confirm delusions but to testifie to truth and innocency therefore if he did provoke him to turn stones into bread it would be for a true testimony that he was the very Son of God If he do this miracle and be not the Son of God the eternal truth should confirm a lie which is impossible This was Satans cunning Philosophy and now you see the very nerves of his Argument Let me draw out one Corollary for your Instruction The first part of Satans engine was ut cognosceret to prove God a liar if he could I heard a voice say you are the beloved Son of God but are you so indeed This desire to litigate and quarrel with Gods truth made him fall into a strange doting ignorance almost incredible in so intelligent a substance What he that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a most vast capacity of understanding because of his spirituality and so many thousand years experience He that thought he could open the market of knowledge and sell what he pleased to our first Parents Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil that he should stagger and for a long time mistake the very foundation of all truth that Jesus was the Son of God Is not this passing wonderful Why this comes of it when any will bend their wits to object against the plain truth when it is manifest then God requites their iniquity with this dulness 2 Thes ii 1. For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie Strong delusion we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Paul and I had rather translate it the efficacy of errour Tentation is from the enemy the efficacy of Tentation is not from him but in the power of God So falshood is from the Devil but the efficacy of falshood that this error should prevail to seduce the Reprobate that is in the hand of God For if the efficacy and event of error were from the Tempter nothing would help us but that all men should be deluded The event and prevalency of errors comes from Gods permission upon them that would not obey the truth Let me put this now into your mind it is the fashion of the World to have mens persons in admiration some are carried away with the opinion of their learning and good life that walk not after the wholsom Injunctions of the Ceremonies and Discipline of our Church as Salvianus says very well Tantùm dicta existimant quantus est ipse qui dixit nec tam considerant quid legunt quà m cujus legunt They measure truth not in it self but by the opinion of him that defends it nor so much consider what it is they read as whose it is they read Purge out this leven I beseech you and remember when men would expound all things by their own private spirit God will turn their good gifts into vanity Likewise if some others stand upon it that there is no sort of Learning but abounds in the Church of Rome and why should not the most Learned wear the Garland Let them know this is as foolish an inference well considered as his in the Proverb that the Peacock must sing best of all birds because it had the fairest train Julian the most learned Emperour Galen the most learned Physician Porphyry one of the learnedst Philosophers all were Atheists and without God in the World The Novices of the Roman Colleges are sworn to particular opinions and to a particular belief and then study their course of Divinity to maintain it So it comes to pass They study to maintain a lye as Satan did against Christ and thereby they are catcht in strong delusions And let this suffice for the first general part of the Text That one end of these words which Satan cast forth was ut cognosceret to learn more perfectly that which he mistrusted before that Christ was the eternal Son of God And because he had more Hooks than one to his Angle remember that beside his curiosity to explore him his words likewise are full of malice to corrupt him Command that these stones be made bread The boldest and most flagitious attempt that ever was to make Christ sin Murdering of Sacred Princes devices to blow up the Majesty of an whole State conspiracy to root out whole Nations endeavouring to burn up an whole Empire with Nero betraying Christ himself to be crucified with Judas all these ugly sins not only single but put all together have less horror and impiety in them than this attempt to lie in wait to draw sin and impurity from the most pure God We cannot compare Satan so well as with himself therefore I go further the great rebellion of Lucifer for which he was first cast out of heaven made him not so guilty of high disobedience as this Proposition did to tempt Christ to Gluttony and Infidelity His first presumption is collected out of these words of Isaiah I will be like the most High but this presumption hath more rancor in it by far the most High shall fall into wickedness and be made like unto me Ero similis altissimo I will ascend as high as the glory of God so the evil Angel coveted his own perfection in excess but Altissimus erit similis mihi I will bring down the most High to trespass as I have done that is to covet Gods imperfection The very Angels are not pure in his sight says Job now this was the Devils practical gloss neither shall he be pure in the sight of the Angels But how foolish is the Serpent become the subtillest of all Creatures how foolish is he become because he will not understand the truth of God O Lord thou art purer than the heavens thou art Justice and Righteousness and Innocency it self and therefore the Church doth sing a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his honour Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts One Scripture says he cannot lie another Scripture that he cannot deny himself and another that he cannot be tempted Where was Satans prudence to make an impossible motion How had he forgot his cunning to pump for an iniquity out of the Well of everlasting purity Some pretension yet there was for this plot and some hope no question as the Jews cloak'd their own malice before Pilate with this excuse Had he not been a Sinner we had not brought him unto thee so there was some likelihood to make him offend as it appeared to Satan and surely thus he collected it If Joseph who was espoused to Mary be his Father I shall prevail whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh whatsoever is begotten by carnal generation is conceived in sin But if it be true that the Angel said unto Mary the Holy Ghost should over-shadow her yet the will of every man if he be true man is indifferent and apt of it self to turn to evil as well as good Now perhaps it was not
first observed it how Satan did clamber higher and higher in every Tentation and still changed his outward appearance to do the feat the better First as a man he did commiserate humane wants and necessities and insinuates the sin of Infidelity Secondly He transformed himself into an Angel of light and urgeth him to presumption and vain-glory In the last bout having now deceived himself that Christ was not the eternal Son of God he did truly manifest the Luciferian audaciousness and impudency and in his own shape he provokes the most holy one of God to most horrid Idolatry The Thief comes not but to steal says our Gospel and the Impostor of the world comes not but to deceive Totus quantus est mendacium est Every thing in him was lying and fiction and delusion The promises which he made were lying promises the pity which he pretended was lying pity the Scripture which he quoted as he quoted it was lying Scripture and the shape in which he came was a lying shape Alas that man who was made an excellent Creature after the Image of God should degenerate so much in all goodness that his shape should grow a fit coverture to cloak the couzenage of the Devil Might not this be the art of this our capital enemy That since God cursed the Serpent because the Devil came in his shape to tempt our first Parents so the Lord might be exasperated to curse mankind because his only Son was tempted to wickedness in the shape of man Beloved this inference from hence may be our instruction We know not in what form or transmutation Satan will come to seduce our souls therefore be wise as Serpents And since our own shape is not free from his Impostures as it follows in the next verse Mat. x. 17. Beware of men Take heed that beauty tempt you not to wantonness it is but dirt well tempered with bloud Let not pleasing words steal away your heart from the truth that is but to dance when the Devil Pipes Every man that speaks contrary to faith and holiness his mouth is become the instrument wherein Satan speaks his Oracles And so much for that circumstance how he disguised himself in the shape of man After this I will lay hold of one of the main parts of the Text. The Tempter had two ends in casting forth these words before our Saviour Vt cognosceret incognitum ut corrumperet cognitum First to learn more perfectly that which he terribly mistrusted whether Christ were the Son of God and upon this do depend some remarkable observations And to make this Point profitable I begin from hence that Satan had not yet perfectly discovered who our Saviour was and therefore he wrought in this Mine in the first Tentation to find it out Many of the Fathers do acknowledge that this was part of his business and St. Hillary doth well express it Erat Diabolo de metu suspicio non de suspicione cognitio The Devil being rather suspicious than clearly resolved took this course to find it out whether this were the Seed of the woman that should bruise the Serpents head And mark how his words lie to this purpose He did not say since you are hungry bid this stone be made bread that were to entice him to bare gluttony Nor thus you are the Son of God bid this stone be made bread but in a doubting irony If thou be the Son of God It is strange that a Spirit so subtil by nature so intellectual so vigilant to espy Christ in all his ways so able to understand Jacobs Prophesie that the Scepter was departed from Judah and therefore Shiloh should come should hold off so long and doubt of that which was clearly manifest There were some Divines in St. Hieroms time that took a middle way for their opinion how the Inferiour Furies of Hell did long before believe and tremble and had cast it up for certain that this was the Son of God but Beelzebub the Prince of Devils was so much blinded with malice more than all the rest that he continued a time after all the rest in ignorance and Infidelity But this is meerly their own fancy without the suffrage of the holy Scripture The darkness of unbelief was upon all the Angels of disobedience for Satan who is the accuser of the brethren and no doubt complaineth to God that many of his Elect are slow of belief hath this malicious slander retorted upon himself that after many evident tokens better known to him than to weak men he faltred and doubted shamefully as my Text says If thou be the Son of God This was like for like repayed unto him he blinds our hearts with sundry fallacies that we should not know good from evil and God blinded his understanding that he should not discern truth from falshood And that you may not marvel that the Tempter should be dubitative in so manifest a case and knew not which way to incline recollect one thing that did infatuate him he being the Angel of pride and judging all events according to the pitch of his own ambition how could it come into his mind that the Son of God would debase himself with so much humility And so it hath fared ever since those days nothing hath so much hardned their hearts who are slow of belief as pride and insolency For it is the arrogant conceit we have of our own wit which hinders sometimes that we do not subject reason to the knowledge of God I must be careful in this Point that one place of Scripture may not make another obscure especially to leave no shadow of contradiction between one Text and another In this business Jesus fasting forty days in the Wilderness the Devil seems not to understand perfectly that he was Christ the Lord. In the Synagogue of Capernaum Luk. iv 34. the unclean Spirit calls him by his name and title and Country Jesus of Nazareth I know thee who thou art the holy one of God So intelligent above any of the Jews that he is the first that ever called him a Nazarite Nor do I reckon upon these words so much that the evil Spirit said I know thee who thou art for Satan is a liar and must not be credited when he speaks truth But the Evangelist St. Luke says in his own person from the inspiration of God he suffered not the Devils to speak for they knew that he was Christ in the same Chapter verse 41. Beloved distinguish the times and the matter is reconciled Before the encounter of this Tentation the enemy knew him not Christs humility and extreme exinanition did shadow him that he was not discerned After the infamous repulse that Satan suffered in these Tentations and upon the admiration of some other subsequent miracles he was compelled to confess thou art he that art come to torment me and to destroy my Kingdom the holy one of God So Nazianzen exprobrates to the Arians how they resisted that
thy self down Let me discover another property of the Tempters out of these words that it is his art to bring a man up by little and little to some high place that so he may send him at once with his head downward as the Eagle carried the shell-fish aloft into the air to let it fall upon a Rock and crack in pieces First He made Herods Flatterers canonize him like some Deity It is the voice of God and not of man immediately he see him abased so low as to be eaten up of worms First he lifts up Adam with a conceit to be made like unto a God knowing good and evil to the very top of perfection to the intent he may be made like unto the beasts that perish First Nebuchadonosor admires his own greatness and excellency Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my Power and for the honour of my Majesty Presently he was driven from men into the Wilderness to eat grass like an Oxe All Tyrants and Usurpers that have held their dignity by ill means and lost it with great shame are the amplification of this matter many of them set up for so short a time and so hastily pulled out that it may appear to all men Satan meant that nothing but their ruin should be remembred Dionysius the Tyrant fell very far from the height of the Pinacle upon which he stood his Princely condition being altered into the life of a poor School-Master but for Heathen Examples Valerian the Emperour is sufficient to stand for all a Monarch at the height of the Roman Empire his name venerable at home and terrible abroad so accounted of for some good parts Vt puderet virum altius extollere says the Historian that modesty would not permit to extol any man more Well the great Enemy of the Church had raised him thus high to persecute the poor Christians very furiously for all his good qualities and then he gave him up into the hands of Sopores the Persian to be his Vassal his footstool and at last the subject of the extremest cruelty If the meditation hereof will not prick the Conscience of them that get advancement by Bribery by flattery by offering themselves to be instruments of base designs I know not what will terrifie them It is an easie matter to get the Devil lend you his hand to help you up but take heed he will pluck you back with a mischief The Edomites pretended good will to the Israelites but in the day of their calamity they cried Down with them down with them unto the ground This is the Lords manner when he means to exalt a man he will first humble him and cast him down the Devils method is quite contrary first exalt the man whom he means to cast down first mount them up to the clouds that he may swing them off to the bottom of the nethermost Pit As it is happy to have been miserable since the Lord will recompence the low estate of them that feared him so it is miserable to have been happy by wicked means for Satan will bring those to shame that have been promoted by him It was but a small descent for Christ to come down from a Pinacle of the Temple into the outward Court in respect of that great abasement which he did undergo for out Redemption he stept from the highest Heaven from the glory of the Godhead to be inclosed in a Virgins womb he humbled himself to the death even to the death of the Cross but did his Father leave him there No therefore he was highly exalted therefore he had a name given him above all names And all those that are conformable to his Ignominy and Passion shall be conformable to his Glorification If you find Joseph in the Prison read on and you shall find him the chief Ruler over all the Officers of Pharaoh Job was not left upon the dunghil but raised up again to be the mightiest of all the Inhabitants of the East The latter end of David was not to follow the Ewes great with young but to be advanced above all the house of Israel Or if this World do not make the righteous amends for their humiliation trust unto him that cannot lie how for a momentary affliction they shall have a far abundant exceeding weight of glory This is Gods liberality many that are last shall be first But this is the inconstancy of the Devils favours many that are first shall be last The root of a tree the longer it grows it shoots deeper and deeper to the Center of the earth so misfortune puts a period quickly to the prosperity of all those that are the Sons of Belial the longer they stand the more they are in declension the faster they fall down But the righteous are like the young Plants the longer they grow the more they shoot up their branches toward Heaven Behold my Beloved here is a double fortune to be run and the election is yours Will you begin from the lowest foundation of humility and so rise up by the hand of God Or will you hoist up to the Battlements of the Temple to a Pinacle of Presumption Quando quis estimaverit se consistere in sanctimoniae summitate positus est super pinnam templi says Aquinas He that thinks he is as holy as holiness can make him he is on the top of all the Temple I beseech you make a wise choice No man can fall from humility to do himself hurt Non habet unde cadat A man may fall from a Pinacle of vain opinion and be dash'd in pieces This Point cannot be left before one Observation more close it up beware of leaping from the top of the Temple to the bottom go down by steps and fair degrees remember I pray that it is Satans motion Desilire non descendere to skip down from the Pinacle to the ground and not to come down by even paces in order God hath ordained means to bring every good end to pass he that thinks to jump into the end without using the leasure and use of the means flies upon the Devils wings he goes not in that line which the Word of God directs him The Apostle speaks of some that make hast to be rich they will not expect to thrive by honest labour and by competent gains but it must be had presently by any Art or Device This is quite to skip that course which Justice and a good Conscience prescribes The holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper is many times made ready for us but there are many preparations required that you should make your selves ready for it There must go before a due examination both of your Sins and your Repentance a remembrance of Christs Passion and a good spirit to apply his bloudshedding to your own benefit a charitable reconciliation of your self to God and man Now if you will take one of the Devils strides he will bid you pass over
