set vpon miracles and labour to conuert water into bloud colour seas die riuers as if they would sayle and swim to Paradise through bloud of their enemies that Christs bloud may witnesse against them and charge them with the bloud of their slaine which hee so dearely purchast that as his bloud calls for pardon so their bloud calls for vengeance and may one day come vpon the desperate malefactor without repentance to his ruine and confusion Whence is that resolution of Anastasius the Emperour cited by Euagrius in the third booke of his storie Quod nihil velit aggredi that he would aduenture no exploit though neuer so honourable and glorious if he thought it might cost him a drop of bloud But such mildnesse requires a golden age that we cōdemne is the brutish violence of sauage furie It were good some bloud were let in vs not the bloud of our flesh but the bloud of our soules I meane the lust of our desires and the heate of our affections For as Bernard speakes Sanguis animae voluntas mea The bloud of my soule is the will of my heart and if there were a vent made for the corruptions thereof wee should find a more easie passage into heauen for there is a spirituall galarie and milken path that leadeth vnto God euen truth and holinesse puritie and righteousnesse our hearts being sprinkled from an euill conscience with the bloud of Christ and assured confidence in the merit of his passion O the rubricke and witnesse of eternall glorie that makes vs Saints in the kingdome of heauen and washeth our soules from their spirituall leprosie How should we adore the Sacrament of his bloud how should wee thirst after the fountaine of his bloud Crying with our Sauiour in the Gospell sitio I am a thirst He thirsts after our good let vs thirst after his bloud He thirsts after our saluation let vs thirst after his righteousnesse till our bloud-thirstinesse take away our bloud-guiltinesse and his bloudie wounds cure our bloudie issue the naturall fluxe of originall impuritie that it may bee true in vs which is spoken of the Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Riuers of the water of life shall flow out of their bellie The wild beast finds sweetnesse in the bloud of man and hunts for it Shall not wee more in the bloud of Christ and thirst for it it is milke to the weake and makes him strong it is wine to the strong and makes him chearefull O bee not slow to frequent the Temples and to loue the seruice and to honour the stones and to worship the alters where so grieuous a veine is opened to the house of Israel When Vitellius came into a field of bloud died with the slaughter and strewed with the bodies of the dead others were annoyed he onely cryes out Optime hostis occisus melius ciuis There is a good smell in the bloud of an enemie much better in the bloud of a subiect A most inhumane speech and full of tyrannie but had he said Optime hostis melius Christi There is a good smell in the bloud of an enemie but much better in the bloud of Christ that had bene religious pietie which is now recorded for outragious crueltie For indeed it is his bloud that is the sauour of life and smell of a field which the Lord hath blest that fills the nostrils of our heauenly Father and makes him forget the stinke of our wounds and the putrifactions of our iniquities whilst he stands like Phineas to mediate for vs in that holy place where now hee makes his entry and so I passe from his humiliation to his exaltation from the key of his bloud to the closet of his glorie Hee entred the holy place The sonnes of Israel came to their earthly Canaan through the red sea the Sonne of God to that heauenly Canaan through a sea of bloud that flowed with milke and honie this with the sweetnesse of peace and glorie that a land of holinesse this a place of holinesse where peace and holinesse and truth and righteousnesse haue taken vp their rest and made their habitation For holinesse becomes the house of God for euer perfect holinesse vniuersall holinesse with a vniuersality of time it is for euer with a vniuersality of subiect it is so that no vncleane thing may enter It was a good inscription which a bad man set vpon the doore of his house Per me nihil intret mali no euill may passe through me whereupon said Diogenes Quomodo ingredietur Dominus How then shall the master get into his owne house I know not how it may agree with our mansions vpon earth sure I am the first part is most conuenable with that coelestiall Bethel the gates of heauen and blessed sanctuarie of eternall righteousnesse For whatsoeuer is there is holy the Saints holy the Patriarchs holy the Martyrs holy the Prophets holy but the Lord himselfe most holy and blessed neither is this holinesse originall in those coelestiall bodies but deriuatiue from the Lord of all things It is he that sanctifies and makes them holy times places men Angels names ceremonies vessels instruments things animate things inanimate with the gracious spirit of his sauing righteousnesse They are holy because the Lord is holy and must needs subscribe to that great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Cherubins Holy holy holy Lord God almightie which is which was and which is to come But wherein stands the differerence betwixt the holinesse of God and the holinesse of his place Deus sanctus quia sanctificans the Lord is holy because he sanctifies and is not sanctified that is holy because it is sanctified and cannot sanctifie else might Adam haue continued holy as long as hee was in Paradise and the diuell as long as hee was in heauen but the one was cast out and the other was cast downe that so the holy one might come into the holy place and say with the Prophet Deus non homo I am God and not man The holy one of Israel in the midst of thee Hos 9. 