they straight vent it into the eare of their Master O Saviour whiles thou art in Heaven thy school is upon earth Wherefore serve thy Priests lips but to preserve knowledge What use is there of the tongue of the learned but to speak a word in season Thou teachest us still and still we doubt and ask and learn In one short question I finde two Truths and two Falshoods the Truths implied the Falshoods expressed It is true that commonly man's suffering is for sin that we may justly and do often suffer even for the sins of our Parents It is false that there is no other reason of our suffering but sin that a man could sin actually before he was or was before his being or could before-hand suffer for his after-sins In all likelihood that absurd conceit of the Transmigration of Souls possessed the very Disciples How easily and how far may the best be miscarried with a common errour We are not thankfull for our own illumination if we do not look with charity and pity upon the grosse mis-opinions of our brethren Our Saviour sees and yet will wink at so foul a misprision of his Disciples I hear neither chiding nor conviction He that could have inlightned their mindes as he did the world at once will doe it by due leisure and only contents himself here with a milde solution Neither this man nor his Parents We learn nothing of thee O Saviour if not meekness What a sweet temper should be in our carriage towards the weaknesses of others judgment how should we instruct them without bitterness and without violence of Passion exspect the meet seasons of their better information The tender Mother or Nurse doth not rate her little one for that he goes not well but gives him her hand that he may goe better It is the spirit of lenity that must restore and confirm the lapsed The answer is direct and punctual neither the sin of the man nor of his Parents bereaved him of his eyes there was an higher cause of this privation the glory that God meant to win unto himself by redressing it The Parents had sinned in themselves the man had sinned in his first Parents it is not the guilt of either that is guilty of this blindness All God's afflictive acts are not punishments some are for the benefit of the creature whether for probation or prevention or reformation all are for the praise whether of his Divine Power or Justice or Mercy It was fit so great a work should be usher'd in with a preface A suddain and abrupt appearance would not have beseemed so glorious a demonstration of Omnipotence The way is made our Saviour addresses himself to the Miracle a Miracle not more in the thing done then in the form of doing it The matter used was clay Could there be a meaner could there be ought more unfit O Saviour how oft hadst thou cured blindnesses by thy word alone how oft by thy touch How easily couldst thou have done so here Was this to shew thy liberty or thy power Liberty in that thou canst at pleasure use variety of means not being tied to any Power in that thou couldst make use of contraries Hadst thou pull'd out a box and applied some medicinal ointment to the eyes something had been ascribed to thy skill more to the natural power of thy receit now thou madest use of clay which had been enough to stop up the eyes of the seeing the virtue must be all in thee none in the means The utter disproportion of this help to the Cure addes glory to the worker How clearly didst thou hence evince to the world that thou who of clay couldst make eyes wert the same who of clay hadst made man since there is no part of the body that hath so little analogie to clay as the eye this clearness is contrary to that opacity Had not the Jews been more blinde then the man whom thou curedst and more hard and stiffe then the clay which thou mollifiedst they had in this one work both seen and acknowledged thy Deity What could the clay have done without thy tempering It was thy spittle that made the clay effectual it was that Sacred mouth of thine that made the spittle medicinal the water of Siloe shall but wash off that clay which this inward moisture made powerfull The clay thus tempered must be applied by the hand that made it else it avails nothing What must the blinde man needs think when he felt the cold clay upon the holes of his eyes or since he could not conceive what an eye was what must the beholders needs think to see that hollowness thus filled up Is this the way to give either eyes or sight Why did not the earth see with this clay as well as the man What is there to hinder the sight if this make it Yet with these contrarieties must the Faith be exercised where God intends the blessing of a Cure It was never meant that this clay should dwell upon those pits of the eyes it is onely put on to be washed off and that not by every water none shall doe it but that of Siloam which signifies Sent and if the man had not been sent to Siloam he had been still blinde All things receive their virtue from Divine institution How else should a piece of wheaten bread nourish the Soul How should spring-water wash off spiritual filthiness How should the foolishness of preaching save Souls How should the absolution of God's Minister be more effectual then the breath of an ordinary Christian Thou O God hast set apart these Ordinances thy Blessing is annexed to them hence is the ground of all our use and their efficacy Hadst thou so instituted Jordan would as well have healed Blindness and Siloam Leprosie That the man might be capable of such a Miracle his Faith is set on work he must be led with his eyes daubed up to the pool of Siloam He washes and sees Lord what did this man think when his eyes were now first given him what a new world did he finde himself now come into how did he wonder at Heaven and earth and the faces and shapes of all creatures the goodly varieties of colours the chearfulness of the light the lively beams of the Sun the vast expansion of the aire the pleasant transparence of the water at the glorious piles of the Temple and stately palaces of Jerusalem Every thing did not more please then astonish him Lo thus shall we be affected and more when the scales of our mortality being done away we shall see as we are seen when we shall behold the blessedness of that other world the glory of the Saints and Angels the infinite Majesty of the Son of God the incomprehensible brightness of the all-glorious Deity O my Soul that thou couldst be taken up before-hand with the admiration of that which thou canst not as yet be capable of foreseeing It could not be but that many eyes
at once removes that which both they did and might have feared The stone is removed the seal broken the watch fled What a scorn doth the Almighty God make of the impotent designes of men They thought the stone shall make the grave sure the seal shall make the stone sure the guard shall make both sure Now when they think all safe God sends an Angel from Heaven above the earth quakes beneath the stone rolls away the Souldiers stand like carkasses and when they have got heart enough to run away think themselves valiant the Tomb is opened Christ is risen they confounded Oh the vain projects of silly men as if with one shovel-full of mire they would dam up the Sea or with a clout hang'd forth they would keep the Sun from shining Oh these Spiders-webs or houses of Cards which fond children have as they think skilfully framed which the least breath breaks and ruines Who are we sorry worms that we should look in any business to prevail against our Creator What creature is so base that he cannot arm against us to our confusion The Lice and Frogs shall be too strong for Pharaoh the Worms for Herod There is no wisdome nor counsel against the Lord. Oh the marvellous pomp and magnificence of our Saviours Resurrection The earth quakes the Angel appears that it may be plainly seen that this Divine person now rising had the command both of earth and Heaven At the dissolution of thine Humane nature O Saviour was an Earthquake at the re-uniting of it is an Earthquake to tell the world that the God of Nature then suffered and had now conquered Whiles thou laiest still in the earth the earth was still when thou camest to fetch thine own The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob. When thou our true Sampson awakedst and foundst thy self tied with these Philistian cords and rousedst up and brakest those hard and strong twists with a sudden power no marvel if the room shook under thee Good cause had the earth to quake when the God that made it powerfully calls for his own flesh from the usurpation of her bowels Good cause had she to open her graves and yield up her dead in attendance to the Lord of Life whom she had presumed to detain in that cell of her darkness What a seeming impotence was here that thou who art the true Rock of thy Church shouldst lye obscurely shrouded in Joseph's rock thou that art the true corner-stone of thy Church shouldst be shut up with a double stone the one of thy grave the other of thy vault thou by whom we are sealed to the day of our Redemption shouldst be sealed up in a blind cavern of earth But now what a demonstration of power doth both the world and I see in thy glorious Resurrection The rocks tear the graves open the stones roll away the dead rise and appear the Souldiers flee and tremble Saints and Angels attend thy rising O Saviour thou laiest down in weakness thou risest in power and glory thou laiest down like a man thou risest like a God What a lively image hast thou herein given me of the dreadful Majesty of the general Resurrection and thy second appearance Then not the earth onely but the powers of Heaven shall be shaken not some few graves shall be open and some Saints appear but all the bars of death shall be broken and all that sleep in their graves shall awake and stand up from the dead before thee not some one Angel shall descend but thou the great Angel of the Covenant attended with thousand thousands of those mighty Spirits And if these stout Souldiers were so filled with terrour at the feeling of an Earthquake and the sight of an Angel that they had scarce breath left in them for the time to witness them alive where shall thine enemies appear O Lord in the day of thy terrible appearance when the earth shall reel and vanish and the elements shall be on a flame about their ears and the Heavens shall wrap up as a scroll O God thou mightest have removed this stone by the force of thine Earthquake as well as rive other rocks yet thou wouldst rather use the Ministery of an Angel or thou that gavest thy self life and gavest being both to the stone and to the earth couldst more easily have removed the stone then moved the earth but it was thy pleasure to make use of an Angels hand And now he that would ask why thou wouldst doe it rather by an Angel then by thy self may as well ask why thou didst not rather give thy Law by thine own immediate hand then by the ministration of Angels why by an Angel thou struckest the Israelites with plagues the Assyrians with the sword why an Angel appeared to comfort thee after thy Temptation and Agony when thou wert able to comfort thy self why thou usest the influences of Heaven to fruiten the earth why thou imployest Second causes in all events when thou couldst doe all things alone It is good reason thou shouldst serve thy self of thine own neither is there any ground to be required whether of their motion or rest besides thy will Thou didst raise thy self the Angels removed the stone They that could have no hand in thy Resurrection yet shall have an hand in removing outward impediments not because thou needst but because thou wouldst like as thou alone didst raise Lazarus thou badst others let him loose Works of Omnipotency thou reservest to thine own immediate performance ordinary actions thou doest by subordinate means Although this act of the Angels was not merely with respect to thee but partly to those devout Women to ease them of their care to manifest unto them thy Resurrection So officious are those glorious Spirits not onely to thee their Maker but even to the meanest of thy servants especially in the furtherance of all their spiritual designes Let us bring our Odours they will be sure to roll away the stone Why do not we imitate them in our forwardness to promote each others Salvation We pray to doe thy will here as they doe in Heaven if we do not act our wishes we do but mock thee in our Devotions How glorious did this Angel of thine appear The terrified Souldiers saw his face like lightning both they and the Women saw his garments shining bright and white as snow such a presence became his errand It was fit that as in thy Passion the Sun was darkned and all Creatures were clad with heaviness so in thy Resurrection the best of thy Creatures should testifie their joy and exsultation in the brightness of their habit that as we on Festival-dayes put on our best cloaths so thine Angels should celebrate this blessed Festivity with a meet representation of Glory They could not but injoy our joy to see the work of mans Redemption thus fully finished and if there be mirth in Heaven at the conversion of
the time for Shilo to come No power was left in the Jewes but to obey Augustus is the Emperor of the World under him Herod is the King of Judaea Cyrenius is president of Syria Jurie hath nothing of her own For Herod if he were a King yet he was no Jew and if he had been a Jew yet he was no otherwise a King then tributary and titular The Edict came out from Augustus was executed by Cyrenius Herod is no actor in this service Gain and glory are the ends of this taxation each man profest himself a subject and paid for the priviledge of his servitude Now their very heads were not their own but must be payed for to the head of a forrein Seate They which before stood upon the termes of their immunitie stoop at the last The proud suggestions of Judas the Galilean might shed their blood and swell their stomacks but could not ease their yoak neither was it the meaning of God that holinesse if they had been as they pretended should shelter them from subjection A Tribute is imposed upon Gods free people This act of bondage brings them liberty Now when they seemed most neglected of God they are blessed with a Redeemer when they are most pressed with forrein Soveraignty God sends them a King of their own to whom Caesar himself must be a subject The goodnesse of our God picks out the most needfull times of our relief and comfort Our extremities give him the most glory Whither must Joseph and Marie come to be taxed but unto David's Citie The very place proves their descent He that succeeded David in his Throne must succeed him in the place of his Birth So clearly was Bethleem designed to this honour by the Prophets that even the Priests and the Scribes could point Herod unto it and assured him the King of the Jews could be no where else born Bethleem justly the house of bread the bread that came down from Heaven is there given to the world whence should we have the bread of life but from the house of bread O holy David was this the Well of Bethleem whereof thou didst so thirst to drink of old when thou saidst O that one would give me drink of the water of the Well of Bethleem Surely that other water when it was brought thee by thy Worthies thou pouredst it on the ground and wouldst not drink of it This was that living Water for which thy soul longed whereof thou saidst elsewhere As the Hart brayeth after the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God It was no lesse then four daies journey from Nazareth to Bethleem How just an excuse might the Blessed Virgin have pleaded for her absence What woman did ever undertake such a journey so near her delivery And doubtlesse Joseph which was now taught of God to love and honour her was loath to draw forth a dear wife in so unwieldy a case into so manifest hazard But the charge was peremptory the obedience exemplary The desire of an inoffensive observance even of Heathenish authority digests all difficulties We may not take easie occasions to withdraw our obedience to supreme commands Yea how didst thou O Saviour by whom Augustus reigned in the Womb of thy Mother yield this homage to Augustus The first lesson that ever thy example taught us was Obedience After many steps are Joseph and Mary come to Bethleem The plight wherein she was would not allow any speed and the forced leisure of the journey causeth disappointment the end was worse then the way there was no rest in the way there was no room in the Inne It could not be but that there were many of the kindred of Joseph and Mary at that time in Bethleem for both there were their Ancestors born if not themselves and thither came up all the Cousins of their blood yet there and then doth the holy Virgin want room to lay either her head or her burthen If the house of David had not lost all mercy and good nature a Daughter of David could not so near the time of her travel have been destitute of lodging in the City of David Little did the Bethleemites think what a guest they refused else they would gladly have opened their doors to him which was able to open the gates of Heaven to them Now their inhospitality is punishment enough to it self They have lost the honour and happinesse of being host to their God Even still O blessed Saviour thou standest at our doors and knockest every motion of thy good Spirit tells us thou art there Now thou comest in thine own name and there thou standest whiles thy head is full of dew and thy locks wet with the drops of the night If we suffer carnal desires and worldly thoughts to take up the lodging of our heart and revel within us whiles thou waitest upon our admission surely our judgement shall be so much the greater by how much better we know whom we have excluded What do we cry shame on the Bethleemites whilest we are wilfully more churlish more unthankfull There is no room in my heart for the wonder at this humility He for whom Heaven is too streight whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain lies in the streight cabbin of the womb and when he would inlarge himself for the world is not allowed the room of an Inne The many mansions of Heaven were at his disposing the Earth was his and the fulnesse of it yet he suffers himself to be refused of a base cottage and complaineth not What measure should discontent us wretched men when thou O God farest thus from thy creatures How should we learn both to want and abound from thee which abounding with the glory and riches of heaven wouldst want a lodging in thy first welcome to the earth Thou camest to thine own and thy own received thee not How can it trouble us to be rejected of the world which is not ours What wonder is it if thy servants wandred abroad in sheeps skins and goats skins destitute and afflicted when their Lord is denyed harbour How should all the world blush at this indignity of Bethleem He that came to save men is sent for his first lodging to the beasts the stable is become his Inne the cratch his bed O strange cradle of that great King which heaven it self may envy O Saviour thou that wert both the Maker and Owner of Heaven of Earth couldst have made thee a Palace without hands couldst have commanded thee an empty room in those houses which thy creatures had made When thou didst but bid the Angels avoid their first place they fell down from Heaven like lightning and when in thy humbled estate thou didst but say I am he who was able to stand before thee How easie had it been for thee to have made place for thy self in the throngs of the stateliest Courts Why wouldst thou be thus homely but that
by contemning worldly glories thou mightest teach us to contemn them that thou mightest sanctifie poverty to them whom thou calledst unto want that since thou which hadst the choice of all earthly conditions wouldst be born poor and despised those which must want out of necessity might not think their poverty grievous Here was neither friend to entertain nor servant to attend nor place wherein to be attended onely the poor beasts gave way to the God of all the world It is the great mysterie of Godlinesse that God was manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels but here which was the top of all wonders the very beasts might see their Maker For those spirits to see God in the flesh it was not so strange as for the brute creatures to see him which was the God of spirits He that would be led into the wildernesse amongst wilde beasts to be tempted would come into the house of beasts to be born that from the height of his divine glory his humiliation might be the greater How can we be abased low enough for thee O Saviour that hast thus neglected thy self for us That the visitation might be answerable to the homelinesse of the place attendants provision who shall come to congratulate his birth but poor shepherds The 〈◊〉 of the earth rest at home and have no summons to attend him by whom they reign God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty In an obscure time the night unto obscure men shepherds doth God manifest the light of his Son by glorious Angels It is not our meannesse O God that can exclude us from the best of thy mercies yea thus far dost thou respect persons that thou hast put down the mighty and exalted them of low degree If these shepherds had been snorting in their beds they had no more seen Angels nor heard news of their Saviour then their neighbours their vigilancy is honoured with this heavenly vision Those which are industrious in any calling are capable of further blessings whereas the idle are fit for nothing but temptation No lesse then a whole Chore of Angels are worthy to sing the hymn of Glory to God for the incarnation of his Son What joy is enough for us whose nature he took and whom he came to restore by his incarnation If we had the tongues of Angels we could not raise this note high enough to the praise of our glorious Redeemer No sooner doe the Shepherds hear the news of a Saviour then they run to Bethleem to seeke him Those that left their beds to tend their flocks leave their flocks to enquire after their Saviour No earthly thing is too dear to be forsaken for Christ If we suffer any worldly occasion to stay us from Bethleem we care more for our sheep then our souls It is not possible that a faithfull heart should heare where Christ is and not labour to the sight to the fruition of him Where art thou O Saviour but at home in thine own house in the assembly of thy Saints where art thou to be found but in thy Word and Sacraments yea there thou seekest for us if there we hast not to seek for thee we are worthy to want thee worthy that our want of thee here should make us want the presence of thy face for ever The Sages and the Star THE Shepherds and the Cratch accorded well yet even they saw nothing which they might not contemn neither was there any of those shepherds that seemed not more like a King then that King whom they came to see But oh the Divine Majesty that shined in this baseness There lies the Babe in the stable crying in the manger whom the Angels came down from heaven to proclaim whom the Sages come from the East to adore whom an heavenly Star notifies to the world that now men might see that Heaven and earth serves him that neglected himself Those lights that hang low are not far seen but those which are high placed are equally seen in the remotest distances Thy light O Saviour was no lesse then heavenly The East saw that which Bethleem might have seen oft-times those which are neerest in place are farthest off in affection Large objects when they are too close to the eye doe so overfill the sense that they are not discerned What a shame is this to Bethleem the Sages came out of the East to worship him whom that village refused The Bethleemites were Jews the wise-men Gentiles This first entertainment of Christ was a presage of the sequel The Gentiles shall come from far to adore Christ whiles the Jews reject him Those Easterlings were great searchers of the depths of Nature professed Philosophers them hath God singled out to the honour of the manifestation of Christ Humane Learning well improved makes us capable of Divine There is no Knowledge whereof God is not the Authour he would never have bestowed any gift that should lead us away from himself It is an ignorant conceit that inquiry into Nature should make men Atheous No man is so apt to see the Star of Christ as a diligent disciple of Philosophy Doubtless this light was visible 〈…〉 onely they followed it which knew it had more then Nature he 〈…〉 that is wise for his own soul If these wise men had been acquainted with all the other stars of heaven and had not seen the Star of Christ they had had but light enough to lead them into utter darkness Philosophy without this Star is but the wisp of Errour These Sages were in a mean between the Angels and the Shepherds God would in all the ranks of intelligent Creatures have some to be witnesses of his Son The Angels direct the Shepherds the Star guides the Sages The duller capacity hath the more clear and powerful helps the wisdome of our good God proportions the means unto the disposition of the persons Their Astronomy had taught them this Star was not ordinary whether in sight or in brightness or in motion The eyes of Nature might well see that some strange news was portended to the world by it but that this Star designed the birth of the Messias there needed yet another light If the Star had not besides had the commentary of a revelation from God it could have led the wise-men onely into a fruitless wonder Give them to be the offspring of Balaam yet the true prediction of that false Prophet was not enough warrant If he told them the Messias should arise as a Star out of Jacob he did not tell them that a Star should arise far from the posterity of Jacob at the birth of the Messias He that did put that Prophesie into the mouth of Balaam did also put this illumination into the heart of the Sages The Spirit of God is free to breathe where he listeth Many shall come from the East and the West to seek Christ when the Children of the Kingdome shall be shut out Even then God did not
waters and they could not but obey him now he speaks in the same language to the evil Spirit he intreats not he perswades not he commands Command argues Superiority He only is infinitely stronger then the strong one in possession Else where powers are matcht though with some inequality they tugge for the victory and without resistance yield nothing There are no fewer sorts of 〈◊〉 with Satan then with men Some have dealt with him by suit as the old Satanian hereticks and the present Indian Savages sacrificing to him that he hurt not Others by covenant conditioning their service upon his assistance as Witches and Magicians Others by insinuation of implicite compact as Charmers and Figure-casters Others by adjuration as the sons of Scaeva and modern Exorcists unwarrantably charging him by an higher name then their own None ever offered to deal with Satan by a direct and primary command but the God of Spirits The great Archangel when the strife was about the body of Moses commanded not but imprecated rather The Lord rebuke thee Satan It is only the God that made this Spirit an Angel of light that can command him now that he hath made himself the Prince of darkness If any created power dare to usurp a word of command he laughs at their presumption and knows them his vassals whom he dissembles to fear as his Lords It is thou only O Saviour at whose beck those stubborn Principalities of Hell yield and tremble No wicked man can be so much a slave to Satan as Satan is to thee The interposition of thy grace may defeat that dominion of Satan thy rule is absolute and capable of no lett What need we to fear whiles we are under so omnipotent a Commander The waves of the deep rage horribly yet the Lord is stronger then they Let those Principalities and Powers doe their worst Those mighty adversaries are under the command of him who loved us so well as to bleed for us What can we now doubt of His power or his will How can we professe him a God and doubt of his power How can we professe him a Saviour and doubt of his will He both can and will command those Infernal powers We are no lesse safe then they are malicious The Devil saw Jesus by the eyes of the Demoniack for the same saw that spake but it was the ill spirit that said I besecch thee torment me not It was sore against his will that he saw so dreadfull an object The over-ruling power of Christ dragged the soul spirit into his presence Guiltiness would fain keep out of sight The limmes of so wofull an head shall once call on the Hills and Rocks to hide them from the face of the Lamb such Lion-like terrour is in that milde face when it looks upon wickedness Neither shall it be one day the least part of the torment of the damned to see the most lovely spectacle that Heaven can afford He from whom they fled in his offers of Grace shall be so much more terrible as he was and is more gracious I marvel not therefore that the Devil when he saw Jesus cried out I could marvell that he fell down that he worshipped him That which the proud spirit would have had Christ to have done to him in his great Duell the same he now doth unto Christ fearfully servilely forcedly Who shall henceforth brag of the external homage he performs to the Son of God when he sees Satan himself fall down and worship What comfort can there be in that which is common to us with Devils who as they believe and tremble so they tremble and worship The outward bowing is the body of the action the disposition of the Soul is the soul of it therein lies the difference from the counterfeit stoopings of wicked men and spirits The religious heart serves the Lord in fear and rejoices in him with trembling What it doth is in way of service In service to his Lord whose Soveraignty is his comfort and protection in the fear of a son not of a slave in fear tempered with joy in a joy but allayed with trembling whereas the prostration of wicked men and Devils is only an act of form or of force as to their Judge as to their tormentor not as to their Lord in mere servility not in reverence in an uncomfortable dulness without all delight in a perfect horror without capacity of joy These worship without thanks because they fall down without the true affections of worship Whoso marvels to see the Devil upon his knees would much more marvel to hear what came from his mouth Jesu the Son of the most high God A confession which if we should hear without the name of the Author we should ask from what Saint it came Behold the same name given to Christ by the Devil which was formerly given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his name Jesus That awfull name whereat every knee shall bow in Heaven in earth and under the earth is called upon by this prostrate Devil And lest that should not import enough since others have been honoured by this name in Type he addes for full distinction The Son of the most high God The good Syrophenician and blind Bartimaeus could say The Son of David It was well to acknowledge the true descent of his pedigree according to the flesh but this infernall Spirit looks aloft and fetcheth his line out of the highest Heavens The Son of the most high God The famous confession of the prime Apostle which honoured him with a new name to immortality was no other then Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God and what other do I hear from the lips of a fiend None more Divine words could fall from the highest Saint Nothing hinders but that the veriest miscreant on earth yea the foulest Devil in Hell may speak holily It is no passing of judgment upon loose sentences So Peter should have been cast for a Satan in denying forswearing cursing and the Devil should have been set up for a Saint in confessing Jesus the Son of the most high God Fond hypocrite that pleasest thy self in talking well heare this Devil and when thou canst speak better then he look to fare better but in the mean time know that a smooth tongue and a foul heart carries away double judgments Let curious heads dispute whether the Devil knew Christ to be God In this I dare believe himself though in nothing else he knew what he believed what he believed that he confessed Jesus the Son of the most high God To the confusion of those semi-Christians that have either held doubtfully or ignorantly mis-known or blasphemously denied what the very Devils have professed How little can a bare speculation avail us in these cases of Divinity So far this Devil hath attained to no ease no comfort Knowledge alone doth but puffe up it is our love that edifies If there be not a sense of our sure interest in
swinge of common corruptions they shall both deliver their own Souls and help to withhold judgment from others The Gadarenes sue to Christ for his departure It is too much favour to attribute this to their modesty as if they held themselves unworthy of so Divine a Guest Why then did they fall upon this suit in a time of their losse Why did they not taxe themselves and intimate a secret desire of that which they durst not beg It is too much rigour to attribute it to the love of their Hogs and an anger at their losse then they had not intreated but expelled him It was their fear that moved this harsh suit a servile fear of danger to their persons to their goods lest he that could so absolutely command the Devils should have set these tormentors upon them lest their other Demoniacks should be dispossessed with like losse I cannot blame these Gadarenes that they feared This power was worthy of trembling at Their fear was unjust They should have argued This man hath power over men beasts devils it is good having him to our friend his presence is our safety and protection Now they contrarily mis-infer Thus powerfull is he it is good he were further off What miserable and pernicious misconstructions do men make of God of Divine Attributes and actions God is omnipotent able to take infinite vengeance of sin Oh that he were not He is provident I may be carelesse He is merciful I may sin He is holy Let him depart from me for I am a sinful man How witty Sophisters are natural men to deceive their own Souls to rob themselves of a God O Saviour how worthy are they to want thee that wish to be rid of thee Thou hast just cause to be weary of us even whiles we sue to hold thee but when once our wretched unthankfulnesse grows weary of thee who can pity us to be punished with thy departure Who can say it is other then righteous that thou shouldst regest one day upon us Depart from me ye wicked Contemplations THE FOURTH BOOK Containing The faithfull Canaanite The deaf and dumb man cured Zacheus John Baptist beheaded The five loaves and two fishes The walk upon the waters The bloody issue healed Jairus and his daughter The motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled The ten Lepers The pool of Bethesda Christ transfigured The woman taken in adultery The thankfull Penitent Martha and Mary The begger that was born blinde cured The stubborn Devil ejected The Widows mites The ambition of the two sons of Zebedee The tribute-money payd Lazarus dead Lazarus raised Christ's procession to the Temple Christ betrayed The Agony Peter and Malchus or Christ apprehended Christ before Caiaphas Christ before Pilate The Crucifixion The Resurrection The Ascension To the onely honour and glory of God my Saviour and to the benefit and behoof of his blessed Spouse the Church I do in all humility devote my self and all my Meditations The weak and unworthy Servant of both J. E. To the READER THose few spare houres which I could either borrow or steale from the many imployments of my busie Diocese I have gladly bestowed upon these not more recreative then usefull Contemplations for which I have been some years a debter to the Church of God now in a care to satisfie the desires of many and my owne pre-ingagement I send them forth into the light My Reader shall finde the discourse in all these passages more large and in the latter as the occasion gives more fervent And if he shall misse some remarkable stories let him be pleased to know that I have purposely omitted those pieces which consist rather of speech then of act and those that are in respect of the matter coincident to these I have selected I have so done my task as fearing not affecting length and as carefull to avoid the cloying of my Reader with other mens thoughts Such as they are I wish them as I hope they shall be beneficiall to God's Church and in them intend to set up my rest beseeching my Reader that he will mutually exchange his prayers for and with me who am the unworthiest of the Servants of Christ J. E. The faithfull Canaanite IT was our Saviours trade to doe good Therefore he came down from Heaven to earth therefore he changed one station of earth for another Nothing more commends Goodnesse then generality and diffusion whereas reservednesse and close-handed restraint blemish the glory of it The Sun stands not still in one point of Heaven but walks his daily round that all the inferiour world may share of his influences both in heat and light Thy bounty O Saviour did not affect the praise of fixedness but motionâ— one while I finde thee at Jerusalem then at Capernaum soon after in the utmost verge of Galilee never but doing good But as the Sun though he daily compass the world yet never walks from under his line never goes beyond the turning points of the longest and shortest day so neither didst thou O Saviour passe the bounds of thine own peculiar people Thou wouldest move but not wildly not out of thine own sphear wherein thy glorified estate exceeds thine humbled as far as Heaven is above earth Now thou art lift up thou drawest all men unto thee there are now no lists no limits of thy gracious visitations but as the whole earth is equidistant from Heaven so all the motions of the world lie equally open to thy bounty Neither yet didst thou want outward occasions of thy removal perhaps the very importunity of the Scribes and Pharisees in obtruding their Traditions drave thee thence perhaps their unjust offence at thy Doctrine There is no readier way to lose Christ then to clog him with humane ordinances then to spurn at his heavenly instructions He doth not alwaies subduce his Spirit with his visible presence but his very outward withdrawing is worthy of our sighs worthy of our tears Many a one may say Lord if thou hadst been here my Soul had not died Thou art now with us O Saviour thou art with us in a free and plentifull fashion how long thou knowest we know our deservings and fear Oh teach us how happy we are in such a guest and give us grace to keep thee Hadst thou walked within the Phoenician borders we could have told how to have made glad constructions of thy mercy in turning to the Gentiles thou that couldest touch the Lepers without uncleannesse couldest not be defiled with aliens but we know the partition wall was not yet broken down and thou that didst charge thy Disciples not to walk into the way of the Gentiles wouldst not transgresse thine own rule Once we are sure thou camest to the utmost point of the bounds of Galilee as not ever confined to the heart of Jewry thou wouldest sometimes blesse the outer skirts with thy presence No angle is too obscure for the Gospel the land of Zabulon and the land of Nepthali by the
I have heard the fame of his wonderful works and held it happiness enough for me to have seen his face and doth he take notice of my person of my name Surely the more that Zacheus knew himself the more doth he wonder that Christ should know him It was slander enough for a man to be a friend to a Publican yet Christ gives this friendly compellation to the chief of Publicans and honours him with this argument of a sudden intireness The favour is great but not singular Every elect of God is thus graced The Father knows the childes name as he calls the stars of Heaven by their names so doth he his Saints the stars on earth and it is his own rule to his Israel I have called thee by thy name thou art mine As God's children do not content themselves with a confused knowledge of him but aspire to a particular apprehension and sensible application so doth God again to them it is not enough that he knows them as in the croud wherein we see many persons none distinctly but he takes single and several knowledge of their qualities conditions motions events What care we that our names are obscure or contemned amongst men whiles they are regarded by God that they are raked up in the dust of earth whiles they are recorded in Heaven Had our Saviour said no more but Zacheus come down the poor man would have thought himself taxed for his boldness and curiosity it were better to be unknown then noted for miscarriage But now the next words comfort him For I must this day abide at thine house What a sweet familiarity was here as if Christ had been many years acquainted with Zacheus whom he now first saw Besides our use the Host is invited by the Guest and called to an inexspected entertainment Well did our Saviour hear Zacheus his heart inviting him though his mouth did not Desires are the language of the Soul those are heard by him that is the God of spirits We dare not doe thus to each other save where we have eaten much salt we scarce go where we are invited though the face be friendly and the entertainment great yet the heart may be hollow But here he that saw the heart and foreknew his welcome can boldly say I must this day abide at thine house What a pleasant kinde of entire familiarity there is betwixt Christ and a good heart If any man open I will come in and sup with him It is much for the King of Glory to come into a cottage and sup there yet thus he may doe and take some state upon him in sitting alone No I will so sup with him that he shall sup with me Earthly state consists in strangeness and affects a stern kinde of majesty aloof Betwixt God and us though there be infinite more distance yet there is a gracious affability and familiar intireness of conversation O Saviour what dost thou else every day but invite thy self to us in thy Word in thy Sacraments who are we that we should entertain thee or thou us dwarfs in Grace great in nothing but unworthiness Thy praise is worthy to be so much the more as our worth is less Thou that biddest thy self to us bid us be fit to receive thee and in receiving thee happy How graciously doth Jesus still prevent the Publican as in his sight notice compellâ—tion so in his invitation too That other Publican Levi bad Christ to his house but it was after Christ had bidden him to his Discipleship Christ had never been called to his feast if Levi had not been called into his family He loved us first he must first call us for he calls us out of love As in the general calling of Christianity if he did not say Seek ye my face we could never say Thy face Lord will I seek so in the specialties of our main benefits or imployments Christ must begin to us If we invite our selves to him before he invite himself to us the undertaking is presumptuous the success unhappy If Nathanael when Christ named him and gave him the memorial token of his being under the fig-tree could say Thou art the Son of God how could Zacheus do less in hearing himself upon this wilde fig-tree named by the same lips How must he needs think If he knew not all things he could not know me and if he knew not the hearts of men he could not have known my secret desires to entertain him He is a God that knows me and a merciful God that invites himself to me No marvel therefore if upon this thought Zacheus come down in hast Our Saviour said not Take thy leisure Zacheus but I will abide at thine house to day Neither did Zacheus upon this intimation sit still and say When the prease is over when I have done some errands of my office but he hasts down to receive Jesus The notice of such a guest would have quickned his speed without a command God loves not slack and lazy executions The Angels of God are described with wings and we pray to doe his will with their forwardness Yea even to Judas Christ saith What thou doest doe quickly O Saviour there is no day wherein thou dost not call us by the voice of thy Gospel what do we still lingring in the Sycomore How unkindely must thou needs take the delaies of our Conversion Certainly had Zacheus staid still in the Tree thou hadst balked his house as unworthy of thee What construction canst thou make of our wilful dilations but as a stubborn contempt How canst thou but come to us in vengeance if we come not down to entertain thee in a thankful obedience Yet do I not hear thee say Zacheus cast thy self down for hast this was the counsel of the Tempter to thee but Come down in hast And he did accordingly There must be no more hast then good speed in our performances we may offend as well in our heady acceleration as in our delay Moses ran so fast down the hill that he stumbled spiritually and brake the Tables of God We may so fast follow after Justice that we out-run Charity It is an unsafe obedience that is not discreetly and leisurely speedful The speed of his descent was not more then the alacrity of his entertainment He made hast and came down and received him joyfully The life of hospitality is chearfulness Let our chear be never so great if we do not read our welcome in our friends face as well as in his dishes we take no pleasure in it Can we marvel that Zacheus received Christ joyfully Who would not have been glad to have his house yea himself made happy with such a guest Had we been in the stead of this Publican how would our hearts have leapt within us for joy of such a presence How many thousand miles are measured by some devout Christians onely to see the place where his feet stood How much happier must he needs think
is sent forth the lesse is reserved but as it is in the Sun which gives us light yet loseth none ever the more the luminosity of it being no whit impaired by that perpetual emission of light-some beams so much more is it in thee the Father of lights Virtue could not goe out of thee without thy knowledge without thy sending Neither was it in a dislike or in a grudging exprobration that thou saidst Virtue is gone out from me Nothing could please thee better then to feel virtue fetch'd out from thee by the Faith of the receiver It is the nature and praise of good to be communicative none of us would be other then liberal of our little if we did not fear it would be lessened by imparting Thou that knowest thy store so infinite that participation doth only glorifie and not diminish it canst not but be more willing to give then we to receive If we take but one drop of water from the Sea or one corn of sand from the shore there is so much though insensibly lesse but were we capable of Worlds of virtue and benediction from that munificent hand our inriching could no whit impoverish thee Thou which wert wont to hold it much better to give then to receive canst not but give gladly Fear not O my Soul to lade plentifully at this Well this Ocean of Mercy which the more thou takest over flows the more But why then O Saviour why didst thou thus inquire thus expostulate Was it for thy own sake that the glory of the Miracle might thus come to light which otherwise had been smothered in silence Was it for Jairus his sake that his depressed heart might be raised to a confidence in thee whose mighty Power he saw proved by this Cure whose Omniscience he saw proved by the knowledge of the Cure Or was it chiefly for the Womans sake for the praise of her Faith for the securing of her Conscience It was within her self that she said If I may but touch none could hear this voice of the heart but he that made it It was within her self that the Cure was wrought none of the beholders knew her complaint much lesse her recovery none noted her touch none knew the occasion of her touch What a pattern of powerfull Faith had we lost if our Saviour had not called this act to triall As her modesty hid her disease so it would have hid her vertue Christ will not suffer this secrecy Oh the marvelous but free dispensation of Christ One while he injoyns a silence to his re-cured Patients and is troubled with their divulgation of his favour another while as here he will not lose the honour of a secret mercy but fetches it out by his Inquisition by his profession Who hath touched me for I perceive virtue is gone out from me As we see in the great work of his Creation he hath placed some Stars in the midst of Heaven where they may be most conspicuous others he hath set in the Southern obscurity obvious to but few eyes in the Earth he hath planted some flowers and trees in the famous gardens of the World others no lesse beautiful in untracked Woods or wild Desarts where they are either not seen or not regarded O God if thou have intended to glorifie thy self by thy Graces in us thou wilt finde means to fetch them forth into the notice of the World otherwise our very privacy shall content us and praise thee Yet even this great Faith wanted not some weaknesse It was a poor conceit in this Woman that she thought she might receive so soveraign a remedy from Christ without his heed without his knowledge Now that she might see she had trusted to a power which was not more bountifull then sensible and whose goodnesse did not exceed his apprehension but one that knew what he parted with and willingly parted with that which he knew beneficial to so faithfull a receiver he can say Some body hath touched me for I perceive virtue is gone out from me As there was an error in her thought so in our Saviours words there was a correction His mercy will not let her run away with that secret offence It is a great favour of God to take us in the manner and to shame our closenesse We scour off the rust from a Weapon that we esteem and prune the Vine we care for O God do thou ever finde me out in my Sin and do not passe over my least infirmities without a feeling controlment Neither doubt I but that herein O Saviour thou didst graciously forecast the securing of the Conscience of this faithfull though over-seen Patient which might well have afterwards raised some just scruples for the filching of a Cure for Unthankfulness to the Author of her Cure the continuance whereof she might have good reason to misdoubt being surreptitiously gotten ingratefully concealed For prevention of all these dangers and the full quieting of her troubled heart how fitly how mercifully didst thou bring forth this close businesse to the light and clear it to the bottome It is thy great mercy to foresee our perils and to remove them ere we can apprehend the fear of them as some skilfull Physician who perceiving a Fever or Phrensy coming which the distempered Patient little misdoubts by seasonable applications anticipates that grievous malady so as the sick man knows his safety ere he can suspect his danger Well might the Woman think He who can thus cure and thus know his cure can as well know my name and descry my person and shame and punish my ingratitude With a pale face therefore and a trembling foot she comes and falls down before him and humbly acknowledges what she had done what she had obtained But the Woman finding she was not hid c. Could she have perceived that she might have slily gone away with the Cure she had not confessed it So had she made God a loser of Glory and her self an unthankfull receiver of so great a Benefit Might we have our own wills we should be injurious both to God and our selves Nature laies such plots as would be sure to befool us and is witty in nothing but deceiving her self The only way to bring us home is to finde we are found and to be convinced of the discovery of all our evasions As some unskilfull Thief that findes the owners eye was upon him in his pilfring laies down his stollen commodity with shame Contrarily when a man is possessed with a conceit of secrecy and cleanly escape he is emboldened in his leudnesse The Adulterer chuses the twilight and saies No eye shall see me and joyes in the sweetnesse of his stoln waters O God in the deepest darknesse in my most inward retirednesse when none sees me when I see not my self yet let me then see thine all-seeing eye upon me and if ever mine eyes shall be shut or held with a prevailing Temptation check me with a speedy reproof that with
our Souls may be cured and through all the degrees of Grace may be carried to the full height of their Glory The first Part of the Meditations upon the Transfiguration of Christ In a Sermon preacht at Havering-Bower before K. James of Blessed memory THere is not in all Divinity an higher speculation then this of Christ transfigured Suffer me therefore to lead you up by the hand into Mount Tabor for nearer to Heaven ye cannot come while ye are upon earth that you may see him glorious upon earth the Region of his shame and abasement who is now glorious in Heaven the throne of his Majestie He that would not have his Transfiguration spoken of till he were raised would have it spoken of all the world over now that he is raised and ascended that by this momentany glory we may judge of the eternal The circumstances shall be to us as the skirts of the Hill which we will climb up lightly the Time place Attendants Company The Time after six dayes the Place an high hill apart the Attendants Peter James John the Company Moses and Elias which when we have passed on the top of the hill shall appear to us that sight which shall once make us glorious and in the mean time happy All three Evangelists accord in the Terminus à quo that it was immediately after those words There be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death till they have seen the Son of Man come in his Kingdome Wherein methinks the act comments upon the words Peter James and John were these some they tasted not of death till they saw this Heavenly image of the Royalty of Christ glorified But the Terminus quò disagrees a little Matthew and Mark say after six Luke post ferè octo which as they are easily reconciled by the usual distinction of inclusivè and exclusivè necessary for all computations and Luke's about eight so methinks seem to intimate God's seventh day the Sabbath why should there be else so precise mention of six dayes after and about eight but to imply that day which was betwixt the sixth and eighth God's day was fittest for so Divine a work and well might that day which imported God's rest and mans glory be used for the clear representation of the rest and glory of God and man But in this conjecture for ought I know I goe alone I dare not be too resolute Certainly it was the seventh whether it were that seventh the seventh after the promise of the glory of his Kingdome exhibited and this perhaps not without a mystery God teacheth both by words and acts saith Hilary that after six Ages of the world should be Christs glorious appearance and our transfiguration with him But I know what our Saviours farewel was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not for us to know But if we may not know we may conjecture yet not above that we ought faith S. Paul we may not super sapere as Tertullian's phrase is For the Place tradition hath taken it still for Tabor I list not to cross it without warrant This was an high Hill indeed thirty furlongs high saith Josephus mirâ rotundiâ—ate sublimis saith Hierome and so steep that some of our English travellers that have desired to climbit of late have been glad to give it up in the mid-way and to measure the rest with their eyes Doubtless this Hill was a Symbol of Heaven being near it as in situation in resemblance Heaven is expressed usually by the name of God's hill and Nature or this appellation taught the Heathens to figure it by their Olympus All Divine affairs of any magnificence were done on Hils On the hill of Sinai was the Law delivered on the hill of Moriah was Isaac to be sacrificed whence Abraham's posie is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in monte providebitur on the hill of Rephidim stood Moses with the rod of God in his stretched hand and figured him crucified upon the hill whom Joshua figured victorious in the valley on the hils of Ebal and Gerizim were the Blessings and Curses on Carmel was Eliah's sacrifice The Phrontisteria Schools or Universities of the Prophets were still Ramah and Gibeah excelsa High places Who knows not that on the hill of Sion stood the Temple I have looked up to the hils saith the Psalmist And Idolatry in imitation had their hill-altars On the Mount of Olives was Christ wont to send up his Prayers and sent up himself And here Luke saith he went up to an high hill to pray not for that God makes difference of places to whose immensity Heaven it self is a valley It was an heathenish conceit of those Aramites that God is Deus montium the God of the mountains but because we are commonly more disposed to good by either the freedom of our scope to Heaven or the awfulness or solitary silence of places which as one saith strikes a kinde of adoration into us or by our local removal from this attractive body of the earth howsoever when the body sees it self above the earth the eye of the Minde is more easily raised to her Heaven It is good to take all advantage of place setting aside superstition to further our Devotion Aaron and Hur were in the mountain with Moses and held up his hands Aaron say some Allegorists is mountainous Hur fiery Heavenly Meditation and the fire of Charity must lift up our prayers to God As Satan carried up Christ to an high hill to tempt him so he carries up himself to be freed from temptation and distraction If ever we would be transfigured in our disposition we must leave the earth below and abandon all worldly thoughts Venite ascendamus Oh come let us climb up to the hill where God sees or is seen saith devout Bernard O all ye cares distractions thoughtfulness labours pains servitudes stay me here with this ass my body till I with the boy that is my Reason and Understanding shall worship and return saith the same Father wittily alluding to the journey of Abraham for his sacrifice Wherefore then did Christ climb up this high hill Not to look about him but saith S. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray not for prospect but for devotion that his thoughts might climb up yet nearer to Heaven Behold how Christ entred upon all his great works with Prayers in his mouth When he was to enter into that great work of his Humiliation in his Passion he went into the Garden to pray when he is to enter into this great work of his Exaltation in his Transfiguring he went up into the mountain to pray he was taken up from his knees to both O noble example of Piety and Devotion to us He was God that prayed the God that he prayed to he might have commanded yet he prayed that we men might learn of him to pray to him What should we men dare to doe without prayers when he that was God would doe nothing
merry Ye delicatest Courtiers tell me if Pleasure it self have not an unpleasant tediousness hanging upon it and more sting then honey And whereas all happiness even here below is in the vision of God how is our spiritual eye hindered as the body is from his Object by darkness by false light by aversion Darkness he that doth sin is in darkness False light whilst we measure eternal things by temporary Aversion while as weak eyes hate the light we turn our eyes from the true and immutable good to the fickle and uncertain We are not on the hill but the valley where we have tabernacles not of our own making but of clay and such as wherein we are witnesses of Christ not transfigured in glory but blemished with dishonour dishonoured with oaths and blasphemies recrucified with our sins witnesses of God's Saints not shining in Tabor but mourning in darkness and in stead of that Heavenly brightness cloathed with sackcloth and ashes Then and there we shall have tabernacles not made with hands eternal in the heavens where we shall see how sweet the Lord is we shall see the triumphs of Christ we shall hear and sing the Hallelujahs of Saints Quae nunc nos angit vesania vitiorum sitire absinthium c. saith that devour Father Oh how hath our corruption bewitched us to thirst for this wormwood to affect the shipwracks of this world to dote upon the misery of this fading life and not rather to fly up to the felicity of Saints to the society of Angels to that blessed contemplation wherein we shall see God in himself God in us our selves in him There shall be no sorrow no pain no complaint no fear no death There is no malice to rise against us no misery to afflict us no hunger thirst weariness tentation to disquiet us There O there one day is better then a thousand There is rest from our labours peace from our enemies freedome from our sins How many clouds of discontentment darken the Sunshine of our joy while we are here below Vae nobis qui vivimus plangere quae pertulimus dolere quae sentimus timere quae exspectamus Complaint of evils past sense of present fear of future have shared our lives amongst them Then shall we be semper laeti semper satiati alwaies joyfull alwaies satisfied with the vision of that God in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Shall we see that heathen Cleombrotus abandoning his life and casting himself down from the rock upon an uncertain noise of immortality and shall not we Christians abandon the wicked superfluities of life the pleasures of sin for that life which we know more certainly then this What stick we at my beloved Is there a Heaven or is there none have we a Saviour there or have we none We know there is a Heaven as sure as that there is an earth below us we know we have a Saviour there as sure as there are men that we converse with upon earth we know there is happiness as sure as we know there is misery and mutability upon earth Oh our miserable sottishness and infidelity if we do not contemn the best offers of the world and lifting up our eyes and hearts to Heaven say Bonum est esse hîc Even so Lord Jesus come quickly To him that hath purchased and prepared this Glory for us together with the Father and Blessed Spirit one Incomprehensible God be all praise for ever Amen The Prosecution of the Transfiguration BEfore the Disciples eyes were dazled with Glory now the brightness of that glory is shaded with a Cloud Frail and feeble eyes of mortality cannot look upon an Heavenly lustre That Cloud imports both Majesty and Obscuration Majesty for it was the testimony of God's presence of old the Cloud covered the Mountain the Tabernacle the Oracle He that makes the clouds his Chariot was in a cloud carried up into Heaven Where have we mention of any Divine representation but a Cloud is one part of it What comes nearer to Heaven either in place or resemblance Obscuration for as it shew'd there was a Majesty and that Divine so it shew'd them that the view of that Majesty was not for bodily eyes Like as when some great Prince walks under a Canopy that veile shews there is a Great person under it but withall restrains the eye from a free sight of his person And if the cloud were clear yet it shaded them Why then was this cloud interposed betwixt that glorious Vision and them but for a check of their bold eyes Had they too long gazed upon this resplendent spectacle as their eyes had been blinded so their hearts had perhaps grown to an over-bold familiarity with that Heavenly Object How seasonably doth the cloud intercept it The wise God knows our need of these vicissitudes and allayes If we have a light we must have a cloud if a light to chear us we must have a cloud to humble us It was so in Sinai it was so in Sion it was so in Olivet it shall never be but so The natural day and night do not more duely interchange then this light and cloud Above we shall have the light without the cloud a clear vision and fruition of God without all dim and sad interpositions below we cannot be free from these mists and clouds of sorrow and misapprehension But this was a bright cloud There is difference betwixt the cloud in Tabor and that in Sinai This was clear that darksome There is darkness in the Law there is light in the Grace of the Gospel Moses was there spoken to in darkness here he was spoken with in light In that dark cloud there was terrour in this there was comfort Though it were a Cloud then yet it was bright and though it were bright yet it was a Cloud With much light there was some shade God would not speak to them concerning Christ out of darkness neither yet would he manifest himself to them in an absolute brightness All his appearances have this mixture What need I other instance then in these two Saints Moses spake oft to God mouth to mouth yet not so immediately but that there was ever somewhat drawn as a curtain betwixt God and him either fire in Horeb or smoak in Sinai so as his face was not more veiled from the people then God's from him Elias shall be spoken to by God but in the Rock and under a Mantle In vain shall we hope for any revelation from God but in a cloud Worldly hearts are in utter darkness they see not so much as the least glimpse of these Divine beams not a beam of that inaccessible light The best of his Saints see him here but in a cloud or in a glass Happy are we if God have honoured us with these Divine representations of himself Once in his light we shall see light I can easily think with what amazedness these three
desire rather to leave their children great then good that are more ambitious to have their sons Lords on earth then Kings in Heaven Yet I commend thee Salome that thy first plot was to have thy sons Disciples of Christ then after to prefer them to the best places of that attendance It is the true method of Divine prudence O God first to make our children happy with the honour of thy service and then to endeavour their meet advancement upon earth The mother is but put upon this suit by her sons their heart was in her lips They were not so mortified by their continual conversation with Christ hearing his Heavenly doctrine seeing his Divine carriage but that their mindes were yet roving after temporal Honours Pride is the inmost coat which we put off last and which we put on first Who can wonder to see some sparks of weak and worldly desires in their holiest teachers when the blessed Apostles were not free from some ambitious thoughts whiles they sate at the feet yea in the bosome of their Saviour The near kindred this woman could challenge of Christ might seem to give her just colour of more familiarity yet now that she comes upon a suit she submits her self to the lowest gesture of suppliants We need not be taught that it is fit for petitioners to the Great to present their humble supplications upon their knees O Saviour if this woman so nearly allied to thee according to the flesh coming but upon a temporal occasion to thee being as then compassed about with humane infirmities adored thee ere she durst sue to thee what reverence is enough for us that come to thee upon spiritual suits sitting now in the height of Heavenly Glory and Majesty Say then thou wife of Zebedee what is it that thou cravest of thine omnipotent kinsman A certain thing Speak out woman what is this certain thing that thou cravest How poor and weak is this supplicatory anticipation to him that knew thy thoughts ere thou utteredst them ere thou entertainedst them We are all in this tune every one would have something such perhaps as we are ashamed to utter The Proud man would have a certain thing Honour in the world the Covetous would have a certain thing too Wealth and abundance the Malicious would have a certain thing Revenge on his enemies the Epicure would have Pleasure and Long life the Barren Children the Wanton Beauty Each one would be humored in his own desire though in variety yea contradiction to other though in opposition not more to God's will then our own good How this suit sticks in her teeth and dare not freely come forth because it is guilty of its own faultinesse What a difference there is betwixt the prayers of Faith and the motions of Self-love and infidelity Those come forth with boldnesse as knowing their own welcome and being well assured both of their warrant and acceptation these stand blushing at the door not daring to appear like to some baffled suit conscious to its own unworthinesse and just repulse Our inordinate desires are worthy of a check when we know that our requests are holy we cannot come with too much confidence to the throne of Grace He that knew all their thoughts afar off yet as if he had been a stranger to their purposes asks What wouldest thou Our infirmities do then best shame us when they are fetcht out of our own mouths Like as our Prayers also serve not to acquaint God with our wants but to make us the more capable of his mercies The suit is drawn from her now she must speak Grant that these my two sons may sit one on thy right hand the other on thy left in thy Kingdome It is hard to say whether out of more pride or ignorance It was as received as erroneous a conceit among the very Disciples of Christ that he should raise up a Temporal Kingdom over the now-tributary and beslaved people of Israel The Romans were now their masters their fancy was that their Messias should shake off this yoke and reduce them to their former Liberty So grounded was this opinion that the two Disciples in their walk to Emmaus could say We trusted it had been he that should have delivered Israel and when after his Resurrection he was walking up mount Olivet towards Heaven his very Apostles could ask him if he would now restore that long-exspected Kingdome How should we mitigate our censures of our Christian brethren if either they mistake or know not some secondary truths of Religion when the domestick Attendants of Christ who heard him every day till the very point of his Ascension misapprehended the chief cause of his coming into the world and the state of his Kingdome If our Charity may not bear with small faults what doe we under his name that conniv'd at greater Truth is as the Sun bright in it self yet there are many close corners into which it never shined O God if thou open our hearts we shall take in those beams till thou doe so teach us to attend patiently for our selves charitably for others These Fishermen had so much Courtship to know that the right hand and the left of any Prince were the chief places of Honour Our Saviour had said that his twelve Followers should sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel This good woman would have her two sons next to his person the prime Peers of his Kingdome Every one is apt to wish the best to his own Worldly Honour is neither worth our suit nor unworthy our acceptance Yea Salome had thy mind been in Heaven hadst thou intended this desired preeminence of that celestial state of Glory yet I know not how to justifie thine ambition Wouldst thou have thy sons preferred to the Father of the faithfull to the blessed Mother of thy Saviour That very wish were presumptuous For me O God my ambition shall goe so high as to be a Saint in Heaven and to live as holily on earth as the best but for precedency of Heavenly honour I do not I dare not affect it It is enough for me if I may lift up my head amongst the heels of thy Blessed Ones The mother asks the sons have the answer She was but their tongue they shall be her eares God ever imputes the acts to the first mover rather then to the instrument It was a sore check Ye know not what ye ask In our ordinary communication to speak idly is sin but in our suits to Christ to be so inconsiderate as not to understand our own petitions must needs be a foul offence As Faith is the ground of our Prayers so Knowledge is the ground of our Faith If we come with indigested requests we prophane that Name we invoke To convince their unfitness for Glory they are sent to their impotency in Suffering Are ye able to drink of the cup whereof I shall drink and to be baptized with the Baptisme wherewith
fish of the sea was tributary to him How should this incourage our dependance upon that Omnipotent hand of thine which hath Heaven earth sea at thy disposing Still thou art the same for thy members which thou wert for thy self the Head Rather then offence shall be given to the world by a seeming neglect of thy dear Children thou wilt cause the very fowls of Heaven to bring them meat and the fish of the sea to bring them money O let us look up ever to thee by the eye of our Faith and not be wanting in our dependance upon thee who canst not be wanting in thy Providence over us LAZARUS Dead OH the Wisdome of God in penning his own Story The Disciple whom Jesus loved comes after his fellow-Evangelists that he might glean up those rich ears of History which the rest had passed over That Eagle soars high and towrs up by degrees It was much to turn water into wine but it was more to seed five thousand with five loaves It was much to restore the Rulers son it was more to cure him that had been thirty eight years a Cripple It was much to cure him that was born blind it was more to raise up Lazarus that had been so long dead As a stream runs still the stronger and wider the nearer it comes to the Ocean whence it was derived so didst thou O Saviour work the more powerfully the nearer thou drewest to thy Glory This was as one of thy last so of thy greatest Miracles when thou wert ready to die thy self thou raisedst him to life who smelt strong of the grave None of all the Sacred Histories is so full and punctual as this in the report of all circumstances Other Miracles do not more transcend Nature then this transcends other Miracles This alone was a sufficient eviction of thy Godhead O blessed Saviour none but an infinite power could so farre go beyond Nature as to recal a man four daies dead from not a mere privation but a setled corruption Earth must needs be thine from which thou raisest his body Heaven must needs be thine from whence thou fetchest his Spirit None but he that created man could thus make him new Sickness is the common preface to death no mortal nature is exempted from this complains even Lazarus whom Jesus loved is sick What can strength of Grace or dearness of respect prevail against disease against dissolution It was a stirring message that Mary sent to Jesus He whom thou lovest is sick as if she would imply that his part was no-less deep in Lazarus then hers Neither doth she say He that loves thee is sick but he whom thou lovest not pleading the merit of Lazarus his affection to Christ but the mercy and favour of Christ to him Even that other reflexion of love had been no weak motive for O Lord thou hast said Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him Thy goodness will not be behinde us for love who professest to love them that love thee But yet the argument is more forcible from thy love to us since thou hast just reason to respect every thing of thine own more then ought that can proceed from us Even we weak men what can we stick at where we love Thou O infinite God art Love it self Whatever thou hast done for us is out of thy love the ground and motive of all thy mercies is within thy self not in us and if there be ought in us worthy of thy love it is thine own not ours thou givest what thou acceptest Jesus well heard the first groan of his dear Lazarus every short breath that he drew every sigh that he gave was upon account yet this Lord of Life lets his Lazarus sicken and languish and die not out of neglect or impotence but out of power and resolution This sickness is not to death He to whom the issues of death belong knows the way both into it and out of it He meant that sickness should be to death in respect of the present condition not to death in respect of the event to death in the process of Nature not to death in the success of his Divine power that the Son of God might be glorified thereby O Saviour thy usual style is the Son of man thou that wouldst take up our infirmities wert willing thus to hide thy Godhead under the course weeds of our Humanity but here thou saist That the Son of God might be glorified Though thou wouldst hide thy Divine glory yet thou wouldst not smother it Sometimes thou wouldst have thy Sun break forth in bright gleams to shew that it hath no less light even whiles it seems kept in by the clouds Thou wert now near thy Passion it was most seasonable for thee at this time to set forth thy just title Neither wâ—s this an act that thy Humanity could challenge to it self but farre transcending all finite powers To die was an act of the Son of man to raise from death was an act of the Son of God Neither didst thou say merely that God but that the Son of God might be glorified God cannot be glorified unless the Son be so In very natural Relations the wrong or disrespect offered to the child reflects upon the father as contrarily the parents upon the child how much more where the love and respect is infinite where the whole effence is communicated with the intireness of relation O God in vain shall we tender our Devotions to thee indefinitely as to a glorious and incomprehensible Majesty if we kiss not the Son who hath most justly said Ye believe in the Father believe also in me What an happy family was this I finde none upon earth so much honoured Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus It is no standing upon terms of precedency the Spirit of God is not curious in marshalling of places Time was when Mary was confessed to have chosen the better part here Martha is named first as most interessed in Christs love for ought appears all of them were equally dear Christ had familiarly lodged under their roof How fit was that to receive him whose in-dwellers were hospital pious unanimous Hospital in the glad entertainment of Jesus and his train Pious in their Devotions Unanimous in their mutual Concord As contrarily he balâ—s and hates that house which is taken up with uncharitableness profaneness contention But O Saviour how doth this agree thou lovedst this Family yet hearing of their distress thou heldest off two daies more from them Canst thou love those thou regardest not canst thou regard them from whom thou willingly absentest thy self in their necessity Behold thy love as it is above ours so it is oft against ours Even out of very affection art thou not seldome absent None of thine but have sometimes cryed How long Lord What need we instance when thine eternal Father did purposely estrange his face from thee so as thou cryedst out of
Not Heaven but Earth not Soveraignty but Service not the Gentile but the Jew and do they say Not him but Barabbas Do ye thus requite the Lord O ye foolish people and unjust Thus were thine ears and thine eyes first crucified and through them was thy Soul wounded even to death before thy death whiles thou sawest their rage and heardst their noise of Crucifie crucifie Pilate would have chastised thee Even that had been a cruell mercy from him for what evil hadst thou done But that cruelty had been true mercy to this of the Jews whom no blood would satisfie but that of thy heart He calls for thy Fault they call for thy Punishment as proclaiming thy Crucifixion is not intended to satisfie Justice but Malice They cried the more Crucifie him Crucifie him As their clamour grew so the Presidents Justice declined Those Graces that lie loose and ungrounded are easily washt away with the first tide of Popularity Thrice had that man proclaimed the Innocence of him whom he now inclines to condemn willing to content the people Oh the foolish aimes of Ambition Not God not his Conscience come into any regard but the People What a base Idol doth the proud man adore even the Vulgar which a base man despiseth What is their applause but an idle winde what is their anger but a painted fire O Pilate where now is thy self and thy people whereas a good conscience would have stuck by thee for ever and have given thee boldness before the face of that God which thou and thy people shall never have the Happiness to behold The Jews have plaid their first part the Gentiles must now act theirs Cruell Pilate who knew Jesus was delivered for envie accused falsly maliciously pursued hath turned his profered chastisement into scourging Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him Woe is me dear Saviour I feel thy lashes I shrink under thy painfull whippings thy nakedness covers me with shame and confusion That tender and precious body of thine is galled and torn with cords Thou that didst of late water the garden of Gethsemani with the drops of thy bloody sweat dost now bedew the pavement of Pilate's Hall with the showrs of thy blood How fully hast thou made good thy word I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting How can I be enough sensible of my own stripes these blows are mine both my sins have given them and they give remedies to my sins He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes are we healed O blessed Jesu why should I think strange to be scourged with tongue or hand when I see thee bleeding what lashes can I fear either from Heaven or earth since thy scourges have been born for me and have sanctified them to me Now dear Jesu what a world of insolent reproaches indignities tortures art thou entring into To an ingenuous and tender disposition scorns are torment enough but here pain helps to perfect thy misery their despight Who should be actors in this whole bloody execution but grim and barbarous Souldiers men inured to cruelty in whose faces were written the characters of Murder whose very trade was killing and whose looks were enough to prevent their hands These for the greater terrour of their concourse are called together and whether by the connivence or the command of their wicked Governour or by the instigation of the malicious Jews conspire to anticipate his death with scorns which they will after inflict with violence O my Blessed Saviour was it not enough that thy Sacred body was stripped of thy garments and waled with bloody stripes but that thy Person must be made the mocking-stock of thine insulting enemies thy Back disguised with purple robes thy Temples wounded with a thornie Crown thy Face spate upon thy Cheeks buffeted thy Head smitten thy Hand sceptred with a reed thy self derided with wrie mouths bended knees scoffing acclamations Insolent Souldiers whence is all this jeering and sport but to flout Majesty All these are the ornaments and ceremonies of a Royal Inauguration which now in scorn ye cast upon my despised Saviour Goe on make your selves merry with this jolly pastime Alas long agoe ye now feel whom ye scorned Is he a King think you whom ye thus plai'd upon Look upon him with gnashing and horrour whom ye look'd at with mockage and insultation Was not that Head fit for your Thorns which you now see crowned with Glory and Majesty Was not that Hand fit for a Reed whose iron Scepter crushes you to death Was not that Face fit to be spate upon from the dreadfull aspect whereof ye are ready to desire the mountains to cover you In the mean time whither O whither dost thou stoop O thou coeternal Son of thine eternal Father whither dost thou abase thy self for me I have sinned and thou art punished I have exalted my self and thou art dejected I have clad my self with shame and thou art stripped I have made my self naked and thou art clothed with robes of dishonour my head hath devised evil and thine is pierced with thorns I have smitten thee and thou art smitten for me I have dishonoured thee and thou for my sake art scorned Thou art made the sport of men for me that have deserved to be insulted on by Devils Thus disguised thus bleeding thus mangled thus deformed art thou brought forth whether for compassion or for a more universal derision to the furious multitude with an Ecce homo Behold the man look upon him O ye mercilesse Jews see him in his shame in his wounds and blood and now see whether ye think him miserable enough Ye see his Face blew and black with buffeting his Eyes swoln his Cheeks beslabbered with spittle his Skin torn with scourges his whole Body bathed in blood and would ye yet have more Behold the man the man whom ye envied for his greatnesse whom ye feared for his usurpation Doth he not look like a King is he not royally dressed See whether his magnificence do not command reverence from you Would ye wish a Finer King Are ye not afraid he will wrest the Scepter out of Caesar's hand Behold the man Yea and behold him well O thou proud Pilate O ye cruel Souldiers O ye insatiable Jews Ye see him base whom ye shall see glorious the time shall surely come wherein ye shall see him in another dresse he shall shine whom ye now see to bleed his Crown cannot be now so ignominious and painfull as it shall be once majestical and precious ye who now bend your knees to him in scorn shall see all knees both in Heaven and in earth and under the earth to bow before him in an awfull adoration ye that now see him with contempt shall behold him with horrour What an inward war do I yet finde in