drawn by the copy of the Devils Charters impoverishing the right owner to give a stranger not robbing Peter as we say to pay Paul but robbing knowledge to pay ignorance robbing the Pulpit to feed lazie Lubbers in a word it was to pluck the fleece from the Sheeps back to keep the Wolf warm Antonius de Rosellis a Canonist of Naples defends this Position that the Pope as he is Christs Vicar on earth hath a right to all things in this world and may take from one whatsoever he will and give it to another without fraud or injurie This Book is licensed in Italy and never found fault with by the Inquisition I shall meet with this business more aptly when I come to open the next point where Satan boasts that he would give the Son of God all the Kingdoms of the World yet in the mean time is it not worth an objection that this power and privilege to give all things cannot belong to the Devil since another hath claimed it in print and Antonius de Rosellis proves it for his Client out of this Text Henceforth will I make you Fishers of men The scurvy luck of it is that those words were not spoken to Peter only for then it seems to be a Fisher of men had receiv'd this gloss to sweep all into his Net that the whole Generation of mankind doth enjoy upon the face of the earth But this is apparent here are two that lay claim they can give all these things to any man who shall carry it but perhaps there is no jealousie between them and they will agree among themselves Some man would imagin so from this Text the Dragon hath given to the Beast with seven heads all his power his seat and authority Revel xiii 2. And so much for that observation Somewhat else must be in it that Satan unaskt and unsought to is so ready to part with all that he can give God is very liberal and opens his hand and fills all things living with plenteousness but sayes the Apostle dives est in omnes qui invocant eum he is rich unto all that call upon him We must ask and seek and pray unto him good reason for it and then he will give us a blessing And is this greater dealer of riches in my Text the Devil more forward in liberality than God for he past his word voluntarily unpetitioned all these things will I give thee There is some guile in this you may be sure it cannot be otherwise Beloved the Lord God defers not to be gracious he stakes down and puts us in possession of his benefits and no good thing doth he withhold from them that lead a godly life But the Devil makes his adherents stay and look for reversions when they fall he dodges and deludes men with vain hopes of the time to come he will give all things let such as Ephraim take his word that fill their belly with the East wind for he doth give nothing He called Christ the Son of God in the two former Tentations do you think if he had riches or honors to dispose the Sons of God should be the better for his liberality ne're a whit A poor Philosopher that could get nothing among hard-hearted rich men said they were like trees hanging over the side of a rock which had fruit in great abundance but Vultures and unclean birds eat it up no man could come at it to gather it So whosoever fares the better for Nabols wealth David shall be sure to go without if he ask him any thing but it may be they shall have a fair promise if they can keep life with that like this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this future tense in my Text he is not furnisht for the present but dabo I will give thee Why are his Charriot wheels so long a-coming sayes the Mother of Sisera when she lookt for her Son that was slain and dead So with much vexation to be deluded shall the wicked say where is my hire which the Tempter promised when shall I receive my wages Oh it will come anon says this delayer stay for it and you shall speed at last Doth God deal so deceitfully with those that trust in him no says David I have been young and now am old yet I never saw the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their bread For although the plentiful reward of the faithful is not on earth but in heaven yet they have a testimony of his liberality in this life that he doth deposit somewhat in earnest and lets us not build onely upon promises carnalis populus si parva non acciperet magna non crederet We are flesh and frailty and must have a little in hand that we may the better believe we shall receive an hundred fold hereafter Mark now the unequal wayes of the wicked who grumble at God as the Apostle sayes for delaying his second coming and that the glorification of the resurrection is not revealed whereas all things else which the Prophets have foretold in Scripture are exactly fulfilled and nothing but Christs second appearance remains to be revealed and yet these worldlings will believe the Devil without repining and yet among all his promises from nequaquam moriemini downward he hath performed nothing The first time that ever he pawn'd his word to mankind in three particulars he broke it every title 1. Ye shall not dye yet we are all become tenants to the grave and no man can escape death 2. Ye shall be as Gods far otherwise we are become as beasts 3. Ye shall know good and evil but alas we are blind and ignorant that refuse the good and take the evil And are not these promises as faithless all things will I give thee yes undoubtedly he would take away all that we have and all that we hope for and gives that satisfaction which Cesar Borgia did when he drew many of the noble family of the Vrsin together upon pretense of good will and then slew them sayes this arch-Hypocrite it was their fault that believed me St. Chrysostom had no faith in the Devils asseveration but speaks thus upon my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he makes shew that he will give much to man his intent is to rob him of all Will you reap this fruit from the observation before I leave it be faithful of your word and huddle not out promises you care not what which you never purpose to perform that 's the Devil's dealing If you separate your word from your meaning you separate your honesty from your conscience It is the common sin that follows buying and selling God be merciful to you your â—ords fall from you like leaves in Autumn the owner cares not which way the wind blows them The first thing that you break is your word and many times the whole estate breaks after it David asks who shall dwell in the holy tabernacle of the most High and he answers three times in
from another at the first asking and never draw sword for it nor give battel to resist it It was a short Motto which Pompey gave touching his speedy victories in Asia yet the work was longer a doing than so Veni vidi vici he came towards them and looked them in the face and vanquisht them Yet Satan pretended to make briefer work than this Motto execrable spirit he dares to assume that which is proper to the Almighty to speak the word and the whole World should have a new face of government and that he could remove Kings as Christ said his Disciples by faith should remove mountains be thou cast into the sea and it should be gone Perhaps he remembers how suddenly himself was deposed from glory I saw Satan fall like lightning sayes our Saviour which flasheth through the air and is out before you could think of it and when God pleaseth all the Kingdoms of the Earth shall have as sudden a transmutation when he shall come in glory and take all power and dominion into his own hand to judg both the quick and the dead But in the mean time the Thrones of Kings are established in Heaven the powers that are they are from God and it is not in the strength of Satan to confuse those Governments which God hath put in order therefore he is a lyar with an hyperbole of impudencie to say all this power will I give thee c. Yet by these words Ambition is accused to be an unstinted sin for why should Satan offer all but that he knows it to be an unlimited passion which is not satiated with one Crown but would subject every corner of the world unto it self The Sun can endure the Moon to partake with it in giving light unto the earth the Sun to govern the Day and the Moon to govern the Night but amongst these proud imperious Spirits some can endure no Superiour and some no equal Every one that is not their Vassal is held their Enemy Fire is a raging Element and would turn all other Elements into it self if God should not temper and asswage it So if God should not raise up Adversaries to oppose some mens Ambition they would bruise the four quarters of the world with a rod of Iron Is it not enough to write this word under a terrestrial Sphere for an Empreza of large Dominions Sol mihi semper lucet it is always day in some of his Realms if the Sun set in one of his Kingdoms it is shining in another Is not this enough I say But further to betray a mind that aims at all these Letters were engraven upon a Gate at Rome at a solemn time of Triumph Vnus Deus unus Papa unus rex catholicus I will not interpret them out of Latine for I hope they shall never be turned into English I think if God should create a new earth which never was made before some would lay claim to it As Fr. Victoria and sundry other Divines stretcht their learning to prove it out of the Gospel that the whole Tract of America possess'd before by millions of Owners but newly discovered to Europe did every whit belong to the King their Master The cares the anxieties the watchings that a good Ruler suffers to keep a small part of the earth which God hath given him in Justice and the love of true Religion The Eagerness the Fury the Phrensie that the Ambitious hath to clasp and compass all that God hath made here beneath which is more wide and ample by far than it is possible for one mans forcast and providence to keep in order None shall be more willing than Satan to make one man Lord of all for that is the ready way to mar all And when that enemy of our peace hath stoln away our content he cares not what we compass though it were all the power and glory in the world for without it we shall seem losers to our selves and such as are always wanting When Eve was Lady and Mistress of the whole world without a Competitor yet because there was a Godship higher than that estate she was not satisfied with her portion but would try conclusions to be like unto God knowing good and evil But to contract this Point I give it this minatory farewel He that extends his Ambition to get all power and all glory he that knows no top in that honour that he would mount to shall be cast down into misery that hath no bottom into the bottomless pit It is but late that I told you in a former Sermon upon this Text that when the Tempter made an overture to Christ of all the Riches in the Universe that the gift was not more spacious than unjust for it cannot be supposed how one man should be seized of all that is in the world by his proper right but by ejecting all Possessors in the world and respectively every private man from that Inheritance which he held before And that the wicked one may be constant to himself at all times alike stark naught he deals worse in this half of his liberality than in the former for if he intend to make Christ the Catholick Monarch of the world and give him all the power and glory of it it must need fall in that all the Kings and Princes of the world must be deposed from their Soveraignty and strike sail to the new erected A discovery not to be passed in silence It hath been defended by many Pens of late that Gregory the Seventh was the first that ever broach'd the Doctrine and Practice together that the Anointed of the Lord might be unking'd and stript of all their Royaltie by the effulminations of the Romans Pontife Loe you now that the learned of the Protestants should be so much over-seen in Antiquity for here is a Classical Author in my Text that holds that opinion about a thousand years a little over or under before Hildebrand had his honour For that Gregory the Seventh flourished much about a thousand years after Christ that very time which the Spirit of God said should be fulfilled and then Satan should be let loose after that one thousand years for a little season But as I said Hildebrand was not the first broacher of that disloyal Paradox here is his chief in my Text and to confirm what I say Matthew Paris our own Historian of great fame avers that the said Pope at his death which was in banishment cried out of his own wicked ways and treacherous Principles against his Lord the Emperour and confessed that the Devil set him on to disturbe the whole world with mutiny Yet how little the Successors in the Papacy have profited by his repentance I will tell you by that which is disputed daily in the School of one Tyrannus that I may allude to that of St. Luke Acts xix 9. Those Dogmatists are divided three several ways Some consciencious Romanists have taught that the Pope may not at
Cause which was a Cause before all time and then with that Cause which was a Cause in time Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God What is this determinate counsel what is this foreknowledg how was Christ delivered through those means these are the first Doctrins to be opened Counsel or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle is to canvass and to consider doubts discreetly and providently before some action is to be effected and to conclude out of those doubts well weighed what is best to be done that is it which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or understanding 't is very true this is the way and progress of mans wit to run through uncertain objections and at last to come to clear determinations and counsel among us is a rational remedy against rash and precipitate proceedings beware to think that these rules do conclude Almighty God there is counsel in God not by way of deliberation and discourse but because his infinite wisdom hath decreed all things both which way they shall tend and the bounds which they shall not pass and that 's the event of counsel Concilium dicitur non propter inquisitionem sed propter certitudinem cognitionis says Aquinas that is counsel is attributed to God not because He doth advise and demur much less because He doth require the suffrages and opinions of others but forasmuch as He hath established all things how they should be effected in the fulness of time therefore that Order and Decree which is the upshot of counsel among men is called to help the infirmness of our capacity counsel in the Most High Damascen was so scrupulous in this that he chose words on purpose to destinguish between God and Man In Deo est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resolution as you would say not a consultation for all things are manifest to him at once both of things that are and things that shall be nay of things that are only possible in themselves and never shall be But St. Paul prevented Damascen and avoids that distinction by putting those words together to make up one sense Ephes 1.11 Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will and Counsel are united in the operations of God when you hear of his counsel conceive the wonderful and mysterious wisdom of God when you hear his will is joyned unto it observe his free power and authority it was of old the description of a Tyrant that his will was law sic volo sic jubeo he managed all things according to the decree of his will but if you lookt for counsel you should find nothing but rashness and for the most part injustice but in all the Statutes and Ordinances of God there is counsel in his will summa ratio verity and judgment in all things that he hath appointed yet summa libertas nothing impels God to any Decree but his own free will and election tempering all things with wisdom and justice God doth decree both the means and the end of all things and hath set them a Law as David says that they shall not pass In the next place some light must be given to this other term in the Text the Foreknowledg of God to foresee a thing before it be actually effected comes to pass in a threefold manner either by the insight of natural causes So Artists can foretel at what day and hour Eclipses of the Sun and Moon will happen or by rational sagacity as a prudent man can espy how affairs will succeed when a good foundation is laid or by Divine inspiration when the Lord from above doth give a spirit to his Prophets to behold things to come as if they were present before their eyes These three are thus laid down after the measure of our own understanding but when we speak of Gods foreknowledg it is of another fadom for first all things that were that are that shall be are present to him at one instant those successions of time past present and to come which are differences to us are none at all to God his knowledg which is eternal reacheth with one simple act even to the producing of effects in time without all variation and therefore is called Prescience very improperly and with much dissimilitude from humane ways of prescience 2. Our foresight is bare foreknowledg not able to put forward a good event and as unable to prevent a calamity Abraham could truly presage that Israel should come out of Egyptian bondage but he could not hasten the time of their return Isaiah could foretel that Judah should be led away into captivity but he could not mitigate their bondage but Gods foreknowledg hath his hand and power always annexed unto it for whereas my Text says Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God St. Peter says Acts iv 28. that Herod and Pilate and the Gentils were gathered together against Christ to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done He doth not only foresee good how like it is unto himself and evil per dissimilitudinem sui how unlike it is unto himself but his providence intervenes and manageth that evil which he foresees will arise out of the corrupt and depraved will of the creature to his own glory It were an Epicuraean dream to imagin there is such a dull barren knowledg of things to come in God as should not interpose but leave all things to their own course and swing therefore Stapleton had no such just cause to declaim against Beza for rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place not Praescience but Providence God did not provide that is decree it antecedently that Judas should sin and betray Christ but since the Creature will decline from good consequently the Lord decrees the evil man shall not be restrained but shall be suffered to heap vengeance upon his own head Let Stapleton chafe at Estius a great Doctor of their own that says Prescience in this place stands for Predestination him being delivered by the determinate counsel and praedestination of God Now Providence is the ordaining of all things to a good end but Predestination is the ordaining of Gods chosen Portion to a blessed end I am sure Tremelius for Foreknowledg doth translate it Providence out of the Syrian Paraphrast and do but mark the scope of this place and you will find that Prescience here is annext with Providence For whereas the Jews thought that Christ had faln into their hands through unability of defending himself from his Enemies St. Peter beats down that error that Gods determinate Counsel and Providence was in the fact but that had been a very weak Apology to say that God foresaw it long before And so much concerning these simple terms to wit the determinate counsel and