11. For though hee were humbled vnto death and lay melting on the fornace of his crosse yet was he exalted vnto life and snatched as a brand out of the fire and that as Saint Ambrose speakes In vmbraculo nubis vt foueantur vulnera passionis In the coole shade of a spreading cloud to qualifie the heate of his bleeding wounds Neither is there any Christian but may discerne as farre with the ioyes of faith as euer Stephen did with the eyes of his body when hee said Behold I see the heauens opened and the sonne of man stand at the right hand of God Luke saith hee stands Dauid he sits yet are they both true he sits as a Iudge for the Lord hath giuen all power to his Sonne he stands as an Aduocate For we haue an Aduocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins The
power made vs the power of his God-head his weakenesse saued vs the weakenesse of his manhood Therefore may he iustly set his marke vpon vs yet is it not the rubie or the chrysolite or the saphir or the diamond or any other pretious stone that he would stocke and graft in vs but himselfe the image of himselfe more deare and precious then all the world beside O that we did esteeme him as a rich pearle or iewell of great price and incomparable value and not onely so but in this imitate Cleopatra put him into our draft and traiect him into our bowels with the hunger and thirst of righteousnesse We know the zeale of that Theban Captaine when being brought into the campe halfe dead he asked whether his shield were taken by the enemie as if nothing else were to be regarded and when he found it safe he began to kisse it and reuiue againe Such ought to be our zeale toward Christ the shield of our defence and the seale of our redemption What is the Church but as a garden What are we but as spirituall Bees O let vs sucke the flowers and draw the sweetnesse and neuer rest till we haue made a hiue of our soules and bodies that our hearts may be as waxe softened and mollified for the impression of this seale and nothing but this I meane Christ Iesus and him crucified The place he chuseth for himselfe is the heart by faith and confidence the arme by loue and charitable operations and that as a seale or a signet for esteeme and dignity Let me therefore once more beseech you that you would all be keepers of this seale without which nothing is to bee held but chiefly the house of Aaron and the Tribe of Leuie whether God hath placed vs as the signet of his arme iudge you there is peace within our walls and plenteousnesse within our palaces we sit vnder our vines and our figtrees and there is none to make vs affraid our sonnes grow vp as young plants and our daughters as the polisht corners of the Temple our garners abound and are full of all manner of store our sheepe bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our folds our oxen are strong to labour and there is no decay no leading captiue no complaining in our streets Thus hath he put vs as the seale of his heart and as the signet of his arme by the care of his loue and the tendernesse of his affection Not to do the like with him and to answer loue by loue were great inhumanity wonderfull impietie he doth not so with other Nations he rather maketh them as a marke to shoote at in the fiercenesse of his displeasure but let vs neuer forget his abundant louing kindnesse crying with Saint Bernard Sufficit amor Christi the loue of Christ sufficeth in him alone we are rich and haue enough he is very sweet and delectable the rest of our labour the stay of our pilgrimage the comfort of our heauines the pledge of blessednesse That as now we are as the seale of his left hand by temporall fauours so hereafter we may be as the seale of his right hand by his euerlasting mercies Which the Lord grant for the merits of his Sonne to whom with the Spirit three persons and one God be honour and glorie power and maiestie this day and for euer Amen Triumphus CHRISTI Christs Triumph AVG. Ser. de Temp. Didicit coelum portare hominem sub pedibus Christi famulantia aethera iacuerunt THE SECOND SERMON PSAL. 45. 