our being by the word of truth begotten since the Apostle doth close this verse with telling us how to make our selves more apt to receive the word of truth into our soules or as who should say since wee are begotten voluntarily by the word of truth let us endeavor by all meanes to preserve in us this regeneration this inborne word in us this filiation to God this adoption to glory and by the name of uncleanness the Apostle here alludes to concupiscence drawing us from the life of this word unto the death of sinne by the name of malice hee alludes to the sinne of anger before inculcated as hindering our justice such as by meekness we produce in our selves and so preserve the inbred word our filiation to God which must be our finall salvation of our soules by taking in or receiving the ingraffed word is here meant keeping it for this was spoken to those who were already Christians and the allusion is pretty which is here made to a graft for as by ingrafting on the body of an Apple-tree the gardiner if he please brings forth a Plum or Peare so the word of God ingrafted into our soules brings forth the fruits of grace which are the Seeds of better fruit of glory if any aske what is this ingrafted word we may say it is God incarnate for his incarnation is as it were an ingrafting or inoculating God into the hearts or soules of men since as the graft is alwayes of a better kinde then the Stock it is ingrafted on so the Divinity is much more sweet and fertil then our sowre Crab of humane nature whereas by the Hypostaticall union God and man in Christ became one person as the Tree and the graft become one body when the Sap unites and cements them together againe as all grafts are first cut from their own homogeneall Stock before they be ingrafted into another so the second person of the Trinity was taken as it were out of the hosome of his eternal Father to be ingrafted in the wombe of the Blessed Virgin Mary and so was brought out of his heavenly to be planted in our earthly Paradise or rather wilderness indeed for such it was when he came downe to earth and as from the sowre Stock of a Crab-tree we must first cut a branch before we can ingraft a better fruit upon it so was there cut off from Christ his humane hypostasis and he made to subsist by the hypostasis divine besides as the graft and the Stock are bound together till they fasten into one another so by the hypostaticall union was the divine graft bound to our stock of humane nature that thereby God and man might grow into one person consisting of two natures others will have this ingrafted word to be the Blessed Sacrament united to our Soules others understand it to be Christ crucified on the Cross others contend it is the word of God ingrafted by the Preachers into the hearts of the Faithfull The Application 1. THe two first verses of this Epistle point directly at the gift of Faith which is indeed the Best and most perfect gift eminentially called the gift of God and is such a Light to our Reason as can come from none but the Father of Lights in it selfe the Blessed Trinity but as to us we may say it comes from the Father of our Light that is of our Faith our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath indeed voluntarily begotten us by the word of Truth the Holy Writ the Record of our Faith whereby we have our first beginnings of being God Almighties creatures 2. The two next verses tell us with what Alacrity and Promptitude we should hear this Sacred word of God as also with what Patience we should bear the Rebukes and Checks it gives our Consciences when it reprehends our vices In plaine termes we are told that to be Angry at any holy reprehension is an evident signe of our not being Right beleevers since by our operative Faith we are made just as we have often been taught and nothing is less consistent with justice then Anger 3. The last verse tels us what effects Faith ought to work in us namely Purity Love and Meekness for without these we are not capable of saving our soules by the ingafted word of God in us which yet of it self is sufficient to save us if received with that Purity which renounceth all mixture of Heresie Schisme or Infidelity for these are the Obstructions to the unity of minds which Faith worketh in the soules of true beleevers making them therefore all of one minde because they are all of one pure and impermixed Faith such as is only in the Catholicke Church and the effect whereof is to make them therefore love even the hardest commands of that good God they do beleeve in and to covet ardently what he promiseth unto them in requitall of their love who amongst all the allurements in this world fix their hearts only upon heavenly joyes which are promised in the next world not on such shadowes of joyes as we possess here in a word not to fix their hearts upon our present loanes but upon our future promises for God here doth not properly give us any thing how ever he lends us all we have his gifts are for eternall enjoyment not for temporary uses onely Now that we may doe this see how fitly Holy Church Prayes as above The Gospel John 16. v. 5 c. 5 But I told you not these things from the beginning because I was with you And now I goe to him that sent me and none of you asketh me whither goest thou 6 But because J have spoken these things to you sorrow hath filled your hearts 7 But J tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I goe for if I goe not the Paraclete shall not come to you but if I goe J will send him to you 8 And when he is come he shall argue the world of sinne and of Iustice and of Iudgement 9 Of sinne because they beleeve not in me 10 But of Justice because I goe to my Father and now you shall not see me 11 And of judgement because the Prince of this world is now judged 12 Yet many things I have to say to you but you cannot bear them now 13 But when hee the spirit of truth commeth hee shall teach you all truth for hee shall not speake of himselfe but what things soever he shall heare he shal speake and the things that are to come he shall shew 14 He shall glorifie me because he shall receive of mine and shall shew to you The Explication 5. TO understand what the Apostle meanes in this verse we must know the meaning of the foregoing words and though many wil have these things to report unto what went before namely our Saviours having told them they should be persecuted and punished to death for his sake after he was gone which he told them of that when it
Such as may prepare the way for Jesus Christ to come amongst us that by his coming we may deserve to serve Almighty God with purified Souls How purified By loving him and so deserving to be his Fathers Servants in a high degree indeed as fore-runners to his Sacred Son as Baptists as Angels sent before his face to prepare his wayes and consequently as men than whom greater did never arise amongst the sons of women Blessed God! to what a height of perfection doth holy Church invite her Children to day being but on Sunday last raised from their dead sleep their trance of Sin and yet no marvell for Christianity is in truth the summity or top of all perfection and of all Christians we know the Catholike to be Top and Top-gallant that is to say the highest of men which consequently so purifies their Souls as they become at least the lowest of Angels since in true morality the highest of the inferiour arrives to the perfection of the lowest of his Superiours whence we read of Saint John Baptist That he was an Angel sent before the face of Jesus Christ to prepare his wayes Luke 7. ver 27. Now lest this discourse seeme but gratuite and to have little or no connexion to the whole service of the day however we finde it genuine enough perhaps unto the Prayer see what Lessons of Purity and sanctity of Soules the Epistle gives us insisting altogether upon the highest of Sanctity mutuall peace and charity such as made the two most discordant people in the world united perfectly in one the Jew and Gentile who before they were in Christ united and had their hearts raised up to heavenly affections detested one another but once meeting both in the love of one God they became in Christ one Thing one Body of that undivided Church which hath the onely Son of God to be the head thereof our Saviour Jesus Christ Nay see further how this dayes Gospel makes of humane Soules thus raised up by mutuall love by having all one God and beleeving equally in the doctrine of his sacred Son Baptistick Saints and consequently spirits Angelicall whilst what is read to day of Saint John Baptist is spoken to us as either being or invited to be like him fore-runners to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ voices crying out in the desart of this world prepare the wayes of our Lord. O Christians O Catholicks at least remember we are now in holy Advent a time set out apart to prepare us for a worthy receiving of our Saviour at his Nativity into this world be it therefore spent as Saint John Baptist did imploy his dayes in pennance fasting praying in purifying of our Souls in raising mortall man up to the purity immortality and sanctity of Angels so shall we pray as all our Pastours preach to day which is I hope a sufficient adjusting of this dayes Prayer unto the following Epistle and Gospel of the day bidding us with one mind and one mouth glorifie God which then we doe when our practice and our Prayer is answerable to what our Pastors teach and preach unto us The Epistle ROM 15. ver 4. c. 4. VVHat things soever have been written to our learning they are written that by the patience and consolation of the Scriptures we may have hope 5. And the God of patience and of comfort give you to be of one mind towards one another according to Jesus Christ 6. That of one mind with one mouth you may glorifie God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 7. For the which cause receive one another as Christ also hath received you unto the honour of God 8. For I say Christ Jesus to have been Minister of the Circumcision for the verity of God to confirm the promises of the Fathers 9. But the Gentiles to honour God for his mercy as it is written Therefore will I confesse to Thee in the Gentiles O Lord and will sing to thy name 10. And again he saith Rejoyce ye Gentiles with his people 11. And again Praise all ye Gentiles our Lord and magnifie him all ye people 12. And again Isaiah saith There shall be the root of Jesse and he that shall rise up to rule the Gentiles in him the Gentiles shall hope 13. And the God of hope replenish you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope and in the vertue of the holy Ghost The Explication 4. SAint Paul alludes here to what was written in the old Law and makes it all wholly and entirely to have been a lessen for our instruction at least though not a rule to our actions since the abrogation of it and if he say thus of the abrogated Law much more ought we to receive and read for our instructions all thâ—â— is written in the new Law which shall remain to the worlds end unaltered But he applyes this speech particularly now to what he said in the immediate verse before citing the Prophet Davids words Psal 68. The curses of those that curse Thee have fallen upon me making Christ speak these words as taking upon his own person the Curses and Sins of the people committed against his Heavenly Father to restore to God as it were his lost honour if we may so say by assuming these Curses to himself as also by his suffering to appease the Divine wrath and in this sense he applyes his speech to the Romanes that they might convert to their instructions and comfort this which in their behalf our Saviour took upon himself namely the guilt and burthen of the Gentiles Sins as well as those of the Jewes so to ingratiate them also to his heavenly Father By the patience and consolation of the â—criptures meant the patience they teach us in their singular examples thereof and the comfort they bring us in letting us see we may by following the said examples hope for the like rewards which now the Saints in Heaven have for so the last words of this verse import 5. The Apostle calls him the God of patience and of comfort because he is infinitely patient infinitely comforting and because his Vertues are not as in Man his Ornaments but his Essence so that he is patience it self comfort it self and more if we could more express Then we are most properly of one mind one towards another when we wish and do as well to others as to our selves According to Christ as Christ was to us and as he gave us command to be saying Love one another as I have loved you This is indeed absolute perfection and this is the true Badge of a perfect Christian 6. That of one minde with one mouth c. Then we do truly glorifie God when we conforme our selves in all things to his holy Will and this we can not all do unless all our mindes be one as he is in us all to that one effect of glorifying him so when one pretends God is glorified thus and another will not
flow between these two extreames the more they approach to the Circle the wider they are but as they recede from the Circle the closer they go till at last they are all concentred in one point Almighty God and so made one heart and one soule amongst our selves hence we see that all the motion our affections have from man to God growes still more and more vigorous and more perfect So S. Austine concludes DILIGE ET FAC QUOD VIS. Love and do what thou please Tract 7. in Epist 1. S. John whereas the Apostle sayes if there be any other precept meaning of the Second Table for of the three belonging to the First Table and that of honouring our parents the first precept of the Second Table he had spoken before at large under the title of Superiour powers Princes and others ending that subject in these words To whom honour honour for that command is in these words Honour thy Father and Mother under which title are included Elders Betters Superiours especially Princes spoken of at large from the first verse of this Chapter to the end of the seventh ending as above to whom honour honour I say whereas the Apostle saies if there be any other Precept it is included in this word Love your neighbour as your selfe we are to note the Precept of love to our neighhour is bipartite as divided into two branches the first whereof is affirmative grounded on these words of S. Matth. Chap. 6. What you will have others doe to you doe you the same to them The second negative in that of Tobit Chap. 4. v. 16. What you hate to have another doe to you see you never do that to another not that this Precept commands an equality but onely a similitude of love to your neighbour with that you beare to your self that is to say as all you desire is honest good delectable to your selfe so desire the like to your neighbour not in equall proportion but in exact similitude distaste him not hurt him not rob him not as you desire he should not distaste hurt nor rob you so the allusion is to similitude not to equality 10. The reason of this is because the object of our love being good the effect thereof must be good also for as none can love evill for evills sake so none can love good for evills sake because true love both makes good the end and medium of its operation as who should say doe I finally ayme at good then good must be the medium leading thereunto so it being good to love our neighbour the operation of this good love cannot be a bad thing Therefore the Apostle concludes The fullnesse of the Law is Love that is to say if we love we fulfill the Law or as Tolet saies The scope or end of the Law is Love or as S. Augustine because love forceth a man to fulfill the Law hence we see Faith alone sufficeth not to satisfie the Law without Acts of Love how absurd is it then to say as hereticks do the Commandements are impossible to be kept when by onely love they are all fulfilled not that so perfect a love can here be hoped for as shall exempt us from veniall sinnes against the Law since such is onely reserved for the next world and performed in the state of Bliss but that we may forbeare mortall sin even in this life if we but love our neighbour as our selves and God appretiatively at least above all things that is to say not so well to love any thing but still to resolve we will rather leave to love it than for its sake cease to love God and surely thus all good Christians doe appretiatively Love God above all things The Application 1. WEll is Love said to be the fullnesse of the Law because the Law commands us nothing else but that we love So to love it to prevent the danger of the Law which is never broken but under paine of penalty Wherefore as last Sunday bids us fly sin as a disease this bids us fly it as a danger 2. Well is the danger of the Law expressed in these negative Commandements for prohibition is the best prevention of a mischief Hence we say forewarn'd and arm'd against all danger whatsoever as new we are especialyl against the dangerous temptations unto what is here prohibited 3. Well doth S. Paul conclude as he began exhorting us to love because love workes no evill now amongst evills danger is not the least and onely not to love is hugely dangerous since we are taught 1 John 3. vers 14. and 1 Cor. 16. v. 21. that he who loveth not remaines in death in the death of that sin he commits against the Law for lack of loving God above all things and his neighbour as himself Say now the Payer above and see how suitable it is to this Epistle The Gospel MAT. 8. v. 23. c. 23. ANd when he entered into the boate his disciples followed him 24. And loe a great tempest arose in the sea so that the boate was covered with waves but he slept 25. And they came to him and raised him saying Lord save us we perish 26. And he saith to them why are ye fearfull O ye of little faith Then rising up he commanded the windes and the sea and there ensued a great calme 27. Moreover the men marvelled saying what an one is this for the windes and the sea obey him The Explication 23. IT was his usuall custome to preach in a boate a little off from the shoare but here it seemes he took boat to avoid the multitude of people that followed him and so both to flie popular applause and to give occasion to this following miracle he took boat and put to Sea with his Disciples 24. Probably our Saviour himself raised this Tempest purposely First to shew he was Lord of all the world both sea and land the figure of which passage S. John in his Apoc. Chap. 10. v. 2. recounts telling how an Angell set his right foot upon the Sea and thereby commanded it at pleasure Secondly to inure his Disciples to tribulation as well at sea as land Thirdly to confirm his Disciples in their Faith of him and some others besides in the company and these may be all true reall causes of the tempest but figuratively wee may believe this Tempest to have been raised to shew the future persecution of the Church of Christ and of a devout soul in temptation and how as by his permission it comes so by his power it shall passe away even when it seemes most severe and when Almighty God seems as it were asleep and not to regard it till by the joynt prayer of the Church he be wakened and made propitious For Seneca himself sayes A mans life without temptation seems like a dead Sea so called for the stillness thereof as if there were no life in the water of it and indeed as in a storm at sea the best man aboard is
to them that hearing me speak they may come after me or you to know the meaning of what I said and so to increase in them their zeals by little and little opening their eyes and understandings and this may I hope suffice for a sufficient exposition of the two Verses Now to the Parable and Explication thereof as our Saviour himself delivered it to his Disciples that thereby the Faith they had in him before might be increased when they see how much solidity of clear Doctrine and true Piety was couched under his parabolicall expressions 5. 11 12. As to the fifth or eleventh and tweltfth verses for these are in sense all one as our Saviour himself declares in the very letter of the Texts we are therefore onely to give a reason why the Word of God is compared to seed of Corn sowed in the fields and we shall finde as many reasons for it as there are Analogies between the Seed and the Word the Sowing the one and Preaching the other as first because the Word of the Preacher is cast into the ears of his Auditory out of the Pulpit as the Seed is cast over all the ground by the sowing Seeds-man Secondly as the Word links from the Ear of the hearer into the Heart so the Seed descends by degrees from the surface or superficies of the earth into the bowels thereof Thirdly as Seed is the Mother of all Fruits so the Word of God is the Parent of all good Works Fourthly as the Earth without Seed brings forth nothing but weeds bryars and brambles so Man without the Word of God brings forth nothing but futility vice and vanity Fifthly as Seed requires soft manured and tilled ground to grow in so the Word of God must finde gentle rich and mortified Souls to fructifie upon Sixthly as Seed requires moisture and sun to bring it forth so the Soul requires the tears of sorrow for our Sins and the Son of Justice his heat of Grace to make the Word of God fructifie in mans heart and bring forth Acts of love to God Seventhly as the Seed in the Earth must first dissolve and die before it spring so must the Word of God be ruminated upon by meditation and procure in us a death to the world before we can find in our selves the spring of living in Gods favour Eighthly as the Seed must first take root then sprout up branch into leaves and boughs next blossome and then knit into a fruit so the Word of God must first enter deep into our hearts then rise by holy cogitations branch it self into variety of good desires blossom into Religious resolutions at last knit it self up into the knot of good Works which are the fruits of our lives Ninethly as the force and vertue of all fruits is contracted into its Seed so the force of all our good Works is lodged in the Word of God Tenthly as diverse seeds bring diverse fruits so diverse sentences of Scripture bring forth diverse Vertues in our Souls Eleventhly as to the child of fruit are required two parents the Seed as the male and the Earth as the female so to the Children of Vertues are required the Word of God and his holy Grace Lastly as from the best Seed man preparing his ground with most industry proceeds the best Crop of Corn so from the best chosen Texts delivered by the best Preachers those that use the most diligence in preparing and making soft the hearts of their penitents towards God proceed the best fruits of Vertue and good Works here as unto the best Saints to serve as fruits for a Heavenly banquet in the next World Now we see the meaning of the seed let us examine the reasons why these severall effects follow upon the severall grounds the Seed falleth on First that falling on the high-way cannot enter to take root for growth and consequently lying open to be both trodden to pieces by passengers and pecked up by birds must needs be like to so much cast away such is the Word of God as Saint Matthew sayes Heard but not understood because the hearer doth not ask his spirituall Adviser the meaning of what is told him but pretends to be satisfied therein when indeed he carries away the onely empty sound of words but is wholly ignorant of the sense through his own lazinesse in not asking the meaning thereof and consequently what is thus ignorantly received is not understood and by that means makes no entrance into the heart of the hearer so is trodden to pieces even by our own trampling over it whilst we run from Sermons as if we had never heard a word of what the Preacher said unto us which indeed is commonly their case that come to Church for curiosity to hear Humane Eloquence not Divine Preaching to see and to be seen not to hear their faults and amend them to laugh indeed at the Preacher if he please not the pallate of their fancy or curious ears as those did to whom for that very reason Christ spake Parables not clear sense and to such as these be the Preachers words never so clear never so easie they sound as Parables in his ears whose own distracted minde robs him of the faculty of understanding what he hears and though such men seeme to come to God when they appear in Churches yet in very truth their coming is to the Devill in Gods House and no marvell then he carry them and their understandings away with him lest hearing that is intelligently hearing they believe and believing plow up the high-way their hearts with acts of Love and so render the Corn the Word of God capable to sink into their Souls and take root to their emolument indeed to their Salvation as Text the speaketh 6. 13. The first reason of the Corn failing to grow was the want of sinking into the earth now it fails though sunk because it wants moisture by incountring a stony or rocky ground which is onely covered with a shallow superficies of earth and cannot receive moisture enough to carry the Corn deeper into the ground and to root it there This place alludes to schismaticks whose petrifying hearts whose cold affections to God turn all they hear of him how ever they believe it to be true into rocks and stones into sterility and barrenness of Soul and hence rather than suffer the least temporall losse for Gods sake they hazard to loose themselves eternally A clear place to covince Hereticks by that Faith alone is not sufficient without good Works to save them and that Souls though once in the Grace of God may nevertheless loose his favour and the Kingdome of Heaven too 7. 14. The second reason of failing was for want of ground to take sufficient root and to cherish the Seed in both which may seeme to be defects of intrinsecall requisites now this third reason points at what is extrinsecally necessary and rather at defects of redundance than of want because the
