man of fervent Prayer Humiltiy Reverence miraculous Patience and forgiveness all evidenced in his Christian Deportment First his Faith through his eye S. Stephen stedfastly looking up into heaven there saw blessed visions even before his death while here on earth saw Christ standing at the right hand of God Mark that posture of encouragement our Creed Article telleth us of Christ sitting at the right hand of God but our St. Stephen here sees him standing i. in a readinesse of assistance defence And if Christ thus stand with his suffering servants who shall withstand their happiness but that as the sufferings of Christ abound in us even so also shall our consolation abound through him 2 Cor. 1. Prayer is all his shield v. 59. Calling upon God He who is invited to the Fountaine needs not go to the streams nor using Lord alone a name of power but through Justice not of willingness and therefore adding Jesus Dulce salvatore nomen the saving name of Mercy The good Angels and blossed Saints in Heaven are willing but not able uncharitable men on Earth neither of them Onely Christ is both and therefore invocated here Able because Lord willing because Jesus Quem in coelis quem in terris Psal 73. Whom then have I in Heaven c. His Charity 's extensive yet wisely begins at home would all men would do so for spirituall charity He takes care to recommend his soul to the right owner Col. 3. Lord Jesu take thine own into thine own custody Souls then survive the bodies in spite of Atheists who think but what they wish and are immediatly determined in their state of Bliss or Misery in spite of other Hereticks St. Stephen here quite contrary to most is all for his soul and nothing for the body For alas Quid proderit mundus Matth. 16.26 as our blessed Lord saith Matth. 16. c. the soul being of more price then all were there as many worlds as Empedocles and Democritus imagined * Laertius in vita Democriti i. Thousands Save This and save all and so the contrary according to that Dutch Proverb one of the wholsomest things I ever heard of from them Goods lost nothing lost Credit lost much lost Soul lost all lost Next unto Faith in God he adjoyneth Love to Men the best evidence in Foro exteriori without which all the rest had been but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tinkling 1 Cor. 13.3 not a well-tuned Cymball But He a true Disciple of his great good Master Luke 23.34 Qui pendebat tamen petebat as Augustine sweetly who as he hung upon the Cross prayed Ignosce pater c. So this holy Saint forgives his enemies that is more then to give he that gives doth it Desuo of his goods but who so forgives gives De se something of himself yet more he prayes for them though enemies mortall enemies and in hot blood when he scarce had any time to think of his friends Lord lay nt c. more sorry for them Serm. 5. de Stepha then for his own ruine saith St. Augustine because eternall death followed their impiety but his Death eternall life And was not this the Apex the Height of Charity And 't is remarkable that he kneeled down when he prayed for his enemies that stood when for himselfe shewing the greatnesse of their sin that could not easily be forgiven and therefore the earnestnesse of his Piety Qui plus illorum dolebat peccata quam sua vulnera Cajetan in locum that did more lament their Sins then his own wounds Magnus clamor magnus amor his lowd voyce shewed his great affection and his kneeling down his reverend gesture in devotion the God of both parts challengeth both Exteriores actus demonstrent interiores affectus Dan. 6.10 Acts 9.40 cap. 26.36 Luke 22.41 In praying either stand as a servant before his master or kneel as a subject to his Prince Daniel prayed kneeling so St. Peter so St. Paul so Christ himself And the Centurists acknowledge this gesture the most ancient and most usefull in all sacred solemnities in all Ages among Christian Congregations Magdeburgenses centuria secunda And therefore not to kneel except in case of corporall infirmity argueth either Ignorance or Arrogance or some other worse infirmity of Mind And herein t is Saint Hierom so commends Asella for devotion Epist ad Marcellum that her knees were grown Brawny like the knees of Camels with her pious Geniculation Saint Stephen you see here used both postures and kneeling for his most earnest and last prayer Loco citato Wherein he was heard saith Augustine Si Stephanus non sic orasset Ecclesia Paulum non habuisset For if St. Stephen had not thus prayed the Church had never had St. Paul a Convert And Fulgentius saith whither St. Stephen went before being slain with stones thither St. Paul followed being holpen with his prayers And when he had thus spoken he fell asleep Such and so pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints asleep in respect both of Rest Resurrection Graves are grown but * Isa 57.2 Beds and Churchyards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. sleeping places so here like Jacob his pillow is of stone whereon lying down as well as if on Down Saith Damianus Serm. de Steph. he taketh rest and fell asleep Foelix somnus it was an happy sleep being joyned with such rest that rest with pleasure that pleasure with eternity Thus blest St. Stephen as Nissen observes Oratione de Stephan esteemed the Ring of his persecutors with which he was inclosed as his Crown and every stone flung at him as a pretious one as a pretious Diamond so that that of David might be applied to him Psal 21.3 Thou hast set a Crown upon my head I a Crown of Proto-martyrdom upon his Name and on his Soul a Crown of Glory Anno Christi 35. POEM 7. STtout Champion of the Truth who by Dispute First Rescu'dst it and didst her Foes confute By Dint of Argument irrefragable Which they to Answer or resist unable To harder motives do themselves betake Even Threats and Stones but vain thy Faith to shake Who So through Sphaeres transparent Christ doth Ey Begins blest visions here nor fears to dy Captain of Martyrs Thou didst lead the van Of that same Noble Army you began To seal with bloud the Christian Faith's defence Teaching us to take Heaven by violence Thy Soul breath'd forth in Charitable groans Return'd a showre of Prayers for one of Stones Therefore blest Saint 'T is but a due Renown Thy Name and Day wear the chief Martyrs Crown Vouchsafe us the like Heavenly Visions Lord That we to Thee may Tongues Hearts Lives afford And for thy sake in mean time while we live May those that stone us like this Saint forgive The COLLECT PRAYER The Epistle Acts 7. from verse 55. to the end The
life-giving bread so that the Schools in Generall and many of the Fathers where opinioned from this John 6. that there is a kind of divine seed infused by the Eucharist not only into the souls but into the bodies also of faithfull Receivers whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vivifying Quality inclineth and as 't were fitteth them to a Reviviction non Disputo sed Credo ut Credo Edo how far the words may bear it I dispute not but believe him that said it John 6.54 whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day The Ascention of Christ. matt 28. mark 16. luk 24. * * 50. And he led them out as farre as Bethany and he lift up his hands and blessed them 51. And it came to passe while he blessed them he was parted from them and carryed upp into heauen Here the Plate POEM 16. Upon this day as the Sweet Prophet sings The Sun arose with healing in his wings The Sun of Righteousnesse which lately sate In a Cloud Red as Bloud yet now in state He reapproacheth with Refulgent Rayes Cheering our sadness Lengthning of our Days Our declinations of Mortality Into a Solstice of Eternity This day the Lord made and it sorrow marr'd Nay This day made the Lord that is declar'd His Mercy on others many wonders show'd But now his Power one on Himself bestow'd This stronger Samson breaks the cords and bands Of death and Hell with his Triumphant hands See honest Joseph here from Prison come In Christ Returning from deaths dungeon The Gates of Gaza Samson bare away But Christ the Gates of death unhing'd to Day Stout Daniel here from fierce companions free While Christ returns from vanquish'd Divels See Here is that Temple which Jews did destroy Yet as foretold repaired the third day Here Jonah too the whale doth cast on shore Now the devouring Grave doth Christ restore Which Morsell hath Death's stomack so sick made Hee 'l one day vomit all that 's therein laid Mean time the Grave 's well Metamorphosed Thus warm'd by Christ Fear not to go to bed For though what 's sown do dy yet see the Graine With gay advantages revives again In stead of mouldring Drought Green-Flourishing Each single vertue many Multiplying Christ thus our humane Nature did calcine Not Transubstantiate into divine But what was naturall Spiritualize By the exaltation of the Qualities More then Angelick Beuty Crowns that Face Where the Forme of a servant late took place That Body new Agility doth move Who 's Center 's not below now but above Enfranchis'd too from Earth's necessities And supports humane by Divine supplies Needs neither Rest Food Raiment as before As being to hunger thirst and tire no more And when Christ fed since 't was not Him to nourish But onely his Disciples Faith to cherish And in his Body rais'd those wounds and scars Became the brightest parts in their orb stars Such the Prerogative spiritual is Of bodies glorifi'd of Christ and His. First fruits imply the Later look what he Injoy'd we shall for act though not degree Each vessel full of true felicity According to its Receptivity If we mean while but rise from graves of sin And Transitories which most buried in If of such Bats we pitch an Eagles flight And to be where this Carcass is delight Then doubt not but who thus the first partake The second Resurrection bless'd shall make Thus by the resurrection of the dead The Living's Faith is chiefly comforted The COLLECT The Epistle Col. 3. ver 1. unto 8. The Gospel John 20. ver 1. to 11. Almighty God which thorow thy only begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life we humbly beseech thee that as by thy speciall grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect through Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth c. Vpon Ascension Day or Holy Thursday DISQUISITION 14. WEe may well say of this Feast as the Jews of that same Sabbath John 19. John 19.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this is an High Day dies Solennis a day of Joy to all Generations both in respect of Christ our Lord and of all true Christian people as being the first day of Christs Ascension in the flesh for his Deity cannot be said either to ascend or descend this being the first day of his sitting in joy and glory rest and triumph The Proem at the right hand of God And as to our selves This the first day as it were of our right to Heaven the first day that our Nature entred there whence we have both a Priviledg and an Assurance to follow as this day the sentence of our corruption was changed and in stead of that curse in the beginning Earth thou art c. it was now said unto our Nature Ascend to Heaven and which never was to Angels Sit thou at my right hand c. Heb. 1. Sure Heb. 1.13 an inestimable happinesse was Christs personall Society his bodily Presence while he lived on earth could the hardened Jews have seen or seeing have perceived it but Light came into the world and darknesse comprehended it not They like the brutish Gadarens had rather have their swine then this pearle while the devout Saint Augustine made it you know the chiefest of his chiefe desires Romam in Flore Paulum in Cathredra Christam in Carne S. August 3 chief desires To have seen widowed Roome in her Virgin Foelicity to have heard that Divine Oracle Saint Paul out of the Pulpit but above all to have embraced his Redeemer in the flesh And could then have sung his Swann like Anthem the Nunc dimittis as cheerfully as old Simeon could willingly have closed his eyes with that blest object How full of joy needs must his presence be on earth in whose presence is fulnesse of joy in heaven I and who still carryed Heaven along with him And so fill'd with this joy of his presence were his Apostles he having oft miraculously sed them by Land saved them by Sea instructed them both by Sea and Land that they could not with patience endure once to think of his abscence or hear of his Departure and therefore one of them to enjoy him longer disswadeth him from his sufferings Mat. 16. though he be called Satan for his labour the rest in a sad copartnership of sorrow lament the death and losse of him Mat. 16.22 All his other actions were desiderabilia but this parting as another death here their affections cry out with the Pilgrims of Emmaus Mane nobiscum Domine we have now most need of thee Advesperascit For now the dark evening draweth on c. All of them at his Final valediction his telling them of his Ascending to Glory seem impatiently unwilling to stay behind him John 13.37 John 13.
