to Gods hand Shall we not remove the occasion which may bring us into bondage hereafter Tant â sollicitudine petere audebis quod in te positum recusabis Will you pray so heartily for that unto God which you will not set hands to when you may do it for your selves Arise Barak and lead thy captivity captive thou Son of Abinoam I see it methinks in all your Countenances that every man is more willing to honour this day than the very day wherein he was born into the world for we are born in tears we are preserved with laughter God forbid that the enemy should have the upper hand to make this day a by-word for ever and to be blotted out from among the days of solemnity But whether they dig by Sophistry to pervert the weak and faithless Or whether they give words as smooth as Oyl having War in their hearts or whether they send over Emissaries Boutefeaues to devise against Hierusalem Lord keep thine anointed King in safety make his Crown flourish long upon his own head and upon the head of our most illustrious Prince and for ever uphold our Church and Commonweale that as thy truth hath brought it out of darkness of error and thy hand hath protected it from dark Conspiracies so it may shine in these Kingdoms for ever as the Sun in the Firmament and as the faithful Witness in heaven Even so Lord Jesus AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Fifth of November ACTS xxviii 5. And he shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm IT comes to pass from our desire to see mankind multiplied that almost no Infant is born into the world without the eyes of many to behold it but if any one have escaped a jeopardy with the hazard of his life as he is a creature new-born again from danger so we cast our eyes more wishly upon the person As many as the house could hold resorted to see Lazarus revived John ii Solomon's Porch full met at once to see the Cripple use his Legs Acts iii. All the Island ran together to behold St. Paul who had shook a Viper into the fire and felt no harm and that self-same Miracle is the employment which your patience doth now attend upon And though we regard the deliverance of others at the pleasure of our curiosity as we use to say at our idle time yet to see St. Paul preserved it is as Socrates spake of Lysias his Oration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat more than business For that you may know him to be set up as a spectacle to look upon how many petty deaths were round about our Apostle in the former Chapter As if he should have gone out of the world like Hermaphroditus many ways at once In a mighty Tempest in a Famine of fourteen days in the hands of violent Souldiers surely his life had ended here but that God had determined he should die honourably by Caesars Sword Having satisfied the Sea a little beast assaileth him on the shore But excussit all is well both here and there and he is delivered And besides this we may very well make it not St. Pauls case alone it is like pure Gold which may be malleated and drawn out a great deal larger even to the entire profession of the whole Gospel 1. Vipera that there is a danger and then 2. Excussit both an easie and a joyful deliverance Ecclesia in illo patiebatur quando pro Ecclesiâ patiebatur as St. Augustin said of our Saviour The Church was wounded in him when he was wounded for the Church So St. Paul was an Embassadour to Caesar for the whole Church of God and therefore the ignominy and comfort redounded to the whole Church both of his great perplexity and likewise of his preservation To knit all this together a Serpent was a very fit instrument if you will regard the nature of man in these four degrees First Adam was set upon by a Serpent in the Garden of Eden and was stung to the quick and corrupt nature afforded him no deliverance Secondly The Israelites under Moses Law were assaulted and stung but found a remedy 3. St. Paul in the New Testament is assaulted but felt no harm Lastly The Saints in glory shall not so much as be assaulted To be vanquisht in our conflicts is the misery of our poor nature to be chastised by punishment is the rigour of the Law to be threatned by affliction is the life of the Gospel to be out of suspicion and fear of harm is the state of heaven The times of Nature and Law are past the days of Glory are not yet revealed my Text therefore not unfitly is a representation only of the third that is of the season of the Gospel This is the sum of all If neither life nor death height nor depth Viper nor any other creature can seperate us from the love of Christ then we boldly say without an error Ego sum Paulus thus was Paul and thus am I delivered Beloved from this one venimous Serpent take notice of the whole brood of the Viper Every torment is de crinibus anguis in the Poet a kind of Serpent greater or less If we complain like Jonas far more of a little worm that offends us than of a great Whale that devours us then affliction is Venenum patientiae it festers and leaves a wound behind it But if we be shod with the preparation of the Gospel Super aspidem basiliscum ambulare Not to fly from harm as fast as our feet can carry us but to walk at leisure upon the Lion and the Aspe then we bring the Text home to our selves then we shake beasts into the fire and feel no harm In which words may it please you to attend to these four parts 1. Here is a perilous Adversary known in this verse to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 savage and hurtful but better known in the former to be a Viper fastned on St. Pauls hand 2. His safe deliverance in excussit he shook off the worm 3. Vengeance is shown upon this fatal creature Excussit in ignem he cast it off for destruction into the fire Lastly The barbarous people who beheld all this they put us in mind of a fourth part they thought that God was in the work but mistook Paul for Pauls Creator therefore for a conclusion here is mirabile salutare a plain Miracle from heaven More likelihood for Paul to be kild there could not be and yet he felt no harm So danger is the first thing in order in my Text but scarce in time deliverance the next part was not one whit behind it in which there is Digitus Pauli the singer of Paul to requite the Viper with the flames of fire and Digitus Dei strange help from God alone I say the Barbarians did confess it The corps of the Text it is a deliverance now on the left hand behold peril and hazard of life on the right
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
before King James I. Vpon Amos ix 2. Though they dig into Hell thence shall my hand take them p. 742 II. Vpon Acts xxviii 5. And he shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm p. 752 II Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. v. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him p. 762 Upon the same p. 771 III. Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. viii 20 21. And Noah builded an Altar to the Lord and took of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl and offered burnt offerings on the Altar And the Lord smelled a sweet savour p. 780 Upon the same p. 789 Upon the same p. 798 II Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. xix 26. But his Wife lookt back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt p. 896 Upon the same p. 815 A Sermon preached at Whitehall upon Numb xxi 7. Pray unto the Lord that he take the Serpents from us p. 823 A Sermon upon Joshua xxii 20. And that man perished not alone in his iniquity p. 831 A Fast Sermon preached at Whitehall upon Nehem. i. 4. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven p. 849 A Sermon upon Prov. iii. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee p. 862 II Sermons concerning the Rechabites upon Jer. xxxv 6. But they said we will drink no wine p. 873 II Sermons preached at Whitehall upon John iv 13 14. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst p. 483 Upon the same p. 902 III Sermons preached at Whitehall upon John vi 11. And Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks distributed to the Disciples and the Disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would p. 911 Upon the same 921 Upon the same 931 A Sermon preached at Whitehall upon St. Lukes day upon Acts xi 26. And the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch p. 941 A Commencement Sermon preached at Cambridge upon Acts xii 23. And immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory p. 952 III Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gal. iv 26. But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all p. 964 Upon the same 973 Upon the same 983 II Sermons preached upon All Saints day in Holbourn I. Upon Rev. vi 9. I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the Testimony which they held p. 992. II. Vpon Rev. vi 10. And they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth p. 1003 AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE and DEATH OF THE AUTHOR THE Son of Sirach a renowned Preacher in his Generation has given us counsel to commend Famous Men and our Fathers of whom we are begotten and in the close of his excellent Book has presented us with a large Catalogue of them together with an Encomium of their Actions whose remembrance sayes he is sweet as Honey in all Mouths and pleasant as Musick at a Banquet of Wine St. Paul has directly imitated the Son of Sirach and enumerated many antient Heroes not without a due Commemoration and farther given us a Precept To remember our Governors or Guides in the Christian Faith holy Bishops and Martyrs after their death as appears plainly by the following words whose faith follow considering the end of their Conversation Accordingly in the Primitive times the Bishops of Rome took care that the lives and actions of all holy Men and Martyrs especially should be recorded For this purpose publick Notaries were appointed by S. Clement say some though Platina first ascribes their institution to Anterus whose Records were far more large than the present Roman Martyrology or that of Bede and Vsuardus or the Menologue of the Greeks which for the most part contain only the Names and Deaths of the Martyrs but those were a Narrative of their whole Lives and Doctrines and Speeches at large their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famous Acts and Sufferings for the Christian Faith which were also read sometimes in their Religious Assemblies for the encouragement of others and are said to have converted many to the Christian Faith But these long since perished through the malice and cruelty of Dioclesian in those fires which consumed their Bodies and their Books together Afterwards when Christian Religion reflourished the Christian Church resumed these Studies again St Ambrose did right to the memory of Theodosius Paulinus of St. Ambrose Nazianzen to Athanasius St. Hierom to Nepotian Possidonius to St. Austin Amphilochius to St. Basil St. Hierom and Gennadius wrot of all Ecclesiastical Writers and illustrious men in the Christian Church from the beginning of it to their own times And after all these there wanted not Martyrologers and Writers of Lives but such as perhaps we had better have wanted than enjoyed their Writings insomuch that a great Lieutenant under the Papal Standard durst affirm that the Stories of the Heathen Captains and Philosophers were more excellently written then of Christs own Apostles and Martyrs For those were done so notably that they were like to live for ever whereas the lives of many Saints in the Christian Church were so corruptly and shamefully penn'd that they could no way advantage the Reader so that at this day we have two things to bewail not only that we have lost the true reports of the Primitive Christians but likewise that the lives of the Saints we have remaining have not been written by Saints and true men but by liars who have stufft their fastidious Writings with so many prodigious Tales as are more apt to beget infidelity than faith and all honest and judicious men are ashamed and grieved to read them For my own part I intend not in this tumultuary haste to write an absolute Life of the Author or recollect all his Actions praise-worthy but only for satisfaction of some importunate friends to represent quaedam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some few Memoirs and Passages of his Life which I have received from his Lordships most intimate acquaintance and for the most part from his own reports Tecum etenim longos memini consumere Soles and in them am resolved to sacrifice to Truth and not to Affection to the glory of God and not to humane fame to write nothing false or fictitious nor things true in an hyperbolical and flaunting manner as in a Panegyrick but only a Breviary of his most active and industrious life where the truth shall be recited without false Idea's and representations and his Lordship made to appear what really he was both in his Divine vertues and humane passions
upon each of them Now this is nothing sutable to that which immediately ensued and was prefigured in this Miracle namely the speaking with divers Tongues to the fit intelligence of all Nations The most probable conceit that I can frame of it is to imagine how fire disparts it self into flames especially a celestial irradiation like the light of the Sun that was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like as of fire Fire you know will cast out many flames in sharp and Pyramidal points or as the Sun lays his beams forth in many ejaculations nothing fits it righter than the expansion of the fingers of the hand so this fire did glister like several beams in proportion to the Tongue when it is rather pickant and sharp than broad and in that sort as I fancy it as is above the skill of any Limner in the world to paint it for the Holy Ghost perhaps intended not to be set forth in Workmans Art and Imagery and so it multiplied into the shew of several disparted Tongues as many of them seemed to sit upon every several Apostle My drift is to make this conceit of it enter into you that from one Language the Apostles grew expert of a sudden to speak many their Harp now wherewith they praised the Lord was not only ten stringed but ten times ten stringed to make a more chearful melody to the God of Jacob. The Tongue which was confined before to a little corner of the world in Palestina and there only to bless the Creator that made us is now set at liberty that in all Languages it may glorifie the Saviour that redeemed us And as the Fathers do very well shew it this is a plain reversing of the curse of Babel by the blessing that came out of Sion For as God pulled down that proud Tower which those insolent Builders intended by the confusion of many Tongues so he built up the new Jerusalem in an instant by the gift of many Tongues and as diversity of Tongues was a punishment to scatter Rebels for their pride so diversity of Tongues was made the only means to reduce Infidels that had not heard of God into the unity of the Faith And they that advanced themselves against heaven says Gregory lost the communion of that one tongue which they had but they which submitted themselves to the good will and pleasure of Christ obtained the communion of all Tongues which they had not Sic humilitas unitatem meruit superbia confusionem And all this was done visibly upon this one day that we may believe the Church shall never want Gods invisible grace that