mysteries which we have faithfully received we may be purged from sinne and delivered from all dangers On the fifth Sunday after Easter The Prayer O God from whom all good things do proceed grant unto thy humble supliants that we may thinke on those things which are good thou inspiring us and thou governing us we may put the same in execution The Secret REceive O Lord the Prayers of the faithfull with the oblations of their sacrifices that by these offices of pious devotion we may passe into eternall glory The Post-Communion GRant unto us O Lord who are filled with the vertue of the heavenly Table that wee may desire those things which are right and receive what we desire On Sunday within the Octaves of Ascension The Prayer OMnipotent Eternal God grant us ever to have our wills devoted and our hearts sincerely bent unto the service of thy Divine Majesty The Secret MAy the Immaculate Sacrifices purifie us O Lord and afford unto our souls the Vigor of supernal Grace The Post-Communion BEing replenished with thy holy Gifts grant unto us we beseech thee that we may always remain in thanksgiving FINIS THE THIRD PART Of the first TOME On the Feast of Pentecost OR On WHIT-SUNDAY The Antiphon ACTS 2. v. 1. ON this day are compleat all the dayes of Pentecost Allelujah This day the holy Ghost did appear to the Disciples in fire and gave unto them gifts of graces sent them over all the world to preach and testifie that he which shall believe and be baptized shall be saved Alleluja Vers The Apostles did speak with divers tongues Alleluja Resp The wonderfull works of God Alleluja The Prayer O God who on this day hast taught the hearts of the Faithfull by the Illumination of the holy Ghost grant unto us in the same Spirit to relish those things that are right and ever to rejoyce in his consolation The Illustration IF we look back to the three last Sundayes-prayers we shall find them all as it were preparatives to this which we now make to day of relishing those things that are right and rejoycing in the consolation of the holy Ghost And indeed our B. Saviours whole life and death had no other aim then by making God man to winn man into an affection of deity and of being content to become God and when by the last mystery of humane redemption as far as lay on our Saviours part his glorious Ascension we were brought to devote our wills and our hearts affections sincerely to the service of Almighty God now we are led into that holy School and unto that heavenly Master where we shall be taught how to set our hearts right to his heavenly Majestie and this by the Illumination of the holy Ghost which that we may do the better see how to day we pray that in the same Spirit we may relish those things which are right and rejoyce in the consolation thereof as if in this School flesh and bloud were to have no place which had so far and so long mis-led us and indeed the very Apostles themselves so long as they looked upon Jesus Christ as man they did not relish the pure service of Almighty God they were not set right in their hearts affections they doted upon flesh and bloud and so fell into the errours thereof S. Peter of denying Christ in his afflictions S. Thomas of doubting of his Resurrection but we never heard that after the coming of the holy Ghost any of the Apostles fell into those or any other errours in the rectitude of their service towards Almighty God but were alwayes in the right and took content in nothing that was wrong or swarving from the doctrine of their Master our Saviour Jesus Christ And why this Because the holy Ghost who was the Spirit of Truth had possessed them and taught them all truth and made them not onely relish it but disrelish all things that were contrary thereunto Nor is it without reason that erring man in his most solemn prayer should beg the grace of God to relish what is right for we never please our selves with what we do not relish nor do we ever relish what displeaseth us whereas to relish what is right is to relish at least what is pleasing unto God however it doth oftentimes nor please our selves and therefore in this grand day when we are to be weaned from the nurse of flesh and bloud and brought into the school of Spirit and are to ask our Master a boon now we see his hands full of bounty and benevolence we are taught to beg that we may relish and take content in whatsoever is right towards God be it never so averse to our selves because our teeth being set on edge with flesh and bloud and our mouths quite out of taste with Spirituall food nothing is of more import to us then that we may relish such meat as we must hereafter live and nourish by Spirituall consolations not earthly delectations any more for the first set us and our hearts affections right to God the last draws us headlong to death Now it will be the least of our cares to day to adjust this prayer unto the Epistle since this is altogether of the coming down of the holy Ghost into the school of spirituall comfort where he is to reade his lessons to mens hearts as this prayer tells us and as we read Jerem. 31.33 I will write my law in their hearts whence it is holy Church to day takes the Antiphon out of the Epistle rather then out of the Gospel and yet rather makes it then takes it for though the sense be the same neverthelesse the letter is not so which perhaps was mysteriously contrived to shew that as soon as the holy Ghost came down to teach the Church was able of her self to reade a lesson to her children and immediately we see S. Peter preached but indeed as the Gospels ever tell us the stories of our Saviour's life so the Acts of the Apostles tell us the history of the holy Ghost first that of the fact when and how he came next that of the effect how prodigiously he wrought in the hearts of those he did descend upon so the Epistle being to day out of the Acts of the Apostles is as the gospel of the holy Ghost made the place whence Preachers take their texts or whereunto at least they drive the design of all their Sermons And to this the prayer is apparently suited yet it is not therefore unsuitable to the Gospel also of the day wherein S. John tells us in our Saviours name he that loveth me observes my words which is in effect to say doth relish my words doth relish that which is right for nothing more right then the word of God since we may take that for verity and rectitude it self especially being taught us by the holy Ghost who this Gospel tells was to come purposely to teach us truth the truth of that word by the
For as the Act of separated souls is necessarily unalterable like those of Angels so the last Act they had when they were united to their bodies remains eternally and is not unproperly said to be the same Act continued for all eternity and therefore free for ever because at first freely produced when the soul was in state of a viatour and out of that issued into the better state of an impatriated spirit nay though Purgatory intervene yet that remora alters not the nature or freedome of the Act because soules there retain their love to God wherewith they dyed however they suffer for former infirmities of their life past The Application 1. WHat may be to our special and present use in this Gospel is to observe that Holy Church culls it out as the most proper to the now flowing Feast of Pentecost though spoken by our Saviour to his Disciples before his Passion as appears ver 29. above but with intention they should then make memory and use thereof when they had received the holy Ghost as consequently we must do at the celebrating this Festivity The main scope of this Gospel is exhorting us to believe and love and telling us the sign of true love is to keep the word of God and that the effect of this love will be to draw down into our soules the Holy Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost as delighting to live in the hearts of those who love the Son of God and shew their love by keeping his holy word 2. But here is a special stile observable in this Gospel very profitable to be reflected on which is that our Saviour seems here only to relate or speak as v. 25. 26. and to leave it to the Holy Ghost to suggest and teach the true meaning of what he said as if it were a speech too profound for his Disciples to dive into without the help of the holy Ghost If then our B. Lord the wisdome of his eternal Father and consequently the best spokes-man in the world would not what ere he could speak so plain to his Apostles themselves as to be understood by them before the coming of the holy Ghost to explicate his meaning how absurdly shall it be done in those that are ignorant Lay-men to dare to understand or interpret holy writ 3. Hence we must infer that we are bound in the first place to believe the holy Ghost to be coequal God with the Father and the Son who sent him since none but God can be of Gods counsel and tell men the meaning of Gods holy word Again we must infer that it is the love of God who now must teach â—s the meaning of Gods holy word and that they are our Wills our Hearts which now must be instructed more then our understandings for these the wisdome of God our Saviour taught by the sight of Faith those the love of God the holy Ghost now teacheth by the fire of charity so that however Faith Rectifies yet it is charity must saintifie the soul how ever Christ Redeemed us yet he was pleased to send the holy Ghost to save us by his sayntifying grace and alas what had it availed us once to have been by God the Father Created once to have been by God the Son Redeemed if we were not more then once by God the holy Ghost sayntified as oft indeed as by sin we are made uncapable of the benefits of our Creation or Redemption Come therefore Holy Ghost come teaching come inamouring come comforting come sayntifying come saving Spirit into the open hearts thou hast of Christians ready to receive thee ready to be inkindled with the flames of thy most holy Love And Praying to day as above most fitly to the sense of this Holy Text. On Trinity Sunday THis Sunday is both the Octave of Pentecost and also the First Sunday after it therefore this week we have the Epistles Gospels and Prayers of two Sundayes for our entertainment and these both if I mistake not the most delightfull of any in the whole year The Antiphon Matth. 28. v. 19. THee God the Father unbegotten thee onely begotten Son thee Holy Ghost Comforter thee holy and undivided Trinity with all our heart and mouth we Confesse we Praise thee we Blesse thee to thee be Glory world without end Vers Blessed art thou O Lord in the firmament of heaven Resp Both praise-worthy and glorious for ever The Prayer ALmighty Everlasting God who hast granted to thy servants in confession of the true Faith to acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity and in the power of Majesty to adore unity we beseech thee heartily that in the firmnesse of the same Faith we may ever be defended from all adversity The Illustration NOw the mysteries of our Redemption are compleat by the contribution of all the Three divine persons of the Blessed Trinity thereunto as of the Father sending his only Son to dye for us of the Son coming and actually dying for our sins and of the holy Ghost descending and sanctifying us with his holy grace to make us sin no more it is most necessary we should close up the said mysteries with a peculiar feast of the same Blessed Trinity and so put a glorious crown upon the work of our Redemption while we begin to work out our salvation from the first root thereof which is our Faith in the most Blessed and undivided Trinity a mystery so unheard of before Christ had taught it to the world that even to this day it is the hardest thing which can be told to men and the thing which the blessed Angels that behold it do not comprehend how the Divine Nature can be personally Trine which neverthelesse is essentially but One. In admiration whereof St. Paul in this dayes Epistle breaks out into a Triple Trinity of his expressing this Triunity saying O depth of the Riches of the wisdome and of the knowledge of God! Loe the first Who ever knew the sense of our Lord or who was ever of his Counsel or who gave first unto him and it shall be restored again Loe the second For of God by God and in God are all things Loe the last of his Triple expressions alluding all of them to the Blessed Trinity as by the Expositours of this Epistle we shall find and consequently must acknowledge it to be included in the Prayer above As also the Gospel is expressing how our B. Lord sent his mission of Apostles with commission to Baptize and teach all the world the mystery of this Blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost So we have this day the best of harmonies in the mystical musick of this book while we find all three parts of holy Churches service to day so neatly woven into one the Epistle Gospel and Prayer all singing forth the praises of the most Blessed and undivided Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost three Divine Persons and one onely God Hitherto the mysteries of our Redemption were all upon
fearing Judgment we fall into the errour of heretiâ—ks who presume they are certain of their salvation By fear therefore is here meant despair such as dejected consciences use to have whereas none such enters into those that have perfect charity Secondly he alludes to that fear which in Eccles 5 v. 5. we read of even for remitted sins be not without fear which yet a perfect lover needs not fear but this is said to imperfect lovers of God Thirdly he means servile fear such as makes us serve God meerly for fear of hell not filial fear for that is compatible with nay essential unto perfect love as we read Eccles 1.28 who is without fear namely filial cannot be justified because who ever truly loves is ever afraid to offend his beloved Fourthly this fear is worldly or humane such as men have to loose their estates or friends affections when to preserve these temporal trifles they hazard the losse of eternal blessings Fifthly this fear is scruple whereas perfect charity abandons all scruples and proceeds freely and frankly in her Actions according to that of St. Paul Rom. 8.15 You have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear but the spirit of adoption of sons wherein we cry Abba Father Lastly Charity banisheth all fear of punishment although it allowes fear of the fault that may deserve punishment for the soules in Purgatory are not troubled at their pains so much as they are to have deserved them by their faults which they are even willing to expiate so when he concludes this verse saying fear hath pain he means fear in these senses as above such as is said of war that the fear of war is worse then war it self and all fear which brings pain is opposite to charity that brings ease and content along with it not solicitude nor anxiety which shuts up mens hearts whereas perfect charity opens and dilates them 19. 20. 21. These three last verses are as it were recapitulatory and winding up the clew or threed of this amorous discourse which lead us into the delightful maze of love and hath brought us out again according as we heard in the exposition of the sixteenth verse adding here it is not only a counsel but a command from God that we love one another that we love our neighbour lest men should pretend it were enough to love God onely whereas indeed all the scope of St. John in this Epistle hath been to draw us to a love of one another by shewing how God hath loved us all without respect of persons and taught us to love even our enemies lest we should excuse our selves from that complement of perfect dilection which is a friendly loving of our enemies to shew we have no enemies at all but our own sins the onely things if we may so call them that we are or can be allowed not to love and indeed may perfectly hate them nay the more we do hate them the more we shall love our neighbours as finding we have no enemies of any but of our selves Note the Evangelist tells us we are lyers to say we love God if we love not our Brother because love is a passion leading us by the eye to the embracements of the objects that we see before our eyes if therefore a man looking upon God Almighties picture which himself hath made as he confesseth like himself and do not love that picture which he sees how can he love the prototype or original thereof God himself whom he sees not And truly the Logick of this discourse is convincing because love is first rooted in the object seen if therefore we do not love that object of God which we do see how can we without a blush be so impudent so irrational as to say we love the object which we do not see at all as well a blind man might tell us he sees and loves darknesse which is nothing but a privation of sight and light The Application 1. HAving now given for respect to the B. Trinity the religious preference this day to our first Act of Faith when according to the order of holy Churches services charity is held forth unto us as the chief vertue we are to exercise without intermission from hence forward untill Advent Sunday see now with how strong a flame of love the beloved disciple of our Lord opens his loving heart to day whilest his whole Epistle to us from the very first verse to the last is nothing else but a continual eruption of the burning charity within his loving breast O how necessary is it then for us to strike out of our flinty hearts some sparks of love at least to day who knowes but in time with frequent lesser acts we may at last produce the greatest that of love unto our enemies see how the eleventh verse above doth animate to this bidding us love each other as Christ hath loved us Alas what was there in us but enmity to him when he began to love us were we not all at that time children of wrath Search then beloved out to day the man or men you least affect nay those if any be that bear you hatred and so are brothers of wrath shew but a smiling countenance to them in testimony that you look upon them as Jesus lookt on you when least you loved him when most you hated him indeed then shall you best apply the present Text to your emolument 2. Do not say you hate dissimulation that you cannot smile on him you love not or on him that hateth you lest you seem base and abject minded lest you make your enemy insult the more to see you fawn upon him Fie fie beloved these are but the subtle arts of him that is our common enemy by these devices he deludes us into hell and robs us of our best inheritance this is to do as holy David sayes To search excuses for our sins 3. Say rather with St. Paul I can do all things in him that strengthens me say though this be against thy own corrupted nature yet it is most sutable to his who took upon him thy infirmity that he might help thee with his fortitude Hope then in heavens helping hand hope in the Holy Ghost hope in his holy Grace he came but lately with a magazin of Love to leave thee store enough to love thine enemies if thou canst not at the first both smile and love do thee but that and hope he will do this who can do more the holy Ghost I mean shew by the deed thou hast a wish at least to do it willingly that he may by his holy grace give thee a will to execute this hard command of his to love thine enemies as he hath loved thee frankly freely willingly Let no man say this is a good but not a proper counsel now When is it more proper Then when we pray as above that we may do it Then we best apply the Text to us when we apply our selves
that is be full fraighted as she could possibly sail and then we might hope she would enter safe into the harbour of eternal rest when the labours of her militant state would be converted into the repose of her state Triumphant 8. 9. 10. Onely Peter of all the rest astonished as they were at the miracle expressed himself more then others did thereat fell immediately at our Saviours feet to adore that power which had wrought this miracle and for this his singular Faith and humiliation see him exalted and made head of all the Church to shew we cannot out do Almighty God in goodnesse his rewards are never short but alwayes above our works And 't is worth observing that S. Peter here desires Jesus to go from him because he is a sinner and doeth not deserve the honour of his presence A high expression of humility in him and of his reverence to the person of his Lord as if he had rather lose the honour of Christ his presence then so great a Majesty should be dishonoured by so unworthy company as his and all the rest that were as the ninth verse sayes all astonished at the greatnesse of the miracle in such an unexpected draught of Fish whom our Saviour comforts up in the tenth verse and bids Peter cast off his fear because he should be from that time a fisher of men of soules which he should bring in as great shoales to heaven as these fishes came to his net 11. What marvel they left all to follow so good so great a Master who did not alter but exalt their trade by innobling their draught which was formerly food onely for mens tables but henceforward they should take Fish that should be served up to the table of the King of heaven of God himself The Application 1. THe sum of this Gospel is the demonstration of our Saviours charity to his Apostles and of his like love to all the world by their Ministry whom he professeth here to make Fishers of men converters of soules by their teaching and preaching according as himself instructed them in that art by his own Sermon to them and to the multitude that followed him So we are not here to seek for charity where so high an act of love is exercised that of saving soules by preaching to them the word of God 2. But what we are to observe here is that the Apostles left all they had in the world to follow Christ and to seek after souls so that hence we see Church men especially Pastours and missionary Priests who by office have the care of soules lye upon them are to renounce all other cares or thoughts whatsoever are to divest themselves of all worldly cloggs or interest and to dedicate themselves wholly and solely to their Pastoral Functions 3. Neverthelesse they are not to rob the world of their suffrages prayers and sacrifices for in them they are still to have a memory of the whole world and to beseech God that he will blesse and prosper every private condition every peculiar state and all the general ranks and orders of the Universe that it may be in each with every one and through the whole as God in his Goodnesse and Wisdome hath ordained with Kings as best is for their Majesties with States as most conducing to their safety with subjects as befits them best and that so Temporalities may be ordered by Almighty God himself as the Spirituality be not interrupted nor molested but that all Church-men may be free to pray to preach to sacrifice and give the Sacraments to all as though the world would never be in order if the Church-men were disordered or not allowed peace and tranquillity in their devotions Sure this must be the meaning of the Text when it is the petition of the Prayer to day On the fifth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Matth. 5.24 IF thou offer thy gift at the Altar and shalt remember that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go first to be reconciled to thy Brother and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift Vers Let my prayer O Lord c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer O God who hast prepared invisible good things for them that love thee infuse into our hearts the desire of thy love that loving thee in all things and above them all we may attain unto thy promises which surpasse even all our own desires The Illustration SEe see beloved how little those that professe to love God ought to set their affections on creatures when by this Prayer they are told the good they ought to aym at is as invisible to them here as God himself is to our corporal eyes though in that God are contained all things that are good and worthy of our love See how because we cannot naturally love that which we see not we are bid to beg it as a boon of God that we may at least desire to love him and that this desire may be by him infused into our hearts so that loving God in all we do see and above all we can imagine we may thereby hope to attain unto the fruition of that Invisible good we see not which yet we are created to enjoy and which is so great as it surmounteth all our own most vaste desires A gallant and an easie way to heaven by onely loving what is onely worthy of our love the Invisible God who is the Authour and giver of all that can be good visible or invisible And since we may easily loose the hopes we have of attaining our spiritual good we are by this Prayer taught to love nothing visible that may indanger us to loose the invisible treasure which is hoarded up for us that is not to love any thing visible but as it relates to what is invisible namely to Almighty God and as thereby we may honour and glorifie God by loving it which rule can never be observed by loving creatures but even equally to their Creatour and yet commonly we love them and dote upon them much more God help us whereas if we follow the rule of this Prayer we shall not onely cure that disease in us but further attain to the height of perfection and sanctity which consisteth in loving God above all things and all things else for his sake not for their own respects since we cannot lawfully so much as love our selves but onely in order to God O admirable solidity of devotion O admirable profundity of spirit in the prayers of holy Church Let us now see how this Prayer is adapted to the Epistle and Gospel Excellently well to both For what is the Epistle else but a rule of perfection which this Prayer begs we may observe what else is the Gospel but a rule of more perfection in us Christians then ever God required at the hands of his chosen people the Jewes and what is this Prayer but a petition of the highest perfection and