let you ye would fain pull upon your selves the guilt of his blood he deprecates it ye kill he sues for your remission and life His tongue cries louder then his blood Father forgive them O Saviour thou couldst not but be heard Those who out of ignorance and simplicity thus persecuted thee find the happy issue of thine intercession Now I see whence it was that three thousand souls were converted soon after at one Sermon It was not Peter's speech it was thy prayer that was thus effectual Now they have grace to know and confess whence they have both forgiveness and salvation and can recompence their blasphemies with thanksgiving What sin is there Lord whereof I can despair of the remission or what offence can I be unwilling to remit when thou prayest for the forgiveness of thy murderers and blasphemers There is no day so long but hath his evening At last O blessed Saviour thou art drawing to an end of these painful sufferings when spent with toil and torment thou criest out I thirst How shouldst thou do other O dear Jesu how shouldst thou do other then thirst The night thou hadst spent in watching in prayer in agony in thy conveyance from the Garden to Jerusalem from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilate in thy restless answers in buffetings and stripes the day in arraignments in haling from place to place in scourgings in stripping in robing and disrobing in bleeding in tugging under thy Cross in woundings and distension in pain and passion No marvel if thou thirstedst Although there was more in this drought then thy need It was no less requisite thou shouldst thirst then that thou shouldst dye Both were upon the same predetermination both upon the same prediction How else should that word be verified Psal 22. 14 15. All my bones are out of joynt my heart is like waxe it is melted in the midst of my bowels My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jawes and thou hast brought me into the dust of death Had it not been to make up that word whereof one jot cannot pass though thou hadst felt this thirst yet thou hadst not bewrayed it Alas what could it avail to bemoan thy wants to insulting enemies whose sport was thy misery How should they pity thy thirst that pitied not thy bloodshed It was not their favour that thou expectedst herein but their conviction O Saviour how can we thy sinful servants think much to be exercised with hunger and thirst when we hear thee thus complain Thou that not long since proclaimedst in the Temple If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters now thy self thirstest Thou in whom we believe complainest to want some drops thou hadst the command of all the waters both above the firmament and below it yet thou wouldst thirst Even so Lord thou that wouldst dye for us wouldst thirst for us O give me to thirst after those waters which thou promisest whatever become of those waters which thou wouldst want The time was when craving water of the Samaritan thou gavest better then that thou askedst Oh give me to thirst after that more precious Water and so do thou give me of that water of life that I may never thirst again Blessed God how marvelously dost thou contrive thine own affaires Thine enemies whiles they would despight thee shall unwittingly justifie thee and convince themselves As thou fore saidst In thy thirst they gave thee vineger to drink Had they given thee Wine thou hadst not taken it the night before thou hadst taken leave of that comfortable liquor resolving to drink no more of that sweet juice till thou shouldst drink it new with them in thy Fathers Kingdome Had they given thee Water they had not fulfilled that prediction whereby they were self-condemned I know not now O dear Jesu whether this last draught of thine were more pleasing to thee or more distastful Distastful in it self for what liquor could be equally harsh pleasing in that it made up those Sufferings thou wert to indure and those Prophesies thou wert to fulfil Now there is no more to doe thy full consummation of all predictions of all types and ceremonies of all sufferings of all satisfactions is happily both effected and proclaimed nothing now remains but a voluntary sweet and Heavenly resignation of thy Blessed Soul into the hands of thine eternal Father and a bowing of thine head for the change of a better Crown and a peaceable obdormition in thy bed of ease and honour and an instant entrance into rest triumph Glory And now O blessed Jesu how easily have carnal eyes all this while mistaken the passages and intentions of this thy last and most glorious work Our weakness could hitherto see nothing here but pain and ignominy now my better-inlightned eyes see in this elevation of thine both honour and happiness Lo thou that art the Mediator betwixt God and man the reconciler of Heaven and earth art lift up betwixt earth and Heaven that thou mightest accord both Thou that art the great Captain of our Salvation the conquerour of all the adverse powers of death and hell art exalted upon this Triumphal chariot of the Cross that thou mightest trample upon death and drag all those Infernal Principalities manicled after thee Those arms which thine enemies meant violently to extend are stretched forth for the imbracing of all mankind that shall come in for the benefit of thine all-sufficient redemption Even whiles thou sufferest thou reignest Oh the impotent madness of silly men They think to disgrace thee with wrie faces with tongues put out with bitter scoffs with poor wretched indignities when in the mean time the Heavens declare thy righteousness O Lord and the earth shews forth thy power The Sun pulls in his light as not abiding to see the sufferings of his Creator the Earth trembles under the sense of the wrong done to her Maker the Rocks renâ— the veile of the Temple teares from the top to the bottome shortly all the frame of the world acknowledges the dominion of that Son of God whom man despised Earth and Hell have done their worst O Saviour thou art in thy Paradise and triumphest over the malice of men and Devils The remainders of thy Sacred person are not yet free The Souldiers have parted thy garments and cast lots upon thy seamless coat those poor spoils cannot so much inrich them as glorifie thee whose Scriptures are fulfilled by their barbarous sortitions The Jews sue to have thy bones divided but they sue in vain No more could thy garments be whole then thy body could be broken One inviolable Decree over-rules both Foolish executioners ye look up at that crucified Body as if it were altogether in your power and mercy nothing appears to you but impotence and death little do ye know what an irresistible guard there is upon that Sacred
interposed Hadst thou merely respected thine own Glory thou hadst instantly changed thy grave for thy Paradise for so much the sooner hadst thou been possessed of thy Fathers joy we would not continue in a Dungeon when we might be in a Palace but thou who for our sakes vouchsafedst to descend from Heaven to earth wouldst now in the upshot have a gracious regard to us in thy return Thy death had troubled the hearts of many Disciples who thought that condition too mean to be compatible with the glory of the Messiah and thoughts of diffidence were apt to seize upon the holiest breasts So long therefore wouldst thou hold footing upon earth till the world were fully convinced of the infallible evidences of thy Resurrection of all which time thou only canst give an account it was not for flesh and blood to trace the waies of Immortality neither was our frail corruptible sinful nature a meet companion for thy now-glorified Humanity the glorious angels of Heaven were now thy fittest attendants But yet how oft did it please thee graciously to impart thy self this while unto men and not only to appear unto thy Disciples but to renew unto them the familiar forms of thy wonted conversation in conferring walking eating with them and now when thou drewest near to thy last parting thou who hadst many times shew'd thy self before to thy several Disciples thoughtest meet to assemble them all together for an universal valediction Who can be too rigorous in censuring the ignorances of well-meaning Christians when he sees the domestick Followers of Christ even after his Resurrection mistake the main end of his coming in the flesh Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdome to Israel They saw their Master now out of the reach of all Jewish envie they saw his power illimited and irresistible they saw him stay so long upon earth that they might imagine he meant to fix his abode there and what should he doe there but reign and wherefore should they be now assembled but for the choice and distribution of Offices and for the ordering of the affairs of that state which was now to be vindicated O weak thoughts of well-instructed Disciples What should an Heavenly body doe in an earthly throne How should a spiritual life be imployed in secular cares How poor a business is the temporal Kingdome of Israel for the King of Heaven And even yet O Blessed Saviour I do not hear thee sharply controll this erroneous conceit of thy mistaken Followers thy mild correction insists rather upon the time then the misconceived substance of that restauration It was thy gracious purpose that thy Spirit should by degrees rectifie their judgements and illuminate them with thy Divine truths in the mean time it was sufficient to raise up their hearts to an expectation of that Holy Ghost which should shortly lead them into all needful and requisite verities And now with a gracious promise of that Spirit of thine with a careful charge renewed unto thy Disciples for the promulgation of thy Gospel with an Heavenly Benediction of all thine acclaming attendance thou tak'st leave of earth When he had spoken these things whiles they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight Oh happy parting fit for the Saviour of mankind answerable to that Divine conversation to that succeeding Glory O blessed Jesu let me so farre imitate thee as to depart hence with a blessing in my mouth let my Soul when it is stepping over the threshold of Heaven leave behind it a legacy of Peace and Happiness It was from the mount of Olives that thou tookst thy rise into Heaven Thou mightest have ascended from the valley all the globe of earth was alike to thee but since thou wert to mount upward thou wouldst take so much advantage as that staire of ground would afford thee thou wouldst not use the help of a Miracle in that wherein Nature offered her ordinary service What difficulty had it been for thee to have styed up from the very center of earth But since thou hadst made hills so much nearer unto Heaven thou wouldst not neglect the benefit of thy own Creation Where we have common helps we may not depend upon Supernatural provisions we may not strain the Divine Providence to the supply of our negligence or the humoring of our presumption Thou that couldst alwaies have walked on the Sea wouldst walk so but once when thou wantedst shipping thou to whom the highest mountains were but valleys wouldst walk up to an hill to ascend thence into Heaven O God teach me to bless thee for means when I have them and to trust thee for means when I have them not yea to trust to thee without means when I have no hope of them What hill was this thou chosest but the mount of Olives Thy Pulpit shall I call it or thine Oratory The place from whence thou hadst wont to showre down thine Heavenly Doctrine upon the hearers the place whence thou hadst wont to sent up thy Prayers unto thy Heavenly Father the place that shared with the Temple for both In the day-time thou wert preaching in the Temple in the night praying in the mount of Olives On this very hill was the bloody sweat of thine Agonie now is it the mount of thy Triumph From this mount of Olives did flow that oyle of gladness wherewith thy Church is everlastingly refreshed That God that uses to punish us in the same kind wherein we have offended retributes also to us in the same kind and circumstances wherein we have been afflicted To us also O Saviour even to us thy unworthy members dost thou seasonably vouchsafe to give a proportionable joy to our heaviness laughter to our mourning glory to contempt and shame Our agonies shall be answered with exaltation Whither then O Blessed Jesu whither didst thou ascend whither but home into thine Heaven From the mountain wert thou taken up and what but Heaven is above the hills Lo these are those mountains of spices which thy Spouse the Church long since desired thee to climbe Thou hast now climbed up that infinite steepness and hast left all sublimity below thee Already hadst thou approved thy self the Lord and Commander of Earth of Sea of Hell The Earth confest thee her Lord when at thy voice she rendered thee thy Lazarus when she shook at thy Passion and gave up her dead Saints The Sea acknowledged thee in that it became a pavement to thy feet and at thy command to the feet of thy Disciple in that it became thy Treasury for thy Tribute-money Hell found and acknowledged thee in that thou conqueredst all the powers of darkness even him that had the power of death the Devil It now onely remained that as the Lord of the Aire thou shouldst pass through all the regions of that yielding element and as Lord of Heaven thou shouldst pass through all the glorious contignations thereof that so every knee might bow
he that put it into the heart of his Gracious Servant to command a Ninive-like Humiliation What pithie what passionate Prayers were injoined to his disconsolate Church With what holy eagernesse did we devour those Fasts How well were we pleased with the austerity of that pious Penitence What loud cries did beat on all sides at the gates of Heaven and with what inexspectable unconceivable mercy were they answered How suddenly were those many thousands brought down to one poor unity not a number Other evils were wont to come on horseback to goe away on foot this mortality did not post but flie away Methought like unto the great ice it sunk at once Only so many are stricken as may hold us awfull and so few as may leave us thankfull Oh how soon is our Fasting and mourning turned into Laughter and joy How boldly do we now throng into this House of God and fearlesly mix our breaths in a common Devotion This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvailous in our eyes O thou that hearest the prayer to thee shall all flesh come And let all flesh come to thee with the voice of Praise and Thanksgiving It might have been just with thee O God to have swept us away in the common destruction what are we better then our brethren Thou hast let us live that we may praise thee It might have been just with thee to have inlarged the commission of thy killing Angel and to have rooted out this sinfull people from under Heaven But in the midst of judgment thou hast remembred mercy Our sins have not made thee forget to be gracious nor have shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure Thou hast wounded us and thou hast healed us again thou hast delivered us and been mercifull to our sins for thy names sake Oh that we could duly praise thy Name in the great Congregation Oh that our tongues our hearts our lives might blesse and glorifie thee that so thou mayest take pleasure to perfect this great work of our full deliverance and to make this Nation a dear example of thy Mercy of Peace Victory Prosperity to all the world In the mean time let us call all our fellow-creatures to help us bear a part in the Praise of our God Let the Heavens the Stars the winds the waters the dews the frosts the nights the dayes let the Earth and Sea the mountains wells trees fishes fouls beasts let men let Saints let Angels blesse the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Blessed blessed for ever be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Oh blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things and blessed be his glorious Name for ever and ever and let all the earth be filled with his glory Amen Amen One of the SERMONS Preached at Westminster on the day of the Publick Fast April 5. 1628. TO The Lords of the High Court of Parliament and by their appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Esay 5. vers 4 5. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes And now goe to I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof IT is a piece of a Song for so it is called Vers 1. Alas what should Songs doe to an heavy heart Prov. 25. 20. or Musick in a day of Mourning Howling and lamentation is fitter for this occasion Surely as we do sometimes weep for joy so do we sing also for sorrow Thus also doth the Prophet here If it be a Song it is a Dump Esay's Lacrymae fit for that Sheminith gravis symphonia as Tremelius turns it which some sad Psalms were set unto Both the Ditty and the Tune are dolefull There are in it three passionate strains Favours Wrongs Revenge Blessings Sins Judgements Favours and Blessings from God to Israel Sins which are the highest Wrongs from Israel to God Judgments by way of Revenge from God to Israel And each of those follow upon other God begins with Favours to his people they answer him with their Sins he replies upon them with Judgments and all of these are in their height The Favours of God are such as he asks What could be more The Sins are aggravated by those Favours what worse then wilde Grapes and disappointment And the Judgments must be aggravated to the proportion of their Sins what worse then the Hedge taken away the Wall broken the Vineyard trodden down and eaten up Let us follow the steps of God and his Prophet in all these and when we have passed these in Israel let us seek to them at home What should I need to crave attention the businesse is both Gods and our own God and we begin with Favours Favours not mean and ordinary not expressed in a right-down affirmation but in an expostulatory and self-convincing Question What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Every word is a new obligation That Israel is a Vineyard is no small favour of God that it is God's Vineyard is yet more that it is God's Vineyard so exquisitely cultivated as nothing more could be either added or desired is most of all Israel is no vast Desart no wilde Forest no moorish Fen no barren Heath no thornie Thicket but a Vineyard a Soile of use and fruit Look where you will in God's Book ye shall never finde any lively member of Gods Church compared to any but a fruitfull tree Not to a tall Cypresse the Embleme of unprofitable Honour nor to a smooth Ash the Embleme of unprofitable Prelacie that doth nothing but bear Keyes nor to a double-coloured Poplar the Embleme of Dissimulation nor to a well-shaded Plane that hath nothing but Form nor to a hollow Maple nor to a trembling Aspe nor to a prickly Thorn shortly not to any Plant whatsoever whose fruit is not usefull and beneficial Hear this then ye goodly Cedars strong Elmes fast-growing Willows sappy Sycomores and all the rest of the fruitlesse trees of the earth I mean all fashionable and barren Professors whatsoever ye may shoot up in height ye may spread far shade well shew fair but what are ye good for Ye may be fit for the Forest Ditches Hedg-rows of the world ye are not for the true saving soil of God's Israel that is a Vineyard there is place for none but Vines and true Vines are fruitfull He that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit saith our Saviour John 15. 5. And of all fruits what is comparable to that of the Vine Let the Vine it self speak in Jonathan's Parable Jud. 9. 13. Should I leave my Wine which cheareth God and man How is this God cheared with Wine It is an high Hyperbole yet seconded by the God of truth I will
Church then is a Dove Not an envious Partridge not a carelesse Ostridge not a stridulous Jay not a petulant Sparrow not a deluding Lapwing not an unclean-sed Duck not a noisome Crow not an unthankfull Swallow not a death-boding Schrich-owl but an harmlesse Dove that fowl in which alone envy it self can finde nothing to tax Hear this then ye violent spirits that think there can be no Piety that is not cruell the Church is a Dove not a Glead not a Vultur not a Falcon not an Eagle not any bird of prey or rapine Who ever saw the rough foot of the Dove armed with griping talons who ever saw the beak of the Dove bloody who ever saw that innocent bird pluming of her spoil and tiring upon bones Indeed we have seen the Church crimson-suited like her celestial Husband of whom the Prophet Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bozrah and straight Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garment like him that treadeth in the wine-press Esay 63. 1 2. but it hath been with her own blood shed by others not with others blood shed by her hand She hath learned to suffer what she hateth to inflict Do ye see any Faction with knives in their hands stained with massacres with firebrands in their hands ready to kindle the unjust stakes yea woods of Martyrdome with pistols and poniards in their hands ambitiously affecting a canonization by the death of God's Anointed with matches in their hands ready to give fire unto that powder which shall blow up King Prince State Church with thunderbolts of censures ready to strike down into Hell whosoever refuses to receive novell opinions into the Articles of Faith If ye finde these dispositions and actions Dove-like applaud them as beseeming the true Spouse of Christ who is ever like her self Columba perfecta yea perfecta columba a true Dove for her quiet Innocence For us let our Dove-ship approve it self in meekness of Suffering not in actions of Cruelty We may we must delight in blood but the blood shed for us not shed by us Thus let us be Columba in foraminibus petrae Cant. 2. 14. a Dove in the clifts of the rock that is in vulneribus Christi as the Glosse in the gashes of him that is the true Rock of the Church This is the way to be innocent to be beautifull a Dove and undefiled The Propriety follows My Dove The Kite or the Crow or the Sparrow and such like are challenged by no owner but the Dove still hath a Master The World runs wilde it is ferae naturae but the Church is Christs domestically intirely his My Dove not the worlds not her own Not the worlds for If ye were of the world saith our Saviour the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Joh. 15. 19. Not her own so S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price Justly then may he say My Dove Mine for I made her there is the right of Creation Mine for I made her again there is the right of Regeneration Mine for I bought her there is the right of Redemption Mine for I made her mine there is the right of spiritual and inseparable Union O God be we thine since we are thine we are thine by thy Merit let us be thine in our Affections in our Obedience It is our honour it is our happiness that we may be thine Have thou all thine own What should any piece of us be cast away upon the vain glory and trash of this transitory world Why should the powers of darkness run away with any of our services in the momentany pleasures of sin The great King of Heaven hath cast his love upon us and hath espoused us to himself in truth and righteousness oh then why will we cast roving and lustfull eyes upon adulterous rivals base drudges yea why will we run on madding after ugly Devils How justly shall he loath us if we be thus shamefully prostituted Away then with all our unchast glances of desires all unclean ribaldry of conversation let us say mutually with the blessed Spouse My beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 2. 16. My Dove mine as to love so to defend That inference is natural I am thine save me Interest challenges protection The Hand saies It is my Head therefore I will guard it the Head saies It is my Hand therefore I will devise to arm it to withdraw it from violence The Soul saies It is my Body therefore I will cast to cherish it the Body saies It is my Soul therefore I would not part with it The Husband saies Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes much of her Ephes 5. 29. And as she is desiderium oculorum the delight of his eyes to him Ezec. 24. 16. so is he operimentum oculorum the shelter of her eyes to her Gen. 20. 16. In all cases it is thus So as if God say of the Church Columba mea my Dove she cannot but say of him Adjutor meus my helper Neither can it be otherwise save where is lack either of love or power Here can be no lack of either not of Love he saith Whoso toucheth Israel toucheth the apple of mine eye not of power Our God doth whatsoever he will both in heaven and earth Band you your selves therefore ye bloody Tyrants of the world against the poor despised Church of God threaten to trample it to dust and when you have done to carry away that dust upon the soles of your shoes He that sits in Heaven laughs you to scorn the Lord hath you in derision O Virgin Daughter of Sion they have despised thee O daughter of Jerusalem they have shaken their heads at thee But whom have ye reproched and blasphemed and against whom have ye exalted your voice and lift up your eyes on high Even against the Holy one of Israel who hath said Columba mea my Dove Yea let all the spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places all the legions of Hell troup together they shall as soon be able to pluck God out of his throne of Heaven as to pull one feather from the wing of this Dove This Propriety secures her She is Columba mea my Dove From the Propriety turn your eyes to the best of her Properties Unity Let me leave Arithmeticians disputing whether Unity be a number I am sure it is both the beginning of all numbring numbers and the beginning and end of all numbers numbred All Perfection rises hence and runs hither and every thing the nearer it comes to perfection gathers up it self the more towards Unity as all the virtue of the Loadstone is recollected into one point Jehovah our God is one from him there is but one World one Heaven in that world one Sun
Justice is Peace Fore-prophesied to be the Prince of Peace Esay 9. 6. the government is upon his shoulder saith that Evangelical Seer yea which of the Prophets is silent of this Style Constituted Behold I have set my King upon Sion Psal 2. 6. Acknowledged by the Sages Where is be that is born King of the Jews We have seen his star Mat. 2. 2. Usher'd in by the Angel Gabriel The Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David Luke 1. 32. Anointed he is Christus Domini and Christus Dominus anointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellows Proclaimed Behold thy King cometh to thee saith Zachary Hosanna Blessed be the Kingdome that comes in the name of the Lord said the Children in the streets Enthronized Thy throne O God is for ever and the scepter of thy Kingdome is a right scepter Honoured with due homage The Kings of the earth shall bring presents to thee saith the Psalmist And yet this King thus Presigured Fore-prophesied Constituted Acknowledged Usher'd in Anointed Proclaimed Enthronized Adored is cast off with a Nolumus hunc No King but Caesar And were they not well served think we Did or could ever any eye pity them Because they say Christ is not our King but Caesar therefore Christ shall plague them by Caesar that very Roman Government which they honoured in a corrivality and opposition to Christ shall revenge the quarrel of Christ in the utter subversion of these unthankful Rebels Oh foolish people and unjust do ye thus requite the Lord Did he empty himself of his Celestial Glory and put on weak Manhood and all the symptoms of wretched Mortality and do ye despise him for this Mercy Is he so vile to you because he was so vile for you Did his Love make him humble that his Humility should make him contemptible Did he chuse you out of all the kingdomes of the earth and do ye wilfully reject him Hear therefore ye despisers and tremble hear the just doom of him who will be your Judge if he shall not be your Saviour Those mine enemies that would not I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luk. 19. 27. Lord it is done as thou hast commanded and yet there is room Do we think that Christ hath no Rebels but Jews Would to God we sinners of the Gentiles had not said Disrumpamus vincula Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us What are his bonds but his Laws his cords but Religious institutions These flie about mens ears like rotten tow binding none but the impotent The bounds of his Kingdome are the ends of the earth It is an hard word yet I must say it Oh that there were not more Traitors in the world then Subjects Tell not me what mens Tongues say their Lives say loud enough Nolumus hunc Christ is no King for us Obedience is the true touch-stone of Loyalty not Protestations not outward Cringes not disbursement of Tribute We have all solemnly sworn allegeance to the God of Heaven we are ready to bow at the dear name of Jesus we stick not perhaps to give obedientiam bursalem as Gerson cals it to God but when it comes once to the deniall of our selves to the mortifying of our corruptions to the strangling of the children of our own accursed wombs to the offering up our bodies and Souls as a reasonable and lively sacrifice hîc Rhodus hîc saltus Kings rule by their Laws Be not deceived if slips of weakness marre not our Fealty certainly continuance in wilful sins cannot stand with our Subjection Quomodo legis How readest thou then as our Saviour asks What saies thy Law-giver in Sinai Thou shalt have no other Gods but me If now thou rear up in thy bosome altars to the Astaroth of Honour to the Tammuz of Lust to the Mammon of Wealth thou hast defied Christ for thy King God saies Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain If now thine unhallowed tongue will not be beaten out of the hellish track of Oaths Blasphemies prophane Scoffs thou hast defied Christ God sayes Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day If now thou shalt spend it altogether upon thy self or else thinkest with that wise Heathen thou dost septimam oetatis partem perdere thou defiest Christ God saies Thou shalt not commit adultery If now like an enraged stallion thou neighest after every object of impure Lust thou hast defied Christ God saies Non in comessationibus ebrietate Not in surfeiting and drunkenness If now we shall pour our health and our reason down our throats and shall sacrifice our Souls to our bellies what do we say but Nolumus hunc But O foolish Rebels that we are do we think thus to shake off the yoak of Christ In spight of men and devils he will be their King who do most grin and gnash at his Soveraignty Feel O ye wilful sinners if ye will not learn that as he hath a golden Scepter Virgam directionis Psal 45. 6. so he hath also an iron Scepter Psal 2. 9. Virgam furoris Esay 10. 5. Beauty and Bands Zach. 11. 10 14. If ye will not bow under the first yea must break under the second He shall break you in pieces like a Potters vessel to mammocks to dust Ye shall find that the Prince of darkness can no more avoid his own torment then he can cease from yours and every knee not onely in Heaven and in earth but under the earth too shall mal-grè bow to the name of that Jesus whom they have scornfully rejected with Nolumus hunc Christ is no King to us But I perswade my self better things of you all that hear me this day There is none of you I hope but would be glad to strew his garments his olive-boughs yea his myrtles and lawrels yea crown and scepter under the feet of Christ and cry Hosanna altissimo Oh then if you be in earnest take the Psalmists counsel Osculamini filium Give him the kiss of Homage of Obedience Let me have leave to say that this charge is there given to the great Princes and Rulers of the earth they who honour others with a kiss of their hand must honour themselves with the humble kiss of his No Power can exempt from this sweet Subjection Ecce servus tuns Behold I am thy servant faith David yea and vilior ero I will be yet more vile for the Lord. Tremble before his footstool O ye Great ones that bindeth Kings with chains and Nobles with fetters of iron Psal 149. 8. Your very Height inforces your Obedience the detrectation where of hath no other but Potentes potenter punientur Mighty ones shall be mightily tormented As an Angel of God so is my Lord the king as that wise Tekoan said Do ye not see how awful how submiss the Angels of Heaven are Before his throne they hide their faces with their wings and from his throne at his command
son of perdition who sitteth in the Temple of God which is the Church It s granted that she is Babylon in the second sense and God's people is commanded to come out of Babylon What is Gods people but Gods Church which forsaketh her successively as of old the typical people came out of the typical Babylon not at once but at many several times If then we apply unto her Gods commandment exhorting her to come out of Babylon either we understand not what we say or we acknowledge her to be Gods people that is Gods Church though Idolatrous Rebellious and Disobedient Neither shall she cease to be Gods people in this sense till the coming of that blessed day when the aire shall rebound with the shouting of the Saints Babylon is fallen she is fallen that great Citie because she made all Nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication I say then that as Jerusalem was at the same time the holy Citie and a Harlot the Temple was Bethel and Bethaven Gods House and a house of Iniquity the Jews were Gods people and no people Gods children and the Devils Ephraim was Hammi and Lo-hammi in divers respects even so the Romish Church is both Bethel and Babel Bethel from God calling her to the communion of his grace in Christ by his Word and Sacrament of Baptisme Babel from her self because she hath made a gallimaufrey of the Christian Religion confounding pell-mell her own Traditions with Gods Word her own Merits with Christs the blood of Martyrs with the blood of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world Purgatory with the same blood which purgeth us from all sin Justification by Works with Justification by Faith onely Praying to the Creatures with praying to the Creator Idols of men women beasts Angels with Gods worship the mediation of Saints with the mediation of him who is the surety of the New Testament and is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Nay as Calvin said truely in the Romish Church Christ is scarcely known among the Saints of whom some are in Heaven as the Apostles c. some on Earth as the Pope some in Hell as Saint Dominick the firebrand of the war against the Albigeois Saint Garnet whom Tyborn sent to his own place to be rewarded of the Gun-powder Treason some did never die because they had never the honour to live as Saint Christopher Saint Katharine Saint Urâ—ule Saint Longin who was a Spear Saint Eloi who was two couple of sharp nailes and many more of the same stuffe In a word the roaring of the Gamards of Bahal is so loud in that Church that Christ's voice is scant heard in her and yet heard both in the mouth of these Babylonian builders which understand not one another and in the mouths of the people halting between Christ and the Pope their Bahal And therefore in that behalf not the true but a true Christian Church This testimony is the praise of the most wonderful patience of God who suffereth so long that common hackney to bear his name It is her shame As it is the shame of a Quean married to a good husband to be convicted of running up and down after strangers It s a vantage to us in our imployment for her Conversion For as when Agar had confessed truly that she was Sarah 's maid the Angel took her at her word saying Return to thy Mistress and submit thy self to her and perswaded her Even so we take the Roman Church by the neck when she confesseth that she is Christs Church as she is indeed exhorting her to return unto Christ to obey his word to submit her self unto him and to follow the true Faith of the antient Catholick and Apostolick Church Neither is it any vantage to her against us to inforce us to return to her or to upbraid us for forsaking her For as Moses when the people had committed Idolatry took his Tabernacle and pitched it without the Camp afarre off from the Camp breaking off all Communication with those which had broken the Covenant of the Lord their God till they repented as God said to Jeremiah of the Jews which had opened their legs to every one that passed by and multiplied their whoredomes Cast them out of my sight and let them goe forth Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them as Hosea said of Ephraim Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone So Christ saith unto us Come out of Babylon my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Her sins are a spiritual Leprosie and we run away from leprous men though true men and our nearest and dearest Friends crying what they are loath to cry Unclean unclean lest their breath should infect us Her sins are Infidelity not negative but privative not in whole but in part as S. Paul a believing Jew was in unbelief when he persecuted the Church and S. Paul saith unto us Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers c. Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters faith the Lord Almighty A faithful Subject will not take a Traitour though a Subject by the hand nor I a Papist in matter of his Religion neither will honest women goe unto the stews with the greatest Lady though she be a great ones Wife This I have ever taught privately preached publickly published in printed Books against Papists during these thirty three yeares of my Ministry in the French Churches without any advantage to our Adversaries without any contradiction of our Divines without any exception taken against it by our Churches or any particular among the Brethren which all in their name preach and publish that they are of the same mind calling themselves the Reformed Churches and our Religion the Reformed Religion For as the good Kings of Juda did not build a new Temple call to God a new people set up a new Religion but repurge and cleanse the old Temple restore the ancient Religion exhorted Gods people to shake off the new inventions of the new-patched Religion and to return to the Lord their God by the old way which their Fathers had beaten and Moses had traced unto them in the Law and as Zorobabel Esdras Nehemiah Jeshuah builded the wals of Jerusalem upon the ancient Foundation every man building next himself even so the Protestant Divines have every one next himself not builded a new Church upon a new Foundation but repurged the ancient Church of Idolatry Superstition false Interpretations of the Scriptures and Traditions of men whereof she was fuller then ever Augeas his Stable was full
the least substance To affect obscurity or submission is base and suspicious but that LIV. Upon a Corn-field over-grown with Weeds HEre were a goodly field of Corn if it were not over-laid with Weeds I do not like these reds and blews and yellows amongst these plain stalks and ears This beauty would do well elswhere I had rather to see a plot lesse fair and more yielding In this Field I see a true picture of the World wherein there is more glory then true substance wherein the greater part carries it from the better wherein the native sons of the Earth out-strip the adventitious brood of Grace wherein Parasites and unprofitable hang-byes do both rob and overtop their Masters Both Field and World grow alike look alike and shall end alike both are for the Fire whiles the homely and solid ears of despised Vertue shall be for the garners of Immortality LV. Upon the sight of Tulips and Marigolds c. in his Garden THese Flowers are true Clients of the Sun how observant they are of his motion and influence At Even they shut up as mourning for his departure without whom they neither can nor would flourish in the Morning they welcome his rising with a chearfull openness and at Noon are fully displayed in a free acknowledgment of his bounty Thus doth the good heart unto God When thou turnedst away thy face I was troubled saith the man after Gods own heart In thy presence is life yea the fulnesse of joy Thus doth the Carnall heart to the world when that withdraws his favour he is dejected and revives with a smile All is in our choice whatsoever is our Sun will thus carry us O God be thou to me such as thou art in thy self thou shalt be mercifull in drawing me I shall be happy in following thee LVI Upon the sound of a crackt Bell. WHat an harsh sound doth this Bell make in every eaâ—e The metall is good enough it is the rift that makes it so unpleasingly jarring How too like is this Bell to a scandalous and ill-lived Teacher His Calling is honourable his noise is heard far enough but the flaw which is noted in his Life marres his Doctrine and offends those ears which else would take pleasure in his teaching It is possible that such a one even by that discordous noise may ring in others into the triumphant Church of Heaven but there is no remedy for himself but the fire whether for his reforming or judgment LVII Upon the sight of a Blinde man HOW much am I bound to God that hath given me eyes to see this mans want of eyes With what suspicion and fear he walks How doth his hand and staffe examine his way With what jealousie doth he receive every morsell every draught and yet meets with many a post and stumbles at many a stone and swallows many a flie To him the world is as if it were not or as if it were all rubs and snares and downfalls and if any man will lend him an hand he must trust to his however faithlesse guide without all comfort save this that he cannot see himself miscarry Many a one is thus Spiritually blinde and because he is so discerns it not and not discerning complains not of so wofull a condition The god of this world hath blinded the eyes of the Children of disobedience they walk on in the waies of death and yield themselves over to the guidance of him who seeks for nothing but their precipitation into Hell It is an addition to the misery of this inward occaecation that it is ever joyned with a secure confidence in them whose trade and ambition is to betray their Souls Whatever become of these outward Senses which are common to me with the meanest and most despicable creatures O Lord give me not over to that Spiritual darkness which is incident to none but those that live without thee and must perish eternally because they want thee LVIII Upon a Beech-tree full of Nuts HOW is this Tree overladen with mast this year It was not so the last neither will it I warrant you be so the next It is the nature of these free trees so to powr out themselves into fruit at once that they seem after either sterile or niggardly So have I seen pregnant Wits not discreetly governed overspend themselves in some one master-piece so lavishly that they have proved either barren or poor and flat in all other Subjects True Wisdome as it serves to gather due sap both for nourishment and fructification so it guides the seasonable and moderate bestowing of it in such manner as that one season may not be a glutton whiles others famish I would be glad to attain to that measure and temper that upon all occasions I might alwaies have enough never too much LIX Upon the sight of a piece of Money under the Water I Should not wish ill to a Covetous man if I should wish all his Coin in the bottome of the River No pavement could so well become that stream no sight could better fit his greedy desires for there every piece would seem double every teston would appear a shilling every Crown an Angel It is the nature of that Element to greaten appearing quantities whiles we look through the aire upon that solid body it can make no other representations Neither is it otherwise in Spiritual Eyes and Objects If we look with Carnal eyes through the interposed mean of Sensuality every base and worthlesse pleasure will seem a large contentment if with Weak eyes we shall look at small and immaterial Truths aloof off in another element of apprehension every parcell thereof shall seem main and essential hence every knack of Heraldry in the Sacred Genealogies and every Scholastical querk in disquisitions of Divinity are made matters of no lesse then life and death to the Soul It is a great improvement of true Wisdome to be able to see things as they are and to value them as they are seen Let me labour for that power and staiedness of Judgment that neither my Senses may deceive my Minde nor the Object may delude my Sense LX. Upon the first rumour of the Earthquake at Lime wherein a Wood was swallowed up with the fall of two Hills GOod Lord how do we know when we are sure If there were Man or Beast in that Wood they seemed as safe as we now are they had nothing but Heaven above them nothing but firm Earth below them and yet in what a dreadfull pitfall were they instantly taken There is no fence for Gods hand A man would as soon have feared that Heaven would fall upon him as those Hills It is no pleasing our selves with the unlikelihood of Divine Judgments We have oft heard of Hills covered with Woods but of Woods covered with Hills I think never till now Those that planted or sowed those Woods intended they should be spent with Fire but loe God meant they should be devoured with Earth We
me thus imperfectly happy before my time that when my time shall be no more I may be perfectly happy with thee in all Eternity XCII Upon the sight of an Harlot carted WIth what noise and tumult and zeal of solemn Justice is this sin punished The Streets are not more full of beholders then clamors Every one strives to expresse his detestation of the fact by some token of revenge one casts Mire another Water another rotten Egges upon the miserable offender neither indeed is she worthy of lesse but in the mean time no man looks home to himself It is no uncharity to say that too many insult in this just Punishment who have deserved more Alas we men value sins by the outward Scandall but the Wise and Holy God against whom onely our sins are done esteems them according to the intrinsecal Iniquity of them and according to the secret violation of his Will and Justice thus those Sins which are slight to us are to him hainous We ignorants would have rung David's Adultery with Basons but as for his numbring of the people we should have past it over as venial the wise Justice of the Almighty found more wickedness in this which we should scarce have accused Doubtlesse there is more mischief in a secret Infidelity which the World either cannot know or cares not to censure then in the foulest Adultery Publick sins have more Shame private may have more Guilt If the world cannot charge me of those it is enough that I can charge my Soul of worse Let others rejoice in these publick Executions let me pity the sins of others and be humbled under the sense of my own XCIII Upon the smell of a Rose SMelling is one of the meanest and least usefull of the Senses yet there is none of the Five that receives or gives so exquisite a contentment as it Methinks there is no earthly thing that yields so perfect a pleasure to any Sense as the odour of the first Rose doth to the Sent. It is the Wisdome and Bounty of the Creator so to order it that those Senses which have more affinity with the body and with that earth whereof it is made should receive their delight and contentation by those things which are bred of the earth but those which are more sprightfull and have more affinity with the Soul should be reserved for the perfection of their pleasure to another world There and then only shall my Sight make my Soul eternally blessed XCIV Upon a cancelled Bond. WHiles this Obligation was in force I was in servitude to my parchment my Bond was double to a Payment to a Penalty now that is discharged what is it better then a wast scroll regarded for nothing but the witness of its own voidance and nullity No otherwise is it with the severe Law of my Creator Out of Christ it stands in full force and bindes me over either to perfect Obedience which I cannot possibly perform or to exquisite torment and eternall Death which I am never able to indure but now that my Saviour hath fastened it cancelled to his Cross in respect of the rigour and malediction of it I look upon it as the monument of my past danger and bondage I know by it how much was owed by me how much was payed for me The direction of it is everlasting the obligation by it unto death is frustrate I am free from Curse who never can be free from Obedience O Saviour take thou Glory and give me Peace XCV Upon the report of a great losse by Sea THe Earth and the Water are both of them great givers and both great takers As they give matter and sustentation to all Sublunary creatures so they take all back again insatiably devouring at last the fruits of their own wombs Yet of the two the Earth is both more beneficial and lesse cruell for as that yields us the most generall maintenance and wealth and supportation so it doth not lightly take ought from us but that which we resign over to it and which naturally falls back unto it Whereas the Water as it affords but a small part of our livelihood and some few knacks of ornament so it is apt violently to snatch away both us and ours and to bereave that which it never gave it yields us no precious Metalls and yet in an instant fetches away millions And yet notwithstanding all the hard measure we receive from it how many do we daily see that might have firm ground under them who yet will be trusting to the mercy of the Sea Yea how many that have hardly crawled out from a desperate shipwrack will yet be trying the fidelity of that unsure and untrusty Element O God how venturous we are where we have reason to distrust how incredulously fearfull where we have cause to be confident Who ever relied upon thy gracious Providence and sure Promises O Lord and hath miscarried Yet here we pull in our Faith and make excuses for our Diffidence And if Peter have tried those waves to be no other then solid pavement under his feet whiles his Soul trod confidently yet when a billow and a winde agree to threaten him his Faith flags and he begins to sink O Lord teach me to doubt where I am sure to finde nothing but uncertainty and to be assuredly confident where there can be no possibility of any cause of doubting XCVI Upon sight of a bright Skie full of Stars I Cannot blame Empedocles if he professed a desire to live upon earth only that he might behold the face of the Heavens surely if there were no other this were a sufficient errand for a mans being here below to see and observe these goodly Spangles of Light above our heads their places their quantities their motions But the employment of a Christian is far more noble and excellent Heaven is open to him and he can look beyond the veil and see further above those Stars then it is thither and there discern those Glories that may answer so rich a pavement Upon the clear sight whereof I cannot but wonder if the chosen Vessel desired to leave the earth in so happy an exchange O God I blesse thine Infiniteness for what I see with these bodily eyes but if thou shalt but draw the curtain and let me by the eye of Faith see the inside of that thy Glorious frame I shall need no other Happiness here My Soul cannot be capable of more favour then Sight here and Fruition hereafter XCVII Upon the rumours of Wars GOod Lord what a shambles is Christendome become of late How are men killed like flies and blood poured out like water Surely the cruelty and ambition of the Great have an heavy reckoning to make for so many thousand Souls I condemn not just Arms those are as necessary as the unjust are hatefull even Michael and his Angels fight and the style of God is the Lord of Hoasts But wo be to the man by whom the offence
upon but discursive In matters of faith if reasons may be brought for the conviction of the gain-sayers it is well if they be helps they cannot be grounds of our belief In the most faithful heart there are some sparks of infidelity so to believe that we should have no doubt at all is scarce incident unto flesh and blood It is a great perfection if we have attained to overcome our doubts What did mislead Zacharie but that which uses to guide others Reason I am old and my wife is of great age As if years and drie loines could be any let to him which is able of very stones to raise up children unto Abraham Faith and reason have their limits where reason ends faith begins and if reason will be encroaching upon the bounds of faith she is straight taken captive by infidelity We are not fit to follow Christ if we have not denied our selves and the chief piece of our selves is our reason We must yield God able to doe that which we cannot comprehend and we must comprehend that by our faith which is disclaimed by reason Hagar must be driven out of doors that Sara may rule alone The authority of the reporter makes way for belief in things which are otherwise hard to passe although in the matters of God we should not so much care who speaks as what is spoken and from whom The Angel tells his name place office unasked that Zacharie might not think any news impossible that was brought him by an heavenly messenger Even where there is no use of language the spirits are distinguished by names and each knows his own appellation and others He that gave leave unto man his Image to give names unto all his visible and inferiour creatures did himself put names unto the spiritual and as their name is so are they mighty and glorious But lest Zacharie should no lesse doubt of the stile of the messenger then of the errand it self he is at once both confirmed and punished with dumbness That tongue which moved the doubt must be tyed up He shall ask no more questions for forty weeks because he asked this one distrustfully Neither did Zacharie lose his tongue for the time but his ears also he was not onely mute but deaf For otherwise when they came to ask his allowance for the name of his Son they needed not to have demanded it by signs but by words God will not passe over slight offences and those which may plead the most colourable pretences in his best children without a sensible check it is not our holy entireness with God that can bear us out in the least sin yea rather the more acquaintance we have with his Majesty the more sure we are of correction when we offend This may procure us more favour in our well-doing not lesse justice in evil Zacharie staied and the people waited whether some longer discourse betwixt the Angel and him then needed to be recorded or whether astonishment at the apparition and news withheld him I inquire not the multitude thought him long yet though they could but see afar off they would not depart till he returned to blesse them Their patient attendance without shames us that are hardly perswaded to attend within whiles both our senses are imploied in our divine services and we are admitted to be co-agents with our Ministers At last Zacharie comes out speechlesse and more amazes them with his presence then with his delay The eyes of the multitude that were not worthy to see his vision yet see the signs of his vision that the world might be put into the exspectation of some extraordinary sequell GOD makes way for his voice by silence His speech could not have said so much as his dumbness Zacharie would fain have spoken and could not with us too many are dumb and need not Negligence Fear Partiality stop the mouthes of many which shall once say Woe to me because I held my peace His hand speaks that which he cannot with his tongue and he makes them by signs to understand that which they might read in his face Those powers we have we must use But though he have ceased to speak yet he ceased not to minister He takes not this dumbness for a dismission but stayes out the eight daies of his course as one that knew the eyes and hands and heart would be accepted of that God which had bereaved him of his tongue We may not straight take occasions of withdrawing our selves from the publick services of our God much lesse under the Gospel The Law which stood much upon bodily perfection dispensed with age for attendance The Gospel which is all for the Soul regards those inward powers which whiles they are vigorous exclude all excuses of our ministration The Annunciation of CHRIST THE Spirit of GOD was never so accurate in any description as that which concerns the Incarnation of GOD. It was fit no circumstance should be omitted in that Story whereon the faith salvation of all the World dependeth We cannot so much as doubt of this truth and be saved no not the number of the moneth not the name of the Angel is concealed Every particle imports not more certainty then excellence The time is the sixth moneth after John's Conception the prime of the Spring Christ was conceived in the Spring born in the Solstice He in whom the World received a new life receives life in the same season wherein the World received his first life from him and he which stretches out the dayes of his Church and lengthens them to Eternitie appeares after all the short and dimme light of the Law and enlightens the World with his glory The Messenger is an Angel A man was too mean to carry the news of the Conception of God Never any businesse was conceived in Heaven that did so much concerne the earth as the Conception of the GOD of Heaven in Womb of earth No lesse then an Arch-Angel was worthy to bear this tydings and never any Angel received a greater honour then of this Embassage It was fit our reparation should answer our fall An evil Angel was the first motioner of the one to Eve a Virgin then espoused to Adam in the Garden of Eden a good Angell is the first reporter of the other to Mary a Virgin espoused to Joseph in that place which as the Garden of Galilee had a name from flourishing No good Angel could be the Author of our restauration as that evil Angel was of our ruine But that which those glorious Spirits could not doe themselves they are glad to report as done by the God of Spirits Good news rejoices the bearer With what joy did this holy Angel bring the news of that Saviour in whom we are redeemed to life himself established in life and glory The first Preacher of the Gospel was an Angel That office must needs be glorious that derives it self from such a Predecessor God appointed his Angel to be the first
so confine his election to the pale of the Church as that he did not sometimes look out for special instruments of his glory Whither do these Sages come but to Hierusalem where should they hope to hear of the new King but in the mother City of the Kingdome The conduct of the Star was first only general to Judaea the rest is for a time left to inquiry they were not brought thither for their own sakes but for Jewrie's for the worlds that they might help to make the Jews inexcusable and the world faithful That their tongues therefore might blazon the birth of Christ they are brought to the head City of Judaea to report and inquire Their wisdome could not teach them to imagine that a King could be born to Judaea of that note and magnificence that a Star from heaven should publish him to the earth and that his subjects should not know it and therefore as presupposing a common notice they say Where is he that is born King of the Jews There is much deceit in probabilities especially when we meddle with spiritual matters For God uses still to goe a way by himself If we judge according to reason and appearance who is so likely to understand heavenly truths as the profound Doctors of the world These God passes over and reveals his will to babes Had these Sages met with the Shepherds of the villages near Bethleem they had received that intelligence of Christ which they did vainly seek from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem The greatest Clerks are not alwaiess the wisest in the affairs of God these things goe not by discourse but by revelation No sooner hath the Star brought them within the noise of Jerusalem then it is vanished out of sight God would have their eyes lead them so far as till their tongues might be set on work to win the vocal attestation of the chief Priests and Scribes to the fore-appointed place of our Saviours nativity If the Star had caried them directly to Bethleem the learned Jews had never searched the truth of those prophesies wherewith they are since justly convinced God never withdraws our helps but for a further advantage However our hopes seem crossed where his Name may gain we cannot complain of losse Little did the Sages think this question would have troubled Herod they had I fear concealed their message if they had suspected this event Sure they thought it might be some Son or grandchild of him which then held the Throne so as this might win favour from Herod rather then an unwelcome fear of rivalty Doubtless they went first to the Court where else should they ask for a King The more pleasing this 〈…〉 if it had falne upon Herod's own loyns the more grievous it was to light upon a stranger If Herod had not over-much affected greatness he had not upon those indirect terms aspired to the Crown of Jewry so much the more therefore did it trouble him to hear the rumor of a successor and that not of his own Setled greatness cannot abide either change or partnership If any of his subjects had moved this question I fear his head had answered it It is well that the name of forrainers could excuse these Sages Herod could not be brought up among the Jews and not have heard many and confident reports of a Messias that should ere long arise out of Israel and now when he hears the fame of a King born whom a Star from Heaven signifies and attends he is netled with the news Every thing affrights the guilty Usurpation is full of jealousies and fear no lesse full of projects and imaginations it makes us think every bush a man and every man a thief Why art thou troubled O Herod A King is born but such a King as whose Scepter may ever concur with lawfull Soveraignty yea such a King as by whom Kings doe hold their Scepters not lose them If the wise-men tell thee of a King the Star tells thee he is heavenly Here is good cause of security none of fear The most general enmities and oppositions to good arise from mistakings If men could but know how much safety and sweetnesse there is in all Divine truth it could receive nothing from them but welcomes and gratulations Misconceits have been still guilty of all wrongs and persecutions But if Herod were troubled as Tyranny is still suspicious why was all Hierusalem troubled with him Hierusalem which now might hope for a relaxation of her bonds for a recovery of her liberty and right Hierusalem which now onely had cause to lift up her drooping head in the joy and happiness of a Redeemer Yet not Herod's Court but even Hierusalem was troubled so had this miserable City been overtoiled with change that now they were setled in a condition quietly evil they are troubled with the news of better They had now got a habit of servility and now they are so acquainted with the yoke that the very noise of liberty which they supposed would not come with ease began to be unwelcome To turn the causes of joy into sorrow argues extreme dejectednesse and a distemper of judgment no lesse then desperate Fear puts on a visor of devotion Herod calls his learned counsel and as not doubting whether the Messiah should be born he asks where he shall be born In the disparition of that other light there is a perpetually-fixed Star shining in the writings of the Prophets that guides the chief Priests and Scribes directly unto Bethleem As yet envy and prejudice had not blinded the eyes and perverted the hearts of the Jewish teachers so as now they clearly justifie that Christ whom they afterwards condemne and by thus justifying him condemn themselves in rejecting him The water that is untroubled yields the visage perfectly If God had no more witnesse but from his enemies we have ground enough of our faith Herod feared but dissembled his fear as thinking it a shame that strangers should see there could any power arise under him worthy of his respect or awe Out of an unwillingnesse therefore to discover the impotency of his passion he makes little adoe of the matter but onely after a privy inquisition into the Time imployes the informers in the search of the Person Goe and search diligently for the Babe c. It was no great journy from Hierusalem to Bethleem how easily might Herod's cruelty have secretly suborned some of his bloody Courtiers to this inquiry and execution If God had not meant to mock him before he found himself mocked of the wise-men he had rather sent before their journey then after their disappointment But that God in whose hands all hearts are did purposely besot him that he might not finde the way to so horrible a mischief There is no Villan◠〈◊〉 but it will mask it self under a shew of Piety Herod will also worship 〈◊〉 Babe The courtesie of a false Tyrant is death A crafty hypocrite never means so ill as when he
the first and best for the Maker By this Rule God should have had his service done onely by the heirs of Israel But since God for the honour and remuneration of Levi had chosen out that Tribe to minister unto him now the first-born of all Israel must be presented to God as his due but by allowance redeemed to their parents As for beasts the first male of the clean beasts must be sacrificed of unclean exchanged for a price So much Morality is there in this constitution of God that the best of all kindes is fit to be consecrated to the Lord of all Every thing we have is too good for us if we think any thing we have too good for him How glorious did the Temple now seem that the Owner was within the walls of it Now was the hour and guest come in regard whereof the Second Temple should surpasse the first This was his House built for him dedicated to him there had he dwelt long in his spirituall Presence in his typical There was nothing either placed or done within those walls whereby he was not resembled and now the Body of those Shadows is come and presents himself where he had been ever represented Jerusalem is now every where There is no Church no Christian heart which is not a Temple of the living God there is no Temple of God wherein Christ is not presented to his Father Look upon him O God in whom thou art well pleased and in him and for him be well pleased with us Under the Gospel we are all first-born all heirs every soul is to be holy unto the Lord we are a royal generation an holy Priesthood Our Baptism as it is our Circumcision and our sacrifice of purification so is it also our presentation unto God Nothing can become us but holinesse O God to whom we are devoted serve thy self of us glorifie thy self by us till we shall by thee be glorified with thee HEROD and the Infants WEll might these wise-men have suspected Herod's secrecy If he had meant well what needed that whispering That which they published in the streets he asks in his privy chamber yet they not misdoubting his intention purpose to fulfill his charge It could not in their apprehension but be much honour to them to make their successe known that now both King and people might see it was not fancie that led them but an assured Revelation That God which brought them thither diverted them and caused their eies to shut to guide them the best way home These Sages made a happy voyage for now they grew into further acquaintance with God They are honoured with a second messenger from heaven They saw the Star in the way the Angel in their bed The Star guided their journey unto Christ the Angel directed their return They saw the Star by day a vision by night God spake to their eies by the Star he speaks to their heart by a dream No doubt they had left much noise of Christ behinde them they that did so publish his Birth by their inquiry at Jerusalem could not be silent when they found him at Bethleem If they had returned by Herod I fear they had come short home He that meant death to the Babe for the name of a King could mean no other to those that honoured and proclaimed a new King and erected a throne besides his They had done what they came for and now that God whose businesse they came about takes order at once for his Sons safety and for theirs God which is perfection it self never begins any businesse but he makes and end and ends happily When our waies are his there is no danger of miscarriage Well did these wise-men know the difference as of Stars so of dreams they had learned to distinguish between the natural and Divine and once apprehending God in their sleep they follow him waking and return another way They were no subjects to Herod his command pressed them so much the lesse or if the being within his dominions had been no lesse bond then native subjection yet where God did countermand Herod there could be no question whom to obey They say not We are in a strange country Herod may meet with us it can be no lesse then death to mock him in his own territories but chearfully put themselves upon the way and trust God with the successe Where men command with God we must obey men for God and God in men when against him the best obedience is to deny obedience and to turn our backs upon Herod The wise-men are safely arrived in the East and fill the world full of exspectation as themselves are full of wonder Joseph and Mary are returned with the Babe to that Jerusalem where the wise-men had inquired for his Birth The City was doubtlesse still full of that rumor and little thinks that he whom they talk of was so neare them From thence they are at least in their way to Nazareth where they purpose their abode God prevents them by his Angel and sends them for safety into Aegypt Joseph was not wont to be so full of visions It was not long since the Angel appeared unto him to justifie the innocency of the Mother and the Deity of the Son now he appears for the preservation of both and a preservation by flight Could Joseph now chuse but think Is this the King that must save Israel that needs to be saved by me If he be the Son of God how is he subject to the violence of men How is he Almighty that must save himself by flight or how must he flie to save himself out of that Land which he comes to save But faithful Joseph having been once tutored by the Angel and having heard what the wise-men said of the Star what Simeon and Anna said in the Temple labours not so much to reconcile his thoughts as to subject them and as one that knew it safer to suppresse doubts then to assoil them can believe what he understands not and can wonder where he cannot comprehend Oh strange condition of the King of all the word He could not be born in a baser estate yet even this he cannot enjoy with safety There was no room for him in Bethleem there will be no room for him in Judaea He is no sooner come to his own then he must flie from them that he may save them he must avoid them Had it not been easie for thee O Saviour to have acquit thy self from Herod a thousand waies What could an arm of flesh have done against the God of Spirits What had it been for thee to have sent Herod five years sooner unto his place what to have commanded fire from Heaven on those that should have come to apprehend thee or to have bidden the Earth to receive them alive whom she meant to swallow dead We suffer misery because we must thou because thou wouldest The same will that brought thee from Heaven into earth sends
A tyrannous guiltinesse never thinks it self safe but ever seeks to assure it self in the excesse of cruelty Doubtlesse he which so privily inquired for Christ did as secretly brew this massacre The mothers were set with their children on their laps feeding them with the breast or talking to them in the familiar language of their love when suddenly the Executioner rushes in and snatches them from their armes and at once pulling forth his Commission and his knife without regard to shrieks or teares murthers the innocent Babe and leaves the passionate mother in a mean between madnesse and death What cursing of Herod what wringing of hands what condoling what exclaiming was now in the streets of Bethleem O bloody Herod that couldst sacrifice so many harmlesse lives to thine ambition What could those Infants have done If it were thy person whereof thou wert afraid what likelihood was it thou couldst live till those sucklings might endanger thee This news might affect thy Successors it could not concern thee if the heat of an impotent and furious envy had not made thee thirsty of blood It is not long that thou shalt enjoy this cruelty After a few hatefull years thy soul shall feel the weight of so many Innocents of so many just curses He for whose sake thou killedst so many shall strike thee with death and then what wouldest thou have given to have been as one of those Infants whom thou murtheredst In the mean time when thine executioners returned and told thee of their unpartial dispatch thou smiledst to think how thou hadst defeated thy rivall and beguiled the Starre and deluded the Prophecies whiles God in Heaven and his Son on earth laugh thee to scorn and make thy rage an occasion of further glory to him whom thou meantest to suppresse He that could take away the lives of other cannot protract his own Herod is now sent home The coast is clear for the return of that holy Family now God calls them from their exile Christ and his Mother had not stayed so long out of the confines of the reputed visible Church but to teach us continuance under the Crosse Sometimes God sees it good for us not to sip of the cup of affliction but to make a diet-drink of it for constant and common use If he allow us no other liquor for many yeares we must take it off chearfully and know that it is but the measure of our betters Joseph and Mary stir not without a command their departure stay removall is ordered by the voice of God If Egypt had been more tedious unto them they durst not move their foot till they were bidden It is good in our own businesse to follow reason or custome but in God's businesse if we have any other guide but himself we presume and cannot expect a blessing O the wonderful dispensation of God in concealing 〈◊〉 himself from men Christ was now some five years old he bears 〈◊〉 as an infant and knowing all things neither takes nor gives notice of ought concerning his removall and disposing but appoints that to be done by his Angel which the Angel could not have done but by him Since he would take our nature he would be a perfect child suppressing the manifestation and exercise of that Godhead whereto that infant-nature was conjoyned Even so O Saviour the humility of thine infancy was answerable to that of thy birth The more thou hidest and abasest thy self for us the more should we magnifie thee the more should we deject our selves for thee Unto thee with the Father and the holy Ghost he all honour and glory now for ever Amen Contemplations THE SECOND BOOK Containing Christ among the Doctors Christ Baptized Christ Tempted Simon Called The Marriage in Cana. The good Centurion To the Honourable General Sir EDWARD CECILL Knight all Honour and Happiness Most Honoured Sir THE store of a good Scribe is according to our Saviour both old new I would if I durst be ambitious of this only honour Having therefore drawn forth those not frivolous thoughts out of the Old Testament I fetch these following from the New God is the same in both as the body differs not with the age of the sute with the change of robes The old and new wine of holy Truth came both out of one vineyard yet here may we safely say to the Word of his Father as was said to the Bridegroom of Cana Thou hast kept the best wine till the last The authority of both is equally sacred the use admits no lesse difference then is betwixt a Saviour fore shadowed and come The intermission of those military imployments which have wone you just honour both in forrain nations and at home is in this onely gainfull that it yields you leisure to these happy thoughts which shall more fully acquaint you with him that is at once the God of Hosts and the Prince of Peace To the furtherance whereof these my poor labours shall doe no thankless offices In lieu of your noble favours to me both at home and where you have merited command nothing can be returned but humble acknowledgments and hearty prayers for the increase of your Honour and all Happiness to your self and your thrice-worthy and vertuous Lady by him that is deeply obliged and truly devoted to you both JOS. HALL Christ among the Doctors EVen the Spring shews us what we may hope for of the tree in Summer In his nonage therefore would our Saviour give us a tast of his future proof lest if his perfection should have shewed it self without warning to the world it should have been entertained with more wonder then belief Now this act of his Childhood shall prepare the faith of men by fore-exspectation Notwithstanding all this early demonstration of his Divine graces the incredulous Jews could afterwards say Whence hath this man his wisdome and great works What would they have said if he had suddenly leapt forth into the clear light of the world The Sun would dazle all eyes if he should break forth at his first rising into his full strength now he hath both the day-star to goe before him and to bid men look for that glorious body and the lively colours of the day to publish his approach the eye is comforted not hurt by his appearance The Parents of Christ went up yearly to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passeover the Law was only for the males I do not finde the Blessed Virgin bound to this voiage the weaker sex received indulgence from God Yet she knowing the spiritual profit of that journey takes pains voluntarily to measure that long way every year Piety regards not any distinction of sexes or degrees neither yet doth God's acceptation rather doth it please the mercy of the Highest more to reward that service which though he like in all yet out of favour he will not impose upon all It could not be but that she whom the holy Ghost over-shadowed should be zealous of God's
steps in his temptations of the second The stones must be made bread there is the motion to a Carnal appetite The guard and attendance of Angels must be presumed on there is a motion to Pride The Kingdomes of the Earth and the glory of them must be offered there to Covetousnesse and Ambition Satan could not but have heard God say This is my welbeloved Son he had heard the Message and the Carol of the Angels he saw the Star and the journey and Offerings of the Sages he could not but take notice of the gratulations of Zachary Simeon Anna he well knew the Predictions of the Prophets yet now that he saw Christ fainting with hunger as not comprehending how infirmities could consist with a Godhead he can say If thou be the Son of God Had not Satan known that the Son of God was to come into the World he had never said If thou be the Son of God His very supposition convinces him The ground of his Temptation answers it self If therefore Christ seemed to be a mere man because after forty daies he was hungry why was he not confessed more then a man in that for forty daies he hungred not The motive of the Temptation is worse then the motion If thou be the Son of God Satan could not chuse another suggestion of so great importance All the work of our Redemption of our Salvation depends upon this one Truth Christ is the Son of God How should he else have ransomed the World how should he have done how should he have suffered that which was satisfactory to his Fathers wrath how should his actions or Passion have been valuable to the sin of all the World What marvel is it if we that are sons by Adoption be assaulted with the doubts of our interest in God when the natural Son the Son of his Essence is thus tempted Since all our comfort consists in this point here must needs be laid the chief battery and here must be placed our strongest defence To turn Stones into Bread had been no more faulty in it self then to turn Water into Wine But to do this in a distrust of his Fathers Providence to abuse his power and liberty in doing it to work a Miracle of Satans choice had been disagreeable to the Son of God There is nothing more ordinary with our spiritual enemy then by occasion of want to move us to unwarrantable courses Thou art poor steal Thou canst not rise by honest means use indirect How easie had it been for our Saviour to have confounded Satan by the power of his Godhead But he rather chuses to vanquish him by the Sword of the Spirit that he might teach us how to resist overcome the powers of darknesse If he had subdued Satan by the Almighty power of the Deity we might have had what to wonder at not what to imitate now he useth that weapon which may be familiar unto us that he may teach our weaknesse how to be victorious Nothing in Heaven or earth can beat the forces of Hell but the word of God How carefully should we furnish our selves with this powerful munition how should our hearts and mouths be full of it Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes O take not from me the words of Truth Let them be my Songs in the house of my pilgrimage So shall I make answer to my Blasphemers What needed Christ to have answered Satan at all if it had not been to teach us that Temptations must not have their way but must be answered by resistance and resisted by the Word I do not hear our Saviour aver himself to be a God against the blasphemous insinuation of Satan neither do I see him working this miraculous Conversion to prove himself the Son of God but most wisely he takes away the ground of the Temptation Satan had taken it for granted that man cannot be sustained without bread and therefore infers the necessity of making bread of stones Our Saviour shews him from an infallible Word that he had mislayed his suggestion That man lives not by usual food only but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God He can either sustain without bread as he did Moses and Elias or with a miraculous bread as the Israelites with Manna or send ordinary means miraculously as food to his Prophet by the Ravens or miraculously multiply ordinary means as the Meal and Oyle to the Sareptan Widow All things are sustained by his Almighty Word Indeed we live by food but not by any virtue that is without God without the concurrence of whose Providence bread would rather choak then nourish us Let him withdraw his hand from his creatures in their greatest abundance we perish Why do we therefore bend our eyes on the means and not look up to the hand that gives the blessing What so necessary dependance hath the blessing upon the creature if our Prayers hold them not together As we may not neglect the means so we may not neglect the procurement of a blessing upon the means nor be unthankful to the hand that hath given the blessing In the first assault Satan moves Christ to doubt of his Fathers Providence and to use unlawful means to help himself in the next he moves him to presume upon his Fathers protection and the service of his blessed Angels He grounds the first upon a conceit of want the next of abundance If he be in extremes it is all to one end to mislead unto evil If we cannot be driven down to despair he labours to lift us up to presumption It is not one foil than can put this bold spirit out of countenance Temptations like waves break one in the neck of another Whiles we are in this warfare we must make account that the repulse of one Temptation doth but invite to another That Blessed Saviour of ours that was content to be led from Jordan into the Wildernesse for the advantage of the first Temptation yields to be led from the Wildernesse to Jerusalem for the advantage of the second The place doth not a little avail to the act The Wildernesse was fit for a Temptation arising from Want it was not fit for a Temptation moving to Vain-glory the populous City was the fittest for such a motion Jerusalem was the glory of the World the Temple was the glory of Jerusalem the Pinnacles the highest piece of the Pinnacle there is Christ content to be set for the opportunity of Tentation O Saviour of men how can we wonder enough at this Humility of thine that thou wouldest so farre abase thy self as to suffer thy pure and sacred Body to be transported by the presumptuous and malicious hand of that unclean Spirit It was not his Power it was thy Patience that deserves our admiration Neither can this seem over-strange to us when we consider that if Satan be the head of wicked men wicked men are the members of Satan What was Pilate or the Jews
that persecuted thine innocence but limbs of this Devil And why are we then amazed to see thee touched and locally transported by the head when we see thee yielding thy self over to be crucified by the members If Satan did the worse and greater mediately by their hands no marvel if he doe the lesse and easier immediately by his own yet neither of them without thy voluntary dispensation He could not have looked at thee without thee And if the Son of God did thus suffer his own holy and precious Body to be carried by Satan what wonder is it if that Enemy have sometimes power given him over the sinful bodies of the adopted sons of God It is not the strength of Faith that can secure us from the outward violences of that Evil one This difference I finde betwixt his spiritual and bodily assaults those are beaten back by the shield of Faith these admit not of such repulse As the best man may be lame blind diseased so through the permission of God he may be bodily vexed by an old Man-slayer Grace was never given us for a Target against externall Afflictions Methinks I see Christ hoised upon the highest battlements of the Temple whose very roof was an hundred and thirty Cubits high and Satan standing by him with this speech in his mouth Well then since in the matter of nourishment thou wilt needs depend upon thy Father's Providence that he can without means sustain thee take now further tryall of that Providence in thy miraculous preservation Cast thy self down from this height Behold thou art here in Jerusalem the famous and holy City of the World here thou art on the top of the pinnacle of that Temple which is dedicated to thy Father and if thou be God to thy self The eyes of all men are now fixt upon thee there cannot be devised a more ready way to spread thy glory and to proclaim thy Deity then by casting thy self headlong to the Earth All the World will say there is more in thee then a man And for danger there can be none What can hurt him that is the Son of God and wherefore serves that glorious Guard of Angels which have by Divine Commission taken upon them the charge of thine Humanity Since therefore in one act thou mayest be both safe and celebrated trust thy Father and those thy serviceable Spirits with thine assured preservation Cast thy self down And why didst thou not O thou malignant spirit endeavour to cast down my Saviour by those same presumptuous hands that brought him up since the descent is more easie then the raising up Was it for that it had not been so great an advantage to thee that he should fall by thy means as by his own Falling into sin was more then to fall from the pinnacle Still thy care and suit is to make us Authors to our selves of evil thou gainest nothing by our bodily hurt if the Soul be safe Or was it rather for that thou couldest not I doubt not but thy Malice could as well have served to have offered this measure to himself as to his holy Apostle soon after But he that bounded thy power tethers thee shorter Thou couldest not thou canst not do what thou wouldst He that would permit thee to carry him up bindes thy hands from casting him down And woe were it for us if thou wert not ever stinted Why did Satan carry up Christ so high but on purpose that his fall might be the more deadly So deals he still with us he exalts us that we may be dangerously abased he puffs them up with swelling thoughts of their own worthinesse that they may be vile in the eyes of God and fall into condemnation It is the manner of God to cast down that he may raise to abase that he may exalt Contrarily Satan raises up that he may throw down and intends nothing but our dejection in our advancement Height of place gives opportunity of Tentation Thus busie is that Wicked one in working against the members of Christ If any of them be in eminence above others those he labours most to ruinate They had need to stand fast that stand high There is both more danger of their falling and more hurt in their fall He that had presumed thus far to tempt the Lord of Life would fain now dare him also to presume upon his Deity If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down There is not a more tried shaft in all his quiver then this a perswasion to men to bear themselves too bold upon the favour of God Thou art the Elect and Redeemed of God sin because Grace hath abounded sin that it may abound Thou art safe enough though thou offend be not too much an adversary to thine own liberty False spirit it is no liberty to sinne but servitude rather there is liberty but in the freedome from sin Every one of us that hath the hope of Sons must purge himself even as he is pure that hath redeemed us We are bought with a price therefore must we glorifie God in our body and spirits for they are God's Our Sonship teaches us awe and obedience and therefore because we are Sons we will not cast our selves down into sin How idlely do Satan and wicked men measure God by the crooked line of their own misconceit Iwis Christ cannot be the Son of God unlesse he cast himself down from the Pinnacle unlesse he come down from the Crosse God is not merciful unlesse he honour them in all their desires not just unlesse he take speedy vengeance where they require it But when they have spent their folly upon these vain imaginations Christ is the Son of God though he stay on the top of the Temple God will be merciful though we miscarry and just though sinners seem lawlesse Neither will he be any other then he is or measured by any rule but himself But what is this I see Satan himself with a Bible under his arm with a Text in his mouth It is written He shall give his Angels charge over thee How still in that Wicked one doth Subtilty strive with Presumption Who could not but over-wonder at this if he did not consider that since the Devil dar'd to touch the sacred Body of Christ with his hand he may well touch the Scriptures of God with his tongue Let no man henceforth marvel to hear Hereticks or Hypocrites quote Scriptures when Satan himself hath not spared to cite them What are they the worse for this more then that holy Body wich is transported Some have been poisoned by their meats and drinks yet either these nourish us or nothing It is not the Letter of the Scripture that can carry it but the Sense if we divide these two we prophane and abuse that Word we alledge And wherefore doth this foul spirit urge a Text but for imitation for prevention and for successe Christ had alledged a Scripture unto him he re-alledges Scripture unto Christ