is though not in this kind yet in some other benefit A miracle in the same kind they that are the common minters of Miracles dare not urge or pretend And although nothing be more expedient for the setling of the Gospel in an unknown world such as America was within one hundred and forty years then the gift of Tongues to be able to speak to those Savages to their own understanding yet the Jesuites have never arrogated that any of their Order who visited those parts could speak new Languages by inspiration only Turcellinus a man of no forehead nor modesty says that Xaverius the Jesuite spake but his mother tongue to the Indians of Goa and that all those heathenish people did understand him as if it had been their native Dialect an impudent forgery confirmed by none disavowed by Acosta of his own Society and quite contrary to the nature of a Miracle that Infidels and Pagans should be inspired to understand and the Christian that converted them should have no extraordinary inspiration to speak Therefore as I said before we have no kind of invisible grace in the same kind that the Apostles had cloven tongues that is a faculty to speak by instinct with all Nations but the Lord did never give to any Age more blessing in the learning of the Tongues than he hath done to this furnishing men with rare skill to be able to communicate in speech with those of the world beneath us which is a sign to me that he is gathering the World unto him by the calling of all Nations and hastening his Kingdom But now I gather in further upon this Miracle Can any thing be more Diametrically opposite to the good intention of it than publick Prayers recited in a Tongue unknown to the ignorant people to which they cannot understandingly say Amen Why hath God sent down this Vision of Cloven Tongues but that the Lips of all Nations and Languages may as well publickly as privately resound his glory If Beasts and Birds could speak they would utter nothing but that which they understand and shall reasonable men be tied through the tyranny of Church-men to fumble words by roat like Beasts It is against Nature which gave us a Tongue to be the interpreter of the mind to those that listen to us It is against Reason to make the Laiques say Amen to the Priests when for their part they are uncertain whether he blessed them or cursed them It is against Scripture 1 Cor. xiv If you speak in an unknown tongue how can he that supplies the place of the Ideot say Amen And Lyra says upon it If the People understood the Priests they would serve God better be converted sooner answer much more devoutly to the Contents of the Liturgie It is against the Scope of the Holy Ghost who enabled the Apostles to speak with divers Tongues that all people might hear and know and know and believe to eternal life It is against all possibility of Edification For where knowledge enters not first how can zeal and desire be kindled Ignoti nulla cupido And it is an impious derision of one of the Romish to say that although the Priest stand at the Altar so far distant from the people that they neither hear nor understand yet the people may be taught by Signs and Ceremonies It is quite against the old Imperial Laws Justinian the Emperour strictly commanding all Priests so to officiate in the Church that their voice might come distinct and intelligible to all the people present that they may answer again as is their duty Finally it is most utterly against the ancient use of the Church one example for many St. Hierom says that at the Funerals of Paula the people sang Psalms some in Hebrew some in Greek some in Latine and Syriack all in their several Dialects to praise the Lord for her happy departure So I have delivered what is most opposite to the gift of Cloven Tongues one thing more for a caution that a double tongue is a gift of the Devil as a cloven tongue is the gift of God The cloven Tongue was the dispersion of many beams out of one flame of many Tongues out of one root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Oecumenius so that there is unity in the root and distinction in the stalks but the double tongue which
St. Paul bids Deacons take heed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. iii. 8. that is Lying Equivocation Flattery sowing dissention double mindedness Jam. i. 8. Omnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that hath a double tongue hath a double mind an heart and a heart He praiseth that to one Faction which he defies before the other He commends a man to his face backbites him behind his back he confesseth Christ where it is advantage and denies him where it is advantage Cum tristibus severè cum remissis jucundè as the Oratour said of Cataline he can curse and bless with the same breath out of the same Fountain come forth sweet waters and bitter these and many more than these are the juglings of a double tongue but the Lord will say unto them double unto them double according to their iniquities and divide them in twain that they may have their portion with hypocrites I have been copious as the time would give me leave upon the Figure of these Tongues that they were Cloven next you must mark their Form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were fire cloven tongues as it were fire and let a certain learned Interpreter have his judgment to himself that it is an Hypallage for there appeared fire as it had been Cloven Tongues yet still it is but appearing and as it were the sound was a real sound that came from heaven all beside was but Similitude and Apparition Very fire was not needful nay it would have been offensive and have scorched the part upon which it sate But it was such fire as appeared to Moses in the Bush Exod. iii. The bush burnt with fire and the bush was not consumed Such as the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah did foresee Isa xliii 2. When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee To be inspired in a moment to speak all sort of Tongues the Apostles did never dream of Christ did not foretel them any thing which sounded that way But they had prediction of this part of the Miracle both from John the Baptist He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire Mat. iii. 11. and from Christs own mouth I am come to send fire into the earth Luk. xii 49. Which the Fathers for the most part interpret of that which came down at this Feast of Pentecost All the Plagues of the Old World as if the Elements had spate out their venom became blessings under the Kingdom of Christ The Old World was drowned with Water the New World is saved by Baptism and as I said but lately God pulled down the Tower of Babel by the confusion of Tongues now he built up the New Jerusalem by the multiplicity of tongues So he sent down fire upon Sodom to consume it here he sent down fire upon his Church to save it But because all the Apparitions which the most wise God doth send are full of Signification and Doctrine it concerns the Text to have it diligently enquired wherefore the Holy Ghost did descend in fire First Look back to the Mosaical Law delivered at Mount Sinai at the promulgation of it there came smoak and thunder and flashes of fire therefore says Isidor Vt unus Deus in utroque testamento agnosceretur that you may know that the same Lord is Lord of both the two Testaments in the first setling of the Gospel likewise there came down fire from heaven The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai in his right hand was a firy Law Exod. xxxiii 1. Whereupon the Chaldee Paraphrast says that his right hand wrote the Law out of the midst of the fire so the holy Spirit doth write the Law of Christ in our hearts as it were with an hot Iron Mark making such a stamp as will never be got out Secondly And I mean principally likewise the brightness of fire concurred in the Tongues to import that boldness and fervour and efficacy which goes along with them where the Lord doth give the mouth utterance to speak Tongues of flesh and words of air will not serve the turn to convert souls there must be fire put into the Tongue somewhat above natural force and power that must bring it to pass Says the Son of Syrach concernig that renowned Prophet that awed all Israel with his Preaching then stood up the Prophet Elias like fire and his word burned as a lamp Ecclus xlviii 1. There is a burning vigour in the Word of God when it is luckily applied to the conscience of a sinner As Cleophas and the other Disciple said of the communication of our Saviour Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and opened unto us the Scriptures Luk. xxiv 32. And we must be warm and fervent our selves in our Message that we may warm others with it Ardeat orator si judicem velit accendere says Tully that was his crafts-master in that kind Let the Orator be fervent if he means to heat the Judge in his cause so the Embassadors of God must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. xii 11. Fervent in spirit if they mean to thaw the frozen hearts of their Auditors So says Gregory upon this very occasion of the firy Tongues Otiosus est sermo doctoris si praebere non valeat incendium amoris Our Preaching is frivolous if it do not kindle the fire of divine love in our Disciples Therefore St. Paul writes thus to Timothy 2 Epist i 6. To stir up the gift of God that is in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to quicken and kindle the fire of the gift of God that is in him Vt sopitum ignitum suscites to rake up the fire together and make it flame that it go not out The gift of God is a lively flame kindled in our hearts which the Devil and the flesh would put out and that monition quench not the spirit is the watch word against it and we must labour as much as we can to foster it and keep it burning But he that is a lukewarm Christian neither hot nor cold indifferent to serve God or to disobey him he is a loathed morsel which God canot digest and because he wants fervor it is a manifest sign that the Spirit is departed from him Thirdly The Spirit came at several times in the shape of a Dove and in fire to shew what mixture out of them both is most pleasing in a Christian Quia ne que placere Deo simplicitas sine zelo neque zelus potest sine simplicitate the Dove is the Emblem of gentleness and simplicity the Fire of zeal neither is zeal good without meekness nor meekness without zeal We must not lose our fervour in tameness nor with preposterous zeal forget gentleness And well doth Gregory hunt this Parallel further that the Spirit did descend upon Christ in the similitude of a Dove upon the Apostles in the similitude of fire
Worship not one for Christ c. Herein as Peter knew not what he said so he said somewhat which Expositors wonder how he should know namely he calls these men Moses and Elias but how was it revealed to him The Text intimates how they spake to Christ but no where that Christ spake to them and used their names to make them familiar and well known And certainly he had never seen so much as their Pictures to make himself acquainted with the fashion of their countenance The Jews did hold themselves so strictly to the Letter of the Second Commandment that they made no Picture or Graven Image without Gods especial Commandment To resolve this doubt almost every Writer hath laboured to make his own ingenuous conjecture most probable Says Theophylact Moses might say Thou art the Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the World whose Passion I prefigured in the institution of the Paschal Lamb And might Elias say Thou art the Christ whom we believe shall rise again from the dead and that thy power over death might be believed I raised up the Widows Son to life Another way says Christianus Druthmarus Elias might say ascend on high and lead Captivity Captive even as I mounted up to heaven before Elisha Then Moses might vie with him Do thou deliver thy Saints from Hell even as I brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt Did both express that they two had fasted forty days and that they alone above all others had that symbolical mark with Christ Might not the one bring the two Tables of the Law in his hand as if they were his Escutchion by which he would be known And the other perhaps came in his Chariot of fire that bore him up to heaven that is a fourth way So wise an Author as Tolet might have taken any of these conjectures rather than his own forsooth that Elias came as he is described 2 Kings i. 8. An hairy man with a girdle of leather about his Loins and Moses came as their vulgar Latine most ridiculously sets him forth Cum cornutâ facie with Horns for where we read his face shined according to the Hebrew they read his face had horns Indeed this would well become some of their late Canonized Worthies who do rather deserve horns to be fixed to their heads for Monsters than the irradiation of beams for glorified men Zachary Chrysopolitanus hath a Scholastique way by himself Nec probo nec improbo That Peter and the other two Apostles were partakers of some heavenly glory when they saw the Transfiguration and therefore had that spark of happiness to know all persons whom they saw intuitivè as if they had been glorified So he discerned these to be Moses and Elias whom he had never seen before by that gift of grace whereby every Saint shall know all the Society of Saints by name after the Resurrection I will not enter upon that Theme to enlarge this opinion whether we shall know one another perfectly in the life to come Luther very judiciously held the affirmative part the very same night that he gave up his Spirit to the Lord. But to Zacharies opinion I give this dash that Peter was no partaker of glorified qualities at this time especially by way of knowledge and the gift of discerning For he knew not what he said There are reasons to be glanced at before I leave this Point why Peter would impale Moses and Elias in Mount Thabor in his Tabernacles to keep his Master company First he thought says one that none were more gracious with God to be fed miraculously with corporal sustenance so that for their sakes they should all have food enough Moses obtained Manna to fall from heaven about the Tents of the Israelites for forty years at his desire he brought Quails and opened the hard Rock so that waters flowed out And the very Ravens that use to devour all they can get they did spread a Table for Elias and brought him bread and flesh Secondly Fain would Peter defend his Master that he might not be delivered up to the high Priests to be crucified Now he bethought how near Moses was to drowning and his life was preserved how near to be stoned by the people and yet protected Num. xiv How violent was Jezebel against Elias and yet he escaped These had been very fortunate in their preservation therefore he would make Tabernacles for these to dwell with Christ Thirdly If Mount Thabor should happen to be environed with enemies that came to hale them to judgment why Peter may surmise let Moses have a Tabernacle here and he can bring Plagues upon Plagues against them that will meddle with Christ as he did upon Pharaoh and all his Host Let Elias have a Tabernacle here and he will call for fire from heaven to devour their Captains These are the glosses of ancient Writers but I would not confidently say it that the Apostle had all or any of these weak policies in his head when he spake these words Surely he had not time to confer with John and James no nor upon the sudden starting of fear any leisure to roule things in his own reason much less to apply reason to Divine Faith It was an extemporary Ejaculation and a very infirm one not knowing what he said All the first part of my Text was zeal to Christs glory the next part shews it was Zeal not according to knowledge not knowing what he said Upon these words some have quite mistaken the fault some have aggravated it too much some have excused it too far some have delivered their mind as I conceive with reason and moderation The Historiographers of Magdeburg in the first place conceived the case amiss who thought that Peter would have three Tabernacles built upon that flore in memory of the Transfiguration whereas he would have made his Fabrick not for the remembrance of the work that was past but for their cohabitation for the time present and to come In the next place Origen lays so great a crime to the Apostles charge that he says a Diabolical Spirit seduced him to say these words to impedite his Masters Passion for in the sixteenth Chapter of St. Matthew when he disswaded Christ from his sufferings Christ said unto him Get thee behind me Satan therefore all such seducements as this was must be Satanical St. Mark knew the reason of Peters transgression better than Origen this is all that he says Mar. vi 9. He wist not what to say for they were sore afraid It was not the evil Spirit of darkness but the spirit of fear that misguided him And as for the Passion of our Lord who more ready than Satan to hasten it Did he not put it into the heart of Judas that he might procure the death of Christ Did not Christ say to the Jews You are of your father the Devil and you would fulfil his desires when they sought to kill him Joh. viii It was too