Coelum corporale Saint Austin Coelum 3. spirituale super intellectuale the Corporal Heaven saith he conteins the Spheres and whole materiall Fabrick the Spiritual One is the Habitacle of Angels all blessed Spirits the Super-intellectual is a Place apart a Sanctū sanctorum solely appropriated to the Deity and thither saith he Christ ascended as the Apostle meaneth Eph. 4.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 farr above all heavens Ephes 4. into that true Paradise that habitation of light that light inaccessible the Kingdom of Heaven But read we not of others that ascended before Christ yes but like those that rose before him with difference enough Enoch indeed walked with God Gen. 5.24 and was taken away Gen. 5. and Elijah found a Coach-way to Heaven 2. King 2. So me dare not think these bodily ascended 2 King 2. but as 't is said of Moses Deut. 34. that God buried them no man knowing of their sepulchre unto this day Others dreaming that they are still alive reserved in some by part of the world personally to fight with Antichrist but suâ fruantur insaniâ let them have their Phansie to themselves Greg. the great in locum while we here distinguish with Gregory Homo purus Adjutorio indigebat These though purest of men wanted supporters you see a Chariot from Heaven and Angels to draw it but Christ by his own power whereby he first made all things lifted himself now above all things nay indeed Causa fuit ejus Ascensio His Ascension though later in time yet in order of Nature before was the sole efficient of their elevation as shall be one day of ours Next for the Instruments of his Ascension Ps 104 3. Act. 1.9.11 a cloud saith the text received him out of their sight and not unprophesied posuit Nubem vehiculum Psalm 104. He it was that made the Clouds his Chariots and rode upon the wings of the wind I that cloud was the Canopy of the King of glory which the blessed Angels carried over him while he was now going to that high Court of Parliament the Court of the most high to treat about a Peace 'twixt Heaven and Earth A cloud received him out of their sight we cannot without a just Reprehension pry with curiosity where God hath interposed a cloud of secresie Act. 1.11 and therefore let not the Piety of our Affections spend it self in vain desires of an Earthly Pilgrimage to see the pretended steps of our Ascending Saviour the Pressures of his Feet still on Mount Olivet but rather veiw and trace his spirituall footsteps I am sure more certain less expensive in his sacred Oracles of Scriptures for thereunto are we called saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. for Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example 1 Pet. 2.21 that we might follow his steps though not Passibus aequis yet Amoris Ephes 5. Eph. 5.2 Be ye followers of God c. and walk in love as Christ hath loved us Lastly the end of his Ascension was ut impleret omnia Ephes 4.10 that he might fulfill all things all things concerning us all that concerned himself for us to compleat the work of our Redemption and to Prepare each of us one of those many Mansions to open the Kingdom of heaven to all beleevers The day of Christs Ascension Pro Nobis facta saith Saint Bernard Christ his Ascension was also for our exaltation assuring us here with a confirmed hope that our souls shall whensoever separated ascend to him and at length our soul and body both like his by his to heaven John 14.3 And as unto himself to fulfill Prophesies Psalm 68. Thou art gone up on high Ps 68 18. hast led captivity captive c. Also to shew an irrefragable Demonstration of his Godhead by that exalting his Manhood into heaven to manifest to the whole world to Heaven as well as earth that glorious Majesty of his which by Divine dispensation had so long lay shrowded in the form of a servan till now by entring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Man into Heaven such a new Guest as the glad Angels never saw there before and how readily me thinks how joyfully did those Dorekeepers of the house of our God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 open unto him when hee called Aperite Portas stand ope yee Gates bee you lift up yee Everlasting dores that the King of glory may come in And if some serious devotions have beleeved that at Christs Passion the whole Quire of Angels and Saints were interrupted in their sacred Hymns and for a season ceased their Singing Haliluiahs O what increase of joys by Rule of contrariety may we here imagine when he returned Triumphantly unto his Throne of Glory David as though he had heard that Musick of the Spheres awakeneth his Harp and Lute bears a part with them Psalm 47. Psal 47.5 Deus ascendit cum Jubilatione God is gone up with a merry noise and the Lord with the voice of Melody Gone up I to the third and highest steppe of all his exaltation and that is the Right hand of God And but a touch of that which mortalls cannot handle Dextra Majestratem Gloriam Honorem Denotat Gods Right hand what the Right hand is a Metaphor expressing Power Honour Glory Empire and dominion to all which Christ was here exalted Ephes 1.21 Raised from the dead Ephes 1.21 set at Gods right hand in Heavenly places farr above all principalities and powers might and Dominion and every name that is named in this world or that to come Indeed his Resurrection and Ascension were but Motus ad hunc Terminum Onely the motion tending to this perfection This being Solium Triumphale his transcendent Throne of Glory where Triumphing over sinne death and Hell He shall Raigne saith the Apostle till He hath put all things under him 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Cor. 15. And whereas the other two Resurrection and Ascension shall be in some manner common to us with Christ thorough his infinite goodnesse one day to Arise and ascend to Glory but to Sit at the right hand of God in his Kingdome of Glory is too high for the most beloved Disciple Heb. 1.13 that is onely the Fathers Gift and the Sonns Prerogative not communicable either to Man or Angell Hebr. 1.13 There he Sitteth alone the Posture of State of Rest of Judgement as one pithily and sweetly Quiescentis Regnantis Judicantis est Well is our Redeemer after his Passion and Ascension said to Sit at the Right hand of God saith he Quia post Laborem Requiescit Ardens in locum post praelium Regnat postquam Judicatus est Judicat as keeping his Sabbath of Rest after his six grand * His Nativity Circumcision Presentation Baptism Passion Resurrection Ascension Raulin in Festum Labours as after Conquest raigning and after himselfe adjudged being the Judg of all things and what a comfort
damno Coelibatum In Epist ad Domnionem I discommend not honest singlenesse both may be great advantages to Piety according to the Temper of the Persons that improve Them Let not one of Them disparage the other with that Janus Proverbe That Marriage filleth Earth but Virginity 't is filleth Heaven and againe whence is Heaven Filled but from the Earth Quote not her Example to the Prejudice of Either that was so transcendently Pious under both Conditions both in her Espousals and Virginity Blessed among Blessed above all women POEM 27. GOod Offices of Angels and Degrees From this Annunciation who not Sees While winged Gabriel stoops from above With a miraculous Embassie of Love To the Sweet Uirgin and by Her to all Whom sharing in her Blisse They blessed Call Of all Judaea's Virgins She 's the Choice In whom God Angels Men and all Rejoyce Of the whole Ring of Israel She 's the Gem At once Adornes and weares Heaven's Diadem Of all the Parkes of Iury This the Deare Singled out not to Chase but Chastly beare Like Aarons Rod that without Sap of Earth Buds Blossoms Beares her News is such a Birth The Messenger and Message both so strange As in her Virgin-Cheeke work many a Change The Angel frights her Roses off and then The News Replants Them Lilies yield againe What e'r her Countenance yet still her Brest Disputes not but Believes her heavenly Guest Argues not She but piously submits As in such Mysteries it all befits She yields the Angel here no Adoration But yet Returnes all humble Gratulation It Derogates from Christ Religion Taint's To Worship or Invoke those blessed Saints But when Their pious steps our Soules do raise We Honour Them in Giving God the Praise Thus Christ like whom Heaven Earth had none other On Earth no Father had in Heaven no Mother Here Mary being Shee doth most Excell All Virgins Matrons Dames of Israel Like Cibele Sh' hath of her Sex such Odds That Shee 's more than feign'd Mother of the Gods Yet happier the Conception of her Heart Than her Corporeall Acting Mothers Part For That indeed through Earth spreads her Renown But This decks her with a Coelestiall Crown Those Aves wrong her scarce Sense by the Story That Haile her full of Grace when full of Glory Yet Glorying not in any Phansied Power O're Christ as Son but in her Saviour The COLLECT The Epistle Isa 7. ver 10. to 16. The Gospel Luk. 1. ver 26. to 39. VVE beseech thee Lord poure thy grace into our hearts that as we have known Christ thy Sons incarnation by the Message of an Angel so by his Cross and Passion we may be brought unto the glory of his Resurrection through the same Christ our Lord. S. MARCVS True Doctrine Charity Repentance these if one but marke these tymes doe seldome please A Lyons voyce is reguisite where men preferre before Heauens Pallace Earths close Den. Here the Plate Vpon the Festivall of St MARKE DISQUISITION 25. THe foure Evangelists were prefigured and lively Represented in Ezekiels Vision of the foure Living Creatures with foure severall Faces in Homine Humanitas in Leone Regnum in vitulo Sacerdotium Lyrain Glossa in Aquilâ Divinitatis Sacramentum That with the Face of Man Pointed out St Matthew describing Christs Humane Nature his Genealogy according to the Flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he begins the Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ c. That with the face of the Oxe denoteth St Luke delineating Christs Priestly Office Offering up that universall Sacrifice upon the generall Altar of the World his Cross mainely Running on that Argument That Creature with the Face of rhe Eagle Figured St John Christs Divinest Herauld that fetcheth his Pedigree from the King of Kings Proving his Descent from Heaven that He is the Son of God the Quill of this Eagle penning Christs Eternall Generation But that with the visage of a Lyon was to intimate our St Marke here who mainly Trumpets out Christs Regall Office and his Imperiall Soveraignty over all Creatures in the world thus Christ is the Center of Them all though Each hath His peculiar Lines drawn from it all the foure Evangelists have the same Subject Christ as was likewise There prefigured in the wheeles Rota in Rotâ running all one within another but yet Each hath his severall Predications of that Subject Marcus vero quod est Rex Ludolphus de vita Vâ—… 2. p. c. 63. etiam Imperator omnium but our St Marke's designe is to Prove Christ a King saith Ludolphus and to be the Supreame Power of all things which appeareth saith he almost in every Chapter in that he Treateth still of the Choice and most Eminent Passages and Miracles of Christ frequently inculcating his Transcendent Power and Greatness Finitque Evangelium in Ascensione ejus in Coelum Sessione à Dextris Dei And as He beginneth his Gospel with the History of Iohn the Baptist Christs wonderfull Fore-runner then whom there was not a greater borne of women so Closeth He his Gospell with the highest of all Miracles Christs Ascension into Heaven and sitting at the right Hand of God all the way thorough his Booke framing as 't were this Syllogisme saith Ludolphus from the Testimony of Christs Actions Proving this Conclusion That Man whose Power and Uertue we see Extended to all Spirits and to all Flesh to all Elements and all Persons to all Distances of Times and Places to all Instructions of Law and Gospell to all sufferings with Patience and Victory to all Passages of Life and Death to all Comforts of this World and a Better That man surely that Can all This and more is Rex verè virtuosissimus Omnium Dominus He Certainly is truly the most powerfull King of all nay the Omnipotent Monarch of the World But now that Christ is the same Powerfull Agent St Marke fully Proves the Assumption or minor Proposition Minorem serio Deducit Marc. in Evangetio suo Idem Ibid. Quantum ad viginti Conditiones throughout his whole Booke saith Ludolphus by at least twenty severall Arguments and Instances But more Particularly This was his Sirname Marke Act. 12.25 his Proper Name being Iohn He was the Disciple and Nephew of St Peter his Sisters Son and therefore sometime Called His Son 1 Pet. 5.13 1 Pet. 5.13 as the manner of the Iews was to Call their Kindred by words of nearest Relation so Iames and Iude were Called the Brothers of our Lord This St Marke was also Cosin-German unto Barnabas Col. 4.10 by whom and St Paul He seemeth at first to have been assumed to the worke of the Ministry Acts 12.25 Act. 12. And though He Left Them in Pamphilia Discouraged perhaps with Tediousnesse of Travell and an infirme Body yet Here He desisted not from the Propagation of the Gospel but afterward accompanied his Cosin Barnabas into Cyprus an Island of the Mediterranean Sea so in
Redemptions Mystery Pardon our Contemplations if so bold A little your bright Natures to behold All Spirit without clog of Body yee Move as the Wind or Light or Lightning free And yet each of your Millions Scripture tells The strongest human force in strength excells Of Distinct Orders and yet for the most All styl'd in Holy Writ The Heavenly Host The Horse and Chariots of the Mighty Lord Ready for March and Motion at his Word So that in Heaven sometime we read of War No marvell then poor Mortals live in jar But how got Foes in there Sure as in Flowers Serpents do breed so There degenerate Powers There Michael fought with his Traind-bands of Light And beat the Dragon down to Endlesse night Yet in the Praecipiece his knotted Tayl Against some of those Splendors did prevail And so puld many thence of that bright Train One day from us to be supply'd again Your joy then at our penitence we pay With joy for Christs confirming of your stay Then since we both but one Church constitute Let us be neither Actionlesse nor mute Sith ' Angels need not our Good Offices Let us to Men what those to us expresse Joyning above i' th Song of Victory Still singing Triple-Holy to 'th most High For if to this words Root we stoop our Mind Who 's like the Lord in Michael we find To pray to Angels then if you mark well Is a Mistake for Christ is Michael He the Arch-Angell is that conquereth Sin Satan in us for us Hell and Death Or if another Angel they withstand All Adoration by severe command Our gratefull love is Theirs but to dispence Worship on Them 's a Double vlolence THE COLLECT PRAYER The Epistle Rev. 12. v. 7. to 13. The Gospel Matth. 18.1 to 11. EVerlasting God which hast ordained and constituted the services of all Angels and Menin a wonderfull order mercifully grant that they which alwayes doe thee service in Heaven may by thy appoyntment succour and defend us in Earth through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen S. LVCAS He whome the world containes not and whose court shines with his glorious presence to confort with beasts and in a manager lodge wee see excepts vs not without Humilitie The Plate here Vpon Saint Lukes Day DISQâ—ISITION 34. THis Evangelist was by Nation of Syria by Birth of Antioch Ecccles Hist l. 3. c. 4. as Eusebius and * In vita Lucae Hierom report by Profession a Physician saith St. Paul Col. 4.14 Luke the beloved Physiciau greets you A Physician and therefore the more admirable for his Devotion being not onely a Courtier of Nature lost in second Causes but per scalas Creaturarum ascending to the first by the Ladder of the Creatures Corpus humanum objectum Medicinae and teaching others so to climb to Heaven The Human Body not being the adaequate object of his study and practice Medicus totius compositi being first cured himselfe by him that was so farre more eminently he became a Physician of the whole Man of Soul as well as Body and that both for the Therapeutick and Phylactick part of Physick first curing their Infidelity and Impenitence with the Soveraign Precepts and prescripts of his Gospel and then preserving that same spirituall temper with the wholsome Examples and good Acts of the Apostles And this Religio Medici although none can equall yet for the honour of God and that Profession I wish more would imitate To take off all vulgar imputations and just occasions of those Ironick Apologues viz. How once such an one knocking at Heaven-Gates Saint Peter demanding who he was and that by an enumeration of almost all Religions art thou a Jew No replieth he A Christian Neither c. till being asked in generall Of what Religion hewas He answered That he was a Physician and so at length was denied for his Denials But God forbid so honorable and needfull a Profession should suffer for the Delirations of some of the worst pieces of it Perhaps some few Philosophicall Humorists that are but as the Warts and Wens meer excrescenses of that same Noble Science whose brains being over-heated by their Chymicall Experiments may as easily mistake the Truth as the Philosophers Stone Quod ad ab omnibus amatur tamen virgo est which though wooed of so many yet still remains a Virgin But for the Profession Ecclus 38.1.2 't is the Wise mans counsell Honour the Physitian c. And our blessed Lord himself at once commends and recommends him Matth. 9.12 Jer. 8.21 Matth. 9. The sick have need of the Physician God Himself owning the Compellation Ier. 8.22 Is there no Physician there Christ also imitating their practice in the Good Samaritan But here expressly honoring the Profession with the Office of an Evangelist sc in St. Luke the Physician Some think him to have been one of the 70. Disciples from his 24 Chapt. v. 13. Lib 4 contra Marci But Tertullian and other Ancients say That he was none of Christs immediate Disciples but onely Sectator Discipulus Apostolorum A Companion and Disciple of the Apostles as indeed himselfe intimates in the very beginning of his Gospel Chap. 1.2 Luke 1.2 Sicut tradiderunt As they have delivered them unto us which from the beginning saw themselves Insinuating that he wrot his Gospel by Dictation but the Acts of the Apostles by his own observation But that he writ both he attestates Acts 1.1 In the former Treatise O Theophilus Acts 1.1 c. Which former Treatise being his Gospell he wrot Anno Christi 51. Lib. 1. saith Eusebius Others say Anno 54. from the mouth of Saint Paul who thence is thought to use that phrase Rom. 16. According to my Gospel Rom. 16. And Saint Luke indeed being the constant companion of Saint Paul in his double Travels Acts 16. so he became both the Masters the Apostles Register His being but a deserved Emblem viz. The Ox strong to labour his Pen as unwearied as his Person and both proportionable to his excellent Subject He becomss an Evangelist before Peter and James Gal. 2.9 those Pillars of the Church Ten of the Apostles are past by and his Quill chosen God sometimes is pleased to effect great Designes by obscure means and even by unthought of Instruments Amos an Heardsman made a Prophet Amos 1.1 Many Fishermen Fishers of many men an easier transition then may make St. Luke here an Evangelist of a Physician And 't is worth while to take notice of his Dedication Most excellent Theophilus Acts 1.1 c. which some doubt whether it be a common or a proper Name And Baronius though he hath tried cannot unty the knot If we take it for a common Appellative Ad annum 58. it hints the Gospel written to such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. lovers of God as being a Pearl not to be cast to Swine Matth. 7.6 But every
