the word for the word of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two edgedsword peircing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discoverer of the thoughts and intents of the heart ver 12. All which force and activity cannot be from the dead letter which constitutes the word but from the quick spirit which accompanies and enlivens it But their faith was and our faith is wanting to the Spirit of God which brings us all under that sharp reproof of our blessed Saviour O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luke 24. 25. For if we be not slow to believe yet generally we believe by an historical faith proceeding from the conviction of the understanding meerly through the evidence of truth as the Devils believe and tremble not by a justifying faith proceeding from the conversion of the will through the love of truth And hence it is that though the cheif corner stone be rightly laid in all Christian Churches all alike confessing Christ to be the eternal Son of God and the Mediator betwixt God and man for if any deny this they are neither to be thought nor to be called Christians yet the building is not rightly raised in many Churches the reason is because there be many mockers in these last times who walk after their own ungodly lusts separating themselves sensual not having the Spirit as Saint Jude admonisheth But in no wise building up themselves in their most holy faith or praying in the Holy Ghost or keeping themselves in the love of God as Saint Jude adviseth No wonder if such a faith as this came far short of its proper object Christ with all the blessings and mercies of God since indeed it comes far short of it self For a faith that maketh men not build up but pull down the practice of religion and pray not in Gods Holy Spirit but in their own perverse spirits and keep themselves not in the love of God and consequently of his Church but in the love of their own self-interests and advantages such a faith or rather such a phansie or fiction and faction as this is and must be called comes far short of faith and therefore cannot but come far short of Christ the proper object of faith Saint Paul tells us of another kind of faith which to them under the Law was the evidence of things not seen and must be so to us under the Gospel saying these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth Heb. 11. 13. They died in that faith in the which we ought to live and dye though the object of it be more clearly revealed to us then it was to them a faith which is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen A faith knowing by evidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did see the promises a faith approving by adherence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were perswaded of them A faith applying by affection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they embraced them and lastly a faith working and persevering by profession practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they confessed the same promises not only in their words but also in their deeds in their life and conversation accounting themselves strangers and Pilgrims on earth when they considered those heavenly promises And that made them like Pilgrims earnestly to long after their own country and not do or desire any thing for love of earth which might hinder or delay their passage to heaven So that a faith thus seeing thus applying thus approving thus confessing the promises of salvation by Christ is the faith which our Apostle defineth to be the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen that is to say a faith that now maketh Christ present with the soul by the communion of his grace and will hereafter make the soul present with Christ in the communion of his glory Oh for such a faith to bring my Saviour into my soul and to keep him there till faith it self be no longer faith but be turned into vision A faith that engageth the whole man in all his powers and faculties both of soul and body For only such a faith as taketh up the whole man in his understanding will affections actions can take a right and lay a fast hold on Christ such a faith though it cannot miraculously now open the heavens as it did once to Saint Stephen yet it can and will pierce the heavens and there see the son of man standing on the right hand of God ready to defend us on earth and as ready to receive us into heaven Whence we may very well conclude that this communion of good Christians with Christ or of the body with the head though at so great a distance is in the thing it self most real and substantial though in the manner it be only spiritual and mystical Christ and his Church nay every true member of his Church are as substantially united together as man and wife Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church Ephes 5. 25. that is to say his wife And therefore as no distance can keep the man and his wife from being one flesh so neither Christ and his Church from being one spirit He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. And to put us out of doubt that we whilst we live here on earth if we live unto him are thus joyned unto him Saint John saith plainly Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3. 24. There cannot be a more substantial union then is of the soul with the body because the soul abideth in the body and the same union is of Christ with the soul because he abideth in the soul and as we know the soul abideth in the body by the spirit or breath which it giveth to the body so we know that Christ abideth in the soul by the spirit which he giveth to the soul Yet is this union of Christ with his body not carnal but spiritual not to be discerned by the strength of the outer but of the inner man such an union as Saint Paul describeth to all but wisheth only to good Christians for though he might wish the Son of righteousness to shine upon a dunghill yet he might not wish him to be joyned to it that God would grant you to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith Ephes 3. 16 17 Here is a most real and substantial union and communion betwixt Christ and good Christians for the spirit strengtheneth them and Christ dwelleth in them but t is only spiritual for the spirit strengtheneth their inner man and mystical for Christ dwelleth
grounded upon the infallibility of the thing or of the prayer for that faith cannot rest but upon infallibility and the people as well as the Priest ought to pray in Faith wherefore this assurance is not only very just and reasonable but also very necessary and religious since we all know we must pray in the merit of Christs intercession if we hope our prayers should find admittance to God and acceptance with him and we are sure he will not intercede with us in such prayers as we have not learned from him For which cause the Church also teacheth us to conclude all our prayers after this manner Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum through Jesus Christ our Lord as if we were bound to believe that Christ then prayeth for us when we are praying for our selves according to the rules of his word and that we have hopes to be heard not by virtue of our own but of his intercession And t is observable that Saint Paul saith of those who worshipped Angels that they held not the head Col. 2. 19. because in such worship Christ who is the head could not joyn with them nor they with him accorcordingly Saint Chrysostome thus expostulates with such a worshipper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why do you let go the head to lay hold on the members whilst you think to come to God by the Angels he might have put in Saints too by the same reason if that worship had been then in fashion and not immediately by Christ For if you fall from him you are certainly lost and the way to fall from him is not to lay immediate hold on him for he that layes not immediate hold of him cannot lay fast hold of him T is holding of the head not of the body that gives the nourishment whereby we encrease with the encrease of God and Angels are of the body no less then men Accordingly the Fathers of the Council of Laodicea give this reason why they accurse them who called upon Angels in their worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 35. because such men have forsaken the Lord Jesus and are guilty of idolatry And it is a pitiful evasion of Baronius to say that the Council spake of false Angels which the Heathen called Genii for besides that no Christians ever worshipped them and the Canon only concerns Christians t is too great an absurdity to be pinned upon a Council to say they spake of Angels when they meant Divels For our parts we must conclude that praying to Saints and Angels is a very unwarrantable a very unsafe a very uncomfortable way of praying because we are sure we cannot have communion with Christ in such prayers For though he can doth and will join with us in saying Our Father yet he cannot will not saying Our Brother Though he doth join with us in our intercessions to the Creator God blessed for ever yet he doth not cannot joyn with us in our intercessions to any creature And therefore since the Church requires our communion only by authority from Christ it is evident that no Church can justly require our communion in this or any other practice wherein it self doth not communicate with Christ For in such prayers as these we can only hold of the body or rather some corrupted member of the body but we cannot hold of the head and consequently in such prayers as these there can be no true Christian communion for that so beginneth with the Church as that it endeth with Christ so beginneth in earth as that it endeth in heaven Saint Johns determination may best decide this controversie for some mens perversness hath made it so who in very few words thus sets forth to us our Christian communion That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 John 1. 3. Where we may see that God imparted not the knowledge of Christian truths to his Church that she might reserve them to her self but that she might publish and declare them to his people That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you God hath declared them to us that we should declare them to you And the reason why the Church is bound to declare these Christian truths to the people is to establish them in the true Christian communion that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ where we plainly see that Christian communion begins with the Church and ends with Christ nor would the Apostle seek to draw them to have fellowship with him but that with him they might also have fellowship with Christ he desires not to magnifie this communion from himself but from his Saviour He therefore exhorts them to have communion with the Church that they might have communion with Christ For indeed there are at least two degrees if not parts of our Christian communion the first is our communion with Christs Church as with the body that ye also may have fellowship with us The second is our communion with Christ himself as with the head and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and this communion is or ought to be the end of all preaching that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship c. This is or should be the intent of all preaching even the communion of the people with the Priests and the communion both of Priests and people with Christ so likewise saith Saint Peter speaking of our blessed Saviour His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet 1. 3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only partakers of but also communicants in or with the Divine nature as if he had said the end of your communion with us is that you may thereby have communion with God His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of himself And we are desirous to impart to you this knowledge that you may have part in the same life and godliness He hath given to us exceeding great and gracious promises and we desire to publish them ro you that by these you also with us might be partakers of the Divine nature But because this communion is or should be the only task of our whole life and is the only comfort of our death I will yet alledge one more testimony for it and that shall be his who was wrapt up into the third heavens that he might the better shew us the right and the straight way thither and he bids us Follow peace with
my hands accept of any offering SECT XIII A new song for the coming of Christ God the Father Son and Holy Ghost carefully observed the time of our Saviours coming into the world therefore it can be no true piece of Reformation for men not to observe it THE Church had a new song put into her mouth meerly for the knowledge of the great mercy of her Saviours Nativity How much more then for the enjoyment of it He hath put a new song in my mouth saith the Psalmist even a Thanksgiving to our God Psalm 40. 3. And Saint Paul tells us wherefore this new song was put into his mouth in that he applyes this very Psalm to the coming of our Saviour Christ Heb. 10. 5 c. Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me which words are quoted out of this same very Psalm and point as directly at Christs coming into the flesh as that finger of the Baptist did point at him after he was come when he said Behold the Lamb of God which finger for that very cause as some would perswade us could not be burnt with the rest of his body Gentiles ossa collegerant cumbusserant sed digitus ille quo Dominum ad Jordanum venientem monstravit dicens ecce agnus Dei non potuit comburi Durandus in rationali lib. 7. de decollatione S. Johannis This was indeed a sufficient cause why a New song should be put in the mouth even of the sweet singer of Israel To shew that great was his Thanksgiving yet greater his Thankfulness for this inestimable and undeserved mercy as it appears Psalm 40. 6 7. O Lord my God great are thy wonderous works which thou hast done like as be also thy thoughts which are to us-ward If I would declare them and speak of them they should be more then I am able to express And all these wonderous works and thoughts are summed up together by the Apostle in this saying when he cometh into the world as indeed they were consummated and compleated by Christ himself in his coming when he cometh into the world he saith And yet the words were said above five hundred years before he came It seems God the Son was so long before observing the time of his own coming into the world surely not that the sons of men should labour to forget and resolve not to observe it And God the Father did the like Heb. 1. 6. When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Pointing as it were at the very day of Christs Nativity or coming into the world yet some men perswade themselves they do enough if they believe his going out of the world and think only upon his Death and Passion And God the Holy Ghost did the same as being the Pen-man and Interpreter of these Texts and the Applyer of them to our blessed Saviour For he it was that spake both by the Prophets and by the Apostles God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost did look and point very punctually at Christs coming into the world Telling the Angels of it that they might worship him and the Angels accordingly sing a most heavenly Hymn of Thanksgiving at his Birth not only in heaven for their own Joy and Exultation for which they are alwaies singing to him there but also on the earth or at least very near it so near as that the Shepherds did both hear and see them singing for our comfort and imitation And therefore it cannot justly be accounted a Piece of Reformation to teach men to look away as far as they can from that time wherein the Church doth celebrate the memorial of Christs coming as if God who had bid the Angels worship him had bid men not worship him which is surely a strain of very bad Logick and of far worse Divinity SECT XIV Everlasting Thankfulness is due to God for this Everlasting Mercy THE Psalmist teacheth us a Lesson of everlasting Thankfulness for this everlasting Mercy as appears Psalm 72. The chief argument of the Psalm is Christ as is proved in the 8. and 9. verses from the extent of his Dominion far beyond Solomons even to the worlds end and much more in the 10. and 11. verses from the excellency of his Person That All Kings should fall down before him And particularly That the Kings of Arabia and Saba should bring him gifts which was literally fulfilled in the Presents of the wise men Mat. 2. who by the Antients were both called and reputed Kings And the Conclusion that is inferred from these Premises is Thanksgiving The argument of the Psalm is everlasting mercy even the mercy of God to man in Christ and the Conclusion of it is everlasting Thankfulness for so it follows ver 18. 19. Blessed be the Lord God even the God of Israel which only doth wonderous things and this wonderous thing above all the rest That the Son of God was made the Son of man that we who were by nature the children of wrath might be made the Sons of God there 's the Thankfulness And blessed be the name of his Majesty for ever and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty Amen Amen There 's the everlasting Thankfulness Heaven was from the first instant of its creation filled with his Majesty but now the earth was also filled with it And if heaven and earth are both filled with his Majesty what shall we say if our sinful souls be empty For if we be not filled with his Majesty How shall we come to be filled with his Mercy SECT XV. Time not perfect in Gods account from our Creation but from our Redemption The Jews not destroyed and Time not Vntimed meerly in relation to the coming of Christ Time still continued for the world to make a right use of his coming No other Time perfect in Gods account but that wherein he gives his Son and no other Time should be perfect in our account but that wherein we receive him GOD accounted that only the Perfection of Time wherein he wrought the work of our Redemption as if all that had passed before that from the beginning of the Creation had been but an imperfect Time He had no rest in the Creation till he made man He had no rest after it till he Redeemed him Divinely Saint Ambrose in his Hexameron and not the less Divinely because he took it out of Saint Basil for the Latine Fathers borrowed of the Greek-Fathers as later Divines have since borrowed from them Fecit Deus coelum non lego quod requieverit fecit solem lunam stellas nec ibi lego quod requieverit sed lego quod fecerit Hominem tunc requieverit habens câ—i Peccata dimitteret God made Heaven and I do not read that he did rest He made the Earth and I do not read that