emulation may go out for want of combustible matter and in this case not he that violates the peace by stickling much but he that obeys and holds his peace deserves the greater reward This power our Saviour exercised over his Apostles to tie their tongues for a time that they should not publish the glory of his Transfiguration till men were fit to receive it He charged them they should tell no man of the things which they had seen I would but so much humility might be marked from hence as would repress insolence and vain boasting Christ laid his command upon this matter rather than upon any other and imposed silence upon all the three Witnesses that they should not blab the Vision of his Excellency abroad How much unlike is this to them who had rather lose an ounce of their blood nay the sweet odour of virtue than an hour of fame and popularity And so much good as is done and not openly known and divulged is soon repented Where shall we find such a modest temper as that of St. Paul so much admired by Theophylact after fourteen years he tells the Corinthians of the Revelation which God granted him and of his Rapture into Paradise and in all that space he did never impart that celestial honour which was done him either to friend or stranger and then he was ashamed that he was put to it says he I am become a fool in glorying ye have compelled me but what fools are they then that will make such proud boasting without compulsion Jospeph being but a child he did as a child and having the inspiration of two several Dreams he could not hold but made all his Brethren acquainted with them to his own affliction He dreamt a dream and told it to his brethren and they hated him the more Therefore in his riper years though God had given him the spirit of Prophesy he would not divulge himself that he had the interpretation of Dreams He bad Pharaoh's Butler remember him when he was in place And according to the old Saw qui bene latuit bene vixit he conteined himself from manifesting the Gift of God which was in him till the Butler could not choose but call him to mind to put Pharaoh's heart in peace Elizabeth hid her self five months after the Lord had made her conceive a Child miraculously to the astonishment of all the World that great Prophet John the Baptist The Blessed Virgin was saluted by an Angel from Heaven conceived by the Holy Ghost visited by the Wisemen from the East she encountred every day many strange celestial Tokens and yet made no noise of these things to the World but kept all these sayings in her heart Luke ii 51. The mighty power of God will shine and shew it self at last be not ambitious to have it displayed for your own ostentation Christ refrained to have the Vision of the Transfiguration presently notified He charged them c. Generally the Fathers consider the Apostles but as Novices in sacred matters who were yet but in training up and as deficient in those abilities which were requisite to handle such a mysterie Sacred things saies the Greek Proverb must not be toucht 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with unwashen hands This made the ancient Fathers of the Church as fearful to come into a Pulpit as our raw Scholars now adays are forward You need not charge these hasty Predicants as our Saviour did his Disciples not to speak of that for a certain time which they know I would they could be admonished not to be so bold to speak of that which they know not I am not certain for the greater part of such that they have seal but I will bear them record with St. Paul it is not according to knowledg But will you know the spring head from whence this abuse ariseth How can they preach unless they be sent And why was Authority so overseen to send them licentiâ sumus omnes deteriores it is the licence which enables for those things wherein they have no ability Yet again another Text of St. Paul rubs my memory multa licent quae non expediunt there are too many such licences granted which are not expedient If men would let knowledg ripen in them before they speak and not blurt out any thing with extemporary barbarism the Word of God preached would not come so much in contempt for a Parable is an undecent thing in the mouth of a fool Prov. xxvi 9. Our Saviour destined a large space of time to have the cogitation of his great Works mellow in the thoughts of Peter James and John before they testified them to the World which is another reason why they must not speak of that which they had seen till the Son of man was risen from the dead Another reason shall stand in the last place of this point it is fit that they and none but they should preach of Christs Glory who are affrighted with nothing The Apostles were very timerous and would desert a good Cause if they were strongly opposed you know the infirmity of Peter that could not answer the challenge of a silly Damosel but denied his Master This was in diebus illis when the Holy Ghost had not yet come down upon him in the shape of a fire afterward he durst speak the truth though he had been in the midst of fire nay he could not repress the Gospel his will was overcom and could not revolt if the literal sense of the Text be right as sure it is We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Act. iv 20. Grace was as it were turned into nature in them now as in the Angels confirmed in grace says the ordinary Gloss Vino coelesti ebrit se continere non poterant says Lyra the Scoffers of Jerusalem said they were full of new wine it was indeed by a figure a celestial wine with which their spirit was inebriated and as a drunken mans tongue will not ly quiet so in this resemblance they were such that could not but speak the Gospel of Jesus Christ they were these times of courage which Christ had destin'd that in them his Transfiguration should be revealed openly Moses found not constancy in himself and therefore would have balked Gods Message says he Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh So the eleven Disciples were so fearful after out Saviours death that they shut the doors upon themselves where they were assembled for fear of the Jews and after the Resurrection we read that Christ did many times erect their courage which was dejected with these words Be not afraid and therefore he said unto them Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem until ye be indued with power from on high Luke xxiv 49. When that power had possessed them with spirit and resolution they had leave to unfold this mysterie and not before he charged them saying Tell the Vision to no man till the Son
the name of the whole Congregation to offer up two Lambs of the first year for a Sacrifice of Peace-offerings You will say that 's no strange matter to present a Peace-offering to the Lord true indeed particular persons did it often in their own behalf but Maimonides observes it that the publick Body the Vniversal Church of the Jews never offered any Peace-offering but at the Feast of Pentecost O who will work this work for the Militant Catholique Church that we may say of all the parts of it omnes unanimiter they conclude all for the Orthodox Faith with one accord Some strange salvation must drop out of the clouds we know not how to work this Attonement yet on both sides let every man take heed he make not the rent bigger with more obstinacy and greater separation sweetly did a meek Moses of our own Church write there will come a time when three words uttered with charity and meekness shall receive a far more blessed reward than three thousand Volumes written with disdainful sharpness of wit It may seem a wonderful and unanswerable scruple that many in the former Ages of the Church did so much transcend us in these dayes for gifts of Miracles gifts of Devotion and Learning for Watchings and Fastings for Industry and assiduous diligence for most prosperous success in winning many Souls to the Kingdom of Heaven but the true cause is that their unanimity and pious agreement opened a wide gate to admit sanctification into their breast and our discords exclude it No spirit can give life to Members dismembred unless they be first united and compact together Ezekiel knew not how scattered bones could live but the bones came together bone to his bone and then the breath of the Lord came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet Ezekiel xxxvii 10. The Scribes and Elders of the Jews in few years after our Saviour was crucified were like broken bones scattered and divided like as one breaketh and heweth wood every year by bribery or calumniations the High Priest lost his dignity and a new one was substituted Josephus most impartially hath related that there was no care of Religion no zeal for the Law among them because there was nothing but bandings and factions in their Synagogues Here was no accord and therefore no Holy Spirit came down into their habitations Against the Congregation of the famous first Nicene Council the Fathers that met together it is not to be concealed forgat themselves so far that they put up innumerous Bills of complaints one against another before the Emperor Constantine The Emperor knew this was a most repugnant beginning to the good work they had in hand to enter into the consideration of Christs business with distracted enmities therefore he threw all their bills and brables into the fire and then bad them proceed in the name of Christ and in the grace of his Holy Spirit Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty says the Prophet Hosea chap. x. 2. A contentious stickler that loves to be the head of a Faction and to disjoynt things out of peace and quietness I wonder whether ever he thinks how the Apostles were composed and prepared when they received the Holy Ghost Fuerunt omnes eâdem animatione simul in unam so St. Austin reads they had one heart and one mind and one inclination to advance the Kingdom of Christ they were all with one accord in one place I enter now upon the last part of all that I may find the way out of my Text and conclude it is the other Preparation for the coming of the Holy Ghost as all the Disciples were knit in vinculo pacis in the bond of peace and concord so they were united together in vinculo spei in the bond of hope by patience and expectation they were ejusdem unanimitatis and ejusdem longanimitatis they kept together for the promise of the Holy Ghost till fifty days were fulfilled God made the Israelites number fifty days after their coming out of Egypt before the Law was delivered ut adventus sui desiderium accenderet to make their hearts burn within them with longing for his coming so he put off the coming of the Holy Ghost for the same space of time to make them think of his promise with eager expectation The Jews called it the Feast of fifty days and the Feast of weeks for whether we reckon by days or weeks or years we must wait the Lords leisure and say expectans expectavi Psal xl 1. I have waited patiently for the Lord and say with our Saviour not my will but thy will be done that is not my time but thy time be fulfilled Where is the faith where is the humility of those rash spirits that will not tarry the fulness of time but have all things at their whistle by and by or quarrel with God as if he had forgot them They received this blessing of wonderful grace that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long abiders in the 13. verse of the former chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perseverantes ver 14. such as continue till the day of promise was fully come He that believeth let him not make haste says the Prophet Isaiah God will do all things by his own leisure and maturity if he happen to stay stay for him Habak ii 3. for at last he that cometh will come and then he is no flitter his gifts are without repentance and he will abide with us for ever AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and filled all the house where they were sitting THE Feast of Christs Resurrection and the Feast of Whitsunday or coming of the Holy Ghost are distant one from another fifty days in space of time but are as near to themselves as the bark unto the tree in real substance and in spiritual conjunction In the Resurrection the strength of Hell was weakened for us In the descending of the Holy Ghost the vertue of Heaven was made powerful in us In the first the doors of the Grave were unlock'd that we might not be held in death In the other the windows of heaven were opened that we might be partakers of the life to come The Resurrection reduceth the soul into the body again which was dissolved by the sin of Adam The coming of the Holy Ghost doth again reduce grace into the Soul when original Justice had been taken from it by the same mans transgression These are parallell'd in primo gradu and the comparison may reach a little further to our present business that there was a great noise caused at Christs rising For behold there was an Earthquake Mat. xxviii 2. And loe as great a noise from above at the coming of the Holy Ghost for behold there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind These two honourable Feasts
