as ye have done it unto these you have done it unto me says he himself S. Mat. xxv And truly it must needs be a poor blessing that cannot reach his feet Nay 't is a poor one if it reach no higher Indeed he that giveth alms he sacrifices praise says the Son of Syrach Ecclus. xxxv 2. And praise is blessing But to bless is to honour too And honour the Lord with thy substance says a wiser then the Son of Syrach Prov. iv Something must be done to his own honour So nething given or offered to support that here among us for to bless is to give thanks and that intimates somewhat to be given to him as well as said or spoken to him It will else be verba dare and not gratias a meer cheating him of our thanks As soon as Naaman the Syrian was cured of his Leprosie he begs of the Prophet to accept a blessing for it Nature had taught him God was to be blest so 2 Kings v. 15. When the Captains of Israel had found by their whole numbers how God had delivered them they come with a blessing in their hands of sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels of gold for the house of God Numb xxxi 52. David and his people the story tells us blest him so too 1 Chron. xxix 20 21. offered incredible sums of Gold and Silver for the service of the house of God And let me tell you without begging for it that the House of God being now by this Visit in the Text made the very office of salvation where he daily visits us and entertains us with his Body and Blood with holy conferences and discourses where he seals us every day to the day of Redemption and offers to us all the means of salvation there can be no way of blessing God so answerable and proportionable to his thus blessing us as thus blessing him again Yet where there is nothing thus to bless him with there is yet another way of blessing him nay where there are other ways this must be too To bless him is to glorifie him and a good life does that S. Mat. v. 16. By our ill lives the name of God is blasphemed says the Apostle Rom. ii 24. Then by our good ones it must needs be blest Zachary seems to point at this way of blessing when he tells us we were delivered that we might serve our Visitor in holiness and righteousness ver 75. And thus he that has neither eyes to look up nor hands to lift up nor feet to go up to the house of blessing nor tongue to bless him nor so much as a Cross to bless himself or God not a mite to throw into his treasure may truly bless him and be accepted To this and all the other ways of blessing is the Text set And let all now come in and bear a part in blessing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel is now lastly a call to call them in The Prophet David does so Psal. cxlviii Sun and Moon and Stars and Light Heaven and Earth and Waters both above and under them Dragons and Deeps Fire and Hail and Snow and Vapour and Wind and Storm and Hills and Trees and Beasts and Cattel
desires or place our affections upon earthly rubbish not to precount our lands or houses our clothes or furniture our full bags or our numerous stock and daily encrease our riches but to reckon Christ our riches his Grace our wealth his reproach our honour his poverty our plenty his glory the sum and crown of all our riches and glory For if you know the grace of the Lord Iesus Christ this you know also that 't is worth the seeking that 't is riches and honour and glory how poor soever it look to the eye of the world The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ it is only that makes us rich and poverty his way to enrich us by contrary to the way of the world and this ye know says the Apostle 'T is so plain and evident I need not tell you it for ye know it The third point the evidence of all that has been said 3. For ye know it for ye know nothing if you know not this It was a thing not done in a corner all the corners of the world rang of it from the utmost corners of Arabia to the ends of the earth The wise men came purposely from the East to see this poor little new-born Child tibi serviet ultima Thule sang the Poet the utmost confines of the West came in presently to serve him the whole world is witness of it long ago Nor were ever Christians ashamed either of this grace or poverty until of late It was thought a thing worth knowing worth keeping in remembrance by an anniversary too Indeed were it not a thing well known it would not be believed that the Lord of all should become so poor as to have almost nothing of it all But we saw it says St. Iohn i. 14. the word made flesh this great high Lord made little and low enough heard it saw it with our eyes lookt upon it and our hands too handled it 1 St. Iohn i. 1. had all the evidence possibly could be had the evidence of ear and eye and hand know it by them all And not we only not St. Iohn only but all men know it For this grace of God that bringeth salvation that is the true grace of our Lord Jesus Christ hath appeared unto all men says St. Paul Titus ii 11. So that they either know it or if they know it not 't is their own fault for it has appeared and has been often declared unto them so that 't is no wonder that the Apostle should tell the Corinthians that they know it they could not be Christians without knowing it nor it seems men in those days neither that knew it not And yet as generally as it was known it was a grace to know it one of the most special gifts and graces the knowledge of the grace of Christ. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and that ye know it is his grace You could not know it without it none but they to whom it is given can know it as they should 4. That we may know it so as well as they we are now in the last place to consider what the Apostle would infer upon us by it what should be the issue of this knowledge 1. The acknowledgment of the grace and then 2. the practice of it For ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet he so lov'd the poor as to bestow all his riches freely upon them upon us that were poor and naked and miserable and being thrust out of our first home never since could find any certain dwelling-place And therefore we 2. after his example being now enricht by him should be rich in our mercy and bounty to the poor for if his grace was such to us when we were poor we should shew the like to the poor now we are rich But that we may be the readier to this we must first be sensible of the other throughly sensible of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ acknowledge it for a grace a thing meerly of his own good will and favour that he would thus become poor to make us rich Know we and acknowledge many graces in this one grace A grace to our humanity that he would grace it with putting on A grace to poverty that he would wear that too A grace to our persons as well as to our natures that it was for our sakes he did it A grace to our condition that it was only to enrich it Know we then again and acknowledge it from hence 1. That poverty is now become a grace a grace to which the Kingdom of God is promised St. Mat. v. 3. poverty of spirit Nay the poor and vile and base things too hath God chosen saith St. Paul 1 Cor. i. 28. the poor are now elect contrary quite to the fancy that the Iews had of them whose proverb it was that the Spirit never descended upon the poor answerable to which it was then the cry Can any good thing come out of Nazareth any Prophet or great good come out of so poor a place as that 2. Know we again that Christs poverty above all or poverty for his sake is a grace indeed for to you 't is given given as a great gift of grace and honour to suffer for his name Phil. i. 29. And 't is a part of our calling says St. Peter 1 S. Pet. ii 21. a specialty of that grace 3. Know we 3. that our Riches are his Grace too In vain we rise up early and go late to bed all our care and pains and labour is nothing to make us rich without his blessing The blessing of the Lord it is that maketh rich 4. Know we however these may prove the riches of Christ can prove no other All the vertues and graces of our souls all the spiritual joy fulness and contentment are meerly his they the proper Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ no grace above them no grace near them nothing can render us so gracious in the eyes of God as they they are above Gold and Rubies and precious Stones These and all the rest being acknowledged in the Text we may well acknowledge that there was good reason to put an Article an Emphasis upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace Yet to make all up all these graces you must know all the several graces outward and inward come all from this one grace of Christs becoming poor being made man and becoming one of us To this it is we owe all we have or hope to the Grace of Christ at Christmas and therefore now are to add some practice to all this knowledge to return some grace again for all this grace Gratia is thanks let 's return that first thank God and our Saviour for this grace of his whence all grace flows and for all the several graces as they at any time flow down upon us Gratia Deo thanks to God 2. Gratia is good will and favour let 's shew
us when we are sick and heals our sicknesses he visits us in our sadness and dispels our sorrows he visits us in prison and pays our Debts he visits us in our dangers and delivers us out he visits us in our prosperities and rejoyces with us in them he visits us by his Mercies by his Prophets by his Graces by his Spirit yet all these are nothing to this visiting by his Son or little they are without it or else they are all included in it health and joy liberty and deliverance peace and mercy comfort and instruction grace and spirit all in it all in the coming down of Christ to visit us How infinite is thy mercy that thou thus doest visit poor sinful man 3. But thou wert infinitely merciful to him long before when thou first madest him when thou madest him but little lower then the Angels 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some little thing but not much Thou gavest him understanding as thou didst them only theirs is a little clearer and without discourse But they understand and so does man They have wills and so has he They are spirits and he has one They are Gods Ministers and so is man only they do all with more nimbleness and perfection for they have no bodies but to hinder them but man has In that he is somewhat under them yet not much neither since Christ has so exalted our nature as to unite it to the Godhead and made all his Angels worship it And which takes much too from this diminution this minuisti eum it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a second sense for a little while for so 't is possible to be rendred whilst we live here for a few years and days It will not be long e're we be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels we are now below S. Luke xx 36. And yet we are a degree nearer to them now if we expound the words that we render Angels as S. Ierome Pagnin and some others do The word is Elohim one of the names of God and St. Chrysostom found a Translation with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he made us but a little lower then God himself And may well seem so when he sets a Dixi dii estis upon us Psal. lxxxii 6. tells us that he said we were Gods and the Children of the most High 4. But 4. bear it what sense it will what diminution it can it is all but to exalt us by it to crown us thou hast made Christ to crown him only to crown so we read it in the old Translation our very diminutions are sent us to augment our glory So infinitely great is Gods mercy to us that our very lessenings are for our greatning A rare excess of mercy to make us lower so to make us higher 5. And 't is high indeed when it exalts us to a Crown and past doubting too when it comes to a coronasti thou hast done it as 't is here both in the old Latin and the new English certain to hold too not to be one of those corruptible Crowns the Apostle speaks of of Bays or Laurel in the Olympick games 1 Cor. ix If we add the other reading mentioned by St. Chrysostome Coronabis Thou shalt crown him hast already and shalt again shalt continue crowning him Here 's a mercy will hold as well as stretch as everlasting as 't is infinite Two senses there are of Coronasti of this crowning it may signifie either plenty or reward Thou crownest the year with thy goodness Ps. lxv 11. He crowneth thee with loving kindness Psal. ciii 4. In both it signifies an abundance of mercies and blessings But he shall receive a crown St. James i. 12. is the same with a high reward In both senses God crowns man here with the fulness of heaven and earth gives him liberty to feed and clothe himself with what he pleases keeps nothing of all his plenty from him and which is more gives him it as it were a reward for his labour though it be vastly far above all his pains 6. If this reward be glory now 6. as here it is he has put a crown of Gold indeed upon his head as the Psalmist speaks The glory to be made after the very image and likeness of God himself and to be made so at a consultation with so much solemnity that 's the glory here It was a kind of one to be made somewhat near the Angels likeness but to have Gods added to it is glory upon glory What glory like Gods what glory of man like that to be like God Having honour added to this glory that all the creatures should do homage to him the fiercest and stubbornest of them submit their necks under his feet and the very crooked Serpent creeps away as afraid of him none of them dare to lift him up a head or a horn a paw or crest or hiss against him for the Fowls of the Air and Fishes of the Sea all of them to serve to his command and use What is man become now What hast thou made him thus O God Much of this glory I confess is now departed from him or blurred or sullied in him that we can see little of his former purer rays by reason of his own sin and folly yet thus God made him all this he did for him and the glimmerings of all these glories and mercies are still upon him And the mercy peradventure is the greater though the glory be the less in that notwithstanding all mans demerits he yet continues in some degree or other all these mercies to him You will see it still the greater if you now consider who it is all this is done to who it is that God thus remembers visits makes and crowns with glory and worship A worshipful piece God wot a poor thing call'd man stil'd Adam here a piece of clay and dirt ex limo a pure clod a meer walking pitcher brittle and dirty too and the dirtier since his fall Miserable 2. besides Enos is a second word the Psalmist here expresses man withal and that signifies a sad sick calamitous miserable incurable wretch and which adds to it so by descent too and by entail never here to be cut off Filius Enos the Son of man the son of misery he comes crying into the world as if he foresaw it e're he well could see and felt it at his first appearance How innumerable are the troubles how unavoidable the necessities how incredible the mischances how numberless the sicknesses how unsupportable the infirmities that surround him from his first hour infinite need there is that God should be mindful of him that he should have some eye upon him and regard him for he comes in helpless into the world and continues so if God help him not This is that then 3. makes the Prophet come with a quid est Lord what a thing is this what a thing is man a thing so hidden with infirmities so
dash against a stone would not suffer a bone of him to be broken or one tittle of his Covenant to fail him sent his Angels too to look after to minister to him a whole host of them to declare him this day to the world Nay 2. came and visited him himself he and his Holy Spirit with him at his Baptism he and Moses and Elias with him in the Mount where he gave testimony he was his Son his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased Nay 3. that which might seem in one sort a diminution was in another an exaltation he made him but a little lower then the Angels was an exalting him when it made even his Body little inferiour to their Spirit and that it did when he could pass through a crowd of people as invisible as an immaterial Spirit S. Luke iv 30. Nay before that when he came into the world without any blemish to his Mothers Virginity as if he had been a Spirit not a Body and after that when he arose out of his Tomb the stone upon it when he entred and the doors were shut when he vanish'd out of sight c. they knew not how he went Paulo minus angelis indeed this is little less then Angels I can tell you But St. Austin tells you more Naturâ humanâ Christi Deum solum majorem That God only is greater then Christs humane nature The Hypostatical union to the Deity has made it so and those infinite graces of his soul are somewhat more then paulo minus above the Angels rarest endowments Yet this is nothing to the Crown that follows for we see Iesus says the Apostle Heb. ii 9. Who was made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Enthymius thinks it may be read without a comma above the Angels with glory and honour hast thou crowned him with a glory beyond theirs Indeed four Crowns he was crowned with a Crown of Flesh with that his Mother crown'd him in his Incarnation Cant. iii. 11. A Crown of Thorns with that the Souldiers crown'd him at his Passion St. Iohn xix 2. A Crown of Precious Stones De lapide pretioso at his Resurrection The four endowments of glorious Bodies Charity Agility Impossibility and Incorruptibility were the Stones of it And a Crown of pure Gold at his Ascension when he shone like the Son in gloria and went up cum corona with a crown or ring of blessed Saints into the highest Heavens With these two last God crowned him these two were his exaltation and the crown or reward of the two other And to make this Crown the more glistering and glorious here 's honour added to it A name given him above every name that at the mention of it every knee is now to bow both of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth Phil. ii 9 10. made better then the Angels Heb. i. 4. so much better that all things even the Angels themselves Authorities and Powers all sorts of Angels are made subject unto him 1 S. Pet. iii. 22. and are therefore bid all to worship him says St. Paul Heb. i. 6. Such honour has Christ after his humiliation and we may expect some after ours If we humble our selves we also shall be exalted and crowned with glory And so it seems we are entitled to it by the sufferings of the Son of man and by his visiting us our glory is much encreased by his Glory our honour higher by his Redemption then in our first Creation so that we may now well take up the words again and pronounce them with greater astonishment still that he should so remember visit and crown his redeemed people as he does For what is man indeed that God should redeem him at so great a price what access can it be to God to raise him out of his ruines might he not more easily have made a new stock of men of better natures than have redeemed Adam's Or 2. if he would have needs so much magnified his love as to have redeem'd him because he had made him would not a restoring of him to his first estate have been well enough but that he must raise him to a higher Without doubt it had but that God in mercy thinks nothing too much for him It appears so by his remembring him Man was a true Enos and that is obliviscens a forgetful piece yet God remembers him and comes down in the evening of his fall a few minutes after it and raises him up with a promise of the seed of the Woman to set all streight again There he did as well visit as remember him And in the pursuance of this singular mercy he still 2. visits him every morning morning and evening too visits by his Angels by his Priests by his Prophets by his Mercies by his Iudgments by his Son by his Holy Spirit by daily motions and inspirations These are the visits he hourly makes us since he visited us by his Son far more plentifully than before more abundant grace more gracious visits for if his Son be once formed in us he will never give over visiting till he crown us Yet 3. by degrees he raises us up to some Angelical purities and perfections before he crown us our nature is much elevated by the Grace of Christ and what the Iew did only to the outward letter we are enabled to do to the Spirit of it to inward purity as well as the outward Thus and thus you heard of old says Christ S. Matth. v. 21. but I say more not a wanton look not a murtherous thought not a reproachful word not the slightest Oath He would refine us fain somewhat near the Angels to be pure as they But 4. we shall not do it gratis he will crown us for it quicken us together with Christ raise us up together and make us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. ii 5 6. Honours us with the name of friends reveals himself unto us fills us with the riches of Christ adopts us to be his Sons makes us members of Christ partakers of his Spirit makes himself one with us and we with him washes us by one Sacrament feeds us by another comforts us by his word compasses with the ministrations of righteousness that exceeds in glory pardons our sins heals our infirmities strengthens our weaknesses replenishes us with graces urges us with favours makes us with open face behold them as in a glass behold the glory of the Lord and changes us at last into the same image from glory to glory Eph. iii. 18. What is man O Lord or the Son of man that thou shouldst do thus unto him And what are we O Lord what are we that we are so insensible of thy mercies what base vile unworthy things are we if we do not now pour out our selves in thanks and wonder in praise and glory for this
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
but to all the people the whole people But in conspectu totius populi it might be for all one people and the rest ne're a whit the nearer to salvation the further off rather when it is so restrain'd â—niuscujusque populi would be better for all the people of the world 'T is somewhat near the height that of what we can desire yet omnium populorum 't is we need for all people whatsoever not only all that then were but all before up to Abraham up to Adam and all since down to us that live this day down to all that shall survive us as long as there shall be people upon earth Vniuscujusque populi had been enough for the whole world then alive Omnium populorum it must be or the Fathers before and we since are men most miserable But do not Simeons old eyes deceive him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all I know some quicker sights some younger eyes that can construe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into pauci can see no such matter It may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the glory of the elect Israel at the end of the Text dims their weak eyes or peradventure like men overwhelm'd with the news of some unexpected fortune they think themselves in a dream and dare not give credit to their eyes though they behold it so great and undeserv'd a blessing that 't is a labour to perswade 'um that they see it though they cannot but see it Simeons eyes are old enough to ponder objects he knows what he sees and he speaks what he knows and he speaks no more then the Angel before told the Shepherds gâ—udium quod erit omni populo tidings of joy which shall be to all people erit shall be for ever And say not the Apostles the same also The Saviour of all men says St. Paul 1 Tim. iv 10. specially of them that believe of them especially not them only Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth 1 Tim. ii 4. The Saviour of the world St. John iv 14. A ransom for all 1 Tim. ii 6. God not willing that any perish not any 2 St. Peter iii. 9. Nay God himself says more Ezek. xxxiii II. I will not the death no not of the wicked not of a sinner Much less his death before he be or man or sinner That 's no kin to salutare tuum that 's not salvation but destruction prepar'd And 't is not nollem I would fain not have it so but plain nolo I will not or more to the word I not will it I deny it utterly Thy destruction is from thy self 't is none of my doings Salutare meum I will the contrary To put all out of question take his oath Vivo ego as I live I do not And accordingly does the Saviour himself send out his general proclamation St. Mat. xi 28. Come to me all that are heavy laden and who is not yet do but come come who will and I will ease He calls 'um all by that grace they may come if they will except you think he mocks 'um when they are come He will refresh them To take away all plea of ignorance or excuse we proceed further In conspectu omnium not only prepared for all but in the sight of all before their faces So prepar'd that they may see and know it know it to be prepar'd not that it might be and is not as if indeed the salvation were sufficient in it self but God would not suffer it to be so So though universal yet so hidden under obscure and nice distinctions that few can see it but withal so evident that all may see it in conspectuomnium none with good reason deny it Had it been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they migh have had some pretence and colour if they had not seen it had it been only in sight many things are so which we oft-times do not see But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is just before our faces we must be blind if we see not that If for all this they close their eyes and will not see then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is contra against 'um to confute to confound their vain imaginations So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be against those that cry out the light of righteousness rose not upon us to prove the contrary now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their faces There is no idle word in Scripture every Adverb and Preposition and Article the dictate of the Spirit There are other words he might have used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 methinks on purpose 1. It may be besides what has been said to distinguistâ— the Iews and Vs since this salvation came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before our faces When the light 's before the shadows are behind So it is with us ever since the Sun of Righteousness arose this day since this light of Salvation left the clouds When the light 's behind the shadows are before So to the Jewish Synagogue Salvation behind the cloud to them Nothing before their eyes but veils and shadows nothing else took up their eye-sight but we with open face behold the glory of the Lord. 2. Or may it not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the face of the world clean contrary That 's for nothing but glory and pomp God works not as man works but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the hair will have an humble Saviour lowly born of poor Parentage in a Stable wrapt in Rags laid in a Manger no Royal Cradle no Princely Palace without Attendants without State The Angels themselves at such a sight as this could not but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bow down and look and look again and mistrust their eye-sight to see God in a Cratch Heaven in a Stable and bow down we must our high towring thoughts and lay 'um level with that from whence we were taken if we would bless our eyes with so hidden secrets or be partakers of so great Salvation They were poor Shepherds that first saw this happy sight as it were on purpose to inform us that the poor humble Spirit has the first rank among those whoever see Salvation 3. Or lastly is it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the inclination and capacity of all people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 durum genus stony-hearted people those that set their faces against Salvation to soften them if possible or else to break them in pieces like a potters vessel Or again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 people so call'd from the Corner-stone Christ Iesus such as had already turn'd their faces towards salvation to further and encourage them Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only of the people to their capacity but to theirs too who were neither his people nor people whose
rude barbarisms had exempted them from the number of civil Common-wealths who did not deserve the name of people not of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without either Article or Adjective such as no body could point at with an Article or construe with an Adjective such as seem here to be excluded out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that yet one would think includes all Such as if you were to number up all the world you would leave out them to these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to uncover and shew 'um to the world and out of their thick darkness to light them the way unto salvation Which brings me to the benefits together with the parties Light and Glory Light to the Gentiles Glory to Israel A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel I keep Gods method Fiat Lux begin with light Gen. i. 2. I need not tell you 't is a benefit Truly light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is says the Preacher Eccles. xi 7. and Mordecai joyns light and gladness together Hest. viii 16. So salutare letificans it is salvation that brings joy and gladness with it 2. Light of all motions has the most sudden it even prevents the subtilest sense And was it not so with this salvation When all things were in quiet silence and that night was in the midst of her swift course thine Almighty word leapt down from heaven out of thy Royal Throne Wisdom xviii 14. Salutare praeveniens vota Salvation that prevents our dreams and awakes our slumbering consciences 3. And when our eye-lids are past those slumbers then Lighten mine eyes O Lord that I sleep not in death Those dark chambers have no lights A light to lighten them a light to shew my self to my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reveal my inmost thoughts to shew me the ugly deformity of my sins will be a blessing Lumen revelans tenebras no dark-lanthorn light a light to shew us the darkness we are in our Salutare dispergens tenebras salvation that dispels the horrid darkness 4. And to do that the enlightning of the medium is not sufficient In conspectu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just before us it may be and the windows of our eyes damm'd up against it A light then to pierce the Organ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into it it must be Lumen penetrans oculum salvation not only presented to the eye but to the sight the eye fitly disposed to behold it 5. Every enlightning will not do that It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light of revelation No other will serve the turn not the light of nature not the dictates of reason not the light of moral vertues or acquired habits but something from above something infused such as comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine inspiration What light else no remedy but buried we must be in everlasting night Scriptures or revealed truth the revelation of Iesus Christ must save whoever shall be saved No man can come to me except the Father draw him St. John vi 44. No man lay hold upon the Name of Iesus or salvation but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Lumen divine revelationis salvation by the glorious light of Divine Revelation 6. There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which yet wants an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Revelation that wants a Revelation such as St. Iohns a dark one This an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lightsome one such as Revelations are when Prophesies are fulfilled of things past not things to come Lumen Revelationis revelatae a light of salvation as clear as day 'T is time now to ask whither it is this light and revelation lead us I shall answer you out of Zacharies Benedictus S. Luke i. 79. They guide our feet into the way of peace Send forth thy light and thy truth and they shall guide me Psal. xliii 3. So David guide me whither Psal. lvi 13. To walk before God in the light of the living One light to another the light of grace to the light of glory So Lumen dirigens or salutare pertingens ad coelum salvation leading up to heaven Sum up all Salvation to make us glad a light a light to comfort not a lightning to terrifie The lightnings shone upon the ground the earth trembled and was afraid no such no lightning Nor St. Paul's light a light to blind but to give light nor to play about the medium only but to open and dispose the weak dim eye Not by a weak glimmering of nature nor by a dusky twi-light but by a clear Revelation not an ignis fatuus to misguide us out of the way into bogs and quagmires but to guide us to peace and to salvation Lastly not a light to any to see only that they are inexcusable ut essent inexcusabiles that seeing they might see and not understand a light to light 'um down to Hell that they might see the way down through those gloomy shades with more ease horrour and confusion that 's the event indeed sometimes the end never but thither upward from whence it comes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the beginning of the Text to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end And can your thoughts prompt to your desires any greater benefits can you wish more And yet if we but consider in what plight the parties were upon whom the rays of this light shone the salvation will seem more beneficial They were in darkness and could any thing be more welcome to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death then a light to lighten That was the miserable case the Gentiles now were in Neither have the Heathen knowledge of his laws 't was so in Davids time and so continued on till this days rising Sun scattered the Clouds and now the case is altered Dedi te in lucem gentium fulfilled in his time The Gentiles now enlightned Enlightned what 's that Those that are baptized are said to be enlightned Heb. x. So the Gentiles enlightned will be in effect the Gentiles baptized Baptized they may be with water and they had need of some such cleansing element to wash their black dark sullied souls but there is another Baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire fire that 's light so to be baptized with light will be with the Holy Ghost 'T was heavy midnight through the world Iudea was the only Goshen the land of light till he that was born this day breaking down the partition that divided Palestine from the nations gave way for the light which before shone only there to disperse its saving beams quite through the world Then did they whose habitations were pitcht in the region of death whose dwellings in the suburbs of Hell see a marvellous great light spring up that 's salus personis accommodata salvation fitted to the parties Fitted and tempestively too to them