life which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ I doubt not but the Church might for her liberty have changed more of those Collects then she thought fit to change but infinitely bless God that she valued her Christian charity above her Christian liberty so that she hath never at all changed but for the better not desiring to depart from other Christians but only to come nearer to our Saviour Christ And truly when the Contest was once broached between the Church and the Scriptures in point of authority the most unhappy Contest that ever was broached among Christians for some Church men by laying aside the Authority of Christ did in effect teach other men to lay aside the authority of the Church I say when this unhappy Contest was once broached between the Church and the Scriptures in point of Authority it was high time for our Church to cleave to the Scriptures that she might profess her desire and intention of remaining truly Christian wherein she did but follow Saint Peters own example saying Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life John 6 68. For surely our blessed Saviour did not bring down with him the words of eternal life to carry them back again to heaven but to leave them here on Earth and where hath he left them if not in the holy Scriptures Wherefore since Christ himself alledged the Scriptures to confirme the Apostles in their faith who yet believed because they had seen him with their their own eyes John 20. 29 How shall any Christian Church deny the People to read the Scripture c. and not hinder the confimation of their faith in Christ For when the Church hath done all that she can to make true believers she must confess that their faith doth not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. and that the word of God is the chiefest instrument of his Power according to that of the holy Apostle For the word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. In which words the Spirit of God setteth forth the excellency of the word of God from its nature and from its effects from its nature that it is quick and powerfull neither a dull nor a dead letter but quick in motion and powerfull in operation from its effects that it pierceth that it devideth that it discerneth the thoughts and intents of the Heart Piercing the thoughts by entring into the botom of our hearts to make us sound and sincere Christians against Hypocrisie Dividing the thoughts by separating good from evil Truth from falshood in our Religion to make us Orthodox Christians against Heresie and discerning the thoughts by shewing us the first truth and the chiefest good in our religion to make us firm and constant Christians against Apostasie For that man never yet discovered Christ in his Religion who could be perswaded to fall away from it He was at the best but a divider of the truth from falshood He was not a Discerner of the first Truth in that Truth which he professed for then he would have been immovable in his Profession Wherefore if you would indeed perswade or rather tempt me for t is properly a temptation which induceth to evil to leave the Scriptures that I may cleave to the Church you must first be able to shew so much in behalf of the Church as is here said in behalf of the Scriptures or you were as good perswade and tempt me to quit my reason that I may get Religion or to cease to be a man that I may begin to be a Christian SECT II. The Apparition to above five hundered at once cleared And Christ considered in his Instructions before he ascended That these Instructions are more particularly to be observed as more directly conducing to the Constitution and the Conservation of his Church Those Instructions briefly explained as they are set down Mat. 28. 19 20. THE proper work of a Christian is to consider and contemplate his Saviour Christ in all his sayings and in all his doings for never any speak like him who was the eternal word of God never any did like him who was the eternal son of God but more particularly in those which come neerest his Ascention for all those his sayings and doings do more immediately and directly concern the Constitution and the conservation of his Church it pleasing the blessed Redeemer and lover of Souls to give his special directions and instructions to his holy Apostles when he was even now to be taken away from them that so he might leave behind him in their minds the stronger impressions of his all-saving Truth and the greater assurance and perswasions of his everlasting love Wherefore though no one word that ever our blessed Saviour was pleased to speak either concerning his love towards us or our duty towards him should be let fall to the ground without our observation because he was so much our friend yet the words that he spake last of all should most diligently be received most carefully retained and most conscionally regarded because they were the words not only of a loving but also of a parting friend and by consequent such words as should both represent him and comfort us during his absence though never so long and keep him in our remembrance till his coming again when he will undoubtedly exact a severe account both of the Ministers of the people how they have observed those words For this cause though our blessed Saviour did after the day of his Resurrection make five more apparitions before his Ascension as that after eight dayes when S. Thomas was now with the rest of the Apostles Joh. 20. 26. And that to his Disciples who went a fishing Joh. 21. 4. And that to his eleven disciples on the mountain in Galilee Mat. 28. 16. And those two spoken of by S. Paul which are not at all mentioned by the Evangelists the one to above five hundred brethren at once the other to S. James alone 1 Cor. 15. 6 7. Yet I will omit all these because the words he spake to his Apostles were spoken on the very day of his Resurrection as well as at the time of his Ascension Only I cannot but wish that Beza had spared his Criticism upon S. Pauls words 1 Cor. 15. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod si vero scriptum erat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Quinquaginta Non certè mirum est quingentos hic fratres commemorari quum postea coacto universo coetu numerentur duntaxat centum viginti Act. 1. 15. What if it were at first written by the numeral letter◠which signifies fifty and that fifty come after to be made five hundred for we see that all the
or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was received up as unto that which he had so fully merited and deserved Again the same twofold expression shews a twofold miracle if we consider Christ in the unity of his person as those two natures of God and man made but one Christ the first miracle was the conquest over earth in his body which was taught to ascend upwards contrary to the nature of Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went up in that body The second miracle was the conquest over heaven in his soul which for his singular piety was taught in some sort to descend downwards contrary to the nature of heaven in that the light clouds were made to come down that they might minister to his Ascension So that these must be our considerations of our blessed Saviour from the act and manner of his Ascending his twofold Title in claiming heaven and his twofold miracle in possessing it his first title to heaven was as the Son of God for so he claimed heaven by inheritance and the word used in the Apostles Creed intimates that claim or title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he went up sc to take possession of his own he went by his own power to enter upon his own right claiming heaven as his natural inheritance because he was the Son of God And this right of his Saint Paul exactly describes Heb. 1. 2 3. Where he saith God hath appointed his son heir of all things by whom also he made the world who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high In which words the Apostle teacheth us to say to the son of God what the Son taught us to say unto the Father For thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory For he fully setteth forth unto us the Kingdom of Christ both as Redeemer and as Creator As Redeemer when he saith God appointed him heir of all things in which respect Christ himself saith All things are delivered unto me of my father Mat. 11. 27. and all power is given unto me Mat. 28. 18. and the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand John 3. 35. And he setteth forth unto us the Kingdom of Christ as Creator when he saith By whom also he made the worlds for in that respect our Saviour had all power in heaven and in earth without its being given or delivered unto him as he was the eternal Son of God coequal with his Father Which his coequality the Apostle expresseth from three particulars First in that he was the brightness of his glory that is the natural brightness of his glory by necessary generation not by voluntary communication even as the Sun naturally begets brightness and not voluntarily upon choice or deliberation Secondly In that he was the express Image or character of his person not only representing his essential glory as God of which representation it is said No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him John 1. 18. but also representing his personal glory as father because the person of the Father is wholly and fully expressed in the person of the Son as in a lively Image or Character thereof in which respect Christ himself saith If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him John 14. 7. and again he that hath seen me hath seen the Father ver 9. Thirdly In that he upheld all things by the word of his power to wit by the same word by which he had made them ver 2. All this being said t is no wonder if it follow immediately after that he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high as taking that place in the nature of man which was his proper right as the Son of God But what comfort is this to us who are born the Sons of wrath and so have title only to the place of wrath and vengeance as to our inheritance T is true we have no title from our selves save only to hell such a title as we care not to claim though we labour to make good But we have also a title of inheritance to heaven from our blessed Saviour as saith the Apostle And if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 17. For the Son by adoption is admitted to the inheritance as if he were a Son by nature And we being adopted in Christ cannot be denyed to have a title to his Inheritance But we were best take heed that we abuse not this title or at least mistake it not as some do who cry Abba Father and are no sons or who are so the Sons of God as not led by the Spirit of God or so led by the Spirit of God as not doing the works of the Spirit but of the flesh being guilty of hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders such horrid murders as have out-faced heaven and amazed the earth and will not believe the Apostle though he tell it before and after though he say it and say it again that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 21. Let the man after Gods own heart both ask and answer this question for us Psalm 24. ver 3 4. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall rise up in his holy place Even he that hath clean hands not defiled with blood and a pure heart not corrupted with Faction or Sedition and that hath not lift up his mind to vanity by taking fancie for faith or vain imaginations for holy inspirations nor sworn to deceive his neighbour convenanting for spoil and robbery to be not only impiously but also blasphemously guilty of theft He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation For such a man as hath clean hands and a pure heart is led by the Spirit of God and with his pure heart thinks the thoughts with his clean hands doth the works of the Spirit This man is heir to an inheritance in heaven because he is the Son of God and he is the Son of God because he is led not by his own private Spirit but by the Spirit of God for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. He that saith as many doth in effect say no more they are and none but they are the Sons of God who are led by the Spirit of God He that lifts up his mind to vanity cannot lift up his mind to heaven he that hath sworn to deceive his neighbour is sure to deceive himself he that hath no share in the righteousness may not look
to have a share in the blessing And therefore Aben Ezra's gloss is not to be rejected who observes the same word used in the reward and in the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall receive the blessing because he did not lift up his soul to receive the vanity The Lord shall lift him up by true sanctification because he did not lift up himself by pride and presumption For no man more truly lifts up his soul to vanity nor more truly labours in vain then he that thinks to go to heaven only by the strength of his own perswasion since it is not possible for him to receive the blessing who cares not to receive the righteousness For these two are joyned together he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation not the blessing of salvation without the righteousness thereof For it must be a real not an imaginary ascension whereby we get up to heaven the soul that will be there must be lifted up by devotion not by opinion For the Righteousness of salvation is not opinionative but affective and active not in conceit but in practice Take heed of a mock-Ascension into heaven which will make that be truly spoken of thee which those mistaken novices did falsly put upon Eliah Lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley 2 King 2. 16. It was their fond fear concerning Eliah it ought to be the just fear concerning thy self For if thou lay hold of the Spirit of adoption only to cry Abba Father but not to become a dutiful Son or to confine thy dutifulness to observe only those of thy Fathers commands that suit with thine own humour and advantage which is the lame and limping godliness of this hypocritical age wherein men cry up their duty towards God meerly to beat down their duty towards their neighbour If thou thus lay hold of the spirit of adoption others may justly fear concerning thee and thou oughtest to fear concerning thy self Lest peradventure the spirit of the Lord for so thou thinkest it take thee up and cast thee down again upon some mountain or into some valley For indeed the Spirit of the Lord being thus mistaken or thus misapplied doth so take men up as to cast them down again first upon the mountain of presumption then into the valley of despair Secondly our Saviour claimed heaven by the right of his desert even as his just recompence and reward And that claim or title of his is intimated in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was carried or received up into heaven as having before merited to be carried or received up thither so saith Saint Paul he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him Phil. 2. 8 9. Our blessed Saviour was obedient in doing before he was obedient in suffering He first had a most perfect active and then a most perfect passive obedience He was first obedient He was first obedient unto the life and after that obedient unto the death He was zealous in doing the work of God and that made him patient in suffering the will of God yet here is no mention made of his active but only of his passive obedience and no mention made of his obedience without respect to his humility How then shall any Christian forego his humility to stand upon the merit of his obedience when our Saviour Christ himself whose obedience alone is or can be meritorious with God was exalted no less from being humble then for being obedient Surely to teach us how we may soonest have comfort from this his title to heaven nay after some sort be sharers in it claiming heaven as a reward but of our Saviours not of our own righteousness or rather as a reward of his righteousness but made ours So Saint Bernard most Divinely comforted himself against all the accusations of Satan at Gods Judgement seat Fateor non sum dignus ego nec propriis possum meritis regnum obtinere coelorum Caeterùm duplici jure illud obtinens Dominus meus haeredita te Sc. Patris merito passionis altero ipse contentus alterum mihi donat ex cujus dono jure illud mihi vendicans non confundor I confess that 〈…〉 â—t worthy nor can I hope to obtain heaven by mine own merits But my Lord having obtained the same by a double right the one by the inheritance ef his Father the other by the merit of his passion being himself contented only with one of them hath given the other unto me by whose gift I do now claim it as my right and am not to be confounded in my claim Which we might very well take for a great miracle wrought upon us men by our Saviours ascending in our flesh and so entitling that flesh to heaven were it not for those other miracles which neerly concern our Saviour Christ in his own person For we have a twofold miracle intimated in these same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he went up though in his body of flesh there 's one miracle his conquest over earth in his humane body For earth was now taught to ascend upwards contrary to its own nature which of it self so descends downwards as to press to the Center nay actually to possess it Earth in it self moves furthest from heaven but in the body of Christ earth moved towards heaven nay earth went up into heaven And the reason is given by Saint Paul Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vile body that it may be like his glorious body The body of Christ after his resurrection was more peculiarly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a glorious body Saint Paul gives us this distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A vile body and a glorious body Our body is a vile body dejected and debased by the sinfulness the grossness the weakness the sluggishness of the flesh our Saviours body was never thus a vile body in the state of his humiliation because he knew no sin yet was it subject to all infirmities or he could not have dyed for sinners And therefore we may truly say that his body in the state of his exaltation was made a glorious body and invested with four conditions or qualities quite contrary to these of our bodies called by the School impassibilitas claritas subtilitas agilitas and by Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. to whom we are primarily beholding for this part of School Divinity which unfoldeth the conditions of a glorified body And the same Apostle comforteth us that after the Resurrection our vile body shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body and consequently be made first impassible and incorrupt without sinfulness for where is no sin there is no corruption there can be no suffering Secondly Clear and transparent without grossness