be seen but what may both please and allure Satan is still and ever like himself If Tentations might be but turn'd about and shewn on both sides the Kingdome of darkness would not be so populous Now whensoever the Tempter sets upon any poor soul all sting of conscience wrath judgment torment is concealed as if they were not nothing may appear to the eye but pleasure profit and a seeming happinesse in the enjoying our desires Those other woful objects are reserved for the farewell of sin that our misery may be seen and felt at once When we are once sure Satan is a Tyrant till then he is a Parasite There can be no safety if we do not view as well the back as the face of Tentations But oh presumption and impudence that Hell it self may be ashamed of The Devil dares say to Christ All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me That beggerly spirit that hath not an inch of earth can offer the whole world to the maker to the owner of it The slave of God would be adored of his Creator How can we hope he should be sparing of false boasts and of unreasonable promises unto us when he dares offer Kingdomes to him by whom Kings reign Tentations on the right hand are most dangerous How many that have been hardned with Fear have melted with Honour There is no doubt of that soul that will not bite at the golden hook False lyars and vain-glorious boasters see the top of their pedigree if I may not rather say that Satan doth borrow the use of their tongues for a time Whereas faithfull is he that hath promised who will also do it Fidelity and truth is the issue of Heaven If Idolatry were not a dear sin to Satan he would not be so importunate to compasse it It is miserable to see how he draws the world insensibly into this sin which they professe to detest Those that would rather hazard the fornace then worship Gold in a Statue yet do adore in it the stamp and finde no fault with themselves If our hearts be drawn to stoop unto an over-high respect of any creature we are Idolaters O God it is no marvel if thy jealousie be kindled at the admission of any of thine own works into a competition of honour with their Creator Never did our Saviour say Avoid Satan till now It is a just indignation that is conceived at the motion of a rivaltie with God Neither yet did Christ exercise his Divine power in this command but by the necessary force of Scripture drives away that impure Tempter It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve The rest of our Saviours answers were more full and direct then that they could admit of a reply but this was so flat and absolute that it utterly daunted the courage of Satan and put him to a shameful flight and made him for the time weary of his trade The way to be rid of the troublesome solicitations of that Wicked one is continued resistance He that forcibly drove the Tempter from himself takes him off from us and will not abide his assaults perpetual It is our exercise and Triall that he intends not our Confusion Simon called AS the Sun in his first rising draws all eyes to it so did this Sun of Righteousness when he first shone forth into the world His miraculous cures drew Patients his Divine doctrine drew Auditors both together drew the admiring multitude by troops after him And why do we not still follow thee O Saviour through desarts and mountains over land and seas that we may be both healed and taught It was thy word that when thou wert lift up thou wouldst draw all men unto thee Behold thou art lift up long since both to the tree of shame and to the throne of heavenly glory Draw us and we shall run after thee Thy word is still the same though proclaimed by men thy virtue is still the same though exercised upon the spirits of men Oh give us to hunger after both that by both our souls may be satisfied I see the people not onely following Christ but pressing upon him even very unmannerliness findes here both excuse and acceptation They did not keep their distances in an awe to the Majesty of the Speaker whiles they were ravished with the power of the Speech yet did not our Saviour check their unreverent thronging but rather incourages their forwardness We cannot offend thee O God with the importunity of our desires It likes thee well that the Kingdome of Heaven should suffer violence Our slackness doth ever displease thee never our vehemency The throng of Auditors forced Christ to leave the shore and to make Peter's ship his pulpit Never were there such nets cast out of that fisher-boat before Whiles he was upon the Land he healed the sick bodies by his touch now that he was upon the Sea he cured the sick Souls by his doctrine and is purposely severed from the multitude that he may unite them to him He that made both Sea and Land causeth both of them to conspire to the opportunities of doing good Simon was busie washing his nets Even those nets that caught nothing must be washed no lesse then if they had sped well The nights toile doth not excuse his daies work Little did Simon think of leaving those nets which he so carefully washed and now Christ interrupts him with the favour and blessing of his gracious presence Labour in our calling how homely soever makes us capable of Divine benediction The honest fisher-man when he saw the people flock after Christ and heard him speak with such power could not but conceive a general and confuse apprehension of some excellent worth in such a Teacher and therefore is glad to honour his ship with such a Guest and is first Christ's Host by Sea ere he is his Disciple by land An humble and serviceable entertainment of a Prophet of God was a good foundation of his future honour He that would so easily lend Christ his hand and his ship was likely soon after to bestow himself upon his Saviour Simon hath no sooner done this service to Christ then Christ is preparing for his reward when the Sermon is ended the ship-room shall be paid for abundantly neither shall the Host exspect any other pay-master then himself Lanch forth into the deep and let down your Nets to make a draught That ship which lent Christ an opportunity of catching men upon the shore shall be requited with a plentiful draught of fish in the deep It had been as easie for our Saviour to have brought the fish to Peter's ship close to the shore yet as chusing rather to have the ship carried to the shole of fish he bids Lanch forth into the deep In his Miracles he loves ever to meet Nature in her bounds and when she hath done her best to supply the rest by his
at liberty in this Deep the Nets of wholsome Doctrine draw up some to the shore of Grace and Glory How much skill and toile and patience is requisite in this Art Who is sufficient for these things This Sea these Nets the Fishers the Fish the Vessels are all thine O God doe what thou wilt in us and by us Give us ability and grace to take give men will and grace to be taken and take thou glory by that which thou hast given The Marriage in Cana. WAS this then thy first Miracle O Saviour that thou wroughtest in Cana of Galilee And could there be a greater Miracle then this that having been thirty years upon earth thou didst no miracle till now that thy Divinity did hide it self thus long in flesh that so long thou wouldst lie obscure in a corner of Galilee unknown to that world thou camest to redeem that so long thou wouldst strain the patient expectation of those who ever since thy Star waited upon the revelation of a Messias We silly wretches if we have but a dram of vertue are ready to set it out to the best shew thou who receivedst not the Spirit by measure wouldst content thy self with a willing obscurity and concealedst that power that made the world in the roof of an humane breast in a cottage of Nazareth O Saviour none of thy miracles is more worthy of astonishment then thy not doing of miracles What thou didst in private thy wisdome thought fit for secrecy but if thy Blessed Mother had not been acquainted with some domestical wonders she had not now expected a miracle abroad The Stars are not seen by day the Sun it self is not seen by night As it is no small art to hide Art so is it no small glory to conceal glory Thy first publick Miracle graceth a Marriage It is an ancient and laudable institution that the rites of Matrimony should not want a solemn celebration When are Feasts in season if not at the recovery of our lost rib if not at this main change of our estate wherein the joy of obtaining meets with the hope of further comforts The Son of the Virgin and the Mother of that Son are both at a wedding It was in all likelihood some of their kindred to whose nuptial feast they were invited so far yet was it more the honour of the Act then of the Person that Christ intended He that made the first Marriage in Paradise bestows his first Miracle upon a Galilean marriage He that was the Author of Matrimony and sanctified it doth by his holy presence honour the resemblance of his eternal union with his Church How boldly may we spit in the faces of all the impure Adversaries of wedlock when the Son of God pleases to honour it The glorious Bridegroom of the Church knew well how ready men would be to place shame even in the most lawful conjunctions and therefore his first work shall be to countenance his own Ordinance Happy is that Wedding where Christ is a guest O Saviour those that marry in thee cannot marry without thee There is no holy Marriage whereat thou art not however invisible yet truly present by thy Spirit by thy gracious benediction Thou makest marriages in Heaven thou blessest them from Heaven O thou that hast betrothed us to thy self in Truth Righteousness do thou consummate that happy Marriage of ours in the highest Heavens It was no rich or sumptuous Bridal to which Christ with his Mother Disciples vouchsafed to come from the further parts of Galilee I find him not at the magnificent Feasts or triumphs of the Great The proud pomp of the World did not agree with the state of a servant This poor needy Bridegroom wants drink for his guests The Blessed Virgin though a stranger to the house out of a charitable compassion and a friendly desire to maintain the decencie of an hospital entertainment inquires into the wants of her Host pities them bemoans them where there was power of redresse When the wine failed the mother of Jesus said unto him They have no wine How well doth it beseem the eyes of piety and Christian love to look into the necessities of others She that conceived the God of mercies both in her heart and in her womb doth not fix her eyes upon her own teacher but searcheth into the penurie of a poor Israelite and feels those wants whereof he complains not They are made for themselves whose thoughts are only taken up with their own store or indigence There was wine enough for a meal though not for a Feast and if there were not wine enough there was enough water yet the Holy Virgin complains of the want of wine and is troubled with the very lack of superfluitie The bounty of our God reaches not to our life only but to our contentment neither hath he thought good to allow us only the bread of sufficiency but sometimes of pleasure One while that is but necessary which some other time were superfluous It is a scrupulous injustice to scant ourselves where God hath been liberal To whom should we complain of any want but to the Maker and Giver of all things The Blessed Virgin knew to whom she sued She had good reason to know the Divine nature and power of her Son Perhaps the Bridegroom was not so needy but if not by his purse yet by his credit he might have supplied that want or it were hard if some of the neighbour-guests had they been duely solicited might not have furnished him with so much wine as might suffice for the last service of a dinner But Blessed Mary knew a nearer way she did not think best to lade at the shallow Channel but runs rather to the Well-head where she may dip and fill the Firkins at once with ease It may be she saw that the train of Christ which unbidden followed unto that Feast and unexspectedly added to the number of the guests might help forward that defect and therefore she justly solicits her Son JESUS for a supply Whether we want Bread or Water or Wine necessaries or comforts whither should we run O Saviour but to that infinite munificence of thine which neither denieth nor upbraideth any thing We cannot want we cannot abound but from thee Give us what thou wilt so thou give us contentment with what thou givest But what is this I hear A sharp answer to the suit of a Mother Oh woman what have I to doe with thee He whose sweet mildness and mercy never sent away any suppliant discontented doth he only frown upon her that bare him He that commands us to honour Father and Mother doth he disdain her whose flesh he took God forbid Love and Duty doth not exempt Parents from due admonition She sollicited Christ as a Mother he answers her as a Woman If she were the Mother of his flesh his Deity was eternal She might not so remember her self to be a Mother that she should forget she was
coate would have thought well of it a Captain a man of good ability and command a founder of a Synagogue a Patron of Religion yet he overlooks all these and when he casts his eye upon the Divine worth of Christ and his own weaknesse he saies I am not worthy Alas Lord I am a Gentile an Alien a man of blood thou art holy thou art omnipotent True Humility will teach us to finde out the best of another and the worst piece of our selves Pride contrarily shews us nothing but matter of admiration in our selves in others of contempt Whiles he confest himself unworthy of any favour he approved himself worthy of all Had not Christ been before in his heart he could not have thought himself unworthy to entertain that Guest within his house Under the low roof of an humble breast doth God ever delight to dwell The state of his Palace may not be measured by the height but by the depth Brags and bold faces do oft-times carry it away with men nothing prevails with God but our voluntary dejections It is fit the foundations should be layd deep where the building is high The Centurion's Humility was not more low then his Faith was lofty that reaches up into Heaven and in the face of humane weaknesse descries Omnipotence Onely say the word and my Servant shall be whole Had the Centurion's roof been Heaven it self it could not have been worthy to be come under of him whose Word was Almighty and who was the Almighty Word of his Father Such is Christ confessed by him that saies Onely say the word None but a Divine Power is unlimited neither hath Faith any other bounds then God himself There needs no footing to remove Mountains or Devils but a word Do but say the word O Saviour my sin shall be remitted my Soul shall be healed my body shall be raised from dust both Soul and body shall be glorious Whereupon then was the steddy confidence of the good Centurion He saw how powerful his own word was with those that were under his command though himself were under the command of another the force whereof extended even to absent performances well therefore might he argue that a free and unbounded power might give infallible commands and that the most obstinate Disease must therefore needs yield to the beck of the God of Nature Weaknesse may shew us what is in strength by one drop of water we may see what is in the main Ocean I marvell not if the Centurion were kinde to his Servants for they were dutifull to him he can but say Doe this and it is done these mutuall respects draw on each other chearfull and diligent service in the one calls for a due and favourable care in the other they that neglect to please cannot complain to be neglected Oh that I could be but such a Servant to mine heavenly Master Alas every of his commands saies Doe this and I doe it not every of his inhibitions saies Doe it not and I doe it He saies Goe from the World I run to it he saies Come to me I run from him Woe is me this is not service but enmity How can I look for favour while I return Rebellion It is a gracious Master whom we serve there can be no duty of ours that he sees not that he acknowledges not that he crowns not We could not but be happy if we could be officious What can be more marvellous then to see Christ marvell All marvelling supposes an ignorance going before and a knowledge following some accident unexpected now who wrought this Faith in the Centurion but he that wondred at it He knew well what he wrought because he wrought what he would yet he wondred at what he both wrought and knew to teach us much more to admire that which he at once knows and holds admirable He wrought this Faith as God he wondred at it as man God wrought and man admired he that was both did both to teach us where to bestow our wonder I never finde Christ wondring at gold or silver at the costly and curious works of humane skill or industry yea when the Disciples wondred at the magnificence of the Temple he rebuked them rather I finde him not wondring at the frame of Heaven and earth nor at the orderly disposition of all creatures and events the familiarity of these things intercepts the admiration But when he sees the grace or acts of Faith he so approves them that he is ravished with wonder He that rejoyced in the view of his Creation to see that of Nothing he had made all things good rejoyces no lesse in the reformation of his Creature to see that he had made good of evil Behold thou art faire my Love behold thou art faire and there is no spot in thee My Sister my Spouse thou hast wounded my heart thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes Our Wealth Beauty Wit Learning Honour may make us accepted of men but it is our Faith onely that shall make God in love with us And why are we of any other save God's Diet to be more affected with the least measure of Grace in any man then with all the outward glories of the World There are great men whom we justly pity we can admire none but the gracious Neither was that plant more worth of wonder in it self then that it grew in such a soile with so little help of Rain and Sun The weaknesse of means addes to the praise and acceptation of our proficiency To doe good upon a little is the commendation of thrist it is small thank to be full-handed in a large estate As contrarily the strength of means doubles the revenge of our neglect It is not more the shame of Israel then the glory of the Centurion that our Saviour saies I have not found so great faith in Israel Had Israel yielded any equall Faith it could not have been unespied of these All-seeing eyes yet were their helps so much greater as their Faith was lesse and God never gives more then he requires Where we have laid our Tillage and Compost and Seed who would not look for a Crop but if the uncultured fallow yield more how justly is that unanswerable ground near to a curse Our Saviour did not mutter this censorious testimony to himself not whisper it to his Disciples but he turned him about to the people and spake it in their eares that he might at once work their shame and emulation In all other things except spirituall our self-love makes us impatient of equals much lesse can we endure to be out-stripped by those who are our professed inferiours It is well if any thing can kindle in us holy ambitions Dull and base are the spirits of that man that can abide to see another overtake him in the way and out-run him to Heaven He that both wrought this Faith and wondred at it doth now reward it Goe thy waies and as thou
hast believed so be it unto thee Never was any Faith unseen of Christ never was any seen without allowance never was any allowed without remuneration The measure of our receits in the matter of favour is the proportion of our belief The infinite Mercy of God which is ever like it self follows but one Rule in his gift to us the Faith that he gives us Give us O God to believe and be it to us as thou wilt it shall be to us above that we will The Centurion sues for his Servant and Christ saies So be it unto thee The Servants health is the benefit of the Master and the Masters Faith is the health of the Servant And if the Prayers of an earthly Master prevailed so much with the Son of God for the recovery of a Servant how shall the intercession of the Son of God prevail with his Father in Heaven for us that are his impotent Children Servants upon Earth What can we want O Saviour whiles thou suest for us He that hath given thee for us can deny thee nothing for us can deny us nothing for thee In thee we are happy and shall be glorious To thee O thou mightie Redeemer of Israel with thine eternal Father together with thy Blessed Spirit one God infinite and incomprehensible be given all Praise Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen Contemplations THE THIRD BOOK Containing The Widows son raised The Rulers son healed The dumb Devil ejected Matthew called Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd To my right Worthy and Worshipful friend Mr JOHN GIFFORD OF Lancrasse in Devon Esq All Grace and Peace SIR I Hold it as I ought one of the rich mercies of God that he hath given me favour in some eyes which have not seen me but none that I know hath so much demerited me unknown as your worthy Familie Ere therefore you see my face see my hand willingly professing my thankfull obligations Wherewith may it please you to accept of this parcel of thoughts not unlike those fellows of theirs whom you have entertained above their desert These shall present unto you our Bountifull Saviour magnifying his mercies to men in a sweet variety healing the Diseased raising the Dead casting out the Devil calling in the Publican and shall raise your heart to adore that infinite goodness Every help to our Devotion deserves to be precious so much more as the decrepit age of the World declines to an heartlesse coldnesse of Piety That God to whose Honour these poor Labours are meant blesse them in your hands and from them to all Readers To his Protection I heartily commend you and the Right vertuous Gentlewoman your worthy Wife with all the Pledges of your happy affection as whom you have deserved to be Your truly thankful and officious Friend JOS. HALL The Widows son raised THE favours of our beneficent Saviour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurion's Servant from his bed then he raises the Widows Son from his Biere The fruitful clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bounty of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sun were fixed in one Orbe yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingrosse the messengers of the Gospel whose errand is universal This immortal seed may not fall all in one furrow The little City of Nain stood under the hill of Hermon near unto Tabor but now it is watered with better dews from above the Doctrine and Miracles of a Saviour Not for state but for the more evidence of the work is our Saviour attended with a large train so entering into the gate of that walled City as if he meant to besiege their Faith by his Power and to take it His Providence hath so contrived his journey that he meets with the sad pomp of a Funeral A woful Widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her onely Son to the grave There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A young man in the flower in the strength of his age swallowed up by death Our decrepit age both exspects death and solicits it but vigorous youth looks strangely upon that grim Serjeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather up with contentment we chide to have the unripe unseasonably beaten down with cudgels But more a young man the onely Son the onely childe of his mother No condition can make it other then grievous for a well-natur'd mother to part with her own bowels yet surely store is some mitigation of loss Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still we hope the surviving may supply the comforts of the dead But when all our hopes and joyes must either live or dy in one the loss of that one admits of no consolation When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable he can but say oh daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in the ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely Son Such was the loss such was the sorrow of this disconsolate mother neither words nor tears can suffice to discover it Yet more had she been aided by the counsel and supportation of a loving yoke-fellow this burden might have seemed less intolerable A good Husband may make amends for the loss of a Son had the root been left to her intire she might better have spared the branch now both are cut up all the stay of her life is gone and she seems abandoned to a perfect misery And now when she gave her self up for a forlorn mourner past all capacity of redress the God of comfort meets her pities her relieves her Here was no solicitor but his own compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a Servant the Ruler for a Son Jairus for a Daughter the neighbours for the Paralytick here he seeks up the Patient and offers the cure unrequested Whiles we have to doe with the Father of Mercies our afflictions are the most powerful suitors No teares no prayers can move him so much as his own commiseration O God none of our secret sorrows can be either hid from thine eyes or kept from thine heart and when we are past all our hopes all possibilities of help then art thou nearest to us for deliverance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy The Heart had compassion the Mouth said Weep not the Feet went to the Bier the Hand touched the coffin the Power of the Deity raised the dead What the Heart felt was secret to it self the Tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weep not Alas what are words to so strong and just passions To bid her not to weep that had lost her only Son was to perswade her to be
I kept silence my bones consumed For day and night thy hand O Lord was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer O let me confess against my self my wickedness unto thee that thou maist forgive the punishment of my sinne We have a tongue for God when we praise him for our selves when we pray and confess for our brethren when we speak the truth for their information which if we hold back in unrighteousness we yield unto that dumb Devil Where do we not see that accursed spirit He is on the Bench when the mute or partial Judge speaks not for truth and innocence He is in the Pulpit when the Prophets of God smother or halve or adulterate the message of their Master He is at the Barre when irreligious Jurours dare lend an oath to fear to hope to gain He is in the Market when godless chapmen for their peny sell the truth and their soul He is in the common conversation of men when the tongue belies the heart flatters the guilty balketh reproofs even in the foulest crimes O thou who onely art stronger then that strong one cast him out of the hearts and mouths of men It is time for thee Lord to work for they have destroyed thy Law That it might well appear this impediment was not natural so soon as the man is freed from the spirit his tongue is free to his speech The effects of spirits as they are wrought so they cease at once If the Son of God do but remove our spiritual possession we shall presently break forth into the praise of God into the confession of our vileness into the profession of truth But what strange variety do I see in the spectators of his Miracle some wondring others censuring a third sort tempting a fourth applauding There was never man or action but was subject to variety of constructions What man could be so holy as he that was God What act could be more worthy then the dispossessing of an evil spirit Yet this man this act passeth these differences of interpretation What can we doe to undergoe but one opinion If we give almes and fast some will magnifie our charity and devotion others will tax our hypocrisie If we give not some will condemn our hard-heartedness others will allow our care of justice If we preach plainly to some it will favour of a careless slubbering to others oft a mortified sincerity elaborately some will tax our affectation others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God What marvel is it if it be thus with our imperfection when it fared not otherwise with him that was Purity and Righteousness it self The austere forerunner of Christ came neither eating nor drinking they say He hath a Devil The Son of man came eating and drinking they say This man is a glutton a friend of Publicans and sinners and here one of his holy acts carries away at once wonder censure doubt celebration There is no way safe for a man but to square his actions by the right rule of justice of charity and then let the world have leave to spend their glosses at pleasure It was an heroical resolution of the chosen vessel I pass very little to be judged of you or of mans day I marvel not if the people marvelled for here were four wonders in one the blind saw the deaf heard the dumb spake the Demoniack is delivered Wonder was due to so rare and powerful a work and if not this nothing We can cast away admiration upon the poor devices or activities of men how much more upon the extraordinary works of Omnipotency Whoso knows the frame of Heaven and earth shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of frail Humanity but shall with no less Ravishment of soul acknowledge the miraculous works of the same Almighty hand Neither is the spiritual ejection worthy of any meaner entertainment Rarity and difficulty are wont to cause wonder There are many things which have wonder in their worth and lose it in their frequence there are some which have it in their strangeness and lose it in their facilitie Both meet in this To see men haunted yea possessed with a dumb Devil is so frequent that it is a just wonder to finde a man free but to finde the dumb spirit cast out of a man and to hear him praising God confessing his sins teaching others the sweet experiments of mercy deserves just admiration If the Cynick sought in the market for a man amongst men well may we seek amongst men for a Convert Neither is the difficulty less then the rareness The strong man hath the possession all passages are block'd up all helps barred by the treachery of our nature If any soul be rescued from these spiritual wickednesses it is the praise of him that doth wonders alone But whom do I see wondring The multitude The unlearned beholders follow that act with wonder which the learned Scribes entertain with obloquy God hath revealed those things to babes which he hath hid from the wise and prudent With what scorn did those great Rabbins speak of these sons of the earth This people that knows not the Law is accursed Yet the Mercy of God makes an advantage of their simplicity in that they are therefore less subject to cavillation and incredulitie as contrarily his Justice causes the proud knowledge of others to lie as a block in their way to the ready assent unto the Divine power of the Messias Let the pride of glorious adversaries disdain the povertie of the clients of the Gospel it shall not repent us to go to Heaven with the vulgar whiles their great ones go in state to perdition The multitude wondered Who censured but Scribes great Doctors of the Law of the divinitie of the Jews What Scribes but those of Jerusalem the most eminent Academie of Judaea These were the men who out of their deep reputed judgement cast these foul aspersions upon Christ Great wits ofttimes mislead both the owners and followers How many shall once wish they had been born dullards yea idiots when they shall finde their wit to have barred them out of Heaven Where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisdome of the world foolishness Say the world what it will a dram of holiness is worth a pound of wit Let others censure with the Scribes let me wonder with the multitude What could malice say worse He casteth out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils The Jewes well knew that the Gods of the heathen were no other then Devils amongst whom for that the Lord of Flies so called whether for the concourse of flies to the abundance of his sacrifices or for his aid implored against the infestation of those swarms was held the chief therefore they stile him The Prince of Devils There is a subordination of spirits some higher in degree some inferiour to others Our Saviour himself tells
us of the Devil and his Angels Messengers are inferiour to those that send them The seven Devils that entered into the swept and garnished house were worse then the former Neither can Principalities and Powers and Governours and Princes of the darkness of this World design others then several ranks of evil Angels There can be no being without some kind of order there can be no order in parity If we look up into Heaven there is The King of Gods The Lord of Lords higher then the highest If to the earth there are Monarchs Kings Princes Peeres people If we look down to Hell there is the Prince of Devils They labour for Confusion that call for Parity What should the Church doe with such a for me as is not exempliied in Heaven in Earth in Hell One Devil according to their supposition may be used to cast out another How far the command of one spirit over another may extend it is a secret of infernal state too deep for the inquiry of men The thing it self is apparent upon compact and precontracted composition one gives way to other for the common advantage As we see in the Common-wealth of Cheaters and Cut-purses one doth the fact another is feed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actor falls not out with the revealer but divides with him that cunning spoil One malicious miscreant sets the Devil on work to the inflicting of disease or death another upon agreement for a further spiritual gain takes him off There is a Devil in both And if there seem more bodily favour there is no less spiritual danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitor in the other It will be no cause of discord in Hell that one Devil gives ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gain of a Soul Oh God that any creature which bears thine Image should not abhorre to be beholding to the powers of Hell for aid for advice Is is not because there is not a God in Israel that men goe to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men be so sottish to think that the vowed enemie of their Souls can offer them a bait without an hook What evil is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redress He wounds he heals again And if he will not It is the Lord let him doe what seems good in his eyes If he do not deliver us he will crown our faithfulness in a patient perseverance The wounds of God are better then the salves of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Envy could devise so high a slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Devil to the Jewes therefore they accuse him for a conjurer Beelzebub was the chief of Devils therefore they accuse him for on Arch-exorcist for the worst kinde of Magician Some professors of this black Art though their work be devilish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Jesus and will presumptuously seem to doe that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement The Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Devil and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the Law of Moses in the very hand of a Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deep doth this wound reach that our Saviour searching it to the bottome findes no less in it then the sin against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadful sentence of the irremissibleness of that sin unto death And if this horrible crimination were cast upon thee O Saviour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if we thy sinful servants be branded on all sides with evil tongues Yea which is yet more how plain is it that these men forced their tongue to speak this slander against their own heart Else this Blasphemy had been onely against the Son of man not against the Holy Ghost but now that the searcher of hearts findes it to be no less then against the Blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully cross their conscience Envie never regards how true but how mischievous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For us Blessed are we when men revile us and say all manner of evil of us for the name of Chirst For them What reward shall be given to thee thou false tongue Even sharp arrows with hot burning coales yea those very coales of hell from which thou wert inkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid-way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the miracle to a Satanical operation they confess it good but not enough and therefore urge Christ to a further proof Though thou hast cast out this dumb Devil yet this is no sufficient argument of thy Divine power We have yet seen nothing from thee like those antient Miracles of the times of our fore-fathers Joshuah caused the Sun to stand still Elias brought fire down from heaven Samuel astonish'd the people with thunder and rain in the midst of harvest If thou wouldst command our belief doe somewhat like to these The casting out of a Devil shews thee to have some power over Hell shew us now that thou hast no less power over Heaven There is a kinde of unreasonableness of desire and insatiableness in infidelity it never knows when it hath evidence enough This which the Jews overlooked was a more irrefragable demonstration of Divinity then that which they desired A Devil was more then a Meteor or a parcel of an element to cast out a Devil by command more then to command fire from Heaven Infidelity ever loves to be her own carver No son can be more like a father then these Jews to their progenitours in the desart that there might be no fear of degenerating into good they also of old tempted God in the Wilderness First they are weary of the Egyptian bondage and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those fornaces By ten miraculous Plagues they are freed and going out of those confines the Egyptians follow them the Sea is before them now they are more afflicted with their liberty then their servitude The Sea yields way the Egyptians are drowned and now that they are safe on the other shore they tempt the Providence of God for water The Rock yields it them then no less for bread and meat God sends them Manna and Quailes they cry out of the food of Angels Their present enemies in the way are vanquished they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan Nothing from God but Mercy nothing from them but Temptations Their true brood both in nature and in sin had abundant proofs of the
no moment be free He can be no more weary of doing evil to us then God is of doing good Are we therefore preserved from the malignity of these powers of darkness Blessed be our strong Helper that hath not given us over to be a prey unto their teeth Or if some scope have been given to that envious one to afflict us hath it been with favourable limitations it is thine only mercy O God that hath chained and muzled up this band-dog so as that he may scratch us with his paws but cannot pierce us with his fangs Far far is this from our deserts who had too well merited a just abdication from thy favour and protection and an interminable seisure by Satan both in soul and body Neither do I here see more matter of thanks to our God for our immunity from the external injuries of Satan then occasion of serious inquiry into his power over us for the spiritual I see some that think themselves safe from this ghostly tyranny because they sometimes finde themselves in good moods free from the suggestions of gross sins much more from the commission Vain men that feed themselves with so false and frivolous comforts will they not see Satan through the just permission of God the same to the Soul in mental possessions that he is to the body in corporal The worst Demoniack hath his lightsome respites not ever tortured not ever furious betwixt whiles he might look soberly talk sensibly move regularly It is a wofull comfort that we sin not alwaies There is no Master so barbarous as to require of his Slave a perpetual unintermitted toyle yet though he sometimes eat sleep rest he is a vassal still If that Wicked one have drawn us to a customary perpetration of evil and have wrought us to a frequent iteration of the same sin this is gage enough for our servitude matter enough for his tyranny and insultation He that would be our Tormenter alwaies cares onely to be sometimes our Tempter The possessed is bound as with the invisible fetters of Satan so with the material chains of the inhabitants What can bodily forces prevail against a spirit Yet they endeavour this restraint of the man whether out of charity or justice Charity that he might not hurt himself Justice that he might not hurt others None do so much befriend the Demoniack as those that binde him Neither may the spiritually possessed be otherwise handled for though this act of the enemy be plausible and to appearance pleasant yet there is more danger in this dear and smiling tyranny Two sorts of chains are fit for outragious sinners good laws unpartiall executions That they may not hurt that they may not be hurt to eternal death These iron chains are no sooner fast then broken There was more then an humane power in this disruption It is not hard to conceive the utmost of Nature in this kinde of actions Sampson doth not break the cords and ropes like a threed of towe but God by Sampson The man doth not break these chains but the Spirit How strong is the arm of these evil angels how far transcending the ordinary course of Nature They are not called Powers for nothing What flesh blood could but tremble at the palpable inequality of this match if herein the mercifull protection of our God did not the rather magnifie it self that so much strength met with so much malice hath not prevailed against us In spight of both we are in safe hands He that so easily brake the iron fetters can never break the adamantine chain of our Faith In vain do the chafing billows of Hell beat upon that Rock whereon we are built And though these brittle chains of earthly metall be easily broken by him yet the sure-tempered chain of God's eternal Decree he can never break that Almighty Arbiter of Heaven and Earth and Hell hath chained him up in the bottomlesse pit and hath so restrained his malice that but for our good we cannot be tempted we cannot be foiled but for a glorious victory Alas it is no otherwise with the spiritually possessed The chains of restraint are commonly broken by the fury of wickedness What are the respects of civility fear of God fear of men wholsome laws carefull executions to the desperately licentious but as cobwebs to an hornet Let these wilde Demoniacks know that God hath provided chains for them that will hold even everlasting chains under darkness These are such as must hold the Devils themselves their masters unto the judgment of the great Day how much more those impotent vassals Oh that men would suffer themselves to be bound to their good behaviour by the sweet and easie recognizances of their duty to their God and the care of their own Souls that so they might rather be bound up in the bundle of life It was not for rest that these chains were torn off but for more motion This prisoner runs away from his friends he cannot run away from his Jaylor He is now carried into the Wildernesse not by mere external force but by internal impulsion carried by the same power that unbound him for the opportunity of his Tyranny for the horrour of the place for the affamishment of his body for the avoidance of all means of resistance Solitary Desarts are the delights of Satan It is an unwise zeal that moves us to doe that to our selves in an opinion of merit and holinesse which the Devil wishes to doe to us for a punishment and conveniency of tentation The evil Spirit is for solitarinesse God is for society He dwels in the assembly of his Saints yea there he hath a delight to dwell Why should not we account it our happinesse that we may have leave to dwell where the Author of all Happinesse loves to dwell There cannot be any misery incident unto us whereof our gracious Redeemer is not both conscious and sensible Without any intreaty therefore of the miserable Demoniack or suit of any friend the God of spirits takes pity of his distresse and from no motion but his own commands the evil Spirit to come out of the man Oh admirable precedent of mercy preventing our requests exceeding our thoughts forcing favours upon our impotence doing that for us which we should and yet cannot desire If men upon our instant solicitations would give us their best aide it were a just praise of their bounty but it well became thee O God of mercy to goe without force to give without suit And do we think thy goodness is impaired by thy glory If thou wert thus commiserative upon earth art thou lesse in Heaven How dost thou now take notice of all our complaints of all our infirmities How doth thine infinite pity take order to redress them What evil can befall us which thou knowest not feelest not relievest not How safe are we that have such a Guardian such a Mediator in Heaven Not long before had our Saviour commanded the windes and
when I see those Devils which are many in substance are one in name action habitation Who can too much brag of unity when it is incident unto wicked spirits All the praise of concord is in the subject if that be holy the consent is Angelical if sinfull devilish What a fearfull advantage have our spiritual enemies against us If armed troops come against single straglers what hope is there of life of victory How much doth it concern us to band our hearts together in a communion of Saints Our enemies come upon us like a torrent Oh let us not run asunder like drops in the dust All our united forces will be little enough to make head against this league of destruction Legion imports Order number conflict Order in that there is a distinction of regiment a subordination of Officers Though in Hell there be confusion of faces yet not confusion of degrees Number Those that have reckoned a Legion at the lowest have counted it six thousand others have more then doubled it Though here it is not strict but figurative yet the letter of it implies multitude How fearfull is the consideration of the number of Apostate Angels And if a Legion can attend one man how many must we needs think are they who all the world over are at hand to the punishment of the wicked the exercise of the good the tentation of both It cannot be hoped there can be any place or time wherein we may be secure from the onsets of these enemies Be sure ye lewd men ye shall want no furtherance to evil no torment for evil Be sure ye godly ye shall not want combatants to trie your strength and skill Awaken your courages to resist and stir up your hearts make sure the means of your safety There are more with us then against us The God of Heaven is with us if we be with him and our Angels behold the face of God If every Devil were a Legion we are safe Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we shall fear no evil Thou O Lord shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of our enemies and thy right hand shall save us Conflict All this number is not for sight for rest but for motion for action Neither was there ever hour since the first blow given to our first Parents wherein there was so much as a truce betwixt these adversaries As therefore strong frontier Towns when there is a peace concluded on both parts break up their garrison open their gates neglect their Bulwarks but when they hear of the enemy mustering his forces in great and unequal numbers then they double their guard keep Sentinell repair their Sconces so must we upon the certain knowledge of our numerous and deadly enemies in continual aray against us addresse our selves alwaies to a wary and strong resistance I do not observe the most to think of this ghostly hostility Either they do not find there are Tentations or those Tentations hurtful they see no worse then themselves and if they feel motions of evil arising in them they impute it to fancy or unreasonable appetite to no power but Nature's and those motions they follow without sensible hurt neither see they what harm it is to sin Is it any marvell that carnal eyes cannot discern spiritual Objects that the World who is the friend the vassal of Satan is in no war with him Elisha's servant when his eyes were opened saw troops of spiritual souldiers which before he discerned not If the eyes of our Souls be once enlightned by supernatural knowledge and the clear beams of Faith we shall as plainly descry the invisible powers of wickednesse as now our bodily eyes see Heaven and Earth They are though we see them not we cannot be safe from them if we do not acknowledge not oppose them The Devils are now become great suitors to Christ That he would not command them into the deep that he would permit their entrance into the swine What is this deep but hell both for the utter separation from the face of God and for the impossibility of passage to the region of Rest and Glory The very evil spirits then fear and expect a further degree of torment they know themselves reserved in those chains of darknesse for the judgment of the great Day There is the same wages due to their sins to ours neither are the wages paid till the work be done They tempting men to sin must needs sin grievously in tempting as with us men those that mislead into sin offend more then the actors Not till the upshot therefore of their wickednesse shall they receive the full measure of their condemnation This day this deep they tremble at what shall I say of those men that fear it not It is hard for men to believe their own unbelief If they were perswaded of this fiery dungeon this bottomlesse deep wherein every sin shall receive an horrible portion with the damned durst they stretch forth their hands to wickednesse No man will put his hand into a fiery Crucible to fetch gold thence because he knows it will burn him Did we as truly believe the everlasting burning of that infernal fire we durst not offer to fetch Pleasures or Profits out of the midst of those flames This degree of torment they grant in Christ's power to command they knew his power unresistible had he therefore but said Back to hell whence ye came they could no more have stai'd upon earth then they can now climbe into Heaven O the wonderfull dispensation of the Almighty who though he could command all the evil spirits down to their dungeons in an instant so as they should have no more opportunity of Temptation yet thinks fit to retain them upon earth It is not out of weaknesse or improvidence of that Divine hand that wicked spirits tyrannize here upon earth but out of the most wise and most holy ordination of God who knows how to turn evil into good how to fetch good out of evil and by the worst instruments to bring about his most just decrees Oh that we could adore that awfull and infinite power and chearfully cast our selves upon that Providence which keeps the Keyes even of Hell it self and either lets out or returns the Devils to their places Their other suit hath some marvell in moving it more in the grant That they might be suffered to enter into the Herd of Swine It was their ambition of some mischief that brought forth this desire that since they might not vex the body of man they might yet afflict men in their goods The Malice of these envious spirits reacheth from us to ours It is sore against their wills if we be not every way miserable If the Swine were Legally unclean for the use of the table yet they were naturally good Had not Satan known them usefull for man he had never desired their ruine But as Fencers will seem to fetch a blow at
thy words never till now at thy silence A miserable suppliant cries and sues whiles the God of mercies is speechlesse He that comforts the afflicted addes affliction to the comfortlesse by a willing disrespect What shall we say then Is the fountain of Mercy dried up O Saviour couldst thou but hear she did not murmur not whisper but cry out couldst thou but pity but regard her that was as good as she was miserable If thy ears were open could thy bowels be shut Certainly it was thou that didst put it into the heart into the mouth of this woman to ask and to ask thus of thy self She could never have said O Lord thou son of David but from thee but by thee None calleth Jesus the Lord but by the holy Ghost Much more therefore didst thou hear the words of thine own making and well wert thou pleased to hear what thou thoughtest good to forbear to answer It was thine own grace that sealed up thy lips Whether for the triall of her patience and perseverance forâ— silence carried a semblance of neglect and a willing neglect laies strong siege to the best fort of the Soul Even calm tempers when they have been stirred have bewrayed impetuousness of Passion If there be any dregs in the bottom of the glasse when the water is shaken they will be soon seen Or whether for the more sharpning of her desires and raising of her zealous importunity Our holy longings are increased with delaies it whets our appetite to be held fasting Or whether for the more sweetning of the blessing by the difficulty or stay of obtaining The benefit that comes with ease is easily contemned Long and eager pursuit endears any favour Or whether for the ingaging of his Disciples in so charitable a suit Or whether for the wise avoidance of exception from the captious Jews or lastly for the drawing on of an holy and imitable pattern of faithfull perseverance and to teach us not to measure God's hearing of our suit by his present answer or his present answer by our own sense Whiles our weakness exspects thy words thy wisdome resolves upon thy silence Never wert thou better pleased to hear the acclamation of Angels then to hear this woman say O Lord thou son of David yet silence is thy answer When we have made our prayers it is an happy thing to hear the report of them back from Heaven but if we alwaies do not so it is not for us to be dejected and to accuse either our infidelity or thy neglect since we finde here a faithfull suitor met with a gracious Saviour and yet he answered her not a word If we be poor in spirit God is rich in mercy he cannot send us away empty yet he will not alwaies let us feel his condescent crossing us in our will that he may advance our benefit It was no small fruit of Christ's silence that the Disciples were hereupon moved to pray for her not for a mere dismission it had been no favour to have required this but a punishment for if to be held in suspense be miserable to be sent away with a repulse is more but for a mercifull grant They saw much passion in the woman much cause of passion they saw great discouragement on Christ's part great constancy on hers Upon all these they feel her misery and become suitors for her unrequested It is our duty in case of necessity to intercede for each other and by how much more familiar we are with Christ so much more to improve our interest for the relief of the distressed We are bidden to say Our Father not mine yea being members of one body we pray for our selves in others If the foot be prickt the back bends the head bows down the eyes look the hands stir the tongue calls for aide the whole man is in pain and labours for redresse He cannot pray or be heard for himself that is no mans friend but his own No prayer without faith no faith without charity no charity without mutual intercession That which urged them to speak for her is urged to Christ by them for her obtaining She cries after us Prayer is as an arrow if it be drawn up but a little it goes not far but if it be pull'd up to the head it flies strongly and pierces deep If it be but dribbled forth of carelesse lips it falls down at our foot the strength of our ejaculation sends it up into Heaven and fetches down a blessing The childe hath escaped many a stripe by his loud crying and the very unjust Judge cannot indure the widows clamour Heartless motions do but teach us to deny servent suits offer violence both to earth and Heaven Christ would not answer the woman but doth answer the Disciples Those that have a familiarity with God shall receive answers when strangers shall stand out Yea even of domesticks some are more intire He that lay in Jesus his bosome could receive that intelligence which was concealed from the rest But who can tell whether that silence or this answer be more grievous I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel What is this answer but a defence of that silence and seeming neglect Whiles he said nothing his forbearance might have been supposed to proceed from the necessity of some greater thoughts but now his answer professeth that silence to have proceeded from a willing resolution not to answer and therefore he doth not vouchsafe so much as to give to her the answer but to her solicitors that they might return his deniall from him to her who had undertaken to derive her suit to him I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Like a faithfull Embassadour Christ hath an eye to his commission That may not be violated though to an apparant advantage whither he is not sent he may not goe As he so all his have their fixed marks set at these they aime and think it not safe to shoot at rovers In matter of morality it is not for us to stand onely upon inhibitions avoiding what is forbidden but upon commands endeavouring only what is injoyned We need no other rule of our life then the intention of our several stations And if he that was God would take no further scope to himself then the limits of his commission how much doth it concern us frail men to keep within compass or what shall become of our lawlesness that live in a direct contrariety to the will of him that sent us Israel was Jacob's name from him derived to his posterity till the division of the Tribes under Jeroboam all that nation was Israel then the Father's name went to the most which were ten Tribes the name of the Son Juda to the best which were two Christ takes no notice of this unhappy division he remembers the antient name which he gave to that faithfull wrestler It was this Christ with whom Jacob strove it was he
light eschueth the light even in good To seek our own glory is not glory Although besides this bashfull desire of obscurity here is a meet regard of opportunity in the carriage of our actions The envy of the Scribes and Pharisees might trouble the passage of his Divine ministery their exasperation is wisely declined by this retiring He in whose hands time is knows how to make his best choice of seasons Neither was it our Saviours meaning to have this Miracle buried but hid Wisdome hath no better improvement then in distinguishing times and discreetly marshalling the circumstances of our actions which whosoever neglects shall be sure to shame his work and mar his hopes Is there a spiritual Patient to be cured Aside with him To undertake him before the face of the multitude is to wound not to heal him Reproof and good counsel must be like our Alms in secret so as if possible one eare or hand might not be conscious to the other As in some cases Confession so our Reprehension must be auricular The discreet Chirurgion that would cure a modest Patient whose secret complaint hath in it more shame then pain shuts out all eyes save his own It is enough for the God of Justice to say Thou didst it secretly but I will doe it before all Israel and before this Sun Our limited and imperfect wisedome must teach us to apply private redresses to private maladies It is the best remedy that is least seen and most felt What means this variety of ceremony O Saviour how many parts of thee are here active Thy finger is put into the eare thy spittle toucheâ—h the tongue thine eyes look up thy lungs sigh thy lips move to an Ephphatha Thy word alone thy beck alone thy wish alone yea the least act of velleity from thee might have wrought this cure Why wouldst thou imploy so much of thy self in this work Was it to shew thy liberty in not alwaies equally exercising the power of thy Deity in that one-while thine onely command shall raise the dead and eject Devils another while thou wouldest accommodate thy self to the mean and homely fashions of natural agents and condescending to our senses and customes take those waies which may carry some more near respect to the cure intended Or was it to teach us how well thou likest that there should be a ceremonious carriage of thy solemn actions which thou pleasest to produce cloathed with such circumstantial formes It did not content thee to put one finger into one eare but into either eare wouldst thou put a finger Both ears equally needed cure thou wouldest apply the means of cure to both The Spirit of God is the finger of God Then dost thou O Saviour put thy finger into our eare when thy Spirit inables us to hear effectually If we thrust our own fingers into our eares using such humane perswasions to our selves as arise from worldly grounds we labour in vain yea these stoppels must needs hinder our hearing the voice of God Hence the great Philosophers of the antient world the learned Rabbins of the Synagogue the great Doctors of a false faith are deaf to spiritual things It is only that finger of thy Spirit O blessed Jesu that can open our eares and make passage through our eares into our hearts Let that finger of thine be put into our eares so shall our deafnesse be removed and we shall hear not the loud thunders of the Law but the gentle whisperings of thy gracious motions to our Souls We hear for our selves but we speak for others Our Saviour was not content to open the eares only but to untie the tongue With the eare we hear with the mouth we confesse The same hand is applied to the tongue not with a drie touch but with spittle in allusion doubtlesse to the removal of the natural impediment of speech Moisture we know glibs the tongue and makes it apt to motion how much more from that Sacred mouth There are those whose ears are open but their mouths are still shut to God they understand but do not utter the wonderfull things of God There is but half a Cure wrought upon these men their eare is but open to hear their own judgment except their mouth be open to confesse their Maker and Redeemer O God do thou so moisten my tongue with thy Graces that it may run smoothly as the pen of a ready writer to the praise of thy Name Whiles the finger of our Saviour was on the tongue in the eare of the Patient his eye was in Heaven Never man had so much cause to look up to Heaven as he there was his home there was his throne He onely was from Heaven heavenly Each of us hath a good minde homeward though we meet with better sights abroad how much more when our home is so glorious above the region of our peregrination But thou O Saviour hadst not onely thy dwelling there but thy seat of Majesty There the greatest Angels adored thee it is a wonder that thine eye could be ever any where but there What doth thine eye in this but teach ours where to be fixed Every good gift and every perfect gift coming down from above how can we look off from that place whence we receive all good Thou didst not teach us to say O infinite God which art every where but O our father which art in Heaven There let us look up to thee Oh let not our eyes or hearts grovell upon this earth but let us fasten them above the hills whence cometh our salvation Thence let us acknowledge all the good we receive thence let us expect all the good we want Why our Saviour look'd up to Heaven though he had Heaven in himself we can see reason enough But why did he sigh Surely not for need The least motion of a thought was in him impetratory How could he chuse but be heard of his Father who was one with the Father Not for any fear of distrust but partly for compassion partly for example For compassion of those manifold infirmities into which sin had plunged mankinde a pitiful instance whereof was here presented unto him For example to fetch sighs from us for the miseries of others sighs of sorrow for them sighs of desire for their redresse This is not the first time that our Saviour spent sighs yea tears upon humane distresses We are not bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh if we so feel not the smart of our brethren that the fire of our passion break forth into the smoak of sighs Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not Christ was not silent whiles he cured the dumb his Ephphatha gave life to all these his other actions His sighing his spitting his looking up to Heaven were the acts of a man But his command of the eare and mouth to open was the act of God He could not command that which he made not His word is
himself that owns the roof that receives him But oh the incomparable happiness then of that man whose heart receives him not for a day not for years of dayes not for millions of years but for eternity This may be our condition if we be not streightned in our own bowels O Saviour do thou welcome thy self to these houses of clay that we may receive a joyful welcome to thee in those everlasting habitations Zacheus was not more glad of Christ then the Jews were discontented Four vices met here at once Envy Scrupulousness Ignorance Pride Their eye was evil because Christ's was good I do not hear any of them invite Christ to his home yet they snarl at the honour of this unworthy Host they thought it too much happiness for a Sinner which themselves willingly neglected to sue for Wretched men they cannot see the Mercy of Christ for being bleared with the happiness of Zacheus yea that very Mercy which they see torments them If that viper be the deadliest which feeds the sweetest how poisonous must this disposition needs be that feeds upon Grace What a contrariety there is betwixt good Angels and evil men The Angels rejoyce at that whereat men pout and stomack men are ready to cry and burst for anger at that which makes musick in Heaven Oh wicked and foolish elder brother that feeds on hunger and his own heart without doors because his younger brother is feasting on the fat calf within Besides Envy they stand scrupulously upon the terms of Traditions These sons of the earth might not be conversed with their threshold was unclean Touch me not for I am holier then thou That he therefore who went for a Prophet should go to the house of a Publican and Sinner must needs be a great eye-sore They that might not go in to a Sinner cared not what sins entred into themselves the true cozens of those Hypocrites who held it a pollution to go into the Judgment-hall no pollution to murder the Lord of life There cannot be a greater argument of a false heart then to stumble at these straws and to leap over the blocks of gross impiety Well did our Saviour know how hainously offensive it would be to turn in to this Publican he knows and regards it not A Soul is to be won what cares he for idle misconstruction Morally good actions must not be suspended upon danger of causeless scandal In things indifferent and arbitrary it is fit to be overruled by fear of offence but if men will stumble in the plain ground of good let them fall without our regard not without their own peril I know not if it were not David's weakness to abstain from good words whiles the wicked were in place Let Justice be done in spite of the world and in spite of Hell Mercy Ignorance was in part guilty of these scruples they thought Christ either too holy to go to a Sinner or in going made unholy Foolish men to whom came he To you righteous Let himself speak I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Whither should the Physician go but to the sick the who le need him not Love is the best attractive of us and he to whom much is forgiven loves much O Saviour the glittering palaces of proud Justiciaries are not for thee thou lovest the lowly and ragged cottage of a contrite heart Neither could here be any danger of thy pollution Thy Sun could cast his beams upon the impurest dunghil and not be tainted It was free and safe for the Leper and Bloody-fluxed to touch thee thou couldst heal them they could not infect thee Neither is it otherwise in this moral contagion We who are obnoxious to evil may be insensibly defiled thy Purity was enough to remedy that which might marre a world Thou canst help us we cannot hurt thee Oh let thy presence ever bless us and let us ever bless thee for thy presence Pride was an attendant of this Ignorance so did they note Zacheus for a Sinner as if themselves had been none His sins were written in his forehead theirs in their breast The presumption of their secrecy makes them insult upon his notoriousness The smoke of pride flies still upward and in the mounting vanisheth Contrition beats it down and fetcheth tears from the tender eyes There are stage-sins and there are closet-sins These may not upbraid the other they may be more hainous though less manifest It is a dangerous vanity to look outward at other mens sins with scorn when we have more need to cast our eyes inward to see our own with humiliation Thus they stumbled and fell but Zacheus stood All their malicious murmur could not dishearten his Piety and Joy in the entertaining of Christ Before Zacheus lay down as a Sinner now he stands up as a Convert sinning is falling continuance in sin is lying down Repentance is rising and standing up Yet perhaps this standing was not so much the site of his Constancy or of his Conversion as of his Reverence Christ's affability hath not made him unmannerly Zacheus stood And what if the desire of more audibleness raised him to his feet In that smalness of stature it was not fit he should lose ought of his height It was meet so noble a proclamation should want no advantage of hearing Never was our Saviour better welcomed The penitent Publican makes his Will and makes Christ his Supervisor His Will consists of Legacies given of Debts paid gifts to the poor payments to the injuried There is Liberality in the former in the latter Justice in both the proportions are large Half to the poor fourfold to the wronged This hand sowed not sparingly Here must needs be much of his own that was well gotten whether left by patrimony or saved by parsimony or gained by honest improvement For when he had restored fourfold to every one whom he had oppressed yet there remained a whole half for pious uses and this he so distributes that every word commends his bounty I give and what is more free then gist In alms we may neither sell nor return nor cast away We sell if we part with them for importunity for vain-glory for retribution we return them if we give with respect to former offices this is to pay not to bestow we cast away if in our beneficence we neither regard order nor discretion Zacheus did neither cast away nor return nor sell but give I do give not I will The prorogation of good makes it thankless The alms that smell of the hand lose the praise It is twice given that is given quickly Those that deferre their gifts till their death-bed do as good as say Lord I will give thee something when I can keep it no longer Happy is the man that is his own executor I give my goods not anothers It is a thankless vanity to be liberal of another mans purse Whoso gives of that which he hath taken away from the owner doth more
now he hâ—art-burns as an enemy neither was it any counterfeit respect sure the man was then in earnest What shall we say then was it that his inconstant heart was now fetcht off by Herodias and wrought to a disaffection or was it with Herod as with Salomon's Sluggard that at once would and would not His thoughts are distracted with a mixt voluntary contradiction of purposes as an holy man and honoured of the people he would not kill John he would kill him as an enemy to his Lust The worst part prevaileth Appetite oversways Reason and Conscience and now were it not for fear of the people John should be murdered What a self-conflicting and prodigious creature is a wicked man left over to his own thoughts whiles on the one side he is urged by his Conscience on the other by his lustful desires and by the importunity of Satan There is no peace saith my God to the wicked and after all his inward broils he falls upon the worst so as his yieldance is worse then his fight When God sees fit Herod's tyranny shall effect that which the wiâ—e Providence of the Almighty hath decreed for his Servants glory In the mean while rubs shall be cast in his way and this for one He feared the people What an absurd and sottish thing is Hypocrisy Herod feares the people he feares not God Tell me then Herod what could the people doe at the worst Perhaps mutiny against thee raise arms and tumults disturb the Government it may be shake it off What could God doe yea what not stirre up all his creatures to plague thee and when he hath done tumble thee down to Hell and there torment thee everlastingly O fond Herod that fearest where no fear was and fearest not where there is nothing but terrour How God fits lewd men with restraints If they be so godless as to regard his creature above himself he hath external buggs to affright them withall if bashful he hath shame if covetous losses if proud disgrace and by this meanes the most wise Providence keeps the world in order We cannot better judge of our hearts then by what we most fear No man is so great as to be utterly exempted from fear The Jews feared Herod Herod feared the Jews the healthful fear sickness the free servitude the people fear a Tyrants oppression and cruelty the Tyrant fears the peoples mutiny and insurrection If there have been some so great as to be above the reach of the power and machinations of inferiours yet never any that have been free from their fears and suspicions Happy is he that fears nothing but what he should God Why did Herod fear the people They held John for a Prophet And this opinion was both common and constant even the Scribes and Pharisees durst not say his Baptisme was from men It is the wisdome and goodness of God ever to give his children favour somewhere If Jezebel hate Elias Ahab shall for the time honour him and if Herod hate the Baptist and would kill him yet the people reverence him Herod's malice would make him away the peoples reputation keeps him alive As wise Princes have been content to maintain a faction in their Court or State for their own purposes so here did the God of Heaven contrive and order differences of judgment and affection betwixt Herod and his subjects for his own holy ends Else certainly if all wicked men should conspire in evil there could be no being upon earth as contrarily if evil spirits did not accord Hell could not stand Oh the unjust and fond partiality of this people They all generally applaud John for a Prophet yet they receive not his message Whose Prophet was John but of the Highest what was his errand but to be the way-maker unto Christ what was he but the Voice of that Eternal Word of his Father what was the found of that Voice but Behold the Lamb of God He that comes after me is greater then I whose shoe-latchet I am not worthy to unlose Yet they honour the servant and reject the Master they contemn that Prince whose Embassador they reveâ—ence How could they but argue John is a Prophet he speaks from God his words must be true he tells us this is the Lamb of God the Messias that should â—ome to redeem the World this must then needs be he we will look for no other Yet this perverse people receives John and rejects Jesus There is ever an absurdity in unbelief whiles it separates those relations and respects which can never in Nature be disjoyned Thus it readily apprehends God as merciful in pardoning not as just in punishing Christ as a Saviour not as a Judge Thus we ordinarily in a contrariety to these Jews professe to receive the Master and contemn the servants whiles he hath said that will make it good He that despiseth you despiseth me That which Herod in policie durst not in wine he dares doe And that which God had restrained till his own time now in his own time he permits to be done The day was as one of the Evangelists styles it convenient if for the purpose of Herodias I am sure for God's who having determined to glorifie himself by John's martyrdom will cast it upon a time when it may be most notified Herod's birth-day All the Peers of the Country perhaps of the neighbour Nations are now assembled Herodias could not have found out a time more fit to blazon her own shame and cruelty then in such a confluence The wise Providence of God many times pays us with our own choice so as when we think to have brought about our own Ends to our best content we bring about his purposes to our own confusion Herod's birth-day is kept and so was Pharaoh's both of them with blood These personal stains cannot make the practice unlawful Where the man is good the Birth is memorable What blessing have we if life be none and if our life be a blessing why should it not be celebrated Excess and disorder may blemish any Solemnity but that cleaves to the act not to the institution Herod's birth-day was kept with a feast and this Feast was a Supper It was fit to be a night-work this Festivity was spent in works of darkness not of the light it was a childe of darkness that was then born not of the day Those that are drunken are drunk in the night There is a kinde of shame in Sin even where it is committed with the stiffest resolution at least there was wont to be if now Sin be grown impudent and Justice bashful woe be to us That there might be perfect revels at Herod's Birth-day besides the Feast there is musick and dancing and that by Salome the daughter of Herodias A meet Daughter for such a Mother bred according to the disposition of so immodest a Parent Dancing in it self as it is a set regular harmonious motion of the body cannot be unlawful more then walking or
passes from the ship to the shore That which brought him from Heaven to earth brought him also from the sea to land his compassion on their Souls that he might teach them compassion on their Bodies that he might heal and feed them Judaea was not large but populous it could not be but there must be amongst so many men many diseased it is no marvel if the report of so miraculous and universal sanations drew customers They found three advantages of cure above the power and performance of any earthly Physician Certainty Bounty Ease Certainty in that all comers were cured without fail Bounty in that they were cured without charge Ease in that they were cured without pain Farre be it from us O Saviour to think that thy Glory hath abated of thy Mercy still and ever thou art our assured bountiful and perfect Physician who healest all our diseases and takest away all our infirmities Oh that we could have our faithful recourse to thee in all our spiritual maladies it were as impossible we should want help as that thou shouldest want power and mercy That our Saviour might approve himself every way beneficent he that had filled the Souls of his Auditors with spiritual repast will now fill their Bodies with temporal and he that had approved himself the universal Physician of his Church will now be known to be the great housholder of the world by whose liberal provision mankinde is maintained He did not more miraculously heal then he feeds miraculously The Disciples having well noted the diligent and importune attendance of the multitude now towards evening come to their Master in a care of their repast and discharge This is a desart place and the time is now past Send the multitude away that they may goe into the villages and buy themselves victuals How well it becomes even spiritual guides to regard the bodily necessities of God's people This is not directly in our charge neither may we leave our sacred ministration to serve Tables But yet as the bodily father must take care for the Soul of his childe so must the spiritual have respect to the Body This is all that the world commonly looks after measuring their Pastors more by their dishes then by their doctrine or conversation as if they had the charge of their Bellies not of their Souls if they have open Cellars it matters not whether their Mouths be open If they be sociable in their carriage favourable and indulgent to their recreations full in their chear how easily doth the world dispense with either their negligence or enormities As if the Souls of these men lay in their weasand in their gut But surely they have reason to exspect from their Teachers a due proportion of Hospitality An unmeet parsimony is here not more odious then sinful And where ability wants yet care may not be wanting Those Preachers which are so intent upon their spiritual work that in the mean time they over-strain the weaknesses of their people holding them in their Devotions longer then humane frailty will permit forget not themselves more then their pattern and must be sent to school to these compassionate Disciples who when evening was come sue to Christ for the peoples dismission The place was desart the time evening Doubtless our Saviour made choice of both these that there might be both more use and more note of his Miracle Had it been in the morning their stomack had not been up their feeding had been unnecessary Had it been in the Village provision either might have been made or at least would have seemed made by themselves But now that it was both desart and evening there was good ground for the Disciples to move and for Christ to work their sustentation Then onely may we exspect and crave help from God when we finde our need Superfluous aid can neither be heartily desired nor earnestly lookt for nor thankfully received from the hands of mercy Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee If it be not a burden it is no casting it upon God Hence it is that Divine aid comes ever in the very upshot and exigence of our trials when we have been exercised and almost tired with long hopes yea with despairs of success that it may be both more longed for ere it come and when it comes more welcome Oh the Faith and Zeal of these clients of Christ They not only follow him from the City into the Desart from delicacy to want from frequence to solitude but forget their bodies in pursuit of the food of their Souls Nothing is more hard for an healthful man to forget then his belly within few hours this will be sure to solicit him and will take no denials Yet such sweetness did these hearers finde in the spiritual repast that they thought not on the bodily the Disciples pitied them they had no mercy on themselves By how much more a mans minde is taken up with Heavenly things so much less shall he care for earthly What shall earth be to us when we are all Spirit And in the mean time according to the degrees of our intellectual elevations shall be our neglect of bodily contentments The Disciples think they move well Send them away that they may buy victuals Here was a strong Charity but a weak Faith A strong Charity in that they would have the people relieved a weak Faith in that they supposed they could not otherwise be so well relieved As a man when he sees many wayes lie before him takes that which he thinks both fairest and nearest so doe they this way of relief lay openest to their view and promised most Well might they have thought It is as easie for our Master to feed them as to heal them there is an equal facility in all things to a supernatural power yet they say Send them away In all our projects and suits we are still ready to move for that which is most obvious most likely when sometimes that is less agreeable to the will of God The All-wise and Almighty arbiter of all things hath a thousand secret means to honour himself in his proceedings with us It is not for us to carve boldly for our selves but we must humbly depend on the disposal of his Wisdom and Mercy Our Saviours answer gives a strange check to their motion They need not depart Not need They had no victuals they must have there was none to be had What more need could be He knew the supply which he intended though they knew it not His command was therefore more strange then his assertion Give ye them to eat Nothing gives what it hath not Had they had victuals they had not called for a dismission and not having how should they give It was thy wisdom O Saviour thus to prepare thy Disciples for the intended Miracle Thou wouldst not doe it abruptly without an intimation both of the purpose of it and the necessity And how modestly dost thou