testimonii sufficientiam Two for a full and sufficient Testimony by the Jews own Law Witnesses of all sorts from Heaven and Earth too Angels tell the Women He is not here but c. Angels I they were alwayes ready attendants on our Saviour Et congruum fuit ut Rex Coelorum Satellitium haberet Angelorum Most fit it was that the King of Heaven should alwayes have such a Guard such a Retinue and had so at his Conception Luke 1. an Arch-Angell at his Birth Luke 2. a Multitude of the Heavenly Hoast In his Temptation Mark 1. in his Agony Luke 22. Angels ministred unto Him At his Apprehension had he so pleased could have easily prayed down more then twelve Legions i. innumerable company of Angels had he meant to countenance Religion propagated by the Sword and to come home here to his Resurrection And so likewise afterward to his Ascention miraculously proclaimed by Angels And if These to the Creature be appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How much more ought they to be alwayes Ministring spirits to their Maker Heb. 1.14 Pennati proceres induti vestibus albis Matribus hi Christum jam surrexisse reportant These winged Mercuries of Heaven here tell the seeking women to their joy and astonishment He is not here but is risen To women then Christ first was manifested to three women and to them doubly by the voyce of Angels and his own First appearance John 20. Three pious women Mary Magdalen Joanna and Mary mother of James v. 12. who to the glory of their Sex were led by their Devotion as the three wise Men by the Star unto their Saviour for they were seeking Christ Mark 28.5 'T is not here worth while to dispute whether or no Christ first appeared to his Mother as some contend since the Evangelists mention not his appearing unto her at all but sure we are 't was to her Sex I and to her Name also Mark 16. Mary Magdalen Apostolorum Apostola as Cajetan calleth her she was the first preacher of the Resurrection the Apostoless of the Apostles and various are the reasons of this Condescention I passe the phansie of some Misogynists as too light that it was because they are the more garrulous the more divulging Sex to spread a rumour sticking too rigidly on the 10. and 11. verses This might hold in secular affairs perhaps but here too contrary to Christs humble modesty Nemini dixeris still prefaced to all those Acts tending to his honour See thou tell no man more probable is that of Ludolphus In Lenim en doloris On Christs part as an Antidote and Cordiall to their Deeper sorrows First he appeared to them lest by his longer absence their griefs should prove too strong a Passion for those weaker vessels Woman why weepest thou v. 15. To asswage their sorrow and comfort them Then at other side saith Beda Quae prima ad culpam prima ad veniam Woman that first made hast to sinne now come first to Pardon She that first broke her Faith in Paradice Bedas Reasons in Locum first recovereth it at the Sepulcher Contendit de morte rapere vitam quae prius de vitâ rapuit mortem That Sex saith he which first snatcht Death as it were out of Life here contends as much to fetch Life even out of Death Aemulemur saltem Foeminas Though that Angelicall Attendance on our Saviour passe our dull Earths Imitation I our Souls and their most active Graces Yet let us at least aemulate these Womens piety Men for shame lest that feebler Sex prove the strongest in Devotion and Vertue appear so farre of the Foeminine Gender as not derived à viro Again let Women imitate them lest with the Foolish Virgins they Eclips the Glory of their vertuous kind and honour their Sex onely with that worst of Arguments Corruptio optimae est pessima The corruption of the best proves the worst Those that will accompany them must note how they came Early and not Empty Early Nec ubi mox abiit nec tamen orta dies In the Dawning saith Saint John while it was yet dark John 20.1 No deferring holy Duties Poenitentia sera raro seria Especially delay not Penitence Christ himself must he sought Early in the Day of Life Age and Sicknesse being Dies mortis days of Death in the morning of this day i.e. in times of strength and health Early in this Morning i.e. in the prime of youth with Samuel and Timothy nay in the very Dawning i.e. in the time of tender innocency as Saint Jerom of Eustochium Materno lacte That she sucked in Piety with her Mothers milk loving to hear Children Balbutire Christum Epist ad Eusiock Chanting Hosanna's er'e they wel could speak None ever came too soon to CHRIST or can make too much hast to Heaven Many Esau's with too late Teares to gain a Blessing And as early so these came not empty reflecting upon that Nemo vacuus Exod. 23.15 Exod 23.15 None shall appeare before me empty saith the giver of all things And minde it you cheap Auditors and Readers Quaelibet Aromata Vnguenta Each here brought her Oyntments and sweet Odours And such must be our addresses Odore virtutum suavitate Orationum With flowers of Vertue and Fragrancies of Prayer Revel 8. With the pretious Unguents of Alms and Hospitality Rev. 8. Psalm 141. All which indeed are like Mary Magdalens effused Oyntment Matth. 26. And to close this with St. Bernards sweeter Allegory Tres mulieres sunt Mens Lingua Manus The three good Women here bringing pretious Oyntments and sweet Odours must be saith he the Mind the Tongue the Hand Serm. in Loc. Those of the Mind are Zeal Compassion Patience Those of the Tongue are Prayers and good Exhortations Those of the Hand are Charity and Distributions Thus having saluted the Company Observe next the Person and his Motion He John 1.1 is not here but is risen He a word of the Person He that was the Word John 1. He that was born among Beasts lived among Publicans and died among Thieves He whom they attached bound reviled He whom they buffeted scourged thorned He whom they nailed pierced crucified whose Sepulcher they stoned sealed watched and that with the Garrison appointed to guard the Temple saith Josephus yet He so little the Plots of the impious prevaile against the Righteous He who sitteth in Heaven so laugheth them to scorn and Catastropeth all their wits into Dirisions The Person He. that Ipsissimus He the very selfe-same Christ awakeneth his Divinity which seemed before to sleep and at once conquereth those Fatall Enemies Sin Death and Hell even to a sensible Demonstration Luke 24. Videte palpate Handle me and see me Luke 24.35 When the Priests and Scribes those grand Councellors at Law expected from the Grave an Habeas Corpus the Body which they gave it they receive from Angels a non est inventus He
is it to have a Friend of the Judg before we come to the Barr and that is our consolation if not our own default Christ is ascended our Best friend our Brother our Advocate and now we have a Mediatour in Heaven I till this Peace-maker went up Sin had set open war 'twixt heaven and earth Justice with an unbound Arm fetched a more heavy stroke not only on single persons but upon whole Cities Gen. 17. Gen. 7 Gen. 19. nay on the whole sinful world Gen. 7. then no Moses in the gap no Jacob there to wrestle for a blessing but now happy day for us the Angel of the Covenant is gone up to hold the hand of the striking God of Abraham our Aaron is at the high Altar to pray for the People Heb. 9.24 The Sanctum Sanctorum Hebrews 9.23 Christ our high Priest is entered into the Heaven of Heavens once for all to make an Attonement for us what place then is there now left black Dispaire but only Hell Rouse thee afflicted soul and ly no longer in the groanes of Cain For though the envious man Satan be ever pleading against us at the throne of God yet now is salvation in heaven saith Saint John and the power of Christ which casteth down the accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 c. Rev. 12.10 There his Intercession cries louder for us then our sins against us Ostendit Patri vulnera saith Saint Augustine He is ever shewing to his angred Father those wounds He suffered for our sins and so whatever he be with us God is in Him appeased Thus pleadeth he our cause before the eternall Judge an Advocate 1 John 2.1 1 John 2. If any man sin c. Yet for all this presume not Ransomed Soul bee not high-minded but fear God forbid sinne should because grace abounds Desperation like Saul slayeth thousands but Presumption her ten thousands This were even to crucifie the Son of God afresh and grieve the Holy Spirit Eph. 4.30 Ephes 4.30 Lastly Though wee have now one yet have we but one Mediatour in Heaven we dare not admit of that Delusion that there are as many Saviours as good men Each one meriting for himselfe some for others and no fewer Intercessours then Saints and Angels since Noah Job and Daniel shall deliver but their own soules by their righteousnesse Ezech. 14. Ezeck 14.14 We dare not so rob God of his Honour nor derogate from Christ's all-sufficient merits and intercession for all the thinne Distinction of Mediatio Redemptionis Intercessionis Away with cobweb shifts and Aiery phansies Listen to infallibility 1 Tim. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one God and one Mediatour between God and man even He that was both and none but He Jesus Christ then to close with St. Bernards Counsel Ascendit Christus sequamur Fratres sequamur Agnum quocunque ierit sequamur patientem resurgentem multo lubentius Asceudentem c. Christ is now ascended into Heaven what do we groveling so on earth Letus follow Brethren let us follow the Lamb whither soever he goeth Let us follow him suffering Bernard in Festum Arising much more willingly ascending exaltationem concupiscimus omnes We all love to be exalted born Corahs all of an aspiring Nature yet change but the object set Heaven and grace in the place of earthly transitories and keep your Ambition stil Si consurrexistis coascendite if risen with Christ Ascend with him Borrowing the wings of the Dove Scalam de vitiis make a ladder of your Sins saith Aug. every one of which subdued is a new stepp toward Heaven POEM 17. THose three steps of Christs later Passion Were answer'd in his exaltation By triple opposites building him high As his foundation laid debasingly The degradation of his bitter death Sweetned by Reviviction Resum'd Breath His bed made in the dust with worms to ly Was fairly oppos'd by his Ascent on high And for his stooping to the infernall Pit He now at Gods Right hand of power doth sit The first step we have trod Le ts now ascend The rest and Heaven shall be our journies end To th'Mount of Olives then for That 's the place Christs wonted Pulpit that must have the Grace Of this Triumphant wonder there while he Instructs and comforts his disciples see Elijah in his Antitipe again Transported thence in a coelestiall wain The Clouds his Chariot and the nimble winds His winged horses Angels in their kinds His Train and Lacquayes yet no needed ayd As is of Enoch and Elijah said Thus stately mounted his etherial Chaire Glides through the yeilding Regions of the Ayre To th' everlasting doors which open wide To th' King of Glory who brings a spring Tide Both of new Joy and wonder to that place Where ne're till now appeared a Humane Face And if some serious minds Christs Passion thought Even to Heavens Quire some silence to have wrought And for awhile the Saints and Seraphins Thence interrupted in their sacred Hymns O here by contrary's what Floud of joyes When Christ ascends with such a Raptive Noise David as though H 'had heard the Melody Streight Tunes his Harp and joyns i th' Harmony Angels and Saints all one glad Chorus Sing The Welcome Triumphs of their Glorious King Where Gods Right hand being his triumphant throne He still for us makes Intercession And such as needs no help who Rivals joyn His honour and their own successe Purloyn As Angels Pry this Death so let us Scan What 's said or done to Them as here to Man Then from Christs Mount now let our souls take Rise Whos 's Olivet speaks Peace and victories Follow our Leader in this holy Fight From Earth and Sin leading to glorious Light Follow the Lamb we should whereso'ere he goes Through joyes Spirituall through temporal woes Suffering or Rising follow him but sure Ascending we will easily endure Born Corahs all yet be but Heaven the Hill We climb and then keep our Ambition stil Souls are but sparkles of Coeiestial fire O let them to their Center then aspire Though Bodies are slow Pac'd Let souls ascend And bodies will ore'take their joyes i th' end That so a full Beatifying ascent As Christs may be our Journall's complement The COLLECT The Epistle Act. 1. v. 1. to 12. The Gospel Mar. 16. v. 14. to the end Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that like as we do beleeve thy only begotten Son our Lord to have ascended into the heavens so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend and with him continually dwel who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the holy Ghost one God world without end Amen The comminge of the Holy Ghost Act. 2. 1 And when the day of Pentecost was come they were all with one accord in one place 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heauen ect 3 And there appeared unto them clouen tongues like fire and it sate upon each
from labour and a Sanctification of that Rest Non prosunt singula Wherein the duties of the Lords Day consists especially If either of which be wanting it makes one but like a Bird with one wing or a Boat with one Oar rendreth but a lame devotion but juncta junant Like two gloves the one lost the other is of little use yet both together make themselves compleat First of the Cessation Thou shalt do no manner of work c. i.e. No servile works of thine ordinary Calling much less any works of sin it must be a double Sabboth from labour rom sin And two sorts of people transgresse here especially First such as imploy Man and Beast upon that day contrary to Gods Design of Rest to both by ordinary Coaching of it in fairest weather and the neerest distances while wise men cannot discern the Reason why equall care should not be taken then to prevent all prophanation as well by land as water Secondly such as rest in their impieties like Elements in their own places idlely spending this Day in excesse and vanity So that God is then more then all the week beside dishonored In Rest from Labour Thou shalt do no manner of work c. No Yes sure some manner of works are then lawful and most seasonable This day being Mercatura animarum as it were the Market Day of Souls Schola Dei saith Ramus De Rel. Christ l. 2. c. 6. the School day of Christ the Preachers as it were his Ushers and the Churches then as it were his open School-house Then such works are most lawfull as appertain to Gods publick worship as reading Divine Service painfull preaching administring the blessed Sacrament and things subordinate thereunto as Ringing of Bells Sabboth days Journeys 2 King 4.23 c. Acts 1.12 And beside these works of piety there are works of Mercy lawfull both toward our selves in necessary provision Mat. 12.1 and toward others whether men as our Saviour visited and healed Mark 3.5 or beasts in relieving them What works lawfull on the Lords day as requisite Luke 14.5 A third sort of works then lawfull are those of present Necessity which doubtlesse may be exercised by Physicians Midwives Shepheards Mariners Messengers and Souldiers upon visible necessities To say nothing of the works of honest Recreation Men therein being too apt to indulge themselves which I advise may be such onely as may cheere not interupt Devotion and then that reason given by Christ may extend to all the forementioned The Sabboth was made for Man Mark 2.27 not Man for the Sabboth But yet not for Man onely but for God chiefly or which is all one for Man spiritually and to further his eternall Good It must not be an empty or an idle Requiescence for as the Apostle saith of Bodily exercise so may I here say of Bodily Rest it profiteth nothing Bene vestiri nihil agere We may complain of as well as Leo Men cloath their bodies and not then ornament their souls they are so fine they are the worse again And this the Fathers call Sabbatum Boüm Asinorum The Ox and the Ass keep as good a Sabboth as these and a better then those that St. Augustine complains of that do vacare nugis Theatris spectaculis choraeis That spend the day in sports and Interludes Huntings and Compotations which is but Sabbatum Aurei vituli like wanton Israel to proclaim an holy to Jehovah and to worship a Calf Exod. 32. Exod. 32. Now this sanctifying of the Sabboth stands principally in our esteem of it and improving the opportunities thereof First we must count it our pleasure and delight Deliciae Christiani generis the Vespasian of all dayes to us Calling the Sabboth our delight Isa 58. Isai 58.3.3 Not doing our own works not thinking our own thoughts or speaking our own words c. But resigning our Heart Tongue and Hand i.e. our will voyce and practice to the businesse and object of it depositing the world and all her interruptions not nauseating the Divine Solemnities when orthodoxally performed saying Amos 8.9 When will the New Moons and Sabboths be gone c. that we may return to our Saecular advantages No but improving all we can the spirituall i.e. Prayer Reading Hearing and Meditating the sacred Mysteries of our Redemption Prayer is the Jewell of Gods Ear the Tongue of Angels the Dialogue between Heaven and Earth Gen. 18◠Gen. 18. the Souls Embassadour with God our Leiger in Heaven working against the States of Death and Hell 't is the Phoenix of the Graces that still reviveth into a Bird of Paradise and makes an Arabia Petrea to become Arabia Foelix for stony hearts procures us hearts of flesh Ezek. 11. Ezek. And if God be thus pleased with single piety how is he importuned think you and as 't were besieged with the publick worship Vis unita fortior If our Domestick prayer be as a Brand in the corner and keep fire sure the publick is as a Bonfire of Incense a Sacrifice flaming up to Heaven the very highest design of Christianity The joynt prayers of the Congregation are a kind of revers'd lightning and as St. Basil said of his Church their Amen is like a Clap of Thunder And therefore David still to set the better glosse upon his gratulations tells both God and Man that he performeth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. in the Congregation in the great Congregation And that variety might refresh Devotion Reading is another means of sanctifying the day and therefore the appropriated Chapters are called Lessons as being then to be heeded and taken forth by us The Word is the best Glass and mends the Lookers eye And therefore Search the Scriptures John 5. John 5.39 Those are they saith Christ that testifie of me in them you hope to have eternall life It must be no superficiall much less oftentatious reading but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. make a scrutiny search diligently like Laban for his gods Gen. 31.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very word he searched the Tent and to this search there are some requisites viz. inspectio Fontium oculus adscopum Collatio locoruus fervens Oratio Lest with the Eunuch we understand not what we read there should be an inspection of the Originals but especially for Teachers but for all an eye still to the Scope of the Author a Collation of places Scripture often its own best Expositer and lastly Prayer will be an help to all the rest And for more safty keep in the shallows for Scriptures are waters wherein the Lamb may wade as well as the Lion swim and for deep mysteries goe to an Interpreter i.e. attend the Preacher Hearing and seeing are the two Disciplinary Senses Rom. 10. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. In hearing seek out the Wise Charmer i.e. the Orthodox Teacher and be not of