comfort could the children have we had been all like Esau afflicted and desperate when we had no share in the birth-right no part in the blessing of our Father The Israelites that toil'd like Gally-slaves under the works of the Law had their New Moons and their Solemn Feasts of Trumpets and Tabernacles had many other gaudy days which carried a shew of gladness but indeed there was no solid consolation in them they wanted a Christmas-day the Nativity of a Saviour to make all chearful their pleasantness was like the singing of a bird fast lockt in a cage sometimes it chants a sweet note yet flutters and is always unquiet because it is under captivity Therefore it is to them that Amos denounceth that heavy note chap. 8.10 The Lord will turn your feasts into mourning but for our sakes the message is transpos'd and the Lord will turn our mourning into an everlasting feast So said the Angel not only to a few Shepherds as in the former verse but to all that watch over their souls as they did over their flocks Fear not c. It is very manifest therefore that the scope of my Text bends to this point how Christ made flesh as this day in the similitude of man that he might redeem that nature from the curse of his Fathers wrath which he had taken into the union of his Person I say how the Son of God for our sakes incarnate is our crown and our rejoycing the consummation of all our felicity which thus I prove by a true division of the parts To that eternal happiness in which we shall rejoyce before God for ever two things say the Schoolmen very rightly do equally concur Omnis miseria excluditur omne desiderium expletur all misery shall be excluded all desire shall be satiated and both these two are most remarkable in this Angelical congratulation First the depulsion or sending of all manner of evil and misery from our blessed estate fear not Secondly the inclusion of all those joys and solaces that can be askt that 's laid open in Evangelizo good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Privatively the messenger brought no discomfort nay positively he brought comfort which twain put together make up the complement of our final beatitude In the first general branch wherein the Angel promiseth a deliverance or award from all evil that might make the Shepherds sorrowful I consider these particulars for the explication 1. What they should not fear 2. How they should not fear 3. Why they should not fear in the first they are incourag'd that three things be not dreadful unto them Splendor Angelicus propria indignitas legis maledictio tremble not either at the heavenly glory that shone round about them nor be dejected at their unworthiness nor be affrighted at the threatnings and maledictions of the Law In the second we may consider a natural fear which may be too passionate and immoderate they must cast off that and there is a worldly sorrow or fear which is altogether unprofitable they must fly that but there is a religious reverential fear which is not passio but donum not a passion of flesh and blood but a gift of the Holy Spirit they must pray for that The next interrogatory was why they should not fear and that for two reasons Propter nuntium propter nuntiatum first in a less principal respect because an Angel came to comfort them but chiefly in a more principal regard because Christ was born to be their comfort The second general branch abounds much above this where not only evil is dispell'd but a whole box broken and all the oyl of gladness poured upon their head wherein you may note first the Angels Trumpet with which he proclaims his errand ecce behold it then the errand consisting in no less than seven parts of Benediction 1. Ecce ego says Gabriel Behold I bring unto you the terms were much amended with Heaven and us that an Angel came upon a peaceable message 2. Ecce Evangelizo he was no Law-giver that was terrible but an Evangelist 3. The sweet air of the Gospel hath some harsh tidings to take up the Cross and endure unto blood and death but these were tidings of joy 4. Joys are of several sizes this is a great one nay none so great 5. Joys and great ones are quickly done this is gaudium quod erit joy that shall be and continue 6. A man may be a conduit-pipe to transmit joy to others and have no benefit himself this is gaudium vobis joy to you to every ear that hears it 7. A good nature would not engross a blessing but desires to have it diffused and so was this gaudium omni populo joy to all people None of these many circumstances can be omitted for I must be faithful in making this rehearsal Sermon as I may call it and omit nothing of that which the Angel hath preacht before me Now let us begin again with every parcel divided asunder The Angel said unto them fear not what should they not fear first non a splendore divino let not their hearts be troubled because the glory of the Lord shone round about them Sore eyes are distempered at much light and it is a sign there is some darkness within us all which loves not to be discover'd that the best of us all are much perplext if any extraordinary brightness flash upon us A glorious splendor fill'd the mountain where Christ was transfigur'd and it did amuse Peter James and John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who carry the name of the chief Apostles that they knew not what they spake Out of St. Pauls own mouth concerning his conversion Acts 22.6 Suddenly from heaven there shone a great light about me and I fell with my face unto the ground Well might the Psalmist say his lightnings gave shine unto the world the earth trembled and was afraid Ever ever shall we be afraid of any surpassing measure of light in this life because our deeds are darkness Especially the Shepherds hearts did mis-give them that the Lord himself was in this marvellous light it is his decking and his garment when he comes forth in Majesty Thou deckest thy self with light as with a garment Now you know Elias a man of mighty courage covered his face with a mantle when a still small voice passed by his ears and the Lord was in the voice then it were strange if poor Shepherds should not quake when they were perswaded that the Lord was in the light that shin'd upon them A learned Expositor confirms what I say Erat claritas creata praeseferens divinam Majestatem it was a splendor of glory newly made on purpose which did bear the evident shew of no created Spirit but of a Divine Majesty And ever since Adam was diffident of himself in the Garden or Eden and confessed in this wise Gen. 3.10 extimui I was afraid and hid my self ever since that
commanded to be made unless he had dominion over them that is unless he were Lord over them before they were made Rom. iv he calleth things that are not as things that are therefore he hath authority as a Lord over things that are not as much as over things that are The fair conclusion of it is the actual relation of the Creatures to his dominion began in time but their subjection to his will and power is for ever therefore God is the Lord from all eternity Whatsoever distinction may be put between these names yet when we praise God let us do as Zachary doth joyn them both together when we confess him let us do so likewise as Jonas did I am an Hebrew who worship the Lord God that made heaven and earth When we say our Belief let us do the same even as the Nicene Fathers did before us I believe in one God and in one Lord Jesus Christ And if you please your selves to distinguish accurately upon such Titles because St. Paul hath said that there be Gods many and Lords many let us distinguish between them and this supreme one the Lord God of Israel who is blessed for ever more Christ says the Scripture calleth them Gods to whom the word of God came Joh. x. 34. That Scripture is Psal lxxxii 6. I have said ye are Gods and ye are all the children of the most high From thence and from my Text you may state a profitable difference 1. Dixi I have said ye are Gods he hath said it and that made them so unless he had Godded them they had had no such pre-eminence What they have it is by entitling and nuncupation 2. Dixi Dii estis there are many of those Gods not only every Prince and Ruler chalengeth it by his Crown but every Christian hath his interest in it by adoption of filiation So I cited it from the mouth of our Saviour before the Scripture hath said they are Gods to whom the Word of God came 3. Estis ye are for a while ye are and after a while ye shall go from hence and be no more seen ye shall die like men but the true God abideth for ever 4. These heathen Semi-gods these that carry that badge upon earth shall not only die like men but like sinful men for it follows in the Psalm that when they fall God shall arise to judge the earth after they have judged they shall be judged upon it hereafter how they have judged But O man thou must not reply against the God of heaven his judgments are indisputable 5. The ever blessed God is praised in every thing that pertains unto him he is praised in all places of his dominion he is praised in all his works He hath done all things well say the people of Christ but among the actions of the best men Sunt bona sunt quaedam mediocria sunt mala plura Among some good there is much evil among some flourishing sprigs of praise there are divers dead boughs of frailty 6. These Nuncupative Gods preside over Civil Governments each of them is a golden head over his own Political body but Christ only is head of the whole Church from whence the whole body increaseth with the increase of God he alone is the Lord. And it is likewise upon some remarkable appropriation that the Psalmist says the Lord is his name he bears it certainly with many notorious marks of difference from all the Lordlings in the world First The dominion of man is joyned with some servitude in the Master for he that stands in need is a servant to his own necessities and the Master stands in need of the drudgery of the labouring man as much or more perhaps than that drudge stands in need of the wages of the Master But all our service is of no use or benefit to the King of heaven I said unto the Lord thou art my God my goods are nothing unto thee Psal xvi and therefore says St. Austin God did not make the world from all eternity to shew that he did not want the help of his Creature Secondly All things serve the Lord above nothing is hidden from the Scepter of his dominion but man in the highest Office upon earth is confined to a small scantling of authority he can command the body of his Vassal but not his soul He cannot command his Grass to grow or his Trees to bear or his Cattel to encrease or the weather to be seasonable But as the people said in admiration of the Miracles of the Son of God Who is this that commandeth the Winds and Seas and they obey him Thirdly All the Lordship upon earth is subalternate and dependant from a greater command Masters do that which is just unto your Servants knowing that you also have a Master in heaven Col. iv There is but one Lord and none but he that is responsive to no other the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Our Saviour though an unscrutable Abyssus of humility assumed that unto himself Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am Joh. xiii 13. Such a Lord to whom all the Sons of men do bow and obey Such a Lord that though he were Davids Son yet David in spirit calleth him Lord The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstoole Lord of all things by the Essence of his Godhead Lord of all things in his Manhood by the Hypostatical Union but by special interest Lord of all those whom he redeemed with his most precious bloud Lord God of Israel in which numbers as soon as ever he believed Thomas concluded himself saying My Lord and my God As we have the Humanity of Christ expressed in the two subsequent actions so we have as surely his Divinity set forth in these Titles the Lord God of Israel But that God that filleth the heaven of heavens and that Lord who hath stretcht out the line of his power over the whole earth he is Canton'd in this Text to a little Region of the earth but a Molehill in respect of the extent of his Majestie the Lord God of Israel It was not with Zachary the Priest in this elegant Canto as it useth to be with other Poets who out of affectation do strain their Poetry to make honourable mention of their own Country where there was neither cause nor merit But this holy Prophet had sufficient warrant from the Spirit which cannot err to nominate him the Patron of this people rather than of any other the God of Israel and that for two reasons Propter notitiam verbi propter promissiones seminis benedicti First The Oracles of the Scriptures were committed to them and God was not truly worshipped any where but in the Synagogues of the Hebrews and therefore says the Psalmist Notus Deus in Israele God is well known in Israel there they knew him that he was to be adored that he
Ordination shall be necessary for us for nothing is necessary in it self but as the Lord hath decreed and made it so Wherefore this is my first Proposition That the use of Baptism is simply necessary to a true Church and where it is not in use as among Jews and Mahometans that alone is enough to defie them that they are not members of that body whereof Christ is the head It is not to be opposed that the due administration of the Sacraments is an inseparable note of the Church For the Church being an outward company of Professors that depend upon the grace of God How can it outwardly be discerned that we depend upon him unless we accustom our selves to the outward means that seal and assure his blessings unto us Touching Baptism therefore it is necessary to a company of Believers who make a Church it is so necessary that they could give no evident token of their Christianity to men if that mark of our initiation into the visible Church were omitted Though Baptism as I will shew instantly is not simply necessary for the invisible incorporation of Infants in to Christ yet it is certain that the sprinkling of water gives them that visible incition whereby they are ingrafted into him That must be our ordinary practice or else we are none of his flock he is none of our Shepherd In the description of Paradise we read of two things that were in it Pleasant Rivers of waters and Trees which did abound with fruit for sustenance So the Church in whose blessings Paradise is restored unto us hath spiritual sustenance for life in the Lords Supper and water of Regeneration in the other Sacrament Without these two it is no more it self and therefore the Church of God in general may say I have need to be baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a necessity laid upon me My next Proposition consists of these terms Suppose that there are some grown to years of knowledge able to discern between good and evil who from their birth were Paynims Mahometans altogether ignorant in the truth of Salvation but at last the light of heaven hath shined upon them and by the preaching of the Word hath wrought upon their hearts to believe such Converts must desire to be wash'd in the Sacrament of water and confess that they have need and that they would be baptized First I say they must desire it cordially and with all the affection of their mind If it be not the only Lesson of the Gospel yet I am sure it is the main drift of Christ and his Apostles to teach all men to attain to Salvation by humility Therefore to pluck down our high imaginations see the admirable wisdom of Gods Dispensations he hath made man subject to those creatures which are much beneath himself that they should be the sanctified instruments to make him partaker of everlasting life Naaman the Syrian thought great scorn at first to make use of an whole River to recover his Leprosie Now leâ—t any man should have such insolent thoughts that he would not be beholding to small things for his salvation they that will be heirs of heaven must come to a Font and