our own those of our Domesticks which labour in our service do but justly expect and challenge their diet whereas day-labourers are oft-times at their own finding How much more will that God who is infinite in mercy and power take order for the livelihood of those that attend him We see the birds of the aire provided for by him how rarely have we found any of them dead of hunger yet what doe they but what they are carried unto by natural instinct How much more where besides propriety there is a rational and willing service Shall the Israelites be fed with Manna Eliah by the Ravens the Widow by her multiplied meal and oyle Christs clients in the wilderness with loaves and fishes O God whiles thou dost thus promerit us by thy Providence let not us wrong thee by distrust God's undertakings cannot but be exquisite those whom he professes to feed must needs have enough The measure of his bounty cannot but run over Doth he take upon him to prepare a table for his Israel in the desart the bread shall be the food of Angels the flesh shall be the delicates of Princes Manna and Quails Doth he take upon him to make wine for the marriage-feast of Cana there shall be both store and choice the vintage yields poor stuff to this Will he feast his Auditors in the wilderness if they have not dainties they shall have plenty They were all satisfied Neither yet O Saviour is thy hand closed What abundance of heavenly doctrine dost thou set before us how are we feasted yea pampered with thy celestial delicacies Not according to our meanness but according to thy state are we fed Thrifty and niggardly collations are not for Princes We are full of thy goodness oh let our hearts run over with thanks I do gladly wonder at this Miracle of thine O Saviour yet so as that I forget not mine own condition Whence is it that we have our continual provision One and the same munificent hand doth all If the Israelites were fed with Manna in the desart and with corn in Canaan both were done by the same power and bounty If the Disciples were fed by the loaves multiplied and we by the grain multiplied both are the act of one Omnipotence What is this but a perpetual miracle O God which thou workest for our preservation Without thee there is no more power in the grain to multiply then in the loaf it is thou that givest it a body at thy pleasure even to every seed his own body it is thou that givest fulness of bread and cleanness of teeth It is no reason thy goodness should be less magnified because it is universal One or two baskets could have held the five loaves and two fishes not less then twelve can hold the remainders The Divine munificence provides not for our necessity only but for our abundance yea superfluity Envy and ignorance whiles they make God the author of enough are ready to impute the surplussage to another cause as we commonly say of wine that the liquor is God's the excess Satan's Thy table O Saviour convinces them which had more taken away then set on thy Blessing makes an estate not competent only but rich I hear of barns full of plenty and presses bursting out with new wine as the rewards of those that honour thee with their substance I hear of heads anointed with oyle and cups running over O God as thou hast a free hand to give so let us have a free heart to return thee the praise of thy Bounty Those fragments were left behind I do not see the people when they had filled their bellies cramming their pockets or stuffing their wallets yet the place was desart and some of them doubtless had farre home It becomes true Disciples to be content with the present not too solicitous for the future O Saviour thou didst not bid us beg bread for to morrow but for to day not that we should refuse thy bounty when thou pleasest to give but that we should not distrust thy Providence for the need we may have Even these fragments though but of barley loaves and fish-bones may not be left in the desart for the compost of that earth whereon they were increased but by our Saviours holy and just command are gathered up The liberal housekeeper of the world will not allow the loss of his orts the childrens bread may not be given to dogs and if the crums fall to their share it is because their smalness admits not of a collection If those who out of obedience or due thrift have thought to gather up crums have found them pearls I wonder not Surely both are alike the good creatures of the same Maker and both of them may prove equally costly to us in their wilful mispence But oh what shall we say that not crusts and crums not loaves and dishes and cups but whole patrimonies are idly lavisht away not merely lost this were more easie but ill spent in a wicked riot upon dice drabs drunkards Oh the fearful account of these unthrifty Bailifs which shall once be given in to our great Lord and Master when he shall call us to a strict reckoning of all our talents He was condemned that increased not the sum concredited to him what shall become of him that lawlesly impairs it Who gathered up these fragments but the twelve Apostles every one his basket â—â—ll They were the servitours that set on this banquet at the command of Christ they waited on the Tables they took away It was our Saviours just care that those offals should not perish but he well knew that a greater loss depended upon those scraps a loss of glory to the omnipotent worker of that Miracle The feeding of the multitude was but the one half of the work the other half was in the remnant Of all other it most concerns the successors of the Apostles to take care that the marvelous works of their God and Saviour may be improved to the best they may not suffer a crust or crum to be lost that may yield any glory to that Almighty agent Here was not any morsel or bone that was not worthy to be a relick every the least parcel whereof was no other then miraculous All the antient monuments of Gods supernatural power and mercy were in the keeping of Aaron and his sons There is no servant in the Family but should be thriftily careful for his Masters profit but most of all the Steward who is particularly charged with this oversight Wo be to us if we care only to gather up our own scraps with neglect of the pretious morsels of our Maker and Redeemer The Walk upon the Waters ALL elements are alike to their Maker He that had well approved his power on the Land will now shew it in the Aire and the Waters he that had preserved the multitude from the peril of hunger in the Desart will now preserve his Disciples from the peril of the tempest
in the Sea Where do we ever else finde any compulsion offered by Christ to his Disciples He was like the good Centurion he said to one Go and he goeth When he did but call them from their nets they came and when he sent them by paires into the Cities and Country of Juâ—aea to preach the Gospel they went There was never errand whereon they went unwillingly only now he constrained them to depart We may easily conceive how loth they were to leave him whether out of love or of common civility Peter's tongue did but when it was speak the heart of the rest Master thou knowest that I love thee Who could chuse but be in love with such a Master and who can willingly part from what he loves But had the respects been only common and ordinary how unfit might it seem to leave a Master now towards night in a wild place amongst strangers unprovided of the means of his passage Where otherwise therefore he needed but to bid now he constrains O Saviour it was ever thy manner to call all men unto thee Come to me all that labour and are heavy laden When didst thou ever drive any one from thee Neither had it been so now but to draw them closer unto thee whom thou seemedst for the time to abdicate In the mean while I know not whether more to excuse their unwillingness or to applaud their obedience As it shall be fully above so it was proportionally here below In thy presence O Saviour is the fulness of joy Once when thou askedst these thy Domesticks whether they also would depart it was answered thee by one tongue for all Master whither should we goe from thee thou hast the words of eternal life What a death was it then to them to be compelled to leave thee Sometimes it pleaseth the Divine goodness to lay upon his servants such commands as savour of harshness and discomfort which yet both in his intention and in the event are no other then gracious and soveraign The more difficulty was in the charge the more praise was in the obedience I do not hear them stand upon the terms of capitulation with their Master nor pleading importunately for their stay but instantly upon the command they yield and goe We are never perfect Disciples till we can depart from our reason from our will yea O Saviour when thou biddest us from thy self Neither will the multitude be gone without a dismission They had followed him whiles they were hungry they will not leave him now they are fed Fain would they put that honour upon him which to avoid he is fain to avoid them gladly would they pay a Kingdome to him as their shot for their late banquet he shuns both it and them O Saviour when the hour of thy Passion was now come thou couldst offer thy self readily to thine apprehenders and now when the glory of the world presses upon thee thou runnest away from a Crown Was it to teach us that there is less danger in suffering then in outward prosperity What do we dote upon that worldly honour which thou heldest worthy of avoidance and contempt Besides this reservedness it was devotion that drew Jesus aside He went alone up to the mountain to pray Lo thou to whom the greatest throng was a solitude in respect of the fruition of thy Father thou who wert uncapable of distraction from him with whom thou wert one wouldst yet so much act man as to retire for the opportunity of prayer to teach us who are nothing but wilde thoughts and giddy distractedness to goe aside when we would speak with God How happy is it for us that thou prayedst O Saviour thou prayedst for us who have not Grace enough to pray for our selves not worth enough to be accepted when we do pray Thy prayers which were most perfect and impetrative are they by which our weak and unworthy prayers receive both life and favour And now how assiduous should we be in our supplications who are empty of grace full of wants when thou who wert a God of all power praiedst for that which thou couldst command Therefore do we pray because thou praiedst therefore do we exspect to be graciously answered in our prayers because thou didst pray for us here on earth and now intercedest for us in Heaven The evening was come the Disciples look'd long for their Master and loath they were to have stirred without him but his command is more then the strongest wind to fill their sailes and they are now gone Their expectation made not the evening seem so long as our Saviours devotion made it seem short to him He is on the mount they on the sea yet whiles he was in the mount praying and lifting up his eyes to his Father he failes not to cast them about upon his Disciples tossed on the waves Those all-seeing eyes admit of no limits At once he sees the highest Heavens and the midst of the sea the glory of his Father and the misery of his Disciples Whatever prospects present themselves to his view the distress of his Followers is ever most noted How much more dost thou now O Saviour from the height of thy glorious advancement behold us thy wretched servants tossed on the unquiet sea of this World and beaten with the troublesome and threatning billows of Affliction Thou foresawest their toil and danger are thou dismissedst them and purposedly sendest them away that they might be tossed Thou that couldest prevent our sufferings by thy power wilt permit them in thy wisdome that thou maist glorifie thy mercy in our deliverance and confirm our Faith by the issue of our distresses How do all things now seem to conspire to the vexing of thy poor Disciples The night was sullen and dark their Master was absent the sea was boistrous the windes were high and contrary Had their Master been with them howsoever the elements had raged they had been secure Had their Master been away yet if the sea had been quiet or the winds fair the passage might have been indured Now both season and sea and winde and their Master's desertion had agreed to render them perfectly miserable Sometimes the Providence of God hath thought good so to order it that to his best servants there appeareth no glimpse of comfort but so absolute vexation as if Heaven and earth had plotted their full affliction Yea O Saviour what a dead night what a fearful tempest what an astonishing dereliction was that wherein thou thy self cryedst out in the bitterness of thine anguished Soul My God my God why hast thou for saken me Yet in all these extremities of misery our gracious God intends nothing but his greater glory and ours the Triumph of our Faith the crown of our Victory All that longsome and tempestuous night must the Disciples wear out in danger and horror as given over to the windes and waves but in the fourth watch of the night when they were wearied out with toils
so daunt the heart of those which are free from their power what a terror shall it be to live perpetually in the sight yea under the torture of thousands of legions of millions of Devils Oh the madness of wilfull sinners that will needs run themselves headily into so dreadfull a damnation It was high time for our Saviour to speak What with the Tempest what with the Apparition the Disciples were almost lost with fear How seasonable are his gracious redresses Till they were thus affrighted he would not speak when they were thus affrighted he would not hold his peace If his presence were fearfull yet his word was comfortable Be of good chear it is I yea it is his word only which must make his presence both known and comfortable He was present before they mistook him and feared there needs no other erection of their drooping hearts but It is I. It is cordial enough to us in the worst of our afflictions to be assured of Christs presence with us Say but It is I O Saviour and let evils doe their worst thou needest not say any more Thy voice was evidence enough so well were thy Disciples acquainted with the tongue of thee their Master that It is I was as much as an hundred names Thou art the good Shepherd we are not of thy Flock if we know thee not by thy voice from a thousand Even this one is a great word yea an ample style It is I. The same tongue that said to Moses I am hath sent thee saith now to the Disciples It is I I your Lord and Master I the commander of windes and waters I the soveraign Lord of Heaven and earth I the God of Spirits Let Heaven be but as one scroll and let it be written all over with titles they cannot expresse more then It is I. Oh sweet and seasonable word of a gracious Saviour able to calm all tempests able to revive all hearts Say but so to my Soul and in spight of Hell I am safe No sooner hath Jesus said I then Peter answers Master He can instantly name him that did not name himself Every little hint is enough to Faith The Church sees her Beloved as well through the Lattice as through the open Window Which of all the Followers of Christ gave so pregnant testimonies upon all occasions of his Faith of his Love to his Master as Peter The rest were silent whiles he both owned his Master and craved accesse to him in that liquid way Yet what a sensible mixture is here of Faith Distrust It is Faith that said Master it was Distrust as some have construed it that said If it be thou It was Faith that said Bid me come to thee implying that his word could as well enable as command it was Faith that durst step down upon that watery pavement it was Distrust that upon the sight of a mighty winde feared It was Faith that he walked it was Distrust that he sunk it was Faith that said Lord save me Oh the imperfect composition of the best Saint upon earth as far from pure Faith as from mere Infidelity If there be pure earth in the center all upward is mixed with the other elements contrarily pure Grace is above in the glorified Spirits all below is mixed with infirmity with corruption Our best is but as the Aire which never was never can be at once fully enlightned neither is there in the same Region one constant state of light It shall once be noon with us when we shall have nothing but bright beams of Glory now it is but the dawning wherein it is hard to say whether there be more light then darkness We are now fair as the Moon which hath some spots in her greatest beauty we shall be pure as the Sun whose face is all bright and glorious Ever since the time that Adam set his tooth in the Apple till our mouth be full of mould it never was it never can be other with us Far be it from us to settle willingly upon the dregs of our Infidelity far be it from us to be disheartened with the sense of our defects and imperfections We believe Lord help our unbelief Whiles I finde some disputing the lawfulness of Peter's suit others quarrelling his If it be thou let me be taken up with the wonder at the Faith the fervour the Heroical valour of this prime Apostle that durst say Bid me come to thee upon the waters He might have suspected that the Voice of his Master might have been as easily imitated by that imagined Spirit as his Person he might have feared the blustering tempest the threatning billows the yielding nature of that devouring element but as despising all these thoughts of misdoubt such is his desire to be near his Master that he saies Bid me come to thee upon the waters He saies not Come thou to me this had been Christ's act and not his Neither doth he say Let me come to thee this had been his act and not Christ's Neither doth he say Pray that I may come to thee as if this act had been out of the power of either But Bid me come to thee I know thou canst command both the waves and me me to be so light that I shall not bruise the moist surface of the waves the waves to be so solid that they shall not yield to my weight All things obey thee Bid me come to thee upon the waters It was a bold spirit that could wish it more bold that could act it No sooner hath our Saviour said Come then he sets his foot upon the unquiet Sea not fearing either the softness or the roughness of that uncouth passage We are wont to wonder at the courage of that daring man who first committed himself to the Sea in a frail Bark though he had the strength of an oaken planck to secure him how valiant must we needs grant him to be that durst set his foot upon the bare sea and shift his paces Well did Peter know that he who bade him could uphold him and therefore he both sues to be bidden and ventures to be upholden True Faith tasks it self with difficulties neither can be dismaied with the conceits of ordinary impossibilities It is not the scattering of straws or casting of mole-hills whereby the virtue of it is described but removing of mountain Like some courageous Leader it desires the honour of a danger and sues for the first onset whereas the worldly heart freezes in a lazie or cowardly fear and only casts for safety and ease Peter sues Jesus bids Rather will he work Miracles then disappoint the suit of a faithful man How easily might our Saviour have turned over this strange request of his bold Disiple and have said What my Omnipotence can doe is no rule for thy weakness It is no lesse then presumption in a mere man to hope to imitate the miraculous works of God and man Stay thou in the ship and wonder
contenting thy self in this that thou hast a Master to whom the land and water is alike Yet I hear not a check but a Call Come The suit of Ambition is suddainly quashed in the Mother of the Zebedees The suits of Revenge prove no better in the mouth of the two fiery Disciples But a suit of Faith though high and seemingly unfit for us he hath no power to deny How much lesse O Saviour wilt thou stick at those things which lie in the very road of our Christianity Never man said Bid me to come to thee in the way of thy commandements whom thou didst not both bid and inable to come True Faith rests not in great and good desires but acts and executes accordingly Peter doth not wish to goe and yet stand stillâ— but his foot answers his tongue and instantly chops down upon the waters To sit still and wish is for sluggish and cowardly spirits Formal volitions yea velleities of good whiles we will not so mucâ—â—â— step out of the ship of our Nature to walk unto Christ are but the faint motions of vain Hypocrisie It will be long enough ere the gale of good wishes can carry us to our Haven Ease slayeth the foolish O Saviour we have thy command to come to thee out of the ship of our natural corruption Let no Sea affray us let no tempest of Temptation withhold us No way can be but safe when thou art the End Lo Peter is walking upon the waves two hands uphold him the hand of Christ's Power the hand of his own Faith neither of them would doe it alone The hand of Christ's Power laid hold on him the hand of his Faith laid hold on the Power of Christ commanding Had not Christ's hand been powerfull that Faith had been in vain Had not that Faith of his strongly fixed upon Christ that Power had not been effectual to his preservation Whiles we are here in the world we walk upon the waters still the same hands bear us up If he let goe his hold of us we drown if we let goe our hold of him we sink and shreek as Peter did here who when he saw the winde boistrous was afraid and beginning to sink cried saying Lord save me When he wisht to be bidden to walk unto Christ he thought of the waters Bid me to come to thee on the waters he thought not of the windes which raged on those waters or if he thought of a stiffe gale yet that tempestuous and sudden gust was out of his account and exspectation Those evils that we are prepared for have not such power over us as those that surprise us A good water-man sees a dangerous billow coming towards him and cuts it and mounts over it with ease the unheedy is overwhelmed O Saviour let my haste to thee be zealous but not improvident ere I set my foot out of the ship let me foresee the Tempest when I have cast the worst I cannot either miscarry or complain So soon as he began to fear he began to sink whiles he believed the Sea was brass when once he began to distrust those waves were water He cannot sink whiles he trusts the power of his Master he cannot but sink when he misdoubts it Our Faith gives us as courage and boldness so success too our infidelity laies us open to all dangers to all mischiefs It was Peter's improvidence not to foresee it was his weakness to fear it was the effect of his fear to sink it was his Faith that recollects it self and breaks through his infidelity and in sinking could say Lord save me His foot could not be so swift in sinking as his heart in imploring he knew who could uphold him from sinking and being sunk deliver him and therefore he saies Lord save me It is a notable both sign and effect of true Faith in suddain extremities to ejaculate holy desires and with the wings of our first thoughts to flie up instantly to the throne of Grace for present succour Upon deliberation it is possible for a man that hath been carelesse and profane by good means to be drawn to holy dispositions but on the suddain a man will appear as he is whatever is most rife in the heart will come forth at the mouth It is good to observe how our surprisals finde us the rest is but forced this is natural Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh O Saviour no evil can be swifter then my thought my thought shall be upon thee ere I can be seized upon by the speediest mischief at least if I over-run not evils I shall overtake them It was Christ his Lord whom Peter had offended in distrusting it is Christ his Lord to whom he sues for deliverance His weakness doth not discourage him from his refuge O God when we have displeased thee when we have sunk in thy displeasure whither should we flie for aide but to thee whom we have provoked Against thee only is our sin in thee only is our help In vain shall all the powers of Heaven and earth conspire to relieve us if thou withhold from our succour As we offend thy Justice daily by our sins so let us continually relie upon thy Mercy by the strength of our Faith Lord save us The mercy of Christ is at once sought and found Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him He doth not say Hadst thou trusted me I would have safely preserved thee but since thou wilt needs wrong my power and care with a cowardly diffidence sink and drown but rather as pitying the infirmity of his fearful Disciple he puts out the hand for his relief That hand hath been stretch'd forth for the aide of many a one that hath never ask'd it never any ask'd it to whose succour it hath not been stretched With what speed with what confidence should we flie to that soveraign bounty from which never any suitor was sent away empty Jesus gave Peter his hand but withall he gave him a check O thou of little faith why doubtedst thou As Peter's Faith was not pure but mixed with some distrust so our Saviours help was not clear and absolute but mixed with some reproof A reproof wherein there was both a censure and an expostulation a censure of his Faith an expostulation for his Doubt both of them sore heavy By how much more excellent and usefull a grace Faith is by so much more shamefull is the defect of it and by how much more reason here was of confidence by so much more blame-worthy was the Doubt Now Peter had a double reason of his confidence the command of Christ the power of Christ the one in bidding him to come the other in sustaining him whiles he came To misdoubt him whose will he knew whose power he felt was well worth a reprehension When I saw Peter stepping forth upon the waters I could not but wonder at his great Faith yet behold ere he can have measured many paces
Means out of office The Motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled THE time drew on wherein Jesus must be received up He must take death in his way Calvary is in his passage to mount Olivet He must be lift up to the Cross thence to climb into his Heaven Yet this comes not into mention as if all the thought of Death were swallowed up in this Victory over Death Neither O Saviour is it otherwise with us the weak members of thy mystical body We must die we shall be glorified What if Death stand before us we look beyond him at that transcendent Glory How should we be dismai'd with that pain which is attended with a blessed Immortality The strongest receit against Death is the happy estate that follows it next to that is the fore-exspectation of it and resolution against it He stedfastly set his face to goe to Hierusalem Hierusalem the nest of his enemies the Amphitheater of his conflicts the fatall place of his death Well did he know the plots and ambushes that were there laid for him and the bloody issue of those designs yet he will goe and goes resolved for the worst It is a sure and wise way to send our thoughts before us to grapple with those evils which we know must be incountred The enemy is half overcome that is well prepared for The strongest mischief may be outfaced with a seasonable fore-resolution There can be no greater disadvantage then the suddennesse of a surprisal O God what I have not the power to avoid let me have the wisdome to exspect The way from Galilee to Judaea lay through the Region of Samaria if not the City Christ now towards the end of his Preaching could not but be attended with a multitude of followers It was necessary there should be purveyors and harbingers to procure lodgings and provision for so large a troup Some of his own retinue are addressed to this service they seek not for palaces and delicates but for house-room and victuals It was he whose the earth was and the fulnesse thereof whos 's the Heavens are and the mansions therein yet he who could have commanded Angels sues to Samaritanes He that filled and comprehended Heaven sends for shelter in a Samaritane Cottage It was thy choice O Saviour to take upon thee the shape not of a Prince but of a Servant How can we either neglect means or despise homelinesse when thou the God of all the World wouldst stoop to the suit of so poor a provision We know well in what terms the Samaritanes stood with the Jews so much more hostile as they did more symbolize in matter of Religion no Nations were mutually so hatefull to each other A Samaritane's bread was no better then Swines-flesh their very fire and water was not more grudged then infectious The looking towards Jerusalem was here cause enough of repulse No enmity is so desperate as that which arises from matter of Religion Agreement in some points when there are differences in the main doth but advance hatred the more It is not more strange to hear the Son of God sue for a lodging then to hear him repelled Upon so churlish a denial the two angry Disciples return to their Master on a fiery errand Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them as Elias did The Sons of Thunder would be lightning straight their zeal whether as kinsmen or Disciples could not brook so harsh a refusal As they were naturally more hot then their fellows so now they thought their Piety bade them be impatient Yet they dare not but begin with leave Master wilt thou His will must lead theirs their choler cannot drive their wills before his all their motion is from him onely True Disciples are like those artificial engines which goe no otherwise then they are set or like little Children that speak nothing but what they are taught O Saviour if we have wills of our own we are not thine Do thou set me as thou wouldst have me goe do thou teach me what thou wouldst have me say or doe A mannerly preface leads in a faulty suit Master wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them Faulty both in presumption and in desire of private revenge I do not hear them say Master will it please thee who art the sole Lord of the Heavens and the Elements to command fire from Heaven upon these men but Wilt thou that we command As if because they had power given them over diseases and unclean spirits therefore Heaven and earth were in their managing How easily might they be mistaken Their large commission had the just limits Subjects that have munificent grants from their Princes can challenge nothing beyond the words of their Patent And if the fetching down fire from Heaven were lesse then the dispossessing of Devils since the Devil shall inable the Beast to doe thus much yet how possible is it to doe the greater and stick at the lesse where both depend upon a delegated power The Magicians of Egypt could bring forth Frogs and Blood they could not bring Lice ordinary Corruption can doe that which they could not It is the fashion of our bold Nature upon an inch given to challenge an ell and where we finde our selves graced with some abilities to flatter our selves with the faculty of more I grant Faith hath done as great things as ever Presumption undertook but there is great difference in the enterprises of both The one hath a warrant either by instinct or expresse command the other none at all Indeed had these two Disciples either meant or said Master if it be thy pleasure to command us to call down fire from Heaven we know thy word shall enable us to doe what thou requirest if the words be ours the power shall be thine this had been but holy modest faithfull but if they supposed there needed nothing save a leave only and that might they be but let loose they could goe alone they presumed they offended Yet had they thus overshot themselves in some pious and charitable motion the fault had been the lesse now the act had in it both cruelty and private revenge Their zeal was not worthy of more praise then their fury of censure That fire should fall down from Heaven upon men is a fearfull thing to think of and that which hath not been often done It was done in the case of Sodome when those five unclean Cities burned with the unnatural fire of hellish Lust it was done two several times at the suit of Elijah it was done in an height of triall to that great pattern of Patience I finde it no more and tremble at these I finde But besides the dreadfulness of the judgment it self who can but quake at the thought of the suddainnesse of this destruction which sweeps away both Body and Soul in a state of unpreparation of unrepentance so as this fire should but
all the gazing multitude and to embalm it When we confess God's name with the Psalmist before Kings when Kings defenders of the Faith profess their Religion in publick and everlasting monuments to all nations to all times this is glorious to God and in God to them It is no matter how close evils be nor how publick good is This is enough for the Chronography the Topography follows I will not here stand to shew you the ignorance of the Vulgar translation in joyning probatica and piscina together against their own fair Vatican copy with other antient nor spend time to discuss whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be here understood for the Substantive of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is most likely to be that Sheep-gate spoken of in Ezra nor to shew how ill piscina in the Latin answers the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ours turn it a pool better then any Latin word can express it nor to shew you as I might how many publick Pools were in Jerusalem nor to discuss the use of this Pool whether it were for washing the beasts to be sacrificed or to wash the entrails of the Sacrifice whence I remember Hierom fetches the virtue of the water and in his time thought he discerned some redness as if the blood spilt four hundred years before could still retain his first tincture in a liquid substance besides that it would be a strange swimming pool that were brewed with blood and this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This conceit arises from the errour of the construction in mismatching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither will I argue whether it should be Bethsida or Bethzida or Bethsheda or Bethesda If either you or my self knew not how to be rid of time we might easily wear out as many hours in this Pool as this poor impotent man did years But it is Edification that we affect and not Curiosity This Pool had five Porches Neither will I run here with S. Austin into Allegories that this Pool was the people of the Jews Aquae multae populus multus and these five Porches the Law in the five books of Moses nor stand to confute Adrichomius which out of Josephus would perswade us that these five Porches were built by Solomon and that this was stagnum Solomonis for the use of the Temple The following words shew the use of the Porches for the receit of impotent sick blinde halt withered that waited for the moving of the water It should seem it was walled about to keep it from Cattel and these five valuted entrances were made by some Benefactors for the more convenience of attendance Here was the Mercy of God seconded by the Charity of men if God will give Cure they will give harbour Surely it is a good matter to put our hand to Gods and to further good works with convenience of injoying them Jerusalem was grown a City of blood to the persecution of the Prophets to a wilful despight of what belonged to her peace to a profanation of God's Temple to a mere formality in God's services and yet here were publick works of Charity in the midst of her streets We may not alwaies judge of the truth of Piety by charitable actions Judas disbursed the money for Christ there was no Traitor but he The poor traveller that was robb'd and wounded betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho was passed over first by the Priest then the Levite at last the Samaritan came and relieved him His Religion was naught yet his act was good the Priests and Levites Religion good their uncharity ill Novatus himself was a Martyr yet a Schismatick Faith is the soul and good works are the breath saith S. James but as you see in a pair of bellows there is a forced breath without life so in those that are puffed up with the winde of oftentation there may be charitable works without Faith The Church of Rome unto her four famous Orders of Jacobins Franciscans Augustines and Carmelites hath added a fifth of Jesuites and like another Jerusalem for those five Leprous and lazarly Orders hath built five porches that if the water of any State be stirred they may put in for a share How many Cells and Convents hath she raised for these miserable Cripples and now she thinks though she exalt her self above all that is called God though she dispence with and against God though she fall down before every block and wafer though she kill Kings and equivocate with Magistrates she is the onely City of God Digna est nam struxit Synagogam She is worthy for she hath built a Synagogue Are we more orthodox and shall not we be as charitable I am ashamed to think of rich Noblemen and Merchants that dye and give nothing to our five porches of Bethesda What shall we say Have they made their Mammon their God in stead of making friends with their Mammon to God Even when they dye will they not like Ambrose's good Usurers part with that which they cannot hold that they may get that which they cannot lose Can they begin their will In Dei nomine Amen and give nothing to God Is he onely a Witness and not a Legatee Can we bequeath our Souls to Christ in Heaven and give nothing to his Lims on earth And if they will not give yet will they not lend to God He that gives to the poor Foeneratur Deo lends to God Will they put out to any but God and then when in stead of giving security he receives with one hand and payes with another receives our bequest and gives us glory Oh damnable niggardliness of vain men that shames the Gospel and loses Heaven Let me shew you a Bethesda that wants porches What truer house of effusion then the Church of God which sheds forth waters of comfort yea of life Behold some of the porches of this Bethesda so farre from building that they are pulled down It is a wonder if the demolished stones of God's House have not built some of yours and if some of you have not your rich Suits garded with Souls There were wont to be reckoned three wonders of England Ecclesia Foemina Lana The Churches the Women the Wooll Foemina may pass stil who may justly challenge wonder for their Vanity if not their Persons As for Lana if it be wonderful alone I am sure it is ill joyned with Ecclesia The Church is fleeced and hath nothing but a bare pelt left upon her back And as for Ecclesia either men have said with the Babylonians Down with it down with it even to the ground or else in respect of the Maintenance with Judas ut quid perditio haec why was this wast How many remorseful souls have sent back with Jacob's sons their money in their Sacks mouths How many great Testators have in their last Will returned the anathematized peculium of Impropriations to the Church chusing rather to impair
without them The very heathen Poet could say A Jove principium and which of those verse-mongers ever durst write a ballad without imploring of some Deity which of the heathens durst attempt any great enterprise insalutato numine without invocation and sacrifice Saul himself would play the Priest and offer a burnt-offering to the Lord rather then the Philistins should fight with him unsupplicated as thinking any devotion better then none and thinking it more safe to sacrifice without a Priest then to fight without Prayers Ungirt unblest was the old word as not ready till they were girded so not till they had prayed And how dare we rush into the affaires of God or the State how dare we thrust our selves into actions either perilous or important without ever lifting up our eyes and hearts unto the God of Heaven Except we would say as the devilish malice of Surius slanders that zealous Luther Nec propter Deum haec res coepta est nec propter Deum finietur c. This business was neither begun for God nor shall be ended for him How can God bless us if we implore him not how can we prosper if he bless us not How can we hope ever to be transfigured from a lump of corrupt flesh if we do not ascend and pray As the Samaritane woman said weakly we may seriously The well of mercies is deep if thou hast nothing to draw with never look to taste of the waters of life I fear the worst of men Turks and the worst Turks the Moores shall rise up in Judgement against many Christians with whom it is a just exception against any witness by their Law that he hath not prayed six times in each natural day Before the day break they pray for day when it is day they give God thanks for day at noon they thank God for half the day past after that they pray for a good Sun-set after that they thank God for the day passed and lastly pray for a good night after their day And we Christians suffer so many Suns and Moons to rise and set upon our heads and never lift up our hearts to their Creatour and ours either to ask his blessing or to acknowledg it Of all men under Heaven none had so much need to pray as Courtiers That which was done but once to Christ is alwaies done to them They are set upon the hill and see the glory of the Kingdomes of the earth But I fear it is seen of them as it is with some of the mariners the more need the less devotion Ye have seen the Place see the Attendants He would not have many because he would not have it yet know to all hence was his intermination and sealing up their mouths with a Nemini dicite Tell no man Not none because he would not have it altogether unknown and afterwards would have it known to all Three were a legal number in ore duorum aut trium in the mouth of two or three witnesses He had eternally possessed the glory of his Father without any witnesses in time the Angels were blessed with that sight and after that two bodily yet Heavenly witnesses were allowed Enoch and Elias Now in his humanity he was invested with glory he takes but three witnesses and those earthly and weak Peter James John And why these We may be too curious Peter because the eldest John because the dearest James because next Peter the zealousest Peter because he loved Christ most John because Christ most loved him James because next to both he loved and was loved most I had rather to have no reason but quia complacuit because it so pleased him Why may we not as well ask why he chose these twelve from others as why he chose these three out of the twelve If any Romanists will raise from hence any priviledge to Peter which we could be well content to yield if that would make them ever the honester men they must remember that they must take company with them which these Pompeian spirits cannot abide As good no privilege as any partners And withall they must see him more taxed for his errour in this act then honored by his presence at the act whereas the Beloved Disciple saw and erred not These same three which were witnesses of his Transfiguration in the mount were witnesses of his Agonie in the garden all three and these three alone were present at both but both times sleeping These were arietes gregis the Bell-wethers of the flock as Austin calls them Oh weak devotion of three great Disciples These were Paul's three pillars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2. 9. Christ takes them up twice once to be witnesses of his greatest Glory once of his greatest extremity they sleep both times The other was in the night more tolerable this by day yea in a light above day Chrysostome would fain excuse it to be an amazedness not a sleep not considering that they slept both at that Glory and after in the Agonie To see that Master praying one would have thought should have fetcht them on their knees especially to see those Heavenly affections look out at his Eyes to see his Soul lifted up in his Hands in that transported fashion to Heaven But now the hill hath wearied their â—ims their body clogs their Soul and they fall asleep Whiles Christ saw Divine visions they dreamed dreams whiles he was in another world ravished with the sight of his Fathers Glory yea of his own they were in another world a world of fancies surprized with the cozen of death sleep Besides so Gracious an example their own necessity Bernard's reason might have moved them to pray rather then their Master and behold in stead of fixing their eyes upon Heaven they shut them in stead of lifting up their hearts their heads fall down upon their shoulders and shortly here was snorting in stead of sighs and prayers This was not Abraham's or Elihu's ecstatical sleep Job 33. not the sleep of the Church a waking sleep but the plain sleep of the eyes and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slumbring sleep which David denies to himself Psal 132. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sound sleep which Salomon forbids Prov. 6. 4. yea rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead sleep of Adam or Jonas and as Bernard had wont to say when he heard a Monk snort they did carnaliter seu seculariter dormire Prayer is an ordinary receit for sleep How prone are we to it when we should minde Divine things Adam slept in Paradise and lost a Rib but this sleep was of God's giving and this Rib was of God's taking The good husband slept and found tares Eutychus slept and fell While Satan lulls us asleep as he doth always rock the cradle when we sleep in our Devotions he ever takes some good from us or puts some evil in us or indangers us a deadly fall Away with this spiritual Lethargie Bernard had wont to
say that those which sleep are dead to men those that are dead are asleep to God But I say those that sleep at Church are dead to God so we preach their Funeral Sermons in stead of hortatory And as he was wont to say he lost no time so much as that wherein he slept so let me adde there is no loss of time so desperate as of holy time Think that Christ saith to thee at every Sermon as he did to Peter Etiam Petre dormis Sleepest thou Peter couldst thou not wake with me one hour A slumbring and a drowsie heart do not become the business and presence of him that keepeth Israel and slumbers not These were the Attendants see the Companions of Christ As our glory is not consummate without Society no more would Christ have his therefore his Transfiguration hath two Companions Moses Elias As S. Paul saies of himself Whether in the body or out of the body I know not God knows so say I of these two Of Eliah there may seem less doubt since we know that his body was assumed to Heaven and might as well come down for Christs glory as go up for his own although some grave Authors as Calvin Oecolampadius Bale Fulk have held his body with Enoch's resolved into their elements sed ego non credulus illis Enoch translatus est in carne Elias carneus raptus est in coelum c. Enoch was translated in the flesh and Elias being yet in the flesh was taken into Heaven saith Hierome in his Epistle ad Pammachium And for Moses though it be rare and singular and Austin makes much scruple of it yet why might not he after death return in his body to the glory of Christ's Transfiguration as well as afterwards many of the Saints did to the glory of his Resurrection I cannot therefore with the Gloss think there is any reason why Moses should take another a borrowed body rather then his own Heaven could not give two fitter Companions more admirable to the Jews for their Miracles more gracious with God for their Faith and Holiness Both of them admitted to the conference with God in Horeb both of them Types of Christ both of them fasted fourty days both of them for the glory of God suffered many perils both divided the waters both the Messengers of God to Kings both of them marvellous as in their life so in their end A Chariot of Angels took away Elias he was sought by the Prophets and not found Michael strove with the Devil for the body of Moses he was sought for by the Jews and not found and now both of them are found here together on Tabor This Elias shews himself to the Royal Prophet of his Church this Moses shews himself to the true Michael Moses the publisher of the Law Elias the chief of the Prophets shew themselves to the God of the Law and Prophets Alter populi informator aliquando alter reformator quandoque One the informer once of the people the other the reformer sometimes saith Tertull. in 4. adver Marcionem Alter initiator Veteris Testamenti alter consummator Novi One the first Register of the Old Testament the other the shutter up of the New I verily think with Hilary that these two are pointed at as the Fore-runners of the second coming of Christ as now they were the Foretellers of his departure neither doubt I that these are the Two Witnesses which are alluded to in the Apocalyps howsoever divers of the Fathers have thrust Enoch into the place of Moses Look upon the place Apoc. 11. 5. Who but Elias can be he of whom is said If any man will hurt him fire proceedeth out of his mouth and devoureth his enemies alluding to 2 Kings 1 Who but Elias of whom is said He hath power to shut the Heaven that it rain not in the days of his prophesying alluding to 1 Kings 18 Who but Moses of whom it is said He hath power to turn the waters into blood and smite the earth with all manner of plagues alluding to Exod. 7 and 8 But take me aright let me not seem a friend to the Publicans of Rome an abettor of those Alcoran-like Fables of our Popish Doctors who not seeing the wood for trees do haerere in cortice stick in the bark taking all concerning that Antichrist according to the letter Odi arceo So shall Moses and Elias come again in those Witnesses as Elias is already come in John Baptist their Spirits shall be in these Witnesses whose Bodies and Spirits were witnesses both of the present Glory and future Passion of Christ Doubtless many thousand Angels saw this sight and were not seen these two both saw and were seen O how great an Happiness was it for these two great Prophets in their glorified flesh to see their glorified Saviour who before his Incarnation had spoken to them to speak to that Man God of whom they were glorified and to become Prophets not to men but to God And if Moses his face so shone before when he spoke to him without a body in Mount Sinai in the midst of the flames and clouds how did it shine now when himself glorified speaks to him a man in Tabor in light and majesty Elias hid his face before with a mantle when he passed by him in the Rock now with open face he beholds him present and in his own glory adores his Let that impudent Marcion who ascribes the Law and Prophets to another God and devises an hostility betwixt Christ and them be ashamed to see Moses and Elias not onely in colloquio but in consortio claritatis not onely in conference but in a partnership of brightness as Tertull. speaks with Christ whom if he had misliked he had his choice of all the Quire of Heaven and now chusing them why were they not in sordibus tenebris in rags and darkness Sic inalienos demonstrat illos dum secum habet sic relinquendos docet quos sibi jungit sic destruit quos de radiis suis exstruit So doth he shew them farre from strangeness to him whom he hath with him so doth he teach them to be forsaken whom he joyns with himself so doth he destroy those whom he graces with his beams of glory saith that Father His act verifies his word Think not that I come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill them Mat. 5. 17. Oh what consolation what confirmation was this to the Disciples to see such examples of their future Glory such witnesses and adorers of the eternal Deity of their Master They saw in Moses and Elias what they themselves should be How could they ever fear to be miserable that saw such precedents of their insuing glory how could they fear to die that saw in others the happiness of their own change The rich Glutton pleads with Abraham that if one came to them from the dead they will amend
miserabilior affectata miserior Forced bondage is more worthy of pity affected bondage is more miserable And if God's hand touch him never so little can his Gold bribe a disease can his bags keep his head from aking or the Gout from his joynts or doth his loathing stomack make a difference betwixt an earthen and silver dish O vain desires and impotent contentments of men who place happiness in that which doth not onely not save them from evils but help to make them miserable Behold their wealth feeds them with famine recreates them with toil chears them with cares blesses them with torments and yet they say Bonum est esse hîc How are their sleeps broken with cares how are their hearts broken with losses Either Riches have wings which in the clipping or pulling flye away and take them to Heaven or else their Souls have wings Stulte hac nocte Thou fool this night and fly from their riches to Hell Non Dominus sed colonus saith Seneca Not the Lord but the farmer So that here are both perishing riches and a perishing Soul Uncertainty of riches as S. Paul to his Timothy and certainty of misery And yet these vain men say Bonum est esse hîc The man of Honour that I may use Bernard's phrase that hath Assuerus his proclamation made before him which knows he is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain great man as Simon affected but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man which Demosthenes was proud of that sees all heads bare and all knees bent to him that findes himself out of the reach of envy on the pitch of admiration saies Bonum est esse hîc Alas how little thinks he of that which that good man said to his Eugenius Non est quòd blandiatur celsitudo ubi solicitudo major what care we for the fawning of that greatness which is attended with more care King Henry the seventh's Embleme in all his buildings in the windows was still a Crown in a bush of Thorns I know not with what historical allusion but sure I think to imply that great places are not free from great cares Saul knew what he did when he hid himself among the stuff No man knoweth the weight of a Scepter but he that swaieth it As for subordinate greatness it hath so much less worth as it hath more dependance How many sleepless nights and restless days and busie shifts doth their ambition cost them that affect eminence Certainly no men are so worthy of pity as they whose height thinks all other worthy of contempt High places are slippery and as it is easie to fall so the ruine is deep and the recovery difficult Altiorem locum sortitus es non tutiorem sublimiorem sed non sccuriorem saith Bernard Thou hast got an higher place but not a safer a loftier but not more secure Aulae culmen lubricum The slippery ridge of the Court was the old title of Honour David's curse was fiat via eorum tenebrae lubricum Let their way be made dark and slippery What difference is there betwixt his curse and the happiness of the Ambitious but this That the way of the one is dark and slippery the way of the other lightsome and slippery that dark that they may fall this light that they may see and be seen to fall Please your selves then ye great ones and let others please you in the admiration of your height But if your goodness do not answer your greatness Sera querela est quoniam elevans allisisti me It is a late complaint Thou hast lift me up to cast me down Your ambition hath but set you up a scaffold that your misery might be more notorious And yet these clients of Honour say Bonum est esse hîc The pampered Glutton when he seeth his table spread with full bowls with costly dishes and curious sawces the dainties of all three elements says Bonum est esse hîc And yet eating hath a satiety and satiety a weariness his heart is never more empty of contentment then when his stomack is fullest of Delicates When he is empty he is not well till he be filled when he is full he is not well till he have got a stomack Et momentanea blandimenta gulae stercoris fine condemnat saith Hierome And condemns all the momentany pleasures of his maw to the dunghill And when he sits at his feasts of marrow and fat things as the Prophet speaks his table according to the Psalmists imprecation is made his snare a true snare every way His Soul is caught in it with excess his estate with penury his Body with diseases Neither doth he more plainly tear his meat in pieces with his teeth then he doth himself and yet this vain man saies Bonum est esse hîc The petulant Wanton thinks it the onely happiness that he may have his full scope to filthy dalliance Little would he so doe if he could see his Strumpet as she is her eyes the eyes of a Cockatrice her hairs snakes her painted face the visor of a fury her heart snares her hands bands and her end wormwood consumption of the flesh destruction of the Soul and the flames of lust ending in the flames of Hell Since therefore neither Pleasures nor Honour not Wealth can yield any true contentment to their best favourites let us not be so unwise as to speak of this vale of misery as Peter did of the hill of Tabor Bonum est esse hîc And if the best of earth cannot doe it why will ye seek it in the worst How dare any of you great one seek to purchase contentment with Oppression Sacriledge Bribery out-facing innocence and truth with power damning your own Souls for but the humoring of a few miserable days Filii hominum usquequo gravi corde ad quid diligitis vanitatem quaeritis mendacium O ye sons of men how long c. But that which moved Peter's desire though with imperfection shews what will perfect our desire and felicity for if a glimpse of this Heavenly glory did so ravish this worthy Disciple that he thought it happiness enough to stand by and gaze upon it how shall we be affected with the contemplation yea fruition of the Divine Presence Here was but Tabor there is Heaven here were but two Saints there many millions of Saints and Angels here was Christ transfigured there he sits at the right hand of Majesty here was a representation there a gift and possession of Blessedness Oh that we could now forget the world and fixing our eyes upon this better Tabor say Bonum est esse hîc Alas this life of ours if it were not short yet it is miserable and if it were not miserable yet it is short Tell me ye that have the greatest command on earth whether this vile world have ever afforded you any sincere contentation The world is your servant if it were your Parasite yet could it make you heartily
Disciples stood compassed in that bright Cloud exspecting some miraculous event of so Heavenly a Vision when suddenly they might hear a voice sounding out of that Cloud saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him They need not be told whose that voice was the place the matter evinced it No Angel in Heaven could or durst have said so How gladly doth Peter afterwards recount it For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son c. It was onely the eare that was here taught not the eye As of Horeb so of Sinai so of Tabor might God say Ye saw no shape nor image in that day that the Lord spake unto you He that knows our proneness to idolatry avoids those occasions which we might take to abuse our own fansies Twice hath God spoken these words to his own Son from Heaven once in his Baptisme and now again in his Transfiguration Here not without some oppositive comparison not Moses not Elias but This. Moses and Elias were Servants this a Son Moses and Elias were sons but of grace and choice this is that Son the Son by nature Other sons are beloved as of favour and free election this is The Beloved as in the unitie of his essence Others are so beloved that he is pleased with themselves this so beloved that in and for him he is pleased with mankinde As the relation betwixt the Father and the Son is infinite so is the Love We measure the intention of Love by the extention the love that rests in the person affected alone is but streight true Love descends like Aaron's Ointment from the head to the skirts to children friends allyes O incomprehensible large love of God the Father to the Son that for his sake he is pleased with the World O perfect and happy complacence Out of Christ there is nothing but enmity betwixt God and the Soul in him there can be nothing but peace When the beams are met in one center they do not only heat but burn Our weak love is diffused to many God hath some the world more and therein wives children friends but this infinite love of God hath all the beams of it united in one onely Object the Son of his Love Neither doth he love any thing but in the participation of his Love in the derivation from it O God let me be found in Christ and how canst thou but be pleased with me This one voice proclaimes Christ at once the Son of God the Reconciler of the world the Doctor and Law-giver of his Church As the Son of God he is essentially interessed in his Love as he is the Reconciler of the world in whom God is well pleased he doth most justly challenge our love and adherence as he is the Doctor and Law-giver he doth justly challenge our audience our obedience Even so Lord teach us to hear and obey thee as our Teacher to love thee and believe in thee as our Reconciler and as the eternal Son of thy Father to adore thee The light caused wonder in the Disciples but the voice astonishment They are all falne down upon their faces Who can blame a mortal man to be thus affected with the voice of his Maker Yet this word was but plausible and hortatory O God how shall flesh and blood be other then swallowed up with the horror of thy dreadful sentence of death The Lion shall roar who shall not be afraid How shall those that have slighted the sweet voice of thine invitations call to the rocks to hide them from the terror of thy Judgments The God of mercies pities our infirmities I do not hear our Saviour say Ye lay sleeping one while upon the earth now ye lye astonished Ye could neither wake to see nor stand to hear now lye still and tremble But he graciously touches and comforts them Arise fear not That voice which shall once raise them up out of the earth might well raise them up from it That hand which by the least touch restored sight lims life might well restore the spirits of the dismaied O Saviour let that soveraign hand of thine touch us when we lye in the trances of our griefs in the bed of our securities in the grave of our sins and we shall arise They looking up saw no man save Jesus alone and that doubtless in his wonted form All was now gone Moses Elias the Cloud the Voice the Glory Tabor it self cannot be long blessed with that Divine light and those shining guests Heaven will not allow to earth any long continuance of Glory Only above is constant happiness to be look'd for and injoyed where we shall ever see our Saviour in his unchangeable brightness where the light shall never be either clouded or varied Moses and Elias are gone only Christ is left The glory of the Law and the Prophets was but temporary yea momentany that onely Christ may remain to us intire and conspicuous They came but to give testimony to Christ when that is done they are vanished Neither could these raised Disciples finde any miss of Moses and Elias when they had Christ still with them Had Jesus been gone and left either Moses or Elias or both in the Mount with his Disciples that presence though glorious could not have comforted them Now that they are gone and he is left they cannot be capable of discomfort O Saviour it matters not who is away whiles thou art with us Thou art God all-sufficient what can we want when we want not thee Thy presence shall make Tabor it self an Heaven yea Hell it self cannot make us miserable with the fruition of thee The Woman taken in Adultery WHat a busie life was this of Christs He spent the night in the mount of Olives the day in the Temple whereas the night is for a retired repose the day for company His retiredness was for prayer his companiableness was for preaching All night he watches in the Mount all the morning he preaches in the Temple It was not for pleasure that he was here upon earth his whole time was penal and toilsome How do we resemble him if his life were all pain and labour ours all pastime He found no such fair success the day before The multitude was divided in their opinion of him messengers were sent and suborned to apprehend him yet he returns to the Temple It is for the sluggard or the coward to plead a Lion in the way upon the calling of God we must overlook and contemn all the spight and opposition of men Even after an ill harvest we must sow and after denials we must woe for God This Sun of Righteousness prevents that other and shines early with wholesome doctrines upon the Soules of his hearers The Auditory is both thronged and attentive Yet not all with the same intentions If the people came to learn the Scribes and
thou wouldst not then be a Judge yet thou wilt once be Thou wouldst not in thy first coming judge the sins of men thou wilt come to judge them in thy second The time shall come when upon that just and glorious Tribunal thou shalt judge every man according to his works That we may not one day hear thee say Goe ye cursed let us now hear thee say Goe sin no more The thankfull Penitent ONE while I finde Christ invited by a Publican now by a Pharisee Whereever he went he made better chear then he found in an happy exchange of spiritual repast for bodily Who knows not the Pharisees to have been the proud enemies of Christ men over-conceited of themselves contemptuous of others severe in show Hypocrites in deed strict Sectaries insolent Justiciaries Yet here one of them invites Christ and that in good earnest The man was not like his fellows captious not ceremonious had he been of their stamp the omission of washing the feet had been mortall No profession hath not yielded some good Nicodemus and Gamaliel were of the same strain Neither is it for nothing that the Evangelist having branded this Sect for despising the counsell of God against themselves presently subjoyns this history of Simon the Pharisee as an exempt man O Saviour thou canst finde out good Pharisees good Publicans yea a good Thief upon the Crosse and that thou maiest finde thou canst make them so At the best yet he was a Pharisee whose table thou here refusedst not So didst thou in wisdome and mercy attemper thy self as to become all things to all men that thou mightest win some Thy harbenger was rough as in cloaths so in disposition professedly harsh and austere thy self wert milde and sociable So it was fit for both He was a preacher of Penance thou the author of comfort and Salvation He made way for Grace thou gavest it Thou hast bidden us to follow thy self not thy fore-runner That then which Politicks and time-servers doe for earthly advantages we will doe for spiritual frame our selves to all companies not in evil but in good yea in indifferent things What wonder is it that thou who cam'st down from Heaven to frame thy self to our nature shouldst whiles thou wert on earth frame thy self to the several dispositions of men Catch not at this O ye licentious Hypocrites men of all hours that can eat with gluttons drink with drunkards sing with ribalds scoffe with profane scorners and yet talk holily with the religious as if ye had hence any colour of your changeable conformity to all fashions Our Saviour never sinn'd for any man's sake though for our sakes he was sociable that he might keep us from sinning Can ye so converse with leud good fellows as that ye represse their sins redresse their exorbitances win them to God now ye walk in the steps of him that stuck not to sit down in the Pharisees house There sate the Saviour and Behold a woman in the City that was a sinner I marvell not that she is led in with a note of wonder wonder both on her part and on Christs That any sinner that a sensual sinner obdured in a notorious trade of evil should voluntarily out of a true remorse for her leudness seek to a Saviour it is worthy of an accent of admiration The noise of the Gospel is common but where is the power of it it hath store of hearers but few Converts Yet were there no wonder in her if it were not with reference to the power and mercy of Christ his power that thus drew the sinner his mercy that received her O Saviour I wonder at her but I blesse thee for her by whose only Grace she was both moved and accepted A sinner Alas who was not who is not so Not only in many things we sin all but in all things we all let fall many sins Had there been a woman not a sinner it had been beyond wonder One man there was that was not a sinner even he that was more then man that God and Man who was the refuge of this sinner but never woman that sinned not Yet he said not a Woman that had sinned but that was a sinner An action doth not give denomination but a trade Even the wise Charity of Christians much more the mercy of God can distinguish between sins of infirmity and practice of sin and esteem us not by a transient act but by a permanent condition The woman was noted for a luxurious and incontinent life What a deal of variety there is of sins That which faileth cannot be numbred Every sin continued deserves to brand the Soul with this style Here one is pickt out from the rest she is not noted for Murder for Theft for Idolatry only her Lust makes her a woman that was a sinner Other Vices use not to give the owner this title although they should be more hainous then it Wantons may flatter themselves in the indifferency or slightness of this offence their Souls shall need no other conveiance to Hell then this which cannot be so pleasing to Nature as it is hatefull to God who so speaks of it as if there were no sins but it a Woman that was a sinner She was a sinner now she is not her very presence argues her change Had she been still in her old trade she would no more have indured the sight of Christ then that Devil did which cried out Art thou come to torment me Her eyes had been lamps and fires of Lust not fountains of tears her hairs had been nets to catch foolish lovers not a towell for her Saviour's feet yet still she carries the name of what she was a scar still remains after the wound healed Simon will be ever the Leper and Matthew the Publican How carefully should we avoid those actions which may ever stain us What a difference there is betwixt the carriage and proceedings of God and men The mercy of God as it calleth those things that are not as if they were so it calleth those things that were as if they were not I will remember your iniquities no more As some skilfull Chirurgion so sets the bone or heals the sore that it cannot be seen where the complaint was Man's word is that which is done cannot be undone but the omnipotent goodness of God doth as it were undoe our once-committed sins Take away my iniquity and thou shalt finde none What we were in our selves we are not to him since he hath changed us from our selves O God why should we be niggardly where thou art liberal why should we be reading those lines which thou hast not onely crossed but quite blotted yea wiped out It is a good word she was a sinner To be wicked is odious to God Angels Saints men to have been so is blessed and glorious I rejoice to look back and see my Egyptians lying dead upon the shore that I may praise the Author of my deliverance and
Mary more devout then Martha busie Martha cares to feast Jesus Mary to be feasted of him There was more solicitude in Martha's active part more piety in Mary's sedentary attendance I know not in whether more zeal Good Martha was desirous to expresse her joy and thankfulnesse for the presence of so blessed a Guest by the actions of her carefull and plenteous entertainment I know not how to censure the Holy woman for her excesse of care to welcome her Saviour Sure she her self thought she did well and out of that confidence fears not to complain to Christ of her Sister I do not see her come to her Sister and whisper in her eare the gread need of her aide but she comes to Jesus and in a kinde of unkinde expostulation of her neglect makes her moan to him Lord dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone Why did she not rather make her first addresse to her Sister Was it for that she knew Mary was so tied by the ears with those adamantine chains that came from the mouth of Christ that untill his silence and dismission she had no power to stir Or was it out of an honour and respect to Christ that in his presence she would not presume to call off her Sister without his leave Howsoever I cannot excuse the holy Woman from some weaknesses It was a fault to measure her Sister by her self and apprehending her own act to be good to think her Sister could not doe well if she did not so too Whereas Goodnesse hath much latitude Ill is opposed to Good not Good to Good Neither in things lawfull or indifferent are others bound to our examples Mary might hear Martha might serve and both doe well Mary did not censure Martha for her rising from the feet of Christ to prepare his meal neither should Martha have censured Mary for sitting at Christs feet to feed her Soul It was a fault that she thought an excessive care of a liberal outward entertainment of Christ was to be preferred to a diligent attention to Christ spirituall entertainment of them It was a fault that she durst presume to question our Saviour of some kinde of unrespect to her toile Lord dost thou not care What saiest thou Martha dost thou challenge the Lord of Heaven and earth of incogitancy and neglect Dost thou take upon thee to prescribe unto that infinite Wisdome in stead of receiving directions from him It is well thou mettest with a Saviour whose gracious mildnesse knows how to pardon and pity the errours of our zeal Yet I must needs say here wanted not fair pretences for the ground of this thy expostulation Thou the elder Sister workest Mary the yonger sits still And what work was thine but the hospital receit of thy Saviour and his train Had it been for thine own paunch or for some carnal friends it had been lesse excusable now it was for Christ himself to whom thou couldst never be too obsequious But all this cannot deliver thee from the just blame of this bold subincusation Lord dost thou not care How ready is our weaknesse upon every slight discontentment to quarrell with our best friend yea with our good God and the more we are put to it to think our selves the more neglected and to challenge God for our neglect Do we groan on the bed of our sicknesse and languishing in pain complain of long hours and weary sides straight we think Lord dost thou not care that we suffer Doth God's poor Church goe to wrack whiles the ploughers ploughing on her back make long furrows Lord dost thou not care But know thou O thou feeble and distrustfull Soul the more thou doest the more thou sufferest the more thou art cared for neither is God ever so tender over his Church as when it is most exercised Every pang and stitch and gird is first felt of him that sends it O God thou knowest our works and our labour and our patience we may be ignorant and diffident thou canst not but be gracious It could not but trouble devout Mary to hear her Sisters impatient complaint a complaint of her self to Christ with such vehemence of passion as if there had been such strangenesse betwixt the two Sisters that the one would doe nothing for the other without an external compulsion from a Superior How can she chuse but think If I have offended why was I not secretly taxed for it in a sisterly familiarity What if there have been some little omission must the whole house ring of it before my Lord and all his Disciples Is this carriage beseeming a Sister Is my Devotion worthy of a quarrell Lord dost thou not care that I am injuriously censured Yet I hear not a word of reply from that modest mouth O holy Mary I admire thy patient silence thy Sister blames thee for thy Piety the Disciples afterwards blame thee for thy Bounty and cost not a word falls from thee in a just vindication of thine honour and innocence but in an humble taciturnity thou leavest thine answer to thy Saviour How should we learn of thee when we are complained of for well-doing to seal up our lips and to expect our righting from above And how sure how ready art thou O Saviour to speak in the cause of the dumb Martha Martha thou art carefull and troubled about many things but one thing is needfull and Mary hath chosen the better part What needed Mary to speak for her self when she had such an Advocate Doubtlesse Martha was as it were divided from her self with the multiplicity of her carefull thoughts our Saviour therefore doubles her name in his compellation that in such distraction he may both finde and fix her heart The good woman made full account that Christ would have sent away her Sister with a check and her self with thanks but now her hopes fail her and though she be not directly reproved yet she hears her Sister more approved then she Martha Martha thou art carefull and troubled about many things Our Saviour received courtesie from her in her diligent and costly entertainment yet he would not blanch her errour and smooth her up in her weak misprision No obligations may so enthrall us as that our tongues should not be free to reprove faults where we finde them They are base and servile spirits that will have their tongue tied to their teeth This glance towards a reproof implies an opposition of the condition of the two Sisters Themselves were not more near in Nature then their present humour and estate differed One is opposed to many necessary to superfluous solicitude to quietnesse Thou art carefull and troubled about many things one thing is necessary How far then may our care reach to these earthly things On the one side O Saviour thou hast charged us to take no thought what to eat drink put on on the other thy chosen Vessel hath told us that he that provides not for his family
where they finde possession never look after right Our Saviour had pick'd out the Sabbath for this Cure It is hard to finde out any time wherein Charity is unseasonable As Mercy is an excellent Grace so the works of it are fittest for the best day We are all born blinde the Font is our Siloam no day can come amisse but yet God's day is the properest for our washing and recovery This alone is quarrel enough to these scrupulous wranglers that an act of Mercy was done on that day wherein their envie was but seasonable I do not see the man beg any more when he once had his eyes no Burger in Jerusalem was richer then he I hear him stoutly defending that gracious author of his Cure against the cavils of the malicious Pharisees I see him as a resolute Confessour suffering excommunication for the name of Christ and maintaining the innocence and honour of so Blessed a benefactor I hear him read a Divinity Lecture to them that sate in Moses his chair and convincing them of blindness who punish'd him for seeing How can I but envie thee O happy man who of a Patient provest an Advocate for thy Saviour whose gain of bodily sight made way for thy Spiritual eyes who hast lost a Synagogue and hast found Heaven who being abandoned of Sinners art received of the Lord of Glory The stubborn Devil ejected HOW different how contrary are our conditions here upon earth Whiles our Saviour is transfigured on the Mount his Disciples are perplexed in the valley Three of his choice Followers were with him above ravished with the miraculous proofs of his Godhead nine other were troubled with the business of a stubborn Devil below Much people was met to attend Christ and there they will stay till he come down from Tabor Their zeal and devotion brought them thither their patient perseverance held them there We are not worthy the name of his clients if we cannot painfully seek him and submissely wait his leisure He that was now awhile retired into the Mount to confer with his Father and to receive the attendance of Moses and Elias returns into the valley to the multitude He was singled out awhile for prayer and contemplation now he was joyned with the multitude for their miraculous cure and Heavenly instruction We that are his spiritual agents must be either preparing in the mount or exercising in the valley one while in the mount of Meditation in the valley of Action another alone to study in the assembly to preach here is much variety but all is work Moses when he came down from the hill heard Musick in the valley Christ when he came down from the hill heard discord The Scribes it seems were setting hard upon the Disciples they saw Christ absent nine of his train left in the valley those they flie upon As the Devil so his Imps watch close for all advantages No subtile enemy but will be sure to attempt that part where is likelihood of least defence most weakness When the Spouse misses him whom her Soul loveth every watchman hath a buffet for her O Saviour if thou be never so little stept aside we are sure to be assaulted with powerful Temptations They that durst say nothing to the Master so soon as his back is turned fall foul upon his weakest Disciples Even at the first hatching the Serpent was thus crafty to begin at the weaker vessell experience and time hath not abated his wit If he still work upon silly Women laden with divers lusts upon rude and ungrounded Ignorants it is no other then his old wont Our Saviour upon the skirts of the hill knew well what was done in the plain and therefore hasts down to the rescue of his Disciples The clouds and vapors do not sooner scatter upon the Sun's breaking forth then these cavils vanish at the presence of Christ in stead of opposition they are straigth upon their knees here are now no quarrells but humble salutations and if Christ's question did not force theirs the Scribes had found no tongue Doubtlesse there were many eager Patients in this throng none made so much noise as the father of the Demoniack Belike upon his occasion it was that the Scribes held contestation with the Disciples If they wrangled he fues and that from his knees Whom wil not need make both humble and eloquent The case was wofull and accordingly expressed A son is a dear name but this was his only son Were his grief ordinary yet the sorrow were the lesse but he is a fearfull spectacle of judgment for he is Lunatick Were this Lunacy yet merely from a natural distemper it were more tolerable but this is aggravated by the possession of a cruell spirit that handles him in a most grievous manner Yet were he but in the rank of other Demoniacks the discomfort were more easie but lo this spirit is worse then all other his fellows others are usually dispossessed by the Disciples this is beyond their power I be sought thy Disciples to cast him out but they could not therefore Lord have thou mercy on my Son The despair of all other helps sends us importunately to the God of power Here was his refuge the strong man had gotten possession it was only the stronger then he that can eject him O God spiritual wickednesses have naturally seized upon our Souls all humane helps are too weak only thy Mercy shall improve thy Power to our deliverance What bowels could chuse but yearn at the distresse of this poor young man Phrensy had taken his brain that Disease was but health in comparison of the tyrannical possession of that evil spirit wherewith it was seconded Out of Hell there could not be a greater misery his Senses are either berest or else left to torment him he is torn and racked so as he foams and gnashes he pines and languishes he is cast sometimes into the fire sometimes into the water How that malitious Tyrant rejoices in the mischief done to the creature of God Had earth had any thing more pernicious then fire and water thither had he been thrown though rather for torture then dispatch It was too much favour to die at once O God with how deadly enemies hast thou matched us Abate thou their power since their malice will not be abated How many think of this case with pity and horror and in the mean time are insensible of their own fearfuller condition It is but oftentimes that the Devil would cast this young man into a temporary fire he would cast the sinner into an eternal fire whose everlasting burnings have no intermissions No fire comes amisse to him the fire of Affliction the fire of Lust the fire of Hell O God make us apprehensive of the danger of our sin and secure from the fearfull issue of sin All these very same effects follow his spiritual possession How doth he tear and rack them whom he vexes and distracts with inordinate cares and sorrows How