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
Martyrdom giving them the first honour to die for Christ and as it were redeem his life with theirs so early bringing them to Heaven by suffering there is no reason of complaining nothing to cloud our Christmas joys or disturb our rejoycing Those little ones are singing in the Heavens about the Lamb Rev. xiv 3. And 't will do well that we here upon earth should sing Blessing and Praise and Glory that God has so exalted them and comforts us make it one of our Christmas Carols our songs of joy Yet somewhat to allay your joy that your mirth run not too high I shall after this long story tell you a tale in your ears will make them glow Herod is not dead nor sleepeth We are all of us Herods or Herodias's men and women one way or other We have been as deep dissemblers of piety some among us as ever Herod many as bloody too upon it Many sad errors and mistakes have many of us made and many a thousand souls have miserably perisht by them Angry men have been exceeding angry that the Magi many a wise man and good would not comply with their interests and projects or communicate with their sins Angry some I am afraid still that Christ that Religion is escap'd their fury that their kingdoms are not establisht though it was Christs that was by them pretended but just as the Worshiping him was by Herod And I cannot tell but there may be yet some projects of sending out to slay men and children to begin Herods work anew the War afresh But I am sure though we cannot reach that mystery there is one you will easily understand shall serve for an application to drive all home Our own children are daily murthered by us their very souls destroyed a sadder cruelty than Herods Not to tell you that the Mother kills them often in the Womb by the folly and vanity of a dress by an unruly humour by a disordered appetite by a heedless or giddy motion nor that the nurse kills them at the breast by her intemperance and excess though it be too true Yet it is a less murther that than to kill the soul and yet this done oftner And I 'le assure you first they venture their Children hard that deny them Baptism I 'le say no more But after that they are smothered some in their Mothers lap kill'd with kindness and indulgence stabb'd through with poniards others undone with cruelty and unkindness trampled to death others and perish by their friends carelesness and neglect Some are dasht against the Walls their brains beat out at least wholly corrupted by false principles from their cradles Some we trail along the streets and destroy them by our ill examples some we choak with intemperances and excesses even in Christmas too some we destroy our selves others we send out servants and companions to destroy give them such to tend them as teach them pride and scorn and anger and frowardness and vanity and wantonness e're they understand them such as teach them to bestow a curse e're they can ask a blessing and to speak ill e're they can well speak And as if we were resolved to make all sure we send them abroad to be bred sometimes to places of licentiousness and debauchery that they may be sure to be gallant sinners because forsooth 't is pedantick and below a Gentleman to be a thorow Christian to suck in the tame and conscientious principles of Christianity and all upon Herods mistake that wise men will mock us for them when 't is only that they are wisely wicked and mistaken And now shall we cry out of Herods cruelty and do worse our selves shall we complain he kill'd the Innocents to day and we make nothing every day to destroy even innocency it self A less far lesser cruelty it would be to take these tender blossoms and shake them off the tree than to suffer them to grow up to fruits which we can but curse our selves and others will curse the tree from bearing them Nay a greater mercy it were to the poor children to dash them against the stoneâ— to smother them in the Cradle to overlay them in the bed to dispatch them any way innocent into the other world than to nurse them up to our own follies than to pollute them with our debaucheries than to corrupt them with atheistical and ungodly principles than to defile them with lusts than to train them up to be wicked or meerly vain and unprofitable breed them up to Hell to eternal ruine Yet the tender and delicate woman that can scarce endure to set her foot upon the ground for niceness thus daily murthers her beloved darling without scruple But indeed do men and women pray for Children as a blessing that they may only turn them into a curse only desire them that they may destroy them surely one would think they did so that sees how great a study it is to make them vain and proud and envious and lewd and wicked Our Herods and Herodias's cut off the baptized Infants heads as they of old did the Baptists We even dance them to death and compromise them to Hell as soon almost as the baptismal waters are dried upon them And must old Herod and Herodias only bear the blame of murdering Innocents and we that do it over and over scape without an accusation In this too worse then Herod He only slew the Children from two years old and under we under and above too from their first day upward till we have rendred them incorrigible to age and past recovery The subtilest policy of the Devil this thus to kill poor Children from their infancy when they neither know who hurt them nor how they came in the confines of that spiritual death they dwell in can only say they were so dealt with in the house of their friends What shall we say my beloved when these murther'd Children shall cry out against us out of their miserable Cells at last for they will do then at least as these did from under the Altar long ago How long O Lord how long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that spilt it on our Fathers and on our Mothers and on our friends that thus untimely sent us hither when we might otherwise have come to thee whither shall we turn what shall we answer or rather because we cannot answer let us take heed we handle the matter so that we come not to it We pretend to love our Children and thereupon we strive to make them rich and fine and great and honourable why do we then beggar them from their Childhood with bringing them up to those vanities that will undo them why do we deform them with sins and vices lessen them with education make them dishonourable by training them up in ignoble and dishonest principles why do we in all these ruine them from the first At least why do we not love our selves
who for ought I know must needs perish with them and perish for them for thus destroying them Were we but kind to our own souls we would be to theirs But to fill up the measure we play the Herods and act the murtherers lastly upon our selves We daily stifle those heavenly births of good desires and thoughts that are at any time begotten in us by the Holy Spirit and walk on confidently to death and darkness But we have acted Herods part too long and I fear I have been too long upon it To be short now let 's turn our slaughtering hands upon our sins and vices kill them mortifie them and henceforward act the part of the blessed Innocents set our selves from this day to better practices study the two grand lessons of the day Innocence and Patience Innocence in our lives and Patience in our deaths or rather patience in them both Study them our selves teach them our Children and continually preserve them in those happy ways that when we shall have serv'd our several generations and go hence we may all meet at last Fathers and Mothers and Children at the great Supper of the Lamb and together with these blessed Innocents in the Text follow the Lamb for evermore Who c. THE FIRST SERMON ON THE Circumcision 2 COR. v. 17. Old things are past away behold all things are become new AS face in water answers face so does the face of the Text the face of the Church in the times we live in where old things are past away all things become new But as where the faces are like the minds often are not so so the sense of the Text and the sense of the Times are as unlike as may be however like the words be to them Old legal Ceremonies and old corruptions past in the Text Old corruptions and old heresies and errors renewed in the Times The glorious Gospel of Christ newly appearing with affections answerable to it in the Text A Gospel I know not whose not of Peace but of War not of Love and Unity but of Faction and Schism with affections and courses according in the times New things such as belong to the new Man righteousness and true holiness passed over as unnecessary or unprofitable all good order antiquated and out of date cast away as old things all good things quite ruin'd and decay'd It were to be wish'd but 't is but meerly to be wish'd scarce hop'd I fear that the sense as well as the words might fit us that the new things in the Text were the new ones of the Times that the old ones here were the old ones there That the new year but lately entred might bring us this news But however I may wish and hope too I hope that we in particular will take occasion from it to renew our hearts with the year and begin it in newness of life and conversation to live the new year like new men better than of old And though the new times as now they are will not agree with the Text no more than these new men of the times their Sermons do in words only at the most yet because I love to speak seasonably as well as soberly a Text in season if I may have leave to fit the Text to the old time of Christmas there can be nothing more suitable to both the words and meaning of the Text than this holy Feast and the meaning of it From this Feast from Christs birth it was that all old legal ceremonies had their pass to pass away from hence all things both in Heaven and earth are reconciled by him all things made new by him the old man abolished and the new man created in us the old Law abrogated the new Law come in place the old Law of Works anulled the new Law of Faith established all old things past away all things become new through his coming into the world And the use and moral of the whole Feast and the three solemn great days in it is no more than that we would let old things pass old worldly affections die lay off the old and become new men all Be 1. regenerate in our spirits and new born with him upon Christmas-day Have our old man 2. circumcised our old fleshly members mortified upon Circumcision-day and be wholly renewed in all our parts upon the same as New-years-day Begin 3. the publick profession of our renovation and new service with the Wise men worshipping adoring and presenting him our gifts upon the Epiphany or Twelfth so changing our old Master and the service of sin for our new Master and his service forgetting the old and pressing on to the new Thus you have a perfect Christmas Text and more evidently a New-years one yet both both in words and sense I have given you the whole sense of it from the Feasts of Christmas and both told you their meaning and the Texts what the several days of the Feast teach you and what all the parts of the Text would have you learn of which this is the sum That through Christ all old things the old Law the Law of Moses the old corruptions of Nature the law of sin are past away done away and abolished and a new law established new grace brought to us new affections created in us all through him and by his coming and that whosoever is in Christ in whom he is come in him old things are past away all things are become new he is a new creature quite in the words that usher in the Text so the parts of it will be two 1. What since Christs coming is become of all things What is the state of the Gospel And 2. What upon that is become of those that are in him For to understand the Text fully we are to consider it 1. as a general proposition concerning the state of the Gospel of Christ that old things in general are past away and all things altogether become new through it and him 2. As a particular application made to any man that is in Christ it is truly in that state that in him old things are past away all things become new 1. Now in the general old things are past away that 's become of them of all old things since Christs coming and all things else are become new that 's become of them or so are they become 2. In particular this is become of them in whom Christ is or who are in him true sons of the Gospel old things are past with them and all things in them become new I shall add a third as the proper Use both of Text and time of the old days and the new year what is most becoming us for whom also Christ came to whom still he daily comes even to cast away all old corruptions and in all things to become new I begin with the Text as it may be applied to the general state and condition of the Gospel where we shall consider it first respectively then
absolutely 1. In comparison with the estate of things both under the old Law and under the Gentile infidelity that the Gospel is a state where both all those old legalities are abolished and heathen errors done away 2. In it self that the Gospel is a new state of affairs and things where all things are become new Old things those must be first and they may all be reduced to these two heads God's way of dealing with the Iews and his way of dealing with the Gentiles With the Iews first where both the old way of his Service and the old way of his Providence those two grand things that include all the rest are to be examined how they pass His service consisted 1. in Sacrifices and they are done no more blood of Bulls or Lambs or Goats they could not make the comers thereunto perfect Heb. x. 1. so they are gone His service 2. consisted in outward washings Heb. ix 10. but they could wash no further than the flesh cleanse no more then the outward man Not the putting away the filth of the flesh says S. Peter 1 S. Pet. iii. 21. that 's nothing for that 's but a vanity to stand on vain and to so little purpose no wonder if that way of serving God be vanish'd too His service 3. was much then in meats and drinks Heb. ix 10. this they might eat and that they might not but all to perish with the using Why are you any longer subject to those ordinances about them says St. Paul Col. ii 20 22. For meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them says he again 1 Cor. vi 14. so they pass too His service 4. stood much in Holy-days new Moons and Sabbaths Col. ii 16. but they were but shadows of things to come the Body is of Christ ver 17. 't was time they should be packing when the reality of things were come His service 5. was especially notified by Circumcision but Circumcision is nothing 1 Cor. vii 19. that is passed away indeed to purpose the greatest passing to pass into nothing His service 6. was confin'd to the Temple of Ierusalem to that only Altar there but it was but a figure for the time then present says St. Paul Heb. ix 9. and you see how the present time is past there was no way into the holiest ver 8. whilst that was standing 't was but necessary that also should pass away neque in hoc neque in illo the time was coming that they should neither worship in this nor that nor that at Gerizim nor that at Ierusalem S. Iohn iv No there should not be left so much as one stone upon another says Christ St. Mat. xxiv 2. that 's passing away indeed His service lastly was in a manner all type and shadow Heb. x. 1. Not so much as the image of things themselves And the shadows must needs away when the Day-spring begins to visit us and the Sun arises Away shadows get you behind us we see our Sun of Righteousness up and risen on us and 't is fit we should turn our backs upon our shadows and worship and adore him The Persians did so superstitiously to the Sun in Heaven we must do it devoutly to the spiritual and eternal Sun of Glory For how much are we bound to Christ to God in Christ that he has freed us from those imperfect yet costly Sacrifices those troublesom abstinences those unprofitable washings those strict severities of new Moons and Sabbaths that painful Rite of Circumcision those long Journeys to Ierusalem to worship those empty shadows and given us full perfect liberty of meats and drinks and all things else the doing whereof is no real profit and brought home his Temples and Service to our doors our happiness into our bosoms Though all those old things be pass'd away let not his goodness in passing them away ever pass out of our memories nor a day pass without praises to him for it nor the relation of it pass out of our lips without all thankfulness and humility And there will be more reason for it if we reflect now upon the course of his old providence altered towards us In the old way of his providence and dispensations with the Iews He first led them only with temporal promises fed them only with such hopes Deut. xxxviii no other to be found the whole old Bible over We must not now look for the same dealing we Afflictions are made our glory 2 Cor. xii 9. and we blessed by them St. Mat. v. 11. our hopes higher our promisses better Heb. viii 2. So let the other pass no matter He awed them secondly with temporal punishments they could not sin but they were presently punished for it sometime a Plague another while the Sword then wild Beasts and Serpents now Dearth and Famine sometimes a fire from heaven another time a gaping of the earth and swallowing all seldom but some exemplary or sudden death or some strange visitations were the method God used to bring the rest into order and obedience Such things are rare among us whom God terrifies with the threats of future judgments that we might have the longer time for our repentance and amendment his providence is now much fuller of patience and long suffering to bring us to it his anger and fierceness is passed away He comforted them thirdly by only obscure and dark Prophesies so dark that he often that spoke them did not perfectly understand them All those Prophesies are now plain to us and those shadowy expressions lightned and cleared by Christ. He opened his Disciples understandings St. Luk. xxiv 45. that they might understand them and from them we have all those former Praedictions clear as the midday Sun Those obscure things or the obscurity of those things are also passed away Fourthly The old way then was Do this and live a sad Covenant of Works which yet we were not able to perform That is done away in Christ and the Covenant of Faith come in the room Iustus ex fide to live by that an easier way for us Fifthly Gods way then with them was by Rites and Ceremonies old things which neither we nor our old fathers were able to bear if we believe St. Peter Acts xv 10. these to be sure a good providence for us that they were among the things that were done away 2 Cor. iii. 7 11. Lastly The very subject as we may say of his Providence is altered too In the days of old it was commonly none but the rich and honourable very few else that were imployed in the great services of the Law insomuch as it was a Proverb Spiritus Sanctus non requiescit super animan pauperis The holy Spirit never lights upon the poor mans soul. But now the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the poor are preach'd to and the poor preach too and Blessed are the poor The way of Gods dispensation is strangely changed that old
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
foundation of the earth it covers the deep with its wings covers Heaven and Earth with the Majesty of its glory IV. Yet so it might and we ne're the better but that fourthly 't is a Name of Grace and Mercy as well as Majesty and Glory Iesus is a word of which I may more justly say as Tully says of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it contains so much ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non possit It cannot be exprest in any one Latin or English word or any one indeed besides it self Mercy and Grace dwell in it it engrosses all and without it there is none any where to be found no Mercy out of Iesus no Grace but from Iesus no Name under heaven given by which we can be saved but the Name of Iesus Acts iv We are Baptized in the Name of Iesus Acts xix 5. We receive remission of our sins in the Name of Iesus Ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. vi 11. Ye are sanctified in the Name of the Lord Iesus in the same verse We are glorified by the Name of Iesus in that Name we live in that name we die To Iesus it is we run for grace and assistance whilst we live To Iesus we cry for Grace and Mercy when we die To Iesus we commit our spirits when we breath them out We can neither live nor die without our Iesus Thy name says the Spouse is oyntment poured forth Cant. i. 3. Now Oyl has three special uses for light for meat for medicine We have all in Iesus 1. He is the light that lighteth every one that comes into the world St. John i. 9. 2. He 's the meat that never perishes S. John vi 27. and feeds us up to everlasting life S. Iohn vi 54. 3. He 's the cure and medicine of all our maladies He wants nothing that has Iesus and he has nothing that wants him Omnia Iesus nobis est si volumus c. says St. Ambrose Iesus is all things to us if we will Curari desideras medicus est si febribus aestuas fons est si gravaris iniquitate justitia est si auxilio indiges virtus est si mortem times vita est si ire desideras via est si tenebras fugis lux est si cibum appetis alimentum est Dost thou want health he is the great Physician Art thou fried in the flames of a burning Fever he is the well-spring to cool thy heat Art thou over-laden with thine iniquity he is thy righteousness to answer for thee Dost thou want help he is ever ready at hand to succour thee Art thou afraid of death he is thy life Wouldst thou fain be going any whither he is the way Art thou in darkness and fearest to stumble he is a light to thy feet and a lanthorn to thy paths Art thou hungry or thirsty he is nourishment and food and meat and drink the truest What is it that thou desirest that he is not that this name will not afford thee Why it heals our sicknesses it supports our infirmities it supplies our necessities it instructs our ignorances it defends us from dangers it conquers temptations it inflames our coldnesses it lightens our understandings it rectifies our wills it subdues our passions it raises our spirits and drives away all wicked spirits from us it ratifies our petitions it confirms our blessings and crowns all our prayers In this name they end all that end well through Iesus Christ our Lord. In thy name O blessed Iesus we obtain all that we obtain through it we receive all that we receive so that say we may well with that holy Father Iesus meus omnia Iesus meus omnia Iesus is my all Jesus he is and all I have nothing else but him I will have nothing else but him and I have all if I have him V. And well may we now say fifthly 't is a name of sweetness and comfort too a seet name indeed oyntment we told you it was and a sweet oyntment it is that fills all the house with its precious odour insomuch as it makes the Virgins therefore love thee says the Spouse there in the fore-cited place of the Canticles Mel in ore in aure melos in corde subilus says S. Bernard 'T is honey in the mouth 't is musick in the ear 't is melody in the heart The soul and all its powers the body and all its members may draw sweetness thence O how sweetly sounds the Name of Iesus or a Saviour to one in misery to one in danger to one in any calamity or distress how does it rejoyce the heart and quicken the very bones Gyra regyra versa reversa says the devout S. Bernard non invenies pacem vel requiem nisi in solo Iesu. Quapropter si quiescere vis pone Iesus ut signaculum super cor tuum quia tranquillus ipse tranquillat omnia Turn you and turn you again which way you will which way you can you can never find such peace and quiet as there is in Iesus you will find none any where but in him If you would fain therefore lay you down to rest in peace and comfort set the seal of Iesus upon your heart and all will be quiet no dreadful visions of the night shall affright you no noon days trouble shall ever shake you In the midst of that terrible storm of stoâ—es about St. Stevens ears he but looking up and seeing Iesus falls presently into a quiet slumber and sweetly sleeps his last upon a hard heap of pebbles more pleasantly than upon a Bed of Down or Roses For 't is remarkable that the holy Martyr there calls out upon the Name of Iesus rather than that of Christ as if that only were the name to hold by in our last and greatest agonies Nor is it to be forgotten that this Name was set upon the Cross over our Saviours head to teach us that 't is a Name which set upon the head of all our Crosses will make them easie the thought of Iesus the reference to that holy Name the suffering under that will give both a sweet odour and a pleasant relish to whatever it is we suffer This looking unto Iesus as the Apostle advises Heb. xii 2 3. will keep us from being weary or fainting under them will make us conquerours more than conquerours Rom. viii 37. sure of our reward to sweeten all For neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth 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. This same Iesus at the end fixes and fastens all the love of God in Iesus will never leave us never forsake us keep but that devoutly in our hearts and piously in our mouths and we need fear nothing Come what can it sweetens all Methinks
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
faithful soul is Christs Mother as well as blessed Mary conceives and brings him forth and nourishes him as well as she the soul spiritually as she naturally to find I say Christ thus conceived and brought forth in our own souls this Child in our own arms too Christ with us is that indeed which makes this finding worth the finding this sight worth seeing Should we only know Christ after the flesh though amongst the first that knew him had we no more than an outward sight did we not see him with his Mother in a mysterious sense in the soul and spirit born in our souls they also made his Mothers as all that believe and do Gods will he himself calls so St. Mark iii. 34 35. unless we thus see him our success will be but lame and poor no better than those Iews that saw and perished 4. Yet the success here is one degree beyond it They saw the young Child and Mary his Mother Mary signifies exalted to see him with his Mother Mary as to see his exalted Mother the soul exalted by his presence his Power and Kingdom exalted in it to see this King in his Kingdom to see Christ reigning and ruling in us this new-born King triumphing in our souls our understandings wills affections and all our faculties subjected to him and this is a good sight where e're we see it This is then the sum of the success we shall find of our travel after him 1. The perfect sight And 2. the easie knowledge of him 3. Our union with him 4. Our exaltation by him He will reveal himself to them that seek him discover himself betimes to them that carefully search for him unite himself and be with them that follow after him and set up his throne and excellency in them that find him 2. Indeed this now secondly is worth the seeing worthy the beholding They saw it 1. they saw it and admired it their seeing him it was the Lords doing and could not but be admirable in their eyes They could not certainly but admire and wonder to see the Star had pointed out the Child so poor a Child a King in rags so glorious a Child so blessed a Mother in so poor a plight Saw it and fell down say the next words fell down in amazement and astonishment it may be as well as any way else to see so great a mercy so strange a sight 2. Yet saw it secondly and believed saw by the eye of faith as much as by the eye of sense believed presently it was the Child they sought and therefore fell down and worshipped which certainly they would not have done had they not believed Indeed the strange guide that conducted them the resolution for the place at least Bethlehem by name which they met with at Ierusalem the new return of their lost starry Leader as soon as they were got out of Ierusalem the very standing and fixing of it self which all the while before was in perpetual motion over this very place where they found this Child might sufficiently assure them that it was his Star that he was the Lord whom this Star attended so that they might not only believe out of credulity or an impatient desire to be at their journeys end or at home again but out of prudence as it became wise men who lay all together e're they fix their Faith Saw and believed that 's the second 3. Saw it and were glad too that 's a third adjunct of seeing such a sight If the seeing of the Star again in the former verse made them to rejoyce with exceeding great joy which could only confirm their hope to find him how exceedingly exceeding great joy gaudio valde valde magno must it needs be they rejoyced with when they found him 4. Saw and worshipped that should be a fourth but it is the third and next part of the Text which the time and season now forbids me to look into Only this to recapitulate the rest and apply it home 1. Behold we first and admire this sight the mercy and goodness of our Saviour thus for us to become a Child to take upon him the infirmities and inconveniences of our nature even from its first weaknesses to make himself so accessible to us so easie to be approacht to vouchsafe to be daily conceived again and born in our souls and spirits to take upon him besides the rule and guidance over us to set up his throne in so poor a place as our unworthy souls amidst so much frailness and unpreparedness souls more filthy and stinking when he first comes to them than the very Stable he was born in amidst the dung and ordure of the Beasts Behold and see if there were ever goodness like this goodness see and admire it 2. See secondly and believe it too The most incredulous among the Apostles St. Thomas when he once saw he soon believed See but how the Star moves and fixes and even points us to him how readily the Wise men entertain the sight and fall down and worship see how all the Prophesies concur and meet in this young Child see how the world is overspread with this Faith and has so many hundred years continued it notwithstanding so many persecutions and I shall not need to perswade you to play the Wise men too and upon so many testimonies and evidences believe the same 3. Yet I exhort you 3. to see it and be glad Heaven rejoyced at it and the Earth was glad Angels sung proper Anthems for it The Shepherds joyfully tell it out The Wise men here scarce know how to carry themselves for joy open all their treasures and fling about their gifts to express their gladness only Herod and the Iews Herodian Iews Hierusalem Iews men addicted wholly to the pomps and pride and vanity of the City are troubled at the birth of so humble a Saviour It is a Day of rejoycing this 'T is the Lords Day the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce says the Psalmist and be glad in it 'T is the Day of shewing himself to us Gentiles who sate in darkness and the shadow of death 'T is fit therefore we should be glad for so great a blessing 'T is the Day he was Baptized in and that ever useth to be among us a joyful day great joy and feasting at it It is a Marriage Day the Day he wrought his first Miracle upon when he turned Water into Wine on purpose to make us merry the water of tears into the wine of joy So many blessings together so many good tidings in one day so many glorious things so bright a Star so glorious a Child so blessed a Mother so miraculous a Baptism so chearful a Miracle so triumphant a Resurrection all together on one day must not cannot be found out cannot be seen of Christians so much concerned in them all without perpetual Songs of gladness and rejoycing I should leave you here but that we must needs