be glad of a little sprinkling in token that Christs bloud will cleanse them from their sins They must kneel and fall down likewise at Gods Table to pick up the crumbs and to taste a little of his banquet of bread and wine And he that despiseth these Elements as poor rubbish for so great a purpose he despiseth God himself and his heart is not right with the Lord. It is an essential propriety of faith to long for the Sacraments even as the Hart thirsteth after the Rivers of waters And he that sets those Mysteries at a low price as if it were not material to his souls benefit whether he used them or no the Devil hath pust him up to destroy him he wants the true life of Faith and is given over to the captivity of Satan I say no more than God hath denounced against the uncircumcised Gen. xvii 13. My Covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting Covenant the uncircumcised man-child shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant Beloved if an Israelites child died before the eighth day which the Lord appointed for Circumcision that did not offend the Lord neither was the child accounted out of the Covenant but if an Israelite of ripe years or a stranger within his gates did despise Circumcision that soul was cut off in the anger of the Lord. My third Proposition touching Converts of ripe age is this that if they desired Baptism and were prevented by the suddenness of death the Lord will accept the desire of their Faith and their soul shall not suffer for the want of Baptism Two Texts in the New Testament imply a strict command that we must all be baptized if we desire to be entred into the Covenant of grace yet I will draw from them that they are not altogether without limits and mitigation Mar. xvi 16. They are our Saviours words He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark with what wariness the words are repeated not thus he that is not baptized shall perish only the other member is taken into the threatning He that believeth not shall be damned To be an unbeliever to avoid the Sacrament out of disdain and not to be prevented by necessity that is the crime which according to our Saviours words shall not be unrevenged Hear in another place what he presseth more strictly upon Nicodemus Joh. iii. 5. Vnless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Here is no time limited but it is spoken as if instantly the institution of Baptism were in force and that from thenceforth no man could plead his right to the Kingdom of heaven without it Yet we know the soonest that it took place was not till anon after his Resurrection when the Disciples had the word given Go and baptize all Nations c. For as he said elsewhere Joh. vi 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud ye have no life in you the words run in the Present tense yet he did not perfectly declare what he meant nor put in force till he eat his last Supper with his Disciples So it appears that Text before cited Vnless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit is not without limitation and the next verse clears the matter on this sort That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit where we see the Spirit alone is able to regenerate a man and not always necessarily both water and the Spirit Bernard in his 77 Epistle to Hugo writes more diligently I think than any before him in this argument He proves from the confession of the
licet sometimes Go and do harm upon the earth I will permit thee that thou be a lying Spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets Non merito malitiae ejus sed transgressionis humana data est ei hujusmodi potestas says a Schoolman Not for the good that he hath done but for the much evil that we have done He is made a Prince of the world therefore turn unto the Lord and he will quickly cancel Satans Commission A Tragedian upon the Roman Theater repeating this verse Nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es the Auditors did all apply it immediately to Pompey surnamed the Great thou art grown to the name of great by our baseness and servile flattery So we have made our arch enemy a great tyrant by our rebellion and iniquity Therefore do you but cry out De profundo clamavi out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord and the Lord will bind him that hath bound us in our sins in the bottomless pit I have expatiated thus far upon the condition malice number and efficacy of these spiritual wickednesses in high places Now I restrain my self to meditate how at this time Satan chose out Christ for his object Our Saviour was not touch'd upon by the Tentations of the World or of the Flesh but he was tempted of the Devil And St. Cyprian gives a sweet reason for it Honestiùs cum spiritu quà m cum carne luctamur nemo libidinum morsus evasit illaesus A man may preserve his holiness and integrity and yet encounter the Devil No man is troubled with the concupiscence of the World or of the Flesh but he comes off with some detriment You shall know what all these three tentations are severally and then mark if it be not true First For the tentation of the World that is when some unlawful desire is stirred up in a man to wish inordinately some things in the world The world therefore is said to tempt by casting objects in our way which are occasions to make us stumble and fall as the shadow in the water made the Dog let go his piece of flesh says he in the Fable Secondly For the tentation of the flesh that is sometimes taken for all manner of wrong desire that opposeth reason or faith so Idolatry Witchcrafts Heresies Seditions are called the works of the flesh Gal. v. 20. but properly it is our affection towards some sensual things against reason or the Word of God either in the avoidance of some evils of punishment which should be sustained or in coveting some pleasures which should be avoided According to St. Pauls stimulus in carne whereof I spake before Both these you see leave some mark and impression of evil behind them for sin is sin in the first suggestion and could in no wise be competible to Christ who was a Lamb without blemish in all respects And whereas Satan propounded stones to be made bread and all the glory of the kingdoms of the World Divines do rightly distinguish Christ was not tempted of the world or of the flesh Ad ea tamen quae carnis mundi sunt but he was sollicited by Satan to enjoy the pomp of the world and to embrace those pleasures wherein the flesh lusteth against the Spirit Thirdly It remains alone since he would be an High Priest tempted with like infirmities unto us that he should be tempted of the Devil for that assault might happen with all the might and main that Satan could direct it and yet Christ be blameless and undefiled according to that Text The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Joh. xiv 30. That sin doth not follow as a necessary effect from such a tentation of the Devil I prove it two ways 1. From that common rule Peccatum in actu proprio consistit That which is the act of another cannot be called my sin my sin must be my own proper act Therefore if the suggestion of Satan had no success with me it was his envy but the resistance shall be imputed to me for innocency 2. I prove it from another rule speaking only of actual sins Nemo peccat propter id quod vitare non potest No man is put into such a plunge that sin is inevitable that he could not choose but sin Who can hinder it that Satan shall not so much as offer to seduce me I cannot avoid the attempts of the evil Spirit but through Christ I may avoid to consent unto him It is impossible but scandals and tentations should come but woe unto him by whom they come The difference between us and our High Priest is this Satan creeps into us by invisible insinuations he slides into the inward closet of our breast and there begets polluted imaginations libidinous delights wicked designs and intentions There he gets in says Biel though we perceive not any such guest in the inward room Sicut lumen penetrat in profundum aeris ibidem manet As the light is transfused through the air though the air feel it not A fit similitude for the Angel of darkness But the tempter came to Christ not by an inward induction but in an outward visible appearance And his presence or his speech were no more contagious to Christ than when the Sons of God stood before the Lord Satan also was among them and had leave to speak his mind against that holy patient man Job i. 7. I will conclude this Point and begin that which shall end all Jam. i. 13. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man He cannot be tempted with evil therefore that exteriour pulsation of the Devil was no ensnarement to Christ and Chrysologus makes this use of my Text take heed ye repine not at God for the author of evil and tentation they are the works of Lucifer and his Angels When you hear those Fiends make it their office to tempt an office not imposed by their Maker but assumed by their own malice In Deum hoc non imputent homines astris non imputent naturam non criminentur Revile not God throw not the mischief upon nature pick no quarrels with the Stars You see whose work it is heaven and earth are Gods and sin is the Devils God hath made his good Angels to be our custody and appoints them their Provinces how and whom they shall protect Evil instigations impugnations are from the Spirits of darkness only God appoints the order as he shall see fit for the punishment of rebellious ones that have forsaken him Deus ordinatè novit uti malo Evil tentations are the Devils God whose Providence guideth all things doth sometimes restrain and limit them always methodize and direct them Whom in the end of all we call upon by hearty and zealous Prayer to assoil and defend us from our ghostly enemies AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv
resolution into his humane nature to fight with and to overthrow the tentations of the Devil I shall reach this doctrine unto you the better upon certain questions And first what needed this Preface of all other before this mighty work that he was guided by the Spirit What action throughout all his life did not deserve the same commendation A young Rhetorician dedicated an Oration to one Antalcidas What is the subject of your Oration quoth he Says the young Orator the praise of Hercules Fie man says Antalcidas what needless pains have you taken Who did ever dispraise Hercules So it may seem as redundant an expression to say that Christ was led by the Spirit at this time for through the grace of Union and the grace of Unction he was always conducted by the Spirit It is sufficient for answer to this that this was the first exploit of those that Christ did act to shew he was the Christ and the Mediator of God and man therefore this clause being prefixt to the formost of his actions is a title to all the rest he was led of the Spirit 2. It is not to be taken per modum inhaerentiae that he was now full of the Holy Ghost as if he had received a larger measure than he had before but by way of manifestation for the Spirit even now had visibly descended upon him in the shape of a Dove Semper fuit actus à spiritu sed jam maximè ejus vis apparuit the common gloss of the best Writers The Spirit did always lead him and dwel in him but now it did appear and put forth its strength I move another question be not offended that I move these hard things as it were by way of Catechism are the leadings of the Spirit of more sorts than one Yea these two are degrees one above another The first is general to all the Sons of God for they are all stirred up to faith and hope and good works by a divine illumination If ye be led by the Spirit then are ye not under the Law of the flesh Gal. v. 18. The second is special to the chiefest and principal Ministers of God as Kings Prophets and Apostles when Saul was anointed King over Israel the Lord gave him another heart his Spirit came upon him and he Prophesied So Christ our anointed Prophet prepared himself for a famous enterprize and he had the badge of Gods good liking The Spirit came upon him or he was led by the Spirit Suffer but one interrogatory more and it is this Did the Spirit thrust on Christ and as it were hale him with compulsion at this time So a man might hap to fall into that error by St. Marks words The Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness And the Vulgar Latine gives the same offence Luk. iv 1. Agebatur a spiritu he was pusht on by the Spirit For answer hard words are soon mollified by good construction The very Heathen could say Generosus est animus hominis magisque ducitur quà m trahitur Mans will is a free generous thing and had rather be led fairly than drawn forcibly Therefore the other Evangelists must be expounded by St. Matthew that the Spirit led him by illumination and propounding the will of his Father unto him not by violence and coaction So Cajetan Non vis significatur sed efficientia impulsus spiritus All was done by the efficacy and motion of the Spirit nothing by compulsion Some there are who care not what old Pillars of Divinity they pull down to set up their new devises that hold that Christ did obey his Father and the Divine Law with so much liberty and freedom that it were no offence to say Christ could not have obeyed his Father not have kept the Law and so by consequent have sinned and whereas it is certain he did not sin they will neither allow that the Hypostatical Union was the cause of it O strange Theologie nor yet the grace of Unction wherewith he was anointed above his fellows O strange impudency Neither of these was fundamentum impeccabilitatis And all this to maintain that because he did merit by his obedience his will was not determined to do good but left indifferent to good or evil Away with this over audatious disputing Christ could not but fulfil all righteousness I must do the works of him that sent me Joh. iv 9. All good things conducible to the work of a Mediator were necessary to be done And it was necessary Gods will being declared that it should be fulfilled of Christ although he was not necessitated by a violent determination but moved willingly and obediently unto it by a certain perswasion Non necessitatus erat sed propter illud quod necessarium erat sponte motus says Abulensis The object propounded was necessary to be done of him though he accepted it with much alacrity and desire and no way driven by constrainment Therefore this was not like Peters case Another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not Joh. xxi 18. But the hand of the Lord was with him and carried him whither he liked himself Non invitus aut captus sed sponte liberè venit says St. Hierom He was not drawn on as if his own will drew back but rejoyced as a Giant to run his course To say no more but this Oblatus est quia voluit It was his own good will that he was slain for the sins of the world it was his own pleasure not to dread death and it was as much his own pleasure to grapple with tentations And so much for that question how the Spirit did lead him into the Wilderness You shall now be partakers of the third thing why this passage is inserted into the story that he was led up of the Spirit Good reasons are rather to be esteemed by their weight than their multitude take these few to content you 1. The Spirit is said to lead him because de did not run on blindfold but knew the task which he undertook he foresaw the difficulties that he would meet and weighed them in the balance of judgment and discretion Non ignarus sed consilio ducebatur says St. Ambrose The counsel of the Spirit did enlighten him to see what he had in hand Saul thought that David was but a fool-hardy Stripling and knew not what a perilous thing it was to fight with such a Giant as Goliah Thou art but a youth and he a man of War from his youth thou art not able to go against this Philistine But David shewed the reason of his confidence the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine He had considered Gods mercies and protection therefore he was led by the Spirit into that noble action Beware to plod on like Balaam with our eyes shut never discerning what is