2. O beloved it is wonderfull to think how deep a root S. Paul layes here of Christianitie for whereas he speaks in all the following verses of unitie of body of spirit of hope of our Lord of faith of Baptisme of God c. he means our unanimitie must not consist of our being all of one mind with one another for so are many that are not true believers but that we ought to be all of one mind with God who by his sacred Son and by the holy Ghost hath taught us what that one mind is of his divine Majesty which we should be of such a mind as makes us one thing with him how ever severall things in our selves that is to say one mysticall body of Christ animated by one spirit believing one and the same faith which his sacred Son delivered unto us not making our own faith sutable to our own fancie and calling that one spirit because many are of that fancy too no no beloved Christian unanimitie is rooted in the sacred Trinitie where though there be a multiplicitie of Persons yet is there a simplicitie of Nature an unitie of essence an identitie of Deitie not onely because the Three distinct Persons are al of one mind but because they are one and the same Thing or Beeing rather since in God there is no composition between the Thing and the Being thereof as is in creatures and so he is more properly called a simple Being then a simple Thing And therefore all our simplicitie unitie or indivisibilitie must have root in him and not in us so that the unitie of our spirit which makes us one mysticall body of Christ must be derived from the same divine spirit that made God and man one person onely though consisting of two natures 3. To conclude as the essence of the Deitie consisteth in the unitie of the blessed Trinitie so doth the essence of true Christianitie consist in the unanimitie of Christians yet with this difference that in this life their unitie is rather a communitie then an identitie and their union properly is a communion first with Christ their head next with his holy spouse the Church and lastly with the Saints as in our Creed we professe for by the participation of all their saintities it is that sinners are drawn out of the mire of their iniquities And as we read 1. Jo. 4. v. 10. Charitie is not in this as though you have loved God but because he hath loved you so we may say of faith it is not as we square or choose it but as Christ hath squared it since we are not his for our chosing him but because he hath chosen us Jo. 15. v. 16. Now because upon this Epistle Preachers are to insist on the communion or union the unanimitie or unitie of true Christianitie as the proper difference thereof making them Saints onely and saved souls who are true believers and true lovers as above Therefore holy Church to day prayes to be preserved from that which is the poyson bane and contagion of Christians namely division faction schisme heresie infidelitie c. stilâ—â—g these very properly a diabolicall contagion because the Devill is the authour of them all The Gospel Matt. 22.34 34 But the Pharisees hearing that he had put the Sadduces to silence came together 35 And one of them a Doctour of Law asked of him tempting 36 Master which is the great Commandement of the Law 37 Jesus said unto him thou shalt love the Lord thy God from thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole minde 38 This is the greatest Commandement 39 And the second is like to this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self 40 On these two Commandements depend the whole Law and Prophets 41 And the Pharisees being assembled Jesus asked them 42 Saying what is your opinion of Christ whose sonne is he They say Davids 43 He saith to them how then doth David in spirit call him Lord saying 44 The Lord said to my Lord sit on my right hand untill I put thine enemies thy fooot-stool to thy foot 45 If David therefore call him Lord how is he his sonne 46 And no man could answer him a word neither durst any man from that day ask him any more The Explication 34. THe Pharisees came with intention to undervalue him and find him as they thought ignorant in the Scriptures so to eclipse the glory he had in silencing the Sadduces ignorant men in the esteem of the Pharisees 35. It seems this Doctour came not with any reall intention to entrap our Saviour as the other did whereof mention is made by S. Mark c. 12. but rather blinded the other Pharisees by seeming to ask a question to their entrapping sense while in truth he did ask it to satisfie his own doubt in point of practicall virtue as the Sadduces had been satisfied by him in the speculative verity of the resurrection for here this Doctour did approve our Saviours answer and said to him thou hast answered well indeed 36. The reason they asked this question was in regard they much doubted whether the greatest commandment were not that of sacrifice Levit. c. 1. because God seems chiefly honoured thereby And here the Pharisees absurdly bid children refuse to help their parents under pretense of offering to God what should relieve their needy parents as if that cloak of Religion were better then this duty to nature 37. But Jesus made them see there is no sacrifice so precious in the sight of God as that of our hearts affections and so he puts in the first place of commands that precept of charity which bids us love God above all things with all our heart c. And the reason hereof is because there is no precept so extensive as this of love whence you see it is expressed by giving all our affections wholly to God This made S. Bernard bold to say we must love him beyond all measure when he sayes the mean of love to God is to love him without mean or measure 38. Well is this therefore called the first and great commandment because it is so per excellentiam by excellency as extending to a kind of infinity when it puts no mean to our love of God no end at all but requires it be for ever that we love him Hence it is that charity is the Queen of the soul and life of all virtues and is indeed above Religion above sacrifice because by charity which is the love of the soul to God sacrifices are commanded to be made as testimonies of her loyalty to God who doth command them 39. This love of our neighbour is called the second commandment in order to perfection not in rank of law for there were many laws made before this was declared By loving our neighbour as our self is understood that we must really truly and cordially love him though not so much as our selves So by the particle as is here understood similitude not
of the doctrine of Christ the Gospel we have delivered unto you 6. The particle as here imports as much as if he had said by these two means namely of our preaching and your thereby tightly understanding the true sense of Christs doctrine you are confirmed in Christ in your belief of his veracity and so he becomes confirmed in you by these infallible testimonies you have of him our preaching and your right believing 7. See here how absolutely right masters the Apostles were how absolutely true schollars or disciples the Corinthians were of Christ to whom nothing is wanting in any grace that can be requisite to their confirmation who are true children of Christ who have such masters and who are such believers as the Corinthians were So that what remained was onely to see all they had heard and believed of Christ to be verified by his revealing the certainty thereof at his second coming in the day of Judgment when this perfect and fertile grace shall bring forth in them the fruits of glory in the Kingdome of heaven 8. This verse alludes to the present grace of Christ which the Apostle sayes should confirm them now in their belief meaning the Church not every particular member thereof and render them both here till then and at the day of Judgement inculpable for their having thus believed being thus called by God and thus instructed by the Apostles The Application 1. WE heard last Sunday how this Apostle summed up to his Ephesian Converts those particular vertues that were proper for new converted soules now to day he speaks to the Corinthians much in the same stile they being newly by his means then made good Christians onely here the Apostle insists much upon the effects of that grace in them which wrought their conversion and those effects how excellent they are the Explication of the Text above hath told us 2. It remains therefore that all Catholick Christians while they read this Text which minds them of their like conversion amidst a thousand millions of men who want that happinesse set their charity on work immediately to produce the like effects in their soules by the operation of the grace they have received to be and to persevere in that saving Faith which works it self by charity out of grace into glory at that latter day when every one shall receive according to their works 3. As therefore the gift of Faith wrought upon our understandings and directed them to an assent to mysteries above the reach of reason so charity is to direct our wills to attempt things above nature such as are all good works done for a supernatural end Now because all such works are the effects of grace and not of nature and because grace is given to us by the operation of God his mercy towards us who mercifully operates that in us which we our selves may cooperate unto but cannot operate without his helping hand without the operation of his mercy upon us even towards our cooperation which is indeed his holy grace working in us Therefore holy Church to day fitly prayes as above The Gospel Mat. 9. v. 1. c. 1 And entering into a boat he passed over the water and came into his own cittie 2 And behold they brought unto him one sick of the palsie lying in bed and Jesus seeing their faith said to the sick of the palsie have a good heart son thy sins are forgiven thee 3 And behold certain of the Scribes said within themselves he blasphemeth 4 And Jesus seeing their thoughts said wherefore think you evil in your hearts 5 Whether is easier to say thy sins are forgiven thee or to say arise and walk 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man hath power in earth to forgive sins then said he to the sick of the palsie Arise take up thy bed and go into thy house 7 And he arose and went into his house 8 And the multitudes seeing it were afraid and glorified God that gave such power to men The Explication 1. MUch dispute there is about this Cittie which it was since the Text calls it his own but the most probable sense is that it was Capharnaam which he was most pleased to grace with his miracles and preaching for Bethleem he had honoured with his birth Nazareth with his youthly education Egypt with his slight thither Hierusalem with his passion and so it rests Capharnaam must be that cittie which he now calls his own by his habitation preaching and cuting all diseases frequently therein 2. They bring him a paralytick in his bed the reason was that men sick of this disease lose the use of their joynts can neither go stand nor sit Here we may learn not onely to labour our own but our neighbours wellfare for this paralytick was brought doubtlesse by those who having seen the works of Christ and his wonders were zealous to bring this sick man on their shoulders to the fountain of health S. Marke sayes c. 2. v. 3. there were foure did bring this man to Christ And by the following words in this verse is evinced what we have already said of these mens zeals foâ— they carried the man up to the top of a house not being able to bring him bed and all through the crowd So Christ seeing the faith of these men who brought him with this zeal said to the paralytick in recompense of his and their faiths who brought him for the Text runs in the plurall number Sonne be of good heart thy sinnes are forgiven thee By these words we see the faith of miracles is and must be mixed with a confident hope of obtaining the favour asked which we believe is in his power to grant that we do ask it of and this confident hope is that which chears up the heart which Christ bade this paralytick continue Great is seen to be the benignitie grace and favour shown by Christ to this poore diseased creature when he calls him childe and to make him capable of that denomination forgives him his sinnes to shew he was not onely a corporall but a spirituall Physician and had power over souls as well as over bodies Nor is it marvell he first heals the soul of sinne by remitting it before he cures the body of this paralytick since commonly sinne in the soul is the cause of diseases in the body so that this was even a due order to cure the disease by taking away the cause thereof besides since all Gods workes are perfect it is consonant to Christ his dignitie and bountie being God to doe the worke completely to cure the man both body and soul and this indeed is commonly found to be the practise of Christ in most of his cures since his aime in all his miracles was the conversion of souls besides he came purposely into the world to take away the sinnes thereof But a main reason why here he did remit sin was to shew himself to be God by exercising that power which
spend the time present and to come religiously but even to redeem the time past which they had misspent or else it needed not to be redeemed but that he did account it quite lost unto them who had not spent it well Now the best way to redeem past time ill spent is to be sure that every instant of time be not onely well imployed but that in it over and above some good deed be superadded more then rigorously we are bound unto with intention to redeem time past thereby and this may be done by prayers mortification almes contrition and tears laid down upon the account of misspent time before so that as we secure every instant of present time by doing good all the while it flowes away from us we shall likewise redeem our lost time past if we produce an act of sorrow for it and let our repentance for not having done well heretofore accompany our well doing for the present Note the dayes are not said to be evil that there is any malice or iniquity intrinsecal to time which is no other thing then the suns motion and this we may call the measure of al other movings but that the malice of an evil action which takes up time whilst it is in doing is of so malignant a nature in the sight of God that it renders the doer of it and the time wherein 't is done ungratefull to his divine Majesty and consequently as that man is evil who doth ill so that time is accounted evil also which is spent in evil doing and since there is no man that doeth good of himself no not one Ps 13.3 therefore the Apostle reflecting on what we do of our selves sayes absolutely the dayes are evil are rendred such by our evil deeds And that they may be good he exhorts us in the following verse 17. That we become not unwise in wasting time by following our own imaginations but wise in studying to understand what is the will of God namely to spend our time in acts of virtue not in idlenesse or sinfull courses 18. And for instance that this was his true meaning the Apostle gives us warning above all others of that idlenesse and wicked course of life which drunkards spend their time in who seem to drink off their own damnation by every cup of drink they take in any notable excesse or as if they did begin a health to the devil and he to pledge them swallowed the drinkers of his health up into the pit of hell This seem to be affirmed by the instance of the effect that follows drunkenness or rather by the description of it what it is when S. Paul saies it includes riotousnesse in it self it exposeth men to all sort of sin and we know whither the great master of Ryots Dives went immediately to hell so do all his followers that die guiltie of that soul-swallowing-sin of drunkennesse for few there are who once give way to this absorbing vice that ever leave it off because it brings them to wantonnesse quarrels and what not besides so consequently great is the danger of it and therefore the Apostle names it here as the greatest or one notorious mis-spending of time principally to be avoided by Christians But if your thirst be such as you must alwaies be quenching of it and so endanger being drunk loe S. Paul gives you a safe and lawful cup whereof he allowes you to drink your fill the cup of spirit not of material liquours but such as the Apostles drank when their hearers thought them drunk Act. 2.13 14. though they were not so save onely that by the plenitude of the holy Ghost of the cup of grace they did seeme to be like drunken men 19. Alwaies talking both in Church and house at home and abroad of the Almighty God of heaven or of heavenly things as if the wine of grace had set our tongues a running so as we could not hold our peaces and yet to shew what cup it was we were filled with our talk ought to be spiritual even singing as commonly drunkards do but differently from them spiritual hymnes and canticles praising Almighty God for our spiritual inebriation and this even in our hearts as the Apostle adviseth which argues our heads are not to be full of drink but our hearts full of love that is our soules full of grace So here we see the difference between brutish and spiritual drunkards the one is feeding full the other fasting the one prating the other preaching the one howling the other singing the one wallowing in the mire of sin the other swimming in the sea of grace and see one more admirable difference that even while our tongues are silent our hearts and soules are singing the praises of Almighty God when they are drunk in spirit This the Apostle saies in plain tearmes while he bids the Ephesians and in them us Christians sing in our hearts which may be done not onely while we hold our peaces but while we waking pray mentally nay while we sleep or which is more while we are extatically rapt in a deep contemplation more benumming our outward senses then soundest sleep can do and in such a circumstance was S. Paul himself when he was rapt to the third heavens and said of himself he knew not whether his soul were in or out of his body 2 Cor. 12.2 but well he knew that his heart was singing praise and glory to his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to Almighty God And the best evidence of our being thus spiritually drunk is when we are alwayes chearfull in our countenances and speeches whatsoere befall us in our persons sickness or health peace or persecution favour or frowns of Princes or the like 20. Giving God the Father alwayes thanks for all in the Name of Jesus Christ good or bad that shall betide our persons that is to say taking good as encouragements to deserve better bad as punishments to terrifie us from continuing to do ill And while the Apostle bids us live alwayes giving God the Father thanks in his Sons Name who gave him the best be alludes unto the double title by which God requires these continual thanks at our hands first as he is God and Master of all goodness secondly as he is our Father incessantly imparting part of his inexhaustible goodness unto us 21. By being here subject to one another is not understood denial of all superiority as some would fondly infer but the speech is indefinite not determining how many shall be subject and how many command yet absolutely commanding Subjects to obey their Superiours Children their Parents in the fear of our Lord for fear lest our Lord punish those that break this command not by the penance which superiours here impose upon the offenders but by eternal or at least far greater purgatory punishments to be inflicted on them by our Saviour the Judge of all the Universe then any this world can afford And yet by this fear is not
this Book yet is it out of the true Gospell of the Day and the reason why I did presume to alter that dayes Gospell in this Tome is because I intend God willing to explicate the four long Gospels of the Passion that are read in holy Week in my third Tome as was said above in regard they will doe better altogether then apart Besides the Gospell I have here inserted though it be not directly upon the Passion as that of Palme Sunday is yet it reports unto it and is as it were the very mouth to that Red Sea so not incongruously placed here but suiting very well both with the true Epistle and Prayer of that day and is besides the very Gospell read in Blessing of the Palmes But further as to this particular of Antiphons the Reader may be pleas'd to understand that many times the words of these Antiphons are rather the sense of Holy Church than the absolute letter of the Text yet so as part if not all is ever taken according to the letter it self and again whereas I cite one verse onely for such Antiphons as many times runne through sundry verses this is done but for brevity sake since the diligent Reader will easily trace it out in his perusall of the Text it self Nor must our Adversaries presume to tax the Church with corruption of the Text in some of her Antiphons because she doth not alwayes professe to deliver the ipsissime letter but onely the sence thereof which is a priviledge no dutifull Child can deny a pious Mother who as she is the Spouse of Christ hath absolute authority to order the devotion of her Children according to her own pleasure and piety True it is I cannot retrive who set the order of the Antiphons before the Prayers but this we find in the Bull of Pius Quintus before the Breviaries that as the Councell of Trent referr'd the ordering of the Breviary to his said Holinesse so he consulting some Fathers of that Councell and other the best Antiquaries in Rome did let forth the Breviary as now we have it according to the Records in the Vatican containing all the Traditions of the Primitive Church for order of the Publick Prayers and consequently the Antiphons in the Primmer which are these we now treat of being the same with those of the Breviary were undeniably the same which now they are And what ever we may say of these Antiphons in particular at least we shall find Saint Ambrose a celebrated Father and Doctor of the Church to have been the Institutor of that Piety to sing in the Quier an Antiphon before the beginning of every Canonicall Hower in the Priest his Office grounded on the Vision which Saint Ignatius the third successour to Saint Peter in his chair of Antioch had of Angels thus Antiphonising and then alternatively singing sweetly one after another as now the Divine Office is sung in the Quier over all the Catholike Church And for this reason sure the Lay-people have their Antiphons out of the Epistles and Gospels to shew their work of Prayer which followes immediately is grounded on the charity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in whom they are to Love to Pray to doe for each other as they would doe for themselves And hence we may piously presume the Versicle and Responsory following every Antiphon is to incite the Church Militant to answer the Angels of the Church Triumphant inciting us to Pray and praise our Lord with them especially by such a Prayer as doth not onely exhaust the Epistle and Gospel of the Day but accompanies withall the Praying and the Preaching Priest amongst us the Angels and the Saints above us nay the Mediating Jesus Praying then and thus to his Heavenly Father in our behalfs as was said above Forasmuch as concernes the Epistles and Gospels themselves I have not dared to alter them in the least tittle out of a Reverentiall regard unto the Reverend and Learned Translators of the Bible into English though in many places perhaps if the same men were now alive they would themselves render the Language here and there more gratefull especially to curious Eares and yet keep as exact a sense of the Learned Languages of the Originall Tongues as now they have done which yet I dare not be so bold to doe The suiting of these Epistles and Gospels as now the Church hath ordered them was the work of Saint Hierome commanded so to doe by Saint Damasus Pope and Confessour Anno. Dom. 367. and this may suffice for a sufficient glosse upon the respective parts of this Book and why it is framed in this Methode Now the reason why I intitle it the Christian Sodality is because I would by that Name invite every Christian to be a member of it and to make profession of this Practise of Piety which is grounded on the Word of God and on the publick Prayers of Holy Church which certainly were not made without a deep design if yet that were any other than what I have guessed at who shall be glad to hear of a better for I am nothing wedded to my own conceit herein I shall not presume to give any Rules at all to our Sodality though I doe humbly suggest the saying Thrice a day the Trinity of Prayers in the end of every Part of this first Tome for the Reasons above and for this one more which I shall add because by a reverent rehearsall thereof they shall even kiss as it were in little the Picture of our Blessed Lord drawn out of the full Proportion it hath in the Epistles and Gospels of the Day as also by their weekly reading each respective Sundayes work belonging to the week they shall make themselves in a short space perfect masters of so much Scripture and be able not onely to sum it up in their daily Prayers but to season their discourse with it throughout the week throughout the year from year to year indeed throughout their lives Now that they may more zealously doe this I shall desire them to beleive the first Founder of this Sodality was Jesus Christ the Confirmer of it the Holy Ghost the first professed Member the B. Virgin Mary Keeping all the words of her sacred Son within her heart and listing with her self the twelve Apostles all the Disciples and Friends of our Lord Saint Mary Magdalene with her Sister Martha and the other two Maries celebrated for their zeale to Jesus Christ and so making up the Primitiae or first Fruits and Members of this same Sodality which every Christian is inrowl'd a happy Member of at the Holy Font nor can he be dismembred or cast out of this Sodality but by deserving excommunication unlesse he first renounce his Christianity and cast off Jesus Christ by turning Infidell Heathen Atheist Turk or Jew As for designing our Sodality into this method of Prayer abstracting all the other Parts of Holy Churches Services I am so farre from the vanity of