so that we should then see the thoughts of one anothers hearts looking through one anothers breasts were there no other obstacle to hinder us but only the grosness of the flesh according to that position of the Angelical Doctor Cogitatio unius hominis non cognoscitur ab â—alio propter duplex impedimentum sc propter grossitiem corporis propter voluntatem claudentem sua secreta primum obstaculum tolletur in resurrectione nec est in angelis sed secundum impedimentum remanebit post resurrectionem est modò in angelis 1. p. qu. 57. art 4. ad 1. There are now two impediments of knowing mans thoughts one from his body another from his will The first shall be quite taken away in the resurrection and then men shall be like Angels have nothing to keep their thoughts secret but only their own wills of not revealing them Thirdly Our bodies after the Resurrection shall be nimble active and powerful without any weakness For as the soul will move wholly with God so the body will move wholly with the soul and as there will be no impotency in the soul to hinder it from following God so there will be no impotency in the body to keep it from following the motions of the soul Fourthly and lastly they shall also be spiritual and subtle without any sluggishness Now I have almost a carnal soul but then I shall have a spiritual body Now I have a gross spirit but then I shall have a subtle and active flesh why should I not long for that minute which will take away my weakness and sluggishness and cloath me with power and activity in immortal glory So we see that this first miracle the conquest over earth in our Saviours natural body shall in due time be accomplished also in his mystical body For we men shall be partakers of it after the last Resurrection from the death of the body nay we are already in some sort partakers of it after the first Resurrection from the death of sin For as many as are truly regenerated have already even in their flesh in some weak degree this incorruption this glory this activity this spirituality They are not subject to so much corruption as formerly in their conversation for that is reformed nor to so much grosness of heart for that is refined and moves towards heaven nor to so much weakness for they are able nor to so much dulness and sluggishness for they are willing through the grace of God to run the way of his commandments A blessed miracle this to be considered but much more to be enjoyed the first miracle in our Saviours Ascention the conquest over earth in his body And yet we have Another miracle The conquest over heaven in his soul in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was carried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was received up Heaven it self as it were stooping down to carry and to receive him up Christ had conquered heaven in his humiliation by the fervency of his prayer making an Angel Minister unto him Luk. 22. 43. So that t is no wonder if he conquered heaven in his exaltation making a bright cloud to minister unto him For though his glorified body needed no fiery charet as Eliahs did because he ascended by his own power into heaven yet he was received by a cloud out of his Apostles sight to shew that even heaven it self was ready to minister to his Ascention This ministerial assistance of the creature not derogating from the power but proclaiming the goodness of the creator according to that determination of the school Non propter defectum suae virtutis sed propter abundantiam suae bonitatis ut dignitatem causalitatis etiam creaturis communicet God makes use of his creatures in many things not for the defect of his power but for the abundance of his goodness that he may communicate to them the honour of doing good one unto another whiles he himself is the only true Efficient cause of doing good to all But here the honour was so much the greater by how much the need was the less for though the creatures may one need another yet the Creator himself hath need of none and our Saviour in making use of this cloud did only shew unto us that he could have commanded heaven it self if he had so pleased to receive him up as well as to receive him in Thus did the kingdom of heaven first suffer violence from Christ himself and now from every good Christian Mat. 11. 12. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence the violent take it by force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus not by contentious wranglings and disputes but by the constancy of an upright life and by uncessant prayers do we get the conquest over heaven many men do now mistake this violence whiles they seek to invade the kingdom of Grace using the sword of the flesh not of the Spirit to set up religion forcing other mens faith and consciences but neglecting their own whereas the violence should indeed be offered to the kingdom of glory every man should now invade that by the strength of his Faith since Christ hath opened it to all believers For nothing is or can be a good Christians treasure but only Christ not to be kept from him by the most watchfull Sentinel not to be taken from him by the most merciless plunderer or the most deceitfull sequestrator and therefoe where his only treasure is there will his heart be also even at the right hand of God This makes him alwayes pressing into the wounds of Christ who sitteth there for in his wounds there is a place to hide his soul from Vengeance and there is blood to wash his soul from sin This is indeed the violence of faith but this violence is more safe in affection then in perswasion for our affection may without doubt carry us up to heaven after our blessed Saviour but our perswasion cannot Therefore a faith which is strong in perswasion and not in affection is but as a dream which soon vanisheth and the image of Christ which is imprinted in us by such a faith cannot but vanish with it So dangerous a thing is it to put asunder those two which God hath joined together in A true and lively faith Perswasion and affection Israel himself could not so prevail with God though he had his name of Israel from prevailing with God T is true he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me there 's the strength of his faith in its perswasion But t is as true that he wept and made Supplications Hosea 12. 4. there 's the strength of his faith in its affection T was both together made him Israel and not the one without the other Thus is the true strength of faith set down by the Prophet David Psal 73. 24. It is good for me to hold me fast by God to put my trust in the Lord God there
's the strength of perswasion And to speak of all thy works in the gates of the daughter of Sion there 's the strength of affection first in the exercise of devotion to speak Secondly in the extent of it of all thy works Thirdly in the profession of it in the gates Fourthly in the integrity or purity of it in the gates of the daughter of Sion What pitty is it that we who out-pass others in the purity of our devotions should come far short of them in the profession extension and exercise of the same That we who are in the daughter of Sion should come short of those who we say are under the Whore of Babylon For this second miracle in Christs ascension The conquest over heaven in his Soul must needs make us conclude concerning our selves that we cannot possess heaven till we have first conquered it Man in his composition is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world but in his affection he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great world A conqueror over heaven and earth over neither by himself but over both by his Saviour In all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loved us Rom. 8. 37. and we may see who it was that loved us from ver 35. who shall seperate us from the love of Christ It was he that loved us it is by him that we are more then Conquerours Let me fight the good fight of faith that I may have my Saviours love and though all the Nimrods and mischiefs of this wicked world prevail against me yet none of them shall conquer me SECT II. The time of Christs ascention is particularly named in the Text and the observation of that day is founded upon the practice of the Apostles which in the exercise of Religion is to be embraced as Precept And why the Apostles left not many precepts concerning the circumstances of worship to the Christian Church The place of the Ascention was Bethany in Mount Olivet and what considerations arise from thence LOgicians do tell us that it is the property of verbs to be adsignificant as saith the great scholler of nature and greater master of Art Aristotle in his book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum est quod adsignificat tempus It is the property of a verb not only to express the thing it self which is to be significant but also to declare the chief circumstances of time and place and person which is to be adsignificant And for this reason it will not be improper to consider in these three verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went he was carried he was received up not only the substance or act of our Saviours Ascention but also the chief circumstances of it to wit the time in which the place from which and the persons before whom he was pleased to ascend into heaven As for the time in which it was exactly the fourtieth day after his resurrection being seen of them fourty dayes saith the Text Acts 1. 3. which doubtless is not set down superfluously and therefore ought to be observed carefully I may justly add conscientiously For though duties and not dayes yet duties upon their own dayes call for a most religious observation God himself having said in express terms to the Jews and consequently by the rule of general equity to the Christians since the reason of his saying is rather moral then typical The man that is clean and is not in a journey and forbeareth to keep the Passeover even the same soul shall be cut off from his people because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season that man shall bear his sins Num. 9. 13. Whence we may safely conclude not as Jews but as Christians that t is not safe but sinfull meerly out of peevishness or willfullness to neglect the appointed seasons of serving God for such a grievous punishment as being cut off from Gods people would not be threatned but for a grieveous sin such as begins in the contempt of God and ends in the scandal of men Therefore duties are to be most strictly observed upon their own dayes Thus the resurrection is most solemnly to be celebrated on its own day the first day of the week and the Ascention on its own day the fift day of the week for the fourtieth day after a Sunday can be no other then thirsday So that either the fourtieth day after the resurrection of Christ is lawfully consecrated to celebrate his ascention and by consequent is the day appointed for that duty or this particular circumstance was unnecessarily set down in the text and as unlawfully observed by the Apostles who turning from the mount Olivet came into Jerusalem and went up into their upper room when they durst not assemble together in the Temple and prayed there immediately upon their return even on the very same day of Christs Ascension and did not think fit to put off their solemn meeting till the next Sabbath or till the next Lords day after it Wherefore it is reasonably concluded by Judicious men that Apostolical practice is to us Christians what Mosaical precept was to the Jews concerning the observation of dayes places and persons for religious assemblies and therefore our Lords day is as indispensable as was their Sabbath our Churches as inviolable as their Temple and Synagogues our orders of Ministers as unchangeable as their orders of Priests for Apostolical Practice in these circumstances or adjuncts of Religion doth oblige us Christians to conformity as Mosaical precept did the Jewes to obedience I say Comformity because time place person were all essential parts of their ceremonial and typical but cannot be so of our moral worship and therefore obedience was necessary for them but comformity is enough for us So that a willfull neglect and much more a scornfull contempt of any rite observed by the Apostles cannot but be impious in it self dangerous to us and scandalous to our brethren And as this is judiciously concluded by some learned men so it must be couragiously resolved by all good men not to fear superstition in that which the Apostles practised when their practice is declared in the text since all circumstances adjuncts of Religion are derived to us Christians rather by practice then by precept as not being of the Substance of our Religion And indeed they could not well be derived otherwise because types and ceremonies were utterly to be abolished to the Jews and therefore ceremonies though without types could not but with offence to the Jews be particularly prescribed to the Christians consequently were to be left unto them only in example and practice as matter of decency and order which are capable of dispensation not set down in the text by way of command or imposition as matter of Substance which hath alwayes a rigour of Justice and should alwayes have a readiness of obedience both alike indispensable Nay yet more
Domino crucifixo mortuo discipulis fugientibus de resurrectione desperantibus in illâ solâ tota fides remansit Because the Disciples being fled and despairing of the Resurrection when they saw their master was dead the whole Christian faith remained in the blessed Virgin alone specially that day wherein Christ himself lay in the grave that was the Sabbath day or Saturday as if he had been captivated under death The foundation is unsound and so is the superstruction But we are sure whatever the Disciples frailty was in our Saviours Passion yet their zeal and constancy were both very eminent after his resurrection For then they attended diligently and constantly upon their master till they saw him taken up from them and they lost nothing by their diligent and their constant attendance For his Valediction was a Benediction as he left them he blessed them A good example for us how we ought to leave this world though never so injurious to us never so oppressive of us for a Benediction is the only true Christian Valediction and there is no ascending into heaven without that They who part and go away hence in discontents and grudgings which are but secret curses of the heart against God or man can scarce go to heaven by Christs assistance because they desire not to go thither after his example But let their names be enrolled in the records of eternity who notwithstanding all the provocations and insolencies of unjust and unrighteous men have died with more patience and contentedness then we dare live Sure even they also did see Christ in his Ascention though so many hundred years after it or they could not so exactly have followed his pattern But whatever we may think or say of them sure we cannot deny but some others did see it full as many hundred years before as Moses Deut. 33. 26. Ascensor coeli auxiliator tuus He that ascendeth the heavens iâ— thy helper for not only Saint Hierom but also Jarchi so expounds those words And David Psal 47. 7. Ascendit Deus in jubilatione God is ascended with a shout Nay many more it seems did see this Ascention together with him upon whom he calls earnestly to glorifie God for it Psalm 68. 4. O sing unto God and sing praises unto his name magnifie him that rideth upon the heavens as it were upon an horse what could the Apostles say more when they saw our Saviour triumphantly sitting upon the cloud and so ascending up Praise him in his name yea and rejoyce before him Concerning which places the Angelical Doctor hath thus determined Quòd autoritates illae propheticè dicuntur de Deo secundum quod erat incarnandus 3. p. qu 57. art 2. ad 1m Those authorities were spoken prophetically of God the Son in respect to his Incarnation And a more truly Angelical Doctor did in effect so determine long before him and that was Saint Paul when he applyed those words of Psalm 68. 18. Thou art gone up on high thou hast led captivity captive c. directly and expresly to the ascension of our Saviour Christ Thus were there many witnesses of our blessed Saviours Ascension long before it come to pass and therefore certainly that truth and consquently the rest tending to it may not want its witnesses to the worlds end This is clearly evidenced from Saint Pauls words who saith that when he ascended he gave gifts unto men that there should be a succession of witnesses to testifie of him till his coming again for this is the effect of those words Eph. 4. 11 12. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ The meaning is that the testimony of his Truth should not expire with the first witnesses of it but should continue by a succession of other witnesses to the worlds end even as long as there should be a Church to be edified or Saints to be perfected or the work of the Ministry to be performed Let these men consider whether they come not near denying Christs Ascension who do in effect deny the Apostles proof it He proves that Christ was ascended because he had established a Ministry they say there is no no need of a Ministry they were as good say That Christ is not ascended Again others there are that will have a Ministry but yet set up new officers in it or with it for the edifying of the body of Christ which Christ himself never instituted at his ascension and reject those which were of his own undoubted institution These men ought not to obtrude upon the Church any office as of Christs erecting that is not comprehended among those in this Text since they cannot shew us another Ascension much less ought they to disturb some of those which Christ himself then erected and his Church hath ever since acknowledged and retained unless they will be thought disturbers of this Article of their Christian faith He ascended into heaven For that institution cannot be only for a time which hath a reason that continues for ever And such is the reason here given by Saint Paul for instituting these Church-officers to wit The perfecting of the Saints the work of the Ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ A reason which is to hold till the end of the world and therefore doubtless so also must the Institution But we may â—ot stray away from our Mount Gerizim on which not the Sons of men but the eternal Son of God hath blessed us to follow after those whose delight is to be upon Mount Ebal to revile and to curse their Brethren nay their Mother the Church Let us then fix our eyes and our hearts upon our blessed Saviour for though one cloud received him out of his Disciples sight whiles he was ascending yet not all the clouds nor the whole body of heaven was able to keep Saint Stephen from seeing him after he was ascended for so we read Acts 7. 55. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God what he did then see with the eye of flesh we may still see with the eye of faith especially if with him we suffer couragiously and contentedly and not only so but also thankfully for Jesus sake we shall with him likewise see Jesus standing on the right hand of God Behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God v. 56. Adstantem ad dexteram Dei i. e. Paratum ad me confirmandum in veritatis confessione recipiendum ad sese saith Beza I see him standing that is ready to confirm me in the confession of his truth and as ready to receive me for confessing it And he borrowed this his gloss from Saint Gregory in his Sermon upon the Ascension