nature Non agunt sed aguntur So in the act of renovation we are not fellow-workers but are led and carried whither the Spirit will And as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. viii 14. 4. We know divine mysteries best by negative expressions and therefore I go on fourthly that this immission of efficacious grace is no violent compulsion upon the will Compulsion I said was a word of hostility and not of favour When God doth his work in us throughly energetically that it shall not fail by a Catachresis it is called a coaction So it is said in the Parable to them that were sent to bring in the blind and the lame Cogite intrare compel them to come in I say this is a Catachresis so Prosper the great director of this way that I take Hanc abundantiorem gratiam ita credimus potentem ut negemus violentam We believe this eminent abundant grace worketh with great power but not with violent compulsion For because of those previous preparations I spake of which make us know and have some desire of heavenly things God saves no man against his will therefore it is no violent attraction for no man is ordinarily saved that hath positive repugnancy though in the momentary act of conversion he doth add no auxiliary co-operancy Nay so far is this most abundant benediction of the Spirit from offering coaction and force to the will that the will of a regenerate man doth instantly shew its complacency and turn it self to God This efficacious motion is infused from God and in the same moment exercised and put into act by man for to that end it was inspired by God that man should produce the act of believing and adhering to Christ This is an Altitude for faith to look upon Voluntas est subjectum istius volitionis causa suae volitionis in eodem instanti I think verily the not marking of this hath caused much debate that the will of man in the act of conversion is the subject upon which God works faith and it self the cause which doth produce the act of faith in the same instant They have my suffrage that say how these two cannot well be divided in time one from another Gods operation converting a sinner to be his Son and the act of believing in that man converting himself to God no object can be for a moment in the will but it must affect it one way or other but in order of nature Gods inspiration is first to be conceived and then mans embracing and assent Thus it appears the agitation of this divine motion is not by force and compulsion but with a sweet and fatherly attraction and the effect is no way rough and against nature but above it For to limit and determine the indifferency of the will is not the destruction of free will but the perfection witness the Saints and Angels who are confirmed in grace that they cannot sin If the Son make you free then are ye free indeed which is thus expounded by the Apostle Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. Fifthly I annex that the powerfulness of this converting grace is not well expressed when it is entitled but a moral perswasion The hearts of Kings and surely of all other men whose power is less free are in the hand of God and he inclineth them which way he will perswasions may labour upon the affections it is the scope of an Orator but the most flexanimous Rhetorician that ever spake cannot be said to have the hearts of his Auditors in his hands that is a phrase out of humane capacity What moral perswasion was there in this Christ called Peter and Andrew James and John and Mathew from the receit of custom and they left all and followed him Shew me any ground here for moral perswasion that is probable allegation of reason Not a word more spoken than follow me or perhaps I will make you fishers of men few words God knows But a mighty efficacious impression was secretly instilled into the heart there it was it must needs be that celestial irradiation which made them leave all to follow Christ whose outward appearance was most contemptible and his society according to the wisdom of the world most dangerous Perswasion can but propound an end and as every man is affected so he likes the end which is offered We that disperse the Word have the Office to perswade you to the Kingdom of heaven but God forbid he should bring us no further The Devil can suggest and perswade likewise and prevail above his Makers perswasions as it appears Gen. iii. therefore ascribe the honour due unto the Lord that his Spirit is more efficacious to produce good than Satan to produce evil therefore his work consists not in perswading but in governing and inclining the heart Finally To dispatch this Point I said this potent and infallible assistance of converting grace doth well consist with the Promises and Threatnings and Exhortations of holy Scripture There are other matters objected against this but at the last you will find all sticks at this knot For after some wrangling in the end it is confest God can restrain the liberty and indifferency of the will and make it bring forth what act he please and it must be allowed that the taking away that liberty to work either good or evil is not the destruction but the perfection of the will The angry question is Whether the removing away that liberty and indifferency from the will in the act of conversion can consist with this order that a man shall be commanded to convert himself to God upon the condition of eternal life and upon the commination of Hell fire Now I must tell you this was the very thing that Pelagius quarrelled St. Austin for saying Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis Give me to do what thou commandest O Lord and then command what thou pleasest But take all my answers like grapes upon a cluster 1. They that make this objection know we are commanded to have the first grace of illumination and they acknowledge it is freely and merely wrought by God Why then do they stumble at converting grace that conversion should be commanded us and God altogether cause it and yet allow it in preparatory grace 2. Doth not the Scripture frame our tongue to speak thus Make you a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. xviii 31. there is a command I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you Ezek. xxxvi 26. there he doth execute in us what himself commanded It is to be magnified and admired not to be disputed of when God will work that good by his Spirit within us which he might in rigour without that extraordinary help exact of us 3. Whither will Divinity be tost about if this be not certain That our just and omnipotent Lord commands
such excellent things which we cannot attain to perform that we may be excited to pray unto him for succour with a vehement and a flagrant devotion 4. He commands and he fulfils and he rewards crowning his own gifts and no works of ours that glory may be ascribed to his name for evermore The Synodal Epistle of all the Affrican Bishops St. Austin being one of the Society encourages me that these answers are far more reasonable than the objection Jubet Deus homini ut velit sed Dominus in homine operatur velle jubet ut facias sed operatur facere He hath charged us to will that which is good but he effecteth that willingness in man he says Do and thou shalt live his grace enables thee to do and thou shalt live for ever Let this suffice to teach you how we are led by the Holy Spirit in converting grace and I think it most comfortable to put our hope in God and not in our selves Cursed is every one that putteth his trust in man Jer. xvii 5. To dispach all I will be brief in the fifth Point how we are led by subsequent grace and sanctification which co-operates and assists us after our conversion this is that truth wherein all dissensious parts conjoyn and accord That Voluntas liberata concurrit ad bonum opus eliciendum cum gratiâ divinâ the will of man having conquered the dominion of sin by converting grace is made free and then it freely conjoyns it self with Gods grace to produce a good effect Then it lies upon our own diligence never wanting the directing vertue of the Spirit to increase the good gifts of Sanctification by acts of often doing well then we do further and promote those holy inspirations to a plentiful or unplentiful increase This is not passively to be led by the Spirit but to walk in the Spirit as it is Gal. v. 16. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh In a word this distinction reacheth over all which can be said upon this matter There are some actions which principally concern the well being of a justified man without which regeneration cannot consist these are they the turning of the heart to God a true belief a faithful conclusion of our life in the fear of God and the peace of a good conscience justifying grace doth so attend the production of these actions that the Lord in his own good time makes us able for these things willing to do and actually to perfect those necessary parts of salvation Other works of obedience as to do this or that good to shun this or that evil all these especilly and particularly considered do not concur to our saving health as to the very making or marring of it In the practice of all these particular good instances the motions and conduct of the Spirit are never wanting to them that are regenerate more or less but sufficient to have kept them blameless in every particular but in many of these we sin often and are wanting to the co-operation of grace through our own stubbornness in the will and sensuality in the affections I will conclude You see how diversly we are led by the Spirit how many sundry ways we are assoiled from Sin and Satan by the direction and efficacy of grace The natural man is able of himself to bring forth no spiritual good work The Lord doth totally and with no assistance of vitiated nature bring forth the first good preparatory grace in the will From thenceforth unto conversion this previous preparatory grace is made effectual or uneffectual by mans free-will In the act of conversion and renovation wherein all the controversie about free-will is moved the Lord doth turn our heart unto himself the will for the act being the passive subject and at the same instant it is the cause of a good action in turning it self to God in subsequent grace unto the end of our life the will being made free from the dominion of sin works together with the motions of celestial inspiration This is the sum of all If any thing be delivered too briefly impute it to the compass of the time If any thing be hard to be conceived impute it to the deep discourse of the matter If any thing be defective in the discourse give Gods grace the glory of all and impute it to my infirmity THE FOURTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1 2. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungry MAny things were rightly applied by him that compared the success of the Children of Israel upon their entrance into the Land of Canaan with the circumstances of this combate between Christ and Satan 1. the Israelites were miraculously brought through the Red Sea so the first glorious Apparition of our Saviour which went immediately before this business was the Baptism which he received of John in Jordan 2. The Israelites pass from the Red Sea into a great and solitary Wilderness So our Saviour was led after his Baptism into the greatest Wilderness of Judaea a place uninhabited by man for he was with the wild beasts Mar. i. 13. Then the Israelites were in great distress for foot hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them And Christ had nothing to eat in that place he fasted forty days and forty nights and was afterward an hungry 4. As the Israelites were pined with hunger so they had bloudy Wars with all the Nations of Canaan many a time have they fought against me might Israel then say So many a time did the Legions of Hell attempt me might our Lord and Saviour say yea many times did the powers of darkness compass me about but they have not prevailed against me On the one side here was first the Red Sea then a journey into the Wilderness then scarcity of Food then War and fighting So on the other side here was first a Baptism then a sequestring into the Wilderness then a long Fast and then a long conflict with the Prince of Devils Moreover the men of Israel did appear in that forlorn and despicable fashion before the Canaanites that they were much scorn'd and vilified so God provided we seemed in their sight but as Grashoppers said Caleb and Josuah this drew the Kings of Canaan forth to beat them back and so were overwhelmed in their own pride and cruelty Thus in all points did our Saviour deal with Satan the Eternal wisdom against the wisdom of the Serpent He flies into the Wilderness as one abandoned of the World there he continues in great necessity as one whom none would succour not a morsel of food supplied him by God or man Adversarium non virtutis jactatione sed infirmitatis ostentione provocat thus he provokes and draws Satan out against himself not by a boasting challenge but by the appearance of
possible for the Devil to understand how the union of the Godhead did determine that indifferency of the will only to good and did exempt it from all possibility or inclination to evil and the rage of malice dulling the sharpness of his intellectual parts he proceeds upon the Premises the second Person of Trinity is become flesh and born of a woman that in the same nature wherein mankind sinned they might be redeemed but if this fleshly nature could be contaminated with sin God would dissolve the Hypostatical Union and cast it off Dissolve the Union and he cannot be the Mediator between God and man and then the Sons of men shall be left without hope of redemption for ever And it may be the Devil had that foolish forecast in his mind when he stirred up Judas to betray him that by his death he might dissolve the union between his Godhead and our humane nature If any man will answer these Scholastical discourses and say the Devil hath no where revealed his own counsels I reply again we need not be ashamed of the modesty of St. John Rev. ii We have not known the depth of Satan but this one thing is not dubitable he would have tempted Christ to sin We can all easily discern the Devils deformity out of this Sermon what a grievous crime it was to sollicite God to do unjustly but what if this be our own fault many times dearly Beloved Will you not diligently amend it for the time to come When you see it is the blackest crime in the Devil 1. He that sweareth by the name of God and lies what doth he but implore the name of God to bear false witness to his Perjury Would man make God sin for his sake And is not man a Devil Again he that pretends he hath made a Vow unto the Lord and that his Vow constrains him to do some wicked thing doth he not make God the impulsive cause of his abomination Another prays for nothing more heartily than that the Lord will pour out his vengeance upon those whom he hates although they be innocent What is that else but to say Do thou kill that man for my sake who art a most just God whom it becomes not me to hurt that am a most wicked sinner And though we have not Satans opportunity to tempt Christ himself face to face yet remember that Kings are Gods Vicegerents upon earth and whosoever wrongs their ear with any corrupt communication or flattery he comes the nearest of any man to this sin in my Text to tempt God himself to evil Non ab acervo sed à semente furantur says Plutarch They that propound evil things to the Ruler of the People they do not steal from the Barn or from the Stack but from the seed-corn it self and by the Civil Law that is double thievery There are under parts likewise of this Tentation and certain insinuating ways to wriggle it in which are fit to be discovered First He closeth with Christ upon a most artificial obtestation If thou be the Son of God It is good Oratory you know to importune a man to do a thing by that which he will not for shame deny If you be an Israelite serve the Lord if Christ be your Master follow peace and humility These are deep adjurements So Satan turns this Rhetorick upon our Saviour If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread But Beloved be strong to resist these adjurations when they are turned upon you as stones of offence It is vulgar and trivial to cog a sin into a man with these lispings if you love me let me obtain this at your hands if you be my friend deny me not as you are a Gentleman refuse me not in this or another evil association retort such evil adjurements as these in the name of God I know no such sweetness in love and friendship as to serve God together in the unity of the same Spirit I know no such obligation upon the honour of a Gentleman as to keep a good conscience Sell not your soul away for a few fair words for which so dear a price was paid as the bloud of Christ What other device do you mark Why two in one word Command that these stones says Satan Mark what a great believer the Devil is turn'd it is in your power you can command it Nay it is in the Greek Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the word God made all things by the word of his power and you are that Word if you say it it is done As if he would profess such a faith as the Centurion was commended for dic verbo say the word and my servant shall be healed Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum I will not make a long Narration for the honour of Religion what mischiefs have been brought to pass by colour of Religion but I will tell you for a warning of such hypocrisie that as the curse of Jacob stuck close unto his Sons who made Circumcision their stratagem to kill the Sichemites so the curse of God shall stick close to them who cheat and betray and sow discords devour Widows houses make merchandise of holy things upon pretence of Sanctity For how is God abused by this fraudulency when he may truly say many sins are done which had never been committed if there had been no Religion in the World The other insinuation is the facility of doing it he perswades to that which is as easie as to breath speak but half a word and these stones are made bread Sin indeed is like suretiship it is an easie thing to get into bands but very troublesom to get out of them Facilis descensus Averni It is a wide gate and no rub in the way that leadeth to damnation but these foul actions which are so easie to wicked men that they cannot avoid them the Lord makes them very difficult to them that are regenerate and born again He hath set a watch before their lips so that they cannot speak the word which is dishonourable to his holy name or if they do speak it it is with much reluctancy and by this you shall know that heavenly grace is in your heart when you cannot do those things at all or at least with much unwillingness which the children of Satan do with great facility This touch and away for those three insinuations upon which the Devil did slide in his tentation Hitherto I have spoken upon no more but in general that the Prince of Devils attempted to make Christ a sinner And whereas his allurement in particular partly struck upon Gluttony partly or rather upon Infidelity how he urged unto Infidelity shall be deferred unto a larger explication and I will only add a few words upon his tentation to Gluttony before I conclude A marvellous subtil beginning he propounds nothing but that which nature necessarily calls for the most spiritual the most holy men in the