rejoycing both theirs and ours joy in the positive great it was if compared with other joy above other joy in the comparative and exceeding great joy the greatest joy in the superlative as high as may be They rejoyced with exceeding great joy The Star any Star or light that leads unto Christ is a just occasion and ground of joy and when such an one we have when such an one we see we cannot be too glad we cannot exceed though it be exceeding This the sum these the particulars of the Text. I begin with the ground of our joy and theirs that we may rejoyce the more that our joy may be the greater when we see how great the ground is that their joy was not for nothing nor will ours be if it be for nothing but what theirs was Yet before we enter upon either 't is requisite we consider the persons look upon them before we look upon the Star that we may see how this They may become We how we are interested either to look or rejoyce with them The first verse tells us who they were Wise men from the East four points we may have thence and all so many grounds of joy 1. Gentiles they were And that to them a door is opened unto life Acts xiv 27. that to them that sate in darkness and the shadow of death light is here sprung up is a good ground of joy to such the light is comfortable And to us also upon the same account for we were Gentiles nay and darkness too Eph. v. 8. good reason to rejoyce that now we are not that we are come into the light 2. If Gentiles then sinners too I know not then who can be out for if heaven notwithstanding our sin and wickedness vouchsafe so to look upon us nor they nor we no body sure but must needs be glad 3. Great men they were foretold in the Psalm under the notion of the Kings of Arabia and Saba bringing gifts Psal. lxxii 10. This is more cause of joy then you would think at first St. Paul's Not many noble not many mighty are called 1 Cor. i. 26. were enough to startle and amaze the rich and great men of the world and how hard is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Our Saviours words might very well trouble us spoil all our mirth all our joyes but for this that the Magi great Princes and rich and honourable have an interest in Christs Star for all that as well as any 4. They were learned too Magi Wise men is the name the story gives them And the Apostles Not many wise not many learned again might well amaze us and make us more than sad but for this They that such as they are not yet such but that they may come one day to see Stars under them and in the mean time have their part and portion in the Star that leads to Christ. A sound cause of joy that however the new lights count of Princes and great and learned men as enemies to him whose this Star was yet this Star shines to them too them before any was lighted up for them above all the rest Shepherds and Women and ignorant People are not to be taught or led by Stars they understand not their voice and language that 's for the wise and learned to guide them Mean and ordinary capacities must have other ways other guides and lanthorns to lead them to Christ. Thus from the persons we have four grounds of the great joy we hear that neither Heathen Ignorance nor Heathen Learning nor Honour nor Greatness neither great temptations nor great sinfulness no condition or quality how sad or cumbersom but this Star rises for and is ready to attend into the presence of Christ all may have a portion in the Star and in the Ioy. And good reason we have to rejoyce for our selves and our relations that no persons or condition is debarr'd it Proceed we yet deeper into the grounds of this joy Three there are that they we speak of saw 1 Saw somewhat to speak of 2. Saw the Star 3. Saw it at that time when they were even at a loss had but a while before quite lost the fight that 's when they saw it the time when they saw it in The first point is that see they did and a point worth noting that notwithstanding their great distance from Iudea the only Nation that then sate in light that had the knowledge of his Laws these yet came seeing That God hath some particular persons all the world over to whom he hath given eyes to see him No Nation indeed no whole people but the Iews were seeing yet Iob in Vz and Iethro in Midian and Rahab in Iericho and Ruth in Moab and Ittai in Gath and the Queen in Sheba and the Widow in Sarepta and Naaman in Syria some in every Nation that could see the light of Heaven and rejoyce in it Corporal sight then of the eye is one of the greatest temporal comforts our life is capable of we lose the chiefest of joy and pleasure of a mortal life when we are deprived of that 'T is worth rejoycing then worthy rejoycing in the Lord too that that we have that we can see that we are not blind But there is a spiritual and immaterial eye and seeing with it the eye of Faith and our believing by it that is far beyond the bodily sight and seeing 'T is that by which we live Heb. x. 38. 't is that only by which we truly see Heaven or behold Stars that 's a great ground of joy Especially if we add hope to it the other eye of the Spirit that pierceth within the vail that sees all the joys and pleasures of beatitude with affection and delight that does as it were bring Heaven home into not our eyes only but our bosoms The hope of Heaven and heavens happiness how glad and jocund will it make the heart more than when the Corn and Wine and Oyl increase a better sight by it than all the riches and pleasures of the earth all the profit and assistance of it all the beauties and glory of it can afford us This sight of Hope and that of Faith were they the Wise men had It was thus they saw the Star believed it was the Star of the Messias the only guide to their new-born Saviour their convoy to him and that such an one there was they should come to by and by this they saw by the eye of faith Thereupon they proceed to hope to see their hopes also in him hope ere long to be admitted to the sight and service of him hope this Star will now bring even them to its Master and give them a place hereafter with him among the Stars that they may one day shine in glory like them Thus you see Videntes will easily enough be brought home to us We even at this day thus see the Star by the two eyes of faith
and hope believe what here they saw that such a thing there was a Star lighted up on purpose to lead the Gentiles to Christ hope what here they felt within them some spiritual ray and guidance to him both believe and hope that as an outward visible Star there was to them so an inward and invisible Star still there will be to us by the light of which we may all come to the knowledge of Christ. We are next to see it what it is what it is to them what it is to us how this star looks to them how it looks to us To them this Star was a material Star to us 't is a spiritual and both bring their joy with them The Psalmist seems to be ravish'd with joy upon the sight of the Stars of Heaven when he considered the Heavens the works of Gods fingers the Moon and the Stars that he had ordained Psal. viii 3. Then in a kind of Extasie he cries out Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him That thou thus spanglest the Heavens with Stars for him That thou thus visitest him by the Stars Methinks the very beholding of that golden Canopy now our covering hereafter to be our footstool the casting up of our eyes to heaven in a bright starry night and considering that all those glorious Lamps are for the use of us poor men here and for our glory too hereafter cannot but raise a sweet delight and pleasure in the devout and pious soul and force out an ejaculation of thankfulness and joy to God that made them for us Sure I am that when neither Sun nor Stars appeared Acts xxvii 20. it follows presently that all hope of being saved was then taken away O the joy of a Star then the appearing of a Star would have made them then have leapt for joy We see them commonly that makes us so little to regard them If we behold them seriously we would sing together with them as Iob says they do together Job xxxviii 7. and praise him together as the Psalmist speaks with those stars of light But yet if we should have a Star made on purpose for us we would be gladder that God should descend to so immediate and special a care of us as to light up one of those bright Candles for some particular intent and service to us and such an one this is great reason therefore sure to rejoyce in it So much the more in that commonly the new raised Stars portend mischiefs and misfortunes to us but this was as all the Astrologers and Wise men then observed a healthsom gladsom star that brought health and happiness and saving in its wings never any such or like it before or since When God thus vouchsafes to make heaven dance attendance on us make all the Stars and Lights speak good to us some of them more than others those heavenly Creatures thus wait upon earth dust who is now so dull and earthy as not to rejoyce and glory in it Yet if the star not only portend happiness but eternal happiness besides if it foretell not only earthly but heavenly blessings too if it be a Star that leaves us not till it have brought us to the Child Iesus till it hath brought us to God himself there is matter indeed of great exceeding joy So a fourfold ground of joy you have in this very Star First Gods general providence over man to make even the heavenly Creatures serve him Secondly God's special Providence in it now and then sending a Star some special token to forewarn or guide him Thirdly God's comfortable Providence in so doing sometimes to bless and comfort us to uphold and chear us Fourthly Gods saving Providence thus to make all things though never so distant from us signally instrumental to our eternal happiness and salvation making the Stars and Heavens thus minister unto us For these four we may well take up St. Paul's resolution Phil. i. 18. We therein do rejoyce yea and will rejoyce And yet I must give you a fifth ray of this Star God's particular Providence over the Gentiles strangers from the Covenant of Promise aliens from the Comman-wealth of Israel men without promise without hope that had neither promise nor hope of mercy Eph. ii 12. that to them this Star should appear for them be made and sent is such a ground of joy to us that are of the same stock and lineage that without it we had had no joy at all who ever had 'T is upon this title we have our share in this happy Star upon this particular dispensation of thus gathering the Gentiles to him by it as by a Standard or Ensign for them to flow in unto him as the Prophet Phrases it This is the fifth ray of the material Star and it may go for a sixth That the Gentiles not then only but even to this day still enjoy the benefit of that Star have oftentimes material and sensible convoys unto Christ are often by the things of sense by sensible blessings drawn and perswaded to his service Thus you have the six Rays of the Star six comfortable Rays to ground our joys upon in the material Star We come now to the mystical or spiritual those Stars and Lights which yet remain even to this day to guide us to the same Iesus For more than one there is of this sort and all sufficient grounds of Ioy. 1. The first sort of Stars are devout and holy men shining as Daniel represents them like the Stars Dan. xii 3. Stars they are in this world whilst they live burning and shining Lights the very light and life and glory of the earth while they are upon it and Stars they shall be in the heavens when they come thither Here they go before us with the light of good examples to lead us to Christ and his righteousness to all holy and heavenly conversation And for it they shall one day shine as Stars for ever and ever A ground of joy it is to us that this Star we have that such guides we have by whose examples to conform our selves to the obedience of Christ in whose light to walk to him 2. A second sort of Stars are the Bishops and Pastors of the Church For however men now reckon them or however now much darkned in their heaven in this our Church in our Hemisphere Stars they are in the hand of Christ Rev. i. 16. in his right hand too the vision so interpreted v. 20. the seven Stars the seven Angels of the Churches the Church it self crown'd with twelve such Stars Rev. xii 1. the twelve Apostles All crowned Churches all that are compleat and perfect are crowned with such Stars with Bishops Pastors and Teachers And a solid ground of joy it is that we have such Stars to guide and direct us into the knowledge of Christ into the ways and means of salvation Let Hereticks and Schismaticks think their pleasure an exceeding joy it is to all that
to do it then when we had wilfully departed from his conduct is so exceeding a grace and favour that no joy of ours be it never so exceeding can exceed it And if the Wise men for the direction of that singlâ— Star were so extremely affected with joy and gladness how infiniteâ—y should we be for so many Alas they saw nothing then in comparison of us The Child was then but in rags and swadling cloaths he is now in robes of glory He was then lying in an earthly Cottage he is now sitting in an heavenly Palace All the ways of Salvation were then but mysteries they are now revealed Salvation then was but in its Clouts 't is now in its perfection They saw Christ but once we daily see him See him and all his Stars see him amidst his Stars walking with some of them in his hands the Stars or Angels of the Churches amongst other of them his Saints with them in glory creating stars daily in our hearts shining to us every day in his Word and Sacraments there opening his glory unto us and us a door into it and all the while the material stars even under his feet Seeing all these so much above what they here saw our joy should be much above what they rejoyced with But theirs being exceeding ours can be no more when we have said all we can And that it may be so I shall only tell you It must exceed the joy we take in earthly things we must more rejoyce in Christ and in his Star than all the World besides more in the holiness of a Saint than in the highness of a Prince more in a faithful Pastor than in any Worldly Counsellor more in the Word of God than in all the Writings of men much more in the History of Christ than in all the Romances and Histories of the earth more in the Promises of the Gospel than in the promises of all earthly pleasures and felicities more in the inward work of grace and the inward comforts of the Spirit than any sensual satisfactions and contentments more in the meditation of Heaven and heavenly Glory than in all the glories of the World more in Christ than in all things or hopes together It must exceed them all And when it so exceeds it will bring us to an exceeding high condition make us exceed in grace exceed in glory do great and wonderful things by the power of grace to express our thankfulness and bring us by it to the reward of exceeding glory where we shall need no more Stars to guide us nor Sun or Moon to give us light but this eternal light now pointed at by the Star shall give us light both day and night shall fill us with joy such as neither heart can imagine nor tongue express that exceeds all we can speak or think give us joy for joy great for great exceeding for exceeding in his blessed Light and Presence for evermore THE THIRD SERMON ON THE EPIPHANY St. MATTH ii 11. And when they were come into the house they saw the young Child with Mary his Mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their treasures they presented unto him gifts Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe OUR last years business from the Text was to see what the Wise men saw Philips counsel to Nathaniel S. Iohn 1. to come and see This years shall be to do what the Wise men did what all Wise-men will do still Holy Davids invitation to fall down and worship For having found this blessed Child the end of all our Journeys the crown of all our labours the sum of all our desires and wishes this infant-God this young King of Heaven and Earth what can we less then do our obeysance and pay our Homage All Wise men will do so adore the rising Sun make sure of somewhat or in the Psalmists phrase Rejoyce with reverence and kiss this Son lest he be angrâ— and so we perish fall down before him and even kiss his feet in an humble adoration that he may lift us up and advance us in his Kingdom at least remember us when he comes into it To come into the house else where Iesus is and there to see him to stand and look upon him only and no more is a journey and sight to little purpose The Oxe and the Ass saw him and many no doubt to as little purpose upon the Shepherds report and the rumour of these Wise mens coming from the East came to see and gaze upon him It is this worshipping that sanctifies prospers all our journeys we begin them but untowardly and finish them but unluckily without it If we fall not down upon our knees before we go out and bow not our selves and worship not in thankfulness when we come in we cannot assure our selves of any great good either of our goings out or of our comings in how successful soever they seem at first even to have obtained their ends even found Iesus too This same worshipping is both the end and blessing of all our journeys if they be blest nor see we or understand we any thing thorowly or comfortably where that is wanting where the worship and service of God and our Saviour is not both the aim and endeavour of all our motions Wise men they were here that now for these twelve days have made it theirs And the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts viii 27. a great Counsellour made it the only business of his Journey to Ierusalem to worship only and so return And in the devouter times of Christianity the devout Christians when their haste was such they could not stay out a Prayer or Collect would yet never pass a Church but they would in and bow themselves and worship and be gone Tantiest adorare so weighty a business it is to worship though but in transitu to prosper any thing we are about It was so thought then it would be so now did we not more study to make enquiries about Christ than to serve him to dispute about Christianity than to practise it Christianity here begins with it These first Christians I may call them thus profest their service to their Saviour thus addict themselves to the faith and obedience of Christ and were there no other reason in the world to perswade it it were certainly enough that the first Faith in Christ was after this fashion thus acknowledged and performed Three acts there are of it in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falling down worshipping and offering The first the worship of the Body the second of the Soul the third of our goods With these three our Bodies our Souls our Goods we are to worship him with all these his worship is to be performed without them all it is but a lame and maimed Sacrifice neither fit for Wise men to give nor Christ to receive Two points of the Text we are gone through the Wise mens Iourney and success their coming and their seeing their labour and
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
establish him a throne for ever 2 Sam. vii 11 12 13. God will be behind hand with none that do good to his Habitation or really intend or go about it Nay the very Sparrow is blest and the Swallow is blest that love but his House that sing their Mattens and Vespers at his Altars the devout Prophet even envies them for it Psal. lxxxiv 3. So great are the blessings of the House of God and so ever are those persons under his eye so in the eye of blessing whose good deeds are there continually putting God in mind of them If you would but remember how God forgets his mercy or which is the same how he remembers them in Iudgment who do ill to his House or to the Offices how he strikes Vzzah dead for an irreverent touch of the Holy Ark how he smites Vzziah with a leprosie for an encroachment upon the sacred Office 2 Chron. xxvi 19. and turns Saul out of his Kingdom for the like fault 1 Sam. xiii 14. How he thrusts Nebuchadnezzar out of doors Dan. iv 33. because he had burnt up his Houses in the Land 1 King xxv 9. 'T is just indeed he should have no House who will let God have none How he despoils Belshazzar of his Kingdom because he had spoild his Temple and was now prophaning those holy spoils carouzing in the sacred bowles Dan. v. 30. How he quite forgets all mercy to the Iews and casts them out as soon as they prophaned his holy Temple and abused his Messengers Priests and Prophets 2 Chron. xxxvi 14. and professes he could hold no longer when they had arrived at that height of insolent wickedness How he makes the Heavens forget their dew and the earth her fruit because they let his house lie waste Hag. i. 9 10. you will readily conclude how he remembers those that raise the Walls and repair the Ruines and reverence the Sanctuaries and love the Priests If them with Curses then these with Blessings if them with diseases then these with health if them with exile these with quiet dwellings if them with scarcity these with plenty Vbertate Domus the plenty of his house if them with desolate and decaying Families these with happy and full Posterities if them with death then these with life even for ever and ever VI. But 't is time now to remember our selves And many things we are here to be remembred of That 1. We have a House of God as well as Nehemiah to do good to Many houses of God in the Land now as well as in the Psalm lxxiv. 9. This above the rest whose decay'd Towers and ruin'd Pinacles and ragged Walls and open Windows and falling Roofs and broken Pavements call loud for a Repairer of the breaches And 't is not Nehemiahs Mercy and Bounty nor the Levites thin revenue added that can do it Blessed indeed be God that he hath put it into the heart of the King to begin and offer so freely to the Work But I hope we shall ere long have reason to bless him for your offerings too This House is Gods all such houses Gods as well as that of Bethel or that of Sion or those Synagogues of the Iews stiled several times his houses That they are so the solemn Dedications always of them to his Name with so much glory say enough And if Domus orationis be Domus mea the House of Prayer be Gods and Christ says it is and sure he knows both what is his own and how to call it the daily celebration of that Publick Worship there will give a second proof That some such there were even in the Apostles times some house besides such as we eat and drink in that must not be so used must not be so despised the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. xi â—â— and that it was then called the Church of God in the same verse is to tell you in plain English our Churches are Gods houses And God has in our days own'd them for his own That signal preserving them in the heat of War and Plunder rage and fury when men were so wrathfully displeased at them and so implacably set against them That protecting them 2. through all the Triumphs of a godly Atheism and a sacriledge out of Conscience both as unsatisfied as the grave so miserably greedy that they would violate their Fathers Sepulchres and scatter their ashes in the air and wind for an inconsiderable piece of lead or brass or stone That miraculous restoring them 3. to all the holy Offices this Church in particular destined to a sale and deferred only to see who would give most are evidences of it too great to be disputed that God has vindicated his right and kept it for himself And I hope you will all remember it and now help him in it Court and City both of you And remember 2. These Houses have their Officers their Offices their Ceremonies as well as that here in the Text. Offices to be performed Officers to perform them and Ceremonies to perform them with Your countenancing your encouraging your protecting them are the good deeds you may do to them Remember therefore 3. I beseech you that you do so Three arguments there are in the Text to perswade it 1. Good it is to do so good deeds they are God 2. will remember them when they are done God 3. will remember you for doing them 1. Good they are remember that And good works are a good foundation 1 Tim. vi 19. a foundation upon which you may lay hold on eternal life says St. Paul there and can you desire a better Indeed Iudas tells us it would do better upon the poor But had he had the selling of the Ointment then or when some of his Disciples had the selling of it since Were the poor ever the better for it Were not thousands sent a begging by it Sure sure he that can be content to see the Church in ruines will not much pass to see the poor in rags He that envies the Church-mans wealth will never pity the poor mans want and he that one time sells the Church will next time sell the poor if he can get by him But we will not set good deeds together by the ears 'T is enough that these are good but 't is more 2. that God remembers them that he takes a particular notice of them 2. I may say too a notice of the particulars The Scrowles of them are laid up for an everlasting remembrance Feasts of Dedication have been always kept for a memorial of them and Christ himself vouchsafed to be present at them St. Ioh. x. 22. And if the Syriac Translator may be allowed to read the last verse of the Chapter Et ad oblationes ad sacra temporibus Festis Statutis memoriam hujus rei mihi serva we see these good deeds were solemnly remembred in those solemn Feast and Nehemiah expected his should be so Their persons have anciently been remembred
David professes so Psal. lxxxiv 3. Nay the very Sparrows he observes will build as near the Altars as they can and it may be for that kind of sensible and natural piety they particularly aâ—ove other creatures are said by Christ not to fall one of them to the ground without Gods more peculiar providence I shall make no further note upon this particular it is but implicitely implied though yet so necessarily in the Text They brought him in in whither Into the Temple it was and the very words immediately before in that very verse express it Yet being but so express'd so briefly and implicitely I take leave to be brief too because there is still so much of the Text and so little of the time behind And the point next behind is the manner and form of Christs presentation or the cause or reason why he was presented why they brought him in to do for him after the custom of the Law And three points of it there were to be observed upon such occasions to offer him to ransom him to offer for him He was the first-born and therefore to be offered and presented The first-born was Gods all the first-born are mine says he Numb viii 17. both of man and beast And Christ he is the first-born of every creature says St. Paul Col. i. 15. So in him they are offered all together man and beast all sanctified by him men that live like men and men that live like beasts Qui computruerunt sicut jumenta in stercore suo who wallow in their own dung in their own sins like the beasts that perish for the righteous and for the sinner both is he offered that both might have access to God through him That 2. man and beast too according to the letter might as the Psalmist says be saved that is blest and preserved through him He was the first-born 2. of his Father the first and only begotten Son of God so to be presented upon that title He was 3. the first-born of his Mother the first and only Son first born though not begotten there but first born was sufficient to entitle him to God The Apostle calls him 4. The first-born among many brethren Rom. viii 29. He our elder and we the younger brethren The same Apostle 5. calls him the first-born of the dead Col. i. 18. So that now being the first-born both by Father and Mother both in Heaven and Earth of quick and dead of every creature no great wonder to hear of his presenting to the Lord. Yet for himself neither was he offered but for us he needed no such sanctifying but for us to sanctifie us as the first-fruits to sanctifie the whole lump as the true Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world as the first-born in relation to his brethren to rule over us as a Prince and offer for us and bless us as a Priest the two appendices of a primogeniture Thus is he made to us our morning Sacrifice as he was after our evening offering when he was offered upon the Cross. Thus both offered for himself after the custom of the Law and for us in the interpretation of the Gospel But the custom of the Law was next to ransom him five shekels was his price the ordinary rate Numb xviii 16. a goodly price for the firstâ—born of God to be valued at O blessed Iesu how little hast thou made thy self for us of how little value How can we sufficiently value thee for thy thus undervaluing thy self And why should we now my beloved so overvalue our selves as to think no honour sufficient for us nothing too good for us no riches enough no respect answerable to our deserts If Christ be valued but at five shekels the best of us all of us the whole world of us and if there were a world of worlds were not all worth five farthings Let us but think of this and no disrespect or disesteem or slighting from the very meanest and unworthiest hand will ever trouble us again certainly Well ransom'd he was yet with it as little as it was but it seems it was but to pay a greater the price of his life to ransom us No ransom would redeem him the second time because his business was not to redeem himself but us He was redeemed now for a little but he was sold for less than thirty pence and yet would not be redeemed by any sum He made himself of no estimation again and again and dealt with himself as if he were not worth a ransom only that he might ransom us and set us high in God's esteem The ransom mony here was the Priests And holy Mary as poor as she was would pay her dues And Iesus would she should his Mother should and then sure all his brethren too would be therefore offered and redeemed 'T is a good example for Church duties when such pay them and may amount to a kind of precept for if he who is the great High-Priest himself and from whom it was not due pay as he did tribute afterward that he might not offend I can see little of Christ where the Church or Priest is robb'd or little Christianity where such offences are not heeded Christ would break no Law for he came to fulfil it nor Custom for you see he observes it did so all his life kept the Feasts kept the Customs He follows not Christ that does other who e're he follows Nay Christ himself commutes too breaks not the custom of commutation One of the most questionable points of custom is commutation to exchange one for another to pay with the purse instead of the person Yet such was law and Custom and Christ disputes it not nor is reason against it to change one thing for another when both are good one vow into another one penance into another where reason not covetousness respect to the condition or inability of persons not partiality make the exchange In such cases we are to submit not dispute or cry out as some do if for mony why not without it If God will not accept my person why my mony If I may have or do it for the payment of a little sum why is it not lawful to me without it 'T is answerable enough to reasonable men or devout Christians so God so Law so Custom will have it and it is no sin to do it There is yet one thing more to be done after the custom of the Law an offering to be offered a lamb and a Turtle Dove or young Pigeon for the rich or two Turtles or two young Pigeons for the poorer sort Lev. xii 6 8. And it was so done here 'T is thought by them that dare determine which that it was the latter the pigeons as cheaper and easier to be gotten where there was so much poverty as this child was born to Be it which it will it was the poors offering that from henceforth poverty might look chearful to the Christian that