they be driven from the presence of God And I pray you what credit is it to our Church to make such a bustle as some private men have done about scandalous Ministers as if the Clergy were grown so disordered that the most necessary thing to be provided for in the Weal Publick were new Laws for the rectifying and deprivation of scandalous Ministry When sundry Petitions were put into the hand of Constantine the Great at the famous Council of Nice against some Bishops and Priests and Deacons he threw them all into the fire with this answer He would not have complaints in that kind so publick but if he knew how to cover their trespasses he would cast his own royal Robe upon them As you wish that God might not be despised as you wish the Jesuits might not triumph at your Ministers beware to make such a mountain of that which private advertisement might better rectifie Many of my Brethren of good parts are unfurnish with means and where poverty and wit meet together I confess they seldom make an honest man between them God give them grace to bear their wants more religiously and with less scandal but I hope you will not think the whole Loom is bad because the List is coarse But for those that are so ready to blur their reputation whom God hath appointed to burn Incense before his name that is to pray for his people is it not a sign that God is despised by them Fifthly To step into the observation of a judicious Commentator it is an apparent disgust of contempt Minimè ad minas contremiscere not to tremble at his anger that threatens Primos in orbe Deos fecit timor says Statius not so soundly that fear was the first thing that made a God but I am sure that want of fear is the first thing that will make an Atheist and perswade a man there is no God The Prophet Isaiah could say no worse of the Idols made of stocks and stones but that they could do no evil that we should be dismaid at them Isa xli 23. Every part of our Saviours Passion was undergone to satisfie in the kind wherein we had most prevaricated Our Extortion wounded his hands our Gluttony gave him Gall to drink our want of fear put him into the strongest part of his Passion that Agony full of great fear in the Garden when he sweat drops of bloud as for them that hear lamentations read unto them that have heard the vengeance of Captivity and the Sword threatned to a wicked Land and yet their heart is not quail'd their courage is undaunted it shall fall out unto them as it did unto the Philistines they brought out Samson to play before them and made a mocking-stock so long of his Arms of Steel that at length he plucked down their Temple about their ears and brained them A filial fear that loves God for his goodness is like a bright day that hath not a cloud to disfigure it a servile fear that loves God for fear of the wrath to come is like a day that is overcast with clouds but it is clearer than the fairest Moonshine night It is good to have the Spirit of Adoption but it is better to have the Spirit of bondage than the Spirit of slumber It is good to be in Canaan but it is better to be in the Wilderness than in Egypt It is good to be a Child but it is better to be a Servant than a Stranger to the Lord. The Lions roar and the Beasts of the Forest are moved at his mighty voice the winds arise and the sowls of the air flutter and lay them down in their Nests the thunder-claps rend the air and the Spirits of Princes are dismaid and troubled but if the God of the Winds and of the Seas and of the Thunder threaten and menace us for our sins shall we not much more dread his fury and look pale at his indignation But when we bear all prodigious signs and wonders without crouching when we esteem not the terrours God help us that are now round about us is it not a sign that God is despised Sixthly To take another Arrow out of the same Quiver it is a sign we under-value the power of another Minimè ad opem ejus consugere not to fly to his help when we had need of relief so when the Israelites blurted at Saul as if he did not look like the man that could lead out their Armies against the Philistines Nunquid iste salvare potest Israelem Can such a man as this save Israel It is a manifest token that they did despise him God is much offended when we neglect him in prosperity and he is no less displeased when we do not fly to him in misery You are for the God of Ekron in your sickness says the Prophet to King Ahaziah when he sent thither for remedy is it because there is no God in Israel A word if you mark it that relisheth of most sharp indignation it is because there is no God in Israel Invoca me Psal ◠Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee Invocantibus miseteri desiderat qui monet ut invocetur says Gregory God hath a great good affection to be gracious unto them that invoke him when he puts us in mind to be invoked The Children of Israel were miserably oppressed with bondage under Pharaoh yet their curs'd hearts had rather put up their wrongs and suffer them than be beholding to the Lord for their delivery Trajan had rather pine away with Leprosie than call upon the name of Christ whose Servants he had persecuted Wizzards and cunning Soothsayers so called some run to these for relief Tutelary Angels that have the Patronage over several Kingdoms so well do they know what God hath appointed in Heaven imaginary Saints that are fortunate in expelling some particular disease as it is thought some run to these for protection Non defensoribus istis our hope is not in such miserable comforters as these but the Lord is our refuge in the day of trouble If we say unto the needy that God is his portion and he must not steal if we say unto the sick that the Prayer of the Faithful availeth much he must not fret and be disquiet and yet he rageth and curseth at his afflictions if we say to the opppressed that God will judge their cause and yet they desire to break the net that held them in by violence and to take private vengeance into their hand Where is their patience Where is the testimony that they fly to the Almighty in the evil days Is it not a sign that God is despised Seventhly and lastly to end this Point let me borrow but the speech of the angry Goddess when she thought she should be contemned Et quisquam numen Junonu adoret Praeterea aut supplex aris imponat honorem that is when Sacrifice comes not in plentifully to the
mea c. The preservation of the innocent doth necessarily follow upon the detection of their enimies yet a question stands in my way and I must remove it both in this place and elsewhere Why God doth more often express how the treacherous-hearted are inclosed than how his Children are delivered Because their wickedness doth more deserve shame and detection than our slender righteousness can deserve preservation and therefore they are pointed at more visibly inde educet c. Here are two discomforts for all those that lay baits against the soul of the righteous 1. Inde educet thence he will take them Gods eye is never off though they dig into Hell 2. Manus ejus educet though Hell be on their side yet this hand is mightier and will break them in pieces like a Potters vessel For the first The eyes of God are upon the conspiracies of men like burning-glasses and cast a light upon those things which afterward they will consume to ashes The very Heathen says Clemens of Alexandria thought that nothing did more completely make a God than to see all things and to be seen of no man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore one says of the Crocodile that the Egyptians in that vain Idol did resemble a God Quia ex omnibus aquaticis habet oculos obtectos ut cernat nec cernatur It hath eyes so befilmed that perceives afar off and is not perceived What should we light Candles to the Gods in the day time says Seneca giving that wipe as I think to the Jews Quoniam lumine nec Dii egent ne homines quidem delectantur fuligine For neither God can stand in need of Candle-light and men can take no great pleasure in smoke In vain then shall sinners earth themselves in Vaults and make Sellers their secret Pavilions to hide their head Though Mountains were tost upon Mountains between heaven and them yet is not the eye of Gods Divinity more active than Christs Humanity Though the doors be shut to enter in and come unto them I will search Jerusalem with Candles saith the Lord Zeph. i. 12. That is not all the grave shall open and give up her dead The Grave is a place deep and hidden but Hell is a darker corner than that yet Satan himself appeared before the Lord. Job i. But above all darkness the thoughts of the heart are most obscure and the secrets of all hearts shall lie naked before him Quo fugis Encelade quascunque accesseris oras sub Jove semper eris You are as near to Gods eye in the utmost part of the Sea as standing before his Altar But secondly that the counsels of evil men may be of no effect as the eye of God is always open so is not his hand folded up in his bosom but his hand shall take them thence that hand which never any saw alone but King Belshazzar and you know what followed his Kingdom departed from him Indeed all the parts of the body which are made both for defence and offence are attributed unto God for the confusion of his enemies From the arm to the hand from the hand to the finger from the finger to the least touch if he do but touch the Mountains they shall smoke Against great invasions there is brachium Domini a stretched out arm to deliver Israel from Egypt But when he will fashion out deliverance with wonderful salvation as if a workman had wrought it curiously with a tool then the Prophets speak of the hand of God but when the Lord doth demonstrate his great affection and give us to learn some godly lesson by deliverance Verè digitus Detest hic that is a token of the finger of God His finger beloved doth always point his arm is always stretched his hand is always open And as Vegetius said of Chariots armed with sharp Sithes that at first they were made for terrour and afterward forscorn So is it with all malicious practises which are beaten a while upon the forge and Blacksmiths are busie at the fire to hammer out some Engine for our affrightment but the Lord comes down and brings victory to his Chosen that he may go up on high like a Conquerour with a merry noise and as the Lord of Hosts with the sound of the Trumpet Holy Bernard was toucht with a spice of vain ambition in a godly Exercise but recovering himself casts away Satan with these words Nec propter te hoc opus coeptum est nec propter te finietur So we may be bold to say in the name of our God touching our Religion it was neither reformed for Satans sake neither shall it be deformed by his Conspiracies Propter salutem duorum hominum duo millia porcorum perierunt says St. Austin upon Mat. viii that two men might be saved from the Devils that possessed them two thousand Swine ran headlong and perished in the Sea Much less will the Lord suffer so great a flock as he hath in this Kingdom to be yielded up to the prey of the hunter or that the wild Boar of the wood should root it up Quamvis ad inferos though he should root and dig to Hell c. When John and James would have called for fire from heaven Christ rebuked them saying You know not what spirit you are of as who should say that is not the Spirit of the Gospel O beloved they that would call up for fire from Hell what Spirit wot you are they of Why that that ever was and ever will be the spirit of the Jusuite Papalins God rebuke them Lord how often have I said with my self surely the calamity of the poor Indians is much to be lamented whom God hath delivered over into mens hands of such bloudy Religion certainly the report of those Millions whom they slew with the Sword is as true as lamentable For what would they not do against savage men that worshipped Devils and are forlorn of God who would have caused the Channels to run with bloud in that Kingdom where Christ is truly praised But the hope of the Hypocrite says Job shall be swept away like the Spiders Web. Spiders Webs you know are spun from the vapour of their own poison from within their secret bowels So are the devices of the treacherous Spiders Webs are woven in the darkest and most unfrequented corners of the house so are the devices of the treacherous Spiders Webs are long a framing with much curiosity but a feather sweeps them away in a moment so shall be the devices of the treacherous But admit that God be so careful for us and so powerful against tyrants that seek after our soul Vt te ipsum serves non respicis shall we cast all the burden of our safety upon Gods providence Because Christ is praying and watching in Mount Olive◠shall Peter sleep Is it enough to have a Sermon of Thanksgiving to day And an Anthem to sing an holy Jubilee And leave all the rest
hand when so malicious a burden hung upon it yet I do not see how he shook off the Viper but I believe and know that it was the voice of the Lord which shaketh the wilderness yea the Lord that shaketh the wilderness of Cades Excussit What no more words concerning this great deliverance So great a work contracted into so small an Epitome If the Children of men work deliverances and strange ones too the relation will ask a Book perchance a Volume or a Legend to record it but it is a blessing so frequent with God that the world would not hold the Books of his preservations if it were not for excussit and tetigit he touch'd the sore and dixit he said the word as short as may be And yet to shake off a beast is such a sudden rescue in the turning of an hand that it is a most complete and more comfortable salvation Monstra superavit priùs quà m nosse possit as Seneca said of Hercules that he slew a Serpent before he knew what a Serpent was What a gentle cure it is As easie as a slumber For the most part it is sickness enough to be diseased with remedies Like as a Philosopher said being made whole after much Physick that it was with him as with a pestilent air cleansed by a clap of thunder And I make a doubt whose fortune was the worse whether the poor womans that took Physick but twelve years together for an issue of bloud or the sick man 's that in thirty eight years sought after no help but from the Pool of Bethesda Wherefore this is the sweetest mercy not to cast off the Viper by loathsom Potions but with no more hurt than Aaron cast forth his rod before Pharaoh from his hand which became a Serpent Gen. vii 10. This deliverance from a Viper makes good the Promise of the Lord Mar. xvi If you take up Serpents they shall not hurt you But as God was the chief Author so Paul had the glory of the execution What Paul himself and no other Indeed there was scarce a friend by to do it for him Hasty Souldiers that even now would have killed him and pitiless Barbarians and Malefactors his fellow Prisoners none of these were likely to relieve him the honour was his own to shake off the beast and yet enquire among all the other Apostles and you shall not find that any one was made an instrument to preserve himself St. Peter could not enter into the High Priests Hall but by a Damosel nor get out of Prison but by an Angel The ignominy was cast upon our Saviours self He saved others himself he cannot save He saved others bear with him in that I pray you though he did not save himself and perchance could not St. Peter As it was said of Mucianus the Roman Facilius erat ei dare imperium quà m accipere it was easier for him to advance another man to the Empire than to exalt himself so God hath ordained to the end that Charity might abound in all things even in the gift of Miracles to give the Apostles the power of healing not to cure themselves but to cure their Brethren No man must buy long life at so base a rate as Herodicus did of whom Aristotle reports that he rended nothing all his days but his own health Of many examples we have but this one in holy Scripture where the Physician did cure himself Paul then