of Scripture that worship such Rom. 14.23 and 1 Cor. 8.4 and will hardly come off from self-condemnation and flat Idolatry And whether this or that other object of their worship be the worst I leave to the Readers Judgment that Divifie such as never were holy men as the * Dr Sutcliff examinat of Rom. cap. 7. Pagan souldier that pierced the side of Christ by the name of Longinus the Millenarian Papias Becket Sanders Garnet c. most or all of which stand Sainted in the Tiberine Calender I may say with one * Dr Abbot Antipol p. 3. non Martyres Domini though in charity I add not sed Mancipes Diaboli til the crowd is so great that the whole yeer hath too few days to be devoted Et tot templa Deûm Romae quot in urbe sepulchra Heroüm numerare licet But confining unto truth and modesty we understand here such Solemnities as St Austin speaks of Festa quae vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel gener alibus Consiliis instituta à toto terrarum orbe servantur Which either by the Apostles themselves a As those concerning Christ c. or by general Councels instituted b As those concerning the Apostles Epist 118. are observed throughout the Christian world and all these in their proper seasons as neer as can be aim'd at by Mortality the Substance clothed with the circumstances of the Performance and as on these good grounds so likewise for good ends we celebrate them Eccles Hist lib. 4. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only as a memorial of the Dead saith Eusebius but for an holy imitation of the Living Sancti non servitute sed charitate honorandi would all of Durandus his side were as ingenuous in that The blessed Saints are not to be honoured with any worship either of Invocation or Adoration but only with love and the charity of Imitation which indeed calls on us to look both on their Actions and their holy Passions sending us also to Prayer and Fasting and other duties of Mortification wherewith beside the set and solemn times of devout Abstinence each of these Festivals is to be attended both these Solemnities as it were making up the soul a pair of Angels wings much furthering her flight to heaven and even grounded on the law of Nature to regulate piously those two raigning Passions of our Joy and Sorrow with which all the Actions of our life are mixed so that whatever we can do or may be done unto us still the sequell is one or other of the said Affections and our Life according Wherefore the Church of Christ that most absolute and perfect Schoole of Vertue hath by the special direction of Gods good Spirit hitherto inured men from their infancy partly with dayes of Festival exercise for the framing of their Joy and partly with Times of a contrary sort for the regulation of their Grief by both These I say consecrating the whole life to God And here it must ever be remembred that the intent of the Church in these her holy Solemnities is not only to inform us in the Mysteries which are commemorated but also and that chiefly to conform us thereby unto Christ our Head and his glorious Members which is the sum and substance of all our Celebrations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Apostles word of exhortation Phil. 3. Phil. 3.10 Conformable unto him if not thus affected by them we neither approve our selves of the number of his Followers nor of his lively Members but these well improved are multiplyed Advantages to Devotion a Christian practice I know not whether of more Piety or Antiquity Eusebius telling us how Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria Eccles Hist lib. 7. cap. 19. above 1400 years agoe wrote upon this Argument And do not all the golden Fountains of the Fathers both of the East and West Coloss 2.16 the Greek and Latine Church flow with the same streams Quorum saluberrima est Authoritas whose Authority's a sufficient conduct in Saint Augustines Judgment that there 's no fear of falling into Saint Pauls Reprehensions * Loco praecitato either touching Times Gal. 4. or Abstinence no kinn to Heathenish Observations 1 Cor. 8.8 or Judaicall Reserv'dnesse but a religious Obedience on better grounds and ends of Piety more claiming interest in his Commendations 1 Cor. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All being done decently and in Order and tending onely to Gods Honour his Saints Memory and our Edification Without which 't is too visible Religion will soon languish and even die away by degrees †As Sir W Ra. prophesies de lege Mosaica prope initium into Profanenesse Heresie and Atheism But that a Disquisition swell not into a Volume I referr your further satisfaction herein to those too Starrs of the first Magnitude in the Church of England judicious Hooker a Eccles pot l. 5.373 and the learned b His defence of Christian Feasts Featly PNEM 4. Gods first born People the selected Jews By his command Solemnities did use New Moons and Sabbaths and the Sowre-herb-Feast Those of Weeks Tents of Purim and the rest Both fixed Feasts and Fasts to let them know When they should humbled soules when gratefull show Which Scions since the Christian Church transplants Grafting on nobler stocks and soil that wants No pious care to cultivate their Spring For Christ's advance and his Saints flourishing Two raigning Passions in our Hearts do grow Sorrow and Joy both which to temper so That neither may transgress the Church hath fix'd Her solemn Feasts and Fasts both duly mix'd That the most low-roof'd souls may learn thereby To tune their Griefs to Sin their Joyes pitch high These are the harmless Books of Ideots where Without all Superstition Truths appear All else without Book by such marks may know What Lord such places persons times doth ow These are Religions Boundaries where we The Pious steps of our Fore-fathers see Weekly solemnizing i' th' Sabbath blest Our grand Creator's Works and sacred Rest Till that Judaick Term Grav'd with his Son Rose the Lords day by 's Resurrection Whose saving Mysteries of Life and Death By Annual Returns These keep in Breath Lest else in Story as in Act forgot All in Atheistical oblivion Rot His humble Birth his Tragick-Passion His Rise Triumphant and Ascension With the Descending of the sacred Dove All kept t' augment his honour and our love And as peculiar Feasts tend the bless'd Three So one the undivided Trinity Good offices of Angels are observ'd With love to them worship to God reserv'd And since our Faith saith Truth is founded on Prophets Apostles seal'd with the Passion Of bleeding Martyrs those are Registred As golden Pipes while we adore the Head And least Joy wanton on so numerous Feasts The Church sometimes calls us as mourning Guests Shifting the Scene minding our Hopes of Fears Mingling our Bread with Ashes Drink with Tears Such
Monthly Yearly Fasts as well as Festivals as shewed before and this duty was frequent among the Prophets and holy Saints of God witness David Daniel Esther Judith Esth 4. the Mothers of Samson and Samuel the Ninevites c. And afterward the Law of Grace was proclaimed by abstemious Iohn Matth. 11.18 Nec manducans nec bibens Mat. 11 he and his Disciples Fasted nor were they or the Pharisees themselves blamed by Christ for often Fasting but for their boasting hypocrisie therein Chap. 16.16 Matth. 16. in such holy duties He loving cheerfulness sincerity and secrecy Ocult hominum basilisci operum the designed eyes of men being the Basilisks of all good actions Moreover our blessed Lord himself by his own practice did canonize the sacred use of Fasting Chap. 4.2 Matth. 4. fasting fourty daies and fourty nights at the dedication of the new Covenant as Moses at the old In pious Imitation whereof not emulation hath his Spouse the Church since derived her Quadragessimal solemnities yet not as necessarily imposed from that example but voluntarily thence devoting some such time to Christian abstinence looking at the moral of it and not at the miracle modo possibili Jansenius de Quadrages as the School not wholly abstaining à toto all sustentation yet at least à tanto bating both of the measure and the manner of our usual diet Dan. 10.3 like Daniel 10.3 I was in heaviness three weeks of daies saith he and eat no pleasant bread neither tasted flesh nor wine the better to prepare our selves for holy duties by subjugating the flesh and infranchizing the Spirit to liberal contemplations and this is it Saint Basil intimates when he saith Christus noluit tentari usquedum jejunasset that Christ would not yeild himself to be tempted untill he had first arm'd himself with Fasting yet not as he could otherwise have incurred any danger but thereby saith he to teach his Church and us what guard to stand upon that Fasting and Devotion were the onely armout of proof against temptation to which end as Ecclesiastical History telleth us the Western Churches Socrates l. 5. chap. 21. Rome and others Fasted pertres septemanas inte pasca three whole weeks before Easter Qui autem in Illyriâ tot a Graecia sex simul jejunant quadragessimam appellant but the Eastern Churches all Greece Illyrium and Alexandria continued this solemn Fast as we did for full six weeks before the Resurrection-Festival and t is fit saith one so grand a Feast should have such ample Vigils and that at this time of the year especially both for prudent and pious reasons now the Body best can bear it and with most advantage to the general increase and t is fit sure some time should thus be set apart at least once a yeer for the Soul for each one to take an account of himself as well as of his shop wherein by Fasting Prayers and Teares those three heavenly companions Gen. 19.2 like Abrahams three Angels to make his peace with his offended God and none so fit a season as this wherein we Celebrate the Passion Christ sufferings for sin the strongest motive to repentance to see their heinousness none otherwise expiable then by the bloudshed of the Son of God! and now did the Church humble her self with Fasting and other holy duties that God would vouchsafe a gracious acceptation of such as were presented by her either by the holy Sacraments or Ordination both being as about this time more solemnly performed This was the convenient tradition of antiquity touching Lent and solemn Fasting not as absolutely Commanded or accepted of God barely for it self as of some special merit in its owne nature as some strain up the pegs too high but respectively and onely for such ends as follow Psa 58. viz. as t is a devout Handmaid both to Piety and Charity Isa 58. it sets the greater edge upon our Prayers kindles our zeal and enableth us the more to every good The ends of pious Fasting testifieth to the world our Pensiveness for sin doth as it were amerce and punish us for former excesses undermineth the strong holds of Satan hardeneth whom pleasure would melt it not onely relieveth but encourageth the poor to patience in that hardship which they see voluntary in others out of Religious purposes and it checketh and admonisheth sensual persons with wholsome examples of Frugal and severer life lastly by these abstemious contemplations we here as t were begin the life of Angels fore taste the sweetness of that heavenly Manna anticipate the excellency of that life which we shall one day live in heaven where we shall hunger and thirst no more after such outward nourishments fed only with the beatifick vision of the Lamb and the Fountain of living water yet for all this Antiquity and instrumental Piety of Fasting some are cloyd with it stomackful at very Abstinence and even uncivilly disgorge themselves against it both in their practice and invectives So that the Church complains with David Iejunavit anima Psal 69.10 my soul fasted and it was turned to my reproach These Fast-breaking Hereticks are as old as Epiphanius his time I might have said as Epicurus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Slow-Bellies saith the Apostle He meaneth not at their meat Tit. 1.12 but to all good inclinations belly Gods that think the best Feast-maker the perfectest Saint and especially if on an Ash-wednesday or a Good-friday and yet so meer Spirit forsooth that all our corporal assistance to devotion pleaseth not Epiphanius bestoweth on them his 73 Heresie Epipha 73. haer Haeres and they deserve it you shall meet their Objections answered elsewhere I will not here spoil the Harmony of our speculation with their discord Passing then the Adversaries look we unto our own practice lest some as justly complain of us as honest Lindanus of the other perswasion Panoplia lib. 5. c. 11. Jejunta nostra vini copia natant piscium varietate carnium delicias superant Our Fasts abound with lusty wine saith he and with variety of choicest fish we outvie the luxury of fleshly delicates Or if not so yet are there other abuses of this Fasting some making it their gain some their Physick some their Art and I hope some their Virtue The six several kinds according to the old verse Abstinet aeger egens cuptdus Fallax gula virtus the sick man fasts but t is for for want of appetite the poor man fasts but t is for want of nourishment the covetous man fasts and t is for want too for want of the gift to eat of his labours the Poet laughed to see an Ass loaden with Gold feeding on Thistles but a good man may mourn to see this folly among the Sons of men The Hypocrite fasteth too twice a week if you will believe him but that fast is a pampered body in a Pharisees dress a short haire perhaps and
a sowre look a meer Phantasm an appearing unto men to Fast The fifth is the Gluttons Fast whose stomack doth but Arietare play the fighting Ram i. e. goes a little backward as part of a meal or so to return with the stronger Appetite The last and best is the Fast of Vertue and Religion which besides habitual temperance is the bodi 's parsimonious fare for spiritual advantage and this goes still accompanied with prayer in Scripture Neh. 14. Act. 13.3 Matth. 17.21 Nehemiah Fasted and Prayed before the Lord so Anna so the Disciples I these two together cast out the worst Devil that is This is that acceptable Fast by which God wooes his people so Convertimini in Jejunio to which they should answer with David We have humbled our souls with Fasting Psal 96. and then as Saint Austin saith they would compleat each other Augustin Cirel Hierome Chrysolog Jejunium orationem corroborat oratio Jejunium sanctificat Fasting corroborateth prayer while prayer bettereth and sanctifieth our Fasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippocrates his Aphorism is true on both sides Diseases for the most part both of Soul and Body owe their Original to fulness and redundant humours And indeed where Satan tempteth one Fasting he tempts 1000 full Prov. 30.9 Lest I be full and deny thee Prov. 30.9 and say Who is the Lord And many are the Elogies of such a Fast t is the August i. e. the harvest of the Soul the tithe of our time an unbloudy Martyrdom such a Fast saith Cyril is a greater Sacrifice then that of Abraham for that was to be done upon anothers Body saith he but this upon our own Scutum contra adversarium saith another t is the best Shield to quench the fiery darts of the Devil Fundamentum virtutum the foundation of all other vertues an Oar a Spur a wing to goodness as Chrysologus notes of the Prodigal his Fame pereo brings him to his ibo ad Patem his hunger makes him resolve of penitence and diligence I will arise and go c. But lest while I treat of abstinence I glut your patience I here injoyn my Quill forbearance POEM 13. LEnt signifies the spring and that of Grace Where Pray'r and Fasting keep their ancient place Which in a treble aspect sometime stood To God our own and to the Common good Gods honour below principlly stands In our obeysance to divine commands Which oft wooe Fasting with contrition joyn'd Whereof his Church this season hath design'd That all in Penitent dejection throw Their Souls and Bodies at his Footstool low That Ioels day our sins here so lament As may that last and blacker day prevent That in Iobs ashes and our dust abhorr'd We may once find Acceptance of the Lord Not as if these could satisfaction make Or our unprofitable service take So far with God as his least grain to merit By whose sole Promise we all good inherit But to demonstrate who Commands doth Prize Obedience herein before Sacrifice And as Lent upward so too downward looks This solemn Fast sends Christians to their Books As other Trades and at least once a year Bids them cast up Accounts and their state clear And if they thrive in Grace makes them improve Hence more and more in Gratitude and Love Or if they find decay and debts increase Warns them Compound with God now make their Peace By Prayer and Fasts Mourn but their own stock lost And with red Inke Christ all their debts hath cro'st Serpents your Fasting spittle kils they say And in the figure true it sins doth slay T is your Fed-horses neigh and are unclean And when Iews Feast with Quailes their soul 's most lean Fewel substract ill fires will out again Satan shall blow his Bellows but in vain Whose Piety's