have it so but in a way clean contrary then we are not of one minde nor do we speak forth his praises with one mouth which yet we doe when out of severall mouthes we express one and the same will and way to praise Almighty God The Apostle seemes to insert the glorifying God and the Father of Jesus Christ under two severall notions to let us see that as Christ was man he was also truly the Son of God because as the second Person had in Heaven a Father without a Mother so in Earth Christ had a Mother without any Father save onely God in Heaven 7. For the which cause that is to shew you are all of one mind c. receive help and cherish one another being Christians or in order that you may be so as Christ hath received you that were Gentiles unto the honor of God to the same Church with his native and chosen People th◠Jewes and of all severall nations made up one joynt honour and glory to the Divine Majesty 8. True it is Christ was sent by his Heavenly Father with Commission as it were unto the Jewes onely and therefore he did live and die amongst them to verifie those promises which God had made them in Abraham and the Prophets for as the law was onely given unto and kept among the Jewes so the promises and predictions of that law did onely appertain to them and were necessarily to be made good amongst them as indeed most exactly they were by Christ and this in virtue of Cōmission from his Heavenly Father For which cause he is called here Minister of the Circumcision though he abrogated that law in regard he did all his life time administer to the circumcised his labours and pains by Teaching Preaching Curing and infinite other wayes serving the Jewes in order to their Redemption and this directly and principally to prove the veracity of God who had promised to send the Jewes a Messias that should do this and by doing this he was truly and properly their Minister 9. But not to the Gentiles so because he came to them for mercy onely and ultroneously to shew his goodnesse was not limited to the bounds of his Commission to the Jewes but might and did mercifully extend it self also to the Gentiles thereby to amplifie the honour and glory of God in doing more than could be expected of him and that to a people who had no promise nor any hope thereof Though it was not onely foreseen that Christ would doe this act of ultroneous grace and mercy but fore-told by the royall Prophet Psal 17. ver 50 as followes in this nineth verse of the Epistle 10. And as Deut. 32. ver 43. The Prophet sayes of the Gentiles Rejoice ye Gentiles with his People that is with the People of God with the Jewes for your Conversion also and sing forth praise to God for his mercy shewed to you therein 11. Here it is declared that not onely some few Nations of the Gentiles but even all of them shall be first or last made partakers of these mercies and thereby are bound to praise our Lord. 12. By the root of Jesse is here meant a Branch of that root namely Christ Jesus the son of David and of Jesse as Isaias saith in another place There shall spring a rod from the root of Jesse Isai 11. ver 1. which Rod is Iesus descended as above and yet with reason enough Christ is called the root of Iesse too for though as man he was but a branch of David his root yet as God he was the root of David his Creature again David was rather his Seed than his Root because he had not from David to be Redeemer of the World but was himself the Root of Davids and all Mankinds redemption and sprouting forth as from the Root of goodnesse in himself branches of Grace and Glory to David and all those whom he was graciously pleased to predestinate for Heirs to God and Coheires to himself in his Heavenly Kingdome The hope of which Kingdome he hath mercifully given as well to the Gentiles as faithfully by promise he gave to the Iewes 13. The Apostle here calls him the God of Hope as above Verse 5. he did call him the God of Peace and Comfort and prayes he will replenish them with all Ioy and peace as who should say both Jew and Gentile setting aside former distances now are to Joy in this that they are made one in Christ Iesus and therefore must live in peace together as the members of a naturall Body since they are become Members of Christ his Mysticall Body that by so living they may both abound in hope of one reward enough for both the Kingdome of Heaven and this through the Vertue that is Charity or the Grace of the holy Ghost wherein he also prayes they may both abound The Application 1. IF what is here written be to our Instruction 't is to make us be the Saints we are not yet 't is to facilitate the way by shewing us how the Jew and Gentile were both Saincted by Christianity The Roots whereof are the three Theologicall Vertues Faith Hope and Charity which indeed doe briefly summe up this whole Epistle in the last Verse thereof and are given us as the best preparatives to make way for Jesus into our Hearts Faith we see made Jew and Gentile both one Church O may it grow to such an excellence in us to abolish Heresie from Christianity and because it is a speciall gift of God let it be our daily Prayer that he will give it unto all the World Turk Heathen Pagan Jew 2. Hope keeps together those that Faith uniteth and like an Ancre in a storme secures the Ship of Christ in highest seas of Persecution May then the Hope of future mercy inable us to undergo our present Misery may the example of the Saints before us encourage us to be like patterns unto our Posterity as they have been to us that were our Predecessours 3. Charity makes operative both our Faith and Hope sends the Believer with the hazard of his life to propagate the Faith of Christ throughout the World and directs our present actions to such a rectitude of their intentions as may secure a future possession of their Hopes So without Charity in vain we Hope in vain men doe believe and are rather nominall than reall Christians such as cry out at the latter day Lord Lord and shall hear him say I know you not while you professe belief in Jesus Christ and offer dayly sacrifice to the Devill while you pretend a hope of Heaven and doe such actions as can onely merrit Hell while you call one another brethren in Christ and bear a mutuall hatred greater than the Gentile bore the Jew for want of those Heart-raising virtues this Epistle recommends and bids us Pray as above that by the frequent acts thereof we may both prepare the way of Christ and be able by his coming
mans day that is of humane judgement in a point of Spirit for thus the day of man is often taken as by Jeremiah it was Chap. 17. v. 16. when being derided by the people who contemned his Prophecies he cryed out Thou knowest O Lord I desire not the dayes the applause of men nor regard their judgements of me Suffice it I have delivered unto them what thou hast to me revealed So in this sense S. Paul here cares not for the judgement of the Corinthians whether they like his preaching or not but is content that he tells them the genuine sense of his Lord and Master Christ Jesus and yet least he may by this speech seem arrogant See how hee takes off all suspition of vanity in himself by what follows saying Though I am not troubled O Corinthians at what you thinke or judge of me yet neither am I so vain as to presume I am without fault and so I neither will nor dare to judge my self this place might disswade Heretikes from presuming they are certain of their future salvation and of their being here in the state of grace if themselves thinke so assuredly S. Paul might better justifie himself and yet we see he does not indeed he dares not doe it 4. While in this next verse he saith though I am not guilty particularly of any infidelity vanity or ostentation in preaching for still he prosecutes that sense which yet generally may be understood of any sin neverthelesse I am not justified therein he will not justifie himself but he that judgeth me is our Lord and to him I must leave it to judge who not onely sees and knows all hearts but perfectly knows them too that is sees further and clearer into all mens hearts than any one man can see into his own 5. Here the Apostle referrs not onely his own judgement of himself and of his Ministery but even the judgements of all men whatsoever to the latter day of Doom for then and not till then Our Lord shall come and inlighten the hidden things of darkness by laying all things open and this not onely as some Hereticks will have it whether we believe right or wrong but also whether we doe good or bad deeds according to our Faith For so by the plurality of hidden things here mentioned to be revealed then is clearly meant in those words of the Apostle insomuch that Hereticks fondly pretend unto a certainty of their rectitude in Faith more than they can doe unto a rectitude in their works and therefore flatter themselves that be their works the counsels of their hearts what they will yet since it is by Faith men are justified and since they pretend to know certainly that they doe rightly beleeve they therefore scruple not to sâ—cure themselves of salvation be their lives never so bad being their Faith as they say to their certain knowledge is right For the Holy Ghost hath taught us a contrary doctrine to this presumption in Ecclesiastes Chap. 9. v. 1. A man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred So Prov. 20.9 Who can say my heart is clean So Job 9 21. If I bee simple or Innocent yet my soul knoweth it not So Jer. 17. v. 9. Wicked is the heart of man and inscrutable unlesse to God alone To conclude the sentence of Judgement shall not onely passe upon our Faith whether that be right or wrong but upon our works the Counsels of our hearts for every one shall in that day receive according to his works and Luke 20. we receive what our works deserve and in the mean time till the day of generall judgement come the Apostle forbids to judge each other since neither he nor any man can securely and rightly judge himself but then look who hath done and deserved well the praise shall be to every one of God though mistaking men have judged those perhaps worthy of blame whom God shall declare to be praise-worthy because he finds them to have been faithfull to the Ministery or trust which he reposed in them So here we see from first to last St Paul his true sense in this place is upon fidelity in the dispensers of the Mysteries of God and declares that no man but God can judge in that particular as being an office not appertaining to men but to God himself and unto him alone I must here advertise you that the Apostle in the next Verse declares that he useth his own and Apollo's name but figuratively thereby to represent to the Christians their faults in pretending to have one more light of grace than another or to be one better able than another to understand the Scriptures shewing it is a thing they ought as little to presume of in themselves as to censure whether he or Apollo did more faithfully perform the trust of God reposed in them by their ministery of dispensators of his Mysteries The Application 1. THe closing Advent season claimes a due regard in this dayes service so the prayer begins alluding unto that and ends besides with the accustomary reference to the Epistle of the day How like the out-cryes of the ancient Prophets is the stile of Holy Churches prayer to day They cryed out thus O Wisedome O Adonai O Root of Jesse O Key of David O Rising Sun O King of Nations O Emmanuel c. Come and save us thou that art our Lord God And we promising all these exclamations pray as above O Lord we beseech thee raise up thy power and with thy mighty vertue come away to our succour c. meaning all the power and all the Vertue included in those Attributes of Wisedome Adonai King and Saviour which the Prophets gave him as above 2. And least our sins do chase away the coming Jesus see this Epistle points us to the Priests of holy Church as to the Ministers of Christ and dispensers of the Mysteries of God Meaning of the Holy Sacraments that blot out sin and give us grace to bid our Saviour welcome 3. Hence we conclude the Pastors and the People are admonished to buckle to their severall Devoirs to day these in administring these in receiving of the Holy Sacraments and yet each having done his dutie neither to presume he hath done well enough but both referring of themselve to God his Judgements for the future and expecting his mercies for the present And to pray as Holy Church above appoints That our sinnes doe not retard the coming of his mercy towards us The Gospel Luke 3. ver 1. c. 1 ANd in the fifteenth year of the Empire of Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate being governour of Jewrie and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee and Philip his brother Thtrarch of Iturea and the Countrie of Trachonitis and Lysanias Tetrarch of Abilina 2. Vnder the High Priests Annas and Caiphas the word of our Lord was made upon John the son of Zacharie in the desart 3. And he came into all the countrie of Jordan preaching the Baptism
storm at sea we are minded of the many dangers sin hath brought upon us so by the check Christ gave to his Apostles wee are taught in dangers to recurr to Faith in him who never failes to succour firm believers in their greatest tribulations 2. As in stormes your Marrinâ—â—s cast veâ—-board their heaviest lading and commodities to save the ship from sinking so in affliction at the least we shall doe well to lighten the vessels of our soulâ— by casting over-board those heavie burdens of most grievous sins which many times in calmnesse of our mindes we dare to carry with us 3. We may piously presume our Saviour never sleeps but unto souls remiss and then doth wake again immediatly when they affrighted at the danger they are in by the least close of his all-seeing eyes I doe call upon him for his succour by their instant prayer Such as the Church to day doth use to teach us how to pray in time of Danger On the Fifth Sunday after the EPIPHANIE The Antiphon MAT. 13. ver 30. GAther first the darnell and bind it together in bundles to be burnt but the wheat gather into my barne saith our Lord. Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer KEepe we beseech the O Lord thy family in continuall piety that resting on the onely hope of heavenly grace it may ever by thy protection be defended The Illustration SEe how this day we are taught to pray as in the Epistle and Gospel we are taught to doe to live all together as one family of God in continual piety resting on the onely hope of heavenly grace for our protection and defence Yes thus to day we pray and to this purpose holy Church doth this day preach for the whole Epistle is upon uniting us all in one affection towards another and exhorting us that whatsoever we doe in word or work all things be done in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ And the Gospel commanding in the Parable of Corne and Cockle that even under pretence of good and bad we make no separation amongst our selves but live and continue lovingly together leaving it to God the master of the family to sever what he likes not from that which pleaseth his divine majestie and this to shew how perfectly we must be all as one amongst our selves all in continuall piety all resting on the hope of heavenly grace all relying upon God to protect and defend us not squaring out our own courses but resting in that which is appointed us by the Master of our family And see while in this prayer Holy Church calleth us all one family we ought to live in peace with all the world and not to graspe from our neighbour as if he and we were of two houses but to esteem him as a domesticke with us as one that eares at the same table of Christ who feeds us commonly with heavenly grace and oftentimes with his own sacred body and bloud the fountaine of grace it self O could we once come to doe as in this prayer we beg we may what an united family of Christians should we be How of divers members should we grow into one perfect body each proportioned to the will and pleasure of our head Christ Jesus How ill doe we then fall into divisions as if our hands would cut off our armes about disputes of divers Interests whereas all our relation is to one master all our hope of preferment must come from him and that hope must be radicated in the proportion of such heavenly grace as he pleaseth to give us so if in him our hopes be rightly fixed they wil bring us all to one happy end he in whom wâ— hope protecting and defending us so much the better by how much the more our hope in him is the firmer and by how much the lesse we are solcitous who neither can do nor with so well unto our selves as God doth for us The Epistle COL 3. ver 12. c. 12. PVt ye on therefore as the Elect of God holy and beloved the bowells of mercy benignity humility modesty patience 13 Supporting one another and pardoning one another if any have a quarrell against any man as also our Lord hath pardoned us so you also 14. But above all these things have Charity which is the band of perfection 15 And let the peace of Christ exult in your hearts wherein also you are called in one body and be thankful 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly in all wisdome teaching and admonishing your own selves with psalmes hymnes and spiritual Canticles in grace singing in your hearts to God 17. All whatsoever you doe in word or work all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God and the Father by him The Explication 12. THE Apostle began this Chapter with telling the Colossians that as they were dead in Christ whilst Christ dyed for them so if they meant to rise with Christ from the grave of their sin they must look upward and seek from hence forward such things as were to be found in heaven not what was common upon earth as before they had done and when he had bid them Cast off the old man Colos 3. vers 9. now in this verse he begins to tell them how to vest themselves anew with ornaments fit for the spiritual and inward man and that they may doe this with more alacrity the Apostle bids them doe it under the confidence that they are now the elect and chosen of God his holy and beloved people mâ—de so by the lavacrum or cleansing of his sacred bloud shed for them and least they might doubt of this he had in the immediate verses before told them they were now in Christ a new creature that though formerly the Jewes were the onely favourites and chosen people of God yet in Christ both Jewes and Gentiles Slave or Free-man all were alike if they did all equally believe in Jesus the Messias and Saviour of them all who had chosen them not onely to Grace but to Glory and this incouragement premised he bids them now put on the bowels of mercy benignity humility modesty patience Virtues not heard of among the Iewes who had hardned their hearts against God who had inhumanely butchered his sacred Sonne who proudly aymed at nothing but worldly pompe who immodestly reviled Iesus to his face who like furies would have stoned and at last tore in pieces their Lord and Saviour so far thâ—y were from patient hearing him tell them Truth not were the Gentiles or Barbarians men of any Vertue at all but either superstitious or savage people so these Colossians being people of no better extract by nature hee had need tell them what Bowels what affections of heart they were by Grace at least to have what inward Vertues what outward deportment 13. As for example supporting one another a thing unheard of by those who aimed at nothing more than