did heal himself But advise we well with every circumstance about the Text and then I ask did he not heal the infirmities of many more Yes and there were more Vipers than one in Melita so many Barbarians as thought in their heart but they were cruel thoughts that Paul was a murderer so many Vipers every evil censure against our neighbour it is Venenum charitatis the poyson of our charity shake it off a Gods name before it fasten Qui istoc credis de homine potes facere even for this hard opinion of Paul I doubt Melita had many murderers Yea I am perswaded that this their uncharicableness did more afflict St. Paul than any evil Serpent could as a more tender affection touch'd the heart of Romanus the Martyr to see the cruelty of Heathen Tyrants than to feel his own pain Quod lancinamur non dolet dolet quod error pectori insedit suo Thus the sin of the Barbarians hung upon the heart of the Apostle the Viper only upon his hand but one excussit did serve for both the beast was cast into the fire and then the uncharitable thoughts did vanish Well I see there was some divinity in those hands which were so often lifted up to God in Prayer those hands which wrote such divine Epistles to so many Churches those hands which consecrated the two famous Bishops Titus and Timothy those hands which gathered Alms for the poor Saints at Jerusalem O those hands were blessed no Serpent could envenom them The first office that the courteous fire did afford to Fructuosus the Martyr was to burn the cords which bound up his zealous arms which fain he would lift up to heaven Non ausa est cohibere paena palmas in morem crucis ad patrem levandas solvit brachia qâ—a Deum precentur so sung Prudentius And St. Hierom writes that Julian the wicked took up the body of John the Baptist and burnt it to ashes but his Head wherein the voice of a Crier spake and the Finger wherewith he pointed out Ecce agnus Dei Behold the Lamb of God those could not be consumed And I dare report it after so many Writers that the heart of our most reverend Cranmer was preserved by Gods Providence from the fire in honour of his integrity like the three Children in the Furnace O why should we doubt when God doth thus miraculously save the particular member of our body from harm but that the whole man in the whole entire body our corruptible shall put on incorruption If some should answer to these examples as Diagoras in Tully said to one that presented many Pictures before him of those who had escaped Sea-danger by calling upon Neptune Nusquam esse pictos qui in mari perierant naufragium fecerant There were more examples of them if they could be seen who were drowned in the Sea and yet called upon Neptune So perhaps many faithful men may be named who were not always fortunate in their deliverance Beloved what deliverance do you mean All this while you do not reckon how many miseries they prevent who are dispatch'd by one is it no excussit Do we shake off no small store of mischief when the soul doth uncase it self of this body of sin that with good King Josiah we may not see the evil to come Death is like the Angel set before the Garden of Eden which with one blow lets him that passeth by into Paradise When sinners and uncircumcised feel the wrath of God their
punishment says Nazianzen is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pillar of Salt erected up like a Trophy of his vengeance and their impiety Not so the righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is enough to chastise them to be wise and wary St. Austin compares a regenerate man with Adam in innocency by an excellent parallel Adam was priviledged to be secure in all present delights and comfort while he was in Paradise and so the faithful are not but every regenerate man is sure of heaven in his greatest Agony and so Adam in his pleasant Garden was not O could an heathen man preach so much Gospel as this Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis securitatem Dei O what a royal thing it was to be corruptible as man and yet to be secure as God! Expect not then from the Lord that he should always turn aside his hand as Vlysses did from his Son Telemachus What if he make his furrow upon the back of his own Children if they lie in the way Is there no time but the instant to be saved Yes St. Paul hath declined deliverance through all Tenses 2 Cor. i. Who hath delivered us Have you forgotten it And doth deliver us Perhaps you do not feel it And will deliver us I speak not I hope to such as do distrust it Wherefore let this suffice for excussit the deliverance of Paul The third thing follows which makes it mel in cuspide honey on the point of Jonathans Spear and pleasant to be in jeopardy his eye saw his desire upon his enemy excussit in ig nem he shook the beast into the fire c. If there be Songs of deliverance as David says there are and that he was compassed about with songs of deliverance then this is Canticum salutis The Viper did not only lose her sting like the angry Bee that loseth her weapon when she pricks her Adversary and lives a Drone ever after but Paul warms his hands at the fire whose fuel was the Viper which even now would have slain him Fire indeed by the judgment of our own Laws is a death appointed for Poysoners and it is but one fire for another only dry for moist Paul was ready to be inflamed so we read in the next verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was that the Islanders look'd for and therefore good reason the beast should fall into the fire Who doth not count it a monument worth the seeing to read his jacet an Epitaph upon his Enemies Tomb The subtil Graecians would not live in fear to see the Infants of Troy survive their Father they would see every thing in ashes Et nunquam satis Trojam jacentem it is safety to escape but security to want an adversary Break their teeth O Lord in their mouths saith the Psalmist but lest new ones come up in their room smite the jaw bones of the Lions and when they shoot out their arrows let them be rooted out If Shemei had lived happily he might have cursed Solomon as well as David and if Judas had not come quickly to his end he might have betrayed St. Peter as well as Jesus Iniquity of it self is infinite says Job xxii 5. Wherefore says Aquinas Homo peccat in suo aeterno quia voluntatem habet in infinitum peccandi Every sinner hath a good will to sin for ever In circuitu ambulat says David and the way of him that goes in a circle is as new to begin to morrow as it was to day Qui vitio modum ponit idem facit ac qui è Leucade se praecipitans velit sistere says the Stoick A sinner falls down headlong and Hell hath no bottom Then God puts in his Sickle and cuts down the Tares that they may not overgrow the Wheat Be of courage then O little Flock that flies away into the Wilderness and think that the voice of the Angel unto Joseph is still in your ears Return for they are dead that sought the life of Jesus And reason good that inquisitors after the bloud of Christ wilful sinners should be cut off or else the dumb beasts were hardly dealt with the Viper knew not Paul nor the mark of God upon him she did but her kind and yet she is consumed The Lion knew not Samson nor the Judge of Israel hunger made him roar after his prey and yet he died for it Why should David wish revenge upon the pleasant grass for his beloved Jonathan How could a Figtree trespass when it bore not plenty of fruit for Christ and his disciples that it withered and deflourished utterly All these died to make up one lesson for us that nothing can offend the Saints of God without an evil recompence Some revengeful Spirit perchance would ask here whether this be an Emblem for every man to endeavour to be as fortunate as Paul was and to make away his enemy with his own hand No Beloved there is no such moral in this Text and it were unchristian to attempt it Wrath is as a Serpent revenge is like a Viper shake them off a Gods name and then if Pauls hand were not moved the finger of God will deliver us from our enemies There is great difference in this point between heathen moral men and praise-worthy Christians Junius Brutus the darling of the Romans fained himself mad before but then he was mad indeed Quando expiravit super Tarquinii filium quasi ad inseros sequeretur when he bore malice unto death against his enemy and died upon him as if he would follow him to Hell Like the young Son of Thyestes wounded by his unnatural Uncle cast the trunk of his body upon the murderer as if he would have pressed him down like a Mountain Cumque dubitasset dia hâc parte an illâ caderet in patruum cadit says the Tragedian So did not Zacharias the Son of Barachias that fell between the Temple and the Altar It may seem there rather than in another place for a Peace-offering to be reconciled to his adversary So did not Stephen who kneeled among the stones which were cast at his head like a Statue in a Monument and prayed with more devotion for his enemies than for his own spirit We must feed them that hate us I keep open hospitality for such according to our Saviours construction Si inimicus if thou have an enemy feed him whosoever he be if he hunger then wretched are they who feed themselves rather with the hunger of their enemy As Vitellius boasted in Tacitus Inimici morte spectatâ se pavisse oculos that it glutted his eyes with delight to see his enemy tormented They that feed so shall digest Gods anger till it come like water into our bowels and like oyl into our bones We must not call for fire from heaven if we love not the Samaritans but forgive them and thou shalt heap coales of fire upon their head Chiefly let my speech drop as the soft dew upon the head of
Aaron and the Bishops of the Church that succeed St. Paul Let them know that it is not in their hand to be avenged of the life of their Adversaries The secular Sword in the Priests arm did never turn to the benefit of justice but to scandal And as St. Austin speaks of Sylla revenging the tyranny of Marius with greater cruelty Vindicta perniciosior fuit quam si scelera impunita relinquerentur that it had been better the faults had been unchastised than so revenged so say I to them better vindicative justice should sleep than be awaked by the Clergy Let the Priests of Baal be armed with Knives and Lancers to fill the ditches with bloud as Elias did with water let the Sacrificers of Bacchus give wounds to every one that passeth by instead of blessing But Christs Disciples are sent about even without the protection of a little staff in their hand If David would have a Sword in the Church Ahimelech must answer Non est hic here is none save the Sword of Golias which was kept there not for any use of it but for the memory Our weapons are Prayers and Tears and if we strike it is but vulnus calami the stroke of our Pen and that should always be Penna columbina I would it were so taken from the Doves wing not unsavory reproaches and Satyrical tants as if our Writings were stuck with the quils of Porcupines Angels were wont to fight against Jerusalem and against Senacharib but did you ever hear in our days of a fighting Angel The Shepherds when they saw an heavenly Host Luk. ii and pitch'd in the field and coming suddenly upon them looked for no other but a battel but quite beside the old manner they sung Praises to the Lord. Beloved the Ministry of our Gospel it succeeds the Ministry of Angels It is to be marked that St. Paul salutes the Corinthians Ephesians and the rest with grace and peace only but to Timothy and Titus his two Bishops he sends grace mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ The Popes Parasites never lin putting of him in mind Girt thy Sword upon thy thigh O thou most mighty good luck have thou with thy battels and renown and shake the Vipers into the fire And who shall determine who be Vipers Who but the Pope Who then kindle the fire to burn them Who but the Jesuits Gladiatores potiùs quà m clerici Fencers rather than Priests of God Rome while the Gentiles lived in it had for the Ensigns of their honour duos pugiones pileum two Daggers and a Cap Junius Brutus was the Author But see what time can do and to what encrease it brings every thing the two Daggers are become two Swords and the Cap is turned into a Triple Diadem Well Ahimelech gave up his Sword to David the King Peter and the Apostles are the salt of the earth and have nothing to do with such instruments Me thinks the Pope in this point had a very good answer from the Emperour when expostulating why one of his Sons the Cardinals was slain in battel the Emperour returned unto him the Cardinals Harness and this word Haec est tunica filii tui Is this your Son Josephs Coat But I warrant you the Church is in a strange case if she may not sight her own battels Truly no. St. Bernard thought it safe enough in the protection of the King Vterque gladius he speaks it to the Pope non tuâ manu sed tuo nutu est evaginandus And tuo natu was too much and smelt of the Age he lived in But the intercession of the Church may obtain the Sword from the Defender of the Faith to maintain the Gospel It cannot be so in Julians Reign and in the time of wicked Princes I grant it why then let us forbish up our own Armory Faith and Prayers and Tears So did Nazianzen in the Churches distress 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we entreat thy flaming sword O Lord to cut down thine enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we demand thy Plagues to light upon them and is not this good security God and the King Only one thing must be interposed for satisfaction in this point Why should Nazianzen or why should the Church curse her enemies with such a bitter curse Is not that breach of charity The Schoolmen very well have collected their answers into five heads 1. When you think the Prophets and holy Fathers curs'd they did not curse but prophesie It was St. Austins Collection long ago Solent figurâ imprecantis futura praedicere So David prayed that another might take the Bishoprick of Judas which needs must be a Prophesie 2. Their end is good and holy that the heathen may know themselves to be but men and in the bitterness of affliction seek the Lord. 3. Ad conformitatem divini judicii in all things to say the will of the Lord be done God hath spoken it in his holiness that he will cut off the wicked and we must say Amen in obedience 4. Ad regnum peccati destruendum not so much to destroy sinners as to destroy the kingdom of sin Curse your Meros curse it bitterly that the power of sin may fall with the fall of Kingdoms Lastly Ad consolationem infirmorum for the comfort of weak ones that they may know how the Church is the true Paradise by the flaming Sword which did defend it As Nero spake excellently when he entred into the Empire Nec odium nec injurias nec cupidinem ultion is ad regnum ferebat There was no hatred in his mind no revenge in his soul no injury in his memory so must we take the Kingdom of Heaven with the violence of love and not of hatred Better might Moths and Rust and Canker be suffered to be in Heaven than Malice and Revenge and Envy Then hear you godly to discern Gods finger from the hand of Paul He did not cast the Viper into the fire to shew us a way to be avenged of our enemies And hearken you ungodly for in this Text is the very similitude of your condemnation which shall appear by these circumstances 1. St. Paul gathered the sticks for fuel and so the good Angels shall gather the Tares in bundels for the fire 2. The barbarous people kindled the fire so shall the Devil and his Angels be your executioners 3. The Viper drops into the flame but we do not read it was consumed I say it is not expressed in the Text so tedious and everlasting is your misery In this world we mourn at every burial of our friends because death hath entred in by sin into the world Vbi mors nolentem animam pellit è corpore where death cashiers the soul unwillingly out of the body but in Hell-fire sinners shall bewail that there is no death Vbi mors nolentem animam tenet in corpore where death shall imprison the soul unwillingly in the body says