is in his own house and may lurk there safe and secure but when he departs this life and comes out of doors Vae capiti woe be to him then his torment was deferred to be increased When Hagar and Ismael had spent their bottle of water and were ready to give up the Ghost for thirst was not this a good time to remember how injuriously Sarah had been despised and Isaac mocked And that both he and she were the root and fruit of fornication He that in the distress of scarcity will smite his hand upon his breast and examine his secret faults and say I have sinned against the Lord this man hath made great gain of his poverty Quisque optat cum sanâ mente lamentari quà m cum insanâ perpetuò ridere says Gregory Who had not rather with the enjoying of his wits be weak than with the loss of his wits be strong and merry So who had not rather feel the Famine and misery of the world and repent than flow in the satiety of all things never feel the sting of his sins and die impenitent As one said that good Fathers sometimes have wicked Children lest vertue should seem to descend by natural inheritance and again wicked Fathers have sometimes vertuous Children that wickedness may not run on in a perpetual propagation so riches and abundance lest they should be thought to be no blessings at all now and then fall upon the best And yet lest you should think them the best of all things now and then they fall upon the worst men Or as another draws out the line of justice very well no man is absolutely good or absolutely evil but as the best have some evil in them so the worst have some good some talent of nature which serves for the use of Common-wealths encrease of Arts publick peace or some ornament of the Universe therefore the good of the worst men is rewarded with a gift of outward fortune and the evil of the best men is punished with scarcity no wonder therefore if he that is the Son of God do sometimes pine for lack of bread Fourthly Though a good man labour and watch and cannot earn the bread of his carefulness yet he shall fill his bosom with better fruits for occasion is given hereby to the righteous to exercise these three spiritual graces Prayer and Patience and Charity Prayer comes after trouble and necessity as Resurrection comes after death Even the very Philistins were driven to repentance to restitution to send back the Ark of God into his own Land when the Lord smote them with Emerauds and diseases If such fruits grew from an evil stock when a vengeance and calamity was in their Land then much better fruits of sighs and prayer will bud from them who are planted by the rivers of waters who weep and lament that their iniquities have deserved such great chastisement The Beasts and Fowls of the air do lack and suffer hunger that by the voice of nature they may call upon the Lord to be replenished then the young Ravens do call upon him and the Lions roaring after their prey do seek their meat of God He is the door which opens to let forth all blessings spiritual and temporal Quam nemo nisi ebrius ignorat as one says ' None but a reeling drunkard can miss the door into which he should pass David seems to utter a Paradox Psal xxxvii 25. I never saw the righteous forsaken nor his seed beg their bread Surely experience is opposite to this and the Posterity of many have been in great want whose memory is blessed for their righteous conversation Some have very well turn'd the Verb beg into a Participle begging and then the construction is fair I never saw the righteous forsaken nor his seed forsaken begging their bread for they are not forsaken to whom the Lord gives patience in the inward man though they be destitute and forsaken Let God wrestle as he will and cast us down yet we must pray and suffer and not let him go until he bless us But abundance of all things is a great slur unto devotion In Egypt where the River Nilus over-flows their grounds constantly instead of rain and where the heaven is clear continually above nemo oratorum coelos aspicit the heathen could say so God had fewer Prayers made unto him there than in any place of the world Therefore lay the beginning of this Point unto the end is not the soul better than the body Is not the spirit of Prayer better than a full barn Is not a little holiness better than all the Vintage of Abiezer Moreover we are commanded patience we promise patience and I hope we resolve patience now that we may draw this good motion out of the secret corners of our heart distress and penury will put it in practice This is it which St. Austin calls Gods great allowance above thousands of Gold and Silver Patrimonium fidei patientiae in corde Christ makes the righteous sole Executors and Administrators of his patience Be not tormented with emulation though you see another shine like a bigger Planet than your self though you see the most vicious man set over you in advancement Dabo huic novissimo sicut tibi The Owner of all the Earth may do what he will with his own he will give unto him that is last in his favour as unto thee nay more than unto thee in this life yet I cannot call it more if you will balance those light wares with the talent of your Patience When God took all from Job yet says Gregory Patientiae munere coronabatur He was crowned like a Saint in heaven with the victorious Crown of patience upon earth Is it not better to suffer in the present because we had not these things to use than suffer because we had them and did abuse them It is a saying attributed to the supposed Dionysius Divinae justitiae est non emollire optimorum fortitudinem materialium donationibus It suits well with the Divine Justice and Providence not to make the fortitude of his Saints effeminate with abundance And if they had always their Salary of earthly blessings here as upon compact their Religion would be more weighed down with Avarice than confirmed with patience The last spiritual exercise which is caused by the need and want of Gods beloved is this that merciful minded men may fill the bellies of the hungry with the bread of their charity God hath suffered his fire to wast away the habitation of the poor man that your contribution may build him up again a covering for his head and those good works shall receive you into the everlasting Mansions The waves of the Sea swallow up the substance of our brethren that our collections may restore it again and this is it which Solomon calls Casting our bread upon the waters Jacob and the Patriarches were well-nigh famished in the Land of Canaan that Pharaoh might relieve them
to consider upon these words and as I begin at Satans demand so I make two branches of it the Motion and the Mover The Motion is tumbling headlong to be cast down and the Mover must be himself Cast thy self down To the handling and use of these are required your ear my utterance and Gods grace to both I begin with the Motion and if the meaning of him that counselled it had been well carried it were a motion easily perswaded to him that is of an humble spirit a good man is ever ready to be directed to go and sit down in the lowest room and to be abased to the very center of humility When the heart is in good awe of God the joynts will bend unto the earth O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker This we are sure is far from Satans purpose and can be no construction of his words Optat omnes cadere qui se sentit prae omnibus cecidisse says St. Austin He would have all men fall in that sort as himself hath done with aspiring and presumption that they might never rise again The Beast in the Fable which had lost his tail made an Oration before all the Beasts of the Wood what a comly thing it was to want a tail and very useful and so concluded that they would all cut off theirs but the Fox made answer You intend not to make us decent like your self but to have us all as deformed After the same manner the Devil Preacheth unto Christ to descend from the top of the Pinacle to the bottom not to set him in the posture of an humble man but to make him arrogant like Lucifer for such a violent precipitation says he can do no hurt at all to such a one as you are a most holy one that are called the Son of God I will use Bonaventure's saying upon it Satan did interlace lofty pride with this lowly seeming motion Vt descendendo corporaeliter faceret cum superbire spiritualiter ut simul esset ascensus vanus descensus verus That he might fall down bodily and be proud spiritually and so he thrust together a frivolous presumption and a dangerous descension How much is humility abused when Pride will wear the colours of that good vertue to deceive the world There was grose ambition in Absalons stooping to steal the hearts of the people The Scribes and Pharisees would dop to the ground when they greeted their friends in the Market place The same Bishop that hath more Princely Augustious titles ascribed unto him then would fill up a Sermon by themselves subscribes himself very often Servus servorum Christ the servant of the servants of Christ As a Kite will sweep the earth with his wings that he may truss the Prey in his Talons and fly aloft to devour it So all the crouches and submissions which an ambitious man makes are to get somewhat which he seeks for and to clamber to promotion This is observed because Satan impels Christ to cast himself down not for true humility sake but upon vain glory to flutter in the Air that all Jerusalem might take notice how precious he was to the care and custody of all the Angels In the next place convert your thoughts to this see what kind of Miracles they are which the Devil delights in the working of Miracles is reduced to Gods Omnipotent Prerogative beyond the ordinary Law of Nature And Christ did often put it in act to save to revive to comfort the body to convert the soul Nay but these are no part of the Devils asking neither cure the sick nor give eyes to the blind nor raise the dead nor help up Eutiches again as Paul did when he fell from the upper window of the house to the ground none of these good offices of mercy doth he require but mitte te deorsum if you be the Son of God tumble down and confound your self Non signa humano generi salutaria sed perniciosa requirit says Bernard Do some pernicious Miracle and then you please him Beware of those men whose wit whose counsels whose directions tend to nothing but to some mens ruine and destruction Hic niger est hunc tu Romane caveto you see who is their Leader and whose steps they follow The Heathen could say how that Orator must needs have much malice in his complexion who was a better Accuser than a Defender that could sooner find a hole in his Adversaries cause than help his own Client so it is Satanissimum let me use a new word in this case he is a very Satanist upon whom that description of David lights Destruction and unhappiness is in their counsels and the way of peace they have not known The Magicians of Pharaoh could bring forth Frogs upon all the Land of Egypt as well as Aaron when he stretcht forth his rod but the Magicians with all their Inchantments could not rid the Land of those Frogs as Aaron did when he cried unto the Lord. Inchanters are permitted to work strange mischiefs but the Lord hath reserved it to himself to work strange mercies Ahitophel was exceeding wise no doubt accounted the Oracle of his age yet we know no instance of his wit in all the Scripture wherein he had his hand but in most turbulent and seditious propositions The Devil made use of his craft to serve his own turn but a wit that is sanctified with Gods grace know it by this character it had rather make than mar advance than pull down preserve than destroy reconcile than put at enmity When the voice from heaven spake to Peter as he was in a trance Arise Peter kill and eat the meaning was he should eat of such things as the Gentiles did which were prohibited before communicate with the Gentiles convert the Gentiles Now do you think that Cardinals mouth was not full of gall that made this Exposition of the Miracle Arise Bishop of Rome wage war with the Venetians and kill them because they will not obey yout Interdict Certainly this mans breath was like the strong East Wind that brought most of the grievous Plagues of the Land of Egypt I do not like such Prophets though Micaiah was wrongfully reputed such a one by Ahab that never prophesie good but evil nor such Disciples as would shew their authority by calling down fire from heaven nor such unlucky spirits that are like the malignant Planets which produce nothing but maleficous effects When Songs were sung in every Street of Greece that Philip had eraced the fair City of Olynthus O but when will he build up such a City Says a silly woman and then I would sing too An ill turn is quickly watcht for beside the venomous inclination of our own nature to do hurt You shall have the Devil to boot to help it on he counsels like an enemy no miracle which brings good with it to mankind but destruction Mitte te deorsum Cast
mitigate our pronity to evil nothing but death will quite stop and repress sin in us the wisdom of God providing that as sin brought death into the world so death should utterly abolish sin out of the world So death dissolves the works of the Devil but the Resurrection dissolves the works of death It is the last thing that the Saints desire of God to be cloathed again With that request being heard they leave wishing and the end of all desires must be the crown and top of all felicity Finally to bring it home to the Person of Christ whom God raised up much was our benefit by his Death but much more by his Resurrection For lay these two in comparison together to be eased of misery and to be brought into a state of joy and gladness Is not the addition of some good thing more thanks-worthy than the taking away of some evil Why thus it stands with those two blessings which our Saviour obtained for us they are the words of St. Austin I think Sicut humiliatus est moriendo ut nos liberaret à malis ita glorificatus est resurgendo ut nos promoveret ad bona As he was humbled unto death to deliver us from the evil of death so he was glorified by rising again that he might bring us to happiness and glory And of this great work of raising up enough at this once this being the tenth of these Easter Festivals wherein I have spoken upon the same Argument and occasion before you Yet I have a little to add before I leave this first Point touching the Agent and the Patient God was the Author of this great work and Christ in his own body returned again to life whom God raised up May not the Power and Majesty of Christ seem to suffer in this that St. Peter says God raised him up For our Saviour did often give the Jews to know that he would raise himself again from the dead on the third day Destroy this Temple and I will raise it up again in three days Joh. ii 19. And without any Parabolical speech Joh. x. 18. No man taketh my life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Why then doth not the Apostle clearly attribute unto him that he was the Author of his own Resurrection Because he spake of his Humane Nature first impotently obnoxious to Passion and then powerfully restored to life The Omnipotent vertue to revoke the soul into the body again was in the Divinity of Christ not in his Humane Nature Therefore Christ declareth in those words of St. John that it is not in the power of man to reserve the soul in the body when the pangs of death are upon it but for his own part though deadly wounds should be gashed in his body yet he had power through the union of his Godhead to stay his life and not to lay it down Likewise it is far from the ability of man to re-unite his Spirit to his Flesh when it is separated but the Divinity of our Saviour kept personal union with the body in the Grave and with the soul when it is flown away therefore he could bring them together again to remain in incorruption the ancient similitude was As a man that draws a Sword out of a Scabbard holds the Sword in one hand and the Scabbard in another So the Soul was unsheathed from the body but the Divine Nature held personal union with them both And as the Weapon is fit to be put into the Case that held it yet it cannot sheath it self without the hand of the Ownor thrust it in So the Soul of Christ was restored again to the body not by any vertue or activity in the humane soul but by the Power of God Christ was made like unto other men in all things sin only excepted and re-made or raised up like other men Si homo non vicisset inimicum hominis non justè victus esset says Irenaeus The Enemy of man was overcome by a man else he would have clamoured that he was overcome by Power and not by Justice Therefore St. Paul to let us know that Christ was left in death as man to be raised up says he As by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead Him God raised up him that man Christ Jesus that was crucified the self-same body let me touch upon that and then I will go on to new matter The Resurrection of our Lord is the Samplar of ours that very same material Flesh that died was revived again in him and so it shall be in us The impious Socinians the last and one of the worst and most pestilent Sects that ever was in the Church teach that we are not bound to believe it as an Article of Faith that we shall rise again in our own bodies Why then the same dead shall not rise again for if they want one essential part and the matter is one essential part of our composition it is not the same man Matter is the principle of individuation or numerical distinction say the Metaphysicks And the old Pythagoraeans could not deny in their Paradox of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if one mans soul came by many transmigrations into another mans body it was another man But leave we the help of humane reason though that be strong on our side and come to Divinity All the Ensamples or Preludiums of the Resurrection both in Old and New Testament were of such as had life restored to them in their own body the Shunamites Child the Widows Son Lazarus the Brother of Mary and Martha the Saints that came out of their Graves in the holy City and Christ himself that came out of the Sepulchre And let any equal Auditor judge if Job were not an Anti-Socinian Job xix 26. Though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall behold for my self and mine eyes shall see and not another And is it not equity that the righteous in the same body wherein they have worshipped God they shall be glorified that the wicked in the same body wherein they have lusted after evil things they shall be punished I will name no Fathers to Patronize this cause for all concur with one voice that as God raised up Christ so he will raise us up in our own bodies With the Resurrection of our Saviour which I have handled hitherto in the first part of my Text there is adjoyned in the next place the Complement of his Resurrection the full weight and excellency of it having loosed the pains of death Solutis doloribus inferni having loosed the pains of hell so the vulgar Latine and I will now go over the divers interpretations of both readings The first which is the reading of our Translation is the right and best therefore I will begin with that First St.