to supplant their neighbour and to reâ—r their own monuments upon anothers ruine As for pardoning it was esteemed folly by them who thought revenge the sweetest thing in nature and as for our Lord God they so little knew him that his pardoning nature was no motive to their vindicative dispositions which yet Christians that know God and beleeve that in his sacred Son he hath pardoned the offences of the whole world cannot pretend but must as taught by him or pardon others or not hope for pardon of their own sins 14. But above all that is to say it sufficeth not for a Christian to forgive an enemy but he must also love him too for Charity is the band of perfection not onely the life of every Vertue but the link that chaineth them together and binds them all up in one bundle to make a present of them to Almighty God as of so many particulars necessary to make one accomplisht Soul nay not only binding up all vertues together in one man but also uniting all men together as making so many members to integrate one Mysticall Body of Christ his holy Church so that no one Vertue can subsist alone without the help of another to support it For instance modesty is lost unless patience help to bear it self modestly against those who are injurious againe Patience cannot subsist without Humility inabling us to bear patiently the proud comportment of others and their provocations to impatience and the like is of all Vertues whatsoever for we shall find no one can stand alone without it lean upon another but this is singular in Charity that she is not necessary as a particular support to any single Vertue but is further the common Soul or life unto them all insomuch that without Charity there can be no Vertue at all in any Soul For as Saint Paul sayes 1 Cor. 13. If I have Faith to remove Mountaines if I speak with the tongues of Angels and have no Charity I am become as sounding Brass and a tinkling Cymbâ—ll making a noise but no Harmony nor Musick in the hearing of Almighty God and here the same Apostle calls Charity the band of all Vertues thereby to shew us we are but loose Christians unless tyed up together in the Band of Charity whereby we are made to love God above all things and our neighbour as our selves and in so doing are by this Band of perfection rendred perfect Christians Chosen holy and Beloved children of Christ Iesus 15. Out of this mutuall love followes an effect of peace which is here recommendeâ— to us in no less degree than it was in our Saviours own heart even that similitudinarily not identically which Christ had with the Jewes when on the Cross he besought his Father to be at peace with his enemies that peace and no less the Apost e desires should exult he would say abound in our hearts too his meaning is we should rather recede from our own rights than seek to recover them by losing the peace and quiet of our minde or then be at variance with any body whatsoever to which purpose Cardinall Bellarmine had an excellent axiome which he was known by saying often upon occasions of disputes or oddes between party and party One ounce of Peace is worth a whole pound of Victory and this Cardinall was not alone of this opinion for Saint Austine sure taught it him in his twelfth Sermon upon this verse of the Apostle where he speaks thus I will not have with whom to strive it is much more desireable to have no enemy than to overcome him But the Apostles sense in this place is yet deeper for he so recommends peace unto us as he leaves it for the commandant in our Hearts the ruler of them and of all our actions indeed the crown of them besides as who should say what ere you doe see it be peaceably done see you may after it is past say you have thereby made no breach of peace either in your own or your neighbours minde but that you goe towards God hand in hand with all the world rather following them who siâ— not than by breaking from them though upon your own perhaps better designe cause a disturbance amongst others And indeed if we be at any time necessitated to a war the Christian and reall end thereof being peace argues how much this Vertue is requisite to abound in every pious Soul And eace is here called Christ his Vertue because it was the speciall gift he brought from Heaven when the Angel told us his nativity brought Glory to God above and peace to men of good mindes upon earth Luke 2 ver 1â— and at his parting he left it himself as a legacy amongst us saying immediately before his ascension up to Heaven John 14. ver 27. My peace I leave with you my peace I give to you and for this reason the Apostle sayes We are all called by Christ in one Body that is made up peaceable members one with another of his own sacred and Mysticall Body the holy Church Bee therefore thankfull is the close of this Verse to shew it is a benefit infinitely obliging Christians to receive by Grace so admirable a gift as peace amongst us that are made up by nature of many contradictions not onely externall but internall also though there want not thâ—t instead of thankfull expound this place as to import being gracious or pleasing to each other for so are all peaceable men acceptable to everybody wheresoever they come and truly however the Rhemists translate it Thankfull yet the expositours especially Saint Heirome incline to think gracious to be the more genuine sense of the Apostle in this place 16. True it is by the Word of Christ is here meant as well the written as the preached Word of God but in regard ignorant persons are more apt to misconstrue than rightly to understand the written Word therefore holy Church is sparing to give leave to read the Bible and liberall to advise us to hear it Preached or explicated by the Priests But if it please God we have it once expounded unto us that we may understand it in a safe and sound sense then not to read it will be a fault whereas till then to read it may prove a danger to us and in very truth one reason why I have undertaken to set forth this book was to give the Lay-people a little liberty in reading at least all the Epistles and Gospels throughout the Sundayes of the year when they were laid open to them in a safe sense such as might nay must needs edisie and can no wayes offend or cause dangers to the reader so to read and possesse themselves of thus much Scripture as is here delivered in the flux of a year unto then must needs be highly commendable and hugely profitable unto every one that reads and makes it their study indeed their Prayer from one end of the year to the other for so shall they have
Corn wants no inward cause of prospering but is outwardly hindred by being choaked or kept down with over growing bryars and thorns that hinder the rising thereof Now though our Saviour best knew how to explicate his own meaning and hath declared that by these Thornes he means Riches which prick the Soules of those that possesse them in their rising up to acts of love towards God and so force them down again to the love of earthly things yet Saint Gregory found this exposition so beyond his expectation of this Text that he admiring sayes If he had thus expounded it the world would not have believed him to attinge the true sense thereof as being possessed what they handle and hugge dayly sn their armes their wealth and riches cannot prick nor gall them yet now our Saviour sayes they doe so we must believe it and truly so it is for what more ordinary than to see the high and mighty men of the world mighty I mean in wealth abject and lowe in their growth upwards to Heaven to see them still pricking down their rising Souls and under the title of riches we may here understand honours pleasures pastimes of the vain licentious and idle people of the world whose own conscience tells them they doe ill in following such courses as yet they will not leave 8. 15. By the good ground is here understood a tender Conscience which makes a Religion of each action and so hearing Gods Word first labours to understand it then puts in execution the Doctrine thereof and thereby brings forth fruits of all sorts of Vertue and good Works nay brings forth indeed an hundred fold or more according to the proportion and measure of grace received from Almighty God but we are here to observe the reduplicative speech of a good and a very good heart that is to say a heart illuminated with Faith but working by Charity or as Albertus will have it Good by being free from Sin very good by being in all things conformabled to the Will of God or as Saint Bonaventure sayes Good by verity or rectitude in the understanding very good by rectitude in the affections or as Saint Augustine will have it Good by loving our neighbour as our selves very good by loving God above all things saying and they properly retaine the Word as the Blessed Virgin did and bring forth the fruit thereof in patience that is by bearing with unperturbed minds the perturbations of this world And though S. Luke do not mention the quantities of fruits produced yet S. Matthew chap. 13 ver 23. speaks of the Thirty fold the sixty fold and the hundred fold fruit of those who hear the Word of God as they ought to doe meaning it makes some good men others better others best of all according to the respective measures of dispositions in their Souls answerable to their severall proportions of Grace and co-operations therewith or if we will have these three-fold quantities all in one Soul then say we bring forth Thirty when we think well Sixty when we speak well an hundred fold when we do well or when we begin to be vertuous profit therein and at last attain to the perfection of vertue till we arrive at the top of all Vertues or when we observe not onely Gods Commandements but his Counsells too and at last his transcendent charity being ready to die his Martyrs in requitall of his dying our Saviour and so make degrees and steps in our own hearts up to Heaven as the Royall Prophet sayes he did Psal 83. Making Ascents in his heart by rising up towards Heaven from Vertue to Vertue The Application 1. THis Parable shewes how many wayes we may labour in vain by sowing the grounds we have plowed up and be still in danger lest the Devill reap what we have sown namely that beside the way When for company sake we goe to Church not for Devotion But to see and to be seen rather than to hear the VVord of God 2. That on the Rock when out of fear of Parents anger or the punishments of Magistrates we are forced to Church and hearing there the VVord must needs with open hearts receive it in being of it self sâ— forceable as to peirce the very stones but then because we hear it by compulsion every difficulty nature frames against Grace shuts up our hearts again and will not let it in to take good rooting there 3. That on the thorny ground when rich men hear the VVord of God for custome or for curiosity to recreate and not to edifie to censure rather than conâ—orm to what they hear No marvell thâ—n if to prevent the danger of our going to the Devills Chappell even in the Church of God Our holy Mother pray to Day as above for the best seeds-mans protection against so many dangers hoping by so praying to render our hearts such as the Gospell closeth with to Day On QUINQUAGESIMA Sunday The Antiphon LUKE 18. ver 40. ANd Jesus staying commanded the blinde man to be brought unto him what wilt thou that I do to thee O Lord that I may see and Jesus said to him Look up thy Faith hath made thee safe and he forthwith did see and followed magnifying God Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer O Lord we beseech thee hear clemently our Prayers and being loosened from the fetters of our sins keep us from all adversity The Illustration NO marvell if many of my friends told me here the common place of this Prayer would not easily be made particularly proper to our design of a sweet connexion between that prayer and the other parts of this days service for see in the Epistle charity in the Gospel faith insisted on whereas in the Prayer neither of these vertues are mentioned What remedy truly none but by applying mystically to our selves that now which was actually done when our Saviour lived and by remembring that as the propagation of faith amongst Infidels was the chief work of Christ so the conservation and augmentation of charity is the chief thing Christians have to doe for as Faith was the Basis or foundation of the Church whilest it was a building so charity must bee the covering and top thereof now it is built What wonder then while the Gospel tells us how Christ confirmed in his Disciples by the miracle upon the blinde the faith of his Deity That the Epistle exhorts us who need not God be praised any confirmation of our faith to an augmentation of our charity by seeing it laid to day before us in such lively colours as S. Paul hath drawn it in so that whilest holy Church tells us what Christ then did towrds the Jews by introducing faith among them with miracles we that now need no miracles should doe towards him by acts of love to the divine goodness that is to say labour to shew our loves to him as he did to beget faith in them but what
we lack but also whatsoever we can rationally ask of him who is no niggard of his favours and while the blind man askes his sight we may conceive he askes as much as his life too for a blind man is like a visible death to all other men and a sensible one unto himself since he can feele misery on all sides but see comfort no way to which purpose see Tobias Cap. 5. ver 12. and heare Saint Ambrose Uti tristes sunt c. As the day without Sun-shine is but sad and the nights without Moone-light not so pleasing so is the life of man deprived of the light of his body his eyes for they the Sunne and Moone are as it were the eyes of the world and without their lustre the heavens themselevs do suffer a deformity of blindnesse And S. Austine upon this place saies Tota igitur vita c. Our whole lifes exercise therefore is but to cure this eye of the heart to this end hath Almighty God instituted all the holy Mysteries to this end is the word of God preached to this end tend all Ecclesiastical exhortations c. Let us therefore all cry out O Lord give us the light of Grace to see the turpitude of sinne the vilitie of concupiscence the exilitie of pleasure the atrocity of hell fire the beauty of virtue the happinesse of Paradise the eternity of Glory Amen 42. No marvel our Saviour gave so speedy a reward to so strong a Faith the cause taken once away the effect must needs cease the cause of this corporall blindnesse was spirituall coecity the blind-mans infidelity which taken away by Faith he enjoyes immediately his corporall sight and so hath the effect gone upon surcease of the cause nor need we scruple to make this exposition when our Saviour saies in expresse termes This mans Faith was his cure for if so then Infidelity was his disease 43. We cannot read this story without being moved to imitate the gratitude of the blind man in giving thankes for the benefit received as we shall be forward enough to imitate his importunity in calling to God for help in our necessities and what was his gratitude his following our Saviour magnifying and praysing of him as also did all the people that were witnesse to the benefit received that we would our selves thus testifie our own gratitudes thus get all the world to help us expresse our thanks for such benefits as they all see we receive daily and hourly from almighty God since we have an assurance if we goe as farre with him as this blind man did to his passion to his Cross to his death to his grave he will raise us with him to a new life of grace here and to an eternall life of Glory in the next world The Application 1. AS it was this blind mans Faith that made him corporally whole so was it his love and charity that made him spiritually sound that did shake off the Fetters of his affection to sinne and kept him by that meanes from all adversitie while it fastned him to the purchaser of all prosperity our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2. It was indeed his Charity that made him leave all other company to follow Jesus and to magnifie his Deity by proclaiming his mercy in having delivered him from misery And whither did he follow him To Hierusalem to his Passion to his Death to his Sepulcher 3. O lively Faith that did not die in this poor man when Jesus dying for him left even his Apostles tottering in their Faith O burning Charity that like a flaming lamp hung ore the Sepulcher of Jesus dead and buried Adoring then and magnifying the Divinity which never did forsake the sacred corps of Christs Humanity though his living soul had left his dead body in the grave O admirable way to shake off the shackles of sinne and to keep us free from all adversitie thus firmely to believe thus ardently to love and so to follow Jesus from his grave into his glory O for this purpose well adapted Gospel of Faith to an Epistle of Charity O well adjusted Prayer as above to both On the first Sunday of Advent The Prayer called the Collect. ROwse up we beseech thee O Lord thy power and come away that from the emiâ—ent dangers of our sinnes thou protecting we may deserve to be freed and thou delivering us we may be saved Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen So end all Prayers The Prayer called the Secret MAy these Sacrifices O Lord by their powerfull vertue bring us cleansed and more pure unto their purifying fountain The Prayer called the Post-Communion LEt us receive O Lord thy mercy in the midst of thy Temple that we may prepare for the future solemnities of our reparation with congruous homages On the second Sunday of Advent The Prayer ROwse up our hearts O Lord towards preparing the wayes of thy onely begotten Sonne that by his coming amongst us we may deserve to serve thee with purified Souls The Secret VOuchsafe O Lord to be appeased by our humble Prayers and Offerings and whereas we have no title of merit succour us with thine own supplyes The Post-Communion BEing filled with the food of Spirituall Almes we humbly beseech thee O Lord that by the participation of this Mystery thou wilt teach us to contemn Earthly and to love Heavenly things On the Third Sunday of Advent The Prayer LEnd we beseech thee O Lord thine ear unto our Prayer and enlighten the darknesse of our minde with the Grace thy Visitation The Secret MAy the sacrifice O Lord of our Devotion be continually offered up both to perform the precepts of this sacred Mystery and admirably in us to produce thy saving work The Post-Communion VVEe implore O Lord thy clemency that these Divine helps may expiatâ— our sinnes and prepare us to the future solemnities On the fourth Sunday of Advent The Prayer O Lord we beseech thee raise up thy power and with thy mighty vertue come away to our succour that by the help of thy Grace what our sins retard the indulgence of thy propitiation may accelerate The Secret ORdain O Lord we beseech thee being by these present sacrifices appeased that they may avail to our Devotion and Salvation also The Post-Communion HAving received thy bounties we beseech thee O Lord that by frequentation of thy Mystery the effect of our salvation may increase On Sunday within the Octaves of the Nativity The Prayer OMnipotent Sempiternall God direct our actions in thy good pleasure that in the name of thy beloved Son we may deserve to abound in good Works The Secret GRant we beseech thee Omnipotent God that the offering which we have made in the eyes of thy majesty may obtain us the grace of holy Devotion and bring unto us the effect of a blessed Eternity The Post-Communion BY the operation of this Mystery may O Lord our sins be purged and our just desires be accomplished On Sunday within the
Octave of the Epiphanie The Prayer VVEe beseech thee O Lord prosecute with heavenly Piety the desires of thy suppliant people that they may both see what is by them to be done and be able to perform what they see they are to doe The Secret GRant O Lord that this Sacrifice offered unto thee may quicken alwayes and defend us The Post-Communion VVEe humbly beseech thee Omnipotent God that whom thou hast with thy Sacraments refreshed thou wilt gratiously grant they may serve thee with an agreeable comportment On the second Sunday after the Epiphanie The Prayer ALmighty everlasting God who doest moderate at once both Heavenly and Earthly things hear clemently the Prayers of thy people and grant us thy peace in our times The Secret SAnctifie O Lord our offered gifts and purge us from the spots of our Sinnes The Post-Communion O Lord we beseech thee let the operation of thy vertue be increased in us that nourished by thy Divine Sacraments we may be prepared through thy bounty to receive thy promises On the third Sunday after the EPIPHANIE The Prayer OMnipotent eternall God look we beseech thee propitiously on our infirmity and extend to our protection the right hand of thy Majesty The Secret VVEe pray thee O Lord let this Host cleanse our sins and sanctifie the bodies and soules of thy subjects towards the celebrating of thy sacrifice The Post-Communion TO whom thou doest O Lord grant the use of so great mysteries vouchsafe we beseech thee that we may truly be adopted unto their effects On the fourth Sunday after the EPIPHANIE The Prayer O God who knowest us set in so great dangers that we cannot through humane frailtie subsist gran unto us health of mind and body that what we suffer for our sins thou helping we may overcome The Secret GRant we beseech thee almighty God that the offered gift of this sacrifice may ever purge our frailtie and defend it from all evill The Post-Communion LEt thy gifts O God free us from terrene delights and refresh us alwayes with heavenly food On the fifth Sunday after the Epiphanie The Prayer KEep we beseech thee O Lord thy family in continuall pietie that resting on the onely hope of heavenly grace it may ever by thy protection be defended The Secret WEe offer unto thee O Lord the Host of Pacification and that thou mayest mercifully absolve us from our sins direct our drowsie hearts The Post-Communion WEe beseech thee almightie God that we may have the effect of that safety the pledge whereof we have received by these Mysteries On the sixth Sunday after the Epiphanie The Prayer GRant we beseech thee Almighty God that alwaies meditating those things which are reasonable we may both in our words and deeds doe what is pleasing unto Thee The Secret LEt this oblation O God cleanse and renew govern and protect us we beseech thee The Post-Communion BEing fed O Lord with heavenly delights we beseech thee that we may alwaies covet those things by which we truly live On SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY The Prayer VVEe beseech thee O Lord clemently to hear the Prayers of thy People that we who for our sins are justly afflicted may for the glory of thy Name be mercifully delivered The Secret THou having received our gifts O Lord and our prayers cleanse us with thy heavenly mysteries and hear us clemently we beseech thee The Post-Communion BEe thy faithfull O God strengthened by thy gifts that they may without end knowing seek and seeking know the same On SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY The Prayer O God who seest we confide not in any of our own Actions grant us propitiously that against all adversities we may be armed by the protection of the Doctor of the Gentiles The Secret MAy this sacrifice offered unto thee O Lord alwaies revive and protect us The Post-Communion WEe humbly beseech thee Almighty God to grant that those whom thou doest refresh with thy Sacraments may graciously serve thee with their good behaviour On QUINQUAGESIMA Sunday The Prayer O Lord we beseech thee hear clemently our Prayers and being loosened from the fetters of our sins keep us from all adversity The Secret MAy this oblation O Lord we beseech thee purge away our sins and sanctifie the bodies and souls of thy subjects for the celebrating of this sacrifice The Post-Communion VVEe pray thee O God Omnipotent that we who have received Heavenly food may thereby be guarded from all adversity FINIS The END Of the FIRST PART THE SECOND PART Of the first TOME On the first Sunday in Lent The Antiphon 2 Cor. 6. v. 2 c. BEhold now the acceptable time behold now the dayes of health in these dayes therefore let us exhibite our selves as the Servants of God in much patience in fastings in watchings and in unfeigned charity Vers To his Angels God hath given charge of thee Resp That in all thy wayes they may keepe thee The Prayer O God who doest purifie thy Church with an annuall observation of Lent grant unto thy Family that what it endeavoureth to obtaine of thee by Fasting it may finish the same by good workes The Illustration IF in the holy time of Lent we find not so exact a report between the Epistle Gospell and Prayer of the day as at other times of the yeer it must be given to the more then ordinary regard had unto the Lenten Fast which we shall observe all these Prayers make speciall mention of as if holy Church intended nothing more then a recommends of that wholesome Fast unto us neverthelesse I shall not despaire to find the Epistle and Gospell even like full-sail'd Vessels falling down this channell of holy abstinence and directed by the helme of the Prayer come full fraughted with the same concording Spirits into the Ports of our ever open hearts to Ghostly comforts which the other seasons of the yeare afford unto us But before we venture upon a thing so hard let us facilitate the way by first cleering the full sense of the Prayer for when we know what we aske therein we shall see what relation the Petition hath to the Epistle and Gospell whence we must draw it out Observe then first in this Prayer an acknowledgement that Almighty God doth purifie his Church with an annuall observation of Lent so the end of this Fast is the Churches purification Next see how the Prayer begs that what we endeavour to obtaine by Fasting we may finish by good workes so though purification be the end of our Fast yet the Fast alone is but an endeavour towards that end and nothing brings us home unto it unlesse to the endeavouring fast we adde the finishing help of good works and this with great reason too for as we are never said to be perfectly purified untill we can in a chaste body represent a pure Soule to God so by Fasting alone we onely chastize our bodies but by good workes the grand affaire is finished our Soule is made pure and then the Churches