I am baptized O Saviour even thou who wert one with thy Father hast a Cup of thine own never Potion was so bitter as that which was mixed for thee Yea even thy draught is stinted it is not enough for thee to sip of this Cup thou must drink it up to the very dregs When the vinegar and gall were tendred to thee by men thou didst but kiss the cup but when thy Father gave into thine hands a potion infinitely more distastful thou for our health didst drink deep of it even to the bottome and saidst It is finished And can we repine at those unpleasing draughts of Affliction that are tempered for us sinful men when we see thee the Son of thy Fathers love thus dieted We pledge thee O Blessed Saviour we pledge thee according to our weakness who hast begun to us in thy powerful suffereings Onely do thou enable us after some four faces made in our reluctation yet at last willingly to pledge thee in our constant Sufferings for thee As thou must be drenched within so must thou be baptized without Thy Baptisme is not of water but of blood both these came from thee in thy Passion we cannot be thine if we partake not of both If thou hast not grudged thy precious blood to us well maiest thou challenge some worthless drops from us When they talk of thy Kingdome thou speakest of thy bitter Cup of thy bloody Baptisme Suffering is the way to reigning Through many tribulations must we enter into the Kingdome of Heaven There was never wedge of gold that did not first pass the fire there was never pure grain that did not undergoe the flail In vain shall we dream of our immediate passage from the pleasures and jollity of earth to the glory of Heaven Let who will hope to walk upon Roses and Violets to the throne of Heaven O Saviour let me trace thee by the track of thy Blood and by thy red steps follow thee to thine eternal rest and Happiness I know this is no easie task else thou hadst never said Are ye able Who should be able if not they that had been so long blessed with thy presence informed by thy doctrine and as it were beforehand possessed of their Heaven in thee Thou hadst never made them judges of their power if thou couldst not have convinced them of their weakness Alas how full of feebleness is our body and our minde of impatience If but a Bee sting our flesh it swels and if but a tooth ake the head and heart complain How small trifles make us weary of our selves What can we doe without thee without thee what can we suffer If thou be not O Lord strong in my weakness I cannot be so much as weak I cannot so much as be Oh do thou prepare me for my day and enable me to my trials I can doe all things through thee that strengthenest me The motion of the two Disciples was not more full of infirmity then their answer We are able Out of an eager desire of the Honour they are apt to undertake the condition The best men may be mistaken in their own powers Alas poor men when it came to the issue they ran away and I know not whether one without his coat It is one thing to suffer in speculation another in practice There cannot be a worse signe then for a man in a carnal presumption to vaunt of his own abilities How justly doth God suffer that man to be foiled purposely that he may be ashamed of his own vain self-confidence O God let me ever be humbly dejected in the sense of mine own insufficiency let me give all the Glory to thee and take nothing to my self but my infirmities Oh the wonderful mildness of the Son of God! He doth not rate the two Disciples either for their ambition in suing or presumption in undertaking but leaving the worst he takes the best of their answer and omitting their errors incourages their good intentions Ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with my baptisme but to sit on my right hand and my left is not mine to give but to them for whom it is prepared of my Father I know not whether there be more mercy in the concession or satisfaction in the denial Were it not an high Honour to drink of thy Cup O Saviour thou hadst not fore-promised it as a favour I am deceived if what thou grantest were much less then that which thou deniest To pledge thee in thine own Cup is not much less dignity and familiarity then to sit by thee If we suffer with thee we shall also reign together with thee What greater promotion can flesh and blood be capable of then a conformity to the Lord of Glory Enable thou me to drink of thy Cup and then set me where thou wilt But O Saviour whiles thou dignifiest them in thy grant dost thou disparage thy self in thy denial Not mine to give Whose is it if not thine If it be thy Fathers it is thine Thou who art Truth hast said I and my Father are one Yea because thou art one with the Father it is not thine to give to any save those for whom it is prepared of the Father The Father's preparation was thine his gift is thine the Decree of both is one That eternal counsel is not alterable upon our vain desires The Father gives these Heavenly honours to none but by thee thou givest them to none but according to the Decree of thy Father Many degrees there are of celestial Happiness Those supernal Mansions are not all of an height That Providence which hath varied our stations upon earth hath pre-ordered our seats above O God admit me within the wals of thy new Jerusalem and place me wheresoever thou pleasest The Tribute money pai'd ALL these other Histories report the Power of Christ this shews both his Power and Obedience his Power over the creature his Obedience to civil Powers Capernaum was one of his own Cities there he made his chief abode in Peter's house to that Host of his therefore do the Toll-gatherers repair for the Tribute When that great Disciple said We have left all he did not say We have abandoned all or sold or given away all but we have left in respect of managing not of possession not in respect of right but of use and present fruition so left that upon just occasion we may resume so left that it is our due though not our business Doubtless he was too wise to give away his own that he might borrow of a stranger His own roof gave him shelter for the time and his Master with him Of him as the Housholder is the Tribute required and by and for him is it also paid I inquire not either into the occasion or the summe What need we make this exaction sacrilegious as if that half-shekel which was appointed by God to be paid by every Israelite to the use of the Tabernacle and
Temple were now diverted to the Roman Exchequer There was no necessity that the Roman Lords should be tied to the Jewish reckonings it was free for them to impose what payments they pleased upon a subdued people when great Augustus commanded the world to be taxed this rate was set The mannerly Collectors demand it first of him with whom they might be more bold Doth not your Master pay tribute All Capernaum knew Christ for a great Prophet his Doctrine had ravish'd them his Miracles had astonish'd them yet when it comes to a money-matter his share is as deep as the rest Questions of profit admit no difference Still the Sacred Tribe challengeth reverence who cares how little they receive how much they pay Yet no man knows with what minde this demand was made whether in a churlish grudging at Christ's immunity or in an awful compellation of the servant rather then the Master Peter had it ready what to answer I hear him not require their stay till he should goe in and know his Masters resolution but as one well acquainted with the minde and practice of his Master he answers Yes There was no truer pay-master of the Kings dues then he that was King of Kings Well did Peter know that he did not onely 〈◊〉 but preach tribute When the Herodians laid twigs for him as supposing that so great a Prophet would be all for the liberty and exemption of God's chosen people he choaks them with their own coin and told them the stamp argued the right Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars O Saviour how can thy servants challenge that freedome which thy self had not who that pretends from thee can claim homage from those to whom thou gavest it If thou by whom Kings reign forbarest not to pay tribute to an heathen Prince what power under thee can deny it to those that rule for thee That demand was made without doors No sooner is Peter come in then he is prevented by his Master's question What thinkest thou Simon of whom do the Kings of the earth receive tribute of their own children or of strangers This very interrogation was answer enough to that which Peter meant to move he that could thus know the heart was not in true right liable to humane exactions But O Saviour may I presume to ask what this is to thee Thou hast said My Kingdome is not of this world how doth it concern thee what is done by the Kings of the earth or imposed upon the sons of earthly Kings Thou wouldst be the Son of an humble Virgin and chosest not a Royal state but a servile I dispute not thy natural right to the throne by thy lineal descent from the loyns of Juda and David what should I plead that which thou wavest It is thy Divine Royalty and Sonship which thou here justly urgest the argument is irrefragable and convictive If the Kings of the earth do so priviledge their children that they are free from all tributes and impositions how much more shall the King of Heaven give this immunity to his onely and natural Son so as in true reason I might challenge an exemption for me and my train Thou mightest O Saviour and no less challenge a tribute of all the Kings of the earth to thee by whom all powers are ordained Reason cannot mutter against this claim the creature owes it self and whatsoever it hath to the Maâ—er he owes nothing to it Then are the children free He that hath right to all needs not pay any thing else there should be a subjection in Soveraignty and men should be debters to themselves But this right was thine own peculiar and admits no partners why dost thou speak of children as of more and extending this priviledge to Peter sayest Lest we scandalize them Was it for that thy Disciples being of thy robe might justly seem interessed in the liberties of their Master Surely no otherwise were they children no otherwise free Away with that fanatical conceit which challenges an immunity from secular commands and taxes to a spiritual and adoptative Sonship no earthly Saintship can exempt us from tribute to whom tribute belongeth There is a freedom O Saviour which our Christianity cals us to affect a freedom from the yoke of sin and Satan from the servitude of our corrupt affections we cannot be Sons if we be not thus free O free thou us by thy free Spirit from the miserable bondage of our Nature so shall the children be free but as to these secular duties no man is less free then the children O Saviour thou wert free and wouldst not be so thou wert free by natural right wouldst not be free by voluntary dispensation Lest an offence might be taken Surely had there followed an offence it had been taken onely and not given Woe be to the man by whom the offence cometh It cometh by him that gives it it cometh by him that takes it when it is not given no part of this blame could have cleaved unto thee either way Yet such was thy goodness that thou wouldst not suffer an offence unjustly taken at that which thou mightest justly have denied How jealous should we be even of others perils how careful so to moderate out power in the use of lawful things that our Charity may prevent others scandals to Temit of our own right for anothers safety Oh the deplorable condition of those wilful mâ—â— who care not what blocks they lay in the way to Heaven not forbearing by a known lewdness to draw others into their own damnation To avoid the unjust offence even of very Publicans Jesus will work a Miracle Peter is sent to the sea and that not with a net but with an hook The Disciple was now in his own trade He knew a net might inclose many fishes an hook could take but one with that hook must he goe angle for the tribute-money A fish shall bring him a stater in her mouth and that fish that bites first What an unusual bearer is here what an unlikely element to yield a piece of ready coin Oh that Omnipotent power which could command the fish to be both his Treasurer to keep his Silver and his Purveyour to bring it Now whether O Saviour thou causedst this fish to take up that shekel out of the bottome of the sea or whether by thine Almighty word thou mad'st it in an instant in the mouth of that fish it is neither possible to determine nor necessary to inquire I rather adore thine infinite Knowledge and Power that couldst make use of unlikeliest means that couldst serve thy self of the very fishes of the sea in a business of earthly and civil imployment It was not out of need that thou didst this though I do not finde that thou ever affectedst a full purse What veins of Gold or Mines of Silver did not lye open to thy command But out of a desire to teach Peter that whiles he would be tributary to Caesar the very
be actors None can awake Lazarus out of this sleep but he that made Lazarus Every mouse or gnat can raise us up from that other sleep none but an Omnipotent power from this This sleep is not without a dissolution Who can command the Soul to come down and meet the body or command the body to piece with it self and rise up to the Soul but the God that created both It is our comfort and assurance O Lord against the terrors of death and tenacity of the grave that our Resurrection depends upon none but thine Omnipotence Who can blame the Disciples if they were loath to return to Judaea Their last entertainment was such as might justly dishearten them Were this as literally taken all the reason of our Saviours purpose of so perilous a voyage they argued not amiss If he sleep he shall doe well Sleep in sickness is a good sign of Recovery For extremity of pain barres our rest when Nature therefore finds so much respiration she justly hopes for better terms Yet it doth not alwaies follow If he sleep he shall doe well How many have dyed in Lethargies how many have lost in sleep what they would not have forgone waking Adam slept and lost his rib Sampson slept and lost 〈◊〉 strength Saul slept and lost his weapon Ishbosheth and Holofeâ—â—â— slept and lost their heads In ordinary course it holds well here they mistook and erred The misconstruction of the words of Christ led them into an unseasonable and erroneous suggestion Nothing can be more dangerous then to take the speeches of Christ according to the sound of the Letter one errour will be sure to draw on more and if the first be never so slight the last may be important Wherefore are words but to express meanings why do we speak but to be understood Since then our Saviour saw himself not rightly construed he delivers himself planly Lazarus is dead Such is thy manner O thou eternal Word of thy Father in all thy sacred expressions Thine own mouth is thy best commentary what thou hast more obscurely said in one passage thou interpretest more clearly in another Thou art the Sun which givest us that light whereby we see thy self But how modestly dost thou discover thy Deity to thy Disciples not upon the first mention of Lazarus his death instantly professing thy Power and will of his resuscitation but contenting thy self only to intimate thy Omniscience in that thou couldst in that absence and distance know and report his departure they shall gather the rest and cannot chuse but think We serve a Master that knows all things and he that knows all things can doe all things The absence of our Saviour from the death-bed of Lazarus was not casual but voluntary yea he is not only willing with it but glad of it I am glad for your sakes that I was not there How contrary may the affections of Christ and ours be and yet be both good The two worthy Sisters were much grieved at our Saviours absence as doubting it might savour of some neglect Christ was glad of it for the advantage of his Disciples Faith I cannot blame them that they were thus sorry I cannot but bless him that he was thus glad The gain of their Faith in so Divine a Miracle was more then could be countervailed by their momentany sorrow God and we are not alike affected with the same events He laughs where we mourn he is angry where we are pleased The difference of the affections arises from the difference of the Objects which Christ and they apprehend in the same occurrence Why are the Sisters sorrowful because upon Christ absence Lazarus died Why was Jesus glad he was not there for the benefit which he saw would accrew to their Faith There is much variety of prospect in every act according to the several intentions and issues thereof yea even in the very same eyes The father sees his son combating in a Duel for his Country he sees blows and wounds on the one side he sees renown and victory on the other he grieves at the wounds he rejoyces in the Honour Thus doth God in all our Afflictions he sees our teares and hears our groans and pities us but withall he looks upon our Patience our Faith our Crown and is glad that we are afflicted O God why should not we conform our diet unto thine When we ly in pain and extremity we cannot but droop under it but do we finde our selves increased in true Mortification in Patience in Hope in a constant relyance on thy Mercies Why are we not more joyed in this then dejected with the other since the least grain of the increase of Grace is more worth then can be equalled with whole pounds of bodily vexation O strange consequence Lazarus is dead nevertheless Let us goe unto him Must they not needs think What should we doe with a dead man What should separate if death cannot Even those whom we loved dearliest we avoid once dead now we lay them aside under the board and thence send them out of our houses to their grave Neither hath Death more horrour in it then noisomeness and if we could intreat our eyes to endure the horrid aspect of Death in the face we loved yet can we perswade our sent to like that smell 〈◊〉 arises up from their corruption Oh love stronger then Death Behold here a friend whom the very Grave cannot sever Even those that write the longest and most passionate dates of their amity subscribe but your friend till death and if the ordinary strain of humane friendship will stretch yet a little further it is but to the brim of the grave thither a friend may follow us and see us bestowed in this house of our Age but there he leaves us to our worms and dust But for thee O Saviour the grave-stone the earth the coffin are no bounders of thy dear respects even after death and burial and corruption thou art graciously affected to those thou lovest Besides the Soul whereof thou saiest not Let us goe to it but Let it come to us there is still a gracious regard to that dust which was and shall be a part of an undoubted member of that mystical body whereof thou art the Head Heaven and earth yields no such friend but thy self O make me ever ambitious of this Love of thine and ever unquiet till I feel my self possessed of thee In the mouth of a mere man this word had been incongruous Lazarus is dead yet let us goe to him in thine O almighty Saviour it was not more loving then seasonable since I may justly say of thee thou hast more to doe with the dead then with the living for both they are infinitely more and have more inward communion with thee and thou with them Death cannot hinder either our passage to thee or thy return to us I joy to think the time is coming when thou shalt come to every of our graves
be the inculcation of Gods merciful promises of their relief and supportation O God if thou hast said it I dare believe I dare cast my Soul upon the belief of every word of thine Faithfull art thou which hast promised who wilt also doe it In spight of all the unjust discouragements of Nature we must obey Christ's command Whatever Martha suggests they remove the stone and may now see and smell him dead whom they shall soon see revived The sent of the corps is not so unpleasing to them as the perfume of their obedience is sweet to Christ And now when all impediments are removed and all hearts ready for the work our Saviour addresses to the Miracle His eyes begin they are lift up to Heaven It was the malicious mis-suggestion of his enemies that he lookt down to Beelzebub the beholders shall now see whence he exspects and derives his power and shall by him learn whence to exspect and hope for all success The heart and the eye must goe together he that would have ought to doe with God must be sequestred and lifted up from earth His Tongue seconds his Eye Father Nothing more stuck in the stomack of the Jews then that Christ called himself the Son of God this was imputed to him for a Blasphemy worthy of stones How seasonably is this word spoken in the hearing of these Jews in whose sight he will be presently approved so How can ye now O ye cavillers except at that title which ye shall see irrefragably justified Well may he call God Father that can raise the dead out of the grave In vain shall ye snarle at the style when ye are convinced of the effect I hear of no Prayer but a Thanks for hearing Whiles thou saidst nothing O Saviour how doth thy Father hear thee Was it not with thy Father and thee as it was with thee and Moses Thou saidst Let me alone Moses when he spake not Thy will was thy Prayer Words express our hearts to men Thoughts to God Well didst thou know out of the self-fameness of thy will with thy Fathers that if thou didst but think in thine heart that Lazarus should rise he was now raised It was not for thee to pray vocally and audibly lest those captious hearers should say thou didst all by intreaty nothing by power Thy thanks overtake thy desires ours require time and distance our thanks arise from the Echo of our prayers resounding from Heaven to our hearts Thou because thou art at once in earth and Heaven and knowst the grant to be of equal paces with the request most justly thankest in praying Now ye cavilling Jews are thinking straight Is there such distance betwixt the Father and the Son is it so rare a thing for the Son to be heard that he pours out his thanks for it as a blessing unusual Do ye not now see that he who made your heart knows it and anticipates your fond thoughts with the same breath I knew that thou hearest me alwaies but I said this for their sakes that they might believe Merciful Saviour how can we enough admire thy goodness who makest our belief the scope and drift of thy doctrine and actions Alas what wert thou the better if they believed thee sent from God what wert thou the worse if they believed it not Thy perfection and glory stands not upon the slippery terms of our approbation or dislike but is real in thy self and that infinite without possibility of our increase or diminution We we onely are they that have either the gain or loss in thy receit or rejection yet so dost thou affect our belief as if it were more thine advantage then ours O Saviour whiles thou spak'st to thy Father thou liftedst up thine eyes now thou art to speak unto dead Lazarus thou liftedst up thy voice and criedst aloud Lazarus come forth Was it that the strength of the voice might answer to the strength of the affection since we faintly require what we care not to obtain and vehemently utter what we earnestly desire Was it that the greatness of the voice might answer to the greatness of the work Was it that the hearers might be witnesses of what words were used in so miraculous an act no magical incantations but authoritative and Divine commands Was it to signifie that Lazarus his Soule was called from farre the speech must be loud that shall be heard in another world Was it in relation to the estate of the body of Lazarus whom thou hadst reported to sleep since those that are in a deep and dead sleep cannot be awaked without a loud call Or was it in a representation of that loud voice of the last Trumpet which shall sound into all graves and raise all flesh from their dust Even so still Lord when thou wouldst raise a Soul from the death of sin and grave of corruption no easie voice will serve Thy strongest commands thy loudest denunciations of Judgements the shrillest and sweetest promulgations of thy Mercies are but enough How familiar a word is this Lazarus come forth no other then he was wont to use whiles they lived together Neither doth he say Lazarus revive but as if he supposed him already living Lazarus come forth To let them know that those who are dead to us are to and with him alive yea in a more entire and feeling society then whiles they carried their clay about them Why do I fear that separation which shall more unite me to my Saviour Neither was the word more familiar then commanding Lazarus come forth Here is no suit to his Father no adjuration to the deceased but a flat and absolute injunction Come forth O Saviour that is the voice that I shall once hear sounding into the bottome of my grave and raising me up out of my dust that is the voice that shall pierce the rocks and divide the mountains and fetch up the dead out of the lowest deeps Thy word made all thy word shall repair all Hence all ye diffident fears he whom I trust is Omnipotent It was the Jewish fashion to enwrap the corps in linen to tye the hands and feet and to cover the face of the dead The Fall of man besides weakness brought shame upon him ever since even whiles he lives the whole Body is covered but the Face because some sparks of that extinct Majesty remain there is wont to be left open In death all those poor remainders being gone and leaving deformity and gastliness in the room of them the Face is covered also There lies Lazarus bound in double fetters One Almighty word hath loosed both and now he that was bound came forth He whose power could not be hindred by the chains of death cannot be hindred by linen bonds He that gave life gave motion gave direction He that guided the Soul of Lazarus into the body guided the body of Lazarus without his eyes moved the feet without the full liberty of his regular paces no doubt
the same power slackned those swathing-bands of death that the feet might have some little scope to move though not with that freedome that followed after Thou didst not onely O Saviour raise the body of Lazarus but the Faith of the beholders They cannot deny him dead whom they saw rising they see the signes of death with the proofs of life Those very swathes convinced him to be the man that was raised Thy less Miracle confirms the greater both confirm the Faith of the beholders O clear and irrefragable example of our resuscitation Say now ye shameless Sadducees with what face can ye deny the Resurrection of the body when ye see Lazarus after four-days death rising up out of his grave And if Lazarus did thus start up at the bleating of this Lamb of God that was now every day preparing for the slaughter-house how shall the dead be rouzed up out of their graves by the roaring of that glorious and immortal Lion whose voice shall shake the powers of Heaven and move the very foundations of the earth With what strange amazedness do we think that Martha and Mary the Jews and the Disciples lookt to see Lazarus come forth in his winding-sheet shackled with his linen fetters and walk towards them Doubtless fear and horrour strove in them whether should be for the time more predominant We love our friends dearly but to see them again after their known death and that in the very robes of the grave must needs set up the hair in a kinde of uncouth rigour And now though it had been most easie for him that brake the adamantine fetters of death to have broke in pieces those linen ligaments wherewith his raised Lazarus was encumbred yet he will not doe it but by their hands He that said Remove the stone said Loose Lazarus He will not have us exspect his immediate help in that we can doe for our selves It is both a laziness and a presumptuous tempting of God to look for and extraordinary and supernatural help from God where he hath inabled us with common aid What strange salutations do we think there were betwixt Lazarus and Christ that had raised him betwixt Lazarus and his Sisters and neighbors and friends what amazed looks what unusual complements For Lazarus was himself at once here was no leisure of degrees to reduce him to his wonted perfection neither did he stay to rub his eyes and stretch his benummed lims nor take time to put off that dead sleep wherewith he had been seized but instantly he is both alive and fresh and vigorous if they do but let him goe he walks so as if he had ailed nothing and receives and gives mutual gratulations I leave them entertaining each other with glad embraces with discourses of reciprocal admiration with praises and adorations of that God and Saviour that had fetched him into life Christ's Procession to the Temple NEver did our Saviour take so much state upon him as now that he was going towards his Passion other journies he measured on foot without noise or train this with a Princely equipage and loud acclamation Wherein yet O Saviour whether shall I more wonder at thy Majesty or thine Humility that Divine Majesty which lay hid under so humble appearance or that sincere Humility which veiled so great a glory Thou O Lord whose chariots are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels wouldst make choice of the silliest of beasts to carry thee in thy last and Royal Progress How well is thy birth suited with thy triumph Even that very Ass whereon thou rodest was prophesied of neither couldst thou have made up those vaticall Predictions without this conveyance O glorious and yet homely pomp Thou wouldst not lose ought of thy right thou that wast a King wouldst be proclaimed so but that it might appear thy Kingdome was not of this world thou that couldst have commanded all worldly magnificence thoughtest fit to abandon it In stead of the Kings of the earth who reigning by thee might have been imployed in thine attendance the people are thine heralds their homely garments are thy foot-cloth and carpets their green boughs the strewings of thy way those Palms which were wont to be born in the hands of them that triumph are strewed under the feet of thy beast It was thy greatness and honour to contemn those glories which worldly hearts were wont to admire Justly did thy Followers hold the best ornaments of the earth worthy of no better then thy treading upon neither could they ever account their garments so rich as when they had been trampled upon by thy carriage How happily did they think their backs disrobed for thy way How gladly did they spend their breath in acclaming thee Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Where now are the great Masters of the Synagogue that had enacted the ejection of whosoever should confess Jesus to be the Christ Lo here bold and undaunted clients of the Messiah that dare proclaim him in the publick road in the open streets In vain shall the impotent enemies of Christ hope to suppress his glory as soon shall they with their hand hide the face of the Sun from shining to the world as withhold the beams of his Divine truth from the eyes of men by their envious opposition In spight of all Jewish malignity his Kingdome is confessed applauded blessed O thou fairer then the children of men in thy Majesty ride on prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things In this Princely and yet poor and despicable pomp doth our Saviour enter into the famous City of Jerusalem Jerusalem noted of old for the seat of Kings Priests Prophets of Kings for there was the throne of David of Priests for there was the Temple of Prophets for there they delivered their errands and left their blood Neither know I whether it were more wonder for a Prophet to perish out of Jerusalem or to be safe there Thither would Jesus come as a King as a Priest as a Prophet acclamed as a King teaching the people and foretelling the wofull vastation of it as a Prophet and as a Priest taking possession of his Temple and vindicating it from the foul profanations of Jewish Sacriledge Oft before had he come to Jerusalem without any remarkable change because without any semblance of State now that he gives some little glimpse of his Royalty the whole City was moved When the Sages of the East brought the first news of the King of the Jewes Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and now that the King of the Jews comes himself though in so mean a port there is a new commotion The silence and obscurity of Christ never troubles the world he may be an underling without any stir but if he do but put forth himself never so little to bear the least sway amongst men now their blood
why did not those multitudes of men stand upon their defence and wrest that whip out of the hand of a seemingly-weak and unarmed Prophet but in stead thereof run away like sheep from before him not daring to abide his presence though his hand had been still Surely had these men been so many armies yea so many Legions of Devils when God will astonish and chase them they cannot have the power to stand and resist How easie is it for him that made the heart to put either terrour or courage into it at pleasure O Saviour it was none of thy least Miracles that thou didst thus drive out a world of able offenders in spight of their gain and stomackful resolutions their very profit had no power to stay them against thy frowns Who hath resisted thy will Mens hearts are not their own they are they must be such as their Maker wil have them The Figge-tree cursed WHen in this State our Saviour had rid through the streets of Jerusalem that evening he lodged not there Whether he would not that after so publick an acclamation of the people he might avoid all suspicion of plots or popularity Even unjust jealousies must be shunned neither is there less wisdome in the prevention then in the remedy of evils or whether he could not for want of an invitation Hosanna was better â—heap then an Entertainment and perhaps the envie of so stomached a Reformation discouraged his hosts However he goes that evening supperless out of Jerusalem O unthankful Citizens Do ye thus part with your no less meek then glorious King His title was not more proclaimed in your streets then your own ingratitude If he have purged the Temple yet your hearts are foul There is no wonder in mens unworthiness there is more then wonder in thy mercy O thou Saviour of men that wouldst yet return thither where thou wert so palpably disregarded If they gave thee not thy Supper thou givest them their Breakfast If thou maist not spend the night with them thou wilt with them spend the day O love of unthankful Souls not discourageable by the most hateful indignities by the basest repulses What burden canst thou shrink under who canst bear the weight of ingratitude Thou that givest food to all things living art thy self hungry Martha Mary and Lazarus kept not so poor an house but that thou mightest have eaten something at Bethany Whether thine hast out-ran thine appetite or whether on purpose thou forbarest repast to give opportunity to thine insuing Miracle I neither ask nor resolve This was not the first time that thou wast hungry As thou wouldst be a man so thou wouldst suffer those infirmities that belong to Humanity Thou camest to be our High priest it was thy act and intention not only to intercede for thy people but to transfer unto thy self as their sins so their weaknesses and complaints Thou knowest to pity what thou hast felt Are we pinched with want we indure but what thou didst we have reason to be patient thou induredst what we do we have reason to be thankful But what shall we say to this thine early hunger The morning as it is priviledged from excess so from need the stomach is not wont to rise with the body Surely as thy occasions were no season was exempted from thy want thou hadst spent the day before in the holy labour of thy Reformation after a supperless departure thou spentest the night in Prayer no meal refreshed thy toile What do we think much to forbear a morsel or to break a sleep for thee who didst thus neglect thy self for us As if meat were no part of thy care as if any thing would serve to stop the mouth of hunger thy breakfast is expected from the next Tree A Fig-tree grew by the way side ful grown well spread thick leaved and such as might promise enough to a remote eye thither thou camest to seek that which thou foundst not and not findig what thou soughtest as displeased with thy disappointment cursedst that plant which deluded thy hopes Thy breath instantly blasted that deceitful tree it did no otherwise then the whole world must needs doe wither and dye with thy Curse O Saviour I had rather wonder at thine actions then discuss them If I should say that as man thou either knewest not or consideredst not of this fruitlesness it could no way prejudice thy Divine Omniscience this infirmity were no worse then thy weariness or hunger It was no more disparagement to thee to grow in Knowledge then in stature neither was it any more disgrace to thy perfect Humanity that thou as man knewst not all things at once then that thou wert not in thy childhood at thy full growth But herein I doubt not to say it is more likely thou camest purposely to this Tree knowing the barrenness of it answerable to the season and fore-resolving the event that thou mightest hence ground the occasion of so instructive a Miracle like as thou knewest Lazarus was dying was dead yet wouldst not seem to take notice of his dissolution that thou mightest the more glorifie thy Power in his resuscitation It was thy willing and determined disappointment for a greater purpose But why didst thou curse a poor tree for the want of that fruit which the season yielded not If it pleased thee to call for that which it could not give the Plant was innocent and if innocent why cursed O Saviour it is fitter for us to adore then to examine We may be sawcy in inquiâ—â—g after thee and fond in answering for thee If that season were not for a ripe fruit yet for some fruit it was Who knows not the nature of the Fig-tree to be alwaies bearing That plant if not altogether barren yields a continual succession of increase whiles one fig is ripe another is green the same bough can content both our taste and our hope This tree was defective in both yielding nothing but an empty shade to the mis-hoping traveller Besides that I have learn'd that thou O Saviour wert wont not to speak only but to work Parables And what was this other then a real Parable of thine All this while hadst thou been in the world thou hadst given many proofs of thy Mercy the earth was full of thy Goodness none of thy Judgments now immediately before thy Passion thou thoughtest fit to give this double demonstration of thy just austerity How else should the world have seen thou canst be severe as well as meek and merciful And why mightest not thou who madest all things take liberty to destroy a plant for thine own Glory Wherefore serve thy best creatures but for the praise of thy Mercy and Justice What great matter was it if thou who once saidst Let the earth bring forth the herb yielding seed and the tree yielding the fruit of its own kind shouldst now say Let this fruitless tree wither All this yet was done in figure In this act of thine
place to thy love and obedience How should we have known these evils so formidable if thou hadst not in half a thought inclined to deprecate them How could we have avoided so formidable and deadly evils if thou hadst not willingly undergone them We acknowledge thine holy fear we adore thy Divine fortitude Whiles thy Minde was in this fearfull agitation it is no marvell if thy Feet were not fixed Thy place is more changed then thy thoughts One while thou walkest to thy drouzy Attendants and stirrest up their needfull vigilancy then thou returnest to thy passionate Devotions thou fallest again upon thy face If thy body be humbled down to the earth thy Soul is yet lower thy prayers are so much more vehement as thy pangs are And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground O my Saviour what an agonie am I in whiles I think of thine What pain what fear what strife what horrour was in thy Sacred breast How didst thou struggle under the weight of our sins that thou thus sweatest that thou thus bleedest All was peace with thee thou wert one with thy coeternal and coessential Father all the Angels worshipped thee all the powers of Heaven and earth awfully acknowledged thine Infiniteness It was our person that feoffed thee in this misery and torment in that thou sustainedst thy Father's wrath and our curse If eternal death be unsufferable if every sin deserve eternal death what O what was it for thy Soul in this short time of thy bitter Passion to answer those millions of eternal deaths which all the sins of all mankinde had deserved from the just hand of thy Godhead I marvell not if thou bleedest a sweat if thou sweatest blood If the moisture of that Sweat be from the Body the tincture of it is from the Soul As there never was such another Sweat so neither can there be ever such a Suffering It is no wonder if the Sweat were more then natural when the Suffering was more then humane O Saviour so willing was that precious blood of thine to be let forth for us that it was ready to prevent thy Persecutors and issued forth in those pores before thy wounds were opened by thy Tormentors O that my heart could bleed unto thee with true inward compunction for those sins of mine which are guilty of this thine Agonie and have drawn blood of thee both in the Garden and on the Cross Woe is me I had been in Hell if thou hadst not been in thine Agonie I had scorched if thou hadst not sweat Oh let me abhor my own wickednesse and admire and blesse thy Mercy But O ye blessed Spirits which came to comfort my conflicted Saviour how did ye look upon the Son of God when ye saw him labouring for life under these violent temptations with what astonishment did ye behold him bleeding whom ye adored In the Wilderness after his Duell with Satan ye came and ministred unto him and now in the Garden whiles he is in an harder combat ye appear to strengthen him O the wise and marvellous dispensation of the Almighty Whom God will afflict an Angel shall relieve the Son shall suffer the Servant shall comfort him the God of Angels droupeth the Angel of God strengthens him Blessed Jesu if as Man thou wouldst be made a little lower then the Angels how can it disparage thee to be attended and cheared up by an Angel Thine Humiliation would not disdain comfort from meaner hands How free was it for thy Father to convey seasonable consolations to thine humbled Soul by whatsoever means Behold though thy Cup shall not passe yet it shall be sweetned What if thou see not for the time thy Fathers face yet thou shalt feel his hand What could that Spirit have done without the God of Spirits O Father of Mercies thou maiest bring thine into Agonies but thou wilt never leave them there In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts shall refresh my Soul Whatsoever be the means of my supportation I know and adore the Author Peter and Malchus or Christ Apprehended WHerefore O Saviour didst thou take those three choice Disciples with thee from their fellows but that thou expectedst some comfort from their presence A seasonable word may sometimes fall from the meanest attendant and the very society of those we trust carries in it some kinde of contentment Alas what broken reeds are men Whiles thou art sweating in thine Agonie they are snorting securely Admonitions threats intreaties cannot keep their eyes open Thou tellest them of danger they will needs dream of ease and though twice rouzed as if they had purposed this neglect they carelesly sleep out thy sorrow and their own peril What help hast thou of such Followers In the mount of thy Transfiguration they slept and besides fell on their faces when they should behold thy glory and were not themselves for fear in the garden of thine Agonie they fell upon the ground for drouzinesse when they should compassionate thy sorrow and lost themselves in a stupid sleepinesse Doubtlesse even this disregard made thy prayers so much more fervent The lesse comfort we finde on earth the more we seek above Neither soughtst thou more then thou foundest Lo thou wert heard in that which thou fearedst An Angel supplies men that Spirit was vigilant whiles thy Disciples were heavy The exchange was happy No sooner is this good Angel vanished then that domestick Devil appears Judas comes up and shews himself in the head of those miscreant troups He whose too much honour it had been to be a Follower of so Blessed a Master affects now to be the leader of this wicked rabble The Sheeps fleece is now cast off the Wolf appears in his own likenesse He that would be false to his Master would be true to his Chapmen Even evil spirits keep touch with themselves The bold Traitor dare yet still mix Hypocrisie with Villany his very salutations and kisses murder O Saviour this is no news to thee All those who under a shew of Godlinesse practise impiety do still betray thee thus Thou who hadst said One of you is a Devil didst not now say Avoid Satan but Friend wherefore art thou come As yet Judas it was not too late Had there been any the least spark of Grace yet remaining in that perfidious bosome this word had fetcht thee upon thy knees All this Sunshine cannot thaw an obdurate heart The sign is given Jesus is taken Wretched Traitor why wouldst thou for this purpose be thus attended and ye foolish Priests and Elders why sent you such a band and so armed for this apprehension One messenger had been enough for a voluntary prisoner Had my Saviour been unwilling to be taken all your forces with all the Legions of Hell to help them had been too little since he was willing to be attached two were too many When he did but
of all other this eare of Malchus hath the loudest tongue to blazon the praise of thy Clemency and Goodnesse to thy very enemies Wherefore came that man but in an hostile manner to attach thee Besides his own what favour was he worthy of for his Masters sake And if he had not been more forward then his fellows why had not his skin been as whole as theirs Yet even amidst the throng of thine apprehenders in the heat of their violence in the height of their malice and thine own instant peril of death thou healest that unnecessary eare which had been guilty of hearing Blasphemies against thee and receiving cruell and unjust charges concerning thee O Malchus could thy eare be whole and not thy heart broken and contrite with remorse for rising up against so mercifull and so powerfull an hand Could thou chuse but say O blessed Jesu I see it was thy Providence that preserved my head when my eare was smitten it is thine Almighty Power that hath miraculously restored that eare of mine which I had justly forfeited this head of mine shall never be guilty of plotting any further mischief against thee this eare shall never entertain any more reproaches of thy name this heart of mine shall ever acknowledge and magnifie thy tender mercies thy Divine Omnipotence Could thy fellows see such a demonstration of Power and Goodnesse with unrelenting hearts Unthankfull Malchus and cruell souldiers ye were worse wounded and felt it not God had struck your breasts with a fearfull obduration that ye still persist in your bloody enterprise And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away c. Christ before Caiaphas THat Traitor whom his own cord made soon after too fast gave this charge concerning Jesus Hold him fast Fear makes his guard cruell they binde his hands and think no twist can be strong enough for this Sampson Fond Jews and Souldiers if his own will had not tied him faster then your cords though those Manicles had been the stiffest cables or the strongest iron they had been but threds of tow What eyes can but run over to see those hands that made Heaven and Earth wrung together and bruised with those mercilesse cords to see him bound who came to restore us to the liberty of the Sons of God to see the Lord of Life contemptuously dragged through the streets first to the house of Annas then from thence to the house of Caiaphas from him to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod back again to Pilate from Pilate to his Calvarie whiles in the mean time the base rabble and scum of the incensed multitude runs after him with shouts and scorns The act of death hath not in it so much misery and horrour as the pomp of death And what needed all this pageant of Cruelty wherefore was this state and lingring of an unjust execution Was it for that their malice held a quick dispatch too much Mercy Was it for that whiles they meant to be bloody they would fain seem just A suddain violence had been palpably murderous now the colour of a legal processe guilds over all their deadly spight and would seem to render them honest and the accused guilty This attachment this convention of the innocent was a true night-work a deed of so much darknesse was not for the light Old Annas and that wicked Bench of gray-headed Scribes and Elders can be content to break their sleep to doe mischief Envie and malice can make noon of midnight It is resolved he shall die and now pretences must be sought that he may be cleanly murdered All evil begins at the Sanctuarie The Priests and Scribes and Elders are the first in this bloody scene they have pai'd for this head and now long to see what they shall have for their thirty silverlings The Bench is set in the Hall of Caiaphas False witnesses are sought for and hired they agree not but shame their suborners Woe is me what safety can there be for Innocence when the evidence is wilfully corrupted What State was ever so pure as not to yield some miscreants that will either sell or lend an oath What a brand hath the wisdome of God set upon falshood even dissonance and distraction whereas Truth ever holds together and jars not whiles it is it self O Saviour what a perfect innocence was in thy Life what an exact purity in thy Doctrine that malice it self cannot so much as devise what to slander It were hard if Hell should not finde some Factors upon earth At last two Witnesses are brought in that have learned to agree with themselves whiles they differed from truth they say the same though false This fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and build it again in three daies Perjured wretches Were these the terms that you heard from that Sacred mouth Said he formally thus as ye have deposed It is true he spake of a Temple of destroying of building of three daies but did he speak of that Temple of his own destroying of a material building in that space He said Destroy ye Ye say I am able to destroy He said this Temple of his body Ye say the Temple of God He said I will make up this Temple of my body in three daies Ye say I am able in three daies to build this material Temple of God The words were his the sentence yours The words were true the evidence false So whiles you report the words and misreport the sense ye swear a true falshood aud are truly forsworn Where the resolutions are fixed any colour will serve Had those words been spoken they contained no crime had he been such as they supposed him a mere man the speech had carried a semblance of ostentation no semblance of Blasphemy yet how vehement is Caiaphas for an answer as if those words had already battered that sacred pile or the protestation of his ability had been the highest treason against the God of the Temple That infinite Wisdome knew well how little satisfaction there could be in answers where the sentence was determined Jesus held his peace Where the asker is unworthy the question captious words bootlesse the best answer is silence Erewhile his just and moderate speech to Annas was returned with a buffet on the cheek now his silence is no lesse displeasing Caiaphas was not more malicious then crafty what was in vain attempted by witnesses shall be drawn out of Christs own mouth what an accusation could not effect an adjuration shall I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God Yea this was the way to screw out a killing answer Caiaphas thy mouth was impure but thy charge is dreadfull Now if Jesus hold his peace he is cried down for a prophane disregarder of that awfull Name if he answer he is ensnared an affirmation is death a denial worse then death No Caiaphas thou shalt well know it was not fear
more glorifie thy infinite mercy in suffering It is not out of any compassion of thy misery or care of thine ease that Simon of Cyrene is forced to be the porter of thy Crosse it was out of their own eagernesse of thy dispatch thy feeble paces were too slow for their purpose their thirst after thy blood made them impatient of delay If thou have wearily strugled with the burden of thy shame all along the streets of Jerusalem when thou com'st once past the gates an helper shall be deputed to thee the expedition of thy death was more sweet to them then the pain of a lingring passage What thou saidst to Judas they say to the Executioner What thou doest doe quickly Whiles thou yet livest they cannot be quiet they cannot be safe to hasten thine end they lighten thy carriage Hadst thou done this out of choice which thou didst out of constraint how I should have envied thee O Simon of Cyrene as too happy in the honour to be the first man that bore that Crosse of thy Saviour wherein millions of blessed Martyrs have since that time been ambitious to succeed thee Thus to bear thy Crosse for thee O Saviour was more then to bear a crown from thee Could I be worthy to be thus graced by thee I should pity all other glories Whiles thou thus passest O dear Jesu the streets and waies resound not all with one note If the malicious Jews and cruell Souldiers insulted upon thee and either haled or railed thee on with a bitter violence thy faithfull Followers were no lesse loud in their moans and ejulations neither would they indure that the noise of their cries and lamentations should be drowned with the clamour of those reproches but especially thy Blessed Mother and those other zealous associates of her own Sex were most passionate in their wailings And why should I think that all that devout multitude which so lately cried Hosanna in the streets did not also bear their part in these publick condolings Though it had not concerned thy self O Saviour thine ears had been still more open to the voice of grief then of malice and so thy lips also are open to the one shut to the other Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children Who would not have thought O Saviour that thou shouldst have been wholly taken up with thine own sorrows The expectation of so bitter a Death had been enough to have overwhelmed any Soul but thine yet even now can thy gracious eye finde time to look beyond thine own miseries at theirs and to pity them who insensible of their own insuing condition mourned for thine now present They see thine extremity thou foreseest theirs they powre out their sorrow upon thee thou divertest it upon themselves We silly creatures walk blindefolded in this vale of tears and little know what evil is towards us only what we feel we know and whiles we feel nothing can finde leisure to bestow our commiseration on those who need it perhaps lesse then our selves Even now O Saviour when thou wert within the view of thy Calvary thou canst foresee and pity the vastation of thy Jerusalem and givest a sad Prophecy of the imminent destruction of that City which lately had cost thee tears and now shall cost thee blood It is not all the indign cruelty of men that can rob thee of thy Mercy Jerusalem could not want Malefactors though Barabbas was dismissed That all this execution might seem to be done out of the zeal of Justice two capital offenders adjudged to their Gibbet shall accompany thee O Saviour both to thy death and in it They are led manicled after thee as lesse criminous no stripes had disabled them from bearing their own Crosses Long agoe was this unmeet society foretold by thine Evangelical Seer He was taken from prison and from judgment He was cut out of the land of the living He made his grave with the Wicked O blessed Jesu it had been disparagement enough to thee to be forted with the best of men since there is much sin in the perfectest and there could be no sin in thee but to be matched with the scum of mankinde whom vengeance would not let to live is such an indignity as confounds my thoughts Surely there is no Angel in Heaven but would have been proud to attend thee and what could the earth afford worthy of thy train yet malice hath suited thee with company next to Hell that their viciousnesse might reflect upon thee and their Sin might stain thine Innocence Ye are deceived O ye fond Judges This is the way to grace your dying malefactors this is not the way to disgrace him whose guiltlesnesse and perfection triumph'd over your injustice his presence was able to make your Thieves happy their presence could no more blemish him then your own Thus guarded thus attended thus accompanied art thou Blessed Jesu led to that loathsome and infamous hill which now thy last blood shall make Sacred now thou settest thy foot upon that rising ground which shalt prevent thine Olivet whence thy Soul shall first ascend into thy Glory There whiles thou art addressing thy self for thy last Act thou art presented with that bitter and farewell-potion wherewith dying Malefactors were wont to have their senses stupified that they might not feel the torments of their execution It was but the common mercy of men to alleviate the death of Offenders since the intent of their last doom is not so much pain as dissolution That draught O Saviour was not more welcome to the guilty then hatefull unto thee In the vigor of all thine inward and outward senses thou wouldst incounter the most violent assaults of death and scornedst to abate the least touch of thy quickest apprehension Thou well knewest that the work thou wentest about would require the use of all thy powers it was not thine ease that thou soughtest but our Redemption neither meantest thou to yield to thy last enemy but to resist and to overcome him which that thou mightest doe the more gloriously thou challengedst him to doe his worst and in the mean time wouldst not disfurnish thy self of any of thy powerfull faculties This greatest combat that ever was shall be fought on even hand neither wouldst thou steal that Victory which thou now atchievedst over Death and Hell Thou didst but touch at this cup it is a far bitterer then this that thou art now drinking up to the dregs thou refusedst that which was offered thee by men but that which was mixed by thine eternal Father though mere Gall and Wormwood thou didst drink up to the last drop And therein O Blessed Jesu lies all our health and salvation I know not whether I do more suffer in thy pain or joy in the issue of thy Suffering Now even now O Saviour art thou entring into those dreadfull lists and now art thou grapling with thy last enemy as if thou hadst not
suffered till now now thy bloody Passion begins a cruell expoliation begins that violence Again do these grim and mercilesse Souldiers lay their rude hands upon thee and strip thee naked again are those bleeding wales laid open to all eyes again must thy Sacred body undergoe the shame of an abhorred nakednesse Lo thou that clothest man with raiment beasts with hides fishes with scales and shells earth with flowers Heaven with Stars art despoiled of cloaths and standest exposed to the scorn of all beholders As the First Adam entred into his Paradise so dost thou the Second Adam into thine naked and as the First Adam was clothed with Innocence when he had no cloaths so wert thou the Second too and more then so thy nakednesse O Saviour cloaths our Souls not with Innocence only but with Beauty Hadst not thou been naked we had been cloathed with confusion O happy nakednesse whereby we are covered from shame O happy shame whereby we are invested with glory All the beholders stand wrapped with warm garments thou only art stripped to tread the wine-presse alone How did thy Blessed Mother now wish her veile upon thy shoulders and that Disciple who lately ran from thee naked wish'd in vain that his loving pity might doe that for thee which fear forced him to for himself Shame is succeeded with Pain Oh the torment of the Crosse Methinks I see and feel how having fastned the transverse to the body of that fatal Tree and lai'd it upon the ground they racked and strained thy tender and sacred Lims to fit the extent of their fore-appointed measure and having tentered out thine arms beyond their natural reach how they fastned them with cords till those strong iron nails which were driven up to the head through the palms of thy Blessed hands had not more firmly then painfully fixed thee to the Gibbet The tree is raised up and now not without a vehement concussion setled in the mortise Woe is me how are thy joynts and sinews torn and stretched till they crack again by this torturing distension how doth thine own weight torment thee whiles thy whole body rests upon this forced and dolorous hold till thy nailed feet bear their part in a no lesse afflictive supportation How did the rough iron pierce thy Soul whiles passing through those tender and sensible parts it carried thy flesh before it and as it were rivetted it to that shamefull Tree There now O dear Jesu there thou hangest between Heaven and earth naked bleeding forlorn despicable the spectacle of miseries the scorn of men Be abashed O ye Heavens and earth and all ye creatures wrap up your selves in horrour and confusion to see the shame and pain and curse of your most pure and Omnipotent Creator How could ye subsist whiles he thus suffers in whom ye are O Saviour didst thou take flesh for our Redemption to be thus indignely used thus mangled thus tortured Was this measure fit to be offered to that Sacred body that was conceived by the Holy Ghost of the pure substance of an immaculate Virgin Woe is me that which was unspotted with sin is all blemished with humane crueltie and so wofully disfigured that the Blessed Mother that bore thee could not now have known thee so bloody were thy Temples so swolne and discoloured was thy Face so was the skin of thy whole body streaked with red and blew stripes so did thy thornie diadem shade thine Heavenly countenance so did the streams of thy blood cover and deform all thy parts The eye of Sense could not distinguish thee O dear Saviour in the nearest proximity to thy Crosse the eye of Faith sees thee in all this distance and by how much more ignominy deformity pain it finds in thee so much more it admires the glory of thy mercy Alas is this the Head that is decked by thine eternall Father with a Crown of pure gold of immortall and incomprehensible Majesty which is now bushed with thorns Is this the Eye that saw the Heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descending upon that head that saw such resplendence of Heavenly brightnesse on mount Tabor which now begins to be overclouded with death Are these the Eares that heard the voice of thy Father owning thee out of Heaven which now tingle with buffettings and glow with reproaches and bleed with thorns Are these the Lips that spake as never mans spake full of grace and power that called out dead Lazarus that ejected the stubbornest Devils that commanded the cure of all diseases which now are swoln with blows and discoloured with blewnesse and blood Is this the Face that should be fairer then the sons of men which the Angels of Heaven so desired to see and can never be satisfied with seeing that is thus foul with the nasty mixtures of sweat and blood and spittings on Are these the Hands that stretched out the Heavens as a curtain that by their touch healed the lame the deaf the blind which are now bleeding with the nailes Are these the Feet which walked lately upon the liquid pavement of the sea before whose footstool all the Nations of the earth are bidden to worship that are now so painfully fixed to the Crosse O cruell and unthankfull mankind that offered such measure to the Lord of Life O infinitely mercifull Saviour that wouldst suffer all this for unthankfull mankind That fiends should doe these things to guilty souls it is though terrible yet just but that men should doe thus to the Blessed Son of God it is beyond the capacity of our horrour Even the most hostile dispositions have been only content to kill Death hath sated the most eager malice thine enemies O Saviour held not themselves satisfied unlesse they might injoy thy torment Two Thieves are appointed to be thy companions in death thou art designed to the midst as the chief malefactor on whether hand soever thou lookest thine eye meets with an hatefull partner But O Blessed Jesu how shall I enough admire and celebrate thy infinite Mercy who madest so happy an use of this Jewish despight as to improve it to the occasion of the Salvation of one and the comfort of millions Is not this as the last so the greatest specialty of thy wonderfull compassion to convert that dying Thief with those nailed hands to snatch a Soul out of the mouth of Hell Lord how I blesse thee for this work how doe I stand amazed at this above all other the demonstrations of thy Goodnesse and Power The Offender came to die nothing was in his thoughts but his guilt and torment whiles he was yet in his blood thou saidst This Soul shall live Ere yet the intoxicating Potion could have time to work upon his brain thy Spirit infuses Faith into his heart He that before had nothing in his eye but present death and torture is now lifted up above his Crosse in a blessed ambition Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome Is this the voice of a Thief
or of a Disciple Give me leave O Saviour to borrow thine own words Verily I have not found so great faith no not in all Israel He saw thee hanging miserably by him and yet styles thee Lord he saw thee dying yet talks of thy Kingdome he felt himself dying yet talks of a future remembrance O Faith stronger then death that can look beyond the Crosse at a Crown beyond dissolution at a remembrance of Life and Glory Which of thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to thee in these thy last pangs After thy Resurrection and knowledge of thine impassible condition it was not strange for them to talk of thy Kingdome but in the midst of thy shamefull death for a dying malefactor to speak of thy reigning and to implore thy remembrance of himself in thy Kingdome it is such an improvement of Faith as ravisheth my Soul with admiration O blessed Thief that hast thus happily stolne Heaven How worthy hath thy Saviour made thee to be a partner of his sufferings a pattern of undauntable belief a spectacle of unspeakable mercy This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Before I wondred at thy Faith now I envy at thy Felicity Thou cravedst a remembrance thy Saviour speaks of a present possession This day thou suedst for remembrance as a favour to the absent thy Saviour speaks of thy presence with him thou spakest of a Kingdome thy Saviour of Paradise As no Disciple could be more faithfull so no Saint could be happier O Saviour what a precedent is this of thy free and powerfull grace Where thou wilt give what unworthinesse can barre us from Mercy when thou wilt give what time can prejudice our vocation who can despair of thy goodnesse when he that in the morning was posting towards Hell is in the evening with thee in Paradise Lord he could not have spoken this to thee but by thee and from thee What possibility was there for a thief to think of thy Kingdome without thy Spirit That good Spirit of thine breathed upon this man breathed not upon his fellow their trade was alike their sin was alike their state alike their crosse alike only thy Mercy makes them unlike One is taken the other is refused Blessed be thy Mercy in taking one blessed be thy Justice in leaving the other Who can despair of that Mercy who cannot but tremble at that Justice Now O ye cruell Priests and Elders of the Jews ye have full leisure to feed your eyes with the sight ye so much longed for there is the blood ye purchased and is not your malice yet glutted Is not all this enough without your taunts and scoffs and sports at so exquisite a misery The people the passengers are taught to insult where they should pity Every man hath a scorn ready to cast at a dying innocent A generous nature is more wounded with the tongue then with the hand O Saviour thine eare was more painfully pierced then thy brows or hands or feet It could not but goe deep into thy Soul to hear these bitter and girding reproaches from them thou camest to save But alas what sleabitings were these in comparison of those inward torments which thy Soul felt in the sense and apprehension of thy Fathers wrath for the sins of the whole world which now lay heavy upon thee for satisfaction This oh this was it that pressed thy Soul as it were to the nethermost hell Whiles thine eternall Father lookt lovingly upon thee what didst thou what neededst thou to care for the frowns of men or Devils but when he once turn'd his face from thee or bent his brows upon thee this this was worse then death It is no marvel now if darkness were upon the face of the whole earth when thy Fathers face was eclipsed from thee by the interposition of our sins How should there be light in the world without when the God of the world the Father of lights complains of the want of light within That word of thine O Saviour was enough to fetch the Sun down out of Heaven and to dissolve the whole frame of Nature when thou criedst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh what pangs were these dear Jesu that drew from thee this complaint Thou well knewest nothing could be more cordial to thine enemies then to hear this sad language from thee they could see but the outside of thy sufferings never could they have conceived so deep an anguish of thy Soul if thy own lips had not expressed it Yet as not regarding their triumph thou thus powrest out thy sorrow and when so much is uttered who can conceive what is felt How is it then with thee O Saviour that thou thus astonishest men and Angels with so woful a quiritation Had thy God left thee Thou not long since saidst I and my Father are One Are ye now severed Let this thought be as farre from my Soul as my Soul from Hell No more can thy Blessed Father be separated from thee then from his own Essence His Union with thee is eternal his Vision was intercepted He could not withdraw his Presence he would withdraw the influence of his comfort Thou the Second Adam stoodst for mankind upon this Tree of the Cross as the First Adam stood and fell for mankind under the Tree of Offence Thou barest our sins thy Father saw us in thee and would punish us in thee thee for us how could he but withhold comfort where he intended chastisement Herein therefore he seems to forsake thee for the present in that he would not deliver thee from that bitter Passion which thou wouldst undergoe for us O Saviour hadst thou not been thus forsaken we had perished thy dereliction is our safety and however our narrow Souls are not capable of the conceit of thy pain and horror yet we know there can be no danger in the forsaking whiles thou canst say My God He is so thy God as he cannot be ours all our right is by Adoption thine by Nature thou art one with him in eternal Essence we come in by Grace and merciful election yet whiles thou shalt inable me to say My God I shall hope never to sink under thy desertions But whiles I am transported with the sense of thy Sufferings O Saviour let me not forget to admire those sweet Mercies of thine which thou powredst out upon thy Persecutors They rejoyce in thy death and triumph in thy misery and scoff at thee in both In stead of calling down fire from Heaven upon them thou heapest coals of fire upon their heads Father forgive them for they know not what they doe They blaspheme thee thou prayest for them they scorn thou pitiest they sin aganst thee thou prayest for their forgiveness they profess their malice thou pleadest their ignorance O compassion without example without measure fit for the Son of God the Saviour of men Wicked and foolish Jewes ye would be miserable he will not
corps such as if all the Powers of Darkness shall band against they shall finde themselves confounded In spight of all the gates of Hell that word shall stand Not a bone of him shall be broken Still the infallible Decree of the Almighty leads you on to his own ends through your own waies Ye saw him already dead whom ye came to dispatch those bones therefore shall be whole which ye had had no power to break But yet that no piece either of your cruelty or of Divine prediction may remain unsatisfied he whose bones may not be impaired shall be wounded in his flesh he whose Ghost was yielded up must yield his last blood One of the souldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith there came out blood and water Malice is wont to end with life here it overlives it Cruel man what means this so late wound what commission hadst thou for this bloody act Pilate had given leave to break the bones of the living he gave no leave to gore the side of the dead what wicked supererogation is this what a superfluity of maliciousness To what purpose did thy spear pierce so many hearts in that one why wouldst thou kill a dead man Methinks the Blessed Virgin and those other passionate associates of hers and the Disciple whom Jesus loved together with the other of his fellows the friends and followers of Christ and especially he that was so ready to draw his sword upon the troup of his Masters apprehenders should have work enough to contain themselves within the bounds of patience at so savage a stroke their sorrow could not chuse but turn to indignation and their hearts could not but rise as even mine doth now at so impertinent a villany How easily could I rave at that rude hand But O God when I look up to theee and consider how thy holy and wise Providence so overrules the most barbarous actions of men that besides their will they turn beneficial I can at once hate them and bless thee This very wound hath a mouth to speak the Messiahship of my Saviour and the truth of thy Scripture They shall look at him whom they have pierced Behold now the Second Adam sleeping and out of his side formed the Mother of the living the Evangelical Church Behold the Rock which was smitten and the waters of life gushed forth Behold the fountain that is set open to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness a fountain not of water only but of blood too O Saviour by thy water we are washed by thy blood we are redeemed Those two Sacraments which thou didst institute alive flow also from thee dead as the last memorials of thy Love to thy Church the water of Baptisme which is the laver of Regeneration the blood of the new Testament shed for remission of sins and these together with the Spirit that gives life to them both are the three Witnesses on earth whose attestation cannot fail us Oh precious and soveraign wound by which our Souls are healed Into this cleft of the rock let my Dove fly and enter and there safely hide her self from the talons of all the birds of prey It could not be but that the death of Christ contrived and acted at Jerusalem in so solemn a Festival must needs draw a world of beholders The Romans the Centurion and his band were there as actors as supervisors of the Execution Those strangers were no otherwise ingaged then as they that would hold fair correspondence with the Citizens where they were engarisoned their freedome from prejudice rendred them more capable of an ingenuous construction of all events Now when the Centurion and they that were with him that watched Jesus saw the Earthquake and the things that were done they feared greatly and glorified God and said Truely this was the Son God What a marvelous concurrence is here of strong and irrefragable convictions Meekness in suffering Prayer for his murderers a faithful resignation of his Soul into the hands of his Heavenly Father the Sun eclipsed the Heavens darkned the earth trembling the graves open the rocks rent the veile of the Temple torn who could goe less then this Truly this was the Son of God He suffers patiently this is through the power of Grace many good men have done so through his enabling The frame of Nature suffers with him this is proper to the God of Nature the Son of God I wonder not that these men confessed thus I wonder that any Spectator confessed it not these proofs were enough to fetch all the world upon their knees and to have made all mankind a Convert But all hearts are not alike no means can work upon the wilfully-obdured Even after this the Souldier pierced that Blessed side and whiles Pagans relented Jews continued impenitent Yet even of that Nation those beholders whom envie and partiality had not interessed in this slaughter were stricken with just astonishment and smote their breasts and shook their heads and by passionate gesture spake what their tongues durst not How many must there needs be in this universal concourse of them whom he had healed of diseases or freed from Devils or miraculously fed or some way obliged in their persons or friends These as they were deeply affected with the mortal indignities which were offered to their acknowledged Messiah so they could not but be ravished with wonder at those powerful demonstrations of the Deity of him in whom they believed and strangely distracted in their thoughts whiles they compared those Sufferings with that Omnipotence As yet their Faith and Knowledge was but in the bud or in the blade How could they chuse but think Were he not the Son of God how could these things be and if he were the Son of God how could he die His Resurrection his Ascension should soon after perfect their belief but in the mean time their hearts could not but be conflicted with thoughts hard to be reconciled Howsoever they glorifie God and stand amazed at the expectation of the issue But above all other O thou Blessed Virgin the Holy Mother of our Lord how many swords pierced thy Soul whiles standing close by his Cross thou sawest thy dear Son and Saviour thus indignely used thus stripped thus stretched thus nailed thus bleeding thus dying thus pierced How did thy troubled heart now recount what the Angel Gabriel had reported to thee from God in the message of thy blessed Conception of that Son of God How didst thou think of the miraculous formation of that thy Divine burden by the power of the Holy Ghost How didst thou recal those prophecies of Anna and Simeon concerning him and all those supernatural works of his the irrefragable proofs of his Godhead and laying all these together with the miserable infirmities of his Passion how wert thou crucified with him The care that he took for thee in the extremity of his torments could not chuse but melt thy heart into sorrow But
oh when in the height of his pain and misery thou heardst him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me what a cold horrour possessed thy Soul I cannot now wonder at thy qualms and swoonings I could rather wonder that thou survivedst so sad an hour But when recollecting thy self thou sawest the Heavens to bear a part with thee in thy mourning and feltest the earth to tremble no less then thy self and foundst that the dreadful concussion of the whole frame of Nature proclaimed the Deity of him that would thus suffer and dye and remembredst his frequent predictions of drinking this bitter cup and of being baptized thus in blood thou beganst to take heart and to comfort thy self with the assured exspectation of the glorious issue More then once had he foretold thee his victorious Resurrection He who had openly professed Jonas for his type and had fore-promised in three daies to raise up the ruined Temple of his Body had doubtless given more full intimation unto thee who hadst so great a share in that sacred body of his The just shall live by Faith Lo that Faith of thine in his ensuing Resurrection and in his triumph over death gives thee life and chears up thy drouping Soul and bids it in an holy confidence to triumph over all thy fears and sorrows and him whom thou now seest dead and despised represents unto thee living immortal glorious The Resurrection GRace doth not ever make show where it is There is much secret riches both in the earth and sea which never eye saw I never heard any news till now of Joseph of Arimathea yet was he eminently both rich and wise and good a worthy though close Disciple of our Saviour True Faith may be wisely reserved but will not be cowardly Now he puts forth himself and dares beg the Body of Jesus Death is wont to end all quarrels Pilate's heart tells him he hath done too much already in sentencing an innocent to death no doubt that Centurion had related unto him the miraculous symptoms of that Passion He that so unwillingly condemned Innocence could rather have wished that just man alive then have denied him dead The body is yielded and taken down and now that which hung naked upon the Cross is wrapped in fine linen that which was soiled with sweat and blood is curiously washed and embalmed Now even Nicodemus comes in for a part and fears not the envie of a good profession Death hath let that man loose whom the Law formerly over-awed with restraint He hates to be a night-bird any longer but boldly flies forth and looks upon the face of the Sun and will be now as liberal in his Odors as he was before niggardly in his Confession O Saviour the earth was thine and the fulness of it yet as thou hadst not an house of thine own whiles thou livedst so thou hadst not a grave when thou wert dead Joseph that rich Councellor lent thee his lent it so as it should never be restored thou took'st it but for a while but that little touch of that Sacred Corps of thine made it too good for the owner O happy Joseph that hadst the honour to be Landlord of the Lord of life how well is thy house-room repai'd with a mansion not made with hands eternall in the heavens Thy Garden and thy Tombe were hard by Calvary where thou couldst not fail of many monitions of thy frailty How oft hadst thou seasoned that new Tombe with sad and savory meditations and hadst oft said within thy self Here I shall once lye down to my last rest and wait for my Resurrection Little didst thou then think to have been disappointed by so Blessed a guest or that thy grave should be again so soon empty and in that emptiness uncapable of any mortal in-dweller How gladly dost thou now resign thy grave to him in whom thou livest and who liveth for ever whose Soul is in Paradise whose Godhead every where Hadst thou not been rich before this gift had enriched thee alone and more ennobled thee then all thine earthly Honour Now great Princes envie thy bounty and have thought themselves happy to kiss the stones of that rock which thou thus hewedst thus bestowedst Thus purely wrapped and sweetly embalmed lyes the precious body of our Saviour in Joseph's new vault Are ye now also at rest O ye Jewish Rulers Is your malice dead and buried with him Hath Pilate enough served your envie and revenge Surely it is but a common hostility that can die yours surviveth death and puts you upon a further project The chief Priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate saying Sir we remember that this Deceiver said whiles he was yet alive After three daies I will rise again Command therefore that the Sepulcher be made sure till the third day lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the people he is risen How full of terrors and inevitable perplexities is guiltiness These men were not more troubled with envie at Christ alive then now with fear of his Resurrection And what can now secure them Pilate had helpt to kill him but who shall keep him from rising Wicked and foolish Jewes how fain would ye fight against God and your own hearts How gladly would ye deceive your selves in believing him to be a Deceiver whom your consciences knew to be no less true then powerful Lazarus was still in your ey That man was no phantasme his death his reviving was undeniable the so fresh resuscitation of that dead body after four daies dissolution was a manifest conviction of Omnipotence How do ye vainly wish that he could deceive you in the fore-reporting of his own Resurrection Without a Divine power he could have raised neither Lazarus nor himself with and by it he could as well raise himself as Lazarus What need we other witnesses then your own mouths That which he would doe ye confess he foretold that the truth of his word might answer the power of this deed and both of them might argue him the God of Truth and Power and your selves enemies to both And now what must be done The Sepulcher must be secured and you with it An huge stone a strong guard must doe the deed and that stone must be sealed that guard of your own designing Methinks I hear the Souldiers and busy Officers when they were rolling that other weighty stone for such we probably conceive to the mouth of the vault with much toile and sweat and breathlesness how they brag'd of the sureness of the place and unremovableness of that load and when that so choice a Watch was set how they boasted of their valour and vigilance and said they would make him safe from either rising or stealing Oh the madness of impotent men that think by either wile or force to frustrate the will and designs of the Almighty How justly doth that wise and powerful Arbiter of the world laugh them to scorn in