their Food have Angels fare Who Fast and sin as fast right Devils are And as it makes for soul's so bodie 's health A Friend both to the Church and Commonwealth The best Phylacticon ' gainst each disease Most spring from fulness saith Hippocrates And this blest Abstinence may best be born Now when the Sun cheers us with his return And now most opportunely we give way For Creatures to recruite their long decay Now then to spare earths teeming generation Prevents unnatural Depopulation And Cheers the Seas industrious patient Trade Whose strange varieties not vainly made Else while one Element suffers vastation T'other may multiply to In-undation Thus Souls States Bodies treble detriment Sustain that slight this threefold good of Lent The COLLECT-PRAYER being that for the first Sunday in Lent The Epistle 2 Cor. 6.1 to 11. The Gospel Math. 4.1 to 12. O Lord which for our sakes didst fast fourty days and fourty nights give us grace to use such abstinence that our flesh being subdued to the Spirit we may ever obey thy Godly motions in righteousness and true holiness to thy honour and glory which liveth and reignest c. Christ praying in the Garden Matt 20 Mar 14 Luc 22 * Ioan 18 * 41. And hee gate him selfe from them about a stones Cast and Kneeled downe and prayed 42. Saying Father if thou wilt take away this cupp from mee etc. 43. And there appeared an Angell unto him from heauen comforting him 45. And hee rose upp from prayer and came to his disciples and found them sleeping for heauines Here the Plate Vpon Palm-Sunday being that next before Easter DISQUISITION 11. THis day for some considerations beareth away the Palm from all the rest as beginning the Hebdonioda magna Sancta poenosae as antiquity calleth it the great the holy and the painful week the great as being that indeed wherein were the most various scoenes and greatest Interchanges of our Saviours life and death the holy as that wherein our meditations should be such in conformity to Christ by the apprehensions of our sins and his sufferings and the painful as that wherein was more then personated the last act of our blessed Saviours Tragedy on the Cross for the Mortification of our Sins and yet the great week beyond all this again for the happy Catastrophe of his Resurrection both for our Souls and Bodies Justification Rom. 4.2 Rom. 4. And first this day openeth a pleasing scaene presenting us our blessed Lord riding in triumph to Jerusalem and that in some measure of befitting equipage suiting at least the Prophesies if not his Majesty Zech. 9. yet with general Acclamations of Rex Israel Zech. 9.9 and gloria in excelsis round about him Behold thy King cometh the King of Israel and glory in the highest cheerfully and with a double Hosanna acknowledging his Godhead and Humanity and the dignity of both where I shall contract your speculations unto Christs Actions herein and theirs the Jewes Saint Mat. registereth the History at large chap. 21. where at the second verse Matth. 21. vers 2. Christ sends two of his Disciples for the Ass and the Colt In the very circumstances of
verse 17. Why cannot I follow thee now saith Saint Peter He hath done with his Bonum est esse hic now he thinks nothing worse then to bee here his Master gone 〈◊〉 How can wee know the way saith Saint Thomas John 14. verse 5. how indeed Thou gone who art the way Then saith Saint Philip unto him Lord shew us the Father verse 8. heareing Christ speake of going to Him Thus all of them in an united Longing desire either to detaine him or accompany him and sweetly Saint BERNARD In 2 Serm. in Ascens Sympathizeth with them Quantus dolor irrupit Apostolica Pectora dum eum propter quem omnia Reliquerant à se tolli viderunt what heart-breaking Grief alas seazed on the Apostles when hee for whom they had left all was now leaving them Oh how could the children of the Bride-Chamber chuse but mourne when the Bride-groome was to bee taken from them Mat. 9.15 Matthew 9. verse 15. And if so irkesome bee thy corporall absence Oh CHRIST Let us never know how unsufferable is thy Spirituall thine eternall separation but since for his corporall Absence there is an Oportet Act. 3.21 Acts 3. for the heavens must contain him till c. and an Expedit John 16.7 Joh. 16. that it was expedient he go to the Father for else the Comforter would not come see how like a tender Parent he goes about to wean their affections 14.1 2. c. John 14. Little children saith he admonishing them to be such in the best sense yet a little while and I am with you our longest abode here is no better Job 14.2 but let not your heart be troubled Cur turbaretur cor cum tantùm deserit oculos What need your heart be troubled when he onely leaveth your eyes and not at all your heart Therein I am with you to the end and therefore be not troubled either to think what shall become of you hereafter For I go to prepare a place for you ver 2. For there was never any place for humane flesh til he carried it thither Nor fear your selves left desolate in present for you shall not lose but change your comfort c. Orabo Patrem that is his Office Intercession I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter you shall rather have two then lose any one I pass my word whose word shall never pass John 14.18 Non relinquam I will not leave you comfortlesse John 14.18 to which S. Augustine sweetly alludeth Euarg in Psal 46. Videte ascendentem Credite absentem Sperate venientem sed tamen per misericordiam occultam etiam sentite praesentem Behold him now ascending beleeve in him being absent expect his second coming and yet by his inward mercies apprehend him present with you 'T is handsomly observed by some learned * August 157. Serm. de Temp. Greg. in Hom. in Ezech. 1. c. Authors that those four Beasts Ezek. 1. and Apoc 4. mystically represent the four chief Actions of Christ in his work of our Redemption the first with the face of a man pointeth at his Incarnation the second like a Bullock denoteth his Passion the third like a Lion speaketh his Resurrection the fourth of the Eagle This of his Ascension flying above the clouds and pearching in the highest heavens at the right hand of God Though our Saviours first life on earth for he lived two you know before and after his Resurrection although his first I say was but one crimson thred a meer debasement and continued passion yet was his second as full of Triumph and Exaltation whereof there were three degrees or sublimations answerable to those three of his later Humiliation Resurrectio Morti Ascensio Discensui Sessio ad dextram permansioni in sepulchro Christs Exaltation threefold viz. his Resurrection opposed to his Death his Ascent into heaven to his Descent into hell and his sitting on the right hand of God to his lying in the Sepulchre The first step of this exaltation was his step out of the grave his Resurrection as before demonstrated the second stair of his Triumphancy is this which now wee contemplate his translation from earth to heaven In Festum and this saith Bernard is Consummatio reliquarum Solennitatum foelix causula totius Itinerarii Christi as it were the complement of all other Solemnities and happy period of Christs whole Journal in the flesh S. Luke describeth the substance and circumstances of it Luke 24.50 c. Luke 24. Eduxit discipulos Christ now about to take his ultimum vale of his disciples He led them forth the city to Bethania out of the city to admonish them and us of a Non habemus that wee have here no continuing city Heb. 13. but must seeke one to come Heb. 13. and led them forth only a few witnesses to shew He was as private in all those actions tending to his glory as publick in those pointing out his shame as his Twin-born poverty is laid open in an Inne Domus populi nay the commonest room of that same common house a Stable his buffetings and derisions in Pilat's open Hall his crucifixion in the eye of Jerusalem when that was the very Face of the world But the glorious attendance on his Birth that 's by night Luke 2. a multitude of the heavenly Hoast His radiant Transfiguration hath but three beholders Peter James and John All his miraculous cures he would have gratified with silence See thou tell no man His Resurrection at first manifested but onely to Mary Magdalene and this his most glorious Ascension but to his Apostles only He led them forth and all this to prick the bladder of vain glory which so puffeth up the heart of man especially now a dayes so much made of every where so be-plush'd and scar-letted but you see Ostentatious ones are Christs Antipedes who here contenteth his wonderfull preferment with no more pomp then His Apostles company He led them forth and that for their own sakes too giving them both a Blessing and a Charge The Blessing the Charge Luke 24.50 ver 50. He lift up his hands and blessed them Happy those imployments that are so led on with his Blessing Rom. 10.15 Jer. 23.21 and so those parting 's too that close in mutuall Benedictions Secondly There was exite praedicate Goe ye forth into all Nations Matth. 10.5 and preach the Gospel there is a double commission for them whom he chooseth both of Authority and Ability This not to be done without warrant Rom. 10.15 Jer. 23.21 the inward Call is best known by the Talents and both best made known by the externall Call of lawfull Authority And here that former Edict was repealed Matth. 10. Goe not into the way of the Gentiles that was to be the main way now to all Nations to every creature that is capable thereof or to the System and the Epitome
breathed on them not now distributing the perfect gift of the Holy Ghost for that was to be done at Pentecost but fitting them for the receiving of it for though in the next words Whose sins c. the Power of the Keys or Stewardship of the Church were actually instated on them yet not to be exercised by them til the holy Ghost came down upon them as Ephes 4.8 It is first He gave gifts to men at the Descent of the Spirit and then gave some to be Apostles c. v. 11. yet this preparation of them amounts to what others assert of the Holy Ghost ver 11. formerly given though in remisse degrees Per Infusionem non per effusionem according to David's begged infusion not to Joel's effusion per Insufflationem non per Imissionem saith Ludolpus by Christs breathing on them accipite Spiritum sanctum The pattern of our Churches pious ordination Receive ye the Holy Ghost Spiritum ante hic plenitudinem The Apostles saith he had received the Spirit before but now the fulnesse of it they receive now not onely it but Him not onely the Grace of the Spirit but the Spirit of Grace himselfe by a more personall Immission Priùs Spiritum Fidei et Intelligentiae nunc Fervoris et Illuminationis Before they had a Spirit of Faith and understanding now One of zêal 2 King 2. and higher Illumination So that they had now what Elisha sometimes prayed for Duplicatum Spiritum the Spirit doubled on them 2 King 2. I They had already Baptismum Fluminis the watery Baptism of John but now Flaminis They receive this of the Holy Ghost and of fire here every of their tongues is touched with a Cole from the Heavenly Altar and as of old God showred upon I srael the Food of Angels Tertullian in Festum so here he seemeth to bestow on men the Tongues of Angels Thus Christ ascending up on high and leaving of the world that we might be the better assured of his coming again saith Tertullian Took our Pledg that is our flesh to Heaven and also left with us his Pawn to wit his Spirit which is therefore called Arrha or Arrabo 2 Cor. 1.22 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts And the earnest you know is a Relative to the rest of the Recompence The Jews you know had three more solemne Feasts which their Leviticall Law bound them to observe Deutr. 16. viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. first the Passeover so called and instituted for a Remembrance Deut. 16. how the destroying Angell smiting the Egyptians passed over the Houses of the Israelites 2. The Feast of Tabernacles being an humble Memoriall of their living in Tents in the wildernesse after their Deliverance from Egyptian bondage The third This of Pentecost or the Feast of weeks in Commemoration of the Law given in Mount Sinai fifty dayes after their coming out of Egypt and therefore named from the number and celebrated so many dayes after the Passeover Upon this later Festivall which now we solemnize in this later Reflection the Chorus Apostolicus or whole Company of the Apostles being assembled Acts 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in One Place Acts 2.1 so All with One Accord Unity is a Preparative for Sanctity and holy gifts seldom are bestowed on such as love Divisions the promised Comforter is performed to Them given some ten days after Christ's Ascension when Re-promised God often heareth prayers which He not answereth presently ten days after Vt Apostoli or ationibus se aptos Adventui praepararent that in mean time the Apostles might with prayer and other pious exercise prepare for so Divine a Guest render themselves fit Temples for the Holy Ghost Hodiè visibiliter apparuit Invisibilis as on this Festival the Invisible himself appeared visibly and now as one observes all the three Persons of the Sacred Trinity have as it were bodily manifested themselves to man God the Father to Adam to Moses and the Patriarcks God the Son exhibited himselfe in humane flesh to and for all the world and here the Apostles are so unanimously so devoutly met as that the Holy Ghost thinks good to be of the Company where but observe the Act and the Concomitants the Person and his Attendants Ludolphus in locum Spiritus Sanctus in variis figuris pro varietate operationum The Spirit to emblem forth his variety of operations cometh here accompanied with severall remarkables and first a sudden sound from Heaven beginneth the wonder Sonus hic symbolum Sonitus Evangelii and this found was but the Symboll of the Apostles Doctrine whose sound went into all lands Psalm 19. Psal 19. I say the Preaching of the Gospel through the world after this Receipt was but the eccho of that sound next there was Flatus vehemens a mighty wind and that was the wind that bloweth where it listeth à carnali Palea Corda purgare A wind that is and need be mighty to blow away the chaffe of all Carnality and teach an holy Impetuousnesse against the strong holds of Sin Then after these two Ushers cometh the Spirit himselfe in cloven Tongues like Fire Three grand Questions where I resolve all into these three Queries Why the Holy Ghost here pleased to descend in Fire why in tongues why in cloven tongues First Why in fire for to some it may seem strange to hear of a fiery Comforter Did not Sodom and Gomorrha 2 King 1. did not Elijah's Enemies finde that a Destroyer and were not some of the Disciples themselves chid by their Master for such fiery zeal 2 Pet. 3. And shall not that same angry Element make one day a bon-fire of the world Talk we then of such a Comforter yes When God is in the fire the veriest bush shall not consume and yet mistake not this as meant of reall fire such as is comburent it being but a Tanquam onely like it in appearance So the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Genitive Tongues like as they had been of Fire à Lapide Cajetan in locum and this Tanquam notat similitudinem non veritatem this word imports Resemblance not Reality of fire Speciem ignis habens having indeed a shew of fire for Colour Light and Motion but without combustion And He appeared like fire rather then ought else Propter Lumen pariter Ardorem To shew He gave both Light and Heat to his Apostles i. e. both zeal and knowledge Heat for God detesteth cold devotion nay but a lukewarm one Nauseam creat Rev. 16.3 maketh his stomack rise Rev. 3. He must have continuall fier burning on his Altar much more then Vesta ardent love and fervent zeal alwayes in the hearts of His Disciples 2dly Like Fire for light too and that a double one viz. of charity knowledg to give
the Apostles Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to us this Saint may turn it saying Christ lives and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there that you might believe through my incredulity and that 's his second fault we may not call it Infidelity it being but a particular act of dubitation and no habit of Renunciation Sins in our Nature are like Circles in the water propagating one another to the utmost Banks of our life we need be the more vigilant in preventing occasions of them Saint Thomas his former offence drew on this his absence caused Incredulity and that passioonately expressed Except I see in his hands the print of the Nailes c. Saint Cyril and others would fain excuse him Apud Mald. in locum and so return the favourable accident of his dubiety attributing it all to sudden passion and nothing to Incredulity as being extreamly greived that he lost the sight of his Master fearing he should never see him again From those words which he remembred Iohn 16.15 Serm. 156. de Temp. Saint Austin also saith that these words are but vox inquirentis non negantis the voice of an Inquirer not of a Denyer Doceri voluit Confirmari desideravit while he speaketh thus saith that Father he sheweth he hath a mind to be taught a desire to be confirmed Saint Ambrose too saith that he doubted not here of the Resurrection but the manner of it These are charitable extenuations but Truth himself reprehends him be not faithless but believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and indeed many circumstances highten the infirmity if not carry it above one As first He was one of the Twelve as it were a Master in Israel a well instructed Disciple Secondly that he gave no credit to the rest of the Disciples though ten to one coming within some danger of that of Christ Luke 10.16 Luk. 10. He that dispiseth ye c. for he beleft neither Thirdly By suting his ill thoughts with as peremptory words Except I see c. Except I put my Finger c. Except I thrust my Hand c. i.e. Except I measure all by all my senses and find exact proportion I neither can nor will believe And herein to see the state of nature how blinde to discerne the things of God! Quid est fides nisi credere quod non vides Austin Tract 20. in Johan Heb. 11.1 Quo minus Argumenti plus Fidei videbat Hominem confitebatur Deum Aug. in loc And specially that hardest Article of the Resurrection which to the senses till Saint Thomas his experience seemed but a Fiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the natural man discerneth not the things of God 1 Cor. 2. He hath his Faith at his fingers ends and yet for all this Christ treats him with so milde a Dialogue working so mercifully upon him as that his Sore was made his Salve his lowe ebbe became a floud of Faith and what was in him but as a grain of Mustard-seed became a great and fruitfull Tree and let us be of those Birds of Heaven that