was to terrifie the people the sweet Law of grace was to be their guide he alone their comfort so that to him they were to stand firme in all distresses of him to receive all reliefes and by him to be brought finally to the eternity of that heavenly glory which here the Apostles had but a transient glimmering of thereby to shew this is not a time or place for comforts but rather for afflictions and that lest we should be dejected by being alwayes in affliction we may hope for the intervening comfort now and then of mysticall Transfigurations by which we shall for a short time take content in the service of God but they passing away againe are to leave us unto the trials of new afflictions till by frequent conformities of our wills to the pleasure of Almighty God we be rewarded with eternall glory for our patient enduring the many Eclypses we found here of heavenly comforts in our Soules by the interposition of earthly tribulations 9. By bidding them tell this vision to no body he forbids their speaking of it not onely to the people but even to the rest of the Apostles lest it might trouble them not to have been present at it and by his resurrection all men would be easily made beleeve he was God who if they had been told it before would have doubted thereof especially when they see him dead and buried so to speak of this Testimony of his Deity before his resurrection were labour lost but by this injoyning silence of his glory and propalation of his death and passion Christ gave us an admirable example to conceale our own praises and to be content with publication of pressures and infirmities since none can have any infamy so great to him as was the ignominy of the Crosse to Christ wherein we see he gloryed whilest he suppressed the fame of his glory till he had suffered the ignominy of his most opprobrious death hence Saint Paul forbids himselfe all other glory then in that of the Crosse of Christ a good lesson for all good Christians to learne and practice to be perfect in The Application 1. SInce there is a day made specially sacred to the Mystery of the Transfiguration the sixth of August when that Feast is celebrated we cannot expect to have this mystery looked on to day so directly as that the Prayer should litterally relate to it suffice it then to find it mystically proper to the Prayer 2. And thus it will be proper enough since we are taught the Transfiguration was at least a transient vision beatificall such as Saint Peter held to be a kinde of Heaven where he was content to build a Tabernacle of aboad and look how unable we are to be chaste so are we in our selves void of all strength to goe to Heaven and have need of a world of guards both interior and exterior to preserve us from the corporall adversities or sins that keep us thence or from the spirituall sins of evill thoughts that shut up Heaven Gates against us 3. To conclude since nothing makes our way securer into Heaven then to carry a Pure Soule in a Chaste body we being taught the cleane of heart are therefore blessed because they shall see God for this cause the Gospel of the transfiguration was very fitly joyned to the Epistle of chastity because the Chaste Body is that Transient Heaven upon Earth which is most delightfull to a pure Soule And as Chastity Transfigures us into a similitude of God whom we shall then live like unto when we see him and therefore like unto him because we see him that we may by the vertue of chastity joyned to our holy Fast be Transfigured into a similitude of his Divine Majesty We pray with holy Church as above On the third Sunday in Lent The Antiphon Luke 11. v. 27. A Certaine woman of the multitude lifting up her voyce said blessed is the wombe that bare thee and the Paps that gave thee Suck But Iesus saith to her yea rather blessed are they that heare the word of God and keep it Vers To his Angells c. Resp That in all c. The Prayer WE beseech thee Almighty God looke downe on the desires of thy humble people and extend the right hand of thy Majesty in our defence The Illustration IF any be to seek here what is meant by the desires we beseech God to looke downe upon of his humble people 't is but casting back an eye to what was declared in the first Sundays Prayer of Lent to be the end of this holy fast and finding it thereto be our purification we shal soon conclude that selfe same end is still and ought ever to be our desires all the Lent long because the continuation of the Fasting Medium argues our constant desire of arriving at the end to which it drives our being Purified by that meanes So thus we see the Torrent of our holy Fast runs never the lesse slowly on because it makes not a noyse in our eares rather it growes the deeper by how much lesse we heare thereof for shallow waters are those that tell us of the stones they fall upon but deep ones silently goe by nor is the stile of humble people any common place but hugely proper to this time of Lent which drawes the whole Christian world upon their knees and not content to have them low as earth while they Fasting watch and pray did in a manner bury them below the earth when on Ashwednesday they were all Sprinkled o're with holy Ashes as if they were not worthy longer to be the upper earth that had so proudly rebelled against Almighty God but must lye lower now and hope by falling downe to rise againe and truly if we reflect upon the words of this Prayer they are exact termes of a most humble Soule who dares not say she hath a will to fast on still and to be purified but onely tels Almighty God 't is her desire and hopes this humble expression will make it be his holy will she shall obtaine her desires because his onely looking on it as she humbly prayes to day he will is able to effect it But lest we forget to shew the Prayer suits as well to the Epistle and Gospell as to the time of Lent we must remember no termes could more directly exhaust them both then what this Prayer is couched in For how can we be followers else of Almighty God as Saint Paul exhorts us to be with the Ephesians unlesse we shew our selves to have learned the lesson of the Son of God without book Learne of me that am meeke and humble of heart which lesson this dayes Prayer repeats when holy Church cals us the humble people of Almighty God and meeknesse ever goes with humility hand in hand so having set our first step right into the track of this Epistle we need not fear the missing of our way for true humility hath root in love and will not stumble
must make that to be which we beg he must gives us grace since we are all one in Faith to be all of one minde in the operations of that belief which works by charity that knows not thine and mine but gives all to God and takes onely from his Holy Hand what he pleaseth to give back again Next we pray that we may love what God commands which in this case was to the Apostles that they might love to leave our Blessed Lord for so God had commanded That they might desire what he promised which was the coming of the holy Ghost That amongst worldly varieties there they might fix their hearts where onely true joys are to be had O! what a taking off their mindes was this even from himself whose departure was one of the worldly varieties he would not have to trouble them but that they should upon the loss of the happiness they had in his society fix their hearts on a greater happiness who but the holy Ghost could make this good upon the joys of heaven which are true joys indeed and this also shews we are still sliding down the Channel of the Resurrection too in this Prayer as hath been said Blessed God! how good art thou to man who hast made him a happiness greater then the company of thy sacred Son whom yet we know is God and man too the reason was his Humanity here did shade his Divinity but in heaven his Deity shall outshine his Humanity and so make us love man in him for Gods sake whereas here the Apostles did love God but for Christs sake as he was man and therefore this Prayer as it speaks the Apostles parts bids them fix their hearts upon true joys indeed those onely that are in heaven being greater then any they could have in the society of Jesus Christ himself so long as he was upon earth not that his Glory was less here then in heaven but that man is less capable to see God on earth then he shall be to see and enjoy him too when he comes to heaven and therefore hee ought not to fix his heart upon any content whatsoever upon earth but still to keep it moving towards a greater and a truer Joy And thus having made way for the Application of this Prayer unto our selves by seeing how in the Apostles sence we ought to say it let us close with our accustomed Application of it to the Epistle and Gospel of the day or rather of them both unto it which are as it were eminentially contained therein And first there is nothing so cleer as that it is a gift of God to make us thus resigned hence the Epistle breaks out into that acknowledgement saying every good and perfect gift is from above descending from the Father of Lights with whom there is no transmutation nor shadowing of alteration and who by his own sacred word hath ingrafted in us a filiation that makes us be a beginning of his creature that is willing by our resignation to be made through his holy Grace his better creature then by nature we are And so in brief to be those Saints which St. Iames in his Epistle sets before our eyes and consequently those which the Apostles were when our Saviour had prepared them for his departure from them and told them they were not inquisitive enough after the heavenly joys whilest they doted too much upon his Humane presence after he had made them believe it was expedient even for themselves that he left them and that the holy Ghost came to them in his stead to all those purposes that are recited in the Gospel following and to all which purposes we shall finde this Prayer availing us if in this sence we say it often and thereby take as in a little Cordial the whole substance of the Epistle and Gospel of this day The Epistle Iac. 1. v. 17 c. 17 Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above descending from the Father of Lights with whom is no transmutation nor shadowing of alteration 18 Voluntarily he bath begotten us by the word of Truth that we may be some beginning of his creature 19 You know my deerest Brethren And let every man be swift to hear but slow to speak and slow to anger 20 For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God 21 For the which thing casting away all uncleanness and abundance of malice in meekness receive the engraffed Word which is able to save your Souls The Explication 17. IT is prodigiously strange to see how much the Apostle here speaks in Little under these two terms of best gift and perfect gift for though the simple and literal meaning be that all which is good amongst men is given them from God and all which is bad amongst them comes from the Devil and from their own concupiscence yet there is a far deeper sence couched also here and first under best gift is understood not onely the goodness of the thing given but the excellent good will of the giver and even that being as good as the gift adds much to the value thereof for indeed as man hath nothing of his own to give so he hath no will of his own nor desire to give any thing that is good but even that good will is Gods and comes from God inspiring man to do good unto his neighbour but the sence is yet deeper by the reduplication of perfection upon the goodness of the donation or giving and of the gift given as who should say Gods gifts are not onely goodness in themselves by being communications of his infinite goodness to us but they are also most perfect both as their intrinsecal goodness makes them so and as their extrinsecal operations and effects do make us so likewise unto whom they are given since the end for which they are given is that man by means thereof may be perfect as Christ was perfect again many men give oftentimes that which obligeth others and yet is not either perfect in it self or properly their own to give neither of which can be wanting when God is the donation the gift the perfection and all that can be imaginable to render a gift or the donation of it good and perfect best indeed and most absolutely accomplished Again by all gifts are here understood those of Nature Grace and Glory whereof each is from God so immediately as none of them can flow from any other fountain since he is Natura naturans as Divines call him and we Natura naturata he is the Fountain Origin and first Principle of all Natures he is a simple and perfect Nature in and of himself so fecund or fertil as he is able to branch himself out into an infinity of other Natures which yet shall all be as distinct from his own Divine Nature as Creatures are from their Creator and from one another too But the very truth is the Apostle here reports to the two latter sorts of gifts namely
shewing him the features and deformities of his soule according as he is truly in himselfe good or bad for that is the property of a glass to represent truly the object which is set before it and the Apostle in effect here says those that run to Churches or to their ghostly Fathers to hear onely what they say and do not put in execution their Counsels are like a man note t is not said a woman too too frequently looking there seeing his native his natural countenance not then his painted face in a glaâ—s for what indeed follows of this meer sight nothing but what is said in the next Verse forgetfulness which cannot tend to perfection and such an introspection men make into their souls by reading or hearing the word of God if there they persist and do not study to perfect themselves thereby and truly the Law or Word of God is rightly called a Glass because it represents to us that image of perfect creatures which God would have us to be it tells us what reward our Vertues shall have what punishment our Vices 24. The reason why a man sooner forgets his own face then anothers is because he never sees his own but by reflected Species in a Glass which are therefore weaker and less vigorous then if they came directly to his eye as those of another mans countenance do both directly and more frequently seen by any man then his own So no wonder if a man see and consider himself never so exactly for a time that he soon forgets himself and covets to see himself again whereas he much more perfectly remembers the Face and Features of anothers person then his own Now though it be needless for a man to look much into a material Glass which can onely shew him the outward man yet it is very recommendable for him to look into the spiritual Glass of Gods Word to read or hear that often thereby to see what is wanting to that ornament of Grace or Vertue which should render him a perfect image of our Saviour Jesus Christ but besides this often looking on himself he must be doing and practising upon himself namely adding this Vertue taking away that Vice or else he onely looks and forgets what he see or what he should make himself to be Note there are three kindes of hearers of Gods word the lazy the active the contemplative the first heare onely and forget indeed contemne the next heare and obey the third heare and dye imbracing it with all the powers of their soules and never let goe their imbracement again many are the Analogies betweene a glass and the word of God for first as in a glass is seene not a picture of a thing but the thing it selfe by a reflected species though not by a direct one soe by the word is seene the wil of God nay God himself since the word of the minde is seene by the word of the mouth as in a glass Againe as flat or plaine glasses represent the species equall to the object but convex or round glasses represent them less then they are and both the further off the weaker they represent them so the word of God plainly sincerely and without any crooked intention hearkened unto or read represents truly the will of God unto us but if we make this word a convex glass one swollen up with a bulk of pride or ambition to wrest it to our crooked senses then it represents the wil of God abridged shortned or lessened not entirely and plainely as it is in it selfe whence preachers must learne to be sincere and faithfull in the exposition of holy writ Againe as concave or hollow glasses placed against the Sun are apt to cast a heat and burne whatsoever combustible matter is neere them so the word of God looked on with an humble eye a dinted heart wherein it makes the hollow of a sweet impression sets on fire all the inordinate appetites to sinne burns up all the stubble of vicious inclinations and renders a soule burning bright in flames of love to Almighty God 25. By this verse it is cleer that the word of God is the glass here alluded unto because the Law of perfect liberty is that word of God the Law and life of Jesus Christ whereby we are made children of God not slaves to empty ceremonies onely as they under the slavish Law of Moses were he that hath looked fixedly not slightly into the glass of perfect liberty and hath remained in it not made a forgetfull hearer this man shall be blessed in his deed because his deed shal deserve a blessing by being such as this glass represents it should be note by perfect liberty is not here understood liberty to doe what we list so we beleeve aright as Luther hence pretended but first by liberty is here understood that which freeth us from the servility of the Mosaical Law next that which freeth us from the slavery to sinne and the devil thirdly that which freeth us from compulsion or feare but leaves us free to doe wel out of pure love to God not for fear of hel fourthly that liberty which by resurrection we shal have from death when we arise to life everlasting further by the close of this verse saying that man shall be blessed in his deed is meant he shal have the blessing here of grace in the next world of glory and that his blessing shal be given to his doing not to his contemplating what is to be done 26. By this place Saint James alludes to what he said in the nineteenth verse of this Epistle of being quick to heare and slow to speak and not to be angry for by the laxity of the tongue the hands are as it were tyed up from action and those men seldom do wel that are alwayes talking or vaunting in many words the little good they doe in deeds so that one kinde of doing the Law is a religious silence for religion imports as much as a binding up of the Law which consisteth in observing or doing it not in talking of it by the word bridling our tongues is insinuated as if the tongue were an unruly beast alwayes running away from reason unless bridled in thereby by seducing his heart is understood making it erre for a talking man seldome deceives others but often himselfe since they see the sin of petulance in his heart and so regard as little what he saith as himself doth what he speaks who is never doing wel whilest he speaketh too much or ill and such a mans religion is truly vaine by religion is here understood either that vertue of religion which makes a man render all his actions good towards God and his neighbor and is the first of moral vertues as charity is the first of divine ones or true Christianity profession of the true faith for even that is vaine if it be not made avayling by good workes annexed thereunto though here the Apostle his genuine sense is
however purchased once by Christ for us but we losing our right to them by sin cannot too often petition for their recovery Lastly because by Prayer we exercise the noblest Acts of Vertue Faith Hope and Charity the first believing God can do all things the next hoping he will do all we can desire the last loving him as a Father of whom we ask all supplyes both for our selves and others as to his own adopted sons 28. Here our Saviour alludes not onely to his temporal generation by his heavenly Fathers commanding him into the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary but to his eternal Generation also whereby he was from the beginning begotten coeternal and coequal God to his heavenly Father so that as his coming into this world was his going as we may say out of his Fathers bosom to seek lost man in the Wilderness of our Earth in like manner his leaving this world was his return with man found in his sacred Person into the same paternal bosom which he came out of 29. This argues he had answered now home to all their doubts and interrogatories by telling them he was the Son of God who came from him to them and was to return from them to him again this was cleer naked and simple Truth no Proverb no Riddle no Parable at all unto them 30. Now that thou hast by this Answer told us cleerly what thy meaning was by a while we should see thee and again a while after and we should not see thee again and this not as asked by us but as onely revolved in our thoughts whereunto thou hast now answered compleatly and while thou doest answer to the thought thou doest convince us thou art from God and comest out from him since he onely can come into and search all the corners of our hearts where thou hast been and found we would but durst not at first ask thee what thy meaning was by that Riddle of a while you shall and after a while you shall not see me because I go to my Father in this therefore we believe thou art God that thou needest not be asked to tell us what we think what we wish or would have since without asking thou canst tell us all and give us more then we can receive this alone were there no other would suffice for argument sufficient to prove thou comest so from God as thou art also God thy self The Application 1. NO marvel this Gospel insists so much upon ordering the Apostles whom to pray unto and how to pray since it is pointed out for Rogation that is to say for Praying week and since it is also appointed for concluding the Doctrine of Faith in the Resurrection and Deity of Jesus Christ by beginning the practice of our Hope which is best exercised in our Prayer For however all the forty days between the Resurrection and Ascension were dedicated by our Saviour to settle the Apostles and others in a right belief of Christian Doctrine yet we never till now did hear the Apostles declare the work was done and that they were satisfied and settled in their Faith of Christ his being truly the Son of God which yet they now profess in plain tearms saying Now thou speakest plainly this we believe that thou camest forth from God and art his eternal Son that did become man wert born hast suffered and dyed for our sins art risen from the dead art to ascend too unto thy heavenly Father and art thence to send us the holy Ghost to be our continual Comforter Teacher and Governour 2. Say then beloved since the work of Faith is finished by their own confession who were so hard of belief what remain but that we proceed to the next thing required of a Christian which is to Hope for the promises made by Jesus Christ in whom we have so much reason now fitmly to believe and since Hope as was said above is best exercised by Prayer let us now make it our whole imployment from this day forward until the coming of the holy Ghost to pray in such sort as by our best Master we are here directed that is to say to pray in his Name and how we shall do that the Expositors above have told us excellently well and that at large so t is but looking back to know it 3. To conclude since all our Prayer must be accompanied with Faith as Saint James hath taught us Cap. 1. saying If any man want for example wisdom and the like is of all other exigences let him ask it of God but let him ask in Faith not any ways faultering since I say this Gospel mentions Faith with Prayer See now beloved whether the Church to day do not most properly begg this Faith concomitant to her Hope or Prayer when calling upon God as the Fountain whence all good proceeds she prays as above That first her understanding may be rectified which is the work of Faith residing there and that next her Will may be ready to do what Faith and Reason dictate to be done and this by the gift of Hope infused for perfection of the Will by captivating it to Reason elevated by the gift of Faith as our Christian Doctrine tels us On Sunday within the Octaves of Ascension The Antiphon Joh. 16. v. 4. I Have spoken these things unto you that when the hour shall come you may remember them for that I spake them unto you Alleluja Vers Our Lord in Heaven Alleluja Resp Hath prepared his Seat Alleluja The Prayer OMnipotent Eternal God grant us ever to have our wills devoted and our hearts sincerely bent unto the service of thy Divine Majesty The Illustration NO marvel if the river of the Resurrection end in the speer of a Fountain rising upward through the Conduite pipe of our Blessed Lords Ascension and follow him to Heavens gates since we see waters how low soever they fall will mount again as high as their first Fountain is thus Jesus being the Head-spring of all Devotion carries our lumpish souls along with him as high as Heaven now he is seated there Hence Holy Church to day requires that though our Saviour hath left us we do not yet leave him but follow him how high soever he goes and how follow him with a forcible speer of Piety such as may shew his will and ours are one whilest our hearts are sincerely bent unto his service even as the Blessed Spirits are that sing perpetual Hymns of Praise to his heavenly Majesty and lest we fail of doing this see how to day we pray that we may do it beseeching God to grant our wills may be devoted and our heaâ—ts sincerely bent to the service of his Divine Majesty O! could we but reflect upon the Obligations we have indeed to serve him with sincere hearts we should never swerve from doing this under a thousand fond presumptions of our serving God whilest yet we seek nothing but our own wills and not his service nor is there any