Heaven and befool them in their own vain devices O Saviour how much evidence had thy Resurrection wanted if these enemies had not been thus maliciously provident how irrefragable is thy rising made by these bootless endeavours of their prevention All this while the devout Maries keep close and silently spend their Sabbath in a mixture of grief and hope How did they wear out those sad hours in bemoaning themselves each to other in mutual relations of the patient sufferings of the happy expiration of their Saviour of the wonderfull events both in the Heavens and earth that accompanied his Crucifixion of his frequent and clear Predictions of his Resurrection And now they have gladly agreed so soon as the time will give them leave in the dawning of the Sunday morning to visit that dear Sepulcher Neither will they goe empty-handed She that had bestowed that costly Alabaster-box of Ointment upon their Saviour alive hath prepared no less precious Odors for him dead Love is restless and fearless In the dark of night these good Women goe to buy their spices and ere the day-break are gone out of their houses towards the Tomb of Christ to bestow them This Sex is commonly fearful it was much for them to walk alone in that unsafe season yet as despising all fears and dangers they thus spend the night after their Sabbath Might they have been allowed to buy their Perfumes on the Sabbath or to have visited that holy Tomb sooner can we think they would have staid so long can we suppose they would have cared more for the Sabbath then for the Lord of the Sabbath who now kept his Sabbath in the Grave Sooner they might not come later they would not to present their last homage to their dead Saviour Had these holy women known their Jesus to be alive how had they hasted who made such speed to doe their last offices to his sacred Corps For us we know that our Redeemer liveth we know where he is O Saviour how cold and heartless is our love to thee if we do not hast to finde thee in thy Word and Sacraments if our Souls do not fly up to thee in all holy Affections into thy Heaven Of all the Women Mary Magdalen is first named and in some Evangelists alone She is noted above her fellows None of them were so much obliged none so zealously thankful Seven Devils were cast out of her by the command of Christ That Heart which was freed from Satan by that powerful dispossession was now possessed with a free and gracious bounty to her deliverer Twice at the least hath she powred out her fragrant and costly Odors upon him Where there is a true sense of favour and beneficence there cannot but be a fervent desire of retribution O Blessed Saviour could we feel the danger of every sin and the malignity of those spiritual possessions from which thou hast freed us how should we pour out our selves into thankfulness unto thee Every thing here had horrour The Place both solitary and a Sepulcher Nature abhors as the visage so the region of Death and Corruption The Time Night onely the Moon gave them some faint glimmering for this being the seventeenth day of her age afforded some light to the later part of the night The Business the visitation of a dead Corps Their zealous Love hath easily overcome all these They had followed him in his Sufferings when the Disciples-left him they attended him to his Cross weeping they followed him to his Grave and saw how Joseph laid him even there they leave him not but ere it be day-light return to pay him the last tribute of their duty How much stronger is Love then death O Blessed Jesu why should not we imitate thy love to us Those whom thou lovest thou lovest to the end yea in it yea after it even when we are dead not our Souls onely but our very dust is dearly respected of thee What condition of thine should remove our affections from thy person in Heaven from thy lims on earth Well did these worthy Women know what Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had done to thee they saw how curiously they had wrapped thee how preciously they had embalmed thee yet as not thinking others beneficence could be any just excuse of theirs they bring their own Odors to thy Sepulture to be perfumed by the touch of thy Sacred body What thank is it to us that others are obsequious to thee whiles we are slack or niggardly We may rejoyce in others forwardness but if we rest in it how small joy shall it be to us to see them goe to Heaven without us When on the Friday-evening they attended Joseph to the intombing of Jesus they mark'd the place they mark'd the passage they mark'd that inner grave-stone which the owner had fitted to the mouth of that tomb which all their care is now to remove Who shall roll away the stone That other more weighty load wherewith the vault was barred the seal the guard set upon both came not perhaps into their knowledge this was the private plot of Pilate and the Priests beyond the reach of their thoughts I do not hear them say How shall we recover the charges of our Odors or How shall we avoid the envy and censure of our angry Elders for honouring him whom the Governours of our Nation have thought worthy of condemnation The onely thought they now take is Who shall roll away the stone Neither do they stay at home and move this doubt but when they are well forward on their way resolving to try the issue Good hearts cannot be so solicitous for any thing under Heaven as for removing those impediments which lie between them and their Saviour O Blessed Jesu thou who art clearly revealed in Heaven art yet still both hid and sealed up from too many here on earth Neither is it some thin veil that is spred between thee and them but an huge stone even a true stone of offence lies rolled upon the mouth of their hearts Yea if a second weight were superadded to thy Grave here no less then three spiritual bars are interposed betwixt them and thee above Idleness Ignorance Unbelief Who shall roll away these stones but the same power that removed thine O Lord remove that our Ignorance that we may know thee our Idleness that we may seek thee our Unbelief that we may find and enjoy thee How well it succeeds when we go faithfully and conscionably about our work and leave the issue to God Lo now God hath removed the cares of these holy Women together with the grave-stone To the wicked that falls out which they feared to the Godly that which they wished and cared for yea more Holy cares ever prove well the worldly dry the bones and disappoint the hopes Could these good Visitants have known of a greater stone sealed of a strong watch set their doubts had been doubled now God goes beyond their thoughts and
one sinner how much more when a world of sinners is perfectly ransomed from death and restored to Salvation Certainly if but one or two appeared all rejoyced all triumphed Neither could they but be herein sensible of their own happy advantage who by thy mediation are confirmed in their glorious estate since thou by the blood of thy Cross and power of thy Resurrection hast reconciled things not in earth onely but in Heaven But above all other the Love of thee their God and Saviour must needs heighten their joy and make thy Glory theirs It is their perpetual work to praise thee how much more now when such an occasion was offered as never had been since the world began never could be after when thou the God of Spirits hadst vanquished all the spiritual powers of darkness when thou the Lord of Life hadst conquered death for thee and all thine so as they may now boldly insult over their last enemy O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Certainly if Heaven can be capable of an increase of joy and felicity never had those Blessed Spirits so great a cause of triumph and gratulation as in this day of thy glorious Resurrection How much more O dear Jesu should we men whose flesh thou didst assume unite revive for whose sake and in whose stead thou didst vouchsafe to suffer and die whose arrerages thou payedst in death and acquittedst in thy Resurrection whose Souls are discharged whose Bodies shall be raised by the power of thy rising how much more should we think we have cause to be over-joyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceiveable Mercy Lo now how weak soever I am in my self yet in the confidence of this victorious Resurrection of my Saviour I dare boldly challenge and defie you O all ye adverse Powers Doe the worst ye can to my Soul in despight of you it shall be safe Is it Sin that threats me Behold this Resurrection of my Redeemer publishes my discharge My Surety was arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave had not the utmost farthing of mine arrerages been paid he could not have come forth He is come forth the Summe is fully satisfied What danger can there be of a discharged Debt Is it the Wrath of God Wherefore is that but for sin If my sin be defraied that quarrel is at an end and if my Saviour suffered it for me how can I fear to suffer it in my self That infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen Is it Death it self Lo my Saviour that overcame death by dying hath triumph'd over him in his Resurrection How can I now fear a conquered enemy What harm is there in the Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin that is pulled out by my powerful Redeemer it cannot now hurt me it may refresh me to carry this cool Snake in my bosome O then my dear Saviour I bless thee for thy Death but I bless thee more for thy Resurrection That was a work of wonderful Humility of infinite Mercy this was a work of infinite Power In that was humane Weakness in this Divine Omnipotence In that thou didst die for our sins in this thou didst rise again for our Justification And now how am I conformable to thee if when thou art risen I lie still in the grave of my Corruptions How am I a lim of thy body if whiles thou hast that perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over me if whiles thou art alive and glorious I lie rotting in the dust of death I know the locomotive faculty is in the Head by the power of the Resurrection of thee our Head all we thy Members cannot but be raised As the earth cannot hold my body from thee in the day of the Second Resurrection so cannot sin withhold my Soul from thee in the First How am I thine if I be not risen and if I be risen with thee why do I not seek the things above where thou sittest at the right hand of God The Vault or Cave which Joseph had hewn out of the rock was large capable of no less then ten persons upon the mouth of it Eastward was that great stone rolled within it at the right hand in the North part of the Cave was hewn out a receptacle for the body three handfuls high from the pavement and a stone was accordingly fitted for the cover of that Grave Into this Cave the good Women finding the stone rolled away descended to seek the body of Christ and in it saw the Angels This was the Goal to which Peter and John ran finding the spoils of death the grave cloaths wrapped up and the napkin that was about the head folded up together and laid in a place by it self and as they came in haste so they return'd with wonder I marvel not at your speed O ye blessed Disciples if upon the report of the Women ye ran yea flew upon the wings of zeal to see what was become of your Master Ye had wont to walk familiarly together in the attendance of your Lord now society is forgotten and as for a wager each tries the speed of his legs and with neglect of other vies who shall be first at the Tomb. Who would not but have tried masteries with you in this case and have made light touches of the earth to have held paces with you Your desire was equal but John is the yonger his lims are more nimble his breath more free he first looks into the Sepulcher but Peter goes down first O happy competition who shall be more zealous in the enquiry after Christ Ye saw enough to amaze you not enough to settle your Faith How well might you have thought Our Master is not subduced but risen Had he been taken away by others hands this fine linen had not been left behinde Had he not himself risen from this bed of earth he had not thus wrapped up his night-cloaths and laid them sorted by themselves What can we doubt when he foretold us he would rise O Blessed Jesu how wilt thou pardon our errours how should we pardon and pity the errours of each other in lesser occasions whenas yet thy prime and dearest Disciples after so much Divine instruction knew not the Scriptures that thou must rise again from the dead They went away more astonished then confident more full of wonder as yet then of belief There is more strength of zeal where it takes in the weaker Sex Those holy Women as they came first so they staid last especially devout Mary Magdalene stands still at the mouth of the Cave weeping Well might those tears have been spared if her Knowledge had been answerable to her Affection her Faith to her Fervour Withall as our eye will be where we love she stoops and looks down
into that dear Sepulcher Holy desires never but speed well There she sees two glorious Angels the one sitting at the head the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain Their shining brightness shew'd them to be no mortal creatures besides that Peter and John had but newly come out of the Sepulcher and both found and left it empty in her sight which was now suddenly filled with those celestial guests That white linen wherewith Joseph had shrouded the Sacred body of Jesus was now shamed with a brighter whiteness Yet do I not find the good Woman ought appalled with that inexspected glory So was her heart taken up with the thought for her Saviour that she seemed not sensible of whatsoever other Objects Those tears which she did let drop into the Sepulcher send up back to her the voice of those Angels Woman why weepest thou God and his Angels take notice of every tear of our Devotion The sudden wonder hath not dried her eyes nor charmed her tongue She freely confesseth the cause of her grief to be the missing of her Saviour They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him Alas good Mary how dost thou lose thy tears of whom dost thou complain but of thy best friend who hath removed thy Lord but himself who but his own Deity hath taken away that humane body out of that region of death Neither is he now laid any more he stands by thee whose removal thou complainest of Thus many a tender and humbled Soul afflicts it self with the want of that Saviour whom it hath and feeleth not Sense may be no judge of the bewailed absence of Christ Do but turn back thine eye O thou Religious Soul and see Jesus standing by thee though thou knewst not that it was Jesus His habit was not his own Sometimes it pleases our Saviour to appear unto his not like himself his holy disguises are our trials Sometimes he will seem a Stranger sometimes an Enemie sometimes he offers himself to us in the shape of a poor man sometimes of a distressed Captive Happy is he that can discern his Saviour in all forms Mary took him for a Gardener Devout Magdalene thou art not much mistaken As it was the trade of the First Adam to dress the Garden of Eden so was it the trade of the Second to tend the Garden of his Church He diggs up the soil by seasonable Afflictions he sows in it the seeds of Grace he plants it with gracious motions he waters it with his Word yea with his own blood he weeds it by wholsome censures O Blessed Saviour what is it that thou neglectest to doe for this selected inclosure of thy Church As in some respect thou art the true Vine and thy Father the Husbandman so also in some other we are the Vine and thou art the Husbandman Oh be thou such to me as thou appearedst unto Magdalene break up the fallows of my Nature implant me with Grace prune me with meet corrections bedew me with the former and latter rain doe what thou wilt to make me fruitful Still the good Woman weeps and still complains and passionately inquires of thee O Saviour for thy self How apt are we if thou dost never so little vary from our apprehensions to mis-know thee and to wrong our selves by our mis-opinions All this while hast thou concealed thy self from thine affectionate client thou sawest her teares and heardest her importunities and inquiries at last as it was with Joseph that he could no longer contain himself from the notice of his brethren thy compassion causes thee to break forth into a clear expression of thy self by expressing her name unto her self Mary She was used as to the name so to the sound to the accent Thou spakest to her before but in the tone of a stranger now of a friend of a Master Like a good Shepheard thou callest thy sheep by their name and they know thy voice What was thy call of her but a clear pattern of our Vocation As her so thou callest us first familiarly effectually She could not begin with thee otherwise then in the compellation of a stranger it was thy mercy to begin with her That correction of thy Spirit is sweet and useful Now after ye have known God or rather are known of him We do know thee O God but our active knowledge is after our passive first we are known of thee then we know thee that knewest us And as our Knowledge so is our Calling so is our Election thou beginnest to us in all and most justly sayest You have not chosen me but I have chosen you When thou wouldst speak to this Devout client as a stranger thou spakest aloof Woman whom seekest thou now when thou wouldst be known to her thou callest her by her name Mary General invitations and common mercies are for us as men but where thou givest Grace as to thine elect thou comest close to the Soul and winnest us with dear and particular intimations That very name did as much as say Know him of whom thou art known and beloved and turns her about to thy view and acknowledgment She turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is to say Master Before her face was towards the Angels this word fetches her about and turns her face to thee from whom her misprision had averted it We do not rightly apprehend thee O Saviour if any creature in Heaven or earth can keep our eyes and our hearts from thee The Angels were bright and glorious thy appearance was homely thy habit mean yet when she heard thy voice she turns her back upon the Angels and salutes thee with a Rabboni and falls down before thee in a desire of an humble amplexation of those Sacred feet which she now rejoyces to see past the use of her Odours Where there was such familiarity in the mutual compellation what means such strangeness in the charge Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Thou wert not wont O Saviour to make so dainty of being touched It is not long since these very same hands touched thee in thine anointing the Bloody-fluxed woman touched thee the thankful Penitent in Simon 's house touched thee What speak I of these The multitude touch'd thee the Executioners touch'd thee and even after thy Resurrection thou didst not stick to say to thy Disciples Touch me and see and to invite Thomas to put his fingers into thy side neither is it long after this before thou sufferest the three Maries to touch and hold thy feet How then saist thou Touch me not Was it in a mild taxation of her mistaking as if thou hadst said Thou knowest not that I have now an Immortal body but so demeanest thy self towards me as if I were still in my wonted condition know now that the case is altered howsoever indeed I have not yet ascended to my Father yet this body of mine which
see thee whiles the doors were barred without any noise of thine entrance to stand in the midst well might they think thou couldst not thus be there if thou wert not the God of Spirits There might seem more scruple of thy realty then of thy power and therefore after thy wonted greeting thou shewest them thy hands and thy feet stamped with the impressions of thy late sufferings Thy respiration shall argue the truth of thy life Thou breathest on them as a man thou givest them thy Spirit as a God and as God and man thou sendest them on the great errand of thy Gospel All the mists of their doubts are now dispelled the Sun breaks out clear They were glad when they had seen the Lord. Had they known thee for no other then a mere man this re-appearance could not but have affrighted them since till now by thine Almighty power this was never done that the long-since dead rose out of their graves and appeared unto many But when they recounted the miraculous works that thou hadst done and thought of Lazarus so lately raised thine approved Deity gave them confidence and thy presence joy We cannot but be losers by our absence from holy Assemblies Where wert thou O Thomas when the rest of that Sacred Family were met together Had thy fear put thee to so long a flight that as yet thou wert not returned to thy fellows or didst thou suffer other occasions to detain thee from this happiness Now for the time thou missedst that Divine breath which so comfortably inspired the rest now thou art suffered to fall into that weak distrust which thy presence had prevented They told thee We have seen the Lord was not this enough would no eyes serve thee but thine own were thy eares to no use for thy Faith Except I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe Suspicious man who is the worse for that Whose is the loss if thou believe not Is there no certainty but in thine own senses Why were not so many and so holy eyes and tongues as credible as thine own hands and eyes How little wert thou yet acquainted with the waies of Faith Faith comes by hearing These are the tongues that must win the whole world to an assent and dost thou the first man detrect to yield Why was that word so hard to pass Had not that thy Divine Master foretold thee with the rest that he must be crucified and the third day rise again Is any thing related to be done but that which was fore-promised any thing beyond the sphere of Divine Omnipotence Go then and please thy self in thine over-wise incredulity whiles thy fellows are happy in believing It is a whole week that Thomas rests in this sullen unbelief in all which time doubtless his eares were beaten with the many constant assertions of the holy Women the first witnesses of the Resurrection as also of the two Disciples walking to Emmaus whose hearts burning within them had set their tongues on fire in a zealous relation of those happy occurrences with the assured reports of the rising and re-appearance of many Saints in attendance of the Lord and giver of life yet still he struggles with his own distrust and stiffely suspends his belief to that truth whereof he cannot deny himself enough convinced As all bodies are not equally apt to be wrought upon by the same Medicine so are not all Souls by the same means of Faith one is refractory whiles others are pliable O Saviour how justly mightest thou have left this man to his own pertinacie whom could he have thank'd if he had perished in his unbelief But O thou good Shepherd of Israel that couldst be content to leave the ninety and nine to go fetch one stray in the wilderness how careful wert thou to reduce this stragler to his fellows Right so were thy Disciples re-assembled such was the season the place the same so were the doors shut up when that unbelieving Disciple being now present with the rest thou so camest in so stoodst in the midst so shewedst thy hands and feet and singling out thy incredulous client invitest his eyes to see and his fingers to handle thine hands and his hand to be thrust into thy side that he might not be faithless but faithful Blessed Jesu how thou pittiest the errors and infirmities of thy servants Even when we are froward in our misconceits and worthy of nothing but desertion how thou followest us and overtakest us with mercy and in thine abundant compassion wilt reclaim and save us when either we meant not or would not By how much more unworthy those eyes and hands were to see and touch that immortal and glorious body by so much more wonderful was thy Goodness in condescending to satisfie that curious Infidelity Neither do I hear thee so much as to chide that weak obstinacy It was not long since thou didst sharply take up the two Disciples that walk'd to Emmaus O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken but this was under the disguise of an unknown traveller upon the way when they were alone Now thou speakest with thine own tongue before all thy Disciples in stead of rebuking thou only exhortest Be not faithless but faithfull Behold thy Mercy no less then thy Power hath melted the congealed heart of thy unbelieving follower Then Thomas answered and said unto him My Lord and my God I do not hear that when it came to the issue Thomas imployed his hands in this tryal his eyes were now sufficient assurance the sense of his Masters Omniscience in this particular challenge of him spared perhaps the labour of a further disquisition And now how happily was that doubt bestowed which brought forth so faithful a confession My Lord my God I hear not such a word from those that believed It was well for us it was well for thee O Thomas that thou distrustedst else neither had the world received so perfect an evidence of that Resurrection whereon all our Salvation dependeth neither hadst thou yielded so pregnant and divine an astipulation to thy Blessed Saviour Now thou dost not only profess his Resurrection but his Godhead too and thy happy interest in both And now if they be blessed that have not seen and yet believed blessed art thou also that having seen hast thus believed and blessed be thou O God who knowest how to make advantage of the infirmities of thy chosen for the promoting of their Salvation the confirmation of thy Church the glory of thine own Name Amen The Ascension IT stood not with thy purpose O Saviour to ascend immediately from thy grave into Heaven thou meantest to take the earth in thy way not for a suddain passage but for a leisurely conversation Upon thine Easter-day thou spakest of thine Ascension but thou wouldst have forty daies
to thee both in Heaven and in Earth and under the earth Thou hadst an everlasting right to that Heaven that should be an undoubted possession of it ever since it was yea even whiles thou didst cry and spraul in the Cratch whiles thou didst hang upon the Cross whiles thou wert sealed up in thy Grave but thine Humane nature had not taken actual possession of it till now Like as it was in thy true Type David he had right to the Kingdome of Israel immediately upon his anointing but yet many an hard brunt did he pass ere he had the full possession of it in his ascent to Hebron I see now O Blessed Jesu I see where thou art even farre above all Heavens at the right hand of thy Father's Glory This is the farre countrey into which the Nobleman went to receive for himself a Kingdom farre off to us to thee near yea intrinsecal Oh do thou raise up my Heart thither to thee place thou my Affections upon thee above and teach me therefore to love Heaven because thou art there How then O Blessed Saviour how didst thou ascend Whiles they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight So wast thou taken up as that the act was thine own the power of the act none but thine Thou that descendedst wast the same that ascendedst as in thy descent there was no use of any power or will but thine own no more was there in thine ascent Still and ever wert thou the Master of thine own acts Thou laidst down thy own life no man took it from thee Thou raisedst up thy self from death no hand did or could help thee Thou carriedst up thine own glorified flesh and placedst it in Heaven The Angels did attend thee they did not aid thee whence had they their strength but from thee Elias ascended to Heaven but he was fetcht up in a Chariot of fire that it might appear hence that man had need of other helps who else could not of himself so much as lift up himself to the Aiery Heaven much less to the Empyreal But thou our Redeemer neededst no Chariot no carriage of Angels thou art the Author of life and motion they move in and from thee As thou therefore didst move thy self upward so by the same Divine power thou wilt raise us up to the participation of thy Glory These vile bodies shall be made like to thy glorious body according to the working whereby thou art able to subdue all things unto thy self Elias had but one witness of his rapture into Heaven S. Paul had none no not himself for whether in the body or out of the body he knew not Thou O Blessed Jesu wouldst neither have all eyes witnesses of thine Ascension nor yet too few As after thy Resurrection thou didst not set thy self upon the pinnacle of the Temple nor yet publickly shew thy self within it as making thy presence too cheap but madest choice of those eyes whom thou wouldst bless with the sight of thee thou wert seen indeed of five hundred at once but they were Brethren So in thine Ascension thou didst not carry all Jerusalem promiscuously forth with thee to see thy glorious departure but onely that selected company of thy Disciples which had attended thee in thy life Those who immediately upon thine ascending returned to Jerusalem were an hundred and twenty persons a competent number of witnesses to verifie that thy miraculous and triumphant passage into thy Glory Lo those onely were thought worthy to behold thy Majestical Ascent which had been partners with thee in thy Humiliation Still thou wilt have it thus with us O Saviour and we embrace the condition if we will converse with thee in thy lowly estate here upon earth wading with thee through contempt and manifold afflictions we shall be made happy with the sight and communion of thy Glory above O my Soul be thou now if ever ravished with the contemplation of this comfortable and blessed farewel of thy Saviour What a sight was this how full of joyful assurance of spiritual consolation Methinks I see it still with their eyes how thou my glorious Saviour didst leisurely and insensibly rise up from thine Olivet taking leave of thine acclaming Disciples now left below thee with gracious eyes with Heavenly Benedictions Methinks I see how they followed thee with eager and longing eyes with arms lifted up as if they had wished them winged to have soared up after thee And if Eliah gave assurance to his servant Elisha that if he should behold him in that rapture his Masters Spirit should be doubled upon him what an accession of the Spirit of joy and confidence must needs be to thy happy Disciples in seeing thee thus gradually rising up to thy Heaven Oh how unwillingly did their intentive eyes let goe so Blessed an Object How unwelcome was that Cloud that interposed it self betwixt thee and them and closing up it self left only a glorious splendour behind it as the bright track of thine Ascension Of old here below the Glory of the Lord appeared in the Cloud now afarre off in the sky the Cloud intercepted this Heavenly Glory if distance did not rather doe it then that bright meteor Their eyes attended thee on thy way so farre as their beams would reach when they could goe no further the Cloud received thee Lo yet even that very screen whereby thou wert taken off from all earthly view was no other then glorious how much rather do all the beholders fix their sight upon that Cloud then upon the best piece of the Firmament Never was the Sun it self gazed on with so much intention With what long looks with what astonished acclamations did these transported beholders follow thee their ascending Saviour as if they would have lookt through that Cloud and that Heaven that hid thee from them But oh what tongue of the highest Archangel of Heaven can express the welcome of thee the King of Glory into those Blessed Regions of Immortality Surely the Empyreal Heaven never resounded with so much joy God ascended with jubilation and the Lord with the sound of the Trumpet It is not for us weak and finite creatures to wish to conceive those incomprehensible spiritual Divine gratulations that the Glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now-glorified Humane nature Certainly if when he brought his onely-begotten Son into the world he said Let all the Angels worship him much more now that he ascends on high and hath led captivity captive hath he given him a Name above all Names that at the name of JESUS all knees should bow And if the Holy Angels did so caroll at his Birth in the very entrance into that estate of Humiliation and in firmity with what triumph did they receive him now returning from the perfect atchievement of man's Redemption And if when his Type had vanquished Goliah and carried the head into Jerusalem the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and
and felicity if his absence could be grievous his return shall be happy and glorious Even so Lord Jesus come quickly In the mean while it is not Heaven that can keep thee from me it is not earth that can keep me from thee Raise thou up my Soul to a life of Faith with thee let me ever injoy thy conversation whiles I exspect thy return A SERMON OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING For the wonderful Mitigation of the late Mortalitie Preached before His Majestie upon His gracious Command at His Court of Whitehall Jan. 29. 1625. and upon the same Command published by JOS. HALL Dean of Worcester Psal 68. vers 19 20. Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death YEa blessed be the Lord who hath added this unto the load of his other Mercies to his unworthy servant that the same Tongue which was called not long since to chatter out our Publick Mournings in the Solemn Fast of this place is now imployed in a Song of Praise and the same Hand which was here lifted up for Supplication is now lift up in Thanksgiving Ye that then accompanied me with your tears and sighs accompany me now I beseech you in this happy change of note and time with your joyful Smiles and Acclamations to the GOD that hath wrought it It is not more natural for the Sun when it looks upon a moist and wellfermented earth to cause Vapors to ascend thence then it is for Greatness and Goodness when they both meet together upon an honest heart to draw up holy desires of gratulation The worth of the Agent doth it not alone without a â—it disposition in the Subject Let the Sun cast his strongest beams upon a flint a pumice he fetches out no stream Even so the Greatness and Goodness of the Almighty beating upon a dry and hard heart prevailes nothing Here all three are happily met In God infinite Greatness infinite Goodness such Greatness that he is attended with thousand thousands of Angels a Guard fit for the King of Heaven such Goodness that he receives Gifts even for the rebellious In David a Gracious heart that in a sweet sense of the great Goodness of his God breaths out this Divine Epiphonema Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation c. Wherein methinks the sweet Singer of Israel seems to raise his note to the emulation of the Quire of Heaven in the melody of their Allelujahs yea let me say now that he sings above in that Blessed Consort of glorious Spirits his Ditty cannot be better then this that he sung here upon earth and wherein we are about to bear our parts at this time Prepare I beseech you both your eares for David's Song and your hearts and tongues for your own And first in this Angelical strain your thoughts cannot but observe without me the Descant and the Ground The Descant of Gratulation Blessed be the Lord wherein is both Applause and Excitation an Applause given to God's Goodness and an Excitation of others to give that Applause The Ground is a threefold respect Of what God is in himself God and Lord Of what God is and doth to us which loadeth us daily with benefits Of what he is both in himself and to us The God of our Salvation which last like to some rich Stone is set off with a dark foyl To God the Lord belong the issues from death So in the first for his own sake in the second for our sakes in the third for his own and ours as God as Lord as a Benefactor as a Saviour and Deliverer Blessed be the Lord. It is not hard to observe that David's Allelujahs are more then his Hosannas his thanks more then his suits Oft-times doth he praise God when be begs nothing seldome ever doth he beg that favour for which he doth not raise up his Soul to an anticipation of Thanks neither is this any other then the universal under-song of all his Heavenly Ditties Blessed be the Lord. Praised as our former Translation hath it is too low Honour is more then Praise Blessing is more then Honour Neither is it for nothing that from this word Barac to bless is derived Berec the knee which is bowed in blessing and the cryer before Joseph proclaimed Abrech calling for the honour of the knee from all beholders Gen. 41. 43. Every slight trivial acknowledgement of worth is a Praise Blessing is in a higher strain of gratitude that carries the whole sway of the heart with it in a kinde of Divine rapture Praise is in matter of complement Blessing of Devotion The Apostle's Rule is that the less is blessed of the greater Abraham of the King of Salem The Prophets charge is that the greater should be blessed of the less yea the greatest of the least God of man This agrees well Blessing is an act that will bear reciprocation God blesseth man and man blesseth God God blesseth man imperatively man blesseth God optatively God blesseth man in the acts of Mercy man blesseth God in the notions in the expressions of thanks God blesses man when he makes him good and happy man blesseth God when he confesseth how good how gracious how glorious he is so as the blessing is wholly taken up in agnition in celebration in the one we acknowledge the Bounty of God to us in the other we magnifie him vocally really for that Bounty Oh see then what high account God makes of the affections and actions of his poor silly earth-creeping creatures that he gives us in them power to bless himself and takes it as an honour to be blessed of us David wonders that God should so vouchsafe to bless man how much more must we needs wonder at the mercy of God that will vouchsafe to be blessed by man a worm an atome a nothing Yet both S. James tels us that with the tongue we bless God and the Psalmist calls for it here as a service of dear acceptation Blessed be the Lord. Even we men live not Cameleon-like with the aire of thanks nor feed ere the fatter with praises how much less our Maker O God we know well that whatsoever men or Angels doe or doe not thou canst not but be infinitely Blessed in thy self before ever any creature was thou didst equally injoy thy blessed Self from all Eternity what can this worthless loose filme of flesh either adde to or detract from thine Infiniteness Yet thou that humblest thy self to behold the things that are done in Heaven and earth humblest thy self also to accept the weak breath of our Praises that are sent up to thee from earth to Heaven How should this incourage the vows the endeavours of our hearty thankfulness to see them graciously taken Would men take up with good words with good desires and quit our bonds
for thanks who would be a debter With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current If he then will honour us so far as to be blessed of us Oh let us honour him so far as to blesse him Quare verbis parcam gratuita sunt Why do we spare thanks that cost us nothing as that wise heathen O give unto the Lord ye mighty give unto the Lord the praises due to his name offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and still let the foot of our song be Blessed be the Lord. This for the Descant of gratulation the Ground follows His own sake hath reason to be first God will be blessed both as Jah and Adonai the one the style of his Essence the other of his Soveraignty Even the most accursed Deist would confesse that as a pure simple infinite absolute being God is to be blessed for if Being be good and these two be convertible Nature must needs teach him that an absolute and infinite Being must needs be absolutely and infinitely good But what do I blur the Glory of this Day with mention of those Monsters whose Idol is Nature whose Religion is secondary Atheism whose true region is the lowest Hell Those damned Ethnicks cannot will not conceive of God as he is because they impiously sever his Essence from his inward Relations We Christians can never be so heavenly affected to God as we ought till we can rise to this pitch of Piety to blesse God for what he is in himself without the external beneficial relations to the creature Else our respects reflect too much homeward and we do but look through God at our selves Neither is it for us only to blesse him as an absolute God but as a Soveraign Lord too whose Power hath no more limit then his Essence the great Moderator of Heaven and earth giving laws to his creature overruling all things marshalling all events crushing his enemies maintaining his Church adored by Angels trembled at by Devils Behold here a Lord worthy to be blessed We honour as we ought your conspicuous Greatness O ye eminent Potentates of the earth but alas what is this to the great Lord of Heaven when we look up thither we must crave leave to pity the breath of your nostrils the rust of your Coronets the dust of your graves the sting of your felicities and if ye take not good heed the blots of your memories As ye hold all in â—ee from this great Lord so let it be no disparagement to you to doe your lowliest homage to his footstool homage I mean in Action give me the reall benediction I am sure that is the best They blesse God that praise him they blesse him more and praise him best that obey him There are that crouch to you Great ones who yet hate you Oh let us take heed of offering these hollow observances to the searcher of hearts if we love not our own confusion They that proclaimed Christ at Jerusalem had not only Hosanna in their mouths but palms in their hands too so must we have Let me say then If the Hand bless not the Lord the Tongue is an Hypocrite Away with the wast complements of our vain Formalities Let our loud actions drown the language of our words in blessing the name of the Lord. Neither must we bless God as a Soveraign Lord only but which is yet a more feeling relation as a munificent Benefactor Who loadeth us daily with benefits Such is man's self-love that no inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence Whiles thou makest much of thy self every one shall speak well of thee how much more whiles thou makest much of them Here God hath met with us also Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm above all other of David's to abound see here I beseech you a four-fold gradation of Divine Bounty First here are Benefits The word is not expressed in the Original but necessarily implied in the sense for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God Favours Precepts Punishments the other two are out of the road of Gratulation When we might therefore have exspected Judgments behold hold Benefits And those secondly not sparingly handfulled out to us but dealt to us by the whole load loadeth with benefits Whom thirdly doth he load but us Not worthy and well-deserving subjects but us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebels And lastly this he doth not at one doal and no more as even churls rare Feasts use to be plentifull but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 successively unweariedly perpetually One favour were too much here are Benefits a sprinkling were too much here is a load once were too oft here is daily largition Cast your eyes therefore a little upon this threefold exaggeration of Beneficence the measure a load of benefits the subject unworthy us the time daily Who daily loadeth us with benefits Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of Mercies Were it no more but that he hath given us a world to live in a life to injoy aire to breath in earth to tread on fire to warm us water to cool and cleanse us cloaths to cover us food to nourish us sleep to refresh us houses to shelter us variety of creatures to serve and delight us here were a just load But now if we yet adde to these civility of breeding dearnesse of friends competency of Estate degrees of Honour honesty or dignity of vocation favour of Princes successe in imployments domestick comforts outward peace good reputation preservation from dangers rescue from evils the load is well mended If yet ye shall come closer and adde due proportion of Body integrity of parts perfection of senses strength of nature mediocrity of health sufficiency of appetite vigour of digestion wholsome temper of seasons freedome from cares this course must needs heighten it yet more If still ye shall adde to these the order and power and exercise of our inward Faculties inriched with Wisdome Art Learning Experience expressed by a not-unhandsome Elocution and shall now lay all these together that concern Estate Body Minde how can the axel-tree of the Soul but crack under the load of these Favours But if from what God hath done for us as men we look to what he hath done for us as Christians that he hath imbraced us with an everlasting Love that he hath molded us anew enlivened us by his Spirit fed us by his Word Sacraments clothed us with his Merits bought us with his Blood becoming vile to make us glorious a Curse to invest us with Blessedness in a word that he hath given himself to us his Son for us Oh the height and depth and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh the boundlesse toplesse bottomlesse load of Divine benefits whose immensity reaches from the center of this earth to the unlimited extent of the very Empyreal Heavens Oh that men would praise the
drink no more of the fruit of this Vine till I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom Mat. 26. 29. It must needs be an excellent liquor which is used to resemble the joyes of Heaven Yea the Blood of the Son of God that celestial Nectar which tomorrow shall chear our Souls is it otherwise resembled then by the blood of the Grape He is Vitis vera the true Vine this is his juice Alas would God we had not too much cause to complain of the pleasure of this fruit Religion Reason Humanity savour not to the palate of many in comparison of it Wine is a mocker saith Solomon How many thousands doth it daily cheat of their Substance of their Patrimony of their Health of their Wit of their Sense of their Life of their Soul Oh that we had the grace to be sensible of our owne scorn and danger But this is the honour of the fruit and the shame of the man the excesse is not more our Sin then the delicacy is the praise of the Grape For sweetnesse of verdure then all plants will yield to the Vine so tastfull so pleasing so delightfull unto God are the Persons the Graces the Endeavours of his Israel Their Persons are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 1. Their Love is better then wine Cant. 4. 10. Their Alms are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet-smelling savour Philip. 4. 18. Their Prayers as evening Incense of a most fragrant composition and for the rest of their words the roof of their mouth is like the best Wine Cant. 7. 9. Acceptation hath wont to be the incouragement of forwardnesse Honourable and beloved how should this hearten us in our holy stations in our conscionable actions Whiles we continue Vines it is not in the power of our imperfections to lose our thanks The delicatest Grape cannot be so relishsome to the palate of man as our poor weak obediences are to the God of Mercies Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart saith Christ of his Church Cant. 4. 9. The Vine is a noble plant but a feeble and tender one Other trees grow up alone out of the strength of their own sap this grovels on the ground and rots if it have not an Elm to prop it like as Man the best creature is in his birth most helplesse and would presently die without outward succours Such is the Israel of God the worthiest piece of Gods Creation yet of it self impotent to good here is no growth no life but from that Divine Hand Without me ye can doe nothing They are no Vines that can stand alone Those proud spirits as they have no need of God so God hath no interest in them His Israel is a Vineyard and the Vine must be propped As a Vineyard so God's Vineyard The Church shall be sure not to be Masterlesse There is much wast ground that hath no owner our Globe can tell us of a great part of the World that hath no name but Incognita not known whether it have any inhabitant but a Vineyard was never without a Possessor till Noah the true Janus planted one there was no news of any Come into some wilde Indian Forest all furnished with goodly Trees you know not whether ever man were there God's hand we are sure hath been there perhaps not mans but if you come into a well-dressed Vineyard where you see the Hillocks equally swelling the Stakes pitcht in a just height and distance and the Vines handsomely pruned now it is easie to say as the Philosopher did when he found Figures Here hath been a man yea a good husband There is an universall Providence of God over the World but there is a special eye and hand of God over his Church In this God challengeth a peculiar interest that is his as we heard worthily this day in a double right of Confederation of Redemption Israel is my Son yea my first-born saith God to Pharaoh Thou hast brought a Vine out of AEgypt thou hast cast out the Heathen and planted it saith the Psalmist 80. 8. Oh the blasphemous diffidence of foolish men Can we dare we impute ill husbandry to the God of Heaven Hath God a Vineyard and shall he not tend it shall he not mightily protect it Goe on ye Foxes ye little Foxes to spoil the tender Grapes goe on ye Boars of the Wood to waste this Vineyard and ye wilde beasts of the field to devour it our sins our sins have given this scope to your violence and our calamity But ye shall once know that this Vineyard hath an Owner even the mighty God of Jacob every cluster that you have spoiled shall be fetcht back again from the bloody Wine-presse of his wrath and in spight of all the gates of Hell this Vine shall flourish Even so return we beseech thee O God of Hosts look down from Heaven and visit this Vine and the Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the branch that thou madest strong for thy self Ye have seen Israel a Vineyard and God's Vineyard now cast your eyes upon the favours that God hath done to his Vineyard Israel such as that God appeals to their own hearts for Judges What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done Mark I beseech you He doth not say What could have been done more then hath been done but more that I have not done challenging all the acts done to his Vineyard for his own As the Soil is his so is all the culture He that elsewhere makes himself the Vine and his Father the Husbandman here makes Israel the Vine and himself the Husbandman Nothing is nothing can be done to his Church that passeth not his hands My Father still worketh saith he and I work This work this care knows no end no limits Many a good Husband over-tasks himself and undertakes more then his eye can overlook or his hand sway and therefore is fain to trust to the management of others and it speeds thereafter But the owner of this Vineyard is every where and works whereever he is nothing can passe his eye every thing must passe his hand This is the difference betwixt Solomon's Vineyard and his that is greater then Solomon Solomon lets out his Vineyard to Keepers Cant. 8. 11. Christ keeps his in his own hand He useth indeed the help of men but as Tools rather then as Agents he works by them they cannot work but by him Are any of you Great ones Benefactors to his Church a rare style I confesse in these not dative but ablative times ye are but as the hands of the Sub-almoners of Heaven God gives by you Are any great Potentates of the earth secret or open persecutors of his Church Ashur is the rod of my wrath saith God they are but as God's pruning◠Knives to make his Vine bleed out her superfluous juice God cuts by them He is the Author of both men are the instruments
All this hath God done for his Vineyard what could have been done more Not to dwell in the mists of Allegories God himself hath read this riddle The Vineyard of the Lord of Hoasts is the house of Israel And the house of Israel is his Church The Church is God's Hill conspicuous for his wonderfull favours though not ever even to the eye of the world not an hidden unheeded Valley A fruitfull Hill not by Nature but by Grace Nature was like it self in it in the world God hath taken it in from the barren Downs and gooded it his choice did not finde but make it thus Thus chosen he hath fenced it about with the hedge of Discipline with the wall of his Almighty Protection Thus fenced he hath ordained by just Censures to pick out of it those stones of offence which might hinder their holy proceedings and keep down the growth of the Vines whether scandalous Men false Opinions or evill Occurrences Thus cleared he hath planted it with the choicest Vines of gracious motions of wholsome Doctrines Thus planted he hath overlook'd it from the Watch-tower of Heaven in a carefull inspection upon their waies in a provident care of their preservation Thus overlooked he hath endeavoured to improve it by his seasonable Wine-presse in reducing all those powers and favours to act to use whether by Fatherly corrections or by suggesting meet opportunities of practice And now having thus chosen fenced cleared planted watched and ordered to strain his Vines he saies most justly What could have been done more that I have not done Certainly it is not in the power of any humane apprehension to conceive what act could be added to perfect his culture what Blessing could be added to the indearing of a Church If he have made choice of a people for his own if he have blessed them with good Government with safe protection if he have removed all hinderances of their proficiencie if he have given them wholesome instructions and plied them with solicitations to good if his provident eye have been ever over them for their deliverances if lastly he have used both fair and foul means to wring from them the good juice of their obedience Say men or Angels what could have been done more What Church soever in the World can make good to it self these specialties of mercy let it know that God hath abated nothing to it of the height of his favour These are the favours wherewith God hath begun to Israel now turn your ears to the answer that Israel returns to God see the Mercies of a good God requited with the Rebellions of a wicked people Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth Grapes brought it forth wilde Grapes A wofull issue of such Blessings wilde Grapes that with the disappointment of God's exspectation Two usuall faults doth God finde with any vicious Tree No fruit Ill fruit the one in omission of good the other in commission of sin The Fig-tree in the way is cursed for the one Israel here taxed for the other What then are these wilde or as Pagnine renders it Uvae putidae rotten Grapes God hath not left it to our guesse but hath plainly told us v. 7. in an elegant Paronomasie I looked for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment and behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wound or scab that is oppression I look'd for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justice and behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clamour Generally whatever disposition or act uncultured Nature doth or would produce of it self that is a wilde grape Particularly the Holy Ghost hath here instanced in several sins so styled a self-greatning oppression vers 8. a setled drunkennesse and wilfull debauchednesse vers 11. a determined resolution of wicked courses vers 18. a nicknaming of good and evil vers 20. a self-conceitednesse in their own waies vers 21. Bribery in their Judges v. 23. Pride in their women ch 3. v. 16. obdured Infidelity in all ch 6. v. 10. Wilde grapes indeed such as corrupted Nature yields without a correction without an alteration she her self is wilde she can yield but what she hath what she is Please your selves who list in the opinion of your fair and sweet and plausible dispositions ye shall finde Nature at best but a wilde Vine In me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good faith the chosen Vessel Wilde grapes for the harshnesse and sowrnesse of the tast for the odiousnesse of their verdure to the palate of the Almighty The best fruits of Nature are but glorious Sins the worst are horrible Abominations Such are the wilde grapes of Israel which yet could not have been so ill if God had not been put into an exspectation of better and if this exspectation had not been crossed with disappointment Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth Grapes brought it forth wilde Grapes Had onely Maples or Thorns or Willows grown there God would not have look'd for Grapes had onely wilde Vines grown there God would not have look'd for pleasing clusters but now that God furnished the soil with noble and generous Plants with what scorn and indignation doth he look upon wilde Grapes Favours bestowed raise exspectation and exspectation frustrated doubles the Judgment The very leaves and the high-way drew a curse upon the Fig-tree Woe be to thee Chorazin woe be to thee Bethsaida Son of man what shall be done to the Vine of all trees Woe be to thee O Vineyard of Israel I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up I will break down the wall and it shall be trodden down My speech should now descend to the wofull vengeance that God threats to and inflicts upon his Israel A fit Theme for so heavy a day The Hedge of good Government and wholsome Laws shall be trodden down the Wall of Divine Protection shall be broken the Beasts of the field and forest shall be let in the Grapes devoured the Trees bruised and trampled upon the roots extirpate to the full and final vastation of Israel to the scorn and hissing of all Nations to the just terrour of the World whiles that dearling people which was once the example of God's Mercy is now become the fearfull spectacle of his Fury and Revenge surviving only in some few abhorred and despised Vagabonds to shew that there was once such a Nation But the time and occasion call my thoughts homeward and invite me rather to spend the rest of my hour in paralleling Israel's Blessings Sins threats of Judgment with our own Wherein our Interest shall be a sufficient motive of our attention Gather you together therefore gather you O Nation not worthy to be loved and cast back your eyes upon those incomparable favours wherewith God hath provoked and indeared this Island in which I dare boldly say we are at the least his second Israel How hath he chosen us out of all the Earth and divided us from the rest of the World
desire to save the labour of Transcriptions I found it not unfit the World should see what Preparative was given for so stirring a Potion neither can there be so much need in these languishing times of any discourse as that which serves to quicken our Mortification wherein I so much rejoyce to have so happily met with those Reverend Bishops who led the way and followed me in this Holy Service The God of Heaven make all our endeavours effectuall to the saving of the Souls of his people Amen A SERMON PREACHED To his Majestie on the Sunday before the Fast being March 30. at White-hall In way of preparation for that holy Exercise By the B. of EXCESTER Galat. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live c. HE that was once tossed in the confluence of two Seas Acts 27. 41. was once no lesse streightned in his resolutions betwixt life and death Phil. 1. 23. Neither doth my Text argue him in any other case here As there he knew not whether he should chuse so here he knew not whether he had I am crucified there he is dead yet I live there he is alive again yet not I there he lives not but Christ in me there he more then lives This holy correction makes my Text full of wonders full of sacred riddles 1. The living God is dead upon the Crosse Christ crucified 2. S. Paul who died by the sword dies on the Cross 3. S. Paul who was not Paul till after Christ's death is yet crucified with Christ 4. S. Paul thus crucified yet lives 5. S. Paul lives not himself whiles he lives 6. Christ who is crucified lives in Paul who was crucified with him See then here both a Lent and an Easter A Lent of Mortification I am crucified with Christ an Easter of Resurrection and life I live yet not I but Christ lives in me The Lent of my Text will be sufficient as proper for this season wherein my speech shall passe through three long stages of discourse Christ crucified S. Paul crucified S. Paul crucified with Christ In all which your Honourable and Christian patience shall as much shorten my way as my care shall shorten the way to your patience Christ's Cross is the first lesson of our infancy worthy to be our last and all The great Doctor of the Gentiles affected not to flie any higher pitch Grande crucis Sacramentum as Ambrose This is the greatest wonder that ever earth or heaven yielded God incarnate was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but God suffering and dying was so much more as Death is more penal then Birth The God-head of man and the blood of God are two such Miracles as the Angels of Heaven can never enough look into never admire enough Ruffin tells us that among the Sacred Characters of the Egyptians the Cross was antiently one which was said to signifie eternal life hence their Learneder sort were converted to and confirmed in the Faith Surely we know that in God's Hieroglyphicks Eternal Life is both represented and exhibited to us by the Crosse That the Crosse of Christ was made of the Tree of Life a slip whereof the Angels gave to Adam's son out of Paradise is but a Jewish Legend Galatine may believe it not we but that it is made the Tree of Life to all believers we are sure This is the only scale of Heaven never man ascended thither but by it By this Christ himself climb'd up to his own glory Dominus regnavit à ligno as Tertullian translates that of the Psalm Father glorifie thy name that is saith he Duc me ad crucem Lift me up to the tree not of my shame but of my triumph Behold we preach Christ crucified saith Saint Paul to the Jews a stumbling-block to the Greeks foolishnesse but to them which are called Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1. 23. Foolish men that stumble at power and deride wisdome Upbraid us now ye fond Jews and Pagans with a Crucified Saviour It is our glory it is our happinesse which ye make our reproach Had not our Saviour died he could have been no Saviour for us had not our Saviour died we could not have lived See now the flag of our dear Redeemer this Cross shining eminently in loco pudoris in our foreheads and if we had any place more high more conspicuous more honourable there we would advance it O blessed Jesu when thou art thus lifted up on thy Cross thou drawest all hearts unto thee there thou leadest captivity captive and givest gifts unto men Ye are deceived O ye blinde Jews and Painims ye are deceived it is not a Gibbet it is a Throne of Honour to which our Saviour is raised a Throne of such Honour as to which Heaven and earth and hell do and must vail The Sun hides his awfull head the earth trembles the rocks rend the graves open and all the frame of Nature doth homage to their Lord in this secret but Divine pomp of Crucifixion And whiles ye think his feet and hands despicably fixed behold he is powerfully trampling upon Hell and Death and setting up trophees of his most glorious Victory and scattering everlasting Crowns and Scepters unto all Believers O Saviour I do rather more adore thee on the Calvary of thy Passion then on the Tabor of thy Transsiguration or the Olivet of thine Ascension and cannot so effectuously blesse thee for Pater clarifica Father glorifie me as for My God my God why hast thou forsaken me sith it is no news for God to be great and glorious but for the Eternal and ever-living God to be abased to be abased unto death to the death of the Cross is that which could not but amaze the Angels and confound Devils and so much more magnifies thine infinite Mercy by how much an infinite person would become more ignominious All Hosannas of men all Allellujahs of Saints and Angels come short of this Majestick humiliation Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Revel 5. 13. And ye Honourable and beloved as ever ye hope to make musick in Heaven learn to tune your harps to the note and ditty of these Heavenly Elders Rejoice in this and rejoice in nothing but this Cross not in your transitory Honours Titles Treasures which will at the last leave you inconsolately sorrowfull but in this Cross of Christ whereby the world is crucified to you and you to the world Oh clip and embrace this pretious Cross with both your arms and say with that blessed Martyr Amor meus crucifixus est My Love is crucified Those that have searched into the monuments of Jerusalem write that our Saviour was crucified with his face to the West which howsoever spightfully meant of the Jews as not allowing him worthy to look on the Holy City and Temple yet was not without a mysterie Oculi ejus super Gentes respiciunt
the rest to spend my hour upon Save your selves from this untoward generation But ere I pitch upon this most useful and seasonable particularity let me offer to your thoughts the speedy application of these gracious remedies The blessed Apostle doth not let his Patients languish under his hand in the heats and colds of hopes and feares but so soon as ever the word is out of their mouths Men and brethren what shall we doe he presently administreth these soveraign receipts Repent be baptized save your selves In acute diseases wise Physicians will lose no time onely delay makes some distempers deadly It is not for us to let good motions freeze under our fingers How many gleeds have died in their ashes which if they had been speedily blown had risen into comfortable flames The care of our zeal for God must be sure to take all opportunities of good This is the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving the time that is observing it not for conformity to it when it is naught fie on that baseness no let the declining time come to us upon true and constant grounds let not us stoop to it in the terms of the servile yieldance of Optatus his Donatists Omnia pro tempore nihil pro veritate not I say for conformity to it but for advantage of it The Embleme teaches us to take occasion by the fore-lock else we catch too late The Israelites must goe forth and gather their Manna so soon as it is falne if they stay but till the Sun have raught his noon-point in vain shall they seek for that food of Angels Saint Peter had learnt this of his Master when the shoal was ready Christ sayes Laxate retia Luk. 5. 14. what should the net doe now in the ship When the fish was caught Christ sayes Draw up again what should the net doe now in the Sea What should I advise you Reverend Fathers and Brethren the Princes of our Israel as the Doctors are called Judges 5. 9. to speak a word in season what should I presume to put into your hands these apples of gold with pictures of silver What should I perswade you to these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wing your words with speed when the necessity of endangered Souls cals for them Oh let us row hard whiles the tide of Grace serves when we see a large door and effectual opened unto us let us throng in with a peaceable and zealous importunity to be sure Oh let us preach the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in season out of season and carefully watch for the best advantages of prevailing and when the iron of mens hearts is softned by the fire of God's Spirit and made flexible by a meet humiliation delay not to strike and make a gracious impression as S. Peter did here Repent be baptized Save your selves from this untoward generation Now to the main and all-sufficient Recipe for these feeling distempers Save your selves This is the very extracted quintessence of Saint Peter's long Sermon in which alone is included and united the soveraign virtue of Repentance of Baptisme of whatsoever help to a converting Soul so as I shall not need to speak explicitely of them whiles I enlarge my self to the treating of this universal remedy Save your selves from this untoward generation Would you think that Saint Luke hath given me the division of this whether Text or Sermon of Saint Peter Ye shall not finde the like otherwhere here it is clearly so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he testifies he exhorts He testifies what he thinks of the times he exhorts or beseeches as the Syriack turns it to avoid their danger both of them as S. Austin well referre to this one Divine sentence The parts whereof then are in S. Luke's division Peter's reprehensory Attestation and his Obtestation His reprehensory Attestation to the common wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Obtestation of their freedome and indemnity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Save your selves To begin with the former What is a generation what is an untoward generation Either word hath some little mist about it The very word generation hath begot multiplicity of senses without all perplexedness of search we will single out the properly-intended for this place As times so we in them are in continual passage every thing is in motion the Heavens do not more move above our heads in a circular revolution then we here on earth do by a perpetual alteration Now all that are contained in one lift of time whether fixed or uncertain are a Generation of men Fixed so Suidas under-reckons it by seven years but the ordinary rate is an hundred It is a clear Text Gen. 15. 16. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again when is that to the shame of Galatinus who clouds it with the fancy of the four kinds or manners of mans existence Moses himself interprets it of four hundred years vers 13. Uncertain so Solomon One generation passeth another cometh The very term implies transitoriness It is with men as with Rasps one stalk is growing another grown up a third withered and all upon one root Or as with flowers and some kinds of flies they grow up and seed and die Ye see your condition O ye Great men of the earth it is no staying here Orimur morimur After the acting of a short part upon this stage ye must withdraw for ever Make no other account but with Abraham to serve your generation and away Ye can never more fitly hear of your Mortality then now that ye are under that roof which covers the monuments of your dead and forgotten Progenitors What is an untoward generation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is promiscuously turned froward perverse crooked The opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All is as one what ever swerves from the right is crooked The Law is a right line and what crookedness is in Nature frowardness and untowardness is in Morality Shortly there is a double crookedness and untowardness one negative another positive The first is a failing of that right we should either have or be the second a contrary habit of vicious qualities and both these are either in credendis or agendis in matter of Faith or matter of Fact The first when we do not believe or doe what we ought the second when we misbelieve or mis-live The first is an untowardness of Omission the second of Commission The omissive untowardness shall lead the way and that first in matter of Belief This is it whereof our Saviour spake to the two Disciples in their warm walk to Emmaus O fools and slow of heart to believe whereof the Proto-martyr Stephen to his auditors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The stiff neck the uncircumcised ear the fat heart the blinded eye the obdurate soul quae nec movetur precibus nec cedit minis as Bernard are wont to be the expressions of this untowardness If these Jews then after
God of Heaven Now they fill every mouth and beat every eare in a neglected familiarity What should I tell you of the overgrown frequence of Oppressions Extortions Injurious and fraudulent transactions malicious Suits The neighbour walls of this famous adjoyning Palace can too amply witness this truth whose roof if as they say it will admit of no Spiâ—ers I am sure the floor of it yields venome enough to poison a Kingdome What should I tell you of the sensible declination to our onceloathed Superstitions of the common trade of contemptuous disobediences to lawful Authority the scornful undervaluing of Gods Messengers the ordinary neglect of his Sacred Ordinances what speak I of these and thousands more There are Arithmeticians that have taken upon them to count how many corns of sand would make up the bulk of Heaven and earth but no Art can reckon up the multitude of our provoking sins Neither do they more exceed in number then Magnitude Can there be a greater sin then Idolatry Is not this besides all the rest the sin of the present Romish Generation One of their own confesses as he well may that were not the Bread transubstantiate their Idolatry were more gross then the heathenish Lo nothing excuses them but an impossible Figment Know O ye poor ignorant seduced Souls that the Bread can be no more turned into God then God can be turned into Bread into nothing The very Omnipotent Power of God barrs these impious contradictions My heart trembles therefore and bleeds to think of your highest your holiest Devotions Can there be a greater sin then robbing of God This is done by our Sacrilegious Patrons Can there be a greater sin then tearing God out of Heaven with our bloody and blasphemous Oathes then the famishing of Souls by a wilful or lazie silence then rending in pieces the bowels of our dear Mother the Church by our headstrong and frivolous dissentions then furious Murders then affronts of Authority These these are those huge mountains which our Giantlike presumption rolls upon each other to warre against Heaven Neither are the sins of men more great then Audacious yea it is their impudency that makes them hainous bashful offences rise not to extremity of evil The sins of excess as they are opera tenebrarum so they had wont to be night-works They that are drunken are drunk in the night saith the Apostle now they dare with Absolom's beastliness call the Sun to record Saint Bernard tells us of a Daemon meridianus a noon-Devil out of the Vulgar misâ—translation of the 90 Psalme Surely that ill spirit walks about busily and haunts the licentious conversation of inordinate men Unjust Exactions of griping Officers had wont to creep in under the modest cloak of voluntary courtesie or faire considerations of a befriended expedition now they come like Elie's sons Nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I will take it by force 1 Sam. 2. 16. The legal Thefts of professed Usurers and the crafty compacts of slie Oppressors dare throw down the gantlet to Justice and insolent Disobediences doe so to Authority And when we denounce the fearful Judgments of God against all these abominable wickednesses the obdured sinner dares jeare us in the face and in a worse sense ask the Disciples question Domine quando fient haec Master when shall these things be Yea their self-flattering incredulity dares say to their Soul as Peter did to his Master Favour thy self for these things shall not happen to thee Neither lastly would sin dare to be so impudent if it were not for Impunity it cannot be but cowardly where it sees cause of fear Every hand is not to be laid upon evil If an Errour should arise in the Church it is not for every unlearned Tradesman to cast away his yard-wand and take up his pen. Wherefore serve Universities if every Blew apron may at his pleasure turn Licenciate of Divinity and talk of Theological questions which he understands not as if they were to be measured by the Ell O times Lord whether will this presumption grow Deus omen c. If folly if villany be committed in our Israel it is not for every man to be an Officer Who made thee a Judge was a good question though ill asked But I would to God we had more cause to complain of the presumption of them who meddle with what they should not then the neglect of them who meddle not with what they should Woe is me the flood-gates of evil are as it were lift open and the full stream gusheth upon us Not that I would cast any aspersion upon Sacred Soveraignty No blessed be God for his dear Anointed of whom we may truly and joyfully say that in imitation of him whom he represents he loves Justice and hates Iniquity It is the partiality or flackness of the subordinate inferiour executions that is guilty of this prevalence of sin What can the head doe where the hands are wanting to what use is the water derived from the cistern into the pipes if the cock be not turned What availes it if children are brought to the birth if they want a midwifty to deliver them Can there possibly be better Laws then have in our times been enacted against Drunkenness where or when are they executed Can there be a better Law made for the restraint of too-too common Oathes who urges who payes that just mulct Can there be better Laws against wilful Recusancy against Simony against Sacriledge how are they eluded by fraudulent evasions Against neglect of Divine Service yet how are they slighted Against the lawless wandring of lazie Vagabonds yet how full are our streets how empty our Correction-houses Lastly for it were easie to be endless can there be better Laws then are made for the punishment of Fornications Adulteries and all other fleshly inordinatenesses how doth bribery and corruption smother these offences as if the sins of men served only to inrich covetous Officers Now put all these together the Multitude the Magnitude the Boldness the Impunity of sin and tell me whether all these do not make this of ours generationem pravam a froward generation So as we may too well take up Esay's complaint Ab sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters Esa 1. 4. Honorable and beloved how should we be humbled under the hand of our God in the sense of our many great bold and lawless sins What sackcloth what ashes can be enough for us Oh that our faces could be covered with confusion that we could rend our hearts and not our garments Be afflicted and mourn and weep and thus Save your selves from this froward generation And so from St. Peter's Attestation to their wickedness we descend to his Obtestation of their redress Save your selves We must be so much shorter in the remedy as we have been longer in the disease The remedy is but of a short sound but of a long
extent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I urge not the passiveness of this advice that it is not Save your selves but Be ye saved God is jealous of ascribing to us any power unto good we have ability we have will enough to undo our selves scope enough to hell-ward neither motion nor will to doe good that must be put into us by him that gives both posse velle posse velle power to will and will to do This Saving comprises in it three great duties Repentance for our sin Avoidance of sinners Reluctation to sin and sinners Repentance Perhaps as St. Chrysostome and Cyrill think some of these were the personal Executioners of Christ If so they were the worst of this Generation and yet they may they must save themselves from this Generation by their unfeigned Repentance howsoever they made up no small piece of the evil times and had need to be saved from themselves by their hearty contrition Surely those sins are not ours whereof we have truly repented The skin that is once washed is as clean from soile as if it had never been foul Those Legal washings and rinsings shewed them what they must doe to their Souls to their lives This remedy as it is universal so it is perpetual the warm waters of our teares are the streams of Jordan to cure our Leprosie the Siloam to cure our Blindness the Pool of Bethesda to cure all our Lameness and defects of Obedience Alas there is none of us but have our share in the common sins the best of us hath help'd to make up the frowardness of our Generation Oh that we could un-sin our selves by our seasonable repentance Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purge your hearts ye double-minded Avoidance is the next avoidance of all unlawful participation There is a participation Natural as to live in the same aire to dwell in the same earth to eat of the same meat this we cannot avoid unless we would go out of the world as St. Paul tells his Corinthians There is a Civil participation in matter of commerce and humane necessary conversation this we need not avoid with Jews Turks Infidels Hereticks There is a Spiritual participation in moral things whether good or evil In these lyes this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet not universally neither we are not tied to avoid the services of God and holy duties for the commixture of leud men as the foolish Separatists have fancied it is participation in evil that we are here charged to avoid Although also intireness even in civil conversation is not allowed us with notoriously wicked and infectious persons The Israelites must hye them from the Tents of Corah and Come out of her my people Chiefly they are the sins from which we must save our selves not the men if not rather from the men for the sins Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darkness saith St. Paul Ephes 5. 11. commenting upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Peter There is nothing more ordinary with our Casuists then the nine waies of participation which Aquinas and the Schools following him have shut up in two homely verses Jussio consilium c. The summe is that we do not save our selves from evil if either we command it or counsel it or consent to it or sooth it or further it or share in it or disswade it not or resist it not or reveal it not Here would be work enough you see to hold our preaching unto St. Paul's hour midnight but I spare you and would be loath to have any Eutychus Shortly if we would save our selves from the sin of the time we may not command it as Jezabel did to the Elders of Jezreel we may not advise it as Jonadab did to Amnon we may not consent to it as Bathsheba did to David we may not sooth it as Zidkijah did to Ahab we may not further it as Joab did to David we may not forbear to disswade it as Hirah the Adullamite to Judah to resist it as partial Magistrates to reveal it as treacherous Confessaries But of all these that we may single out our last and utmost remedy here must be a zealous reluctation to evil All those other negative carriages of not commanding not counselling not consenting not soothing not abetting not sharing are nothing without a real oppugnation of sin Would we then throughly quit our selves of our froward Generation we must set our faces against it to discountenance it we must set our tongues against it to controll it we must set our hands against it to oppose it It goes farre that of the Apostle Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin Heb. 12. 4. Lo here is a truly heroical exercise for you great Ones to strive against sin not ad sudorem onely as Physicians prescribe but ad sanguinem Ye cannot better bestow your selves then in a loyal assistance of Sacred Authority upon the debellation of the outragious wickedness of the times These are the Dragons and Giants and Monsters the vanquishing whereof hath moralized the Histories of your famous Progenitors Oh do ye consecrate your hands and your hearts to God in beating down the headstrong powers of evil and as by repentance and avoidance so by reluctation Save your Souls from this untoward generation Now what need I waste the time in dehorting your Noble and Christian ingenuity from participation of the Epidemical sins of a froward Generation It is enough motive to you that sin is a base sordid dishonourable thing But withall let me adde onely one disswasive from the danger implyed in the very word Save for how are we saved but from a danger The danger both of Corruption and Confusion Corruption Ye see before your eyes that one yawing mouth makes many This pitch will defile us One rotten kernell of the Pomegranate infects the fellows Saint Paul made that verse of the Heathen Poet Canonical Evil conversation corrupts good manners What woful experience have we every day of those who by this means from a vigorous heat of zeal have declined to a temper of lukewarm indifferencie and then from a careless mediocrity to all extremity of debauchedness and of hopeful beginners have ended in incarnate Devils Oh the dangerous and insensible insinuations of sin If that crafty Tempter can hereby work us but to one dram of less detestation to a familiarly-inured evil he promiseth himself the victory It is well noted by Saint Ambrose of that chaste Patriarch Joseph that so soon as ever his wanton Mistress had laid her impure hand upon his Cloak he leaves it behind him that he might be sure to avoid the danger of her contagious touch If the Spouse of Christ be a Lily among Thorns by the mighty Protection of her Omnipotent Husband yet take thou heed how thou walkest amongst those Thorns for that Lily Shortly wouldst thou not be tainted with wickedness abhorre the pestilent society of leud men and by a seasonable