Sedere est judicantis stare vero pugnantis adjuvantis Stephanus ergo in labore certaminis positus stantem vidit quem adjutorem â—abuit sed tunc post ascensionem Marcus sedere describit qua post Ascensionis gloriam inde in â—iâ—e videbitur To sit belongs to one that judgeth to stand to one that helpeth Therefore Saint Stephen saw Christ standing when he needed his help though Saint Mark described him as sitting because after he was ascended he looked on him as ready to judge the quick and dead God grant all the persecuted Ministers and servants of Christ so to see their master standing as ready to help them nay indeed so they do see him or they could not contentedly undergo their persecutions Quo propiùs mortem accedunt martyres eo propiùs Christum intuentes in coelum assurgunt saith the same Beza in his short notes upon the place The Martyrs the nearer they approach to death the nearer they behold Christ and when they seem to fall lowest they do indeed rise highest when their head is nearest earth even upon the block their heart is nearest heaven when we most see their destruction they most see their own salvation we look on their destroyers standing over them ready to dispatch them but they look on their Saviour standing over their destroyers even at the right hand of God ready to receive them Most heavenly is that contemplation of Tertullian lib. de resur carn Quemadmodum nobis arrhabonem Spiritus reliquit ita à nobis arrhabonem carnis accepit vexiâ— in coelum pignus totius summae illuc quandoque redigendae Securi igitur estote caro sanguis usurpâstis enim coelum regnum in Christo Our blessed Saviour as he gave unto us the earnest of his Spirit so he took of us the earnest of our flesh and carried that with him into heaven as a pledge that all the rest should follow after it Be secure then O flesh and blood for ye have already ascended into heaven and do even now in Christ your head possess and enjoy the Kingdom of God CAP. III. Christ considered after he was ascended as sitting on the hand of God SECT I. What is meant by the right hand of God and by Christs sitting there SAint Augustine in his hundred and fifteenth Sermon de tempore ascribes this part of the Apostles Creed concerning Christs ascending into heaven and sitting on the right hand of God to Saint Bartholomew and the antient Fathers do generally make them both but one Article or at least joyn them so together as if they were bur one Wherein they speak much after the dialect of Saint Peter 1 Pet. 3. 22. Who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God But I have rather chosen to treat of them severally because though we should allow them to be but one article of our Faith yet they are two several mysteries of our Religion and indeed the one an effect and consequent of the other and therefore not the same with it For our blessed Saviour first ascended in his humane body and afterwards in that same humane body sate at the right hand of God But here we must be sure to observe Origens caution Ne tibi describas sensibiles sessiones duas cathedras sedentes super â—as humano Schemate Patrem Filium take heed you phansie not to your self any visible sitting as if there were two chairs in heaven the one for the Father to sit in the other for the Son to sit by him Nor may we think that God hath such a right hand for Christ to sit on as Solomon had for his mother Bathsheba 1 King 2. 19 He caused a seat to be set for the Kings Mother and she sate on his right hand We must have no such earthly and fleshly thoughts of the place and much less of the God of spirits but by the right hand of God We must understand the power and majesty and glory of the God head So Saint Basil in lib. desp S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The right hand of God doth not signifie any relation of place but equality of power So Saint Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when you hear of Gods right hâ—nd you must thereby undeastand the glory honour and worship of God and nothing else is meant by Christs sitting at the right hand of God but his being in the same glory with the Father Excellently Damascence lib. 4. de orth fide cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was the more willing to transcribe the whole words because this piece of Damascen is scarce to be met with but in Colledge Libraries and is not like to be there very long if some men may have their wills who gaping after Colledge lands would force the poor Scholars to sell their books to buy bread but the meaning of them is this We say that Christ sitteth on the right hand of his father corporally or locally in his humane body But we do not say that the right hand of his Father is local or corporal confined to any place or situation for how can he that is uncircumscrîbed and unconfined have such a right hand But we call the right hand of the Father the glory honour of the Godhead in the which Christ as the Son of God was Copartner with his Father before all ages being coessential with him But now also as the Son of man in his humane flesh or body is he possessed of the same glory his humane nature being glorified together with his Divine nature and worshipped in the same person by all the Saints and Angels in heaven SECT II. That Christ as man sitteth on the right hand of God IT is not to be denyed but that our Saviour Christ doth as he is a man sit at the right hand of God For he doth sit there in his humane nature whether we take his sitting at the right hand of God for his resting in eternal blessedness after all the travails and labours of his sufferings as Saint Augustine doth in Expos Symb. or for being assumed and associated into the glory of the Divinity as Damascen expounds it For as in his Divine nature he sate at the right hand of God from all eternity being in the same power and glory and blessedness with him so also after his ascension he carried up his humane nature to sit there having taken the nature of man as into the unity so also into the glory and blessedness of his person and in it administring the Kingdom of his father as head of the Church both Militant and Triumphant King of Saints and governour of all things in heaven and in earth For so himself hath told us Mat. 28. 18. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth Go therefore and teach all nations baptizng them or rather Go therefore and Disciple all nations baptizing them that is make them my Disciples by baptizing them in the
the diffusion of his glory he hath prepared a mansion for us with him by the diffusion of his grace he hath prepared a mansion in us for himself O the immortal comfort of a good Christian and the more immortal glory of the Christian Religion shew me a comfort like to the comfort of a good Christian who is already in his head ascended into heaven shew me a glory like to the glory of the Christian Religion which hath him alone for its author for its head who sitteth on the right hand of God Ask the Jew he will tell you he left his Prophet upon Mount Nebo Ask the Turk he will tell you his Pcophet was left at Meca Ask other Religions they will tell you they know not what is become of their Prophets It is only the Christian Religion that can say it had such a Prophet as now sitteth at the right hand of God A Prophet who taught not a religion without righteousness as is the Religion of Turks and Heathens nor a Religion with Righteousness but which could not make men righteous as was the Religion of the Jews But a Religion with Righteousness to shew it self righteous and a righteousness with Religion to make us so For the law which was the rule of righteousness came by Moses but grace which maketh righteous came only by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. By this He still dwelleth in us even now that he is farthest from us which is so invaluable a blessing that it cannot be valued till it be enjoyed and when it is enjoyed it is found invaluable For the soul of man cannot but have a wretched dwelling in the body and a more wretched dwelling out of it unless Christ have a dwelling in the soul It is the glory of men above Angels that Christ dweleth in their flesh It is the glory of good Christians above other men that Christ dwelleth in their spirits By his grace he dweleth with us and in us by our faith and love we dwell with him in him nor shall this dwelling ever be destroyed it shall only be enlarged when what is now of grace shall hereafter be of glory There is so inseparable an union betwixt Christ and the good Christian that as the Christian cannot be in the state of Grace without Christ so Christ not fully in the state of glory without him The head thinks himself not in honour whiles the members are in dishonour and therefore our head being ascended into heaven makes it his work to draw us the members of his mystical body thither after him For we are united unto Christ by a threefold cord that is not easily broken First by the tie of Election God having chosen us in him before the foundation of the world having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1. 4 5. Secondly by the tie of incarnation wherein he took our flesh unto himself Thirdly by the tie of Inspiration wherein he hath given his Spirit unto us All which have begot so inseparable an union betwixt the Son of God and the sons of men by a golden chain reaching from heaven to earth that Saint Paul speaks of the good Christians as of those who are already in glory with Christ And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 6. He looks on them not only as having jus ad rem but also as having jus in re not only as claiming but also as possessing their heavenly inheritance O that we would be so careful or could be so happy as not to abuse those mercies which we cannot deserve O that we would lift up our souls truly and entirely unto the Lord then would our hearts be where our treasure is at the right hand of God For we may not be in heaven by our perswasions whiles we are either in earth by our affections or in hell by our dispositions How can we see our Saviour at Gods right hand whiles Satan stands at ours making us to butcher his servants to deface his Sanctuary to discountenance his Religion to defile or despise his Ordinances to deceive his people to destroy his inheritance How can we believe him to be making intercession for us whiles we care not to make intercession for our selves or at least wise use such extravagant prayers wherein we cannot justly expect much less judiciously hope he should make intercession with us Be it the priviledge of faith to have an eye to be able to see Christ but of devotion to keep that eye alwaies open actually to behold and look upon him for which cause some have thought that prayer was the proper act of justifying faith men then most especially believing in Christ when they are praying to him So that to oppose or disturb the exercise of well-grounded and well-settled devotions under pretence of reforming them is to put out the eye of faith whiles we pretend to take off the film that it may see the clearer For the precious talent of faith must neither be wrapped up in a Napkin nor indiscreetly managed if we expect it should enrich our souls with heavenly and immortal comforts but must be diligently and discreetly imployed in judicious as well as in fervent pravers and praises to Almighty God that so we may fight the good fight of faith by defending and maintaining not only the truth of the Gospel but also our profession and practise of that truth Saint Paul requires both alike of his Scholar and in him of us 1. Tim. 6. 12. Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses Saint Timothy had not only embraced the Christian faith in general but had also in particular professed a good profession thereof before many witnesses and Saint Paul binds him as well as he had bound himself to make it good Else as many as had been witnesses of his profession must have been Judges and Condemners of his revolt And doubtless God having exalted our Saviour Christ at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principalitie and power and might and dominion Eph. 1. 20 21. hath sufficiently declared That we should so exalt and advance the Christian Religion whereby we seek to glorifie his Son in earth as the Father hath glorified him in heaven that neither principality nor power nor might nor dominion here on earth for those in heaven will not endeavour it should be able to remove us from the truth of Christ either in its belief or in its practise no more then they can remove Christ himself from sitting at the right hand of God And we most humbly beseech thee O blessed Saviour who hast conquered all things to conquer also our inconstancies that we may perfectly and without all doubt believe in thee and shew the sincerity of our faith by
it a most disconsolate and doleful prayer yet it begins with praise I will magnifie thee O Lord for thou hast set me up and it ends with praise O my God I will give thanks unto thee for ever And it is the peculiar observation concerning the 88. Psalm nullâ consolatione clauditur saith Musculus that it hath in it no clause of comfort and consolation and yet even this Psalm hath in it some shaddow or dark representation of Abba Father in that it is said O Lord God of my salvation and O let my prayer enter into thy presence even as our blessed Saviour when he thought himself most forsaken of God yet even then laid hold on him by a true and lively Faith saying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me This we are sure It is the same Spirit of adoption that inditeth the most uncomfortable prayer and the most comfortable praise Only the prayer proceedeth from the great apprehension and constant necessity of our own manifold wants and imperfections even in our best condition But the praise proceedeth from the comfortable enjoyment of Gods undeserved goodness in mercies received and more comfortable assurance of his everlasting mercies in blessings promised So that the uncomfortableness of the prayer is from the testimony of our own spirits concerning our miseries and sorrows in our selves but the comfortableness of the praise is from the testimony of Gods Holy Spirit concerning the blessings and joys treasured up for us in our Redeemer Accordingly there is no gift or comfort of the Spirit which we can now pray for in our distresses which was not prayed for by the Psalmist in his greatest distress Psal 51. Renew a right spirit within me take not thy holy spirit from me stablish me with thy free spirit He prayeth for a right spirit against the perversness for an holy spirit against the profaness and uncleanness for a free spirit against the dulness and deadness of his heart And what can we say more of that spirit which teacheth us to cry Abba Father but that it is a right spirit to rectifie us when we are out of order but that it is an holy spirit to sanctifie us that we may be kept in order and that it is a free spirit to testifie unto us that being rectified and sanctified we shall doubtless be accepted as beloved in the beloved Accordingly Saint Hierom thus translateth the words Et spiritu principali confirma me and confirm or stablish me with thy principal spirit which in Saint Pauls phrase is the spirit of thy Son or the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father So that we find these Psalms of David as necessary and as useful devotions for us Christians as they were for the Jews for that one and the same spirit cryed Abba Father in them which cryeth Abba Father in us Wherefore he so prayeth as that he also praiseth and so praiseth as that he also prayeth He praiseth for the joy of his Saviour he prayeth for the joy of his salvation Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui restore unto me the joy of thy salvation So restore it when it is lost as also preserve and increase it when it is restored This is a joy which all the delights of this world cannot give and therefore sure all the sorrows of this world cannot take away Although the figg tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Hab. 3. 17 18. The Prophets festival doth not depend upon the joy and mirth of the times his good chear doth not hang upon the fig-tree nor upon the vine it ariseth not out of the fields nor out of the flocks God may sequester all these from man or man may sequester them all from Gods Prophet yet still he will keep his solemn feast he will rejoyce in the Lord he will joy in the God of his salvation and the reason is because God will not and man cannot sequester the true Prophet from his God Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8. 35. And as this joy of the good Christian is unsequestrable not to be taken from him so is it also unspeakable not to be expressed by him thus saith Saint Peter speaking of our blessed Saviour Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. You that love him from your soul cannot but rejoyce in him from your soul If your love of him be with all your soul with all your might with all your strength your joy in him will be so too you love him with all your might because he is your Saviour you rejoyce in him with all your might because of his salvation Who can sufficiently admire the goodness of God in giving the gift of faith unto men thereby in some sort to antedate the beatifical vision and to let us into heaven whiles we live here on earth For the Apostle describes to us such a faith as is to be known not by its pretences but by its power and that power is threefold A power of believing in Christ yet believing A power of loving Christ whom having not seen ye love A power of rejoycing in Christ in whom ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable Whosoever hath not this threefold power of believing of loving and of rejoycing in Christ hath not true Faith in Christ but a phansie in stead of Faith So inseparable are these three Sisters the three Theological vertues Faith Hope and Charity that whosoever hath one hath All whosoever doth believe doth also love whosoever doth love doth also rejoyce rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. A joy not to be expressed to others by our speaking but by our doing not by our words but by our works It is fit they should see us offer the sacrifice of righteousness and from thence know that we put our trust in the Lord Psalm 4. 4. For we Christians also have an Altar Heb. 13. 10. and we have a two fold sacrifice to offer upon that Altar 1. A Sacrifice of thanksgiving let us offer the Sacrifice of praise to God continually v. 15. 2. A Sacrifice of Almsgiving to do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased ver 16. These our sacrifices as they do express our joy in Christ so they should also answer it