to be sought out in a higher rank Great astonishments are quite above our nature Aquinas hath contrived them into three sorts First The wonder lies in substantiâ facti in the very thing done as when the Sun went backward Secondly The thing may be natural in it self but admirable and past our power if we consider the subject upon which it is wrought as for the blind to see for the dead to be raised up to life Thirdly and lastly Both the thing performed is ordinary and done with ease upon the subject but the manner of doing it makes the wonder as for a Fever to be cured in a moment Of all these three the first in order is the greatest in substantiâ facti such was this in my Text and no meaner that it should not kill and empoyson Aesculapius among the heathen the very deity of Physick his Emblem was a Serpent as the glory of his Cures and the very utmost of his Art Now when Miracles have but two ends say the Schoolmen to do honour to the Word of God and to confirm it that is the first or to honour the life of him that works in the Ministry in the justice of both causes never was there more need than at this time of a Miracle Here was the poor Island of Melita which Publius and the Roman Army had found out long ago to destroy it but the Gospel was not heard of before this day to save it St. Paul that should plant the faith was cast ashore by shipwrack as one neglected of God bound over a close Prisoner as one hated of his Countrymen suspected by the Barbarians to be a Murderer then his cause was tried by the word of the Lord it was time to shake Vipers into the fire and feel no harm Thus Christianity began by a Miracle in the Island of Melita and perchance long ago so it began with us but now we do not so learn Christ when the boughs of the Church are grown and spread like the goodly Cedar trees Nehemiah and all the People shouted for joy when the Foundation of the Temple was laid but from thenceforth they built with silence no exclamations were heard When faith had scarce made entrance into Jerusalem our Saviour came in strangely when the doors were shut but being once in he went plainly to work with Thomas Put thy finger into my side and be not faitless but faithful This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fit wedge to drive out the jugling Divinity of the Papists What do you tell us of your Legend of wonders in Compostella Thousand Miracles and more thousand Murders in India Images that turn their eyes about and Statues that weep and sweat Saints limb'd out in bloudy straws Strange Exorcisms of Devils When the worst was but the Toothach or a Fever As Apelles said to another Painter none of the best workmen but one of the quickest that bragg'd he made twenty Pictures every day and shewed the Patterns I wonder says Apelles you do not make twice twenty of this sort So the Miracle that I take hold of is this why the learned Fatherhood invent no louder or more unlikely miracles But take it to you work Signs and Wonders perchance by the secret operation of Satan Et eorum spirituum operatione videbantur admirandi à quibus sunt damnandi says their own Master Lombard And they lookt for admiration by the power of those Spirits by whom they shall receive damnation As the Rivers of Paradise are without Paradise and run into divers parts of the world so the gifts of Miracles and the gifts of Tongues are like those Rivers which run both within and without the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome Signs and Wonders are not so near to Gods House as the Porch is unto the Temple except there be holiness to the Lord in Aarons Breast as well as Buds of Almonds in his Rod. Remember Jannes and Jambres remember Simon the Sorcerer yea the very Divels do Miracles says Lombard Ne tale aliquid facere fideles pro magno desiderent lest the Faithful should seem to desire to do the like as if it were some great matter If not Magnum then surely not Maximum the greatest note of a Church Especially if it be true which St. Austin says Omni miraculo quod fit per hominem majus miraculum est homo If man be a greater wonder than can pass through the hands of man then certainly a regenerate man is the greatest power of God his Prayers and Charity and Faith are more excellent than to shake a Viper into the fire and feel no harm Grant O Lord such Wonders unto thy Church whereby thy name may be glorified in true holiness and cloath thy Priests with health as thou didst thy Servant Paul and because we look for a greater deliverance Quis me liberabit Who shall deliver me from the body of this death Let us say assuredly as he did even Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN THE FIRST SERMON UPON ENOCH GEN. V. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him DAys appointed for Repentance and Humiliation you know these to be of that institution but those are times to do and not to say therefore I have read a Text unto you rather of Deeds than Sayings an active Example and not a verbal Exhortation And it is an Example of no mean pitch you will like it the better for that one Star differs from another in glory and one Saint differs from another in sanctity and perfection There were Pillars in Solomons Temple and golden Chapiters on the top of the Pillars so the Patriarchs of old the Apostles in the Christian Ages were Pillars of the Church all of them Pillars but such as bore the chief praise for using the gifts of grace with all advantage to Gods glory these are the golden Chapiters upon the tops of the Pillars I will promise you to make it good by that which I shall say anon that I have propounded unto you one of the golden Crowns upon the top of the Pillars as heavenly and as happy a president as can be found out of a meer man as compleat a Pattern as can be chosen out of all the Sons of Adam and who would not write by the best Copy In the most ancient Epistle of Clemens the Roman written to the Corinthians lately made publick to the world out of the Princely store-house of this Kingdom that holy Father moves the Corinthians with this extimulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us look stedfastly towards them who have perfectly ministred in holy service to the excellent glory of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to the Catalogue of Saints in the middle Region but to them that walked highest above this world And in the very next words following Ecce homo behold the man of his choice to whom he gives precedency above all others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us take out
confess that we owe both our life and our substance to the Eternal Majesty yet our thankfulness could return nothing to him but it is spilt and consumed to nothing Unto these two blessings which the Jews did enjoy by his mercy long life and rich means to maintain it sanguis adeps we have received two blessings ten thousand times richer first that the Most High did offer up his Son on the Cross for our sakes and then he did as it were sacrifice the Holy Ghost unto Man sending him down in cloven tongues as it had been of fire these are sanguis and adeps the best bloud and the best fat or unction in the world O let us not forget his honour and goodness to make continual mention of it and since the Father hath sacrificed as it were the Son and the Holy Ghost to us let us sacrifice our selves to the holy and individed Trinity both bloud and fat both life and fortunes both soul and substance Secondly by slaying a Beast in Sacrifice the humble Penitent did confess his unworthiness and the guiltiness of his sins which made him deserve to be quite consumed by the anger of the Lord even as the flesh of a Sheep or Goat was burnt in the fire As the Ninevites in their humiliation cast ashes upon their heads that such a spectacle of desolation might speak their mind that they and their City did justly deserve to become ashes and desolation Such a Ceremony in the Injunctions of Penance hath often been imposed upon infamous Delinquents to hold a wax Candle lighted in their hand before the people which was a silent confessing that as the Taper wasted away with the flame so their iniquities made them fit to be burnt in Hell fire but that they hoped the Lord would be merciful The old Manichaeans therefore and the modern Anabaptists had small reason to reject the Books of Moses because he delivered a form of Religion which consisted much in the slaughter of Birds and Cattle I am sure Christ allowed that old way while it was a way to be very laudable both by his Precept Luke v. 14. He bad the Leper whom he had cured Go thy self to the Priest and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded and by partaking no doubt every year as well as at his last Supper of the Paschal Lamb a Rememorative according to the present point in hand that the Children of Israel should confess how their first-born deserved to have been slain as well as the first of the Egyptians were and as well as that Lamb was whereof they eat if justice had been strictly executed upon them as it was upon the Egyptians Certainly this was no small profit arising out of Sacrifice which made a contrite man discern his own sins and unworthiness wherein he compared himself with the Beast that perished And this was wont to be done in the Law by one annual Ceremony more solemn than ordinary wherefore St. Paul says in those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year Heb. x. 3. and in the usual Sin-offering which came often to the Altar according as such as were laden with sins did unburden their conscience And I will interpose one thing in a touch and a way to convince their obstinacy that hold it no way material for the peace of their mind to have the absolution of their sins pronounced unto them by the lips of the Priest such a one for ought I can see in this opinion thinks himself to make a Church alone without the Communion of Saints yet as he is convinced by the power of the Keys committed to the Apostles and their Successors under the Gospel so the Lord did refute him by the Ceremony of the Sin-offering under the Law for one part of the Sin-offering was burnt to God an the Priest had the other part ad significandum quod expiatio peccatorum sit à Deo per ministerium Sacerdotum to prove symbolically that God did remit sins by the ministry of his Priests and therefore God had the main share and the Priest the remaining portion of the Offering But alas though this second reason were very useful to the Jews while they were like Elementary Children fed with Signs and Figures yet now we Christians have other principles stronger meat for what need we confess our unworthiness and what punishment we deserve over the Carkass of a Beast when we see much better what penalty remains unto us if God would be extreme to mark what is done amiss who spared not the life of his only Son when he bore the person of our transgressions And there 's the third reason which is the full and complete use of all the ancient Sacrifices it was to prefigure the immolation the bloudshedding the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ those were the Parables of the Old Testament as I may call them and Christs Death was the intepretation of them all Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world says John the Baptist Agnus qui redemit oves the Lamb that redeemed all the Sheep which hear his voice Behold the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world Revel xiii 8. says John the Divine slain personally under Pontius Pilate but slain representatively from the beginning of the world in the immolation of all those beasts whose blood by faith did embrew the Altar The bloud of Bulls and of Rams the slaughter of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice did all belong to the acknowledgment of the same reckoning which at last was fully discharg'd by the bloud of Christ those were but like petty sums to pay the Interest in the mean time at last the Principal the whole Debt was discharg'd by that most Royal ransom of our Saviour In a word all those bloody Oblations were like John Baptist forerunners of Christ Indentures sealed with bloud that the Redeemer would come and die for his People Not the least Sparrow which was offered for cleansing but might move our Saviour to say unto the Jews If yes believed in Moses ye would believe also in me Now for as much as the Holy Ghost hath made us able to interpret obscure things since the comming of Christ how fluent and facil are these meditations to us to discern our Lord in every clean offering which was offered up by Noah in every Lamb which came to the office of the Sons of Aaron with great difficulty did the Patriarchs pick out that construction When we read of a Sacrifice we see as much in it as if Christs Passion were represented on a Stage Bernard made a pious and an eloquent gradation how faith gathered strength by degrees being a little spark with those that were ordinary Believers before the Law then a candle under the Law lumen in laterna no more as David said in his daies thy word is a Lantern unto my feet and a light unto my paths then like a flaming Beacon in