Resurrection assists a work which was most noble and therefore at all points Visage and Garment he is exceeding glorious the Angels that appeared before Abraham and Lot had no eminent note of honour in their outward shape and so passed for mere men but Angels at this opportunity would be known to be Angels and therefore this spiritual Embassadour is not diminished in his Majesty by appearing in the figure of man for his Countenance was like lightning c. God could and can send forth his Angels in what form and disguise he pleaseth and this Messenger is strangely appointed terrible in the aspect else all over amiable there is dreadfulness in his face and gladness in his garment And this diversity refers us to seek out that there were two different effects to be brought to pass In terrorem reprobis in blandimentum bonis says Gregory here were unbelieving Souldiers to be dismayed and such a countenance would make the proudest of them all to stoop and here were faithful women to be comforted therefore the raiment was like a Bridegroom that came to call these women like the five wise Virgins into his Chamber This is the more notable in the observation because you never read that the women did see this flash of lightning in the visage of the Angel they saw a young man sitting in white in a long white Robe St. Mark St. Luke and St. John have not one word in their context that these good souls saw any thing but amiable consolation But that lightning which sate upon his countenance was an object to daunt the wicked and was presented only to the Keepers that watcht the Sepulcher In a great passion of anger the eye will look like a forge of wrath as Tully said of Verres Ardebant oculi toto ex ore ejus crudelitas emicabat and so the Poet of his Alecto Flammea torquens lumina indignation did sparkle out of their eyes like fire Even so this Apparitor that came from heaven did personate vengeance and destruction which a man may read in this visible evidence His countenance was like lightning Consider and make this use of it if one Angel was so dreadful at the Resurrection of Christ what fear and astonishment will come upon the wicked at the general day of the Resurrection when they shall see the Father sit upon his Throne and thousand thousands of Angels ready to execute vengeance round about him Alas a flash of lightning is quickly gone and past but thunder will follow this lightning to cleave the hearts of Infidels in pieces that workt wickedness and will not believe St. Hierom says that this was the Trumpet which kept him waking that he slept not in death for by the grace of God this meditation sounded always in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead out of your graves and come to judgment Think what a day that will be when all flesh shall come to answer in their own person before that Bar what they have done in their body whether good or evil The Prophet Amos speaks of some that were dispisers of all justice and charity and yet thought the disquisition of that day would go so well with them that they long'd for the trial Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light Amos v. 18. Every good Angel will be an affrighting spectacle to the ungodly for they shall be known to be the mowers that have the charge to take the Tares and to burn them in unquenchable fire and if their presence be unsufferable to the guilty the Majesty of God which they have so much dishonoured will infinitely increase their perplexity The face of Moses who was but a Minister of the Law was not to be look'd upon by the Israelites until he had cast a veil before his skin Who then will be able to endure him who is the Judge of the Law unless he speak for us to the Father who is the propitiation for our sins Adulterers Extorsioners prophane persons live so securely as if they distrusted no such matter as a dreadful reckoning at the second coming of Christ Apollodorus gave a commonitory supplication to C. Caesar not to be present in the Senate that day when his life was sought by a strong conspiracy which had he read the danger had been prevented but he shuffled the Paper into his bosome and never regarded it which cost him his life So the sacred Scripture is put into the hands of the ungodly let them read it if they will and understand that vengeance abides those that continue in any grievous crime the countenance of Gods Angels is like terrible lightning and is set against them to divide them in twain In Rev. iv 8. the four beasts which is by many expounded the four Evangelists cease not to cry day and night Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is qui venturus est and which is to come all this the impenitent shuffle off till at last destruction shall take them unawares Again the Angels countenance was like lightning not only to portend that there shall be great terrour at the general day of the Resurrection especially among accursed Reprobates such as these were that kept the Sepulcher but beside lightning is a sudden unexpected glance to note that the last day of the Lord will come very suddenly and give no warning But this is warning enough to a provident man that Christ says he will come very suddenly and give no warning Our Saviours resolutions in all other points of Divinity are very copious direct and punctual yet touching the coming of the Son of man to judge the world whensoever his Disciples or any others askt him that question all that he did ever reply in the Gospel was most unsatisfactory as I may say and full of ambiguity Vt Magister aliquid docuit ut Magister aliquid non docuit says St. Austin that which was fit to be known he taught them like a Master and that which was fit to be hid like a Master he concealed it And he would have that day concealed that it might come unexpectedly like a flash of lightning for many reasons For there are some evil servants in the Gospel that if you perswade them the Lord will delay his coming will waste and mar all and beat their fellow-servants there are others as St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians that will be shaken in mind and troubled if you say that the day of the Lord is at hand To prevent that neither the one shall be secure nor the other troubled we know not when his Apparition in the clouds shall be but with great suddenness it shall be as when lightning breaks out of a cloud and glides from the East unto the West whereof no man was aware before he saw it This is one of the priviledges of
Child of wrath and those laudable actions were but sins or imperfections with a good gloss Will you say they desire and pray for the holy Spirit and therefore this illumination comes not suddenly but with invitation O but says the Arausican Council which handled this Point of the grace of God more copiously and Orthodoxly than ever any Council did the utterance nay the very thought of every good Prayer it is instilled by the divine irradiation of Gods help and the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Prayer and if any man say that the grace of God is bestowed upon our Prayer and Invocation and that grace did not first enable us to make that Prayer he contradicts the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostle Paul who both have these same words I am sought of them that asked not for me I am found of them that sought me not Thus that Council whereby you hear that we whose nature is rank corruption do not prepare and dispose the way to attract the blessing of heaven upon us by little and little upon congruity of Gods favour it comes suddenly and unawares when we least deserve it It must not be let alone without this addition to it which is S. Ambrose his descant on it Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia the spirit of purity and renovation is quick and sudden in the work of conversion he doth not linger and mature his good effects by soft leisure he doth not creep like a snail or as a Father of our own Church says like a Serpent Serpentis est repere Commonly motions that come from the old Serpent the Devil creep upon us and men grow bold in iniquity by degrees Nemo repentè fit pessimus was the old Proverb but where the Lord loveth the man whom he chooseth he doth in an instant take away his stony heart and give him an heart of flesh And as the Resurrection of the dead shall be in an instant so in an instant he translates him from death to life It is done with such dispatch and celerity that the gift of Prophesie nay of Sanctification is called but the touch of the lips Says the Angel to Isaiah upon the living coal which he brought from the Altar This hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Isa vi 7. The loyal Israelites that feared God and the King are called a band of men whose hearts God had touched 1 Sam. x. 26. O admirable workman says Gregory Mox ut tetigeret mentem docet solùmque tetigisse est docuisse He doth but touch and teach and the mind is reformed in a moment as soon as ever the finger of his Spirit is laid upon it An Apostolical Spirit came suddenly upon St. Matthew penitent restitution upon Zaccheus confession and grace upon the Thief on the Cross The Eunuch made haste to believe and as soon as he believed he would be baptized of Philip at the next water he came to and go no further Men must not neglect present motions of grace though suddenly rising in them Now the Lord moves my heart and now at the first touch I will obey the Spirit This is a brave and a pious resolution But if you let the grace of God knock at door once and twice and do not open it is to be feared that you will grow deaf after a while and never hear it Modo modò non habebant modum Anon and to morrow and hereafter at more leisure and as Festus said to Paul Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee these are not words of good manners to so great a King as the King of heaven Can Impenitancy or continuance in evil be good at any time Then break it off at the first pang and throw that the Conscience suffers for it The Spirit is a sudden wind he deceives his own soul that continues in a long consumption of any sin and thinks to be helpt out of it by a lingring remedy The description of the suddenness hath not been unuseful you see and we shall collect as much from that which follows that it was Flatus veniens vehemens a rushing mighty wind Methinks I see the Spirit of God set out here in his manifold strength and efficacy Is there any thing in it self so thin and poor as a puff of Air It is neither Iron nor Brass nor Bones and yet what strange effects it works Turns up Oaks and Cedars by the roots breaks the Ships of the Sea in pieces casts down Bulwarks and Fortresses so Epiphanius received it from some good hand that God overthrew the Tower of Babel with a violent wind So the principles of the Spirit seem to be very mean and foolishness to flesh and bloud the Instruments in which it wrought homely illiterate Fishermen yet the learning of five Synagogues putting their wits together was not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which Stephen spake Acts vi 10. It brings down strong Holds and high Imaginations it brings into Captivity every exalting thought to the obedience of Christ Wisdom Learning Might Majesty all have stoopt before it As the Scripture says often that the Spirit came mightily upon Samson and then his Foes were sure to fall before him so it rusheth upon some holy men with a gallant heroick zeal and then all the subtilties of Satan are not able to make a part against it No Fear can dismay them no Persecution can make them hide their head no Favour or Reward make them swerve from a good conscience no Discipline so strict that they will not undertake for the love of Christ The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Mat. xi 12. The Kingdom of heaven was among the Jews but Rapuit regnum coelorum Centurio The Centurion did as it were invade it and take it from them for upon his confession our Saviour said I have not found so great faith no not in Israel Neither is it only expedient to make it manifest that the Spirit is strong and mighty like a stiff vehement wind in actu exercito in the power of it which the Saints of God have to exercise to others but also in actu primo informante when it enters into the heart of them whom God converts it comes with a mighty force and will not be gainsaid with the opposition of our rebellious nature Neque resistere ultra potest cui velle resistere sublatum est says a Reverend Father of our own Church that is neither shall our vicious nature resist the mighty working of Gods converting grace since the first thing that such grace works is to conquer our perverseness in resisting I do not say but our will hath always a liberty and indifferency in it to do or not do To chuse or refuse but the act to resist is suspended for that time by the grace of God and though
that they would ascend to Heaven and talk familiarly about those things which they had delivered so Simon Magus made ostentation of himself to the Romans Mahumet promised as much unto the Thracians that which they forged but never came to pass was fulfilled in the true Prophet Enoch his doctrine was glorified with this miracle that he was caught up into heaven Now this was a mixt benefit equally shared between him and those that were his Disciples the other use and conveniency is wholly his own that God took him away long before he came to the age of his Forefathers that he might suffer no more under the afflictions of those wicked times For as St. Austin says of Lot that he lived in peace and he lived in persecution among the Sodomites in external peace but their abominable sins were the persecution of Lot so Enoch might live in dignity and renown yet his righteous soul was vexed from day to day with the unlawful deeds of the Sons of Cain Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law says David What life can be sweet to a good man where the Lord of life is blasphemed and those that are dearest to him suffer reproach and are disesteemed What an irksom thing is the world to a good man where most things he sees are thorns to his eyes and the third part at least of that he hears is a grating and scandal to his ears Iniquorum vita justi aures oculos non delectando sed feriendo tangit says Gregory the life and actions of Reprobates must fall upon the senses of conscionable men nor to delight them but to excruciate them And is not a quiet egress out of this world a most desirable thing to be a Saint joyfully received among Saints rather than be a Saint maligned among Devils As Priam said of his Son Hector that he seemed to be descended of some God rather than of a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Enoch was fit to be joyned to God and Angels rather than to converse with rebellious children He was one of that list of whom St. Paul says the world was not worthy Heb. xi 38. Which words Theophylact puts into this sense make a price and estimation of all things in this world beneath collect them into one sum and such a devout soul as Enoch is more worth than all of it The sins of the earth are most vexatious the momentary things which we enjoy most vile and unprecious what should detain a good man here with any delight or complacency The sooner Enoch was snatcht away from those things the more dear he was to the Lord his good deliverer I have yet another benefit of this translation to communicate unto you not as a certain conclusion but as a conjecture of some good Authors out of Wisd iv 10 11. He pleased God and was beloved of him so that living among sinners he was translated yea speedily was he taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding or deceit beguile his soul If this place aim at Enoch as very learned ones modern and ancient will have it and our last Translation doth so direct us in the Margin then one special favour done to him to be speedily snatcht away was that he might not slide back from that perfection to which he had attained So St. Ambrose comforts himself for the loss of his brother Satyrus that the Lord did abbreviate his days to stop him from incurring those sins which he might have committed I will not go far in this Doctrine because a man that launcheth into it may quickly be tossed upon the waves of endless opinions Conditional possible events are known of God not only conjecturally but certainly and it is laid up in the store-house of Gods infinite wisdom which man shall never know whether a faithful man chopt off in the middle of his Age was prevented of more good deeds or more bad if he had finished his course Among twelve Conclusions which St. Austin heapt together to confute Vitalis of Carthage two of them are most fit to keep our knowledge within the bounds of Sobriety The one is that we shall all stand before the Tribunal of God and every man shall receive according to that which he hath done in his own body Non secundum ea quae gesturus fuerit si diutius viveret sive bonum sive malum Not according to those things which they might have done in the body whether good or evil Secondly We know blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Nec ad eos pertinere quicquid acturi fuerant si tempore diuturniore vixissent neither shall it prejudice their blessedness whatsoever foul acts they might have committed upon longer space of life I draw it up to this conclusion It is beyond our intelligence to conceive how many iniquities Enoch escaped by his sudden rapture but it is easie to conceive that he was not present at many publick miseries and calamities which he must have beheld with a grieved heart As King Josias out of Gods great favour was prevented by an untimely death never to see the Captivity of Judah St. Jerom says that Anastasius a good Bishop of Rome was newly dead before Rome was sack'd by the Goths Ne orbis caput sub tali Episcopo truncaretur that the Imperial Seat of the world might not be dishonoured before his eyes Merciful men are taken away says the Prophet Isaiah none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Isa lvii 2. One part of my Text was Enochs passage out of this world I have done with that The other part is his reposure in a better world in these words For the Lord took him The Poets have their obscene Fables de raptu Ganimedis Proserpinae the ravishing of Ganimedes and Proserpina rather than the raptures by their God Jupiter Somewhat they imitate now and then out of holy Scripture but they quite abuse it To give their Fictions no longer the looking on I come to those two questions that are much searched into perhaps too much The former demands to what place Enoch was taken the latter debates whether ever he shall return again If it were profitable to know these things exactly the Scriptures had revealed it therefore to enquire into them pressingly is curiosity to determine them resolutely is presumption but to take a little say of them will be profitable for instruction For the first question Whither God took him St. Cyprian St. Chrysostome and Gregory the Great lay their hand upon their mouth and will say nothing to it The Scholastical Doctors began to define it first without all reservation of modesty proceeding to an Affirmative Sentence that he was sequestred to Limbus Patrum or Paradise and to a Negative Sentence that the Heavens did not receive him When some of them tell us that he was reposed in Paradise it is not worth the