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
time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing to refrain from all wanton and loose embraces and pour out our selves wholly into the arms of our Blessed Iesus 9. 'T is a time to get and a time to lose to get Heaven by violence and lose Earth our worldly goods so the worldling counts it upon Alms and Charities to cast away Earth to purchase Heaven 10. 'T is a time to keep and a time to cast away to keep all good resolutions and cast away the bad ones 11. 'T is a time to rent and a time to sew to rent and tear off all ill habits and to begin good ones 12. 'T is a time to keep silence and a time to speak to keep silence from bad words all idle ad wanton and scurrilous language and give our selves to good discourses 13. 'T is a time of love and a time of hate to love God and hate our selves or love our souls and hate our sins 14. 'T is in a word a time of War and a time of Peace to make war against all our ghostly enemies the flesh the Devil and the world and reconcile our selves to God our Neighbour and the Church To all these purposes serves the time of Lent for them 't was instituted at first and for them it is continued and can any Christian now think it should not be accepted upon such a score as this or are any days liker the day of salvation than those that are spent thus or it is our own fault if it be not or is any time more fit to be stil'd an accepted time than this that is the very comprehension of all times a time every way fitted up for all the designs of salvation for calling publick offenders to accompt for putting notorious sinners to open penance for reconciling penitents and receiving them again into the Church for promoting piety and vertue for admitting Proselytes to holy Baptism at the end of it for preparing all of us for the Blessed Eucharist all the way by solemn prayers and preaching more than at other times by fastings and watchings and holy retirements and strict devotions and every way conforming us to the image of Christ the fasting and dying and rising with him that we may so also be accepted by him These were the practices of Lent in the Primitive Church of Christ wish'd and call'd for too in Ours in the Epistles and Collects for it and the Commination that begins it And by the afflictions and necessities and distresses and labours and watchings and fastings and pureness c. that follow immediately upon the Text things all so answering to this time I cannot say but the Text may stand as an In diebus illis a kind of prophetick designation at least of this time of Lent has caus'd the words I am sure to be so applied by many of the Antients and made a part by us also of the Lent Office But this very time so dilatory are we and so ready to put off holy duties is yet perhaps too large and these forty days too many to close us to our work Nay the day has many hours twelve says Christ to walk in And if we may guess from our ordinary guise and custom we are like enough to defer all to the last hour I must set an accent therefore upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Now. Now Lent or not Now fast we or fast we not Now is the very time we must begin our reconcilement look to our salvation that though the name of Lent should be distasteful as too much it is yet however we may not slip our time 'T is the only sure part of time we have the present the only day of salvation for peradventure e're the next moment we are gone and clearly cast without the confines of it Not only then to day whilst it is called to day but even Now whilst it is called Now is the sure Now of salvation To all these Now 's God here points us by an Ecce Behold now is the c. IV. And indeed it is no more than needs that he should point and set us out some time even to accept our own salvation Time and times pass over us and we think not of it A piece of Land a Wife a yoke of Oxen are more thought upon every day than that We our selves do but little mind it I am sure we live as if we did not much The Church cannot get us to it with all the Fasts and Feasts she sets us Our Ministers the Embassadours that are sent about it perswade little with us we had need of Prophet and Apostle too to say it over and over again unto us and 't is so in the verse we have the Text in The Lords day it self did it not bear his name upon it would as easily vanish into a neglect as all other Holy days 'T is only the opinion that he himself commanded or appointed that which keeps it up a while above the rest whether so or no we dispute not now It is not to the Text. These things I shall tell you are there without dispute 1. Set days and times are there times set apart for the promoting of our salvation particular ones too Ecce nunc tempus nunc dies Times 2. that are so set are so far from hindering that they are even the very days of salvation Times 3. may so still be set by the Apostles or their successors they have the power to design them with St. Paul here to put the nunc upon them Times lastly so set have an Ecce upon them somewhat more upon them than other days are to be observed to be accepted Do we therefore now accordingly says my last particular Behold them and accept them Behold now is the c. V. Behold 1. and take notice such a time there is such a day as we have been speaking of Christ himself was anointed to preach and publish it St. Luke iv 19. the acceptable year of the Lord. The Apostles were sent with the like Commission ver 19. of the former Chapter of this Epistle and they beseech us to take notice of it ver 20. whilst they pray us in Christs stead to be reconciled upon it Behold therefore 2. and again behold it that is not only take notice of it that may be perhaps a little by the by but consider it There 's a double Ecce upon it take notice of that and sit down and lay it to your hearts and chew it over and and over say thus within thy self God has been gracious to me from time to time expected me long from day to day proffering me grace proffering me salvation even beseeching and entreating me to accept them Lord what is man Lord what is man that thou shouldest be thus mindful of him that thou shouldest so regard him that thou shouldest thus follow him from one end of the year unto another from one accepted time to another from Feast to Feast
fool-hardy as not to fear where there are so many in-lets and out-lets so many windows and posterns so many gaps and breaches and easie batterings and easier underminings to let in the enemy But 2. bring up now the forces that are laid against it the strong enticements and allurements the hopes the fears the desires the joys the sorrows that on this or that side do continually assault it the innumerable occasions the infinite opportunities that are against it and who is it that dares think to withstand them all Add thirdly the strongest titles that we hold by and we have yet a cause to fear Saints and Servants and Sons and Heirs and being sealed to the day of Redemption these and all those happy names and interests beâ—ides we read of cannot put us above fear Servants may be turned away Saints may turn sinners Sons may be cast off Heirs may be disinherited Seals may be broken up Elect we are no further than good works created ordained predestinated no further Eph. i. 4 5. and ii 10 and good works I am sure have uncertainty enough Verebar omnia Iob fear'd the best of them nothing will more assure us than this godly fear Nay add we lastly the very way of the working of Gods Graces in us and yet we have reason to fear still We are told indeed by some his Grace is irresistible but God knows we find it otherwise Why does S. Stephen tell us else that we resist the Holy Ghost Acts vii 51. or St. Paul wish us not to quench the Spirit if we cannot do it 1 Thess. v. 19. Do it alas we do too often One there was that said he should never be removed God of his goodness had made his Hill so strong Yet remov'd he quickly was fell and fell fouly too and had he not wept and chastned himself to purpose had lain low enough for ever for all his Hill so strong Nemo tantâ est firmitate suffultus ut de stabilitate suâ debeat esse securus says St. Aug. Ser. 72. Who can look upon Noahs Drunkenness Lots Drunkenness and Incest Davids Adultery and Murther Solomon's Carnality and Idolatry Adam's fall in Paradice and the Angels in Heaven it self and not fear his own poor easie brittle earth We may well fear being castaways upon such grounds as these and fear the very grounds that thus sink under us not only the sad upshot at the last but the means that bring us to it all the way 3. But besides if there be no way of keeping from being castaways without this keeping under of the body if all our preaching and our great doings will not do without it we have a third reason to fear our selves and set seriously about it For if St. Paul here 3. not only fear his being a castaway and fear that by some means he may come to it but fear also that all means besides this harshness towards his body will scarcely hinder it if after all his preaching from Ierusalem round about unto Ilyricum his preaching gratis too after all his labours all his sufferings all his persecutions upon the Gospel score he fears yet that the best he has done else the best he can do else will not save him for all his haste where are our great assurers of themselves and others of Heaven and Glory Why 't is not our preaching 't is not our praying 't is not our prophesying 't is not our doing wonders neither even to the casting out of Devils that can save us from being cast out our selves at last with a Non novi the sad sentence of I never knew you depart from me St. Mat. vii 23. Indeed we have so little reason to be confident that we shall not be castaways by reason of any of those performances that our very preaching or prophesying as we call it nay and praying too may bring us to it We may preach Rebellion Heresies and Schisms nay and pray them too some have done so long and so preach away both our selves and others Nay though we preach others into Heaven we may preach out our selves We may preach freely and preach constantly and preach long and preach sound doctrine too preach with the tongues of Angels and yet prove Devils at the last grow proud upon it light others up to Heaven and yet go down to Hell our selves shine gloriously for a blaze and go out in a stench have our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever have our reward and glory here and be cast away for ever And now if the strongest Cedars shake what shall the Reeds do If the first preachers of the Gospel the grand Apostles those Stars and Angels of the Churches stand so trembling and must deal so roughly with their bodies for fear of being castaways who is it can dream himself exempt unless ye mortifie the deeds of the body 't is to all of us it is said so Rom. viii 13. there is no living If we keep not ous bodies low they will keep us low if we bring not them into subjection they will bring us into slavery they will cast us away if we cast away too much upon them There 's no way to cure our fears to confirm our hopes to help our weaknesses to beat back temptations to establish our titles and rights to Heaven to make Gods Grace effectual upon us to sanctifie our prayers and preachings and all our labours to the glory of a reward but to watch and fast and deal severely with our bodies to study temperance and exercise our selves to do and suffer hard things 'T is no will-worship surely as men brand it that is prest and practis'd here under so great danger of being castaways if we do it not it is not sure Nor is it so hard a business as men would seem to make it None of all the ways I told you of for the subduing of the body are so at all We can sit up whole nights to Game to Dance to Revel to see a Mask or play make nothing of it We can rise up early and go to bed late for months together for our gain and profit and be never the worse We can fast whole days together and nor eat nor drink when we are eager upon our business or sport and never feel it We can endure pain and cold and tendance affronts and injuries and neglects slightings and reproaches too to compass a little honour and preferment and not say a word We can be temperate too when we please for some ends and purposes Only the souls business is not worth the while whether cast-aways or no is not considerable all 's too much on that accompt Mole-hills are Mountains and there is a Lion always in the way watching will kill us fasting will destroy us any kind of strictness will impair us temperance it self will pine us into Skeletons every good exercise takes up too much time every petty thing that crosses but the
to run from when they will hinder our course and such as in such times as these are not to be expected by them that faithfully and stoutly run the Christian race that hold out their course in true Religion and the obedience of Christ and the Communion of his Church Heaven only it is we are to run to and Iesus the author and finisher of our Faith our infinite and exceeding great reward and the joy which was set before him it is we are to look to to no other recompence of reward no other recompencer and rewarder But to him and to that lastly now we are to look if he himself set the joy of the right hand of the Throne of God before his eyes that he might the better endure the cross and despise the shame and so run the race that his Father set him as it is Heb. xii 2. if he had an eye to the recompence of reward well certainly may we set such a consideration before us and they talk they know not what that deny it God allures us by rewards and Christ himself preaching the Gospel began it with this encouragement to incite us to listen to it because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand St. Matth. iv 17. Set we then those joys before us and fear not look we in all our tribulations and sufferings upon them to comfort and uphold us in all our difficulties to encourage us in all our devotions to enflame us Consider we that all we do that all we suffer is nothing to be compared to the Crown of Glory that is laid up for us that all our pains and labour going and running and sweating and blowing for Christ is not to be mentioned or thought upon so that at last we may obtain IV. Yet to keep our spirits in awe and keep down our pride that is likely to arise sometimes upon our well running and to make us diligent and constant in our course let us remember it is but a may obtain the while we may miss as well shall too if we run not orderly or give out 'T is no more than we shall reap if we faint not Gal. vi 9. If we fail or faint we shall not our Kingdom is removed our Crown is gone Work we then our salvation out with fear and trembling as the Apostle advises us Phil. ii 12. that 's the way to make us so to run as to obtain There 's no such certainly to obtain as some imagine and delude themselves with no peremptory decree for their obtaining though they run how they will nor any peremptory order neither that they shall run in their due time whether they will or no that God will force them either to the Race or to the Crown either to run or to obtain 'T is a common but the greatest vanity and fallacy in the world to think to get to Heaven without pains to go thither with all kind of pomp and ease and pleasures to have our portion here and hereafter too 'T is no such matter the way is strait and narrow that leads thither says he that came to shew it St. Mat. vii 14. and a race here we have to run for it and all the way but a may a possibility or a probability not a necessity to obtain it Look we carefully to our feet apply we our selves diligently to our course to run the ways of righteousness and peace of holiness and salvation Let us often look up to Heaven and the Crown of Glory laid up there to add wings and spirit to us and look we also down sometimes to the dangers by the way and fear our selves and maâ—â— our steps lest we chance to stumble and fall to grow faint or weary but that we may run lawfully carefully speedily chearfully stoutly patiently and constantly to the end that so running we may obtain the end of our hopes the crown of of our joy the salvation of our souls and the redemption of our bodies everlasting life and eternal glory Which c. A SERMON ON THE Fifth Sunday in Lent 1 COR. ix 25. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things Now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown but we an incorruptible THe Text is a comparison between the worldly Combatant and the spiritual between the wrastler of this World and the wrastler with it between him that strives for the mastery over others and him that strives for the mastery over himself between the contenders in the Olympick Games and the contender in the Christian Race And 't is an apt and fit comparison Olympus in the Heathen Poets is commonly used for heaven so the Olympick exercises may well be used to resemble those for heaven and the heavenly Crown likened to the Olympick Garland without any offence though with all advantage And 't is as seasonable as fit This holy time of Lent is a time of striving for the mastery with our corruptions with our corruptible for Gods incorruptible a time of holy exercises upon the corruptible earth to obtain a Crown incorruptible in the heavens And 't is somewhat more accommodate and easie to our natures as much as temperance is than fasting as partial abstinence from inordinacy and excess than abstaining altogether Which makes me hope it will be as profitable as either fit or seasonable or accommodate to teach us by comparing our selves with the Wrastlers of the World our work with theirs our reward with theirs to do as much as they Indeed it should be more as our work is more honourable than theirs more honourable to master our selves than others our own unruly beastly passions than any man or beast whatever and our Crown more worth than theirs incorruptible than corruptible and the obtaining it every way as easie if we would but think it so or set seriously to think of it what they do and what they do it for how much they do and how little they do it for what we do and for what we do it how little we do and for how much we do it how little they get for so much how much we may get for so little This is the Sum of the Text and the intent is to perswade us to be as industrious and careful for a Crown of glory as they are for a Crown of grass to take as much pains for the praise of God as they did for the applause of men to do and suffer as much for heaven as they for less than earth for a few leaves that grow out of it And both the one is the better to be understood the other the more likely to be perswaded if I keep the parts of the Comparison together and do not sunder them but compare them as we go The two Combatants The two strivings The two Dietings or Preparations The two Crowns The two Combatants the Temporal and Spiritual The Temporal he that striveth for the Mastery Qui in agone contendit The Spiritual We St. Paul and
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
incorruptibility made incorruptible where the leaves are turned into everlasting fruit incorruptible honour incorruptible pleasure incorruptible riches incorruptible all Let us but do for them thus advanc'd and heightned as we do for them when they are but fading and withering and unsatisfying and I say no more but you will with as much ease obtain this incorruptible and immortal as that mortal and corruptible God grant us grace to do so to strive for the mastery over our selves and lusts and sins so to be temperate abstemious vigilant and industrious in the pursuit of Heaven as we are or have been of the earth that we may at last be crowned not with a corruptible but an incorruptible crown of glory and everlasting life A SERMON ON THE Sixth Sunday in Lent DEUT. xxxii 29. O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end ANd if we be They who I am afraid we are we are now in a good time to do it Lent is a considering time A Time set us by holy Church to consider what we have done all the year before what we are to do all our years that are behind and what we shall do what will become of us if we do not when all our years are at an end It begins with a day of Ashes and it goes out with a week we hear of nothing in but the preparations to a Grave and the Resurrection so as it were to mind us of our latter end make us more serious about it at this time than ordinary from the first day of it to the last So the Text is not unseasonable nor the Wish in it unfit any way for the time And whether this Wish be Moses his or Gods this They his own people or their enemies it is no matter A good Wish it is from whomsoever to friend or enemy Only it intimates They are none of the wisest for whom it is For his own people it might well be Them he had led out of the waste howling wilderness ver 10. Them he had kept there as the apple of his eye as in the same verse and when he brought them thence fed them with the fat of Lambs and the kidneys of wheat ver 14. And upon this they grew fat and kickt ver 15. 'T is a good Wish for them that They were wiser For their Adversaries 2. it might be as well They had as little sense it seems very ready to grow high at any time upon prosperities and successes as if they and not God had done the business ver 27. 'T is a good Wish for them that they would understand a little better There 's another people that we know but I know not how to call them his or I know not whose they carry themselves so strangely I pray God it be not we at last whom the Wish may suit as well as any A people who some of them not long since were as it were in wasts and desarts like Gods own People in a condition sad enough God knows born thence no great while ago upon his wings since that set high and fed high with Corn and Wine and many good things else who for all that have not well requited God that did it Others of them who because they came in no misfortune like other folk nor were plagued like those other men stand much like Israels enemies upon their terms their righteousness or power or policy or somewhat did the work Both are become too much unmindful of the Rock of their Salvation as we have it ver 15. and have quite forgot to consider the latter end of things what may be yet that however things stand now the foundations of the mountains may be set on fire again as the Phrase is ver 22. if they be no wiser either of them than by continuance in sin to blow up the sparks and then who can assure his house or barns or shop or office at the next turn 'T is a good Wish for these too both of them that they would consider a little better on 't together in novissimo now at last For all these it may be and to be short and home for all these it is As in Moses's time for Israel and their enemies so in Ours for Us late enemies now friends together that we would all be wiser once that we men at least at last would understand the loving kindness of the Lord and consider the wonders that he hath done for the children of men But above all that men would think of this same latter end think that all things end not here there is somewhat to be lookt to after these days are done which wise men would look to and provide for O Si O that they would God wishes it and Moses wishes it and you and I all of us I hope may wish what they do without offence But do it we must besides else God will complain of Us as he does of Them here in the Text. For a kind of Complaint it is as well as a Wish O Si that they were a plain Complaint that they were not But be it a Wish or be it a Complaint and both it is a Wish for some that they were wise or a Complaint of them that they are not for three Particulars it is I. As a Wish 't is that the men here spoken of 1. were wise That 2. they would understand this somewhat or other that we shall see anon worth understanding That 3. they would especially consider their latter end II. As a Complaint it is for three things too that they vvere none of these that they vvere neither Wise nor Vnderstood nor Consider'd vvhat they should For O Si is but a kind of a sigh that 't is no other a very trouble to God that men are no better Of both this is the sum that They vvho in the midst of mercies after the sharp sense of former judgments and not yet out of the fear of nevv ones forget God and either by nevv sins or retriving old ones slight so both his judgments and his mercies they are neither vvise nor understanding nor considering men vvhat ere they go for but a sort that God vvill complain of vvho ere they be for somevvhat else and vvishes to be vviser to understand a little better and consider novv at last lest the latter end be vvorse vvith them than the beginning That it may not but that the Wish may take effect and God have no more reason to complain Let us now consider the Particulars where I must first shew you for whom before I shew you for what it is And yet I know not how you 'l take it I. Indeed that Israels enemies the Heathen should be a Nation void of counsel that have not any understanding in them ver 28. that I believe may be taken well enough But 2. that Israel Gods own people should be of the number they a foolish people and unwise as it is ver
as they as Ants and Conies and Locusts and Spiders and 't is a shame we should not we would by the experience of our former evils Prepare 1. in good days with the Ant for bad ones We would 2. with the Conies build our dwellings in the Rock St. Paul says was Christ having felt sufficiently already there is no sure building else We would 3. go forth as the Locusts do to gather all by bands unite in the bond of peace and charity not straggle into factions and divide in parties remembring what that lately came to and may quickly come to again if we look not to it We would 4. with the Spider catch hold with our hands keep our selves employed in our own business trades or studies and not meddle with things we either understand not or belong not to us We would learn of them besides to be in the palaces of the great King the houses of God a little more constantly than we are This would be to be exceeding wise And if to these we add the wisdom of the Serpent as our blessed Saviour commends it to us St. Mark x. 16. make it our care above all as they say the Serpent does to save our heads Caput Christum and Caput Regem Christ our head and the King our Head make it our business to keep our Religion and obedience safe Be who will else thought never so wise I am sure there is none wiser as God counts wisdom than they that do so Yet lastly if you had rather take the rule of your wisdom from above take it from St. Iames That wisdom says he is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie St. James iii. 17. So to be wise is to wash our hands of what is past to live peaceably and orderly friendly and kindly together for the time to come heartily promoting one anothers good without grudging or dissembling For in returning and quietness it seems is the Apostle wisdom as well as the Prophets strength Isa. xxx 15. wisdom it seems and strength both I would some would understand it that or this nay that and this we are to consider next The condition we are in that 't is we are now to understand For Intelligentia perspicit quae sunt so St. Augustin defines it and this hoc is most naturally the present So to understand this which is the second particular in the wish is to be truly sensible how things now go with us Where 1. what it is we are to understand and then what it is to understand it What this is we take in two particulars Gods dealing with us and our dealing with him again These two the this the business we are wish'd to understand I. And how God deals with Vs the high places of the earth we ride on ver 13. the places and offices we enjoy the increase of the Fields we eat of the plenty we abound with the Honey we suck out of the rock and the oil that issued to us out of the flinty rock the same verse those blessings which we could no more expect than those sweet dews out of stones and flints the butter and milk ver 14. the smoothness and evenness of our conditions now the fat of lambs and rams and goats in the next words the full tables we well nigh groan at and the pure blood of the grape the mirth and jollity we live in tell us as plain I say how he deals with us as they did Israel how he dealt with them One day tells another how the Almighty commands it to dart blessings on us and one night certifies another how he enjoyns it to shadow us with protections both speak loud enough to have their voices heard among us But how 2. we deal with him again I would there were no voice abroad I would no body heard I would Gath did not speak it nor the streets of Askelon ring of it that the day might be clouded with darkness to cover it and that the night were as the shadow of death to bury it for ever that thou O God however wouldst not reckon the days of our ingratitude in the number of our months We are surrounded with plenty and we abuse it to excess We are encompassed with peace and we disturb it with petty quarrels We are loaded with wealth and riches and we lash them out in lusts and vanities We are cloathed with honours and we dishonour them with meannesses Our friends are given into our bosoms and we envy some of them and slight the rest Our Laws are restored us and we live as if we had none Our Religion is returned and we laugh it out of countenance Good discipline reviving and we are doing what we can to break the bonds in sunder Our Churches now stand open to us and we pass by them with neglect Our King God has set upon his holy Hill and the people still imagin vain things against him In a word we are filled with all good things and we do all the evil we can with them We fill up our days with iniquities and our nights with transgressions We neither consider Gods dealings nor mind our own We understand neither that nor this For to understand this which is the second branch of this particular is to understand both whence and whither these mercies are whence they come and whither they tend For the first we are too ready to say with the Heathen ver 27. Our hand is high and God hath not done it God hath not done it why tell me then I pray what were the counsels that brought things about where were the Armies that forced our passage whence the mony that smooth'd the way who confounded the devices who fettered the forces who divided the strengths that were against us who turned the hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the hearts of the Children to the Fathers who softned our enemies who strengthned our friends who suppled strangers at last to pity us who calm'd the Seas who held the winds who guided our happiness into our harbours and even threw it into our bosoms This Cloud that arose like Eliah's out of the Sea 1 Kings xviii 44. out of the vast Sea of Gods endless mercy and covered Heaven and Earth with blessings till we are grown black I fear sadly black and sinful with them it was not as his servant took it like a mans hand at all it was like Gods all the way it was meerly Gods Non nobis therefore Domine non nobis must be our Psalm Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy name only be the glory And this the first way to understand his mercies to confess from him they come and so give him thanks The second is to learn also whether they tend They are in St. Pauls understanding to lead us to repentance Rom. ii 4. and the time is proper for it In the Psalmists to