in the Reign of Edward the Sixth the name of Altar is throughout retained to comply with the Figurative phrase of good Antiquity and the next Edition of Liturgies to keep an wholsom form of words as St. Paul says and to give no place to misconstruction doth every where throughout call it the Lords Table And in the Injunctions of another blessed Prince whereas by order of Law Altars were to be removed and Tables placed for the ministration of the holy Communion it is said saving for Uniformity sake there was no matter of great moment so the Sacrament was duly and reverently celebrated and that the holy Table in every Church should be set in the place where the Altar stood We dare therefore and will speak according to Antiquity in the Figurative meaning of Antiquity calling it an Altar but lest the Supper of the Lord should be called the external and real crucifying of our Lord again we neither dare nor will speak after the sense of the Roman novelty to call it an Altar but we come to that holy Supper to be partakers of the Table of the Lord. These are not times to offer Sacrifice as Noah did and therefore not to build an Altar but only to commemorate that Sacrifice after which all true Sacrifices ceased and all properly called Altars fell to the ground And so much for the place which Noah sanctified he builded an Altar to the Lord. I am past the visible part of this good work I come now to the invisible part the life the soul of it And the Lord smelled a sweet savour What this delicate Odour and fragrancy was which the Sacrifice did exhale up to heaven I will not defraud you of it hereafter but I will defer it now and make my self room enough to speak of that quick sense which did apprehend this sweet Odour the Lord smelled a sweet savour A remnant or portion of living things had entred into the Ark to escape those were given unto the new World to multiply but Noah would be more severe against the sins of the World than the Lord was he would not spare so much as the merciful God had spared Nay the Lord thought it enough to overwhelm the iniquities of men with water but Noah presented Burnt-offerings on the Altar to confess that the wicked works of the World deserved likewise to be consumed with Fire A most depressing humility in the good Patriarch a most mortified Confession This won far upon the Lords compassion and changed the rugged brow of Justice into the smiles of mercy and benevolence It grieved him before that he had made man now he rejoyceth for the Remnant alive that he had preserved them As a Kingly Expositor said upon the Lords Prayer the most generous are the most gentle and a magnanimous courage is never vindicative of a wrong never retentive The time was but even now over that God had destroyed the whole World and see how placable he is from what a little pittance of true devotion he smelled a sweet savour Before the King of Ninivey had worn out his Sackcloth nay almost before he had put it on God saw their works and repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them and did it not Zachaeus did but profess to make restitution of all things ill-gotten and before he had made restitution of one peny says Christ this day yea Lord what if thou hadst said this minute is salvation come into thy house Nathan charged David with most bitter offences Lord keep us from the like David begins to reply I have sinned against the Lord it was but a beginning surely he would have said more but Nathan takes him off at a few words the Lord also hath taken away thy sin thou shalt not die It is accounted so great a matter to follow and sollicit Christ thrice together like she of Canaan that she had her Garland for it O woman great is thy faith Our loving Father will wait long for our Repentance but we shall not wait long for his Forgiveness As the Historian noted in Romulus that inveagled the Sabines with such courteous usage Quod eodem die hostes cives habuit in the Morning they came against him with hostility before Evening he had incorporated them all into his City So the Lord upon good tokens of their humiliation looked upon some in the Morning as excluses from the upper Jerusalem and presently he enroles their names in the Book of life Upon that mournful cry of David Have mercy upon me O Lord according to thy great goodness Thus Cassiodor Vox est quae nunquam discutitur sed tranquille semper auditur It is a voice which is never examined never suspended or delaid never deliberated upon it penetrates far it will be heard and it shall be answered It meets with Gods mercy as quick as a strong Perfume comes to the Nostril and therefore his complacency so ready to forgive is called smelling a sweet savour nay let me not forget that the Hebrew read it Odorem quietis the Lord smelled a savour of rest All sensible smells be it the Rose among the Flowers or Cassia among the Spices must be often put to the sense and often taken away to please it hold them long to the Nostril and they will prove faint and tedious Nullus odor sensibilis est odor quietis bodily sents are not sents of rest and quietness but to shew that our gracious Father is suddenly reconciled and long pleased very tenacious of his mercy our Sacrifice our Prayers our Alms all our Christian Offices are odores quietis their smell stays long with God they are an odour of rest he never loaths or disdains them O Lord thy placable compassions are exceeding sweet ten thousand times sweeter than the Sacrifice of Noah It should be thus with all that will follow Christ like Lord like Servants but it seems it is not David had no heart to stand to any bodies courtesie but the good God's O let me not fall into the hands of men We smother rancour in our breast like fire in touchwood or like fire in iron touch and you shall feel it burn though you cannot see it We are the Children of Eve and our great Mother you know was made of a stiff and a crooked rib we take after it too much We must be courted rather like Mistresses than Christians be wooed be presented be supplicated and after all this may be scarce obtain so much kindness as a merciful man would shew to his Beast Like the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa his humiliation he stood at doors three days barefoot for an apparition of his Holiness and the favour which all this patience and expectation procured was to stoop to the earth and to have his neck trode upon by Pope Alexander the Third a disdain which the Royal spirit of Alexander the Great did never put upon Darius Some do keep such long distance from this Doctrin that I may
in hand to drive the money changers out of the Temple than to correct the Publicans and Tole-gatherers at the Custom-house who were the greater Extortioners A tree that was made to bear fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire if it continue barren but wild Plants from which neither Figs nor Olives were expected God never threatens them with the Axe but lets them stand till they decay with age and rottenness This is the reason of it that although God had no more in Sodom for his share but a very little houshold yet one of his own Domesticks that look'd back upon Sodom perish'd as well as those his Enemies that never came out But if God spared not his own what remains for them that were never folded up in his flock never called by his name Si flagellantur filii quid debent sperare servi nequissimi says S. Austin If the Sons of the Family be scourged what can Runnagates hope for If King Josias a Saint worth all the men of Judah beside was brought to an untimely end that stroke was but a forerunner that all the stubborn Nation beside should soon after be cast out into a most woful captivity Quando justis non parcitur propter perficiendam purgationem non parcetur impiis tanquam sarmentis praecisis ad combustionem so St. Austin goes on in a sweet similitude If God do not forbear the Righteous but prune them off sometimes to trim the tree certainly the unrighteous shall not be endured who are dead sear boughs and most combustible for the fire Vpon the Land of my people shall come up thorns and briars how much more upon all the houses of the joyous City Isa xxxii 13. As waters are still and shallow near the Spring-head but run with the swifter Current as they are further off so the indignation of Divine Justice which begins calmly in the Church which is near to God will increase more violently among the out-casts of Satan among whom at last it will end Says St. Peter 1 Epist iv 17. The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God The House of God shall be punished and severity begins at them but it is not finis eorum that is not their final doom nay it is no more but a twitch by the way but punishment in St. Peters own words is the end the last cast of impenitent sinners What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel Inchoatur ira judicii divini à correptione justorum ut in reproborum damnatione conquiescat so Gregory in reference to St. Peter The Rod of Gods Power begins with the chastisement of the Just that it may give over in the damnation of Reprobates And as Gregory expounds St. Peter so our Vulgar English Margin makes St. Peter to expound Solomon Prov. xi 31. Behold the Righteous shall be recompenced in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner Finally as God spares not the nearest to him so let us take up the same justice my meaning is let no man spare himself Proximus egomet mihi If thy right eye offend thee thine own eye thy right eye pull it out and cast it from thee Beati qui cum omnium misereantur sibi nunquam penitus ignoscant says Salvianus Happy are they that are pitiful to all men only they will not pity themselves but avenge themselves of themselves that God may shew them mercy Secondly She became a Pillar of Salt even she that was one of four that were brought out of Sodom to be delivered and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. I will not move that question hereupon that one did to our Saviour in the Gospel Luk. xiii 23. Lord are there few that be saved No answer can be given to this directly but either curious or uncomfortable Our Saviour replies unto it in that same place thus Strive to enter in at the straight gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able But because St. Matthew says of that straight gate that leadeth unto life few there be that find it Therefore Cajetan says that in effect our Saviour rejoyned to that mans question few should be saved Ex angustiâ portae significans paucos esse qui salvantur the narrowness of the way did signifie how few should hit upon that path that conducteth to eternal life But I had rather take in light at another window and receive St. Austins Exposition that Christ did purposely decline to give punctual and affirmative satisfaction to that question deriving his words to this scope rather to make us study which way every man may be saved than to know how many or how few shall be saved Ad questionis vaniloquium nihil dicit sed transfert suum sermonem ad rem magis necessariam He would not reply to such an impertinent interrogatory but raised doctrine out of it more necessary to edification Let not that curious investigation then lie in our way what a small number of souls four were in respect of so many thousands that were burnt to ashes in the destruction of four Cities and yet how much that portion decreased because one of them four was cut short by the way rather I will turn the Point into this consideration that the Devil is always detracting and abating from that small portion and remnant which God hath set apart for himself Could our Saviour have chosen fewer than Twelve Apostles to testifie over all the world what they had heard and seen And yet the Devil entred into one of these to make him the guide unto those that betrayed Jesus God cantonized out for himself but Twelve Families or Tribes out of all the Kingdoms of the Earth with whom he made a Covenant by Sacrifice and Ten portions of those Twelve revolted both from God and the King and fell into Idolatry and Treason I might be infinite both in Sacred and Humane Histories but our own experience is as sure a touch unto us The Christian Faith you know is received but into few Regions of the habitable world I may say according to Nathans Parable that Europe was unto God as that only Ewe Lamb all that the poor man had but the Devil is like that rich one that had many Flocks and Herds besides in all places under the Sun yet you see what a great stride Mahomet hath stept into Europe though the Church complains of her small number as Micah did Woe is me I am as when they have gathered the Summer fruits as the grape-gleanings of the Vintage there is no cluster to eat yet the envious one would abate the Lord of that small Remnant among all the Inhabitants of Sodom he thought four too great a number to escape and one of them relapsed and became
gave you Sons and Daughters you give Obsides Domino Hostages unto God and if you rebel as Nathan said to David because thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child that is born unto thee shall surely die The Fathers sins are visited unto the third and fourth Generation while the Grandsire full of fourscore years of sin stays awhile behind like the rotten root of evil and sees the tender branches cut away because the root was bad and corrupted Thus is the brief sum of the second part of my Text man perished in iniquity Corporeorum incorporeorum horison says Synesius the noble Image of God Secondly That man Achan a branch of the Olive tree even Israel which God had planted But an evil branch is evil though the stock were a Cedar of Libanus Non debent gloriari sarmenta quia non sunt spinarum ligna sed vitis says St. Austin Is it any glory for the dead branches to boast they were Vine branches and not Heythorn since they are cut off and cast away Lastly Non solus periit he fell down like the Tower of Siloam and brain'd all that were about him I have but one short part to dispatch Periit his execution how that man Perished c. To search much into Achans punishment were not the way to be more learned but more tormented And he that is Ingeniosus in suppliciis exquisite in describing the ruine of any man his invention smells of tyranny Briefly thus Every man in the rank of a Subject lives under the authority of three Commanders 1. Under the Conscience of his own heart 2. Under the Laws of his King 3. Under the Commandments of God Triplici nodo triplex cuneus every knot hath a wedge to drive into it And if we displease either God or the King or our own Conscience vengeance meets us on every side Conscientia parit vermem Magistratus mortem Deus Gehennam Conscience hath a worm in store nay a Cockatrice to sting us the Magistrate bears a Sword to divide us but especially it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God In an evil conscience we die unto all joy and comfort In our trespass against the Laws of man we die unto men In breaking the Statutes of God we die unto heaven surely he deserved not to die but one death that offended three All sin is mortal yet among sins some are still-born and make no noise in the world Some are crying sins that have a voice and a voice like the Edomites that cryed against Jerusalem Down with it down with it unto the ground Like the Jews that cried Crucifie him crucifie him and doubled the files of their iniquities Like the men of Ephesus that for two hours space made a noise Great is Diana of the Ephesians When sinners do double thus God finds out more deaths than one to punish them as if judgment had ransack'd the body to find two or three souls and would not leave to destroy all the brood of the Viper Abimelech a cruel murtherer of seventy brethren was crush'd under a Mill-stone and slain with his own Servants Sword it is pity he died not seventy times It was Sauls destiny first to die by the Arrows of the Bow and then to fall upon his own Sword It was Absolons destiny to be hang'd by the head in the Oak tree and be thrust through the heart with the Darts of Joab It was Judas his destiny to cast himself from the Gallows and to be broken in pieces upon the ground And lastly it was Achans destiny to be stoned with stones and then burnt with fire Thus that man perished c. It is very likely if this notorious rich sinner had lived his Tomb should have been as costly to lie over his dead corps as his Babylonish Garment was sumptuous to cover his living body But now there is not so much honour left him for his burial as earth to earth all is turned to ashes that the winds may blow him back again out of Canaan into Egypt from whence he brougt his iniquity A fair Tomb I confess cannot prove that I died a good man but that I died a wealthy Yet some honour is to be shewed to our dead corps because a dead body is nearer to the Resurrection than a living The Egyptians embalming the dead and the Odours and Spices which the Jews were wont to bestow do condemn those uncivil Funerals which some report of Geneva and Amsterdam that bury their dead in ditches and dunghils It makes Jesuits scoff at our Religion Scis ut haeretici colant parentes sulcant coemiteria sic colunt parentes Michael the Archangel fought about the body of Moses and Prudentius played the Poet very well touching Eulalia a Virgin Martyrs body cast abroad in a frosty night to the injury of the air and before morning it was overspread with icycles like a crystal Tomb. Pallioli vice linteoli ipsa elementa jubente Deo exequias Tibi virgo ferunt And certainly there was some such thing or St. Austin would not report it that divers Miracles as healing the sick and converting unbelievers have been wrought by Gods providence at the Tombs of the Martyrs to honour their death and memory But Achan was denied this happiness and though he had two deaths yet he had not one Tomb to be buried in Only an heap of stones were cast upon him for an infamy that as Varro said Monumentum quasi monimentum a Monument for admonition that we fear God and rebel not like Achan that perished fearfully c. The Papists will not leave Achan thus and remove him from Joshuahs hands and the Valley of Achor where he suffered into Purgatory But by what proof or warrant or Enditement Expect an Exposition fit for the nimble brains of the Colledge of Jesuits Achan was stoned with stones and then he died Afterward he and all he had were burnt with fire viz. Opera ejus accensa sunt in Purgatorio he and his works were burnt in Purgatory A likely matter since Joshuah was commanded to burn him and not the Devil Do you think Columbus that found out the fourth part of the world could have found out this third place to receive souls in which is neither Heaven nor Hell The Devil is much beholding to his Advocates that have made him not only Prince of darkness but that which God never made him Prince of Purgatory Some perchance will go a thought further and pronounce a fearful sentence that this man was wiped for ever out of the book of the living That is periit at the height the Lord bless us from it But St. Chrysostom was more mild and charitable As the digging of the earth says the Father and the plowing of it may seem but churlish usage yet that is the way to make it fruitful Ita magis erat Achani salutare supplicium quam aliis impunitas So Achan might go sooner to