shelter under the branches of it Let us so shelter that we neither presume nor despair not presume for if the Apostles had their Slips we may well fear falls not despaire seeing how sweetly Christ here restored Saint Thomas to an eminent and most exemplary confidence My Lord and my God! and therefore t is a good caution Memento peccati ut doleas Petrarch I. de Rem Dialog 8 Memento mortis ut desinas Memento divinae Justitiae ut Timeas Memento Misericordiae ne desperes Remember sin to mourn and mend Remember death that thou must end Minde divine Justice that thou fear And mercy that thou not despaire Then though thou be a Didymus i. e a Twin and but of half a Spiritual Birth dubious and of a wavering Faith Christ will make thee a Thomas for perfection as that Name signifieth whose Faith shall be a comfort to thy self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfectus ceu perfectio Psal 37.37 and a pattern unto others to which Christ leadeth him by a sensible Demonstration vers 27. infer digitum using the method of his own terms and exceptions and thereby much convincing much attracting him bring hither thy finger c. and put thy hand Vers 27. c. He knew well what Thomas had said though absent and that speaks his God-head he condescends to Thomas and his other Servants weak desires and that speaks his Goodness I shall not think it here worth while to mention that needless question which many make a business of whether Saint Thomas did actually touch Christ or no when we know it was his resolution Vers 25. vers 25. and our Saviours offer vers 27. and for the Objection t is said onely Vidisti Credidisti Thou hast seen and hast believed an easie figure of Video pro Intelligo absolveth the Riddle to see and to perceive or understand are all one and so all the senses may see and interchange with one another Videte gustate Psa 34. Psal 34. O taste and see how gratious the Lord is Let us touch him Spiritually Col. 3.1 2. c. And yet more frivolous is that question whether Saint Thomas his words were an Exclamation My Lord and my God some Socinianized Grand-children of Arrius may pretend them to proceed onely from Passion as an Exclamation Lord what is that I touch c. but the Text is clear and by our Saviours Interpretation that to be Lord and God vers 28. Vers 28. Vt brevissima sic absolutissima Confessio saith Bullinger t is a short Apud Calvin in locum but a sweet and absolute Confession two words involving the two Testaments the sum of the Creed As much honouring Christs Resurrection saith one as those three Kings or the Wise-men did his Nativity Austin his meditat in Festo and with the like three presents he means sure Spiritual presents Tu es Dominus there he confesseth him a King the Lord Deus that declares him God and Meus that presents him Man and we may carry it yet higher by the Emphasis in the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord and the God for many in Scripture are so called Magistrates and others besides in Opinion as the Apostle saith there be many Gods 1 Cor. 8.5 and many Lords 1 Cor. 8. but this the Paramount Psal 50.1 a very pregnant Text against unbelieving Jews and misbelieving Arrians Socinians and others my Lord and my God and not onely God but Lord also hinting our submission to his Golden Scepter our obedience to him as well as our beliefe in him They who are out at the Lord must never look to be in at the Jesus He is a Saviour to none but unto whom he is a Ruler if in that sense then may they in the other say My Lord and
his owne esteem was in his very Zenith in his scorching Meridian then Christ said Siste gradum stand still or go down rather set at noon which was his transmutation our second Considerable his Conversion Acts 9. and 4. where in the third you have the manner and in the fourth the matter of it Acts 9.3 4. suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven Verse 3. Divine Illumination is the sole efficient of mans conversion There is no Deriding or Censuring of any no despairing of our selves or others touching Conversion we know not how soon or suddenly the light may shine from Heaven yet much less is there any presuming on such singular examples for the case may differ the good Thief was converted at the first Call and Saint Paul here at the first Illumination Take heed then of both Rocks Scylla and Carybdis and thou shalt escape Demetrius his Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience Vers 4. next in the fourth verse he fell to to the Earth and heard a voice from Heaven c. Humiliation is a Christians way to exaltation and brings us even to a Conference with Christ Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and mark the happy consequent of such Antecedents viz. Remorse Obedience readiness vers 6. Vers 6. And he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do acting according to all those directions following in the ninth Chapter which the Church appositely appointeth as this day's contemplation And here was a strange Trasmutation wrought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Wolf 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man a kind of transubstantiation contrary to the worlds Lycanthropy whereby too oft one man becomes a wolf unto another for here ex lupo agnus a very wolf is made a lamb ex vepribus racemus a Bramble becomes a Vine and cockle it self good wheat here as t were Is Grapes of Thornes and Figs of Thistles a Pirate becomes a Pilot the mouth of Blasphemy here becomes Christs Oratour and Satans Trumpet the Organ of the Holy Ghost Quantum mutatus happy all those that find but any degrees of such changed Affections as our Saint Paul did here that can say with him as to evil not I but sin that dwelleth in me and as to every good not I but Christ that liveth in me Rom. 7.20 Gal. 2.20 Rom. 9.3 not to speak of the raptures of his piety Rom. 9.3 that seraphick zeal by which he could have wished himself an Anathema for good of others and increase of Christs Kingdome that it may well be said of him that ex novissimo primus ex abortivo perfectus that of the last Apostle he became the chiefest and of Abortion a man of the most eminent perfection 2 Cor. 5. in Coelis Homo in Terris Angelus saith one of him he was a man in Heaven 2 Cor. 11.23 not onely by his Conversation but in his rapture where he heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unutterable words and while yet upon the earth chap. 12.4 he was a kind of Angel insomuch Origen saith that many thought him to be that Holy Ghost which Christ had promised to send after his departure From what a lowness was Saint Paul here raised unto what a height see what strange Changes here Grace can effect what then can Glory be therefore like him alwaies obedient to the Heavenly vision whether in his word or secreet motions that so you may be renewed in the Spirit of your mind till each one with Saint Augustin come to his Ego non sum Ego I am not now the same as heretofore and that so made appear by redeeming of lost time and by a bettered Conversation as Saint Paul did 2 Cor. 11. in labours more abundant 2 Cor. 11.23 c. quot verba tot tonitruae Hier his words were like Thunder And one of Saint Augustins three chief wishes was Paulum in cathedra Prud. Enchirid. To have heard Paul out of the Pulpit or seen him in the chaire Hic Lupus ante rapax vestitur vellere molli Saulus qui fuerat fit adempto lumine Paulus Mox recipit visum fit Apostolus ac populorū Doctor ore potens Corvos mutare Columbis He 's now a sheep that was a wolf before And Saul being blinded makes Paul see the more His sight receiv'd the Gentiles Doctor preves His holy Rhetorick turns Rav'ns Doves Thus our Saint Paul though he arose a Red and fiery Sun of persecution yet was his Meridian full of miraculous splendor and Illumination and his setting with more blush of penitence and passion vindicating his former time and mistaken zeal with multiplyed labours in propagating the true Gospel so that while other Apostles had their particularly designed Circuits totum pariter Mundum Paulo He was more then any the universal Bishop and had the whole World for his Diocess left to his peregrination and which indeed as the Sun in the Apostles Zodiack he did run through or the most known parts of it viz. Seleucia Phrygia Pamphilia Galatia Macedonia Athens Corinth Ephesus and the rest of the Graecian and Asiatick Churches besides the Mediterranean Islands Cyprus Creet Malta c. with the Continents of Spaine and Italy in which last after as large a Catalogue of dangers as Indeavours he had his Quietus by the Sword of Nero about the 67 year of Christ his Master Poem 24. BOld Poetry durst never feign a change Like this Conversien yet as true as strange That sings of Men turn'd Beasts but this doth paint A Ravenous Wolf turn'd Man and that man Saint Even Paul himself that breath'd Destruction Here proves a Vessel of Election Whence flow Balsamick oyles such to restore As his wild zeal so wounded had before Posting on he 's struck down that he might Rise Blinded with Light but yet to mend his Eyes First Heaven stoops to him he next soar'd to That And mounted higher for being thus thrown flat For he that er'st did to Stephens Death consent Instructs all to Believe now and Repent And who to Bonds and Death once Jews betray'd Is now great Doctor of the Gentiles made And with strange Paines and Perils doth Redeeme His former Actions Time and lost Esteeme Compassing Sea and Land to effect this In others divine Metamorphosis O may the same Coelestiall Bridle check Our gallopping corruptions and pull back Our ranging hearts Lord strike us so to ground That we thy Tennis-Balls to Heaven rebound Dazzle us with thy Beames that we may see No more the waies of Sin but better Thee That to himself or others Each mad Saul May prove a Penitent or Preaching Paul The COLLECT-PRAYER The Gospel Matth. 9. vers 23. to the end The Epistle Acts 9. vers 1. unto vers 23. God which hast taught all the world through the preaching of thy blessed apostle S. Paul grant we beseech thee that we which have his wonderful conversion in remembrance may follow and
again And that with abjuration and execration and all the aggravations possible and all this too after Christs indulgent Dialogue with him Thou art Peter c. O see here and lament sad humane Frailty If such Rocks be shaken what shall Rushes if cheif Apostles fall O be not high minded but fear and let him that standeth take heed least he fall Yet let us not take notice of his foul steps onely but also of his washing them Vers 75. Verse 75. He went out and wept bitterly bitterly as ere he sinned O that we could as easily repeat his tears as sins and that we could so vindicate the former acts of our life as he did with the latter being ever afterward a diligent and most successful Apostle as though still a Fishing Catching three thousand at a Sermon Acts 2. till Herod Agrippa seiseth Acts 2.41 and imprisoneth him Chap. 12. Acts 12. intending to serve him as he had done Saint James but that the Prayers of the Church fetched an Angel from Heaven miraculously to release him That afterward about Anno Christi 51. at Rome he expugned Simon Magus whose imposture had so carried away the vulgar that they inscribed Altars to him Saint Peter and Simon Magus Simoni deo sancto to Simon the holy god But Simon Peter made him appear the worst of men though some have so pen'd the story as make the passages rather seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. More Poetical then real Thence passing into the lesser Asia he Preached a while unto the Jews being sometime called the Apostle of Circumcision until his Vision of the Feasting Sheet let down from Heaven with all edible Creatures of the Earth Acts 10. And thence Acts 10.11 emblematically instructed he became a Converter of the Gentiles also as Prudentius excellently Somniat illapsum Petrus alto ex aethere discum Prud. Enchirid Confertum omnigenis Animalibus ille recusat Mandere sed Dominus jubet omnia munda putare Surgit immundas vocat ad Mysteria Gentes Saint Peter dreaming of that Feast from Heaven Stor'd with all Creatures eats not of what 's given God checks his niceness clean expressing all Whence he to Christ doth unclean Gentiles call To which end he went afterward to Antioch Vide Alsted Chron. c. 27. where some write him seven years to have been Bishop and in Anno Christi 67. being the fourteenth of Nero he returns to Rome there abiding not many moneths and that not as Bishop but as a stranger though Damasus writes that he came to Rome Anno Christi 60. which was the seventh year of Nero and even thereby confuting those who affirm him to have sate Bishop there Five and twenty years when as Nero scarse reigned full fourteen in all but there all agree he suffered Eusebius l. 3. c. 1. And Eusebius and others say That in the Sixty eighth year of Christ which was the last of Nero Saint Peter and Saint Paul both both in one day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they had formerly born the yoke of Labors Isaacsons Chro. so now of Torture or rather were both together unyoked with the Rest of Martyrdom Saint Peter being crucified Inversly saith Eusebius to differ from his Master and Saint Paul beheaded by the tyranny of Nero who hence was justly stiled Dedicator condemnationis Christianae The Founder of those Ten Christian Persecutions POEM 32. Here you come forth to see with eyes of mind No Reed but a Rock shaken with the wind A Rock of Confidence and Faith profest Shook with a Faint blast of a Damsels Brest Yet like a well-set Oke rooted the more By storms and firmer after then before This Primate of the Apostles having been Longer with Christ and most his wonders seen Deservedly above the rest he most Doth of his love and stout adherence boast To his dear Lord who too truly descries His Champions fall yet praying for his rise He that left Ships and Nets and World and all When Christ and gainful miracles did call No sooner sees his Paths bestrew'd with Thorn But Peter like the rest leaves Christ forlorn Christ who from drowning Waves supported him He now leaves in a storm to sink or swim But did he not then follow to the Hall Yes to disown him and augment his Thrall Nice to see that High Court and this strange tryal But there espi'd first wounds him with denial Denies in a bad sense himself and next Abjures his Countrey and his Lord perplext Then his poor inch of life to loose so loath That he seals all with a perfidious Oath He whose unstain'd Profession all admire Was thus besmutted at the High Priests fire Was this the Rock not to be mov'd by death So tost and stagger'd by a Maidens breath Was this he liv'd on Miracles was this He that saw Tabors metamorphosis What is best Flesh and Blood left to it self Faith needs must wrack when each is his own shelf How vain all humane confidence how faril Christains 't is humble Faith and Pray'rs prevail Here Satan winnowed the choicest grain Yet our Lords Prayer purg'd off his Chaff again After all this Christ gave him but a look And that the Saint into the Peter strook Reflection and remorse met both together And made fair after though first showry weather Christs eye dissolv'd his frozen heart to tears And from those bitter streams sweet Fruit appears The monitory Cock then timely sings Alarums to his Soul and lends her wings For though his Master at this time he flie Yet for the same at length did stoutly die Lord be thy Word our Chantecleer of sin And when we start let thy Grace eye-us in And then such fractures maugre all complaint Well-set again shall make the stronger Saint Who knows so well what 't is to go astray The care of Sheep and Lambs best take he may Who Heaven most values by such streights as these Seems fittest to be trusted with the Keys I when all 's done this Peter proves the stone Which Christ hath hewn to build his Church upon And though all Tempests of the World assail That Faith yet ' gainst it Hell shall not prevail The COLLECT The Epistle Acts 12. ver 1. unto v. 12. The Gospel Matth. 16. ver 13. unto v. 20. Almighty God which by thy Son Jesus Christ hast given to thy Apostle Saint Peter many excellent gifts and commandedst him earnestly to feed thy Flock make we beseech thee all Bishops and Pastors diligently to preach thy Holy Word and the people obediently to follow the same that they may receive the Crown of everlasting glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. S. IACOBVS MAIOR The Plate here Vpon the Feastival of St. James DISQUISITION 30. THis Saint James was one of the sons of Zebedaeus Matth. 20. This was James the brother of John Jacobus Major and why called James the Great sirnamed James the Great and