him only before to tell her so to tell her he would be with her by and by himself This makes it Annunciation day the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary as the Church calls it and the Annunciation to her as we may call it too The Annunciation or announcing and proclaiming of Christ unto her that he was this day to be Incarnate of her to take that flesh to day upon him in the womb which he was some nine months hence on Christmass-day to bring with him into the world And 2. the Annunciation or announcing that is proclaiming of her blessed among above women by it by being thus highly favoured by her Lords thus coming to her A day upon these grounds fit to be remembred and announced or proclaimed unto the World Indeed Dominus tecum is the chief business the Lord Christs being with her that which the Church especially commemorates in the day Her being blessed and all our being blessed highly favoured or favoured at all either mens or womens being so all our hail all our health and peace and joy all the Angels visits to us or kind words all our Conferences with heaven all our titles and honours in heaven and earth that are worth the naming come only from it For Dominus tecum cannot come without them He cannot come to us but we must be so must be highly favoured in it and blessed by it So the Incarnation of Christ and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin his being incarnate of her and her blessedness by him and all our blessednesses in him with her make it as well our Lords as our Ladies day More his because his being Lord made her a Lady else a poor Carpenters Wife God knows all her worthiness and honour as all ours is from him and we to take heed to day or any day of parting them or so remembring her as to forget him or so blessing her as to take away any of our blessing him any of his worship to give to her Let her blessedness the respect we give her be inter mulieres among women still such as is fit and proportionate to weak creatures not due and proper only to the Creator that Dominus tecum Christ in her be the business that we take pattern by the Angel to give her no more than is her due yet to be sure to give her that though and that particularly upon the day And yet the day being a day of Lent seems somewhat strange 'T is surely no fasting work no business or occasion of sadness this What does it then or how shall we do it then in Lent a time of fast and sorrow Fast and feast too how can we do it A Feast it is to day a great one Christs Incarnation a day of joy if ever any and Lent a time of sorrow and repentance a great one the greatest Fast of any How shall we reconcile them Why thus The news of Joy never comes so seasonable as in the midst of sorrow news of one coming to save us from our sins can never come more welcome to us than even then when we are sighing and groaning under them never can Angel come more acceptably than at such time with such a message as All Hail thou art highly favoured blessed art thou 'T is the time that Angels use to come when we are fasting So to Daniel Dan. ix 3 21. So to Cornelius Acts x. 30. the time when we best hear a voice from heaven and best understand it with St. Peter Acts x. 13 15 16 20. the time when God himself vouchsafes to spread our Table as he did there of all kinds of beasts and fowls to St. Peter all heavenly food and mysteries 'T is the very time for gratia plena to be fill'd when we are empty the only time for Dominus tecum for our Lords being with us when we have most room to entertain him So nor the Church nor we in following it are any whit out of order Dominus tecum Christ is the main business both of our Fasts and Feasts and 't is the greatest order to attend his business in the day and way we meet it be it what it will Though perhaps it seem stranger too to hear of an Angel coming into a Virgins Chamber at midnight as is conjectured and there saluting her But no fear of those Sons of God if they come in unto the daughters of men Angels are Virgins may be with Virgins in the privatest Closets are always with them there to carry up their Prayers and to bring down blessings No strange thing then to hear of an Angel with any of them whom God highly favours with whom himself is too no wonder to hear of an Angel or Ave to any such The only wonder indeed to us will be to hear of an Ave Mary Indeed I cannot my self but wonder at it as they use it now to see it turn'd into a Prayer 'T was never made for Prayer or Praise a meer Salutation the Angels here to the blessed Virgin never intended it I dare say for other either to praise her with or pray unto her And I shall not consider it as such I am only for the Angels Ave not the Popish Ave Marie I can see no such in the Text. Nor should I scarce I confess have chosen such a Theam to day though the Gospel reach it me but that I see 't is time to do it when our Lord is wounded through our Ladies sides both our Lord and the mother of our Lord most vilely spoken of by a new generation of wicked men who because the Romanists make little less of her than a Goddess they make not so much of her as a good woman because they bless her too much these unbless her quite at least will not suffer her to be blessed as she should To avoid both these extremes we need no other pattern but the Angels who here salutes and blesses her indeed yet so only salutes and blesses her so speaks of and to her as to a woman here though much above the best of them one highly favoured 't is true yet but favoured still all her grace and blessedness and glory still no other meer favour and no more and Dominus tecum the Lords being with her the ground and source and sum of all Virgin and Day both blessed thence The better to give all their due Angel and Lord and Lady and you the better understanding of the Text the scope and matter and full meaning of it we shall consider in the words these two Particulars The Angels Visitation and the Angels Salutation I. His Visitation or coming to her in these words And the Angel came in unto her II. His Salutation to her or saluting her in these Hail thou that art highly favoured The Lord is with thee Blessed c. In the Visitation we have 1. The Visitor 2. The Visited 3. The Visiting The Angel the Visitor He. The blessed Virgin this the Visited Her And
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
the Saints arising and coming out of their Graves 2. In their coming into the holy City and there appearing unto many telling and declaring it The Evidence of the power of his Resurrection to be seen 1. in opening the Graves 2. In raising the Saints bodies that slept there 3. In sending them into the holy City 4. sending them thither to appear to many The Pledge of our Resurrection it is 1. that they that rise are of those that slept Saints and members of the same body with us that 2. 't is no phantasm no phantastick or meer imagined business for they appeared to many The whole business of their Resurrection is a Symbol and signification of ours both of that to grace and that to glory 1. Of that to grace the grave and sleep the Symbols of sin and sleeping in it the bodies rising thence of the souls rising out of sin their going into the holy City of the souls passing from sin to righteousness and holiness their appearing to many of this righteousness manifested and appearing unto all A Symbol 2. it is of the Resurrection unto glory where the Grave first opens then the body rises then into the holy City into new Hierusalem it goes and there appears and shines for ever Thus you have the Text opened as well as the Graves we must now go on to raise such bodies of doctrine and comfort out of it as may bring us all into the holy City serve to make us holy here and happy hereafter partakers here of the First Resurrection and hereafter in the Second He that here opened the Graves and raised the dead bodies out of their sleep open your ears and hearts and raise your understandings and affections that we may all of us have our share in both rise first to righteousness then to glory Christs Resurrection is the pattern and ground of both we therefore begin with that with those words first that bear witness to the truth of it that Christ is risen A double Testimony we gather of it in the words from the rising of the dead Saints and from their appearing It was a sign indeed that the Resurrection was well towards when the Graves began to open we could not but see somewhat of it even in those dark Caverns when they once began to let in the light some hope of rising even when a body begins to yawn some hope the body might come ere long to recover its long lost liberty when the prison doors were wide set open and the shackles of death knockt off the legs some sign and hope I say it would be so that there would be a resurrection of some of some one or other by and by But the Graves being opened at Christs Passion they could be but hopeful prognosticks at most of his Resurrection a Testimony it could not be but when out of these opened Graves the Saints arose out of their sleep they could tell us more certain news of it than so And being but members of that body of which Christ Iesus was the head we must needs know the head is risen when the body is got up the head first ere any member could be it never so holy never so much Saint He is the head of the Church says the Apostle Eph. v. 23. and the Church the body and if any part of the body be raised to life the head you may be sure is first too For if Christ be the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. xv â—0 and the first begotten from the dead as he is stiled Rev. â— 5. If we see others risen other dead bodies walking and alive there is no witness more true than that he is The first fruits ever before the crop Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christs says St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 23. out of order else and the first begotten ever before all the rest second and third and fourth and all witness the first begotten was before them the first begotten from the dead risen before the other dead And it seems 't is not a single witness they were many dead bodies here that rose and in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established Deut. xvii 6. much more in the mouths of many Witnesses And if these be from the dead surely then the most incredulous will believe Nay Father Abraham says Dives but if one come from the deaâ— they will believe yea and repent too Luke xvi 30. Here 's more than one here 's many that not so much as any of Dives his brethren the most voluptuous secure customary and obstinate sinner can be incredulous after this or have reason to doubt the truth or have the power to contradict it To satisfie either particular curiosity or infidelity God does not use to send us messengers from the dead he sends us to Moses and the Prophets there ver 29. for our instruction does not press men from hell or heaven or raise them out of their beds of rest to send them on an errand to us though perhaps little can be universally though ordinarily it perhaps may be defin'd in this particular for the ignorance we are under of the condition of the bounds and limits of the dead If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets says Father Abraham neither will they believe if one rise from the dead If they will not believe the living word the word of the living God no likelihood that they should believe the word of a dead man especially when they cannot be certain but it may be the devil the father of lies and falshood But not of one only rising from the dead that to be sure no man so simple to venture his faith upon a single Testimony and such a one as that Or if he would God does not use to do extraordinary miracles where the ordinary means of probation or information are sufficient But in this great business that concerns all mankind he is pleased to step out of his ordinary course to give us for once some extraordinary satisfaction that all Ages afterward might be sufficiently convinced of the truth of Christs Resurrection from heaven and earth by the Testimony of the dead and living that there might be no occasion hereafter to doubt for ever He raises therefore a great company to attend the triumph of his Sons Resurrection and to bear witness to it 2. And as it is not a single witness so it is not secondly a single testimony 't is not from their rising only but from their going into the City and there appearing unto many For sure neither their journey nor appearance was to tell stories of the dead what is done either in the grave or heaven or hell to satisfie the curious soul with a discovery of those Chambers of silence or the Land where all things are forgotten and therefore all forgotten that we may know they remember when they come thence to tell us nothing that is there their business was
to wait upon their Lord that had now set them at liberty from the Grave and divulge the greatness and glory of his Resurrection When Moses and Elias appeared upon the holy Mount at Christs transfiguration talking with him St. Luke tells us they spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Hierusalem St. Luke ix 31. And 't is highly credible the discourse of these Saints with those to whom they appeared was of his Resurrection Their going into the City was not meerly to shew themselves nor their appearance meerly to appear but to appear Witnesses and Companions of their Saviours Resurrection Nor is it probable that the Saints whose business is to sing praise and glory to their Lord should be silent at this point of time of any thing that might make to the advancement of his glory Yet you may do well to take notice that it is not to all but to many only that they appeared to such as St. Peter tells us of Christs own appearance after his Resurrection as were chosen before of God witnesses chosen for that purpose Acts x. 41. that we may learn indeed to prize Gods favours yet not all to look for particular revelations and appearances 'T is sufficient for us to know so many Saints that slept arose to tell it that so many Saints that are now asleep St. Peter and the Twelve St. Paul and five hundred brethren at once all saw him after he was risen so many millions have faln asleep in this holy Faith so many slept and died for it that it is thus abundantly testified both by the dead and living both by life and death even standing up and dying for it and a Church raised upon this faith through all the corners of the earth and to the very ends of the world But to know the truth of it is not enough unless we know the benefits of Christs Resurrection they come next to be considered and there is in the words evidence sufficient of four sorts of them 1. The victory over sin and death both the Graves were opened 2. The Resurrection of the soul and body the one in this life the other at the end of it many dead bodies that slept arose 3. The sanctification and glorification of our souls and bodies the dead bodies that arose out of the graves went into the holy City 4. The establishing us both in grace and glory they appeared unto many All these says the Text after his Resurrection by the force and vertue of it Indeed it seems the graves were opened death almost vanquished and the grave near overcome whilst he yet hung upon the Cross before he was taken thence deaths sting taken out by the death of Christ and all the victories of the grave now at an end that it could no longer be a perpetual prison yet for all that the victory was not complete all the Regions of the Grave not fully ransackt nor the forces of it utterly vanquisht and disarm'd nor its Prisoners set at liberty and it self taken and led captive till the Resurrection 'T is upon this Point St. Paul pitches the victory and calls in the Prophets testimony 1 Cor. xv 54. upon this 't is he proclaims the triumph ver 55. O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory even upon the Resurrection of Iesus Christ which he has been proving and proclaiming the whole Chapter through with all its benefits and concludes it with his thanks for this great victory ver 57. So it is likewise for the death and grave of sin the chains of sin were loosed the dominion of it shaken off the Grave somewhat opened that we might see some light of grace through the cranies of it by Christs Passion but we are not wholly set at liberty not quite let out of it the Grave-stone not perfectly removed from the mouth of it till the Angel at the Resurrection or rather the Angel of the Covenant by his Resurrection remove it thence remove our sins and iniquities clean from us 2. Then indeed 2. the dead soul arises then appears the second benefit of his Resurrection then we rise to righteousness and live 1 Pet. ii 24. then we awake to righteousness and sin no more So St. Paul infers it That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father even so should we also walk in newness of life Rom 6. 4. This Resurrection one of the ends of his our righteousness attributed to that as our Redemption to his death From it it comes that our dead bodies arise too Upon that Iob grounds it his Resurrection upon his Redeemers Iob xix 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth well What then Why I know too therefore that though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God The Apostle interweaves our Resurrection with Christs and Christs with ours his as the cause of ours ours as the effect of his a good part of 1 Cor. 15. If Christ be risen then we if we then he if not he not we if not we not he And in the Text 't is evident no rising from the dead how open soever the graves be till after his Resurrection that we may know to what Article of our faith we owe both our deliverance from death and our deliverance into life here in soul and hereafter in our bodies by what with holy Iob to uphold our drooping spirits our mangled martyr'd crazy bodies by the faith of the Resurrection that day the day of the Gospel of good tidings to be remembred for ever 3. So much the rather in that 't is a Day yet of greater joy a messenger of all fulness of grace and glory to us of the means of our sanctification 3. of our rising Saints living the lives of Saints holy lives and of our glorification our rising unto glory both doors opened to us now and not till now liberty and power given us to go into the holy City both this below and that above now after his Resurrection and through it He rose again says St. Paul for our justification Rom. iv 25. to regenerate us to a lively hope blessed be God for it says St. Pet. i. 3. that we might be planted together in the likeness of his Resurrection says St. Paul Rom. vi 5. grow up like him in righteousness and true holiness and when the day of the general Resurrection comes rise then also after his likeness be conformed to his Image bear his Image who is the heavenly as we have born the Image of the earthly our vile body chang'd and fashioned like his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. iii. 21. whereby in the day of his Resurrection he subdued death and grave and sin and all things to him 4. And to shew the power of his Resurrection to the full there is an appearing purchast to us by it an appearing here in the fulness
and the Morning came light and darkness succeeded one another so the day came no making else But of this 't is punctually said that it was made something in it or in the making more than ordinary Made 1. that is made famous by something done upon it death and hell and all the terrours of darkness this day put to flight for ever by Christs only Resurrection Made 2. that is appointed and ordained for something So Deus fecit Dominum Christum God is said to have made our Saviour Lord and Christ Acts ii 36. and of Christ that fecit nos Reges Sacerdotes that he made us that is ordained us Kings and Priests as God had him both Lord and Christ and upon this day both so that 't is no wonder if the day too be said to be made made or ordained and appointed to be remembred Made 3. to be celebrated too to be kept aniversary as a solemn day of joy and gladness of Praises and Thanksgivings Thus facere diem Sabbati Deut. v. 15. Pascha facere St. Mat. xxvi 18. is to keep the Sabbath and the Passeover what is there in Latine to make the Sabbath and the Passeover in our English is to keep them to make up or make out the day in Gods Worship and Service When God is said to make a day 't is for himself and we can make none but to him mar days we do when we spend them upon any thing or any else they are never made but when on him The greater sin theirs then that unmake the days that are thus made that both unsaint the Saints and unhallow the days and prophane both that make them for all but him all business but his as if the holiness of the Holiday were the only offence of it that which made the day or for which the day was made the only reason to them to unmake it 3. But however it pleases some to mar what God has made yet made days there have been many are and shall be Themselves are not yet so impudent to deny us all not the Lords days yet which yet are but so many little models of this great day But of made days all are not alike some high days some not so high though the one and the other made and constituted for Gods service Of made days this is the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The day so we told you out of Ignatius so we now tell you out of St. Augustine Principatum tenet 't is the prime As the blessed Virgin among women so this blessed day among the days says he The most holy Feast of Easter the good Emperour Constantine calls it four times in one Epistle to all the Churches Solenne nostrae religionis festum a little after the solemn Feast of our Religion by which we hold our hopes of immortality the very day of all our Religion and our hope Illa videtur dies clarior illuxisse sings Lactantius The fairest day that ever shone The Sun which so many hours withdrew its light and hid its face in sable darkness went down sooner into night at our Saviours Passion and to day rose so much sooner restored those hours to lengthen or encreased it beams to enlighten this glorious Day in the opinion or else Rhetorick of Chrysologus Eusebius and St. Augustine If so it was The Day indeed none like it ever since but if not There were two Suns rose to day to enlighten it the Sun of Heaven and the Son of God who is also stiled the Sun in the strictest spelling The Sun of righteousness needs must it be a glorious day indeed which is gilded with so much light so many glorious Rays All days were night before nothing but dark clouds and shadows under the Law of Moses nothing but a long unevitable night under the Law of nature nothing but a disconsolate night of sorrow under the power of sin and darkness this was the first bright day that dispell'd all darkness quite A kind of spring of day or glimmering twilight there was abroad from the first preaching of the Gospel but men could scarce see any thing not the Disciples themselves their eyes were ever and anon held not fully opened till the grave it self was this day opened and gave forth Christ to open the Scriptures to them by the evidence of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the day when all this was done when this marvelous light shone forth to enlighten all the world The day of all the days before or since 4. And now 4. it may well be so when the Lord made it All his works are wonderful all perfect and complete deserve Articles and Notes to be set upon them But when he sets the Note himself and gives the Article then to be sure 't is somewhat more than ordinary somewhat he would have us to observe above the rest And when he entitles himself to it or challenges it unto himself day it self is not more clear than that such a day must be observed Things that are exceding eminent and full of greatness wonder or perfection are commonly attributed unto God This day is such at least because 't is said God made it a peculiar work and Ordinance of his more than the common Ordinance of day and night and if God made it what is man that he should mar it or the son of man that he should unmake it Or how dares man or Son of man make little of that which God made so great So great as to call it his so great as to make it the mother of one and fifty daughters of all the Lords days in the year besides This is the Lords doing indeed None could alter the Sabbath into the Lords day but he None put down that and set up another abolish the Seventh and set up the First but the Lord of all and may do all what he pleases in heaven and earth Lord it every where how he will Herein he shews he is the Lord and this day the Lady of the year from whence so many little weekly Easter days take both their rise and name All the former days God made the Lord made this the Lord Christ the ground and Author of this day Christs rising raising this to that height it is Now God or Christ is not only said to do or make that which they do immediately by themselves but that also which they do by those to whom they have committed such authority So Christ tells us St. Luke x. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that heareth his Apostles his Church his Ministers heareth him himself their commands are his their orders his so long as they are not contrary to his word And thus we may evidently without much labour deduce the day to be his making From the Apostles times it came Palicarpus that Angel as is conceived of the Church of Smyrna Rev. ii 8. kept Easter saith Ireneaeus with St. Iohn and with the
to Godward by the ministration of the Spirit not the Letter as he styles it ver 4. 6. delights not in a kind of canting language which no body understands but those of the same craft and occupation none but themselves no nor themselves neither though by an uncouth kind of holy language through spiritual pride they would fain seem to speak mysteries No the Father of Lights uses no Dark-Lanthorn language If they mean good why may we not understand them If they fear not the detection of their falshoods why do they cloud themselves and meanings in unscripture-like phrases If they hop'd like Christians they would speak like such not like Barbarians and then should we plainly understand them For St. Paul's hope in the place fore-mentioned and the hope of the Fathers ever since was in plainess of speech we know what it means from which these men so professedly swerving we may justly suspect they are swerved also from the hope of the Apostles and all Christian Fathers have set up also a new hope different from theirs and are become a kind of Christians different from them This is a note you shall scarce meet with but the observation of the hopes of our times compared with those of the Apostles times and St. Pauls words brought it to my hands and it almost seems the symptom by throughly examining it of all false heretical and groundless hopes through all ages in Sects and Heresies as they rose the changing the Catholick and received phrase into other terms a new uncouth language for new and uncouth faiths and hopes By what has been said you may now easily find out whether your hope in Christ be as it should be whether it will make happy or miserable And by the same you may as easily perceive how false hopes generally delude the world Yet to give you only a short prospect of them altogether now at last that you may see them fully and yet briefly too take it thus For men to play the Devils and yet pretend to hope in God to study Schism Faction and Contention and yet pretend hope in the Prince of Peace to run all the ways of destruction and yet hope Salvation to strive for nothing but this world this only in all their carriages and yet hope for another to look for their portion and happiness hereafter and yet will needs have all that is here to hope for another life and lead this no better to be so solicitous to place Christs Kingdom here and yet mind none other but their own to keep a do to set up King Iesus here as they love to speak and yet not suffer him to reign or rule in any of themselves to hope for the reward of Peace-makers to be call'd the Saints and Children of God and yet be the only Peace-breakers Peace-disturbers in Church and State nay and the great War-makers too to hope for the reward of being persecuted for Christ and yet daily persecute him in his members and that even for his sake too for his Religion and a good Conscience to hope for the reward of the meek the poor in spirit the pure in heart which amounts to as much as Heaven and Earth and yet be the most impure and proud and haughty exalting themselves above all that is called God proud of vertues and graces and proud of sins enormous sins too are such riddles and contradictions are such groundless senslless impudent hopes that whatever they pretend of Christ they are not only such as are in this life only fading vanishing and vain but so only in Christ as in the meer sound and noise and eccho of the name and even the greatest injury that can be done it the vilest abuse that ever the name of Christian hope yet suffered Yet are we to proceed to another still A hope in Christ only for this life the Second Particular we propounded a hope that pretends no further then this present life In this so much the more modest than the other in that it pretends no further then it acts in this only different from the other This denies the Resurrection the other the power of it this more expresly the other implicitely this sometimes both in words and deeds so much the honester the other in deed only in words never so much the proner to deceive us But who are they now whose hope in Christ is only in this life Or what is it to hope in Christ in this life only Le ts see a little 1. They plainly have hope in Christ in this life only who deny his Resurrection For if he be not risen if he be yet in the Grave and his body among the atoms of the dust alas there must needs our hope end too thither must it go and sleep there for ever He was no more then a poor man as we if he be not risen and if our hope be in man whose breath is in his nostrils then when God takes away his breath he dies and our hopes die with him The point of Christs Resurrection then is the hinge of all our hope Best to keep close to that Article or we lose all our Religion quite and must go seek some other If he that should save us be not able save himself if our hope be hid in him and he hid for ever in his ashes if he that should deliver us delivered not himself from death we have no reason to expect beyond it and then little comfort to look beside it upon any good we can here get by it 2. They who deny our Resurrection can hope no further in Christ then in this life only If we rise no more here 's all we look for And if Christ in whom we hope can do us any good it must be here for he has no where else to do it if when we die we perish So to deny a Resurrection is plainly to confine our hope within this present world to the narrow limits of an uncertain life Yet such there were in the Apostles times as appears ver 12. some among the Corinthians who said there was no Resurrection of the dead Of which sort also were Hymeneus and Philetus who affirm'd the Resurrection was past already 2 Tim. ii 18. nothing more to be expected and thereby says St. Paul overthrew the faith of some I cannot punctually point out to you amidst the confused rout of Errors and Heresies which now swarm and reign amongst us any such who dare yet expresly say so much Yet if they who are so hot for Christs temporal reign upon earth of which there are good store be not such they look very like them like men I am sure who have hope in Christ in this life only or at least too much in it more than they should and if we may guess at them by their actions they and many other of that pious rabble seem to mean it and would express it if it were time to do it or it may be