heart so hidden from others that lyes not open to the owner of it who can justly accuse himself of often making his seeming good actions causes of his own damnation whilest he even persecutes Almighty God under a pretext of serving him O sincerity of heart where art thou far from the lip that beggs it Matth. 14. v. 8. as now all Christians ought with the mother Church to do And in this case it fares with us as it did with those of whom we reade Esay 25.13 This people honours me with their lips while their heart is far off from me But could we by this hearty Prayer so convert our hearts to God as to obtain these two Vertues onely Devotion in our Wills and Sincerity in our Hearts we should need no other Ceremony to Saint us what ere were requisite besides to Canonize us nor is this Prayer lesse proper to the service of the day then to the mystery of our Lords Ascension though I confess the root of their connexions lies too deep for every one to finde it out at first but while Saint Peter bids us in his Epistle above all things love one another he sweetly tells us the non sincerity of our hearts is rooted there and that we cannot sincerely love God whom we do not see unless we do sincerely love each other with whom we daily do converse Again he tells us Charity covers a multitude of sins 1 Pet. 1. v. 22. as who should say whilest we pray for sincerity of heart we pray for charity and having that Vertue we not onely cover all our Vices but rise up with it as high as Heaven and then we speak as if we spake the words of God then we honour and serve God in all thingâ— with perfect devotion of our wills and sincerity of our hearts when we serve each other with such subjection as if in every Christian we had Christ to serve and this which is a more neer serving him even at the gates of Heaven where now he is and where we must always attend him for our happy entrance so soon as our willâ— are truly devoted and our hearts sincerely bent unto his service which then the Gospel of this day tells us they will be when taking them off from all terrene contents we set them upon an expectation of higher comforts of heavenly consolations from the Paraclete the Holy Ghost who is comming down upon us to give us all content indeed to testifie the truth of all our Saviours Doctrine and to give us grace not onely to bear patiently all severest persecutions but even to take content to dye for Jesus Christ who pleased to dye for us and not to be scandailzed when the wicked persecute the just under pretence of serving God therein since our Saviour did Apologize for them saying They knew not what they did when they butchered him upon the Altar of the Cross and since he further tells us by St. John to day the wicked will do the same to us we must remembring what he â—aid seek to conform our will to his and to serve him by our patient suffering greatest persecutions with all sincerity of heart which that we may perform we pray to day as above suitably to what our Pastors preach and can we by so praying do so too then are we risen high as heaven-gates with Jesus Christ The Epistle on Sunday within the Octaves of the Ascension 1 Pet. 4. v. 7 c. 7 And the end of all things shall approach Be wise therefore and watch in Prayers 8 But before all things having mutuall charity continuall among your selves because charity covereth the multitude of sins 9 Vsing hospitality one toward another without murmuring 10 Every one as he hath received grace ministring the same one toward another as good dispensers of the manifold grace of God 11 If any man speak as the words of God if any man minister as of the power which God admistreth That in all thingt God may be honoured by Jesus Christ The Explication 7 THe end of all shall come This doth not report to judgement but rather to the end of all those unlawfull pleasures which the Apostle found the Gentiles prone unto as beleeving that after death there was no more remaining to be said or done and consequently since they must have a total end by death both of body and soule they were resolved here to indulge unto themselves all they could and not to lose any pleasure they were able to purchase while they lived To these he sayes the end of all shall come meaning of all you can here delight in and yet you will finde there is not an end of your being by your death but as your actions while you live are lyable to the judgement and scanning of men so shall your souls when your bodies are dead be lyable to another manner of judgement so he bids them be wise and take onely lawful pleasures for they shall be called to an account of their unlawful ones when they least thinke of it who dyed in that heresie of Gentilisme believing the soule to be mortal as the body was But indeed the end which the Apostle here meanes is most properly that which is now actually come namely the last age of the world which is that of Christ and Christians as who should say the world hath stood now six ages compleat and is entered into the seventh which is the last The first age was from Adam to Noe and his flood The second from Noe to Abraham the third from Abraham to Moses the fourth from Moses to David the fifth from David to the captivity of Babylon the sixth from that captivity to Christs coming the seventh and last from Christ to the latter day of judgement whence Saint John 1. Epist C. 1. v. 15. Sayes Beloved this is the last houre and Saint Paul 1. ad Cor. 10. v. 11. These things are written for our correction in whom the worlds ends are found meaning six ages of the world are past in us and now the seventh age flowes away apace Be therefore saith Saint Peter alluding to this sense wise or prudent and so live every one of you now as if you were to close the actions of all the ages gone before you and to carry away a blessed Crown of glory with you if you make your selves secure of your happy end by leading a holy life so long as here you live For in every one of you the whole world hath an end since this is the last age of it and since it is the end that Crowns the worke he bids us be wise and watching pray that our end may be here holy to make our happiness endless in the life to come which is to have no end and here the Apostle mindful of his own error bids us take heed we fall not into the same who remembers he fell asleep when Jesus prayed in the garden and to that sleeping he imputes his revolting from his
Fishermen knowing and learned Doctours Teachers in fine to all the World convincers and confounders of all humane Learning that stood in opposition to their doctrine Divine and all this in an instant without learning any other Lesson then to dilate to open the affections of their Hearts unto the Holy Ghost where by the Illustration of his holy Grace he reads unto them in a moment all Divinity by onely teaching them the Art of Divine Love by onely giving them indeed the grace to love God only and what is lovely in the eyes of his heavenly Majesty Stay beloved if this be all why may not we hope once a year at least to learn as good a lesson 'T is but renewing every year as on this blessed Day the solemn vowes we made in Holy Baptisme 't is but reiterating now those good purposes we make some times of the amendment of our lives 't is but dilating and opening our hearts to this holy Spirit and begging of him that he will there work in us what we cannot work our selves the new creation of a new Will in us by our renunciation of the old and this by the Illustration of his holy Grace which alone is able to light and lead us up to heaven which alone is able to teach us all Truth and afford us all the comfort that our Hearts can wish The Holy Church would otherwise surely pray to day for some thing else which yet she doth not in the Prayer above The Gospel JOHN 14. v. 23 c. 23 Jesus answered and said unto them If any love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make abode with him 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my words And the word which you heard is not mine but his that sent me the Fathers 25 These things have I spoken to you abiding with you 26 But the Paraclete the holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and suggest unto you all things whatsoever I shall say unto you 27 Peace I leave to you my peace I give to you not as the world giveth do I give to you Let not your heart be troubled nor fear 28 You have heard that I said to you I go and I come to you If you loved me you would be glad verily that I go to the Father because the Father is greater then I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to passe that when it shall come to passe you may believe 30 Now I will not speak many things to you For the Prince of this world cometh and in me he hath not any thing 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father hath given me commandement so do I. Arise let us go hence The Explication 23. THis answer of our Saviour was to the interrogatory of the Apostle Judas Thaddaeus the brother to St. James the lesser demanding ver 22. why Christ was pleased to manifest himself to the Apostles onely and not to the whole world because he said to them The world doth not see me but ye see me which though spoken in the present tense was meant in the future alluding to what the Apostles did after see in him namely his Passion Death Resurrection and Ascension And the reason why he did manifest himself to them and not to the world was as St. Austin observes because they did love him but the world did not so and this I premise to shew that what followes here alludes to this as to the effects which the love of God procures in those that do truly love him as this Gospel begins to day with an effect of love keeping Gods commandements which taken as here it lyes in this Gospel is rather an absolute assertion then a relative answer to a question and yet in truth it was the answer that Christ gave to the question of St. Jude as above in the immediate verse before whereunto Jesus answers saying If any love me he will keep my word as who should say as I loving my Father keep his command of coming into this world to manifest his glory to you that love him and by you to all the world though not immediately to them all as I mean to do to you So do not think that after my Resurrection when the Holy Ghost shall come down and inflame the hearts of many Infidels and Gentiles with the love of God that then I shall onely manifest my self to you alone that are my Apostles and now are onely those that love me no no then I shall be so manifested to others that they will love me as you do and this shall be the testimony that I give you thereof that their love shall be such as by vertue thereof they will keep my Commands my words will be to them dear as now they are to you and as you receiving the holy Ghost receive with him both my Self and my Father for we three are all one inseparable Substance or Essence however distinct and several Persons just so shall the whole Blessed and undivided Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost enter into the hearts of all that love me and keep my Commandments or my word and consequently to them as well as to you shall I be then manifested And in this sense you see this verse is an exact answer to the question of S. Jude which otherwise seems a meer disparate or an incongruous reply to that interrogatory And from hence we may perceive how hard it is to understand the true sense of almost any part of holy Writ unlesse we see clearly the connexion it hath to precedent or consequent parts thereof so what S. Jude meant of his personal or visible manifestation to these few onely that were eye-witnesses of his Actions he means of his spiritual or invisible beeing made known to all the world by his Faith and doctrine received and embraced amongst them through the preaching of the Apostles and their Successours But we must note that coming or going of God who is at all times in all places by reason of his immensity is not to be understood as if he did come or go from one place to another but he therefore is said to come or go because he operates or operates not at all times or in all places alike for his operation is his coming and so every new inspiration of grace we have is as if God made a new visite unto us within the temple of our soules where he delights to be and though he be never separated from us locally since he fills all place yet he is said to come a new into our hearts every time we produce or exercise a new act of love unto him and if we continue one Act all our lives then he doth all that time operate within us and so consequently is said not only to come unto us but even to live with us to
sanctity that any Christian can hope to arrive unto so sweetly doth holy Church adapt her Prayer unto the doctrine of her preachers that so the layity may in little carry away what the preachers deliver to them at large The Epistle 1 Pet. 3.8 8 Be ye all unanimous in Prayer having compassion lovers of the fraternity merciful modest humble 9 Not rendring evil for evil nor curse for curse but contrariwise blessing for unto this are you called that you may by inheritance possesse a Benediction 10 For he that will love life and see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak not guile 11 Let him decline from evil and do good let him enquire peace and follow it 12 Because the eyes of the Lord are upon the just and his eares are open unto their prayers but the countenance of the Lord upon them that do evill things 13 And who is he that can hurt you if you be emulatours of good 14 But and if you suffer for justice Blessed are ye And the fear of them fear ye not and be not troubled 15 But sanctifie our Lord Christ in your hearts The Explication 8. St. Peter here recapitulates some of the chief vertues which make a perfect Christian No marvel he begins with unanimity be it in prayer or otherwise in all common Actions because this vertue is radicated in the B. Trinity the ground of all Christianity for there the three distinct Persons are not onely all of one mind but of one essence too in imitation whereof Christians are taught to be all of one mind all ayming still in every action at the honour and glory of one onely God as the Angels do The Apostle puts compassion next to shew that each Christian should be as sensible of his neighbours sufferings as his own soul is sensible of the pain in any member of his own body This vertue flowes indeed from the former unanimity for where there is but one mind or soul as it were there must be one and the same sense or compassion And this vertue of compassion extends as well towards our being sensible of each good in our neighbour and zealous to imitate it as of any evil we see in him out of a zeal to remedy or cure the same So excellent is the unity of Christianity Hence also flowes the next vertue lovers of the fraternity to shew that the grace of our Religion teacheth us to imitate the perfection of nature so to love one another being Brothers in grace as we do that are Brothers in nature When we are bid Be merciful it is as if we were told our compassion must be even from the Bowels of our hearts Modesty and humility are well joyntly recommended together because they are indeed inseparable companions as it were and so in this exteriour vertue modesty rendring the whole person exteriourly gratefull and in her inseparable companion humility S. Peter closeth up his enumeration of vertues ending with humility because that is indeed both the basis and summity of all others for as it must be the first as captivating mans proud reason unto Faith so if it go not hand in hand up to the top of perfection with other vertues even with charity the Queen of them all that great Queen cannot stand fast in her throne but upon the feet of humility 9. S. Peter here forbids not the flowing of Justice or execution of just revenge when it is legal but onely private retaliation of evil for evil and exhorts that each private person blesse and not curse those which do him mischief because as the end of all our temporal evils is eternal Blisse so we must in hope of that for our selves Blesse those that do us evil O rare perfection of Christianity 10. By these three next verses taken out of Davids mouth S. Peter proveth that to repay evil for evil is our natures propension but bids us forbear as we will hope to have our own evil deeds towards God forgiven and the little good we do rewarded with eternal life called here seeing good dayes for those are chiefly good which shine with glory over our heads though the dayes of grace here are not deprived of that Epitheton too We are therefore bid refrain our tongues because when they be loose and unbridled that alone begets bad dayes unto us every one judging him to have a bad heart that hath a bad or an unbridled tongue and how can the lips of an ill tongue speak other then guilt when they betray the guiltinesse of their own heart 11. The declining evil and doing good is an abstract of all Christian duty and a perfect rule of Christian perfection 'T is reason to bid us seek peace and follow it as being the special gift of our Saviour which he brought with him from heaven at his birth and then the Angels bestowed it amongst us the holy Ghost did the like at his coming too and Christ at his going left it as his Farewel as hath been said before yet is not here unseasonably repeated 12. By the eye of our Lord understand the piercing knowledge of Almighty God whereby he sees into the secrets of all hearts and seeing them lovers of Justice heares all the prayers they make unto him and grants them all they ask By his Countenance understand here that displeasure he shews at the latter day unto the wicked when he pronounceth the sentence of damnation against them for how ever he doth not damne every man in his actual sin but differrs his justice till the latter day yet he looks on their iniquity that do sin with the same displeasing countenance as at the day of Judgement when it will be a greater torment to behold the displeasure of that countenance then to suffer hell fire O that we could in all Temptations to sin reflect on this Truth so should we avoid the fact that will merit this effect 13. A happy shield against evil to emulate vertue and goodnesse Emulation here imports a vehement zeal and fervour of soul towards vertue not a faint velleity or wish of it but a strong will and action too and so makes a strong shield not onely against all vice but even against all mischief for S. Austin sayes well no body is hurt but by himself by his own sin therefore if all men be emulatours of vertue they are sheltred from all evil or hurt from others And this one of the Churches prayers in Lent assures us of that no adversity shall hurt us if no iniquity dominear over us 14. Doubtlesse those are Blessed that suffer for justice since Jesus Christ who is verity it self hath numbered those among the Blessed nay among those who actually are possessed of heaven as if a patient suffering an unjust persecution here were a heaven to the sufferer even whilest he is in durance and as if God were not content to reward that kind of suffering with future Blisse but with
clear a demonstration of it as deeper souls may make encouraged by these beginnings of my shallow understanding Mean while I shall beseech our whole sodality to say these Prayers with all devotion possible as being such indeed that rightly understood do ravish any tender soul and will make them see the fondnesse of a single-soled devotion in comparison of this which is the Universall Churches Prayer Let me conclude with this one question onely tell me beloved what we may not daâ—e to aske of God Almighty who in this dayes prayer are bid demand more then we dare presume to aske And why because no guilt of conscience is so great but he that is the searcher of our hearts can see the depth thereof and seeing mercifully pardon it through the abundance of his pitty towards us nay then he commonly gives a more ample pardon when we acknowledge his mercy exceeds as much our desires as it doth our merits when we rely upon him for prevenient grace to ask him pardon for our sinnes and that done with a soul contrite then build upon his goodnesse for the rest when we leave it to him what proportion of mercy he will show us since he being God cannot give so little but it is much more then we his creatures can deserve and since his goodnesse is such as he cannot chuse but give more then he bids us aske since we must alwayes ask as wanting creatures he alwayes gives as an abounding Creatour giving all things to nothing rather then want a subject to bestow his bounties on and we are lesse then nothing when he gives repentance to our sinfull souls O! this beloved is the pouring out of his mercy this is the out-doing goodnesse of Almighty God which in the prayer above we so much magnifie and in so doing glorifie his blessed name whence we may one day hope to see our blisse our glory flowing also since therefore God is glorified here in time that he may render us in heaven glorious for all eternity The Epistle 1. Cor. 15.1 c. 1 Brethren I give you to understand the Gospel which I have preached to you which also you received in which also you stand 2 By the which also you are saved after what manner I preached unto you if you keep it unlesse you have believed in vain 3 For I delivered unto you first of all which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures 4 And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures 5 And that he was seen of Cephas and after that of the eleven 6 Then was he seen of more then five hundred brethren together of which many remain untill this present and some are asleep 7 Moreover he was seen of James then of all the Apostles 8 And last of all of an abortive he was seen also of me 9 For I am the least of the Apostles who am not worthy to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God 10 But by the grace of God I am that which I am and his grace in me hath not been void but I have laboured more aboundantly then all they yet not I but the grace of God with me The Explication 1. THat is I call again here to your mind So runs the Greek Text where the Vulgar sayes we are given to understand 2. Meaning if you work according to your belief so here faith without works was preached by Saint Paul to be vain as who should say no faith were saving but that which by charitie is operative 3. Hence it is clear the Apostle did first deliver by word of mouth the doctrine which he after writ so by tradition we come first and chiefly to Christianitie by preaching not by writing for faith is by hearing Rom. 10.17 And whereas here we read of delivery the Greeks write tradition and that according to the Scriptures 4. That is as was literally foretold by the figure of Jonas three dayes in the Whales belly allegorically of Isaac delivered safe to his mother three dayes after he had been preserved from death though offered up thereunto by Abraham 5. By Cephas understand Peter who was the first man Christ appeared to though he had before appeared to Mary Magdalene as we read Mark the last v. 9. Then to the eleven Apostles That was in the Octave of Easter when Saint Thomas was also present for at first he appeared onely to the other ten though the Greeks read to twelve meaning to the whole Colledge of Apostles which may stand good though one or two were absent as an act is said to be the whole Councills act when it is past by the greater number 6. He was seen to those five hundred as in the aire or from some high place that all might see him at once to shew them rather then to tell them he was risen for it is not said in this Text that he spoke to any of these five hundred persons And it is most probable this apparition was in the mountain of Galilee which was by our Saviour foretold so that this company probably went thither purposely and as foretold what would happen This apparition was before the Ascension for this mountain was in Galilee not in Judaea as was the mount Olivet whence our Saviour did ascend 7. This was an apparition of speciall favour to Saint James of Alphaeus called the brother of Christ and succeeding him in his sea at Hierusalem So our Saviour was not content once onely and that in common to appear unto Saint James with the rest of the Apostles and peradventure with the five hundred in the verse above but he was pleased specially to grace his brother so called because he was like our Saviour by a private appearing to him after these publick apparitions to him and others 8. Saint Paul calls himself abortive because he was born to the Apostolate after the time of Christ his choosing his Apostles by a speciall calling even from heaven after Christ had ascended to his heavenly Father So S. Ambrose and S. Chrysostome expound it Yet there want not other pious expositions of this word by other Fathers as if by this S. Paul would render himself lesse considerable So the next verse clearly saies and needs no further exposition 9 10. By the grace of God I am an Apostle and the Doctour of the Gentiles and this grace hath not been void idle or lazie in me but operative according to the diligence of a soul inflamed with the love of God and making his free will a servant to grace by acting freely what by holy inspirations he was called unto The Epistle ends at void but the verse goes on as above He saies more aboundantly then all they this may seem an ill arrogancy after so much humiliation of himself but it is not so for by more aboundantly he means onely by overcoming more vice not that he professed more virtue namely