5. Good lucke haue thou with thine honour ride on for the word of truth and meekenesse and righteousnesse CHrist is the end of the Law saith the Apostle yea and of the figures and of the Ceremonies towards him they all looke from him they receiue their accomplishment and perfection He is the Moses that shewes vs the true God and teacheth vs his Law He is the Ioshua that destroyeth our enemies and brings vs vnto Canaan He the Dauid that smote Goliah He the Solomon that built a temple a temple I say not made with hands but eternall in the heauens Where then shall I go for the meaning of these words but to that vniuersall center of euery line within this sacred volume Non recedamus à lapide angulari saith Austin There is no departing from the corner stone vnlesse we meane to loose our way Christ is the landmark and boundary of this and other prophesies what though Dauid write vnto the King or speake of his sonne It is the beloued Sonne of God that lyeth in the bosome of the Father that is the subiect of his prediction Thus doth one wheele run within another as in the vision of Ezechiel Christ in Solomon and grace in Christ for what the Apostles saw in the flesh the Prophets behold in the spirit and if euer Dauid were the pen of another mooued by the holy Ghost and set a worke by the finger of that eternall Maiestie to write and speake not after the will of man but after the will of God it is now whilst vnder the shadow of termes indefinit he proclaimes honour and felicitie with the flourishing increase of triumphant exaltation to the Lord and to his annointed and that for his words sake that Euangelicall word the word of the Gospell Good lucke haue thou with thine honour ride on for the word of truth and of meeknesse and of righteousnesse Referre my Text to Solomon you haue a bene diction referre it vnto Christ you haue a prediction it wisheth well to Solomon and there it is Oratio it speaketh well of Christ and there it is Oraculum Not shewing what he would haue done but what should be done by the rod of his power and the scepter of his Dominion Good lucke haue thou with thine honour What then do you obserue in the land-scope of these words But the dew of Hermon lying vpon the hill of Sion honour attended with felicitie the promise of felicitie as the dew of Hermon the sublimitie of honour as the hill of Sion Good lucke haue thou with thine honour Or rather if you please a golden branch on the top of Libanus the flower and the leafe thereof is honour the fruite and sweetnesse is felicitie Good lucke haue thou with thine honour The expansion and stretching forth is encrease Ride on with thine honour The roote and body is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of truth Good lucke haue thou with thine honour ride on for the word of truth and of meeknesse and of righteousnesse O the blessed foundation whereon the Apostle builds gold and siluer and precious stones honour and felicitie with the ioyfull succession of victorious power and royall soueraignty It is a word of truth and confirmes his promises it is a word of meekenesse and prayeth for his enemies it is a word of righteousnesse and iustifies his seruants Hee was crowned with honour in the worke of our redemption he was aduanced to ride
Parasite Whilst Christ Iesus the Sonne of the liuing God sits alone as a sparrow on the house top or a Pellican in the wildernes Beloued I speake with shame to you and griefe to my selfe what sometime Saint Bernard spake to his auditors Quidam non sequuntur sed fugiunt Quidam sequuntur sed non essequuntur c. Some doe not follow Christ but run from him they are such as delight in wickednes for he that doth euill hateth the light Some do not follow Christ but go before him they are such as resist gouernment whereof Peter was an instance Master spare thy selfe it shall not be vnto thee Some follow Christ but do not ouertake him and they are such as faint in their proceedings to whom we may say Lift vp the weake hands and strengthen the feeble knees Some follow Christ and at length reach vnto him and they are such as perseuere in holinesse to whom belong the Tables and the Couenant the Oracles and the Promise the Promise of life and the Promise of my text For they shall sit vpon twelue thrones and iudge the twelue tribes of Israel And so I come from the motion to the mansion from the consectation to the confession in these words They shall sit vpon twelue thrones and iudge the twelue tribes of Israel Euery master hath his seuerall pay the world payes his followers with trouble and carefulnesse the flesh payes his followers with corruption and filthinesse the diuell payes his followers with despaire and wretchednesse But Christ payes his followers with glory and blessednesse They shall sit vpon twelue thrones and iudge the twelue tribes of Israel I make no question but some are like the Orator and can sit double hauing placed themselues on two seates by the treacherous practise of dissimulation and hypocrisie but they shall neuer be honoured with the Saints or rest vpon twelue seates without great mercy in the full possession of ioy and felicitie They which confine these words to the Apostles with Saint Chrysostome make the soule of euery Christian to be as a throne or place of residence Such as receiue the word of Iohn the throne of Iohn Such as embrace the doctrine of Peter the throne of Peter But they extend further and haue respect to Christs tribunall where all the elect haue their seuerall places and sit at table with him in that heauenly kingdome Here then is a certaine number put for an vncertaine A finite for an infinite so that by twelue thrones wee vnderstand a vniuersalitie of thrones prouided for the Saints in the highest places Saint Austin vndertakes to giue a reason from the mysterie of this number but that is more Platonicall then diuine Wee may rest satisfied with that generall Thesis of our Sauiour In my Fathers house are diuerse mansions To search busily what these thrones are is vaine curiositie to define boldly is presumptuous leuitie It is like they shall be of aire because we shall meete the Lord in the aire and if they haue conformitie with that of our Sauiour it must be so for he shall ride in the aire and make the clouds his chariot Whereupon saith Iohn I looked and behold a white cloud and he that sate thereon like the sonne of man hauing on his head a crowne of gold and in his hand a sharpe sickle Apoc. 14. 