That of enemies they are made servants and of servants they are made sons Secondly That being made sons they have the Spirit of his Son Thirdly That having the Spirit of his Son they have also the mind and language of his Son crying Abba Father Having their hearts true to God by inward affection and their mouths true to their hearts by outward profession IT is fit that a foolish son should know his folly as well as his filiation his folly that he may return to himself to do his duty as well as his filiation that he may return unto his Father and beg for mercy Accordingly every good Christian being made the son of God and yet still abiding too much in the sins of other men should look with one eye upon himself to increase his humility and to quicken his obedience and repentance with the other eye upon his Saviour to strengthen his faith and to inflame his piety and devotion He must see his folly as well as his filiation that he may ascribe unto God the honour due unto his name and much more the honour due unto his nature in that he disinherits not a foolish Son besotted and bewitched with the vanities of the world and with his own sinful lusts and affections but first looks on him as wise in Christ his own eternal wisdom and then makes him so that he may not only accept him for a son but may also bring him to his inheritance For there is no doubt to be made but that the filiation will carry the inheritance if so be we take care that the folly do not destroy the filiation And accordingly we must still remember that we were by nature the children of wrath born enemies but made sons by the grace of adoption and take heed of returning to our own natural corruptions or of sinning against that grace whereby we have been adopted For in that we have been adopted into Gods family we have been put out of our own so the Greeks do expresly set forth the nature of adoption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be an adopted son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas is to be put out of our own kindred out of our own stock And the Psalmist requires no less of us when he saith Hearken O daughter and consider incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty for he is thy Lord God and worship thou him Psal 45. 11 12. Thou canst not be an adopted son of God unless thou forget thine own people and thy fathers house that is unless thou go out of the man that thou maist go in to God leave off to be an enemy that thou maist begin to be a son forsake thy self that thou maist cleave to thy Saviour For in thy self thou art a stranger nay an enemy in him only thou art a servant or rather a Son This consideration made Saint Paul say I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. As if he had said I am crucified with Christ in that I am dead unto sin for the thought that he hath nailed my sins to his Cross makes me willing to be crucified with him And yet I still truly live but not that old carnal man I was before but made a new creature so that indeed Christ liveth in me by his Spirit making me lead a new life And though I am still in this mortal body yet my life which I live is immortal for though my person be on earth yet my conversation is in heaven And the same truth which the Apostle here preached by his Example he did in another place preach also by his Doctrine saying And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8. 10. that is the outward man is mortified to the weakning and abolishing of sin but the inner man is renewed to the encreasing and establishing of righteousness And this is the proper work of the Spirit of adoption to change a man from being an enemy to be a servant and from being a servant to be a son which we may well look upon as the first priviledge of the Saints who are truly so that is Saints in Gods account though sinners in their own Saints not of their own calling but of Gods or Saints not of their own but of Gods making Their duty is to be his servants but their honour is to be his friends nay more his sons Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15. 14. They were before his enemies they are now his servants and friends They are to do whatsoever he commands them there 's their duty they are obliged as servants yet he saith unto them ye are my friends there 's their honour they are accepted as friends Great is their honour as his friends admitted to his counsels yet much greater is their honour as his sons admitted to his inheritance But this honour is meerly a priviledge not a prerogative t is such as they must thankfully receive not such as they may peremptorily demand for when ye have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do saith our blessed Saviour Luk. 17. 10. Christ looked upon his own obedience as duty and therefore will not have us look upon ours as supererogation We are unprofitable servants in our service and should be so in our account and are we then in Gods account accepted as friends nay beloved as sons Great was their priviledge who could say We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and build his house Ezra 5. 11. Sure they could not have said so much if they had pulled his house down But far greater is our priviledge who can say We are the sons of the God of heaven and earth and though we be despoiled of our inheritance in earth yet we cannot be deprived of our inheritance in heaven The prodigal son saith to his father I am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired servants Luk. 15. 19. but each of us may now invert those words and say unto our Father I am no more worthy to be a hired servant and yet thou hast made me be called thy Son A consideration which is able to kindle a holy fire in the breast of every good Christian and enflame his soul with the love of Christ by whom alone of an enemy he is made a servant of a servant a friend of a friend a Son of a son an heir even an heir of God and joint heir with Christ Rom. 8. 17. For though men have son that are not heirs yet God hath no son which is not also an heir and
in their hearts And he dwelleth in their hearts by faith not a faith that commeth from their own Spirits but a faith that commeth from Gods Spirit A faith that cometh from our own spirits strengthneth only the outer man but a faith that cometh from Gods spirit strengthneth the inner man That faith is strong only in perswasion but this faith is strong in affection That faith is strong in phansie but this faith is strong in love even in that love which is the fulfilling of the Law loving the body for the heads sake loving the head for his own sake loving the Church for Christ and loving Christ for himself such a faith as this proceeding from the Spirit of God cannot but afford us a real communion with the Son of God and having a real communion with Christ as with our head we shall never delight in separations and divisions from the Church which is his body SECT IV. Christian communion beginneth with the Church but endeth with Christ both in the word and Sacraments and Prayers and that the Church is bound in all these to advance not to hinder our Communion with Christ either by denying the people the use of the Scriptures or by teaching them superstitious prayers as to Saints and Angels wherein Christ neither can nor will communicate with men The ready way to have communion with Christ is by peace and holiness and wherein that communion chiefly consisteth TRue Christian communion beginneth with the Church as with the body of Christ but endeth with Christ himself as with the head God hath joyned those two together let not man put them asunder Nor is it the intent of this discourse to divide this Christian communion into two several communions by reason determining or defining ratione ratiocinata because the body cannot subsist without the head but only by reason discussing or debating ratione ratiocinante because the head is different from the body And every good Christian is to take notice that though he may consider this communion severally yet he may not persue and embrace it so For he cannot have actual communion with Christ unless he have actual communion with his Church no more then he can have communion with the head unless he have also communion with the body yet may he not rest satisfied in his communion with the body the Church of Christ till they come thereby to have communion with the head even with Christ himself For our Christian communion is much like Jacobs ladder the lower part whereof was set upon the earth but the top of it reached up to heaven And behold the Lord stood above at the top of it Gen. 28. 12 13. So is our Christian communion The lower part of it is with the Church the body of Christ here on earth but the upper part or top of it is with Christ in heaven And we cannot say that our Christian communion is a true communion unless Christ be at the end of it as for example in hearing the word read and preached we at first communicate with the Church which speaketh to the outward man but we hear it not profitably to our salvation unless we at last communicate also with Christ speaking by his Spirit unto our souls or to the inward man Paedogogus est Jesus Our teacher is Jesus was thought by Clemens of Alexandria a fit subject both to fill and to name his books of Christian Institutions v. lib. 1. Paedag. cap. 9. For as the Church teacheth the people so also Christ teacheth them much more and the Churches paedagogy iâ— or should be to bring them unto Christ not to make them rest only upon their own teaching for soul-saving truths nor is this Doctrine any disparagement to the Church no more then Saint Pauls was to the Law when he said The Law was our School-Master to bring us unto Christ Gal. 3. 24. Nay indeed it is the greatest honour of the Church as it was of the Law that God is pleased to use her teaching as a means or instrument to bring us unto Christ That as the Church teacheth us by explaining saving truths to our understandings so Christ may teach us by imprinting the same truths in our wills and affections therefore the Church should above all things take heed of offering those truths in her explanations which she cannot believe nor wish that Christ should ratifie by his impressions such as are all those Doctrines which are the inventions of men and not the institutions of Christ And forasmuch as it cannot be denied that Christ teacheth more powerfully by his own word then by ours it is evident that the Holy Scriptures may not be denied to the people in their own tongue by that Church which will labour to advance their communion with Christ and as evident that the people are not bound to communicate with that Church which will not labour to advance this the highest and greatest part of their Christian communion Again in receiving the holy Eucharist we must not only communicate with the Priest exhibiting unto us the bread and wine but also and much rather with Christ himself exhibiting unto us his most precious body blood or we shall receive but half a Sacrament and enjoy but a half communion This is Saint Pauls Divinity The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ 1 Co. 10. 16. We bless the Cup and we break the bread therefore you must communicate with us which we could not say if we did refuse to do either for we could not desire you to relinquish your communion with Christs institution to follow ours But the Cup which we bless and the bread which we break is the communion of the blood and body of Christ therefore you must not communicate chiefly and much less only with us but also and much rather with Christ himself Lastly Thus is it also in our prayers we are bound in our praying to communicate not only with the Church as the body but also with Christ as the head and consequently the Church is bound to use no other prayers then such as may be agreeable with Christs communion and available by Christs intercession For if we pray out of his communion we cannot hope to obtain what we pray for by virtue of his intercession And this I conceive was one main reason why publick Liturgies were at first established in the Church that Christians might know before hand the terms of their communion and be assured in their own hearts that no other prayers should be offered unto them then such wherein Christ himself would joyn with them in intercession which assurance during the extraordinary effusions of the Spirit was grounded upon the infallibility of their persons who prayed but when it could no longer be grounded upon the infallibility of the persons that prayed then it was thought fit it should be
in relation to the people to those who have a great number to countenance any insolency and as great a power to continue it and to say it in the name of God is to say that which if it doth not make the people tractable will certainly make them inexcusable And this Saint Paul saith so frequently that we are bound to look upon it as his common dialect and therefore as our own special duty I will instance only in that Text which as it allows the necessity of Ecclesiastical Discipline so it allayes the severity of it for these times though they most shew the want or necessity of Church government yet will they least endure the severity of the same And that Text is in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians the third Chapter 14. and 15. Verses And if any men obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother T is without all doubt and therefore should be without all dispute that these words were not written occasionally but âoctrinally and consequently contain in them such a precept as now at this time concerns us no less then it did at that time concern the Thessalonians And our Church is no less intrusted with this precept then theirs was and as much bound to execute this command of observing admonishing avoiding such as obey not the Apostles Word or Doctrine whether by his own Epistles or by the Churches Sermons Whether by his writing or by her speaking whether by his Hand or by her mouth What remains then if I obey not but wilfully persist in disobeying the Apostles Doctrine taught me by this Church which God hath set over me but that I look upon my self as one excommunicated by this Canon of the Holy Ghost and consequently as one whose sins are bound and retained in heaven though possibly not so much as taken notice of here on Earth And therefore I have great reason to fear that sentence which a Bishop of this Church hath recorded upon this very Text though now I see no visible Judge to pronounce it In nomine Dei c. In the name of the living God and of Jesus Christ before whom I stand and before whom all flesh shall appear by the authority of his word and by the power of the Holy Ghost I divide thee from the fellowship of the Gospel and declare that thou art no more a member of the body of Christ Thy name is put out of the book of life Thou hast no part in the life to come thou art not in Christ and Christ is departed from thee I deliver thee to Satan the Prince of darkness thy reward shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Thou shalt starve and wither and not abide The Grace of God is taken out of thy Heart The face of the Lord is against all them that do evil they shall not taste of his mercy Bishop Jewel in his Commentary on 2 Thes 3. This is a sentence that I have reason to fear if I be disobedient to the Doctrine and bid defiance to the worship of Almighty God which I have learned in this Church For rather then the Synagogue of Satan shall be confounded with the Church of God Christ himself will re-assume that Power which he hath given to his Ministers he will become the judge rather then obstinate sinners shall want the sentence of condemnation Nay it is to be feared that he is become the Judge already and hath moreover ratified his own sentence for surely men are divided from the fellowship of the Gospel Christ is departed from them and the grace of God is taken out of their hearts when they altogether delight in divisions and are as children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine nay carried away with all deceivableness of unrighteousnesness because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And indeed men are first generally carried away by the deceivableness of unrighteousness and after that by the deceivableness of untruth The deceivableness of unrighteousness will not let them receive the love of the truth and then the deceivableness of untruth will not let them retein the Doctrine of it as it follows For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2. 