therein Just thus it is with holy Churches preaching admit a million of people be assembled to one sole Preacher in the pulpit is his Sermon ever the worse because it dynts the soul of every hearer there and moves him so as if the Preacher knew the heart of every auditour he had whom yet he never saw in all his life nor knowes him now he sees him would any man condemn this Preacher No admire him rather and in him adore Almighty God who with one speech could touch the quick of every soul alive And so it is with holy Churches prayers the commoner they are the more peculiarly they touch each pious persons soul if rightly understood they seem to reach as far as all the preachers of the Church can scrue into a soul and farther too for who so sayes them with a zeal suitable to the Spirit whence they flow he like a river runs into the sea whence all the waters have their spring and is not lost although he beâ— not found but rather swells to be a sea of spirit while he falls out of his private devotions into the Ocean of the Churches prayer and sayes to himself Matt. 23.23 These things ought to be done and those things ought not to be omitted O Christians what a sovereign cure have we to day against the worst contagion in the Church the spirit of division of faction Say but this prayer devoutly read but the lessons of the other services of holy Church to day agreeable to this prayer and I shall hope to hear no more of faction in the Church of division in the house of the Holy Ghost of dissention among Roman Catholicks much lesse amongst the Priests of holy Church for in them it were a contagion worse then diabolical who as they are all Ministers of one onely God so should they all agree in one to guide the souls they are to govern in the spirit of peace and unity of love and charity which they shall never teach better then when they give example of it to their flocks The Epistle Ephes 4.1 1 I therefore prisoner in our Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called 2 With all humilitie and mildnesse with patience supporting one another in charity 3 Carefull to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace 4 One body and one spirit as you are called in one hope of your vocation 5 One Lord one Faith one Baptisme 6 One God and Father of all which is over all and by all and in us all 7 Who is blessed world without end Amen The Explication 1. THe cause why he beseecheth them is in regard they had the happinesse to be made of Gentiles Christians and so equall with the Jewes that were the chosen people of God He calls himself prisoner in our Lord because he was in prison for our Lord for teaching the faith of Christ Walking here is understood living Note the word Vocation is of speciall regard and so imports a speciall obligation they had to comply with their said vocation which was indeed their conversion from Gentilisme to Christianitie 2. This verse specifies the eminent marks of Christians from Gentiles the one proud harsh furious quarrelsome the other therefore humble milde patient loving that so it might appeare a religious change to come from one contrary to another Supporting each other imports bearing with each others infirmities In Charitie is to say by or with Charitie repending good for evil 3. By unitie of spirit is here meant unanimitie that is though in bodies divided yet in mind they should be one and make it their studie so to be thus to comply with the care thereof commended if not commanded also This verse is hugely against all schismaticall division in the Church receding from the common Doctrine to follow the fancies of private spirits By the word bond is understood removing private sense in point of religion for a bond imports a tie between parties and so abandons singularitie when it must binde many together in the peace of unanimitie 4. This verse is exhortatorie stirring up to be all as one body and one soul that as you are called to one hope of Heaven by this your vocation to Christianitie so you goe all thither as one man since the Church is properly called one civill man while all the Members of it are regulated by one Law of Christ by one holy Spirit And indeed Saint Paul useth a huge Art telling us we have all one hope namely Heaven thereby to make us tend all one way to the attaining thereof 5. One Lord Christ Jesus one Faith that which the Apostles preached one Baptisme that which is given in due matter and forme applied with due intention water accompanying these words I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost according as holy Church intendeth when this Sacrament is administred 6. In this verse the Apostle summes up all he said before As we have but one God who is our common Father so we must have but one spirit lest we degenerate from being his children who will own none but those that are one in him and one to one another all others are bastards and cannot be brothers because not begotten of him that knowes no division but consists of unitie and simplicitie No God is above all men by his Majestie and Deitie he is through all things by his power and efficacie in them penetrating and passing through them all as freely as we doe through the Aire in all things by his essence and being in us Christians by his grace which makes us be his children and by his glory which makes us be his heires Others understand by this triple division the Apostle means that God the Father is above us all by creation God the Sonne by redemption runs through us with the Sea of his passion God the Holy Ghost is in us all by his sanctifying grace The Application 1. SAint Paul being by his imprisonment separated from his Converts the Ephesians and desirous in litle to send them much counsell how they might walk worthy of the vocation in which they were called summes up here those virtues that are most necessary for new converted souls Humilitie as the foundation whereupon they must build their monuments of a blessed Eternitie in imitation of Almightie God who raised all the fabricke of humane salvation upon the Basis of his own abasement Mildnesse in testimony they were no more children of wrath and indignation but of their milde Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ A charitable Patience that is to say for love of God supporting bearing with one another as the onely means to keep themselves in favour with Almighty God whom they hourely much more exasperate then any man can do them And Unanimitie as the badge of perfect Christianitie testifying they are onely true lovers of one another who are right believers in Jesus Christ
then none ever had done before nor since but by commission from our Lord. 3. And here we see in this verse the Jewes were scandalized at him for presuming to claime a power they thought was so much above him as they held it blasphemie in our Saviour to exercise the same whence Saint Marke recounting this story addes c. 2. v. 7. that they said who can remit sinne but God alone yet these their thoughts Saint Matthew here doth not say they expressed but that Christ knew them as well as if they had done so as is clear by the following verse 4. Note by Christ's seeing their thoughts we are here to understand he sees them by his owne power not as Prophets who by revelation see and know hidden mysteries but as illuminated by his own not any extrinsecall spirit as he was God the knower and searcher of hearts So by this they did not onely see he was a Prophet but also that he was God since it was onely foretold of the great Prophet the Messias that he should remit sinnes which Christ to prove himself to be did practise upon this paralytick 5. It is not onely easier to say to a lame man walke then to remit sinne but it is rasier to create the whole world then to forgive sinne and this because sinne is a nothing more removed from God then any other nothing can be So to draw being out of any other not being or nothing requires lesse power then to give the being of grace to him that was annihilated in the nothing of sinne as who should say one were lesse a child of God by being a sinner then nothing is in respect of being a creature For nothing is onely negatively or privatively opposite to God but sinne is diametrically opposite as a contrary inconsistent with him nay there are no contraries so opposite as God and sinne are Lastly the remission of sinne produceth an effect supernaturall to wit grace but creation gives onely a naturall being to a creature Note here Christ doth not aske whether is it easier to forgive sinne or to cure the sick but to say thy sinnes are forgiven or to say rise and walke for though it may seem the first is harder yet in earnest the last is the hardest because the first cannot so easily be disproved as the last for if one say rise and walke unlesse it be done it is easily said a man spoke beyond his power but t is not so if one say thy sinne is forgiven thee for none can tell but it may be true 6. Note by the Sonne of Man in this verse is proved that Christ as man had power to forgive sinnes else he had come short in power of his Apostles to whom as to men he gave faculty to remit sinnes also and therefore this facultie must needs be more proper to himself as man since no man can give another what is not in his own power And this power of superexcellence in Christ consists in foure things The first that the merit and power of his passion is it which operates in the Sacraments chiefly The second that in his name Sacraments are made holy The third that he is the instituter of them The fourth that he by his speciall prerogative can give the effect of Sacraments without the Sacraments remission of sinnes or grace And this power is proper to Christ alone for neither Saint Peter nor any Pope else ever had or can have it That he speakes to the paralytick not to the Pharisees argues they were murmuring at him as if they did not believe him so he turns to the sick man saying Rise take up thy bed and goe home and by this done as well as said it was proved evidently both that he was God and man for the cure was wrought to prove he had power on earth to forgive sinnes That you may know saith he the Sonne of God can remit sinnes I confirm it by this miracle bidding this sicke man rise take up his bed and walke as who should say I confirme one truth by another my being God by shewing you I am the Messias and can heale both soules and bodies too 7. 8. By this act of doing as he was bid the sick man gave undoubted proof to them all that as well his sinnes were remitted as his disease cured for they seeing him obey the sudden command who was before not able to stirre fell all out of admiration into a fear of that power for which they glorified God to wit chiefly that of forgiving sins which they had not before seen any proof of in other Prophets doing it in their own names as Christ now did though often they had seen and heard of corporall cures and great miracles done by other Prophets So this admiration and the effect thereof this their fear was grounded chiefly in that power they see Christ exercise of remitting sins and of proving the same power by another of curing the paralytick also of his corporall disease and hence they seeing admired admiring feared and fearing glorified God who had given such power namely of forgiving sinnes unto man for that was it Christ undertook to prove that the sonne of man had power to forgive sinnes which when first they heard they thought he blasphemed but now they rested satisfied it was true and glorified God because they found it true by the testimony of this prodigious miracle The Application 1. SEe how suitable this Gospel is to the Epistle What was the cure done here but an operation of mercy in Jesus Christ giving this sick man first the gift of faith next that of charity to work a sorrow in him for his sinnes and lastly the effect of that sorrow absolution from the guilt of sinne and restitution of his uselesse limbs to their naturall uses by the corporall cure of his palsie superadded to the spirituall cure of his sinfull soul as was said partly in the Illustration partly in the Explication above 2. So that by this example of Christ his mercy towards the sick man and to those that brought him and to all the rest that were spectatours of the miracle we are taught to be still imploying our charity in works of mercy both corporall and spirituall not to some one onely but to all upon all occasions offered 3. And we may piously perswade our selves this doctrine is to day inculcated the rather because our charity these two last Sundayes past was at a seeming stand or loss of her way by reason of the mists and the eclipse she met with in her march so now she is exhorted to mend her pace to advance the faster yet withall to shew her she stands not altogether upon her own leggs nor moves by her own strength nor can without God please God in the least Therefore she prayes to day that he will mercifully perfect her faith which is the first step to his pleasure by the operation of her charity and yet lest she ascribe the least
more then to undermine him and bring him within the compasse of high treason when I say we see this to be the drift of the Gospel on the Jews part and that our Saviour seeing the naughtiness of their thoughts asks them plainly why they play the hypocrites with him then I presume no man that can tell twenty will marvell to see this dayes Prayer beg fidelity and sincerity of heart in us Christians at least when we see the Pharisaick Jews are convinced of so grosse an infidelity and flattery even when they pretend forsooth a tenderness of conscience and when we hear our Saviour recommend the same fidelity which we petition for to day in commanding them faithfully to render that to Caesar which is Caesars and that to God which is Gods namely their pecuniary tribute to Caesar their religious sincerity to God and that especially when they pretend it as here the Pharisees did though they least intended it Let me therefore beloved beg it as a boon that you all say this Prayer to day with such sincerity of heart as may render it and you gratefull in God Almighties sight and hearing for then shall we pray most consonantly to what the Church doth preach to day and then shall we be sure such our petitions will be granted effectually which are made unto God faithfully and this assurance we have both from the Epistle Gospel and Prayer of this present Sunday A great content I confesse after the fear of so great a losse as we were like to be at for making good the grand design of our work which as yet comes fairly home when we might fear we had been farthest off The Epistle Phil. 1. v. 6. c. 6 We trust in God our Lord Jesus that he which hath begun in you a good work will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus 7 As it is reason for me this to think for you all for that I have you in heart and in my bands and in the defence and the confirmation of the Gospel all you to be partakers of my joy 8 For God is my witness how I covet you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. 9 And this I pray that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding 10 That you may approve the better things that you may be sincere and without offence unto the day of Christ. 11 Replenished with the fruit of justice by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God The Explication 6. THe Apostle here speaks in the plural Number because he writes this Epistle as well in his companions name as his own in Timothies though afterwards himself being onely in Prison and not Timothy he speaks to them in his own person but directs his Epistle as from both to shew them that absent or present they are both of one mind The work he confides to have continued is their conversion By the day of Christ he means the day of Judgement which is that of his second coming the first being his birth-day 7. It is reason indeed for him to conside thus because as their conversion was by means of God his special grace so he presumes the same goodnesse of God will be continued which was begun in them and because he hopes their cooperation will not be wanting to persevere in the faith of Christ as it was not first to accept thereof Hence his charity makes him hope this of them with reason and his faith makes him presume the other of God towards them Yet not so that hence the Reformers can infer as they do out of this place that it is impossible for one who is once called by God and in grace ever to lose the same grace or vocation The Apostles words import no such thing onely a religious hope or confidence he hath they will indeed persevere as they have begun to love serve and honour Almighty God as his following words testifie in this Verse because he professeth here that he prayes continually for their perseverance which argues it is not a thing to be hoped but by endeavours and pains on our parts Nay Saint Paul so plainly speaks to this sense that he seems to say least their own endeavours towards this perseverance should not suffice he hath made it even his hearts desire besides and applies his personal sufferings to this end that God moved by his prayer and persecution may supply what is wanting in them towards perseverance by their own sole endeavours And it is Saint Augustines and the Churches doctrine indeed that justifying grace alone sufficeth not toward perseverance without new favours of more and more grace do inable us to persevere In the close of this verse the Apostle alludes to the hope he hath of Martyrdom for the defence of the faith of Christ against those who oppose it and the confirmation of it in those who have imbraced it And this he means by his joy whereof he prayes they may be made partakers 8. And that he doth thus pray he calls God to witness and doth this with such earnestnesse as if he were not himself happy enough to be in the bowels of Jesus Christ which is in his bosome in Heaven unlesse he might find these Philippians there also or as if his love to them and zeal of their salvations were such that he desired Jesus Christ should have them equally in his breast or bowels of affection with himself Both these senses this text will bear very well as also that by these words Saint Paul professeth he loves them so tenderly that he cannot expresse it otherwise then by saying it is even with the affection of Jesus Christ himself following Christ's instruction Joh. 13.34 Love one another as I have loved you 9. Here he prayeth for the superadded grace which above was said to be necessary to perseverance which is for their increase of charity where that abounds there is wanting neither knowledge of what is the true doctrine of the Church of Christ nor what is the true sense and meaning thereof since by this abundant charity we see the ignorant Apostles were so illuminated that they could and did penetrate into the genuine sense of the deepest mysteries of Christian faith and religion 10. This alludes to the sense as above in the former Verse that by their increase in love and charity they might be able to distinguish between the Apostles Christian and Simon Magus his Judaical and others heretical doctrine as finding that of Christianity the more powerfull and efficacious to salvation It seems by these words the Apostle thinks the pretended charity of hereticks is not sincere love and affection to God and their Neighbour but hath a mixture of hypocrisie in it and makes use of the name of Christ to cover the doctrine of those who indeed are opposite to him by saying this or that is Christ his doctrine which indeed is not so but proves upon a strict examine the sense and doctrine of
so have their names written in the book of life are predestinate and cannot choose but be saved But this is farre from the genuine sense of the Apostle who had before so much inculcated perseverance in good works as in this Epistle we have heard his meaning therefore must be that those who by Baptisme are first adopted children of God and by a holy life preserve their favour in the sight of God are at last written in the book of glory as at first they were in the book of grace as who should say he did exhort them that were first innocents to be at last Saints and so deserve to be finally inrolled Commanders of the heavenly Militia after they had been once listed souldiers of the militant Church of Christ The Application 1. THe doctrine of sincerity last Sunday inculcated is this day prosecuted by S. Paul to the Philippians and lest they should misunderstand him he tells them plainly he requires as sincere a Christianity in them as they found to be in himself while he makes his own rule of life their pattern and example to follow him by and doth not fear to fright them from their onely nominall Christianity by declaring those to be enemies to the Crosse of Christ who do not really sincerely take up the same and carry it as well as they pretend to do it who have not their conversation in heaven while they presume to hope their bodies shall go thither though their souls be wallowing here in the mire of flesh and bloud Finally lest they should be deterr'd from following S. Pauls Rule out of a despair of arriving to his perfection in Christianity which in those dayes was and still should be Synonyma with saintity he exhorts them at least to follow the examples of the two virtuous Matrones here set before their eyes Euodia and Syntiche as also those of his sincere companion though not an Apostle and of the rest of his Coadjutors in the propagation of the faith of Christ 2. Yes yes beloved 't is a holy sincerity that now our charity must bring along with her to her journeys end and therefore no marvell 't is two dayes together inculcated by holy Church nor can there be a greater sincerity then that to day before our eyes that of the Primitive Church and consequently that is it we should endeavour now to have indeed and not to fain for as we glory to be Christian Catholicks so we should endeavour to be as sincerely such as they from whom we are descended 3. And for as much as holy Church knows rightly well there is no saintity on earth free from iniquity no sincerity that is not waited on by some hypocrisie or other therefore while she preacheth perfection she prudently prayes for absolution especially now that she draws to the close of her annuall piety now that she brings her charity towards her journeys end lest vanity runne away with part of her holy labours For that is the safest step to saintity which tramples on iniquity treads it under foot those stand firmest in the grace of God that are alwayes begging new favours by asking pardon for old offences and they shew sincerity of their love to God who desire to cancell all their obligations to the devil who are not content with pardon for their guilt of sinne unlesse they may be loosened from the bands thereof from their affections unto sinne And for as much as charity is taught to march out of the field of this life with such a sincerity with such a sincere desire of saintity Therefore holy Church brings her towards her journeyes end now praying for it as above The Gospel Mat. 9. v. 18. c. 18 As he was speaking this unto them behold a certain Governour approched and adored him saying Lord my daughter is even now dead but come lay thy hand upon her and she shall live 19 And Jesus rising up followed him and his disciples 20 And behold a woman which was troubled with an issue of bloud twelve years came behind him and touched the hemme of his garment 21 For she said within her self If I shall touch onely his garment I shall be safe 22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said have a good heart daughter thy faith hath made thee safe And the woman became whole from that hour 23 And when Jesus was come into the house of the Governour and saw minstrels and the multitude keeping a stirre he said 24 Depart for the wench is not dead but sleepeth And they laughed him to scorn 25 And when the multitude was put forth he entred in and held her hand and the maid arose 26 And this bruit went forth into all that countrey The Explication 18. THat is as he was giving a reason why his disciples did not fast so rigorously as those of John the Baptist did and as also the Pharisees were wont to do which were onely voluntary and not legall fasts Then came in this Governour who was a chief officer in the Synagogue called Jairus which signifies Illuminatour or teacher of the people By Adoration is here literally meant falling at Christs feet which yet he did not do before news was brought him by his servants that now his daughter was dead lo then he believes firmly and in testimony thereof prostrates himself and in the very manner of his language saying now my daughter is dead he blames his not believing and asking help sooner but to make amends for his not hoping Christ could cure his sick daughter he invites him to go home and revive her though she now were dead not that he doubted but his power at a distance would suffice but that he had heard Christ was accustomed to touch those whom he healed in Capharnaam and this was on the sea coast of Galilee not farre from the same town famous for Christ his miracles 19. That this is the genuine sense of the verse above is gathered the rather from Christ his going immediately to undertake the cure even after the same manner namely by a touch of his sacred hand for we do not hear any rebuke given to Jairus for want of Faith but Christ resting satisfied his belief was full resolved to give him full satisfaction to his Faith and hope by reviving as was desired his dead daughter taking his disciples as witnesses to this his gracious condescending and working this miracle Yet this notwithstanding the Centurions Faith was above this of Jairus who onely asked a word saying Mat. 8.8 speak the word onely and held himself not worthy the honour of Christ his entring his house 20 21. 22. Note this woman was a Gentile and it wants not mystery to have the twelve yeares of her diseases continuation upon her here made mention of in regard it alludes to the twelve years age of Jairus daughter whom Christ was going to raise from death to life and thereby gives us to understand Christ by his ordaining to do those two miracles at