14. But whatsoeuer these thrones are they promise rest and tranquilitie in the bosome of Abraham Sedebit anima sedebit caro they shall find rest vnto their soules and rest vnto their bodies to their bodies from the paine of trauell and the mutabilitie of corruption to their soules from the waues of trouble and the conflicts of passions nor feare nor griefe nor wrath nor desire nor any thought of carnall affection shall disturb the quiet of their sweet repose but as they are satisfied with the fulnesse of the Lord so likewise shall they bee secured by the omnipotence of his greatnesse and yet there is somewhat more in this easie posture for to sit in the presence of God betokens infinite state and most incomporable maiestie worthy to bee obserued by all those which desire long robes and loue the highest places of the Synagogues because they shall not onely sit but iudge the tribes of Israel All iudicature is most honourable but this exceeds in glorie Quis honor saecularis as Saint Bernard makes the question Is there any power in the world to be compared with it It is not a Citie or a countrie but the tribes of Israel and the kingdomes of the earth that must stand before the Saints and be lyable to their iudgement Bond and free Iew and Grecian for they are all sealed with the tribes and ranckt with their diuisions Nay the whole world and all the creatures therein though neuer so eminent and sublime in glorie Witnesse that of the Apostle Know ye not that wee shall iudge the Angels 1. Cor. 6. 3. There is a iudgement of power and authoritie that belongs to God the Father for hee is iudge of the whole earth there is a iudgement of honour and delegacie that belongs to Christ as he is man for the Lord hath giuen all iudgment to the Sonne there is a iudgement of assession and witnesse and consent and allowance that belongs to the whole companie of Gods elect for they shall sing and reioyce and gratulate the truth of diuine iustice with the sweetest notes of Iubilie and thankfulnesse here then is man aduanced and superexalted aboue the starres of the morning and the Citizens of heauen indeed we reade that God shall come to iudgement with his Angels as followers and attendants but the text saith Hee shall sit in iudgement with men as familiars and associats their iudgement is ministeriall and seruiceable our iudgement powerfull and honourable and that vpon thrones and ouer thrones and dorninions and all the glorious host of his noblest creatures for they haue a iudgement to receiue Non condemnationis sed manifestationis as the Schoolemen haue distinguisht not of shame and confusion with the diuell and his Angels but of shew and manifestation to the praise of Christ and the glorie of their innocence O yee mercenary worldlings and fugitiue seruants that run from your owne master and serue Pharoh in the bondage of your spirits that cleaue to the dust and follow the way of Balaam who loued the wages of vnrighteousnesse making that a reproch to vs which the poore Indians vsed to the Spaniards when they tooke a peece of gold and cryed Loe here is the god of the Christians Thinke vpon the goodnesse of the Lord and the dignitie of his seruants lest hee that long since placed his bow in the clouds without an arrow call for the instruments of death and wound yee in his sore displeasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Euangelist This is the condemnation of the world that light is come into the world but men haue loued darknesse more then light Is it not
videtur in terris The shew and manifestation of his presence is in the earth but the celebritie and declaration of his glory is in the heauens For if the Psalmist would haue a trumpet blowne in the new moone Blow the trumpet in the new moone There is a trumpet of praise and glorie that must sound and bee lifted vp shall I say in the new Moone or rather in the feast of Tabernacles Whilst the Tabernacle of God is with man and to speake in the phrase of Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Israel but the Lord of Israel dwelleth in a tent or a booth and is receiued into the darke mansion and earthly Tabernable of humane flesh and mortall corruption Yee haue a president from the Angels though hee were not a Sauiour to them but to vs. For he tooke not the Angels but the seede of Abraham Yet doe they begin the Antiphone and teach vs how to sing Though we may not compare with their knowledge and vnderstanding yet may wee emulate their pietie and deuotion My prayer shall be that which the Apostle vsed in the behalfe of the Romanes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the God of patience and consolation make yee like minded that with one mouth yee may praise God euen the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ saying and singing as it is in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glorie to God in the highest on earth peace good will towards men That which I haue read vnto you is a sacred