our Rulers have left us in the way of a good life and changed their own for a better We owe duty to our Rulers in all things honest and lawful in obeying Rites and Ceremonies indifferent in Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical Illis imperii jus concessum est nobis relicta est obsequii gloria But where God controuls or wherein our liberty cannot be enthralled we are bound ad patiendum and happy if we suffer for righteousness sake Now that the obedience of the Rechabites was lawful and religious and a thing wherein they might profitably dispence with freedom and liberty the third part of my Text that is their Temperance will make it manifest for in this they obeyed Jonadab non bibemus c. To spare somewhat which God hath given us for our sustenance is to restore a part of the plenty back again if we lay hands upon all that is set before us it is suspicious that we expected more and accused nature of frugality And though the Vine did boast in Jothams Parable that it cheared up the heart of God and Man though it be so useful a Creature for our preservation that no Carthusian or Coelestine Monk of the strictest Order did put this into their Vow to drink no Wine yet the Rechabites are contented to be more sober than any and lap the water of the Brook like Gideons Souldiers Which moderation of diet though as I said in the beginning as it is an extreme and as it is a Vow for ever to drink no Wine I do not urge it to your imitation yet it did enable them to avoid Luxury and swinish drunkenness into which sin whosoever falls makes himself subject to a fourfold punishment First The heat of too liberal a proportion kindles the lust of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Poet calls it elegantly Wine is the milk of Venus Lot who was not consumed in Sodom with the fire of Brimstone drunkenness set him on fire with incestuous lust in Zoar. The Brimstone trickled down like rain but Luxury broke in upon him like a breach of the Sea And as Epaminondas said Modicum prandium non capit proditionem Treasons were never plotted at a frugal Table so Fornications and Adulteries were never hatcht in Cups of water but then they steal upon us where our Bowls are crowned with superfluity In jejuniis in castitate 2 Cor. vi What St. Paul hath coupled let us not divide fastings go first then follows pureness and chastity Secondly How many brawls and unmanly combates have we seen Nay how much bloud spilt under the Ensign of a Tavern Ivy bush Memento te sanguinem terrae bibere says Androcides in Pliny Wine is but the bloud of the earth and bloud toucheth bloud says the Prophet Hosea Antonius vino gravis sitiebat sanguinem says Seneca When Antonius his head turned round with drink he thirsted for the bloud of his enemies After Riot follows strife says St. Paul Rom. xiii I will fill them with wine and dash them one against another says the Prophet Jeremy Chap. xiii It is a sweet thing that men must fall at odds and stand nicely upon their terms of Honour in their drink when no man can disgrace them so much as their own intemperance which hath made them beasts Is that a time to strive for Mastery when they are the vilest servants upon earth to their own brutish appetite Thirdly Superfluity of drink it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the draught of foolishness Such a misery in my opinion that I would think men had rather lose their right arm than the government of their reason if they knew the Royalty thereof Wine and the foolishness of Idolatry were in the Feasts of Belshazzar And let St. Austin in his Epist 64. be well discussed and it will be found that quaffing which was used to be celebrated every year at the Tombs of the Martyrs was the first thing that brought in Offerings and Prayers for the dead a most erroneous Doctrine St. Basil calls Wine-bibbers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Idols of the Gentiles for as David describes Idols in the Psalms so they have eyes and see not ears and hear not hearts and understand not Lastly Whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sobriety is the sustentation of that which decays in man drunkenness is the utter decay of the body It was all the excuse that Callisthenes had for himself when he refused Alexanders drinking Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had rather want your Feast than stand in need of Aesculapius And when I see new Taverns multiply the next thing I look to see is to have more Apothecaries set up and more Physicians practise among us That then which bereaves our bodies of health and our minds of reason that which puts fury into our hands and fire into our breasts is that it which is grown the mean mans Recreation and the great mans Solemnity O ye Galatians who hath bewitched you Satisfie me in one question and I will ask no more To rob a man of his Garment or his Purse would you not think it dishonourable for you to do And Theft to be punished by the Kings Laws But I pray you which is the greater robbery to force or flatter your Friend to kindness whereby he loseth his reason which is the Vessel of Gods grace or to bereave him of a little money which is the instrument of fortune Whosoever hath been guilty of this crime to seduce another into weakness if his heart do not burn within him for shame know that Foelix the corrupt Governour was more conscionable for Foelix trembled when Paul did preach of temperance Of all other sins surfeiting of meats and drinks is a transgression of private flattery for every costly junquet is to content nature to perfect nature to strengthen nature and poor nature is as innocent of these things as the Idol Bel that had the name indeed but tasted not the Kings Provision Cum corpus impinguo hostem adversus meipsum nutrio says St. Bernard To cram up our body too much is to maintain a civil Rebel within our own skin and bone Si contenti erimus naturâ tam supervacuus est coquus quà m miles says Seneca In Peace what use have we of Souldiers God forbid but their service should be rewarded nobly but then we have no imployment for their service So if we go no further than the sustenance of mere Nature we shall have no use of Cookery Beasts and Fishes and the Fowls of the Air find that at hand which is fit for their sustenance Non fuit noverca natura ut homo sine tot artibus non possit vivere was Nature a Stepdame to man only that no less than two hundred Arts and Trades may be reckoned before his Table can be furnished Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomach he sunk like a Ship over-laden with Traffick but Lazarus went fasting to heaven scarce fraught with the crums of
hand justice and vengeance and above head he that walked on the tops of the Mulberry trees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God a mechanick and workman of our salvation The first part of the Text the Beast is like a place profaned but excussit he shook it off is like a Sanctuary And as the Rooms of the Temple were one within another and the inmost was the best so I may proceed in the degrees of this preservation Bare deliverance is but Atrium misericordiae the outward Porch of Solomon the Prince of peace but then we go on to the confusion of our enemies to excussit as unto the Altar whereon the beasts were slain but the holy of holies and the very Oracle of mercy is to escape the breaking of a bone with our Saviour not to lose the lap of our Garment with Saul or with our Apostle to feel no harm Upon these three let us divide St. Ambrose his Hymn Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbath and meditate with St. Austin Quid non misericorditer à Deo hominibus praestatur a quo etiam tribulatio est beneficium Wherein is not our God a merciful Father if our chastisement be our glory if with St. Paul we shake beasts into the fire and feel no harm I must not separate the bark from the tree the bark is the danger of the Apostle and the first part of my Text and there want not causes to wonder at the strangeness of the enemy For though Adam gave names unto the Creatures and Noah lent them a place of rest to be saved from the waters yet the beasts are at enmity with Paul Alas our Warfare is not honourable but bellum servile Zimri riseth up against his Master We no longer Gods Servants the Creatures no longer ours And what Creature is it but a Serpent Hast thou found me out O mine enemy Yes from the Garden of trees wherin Eve was tempted to a handful of sticks which St. Paul gathered here and every where upon an old quarrel we are sure to find the Serpent an adversary While we live Wisdom is our glory and so the Serpent is wise When we die Resurrection is our glory and you know the Serpent renews his youth When we are buried our Tomb is our glory and even there say Philosophers Serpents are begotten of the marrow of our bones But if any venom be more hateful than other it is the Vipers it was company fit for none in the Roman Laws but murderers of Fathers and Mothers because says Aristotle when the brood is great and the Viper every day brings forth but one at once the latter of the brood eat through the womb of the Dam to be born the sooner Well to suffer these things it was no news to Paul and why should it seem strange to us All his Pilgrimage in this world was either fighting with men at Ephesus after the manner of beasts or with beasts in my Text after the manner of men As Cato being vanquished by Caesar and flying into Africa was troubled with noisom Vermine Pro Caesare pugnant dipsades peragunt civilia bella Cerastae That the Snakes fought out the Civil Wars on Caesars side So the Vipers take part with the Pharisees against St. Paul those Pharisees whom our Saviour called in his Gospel Generations of Vipers Pythagoras compared our life to the combats of the Olympick Games and so did our Apostle both met in the Comparison but not in the Application to the Olympick Games says Pythagoras some men come to wrestle some to make merry with their friends but for his part he was among those who did but gaze upon the Wrestlers O no says St. Paul only God and Angels are the lookers on that do not sweat and fight to win the mastery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plato in Phaedon which is all one with that of St. Paul Nos spectaculum facti sumus we are all combatants and made a spectacle for the eyes of heaven As Pelopidas said in Plutarch Tantum duces in bello laudantur qui sunt sinc cicatrice non milites A scar was a comly sight in an ordinary Souldier but not in a General So it agrees well with the blessed souls to be in peace but for us to be in warfare And happy are they thrice happy who make the bitterness of this life but a gaine of Wrestling and though a severe sport yet but a sport and recreation A most reverend Bishop of our own Church the first who saw some reformation of Religion altered the ancient Arms of his Family from three Cranes to three Pelicans his righteous soul divining before his Martyrdom that he should feed the Church with his bloud as a loving Pelican and so contentedly he died making his Coat of honour an Emblem of persecution If we will be any thing if we will be born at all it must be in tears and to be honestly born is to be a Son and not a bastard that is to be chastened and not neglected And to be nobly born is to give Arms such as Constantine and Theodosius did in their Military Ensigns the mourning Cross of Christ Quis enarrabit generationem Will you know how a Christian is begotten St. Matthew makes a Pedigree and fourteen Generations reach to King David David is zeal and devotion The next fourteen Generations reach to Captivity and the waters of Babilon and after Captivity the next fourteen Generations reach to Christ our Lord. It was a dastard mind not befitting Augustus of all things else to desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might steal out of the world and not feel the least gripe of a disease it did rather become the beastly Epicurus who when he felt his sickness desperate drowned his stomach with immoderate Wine and so knew not what it was to dye but went drunk to Hell If we Christians were only anointed with oyl Oleo laetitiae supra socios with the oyl of gladness above our fellows Satan might speak home to our shame Doth Job serve God for nought But we are first anointed with the Baptism of water unto the death of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen We are dipt like Iron into the water that our edge may be setled against all injuries And we are ready to be anointed with bloud every day is the eighth day with us to be wounded and circumcised Nay if it be our destiny to be anointed with Pitch and Tar In morem nocturni luminis to waste away like a Taper welcom glory Or if it be our danger to be lick'd with the poysonous tongue of the Viper Son of man says Ezekiel be not afraid though thorns and briers be with thee nay though thou live among Scorpions For who would not venture with such a Charm as this is against any Serpent Excussit ho shook off the beast into the fire it is the second part of my Text and St. Pauls deliverance The Apostle indeed did shake his