of obedience but as the way to eternal life As a sick man takes the potions that are prescribed him not out of duty to the Physitian but out of due regard to his own recovery The similitude sorts with our infirmity Obtemperet medico ut surgat qui noluit credere ne aegrotaret says St. Austin Man would not obey the Physitian to prevent his sickness therefore let him use his after-wit and take those Sacramental means that are appointed to make him whole But fourthly there is lex privata a Law imposed upon some particular person in whose transgression neither were justice infringed nor Gods glory violated if his Command were not laid upon it and there is no scope in this but to make the passive humility of our soul that is our obedience more illustrious What was there in it else that the Man of God that came from Judah unto Bethel was charg'd neither to eat nor drink water in that place nor to return by the same way that he came there is no colour of Religious Worship in these observations but God would have him submit to his unquestionable Authority and you know his misery ensued when he was unperswaded to obey it Dominus cur jusserit viderit what profit there is to keep such private Laws as seem to carry no great substance in them let God look to that says the Father but be you obsequious That peremptory denuntiation upon pain of death not to eat of the Tree of knowledg of good and evil called the forbidden fruit no Theological wits could ever pass a ripe mature judgment upon it why it was so laid but that they and all we in them are to stoop under that sweet yoke of the Divine Will with absolute indefinite undiscoursed obedience It was no robbery to eat of it wherein God was defrauded of any thing that He stood in need of then it had been hurtful to him the fruit was not diseaseful or poisonous then it had been hurtful to them it was a pure Edict of Authority to let the best of all bodily Creatures know to what service and homage they were born as the vulgar Latin reads that verse Psal ix ult Constitue legislatorem super eos not as we translate it put them in fear O Lord but set a Lawgiver over them that they may know themselves to be but men Quomodo eris sub Domino nisi fueris sub praecepto so St. Austin upon that very instance of the forbidden fruit How are you under the Lord unless you be under the Law and not that Law which leans upon apparent reason for that Law is within you and therein you obey your self but that Law which flows from absolute Authority that 's without you and therein you stoop lowest under the power of God And this is the very condition of that word which the Angel spoke to Lot and those that were with him Look not behind thee neither stay in all the plain Wherein could it tend to the honour of God that they should set their face one way more than another perhaps you will say it was meant to the greater detestation of the Sodomites whom the Lord would not permit to have commiseration or any respect from good men or to urge them to make haste away with a kind of hyperbolical celerity As our Saviour sent his Disciples to preach in every City of Judaea with this speedy or prefestinating Command Salute no man by the way Luke x. 4. And Elisha imposed that post haste upon Gehazi his servant Gird up thy loyns and go thy way if thou meet any man salute him not and if any man salute thee answer him not again Suppose this or that were the secret drift of this Interdiction look not behind thee yet a little casting of the head on one side had not made their expedition the slower What need we seek a knot in a rush what need we prove her faulty for reasons that are not alleaged this convinceth obliquity enough in her sin that she did not observe the precise command of God in every gesture of her body In a word the thing it self commanded did not in it self bind the conscience but with the Command it did The eye is free to view all the works of the Lord unless something upon which it glanceth doth scandalize it with concupiscence Who suspects the contrary but that the crackling of the fire and the out-cries of them that perisht in those Cities that were consumed did rowze many in the neighbour Villages to look upon those places and lament them Did not Abraham rise up early in the morning and look toward the Land of the Plain and see the smoak of the Country go up as the smoak of a Furnace 't is soon answered Where there was no restraint there was no transgression But above all other Laws those which we may rather call Canons and Constitutions that impose the prestation of adiaphorous duties and prohibit other things that have no moral obliquity in them are most generous ways to heap reward upon the willing and to discover the stiff stomach of rebellion In all Injunctions Ecclesiastical and Political set aside charity edification unity peace of the Church or any other moral respect Put it only upon this that meer authority enforceth them which is just authority derived from Gods Ordinance God forbid we should need any haling or towing to them for he that sees the finger of Authority held up sees reason enough to obey and to recoil as Lots Wife did because the Commandment seem'd not to be weighty and ponderous is blind disobedience O 't is a blessed thing not to have a licentious itch upon a man not to desire scope and random but to submit chearfully to a punctual Discipline in all our actions and every circumstance of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is the praise of an Holy Father as if his soul had been created without a will Alas into what precipices would our fancy carry us if we were left to our selves to be libertines in any thing there would be nothing but confusion Deus servitute nostrâ non eget nos autem sine ejus dominatione esse non possumus nothing truer it is St. Austins God stands in no need of our service but we could not live without his command and governance 'T is hard to confine this point to brevity but I must break off only let me put you in mind that whereas the Jesuits set forth themselves to be the only Obedientiaries in the World so that to neglect the Precept of their Superior in a trifle they brand it for a flagitious crime yet the Jesuit a Lapide says upon my Text that he would not discord with them that hold the trespass of Lots Wife to be no more than venial error for either some sudden clap of thunder might make her start and look back unawares or else she thought not that the Angel gave her that
direction not to retort her eyes under the guilt of a mortal sin or she thought the Commandement held her no longer when she came out of the Plain and was even entring into Zoar. Here 's a Jesuitical subtlety for you to aggravate the offence to the bigness of a Mountain if a Novice violate the private Law of his Superior but to extenuate the sin almost to nothing if a Servant disobey the private Law of his heavenly Master But it is not the wit of man that can set a size upon sins which are mortal and which are venial for it is the Lord that judgeth the Earth The next place to which I refer the heinousness of this womans sin is great folly and blindness of heart for she refused the will of God and the preservation of her own life upon such easie conditions as to hold still her head When Elisha's Messenger bad Naaman wash seven times in Jordan and he turn'd away in a rage his Servants spake reason to him if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it how much rather then when he saith to thee wash and be clean If he would not use such gentle means so near at hand means of no expence no pain no lingring molestation he deserved to continue a Leper In like sort if Lots Wife had been set a task of many observations put to a strict and a tedious penance would she not have done it to have escaped a storm of fire and brimstone how much more when this was all that was required from her Go on streight to the Mountain that is before thee turn neither to the right hand nor to the left Quanta erat iniquitas in peccando ubi tanta erat non peccandi facilitas says the Father What a shame it was to offend when there was so much facility to decline the offence Were not all the Regions of the World free for her to look upon excepting that one City behind her which could not be seen for the smoak Ex omnibus unum elige Myrrha virum modo ne sit in omnibus unus A single exception is the smallest exception that can be made and let them feel the smart that cannot conform themselves to those things which are of such easie observation For wherein did the transgression of Adam and Eve especially consist God knows best but the trivial and best grounded conjecture is quod levis fuisset in tantâ copiâ unius arboris continentia all the Trees of the Garden else were frankly theirs both for food and pleasure both for delight and necessity What an easie imposition was this let this only Graft be untoucht the Tree of the knowledg of good and evil and all beside is yours Who could forget it or neglect it But they stumbled when there was nothing to make them fall that is they violated a Law which was neither burdensom in strictness nor in multitude of circumstances Therefore in those good hours which we set apart for repentance and bewayling of our sins let it strike us deep to the heart when we remember how much evil we have done upon very small provocation how many branches of the Law we have broken when we cannot justly say that we were strongly beset with any tentation and how far we have given way to our frailties when 't was prompt and easie to repress them The negative Commands of the Law are more obvious to us more ready in our power to obey them than the affirmative So St. Chrysostom spends his judgment upon it with a tacit reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is far easier to hold off our hand from sin than to put to our hand to virtue and we can sooner shew the evil that we have not done than the good that we have done Nay the Father makes that such a slight thing that he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Beasts might alledg that or it might be alledged for them that they had done no iniquity yet what a strong charge it will be against us all in the day of judgment that we have not girt our selves close no not to this negative obedience touch not taste not What facil Ordinances are these to a temperate man and nothing but custom and a sluggish spirit hath made them difficult to the intemperate Defraud no man extort from no man God is no austere God in those Statutes they are quickly learnt and quickly kept yet the wealthiest many times will do the contrary when they could not pretend as the necessitous may the least impulsion of poverty How soon may any one abstein from the Lords Table that finds himself unprepared and uncomposed for those sacred Mysteries yet God shall have their company at that holy Feast when he least desires it How easie a thing it is for a man not to fall down before Stocks and Stones and to worship them yet a smack of Idolatry abounds even in the Church of Christ We dream of difficulties we cry out against invincible tentations when there is no such matter I know there are Royal Laws in Scripture fit for heroick vertue to bless them that persecute you to pull down every high imagination to quench all the sparks of concupiscence to lay down our life for Christs sake God doth justly weigh both the duress and the weight of these Commands and our infirmity to fulfil them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sees us strive for mastery in those Combats and admires the fortitude of his Saints but in other things it is as strange how quickly our faintness and easiness is subdued Could you not watch one hour says our Lord to his Disciples What a poor request is this to wake one hour for his comfort and service Therefore the objurgation was the sharper because they fail'd him You will pollute my name for handfuls of barly and pieces of bread Ez. xiii 19. The Devil 's haec omnia is a strong allurement All these things will I give thee he may bate a great deal of that offer to them that are ready to run into sin let it be hoc aliquid a little preferment a little countenance and they are taken with the Snare O insensati O slow of heart like this sinner in my Text will you reject God and forsake his Word even in things wherein you may so easily perform obedience Thirdly it is another brand upon her sin that she was indocilis most unattentive to learn Lot went before her constantly and stedfastly without any reciprocation or backsliding the Example was in her eye all the way from Sodom to Zoar every step he trode was a Sermon to bid her do the like if she would be saved yet she made no benefit of the Pattern though he were her own Mate her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with whom she was bound in a more particular bond than all others to draw the same yoke What was this but to shut her eyes unto
Heathen described justice in their Idol Jupiter it was Aquila cum fulmine an Eagles eye to discern a fault a Thunderbolt to strike a Malefactor and the way thereof is as the way of an Eagle in the air when at the highest pitch we cannot see him Wherefore address we attentions to hear the cause how that man perished c. I have seen malum sub sole says Solomon evil under the Sun He might well tell it for a wonder that such a difference should light together The Sun builds up nature like a Giant Psal xix and evil pulls it down as fast like a Monster It was the vision of Moses at Mount Horeb Exod. iii. a flame of fire in a bramble bush and he that will look like a Prophet shall see there is nothing among us but Flamma splendoris divini or spina peccati I renounce the Manichees I make not two main causes good and evil but I say every thing shews the brightness of Gods glory shining in his works or the thorns and briars of sin in the defacing thereof such thorns were the sinful Jebusites I would the world were as free from it as the Song of Solomon wherein the name is not once to be read lest it should breed a discord in the tunes of love There must be sin there must be heresies but sin what art thou Alas that every man can sooner sin than tell what it is When we talk of it then it grows upon us when we forget it it encreaseth more when we hate it then we sin because we do not hate it as we ought but call it in one word as St. John doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the breach of Gods Law and you have said enough Me thinks Moses made the definition when spying the trespass the Calf they worshipped in Horeb He cast the Tables from him as who should say the Law is broken Only here is the difference the Tables were crackt in few pieces perhaps but the Law hath been ground like the Idol into powder so that a remnant is not kept whole in man St. Paul Rom. iii. reduceth sin into every part of us both soul and body as unto certain common places or you may call it the Geography of wickedness There is none that understandeth thus our reason is ignorant none that seeketh after God our will is disobedient If the Leaven be so bad what hope remains in the lump Our tongues have used deceit and the kisses of our lips envenom like the Asp Our feet are not lazy but swift to shed bloud Our eyes not dim but wanting before them the vail of reverence There is no fear of God before our eyes Our throat not cramm'd up or strangled but wide as an open Sepulchre Was Goliah more furnisht to do evil with that tomb of brass upon his body Was Esau more rough and hairy from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot Or that Hermogenes whom the Wits of Greece plaid upon that the Rasor knew not where to begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all his body was but one lock As we bring bloudy bodies into the world Tabe polluti occisis magis quà m natis similes says Plutarch so we bring a most wretched soul That as Marius could shew no honourable Pedigree for a Consulship to the Senate but thirty six wounds in his Breast so we cannot shew the glory of our immortal and heavenly created soul her Pedigree from God by reason of the wounds which stick fast upon it Aristotle said our soul was like a fair skin of Parchment wherein nothing was written O that it had been so they are rather like Ezekiels book within and without written with woes and lamentations or as Plato speaks of Dionysius his soul that it was scribled all over with evil Characters What an enditement may be made of this cause then when iniquity is a blemish all over as the whole bird was dipt in bloud Lev. xiv which was an Emblem of our pollution No words can sufficiently describe it but as one speaks of the Spanish Tyranny over the Indies the best Rhetorick was to besmear a bloudy leaf to express it Sin in its Essence is confederate with death and punishment It is the obedience of dumb creatures to chastise it The Earth waxed evil in bringing forth Plants and fruits when the choicest mold of it did fail in Adam it would not be so fruitful for a Sinner as for an Innocent The Prophetess Deborah knew so much Astrology that the Stars in their course fought against the Tyrant Sifera Et navicula Petri in quâ erat Judas turbabatur says St. Ambrose the Sea stormed at Peters Ship when Judas was in it but these are senseless scourges and God applies them What need I speak of Phinehas his righteous passion that killed the Princely Adulterer If the Angels might have their will no Tares should stand in the field they would root up every thing that had not the blade of Wheat But these are all heavenly Souldiers and holiness provokes them Well let the Devil be the judge and he delights both to accuse and punish Put it to evil men and they think Naboth should die for cursing God and the King The vilest persons for the most part are the Satyrs of the time and tax all the world like Angustus Nay put it to the sinner himself put it to Cain and Judas they find no favour no mitigation I dare say in the Court of their own conscience Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur Let me lead you on with this distinction betwixt in and propter to perish in iniquity and for iniquity Sin is not always the propter the moving cause of Gods chastisements but sometimes the triall of an heroick faith so it was in Job Sometimes the confirmation of grace so it was in St. Paul the Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him that Gods grace might be sufficient for him But in iniquitate is certain truth the wrath of God lights not but where transgressions have gone before Thus the Disciples were at a loss Joh. ix Did this man sin that he was born blind How was that possible in his Mothers Womb But was the sin of his Father or the guilt of his Mother imputed to him The imperfect fruit of the Womb could do no evil the offence of his Parents must not be thought his evil Rabbi quis peccavit Nec ille nec parentes says our Saviour neither for his nor his Parents sins was he born blind but that the works of God might be made manifest in him That was the cause and yet a mote had not troubled the eye of this blind man but that a beam of sin had possessed it before in his Mothers Womb I mean by original corruption Alas that we should be grown big enough for punishment before we are born to nature Sabores being but a breeding at the death of his