Hymne and diuine Embasie where there is discouered a threefold benefit of our Sauiours incarnation The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the loue and good will of him that dwelt in the bush Good will towards men The second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peace and reconciliation with God the Father On the earth peace The third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honour and glorie and that from the noblest creatures I meane the Angels that dwell in the height and sublimitie of eternall blessednesse Glorie to God in the highest on the earth peace good will towards men But that which ariseth most clearely from this fountaine is a blessing receiued and a blessing returned A blessing receiued and that is peace On the earth peace A blessing returned and that is Glorie Glorie to God on high In the first wee note the Motiue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diuine loue and spirituall adoption Good will towards men In the second wee note a circumstance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the highest Either locall and so by the highest we vnderstand the heauens Or personall and so by the highest we vnderstand the Angels Glorie be to God on high on the earth peace c. Glorie bee to God on high For the heauens send downe and the clouds drop righteousnesse On the earth peace For saluation and Iustice are come forth it brings them forth together Good will towards men For we are satisfied with the abundance of his louing kindnesse Grace and Mercy compassion and bounty from God the Father and from our Lord Iesus Christ Who so great and eminent that he may not honour God it is the practise of the Angels Glorie to God in the highest Who so powerfull and magnificent that hee should not embrace peace it is the onely blessing on the earth On the earth peace Who so amiable and preualent that hee should not stand by this grace it is the onely stay of life and happinesse Towards men good will O the diuine maiestie of this heauenly Sacrament where hee that is despised of his owne is the attonement for his enemies hee that lyeth among the beasts is the securitie of man hee that cryeth in a stable is magnified in heauen and that by an host of spirituall souldiers saying and singing Glorie to God on high on earth peace good will towards men Yee haue now seene the notes of my song I shall resume them in their order though to vse the words of Iohn I am not worthie to vntie the latchet of his shooe Ligatura calceamenti ligatura mysterij saith Gregorie the latchet of his shooe is the mysterie of his birth For the brightnesse of the Godhead lyeth shadowed and shrouded vnder the veile and couer of his manhood diuinitie in humanitie power in infirmitie maiestie in humilitie immortalitie in frailtie life in death and Christ in the flesh O let not that be wanting in you towards me which abounds in God towards all I meane voluntas bona a good will and beneuolous disposition whilst I begin with my first note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glorie to God on high It is well the Angels set glorie before peace For there will be no peace with man if there be not glorie to the Lord it is one of those peculiars which he reserueth to himselfe the first is vengeance and therefore saith Moses Vengeance is mine and I will repay the second power and therefore saith the Euangelist The Lord hath giuen all power to his Sonne the last and chiefest is Glorie and therefore saith Esay I will not giue my glorie to another Indeed the Lord made all things for his glorie and if he be not glorified in their actions hee will bee glorified in their punishment by the seueritie of his iustice This made the Apostle to exclude euery creature from the fellowship hereof To the King euerlasting inuisible immortall and onely wise God bee honour and glory And the Psalmist is distinctly negatiue by a perfect abdication from himselfe and others Not vnto vs not vnto vs but to thy name be the glorie That wee may say vnto her as Ioseph vnto his Mistris My Lord hath committed all things vnto my hand and kept nothing from me but onely thee which art his wife How shall I do so great wickednesse and sinne against my Lord The Lord hath committed all things vnto our hands sent vs his Angels giuen his Sonne powred forth his Spirit multiplyed his graces and kept nothing from vs but this glorie which is espoused to him from euerlasting How shall wee do so great wickednesse as to sinne against the Lord and spoile him of his glorie Yet there is an inward glorie wherein wee may reioyce proceeding from a good conscience The holy Ghost bearing witnesse to our spirits that we are the Sonnes of God For glorie and honour and peace shall bee to euery soule that doth good to the Iew first and also the Grecian Yea and an outward glorie too so it bee limited within the bounds of pietie and charitie I meane the honour of God and the benefit of our neighbour In Deo secundum Deum propter Deum as the learned haue distinguisht First in Deo from God as the Author and fountaine then secundum Deum not after the will of man but after the will of God Last of all Propter Deum to the honour of God and the aduancement of his Gospell O gloriam licitam saith Tertulltan such Philotimie is very iustifiable and worthy of man the