the while and he seems to have no delight in us when he denies us at least to suspend the shewing it as he did there to David when he fled from Absolom a Priviledge sure all count it to have a place to serve God in together there would not else be such contention for it who should and who should not But for that hill of hills 3. far exalted above all hills to ascend thither to be lift so high that 's a priviledge without contradiction 'T is given to none but for whom it is prepared St. Mat. xx 23. few there are that find it St. Mat. vii 14. 't is meerly at our Fathers good pleasure to give it St. Luke xii 32. neither of him that wills nor him that runs but of God that shews mercy we have no other claim but mercy to it Only fear not for all that says Christ St. Luke xii 32. he ushers in the priviledge so And 2. strive to enter too says he for all that though the gate be streight 't is not impassable for them that strive and labour for it And then 3. too admire his goodness say we who yet leaves ope the gate to enter to any penitent sinner that will strive and labour for it who sets up a Si quis in the Market-place sets it upon the doors and skreens of our Churches and Chappels sets his Prophets too to proclaim and cry it Who will ascend who will come and stand up in his holy place come serve him here a while and reign with him for ever This Priviledge though all attain not to is not such as any are absolutely excluded from that no more enjoy it is because they voluntarily exclude themselves they shall not because they will not take the pains 't is no Decree against any though a Priviledge for some Such a one indeed it is and a high one too a high Priviledge 2. to be Sons and Heirs to the most High can be no less to be raised so to the tops of the hills above all the Nations of the World You only have I known of all the Families of the earth Amos iii. 2. to be the only men that God knows that he takes notice of in the World to be a Kingly Priesthood 1 Pet. ii 9. made Kings and Priests Rev. i. 6. this is high And High it is 2. too to be admitted into his House and holy Temple Every one came not there not all the Levites not all the Priests A high favour it was allow'd to some only to enter there Why the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Iacob says the Psalmist all the high places and Palaces of the earth are not in so high esteem with God as the very Gates and Ports of Sion to be suffered but to peep in there is a higher honour to be a door-keeper in the House of God a greater happiness than to dwell in the most magnifique buildings of the World David a King himself had rather be there than any where And he that shall consider the Primitive Zeal of Christians to these hills how they never thought enough bestow'd upon them how often they frequented them how they would not pass without going in and worshipping how the pious and devout souls thought it a happiness to look that way and a great comfort in the midst of their desolations and captivity cannot but confess they all thought high enough of the favour that God allowed them in receiving them into those hills and holy places A higher Priviledge yet it is to get up the other hill to be admitted into heaven when all is done so high that Christ says it is not his to give St. Mat. xx 23. the Father hath reserved it to himself and there is nothing higher situated than it The very name of hill the Phrase of the Text sufficiently shews if it be a priviledge it is a high one Hills are the highest places of the earth the Church is a beacon upon a hill every true Disciple a light there at least The Houses of God used to be thought high places too and so had in honour And for Heaven 't is stil'd the everlasting hills So to be admitted to the priviledge of any of them must needs be a high one 3. High and holy too that 's a third addition to the Priviledge Many high Priviledges that are not so Holy is the highest most like to the most High To be Saints to be called to holiness as St. Paul say we are to be a holy Nation as St. Peter says 1 Pet. ii 9. to be Priests as you heard before to have holiness engraved upon our foreheads is to be holy persons every Pot in Hierusalem to be holiness to the Lord Zech. xiv 21. is a priviledge and a holy one too To go up like Saints to the hill of Sion to keep holy-day there to worship before the holy Altars of the Lord of Hosts to drink and eat in holy vessels to be part of his holy portion to be made partakers of his holy Word and there praise the God of holiness in his holy Congregation is a holy honour that is done us The highest Priviledge that wants this the highest Palace that is without this is but the Tents of ungodliness and they says David will but make us afraid Let my Priviledge O God be holy or I care for none that 's that must bring me to his holy hill and to his dwelling that hill in which he dwells amidst Cherubims and Seraphims and all his Host. Whither thirdly to ascend is the height of the holy Priviledge 3. His holy heaven that 's the stile the Holy of Holies St. Paul calls it the very Seat of the most holy God and holy Angels and holy Saints It cannot there sure be suspected to be the holy Priviledge and the Priviledge of the holy only to come thither 4. This holiness must needs make it to be admired too An admirable Priviledge we told you it was 't is our fourth Point now And David as if he had been all this while in a kind of swoon at the contemplation of it breaks out now upon a sudden with a Who is he and what a thing is this to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and to rise up in his holy place Indeed we cannot sufficiently admire it that God should raise up dust and ashes to such a height as to make it a coheir with Christ as to make a Hill and holy Place of it for himself to dwell in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Apostle O the depth Who can find it out Who who can reach it That he should pitch his place and dwell among us give us free access liberty to come and go unto him to approach him when we will speak to him what we will eat and drink with him when we will too what can be stranger Who can wonder at it enough How terrible is this place it put poor Iacob into
a cold sweat to think of it before 't was built Gen. xxviii 17. Will the Lord dwell on earth Is it true says Solomon Can it be so Lord What am I says Holy David and my people that we should but offer to it Lord What is it that we should be allow'd to touch so holy ground with our unhallowed feet look upon so holy a sight with our unholy eyes that such a glo-worm as Man should be set upon a Hill But above all 3. Lord what is man Lord what is man that thou should'st so regard him as to advance him also into the holy Hill of Heaven too Lord what can we say what can we say Shall corruption inherit incorruption dust Heaven a worm creep so high What he that lost it for an Apple come thither after all he in whom dwelleth no good thing be let stay there where none but good and all good things are He that is not worth the Earth worth nought but Hell be admitted Heaven Lord What is Man or rather what art Thou O Lord how wonderful in mercies that thus priviledg'st the sons of men Admirable it is worth the whole course of your days to admire it in and you can never enough It will appear yet the more by the glory that accompanies it It is a glorious priviledge indeed even admirable for its glory Even in all the senses we take the words 't is 5. a Glorious Priviledge Glorious to be Sains they are heirs of Glory Glorious to be Saints in Churches for the Angels that are there 1 Cor. xi 10. to wait upon us and carry up our Prayers for the beauty of holiness that is seated there for the God of Glory whose presence is more glorious there But it is without comparison to be Saints in Glory Grace is the portion of Saints that 's one ray of Glory The Church the House of God is the Gate of Heaven Gen. xxviii 17. that 's the entrance into Glory What then is Heaven it self What is it to enter there into the very Throne of the King of Glory Lift up your heads O ye Gates lift up your heads and let us poor things in to see the King of Glory the Hill of the Lord can be no other then a Hill of Glory His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of Glory And being such you cannot imagine it 6. but hard to come by the very petty glories of the World are so This is a Hill of Glory hard to climb difficult to ascend craggy to pass up steep to clamber no plain campagnia to it the broad easie way leads some whether else St. Mat. vii 13. the way to this is narrow ver 14. 't is rough and troublesome To be of the number of Christs true faithful servants is no slight work 't is a fight 't is a race 't is a continual warfare fastings and watchings and cold and nakedness and hunger and thirst bands imprisonments dangers and distresses ignominy and reproach afflictions and persecutions the worlds hatred and our friends neglect all that we call hard or difficult is to be found in the way we are to go A man cannot leave a lust shake off bad company quit a course of sin enter upon a way of vertue profess his Religion or stand to it cannot ascend the spirtual Hill but he will meet some or other of these to contest and strive with But not only to ascend but to stand there as the word signifies to continue at so high a pitch to be constant in Truth and Piety that will be hard indeed and bring more difficulties to contrast with And yet to rise up to keep to that Translation that is to rise up in the defence of holy ways of our Religion is harder still to bloud it may come at last but to sweat it comes presently cold and hot sweats too fears and travels that 's the least to be expected Nor is it easie as it often proves to gain places to serve God in Temples are long in building that of Hierusalem 64 years together Great preparation there was by David and Solomon to that before and no little to the rearing of the Tabernacle It was 300 years and upward that Christianity was in the World before the Christians could get the priviledges of Sanctuaries and Churches The more ought we sure to value them that we come so hardly by them We would make more of the priviledge if we considered what pains and cost and time they cost how unhandsom Religion looks without them how hard it is to perform many of the holy offices where we want them how hard it would be to keep Religion in the minds of men if all our Churches should be made nests of Owls and Dragons and beds of Nettles and Thistles Yet I confess it is hard too to enter into those holy places with the reverence that becomes them to rise up holy there Every one that comes into the Church does not ascend he leaves his soul too oft below comes but in part his body that gets up the Hill the mind lies grovelling in the Valley amongst his Grounds and Cattel Nor may every one be said to rise up or stand in his holy place that stand or sits there in it unless his thoughts rise there unless his attention stands erect and stedfast up to Heaven when he is there he is indeed in the place but he unhallows it it is no longer holy in respect of him He must ascend in heart and soul raise up eyes and hands voice and attention too that can be properly said to ascend into the Hill of the Lord or rise up in his holy place Which how hard it is the very stragling of our own thoughts there will tell us we need not go to the Prophet to find a people that sit there as if they were Gods people and yet are not that hear his Word and stand not to it that raise up their voices and yet their hearts are still beneath We can furnish our selves with a number too great of such enow to tell us how hard it is to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and rise up in his holy place so few do it And if these two ascensions be so hard what 's the third the very righteous are scarcely sav'd 1 Pet. iv 18. If by any means I may says St. Paul 1 Cor. ix 27. supposes he may not he is afraid at least after all his Preaching he should become a cast-away fall short of the goal miss the Crown come short of the top of the Hill of the holy Place So hard a thing is Heaven so clogg'd are the wings of our soul so heavy and drossie are our spirits and our earth so earthy that it is hard to ascend so high We feel we find it and they but deceive themselves that think 't is but a running leap into Heaven a business to be done wholly or easily upon our Death-beds when we can
nor stir nor raise up our selves or our heads Who shall ascend Whatever question it is it is most certainly an assertion of difficulty Who shall ascend no man can read it but he will read hardness in the ascending And yet it would be harder but for the last consideration of the words that 't is a kind of admiration of the Prophets at the foresight of Christs Ascension He in his spirit foresaw his Saviour climb this Hill and wonder'd â—t it From his ascending some of the difficulty is abated He has led one way â—â—ac'd a path open'd a door into Heaven unto all Believers so we us'd to sing in the Te Deum I need not tell you he has ascended in all the senses of the words no height of holiness but he has none frequenter in the Temple than he was none in Heaven till he came thither He the first that made our dull earth ascend so high He rose and ascended up on high without the least help of metaphor or figure rose from the Grave ascended into the Hill aâ—cended thence into the Hill of the Lord stands there at his right hand St. Stephen saw him so Acts â—ii 53. Never said Prophet any thing that more punctually fell out than this he may well admire it and so may we Yea and praise him too To him we owe all our Ascensions all the height and ascensions of our spirits in grace and goodness all our priviledges to worship him in holy places all our assurances and hopes of Heaven and the possession of it His rising raises us his ascending makes us ascend He the only prime singular one we only as parts and members of him What is then left us to do What for all this priviledge Why if Christs grace and Gods Worship and Heaven it self be such priviledges I hope we will not be so silly to forgo them or betray them Seeing they be so high ones we cannot be so unworthy now to do any thing beneath them any base or unworthy thing Being holy ones too we will not be so profane to pollute our selves or them with lusts and sacriledges Being so admirable priviledges all we cannot certainly but adore Gods mercy in them Being glorious ones too we must glorifie him for them count all things dross and dung in comparison of them Being yet hard to come by the more need we have to labour for them set all our powers make it all our work to get them to get grace and worship and glory to ascend the hill and holy place with all holiness as the way to glory In a word seeing all this priviledge comes by Christ 't is him we are to thank and serve and worship upon his own hill and in his own holy place till the time come till we ascend in glory And yet there is something more behind the way to this hill the conditions required to obtain this priviledge what we are to perform that we may attain it To have clean hands and pure hearts minds not lift up to vanity and mouths that will not swear to deceive our neighbour For he only shall ascend into the hill of the Lord he only shall rise up in his holy place he only is a true Believer he only truly worships God when he comes to Church to worship he only shall go to Heaven that hath clean hands c. THE FIRST SERMON UPON Whitsunday St. JOHN iii. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit THe wind bloweth And this day it blew to purpose A mighty rushing wind there was that this day fill'd the House where the Disciples were assembled Acts ii 2. And it blew truly where it listed when it blew only in that Chamber where they were And the sound of it was heard sufficiently when Parthians and Medes and Elamites the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Iudea in Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphilia in Aegypt and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene and strangers of Rome Iews and Proselites Cretes and Arabians all of them this day heard it fram'd into articulate voices into Tongues as many and divers as the Countries they came from Yet could not any of them tell whence this wind blew whence these sounds came for they were all amazed and in doubt saying one to another What meaneth this ver 12. Nor could the Disciples themselves but in general that from heaven it came nor whither it went when it retired from them This Day then was this Text fulfilled in your ears O happy Disciples Nicodemus might to day by experiment understand what in this Chapter he could not apprehend the Wind and Spirit both together and feel the workings of them both there both in one descent together though here he did not when they were put in one word together where whether Spiritus Ventus or Spiritus Spiritus both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were understood Expositors have disputed and it stands yet upon the question The Ancients restrained the words to the holy Spirit and translate it Spiritus The Modern Expositors to the Wind and translate it Ventus To do both right we shall joyn both senses understand the words as a similitude made by our blessed Saviour to instruct both Nicodemus and us in the ways of the Spirit and in the knowledge of the spiritual Regeneration by the likeness of the Wind. So two Simile's there will be in the Text. Sicut Ventus sic Spiritus and Sicut spiritus sic spiritualis The First Similitude is between the Wind and the Spirit The Second between the Spirit and the spiritual man or him that is born of the Spirit In the similitude betwixt the Wind and the Spirit we shall observe I. The Nature of them both in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 breath or Wind or Spirit it signifies them all II. The Power and Operation both of the one and of the other they blow both of them where they list III. The Plainness of their sounds Thou hearest the sound thereof both of them easie enough to be heard IV. The Obscurity yet of both their Motions ye know of neither of them whence they come or whither they go According to these four points will the second similitude be extended too He that is born of the Spirit will be like the Spirit in all four In his Nature in his Operations in his Plainness in some particulars and his Obscurity in others So is every one that is born of the Spirit But to tell you fully the true Condition of him that is born of the Spirit I must tell you first the Nature the Operations and the Properties of the Spirit And to tell you the Nature the Operations and the Properties of the Spirit I must shew you also those of the Wind that so by the more perfect discovery of them we may the more perfectly admire them and
yet so much he lov'd them that he would not leave them comfortless though himself who was their only joy and comfort was to go away yet he would not leave them without another Comforter Though he that was the way must ascend yet a guide should presently descend to guide them after him though he who was the Truth must back to Heaven yet the Spirit of Truth should forthwith come down to guide them into all truth to bring them thither So that here even without a guide you may easily find two Considerables 1. The Advent or coming of the Holy Spirit when He the Spirit of Truth is come 2. The Intent or purpose of it the end and benefit of his Advent or coming He will guide you into all Truth that 's the business In the First we shall consider 1. His title He The Spirit of Truth 2. His motion Is Come 3. His time When indefinite it is here but a due time it has and we will strive to learn when it is 4. His manner of coming 1. Invisibly as a Spirit 2. Effectually as a Spirit of Truth 3. Gently and 4. Softly both implied in the word or term of Coming 5. Suddenly too sometimes when he is come as if so suddenly that we should not feel or know it till he is In the Second the Intent or Benefit of his coming we shall observe 1. The benefit What it is To lead 2. Whether into truth Into Truth 3. How far Into all Truth Yea but 4. to Whom all these to you even to lead you You and you and you all of us in our way in our order one after another Yea but lastly lead us and into truth and into all truth but How 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Text shew and make and draw us out a way and conduct and move and actuate us in it When have thus considered them single and apart we will joyn them again together and so leave them Tell you how the leading is always proportionate to his coming as he comes so he leads If he comes miraculously and extraordinarily so he leads if invisibly and ordinarily so he leads as much as he comes into us so much he leads us as is his coming so is his leading and no other the one answerable to the other And lastly all this we shall make good from Christs promise here 1 That his Promise we have for it who will not cannot fail us 2. Promise upon promise 3. a promise with a non obstante with a Howbeit that howbeit all else should fail this should not howbeit to the world this Spirit may prove something else then a Guide a Reprover or a Judge yet to us he shall be a guide into the way of truth This will be the sum these the heads of my Discourse which that I may happily pursue Come thou O Spirit of Truth and guide my thoughts and words this day that I may teach thy ways unto the people and declare thy Truth We are to begin with the Spirits Advent or his Coming for come to us he must before he guide us and that his entertainment may be according enquire we first Who it is His Titles here will best inform you He the Spirit of c. 1. He What 's He He is a relative relates to an Antecedent refers to some person mentioned before Who 's that 1. the Comforter ver 7. Who 's He the Comforter 2. which is the Holy Ghost Chap. xiv 26. 3. One that the world cannot receive ver 17. of the same Chapter so great that the world as wide as it is cannot contain him so good that the world which as St. Iohn speaks lies in wickedness cannot receive him 4. a Comforter that shall abide for ever ver 16. an eternal Comforter 5. whom I will send unto you from my Father Chap. xv 26. a heavenly Comforter which proceedeth from the Father the same verse a Comforter who is the very Spirit of God or God the Spirit proceeding This is He we speak of this is He that is said here to come that is said still to come 2. Well may the Evangelist stand and stop at his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here stand and take breath here at this He as if he knew not how to go further how to call him how to express him He the Comforter he that abides for ever he whom the world cannot receive he the Holy Ghost he that proceeds from the Father and the Son all this he had said already and more he thought he could not say and therefore now here makes a halt as I may say He and no more to give us time to consider of the greatness of the person that is to come and to prepare for his coming Yet to confirm all that before he has said of him as he began the promise of him Chap. xiv ver 16 17. under the name of the Spirit of Truth so he concludes it with the same Title that we might know all that he has said is truth all that Christ has promised of him is no more than truth for he is the Spirit of Truth The Spirit of Truth 1. To make good and true all that Christ had promised the very seal and signature of our Redemption Ephes. iv 30. to seal the conveyance of our Inheritance to us Ephes. i. 14. to make that good to bear witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. viii 16. to make all good to us both in Heaven and in Earth 2. He is the Spirit of Truth because the Spirit of God and Christ. God is Truth and Christ is the Truth St. Iohn xiv 16. and the Spirit of God he is 1 Cor. ii 11. and the Spirit of Christ he is Phil. i. 19. so to be sure the Spirit of Truth if of God and Christ. 3. The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Prophesie Rev. xix 10. those holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. i. 21. who spake by the Prophets says the Nicene Creed and Prophets they are not but lyars who speak not the truth nor is it Prophesie if it be not truth 4. The Spirit of Truth for that as he inspires grace so he doth truth too all supernatural truths to be sure For truths there are many and spirits there are many but no truth but from him nor no Spirit of Truth but he himself He is the Fountain of Truth as in him and from him it is we live and breath He breaths into us this breath of life the spirit of life from this Spirit so from this Spirit of Truth all the truth that at any time breaths from us even natural truths and the truths of reason but that 's not it Inspired truths spiritual truths they are the proper effects of this Spirit Other truths may be from him nay are originally all from him as all good from God that eternal source of goodness but they may sometimes arise and breath from
our own spirits within or be put into us by other spirits by the ministery of Angels from without but inspired truths from this Spirit alone Angels indeed are sometimes the messengers of it but never called the spirits of it they bring it they do not breath it When they have brought it and done their message be it never so true never so comfortable it will not comfort but amaze us it will not sink into us but ly only at our doors till this Spirit breath and work it in He alone Spiritus Veritatis the Inspirer of truth Hence it is that this Spirit of of all Spirits is only call'd the Comforter for that he only lets in the comfort to the heart whatever Spirit is the Messenger Be it the Angels those Spirits and Messengers of heaven or be it the Ministers those Messengers upon earth with all the life and spirit they can give their words no comfort from either unless this Spirit of truth blow open the doors inspire and breath in with them Truth it self cannot work upon our spirits but by the spiration of this Spirit of truth 'T is but a dead Letter a vanishing voice a meer piece of articulate air the best the greatest the soundest truth no other it has no spirit it has no life but from this Spirit of truth To conclude this Point It is not when the Spirit of truth is come or when He that is the Comforter is come though both be but one he shall guide you neither title single but He the Spirit of truth both together to teach us first That the truth which this Spirit brings is full of comfort always comfortable Startle us it may a little at the first but then presently Fear not comes presently to comfort us trouble us it may a little at the first nay and bring some tribulation with it as times may be but ere the verse be out ere the words be out almost Be of good chear says Christ 't is but in the world and I have overcome the world and in me ye shall have peace St. Iohn xvi 33. that came before so that tribulation is encompassed with comfort Ye shall be sorrowful indeed but your sorrow shall be turned into joy ver 20. the first is no sooner mentioned but the other follows as fast as the Comma will let it Christs truth and this Spirits truth is the Comforters truth as well as the Spirits and have not only spirit to act and do but comfort also in the doing and after it to be sure Nay Joyn'd so 2. He the Spirit of truth to teach us again that nothing can comfort us but the truth no Spirit hold up our Spirits but the Spirit of truth Lies and falshoods may uphold us for a time and keep up our Spirits but long they will not hold a few days will discover them and then we are sadder than at first To be deluded adds shame to our grief 't is this Spirit only that is the Spirit of our life that keeps us breathing and alive t is only truth that truly comforts us which even then when it appears most troublesome and at the worst has this comfort with it that we see it that we see the worst need fear no more whilst the joys that rise from false apprehensions or lying vanities indeed from any thing below this Spirit of truth and heaven bring so much fear of a change or close or too sudden an end that I may well say they have no comfort with them They flow not from this Comforter they come not from this Spirit that 's the reason they have no Comfort no Spirit in them It may well occasion us as soon as we can to look after this He the Spirit of truth and for our own sakes enquire where he is watch his motion what and whence and whither it is 2. To understand the motion and coming of the Spirit what it means we can take no better way than to peruse the Phrases of the holy Book under what terms it elsewhere does deliver it The first time we hear of it we read it moving Gen. i. 3. The next time striving with man Gen. vi 3. Then filling him Exod. xxxi 3. Then resting upon him Num. xi 25. Sometimes he is said to come Iudg. iii. 10. Sometimes to enter into us Ezek. ii 2. Sometimes to fall upon us Ezek. xi 5. Sometimes to be put upon us Num. xi 29. Sometimes to be put into us Ezek. xxxvi 27. Sometimes to breath sometimes to blow upon us Isa. xl 7. All these ways is he said to come whether he move us to good or strive with us against evil or fill us with sundry gifts and graces or rest upon us in their continuance whether he comes upon us in the power of his Administrations or whether he enter as it were and possess us wholly as his own whether he appear in us or without us whether he come upon us so suddenly and unusually that he seems even to fall upon us or be put upon us by ordinary ways and means whether by imposition on or breathing in whether by a softer breath or a stronger blast whether he come in the feathers of a Dove or on the wings of the wind whether in Fire or in Tongues whether in a visible shape or in an invisible power and grace they are his comings all sometimes one way sometimes another his comings they are all Yet but some not all of his comings for all his ways are past finding out and teach us a Lesson against curiosity in searching his out-goings And yet this word Come sounds somewhat hard for all this still Did we not say he was God And can God be said to come any whither who is every where Nay of this very Spirit expresly says the Psalmist Psal. cxxxix 7. Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit And if I cannot go from him what needs his coming Coming here is a word of grace and favour and certainly be we never so much under his eye we need that need his grace need his favour Nay so much the more because he is so near us that so we may do nothing unworthy of his presence But He speaks to us after the manner of men who if they be persons of quality and come to visit us we count it both a favour and honour So by inversion when God bestows either favours or honours on us when this holy Spirit bestows a grace or a gift or a truth upon us that we had not before then is he said to Come to us I need not now trouble my self much to find out whence he comes Every good and perfect gift comes from above says St. Iames Iam. i. 17. From heaven it is he comes from the Father he sends him St. Iohn xiv 26. From the Son he sends him too in this very Chapter ver 7. And this is not only the place whence he comes but here are the persons too whence he proceeds
ready and willing to guide us into all truth yet and 2. to shew us how he will do it that we may learn how to be guided by him This the sum And the Vse of all will be that we submit our selves to him and to his guidance to be taught and led and guided by him to his guiding and to his truth and to all of it without exception To guide and to be guided are relatives infer one another If we will have him guide us he will have us be guided by him and give up our selves to his way of guiding Oh that we would that there were but a heart in us to do so we should not then have so many spirits but more truth one Spirit would be all and all truth would be one this one single Spirit would be sufficient to guide us into all truth He would guide us into all truth But I must from my wishes to my words where we see first we have a guide that though Christ be ascended from us into Heaven yet we are not without a guide upon the Earth I. I will not leave you comfortless said he when he was going hence St. Ioh. xiv 18. Had he left us without a guide he had so comfortless indeed in a vast and howling wilderness this earth is little else But a Comforter he sends ver 7. such a one as shall teach us all things St. Iohn xiv 26. that 's a comfort indeed none like it to have one to guide us in a dangerous and uncertain way to teach us that our ignorance requires to do all the offices of a guide unto us to teach us our way to lead us if need be in it to protect and defend us through it to answer for us if we be questioned about it and to cheer us up encourage and sustain us all the way II. Such a guide as this is 2. this He we are next to speak of He the Spirit of Truth so 't is interpreted but immediately before He shall teach you teach you the way reveal Christ to you for unless he do you cannot know him teach you how to pray Rom. viii 26. teach you what to say how to answer by the way if you be called to question in it St. Luke xii give you a mouth and wisdom too St. Luke xxi 15. teach you not only to speak but to speak to purpose He 2. shall lead you too deducet lead you on be a prop and stay and help to you in your journey He 3. shall protect and defend you in it as a guide free you from danger set you at full liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. be a cover to you by day and a shelter to you in the night the breath of the Holy Spirit will both refresh us and blow away all our enemies like the dust He 4 if we be charged with any thing will answer for us like a guide and governor 'T is not you says Christ but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you St. Matth. x. 20. He lastly it is that quicken our spirit with his Spirit that encourages and upholds us like a guide and leader for without him our spirits are but soft air and vanish at the least pressure He guides our feet and guides our heads and guides our tongues and guides our hands and guides our hearts and guides our spirits we have neither spirit nor motion nor action nor life without him III. But here particularly he comes to guides us into the Truth And God knows we need it for surely men of low degree are vanity says the Psalmist and men of high degree are a lie Psal. lxii 9. not lyars only but a very lye as far from truth as a lie it self things so distant from that conformity with God which is truth for truth is nothing else that no lie is further off it Nor soul nor body nor heart nor mind nor upper nor lower powers conformed to him neither our understandings to his understanding nor our wills to his will nor any thâ—ng of us really to him our actions and words and thoughts all lye to him to his face we think too low we speak too mean we deal too falsly with him pretend all his yet give most of it to our lusts and to our selves and we are so used to it we can do no other we are all either verbal or real lies need we had of one to guide us into the truth God is Truth to guide us to him Christ is the Truth St. Iohn xiv 6. to guide us to him His Word is Truth to guide us into that into the true understanding and practise of it His Promises are Truth very Yea and Amen to guide us to them to rest and hold upon them His way is the way of Truth to guide us into that into a Religion pure holy and undefiled that only is the true one Into none of these can any guide but this guide here He sheweth us of the Father He reveals to us the Son He interprets the Word and writes it in our hearts He leads and upholds us by his Promises seals them unto us seals us again to the day of Redemption the day of truth the day when all things shall appear truly as they are He sets our Religion right he only leads us into that Man cannot he can speak but to the ear there his words dye and end Angels cannot they are but ministring spirits at the best to this Spirit Nature cannot these truths are all above it are supernatural and no other truth is worth the knowing Nay into any truth this Spirit only can we only flatter and keep ado about this truth and that truth and the other but into them we cannot get make nothing of any truth without him unless he sanctifie it better else we had not known it Knowledge puffeth up all knowledge that comes not from this Spirit so the very truth of any truth that which truly confirms it to the divine will and understanding that makes truth the same with goodness is from this Spirit from his guiding and directing his breathing it or breathing into it or upon it IV. Thus we are faln upon the fourth particular that he will guide us into all truth Gods mercies and Christs are ever perfect and of the largest size and the conducts of the Spirit are so too into all goodness Gal. v. 9. into all fulness Ephes. iii. 19. into all truth here into all things That we are not full is from our selves that we are not led into all truth is for that all truth does not please us and we are loth to believe it such if it make not for us he for his part is as ready to guide us into all as into one For take we truth either for speculative or practical either for the substance against types and shadows or the discerning the substance through those shadows or take we it in opposition to obscurity and doubting understand we it