11 12. They first have pleasure in unrighteousness and will not believe the truth and from thence proceed to have pleasure in untruth that they may defend and maintain their unrighteousness First they will not give themselves to believe the truth then God gives them to belielieve a lye First they contemn those whom God hath sent then God sends them strong delusions First they believe not the truth because they have pleasure in their sins then they believe a lye that they may perish in their sins O the unspeakable mercy of God who hath given us this warning to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts O the impartial Justice of God who hath given us this doom that if we hear not his voice to day we shall harden our hearts to morrow Let us consider how the Primitive Christians obeyed their spiritual guides and we shall never want the Method and much less lose the zeal of our obedience We will never let it be said that we have lived so many years to understand our Religion now mean to live the rest of our dayes to abandon it alwayes remembring that heavenly contemplation of the Angelical Doctor Ratio Aeternitatis consequitur Immutabilitatem sicut ratio temporis consequitur motum 1 par qu. 10. art 2. Eternity is founded upon unchangeableness as time is founded upon change Therefore we cannot lay a greater reproach upon Religion then to think or to shew it changeable as if it rather belonged to time then to eternity Secondly this obligation which binds us to our spiritual Pastors and Guides hath not lost its force of binding us because of the duty to which we are bound which is the publick practice of Religion A duty which we cannot perform without the direction of the Church for without that when we come together every one will have a Psalm a Doctrine a tongue a revelation an interpretation 1 Cor. 14 26. yet a duty which we cannot wilfully neglect without the danger if not the damnation of our souls For this comes neer that damnable sin of spiritual slothfulness which regards not Communion with God and he that regards not communion with God here how can he hope for the fruition of God hereafter T is the common course of men now to say are not Abana and Pharphar Rivers of Damascus better then all the Waters of Israel may I not wash in them aud be clean
satisfies his conscience unless he be sure and certain of the terms of his Communion for the conscience cannot be satisfied and much less can God be served upon uncertainties And since the Apostle hath expresly said That whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 13. 23. Those men do very indiscreetly who in their publick worship do rather exercise their Phansies then their Faith and those do very irreligiously who labour all they can to spread and to promote that exercise For in the work of serving God above all other works it is evident That the diminution of Faith is the addition of sin wherefore men have little reason to bring themselves and less Religion to seek to bring others to any the least diminution of their Faith in Gods service for that is to come under the hazard of Judas his curse Let his prayer be turned into sin Psalm 109. v. 6. We must then take it for an argument of true love even the love of our souls and of our salvation that the Christian Church did in imitation of the Church of the Jews offer up daily Prayers and Praises unto Almighty God for us and also teach us to offer up daily Prayers and Praises for our selves And it is to be feared That men have rewarded the Church of Christ evil for good hatred for her good will in that the dismal curse which follows in the next verses hath fallen upon so many Nations of the Christian world For it is evident that this curse set thou an ungodly man to rule over him and let Satan stand at his right hand let his days be few and his children be vagabonds c. is ushered in with this sin For the love that I had unto them loe they take now my contrary part ver 3. and is continued and confirmed for it is because his mind was not to do good but persecuted the poor helpless man that he might slay him that was vexed at the heart and ver 16. His delight was in cursing and it shall happen unto him he loved not blessing therefore shall it be far from him For nothing is more offensive to God then that men will not return love for love And yet this hath been always the portion of his Church she hath still found returns of hatred for love For there is no true Christian Church but may truely say with Saint Paul 2 Cor. 12. 15. I will very gladly spend and be spent for you it is in the Original Greek for your souls though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved No love affectionate like this which loves the soul no love abundant like this which makes the lover spend and be spent for his affection and such is the love of every true Christian Church which is the grand Apostle of its nation it loves affectionately it loves abundantly for what it wants of this charity it wants of true Christianity but doth seldome receive back again love for love It was Luthers complaint that whilst he Preached and practised mans Inventions he found too much love but after he preached Gods truth the Gospel in its own sincerity he found too little so hath it been ever since his time with Protestant Churches for those which have most deserved the peoples thanks for teaching them the true and the right way to heaven have least found their love Thus we see to our grief no less then to our mischief that the best of men may love in vain but God never loves in vain For he never loves but he is beloved again so saith the beloved Disciple 1 Joh. 4. 19. We love him because he first loved us As he loves us so we love him again though he love first we afterwards and therefore if we love not him the reason is because he hath not loved us in the Son of his love I say not if we love not God in himself for that 's impossible acccording to that excellent position of Aquinas Deus secundum essentiam suam à nullo potest odio haberi sicut neque bonitas At secundum quosdam Justitiae suae effectus potest 22. qu. 34. God cannot be hated by any man as he is in himself no more then goodness can be hated but he is hated only for some effects of his Justice therefore I say not if we love not God in himself but if we love not God in his Vice-gerency or Authority whether Civil or Ecclesiastical by our dutifulness and fidelity If we love not God in his Commands and Ordinances by our Obedience and Piety Lastly If we love not God in his image and likeness by our brotherly and Christian Charity we do indeed not love God for himself hath said I ye love me keep my commandments Joh. 14 15. And if we do not love God the reason can be no other but this because he hath not loved us And it were to be wished that some men who most think themselves the darlings of heaven would try their spiritual estate by this touchstone for if we are indeed in the love of God and in the Son of his love it will appear by our returning love back again to him And the Apostles consequence being as good for the Negative as for the Affirmative it must needs follow that if we love not God it is because he first loved not us SECT V. Gods love to us in Christ was not vain or without a cause for as much as Christ was the ground of our Election as well as the Author of our reconciliation More men reconciled by Christ to God then recommened by him or more men reconciled potentially then actually GOD had a good reason of his love to us thoug not in our selves yet in our Saviour the Son of his love For he began his first Epistle or message of love unto our souls as Saint John began his second and third Epistles Vnto the elect and welbeloved whom I love in the truth the same in effect with salutem in Christo or dearly beloved in the Lord which salutations have since been used by the Church God loves us in the truth that is in our Saviour Christ who is called the truth John 14. 6. And as no man cometh to the Father but by him so no man abideth with the Father but in him so saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them where is punctually set down both the meritorious cause of our reconciliation Christ and the formal cause of it Gods not imputing our sins to us for Christs sake For God cannot be reconciled to a sinner whilst he looks upon him as a sinner because sin is directly opposite to his own goodness and therefore he cannot but hate sin as he cannot but love himself and God cannot but look upon a sinner as a sinner whilst he looks upon him in himself not in his Saviour who hath expiated his sin Hence Scotus tels us
to man in teaching him how to rejoyce for his Redemption Hymns expressing that joy may be only to the honour of God and directed to him The evil spirit silenced at the coming of Christ but the mouth of the good Spirit was opened THere is no man but naturally desires joy and delight as a remedy against his labours naturaliter appetit delectationes medicinas contra labores sensuum motuum saith Aquinas The reason why the natural man looks so much after his delights is because he looks upon them as medicines to heal his sicknesses or as remedies against the continual labours of his sense and of his motion And for this reason the spiritual man ought much more to look after his spiritual delights because he is much more under the labours of sense and motion then is the natural man for there is no sense so irksom as the sense of Gods wrath and of mans unworthiness and no motion so toilsom as that which seeks to climb up from earth to heaven and this is the sense this is the motion of the spiritual man he is continually feeling the burden of flesh and much more of sin upon his soul there 's his sense He is continually panting and â—ighing after God for rest there 's his motion In so great a labour both of his sense and of his motion how should he be able to subsist if it were not for the comfort of spiritual delight which proceeds only from Gods Holy Spirit For delight cannot be but from some good that is convenient and present and known to be so Ad delectationem duo requiruntur conjunctio boni convenientis cognitio hujus conjunctionis saith the same Aquinas A man cannot have delight without two things first the conjunction or acquisition of some convenient good then the knowledge of that conjunction so is it in this case The Redemption of our souls from death is undoubtedly both a convenient and a present good and yet few men have true joy and delight from it because few apprehend it as actually present Wherefore it is the singular gift and love of God the Holy Ghost to any man to give him the true knowledge of his Saviour that he may give him the true joy of his salvation For this indeed is the joy in the Holy Ghost and comes only from him It is he that teacheth the Church Militant to sing a new song on earth for her joy in Christ it is he that teacheth the Church Triumphant to sing a new song in heaven for the same joy O sing unto the Lord a new song saith the Psalmist Psal 98. and that Psalm is nothing else but a song of Joy and Thanksgiving for the Redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ there 's the new song on earth and again Rev. 5. 9. They sung a new song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood there 's the new song in heaven to express the joy of the same Redemption For the Holy Spirit teacheth them to practise this new song in earth who are to sing their part of it in heaven For those men are not like to come to Abrahams bosom who are not Abrahams sons and those men are not yet Abrahams sons who have not his faith and do not his works Now this was the Faith of Abraham to see the day of Christ and this was his work to joy in that sight John 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exultavit gestivit He rejoyced and he desired to express his joy His desire encreased his joy and his joy inflamed his desire He did see it a far off by faith the eye of his soul and he desired to see it nearer by sense with the eye of his body the joy of the one did not hinder but advance the joy of the other for if the heart of them must rejoice that seeke the Lord Psal 105. 3. then much more must the heart of them rejoce that have found him Accordingly good Christians do indeede shew no other then Abrahams faith by desiring to looke on Christ and no other then Abrahams worke by rejoycing in that vision which we may well suppose was the cause that the Latine Church antiently used and still useth some such peculiar hymns before the nativity of Christ as it is hard to determine whether they have more of desire in them to see his day comming or of joy to see it come our Calander still retains the memory of the first of those hymns which was O sapientia on the 17 of December but the hymns themselves in the Latine Church hold out till Christmas eve I will give you a short scheme of them 1. O Sapientia veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae O Thou who art the eternal wisdom of God come and Teach us the way of true wisedom 2. O Adonai veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento O thou who art the Lord of might come and redeem us by thy mighty hand 3. O radix Jesse veni ad liberandum nos O thou root of Jesse come and deliver us 4. O Clavis David veni educ vinctum de domo carceris O thou Key of David come and open the prison doors and let out the Prisoners 5. O oriens splendor lucis aeternae veni illumina sedentes in tenebris umbrâ mortis O thou Day-spring of eternal light come and enlighten us who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death 6. O Rex gentium salva hominem quem de limo formasti O thou who art the King of the Nations come and save man whom thou hast formed of the dust of the earth 7. O Emanuel veni ad salvandum nos Domine Deus noster O thou who art God with us be also a God to us and save us O Lord our God These greater and more solemn hymns called Antiphone majores were at first made only in the honour of Christ though in process of time after the Invocation of Saints had crept into the Church there were two more added to them O Thoma Didyme and O virgo Virginum as Hugo testifieth in his Commentary upon the 38. Psalm which now the office it self of the blessed Virgin blusheth at and taketh no notice of at all and it were to be wished it had left out other prayers to the Blsseed Virgin which are as grosly superstitious as were those Hymns For they that believe Christ to be God must confess him to be a jealous God and that he hath said I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another Isa 42. 8. and what is his glory but that of Prayer and of Praise Accordingly it is observable that at the time of his coming in the flesh the Oracles of Jupiter Apollo Hecate were
rise again to newness of life This is the happy estate we acknowledge God conveyed unto us in our Baptism for other visible conveyance there is none when he made us Christians for then he gave us the right of calling him Father and we by saying unto him Our Father do beseech him to confirm this sâ—me happy estate unto us in making us good Christians But how shall those that are bad Christians and cannot be assured of the adoption of sons as having defiled themselves since their Baptism say unto God Our Father I answer if they heartily repent and desire to be adopted and to become children of God they may say so by virtue of their desire though they have not yet actually received the inward seal and have actually defaced the outward seal of their adoption wherefore those only have no right to their Pater noster but do hypocritically and falsly say the Lords Prayer who neither are the children of God by adoption nor desire to be so But those that heartily desire to be adopted supposing they have been baptized may rightly and truly say to God Our Father because they are accepted as sons in Christ though not in themselves I will rise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned saith the Prodigal Son Luk. 14. 18. He was not yet risen he was not yet gone he did only desire and resolve to rise and go to him and this desire and resolution gives him a right of calling God Our Father as if he had still continued a dutiful son our blessed Saviour teaching us in that chapter both by his Doctrine and by his example that God is ready to receive sinners when they truly desire to draw neer to him The Pharisees and the Scribes murmured at the example but they were ashamed to murmur at the Doctrine The lost sheep and the lost groat had opened their eyes but the lost son was enough to open their hearts the lost sheep and the lost groat had made way in their apprehensions for the receiving of the lost son when he returned to his Father but the lost son was enough to make way in their hearts for their own returning that they also might be received they were convinced that there was joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth ver 10. And they were ashamed least what was the Angels joy should be thought their sorrow Therefore though they were still enemies to their own souls in not embracing this Doctrine yet they were ashamed to shew themselves enemies to other mens souls in gainsaying it nay indeed to shew themselves enemies to God himself who must be excluded out of heaven or he cannot be excluded out of thy joy for it is said ver 6. Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth And our Saviour having taught us to say to God Our Father which art in heaven will not have us exclude him out of this joy which is proper to those in heaven nay indeed the parable directly includes him in it ver 32. T was meet that we should make merry and be glad and without doubt God is so well pleased in the righteousness of his Son that he joyes to see penitent sinners made righteous in him and willingly bestowes upon them his righteousness when with unfeigned lips and penitent hearts they call upon him for it For as through Christs satisfaction they have a right to the adoption of Sons so also through his intercession which is always ready to accompany his own prayer they are sure to obtain that right if they continue heartily praying for themselves that so they may have the benefit of his intercession For as far as we are made partakers of Christ so far can we truly in his merit and with his Spirit say unto God Our Father For the right of filiation belongs Originally to Christ and but dirivatively to us He is the Son of God in himself we are the Sons of God in and through him and t is happy for us that we are so for else we could not but fear the loss of our adoption as often as we did find the loss of our obedience For there can be no assurance of such an adoption as shall last till we be instated in our inheritance from our selves but only from our Saviour Christ God indeed is pleased to call good men his sons but none was ever called the Son of God with this promise and Prerogative that God alwaies was and alwaies would be his Father but only Christ or else Saint Pauls Argument would lose much of its strength when he proves our Saviour Christ to be above all the Angels because God had not said to any of them but had said only to him Thou art my Son And again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son For Angels and men are so the Sons of God as to be his Sons in Christ not in themselves and therefore no sooner nor no longer his sons then they were and are in Christ For which cause we can be no farther sure of our adoption in Christ then we are sure of our conjunction and communion with him and that not of a corporal conjunction in the same flesh but of a spiritual conjunction in the same Spirit For our corporal conjunction with Christ doth not only make us capable of being adopted in him but it is our spiritual conjunction with him that gives unto us the seal and benefit of our adoption whereby we are joyned with Christ in the same mystical body here and shall be joyned with him in the same glorious body hereafter Thus may every good Christian saith with Saint Paul Phil. 1. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain to me to live is Christ because I am now with him in the communion of the same Mystical body to me to die is gain because I shall hereafter be with him in the communion of the same glorious body There needs no dissolution for my union with Christ in the same mystical body but only of my sinful being the dissolution of sin from my soul but for my union with Christ in the same glorious body there needs also a dissolution of my natural being a dissolution of my soul from my body I will then labour for that union with my blessed Saviour in my life which will keep me from the fear of my own dissolution at my death For I shall not make a right use of his corporal union with me unless I lay it for the ground and rise of my spiritual union with him whereby to be united with my Saviour not only in the same natural but also in the same mystical body inchoately in his Church militant consummately in his Church Triumphant And this is the way for me so to welcom the Son of God in his Nativity as much more to see and enjoy him in his immortality Amen Christ
admired in his Passion I Cannot admire my Saviour in his sufferings unless I admire him in his person which made him liable to suffer and in his propitiation satisfaction application whereby I have the benefit of his sufferings And in all these respects hath the holy Apostle Saint Paul admired my Saviour for me 1 Cor. 5. 7. when he said for Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us for these few words afford no less then four considerations of our blessed Saviour the first is of Christ in his person for Christ the second is of Christ in his propitiation our Passeover the third is of Christ in his satisfaction is sacrificed the fourth is of Christ in his application for us So that I have a very good precedent for making these four considerations of Christ the four Chapters of my ensuing discourse CAP. I. Christ admired in his Person SECT I. That the eye of man cannot be fixed with comfort upon God in himself but only upon God in Christ THE contemplation of God in himself is not a ground of joy to us on earth though it is to the Saints and Angels in heaven not that the beatifical vision doth not consist in seeing God but that the eye of mortal man must be strengthened before it can see him and the eye of sinful man must be cleansed before it can see him with comfort and without confusion for if Aristotle could alledge his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noctu◠oculus ad solem an Owl or Bat looking upon the Sun to excuse the imperfect contemplation of some inferiour Truths how much more may we plead this excuse for our imperfect contemplation of the first truth since there is much more in this case an Owl or a Bat looking upon the Sun for there is not only a weak but also a sinful eye looking upon God A weak eye because not accustomed to light A sinful eye because not unaccustomed to darkness Such a weak and sinful eye is it wherewith man in this life looketh upon the Sun of righteousness an eye which cannot stedfastly behold him for its weakness an eye which cannot comfortably behold him for its sinfulness Therefore man whiles he is cloathed with sin and mortality must look on God not in God but in man not in the majesty of the Spirit but in the humility of the flesh or else he will be more confounded then comforted with the vision The Apostles saw but a glimps of our Saviours Divinity in the transfiguration and they fell to the ground Mat. 17. 16. and what then do we think they would have done had they seen the full luster and brightness of the Sun of righteousness Jacob tells Laban of the God of Abraham but only of the fear of his Father Isaac Gen. 31. 42. The reason we may conceive to be this because Abraham was dead but Isaac was yet alive for it is impossible but the Divine majesty should strike terrour and consternation to the most upright man that is whiles he is clogged and burdened with flesh and much more with sin And this observation doth Solomon Jarchi intimate in his gloss upon the place saying thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is called the Fear not the God of Isaac because he doth not appropriate his name to just men whiles they are yet alive The reason cannot be That they are less his Favourites but that they are not so much capable of his Favour he is the same God to the living and to the dead but the living have him for their fear because they are in a state of weakness and unworthiness the dead have him for their love and their reward because they are in a state of glory and of blessedness And therefore said God himself to Moses No man shall see me and live Exod. 33. 20. If we see God in himself that sight will destroy our life but if we see him in his Son that will preserve it for as the Chrystal glass may afford much glittering light but not any delightful reflexion to the beholder till it be clouded and darkened with a back of some grosser mettal so the Divinity of Christ may afford many glorious speculations of his Majesty but no one comfortable reflexion of his mercy till it be as it were darkened and shadowed with his humanity Then me thinks I can easily without the help of a Crucifix see in him a head bowed down to hear me an eye carefully looking after me an hand stretched out to defend me a mouth open to call me and a bosom as open to receive me So that I cannot but still desire to see my Saviour in the flesh though not with the eye of my flesh but with the eye of my faith for if I see him in God he is my consternation but if I see him in man he is my salvation SECT II. In what sense Saint Paul cared not to know Christ in the flesh and yet Christ in the flesh only is comfortably known IT is impossible that a good Christian should either desire not to know Christ because he loves him or not to know him in the flesh because so he hath most reason to love him and yet Saint Paul hath said Henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more 2 Cor. 5. 16. But sure the Apostle speaks not positively but comparatively Henceforth know we no man after the flesh not so as to forget the relations and substance of the flesh in others which we carry about our selves for that were to forget the Law of nature But so as not to overprize the seeming pre-eminencies but indeed real vanities of the flesh beauty honour riches and the like when they are destitute of the gifts and graces of the Spirit as if Christian love and conversation more concerned the outward then the inward man for that were to forget the Law of Grace Thus we must know no man after the flesh no not Christ himself that is in the external representation of his flesh or more admiring the image of his person then the power of his Redemption or in the external presence of his flesh as desirous to enter a carnal instead of a spiritual communion with him and bringing rather our mouths then our hearts to feed upon his precious body and blood Thus must we no more know Christ himself after the flesh but yet we may not we must not forget the substance of his flesh in which the Son of God and the Son of man is but one Christ unless we will forget the substance of our own salvation For in that same flesh he was our Redeemer in that same flesh he still is our Mediator and Intercessor In that same flesh was his head crowned with thorns that ours might be crowned with glory in that same flesh be often bowed down his head to look upon us he once suffered his feet to be fastened to stay for
God say of our Saviour Christ That he is Paracletus super Paracletum a Comforter beyond the Comforter For the Spirit of God is our Comforter to speak for us only in the day of mercy whiles we are speaking for our selves that we may be able to pray acceptably but is not our propitiation to make our persons or our prayers to be accepted But the Son of God is our Advocate to speak for us when we shall not be able to speak for our selves even in the day of Judgement when all flesh must keep silence before God according to that of holy Job for how should man be just with God if he should contend with him he cannot answer one of a thousand And he is also our Propitiation to make both our persons and our prayers accepted with God And it is impossible he should not prevail in making the intercession who hath already prevailed in making the atonement This is the inexpressible the inestimable comfort of a distressed sinner who bewaileth his sins and flieth to the Son of God for mercy that the same Jesus now is and will be at the last day his Advocate who hath already been his propitiation And this is a comfort that men and Devils cannot deny unto us and therefore we may not deny it to our selves For the sinner comes under accusation no longer then tell his sin is expiated but when that is fully done then he comes under absolution wherefore since my sins are expiated by my Saviour I will not fear that the Devils shall accuse me for I have an Advocate to answer their malice I will not doubt but God will absolve me for I have a propitiation to satisfie his justice So that by this means Elies question which otherwise is unanswerable may be fully and easily answered But if a man sin against God who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2. 25. for here is an Advocate that will intreat for us if we put our selves under his Patronage and Protection And surely it is concerning this Advocate that Saint Peter hath spoken Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you 1 Pet. 5. 7. All our care is or should be how to save our souls and therefore the first thing we should all do is to put our selves in such a condition that our blessed Saviour may take care of us that so we may securely cast all our care upon him Then will Saint Pauls Problem be turned into a Position Rom. 8. 33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us and that position will carry this sense Good Christians ought not to be afraid of condemnation since they have so many sure and certain arguments of Gods love and favour towards them for none can justly accuse them because God himself before whom the accusation must be made hath already absolved them and none will be able to condemn them because Christ who alone is to be the Judge dyed for them to deliver their souls from death or rather is risen from the dead to open to them the gate of everlasting life And he hath power to give them life for he is at the right hand of God and he hath a will and a desire to give it for he maketh intercession for us We may reduce all these benefits and mercies to those four heads which Alensis saith are the effects of our Saviours Passion Effectus Passionis Christi ponuntur quatuor Primus Justificatio à peccatis Secundus Reconciliatio ad Deum Tertius Religatio potestatis Diaboli Quartus Apertio januae Paradisi Par. 3. qu. 18. m. 6. There are four effects of our blessed Saviours Passion the first is our Justification from sin the second our Reconciliation with God the third is the restraining of the power of the Devil the fourth is the opening of the gate of heaven O my soul evermore give him hearty thanks for this Passion which hath purged thy sins that did both defile and oppress thee which hath satisfied and appeased thy God who was angry with thee which hath stopped the Devils mouth that he cannot claim thee which hath opened the gate of heaven that it will receive thee We now fully see the vertue of this Propitiation we are in the next place to consider the great goodness wisdom justice and power of God in finding it for us and giving it to us wherein we shall do best to follow his method who first put the Divinity of the Greek Church into a Methodical System and that was Damascene who lib. 3. de orth fide c. 1. saith That this giving of Christ to be made our Propitiation did in one and the same act shew the goodness the wisdom the justice and the power of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First the goodness of God in that the Creator did not despise the infirmity of his creature but did rather communicate therein and take it upon himself which should make us say with great devotion and greater thankfulness O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men Psalm 107. Words of thanksgiving which the Psalmist did not think they could repeat too often when he considered of mans temporal preservation and therefore sure we cannot repeat them often enough when we think of our eternal salvation and of the infinite goodness of our Saviour in purchasing and procuring it for us Secondly the wisdom of God That there was so miraculous a way found out to pay the price of our Redemption that he who was exalted in the highest and could not be humbled yet was so humbled to the lowest as not to lose any jot of his exaltation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly the Justice of God that though man was his choicest workmanship and after his own image yet he would not pull him by violence from the Tyrant who had unjustly got Dominion over him but paid such a value for the redemption of his captive as was indeed above all valuation which had in effect been said many years before Damascene by Leo the great in one of his Christmass Sermons Serm. 2. de Nativ hanc potissimum consulendi viam elegit quà ad destruendum opus diaboli non virtute uteretur potentiae sed ratione Justitiae He followed that counsel whereby he might destroy the Devils work not by the strength of his power but by the reason of his Justice Fourthly the power of God for nothing could be an act of greater power then to make God become man according to that of Saint Basil in his homily upon the 44. Psalm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the demonstration of the greatest power that God could be in the nature of man For not the constitution of