did wrong sustain Large Restitution O how strong the word When Speakers Voice and Hearers Hear 't accord Greatnesse and Goodnesse meet in One O strange Plenty and Piety here interchange For presently his new Lord to requite For Spirituals does Corporally invite And by receiving so divine a Guest Is entertain'd himselfe with better Feast Fed with the Bread of life so Took with Christ The Publican proves an Evangelist And ' stead of Counting more the Publick Coyne Sums up the stories of Christs Private Line His numerous Miracles and Grace bestow'd The numberlesse Griefs of his Passion show'd Thence Counting on his Rais'd Lords Victories Till his Soul with Christ's Body mount the Skies Lord whisper us i' th ' Heart with such a Call To Remors'd Publicans convert us all From Sin and Custome in it that no Gaine May from Thee any longer us Detaine But in Thy Service may our selves Expend That we how'ere began may Saint-like End The COLLECT The Epistle 2 Cor. 4. v. 1. to 7. The Gospel St Matth. 9. v. 9. to 14. Almighty God which by thy blessed Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custome to be an Apostle and Evangelist Grant us grace to forsake all covetous desires and inordinate love of riches and to follow thy said Son Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth c. Vpon the Feast of S. Michael And all Angels DISQUISITION 33. ALbeit this Festival in the Vulgar compellation bear but a particular Denomination of St Michaels day yet doth the Church herein celebrate the generall Memorial of all Angels praising the Almighty for the great and various Benefits Mankind enjoyeth both in Soul and Body by their appointed Aid and Ministration And indeed this is doubly considerable either as literall or allegoricall the first having more of curiosity and Information the second more of certainty and Aedification the literal sense here leading us to a contemplation of Angelical Natures which of all Creatures though we come neerest to Them God hath been pleased most to shut up the knowledg of in holy Scripture Whereof this may be one reason all humble reverence reserved that Gods designe was in those sacred Oracles to impart to Man but that which most concern'd him both as to his voluntary Lapse and gracious Restitution and no more of Angels concerned in another world then what only refers to their Ministry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and delegated Protection all other speculations of them whatsoever being but fine cobweb-lawn but rarified Metaphysical Abstractions and Tentered Probabilities of Ratiocination As that they were the work of the first day Gen 13. created in that Fiat Lux Gen. 1. Let there be Light Their manner of Vnderstanding by intuitive knowledg to say nothing of their * The Schoolmen generally de loquela Angelorum Speech while others perhaps speak too much of it their triple Hierarchies one above another with as many Orders in each of them and that in necessary opposition to as many of the infernall Combinations their mode of Operation and distinguished Offices viz. into Instructive Tutelar Vehicular Militant Matrimonial Terrestrial and Aquatick Angels But though these are Niceties and a very Coelum incognitum an imbracing of a Cloud for Juno yet something is express'd of them more certain wherein we may requite their prying into the mystery of our Redemption viz that they are Natives of Heaven and eternall Angeli dicuntur aeviterni potius quà m aeterni à parte post i. e. shall have no Cessation yet that not so much by their Nature as by Preservation That they are one of the three Invisibles scil God Angels and the Souls of Men that they are innumerable as to us Ps 141.4 but not so in respect of God who calleth all the Starrs by their names Ps 103.29 Psal 141. that they are full of Knowledg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of Power and strength Psal 103.20 His Angels that excell in strength that there are Degrees and Order most exact amongst them evident from their severall Names n From. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burn Psal 104.4 Seraphim Isa 6. o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sicut puer as a child Cherubim Ezek. 1. Thrones Colos 1. c. Principalities powers c. Eph. 1. Again That they can only be Described not defined punctually and that Description one of the neerest Angelus est Animal Rationale Hymnisonum immateriale That an Angel is a Rationall immateriall Creature whose main end is to chant and act that Hymn which their whole Quire sung at Christs Birth Glory to God on high on earth Peace Good will towards Men. Which goodwill of theirs is actuated in variety of Assistance for though Omnipotence could act all that He wills immediately in all yet God sees good to busie all his Creatures and make them instrumentall for each other ordering all things like a Golden chaine whose links while they depend one upon another are all in his own hand so is pleased to use and vouchsafe us the Ministry and protection of Angels nor is the Glory of the Agent ere the lesse while we love and commend the Goodnesse of the instruments This Guardianship of Angels some assert Particular suus cuique Genius that every one from his Birth hath his assigned Angell a Genius or spirit attending and defending him so Saint Hierom Mira Animarum Dignitas c. O the wonderfull Dignity of the souls of men that not one of them is sent from Heaven Quaevis ab ortu Angelium habet delegatum Hierom without an Angell thence allotted to accompany it and protect it here on Earth and Scripture seems to second him Ps 34.7 and our blessed Lord himself Forbids dispising of his little ones upon this Reason that their Angels alwayes behold the Face of God c. Matth. 18.10 and what credit this had of old Acts 12.15 you may see Acts 12. when Saint Peter knock'd at the entry door of Maries house his voice being known and himself supposed in Prison many within assembled affirmed that it was his Angel But what scruple we at particular Angels when the Scriptures are so evident touching their Generall Protection and that the Servants of God have many Guardians Psal 91. Hee hath given his Angels charge c. And in the New Testament Psal 91.10 Are they not all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sent forth to minister for them Heb. 1.14 who shall be Heirs of salvation Heb. 1. And this you may see experienced in Elisha 2 King 6. where being besieged by Syrians the Mount which He possessed was full of Horses and Chariots of fire Psal 104.4 i. e. Angels Psal 104.4 His Angels Spirits and his Ministers a Flaming fire I thousand thousands of Angels are daily winging it 'twixt Heaven and Earth Millia millium Angelorum jugiter meant inter Coelum Terram Anselmus like Bees betwixt their Hives and Flowres Vota offerentes Dona
referentes Transporting and as it were Merchandizing Gods Blessings and Mans Prayers performing their Charge to us both alive and dead In our Life by instructing Dan. 10.21 I am come to teach Thee saith the Angel there to Daniel by comforting and chearing us in agonies as to Elijah 1 King 19.7 and unto Hagar 2 Kin. 19.35 Gen. 12. By assisting against Enemies as to St. Peter Acts 12. and to Israel against Senacherib 2 Kin. 19. By protection to keep thee in all thy ways and that thou dash not thy foot against a stone Noe o This is Militia Coelestis as it were Gods Regiment of Horse while his earthly powers are his Regiment of foot The times will bear this Allegory touching the Lord of Hoasts how comes it then to passe so many good men oft meet with ill Accidents and that not only in their Goods or Children like holy Job chap. 1. but also in their Person like Mephibosheth 2 Samuel 4.4 I not only to the losse of Limb but sometimes of Life also Luke 13. notwithstanding this Angelicall protection But the Answer is obvious as the scruple that God is pleased for ends best known unto himselfe sometimes ro countermand these vice Protectours and yet to order and overrule the worst of Casualties at least to the Spirituall advantage of the Sufferers thus do heavens winged Choristers befriend poor mortalls inclining them to Good protecting them from evill joying in Heaven at their conversion Luke 15.7 Luke 15. keeping them in all their ways o All this but conditionall in viis non praecipitiis while in the ways of Piety not in the Precipices of sinne and irrepentance Adcandida tecta Columbae The harmless Dove clean house doth love And then their Charge attends us too at our end after we are dead carrying our Souls into Abraham's bosom Luke 16. Luke 16. to bear a part in their own Consort unto all eternity Lastly They shall be Messores Matt. 24.31 Mat. 24.31 And from these Generals now to say something of the Angel of this Day and his Particular yet must it not be that which One adventures on viz. that ever since the fall of Lucifer Saint Michael hath been head of all the glorious Angels Bellarmin de Rom. Pontif. l. 1. c. 9. Thousas Aqui. Q. 124. A. 2. and not hearing him say any thing how he was chosen into his Room whereas the Schoolmen make the Ministerial Order to be of an underling Hierarchy yet we find an Eminent mention of him in Scripture Dan. 13.1 where He standeth up for the People and from thence by some held to be that Angel that shall blow the last Trumpet 1 The. 4. 1 Thes 4.16 Epi. Jude v. 9. Dan. 12.1 Rev. 12.7 and He is the onely Angel in the Scripture Honoured with the Title expresly of an Arch-Angel Jude ver 9 five times named in the holy Book and always a Military Angel So thrice in Daniell fighting against the Persians once in Revel against the Dragon in maine Battalia and in Saint Jude in a Duel with the Divel about the body of Moses the very ashes of Gods Servants have Angelicall protection and shall have recollection and so much excellency is wrapped up in the very Name of this glorious Angel that some think it only competent to Christ and so brings us unawares to the sense Allegoricall by the Name Michael 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is like the Lord for so it signifies and here Christ is the Arch-Angel the Angel of the Covenant Quis sicut Deus Michaelem intellige Christum it is Saint Austine and the addition to Michael of His Angels Strengthens that interpretation Hom. 9. in Apoca as such as cannot properly be said to be any others then the Angels of God and of Christ 2. Satan is the Dragon howsoever that old Serpent Gen. 3. Rev. 12. that great Red Dragon Rev. 12. and the Church militant is the Heaven the Scene of this Battaile ordinarity called Heaven in Scripture as Mat. 6.20 Col. 3.2 Phil. 3.20 and our life as Job saith militia super terram Job 7.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6.12 Gen. 3.14 is a warfare upon Earth◠and therefore take that whole Armourof God Eph. 6. So that the Meaning of that Re. 12.7 is but briefly this that Christ and his Members fight against the Divell and his nor can that victory be ascribed to any whatsoever but to that seed of the woman which was promised should break the Serpents Head Gen. 3. Yet as Aretius saith Christus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angeli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though Christ bee Generall yet Saint Michael certainly was a great Commander under him and a glorious Instrument in the victory But in the last place what compensation is to be returned by us for their assistance and all their good offices a Question that comes not within Davids Quid Retribuam Ps 116. Psal 116.12 though he had as much experience of their favour as any Yet What shall I render to the Lord for all c. no Adoration much lesse Invocation due to them Gen. 18.23 If Abraham worshipped any Angel it was Angelum Dominum non Domini It was Christ in their borrowed semblance and no Created Angel whose modest Piety justly prohibbits it and that twice Revelations 19.10 and that with a strict Caution and a convincing Reason See thou doe it not for I am thy fellow-servant Revelat. 22.9 Rev. 22.9 But what then is our Religion ungratefull are there no Responsals to such ample Favours hath so sweet a voice no eccho from us Yes sure Love must flow back and Commendation ever making Honourable mention of them as Glorious Angels holy Angels blessed Angels entertaining them with care and Spiritual Hospitality for they are Feasted as it were by vertuous astions and driven away with sinne as Bees with smoak 1 Sam. 16.14 and when the good Angles go the evill ever come as it was with Saul 1 Sam. 16.14 Cautè Ambula walk circumspectly and keep the better Company invite not the bad Angels who alwayes are too ready Yet all the highest Praise and Gratitude and Adoration must bee Gods even for their good Offices according to that Rule of the Civill Law Quicquid servus Acquirit Domino acquirit suo Whatsoever the Servant purchaseth Hee purchaseth to his Master And therefore Non nobis Domine non aut Angelis Psa 115.1 Not unto us O Lord not unto Angels but to thy Name be Glory and all adoration POEM 36. BRight Starrs o' th Morning albeit to you Worship be not yet Love and Honor 's due And Decent Gratitude to your high Merits For being to fraile Flesh such aiding spirits Though we perhaps Raise not your Hierarchy As some fond Builders full nine stories high Yet we acknowledg you with Admiration The Top and vertex of the whole Creation Coelestiall Natives since your selves do pry Into our grand
true Christian is a Theophilus and hath a Gospel dedicated to him Explan Proem Evang. Luc. as St. Ambrose sweetly Si Deum diligis ad te scriptum est si ad te scriptum suscipe munus c. If thou lovest God to thee the Gospel is written if to thee it be written accept the gift of the Evangelist the pledge of such an Heavenly Friend and treasure up this Jewell in the retirements of thy Bosome out of the reach both of Moath and Thief i.e. of Sin and Error But more proble 't is to be a proper Name from Saint Lukes own words Luke 1.3 Luke 1. v. 3. It seemed good to me also to write unto thee in crder most excellent Theophilus that thou mightst know the certainty of those things Wherein thou hast been instructed Wherein me thinks he doth evidence some one particular person Maldonat in Luc. 1. whom he had catechised formerly by word of mouth And this is seconded too by the Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the same used elsewhere to Eminent Persons Theophilact in Luc. 3. occasions Expositers justly to conceive it was some Man of quality Lyran and Nicephorus think him the then Bishop of Antioch Others that he was some chiefe Governour in his Common-wealth because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth most Excellent or most Noble as it is translated and applied to Festus by St. Paul Acts 26. and by Tertullus that great Master of words to Foelix Acts 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by Claudius Lystus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the most Noble Governor c. And then from Theophilus we note That Greatnesse doth not exclude Goodnesse but may much advance it and so to that end 't is not onely Equity and Civility to give due Titles of Respect to personages of Honour Rom. 13.7 Honour to whom honour belongeth Rom. 13.7 But it is withall a Pious policie for good men to devote their Labours to such Mecoenasses as may advance Religion and the Glory of God rather then their own privat Names and Fortunes as here St. Luke doth unto his Theophilus But not to seem digressive this Evangelist like his Industrious Ensign the Ox forementioned hath his time of Vnyoaking also as well as of hard labour This holy Physician after his numerous and double cures is at length himselfe cured of all earthly Maladies dying in Bithynia a Region of the lesser Asia Hieron in Cat. vir Illust now called Anatolia neer Pontus in the 84. year of his age and Anno Christi 74. POEM 37. HOw fit't is we commemorate Thy Facts Who Registerst more then th' Apostles Acts The Church but gratefully doth celebrate Saint Lukes Festivity at highest Rate Because although a Grand-Physician He Deigns to take notice of Divinity Nay and to make his practice of it too And that you 'l say is rare for such to doe He through all second Causes sees the Prime And doth by Natures scale to Heaven climbe While others lodge by th' way the Soul 's his care While some perhaps some Bodies do impaire He layes aside his Apollinean Art Or doth Heavens Recipe's withall impart The Soul-pulse Conscience now he feels and thus Christ is become his Esculapius Tears are the Critick water he doth cast Where he discerns Sins danger overpast Or if he sees the Symptoms still prove bad Applies the healing Balm of Gilead And where the Case seems despr ' ate to doe good Adapts the Balsome of our Saviours Bloud That Panacean Medicine that all-heal So carefull is He of each Patients weal Visits without a Fee and the more thrives Freely he hath receiv'd and freely gives Whose Gospel is a Shop well furnished Where each Grief opened may of cure be sped Full of choyce Cordials or Corrosives Spirituall Antidotes Restoratives And all these free List to the Prophets Cry Come all that languish without Money buy And Lord we come beseeching Thee grant this As Saint Luke Saint Pauls convert make us His. THE COLLECT PRAYER The Epistle 2 Tim 4. v. 5. to 10. The Gospel Luke 10. v. 1. to 7. ALmighty GOD which calledst Luke the Physician Whose praise is in the Gospel to be a Physician of the Soul may it please Thee by the wholsome Medicines of his Doctrine to heal all the diseases of our Souls through thy Son Jesus c. S. SIMON S. THADAEVS The Plate here Vpon Simon and Judes day DISQUISITION 35. THESE were another pair of Brethren as before Peter and Andrew James and John The Reason of Christs choice herein to spread unanimity and prevent schism is expressed in their Feastivals Fratres Naturâ Aquin. glossa ordinar Fide Doctrina Vitâ They were brethren in Blood and brethren in Good brethren in Nature in Faith in Doctrine and Good life Bonum jucundum Oh how happy and pleasant a thing it were if Ministers were in the three later but such brethren that would sent like Aarons Oyntments would be both good and pleasant Psalm 133. and few things that are both Though Simons here first named I shal crave leave to begin with Jude as most remarkable in Scripture I and for Scripture too having enriched that Crown with a precious Jewel viz. An Epistle of Catholick and universal excellence and therefore well named Lebbaeus Math. From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cordatum fecit unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. cor 10.3 from a root signifying the heart and to make hearty He having done it hartily as unto the Lord not more discouraging the Enemies of Christ then animating and cheering his true servants and for the same reason not amiss surnamed Thaddeus In the place forecited from that Syrio-Chaldaick word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Dug his Epistle being Mamilla Ecclesiae as it were a dug a Nipple of the Church yet I think the better Etymology is from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which speaks him Laudantem confitentem a confessor and a Saint praising God and so uniting with his name of Jude streaming in one channel both and from the same Fountain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi celebrationis Pâ—liis the most we read of him in Scripture is from his own Pen yet that being guided by the Holy Spirit we cannot suspect the modesty thereof where above all Titles he stiles himself Judas the Servant of Jesus Christ The honorablest relation That the perfectest freedom therefore all the Apostles use it Rom. 1.1 2 Pet. 1.1 1 Cor. 7.22 c. I and the best Christians joy most in this Title as the good Theodosius Euseb Ecc. His in being Membrum Ecclesiae quam caput Imperii Deemed his being a member of Christ's Church an higher honor then that he was Head of the Empire So St. Jude in his Exordium a servant of Jesus Christ yet adding withal the brother of James mentioning his Kindred and Allies partly