for what is truly to be believ'd or lov'd or hop'd or fear'd or done as under these is contain'd all that is saving truth so they are all taught us by this Spirit The signification of all old types and shadows sacrifices and ceremonies the things which whilst Christ was with us we were not able to bear ver 12. the things which when they were done we did not understand all that we are to believe and do what to hope and what to fear what to desire and what to love this Spirit teaches And that first Not as other spirits teach which teach by halves so much only as may serve to nurse up their faction and their side but nothing more but all whatever is commanded keeps back nothing as St. Paul professes for himself Acts xx 20. nothing that is profitable unto you that is nothing profitable to Salvation Not secondly as other spirits which teach impertinent or idle truths or meer natural ones indeed for such truths as have neither spiritual profit or command he is neither bound nor binds himself is neither sent nor comes to teach them such truths as appertain not unto holiness the Holy Spirit is not promised for Yet all that is necessary to be known hop'd fear'd expected desired or done in reference to the Kingdom of grace and glory he never fails us in Not thirdly as other spirits that never teach all truth and nothing else whose truths are commonly mixt with error but what he teaches is truth all By this you know that it is his Spirit 't is he that teaches every part when the doctrine is all truth The doctrines of the world are like those bastard children in Nehemiah xiii 24. that spake half Ashdod and half Israel one part of them is truth the other falshood one part Scripture the other a Romance one part spirit the other flesh one part Heaven the other Earth earthly humors and respects and nothing else There is not an Error or Heresie so gross or impudent but has Iacob's voice though Esau's hands speaks well what ere it does speaks fair and smooth though its deeds be rough and cruel with Napthali gives good words though with Dâ—n it be as a Serpent by the way and â—n Adder in the path that biteth the Horse heels so that the Rider does fall backward speaks well though it mean ill and overthrow all that embrace it Thus the Anabaptist says true when he says the Apostles baptized men and women but he says false when he says none else or that they baptized any twice with Christs baptism The Antinomian and Solifidian say no more than truth when they say faith justifies without the works of the Law for they say with St. Paul but they say a lie when they separate the works of the Gospel from that faith that justifies if St. Iames say true Iam. ii 26. Innumerable multitudes of such half-fac'd truths there are abroad vented and vaunted by private spirits such as this spirit has no hand in Every truth of his is truth in all its parts all truth though it be but one keeps the analogie of faith inviolable perfect correspondence with all the rest So that now every truth of his is all truth truth all of it but that 's not all for 4. there is not a truth necessary or convenient for us to know but in due time he reveals it to us unless we hinder him all things says Christ in another place St. Iohn xiv 26. V. But all this while to whom is all this promis'd this guiding Spirit into all truth to whom is it To whom but you You says the Text What you Apostles only no such matter you Disciples present then no such matter neither 'T is but a little word this you yet of large extent few letters in it but much spirit You Believers all of you as well as you Apostles For for all he prays in the next Chapter ver 20. for all that should believe on him through their Word And 't is promis'd St. Iohn xiv 16. that he shall abide with them for ever and if ever sure then beyond their persons and their times So that to ours too is the promise made or it cannot be for ever To the Apostles indeed in greater measure after a more eminent way with miracles and wonders to confirm the truth he taught yet to us also after our measure To them to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever he had said unto them St. Iohn xiv 26. Whence we read so often they remembred his words St. Luke xxiv 8. Acts i. 16. remembred what he said St. Iohn ii 22. remembred what was done unto him St. Iohn xii 16. To them 2. to guide them into the understanding of old Types and Prophesies what was any where said or written or meant of him St. Iohn xii 16. To them 3. to explain and manifest what they before either did not understand or made a question of To them 4. to teach them those things which till he this Spirit came they could not bear as it is just before the Text. To them 5. to settle the Rites and Ceremonies the Discipline and Government of the Church to take order about things indifferent Acts xv 28. It seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and to us to define things not before commanded Of these Christ had given no commandment we read of none St. Paul professes he had received none about them 1 Cor. vii 25. yet he determines them and tells us he thought also he had the Spirit of God ver 40. even to those truths as well as others does the Spirits guiding reach To them the Spirit came to guide them into all these kinds of truths to us to guide us in them or guide us after them in a larger sense into them too However to one effect it comes we and they have the same truth from the same Spirit the way only that is different they immediately from the Spirit we mediately by their Writings dictated to them by the Spirit This now guides me to the way and manner of his guiding which comes next to be considered and must be fetcht both from the nature of the word and the manner of his coming for after that manner is his guiding as after he comes so he will guide too VI. From the word first And the word here for guiding is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first way then motion in it He first sets us down a way that will bring us into the truth then acts or moves us in it The first way or means is the Word of God Thy Word is a light unto my feet and a lanthorn to my paths says holy David Psal. cxix 105. All Scripture is given by inspiration says St. Paul and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God
he will make good what Christ has promised and what he comes to be the guide into the way of truth We need not either mistrust or fear it For though Christ himself must go away and leave us because it is expedient that he should yet this Spirit will stand by us howsoever Howbeit he will He is a mighty wind and will quickly disperse and blow away the mists of ignorance and error He is a fire and will easily purge the dross and burn up the chaff that mixes with the truth and hides or sullies it nothing can stand before him nothing shall He comes to us with a Howbeit a non obstante be it how it will though we be blind and ignorant and foolish and full of infirmities and sins so we be willing he will come and guide us Yet if now we will so be guided to close up all We must lastly submit our selves wholly to his way and guiding to the truth and to all of it To his way and order 1. no teaching him how he should teach us Them that be meek shall he guide in judgment and such as be gentle them shall he learn his way Psal. xxv 8. No teaching without humility we must be willing to be guided or he will not guide us Men will not now thence come so many errors and mistakes To truth too 2. we must submit If it be truth no quarrelling against it No seeking shelters and distinctions to defend us from it though we have been long in error and count it a dishonour to revoke it revoke it we must be it what it will or we endanger the loss of the whole truth the Spirit will not lead us And to all 3. too We must not plead our interest or any thing against it be it never so troublesome never so disadvantageous never so displeasing we must resolve to embrace it because 't is truth With this submission too we are now to come to the holy mysteries submit our hearts and judgments and affections here not to presume to pry too much into the way and manner of Christs and the Spirits being there but to submit our reasons to our faith and open our hearts to Christ as well as our mouths to the outward elements and keep under our affections by holy and godly doing that so the Spirit of truth may come into them all And so doing the Spirit will come and he will guide us guide us into all necessary and saving truths guide us to Christ guide us to God guide us here and guide us hence guide us in earth and guide us to heaven THE FOURTH SERMON UPON Whitsunday ACTS ii 1 2 3 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance THE words are the History for the day The day the anniversary for the words This day the Text fulfilled in the ears of some of every Nation under Heaven ver 5. remembred and celebrated by the tongues and voices of the Christian Church throughout the Earth The things done here the reason of the day and the day the memorial of them Here you may see why we keep this Feast why 't is so solemn why 't is one of the dies albi why so white a day a Sunday white with the light of that holy fire that this day came down from Heaven and sate like rays of light upon the Apostles those whitest and purest sons of light the Holy Ghost the third Person of the blessed Trinity descending miraculously in it upon the Disciples as it were a sudden rushing mighty wind filling all the corners both of the place and of their souls and so seating himself in the form of fiery cloven tongues upon each of that holy company and thereby giving them new hearts and words to speak the wonders of the most High A business we are this day to be their Disciples in to use our tongues to the same purpose that we may testifie our selves to be led by the same Spirit breath by the same breath move by the same wind our hearts warm'd by the same fire our words fram'd by the same tongues that this day appear'd so miraculously upon them We have done so in the unity of the Church several times before in the year for Christ the second Person of the Godhead do we so now also for the third the benefits and glory which this day came from him which they this day did after a strange miraculous way receive we may this day also receive in an efficacious way though not externally and visibly yet internally and invisibly from the same Spirit For this Feast is his and our â—â—eech this day principally of him and our praises for him Now the best way to keep the Feast so as to be partakers of the honour and benefits of it is to place our selves in the same fashion set our selves in the same posture dispose our selves after the same order with them here both for the receiving of him and after we have received him For 't is part of the Epistle not the Gospel that I have read you and the business of the Epistle is commonly Doctrine and Instruction as the matter of the Gospel is usually history So we then to be instructed by it how to demean our selves for the receiving of the Holy Spirit how to know how and where and when it is he comes how to distinguish him and his coming from other spirits what to do also when we have received him and when more especially to do the one or expect the other by the pattern and example in the Text. This will prove the best the only celebration of the Feast the most glorious manifestation this day on our parts for the more glorious manifestation this day on Gods the manifestation of our thankfulness for the manifestation of Gods goodness Thus without either nicety or much Art I shall divide you the Text into these Particulars 1. The Disposition of them that the Spirit comes and lights upon them that are all with one accord in one place that are there quietly sitting and expecting Christ there especially upon the solemn days upon the day of Pentecost a solemn Festival 2. The way and manner and order of the Holy Spirits coming suddenly from Heaven like a sound thence like the sound of a rushing mighty wind filling all the house in the appearance of cloven fiery tongues sitting upon each on whom he comes 3. The effect and issue immediately upon it They are filled all filled filled with Ghost and Spirit the Holy Ghost or Spirit begin to speak speak strangely strange tongues
wind who daily does wondrous things in us and for us and by us through the mighty rushings of it and fills and replenishes us with all the benefits and comforts of it whilst he passes by others without so much as a breathing on them Yet the business would be how to catch this wind and serve our uses of it Why in the Word and in the Sacraments and by Prayers we may have it and be filled with it Come then and fill your souls you have heard the Word already treasure it up for there are treasures for the winds and you shall feel it blow move and stir in you The blessed Sacrament is a second way to be filled with this Spirit 't is reacht out and proffer'd to us there we may there take it into our mouths as before into our ears and it will rush down all before it that stands against it down it will into our bowels and fill us with all heavenly fulness And then draw it in and breath it out we may by devout and holy Prayers only remember always the disposition of that soul this Spirit only will abide with peace and unity Thus dispos'd you must be to receive the Spirit thus dispos'd to receive the Sacrament and then the Spirit will discend upon our Sacrifice and the wind of Gods benediction upon our offering and we shall return hence with mighty rushings in us the rushing down of sin the raising up of grace mighty mighty things will be done in us by the power of this Spirit and this Wind and as it came from Heaven so thither will it back again and carry us upon its wings to keep a perpetal Feast an Eternal Whitsunday all in the white Robes of everlasting Glory Blow O blessed Wind upon us this day blow away our chaff and dross and dust out of our performances breath into thy holy mysteries the breath of a life-giving life rush down all our sins before thee purifie and clense and refresh and revive and comfort us by thy saving breath that this wind may bring us good all the good of Heaven and Earth fill both our ears and hearts here with sounds and songs of joy and hereafter with Hallelujahs for evermore THE FIFTH SERMON UPON Whitsunday ACTS ii 1 2 3 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance WHen the day of Pentecost here was fully come ver 1. they were all filled says the Text ver 4. and began to speak Now the day is fully come again we also are full of matter as Elihu told Iob Iob xxxii 18. and we must speak For 't is a day of Tongues a day to speak in and a day to speak of too to speak magnalia in it and of it of the great things of God and the great things of the day the wonderful works of God ver 11. which were this day wrought by the descent of the holy Spirit To this end the Spirit descended to this end the Tongues came to this end both appeared that we might learn to use our Tongues and Spirits to set forth his praise every one according as the Spirit gives him utterance according to the gift and place that God has given him We as the Apostles and Ministers of the Spirit you as Disciples to be taught by us you to ask with those hearers ver 37. Men and brethren what shall we do We as St. Peter ver 38. to tell you what to do We faithfully to preach the Word the remission of sins and the gifts of the holy Ghost ver 38. you gladly to receive it ver 41. We to begin the Anthem you to make the Chorus for the service of this days solemnity both of us to bear our parts to day in praises and thanksgivings for the benefits we receive from this days business We have the last year begun to speak of it out of this Text we begin again to speak of it hence this year shall do as the Spirit shall give us utterance To hold our peace to day were to sin against the Spirit who this day gave us all our tongues to speak And I hope nor we nor you will be silent of his glory no such evil shall befall us For a day of good tidings it is was so when it came first will be so now 't is come again and when ever it comes about was so to the Disciples will be so I hope to us to hear the voice of a Comforter to see his appearance or out hear of it The Text is the Story of it the Relation of the coming of the Comforter the descent of the Holy Ghost In it when time was we observed these four Particulars I. The disposition of them the Spirit comes upon II. The way and manner and order he comes after III. The Effect and Issue that comes upon it And IV. The Time when it came to pass I. The disposition of those the Spirit comes upon is such as makes men to be of one accord that brings them all to one place upon such days as Pentecost on the solemn feasts makes them then and there sit quietly and orderly expecting Christ a unanimous Church-like orderly devout and religious disposition Upon such and such only is it that the holy Spirit comes II. The way manner and order of his coming is as a mighty wind and like as fire Suddenly he came came as a sound as a sound from heaven as a sound of a rushing mighty wind and such a one too as filled all the house Oâ—me 2. as fire as tongues of fire as cloven tongues of fire such fire yet as sace upon them and did no hurt heavenly and coelestial fire Thus he came to day III. The Effect and Issue is filling the filling of all that then were present with ghost and spirit Holy-Ghost and spirit then with words and tongues and speech even according to the measure or pleasure of the Spirit This the issue of the holy Spirits coming fulness and spirit and ability and utterance new hearts and new spirits new languages and sobriety to use them IV. The time the Time of Pentecost when it was fully come when all was ready persons and place and time fully disposed and fit then comes the holy Spirit then came all these things to pass I put this last though it stands first that I might close up all at least in good time and order There wants nothing now O blessed Spirit to go on and finish but that thou shouldst come and order all our thoughts and spirits that we may humbly receive the sound of thy holy
the Spirit appears but why the Spirit appears now now first and not before now first visibly to the world is worth enquiry And 't is to shew the preheminence of the Gospel above the Law That stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances says the Apostle Heb. ix 10. was but the Law of a carnal Commandment Heb. vii 16. The Gospel is a Law of spirit and life the Law of Moses a dead a killing Letter but the Gospel of Christ a quickning Spirit 2 Cor. iii. 6. the Law a course of shadows the Gospel only the true light It will appear so by the next Particular we are to handle the manner of his appearing In tongues in cloven tongues in tongues as it were of fire I shall invert the order for the fire it is that gives light unto the tongues to make them for to appear of the fire then first to shew them the better For the Spirit to appear as wind or breath is nothing strange It carries them in its name Spiritus à spirando every one can tell you But that this breath should not only blow up a fire but be it self also blown into it the Spirit here appear as fire that 's somewhat hard at first perhaps to understand Yet you shall see many good reasons for it Four great ones I shall give you which comprehend more under them 1. To shew the Analogy and correspondence of Gods dealings and dispensations how they agree both with themselves and with one another 2. To insinuate to us the nature and condition of the holy Spirit 3. To signifie the several gifts and graces of it 4. To declare its operations also and effects 1. The Holy Ghost here appear'd like fire that we might see it is the same God that gave both Law and Gospel the same Spirit in both Testaments The Law was promulgated by fire Exod. xix 18. the Lord descended on Mount Sinai then in fire The Gospel also here is first divulged by tongues as it were of fire in Mount Sion The difference only is that there were here no lightnings thunders clouds or smoke as there were there nothing terrible nothing dark or gloomy here all light and peace and glory 2. Under the Old Testament the Prophets oft were Commissionated by fire to their Offices the Angel takes a live coal from off the Altar and lays it upon Isaiah's mouth Isa. vi 7. Elijah the Prophet stood up as fire Ecclus. xlviii 1. Ezekiels first Vision was of appearances of fire Ezek. i. 4 13. The Commissions therefore of the Apostles were drawn here also as it were with pens of fire that they might the more lively answer and the better express the Spirit of the Prophets 3. That the nature of the Law they were to preach might be exprest too It was the Law of love and the holy fire of Charity was it they were sent to kindle in the World 4. It was to teach them what they were to expect in the World themselves fire and faggot affliction and tribulation the lot and portion both of them and of their followers ever since 5. It was to teach them what they were to be burning and shining lights to lead others into heaven Lastly That so all righteousness Law and Prophets might be fulfilled the types of the one and the promises of the other from the first of them to the last to St. Iohn Baptists that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire that the fire that Christ came to send into the earth and was then already kindled might now burn out into the World And all this to shew the Almighty Wisdom who thus agreeably orders all his doings from the first unto the last that we might with the greater confidence embrace the Doctrine of the Gospel which so evenly consented with the Law and was added only to bring it to perfection to raise up the fire of devotion and charity to the height 2. But not only to manifest the wisdom of the Father and perform the promise of the Son but secondly to intimate the nature of the holy Spirit Fire is the purest Element The holy Spirit is pure and incorruptible thine incorruptible Spirit says the Wise man Wisd. xii 1. No evill can dwell with it It will not mingle with humane interests By this you may know it from all other Spirits They intermix with private humours and self-respects and great ones fancies The holy Spirit is a fire and will not mix it must dwell alone has not a tongue now for this and then for that to please men and ease it self but is always pure and incorrupt Fire 2. is the subtilest Element it pierces into every part And whither can I go then from thy Spirit says holy David Psal. cxxxix 6. If I climb up into heaven thou art there If I go down to hell thou art there also If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there also will it find me out Darkness cannot cover me thick darkness cannot hide me night it self cannot conceal me from thee O thou divine Spirit O keep me therefore that I may do nothing that may make me ashamed and hide my self seeing thy eyes will quickly pierce into me 3. Fire is an active nature always stirring always moving Nothing can be found better to express the nature of the holy Spirit It mov'd from the beginning actuated the first matter into all the shapes we see breath'd an active principle into them all renew'd again the face of the Earth when the waters had defaced it blows and the waters flow blows again and dries them up guides the Patriarchs inspires the Prophets rests upon the Governours of the People from Moses to the seventy Elders gives spirit and courage to the Martyrs Non permanebit spiritus meus in vagina says God Gen. vi My Spirit will not endure to be always as in a rusty sheath it will be lightning the understanding it will be warming the affections it will be stirring of the passions it will be working in the heart it will be acting in the hand it will be moving in the feet it will be quickning all the powers to the service of the Almighty nothing so busie as this holy fire nothing so active as this Spirit Though the nature and essence of it cannot be full exprest it is thus very powerfully resembled 3. The gifts of it more easily by this fire Seven there are numbred of them out of Isa. xi 2. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding the Spirit of counsel and ghostly strength the Spirit of knowledge and true godliness and the Spirit of holy fear all very naturally represented to us by so many properties I shall observe to you of the fire Fire it ascends it penetrates it tries it hardens it enlightens it warms it melts You have all these again in the seven gifts of the Spirit For 1. the holy Spirit
elevates our souls by the Spirit of Wisdom coelestia sapere as it is Col. iii. 2. to those things that are above Sapientia est rerum altissimarum says the divine Philosopher Wisdom is of things of the higest nature of a high ascending strain 2. It penetrates and pierces like the fire by the Spirit of understanding understands that which the Spirit of man cannot understand 1 Cor. ii 11. the very things of God pierces into them all 3. It tries like fire by the Spirit of counsel and advice teaches us to prove all things and choose the best 4. It hardens us against all the evils that can befall us as fire does the brick against all weather by the spirit of fortitude and ghostly strength 5. It enlightens the darkness of our souls by the spirit of knowledge teaches us to know the things that belong unto our peace the ways and methods of salvation 6. It heats the coldness of our affections by the Spirit of piety and true godliness inflames us with devotion and zeal to Gods service And 7. it softens our obdurate hearts by the Spirit of holy fear that we melt into tears and sighs at the apprehension of Gods displeasure even as Wax melteth before the fire the highest hardest rockiest mountains melt and flow down at his presence when once his Spirit does but cast a ray upon them These are the seven gifts of the Spirit represented to us by so many properties of the fire 4. There are seven other operations and effects of the same Spirit as lively also exprest by it and make the fourth reason why the holy Ghost appears under the semblance of fire 1. Fire it burns and the Prophet Isaiah calls this Spirit a Spirit of burning Isa. iv 4. It makes our hearts burn within us as it did the Disciples going to Emaus St. Luke xxiv 32. puts us to a kind of pain raises sorrow and contrition in us makes the scalding water gush out of our eyes you may even feel it burn you 2. With this burning it purifies and purges too As things are purified by the fire so are our spirits and souls and bodies purified by the Spirit 3. For purifie it must needs for it devours all the dross the chaff the hay and stubble that is in us purges out our sins burns up every thing before it that offends is a consuming fire Heb. xii 29. so is God so is his Spirit 4. Yet as it is a consuming so it is a renewing fire Fire makes things new again And do but send out thy Spirit O Lord and they are made Psal. civ 30. We are all made for so it is that thou renewest the face of the earth the face of this dull earth of ours by putting into it the Holy Spirit 5. To this purpose it makes that like as fire it separates 5. things of divers natures silver from tin metals from dross Separare heterogenea is one of the effects of fire says the Philosopher to distinguish and divide between things of different kinds And Spiritus judicii discretionis the Prophet styles the Spirit a Spirit of judgment it is Isai. 4. 4. a discerning Spirit teaches us to discern between Dross and Gold Truth and Error between Good and Evil and without it we discern nothing This the Apostle reckons as a peculiar donation of it the discerning of spirits 1 Cor. xii 10. 6. Yet as it separates things of different natures so 6. it unites things of the same kind just as the fire does several pieces of the same metal into one body This holy Spirit is a Spirit of unity They that separate they have not the Spirit St. Iude 19. Schisms and Divisions Strife Heresies and Seditions are the works of the flesh not of the spirit Gal. v. 20. The fruit of the Spirit is love and peace says St. Paul there ver 22. And the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace we hear of too Ephes. iv 3. Into one Spirit we are baptiz'd all for there is but one one Spirit one Body one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God one all that are of God ver 5 6. nothing so contrary to the Holy Spirit as divisions of the members from the head or from one another a shrewd witness this against the spirits of our age and an evidence that to what spirit soever they lay claim they lay false claim to this they belong not to this Spirit which is so much for uniting all the parts of the body of Christ together 7. And this it can do when it s sees its time for lastly it is an invincible Spirit it bears down all before it turns all into it like the fire of all the Elements the most victorious and triumphant There is no standing out against this Spirit 't is an Almighty Spirit that can do what it will It inflames the air into a fire vain airy spirits into celestial flames of love and charity It dries up the water the raw waterish humors of our souls and fixes all waverings and inconstancies It burns up our earth and all the grass and hay and sprouts what ever that stand against it It sets whole houses all a fire sets us all a fire for Heaven and heavenly business Thus it burns it purifies it consumes and renews again it separates and it gathers and it caries all before it dees what it will in Heaven and Earth subdues Scepters vanquishes Kingdoms converts Nations throws down Infernal Powers and turns all into the obedience of Christ. To this purpose it is that it now also here comes in Tongues The second manner we noted of his appearance and that for three reasons 1. nothing more convenient to express either our business or him whose it is The Tongue is the instrument of speech the Word is express by it Christ is the Word the Holy Spirit as it were the Tongue to express him comes to day with an Host of tongues to send this Word abroad into all the World Nothing more necessary for the Apostles were to be the Preachers of it had receiv'd a Commission to go and preach St. Matth. xvi 15. wanted yet their tongues some new enablements went not therefore till they were this day brought them and a more necessary thing the Holy Ghost could not bring them for that purpose Yet they had need 2. be of fire sharp piercing tongues like the little flames of fire such as would pierce into the soul reveal the inmost secrets of the heart and spirits and it seems so they proved 1 Cor. xiv 25. piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit of the joints and marrow Heb. iv 12. Tongues of fire 3. to warm the cold affections of men into a love of Christ every tongue is not able to do that it must be a tongue set on fire from Heaven that can do that Tongues and tongues of fire sharp piercing tongues warm with heavenly heat are the only tongues