Godliness here is the foolishness of preaching 1 Cor. 1. 21. If to the Effects of Godliness here is weak Grace strong corruption Rom. 7. If to the Opposites of Godliness here is a Law fighting Fighting perhaps so it may be and be foiled nay but here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conquering and captivating Law Rom. 7. 23. whereby I am not onely made a slave but sold for a slave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 7. 14. So then here is an opposed Saviour a foolish preaching a feeble grace a dominearing corruption and where then is the power of Godliness all this while Know O thou foolish man that God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong God and yet there is a Devil He could call in the Being of that malignant Spirit but he will not he knows how to magnifie his Power by an opposite Christ will be spoken against not for impotence to resist but for the glory of his prevailing so we have seen a well-tempered Target shot at to shew the impenetrableness of it Preaching is foolishness but it is stultitia Dei and the foolishness of God is wiser then the wisedome of men Grace is weak where Corruption is strong but where Grace prevails Sin dares not shew his head Sin sights and subdues his own Vassals but the power of Godliness foils it in the Renewed so as if it live yet it reigns not Great then is the power of Godliness great every way great in respect of our enemies great in respect of our selves of our enemies the Devil the World the Flesh So great first that it can resist the Devil and it is no small matter to resist the powers and Principalities of Hell whom resist stedfast in the Faith Resist Alas what is this The weak may perhaps resist the strong the Whelp the Lion We may resist the Spirit of God himself Semper restitistis saith Saint Stephen of the Jews Loe here is resistance to God and not for a brunt but perpetual ye have alwaies resisted So the Ship resists the Rock against which it is shattered so the crushed Worm turns towards the foot that treads it Yea but here is a prevalent resistance Resist the Devil and he shall flee from you James 4. 7. Loe Godliness can make a Coward of the great Prince of Darkness He shall flee But if Parthian-like he shall shoot fleeing as he doth loe this shall quench all the fiery darts of Satan Ephes 6. 16. If he betake himself to his hold this can batter and beat down the strong holds of sin about his eares this can enter and bind the strong man Shortly it can conquer Hell yea make us more then Conquerors Lo to conquer is not so much as to make another a Conqueror but more then a Conqueror is yet more Is there any of you now that would be truely great and victorious it is the power of Godliness that must doe it Pyrrhus his word concerning his Souldiers was Tu grandes ego fortes Surely if our Profession make us great our Faith must make us valiant and successful I tell you the conquest of an evil spirit is more then the conquest of a world of men O then what is it to conquer Legions And as it foils Satan so the World No marvel for if the greater much more the less The World is a Subject Satan a Prince the Prince of this world The world is a biâ—got Satan is a God The God of this World If the Prince if the God be vanquish'd how can the subject or suppliant stand out What do we talk of an Alexander or a Caesar conquering the world Alas what spots of earth were they which they bragged to subdue Insomuch that Rome which in two hundred forty three yeares had gained but some fifteen miles about in Seneca's time when her Dition was at the largest had the neighbouring Germanie for the bounds of it Loe here a full conquest of the whole world Mundus totus in maligno To conquer the whole material world is not so happy so glorious a work as to conquer the malignant and this the power of Godliness only can doe this is the victory that overcomes the world even your Faith And now what can the Flesh doe without the World without the Devil Surely were it not for the Devil the World and the Flesh were both good and if it were not for the Devil and the World the Flesh were our best friend now they have debauch'd it and turn'd it traitor to God and the Soul now this proud Flesh dares warre against Heaven Godliness doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beat it black and blew yea kill it dead Mortifie your earthly members Colos 3. 5. so as it hath not a lim to stir not a breath to draw Anacharsis his charge was too hard for another but performable by a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He can rule his tongue his gut his lust Sampson was a strong man yet two of them he could not rule the power of Godliness can rule all Oh then the great power of Godliness that can trample upon the Flesh the World the Devil Super aspidem upon the Aspe the Dragon the Lion or as the Psalmist Psal 91. 13. upon that roaring Lion of Hell upon that sinuous Dragon the World upon that close-biting Aspe the Flesh And as great in respect of our Enemies so no less great in respect of our Selves great and beneficial What wonders are done by Godliness Is it not a great wonder to make a Fool wise to make the Blind see This Godliness can doe Psal 19. 7 8. Let me be bold to say we are naturally like Solomon's child Folly is bound to our heart Prov. 22. 15. In things pertaining to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We were foolish saith Saint Paul Titus 3. 3. Would any of us that are thus born Naturals to God be wise to Salvation That is the true Wisdome indeed all other is but folly yea madness to that The Schools cannot teach us this Philosophy whether Natural or Moral or Politick can doe nothing to it if ye trust to it it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain deceit as Saint Paul Colos 2. 8. Triobolaris vilis as Chrysostome It is onely Godliness must doe it Please your selves how you list without this ye great Politicians of the world the wise God hath put the py'd coat upon your backs and past upon you his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 22. If ye were Oracles to men ye are Idiots to God Malitia occaecat intellectum as he said ye quick-sighted Eagles of the world without this ye are as blinde as Beetles to Heaven If ye would have eyes to see him that is invisible the hand of your Omnipotent Saviour must touch you and at his bidding you must wash off your worldly clay with the Siloam of Godliness Is it not a wonder to raise the dead We are all naturally not sick not qualming not dying
but dead in sin Colos 2. 13. yea with Lazarus quatriduani and ill-senting yea if that will adde any thing as St. Jude's trees or as they say of acute Scotus twice dead Would ye arise It is only Godliness that can doe it Ye are risen up through the faith in the operation of God Col. 2. 12. This only can call us out of the grave of our sins Arise thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and christ shall give thee life Christ is the Author Godliness is the means All ye that hear me this day either ye are alive or would be Life is sweet every one challenges it Do ye live willingly in your sins Let me tell you ye are dead in your sins This life is a death If you wish to live comfortably here and gloriously hereafter it is Godliness that must mortifie this life in sin that must quicken you from this death in sin Flatter your selves how you please ye great Gallants of both Sexes ye think your selves goodly pieces without Godliness ye are the worst kinde of carkasses for as death or not-being is the worst condition that can befall a creature so death in sin is so much the worst kind of death by how much Grace is better then Nature A living Dog or Toad is better then a thus-dead sinner Would ye rise out of this loathsome and woful plight it is Godliness that must breath Grace into your dead lims and that must give you the motions of holy Obedience Is it not a wonder to cast out Devils I tell you the corporal possession of ill spirits is not so rare as the spiritual is rise No natural man is free One hath the spirit of errour 1 Tim. 4. 1. another the spirit of fornications Ose 4. 12. another the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. another the spirit of slumber another the spirit of giddiness another the spirit of pride all have spiritum mundi the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2. 12. Our story in Guliel Neubrigensis tells us of a Countryman of ours one Kettle of Farnham in King Henry the Second's time that had the faculty to see spirits by the same token that he saw the Devils spitting over the Drunkards shoulders into their pots the same faculty is recorded of Antony the Eremite and Sulpitius reports the same of Saint Martin Surely there need none of these eyes to discern every natural mans Soul haunted with these evil Angels Let me assure you all ye that have not yet felt the power of Godliness ye are as truely though spiritually carried by evil spirits into the deeps of your known wickedness as ever the Gadarene hogs were carried by them down the precipice into the Sea Would you be free from this hellish tyranny only the power of Godliness can doe it 2 Tim. 2. 26 27. Is peradventure God will give them repentance that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the Devil and Repentance is you know a main part of Godliness If ever therefore ye be dispossessed of that Evil one it is the power of Godliness that must doe it What speak I of power I had like to have ascribed to it the acts of Omnipotencie And if I had done so it had not been much amiss for what is Godliness but one of those rayes that beams forth from that Almighty Deity what but that same Dextra Excelsi whereby he works mightily upon the Soul Now when I say the man is strong is it any derogation to say his arme is strong Faith and Prayer are no small pieces of Godliness and what is it that God can doe which Prayer and Faith cannot doe Will ye see some instances of the further acts of Godliness Is it not an act of Omnipotence to change Nature Jannes and Jambres the Aegyptian Sorcerers may juggle away the Staffe and bring a Serpent into the room of it none but a Divine power which Moses wrought by could change the Rod into a Serpent or the Serpent into a Rod. Nothing is above Nature but the God of Nature nothing can change Nature but that which is above it for Nature is regular in her proceedings and will not be crost by a finite power since all finite Agents are within her command Is it not a manifest change of the nature of the Wolf to dwell quietly with the Lamb of the Leopard to dwell with the Kid of the Lion to eat straw with the Oxe of the Aspe to play with the child How shall this be It is an idle conceit of the Hebrews that savage beasts shall forgo their hurtful natures under the Messias No but rational beasts shall alter their dispositions The ravenous Oppressor is the Wolf the tyrannical Persecutor is the Leopard the venemous Heretick is the Aspe these shall turn innocent and useful by the power of Godliness for then the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord Esay 11. 6 c. Is it not a manifest change of nature for the Ethiopian to turn white for the Leopard to turn spotless This is done when those doe good which are accustomed to evil Jer. 13. 23. And this Godliness can doe Is it not a manifest change of nature for the Camel to pass through a needles eye this is done when through the power of Godliness ye Great and rich men get to Heaven Lastly it is an easie thing to turn men into beasts a cup too much can doe it but to turn beasts into men men into Saints Devils into Angels it is no less then a work of Omnipotencie And this Godliness can doe But to rise higher then a change Is it not an act of Omnipotencie to create Nature can go on in her track whether of continuing what she actually finds to be or of producing what she finds to be potentially in pre-existing Causes but to make new matter transcends her power This Godliness can doe here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. There is in Nature no predisposition to Grace the man must be no less new then when he was made first of the dust of the earth and that earth of nothing Novus homo Eph. 4. 24. How is this done by Creation and how is he created in righteousness and holiness Holiness to God Righteousness to men both make up Godliness A Regeneration is here a Creation Progenuit is expressed by Creavit Jam. 1. 18. and this by the word of truth Old things are passed saith the Apostle all must be new If we will have ought to doe with God our bodies must be renewed by a glorious Resurrection ere they can enjoy Heaven our Souls must be renewed by Grace ere we can enjoy God on earth Are there any of us pained with our heart of stone We may be well enough the stone of the reines or bladder is a woful pain but the stone of the heart is more deadly He can by this power take it out and give us an
heart of flesh Ezec. 11. 19. Are there any of us weary of carrying our old Adam about us a grievous burden I confess and that which is able to weigh us down to Hell do we groan under the load and long to be eased none but the Almighty hand can doe it by the power of Godliness creating us anew to the likeness of that second Adam which is from heaven heavenly without which there is no possibility of Salvation for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God In a word would we have this earth of ours translated to Heaven it is only the power of godliness can doe it And as this power of Godliness is great so no less beneficial beneficial every way both here and hereafter Here it frees us from evil it feoffes us in good Godliness is an Antidote against all mischief and misery yea such is the power of it that it not onely keeps us from evil but turns that evil to good All things work together to the best to them that love and fear God saith the Apostle Lo all things Crosses Sins Crosses are blessings Sins are advantages Saint Paul's Viper befriended him Saint Martin's Ellebore nourished him Saluti fuere pestifera as Seneca speaks And what can hurt him that is blessed by Crosses and is bettered by Sins It feoffes us in good Wealth Honour Contentment The Apostle puts two of them together Godliness is great gain with contentment 1 Tim. 6. 6. Here are no ifs or ands but gain great gain and gain with self-sufficiencie or contentment Wickedness may yield a gain such as it is for a time but it will be gravel in the throat gain farre from contentment Length of dayes are in the right hand of true wisedome and in her left hand riches and honour Prov. 3. 16. Lo honour and wealth are but gifts of the left hand common and mean favours length yea eternity of dayes is for the right that is the height of bounty Godliness hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come saith the Apostle the promise that is enough Gods promises are his performances with men to promise and to pay are two things they are one with God To them that by patient continuing in well-doing seek glory and honour and immortality eternal life Rom. 2. 7. Briefly for I could dwell here alwaies it is Godliness that onely can give us the beatifical sight of God The sight yea the fruition of him yea the union with him not by apposition not by adhesion but by a blessed participation of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. I can goe no higher no the Angels and Arch-angels cannot look higher then this To summe up all then Godliness can give wisedome to the fool eyes to the blind life to the dead it can eject Devils change the course of Nature create us anew free us from evil feoffe us in good honour wealth contentment everlasting happiness O the wonderful O the beneficial power of Godliness And now what is the desire of my Soul but that all this could make you in love with Godliness that in stead of the ambitions of Honour the tradings for Wealth the pursuit of Pleasure your hearts could be set on fire with the zealous affectation of true Godliness Alas the least overture of any of these makes us mad of the world if but the shadow of a little Honour Wealth Promotion Pleasure be cast before us how eagerly do we prosecute it to the eternal hazard of our Souls Behold the substance of them all put together offers it self in Godliness How zealously should we embrace them and never give rest to our Souls till we have laid up those true grounds of Happiness which shall continue with us when all our Riches and earthly Glory shall lye down with us in the dust Alas Noble and Christian hearers ye may be outwardly great and inwardly miserable it was a great Caesar that said I have been all things and am never the better It is not your Bags ye wealthy Citizens that can keep the Gout from your joints or Care from your hearts It is not a Coronet ye great Peers that can keep your heads from aching all this earthly pomp and magnificence cannot keep out either death or conscience Our Prosperity presents us as goodly Lilies which whiles they are whole look fair and smell sweet but if once bruised a little as nasty both in sight and sent It is only Godliness that can hold up our heads in the evil day that can bid us make a mock at all the blustering storms of the world that can protect us from all miseries which if they kill yet they cannot hurt us that can improve our sufferings and invest us with true and eternal Glory O then be covetous be ambitious of this blessed estate of the Soul and as Simon Macchabaeus with three yeares labour took down the top of mount Acra in Jerusalem that no hill might stand in competition of height with the Temple of God so let us humble and prostrate all other desires to this one that true Godliness may have the sway in us Neither is this consideration more fit to be a whetstone to our zeal then a touchstone to our condition Godliness why it is an herb that grows in every soil As Platina observes that for 900 yeares and upwards none of those Popes to whom Sanctity is ascribed in the abstract were yet held Saints after their death except Celestine the 5 which gave up the Pontifical Chair after six Moneths weary sitting in it so on the contrary we may live Ages ere we heare a man profess himself God-less whiles he is abominably such He is too bad that will not be thought Godly as it is a brazen-fac'd Curtezan that would not be held honest That which Lactantius said of the Heathen Philosophers that they had many Scholars few followers I cannot say of the Divine we have enough to learn enough to imitate but few to act Be not deceived Godliness is not impotent whereever Godliness is there is power Hath it then prevailed to open our eyes to see the great things of our peace hath it raised us up from the grave of our sins ejected our hellish corruptions changed our wicked natures new created our hearts well may we applaud our selves in the confidence of our Godliness But if we be still old still corrupt still blind still dead still devilish away vain Hypocrites ye have nothing to doe with Godliness because Godliness hath had no power on you Are ye godly that care to know any thing rather then God and spiritual things Are ye godly that have neither ability nor will to serve that God whom ye fashionably pretend to know Are ye godly which have no inward awe of that God whom ye pretend to serve no government of your Passions no Conscience of your Actions no care of your Lives False Hypocrites ye do but abuse and profane that name which ye unjustly
in that Heaven one uniform face of all that glorious Vault the nature of the holy Angels is one and simple as creatures can be the head of Angels and Saints one Saviour whose blessed Humanity if it carry some semblance of composition yet it is answered by a threefold Union of one and the same Subject a double union of the Deity with the Humanity a third union of the Humanity in it self So that as in the Deity there is one Essence and three Persons in Christ is one Person and three Essences united into that one If from Heaven we look to earth from God to men we have but one Earth one Church in that earth one King in that Church and for us one Deputy of that King one Scepter one Law of both one Baptism one Faith Cor unum viam unam and all these make up Columbam unam one Dove It would perhaps be no unnecessary excursion to take hereupon occasion to discourse of the perfectest form of Church-government and to dispute the case of that long and busie competition betwixt Monarchy and Aristocracy Ingenuous Richier the late eye-sore of the Sorbon hath made methinks an equal arbitration That the State is Monarchical the Regiment Aristocratical The State absolutely Monarchical in Christ dispensatively Monarchical in respect of particular Churches forasmuch as that power which is inherent in the Church is dispensed and executed by some prime Ministers like as the faculty of Seeing given to the man is exercised by the Eye which is given for this use to man And if for the Aristocratical Regiment there be in the native Senate of the Church which is a General Council a power to enact Canons for the wielding of this great body as more eyes see more then one yet how can this consist without Unity Concilium is not so much a concalando as Calepine hath mistaken as a conciliando or as Isidore à ciliis oculorum which ever move together In this Aristocracy there is an Unity for as that old word was long since Episcopatus unus est cujus à singulis in solidum pars tcnetur In a word no Regiment no State can have any form but deformity without Unity Neither is there more Perfection then Strength in Unity Large bodies if of a stronger composition yet because the spirits are diffused have not that vigor and activity which a well-knit body hath in a more slender frame The praise of the invincible strength of Jerusalem was not so much in the natural walls the hills round about it as in the mutual compactednesse within it self And Solomon tells us it is the twisted Cord that is not easily broken The Rule of Vegetius that he gives for his best stratagem is that which our Jesuites know too well to set strife where we desire ruine Our Saviour saies that of every City which one said anciently of Carthage That division was the best engine to batter it A City divided cannot stand On the contrary of every happy Church of every firm State is that verified which God speaks in the whirlewinde of Leviathan's scales una uni conjungitur one is joyned to another that the winde cannot passe between them they stick together that they cannot be sundred Job 41. 16 17. That there is Perfection and Strength in Unity cannot be doubted but how agrees this Unity to Christ's Dove his Church It shall be thus absolutely in patria at home but how is it in via in the passage Even here it is One too not divided not multiplied To begin with the former It hath been a stale quarrel that hath been raised from the divisions of the Christian world worn thredbare even by the pens and tongues of Porphyrie Libanius Celsus Julian and after them Valens the Emperour was puzzled with it till Themistius that memorable Christian Philosopher in a notable Oration of his convinced this idle cavil telling the Emperour He should not wonder at the dissensions of Christians that these were nothing in comparison of the differences of the Gentile Philosophers which had above three hundred severall Opinions in agitation at once and that God meant by this variety of judgments to illustrate his own Glory that every man might learn so much more to adore his Majesty by how much harder it is rightly to apprehend him The justice of this exception hath been confessed and bewailed of old by the antient Fathers St. Chrysostome shall speak for all Deridiculo facti sumus Gentibus Judaeis dum Ecclesia in mille partes scinditur We are made a scorn to Jews and Gentiles saith he whiles the Church is torn into a thousand pieces Little do these fools that stumble at these contentions know the weight of S. Paul's Oportet There must be heresies little are they acquainted with Gods fashions in all his works Hath he not set contrary motions in the very Heavens Are not the Elements the main stuffe of the world contrary to each other in their forms and qualities Hath he not made the natural Day to consist of light and darknesse the Year of seasons contrarily tempered yea all things according to the guesse of that old Philosopher ex lite amicitia And shall we need to teach God how to frame his Church Will these wise censurers accuse the Heavens of misplacing the Elements of mistemper or check the Day with the deformity of his darknesse or upbraid the fair beauty of the Year with ice-icles and wrinkles or condemn that reall Friendship that arises from debate If the wise and holy Moderator of all things did not know how by these fires of contradiction to trie men and to purifie his Truth and to glorifie himself how easie were it for him to quench them and confound their Authors Can they commend it in a wise Scipio that he would not have Carthage though their greatest enemy destroied ut timore libido premeretur libido pressa non luxuriaretur that riot might be curbed with fear as S. Austin expresses it and shall not the most wise God have leave to permit an exercise to keep his children in breath that they be not stuft up with the foggy unsound humors of the world When these presuming fools have stumbled and faln into the bottome of hell the Spouse of Christ shall be still his Dove in the clests or scissures of the Rocks and she shall call him her Roe or yong Hart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the hills of Division Cant. 2. 17. But yet when all is done in spight of all dissentions the Church is Columba una one Dove The word is not more common then equivocal whether ye consider it as the aggregation of the outward visible particular Churches of Christian professors or as the inward secret universal company of the Elect it is still One. To begin with the former What is it here below that makes the Church one one Lord One Faith One Baptism One Lord so it is one in the Head One Faith so it is
no other no better then beast as if according to that old foolish Heresie God had not made both There are those whose hands are white and clean from bribes from extortion but their feet are yet swift to shed blood upon their own private revenge Let not these men say they are transformed Let the first say their face is changed let the next say their tongue is changed let the other say their breasts or hands are changed but unlesse face and tongue and breast and hand and foot and all be changed the man is not changed God be mercifull to us the world is full of such monsters of Hypocrisie who care onely for an appearing change of some eminent and noted part neglecting the whole as some sorry Tap-house white-limes and glazes the front towards the street and sets out a painted sign when there is nothing in the inward parts but sticks and clay and ruines and cold earthen floors and fluttery This is to no purpose If any piece of us be unchanged we are still our old selves odious to God obnoxious to death But as all motions have their termes what is that into which we must be transformed I see transformations enough every where God knows too many I see zealous Professors transformed to key-cold worldlings reformed Catholicks turn'd to Romish Factionists I see men transformed into women in their effeminate dispositions and demeanours women transform'd to men in their affectation of masculine boldness and fashions I see men and women transform'd into Beasts of all kindes some into drunken Swine others into cruell Tigers others into ranck Goats others into mimick Apes yea I see those beasts transform'd again into Devils in the delight they take in sin in their mischievous tempting of others to sin All these are transformed so as it is from good to ill from bad to worse so transformed that as Cypran said of painted faces it is no marvell if God know them not for they have made themselves quite other from what he made them That whereinto we must be transformed is the image of God 2 Cor. 3. 18. consisting in holinesse and righteousness Ephes 4. 24. That Image we once had and lost and now must recover by our transformation Oh blessed change that of the Sons of men we become the children of the ever-living God of the firebrands of hell such we are naturally we become the heirs of Heaven That as the eternal Son of God having the form of God did yet graciously change this glorious habit for the form of a servant so we that are the sons of men should change the servile form of our wretched nature into the Divine form of the Son of God! This is a change not more happy then needfull It was another change that Job said he would wait for but of this change we must say I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber untill an happy change have wrought this heart of mine which by Nature is no better then a stie of unclean devils to be an habitation for the God of Jacob. Wo be to the man whose last change overtakes him ere this change be wrought in him There is nothing more wretched then a mere man We may brag what we will how noble a creature man is above all the rest how he is the Lord of the world a world within himself the mirrour of Majesty the visible model of his Maker but let me tell you if we be but men it had been a thousand times better for us to have been the worst of beasts Let it not seem to savour of any Misanthropie to say that as all those things which are perfections in creatures are eminently in God so all the vicious dispositions of the creature are eminently in man in that debauch'd and abused Reason is the quintessence of all Bestialitie What speak I of these silly brutes In this streight triangle of man's Heart there is a full Conclave of Cardinal wickednesses an Incorporation of Cheaters a Goal of Malefactors yea a legion of Devils Seest thou then the most loathsome Toad that crawls upon the earth or the most despised Dog that creeps under thy feet thou shalt once envy their condition if thou be not more then a man Thou seest the worst of them thou canst not conceive the worst of thine own For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God and fores canes without shall be Dogs Revel 22. 15. When they shall be vanished into their first nothing thou shalt be ever dying in those unquenchable flames which shall torment thee so much the more as thou hadst more Wit and Reason without Grace But oh what a wofull thing it is to consider and how may we bemone our selves to Heaven and earth that yet men will not be transformed All the menaces all the terrors of God cannot move men from what they are but he that is filthy will be filthy still In spight of both Law and Gospel men have obdured their selves against the counsel of God they have an iron neck Esa 48. 4. an uncircumcised care Jer. 6. 10. a brawny heart Mark 3. 5. Say God and man what they will these enchanted creatures will rather be beasts still then return to men If we will not change be sure God will not He hath said it and he will perform it After thine hardness and heart that cannot repent thou treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. Far far be this obstinacy from us Honorable and beloved For God's sake for your Souls sake yield your selves willingly into the hands of God and say Convert me O Lord and I shall be converted As we love our selves and fear hell let us not content our selves with the shape with the faculties of men but let us be transformed and think that we were only made men that we might passe through the estate of humanity to Regeneration This for the Transformation See now that this transformation must be by Renewing The same Spirit that by Solomon said There is nothing new under the Sun saith by S. Paul All things are become new Nothing is so new that it hath not been All things must be so new as they were This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renovation implies that which once was and therefore was new before That God who is the Antient of daies doth not dislike any thing for mere Age for Time is his and continuance of Time is so much more excellent as it comes nearer to the duration of Eternity Old age is a crown of glory Neither is ought old in relation to God but to us neither is age faulty in respect of Nature but of corruption for as that word of Tertullian is true Primum verum the first is true so may I as truly say Primum bonum the first is good Only now as our Nature stands depraved our Old man is the body of corruptions which
we brought with us and carry about us and there can be no safety unlesse we be transformed by renovation Behold God saies I make all things new a new Heaven and a new earth Esay 65. 17. The year renews and to morrow we say is a new day we renew our clothes when they are worn our leases when they grow towards expiring only our hearts we care not to renew If all the rest were old so that our Heart were new it were nothing Nothing but the main of all is neglected What should I need any other motives to you then the view of the estate of both these Look first at the old Put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts Ephes 4. 22. Lo the old man is corrupt this is enough to cashier him what man can abide to carry rotten flesh about him If but a wound fester and gather dead flesh we draw it we corrode it till it be clear at the bottome Those that make much of their old man do like that monstrous twin willingly carry about a dead half of themselves whose noisomnesse doth torment and kill the living Look at the new Being freed from sin and made servants to God ye have your fruit in holiness and the end everlasting life Rom. 6. 22. Holiness is a lovely thing of it self there is a beauty of Holiness Gloria Sanctitatis as the Vulgar turns it Psal 144. and goodness doth amply reward it self Yet this Holiness hath besides infinite recompence attending it Holiness is life begun eternal life is the consummation of Holiness Holiness is but the way the end whereto it leads is everlasting life As therefore we would avoid the annoiance and danger of our sinful corruptions as we would ever aspire to true and endless blessedness Oh let us be transformed by renewing But how is this renewing wrought and wherein doth it consist Surely as there are three ways whereby we receive a new being by Creation by Generation by Resuscitation so according to all these is our spiritual renewing it is by Creation Whosoever is in Christ is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. it is by Regeneration Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdome of God Joh. 3. 3. it is by Resuscitation Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickened us together with Christ Ephes 2. 5. From whence arises this double Corollary 1. That we can give of our selves no active power to the first act of our Conversion no more then Adam did to his first Creation no more then the child doth to his own Conception no more then the dead man to his raising from the grave 2. That there must be a Privation of our old corrupt forms and a reducing us from our either nothing or worse to an estate of Holiness and new Obedience This is that which is every where set forth unto us by the Mortification of our earthly members and putting off the old man on the one part and by the first resurrection and putting on the new on the other Nothing is more familiar then these resemblances But of all Similes none doth so fitly methinks express the manner of this renewing as that of the Snake which by leaving his old slough in the streights of the Rock glides forth glib and nimble I remember Holcot urges the Similitude thus To turn off the Snakes skin saith he two things are requisite The first is foraminis angustia the streightness of the passage else he must needs draw the old skin through with him the latter is stabilitas saxi the firmness of the stone else in stead of leaving the skin he shall draw the stone away with him So must it be in the business of our renovation First we must pass through the streight way of due Penitence secondly we must hold the firm and stable purpose of our perseverance in good True sorrow and contrition of heart must begin the work and then an unmoved constancy of endeavour must finish it Whosoever thou art therefore if thy heart have not been toucht yea torn and rent in pieces with a sound Humiliation for thy sins the old slough is still upon thy back thou art not yet come within the ken of true Renovation Or if thou be gone so farre as that the skin begins to reave up a little in a serious grief for thy sins yet if thy resolutions be not steadily setled and thine endeavours bent to go through with that holy work thou comest short of thy renewing thine old loose filme of corruption shall so cumber thee that thou shalt never be able to pass on smoothly in the ways of God But because now we have a conceit that man as we say of fish unless he be new is naught every man is ready to challenge this honour of being renewed and certainly there may be much deceit this way We have seen plate or other vessels that have look'd like new when they have been but new guilded or burnish'd we have seen old faces that have counterfeited a youthly smoothness and vigorous complexion we have seen Hypocrites act every part of renovation as if they had falne from Heaven Let us therefore take a trial by those proofs of examination that cannot fail us And they shall be fetcht from those three ways of our renewing which we have formerly specified If we be renewed by Creation here must be a clean Heart Cor mundum crea saith the Psalmist Psal 51. 10. For as at the first God look'd on all his works and found them very good so still no work of his can be other then like himself holy and perfect If thy heart therefore be still full of unclean thoughts wanton desires covetousness ambition profaneness it is thine old heart of Satans marring it is no new heart of God's making for nothing but clean can come from under his hands But if we plead the closeness of the heart which may therefore seem impervious even to our own eyes see what the Apostle saith Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created unto good works The cleanness of the heart will shew it self in the goodness of the Hands But if our hands may deceive us as nothing is more easily counterfeited then a good action yet our Feet will not I mean the trade of our wayes That therefore from our Creation we may look to our Regeneration if we be the sons of God we are renewed and how shall it appear whether we be the sons of God It is a golden Rule Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. Yet if in both of these life could be counterfeited death cannot That therefore from our Creation and Regeneration we may look to our Resuscitation and from thence back to our grave Mortifie your members which are on earth Col. 3. 5. There is a death of this body of sin and what manner of death Those that
these self-humiliations are thankless and faulty It will be long enough ere the Superstitious Servile Hypocritical Brutish Humility shall advance us other then to the scaffold of our execution The True Humility is when a man is modestly lowly in his own eyes and sincerely abased in his heart and carriage before God And this self-humiliation is either in respect of Temporal or Spiritual things Of Temporal when a man thinks any condition good enough for him and therefore doth not unduly intrude himself into the preferments of the world whether in Church or Commonwealth When he thinks meanly of his own parts and actions highly and reverently of others and therefore in giving honour goes before others in taking it behind them Of Spiritual when he is vile in himself especially in respect of his sins and therefore abhors himself in sackcloth and ashes when the Grace that he hath he can acknowledge but not over-rate yea he takes it so low as he may do without wrong to the giver when for all Blessings he can awfully look up to his Creator and Redeemer ascribing all to him referring all to him depending for all upon him so much more magnifying the Mercy of God as he is more sensible of his own Unworthiness This is the true though short character of Humility A plain Grace ye see but lovely From which let it please you to turn your eyes to the Blessing allotted to it which is so expressed in the Original that it may either run The humble in spirit shall enjoy honour as in the former Translation or Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit as in the latter In both Honour is the portion of the humble for the raising of him in the one for the preserving of him in the other Honour from whom From God from men Even the good man of the house will say Friend sit up higher For though with vain men he is most set by that can most set our himself yet with the wiser the more a man dejects himself the more he is honoured It cannot stand with the justice of the truly-vertuous to suffer a man to be a loser by his Humility Much less will God abide it A broken heart O God thou wilt not despise saith the Psalmist and Pullati extolluntur salute The mourners are exalted with safety saith Eliphaz in Job 5. 11. The Lord lifteth up the meek saith David out of good proof and needs must he rise whom God lifteth What should we need any other precedent of this Vertue or other example of this Reward then our Blessed Saviour himself all other are worthy of forgetfulness in comparison Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equall with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant c. and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross O God what an incomprehensible dejection was here that the living God should descend from the highest Glory of Heaven and put upon him the rags of our Humanity and take on him not the man onely but the servant yea the malefactor abasing himself to our infirmities to our indignities to be reviled spat upon scourged wounded crucified yea all these are easie tasks to that which follows to be made a mark of his Fathers wrath in our stead so as in the bitterness of his Soul he is forced to cry out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me What heart of man yea what apprehension of Angels can be capable of fadoming the depth of this Humiliation Answerable to thy dejection O Saviour was thine exaltation as the conduit-water rises at least as high as it falls Now is thy name above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should how of things in Heaven in earth under the earth Neither meanest thou to be our Saviour onely but our pattern too I do not hear thee say Learn of me for I am Almighty I am Omniscient but Learn of me that I am meek If we can go down the steps of thine Humiliation we shall rise up the stairs of thy Glory Why do we not then say I will be yet more vile for the Lord Oh cast down your crowns with the twenty four Elders Apoc. 4. 10. before the Throne of God Humble your seves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Jam. 4. 10. Indeed there is none of us but hath just cause to be humbled whether we consider the wretchedness of our Nature or of our Estate What is the best flesh and blood but a pack of dust made up together into a stirring heap which in the dissolution molders to dust again When I consider the Heavens and see the Sun the Moon and the Stars as they stand in their order Lord what is man that thou regardest him what a Worm what an Ant what a nothing who besides his homeliness is still falling asunder for even of the greatest and best-composed is that of the Psalm verified Universa vanitas omnis homo Every man is all vanity Alas then what is it we should be proud of Is it Wealth What is the richest metal but red and white earth And that whereof too we may say as the Sons of the Prophets of their hatchet Alas Master it was but lent What speak I of this when our very breath is not our own The best praise of Coin is that it is current it runs from us yea it is volatile as wise Solomon Riches have wings and if they leave not us we must them We brought nothing hither and according to the proclamation of that great King we must carry nothing with us but our winding-sheet yea rather that must carry us Is it our Land How long is that ours That shall be fixed when we are gone and shall change as it hath done many Masters But withall where is it I remember what is reported of Socrates and Alcibiades Aelian tells the story Socrates saw Alcibiades proud of his spacious fields and wide inheritance he calls for a Map looks for Greece and finding it asks Alcibiades where his lands lay When he answered they were not laid forth in the Map Why said Socrates art thou proud of that which is no part of the earth What a poor spot is the dominion of the greatest King but what a nothing is the possession of a Subject A small parcel of a Shire not worthy the name of a Chorographer And had we with Licinius as much as a Kite could fly over yea if all the whole Globe were ours six or seven foot will serve us at the last Is it our Honour Alas that is none of ours for Honour is in him that gives it not in him that receives it And if the Plebeians will be stubborn or uncivil and respectless where is Honour and when we have it what a poor puffe is this how windy how unsatisfying Insomuch
as the great Emperour could say I have been all things and am never the better Have ye Great ones all the incurvations of the knee the kisses of the hand the styles of Honour yea the flatteries of Heralds let Gods hand touch you but a little with a spotted Fever or girds of the Colick or belking pains of the Gout or stoppings of the bladder alas what ease is it to you that you are laid in a Silken bed that a potion is brought you on the knee in a Golden cup that the Chirurgion can say he hath taken from you Noble blood As Esau said of his birth-right ye shall say mutat is mutandis of all these ceremonies of Honour What are these to me when I am ready to dye for pain Is it Beauty What is that or wherein consists it Wherein but in mere opinion The Aethiopians think it consists in perfect Blackness we Europeans in white and red and the wisest say That is fair that pleaseth And what Face is it that pleaseth all Even in the worst some eyes see features that please in the best some others see lines they like not And if any Beauty could have all voices what were this but a wast and worthless approbation Grant it to be in the greatest exquisiteness what is it but a Blossome in May or a Flower in August or an Apple in Autumn soon faln soon withered Should any of you glorious Dames be seized upon with the nasty pustles of the small Pox alas what pits do those leave behind them to bury your Beauties in Or if but some languishing Quartan should arrest you how is the delicate skin turn'd tawnie How doth an unwelcome Dropsie wherein that disease too often ends bag up the eyes and mis-shape the face and body with unpleasing and unkindly tumors In short when all is done after all our cost and care what is the best hide but saccus stercorum as Bernard speaks which if we do not finde noisome others shall Well may I therefore ask with Ecclesiasticus Quid superbit terra cinis Why is this earth and ashes proud though it were as free from sin as it is from perfection But now when wickedness is added to vanity and we are more abominable by sin then weak by nature how should we be utterly ashamed to look up to Heaven to look upon our own faces Surely therefore whensoever you see a Proud man say there is a Fool 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the heathen Menander could say so for if he were not a mere stranger in himself he could be no other then confounded in himself We see our own outward filthiness in those loathsome excretions which the purest nature puts forth but if we could as well see our inward Spiritual beastliness we could not but be swallowed up of our confusion It falls out with men in this case as with some old foul and wrinkled dames that are soothed up by their Parasites in an admiration of their Beauty to whom no glass is allowed but the picturers that flatters them with a smooth fair and young image Let such a one come casually to the view of a Glass she falls out first with that mirrour and cries out of the false representation but after when upon stricter examination she finds the fault in her self she becomes as much out of love with her self as ever her flatterers seemed to be enamour'd of her It is no otherwise with us We easily run away with the conceit of our Spiritual Beauty of our innocent Integrity every thing feeds us in our over-weening opinion Let the Glass of the Law be brought once and set before us we shall then see the shameful wrinkles and foul morphews of our Souls and shall say with the Prophet We lye down in our shame and our confusion covereth us for we have sinned against the Lord our God Jer. 3. 25. Thus if we be humbled in spirit◠we shall be raised unto true Honour even such Honour as have all his Saints To the participation whereof that God who hath ordained graciously bring us for the sake of Jesus Christ the Righteous to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen CHRIST AND CAESAR A SERMON preached at Hampton-Court By Jos. HALL Joh. 19. 15. The chief Priests answered We have no King but Caesar THere cannot be a more loyal speech as it may be used One Sun is enough for Heaven one King for earth But as it is used there cannot be a worse For in so few words these Jews flatter Caesar reject Christ oppose Christ to Caesar First pretending they were Caesar's subjects secondly professing they were not Christs subjects thirdly arguing that they could not be Christ's subjects because they were Caesar's The first by way of affirmation Caesar is our King the second by way of negation No King but Caesar the third by way of implication Christ is not our King because Caesar is The first was a truth Caesar was indeed now their King but against their wils Conquest had made his name unwelcome They say true then and yet they flatter Wonder not at this a man may flatter yea lye in speaking truth when his heart believes not the title that his tongue gives So it was with these Jews they call'd him King whom they malign'd as an Usurper For they feeding themselves with the conceit of being God's free people wherein Judas Gaulonites and Sadducus the Pharisee had soothed them hated him as an enemy whom they were forced to fear as their King holding it no better then a sinful vassalage to stoop unto an Heathen scepter Ye know the question moved upon the Tribute-money Matth. 22. 17. Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar Lo they say not Is it needful but Is it lawful The Herodians were a Faction that had never moved this question unless the Pharisees and their scrupulous clients had denied it They make it a difficulty not of purse but of conscience Licetne Is it lawful Yet here Regem habemus Caesarem Caesar is our King They liked well enough to have a King yea hereupon they were so ready to swagger with God and his Samuel They had learn'd of Nature and experience the best form of Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they would have had him of their own As God said of the great Prophet so they are glad to hear him say of their King De numero fratrum tuorum From among thy brethren Propriety is in nothing more pleasing then in matter of Government It is a joy to think we have a King of our own our own blood our own Religion according to the motto of our Princes Ich Dicn Otherwise next to Anarchy is Heterarchy neither do we find much difference betwixt having no head at all and having another mans head on our shoulders The Bees love to have a King but one that is of their own hive If an Hornet
come in and offer to rule amongst them though stronger they abide not the colour It was Edomitish blood that made Herod so hateful though otherwise of no small merit Now Caesar though he were their King actually in regard of power yet they held him no better then an Intruder in regard of right For at first here was no more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a partnership and league of love betwixt the Romans and Jews as 1 Maccab. 8. 20. but after when Pompey had vanquish'd Hyrcanus and Aristobulus now Judaea was glad to turn tributary and of a friend became a vassal as ye see in the taxation of Augustus Luk. 2. 1. and so continued with no small regret Caesar therefore was to them a Pagan for Religion a Tyrant for Usurpation at the best an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel and therefore as they imagined not capable of being the head of Israel This of the Romans is taken for that regnum Gentium the Kingdome of the Gentiles Hagg. 2. 22. by an Antonomasie which was therefore so much more hated as it was more prevalent and imperious And ye know their fearful suggestion Venient Romani the Romans will come Joh. 11. 48. It was observed of old by Hierome and since by Galatinus and others indeed who could look beside it that the Thalmud and the ancient Rabbins wheresoever they find the name of Edom or Idumaea in the Old Testament there they think straight Rome understood and this was with them that Onus Duma in the Prophet Esay A misprision that arises as Jerome guesses aright by occasion of the letters of Duma and Roma for the Hebrew R and D are so like that they can hardly be distinguished and the same letter in the Hebrew forms both O and U. Hence they gave out Caesar for an Idumaean and branded all that Nation with the curses of Edom. Absurdly as we well know for Edom or Esau was Isaac's Son whereas we Europeans came of Japhet But this shews their good will both to Caesar and his Country no Nation under Heaven was more odious to them against whom they heartily praied in their sense Remember O Lord the children of Edom Psal 137. 7. Yet here Regem habemus Caesarem Caesar is our King Neither was this the note of the chief Priests onely which had learn'd to flatter by art but of the hollow multitude who had said vers 12. Caesar's friend As if all were now grown fond of that Soveraignty which they hated This is enough to let our Caesar see that fair tongues are not alwaies true In the Psalm which our late Augustus of ever-Blessed Memory chose for the Anniversaries of his deliverance both from the Cowries and the Powder Psal 18. ye find this clause vers 45. strange children shall dissemble with me which in our last Translation runs Strangers shall submit themselves to me Marvel not at the difference the Hebrews take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for both either mentientur or humiliabuntur to signifie either curtefie or craft wherefore but to shew us that estranged hearts whiles they submit do but dissemble and none more submiss then the falsest some whereof whiles with deep protestations of fidelity they were writing quodlibetical invectives against the perfidiousness of some busiospirits of their own Faction we have seen fall foul upon a convicted Treason It was not for nothing that under the picture of that lame Souldier which at last hath shouldred into the Calender was written Cavete vobis Principes Look to your selves ye Great Ones Believe Actions believe not Words If those that refuse to profess Allegeance must needs be unsound would to God they were all sound that swear it Even Judas could say Hail Master and these colloguing Jews Regem habemus Caesarem We have Caesar for our King Do ye not mark how this note is changed The chief Priests said here Non habemus Regem nisi Caesarem We have no King but Caesar Now there is an High-Priest that says Non habemus Regem Caesarem yea Caesar is his Esculer or his Lacky The exemption of the Spiritualty from Caesar the subjection of Caesar to the head of the Spiritualty are points that would have been as strange to the chief Priests of those times as they are familiar to ours But O Souls not unworthy of a proud insultation that thus willingly abase their Crowns to a tyrannous Mitre It was too good a word this for Jews Regem habemus we have a King That which they held their misery was more happiness then they could deserve to be Subjects The very name of a King carries protection order peace For Rex judicio c. The King by judgement establisheth the Land saith Solomon Prov. 29. 4. Who knows not that Judg. 17. 6. In those days there was no King in Israel and what of that Every one did that which was right in his own eyes Anarchy is lawless dissolute confused What other is the King then the Head of the body the Eye in the head the Ball in that eye Lucernam aptavi uncto meo I have prepared a light for mine anointed Psal 132. 17. without which the whole State must needs like a blinded Polyphemus reel and stagger and grovel If Solomon note it as a wonder in the Locusts That they have no King and yet go forth by bands S. John notes it in the infernal Locusts that they have a King and his name is Abaddon Revel 9. 11. Not to speak of Heaven or Earth then even Hell it self stands not without a Government the very region of Confusion consists not without so much Order Take this away Earth would be Hell and what would Hell be There are Nations I doubt not that may say Dedisti Regem in ira Thou hast given us a King in thine anger Hos 13. 11. But for us we may say ut ros super herbam His favour is as the dew upon the grass Prov. 19. 12. and shall justly shut up with old David Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath thus replenished our Throne as our eyes see it this day 1 Kings 1. 48. And if we do in the joy of our hearts say Habemus Regem why should not he with equal reflection of joyful heart say Habemus Subditos Tribute Honour Fear Prayers Love Life is not too dear for our Caesar This is enough for the Affirmation Caesar is our King the Negation follows We have no King but Caesar The negative as it is universal excluding all so it specially singles out Christ whom Pilate had lately nam'd for their King None therefore not this Jesus A Rebellious protestation and no better then Blasphemie in the mouth of Jews of Priests For could they be ignorant of the Kingdome of the Messiah yea of this Messiah Was not this King of the Jews Fore-figured by Melchisedec King of Salem sedec we know is Justice salem is Peace the fruit of his
they wait upon base and sinful flesh It was a great praise that was given to Placilla the Wife of Theodosius in Theodoret's history Neque enim imperii principatu extollebatur c. Her throne had not over-carried her thoughts but inflamed her holy desires the more for the largeness of Gods blessing so much more intended her love to the giver Let me be bold to say we have seen we have seen the incomparable favours of God to your Sacred Majesty we that were witnesses both of the weakness of your Cradle and the strength of your Throne and what loyal heart did not feel the danger of your late Southern Voiage and the safety of your return Go on happily to fear and honour that God who hath so blessed you and us in you Yield still unto the Son of God the faithful kisses of your reverence loyalty observance he shall return unto you the happy kisses of his Divine Love and Favour and after a long and safe Protection the dear imbracements of an eternal welcome to Glory Thus much of the Negation Christ is not our King The Implication follows Christ is not our King because Caesar is The Anabaptist and the Jew are so cross that I wonder how one Amsterdam can hold them both The Anabaptist saies Caesar is not our King because Christ is the Jew saies Christ is not our King because Caesar is Both of them equally absurd Could there be a more ignorant Paralogisme then this wherewith the foolish Jews beguiled themselves as if these two Christ and Caesar had been utterly incompatible This senseless misprision was guilty of all the plots against Christ Herod no sooner hears of a King of the Jews then he startles up and is straight jealous of his Crown the Jews hear of a King and they are jealous of Caesar's Crown the Caesars following hear of a King and they are jealous of the Jews for as Suetonius tels us in the Life of Vespasian Percrebuerat in Oriente toto vetus constans opinio esse in fatis at Judaei hoc tempore rerum potirentur It was an old and constant conceit all the East over that the Jews were about this time destin'd to rule This was on all hands an ignorant an injurious scrupulosity O vain men could they but have known that this was he that truly said Per me Reges regnant By me Kings reign they had concluded Caesar could be no King but from him Earthly jurisdiction is derived from this Heavenly It is he that makes this a Monarch that a Prince that other a Peer Omnis potestas All power is given to him both in Heaven and earth and from him to men Caesar hath his Crown from Christ so farre is Christ from pulling the Crown from Caesar There were two points of State which if they had known would have secured them from these idle fears the Subordination the Diversity of Christs Kingdome and Caesar's Subordination for Christ is the founder of all just Soveraignty he can be no enemy to it Plainly Christ is Caesar's Lord Caesar is Christs Deputy The deputed power is not against the Original but as by it so for it As Caesar was Christs Lord in forma servi ye know his charge Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and the liquid cofer of the Sea shall rather yield the Didrachma then he will not pay it Matth. 17. 27. so Christ is Caesar's Lord in the Soveraignty of his Deity Solus supra Caesarem Deus qui fecit Caesarem None above Caesar but the God that made Caesar as that Father said There can be no Contrariety in Subordination So is Caesar to Christ as Earth is to Heaven under not against it All the life and motion of any earthly creature is from the influences of Heaven without which this whole Globe were nothing but a dull and drossie clod And as here is Subordination one way so Diversity another Pilate question'd our Saviour punctually of his kingdome Art thou a King He denies not but distinguishes My kingdome is not of this world Joh. 18. 36. Lo Christs kingdome was not of this world Caesar's was not of the other here can be no danger of opposition Audite Judaei audite Gentes as S. Austin wittily Hear O Jews hear O Gentiles I hinder not your Dominion in this world for mine is of another Fear not Herod 's vain fear who killed the Infants to rid Christ timendo magìs quam irascendo crudelior more cruel in his fear then in his rage My Kingdome he saies is not of this world Oh come then to that Kingdome which is not of this world come in believing and do not tyrannize in fearing Thus he This King came not into the world to subdue Kings by fighting but to win them by dying as Fulgentius well Neither doth he take away mortal Kingdomes who gives Heavenly as the Christian Poet said aright Upon both these grounds therefore it is a blasphemous inconsequence Caesar is our King therefore not Christ yea therefore Caesar because Christ Religion doth not cross Policy but perfects it rather Give me leave I beseech you to press this Point a little It is Religion that teacheth us that God hath ordained Kingly Soveraignty Rom. 13. 1. ordained it immediately That Position was worthy of a Red Hat Potestas Principis dimanavit à populo Pontificis à Deo in the Recognition of the book de Laicis purposely raised to depress the Dignity of Kings to advance the Priesthood I am sure Samuel when it was said Ecce prafecit vobis Jehova Regem Behold God hath set a Kiog over you 1 Sam. 12. 13. And Kings are wont to have no less title then Unctus Jehove the Anointed of the Lord not unctus populi the anointed of the people 1 Sam. 24. 6. 2 Sam. 1. 14. Daniel could say of God He removes Kings and setteth up Kings Dan. 2. 21. What need I perswade Christian Kings and Princes that they hold their Crowns and Scepters as in fee from the God of Heaven Cyrus himself had so much Divinity Ezra 1. 2. It is Religion that teaches us that the same power which ordained Caesar injoyns all faithful Subjection to Caesar not for fear but for conscience Rom. 13. 5. Tribute to whom tribute honour to whom honour yea all devout prayers for a Nero himself 1 Tim. 2. 2. curbing both the tongue and the heart Thou shalt not curse the King in thy thoughts nor the rich in thy Bed-chamber Eccles 10. 20. It is Religion that teaches us that vengeance shall be sure to follow Rebellion Nuntius crudelis Prov. 17. 21. yea no less then Hell and Damnation Rom. 13. 2. Cursed be they that say Religion is onely to keep men in awe and cursed be he that says there is any so sure way to keep men in awe as Religion Go ye crafty Politicks and rake hell for reasons of State ye shall once find that there is no wisdome nor understanding nor counsel
give wilful provocations of this publick revenge by gross open intolerable injuries as Hanun did to David such are incroachments upon their neighbour-territories violating the just covenants of league and commerce by main violences if fourthly they refuse to give just satisfaction where they have unjustly provoked as the Benjamites in case of the Sodomitical villany of their Gibeah Where all where any of these are found well may we brand that people with delight in warre And since they will needs delight in warre God shall fit them accordingly With the froward thou shalt shew thy self froward Ps 18. 26. He shall delight in warring against them He shall rouze up himself as a Giant refreshed with new wine Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hoasts the mighty one of Israel Ah I will ease me of my adversaries and revenge me of mine enemies Es 1. 24. These are the Enemies The Defeat follows Rebuke and scatter The two first though bad enough must be rebuked the last must be scattered All Gods enemies may not be to us alike neither aequè nor aqualiter Some are Calves simple though violent some others are Bulls fierce and furious some other Lions from among the reeds ravenous and devouring all these though cruel yet perhaps are not malicious an increpa is enough for them Saul was one of these wild Buls breathing out threatnings against the Church and tossing upon his horn many worthy Christians had it not been pity he had been destroyed in that height of his rage an increpation brought him home God had never such a Champion Now certamen bonum certavi I have fought a good fight saith he justly of himself 2 Tim. 4. 7. This increpa then is Discountenance them dishearten them discomfit them disband them Put them down O Lord and let them know they are but men humble them to the very dust but not to the dust of death to correction as Habacuc speaketh not to a full destruction onely till they humbly bring pieces of silver till they come in with the tributes of peacefull submission of just satisfaction The end of all just was is Peace As we are first bidden to inquire of Abel ere we inferre it offeres ei pacem Deut. 20. 10. so when we hear of Abel we must stint it Warre to the State is Physick to the body This is no other then a civil evacuation whether by potion or phlebotomy What is the end of Physick but health when that is once recovered we have done with the Apothecary He wantons away his life foolishly that when he is well will take Physick to make him sick It is far from us to wish the confusion of the ignorant and seduced enemies of God's Church those that follow Absalom with an upright heart No we pity them we pray for them Oh that they would come in with their pieces of silver and tender their humble obediences to the apparent Truth of God and yield to the laws of both Divine and humane Justice Oh that God would perswade Japâ—â—t to dwell in the tents of Sem Father forgive them for they know not what they doe O thou sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet put up thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still Jer. 47. 6. But for those other that delight in war Dissipa Domine Scatter them O Lord. Confusion is but too good for them bring them to worse then nothing The perfection and suddenness of this dissipation is expressed emphatically in the beginning of this Psalm by a double Metaphor as smoak before the wind as wax before the fire so scatter them Of all light bodies nothing is more volatile then smoak of all solid none more flitting then wax As wind is to the smoak and fire to the wax so are the Judgements of God to his enemies the wax melteth the smoak vanisheth before them The conceit is too curious of those that make the Gentiles to be smoak who mount up in the opinion of their wisdome and power the Jews wax dropp'd from the honey-comb of their many Divine priviledges No all are both smoak and wax Even so do thou scatter them O Lord and be not merciful to them that offend on malicious wickedness Two thoughts onely remain now for us The first that it must be God onely who must rebuke and scatter The second that it is our Prayer onely that must obtain from God this rebuke this dissipation Both which when I have touched a little I shall put an end to this exercise of your patient Devotion It is God onely that must doe it for vain is the help of man And how easie is it for the Almighty to still the enemy and avenger They are as a potters vessel to his iron Scepter as the thorns or wax to his fire as chaff or smoak to his wind To our weakness the opposite powers seem strong and unconquerable the Canaanitish was reach up to Heaven and who can stand before the sons of Anak When we see their Bulwarks we would think they roll Pelion upon Ossa with the old Giants when we see their Towers we would think they would scale Heaven with the builders of Babel when we see their Mines we would think they would blow up the earth Let the wind of Gods Power but breath upon them they vanish as smoak let the fire of his wrath but look upon them they melt as wax Tyrannous Aegypt had long made slaves of God's people and now will make slaughter of them following them armed at the heels into the chanel of the Sea Stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord for the Aegyptians which you have seen to day ye shall see no more for ever Exod. 14. 13. The great Hoast of proud Benhadad will carry away all Samaria in their pockets for pin-dust Ere long ye shall see their haughtie King come in haltred and prostrate Vaunting Sennacherib comes crowing over poor Jerusalem and he will lend them two thousand horses if they can set riders on them and scorns their King and defies their God Stay but till morning all his hundred fourscore and five thousand shall be dead corpses Vain fools What is a finite power in the hands of an infinite Where there is an equality of force there may be hard tugging but where brass meets with clay how can that brittle stuff escape unshattered Let this cool your courages and pull down your plumes O ye insolent enemies of God When ye look to your own sword there is no rule with you Mihi perfacile est c. It is easie for me saith Uldes in the story to destroy all the earth that the Sun looks upon but when God takes you to task what toyes what nothings ye are Behold we come against you in the Name of the Lord of Hoasts It is he that shall rebuke and scatter you He will doe it but he will doe it upon our Prayers Not that our poor Petitions can put mercy into God
Baboon who that shall read of the Elephant learning letters and numbers and plotting his cunning revenges would not say that these and a thousand the like must needs argue a baser kinde of sensitive discourse such as wherein Imagination doth notably counterfeit Reason and in some weak subjects so transcend it as that Lactantius dares say I dare not Ista non facerent nisi inesset illis intelligentia cogitatio It is true our reasonable Soul is furnished with higher powers but it is not more honour to have had them then shame to have impair'd them If God doth not breath upon our dim glasses and wipe them clear they shew us nothing To speak plainly Indeed it is our Illumination that perfects Reason and that Illumination is from the Father of lights without whose Divine light natural Reason is but as a Dial without the Sun eyes without light For the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. And in that person it is that Agar the Son of Jakeh speaks I am more brutish then man I have not the understanding of a man Prov. 30. 2. Why this I have not the knowledge of the holy vers 3. The word is remarkable no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jumentum a Beast the same that Ezekiel uses when he sayes I will give thee over into the hands of brutish men Ezec. 21. 31. and the Psalmist when he saies Oh ye foolish or brutish among the people when will ye understand So as notwithstanding this muddy and imperfect Reason God sees a kinde of brutality in the natural man Whereto it may please you to adde that in a man debauch'd Reason is so much worse then brutishness by how much wickedness is worse hainous then simplicity and if want of Reason make a Beast abuse of Reason makes a Devil It is a miserable advantage that make us onely apt to evil and capable of an Hell small cause have we to brag of those powers which so distinguish us from beasts that they make us worse then beasts In short therefore notwithstanding Shape Speech Reason a natural and thereby a vicious man may well pass for a beast And now that we see it apparent that he is so let us a little inquire how he became so Certainly God made man upright as in shape so in disposition What wrought this miserable Metamorphosis What could do it but Sorcery and what Witch could this be but the old Circe of the world Sensuality Man is led and informed by Reason Beasts by Sense now when man abandons Reason and gives himself up to Sense he casts off the man and puts on the beast Neither is this sensuality in the Affection only but it goes through the whole Soul there is a sensual Understanding as well as a sensual Appetite the one makes a beast in Opinion the other in Practice Gross Errour doth the one Vice the other Whosoever therefore is transported with either is turn'd Beast Give me a man that is given up to his filthy Lusts give me a man whose Reason is drawn through his maw or his spleen let him be otherwise what he will I dare say he is no other then a beast And now what variety think you is there of several kinds no wilderness affords so many Nero is a Lion 2 Tim. 4. 17. Herod a Fox Luke 13. 32. the Jewish false-teachers Dogs Phil. 3. 2. David's persecutors Bulls of Basan and Unicorns Ps 22. 12 21. the Aegyptian enemies Dragons Ps 74. 13. the Scribes and Pharisees Serpents Vipers Mat. 23. 33. the Babylonian Monarch an Eagle-winged Lion the Persian a Bear the Macedonian a Leopard Dan. 7. 4 5 6. the enemies of the Church wild Boares Ps 80. 13. Greedy Judges evening Wolves Zeph. 3. 3. Schismaticks Foxes cubs Cant. 2. 15. The time and my breath would fail me if I should reckon up all the several kinds of beasts in the skins of men Surely as there is thought to be no beast upon earth which hath not his fellow in the sea and which hath not his semblance in Plants so I may truly say there is no beast in the vast desart of the world which is not parallel'd in man Yea as Effects and Qualities are in an higher degree found in Causes and Subjects equivocal then in their own as Heat is more excellently in the Sun then in the Fire so certainly is brutishness more eminent and notorious in man then in beast Look into all heards and droves and see if you can find so very a beast as the Drunkard It was S. Austin's reason of old Those beasts will drink no more then they think enough and if the Panther which they say is the drunkennest beast or the Swine be overtaken with unaccustomed liquor it is upon ignorance of the power of it so a Noah himself may be at first mistaken But mans Reason foretells him that those intoxicating draughts will bereave him of Reason yet he swills them down wilfully as if it were a pleasure to forgoe that whereby he is a man The beast when he hath his load may frisk a little and move inordinately and then lye down in an ordinary posture of harmless rest but for the Drunkard his tongue reel◠straight either into railing or ribaldry his hands into swaggering and bloomed all his motions are made of disorder and mischief and his rest is no less odious then his moving See how he lies wallowing in his own filthy excretions in so loathsome a fashion as were enough to make the beholder hate to be a man And now when we have all done after all the shame and scorn here is Sus ad volutabrum All the world cannot reclaim an habituated Drunkard that which the beasts know not how to doe his wit projects when he is sober how he may be drunk and which St. Chrysostome well observes as more transcending all humors of beasts how he may force others to his own shameful excess Far far be this abominable vice from any of you Courtiers That which the Lacedaemonians scorned in their very Slaves that which our former times had wont to disdain in Beggers let not that stain the honour of a Christian Court Or if any such should hear me this day Awake ye drunkards and weep and howle ye drinkers of wine Joel 1. 5. return back your superfluous liquor into teares or if ye will not weep ye shall howl if ye will not weep with penitents ye shall howl with hell-hounds and ye that now pour down vessels more to make then quench thirst shall one day in vain wish to give all the world for but one drop of water to cool that flaming tongue which a whole Ocean cannot so much as moisten Look if in all the mountains or falls there be any such Goat or Stallion as the Voluptuous man Those silly beasts are carried with
a man that hath chewed Saffron discolours a Painted face so this blunt sincerity shamed the glorious falshood of Superstition The proud offenders impatient of reproof try what fire and faggot can doe for them and now according to the old word suppressed spirits gather more authority as the Egyptian violence rather addeth to God's Israel Insomuch as Erasmus could tell the Rector of Lovan that by burning Luther's Books they might rid him from the Libraries of men not from their Hearts The ventilation of these points diffused them to the knowledge of the World and now upon serious scanning it came to this as that Honour of Rotterdam professeth Non defuisse that there wanted not great Divines which durst confidently affirm that there was nothing in Luther which might not be defended by good and allowed Authours Nothing doth so whet the edge of wit as contradiction Now he who at first like the blind man in the Gospel it is Beza's comparison saw men like trees upon more clear light sees and wonders at those gross Superstitions and Tyrannies wherewith the Church of God had been long abused And now as the first Hue and Cry raiseth a whole Countrie the World was awakened with the noise and startling up saw and stood amazed to see it s own Slavery and besottedness Mean while that God who cannot be wanting to himself raiseth up Abettors to his Truth The contention grows Books flie abroad on both parts Straight Buls bellow from Rome nothing but Death and Damnation to the opposites Excommunications are thundred out from their Capitoline powers against all the partakers of this so called Heresie the flashes of publick Anathemas strike them down to Hell The condemned reprovers stand upon their own integrity call Heaven and Earth to record how justly they have complained how unjustly they are censured in large Volumes defending their innocence and challenging an undeniable part in the true visible Church of God from which they are pretended to be ejected appeal next to the Tribunal of Heaven to the sentence of a free general Council for their right Profer is made at last of a Synod at Trent but neither free nor general nor such as would afford after all semblances either safety of access or possibility of indifferency That partial meeting as it was prompted to speak condemns us unheard right so as Ruffinus reports it in that case of Athanasius Judicandi potestas c. The power of judging was in the accusers contrary to the rule of their own Law Non debet c. The same party may not be the Judge Accuser Witness contrary to that just rule of Theodericus reported by Cassiodore Sententia c. The sentence that is given in the absence of the parties is of no moment We are still where we were opposing suffering in these terms we stand What shall we say then if men would either not have deserved or have patiently indured reproof this breach had never been Wo be to the men by whom this offence cometh For us that rule of Saint Bernard shall clearly acquit us before God and his Angels Cam carpuntur vitia c. When faults are taxed and scandal grows he is the cause of the scandal who did that which was worthy to be reproved not he that reproved the ill-doer CHAP. III. The Reformed unjustly charged with Novelty Heresie Schisme BE it therefore known to all the world that our Church is onely Reformed or Repaired not made new there is not one Stone of a new foundation laid by us yea the old Wals stand still onely the overcasting of those ancient stones with the untempered morter of new inventions displeaseth us Plainly set aside the Corruptions and the Church is the same And what are these Corruptions but unsound adjections to the Ancient structure of Religion These we cannot but oppose and are therefore unjustly and imperiously ejected Hence it is that ours is by the opposite styled an Ablative or Negative Religion forsomuch as we joyn with all true Christians in all affirmative positions of ancient Faith onely standing upon the denial of some late and undue additaments to the Christian belief Or if those Additions be reckoned for ruines it is a sure Rule which Durandus gives concerning Material Churches appliable to the Spiritual That if the Wall be decayed not at once but successively it is judged still the same Church and upon reparation not to be re-consecrated but onely reconciled Well therefore may those mouths stop themselves which loudly call for the names of the Professors of our Faith in all succession of times till Luther look'd forth into the World Had we gone about to broach any new positive Truths unseen unheard of former times well and justly might they challenge us for a deduction of this line of Doctrine from a pedigree of Predecessours Now that we onely disclaim their superfluous and novel opinions and practices which have been by degrees thrust upon the Church of God retaining inviolably all former Articles of Christian Faith how idle is this plea how worthy of hissing out Who sees not now that all we need to doe is but to shew that all those points which we cry down in the Romane Church are such as carry in them a manifest brand of Newness and Absurdity This proof will clearly justifie our refusal Let them see how they shall once before the awful Tribunal of our last Judge justifie their uncharitableness who cease not upon this our refusal to eject and condemn us The Church of Rome is sick ingenuous Cassander confesseth so Nec inficior c. I deny not saith he that the Romane Church is not a little changed from her ancient beauty and brightness and that she is deformed with many diseases and vicious distempers Bernard tells us how it must be dieted profitable though unpleasing medicines must be poured into the mouth of it Luther and his associates did this office as Erasmus acknowledgeth Lutherus porrexit Luther saith he gave the World a potion violent and bitter whatever it were I wish it may breed some good health in the body of Christian people so miserably foul with all kinds of evils Never did Luther mean to take away the life of that Church but the sickness wherein as Socrates answered to his Judges surely he deserved recompence in stead of rage For as S. Ambrose worthily Dulcior est Sweeter is a religious chastisement then a smoothing remission This that was meant to the Churches health proves the Physicians disease so did the bitterness of our wholsome draughts offend that we are beaten out of doors neither did we run from that Church but are driven away as our late Soveraign professeth by Casaubon's hand We know that of Cyrill is a true word Those which sever themselves from the Church and communion are the enemies of God and friends of
him Insomuch as Cardinal Bellarmine himself is fain to confess a very high Hyperbole in their speeches Non est novum It is no unusual thing saith he with the Ancients and especially Irenaeus Hilary Nyssen Cyril and others to say that our bodies are nourished by the holy Eucharist Neither do they use less height of speech as our Learned Bishop hath particularly observed in expressing our participation of Christ in Baptisme wherein yet never any man pleaded a Transubstantiation Neither have there been wanting some of the Classical Leaders of their Schools which have confessed more probability of ancient evidence for Consubstantiation then for this change Certainly neither of them both entred ever into the thoughts of those Holy men however the sound of their words have undergone a prejudicial mistaking Whereas the sentences of those Ancients against this mis-opinion are direct punctual absolute convictive and uncapable of any other reasonable sense What can be more choaking then that of their Pope Gelasius above a thousand years since Et tamen c. Yet there ceaseth not to be the very substance of Bread and Wine What can be more plain then that of S. Augustine It is not this Body which you see that you shall eat neither is it this Blood which my Crucifiers shall spill that you shall drink it is a Sacrament that I commend unto you which being spiritually understood shall quicken you Or that other Where a flagitious act seems to be commanded there the speech is figurative as when he saith Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man c. it were an horrible wickedness to eat the very flesh of Christ therefore here must needs be a figure understood What should I urge that of Tertullian whose speech Rhenanus confesseth to have been condemned after in Berengarius My Body that is the figure of my Body That of Theodoret The mystical signes after consecration lose not their own nature That of S. Chrysostome It is a carnal thing to doubt how Christ can give us his flesh to eate whenas this is mystically and spiritually to be understood And soon after inquiring what it is to understand carnally he thus explicates it It is to take things simply as they are spoken and not to conceive of any other thing meant by them This wherein we are is a beaten path trod with the feet of our holy Martyrs and traced with their blood What should I need to produce their familiar and ancient Advocates who have often wearied and worn this bare Athanasius Justine Origen Cyprian Nazianzen Basil Hierome Hilary Cyril Macarius Bertram besides those whom I formerly cited Of all others which I have not found pressed by former Authors that of our Albinus or Beda's learned Scholar who lived in the time of Charles the Great seems to me most full and pregnant Hoc est ergo This is therefore to eate that flesh and to drink that blood to remain in Christ and to have Christ remaining in us so as he that remains not in Christ and in whom Christ remaineth not without doubt doth not spiritually eat his flesh although carnally and visibly he chew the Sacrament of his body and blood with his teeth but rather he eates and drinks the Sacrament of so great a thing unto his own Judgement because he presumed to come unclean unto those Sacraments of Christ which none can take worthily but the clean Thus he Neither is this his single testimony but such as he openly professeth the common voice of all his Predecessours And a little after upon those words The flesh profiteth nothing he addeth The flesh profiteth nothing if ye understand the flesh so to be eaten as other meat as that flesh which is bought in the Shambles This is the ordinary language of Antiquity whereof we may truely say as the Disciples did of Christ Behold now thou speakest plainly and speakest no Parable At last Ignorance and misunderstanding brought forth this Monster of Opinion which Superstition nursed up but fearfully and obscurely and not without much scope of contrary judgements till after Pope Nicolas had made way for it in his proceedings against Berengarius by so gross an expression as the Gloss is fain to put a caveat upon Anno 1060. the Laterane Council authorised it for a matter of Faith Anno 1215. Thus yong is Transubstantiation Let Scripture and Reason shew how erroneous Sect. 2. Transubstantiation against Scripture WEre it not that men do wilfully hood-wink themselves with their own prejudice the Scripture is plain enough For the mouth that said of bread This is my Body said also of the same body My flesh is meat indeed long before there can be any plea of Transubstantiation and I am the bread that came down from Heaven so was he Manna to the Jews as he is bread to us And S. Paul says of his Corinths Ye are the body of Christ yet not meaning any transmutation of substance And in those words wherein this powerful conversion is placed he says onely This is not This is transubstantiate and if whiles he says This is he should have meant a Transubstantiation then it must needs follow that his Body was transubstantiate before he spake for This is implies it already done He adds This is my body His true natural humane Body was there with them took the Bread brake it gave it ate it if the Bread were now the Body of Christ either he must have two bodies there or else the same body is by the same body taken broken eaten and is the while neither taken nor broken nor eaten Yet he adds which is given for you This was the body which was given for them betrayed crucified humbled to the death not the glorious body of Christ which should be capable of ten thousand places at once both in Heaven and Earth invisible incircumscriptible Lastly he addes Doe this in remembrance of me Remembrance implies an absence neither can we more be said to remember that which is in our present sense then to see that which is absent Besides that the great Doctor of the Gentiles tels us that after consecration it is bread which is broken and eaten neither is it less then five times so called after the pretended change Shortly Christ as man was in all things like to us except sin and our humane body shall be once like to his glorious body The glory which is put upon it shall not strip it of the true essence of a body and if it retain the true nature of a body it cannot be at the same instant both above the Heavens and below on earth in a thousand distant places He is locally above for the heavens must receive him till the times of the restitution of all things He is not at once in many distant places of the earth