now perusest Friend is mine But yet if ill thou read'st 't is so farre thine LONDON Printed for Richard Marriot and are to be sold under St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1652. Vpon Prayer DEvotions Hebrew 's Prayer her holy Tongue That heaven-born Language Dialogu'd among God Angels Men by Him best understood And for both t'other purchasing all Good Unto which end our Leiger 't is in Heaven The soul's Ambassadour to whom is given Quick Audience and all Favours that may suite The Senders necessary safe Recruite This Grace as 't were omnipotent Commands All Elements and holds th' Almighties hands From smiting very Sodomites nor can Heaven show'r down Hell till praying Lot is gone This is the Jacobs Ladder whereon Soules And Blessings Trade 'twixt Center and the Poles Sometimes it mounts aloft as having Keyes To open or shut Heaven when it please ' Thath stopt the foaming Horses of the Sun So Garrison'd their Mouths they could not run And sometimes Broach'd the Clouds that they might pow Into scorch'd Tellus Lap a Danac's showr Sometime Descending pregnanteth the wombe Of Teeming Earth or opening the Tombe Even of the Dead recalling Those are gone To a Compendious Resurrection Pray'r gives th' unruly Element command Girdling the Ocean with a Belt of Sand Nor only limiting but setting Bars To the insulting winds and waters-wars Making Deeps dry paths for some Passengers While others find them but wet Sepulchers Pray'r hath made Iron swim and Fire descend Whole Towns and Armies brought to sudden end Conquers th' Invincible to flesh turns stone An heart obdurate to a Plyant one Till Desart Araby this Phoenix grace Transforme an happy and a fruitfull Place What can it not that may our good procure As strong above as e're if here as pure Unto thy Closet then and shut the dore But thy heart open and thy Sins out poure To him that for retyred Piety Loves to exchange open foelicity Sometimes be with thy selfe yet let all share Throughout thy Family Domestick pray'r This renown'd Abraham and doth Record That fam'd Resolve I and mine serve the Lord. Be not rash with thy mouth But let due care From wandring looseness guard thee and thy Pray'r Compose both by the Scriptures 't is well known Each Place likes best the Language that 's her own Yet all affected Eloquence avoid Honey was never Sacrifice but cloyd Grave and expressive be thy words but few And Pharisaick bablings so eschew Prayers should like Arrows unto Heaven fly Winged with sighs uninterruptedly Yet though such private Prayer have its high praise The Publike Forme 't is that designe doth raise Even up to Heaven whither with stronger wings It Flies and thence a fuller blessing brings Such private Suitors like less stars do shine In Constellations while more lights combine Those but like Planets oft excentrick move But These fix'd stars Heavens Galaxia prove Brands that in corners smoake may have some Fire But those that burne together sure flame higher While private prayer but begs This doth besiege The Towres of Heaven it selfe and much obliege The Governsur to open or doth reach The Battlements thereof and make a breach Such Pray'r is revers'd Lightning Heavens wonder While the joint Amen's like a Clap of Thunder But know each Sacrifice must season'd be And the Lords Prayer is the Salt which we Must Sprinkle all our own with that their Taste May rellish to Christs Palate and Repast I then all our Addresses shall appeare As precious Jewels in th' Almighties Eare Or pleasant Harmony whose divine Ayres Shall drown the Musick of the Rapid Spheares And though Heavens starry window do not ope With sudden Answers to our greedy hope 'T is not for that God listens not to Thee But will not interrupt the Melody With hasty grants but then at length repaies With fuller Bounty thy thought-long delaies Pray on and He 'l not only quit thy Guilt But to thy Faith say Be it as thou wilt Vpon the Holy Scriptures Isa 12.3 Iohn 5.39 1. LIGHT THese are Heavens milky way wherein combine Millions of Stars so many Guides Divine While your new spitting lights those wandring Fires Lead Ignorants into a Ditch of Briers These are the bright Beams of that glorious Sun Which Batis of Sin and Errour only shun As chased shaddows fly the rising Light Soules that live under this Line know no Night 2. ARMOUR And as God so his Word 's both Sun and Shield Which who so knows but dexterously to wield Shall vanquish that Triumvirate of Foes Which Christian life doth constantly oppose 'T is a Sword also and that most acute To lop off Sin and Errors Root and Fruit It yields that compleat Armour in whose guard Safety and Conquest make a full reward 3. A GLASSE And as it armes one Sex 't is t'others Glasse Suff'ring no sinfull blemishes to passe The lookers eye which still it mends by view Who dresse by This sure are of lovely Hiew Hereto then Ladies each morn Sacrifice And it will make your Beauty pasle the Skies T' will helpe adorn you with the brightest fashion First Trim you with a Grace then with Salvation 4. A GARDEN This is a Garden too where both may walke And recreate your selves with vertuous talke With all choise Flowers sweetly Inameled Poses at hand and Chaplets for the head Or if you more affect here 's pleasant Fruits All barmelesse yet such as each Palat suits If any Ulcer or Disease within Here grow Herbs medicinall for all Sinne. 5. A FOUNTAINE And in this Garden there 's a sacred Well Which doth all Fountains of the World excell A true Bethesda what e're we endure But timely enter and ner'e doubt of Cure The Water 's strangely sweet yet red as bloud Look how it will That ner'e failes doing good Who so pollutes these Streames then or what 's worse Seales up the Fountaine runnes a double Curse You then whom crazy Frame or feeble age Sends to the Wells on yearly Pilgrimage Come hither panting hearts spare paines and wealth Drink freely here and drink Eternall health 6. A TREASURE And mark it tastes of a rich Mincrall That speakes a Treasure hid there passing all The precious things that Natures Store-house yields O part with all to buy these Treasure Fields None to the Gospell Pearie besides whose wealth There is a Soveraign Cordiall in 't for health Ophyr's an outside Treasure and not Thine Digge here and soon be rich 'ts a Golden Mine Vpon the Sacraments in Generall Isa 17.11 Exod. 12.11 Iohn 3.5,6.35 ver THese Some and may more largly ta'ne make seaven But theirs is an odd sense the Scripture's even The New being but to old Testament reveal'd Whose Truths but with two Sacraments are seal'd These They save paine and charge the Churches Twinns With double Guard ensafing us from sinnes One Antidote against Originall T'other preservative ' gainst Actuall Restoratives for both the Churches wings With which each Lark of Heaven mounts and sings A
Pair of cleansing streames flow'd from the Side Of our deare Lord when on the Crosse he dy'd Even Christs two witnesses who though not slaine Yet slay our sinnes and fresh his Death againe Our Brace of Spies that from blest Canaan brings Newes of its cheering wines and fruitfull Springs A Mother hath but two Breasts Ours These are For spirituall Nutrition thriving fare The two Church dores open to who desire First leading into th' Body then the Quire The one a Spirituall Matriculation T'other such nourishment and Education Then not to Tantalize you on and Tast The Delicates of their Divine repast Vpon Holy Baptism Gen. 15.17.11 1 Cor. 1.16 1. The INDULGENCE CHRIST no hard Master our Indulgent Lord Now for harsh Sacraments doth milde afford No way ward Zippora need now upbraid Her Moses bloudinesse or be afraid Her Child's life cut together with his Skinne That Bloud 's turnd Water now but wash thy sinne His Yoake in deed is easie Burthen light Wear 't all Life's day and rest well at Death night 2. The LAVER To wash is ease but Thereby to doe good Faith must our Water mingle with Christs Bloud And then it takes out Staines of deepest dye And gives more then our own first Purity A Simon Magus else may be Baptiz'd And passe for a Disciple so disguis'd 'T is not the Water only but the Dove Moving upon 't doth the Soules Laver prove 3. The LISTING This is the Military Sacrament Giving to each Presse-money from Christs Tent Engaging us to warre ' gainst Sinne and Hell Such and so many Foes need guard us well Mind we our part 'o th Compact as Christ his Who the victorious Crowns with Grace and Blisse But who his Standard cowardly doth flye You know by Martiall Law deserves to dye But there 's a Chancery in our Leaders breast That who returns shall be a pardon'd Guest 4. The ARK This is Christs Ark as 't were while Flouds of Sinne Deluge the World to shroud his Servants in Even in his Churches armes then no time slip To have poore Soules imbarqued in this Ship Dispute not Infants Faith thou graft's thy Plant Though in its Youth and Winter it fruit want Commerce of Spirits goes not by age or acts Externall but where Gods free Grace affects And Christ most favour did to such dispence Schooling the Gravest to their Innocence Forbid not then these Sacramentall Rites To such as Jews admitted Christ invites His Ordinance and promise who neglect Are out of 's Arke and may the Floud expect And as for timely entrance Care be ta'ne So must there too that all i' th' Ship remain As Saint Paul caution'd for offences foule Cast Jonah's Lot on a bestormed Soul But after such a wrack no better plank Then deep Remorse to land on Safeties bank Vpon the Holy Eucharist 1 Cor. 11. John 6. 1. A FEAST TO thy Grand Houshold Th' art a bounteous Lord For all the World spreading an ample Board But specially for Man at whose feet all The severall Species in subjection fall Yet thine own Israel doe higher fare And Fellow-Commoners with Angels are The Rocks are broacht to quench their Thirst at wish They doubly Feast with first and second Dish And yet all these but figure in a mist The Viands thou preparest thine in Christ The former of thine Alm's-basket are fed But unto These Thou giv'st thy self for bread Bread thresh'd and ground to dust by Sinne and Jews As Staffe of life ' then let us this Bread use Walk with it all our wayes and 't will sustaine Our hearts from slips in Sinne from falls in paines The better Jacobs Staffe that guides to Heaven From whence this Feast the Feeder doth enliven As Grace before made Thee a welcome Guest So let Zeale waite and due praise close the Feast 2. The RANSOM Our life 's a warfare and our hellish Foes Too numerous and strong daily enclose Us in their fatall Nets insulting still Or'e us as Bond-slaves captiv'd to their will But Judah's Lyon by victorious power Free's his Sheep from those Wolves that would devoure Christ to our Rescue did descend This day And unto Heaven with him bore the Prey Nor are wee only Prisoners of Warre But of Debt also and ingag'd so farre That all we have or are can never free Our Soules be-dungeon'd to Eternity Yet cheere up drooping Wights he that essaid To Rescue you and did hath also paid The Price beleeve it farre beyond best Gold Your Debts and Forfeitures and this day told A Summe so great could not be understood Paid willingly too though as drops of Bloud Henceforth by double Ransome then His be Whose service is most perfect Liberty 3. An ANTIDOTE How sick doth Poyson swallow'd make the Heart Diffusing Venom into every part Within without all ulcered and thus The Serpents Teeth and Apple had serv'd us But here 's a soveraign Antidote made up Of rare Ingredients mixed in this Cup Of Bloud and Grace which who drinks heartily Shall be so Cur'a as live immortally 4. The CEMENT How should These mixt Tenacious Cement make To bind all in a Building should partake One Common Uniformity and grace Each other with proportion in its place This tyes Christs Members in a mutuall knot Never to be rescinded or forgot Unto their saving Head uniting all In Love and Duty both perpetuall Till He and They as in grace here below Above in Glory all one Body grow Vpon Holy Orders Or the Ministeriall Function 1 Cor. 9.11 1 Tim. 3.1 2 Cor. 2.16 1 Tim. 4.16 2 Cor. 4 7. Ch. 5.20 1 Tim. 5.17 VVHich the Worlds two main Burthens if you aske Truth saith the Kingly and the Priestly taske Both Heaven-born Functions but the last all fire They 'd need all Caution be who That aspire Indeed for Soule-cure who sufficient is It startles even a chief Apostle this What Atlas shoulders nay what Angels fit Thus to beare Heaven up and yet since it Is Both Gods acceptation and Decree This Treasure should in Earthen Vessels be We gratefully attend the Divine call And then in all obedience 'fore it fall But without That and signaliz'd by those Who rightly have the Keyes on 't to dispose We stirre nor Foot nor Hand least Uzzah-like Some suddaine Vengeance our presumption strike Must all your Arts and Plants mature with time And This which needs most leape into it's Prime Beware bold Flies that buzze about This flame Lest your proud wings being scorched in the same Your fond Icarian zeale at last fall down Into that Lake which Pride shall ever drown But you that by both Callings enter faire Snuffe your own Lights and take a watchfull care The Wearer doe not holy Vestments staine Or to your Master a dishonour gaine If undeserved Scandall doe you spoile Those Shafts to their own Shooters breasts recoyle Knowledge the Head the Heart crowns Holinesse Light and Perfection make up Aarons Dresse Spirituall and Corp'rall Charities With fervent Prayer's
reigneth c. MErcifull GOD who hast made all Men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldest the death of a Sinner but rather that he should be converted and live have mercy upon all Jewes Turkes Infidels and Hereticks and take from them all Ignorance Hardnesse of Heart and contempt of thy Word and so fetch them home blessed Lord to thy Flock that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites and bee made one Fold under one Shepheard JESUS CHRIST our Lord who liveth and reigneth c. EASTER DAY DISQUISITION 13. THis Festivall is as ancient as the Resurrection of our blessed Lord himselfe and therefore ought to be proportionably sacred to its subject as it was highly venerable to the Primitive Fathers of the Church witnesse their innumerable Sermons on it and most solemne Acts even of both Sacraments reserved for the same however this stolid disobedient Age contemn the devotions of Antiquity Christiani sine Christo as though they would be Christians by passing Acts of Oblivion upon the Records of Christianity But God hath still his thousands in our Israel whom I shall here greet with the old Christian salutation * The Eastern and Greek Churches salutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is risen desiring the Reader but to Eccho with joy and gratitude that same usuall Response The Lord is risen indeed or to Paraphrase it with that good Christian who meeting his enemy said Surrexit Christus Christ is risen the Reconciler and therefore let us be friends again The first stone of Christian Faith was laid in this Article of the Resurrection in this was the first promise performed Ipse conteret He shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 Augustine for in this Trophaeum de morte excitavit He triumphed over Death and Hell And the last stone of our Faith is laid in the same that is the Day of Judgement of which God hath given assurance unto all men saith St. Paul at Athens in that he hath raised Christ Jesus from the Dead Acts 17.3 In this Christ makes up his Circle in this he is truly Alpha and Omega His coming in Paradice in a promise and his coming to judgement in the clouds are tied together in the Resurrection and therefore all the Gospel all our Preaching our Believing and endeavour are all contracted into this one Article of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.14 1 Cor 15. and that being all the signe Christ would at any time afford the Jews the Pharises Saduces or any that importuned him the signe of Jonas and the destroyed Temple still turning upon the Resurrection Matth. 12.35 And so true is that of Tertullian Resurrectio mortuorum est summa consolatio vivorum The Resurrection of the dead John 4.18 is the main Consolation of the living as without which all Christs former Actions and Passions had been fruitlesse 1 Cor. 15. But by which we hold our hopes of Immortality 1 Cor. 15.17 from whence all the Sundays of the year cheerfully borrow new Denomination and are as 't were new Christned The Lords Day in memoriall of this happy Reparation So that Ludolphus out of Nazianzen and others may well call this day Solennitas solennitatum the Festivall of all Festivities Most of the Learned applying that of David to it Psalm 118. Haec est Dies quam fecit Dominus Ludolph de vita Christi in Locum Psal 118.24 This is the Day which the Lord hath made c. And not onely for our gladnesse but also inverting it for his Honour Haec est Dies quae fecit Dominum So St. Cyril in locum This is the Day which in a sense made the Lord i.e. declared For hereby saith the Apostle was he wonderfully declared to be the Sonne of God Wonderfully indeed the wonder of all Miracles wrought by a God testified by Angels seen of Men of Men not onely as witnesses but partakers and yet a no lesse Benefit then Miracle a benefit both Corporall and Spirituall extending to both parts of Man And whereas Christs former Miracles for the most part tended but to the Bodies good as Restitution of Limbs Eyes to the Blind Ears to the Deaf Tongue to the Dumb and Feet to the Lame or else for Restauration of health as Healing diseases casting out Devils raising the Dead This an extensive benefit to both parts of man or for human sustenance as feeding many thousands with few Fishes multiplying the Loaves metamorphosing of Water into Wine c. But this miraculous benefit and beneficiall Miracle of Christs Resurrection extendeth it self both unto Soul and Body And first it cheereth up the Drooping body comfortably telling it That shall not alwayes sleep in Dust not ever be the Food of worms and companion of creeping things but shall be one day raised raised to incorruption to the society of Angels and vision of the blessed Trinity that even Flesh and Bloud though not as yet a while shall one day inherit the Kingdom of God So that the Body now the Body of every faithfull penitent may be as confident as ever Job was Scio quod Redemptor vivit I know that my Redeemer liveth John 19.25 c. and that he shal stand at the latter day upon the earth And though after my skin Worms destroy my Body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see c. And that not onely in Calvins sense Calvin in locum of a Temporall Restitution but even in Jobs own sense and the Fathers Exposition of a literal and numerical Reinvestion Again This likewise secures the Soul that she is Christs holy One whom he will never suffer to see corruption assureth Her that she neither hopeth nor beleeveth in vain 1 Cor. 15. This is the Foundation Article But happy Time This happy Day for us whereon Christ became the eldest child of the Grave the First born of the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15.20 The first fruits of them that sleep all comfortable Relatives First still implying the later Christs Resurrection altogether as sure as Death Rom. 4. Rom. 4.25 Who died for our sins and rose again for our Justification For us you see Both not for Himselfe but us and that for both parts of us Souls and Bodies As if your meditation please to draw neer the Sepulcher Luke 24.6 Luke 24. you shall there meet with two Angels that will witnesse the Surrexit and tell you Non est hic Why seek you the living among the Dead He is not here but is risen But er'e with Peter and John we enter the Sepulcher Luke 24.6 't will be no uncivill Digression to take notice of the Company we meet with there that were the first Evangelists of these glad tidings and those were no lesse then Angels v. 4. to no greater then Women v. 10. Some mention but one yet St. John expressly telleth us of two Angels Duo propter