only that meek and merciful man St. Gregory that valiant Lion St. Ambrose that laborious Oxe St. Ierome that sublime Eagle St. Augustine as some please to fancy these four beasts or the four first Patriarchates as others have interpreted them but all the four corners of the earth have since profest it and with the twenty four Elders faln down and worshipt it The lustre and glory of that glorious mystery has shone thorow all the quarters of the World and all his famous mercies to his people and his judgments against their enemies are still daily celebrated and magnified in all the Congregations of the Saints This St. Iohn foresaw and here foretels the poor persecuted Christians then that how hard soever things went with them then they should ere long turn all their sighs and lamentations into Songs of praise for their deliverance and salvation This they should and 3. we should as much It was foretold of them they should it is commanded us we should Therefore glorifie him says the Apostle 1 Cor. vi 20. glorifie him in your bodies and glorifie him in your spirits glorifie him with the bodies that glorifie him and glorifie him with the Spirits that glorifie him bear them all company in so doing do it all the ways you can you can neither do it too many nor too much Put on the faces of Eagles in the Temple and raise your souls up there and praise him Put on the faces of men at home and let the holiness of your conversation praise him there Put on the appearance of Oxen in your Callings and let the diligence of your Actions and Vocations praise him Put on the appearance of Lions abroad in all places of temptations and let your courage in the resisting and repelling them praise him there Thus we truly copy out our pattern Yet to transcribe it perfectly well we must now secondly also transcribe their earnestness For here they not only give praise and glory unto God but they do it earnestly they rest not doing it they rest not saying that is 1. They cannot rest unless they say it And I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber neither the temples of my head to take any rest till I have found out a way to praise my God till I have offered up the service of my thanks and added something to his glory must be the Christians resolution 2. They rest not saying is they say it and say it again say it over and over Holy Holy Holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in some Copies nine times read Holy nine times repeated they think they can never say it enough No more it seems did David when he so oft repeated For his mercy endureth for ever in one single Psalm Psal. cxxxvi And hence it is the Church to imitate this holy fervour so often reiterates the Doxologie and inserts so many several Hymns and even either begins almost all its Prayers and Collects with an acknowledgment either of his Mercy Goodness and Providence or ends them with acknowledgment of his Majesty Power and Glory this both to imitate the glorious Saints and to obey the Apostles injunction of being fervent in Prayers and Praises 3. They rest not saying is they rest not but in so doing That 's their rest their joy their happiness to do so thus to be always praising God It would be ours too had we the same affections to it or the same senses of it We could not go to rest nor lie down to sleep could not sit down and take our rest till we had first lift up our eyes and hearts nay and voices too sometimes till we had first paid our thanks and given him praise for his protections in our ways and labours untill then 3. But to be thus eager and earnest at it is not all So we might be for a start and give over presently but 't is day and night that Angels and good men do it There is no night indeed properly with the Angels 'T is with them eternal day yet all that time which we call day and night they are still a saying it The Morning comes and they are at it the Night comes and they are at it still Let me go for the day breaketh says the Angel that strove with Iacob Gen. xxxii 26. And I must sing my Mattens adds the Chaldee Paraphrase as if he had said I can stay no longer I must go take my Morning course in the heavenly Choirs And in the depth of night we find them by whole hosts and multitudes at their Gloria in Excelsis Glory be to God in the highest St. Luke ii 13. The first fervours of Christian Piety were somewhat like this of the Angels You might have seen their Churches full at midnight all the Watches of the night you might have heard them chanting out the praises of their God and all the several hours of the day you might have found some or other continually praising God in his holy Temples as well as in their Closets Nay in the Iewish Temple they ceased not to do so Ye that by night stand in the House of the Lord Psal. cxiv 2. Praise him ye says holy David for indeed ye stand there to praise him and the Temple it self stood open all the day for all comers to that purpose when they would Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing says the Psalmist Psal. xxx 13. 'T is a good thing to do so Psal. xcii 1 2. To tell of thy loving kindness early in the morning and of thy Truth in the night season so good that David himself resolves upon it Psal. cxlv 2. Every day will I give thanks unto thee and praise thy Name for ever and ever prays also that his mouth may be filled with Gods praise that he may sing of his glory and honour all the day long Psal. lxxi 7. from morning to night and from night again to morning he would willingly do nothing else Nay be the night and day taken either in their natural or moral sense either properly for the spaces and intervals of light and darkness or morally for the sad hours of affliction and adversity and those bright ones of jollity and prosperity good men praise God in them both do not cease to do it if sorrows curtain up their eyes with tears and put out all their light of joy and comfort yet blessed be the Name of the Lord cry they out with patient Iob Chap. i. 21. Again if their paths be strow'd with light and the Sun gild all their actions with lustrous beams if Heaven shine full upon them they are not yet so dazell'd but they see and adore Gods mercy in them and in the mid'st of all their glories and successes they are still upon his praise and render all to him Neither the one night nor this other day make them at any time forget him A good item to us hence 1. not to suffer
our pleasures and vagaries our mirths and vanities our successes and prosperities to steal away the time we are to spend in giving God thanks and glory for them Nor 2. to permit our selves so much time to the reflection upon our griefs and troubles as to omit the praising God that they are no worse and that he thus fatherly chastises us to our bettering and amendment does all to us for the best Yet not to cease praising him day and night seems still to have some difficulty to understand it The Angels perhaps that neither eat nor drink nor sleep nor labour they may do it but how shall poor man compass it Why first Imprint in thy soul a fixt and solid resolution to direct all thy words and actions to his glory Renew it 2. every day thou risest and every night thou liest down Renounce 3 all by-ends and purposes that shall at any time creep in upon thee to take the praise and honour to thy self Design 4. thy actions as often as thou canst particularly to Gods service with some short offering them up to Gods will and pleasure either to cross or prosper them and when they be done say Gods Name be praised for them And lastly omit not the times of Prayer and Praise either in publick or in private but use thy best diligence to observe them to be constant and attentive at them Thus with the Spouse in the Canticles when we sleep our hearts awake and whether we eat or drink or walk or talk or whatsoever we do we do all to the glory of God and may be said to praise him day and night and not cease saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And so I come to the second General The form here set us to praise him in In which first we have to consider the glory it self that is expresly given him Holy Holy Holy To speak right indeed the whole sentence is nothing else yet this evidently referring to that of Isai. vi 3. where the Seraphims use this first part in their Hymn of praise I conceive this the chief and most remarkable part of of it which may therefore bear the name before the rest Now this saying Holy Holy Holy is attributing all purity perfection and glory to God as to the subject of it himself and the original of it to others thereby acknowledging him only to be worship'd and ador'd So that saying thus we say all good of him and all good from him to our selves Thrice 't is repeated which according to the Hebrew custom is so done to imprint it the deeper in our thoughts and may serve us as a threefold cord which is not easily broken to draw us to it But another reason the Fathers give And it is 1. they say to teach us the knowledge of the holy and blessed Trinity Indeed why else thrice and no less or more Why follows Lord God Almighty three more words why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three yet again and yet but three who was who is who is to come Why do the Seraphims in Isaiah say no more yet say so too Why have we in the following verses Glory and Honour and Thanks ver 9. and Glory and Honour and Power so punctually thrice and thrice only offered to them How came it to be so universally celebrated throughout the World and put into all the Catholik Liturgies every where words fall not from Angels and Angelical Spirits by chance or casually The holy Penmen write not words hap hazard Nor is it easie to conceive so hard a doctrine so uneasie to reason should be so generally and humbly entertain'd but by some powerful working of Gods Spirit This may be enough to satisfie us that the blessed Trinity is more then obscurely pointed out to us here And 2. to be sure the Fountain of all Holiness is here pointed to us that we may learn to whom to go for grace that we may see we our selves are but unholy things that nothing is in it self pure or holy none but God And 3. it points us out what we should be Be ye holy as I am holy says God No way otherwise to come near him no way else to come so near him as to give him thanks for out of polluted lips he will not take them For in the second place the Lord God Almighty it is we are to give this glory to The three Persons here me thinks are evident however God the Father the Lord the Son and the Almighty Spirit that made all things that does but blow and the waters flow that does but breath and man lives that with the least blast does what he will Yet these three it seems are still but one one Lord and one God and one Spirit Ephes. iv 4 5 6. all singulars here nounes verbs articles and participles all in the singular number here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we might see though a Trinity there be to be believed yet 't is in unity though three Personalities but one Nature though three Persons but one God All the scruple here can but arise from the setting Lord the Son before God the Father but that 's quickly answered when they tell you there is none here afore or after other none greater and lesser than another and therefore no matter at all for the order here where all is one and one is all Lord God Almighty Yet now to encourage us the better to our Praises and Thanksgivings see we in the last place the benefits they here praise him for and they are intimated to us in the close of all Who was and is and is to come In the first we understand the benefit of our creation God it was that created us In the second we read the benefit of our Redemption the Lord it is that redeems us daily pardons and delivers us In the third we have the benefit of our Glorification still to come the Holy Spirit here sealing us and hereafter enstating us in glory In them all together we may in brief see as in a Prospect that all the benefits we have received heretofore he was the Author of them that all the mercies we enjoy he is the Fountain of them that all the joys or good we hope for he is the donour of them he was he is he must be the bestower of them all without him nothing he was and is and will be to us all in all And now sure though I have not the time to specifie all the mercies we enjoy from this blessed Lord God Almighty and indeed had I all time I could not and all tongues Si mihi sint linguae centum sint oraque centum I could not yet we cannot but in gross at least take up a Song of Praise for altogether say somewhat towards it Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty holy in our Creation Holy in our Redemption holy in our Sanctification Holy in Heaven holy in Earth holy under the Earth
able to hold and here it is that some have desir'd God to depart a while to hold a while least they should over-flow at least and lose so pretious a liquor if not break in pieces and lose themselves in so vast a depth or at so forciblee a pouring in of heavenly pleasures upon them But I am too high now for that lean meagre creeping goodness which is only to be found among the sons of men in these latter days where we meet with this desire in a lower key if at all Our souls you know are the vessels of divine grace old crazie ones God wot and there is a danger least the new liquor of celestial grace should cause them to crack and break at its approach There is something which we are not able to bear away at first Christian Profession must come in to us by degrees Christ must come a little and go a little or come a little and hold a little line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little not all at once no go away a little turn aside a little O Lord and require not of us all at once but by degrees visit us and bear with us With this kind of entreaty we may desire him to withhold now and then in mercy from us for we are sinful men and not able to endure other fuller dealings with us And lastly in humility we may desire God to depart from us when he approaches to us in thunder and lightning when he comes armed like a man of war then we may cry and not without cause O come not to us or go from us for we are sinful men O Lord have thou therefore mercy up-upon us and forbear us We have seen by this time how we may use St. Peters words and how we must not use them We may in humility desire God to withdraw his Judgments to proportion his Mercies and to distill them by degrees to forbear to overthrow our nature or overwhelm our souls with a happiness above our mortal capacity We may lastly by such a kind of speech declare the sense of our own unworthiness to receive so glorious a Guest home to us so even wishing him to chuse a better house to be in or make ours such But we must not through natural imperfection or impatience draw back our selves from the service of God or desire him to draw back from us nor must we at any time by sin cause him to depart or by perverseness and iniquity thrust him out of doors nor yet lastly grow weary of the gracious effects and tenders of his Presence in his Sacraments Word and Worship For so we do not so much confess as profess and make our selves to be sinful men in humility you may sometimes use the words in impatience never We cannot now you see say always he does well that with St. Peter says to Christ Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord yet there is something to make the desire at least seem reasonable and often be so when he says it as St. Peter did And the first Reason why St. Peter desires Christ to depart here is for that he is a man and the first Reason why we are all so willing to have God gone from us is because we are men 1. mutable and inconstant pieces which are neither well when God is with us nor when he is from us If he be with us then presently Fac cessare sanctum Israel à nobis Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us Isa. xxx 11. We cannot away with that strictness and exactness he requires of us his ways are not pleasing to us As soon as he is departed then we are at another cue Thou turnedst away thy face and I was troubled Psal. xxx 7. Why art thou absent from us so long Why hidest thou thy face from me And the like Secondly Man is a mortal nature a piece of clay Now earth cannot contain heaven We cannot endure the thunder as it roars or lightnings as they glister much less him whose Presence is more terrible whose Voice more dreadful who even shakes the Wilderness with his breath at whose Presence the Earth removes and hail-stones and coals of fire tumble down Thirdly Flesh is grass we are but hay and stubble and God is a consuming fire well may mortality then desire him to depart lest it should consume it in a moment Fourthly It was the opinion of the Iew that man could not see God and live as apears by Manoah's speech Iudg. xiii 22. and several other places St. Peter it may be had such an imagination whence it is he desires Christ to depart from him being no other than God himself after whose sight he was perhaps afraid he had seen his last Thus man as man thinks he can spare the Presence of his Lord as feeling his earthly Cottage altogether unable in it self to entertain him But 2. reflecting upon his sin whereby he is yet made far more unfitting and undeserving such an honour he desires the absence of God by reason of his sin He loves his sin and is loth to forgo it and knows God will not be content to dwell with it so he wretchedly chuses rather the company of sin than of his God this is the way that men of the World only speak the Text. 2. Sin even bids defiance to the Almighty and turns him out of doors that 's the reason men so readily bid God depart from them 3. Sin so dis-enables the powers of soul and body to any handsom attendance upon heaven that neither of them know how to receive him if he should come and besides such a stench and filth there is from it in all the soul that the Divine Purity cannot endure them Thus sinful man bids God go from him because he is a sinful man Now comes the last reason why God is entreated to depart because he is the Lord our God A reason not readily conceived yet this it is Thou art the Lord a God of pure eyes a strickt Master over thy servants a person far above the reach and quality of thy Vassals under thee They are therefore no fit company for thee Thou so infinitely transcendest them These are the Reasons which St. Peter seems to alledge to perswade Christ from his poor wretched company because both his natural imperfections and his sinful weaknesses made him unfit for the company and unworthy the favour of his Savionrs glorious Presence If we consider the same Reasons they will serve to humble us as low as St. Peter did himself to think our selves unworthy of the least glance of our Saviours eye we will confess if we remember that we are but men that our frail inconstant corruptible nature is not answerable to the glory of so great a blessing we will acknowledge if we recollect we are sinful men that we are not worthy that those eyes should look upon us that infinite beauty come near
and all for nothing All the men whose hands are mighty have found nothing Psal. lxxvi 5. great men may fail as well as others Nay more Peter here and his Partners were good and honest men yet success does not always answer such mens Labours neither here they fish and after Christs Resurrection again St. Iohn xxi 3 6. They fish all night but catch nothing till Christ came to them there 's good men labouring and catching nothing And many they were together they joyn hands and heads and all their implements yet 't is all to no purpose Though hand joyn in hand the wicked shall not be unpunish'd Psal. xi 21. And though hand joyn in hand to bring matters to pass the issue and event comes from above A multitude is nothing against the Lord of Hosts no nor without him There 's many joyn'd together and effecting nothing And then again there 's Solomon a wise man the wisest of the earth after all his search and labour coming back with nothing but Vanity of vanity all is vanity and vexation of spirit He found it not scientifically only but experimentally not only by happy knowledge but unhappy experience also too sad a truth And all this to inform us in this one truth that there is neither skill nor labour nor strength nor policy nor time nor opportunity of any prevalence not only against the Lord but without him too We must not after all these men think much nor must you that men of our Order should toil and labour day and night and catch nothing The Text says We 't is a common misery that 's some comfort that 't is not a personal lot but a common condition to others with us And in this We there 's a better We than we our selves St. Peter and his Fellows must be reckon'd 'T is St. Peters the greatest Fishers fortune to be sometimes disappointed of the end of his labours It may be so much the rather his and such as he Christs skilfullest greatest fishers such as with him here fish in the deep even because they do so whilst a company of petty Fishermen that stand by the shore and fish in the shallows catch fish enough Will you know the reason St. Peter and his followers lay deep in the depth of heaven and catch few fish because the fish are of the world and therefore savour not heavenly baits care not to leap so high they are for watry fading transitory pleasures But others that fish upon the shore that stir not from the earth that stand up and preach nothing but earthly interests and respects who fish with flies vanities and follies or earth-worms earthly Arguments or cast into the Shallows of vain fancies and inventions who make Religions of their own every day new These catch fish enow because perhaps the silly fish the frie at least are most delighted with such baits We might have thought it had been these mens faults that having fish'd all night they took nothing but that they were fishermen by their Trade expert in the Art such as were brought up to it and liv'd by it There 's therefore something more in it than so The great Governour of Sea and Land would not suffer those Inhabitants of the water to come at that time as at others into the Net 'T is Gods disposing hand that thus deceives the Net of its expected prey and we must be content Noah was a good man and Lot was a good man and great men both yet Noah preaches repentance to the Old World and Lot afterward to the men of Sodom without any success the one preacht one hundred and twenty years the other all the time he staid in Sodom yet not one soul gain'd by all their labour Many wise men and Prophets have had as sorrowful success Miserable is the case the while that the devil thus out-fishes us Yet so it is take we what pains we can though we were more thoroughly read in St. Pauls practice than we are in fastings often in watchings oft in hunger and thirst in fears and anxities in cares and painfulness watch we our times never so punctually and fish we never so studiously in the night when the passions are at rest and the deep silence of the night upon them no noise or distractions as we would think to hinder the distinct hearing of the Word of Christ use we never so much Art and Policy so much Rhetorick and Argument to perswade so that one would think we could not possibly but take yet even thus our hopes may be deluded because nothing comes to Gods Net but what he brings We may then first comfort our selves if we have done our utmost if we have discharg'd our duty that however this unhappiness betide us yet we are not alone nor is it our fault though our misfortune Paul may plant and Apollos water yet both be in the same lot with us if God give not the encrease Nay God himself seems to be in the same case whilst he complains All the day long have I stretched out my hand to a disobedient and gain-saying people And you all also may chear up your souls in your honest and painful labours though peradventure they succeed not however that you have done your duty and rest now only upon the hand of God to second you and give success which if it do you presently grow up and prosper if not Gods over-ruling Providence and wiser disposing goodness well thought upon will easily teach you to be content And 2. remember this taking nothing may prove at last more profitable than the greatest draught you ever did or could expect St. Peter and his fellow-fishers by catching nothing caught every thing because him who is all in all who thus call'd them to himself by the occasion of their ill success And when the worst of casualties betide us let us think that though all our hopes and expectations fail us all our labours languish away in utter despair and we be left confounded with the miscarriages of all our pains yet God can so order it that out of nothing all things all good things may one day after happen to us and though he will give us nothing else yet he will give himself at last and upon this not only be comforted but rejoyce in our miscarriages And 3. that we may descend to the last particular of St. Peters ill success Though we may comfort our selves a little in the frustration of our hopes that it so pleases God to order them and must therefore well be pleased because it is his pleasure and rejoyce sometimes too that we are by such means drawn to God ere we are aware Yet we may complain to him also lastly of the same business and cry out with St. Peter Master we have toiled all the night and taken nothing 'T is an usual thing to complain of a misery or miscarriage and 't is as usual to complain to those whom it either does not concern to
could words of comfort come better then in the full discourse of the day of Judgment nor can comfort ever be more welcome then in the midst of those affrightments Christ never spoke out of season but here he seems to have even studied it When these things begin to come to pass before they are at their full height even then look up Worldly comforts come not so early The heat and fury of the Disease must be abated e're they yield us any refreshment They are only heavenly comforts that come so timely to prevent our miseries or to take them at the beginning Nor is it yet only when the day begins to dawn wherein the Son of man comes forth to Judgment that we should first begin to take courage to approach but whilst the foregoing signs of that day are now first coming on Those terrors that affright others should not startle us even whilst the lightnings run upon the ground whilst the Earth trembles the Sea roars the Winds blow and Heaven it self knows not how to look the Righteous is as bold as a Lion he stands in the midst of security and peace This is the state we are to labour for so to put our trust in the most High that no changes or chances of this mortal life may either remove or shake it or make us to miscarry Every calamity should teach us to look up but these should teach us also to lift up our heads Whilst common fears and troubles march about us our Christian patience will teach us cheerfulness but when these things begin to come to pass these which are the ushers to our glory these should rejoyce and cheer us up that our reward is now a coming to us Vs I say for this comfort is not general to all that shall see the Son of man coming in glory but his Disciples only such as have followed him on earth to meet him in heaven Lift up your heads to his servants he speaks such as hear his words and attend his steps and do his precepts Others indeed must hold down theirs the ungodly shall not be able to look up in judgment The covetous man has look'd so always downward that he is not now able to look up The Drunkard has so drown'd his eye-sight in his cups so over-burthened his brain that he can neither lift up his head nor his eyes at this day The voluptuous man has dim'd his eyes with pleasures that he cannot look about and the ambitious man has so lost his hopes of being high and glorious and is become so low and base in the eyes of God that he is asham'd to lift up his head These only that are the true Disciples of their Master whose eyes are us'd to heaven who have so often lift up their eyes thither to pray and praise him they only can look up when these things come to pass Nothing can affright the humble eye nothing can amaze the eye that ever dwells in heaven nothing can trouble the eye that waits upon her God as the eye of a Maiden upon the hand of her Mistriss The humble devout and faithful eye may look up chearfully whilst all things else dare not be seen for shame O blessed God how fully doest thou reward thy servants that wilt thus have them distinguish'd from others by their looks in troubles who hast so order'd all things for them that nothing shall affright them nothing make them to hold down their heads This is a kind of comfort by it self above ordinary that grief or amazement should not appear so much as in our eyes or looks though so many terrors stand round about us I will lift up my eyes unto the Hills and I will lift up mine eyes to thee O thou that dwellest in the heavens are the voice of one that looks up for help and in the midst of these dreadful messengers of Judgment it will not be amiss for us even so to lift up our eyes to beg assistance and deliverance But that is not all our comfort though it be a great one that we can yet have audience in Heaven amidst these fears we have besides the refreshment of inward joy whereby we rejoyce at our approaching glory The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance Psal. lviii 9. even when the day of vengeance comes and the righteous shall rejoyce in their beds Psal. cxlix 5. whilst they are now rising up and lifting up their heads out of their graves to come to Judgment Nor must it seem strange to see the righteous with chearful looks whilst all other faces gather blackness It is not the others misery that they rejoyce at but at their Saviours Glory and their own happiness For their Redemption draweth nigh that 's the ground of all their joy And would you not have men rejoyce who are redeem'd from misery and corruption from the slavery of sin and the power of death would you not have poor Prisoners rejoyce at the approach of their delivery you cannot blame'um if at such news with Paul and Silas they sing in prison sing aloud for joy so loud that the doors dance open for joy though the Keepers awake and even sink for fear Your redemption draweth nigh They are words will make the scattered ashes gather themselves together into bones and flesh words that will make the soul leave Heaven with joy to lift up the head of her dear beloved body out of the Land where all things are forgotten Yea the insensible creatures that groan now under the bondage of corruption will at these words turn their tunes when they see at hand the days of the liberty of the Sons of God Death and destruction are things terrible but when the fear of them is once overpois'd by the near approach of a redemption to eternal life and glory O' Death then where is thy sting O Grave then where is thy victory They shrink in their heads and pull in their stings and cannot hurt us while we with joy and gladness lift up our heads What are all the signs and forerunners of the day of Judgment that they should trouble us when we know the day of Judgment is our day of redemption our day of glory What are the darkness of Sun and Moon the falling of the Stars the very totterings of Heaven it self to us who even thereby expect new heavens where there is neither need of Sun nor Moon nor Star to give us light for the glory of God shall lighten it and the Lamb this Son of man that is coming in his cloud is the light of it Rev. xxi 23. What are the quakings of the Earth and roarings of the Sea to them who neither need Land nor Sea in their journey to heaven What are Wars and rumors of Wars Famines and Plagues and Pestilences and false Brethren what are persecutions and delivering up to Rulers to death and torments what are those perplexities and fears that rob men of their hearts and courages for looking
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