into that sacred order that we stick at There we finde that none but Christ can make a Sacrament for none but he who can give Grace can ordain a Signe and Seal of Grace Now it is evident enough that these adscititious Sacraments were never of Christs institution So was not Confirmation as our Alexander of Hales and Holcot so was not Matrimony as Durand so was not Extreme Unction as Hugo Lombard Bonaventure Halensis Altissiodore by the confession of their Suarez These were ancient Rites but they are new Sacraments All of them have their allowed and profitable use in Gods Church though not in so high a nature except that of Extreme Unction which as it is an apish mis-imitation of that extraordinary course which the Apostolick times used in their cures of the sick so it is grosly mis-applied to other purposes then were intended in the first institution Then it was Ungebant sanabant the oyle miraculously conferring bodily recovery but now Non nisi in mortis articulo adhibetur it is not used but upon the very point of death as Cajetan and Cassander confesse and all experience manifests and by Felix the Fourth drawn to a necessity of addresse to eternall life Sect 2. Seven Sacraments beside Scripture NOT to scan particulars which all yield ample exceptions but to wind them all up in one bottome Whosoever shall look into the Scripture shall finde it apparent that as in the time of mans Innocency there were but Two Sacraments the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge so before and under the Law however they had infinite Rites yet in the proper sense they had but Two Sacraments the same in effect with those under the Gospel the one the Sacrament of Initiation which was their Circumcision parallel'd by that Baptisme which succeeded it the other the Sacrament of our holy Confirmation that spirituall meat and drink which was their Paschall Lambe and Manna and water from the rock prefiguring the true Lambe of God and bread of life and blood of our Redemption The great Apostle of the Gentiles that well knew the Analogy hath compared both Moreover brethren I would not have you ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized in the cloud and in the sea and all did eat the same spirituall meat and all did drink the same spirituall drink for they drank of that spirituall Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ What is this in any just construction but that the same two Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper which we celebrate under the Gospel were the very same with those which were celebrated by Gods ancient people under the Law they two and no more Hoc facite Doe this is our warrant for the one and Ite baptizate c. Goe teach and Baptize for the other There is deep silence in the rest Sect. 3. Against Reason IN Reason it must be yielded that no man hath power to set to a seal but he whose the writing is Sacraments then being the seals of Gods gracious evidences whereby he hath conveyed to us eternall life can be instituted by no other then the same power that can assure and perform life to his creature In every Sacrament therefore must be a Divine institution and command of an Element that signifies of a Grace that is signified of a word adjoyned to that element of an holy act adjoyned to that word Where these concur not there can be no true Sacrament and they are palpably missing in these five Adjections of the Church of Rome Lastly The Sacraments of the new Law as Saint Austin often flowed out of the side of Christ None flowed thence but the Sacrament of water which is Baptisme and the Sacrament of blood in the Supper whereof the Author saith This cup is the new Testament in my blood which is shed for you The rest never flowing either from the side or from the lips of Christ are as new and mis-named Sacraments justly rejected by us and we thereupon as unjustly censured CHAP. XVI The Newnesse of the Doctrine of Tradition THE chief ground of these and all other Errours in the Church of Rome is the over-valuing of Traditions which the Tridentine Synod professes to receive and reverence with no lesse pious affection then the Books of the Old and New Testament and that not in matter of Rite and History onely but of Faith and Manners also wherein as they are not unwilling to cast a kinde of imputation of imperfection upon the written Word so they make up the defects of it by the supply of unwritten Traditions to which indeed they are more beholden for the warrant of the greater part of their superadded Articles then to the Scriptures of God Both which are Points so dangerously envious as that Antiquity would have abhorred their mention Neither is any thing more common with the holy Fathers of the Church then the magnifying the compleat perfection of Scripture in all things needfull either to be believed or done What can be more full and clear then that of Saint Austine In his quae apertè c. In these things which are openly laid forth in Scripture are found all matters that contain either Faith or Manners Cardinall Bellarmine's elusion is not a little prejudicial to his own Cause He tells us that Saint Austin speaks of those Points which are simply necessary to Salvation for all men all which he acknowledges to be written by the Apostles But besides these there are many other things saith he which we have only by Tradition Will it not therefore hence follow that the common sort of Christians need not look at his Traditions that commonly men may be saved without them that Heaven may be attained though there were no Traditions Who will not now say Let me come to Heaven by Scripture goe you whither you will by Traditions To which adde that agreat yea the greater part if we may believe some of their own of that which they call Religion is grounded upon onely Tradition If then Tradition be onely of such things as are not simply necessary to Salvation then the greater part of their mis-named Religion must needs be yielded for simply unnecessary to all men And if we may be saved without them and be made Citizens of Heaven how much more may we without them be members of the true Church on Earth As for this place S. Augustine's words are full and comprehensive expressing all those things which contain either Faith or Manners whether concerning Governours or people If now they can finde out any thing that belongs not either to belief or action we do willingly give it up to their Traditions but all things which pertain to either of those are openly comprized in Scripture What can be more direct then that of holy Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
is too late to learn Let that old age blush that cannot mend it self It is not the gravity of years but of manners that deserves praise It is no shame to goe to the better And when Symmachus urges Majorum servandus est ritus We must observe the Rites of our forefathers Dicant igitur saith Saint Ambrose Let them as well say that all things should remain in their own imperfect Principles that the World once overcovered with darknesse offends in being shined upon by the glorious brightnesse of the Sun And how much more happy is it to have dispelled the darknesse of the Soul then of the body to be shined upon by the beams of Faith then of the Sun Thus he most aptly to the present occasion whereto did that blessed Father now live he would doubtlesse no lesse readily apply it Nec erubescas mutare sententiam Never blush to change Ruffinus never blush to change your minde you are not of such authority as that you should be ashamed to confesse you have erred Oh that this meek ingenuity could have found place in that once-famous and Orthodox Church of Christ how had the whole Christian World been as a City at unity in it self and triumphed over all the proud hostilities of Paganism But since we may not be so happy we must sit down and mourn for our desolations for our divisions In the mean time we wash our hands in innocence There are none of all these instanced particulars besides many more wherein the Church of Rome hath not sensibly erred in corrupt additions to the Faith so as herein we may justly before Heaven and earth warrant our disagreement of judgment from her The rest is their act and not ours we are mere patients in this schism and therefore goe because we are driven That we hold not Communion with that Church the fault is theirs who both have deserved this strangenesse by their Errours and made it by their Violence Contrary to that rule which Cato in Tully gives of unpleasing Friendship they have not ript it in the seam but torn it in the whole cloth Perhaps I shall seem unto some to have spoken too mildly of the estate of that debauched Church There are that stand upon a mere nullity of her Being not resting in a bare depravation For me I dare not goe so far If she be foul if deadly diseased as she is these qualities cannot utterly take off her Essence or our relations Our Divines indeed call us out of Babylon and we run so as here is an actuall separation on our parts True but from the Corruptions wherein there is a true confusion not from the Church Their very charge implies their limitation as it is Babylon we must come out of it as it is an outward visible Church we neither did nor would This Dropsie that hath so swoln up the body doth not make it cease to be a true body but a sound one The true Principles of Christianity which it maintains maintain life in that Church the Errours which it holds together with those Principles struggle with that life and threaten an extinction As it is a visible Church then we have not detracted to hold Communion with it though the contemptuous repulse of so many admonitions have deserved our alienation as Babylon we can have nothing to doe with it Like as in the course of our life we freely converse with those men in civil affairs with whom we hate to partake in wickednesse But will not this seem to savour of too much indifferency What need we so vehemently labour to draw from either part and triumph in winning Proselytes and give them for lost on either side and brand them for Apostates that are won away if which way soever we fall we cannot light out of a true visible Church of Christ what such necessity was there of Martyrdome what such danger of relapses if the Church be with both Let these Sophisters know that true Charity needs not abate any thing of zeal If they be acquainted with the just value of Truth they shall not enquire so much into the Persons as into the Cause Whatever the Church be if the Errours be damnable our blood is happily spent in their impugnation and we must rather chuse to undergoe a thousand deaths then offend the Majesty of God in yielding to a known falshood in Religion neither doth the outward Visibility of the Church abate ought of the hainousnesse of mis-opinions or the vehemence of our oppositions Were it Saint Peter himself if he halt in Judaizing Saint Paul must resist him to his face neither is his fault lesse because an Apostles yea let me say more Were the Church of Rome and ours lay'd upon severall Foundations these Errours should not be altogether so detestable since the symbolizing in many Truths makes grosse Errours more intolerable as the Samaritan Idolatry was more odious to the Jewes then merely Paganish If the dearest daughter of God upon earth should commit spirituall whoredome her uncleannesse is so much more to be hated as her obligations were greater Oh the glorious crowns therefore of those blessed Martyrs of ours who rather gave their bodies to be burnt to ashes then they would betray any parceâ—l of Divine Truth Oh the wofull and dangerous condition of those Souls which shutting their eyes against so clear a light either willingly sit down in palpable darkness or fall back from the sincerity of the Gospel into these miserable enormities both of Practice and Doctrine It is not for me to judge them that I leave unto that high and awfull Tribunal before which I shall once appear with them But this I dare say that if that righteous Judge shall punish either their obstinacy or relapses with eternal damnation he cannot but be justified in his judgements whiles in the midst of their torments they shall be forced to say Thou O God art just in all that is befaln us for thou hast done right but we have done wickedly For us as we would save our Souls let us carefully preserve them from the contagion of Romish Superstition let us never fear that our discretion can hate Errour too much let us awaken our holy zeal to a serious and servent opposition joyned with a charitable endeavour of reclamation shortly let us hate their Opinions strive against their Practice pity their mis-guiding neglect their censures labour their recovery pray for their Salvation AN APOLOGETICAL ADVERTISEMENT to the READER Reader Nothing can be so well said or done but may be ill taken Whiles I thus sincerely plead for Truth the well-meaning ignorance of some mistakers hath passed as deep as unjust censures upon me as if Preferment had changed my note and taught me to speak more plausible language concerning the Roman Church then I either did or ought Wherein as I pity their Uncharitablenesse so I earnestly desire to rectifie their Judgement lest their prejudice may turn more
to their sin then to my wrong The main ground of the Exception is That I yield the Church of Rome a true visible Church wherein the harsh noise of a mis-construed phrase offends their eare and breeds their quarrell For this belike in their apprehension seems to sound no lesse then as if I had said The Church of Rome is a true-believing Church or a true part of the mysticall body of Christ a sense which is as far wide from my words or thoughts as from truth it self Wherefore serves this Book but to evince the manifold Corruptions of that foul Church That she is truely visible abates nothing of her abominations For who sees not that Visible refers to outward Profession True to some essentiall Principles of Christianity neither of them to soundnesse of Belief So as these two may too well stand together A true visible Church in respect of outward Profession of Christianity and an Hereticall Apostaticall Antichristian Synagogue in respect of Doctrine and Practice Grant the Romanists to be but Christians how corrupt soever and we cannot deny them the name of a Church Outward Visibility gives them no claim either to Truth or Salvation Shortly then in two things I must crave leave to vindicate my self One that I do no whit differ from my self the other that I differ not from the Judgement of our best Orthodox and approvedly-classicall Divines Both which cleared what have I done It is a grievous challenge this of Inconstancy for though whiles we are here in this region of Mutability our whole man is subject to change yet we do all herein affect a likenesse to the God of Truth in whom there is no shadow by turning especially in Religion so much more as that doth more assimilate and unite us to that unchangeable Deity Lo say they the man that once wrote No peace with Rome now cries nothing but Peace with Rome whiles he proclaims it a true visible Church and allows some Communion with it Alas brethren why will ye suffer a rash and ignorant Zeal thus to lye palpably in your way to Truth Be but pleased to cast your eyes upon the first Chapter of that Book of mine which is thus objected to me in a causelesse exprobration that which long since I wrote of the Irreconcilablenesse of Rome and see if that Section be not a full expression of the same Truth and that in the same words which I have here published There shall you finde taught That there is no other difference betwixt us and Rome then betwixt a Church miserably corrupted and happily purged betwixt a sickly languishing dying Church and one that is healthfull strong and flourishing That Valdus Wiclef Luther did never goe about to frame a new Church which was not but to cleanse restore reform that Church which was That they meant onely to be Physicians to heal not Parents to beget a Church There you shall finde That we are all the same Church by virtue of our outward Vocation whosoever all the world over worship Jesus Christ the only Son of God the Saviour of the world and professe the same common Creed that some of us doe this more purely others more corruptly that in the mean time we are all Christians but sound Christians we are not There ye shall finde this very Objection so fully answered as if it had been either formerly moved or so long since prevented the words are these But how harshly doth this sound to a weak reader and more then seems to need reconciliation with it self that the Church should be one and yet cannot be reconciled Certainly yet so it is The dignity of the outward forme which comprehends this Unity in it self avails nothing to Salvation nothing to Grace nothing to the soundnesse of Doctrine The Net doth not straight make all to be Fish that it hath dragg'd together ye shall finde in it vile weeds and whatsoever else that devouring element hath disgorged The Church is at once one in respect of the common Principles of Faith and yet in respect of consequences and that rabble of opinions which they have raked together so opposed that it cannot as things now stand by any glew of Concord as Cyprian speaketh nor bond of Unity be conjoined That which Rome holds with us makes it a Church that which it obtrudes upon us makes it Hereticall the truth of Principles makes it one the Error and impiety of Additions makes it irreconcilable c. Look on the face therefore of the Roman Church she is ours she is Gods look on her back she is quite contrary Antichristian More plainly Rome doth both hold the Foundation and destroy it she holds it directly destories it by consequent In that she holds it she is a true Church howsoever impured in that she destroies it what semblance soever she makes she is a Church of malignants If she did altogether hold it she should be sound and Orthbox if altogether she destroied it she should be either no Church or devilish but now that she professes to hold those things directly which by inferences she closely overthrows she is a truely visible Church but an unsound one Thus I wrote well-near twenty years agone without clamor without censure And since that in my Latine Sermon to the Convocation did I very ought from this hold Did I not there call heaven earth to record of our innocence in separating from the Romane Church Did I not cast the fault upon their violence not our will Did I not professe Lubentes quidem discessimus c. We willingly indeed departed from the Communion of their Errors but from the Communion of the Church we have not departed Let them abandon their Errours and we embrace the Church Let them cast away their Soul-killing Traditions and false appendances of their new Faith we shall gladly communicate with them in the right of the same Church and hold with them for ever This I freely both taught and published with the allowance with the applause of that most Reverend Synod and now doth the addition of a Dignity bring envy upon the same Truth Might that passe commendably from the pen or tongue of a Doctor which will not be endured from the hand of a Bishop My brethren I am where I was the change is yours Ever since I learned to distinguish betwixt the right hand of Veritie and the left of Errour thus I held and shall I hope at last send forth my Soul in no other resolution And if any of you be otherwise minded I dare boldly say he shall doe more wrong to his Cause then to his adversary That I differ not from my self you have seen see now that I differ not from our learned judicious approved Divines That the Latine or Western Church subject to the Romish Tyranny unto the very times of Luther was a true Church in which a saving profession of the truth of Christ was found and wherein Luther himself received his Christianity
in my Fathers Study where of I conceived good use might be made in regard of that spirituall advantage which they promised I obtained of him good leave to send them abroad whereto he professed himself the more easily induced for that his continuall and weighty employments in this large and busie Diocese will not yet afford him leisure to dispatch those his other fixed Meditations on the History of the New Testament In the mean time the expressions of these voluntary and sudden thoughts of his shall testifie how fruitfully he is wont to improve those short ends of time which are stolne from his more important avocations and unlesse my hopes fail me the pattern of them may prove not a little beneficial to others Holy mindes have been ever wont to look through these bodily Objects at spiritual and heavenly So Sulpitius reports of S. Martin that seeing a Sheep newly shorn he could say Loe here is one that hath performed that command in the Gospel having two Coats she hath given away one and seeing an Hogherd freezing in a thin suit of skins Loe said he there is Adam cast out of Paradise and seeing a Medow part rooted up part whole but eaten down and part flourishing he said The first was the state of Fornication the second of Marriage the third of Virginity But what do I seek any other Author then the Lord of Life himself who upon the drawing of water from the Well of Shilo on the day of the great Hosanna took occasion to speak of those Living waters which should flow from every true believer John 7. 38. and upon occasion of a bodily Feast Luke 14. entred into that Divine discourse of God's gracious invitation of us to those spiritual viands of Grace and Glory Thus methinks we should still be climbing up in our thoughts from Earth to Heaven and suffer no Object to crosse us in our way without some spiritual Use and Application Thus it pleased my Reverend Father sometimes to recreate himself whose manner hath been when any of these Meditations have unsought offer'd themselves unto him presently to set them down a course which I wish had been also taken in many more which might no doubt have been very profitable These as they are I send forth under your Honourable Name out of those many Respects which are in an hereditary right due to your Lordship as being apparent Heir to those two singular Patrons of my justly-Reverenced Father the eminent Vertue of which your Noble Parents in a gracious Succession yields to your Lordship an happy Example which to follow is the onely way to true Honour For the daily increase whereof here and the everlasting Crown of it hereafter his Prayers to God shall not be wanting who desires to be accounted Your Lordships devoted in all humble observance RO. HALL Occasionall MEDITATIONS The Proeme I Have heedlesly lost I confesse many good thoughts these few my Paper hath preserved from vanishing the example whereof may perhaps be more usefull then the matter Our active Soul can no more forbear to think then the Eye can chuse but see when it is open Would we but keep our wholesome Notions together mankinde would be too rich To doe well no Object should passe us without use every thing that we see reads us new lectures of Wisdome and Piety It is a shame for a man to be ignorant or Godlesse under so many Tutors For me I would not wish to live longer then I shall be better for my eyes and have thought it thank-worthy thus to teach weak mindes how to improve their thoughts upon all like occasions And if ever these lines shall come to the publick view I desire and charge my Reader whosoever he be to make me and himself so happy as to take out my Lesson and to learn how to read Gods great Book by mine The TABLE of these MEDITATIONS following MED I. Upon the sight of the Heavens moving Pag. 452 MED II. Upon the sight of a Diall ib. MED III. Upon the sight of an Eclipse of the Sun ib. MED IV. Upon the sight of a gliding Star 453 MED V. Upon a fair Prospect ib. MED VI. Upon the frame of a Globe casually broken 454 MED VII Upon a Cloud ib. MED VIII Upon the sight of a Grave digged up ib. MED IX Upon the sight of Gold melted 455 MED X. Upon the sight of a Pitcher carried ib. MED XI Upon the sight of a Tree full blossomed ib. MED XII Upon the report of a man suddenly struck dead in his Sin ib. MED XIII Upon the view of the Heaven and the Earth 456 MED XIV Upon occasion of a Red-breast coming into his Chamber ib. MED XV. Upon occasion of a Spider in his Window ib. MED XVI Upon the sight of a Rain in the Sun-shine 457 MED XVII Upon the length of the way ib. MED XVIII Upon the Rain and Waters ib. MED XIX Upon the same Subject 458 MED XX. Upon occasion of the Lights brought in ib. MED XXI Upon the same occasion 459 MED XXII Upon the blowing of the Fire ib. MED XXIII Upon the barking of a Dog ib. MED XXIV Upon sight of a Cock-fight ib. MED XXV Upon his lying down to rest 460 MED XXVI Upon the kindling of a Charcole fire ib. MED XXVII Upon the sight of an humble and patient Begger 461 MED XXVIII Upon the sight of a Crow pulling off wool from the back of a Sheep ib. MED XXIX Upon the sight of two Snails ib. MED XXX Upon the hearing of the street-Cries in London 462 MED XXXI Upon the Flies gathering to a galled Horse ib. MED XXXII Upon the sight of a dark Lantern ib. MED XXXIII Upon the hearing of a Swallow in the Chimney ib. MED XXXIV Upon the sight of a Flie burning it self in the Candle 463 MED XXXV Upon the sight of a Lark flying up ib. MED XXXVI Upon the singing of the Birds in a Spring morning ib. MED XXXVII Upon a Coal covered with Ashes 464 MED XXXVIII Upon the sight of a Blackmore ib. MED XXXIX Upon the small Stars in the Galaxie or milkie Circle in the Firmament ib. MED XL. Upon the sight of Boyes playing 465 MED XLI Upon the sight of a Spider and her Web. ib. MED XLII Upon the sight of a Naturall ib. MED XLIII Upon the Loadstone and the Jett 466 MED XLIV Upon hearing of Musick by night ibid. MED XLV Upon the fanning of Corn. ib. MED XLVI Upon Herbs dried 467 MED XLVII Upon the quenching of Iron in Water ib. MED XLVIII Upon a fair-coloured Flie. ib. MED XLIX Upon a Glow-worm ib. MED L. Upon the shutting of one eye 468 MED LI. Upon a Spring-water ib. MED LII Upon Gnats in the Sun ib. MED LIII Upon the sight of Grapes ib. MED LIV. Upon a Corn-field over-grown with Weeds 469 MED LV. Upon the sight of Tulips and Marigolds c. in his Garden ib. MED LVI Upon the sound of a crackt Bell. ib. MED LVII Upon the sight
of a Blinde man ib. MED LVIII Upon a Beech-tree full of Nuts 470 MED LIX Upon the sight of a piece of Money under the Water ib. MED LX. Upon the first rumour of the Earthquake at Lime wherein a Wood was swallowed up with the fall of two Hills ib. MED LXI Upon the sight of a Dormouse 471 MED LXII Upon Bees fighting ib. MED LXIII Upon Wasps falling into a Glass ib. MED LXIV Upon a Spring in the wilde Forest 472 MED LXV Upon the sight of an Owle in the twilight ibid. MED LXVI Upon an Arm benummed 473 MED LXVII Upon the Sparks flying upward ib. MED LXVIII Upon the sight of a Raven ib. MED LXIX Upon a Worm 474 MED LXX Upon the putting on of his Cloaths ibid. MED LXXI Upon the sight of a great Library ibid. MED LXXII Upon the red Cross on a Door 475 MED LXXIII Upon the change of Weather ib. MED LXXIV Upon the sight of a Marriage ib. MED LXXV Upon the sight of a Snake 476 MED LXXVI Upon the Ruines of an Abby ib. MED LXXVII Upon the discharging of a Peece 477 MED LXXVIII Upon the tolling of a passing-Bell ib. MED LXXIX Upon a Defamation dispersed 478 MED LXXX Upon a ring of Bells ib. MED LXXXI Upon the sight of a full Table at a Feast ib. MED LXXXII Upon the hearing of a Lute well played on 479 MED LXXXIII Upon the sight and noise of a Peacock ib. MED LXXXIV Upon a penitent Malefactor ibid. MED LXXXV Upon the sight of a Lilly 480 MED LXXXVI Upon the sight of a Coffin stuck with Flowers ib. MED LXXXVII Upon the view of the World ib. MED LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp 481 MED LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon ib. MED XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock 482 MED XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts ib. MED XCII Upon the sight of an Harlot carted ibid. MED XCIII Upon the smell of a Rose 483 MED XCIV Upon a cancelled Bond. ib. MED XCV Upon the report of a great losse by Sea ib. MED XCVI Upon sight of a bright Skie full of Stars 484 MED XCVII Upon the rumours of Wars ib. MED XCVIII Upon a Childe crying 485 MED XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sicknesse ibid. MED C. Upon the challenge of a Promise 486 MED CI. Upon the sight of Flies ib. MED CII Upon the sight of a fantasticall Zelot ib. MED CIII Upon the sight of a Scavenger working in the Canell 487 MED CIV Upon a pair of Spectacles ib. MED CV Upon Moats in the Sun ib. MED CVI. Upon the sight of a Bladder ib. MED CVII Upon a man Sleeping 488 MED CVIII Upon the sight of a Deaths-head ib. MED CIX Upon the sight of a Left-handed man ib. MED CX Upon the sight of an old unthatched Cottage 489. MED CXI Upon the sight of a fair Pearl ib. MED CXII Upon a Screen ib. MED CXIII Upon a Bur-leaf ib. MED CXIV Upon the Singing of a Bird. ib. MED CXV Upon the sight of a man Yawning 490 MED CXVI Upon the sight of a Tree lopped ib. MED CXVII Upon a Scholar that offered violence to himself ib. MED CXVIII Upon the coming in of the Judge 491 MED CXIX Upon the sight of an Heap of stones ibid. MED CXX Upon sight of a Bat and Owle ib. MED CXXI Upon the sight of a well-fleeced Sheep 492 MED CXXII Upon the hearing of Thunder ib. MED CXXIII Upon the sight of an Hedg-hog ib. MED CXXIV Upon the sight of a Goat 493 MED CXXV Upon the sight of the Blinde and the Lame ib. MED CXXVI Upon the sight of a Map of the World ib. MED CXXVII Upon the sight of Hemlock 494 MED CXXVIII Upon a Flower-de-luce ib. MED CXXIX Upon the sight of two Trees one high the other broad ib. MED CXXX Upon the sight of a Drunken man ibid. MED CXXXI Upon the whetting of a Sithe 495 MED CXXXII Upon the sight of a Looking-glass ibid. MED CXXXIII Upon the shining of a piece of Rotten wood ib. MED CXXXIV Upon an Ivie tree 496 MED CXXXV Upon a Quartan ague ib. MED CXXXVI Upon the sight of a loaded Cart. ibid. MED CXXXVII Upon the sight of a Dwarf 497 MED CXXXVIII Upon an importunate Begger ibid. MED CXXXIX Upon a Medicinal potion ib. MED CXL Upon the sight of a Wheel 498 Occasionall MEDITATIONS I. Upon the sight of the Heavens moving I Can see nothing stand still but the Earth all other things are in motion Even the Water which makes up one Globe with the Earth is ever stirring in ebbes and flowings the Clouds over my head the Heavens above the clouds these as they are most conspicuous so are they the greatest patterns of perpetuall action What should we rather imitate then this glorious frame O God when we pray that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven though we mean chiefly the Inhabitants of that place yet we do not exclude the very Place of those Blessed inhabitants from being an example of our Obedience The motion of this thy Heaven is perpetuall so let me ever be acting somewhat of thy will the motion of thy Heaven is regular never swerving from the due points so let me ever walk steddily in the wayes of thy will without all diversions or variations from the line of thy Law In the motion of thine Heaven though some Stars have their own peculiar and contrary courses yet all yield themselves to the sway of the main circumvolution of that First mover so though I have a will of mine own yet let me give my self over to be ruled and ordered by thy Spirit in all my waies Man is a little World my Soul is Heaven my Body is Earth if this Earth be dull and fixed yet O God let my Heaven like unto thine move perpetually regularly and in a constant subjection to thine Holy Ghost II. Upon the sight of a Diall IF the Sun did not shine upon this Diall no body would look at it in a cloudy day it stands like an uselesse post unheeded unregarded but when once those beams break forth every passenger runs to it and gazes on it O God whiles thou hidest thy countenance from me methinks all thy Creatures passe by me with a willing neglect indeed what am I without thee And if thou have drawn in me some lines and notes of able endowments yet if I be not actuated by thy Grace all is in respect of use no bettter then nothing But when thou renewest the light of thy loving countenance upon me I finde a sensible and happy change of condition methinks all things look upon me with such chear and observance as if they meant to make good that Word of thine Those that honour me I will honour now every line and figure which it hath pleased thee to work in me serve for usefull and profitable direction O Lord all the glory is thine give thou me light I shall give others information both of us shall give thee praise III.
Upon the sight of an Eclipse of the Sun LIght is an ordinary and familiar Blessing yet so dear to us that one hours interception of it sets all the world in a wonder The two great Luminaries of Heaven as they impart light to us so they withdraw light from each other The Sun darkens the full Moon in casting the shadow of the earth upon her opposed face the new Moon repays this blemish to the Sun in the interposing of her dark body betwixt our eyes and his glorious beams the earth is troubled at both O God if we be so afflicted with the obscuring of some piece of one of thy created lights for an hour or two what a confusion shall it be that thou who art the God of these Lights in comparison of whom they are mere darknesse shalt hide thy face from thy creature for ever O thou that art the Sun of Righteousnesse if every of my sins cloud thy face yet let not my grievous sins eclipse thy light Thou shinest alwayes though I do not see thee but Oh never suffer my sins so to darken thy visage that I cannot see thee IV. Upon the sight of a gliding Star HOw easily is our sight deceived how easily doth our sight deceive us We saw no difference betwixt this Star and the rest the light seemed alike both whiles it stood and whiles it fell now we know it was no other then a base slimy Meteor guilded with the Sun-beams and now our foot can tread upon that which ere while our eye admired Had it been a Star it had still and ever shined now the very fall argues it a false and elementary Apparition Thus our Charity doth and must mis-lead us in our Spirituall judgements If we see men exalted in their Christian Profession fixed in the upper region of the Church shining with appearances of Grace we may not think them other thenâ—stars in this lower firmament but if they fall from their holy station and imbrace the present world whether in Judgement or Practice renouncing the Truth and power of Godliness now we may boldly say they had never any true light in them and were no other then a glittering composition of Pride and Hypocrisie O God if my Charity make me apt to be deceived by others let me be sure not to deceive my self Perhaps some of these apostating Stars have thought themselves true let their mis-carriage make me heedfull let the inward light of thy Grace more convince my truth to my self then my outward Profession can represent me glorious to others V. Upon a fair Prospect WHat a pleasing variety is here of Towns Rivers Hills Dales Woods Medows each of them striving to set forth the other and all of them to delight the eye So as this is no other then a naturall and reall Landscap drawn by that Almighty skilfull hand in this table of the Earth for the pleasure of our view no other creature besides Man is capable to apprehend this Beauty I shall doe wrong to him that brought me hither if I do not feed my eyes and praise my Maker It is the intermixture and change of these Objects that yields this contentment both to the Sense and Minde But there is a sight O my Soul that without all variety offers thee a truer and fuller delight even this Heaven above thee All thy other Prospects end in this This glorious circumference bounds and circles and inlightens all that thine eye can see whether thou look upward or forward or about thee there thine eye alights there let thy thoughts be fixed One inch of this lightsome Firmament hath more Beauty in it then the whole face of the Earth And yet this is but the floor of that goodly fabrick the outward curtain of that glorious Tabernacle Couldst thou but Oh that thou couldst look within that veile how shouldst thou be ravisht with that blissefull sight There in that incomprehensible light thou shouldst see him whom none can see and not be blessed thou shouldst see millions of pure and majesticall Angels of holy and glorified Souls there amongst thy Fathers many mansions thou shouldst take happy notice of thine owne Oh the best of earth now vile and contemptible Come down no more O my Soul after thou hast once pitched upon this Heavenly glory or if this flesh force thy descent be unquiet till thou art let loose to Immortality VI. Upon the frame of a Globe casually broken IT is hard to say whether is the greater Mans Art or Impotence He that cannot make one spire of grasse or corn of sand will yet be framing of Worlds he can imitate all things who can make nothing Here is a great World in a little room by the skill of the workman but in lesse room by mis-accident Had he seen this who upon the view of Plato's Book of Common-wealth eaten with Mice presaged the fatall miscarriage of the publick State he would sure have construed this casualty as ominous Whatever become of the Materiall world whose decay might seem no lesse to stand with Divine Providence then this Microcosme of individuall man sure I am the frame of the Morall world is and must be dis-joynted in the last times Men do and will fall from evil to worse He that hath made all times hath told us that the last shall be perilous Happy is he that can stand upright when the world declines and can endeavour to repair the common ruine with a constancy in goodnesse VII Upon a Cloud WHether it were a naturall Cloud wherewith our ascending Saviour was intercepted from the eyes of his Disciples upon mount Olivet I inquire not this I am sure of that the time now was when a Cloud surpassed the Sun in glory How did the intentive eyes of those ravished beholders envy that happy Meteor and since they could no more see that glorious Body fixed themselves upon that Celestiall Chariot wherewith it was carried up The Angels could tell the gazing Disciples to fetch them off from that astonishing prospect that this Jesus should so come again as they had seen him depart He went up in a Cloud and he shall come again in the clouds of Heaven to his last Judgement O Saviour I cannot look upward but I must see the sensible monuments both of thine Ascension and Return Let no cloud of Worldlinesse or Infidelity hinder me from following thee in thine Ascension or from expecting thee in thy Return VIII Upon the sight of a Grave digged up THE Earth as it is a great devourer so also it is a great preserver too Liquors and Fleshes are therein long kept from putrifying and are rather heightened in their Spirits by being buried in it but above all how safely doth it keep our Bodies for the Resurrection We are here but lay'd up for custody Balmes and Sere-cloths and Leads cannot doe so much as this lap of our common Mother when all these are dissolved into her dust as being unable to keep themselves from
corruption she receives and restores her charge I can no more withhold my body from the earth then the earth can withhold it from my Maker O God this is thy Cabinet or Shrine wherein thou pleasest to lay up the precious relicks of thy dear Saints untill the Jubilee of Glory With what confidence should I commit my self to this sure reposition whiles I know thy word just thy Power infinite IX Upon the sight of Gold melted THis Gold is both the fairest and most solid of all Metals yet is the soonest melted with the fire others as they are courser so more churlish and hard to be wrought upon by a dissolution Thus a sound and good heart is most easily melted into sorrow and fear by the sense of Gods Judgments whereas the carnal minde is stubborn and remorslesse All Metals are but earth yet some are of finer temper then others all hearts are of flesh yet some are through the power of Grace more capable of Spirituall apprehensions O God we are such as thou wilt be pleased to make us Give me a heart that may be sound for the truth of Grace and melting at the terrors of thy Law I can be for no other then thy Sanctuary on earth or thy Treasury of Heaven X. Upon the sight of a Pitcher carried THus those that are great and weak are carried by the eares up and down of Flatterers and Parasites Thus ignorant and simple hearers are carried by false and mis-zealous Teachers Yet to be carried by both eares is more safe then to be carried by one It argues an empty Pitcher to be carried by one aâ—one Such are they that upon the hearing of one part rashly passe their sentence whether of acquitall or censure In all disquisitions of hidden Truths a wise man will be led by the eares not carried that implies a violence of Passion over-swaying Judgement but in matter of civill occurrence and unconcerning rumor it is good to use the Eare not to trust to it XI Upon the sight of a Tree full blossomed HEre is a Tree over-laid with blossomes it is not possible that all these should prosper one of them must needs rob the other of moisture and growth I do not love to see an Infancy over-hopefull in these pregnant beginnings one Faculty starves another and at last leaves the Minde saplesse and barren As therefore we are wont to pull off some of the too-frequent blossomes that the rest may thrive so it is good wisdome to moderate the early excesse of the parts or progresse of over-forward Childhood Neither is it otherwise in our Christian profession a sudden and lavish ostentation of Grace may fill the eye with wonder and the mouth with talk but will not at the last fill the lap with fruit Let me not promise too much nor raise too high expectations of my undertakings I had rather men should complain of my small hopes then of my short performances XII Upon the report of a man suddenly struck dead in his Sin I Cannot but magnifie the Justice of God but withall I must praise his Mercy It were woe with any of us all if God should take us at advantages Alas which of us hath not committed sins worthy of a present revenge had we been also surprized in those acts where had we been O God it is more then thou owest us that thou hast waited for our Repentance it is no more then thou owest us that thou plaguest our offences The wages of Sin is Death and it is but Justice to pay due wages Blessed be thy Justice that hast made others Examples to me blessed be thy Mercy that hast not made me an Example unto others XIII Upon the view of the Heaven and the Earth WHat a strange contrariety is here The Heaven is in continuall motion and yet there is the onely place of Rest the Earth ever stands still and yet here is nothing but Unrest and unquietnesse Surely the end of that Heavenly motion is for the benefit of the Earth and the end of all these Earthly turmoils is our reposall in Heaven Those that have imagined the Earth to turn about and the Heavens to stand still have yet supposed that we may stand or sit still on that whirling Globe of earth how much more may we be perswased of our perfect Rest above those moving Sphears It matters not O God how I am vexed here below a while if ere long I may repose with thee above for ever XIV Upon occasion of a Red-brest coming into his Chamber PRetty Bird how chearfully dost thou sit and sing and yet knowest not where thou art nor where thou shalt make thy next meal and at night must shrowd thy self in a Bush for lodging What a shame is it for me that see before me so liberal provisions of my God and finde my self set warm under my own roof yet am ready to droop under a distrustfull and unthankfull dulnesse Had I so little certainty of my harbour and purveyance how heartlesse should I be how carefull how little list should I have to â—â—ke musick to thee or my self Surely thou camest not hither without a Providence God sent thee not so much to delight as to shame me but all in a conviction of my sâ—llen unbelief who under more apparent means am lesse chearfull and confident Reason and Faith have not done so much in me as in thee mere instinct of Nature Want of fore-sight makes thee more merry if not more happy here then the foresight of better things maketh me O God thy Providence is not impaired by those Powers thou hast given me above these Brute things let not my greater helps hinder me from an holy security and comfortable reliance upon thee XV. Upon occasion of a Spider in his Window THere is no vice in man whereof there is not some Analogie in the brute Creatures As amongst us men there are Thieves by Land and Pirats by Sea that live by spoil and blood so is there in every kinde amongst them variety of natural Sharkers the Hawk in the Aire the Pike in the River the Whale in the Sea the Lion and Tiger and Wolf in the Desart the Wasp in the Hive the Spider in our Window Amongst the rest see how cunningly this little Arabian hath spred out his tent for a prey how heedfully he watches for a Passenger So soon as ever he hears the noise of a Flie afar off how he hastens to his door and if that silly heedlesse Traveller do but touch upon the verge of that unsuspected walk how suddenly doth he seize upon the miserable booty and after some strife binding him fast with those subtile cords drags the helplesse Captive after him into his cave What is this but an Embleme of those Spiritual Free-booters that lie in wait for our Souls They are the Spiders we the Flies they have spred their nets of Sin if we be once caught they binde us fast and hale us into Hell O Lord
other services it failed me not now that I have rested upon it I finde cause to complain It is no trusting to an arm of flesh on whatsoever occasion we put our confidence therein this reliance will be sure to end in pain and disappointment O God thine arm is strong and mighty all thy Creatures rest themselves upon that and are comfortably sustained Oh that we were not more capable of distrust then thine Omnipotent hand is of weariness and subduction LXVII Upon the Sparks flying upward IT is a feeling comparison that of Job of man born to labour as the sparks to flie upward That motion of theirs is no other then natural neither is it otherwise for man to labour his Minde is created active and apt to some or other Ratiocination his Joynts all stirring his Nerves made for helps of moving and his occasions of living call him forth to action So as an idle man doth not more want Grace then degenerate from Nature Indeed at the first kindling of the fire some sparks are wont by the impulsion of the bellows to flie forward or sideward and even so in our first Age youthly vanity may move us to irregular courses but when those first violences are overcome and we have attained to a setledness of disposition our sparks flie up our life is labour And why should we not doe that which we are made for Why should not God rather grudge us our Being then we grudge him our work It is no thank to us that we labour out of necessity Out of my Obedience to thee O God I desire ever to be imployed I shall never have comfort in my toil if it be rather a purveyance for my self then a Sacrifice to thee LXVIII Upon the sight of a Raven I Cannot see that Bird but I must needs think of Eliah and wonder no lesse at the Miracle of his Faith then of his Provision It was a strong belief that carried him into a desolate retiredness to exspect food from Ravens This fowl we know is ravenous all is too little that he can forage for himself and the Prophets Reason must needs suggest to him that in a drie barren Desart bread flesh must be great dainties yet he goes aside to exspect victuals from that purveyance He knew this Fowl to be no lesse greedy then unclean unclean as in Law so in the nature of his feed what is his ordinary prey but loathsome carrion Yet since God had appointed him this Caterer he stands not upon the nice points of a fastidious squeamishness but confidently depends upon that uncouth provision And accordingly those unlikely purveyors bring him bread and flesh in the Morning and bread and flesh in the Evening Not one of those hungry Ravens could swallow one morsell of those viands which were sent by them to a better mouth The River of Cherith sooner failed him then the tender of their service No doubt Eliah's stomack was often up before that his incurious diet came when exspecting from the mouth of his Cave out of what coast of Heaven these his Servitors might be descried upon the sight of them he magnified with a thankfull heart the wonderfull Goodness and Truth of his God and was nourished more with his Faith then with his Food O God how infinite is thy Providence Wisdome Power We creatures are not what we are but what thou wilt have us when thy turn is to be served we have none of our own Give me but Faith and doe what thou wilt LXIX Upon a Worm IT was an homely expression which God makes of the state of his Church Fear not thou Worm Jacob. Every foot is ready to tread on this despised creature Whiles it kept it self in that cold obscure Cell of the Earth wherein it was hidden it lay safe because it was secret but now that it hath put it self forth of that close Cave and hath presented it self to the light of the Sun to the eye of Passengers how is it vexed with the scorching beams and wrings up and down in an helplesse perplexity not finding where to shrowd it self how obnoxious is it to the fowls of the aire to the feet of men and beasts He that made this creature such and calls his Church so well knew the answerableness of their condition How doth the world overlook and contemn that little flock whose best guard hath ever been secrecy And if ever that despicable number have dared to shew it self how hath it been scorched and trampled upon and entertained with all variety of Persecution O Saviour thy Spouse fares no otherwise then thy self to match her fully thou hast said of thy self I am a Worm and no man Such thou wert in thine humbled estate here on earth such thou wouldest be But as it is a true word that he who made the Angels in Heaven made also the worms on earth so it is no lesse true that he who made himself and his Church Worms upon Earth hath raised our Nature in his Person above the Angels and our Person in his Church to little lesse then Angels It matters not how we fare in this valley of tears whiles we are sure of that infinite amends of Glory above LXX Upon the putting on of his Cloaths WHat a poor thing were Man if he were not beholden to other creatures The Earth affords him flax for his linen bread for his belly the Beasts his ordinary Cloaths the Silk-worm his bravery the back and bowels of the earth his metalls and fewell the Fishes Fowls Beasts his nourishment His wit indeed works upon all these to improve them to his own advantage but they must yield him materials else he subsists not And yet we fools are proud of our selves yea proud of the cast suits of the very basest Creatures There is not one of them that have so much need of us They would enjoy themselves the more if Man were not O God the more we are sensible of our own indigence the more let us wonder at thine All-sufficiency in thy self and long for that happy condition wherein thou which art all perfection shalt be all in all to us LXXI Upon the sight of a great Library WHat a world of Wit is here pack'd up together I know not whether this sight doth more dismay or comfort me It dismaies me to think that here is so much that I cannot know it comforts me to think that this variety yields so good helps to know what I should There is no truer word then that of Solomon There is no end of making many Books this sight verifies it there is no end indeed it were pity there should God hath given to man a busie Soul the agitation whereof cannot but through time and experience work out many hidden Truths to suppresse these would be no other then injurious to Mankinde whose Mindes like unto so many Candles should be kindled by each other The thoughts of our deliberation are most accurate these we vent into our Papers
thou abasest thy self to behold the things both in Heaven and Earth It is our glory to look up even to the meanest piece of Heaven it is an abasement to thine incomprehensible Majesty to look down upon the best of Heaven Oh what a transcendent Glory must that needs be that is abased to behold the things of Heaven What an happinesse shall it be to me that mine eyes shall be exalted to see thee who art humbled to see the place and state of my blessednesse Yea those very Angels that see thy face are so resplendently glorious that we could not overlive the sight of one of their faces who are fain to hide their faces from the sight of thine How many millions attend thy Throne above and thy Footstool below in the ministration to thy Saints It is that thine invisible world the Communion wherewith can make me truely blessed O God if my body have fellowship here amongst Beasts of whose earthly substance it participates let my Soul be united to thee the God of Spirits and be raised up to enjoy the insensible society of thy blessed Angels Acquaint me before-hand with those Citizens and affairs of thine Heaven and make me no stranger to my future Glory LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp HOW small things may annoy the greatest Even a Mouse troubles an Elephant a Gnat a Lion a very Flea may disquiet a Giant What weapon can be nearer to nothing then the sting of this Wasp Yet what a painfull wound hath it given me that scarce-visible point how it envenomes and ranckles and swells up the flesh The tenderness of the part addes much to the grief And if I be thus vexed with the touch of an angry File Lord how shall I be able to indure the sting of a tormenting Conscience As that part is both most active and most sensible so that wound which it receives from it self is most intolerably grievous there were more ease in a nest of Hornets then under this one Torture O God howsoever I speed abroad give me Peace at home and whatever my Flesh suffer keep my Soul free Thus pained wherein do I finde ease but in laying honey to the part infected That Medicine only abates the anguish How near hath Nature placed the remedy to the offence Whensoever my Heart is stung with the remorse for sin only thy sweet and precious Merits O blessed Saviour can mitigate and heal the wound they have virtue to cure me give me Grace to apply them that soveraign receipt shall make my pain happy I shall thus applaud my grief It is good for me that I was thus afflicted LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon WIth what terrour doth this Malefactor stand at that Bar his Hand trembles whiles it is lift up for his triall his very Lips quake whiles he saith Not guilty his Countenance condemns him before the Judge and his fear is ready to execute him before his Hangman Yet this Judge is but a weak man that must soon after die himself that Sentence of Death which he can pronounce is already passed by Nature upon the most innocent that act of Death which the Law inflicteth by him is but momentany who knows whether himself shall not die more painfully O God with what horror shall the guilty Soul stand before thy dreadfull Tribunall in the day of the great Assizes of the World whiles there is the presence of an Infinite Majesty to daunt him a fierce and clamorous Conscience to give in evidence against him Legions of ugly and terrible Devils waiting to seize upon him a gulf of unquenchable Fire ready to receive him whiles the Glory of the Judge is no lesse confounding then the Cruelty of the Tormenters where the Sentence is unavoidable and the Execution everlasting Why do not these terrors of thee my God make me wise to hold a privy Sessions upon my Soul actions that being acquitted by my own heart I may not be condemned by thee and being judged by my self I may not be condemned with the World XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock. How harshly did this note sound in the eare of Peter yea pierced his very heart Many a time had he heard this Bird and was no whit moved with the noise now there was a Bird in his bosome that crowed lowder then this whose shrill accent conjoined with this astonished the guilty Disciple The wearie Labourer when he is awakened from his sweet sleep by this natural Clock of the Houshold is not so angry at this troublesome Bird nor so vexed at the hearing of that unseasonable sound as Peter was when this Fowl awakened his sleeping Conscience and called him to a timely repentance This Cock did but crow like others neither made or knew any difference of this tone and the rest there was a Divine hand that ordered this Mornings note to be a Summons of Penitence He that fore-told it had fore-appointed it that Bird could not but crow then and all the noise in the High Priests Hall could not keep that sound from Peter's eare But O Saviour couldst thou finde leisure when thou stoodst at the Bar of that unjust and cruell Judgment amidst all that bloody rabble of Enemies in the sense of all their fury and the exspectation of thine own Death to listen unto this Monitor of Peter's Repentance and upon the hearing of it to cast back thine eyes upon thy Denying Cursing Abjuring Disciple O Mercy without measure and beyond all the possibility of our admiration to neglect thy self for a Sinner to attend the Repentance of one when thou wert about to lay down thy life for all O God thou art still equally mercifull Every Elect Soul is no lesse dear unto thee Let the sound of thy faithfull Monitors smite my ears and let the beams of thy mercifull eyes wound my heart so as I may go forth and weep bitterly XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts WHen I bethink my self how Eternity depends upon this moment of life I wonder how I can think of any thing but Heaven but when I see the distractions of my Thoughts and the aberrations of my life I wonder how I can be so bewitched as whiles I believe an Heaven so to forget it All that I can doe is to be angry at mine own vanity My Thoughts would not be so many if they were all right there are ten thousand by-waies for one direct As there is but one Heaven so there is but one way to it that living way wherein I walk by Faith by Obedience All things the more perfect they are the more do they reduce themselves towards that Unity which is the Center of all Perfection O thou who art one and infinite draw in my heart from all these stragling and unprofitable Cogitations and confine it to thine Heaven and to thy self who art the Heaven of that Heaven Let me have no life but in thee no care but to injoy thee no ambition but thy Glory Oh make
cometh Usurpation of others Rights violation of Oaths and Contracts and lastly erroneous Zeal are guilty of all these publick Murders Private mens injuries are washt off with tears but wrongs done to Princes and publick States are hardly wip'd off but with blood Doubtlesse that fearfull Comet did not more certainly portend these Wars then these Wars presage the approach of the end of the World The earth was never without some broils since it was peopled but with three men but so universal a combustion was never in the Christian world since it was O Saviour what can I think of this but that as thou wouldst have a generall Peace upon thy first coming into the World so upon thy second coming thou meanest there shall be a no lesse generall War upon earth That Peace made way for thy meek appearance this War for thy dreadfull and terrible XCVIII Upon a Childe crying IT was upon great reason that the Apostle charges us not to be children in Understanding What fools we all once are Even at first we crie and smile we know not wherefore we have not wit enough to make signs what hurts us or where we complain we can wry the mouth but not seek the breast and if we want help we can only lament and sprawl and die After when some months have taught us to distinguish a little betwixt things and persons we crie for every toy even that which may most hurt us and when there is no other cause we crie only to hear our own noise and are straight stilled with a greater and if it be but upon the breeding of a tooth we are so wayward that nothing will please us and if some formerly-liked knack be given to quiet us we cast away that which we have if we have not what we would seem to like We fear neither fire nor water nothing scares us but either a rod or a feigned bug-bear we mis-know our Parents not acknowledging any friend but the Taylor that brings us a fine Coat or the Nurse that dresses us gay The more that our riper years resemble these dispositions the more childish we are and more worthy both of our own and others censure But again it was upon no lesse reason that the Apostle charges us to be children in Maliciousness Those little Innocents bear no grudge they are sooner pleased then angry and if any man have wronged them let them but have given a stroke unto the Nurse to beat the offender it is enough at the same instant they put forth their hand for reconcilement and offer themselves unto those arms that trespassed And when they are most froward they are stilled with a pleasant Song The old word is that An old man is twice a childe but I say happy is he that is thus a childe alwaies It is a great imperfection to want Knowledge but of the two it is better to be a childe in Understanding then a man in Maliciousness XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sickness IT was my own fault if I look'd not for this All things must undergoe their changes I have enjoyed many fair daies there was no reason I should not at last make account of clouds and storms Could I have done well without any mixtures of sin I might have hoped for entire Health But since I have interspersed my Obedience with many sinfull failings and enormities why do I think much to interchange Health with Sickness What I now feel I know I am not worthy to know what I must feel As my times so my measures are in the hands of a wise and good God My comfort is he that sends these evils proportions them If they be sharp I am sure they are just the most that I am capable to endure is the least part of what I have deserved to suffer Nature would fain be at ease but Lord whatever become of this carkasse thou hast reason to have respect to thine own Glory I have sinned and must smart It is the glory of thy Mercy to beat my Body for the safety of my Soul The worst of Sickness is Pain and the worst of pain is but Death As for Pain if it be extreme it cannot be long and if it be long such is the difference of earthly and Hellish torments it cannot be extreme As for Death it is both unavoidable and beneficial there ends my Misery and begins my Glory a few groans are well bestowed for a preface to an immortal joy Howsoever O God thy messenger is worthy to be welcome It is the Lord let him doe whatsoever he will C. Upon the challenge of a Promise IT is true an Honest mans word must be his master when I have promised I am indebted and debts may be claimed must be payed but yet there is a great deal of difference in our ingagements some things we promise because they are due some things are onely due because they are promised These latter which are but the mere ingagements of Curtesie cannot so absolutely binde us that notwithstanding any intervention of unworthiness or misbehaviour in the person exspectant we are tied to make our word good though to the cutting of our own throats All favourable promises presuppose a capacity in the receiver where that palpably faileth common Equity sets us free I promised to send a fair Sword to my friend he is since that time turn'd frantick must I send it or be charged with unfaithfulness if I send it not O God thy Title is the God of Truth thou canst no more cease to be faithfull then to be How oft hast thou promised that no good thing shall be wanting to thine and yet we know thy dearest children have complained of want Is thy word therefore challengeable Far far be this wicked presumption from our thoughts No These thy promises of outward Favours are never but with a subintelligence of a condition of our capableness of our expedience Thou seest that Plenty or Ease would be our bane thy Love forbears to satisfie us with an harmfull Blessing We are worthy to be plagued with prejudicial kindnesses if we do not acknowledge thy Wisdome and care in our want It is enough for us that thy best Mercies are our dues because thy Promises we cannot too much claim that which thou hast absolutely ingaged thy self to give and in giving shalt make us eternally happy CI. Upon the sight of Flies WHen I look upon these Flies and gnats and worms I have reason to think What am I to my infinite Creator more then these And if these had my Reason why might they not expostulate with their Maker why they are but such why they live to so little purpose and die without either notice or use And if I had no more Reason then they I should be as they content with any condition That Reason which I have is not of my owne giving he that hath given me Reason might as well have given it to them or have made me as reason-lesse as
Faith are those Principles of Christian Religion and Fundamental Grounds and Points of Faith which are undoubtedly contained and laid down in the Canonicall Scriptures whether in expresse termes or by necessary consequence and in the Ancient Creeds universally received and allowed by the whole Church of God IV. There cannot be now-a-dayes any new Rule of Faith V. As there cannot be any new Rule of Faith so there cannot now be any new Faith It is not therefore in the power of any creature under Heaven to make any Point to be of Faith which before was not so or to cause any Point not to be of Faith which formerly was so VI. He cannot be an Heretick who doth not obstinately deny something which is truly a Point of Faith or hold some Point contrary to the foresaid Articles of Christian Faith VII There are and may be many Theologicall Points which are wont to be believed and maintained and so many lawfully be of this or that particular Church or the Doctors thereof or their Followers as godly Doctrines and Probable Truths besides those other Essential and main matters of Faith without any prejudice at all of the common Peace of the Church VIII Howsoever it may be lawfull for Learned men particular Churches to believe and maintain those Probable or as they may think Certain Points of Theologicall Verities yet it is not lawfull for them to impose and obtrude the said Doctrines upon any Church or Person to be believed and held as upon the necessity of Salvation or to anathematize or eject out of the Church any Person or company of men that thinks otherwise IX Notwithstanding any such unjust Anathema denounced against any such Person or Church whosoever holds those Principles and Essential Points of Christian Faith however he be in place far remote from all the Visible Churches of Christ and neither know not or receive not those other Positions of Theological determination is throughly capable in such condition of Christian Communion and if many such be met together under a lawfull Pastor there cannot be denied unto them both the truth and title of a true Visible Church of Christ X. The Church of Rome is onely and at the best a Particular Church XI All Christian Churches are no other then Sisters and Daughters of that great and Universall Mother which furnisheth both Heaven and earth of equall priviledge in respect of God and his Faith save onely that each one is so much more honourable as it is more pure and holy It is not therefore lawfull for any one of them in regard of the businesses of Faith to take upon her self the power and command over any other or to prescribe unto any of them what they must necessarily believe upon pain of damnation XII Those issues of Controversie in regard whereof the Reformed Catholicks are wont to be condemned and anathematized by the Romane Church are far from Principles of Christian Faith neither are any other than their own Theologicall Positions and the institutions and devises of that particular Church XIII The Reformed Catholicks have not offered to bring in any new Opinion or Doctrine into the Church but only labour and endeavour to procure some late superfluous additions to the Faith to be cashiered rejected XIV Vainly therefore and unjustly is it required of them that they should shew the succession of their Religion and Church as raised upon a quite other foundation to be derived from the Apostolick times to the present since all that they professe is a desire to purge the very same Church of God from certain new Errors and Superstitious rites wherewith it is miserably defiled XV. Out of all which Premisses it necessarily followeth that the Romane Church which upon these grounds sticketh not to exclude true Christians differing from them in matter of such Doctrines from the Church of God and eternall Salvation is justly guilty of great insolency and horrible breach both of Charity and Peace and that the Reformed notwithstanding this rash and unjust censure of theirs forasmuch as they do inviolably hold all the Points of the truly ancient and Christian Faith do justly claim unto themselves a most true and perfect interest in the communion of all Christian Churches and eternall Salvation XVI There is no lesse danger in adding to the Articles of Christian Faith then in diminishing them or detracting from them XVII Those Points which the Romane Church is wont to adde and forcibly to put upon all Catholicks as well the Reformed as those whom they term their own are such as are grounded on her own mere authority XVIII The Reformed Catholicks do justly complain and prove that those Points which the Romane Church imposeth and urgeth as the meet additions both of Faith and Divine worship are neither safe nor agreeable to the holy Word of God and plead it to be utterly unjust that those accessory Points of their devising or determining wherein every Church should be left free and at her due liberty should be imperiously thrust upon them notwithstanding their vehement and just resistance XIX It argues a palpable self-love in the Romane Church and must needs at the last draw down a grievous Judgement from God upon her that this Particular Church will needs make her self uncapable of any better condition in that she vainly brags that she cannot erre and fearfully accurseth and sends down to hell all those that profer her the least endeavour of the means of her remedy and redresse XX. Upon all these grounds it is plain that the Reformed Catholicks are in a safe estate and that contrarily the Romane are in a miserable errour and fearfull danger and lastly that it is only through their default that the Church of God is not reduced to an happy Purity and Peace 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things AN ANSWER TO POPE URBAN'S INURBANITIE Expressed in a BREEVE sent to LEWIS the French King exasperating him against the Protestants in France Written in Latine by the Right Reverend Father in God JOSEPH Lord Bishop of Excester Translated into English by his Son ROBERT HALL Master of Arts in Excester Colledge in Oxford LONDON Printed by JAMES FLESHER 1661. A BREEVE of Pope Urban the Eighth sent to Lewis the French King upon the taking of ROCHEL OUR most dear Son in Christ we send you greeting and Apostolical Benediction The voice of rejoicing and Salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous let the wicked see this and fret and let the Synagogue of Satan consume away The most Christian King fighteth for Religion the Lord of hosts fighteth for the King We verily in this Mother-City of the world triumph with holy joy we congratulate this your Majesties Victory the trophees whereof are erected in Heaven the glory whereof the generation that is to come shall never cease to speak of Now at the length this Age hath seen the Tower of ROCHEL no lesse
Religion But alas poor souls we are mistaken all this while it is nothing else but pure Piety forsooth which we ignorantly condemn for Cruelty 't is the zeal of Gods house wherewith Good Prelate thou art so inflamed that thou hast hereupon both wished and importuned the utter extirpation of all those Hereticks stabling in the French Territories O forehead O bowels For us we call God Angels Saints to witness of this foul calumniation I wis those whom thou falsly brandest for Hereticks thou shalt one day hear when the Church shall imbrace them for her children Christ for the spiritual Members of his mystical body For what I beseech you do we hold which the Scriptures Councils Fathers Churches and Christian Professors have not in all Ages taught and published To say the truth All that which we professe your own most approved Authors have still maintained whence then is this quarrell Shall I tell you There are indeed certain new Patches of Opinion which you would needs adde to the ancient Faith these we most justly reject and do still constantly refuse They are humane they are your own briefly they are either doubtfull or impious And must we now be cast out of the bosome of the Church and be presently delivered up to fire and sword Must we for this be thunder-strucken to Hell by your Anathemas there to frie in perpetuall Torments Is it for this that a stall and shambles are thought good enough for such brutish animals Good God! See the justice and charity of these Popelings This is nothing but a mere injury of the Times it was not wont to be Heresie heretofore that is so now-a-daies If it had been our Happinesse to have lived in the Primitive times of the Churches Simplicity before ever that Romish Transcendency Image-worship Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Masse Purgatory single or half-Communion Nundination of Pardons and the rest of this rabble were known to the Christian world surely Heaven had been as open to us as to other Devout Souls of that purer Age that took their happy flight from hence in the Orthodox Faith of Christ Jesus But now that we are reserved to that dotage of the world wherein a certain new brood of Articles are sprung up it is death to us forsooth and to be expiated by no lesse punishment then the perpetuall torments of Hell-fire Consider this O ye Christians wheresoever dispersed upon the face of the whole earth consider I say how far it is from all Justice and Charity that a new Faith should come dropping forth at mens pleasure which must adjudge Posterity to eternal death for Mis-believers whom the ancient Truth had willingly admitted into Heaven These new Points of a politick Religion are they indeed that have so much disturbed the peace of Christendome these are they that set at variance the mighty Potentates of the earth who otherwise perhaps would sit down in an happy Peace these are they that rend whole Kingdomes distract people dissolve Societies nourish Faction and Sedition lay wast the most flourishing Kingdomes and turn the richest Cities to dust and rubbish But should these things be so Do we think this will one day be allowed for a just warrant of so much war and bloodshed before the Tribunall of that supreme Judge of Heaven and earth Awake therefore now O ye Christian Princes and You especially King Lewis in whose eares these wicked counsels are so spightfully and bloodily whispered rouse up your self and see how cruell Tyranny seeks to impose upon your Majesty in a most mischievous manner under a fair pretence of Piety and Devotion They are your own native Subjects whom these malicious foreigners require to the slaughter yea they are Christs and will you imbrue your hand and sword in the blood of those for whom Christ hath shed his yea who have willingly lavished their own in the behalf of You and your great Father Hear I beseech thee O King who art wont amongst thine own to be instiled Lewis the Just If we did adore any other God any other Christ but thine if we aspired to any other Heaven embraced any other Creed any other Baptisme lastly if we made profession of a new Church built upon other foundations there were some cause indeed why thou shouldest condemn such Hereticks stabling in France to the revenging sury of thy flames If this thy people have wilfully violated any thing established by our common God or lawfully commanded by thee we crave no pardon for them let them smart that have deserved it is but just they should But do not in the mean time fall fiercely upon the fellow-servants of thy God upon thine own best Subjects whose very Religion must make them loyall suffer not those poor wretches to perish for some late upstart superfluous additions of humane invention and mere will-worship who were alwaies most forward to redeem Thine thy Great Fathers Safety and Honour with the continuall hazzard of their owne most precious lives Let them but live then by thy gracious sufferance by whose Valour and Fidelity thou now reignest But suppose they were not yours yet remember that they are Christians a title wherewith your style is wont most to be honored washed in the same Laver of Baptisme bought with the same price renewed by the same Spirit and whatsoever impotent malice bawle to the contrary the beloved Sons of the Celestiall Spouse yea the Brethren of that Spirituall Bride-groom Christ Jesus But they erre you will say from the Faith From what faith I beseech you Not the Christian surely but the Romish What a strange thing is this Christ doth not condemn them the Pope doth If that great Chancellour of Paris were now alive he would freely teach his Sorbon as he once did that it is not in the Popes power that I may use his owne word to hereticate any Proposition Yea but an Oecumenicall Council besides hath done it What Council That of Trent I am deceived if that were hitherto received in the Churches of France or deserved to be so hereafter Consult with your own late Authors of most undoubted credit they will tell you plainly how unjust that Council was yea how no Council at all It was only the Popes act whatsoever was decreed or established by that pack'd Conclave envassalled to the Seven hills Consider lastly I beseech you how the Reformed Christians stand in no other terms to the Papists then the Papists do to the Reformed Heresie is with equall vehemency upbraided on both sides But do we deale thus roughly with the followers of the Roman Religion Did we ever rage against the Popish Faith with fire and sword Was ever the crime of a poor misled conscience capitall to any soul You may finde perhaps but very seldome some audacious Masse-priest some firebrand of Sedition and contemner of our publick Laws to have suffered condign punishment But no Papist I dare boldly say ever suffered losse either of life or lim merely for his Religion
timbrels how shall we think those Angelical Spirits triumphed in meeting of the great Conqueror of Hell and Death How did they sing Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Surely as he shall come so he went and behold he shall come with thousands of his Holy Ones thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him From all whom methinks I hear that blessed applause Worthy is the Lamb that was killed to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and praise Praise and honour and glory and power be to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore And why dost not thou O my Soul help to bear thy part with that happy Quire of Heaven Why art not thou rapt out of my bosome with an extasie of joy to see this Humane nature of ours exalted above all the Powers of Heaven adored of Angels Archangels Cherubin Seraphim and all those mighty and glorious Spirits and sitting there crowned with infinite Glory and Majesty Although little would it avail thee that our Nature is thus honoured if the benefit of this Ascension did not reflect upon thee How many are miserable enough in themselves notwithstanding the Glory of their humane nature in Christ None but those that are found in him are the happier by him who but the Members are the better for the glory of the Head O Saviour how should our weakness have ever hoped to climb into Heaven if thou hadst not gone before and made way for us It is for us that thou the Fore-runner art entred in Now thy Church hath her wish Draw me and I shall run after thee Even so O Blessed Jesu how ambitiously should we follow thee with the paces of Love and Faith and aspire towards thy Glory Thou that art the way hast made the way to thy self and us Thou didst humble thy self and becamest obedient to the death even to the death of the Cross Therefore hath God also highly exalted thee and upon the same terms will not fail to advance us we see thy track before us of Humility and Obedience Oh teach me to follow thee in the roughest waies of Obedience in the bloody paths of Death that I may at last overtake thee in those high steps of Immortality Amongst those millions of Angels that attended this triumphant Ascension of thine O Saviour some are appointed to this lower station to comfort thine astonished Disciples in the certain assurance of thy no-less glorious Return Two men stood by them in white apparel They stood by them they were not of them they seemed Men they were Angels Men for their familiarity two for more certainty of testimony in white for the joy of thine Ascension The Angels formerly celebrated thy Nativity with Songs but we do not finde they then appeared in white thou wert then to undergoe much sorrow many conflicts it was the vale of tears into which thou wert come down So soon as thou wert risen the women saw an Angel in the form of a young man cloathed in white and now so soon as thou art ascended Two men cloathed in white stand by thy Disciples thy task was now done thy victory atchieved and nothing remained but a Crown which was now set upon thy head Justly therefore were those blessed Angels suited with the robes of light and joy And why should our garments be of any other colour why should oile be wanting to our heads when the eyes of our Faith see thee thus ascended It is for us O Saviour that thou art gone to prepare a place in those celestial Mansions it is for us that thou sittest at the right hand of Majesty It is a piece of thy Divine Prayer to thy Father that those whom he hath given thee may be with thee To every bleeding Soul thou saiest still as thou didst to Peter Whither I goe thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me hereafter In assured hope of this Glory why do I not rejoyce and beforehand walk in white with thine Angels that at the last I may walk with thee in white Little would the presence of these Angels have availed if they had not been heard as well as seen They stand not silent therefore but directing their speech to the amazed beholders say Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven What a question was this Could any of those two hundred and forty eyes have power to turn themselves off to any other Object then that Cloud and that point of Heaven where they left their ascended Saviour Surely every one of them were so fixed that had not the speech of these Angels called them off there they had set up their rest till the darkness of night had interposed Pardon me O ye Blessed Angels had I been there with them I should also have been unwilling to have had mine eyes pull'd off from that dear prospect and diverted unto you Never could they have gazed so happily as now If but some Great man be advanced to Honour over our heads how apt we are to stand at a gaze and to eye him as some strange meteor Let the Sun but shine a little upon these Dials how are they look'd at by all passengers Yet alas what can earthly advancement make us other then we are dust and ashes which the higher it is blown the more it is scattered Oh how worthy is the King of Glory to command our eyes now in the highest pitch of his Heavenly exaltation Lord I can never look enough at the place where thou art but what eye could be satisfied with seeing the way that thou wentest It was not the purpose of these Angels to check the long looks of these faithfull Disciples after their ascended Master it was onely a change of eyes that they intended of Carnal for Spiritual of the eye of Sense for the eye of Faith This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him goe into Heaven Look not after him O ye weak Disciples as so departed that ye shall see him no more if he be gone yet he is not lost those Heavens that received him shall restore him neither can those Blessed Mansions decrease his Glory Ye have seen him ascend upon the Chariot of a bright Cloud and in the clouds of Heaven ye shall see him descend again to his last Judgement He is gone can it trouble you to know you have an Advocate in Heaven Strive not now so much to exercise your bodily eyes in looking after him as the eyes of your Souls in looking for him Ye cannot O ye Blessed Spirits wish other then well to mankind How happy a diversion of eyes and thoughts is this that you advise If it be our sorrow to part with our Saviour yet to part with him into Heaven it is our comfort