the eternal Spirit be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen Christ glorified in his Ascention The Prooeme That our blessed Saviours Ascention is not so truly observed by our commemoration as by our imitation and the manner how to consider the History of his Ascention THere is no blessing of Christ but imposeth upon a Christian the necessity of commemorating it and withall affords him exceeding great joy in its commemoration if he so observe it with other Christians as also to imitate it with good Christians For at Saint Luke gives a full definition of Christs Gospel when he calleth it a Treatise of those things which Jesus did do and teach Acts 1. 1. as if he had said A Book that containeth Christs sayings and doings so may we give this definition of a true Gospeller or of a good Christian He is a lively representer of the sayings and doings of Christ of the sayings of Christ by his profession of the doings of Christ by his practise and imitation For that man alone hath a true faith in the Passion Resurrection and Ascention of Christ who sheweth his faith by his works dying with Christ that he may live to him rising with Christ that he may live with him and ascending to Christ that he may live in him who sheweth his faith in Christs Cross by crucifying his own sinful lusts in Christs resurrection by rising to newness of life and in Christs ascention by ascending thither in heart and mind whiher his Saviour is gone before him Thus did the holy Apostles follow their Master with their eyes and with their hearts when they could not follow him with their bodies They looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up Acts 1. 10. Surely the more to fix their hearts on him when he was above And so must we too we must go up with him thither that we may tarry with him there accordingly as Christs own Church hath taught us to pray Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that like as we do believe thine 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 dwell who liveth and raigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost one God world without end which is such an heavenly prayer That we are infinitely bound to bless God for putting it into our devotions but yet more bound to beseech him that he will also put it into our lives and conversations For which cause I will enlarge my considerations concerning the ascention of our blessed Saviour And as Binius in setting down that vast and voluminous Council of Ephesus digesteth his work into three Tomes in the first tome reciting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts before the Council in the second Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done in the Council in the third Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done after the Council So will I consider the history of our blessed Saviours Ascention first insisting upon those things which are recorded before it His apparitions his instructions his consolations and his benedictions Secondly insisting upon those things which are recorded concerning the manner of his ascending And lastly insisting upon that one thing which is recorded of him after he was ascended viz. his sitting at the right hand of God And I have warrant enough so to do from the two Pen-men of that very History For Saint Mark describeth the Ascention with reference to Christs Apparitions upon the very day of his resurrection though that was full fourty daies before he ascended for so we read Mar. 16. 14. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sate at meat and upbraided their unbelief and hardness of heart which apparition was clearly on the very day of his Resurrection unless we will say that unbelief and hardness of heart remained in the Apostles when it scarce remained in any of the other Disciples for he had appeared unto them no less then five several times on that very day for the confirmation of their faith And yet without any mention of more apparitions it followeth v. 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven But Saint Luke describeth the Ascention with the sending down of the Holy Ghost which was not till ten daies after our Saviour Christ was actually ascended as appears Acts 1. 8 9. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you And when he had spoken these things he was taken up The Ascention is so placed in the narrations of these Evangelists as both to look backward to the Feast of Easter and forward to the Feast of Pentecost To look backward upon the Resurrection of God the Son to look forward upon the Descention of God the Holy Ghost Happily to teach all Christians That they must first arise from sin before they can ascend up to God there 's the Resurrection before the Ascention And that they must ascend up to God before they can receive the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit there 's the Ascention before the coming of the Holy Ghost However this is ground enough for me to look a little backward and a little forward in my considerations of the Ascention because the Evangelists have thus related it with its antecedent apparitions and words and with its consequent exaltation or sitting on the right hand of God CAP. I. Christ Considered before his Ascention SECT I. Christ considered in his Apparitions before he ascended as to Mary Magdalen and to Saint Peter c. The wrong use that hath been made the right use that may be made of those Apparitions IT is much to be observed That since in the Gospel are mentioned but ten apparitions of Christ between his Resurrection and his Ascention yet no less then five of them are recorded on the very day of his Resurrection For he appeared five several times to several persons on that same day which Durand would perswade us the Latine Church did intimate in her very Church musick of that day singing that Invitatory Hymn The Lord is risen indeed in the fift musical tone Et est quinti toni propter quinque apparitiones Domini in ill◠die saith he This Anthymne Surrexit Dominus verè The Lord is risen indeed is sung in the fift Tone because the Lord appeared five times on that very day This is an elegant way of teaching mysteries by musical tones somewhat above that gross invention of turning pictures into Lay-mens books but yet whatsoever is to be said of the musick we are sure the thing it self is consonant to the Truth For our blessed Saviour did appear five several times on the very day of his resurrection that as soon as he had raised his own body from the Grave he might raise his Apostles souls from incredulity and prepare them to receive those Heavenly doctrines pertaining to the kingdom of God concerning which he resolved to speak with them
Apostolical practice recorded in the Text was therefore imbraced by the Catholike Church as if it had been Precept for the time and place and persons of Religious worship because that Practice in all these respects was founded upon the precepts of the old Testament not as they were typical and figurative but as they were solemn and positive and did no less concern the Christian in the publike exercise of his moral then they did concern the Jew in the publike exercise of his ceremonial Worship For publike worship requires the same publike adjuncts of time place and person no less in the Christians then it did in the Jews Religion And therefore we cannot deny but all those precepts in the old Testament that were given about those publike adjuncts do still remain in force as to that intent of the publike exercise of Religion unless we will deny that Christians are obliged to the exercise of Gods publike worship we must then still have our set dayes as Sabbaths our set places as Churches our set Persons as Ministers for the solemn publike worship of God And consequently they who go about to abolish any of these adjuncts or circumstances of publike worship do in effect go about to expunge the fourth commandment out of the Decalogue which was written with Gods own finger as well as the rest commandeth the solemn benediction consecration and conservation of all those adjuncts of time place person as conducing to the Publike service of God and exercise of Religion And as for times and persons they have been since in many respects determined by Apostolical Practice and particularly the Day of our Saviours Ascension seems to have been Annually observed by them as the day of his Resurrection was observed weekly since we find that Festival universally received by the Catholike Church and the Fathers made many admirable Sermons or Homilies upon it long before superstition had infected or Popery had invaded the Church of Christ in so much as Saint Augustine tells us plainly that the feast of the Ascension was observed in the Catholike Church even from the Apostles times Sure we are those primitive Christians well understood that God did not intend to confine but to enlarge his own worship by the fourth Commandment to wit to make that exercise of Religion solemn and publike in the fourth which was private in the other three Commandments not to make that to be only on one day which was before commanded to be all the week For he that saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart supposeth that as no day thou canst be without thy heart so no day thy heart may be without his love And therefore when we have a publike day set apart to make this our love publikely known if we do wilfully neglect the same we are grievous transgressors and downright plain Sabbath-breakers though not on the Sabbath day and consequently twice sinners in one contempt or profanation for omitting the substance of the duty and for contemning the circumstance of the day Another circumstance in our blessed Saviours Ascension is the place from which he was received up and that was not Hierusalem but Bethany For although the Apostles had been with him in Galilee many dayes where he conversed with them after the first day of his Resurrection yet now they were again returned back to Hierusalem waiting there for the promise of the Father as they had been commanded Act. 1. 4. And he led them out from thence as far as Bethany Luk 24. 50. before he was pleased to ascend into heaven partly because he would not have the people see but rather believe the Mysterie of his Ascension and partly because he would not expose his Apostles to the outrages of those who though they had seen it yet were resolved not to believe but to persecute the true believers And yet in that he led his Apostles out to Bethany he shewed them what was the right use they were to make of this worlds afflictions or persecutions even to have their conversation with him in heaven For Bethany is by interpretation the house of sorrow or affliction and our blessed Saviour Ascending to heaven from thence hath shewed us that then do we make a right use of of our afflictions on earth when they do make our souls ascend up to heaven This is to turn Bethany into Bethel the house of sorrow into the house of God But the place from which our blessed Saviour ascended into heaven is called Mount Olivet Act. 1. 12. And indeed these two were but one and the same place for Bethany stood upon Mount Olivet Christ ascended from a Mount and from this Mount Olivet He ascended from a Mount to shew it was not an easie step from earth to heaven there must be three ladders joyned together to accomplish this ascent scala mentis scala voluntatis scala vitae one ladder of the mind by contemplation another ladder of the will by affection a third ladder of the life by action All three have several rongs or degrees as Jacobs ladder had and God is only at the top Again he ascended from this Mount Olivet where he begun his passion by sweating blood Luk. 22. to shew us the necessity of passive obedience if we desire to go to heaven Moses his Mount Sinai which teacheth the rule of active obedience will not serve the turn we must also go up to Christs Mount Olivet and there learn his passive obedience that by suffering with him we may also reign with him for he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross and therefore God highly exalted him Phil. 2. Can you drink of his cup without fear it may overcome your weak Stomack since the fear of it made him offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears Heb. 5. 7. If you can then may you find some pretence though little cause to take that for granted to you which the sons of Zebedee only requested for themselves to sit with him in his Kingdom But if your frailty and humility bid you fear you may stick at the dregs in drinking of his cup much more should your frailty and modesty bid you blush that you are so exceeding unworthy of comming to his Kingdom and of sitting in it together with him that so you may not turn your own Churchwarden to appoint your own place in heaven but may wholly relie upon him for your place upon whom you must relie for your worthiness SECT III. The persons before whom our Saviour Christ ascended were 1. Angels 2. Men yet men only not Angels appointed by him as witnesses of his ascension though not all men And that the disturbers of these witnesses that is of the orders of Christs Ministers in his Church do sin against this article of Christs ascension which however is it self and puts all true believers above all disturbances THE persons before whom or in whose
make their abode with us Hence that Apostolical benediction The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen 2 Cor. 13. 14. The grace is of God the Son the love is of God the Father but the communication both of grace and love is of God the Holy Ghost communicatio Spiritus Sancti saith the Vulgar Latine The communication of the holy Spirit be with you all For our communion with the Father and with the Son is by the holy Ghost Thus we see the cause of our communion with God is God Let us now consider the communion it self that we may know our own happiness in continuing and abiding with God This communion is heartily desired and fully expressed by the Psalmist when he saith One thing have I desired of the Lord which I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple Psalm 27. 4. Non dicit simpliciter potii à Domino sed unum petii à Domino quibus verbis ostendit se prae omnibus bonis quibus liceat in hac vita frisi unum hoc extollere si detur pacifice in domo Dei habitare saith Musculus He saith not simply I have desired of the Lord but one thing have I desired of the Lord whereby he sheweth this one thing is to him above all other things that he might live peaceably in the house of God And of this he saith which I will seek after that is I will never give over seeking till I have found it and there is cause enough for this longing desire for this indesatigable diligence for it is to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple Ad contemplandum ad consulendum Deum That he might contemplate God or behold the beauties of the Lord and that he might consult with God to enquire in his Temple Tell me what can a sanctified ou◠desire more in earth tell we what can a glorified soul enjoy more in heaven then the contemplation of God and consultation with God ut videam voluntatem Domini saith the Vulgar Latine that I may see the good will and pleasure of the Lord ut videam pulchritudinem ejus saith Saint Hierom that I may see his beauty and thence Hugo inferres that in the contemplation of God is a double vision Visio pulchritudinis visio voluntatis The vision of his beauty the vision of his will for the first he alledgeth the words of the Prophet Isaiah Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty Isa 33. 17. For the second he alledgeth that saying of Saint Gregory supernae curiae cives dum supra se voluntatem sui Conditoris semper aspiciunt quod obtinere non valent nunquam volunt The Citizens of the heavenly Hterusalem whilst they alwayes see the will of God are ready to conform their wills to his will and never desire what they cannot attain This is the blessing they have who contemplate God whether in earth or in heaven and they who are in his communion do not only contemplate him but also consult with him as they see his beauty so also they enquire in his Temple They consult with God as with their friend hearing him and asking him questions maintaining familiar colloquies with him whilst they are in his communion that as they are delighted by their contemplation of God so they may be directed by their consultation with him And this appears in that heavenly dialogue which we find in the eighth verse My heart hath talked of thee seek ye my save thy face Lord will I seek that is my heart communing with it self and with thee makes me often hear thee saying seek ye my face and I cannot but answer thy face Lord will I seek here is a spiritual dialogue God speaking to the soul seek ye my face and the soul answering him thy face Lord will I seek So Hugo Benè dicit tibi dixit cor meum quiaquaedam familiaris colloquutio delectabilis confabulatio est inter Deum cor justi He well said My heart hath talked of thee or to thee for there is a kind of familiar colloquie and a delightful discourse betwixt God and the heart of a righteous man No tyranny can forbid this communion for t is of the heart no outrage can disturb it for t is in the heart no pleasure can divert or distract it for t is the delight of the heart My heart hath talked of thee or with thee desiring no other company to converse withall He desires to hear no other voice talking with him but that which saith Seek ye my face and as he desires it earnestly so he answers it readily Thy face Lord will I seek Facies Dei est praesentia ejus saith Alensis par 1. qu. 2. memb 1. The face of God is his presence that is the presence of his Grace for by that alone do we in this life enjoy his communion His natural presence in our souls may be by knowledge and understanding whereby he makes man know him and so he is present with many wicked men with whom he will not communicate but his gracious presence is in the will and affections whereby he makes men love him and so he is present only with good men to whom by this his presence he doth also afford his communion agreeable to this is Saint Augustines Doctrine concerning the inhabitation of God in the souls of men Inhabitator quorundam est Deus nondum cognoscentium Deum ut parvulorum quorundam vero inhabitator est cognoscentium diligentium quorundam autem inhabitator non est qui sc sunt cognoscentes non diligentes de quibus Rom. 1. Qui quùm Deum cognovissent non sicut Deum glorificaverunt Aug. ad Dardanum God dwels in some who know him not as in regenerated Infants He dwels in others who know him and love him as in religious men but he dwels in none who know him and do not love him of whom the Apostle speaketh Rom. 1. 21. When they knew God they glorified him not as God He is naturally present with those that know him or else they could not know him but he is graciously present only with those that love him Many have found his gracious presence that knew him not but none ever found it who loved him not For love as it is the cause of union so also is it the cause of communion which is indeed but a reciprocal or interchangeable union God may be present where he doth not dwell for whither shall I flee from thy presence Psalm 139. 7. and such a presence of God is without his communion But where he is so present as to make his abode or dwelling there he hath communion with the soul For this presence of God is in truth nothing else but his
it or potentially in our spiritual vote and desire though we live never so far from them And it is to be noted in Gods Method that he first makes provision for the Truth of his worship in the three first then afterwards for the publike exercise of it in the fourth Commandment he first takes care that we be not faulty in the object of our worship saying Thou shalt have no other Gods but me then not in the outward manner of it either in deed or in word not in deed saying Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image thou shalt not how down to them nor worship them not in word saying Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain After this order taken for the truth of his worship both in the object and in the manner then he proceeds to command the publick exercise thereof saying Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day Certainly this Method was not in vain but to shew that as the Truth was to go before the exercise so the exercise was to follow the Truths of Religion And therefore wheresoever the Church did worship God according to the dictates of the three first commandments there every man was bound to be a communicant with the Church by vertue of the fourth and not only by vertue of the fifth Commandment For Christian communion as an act of Religion belongs to the first though as an act of obedience it belong to the second Table Therefore if another man saith Our Father which art in heaven how shall I not say with him Hallowed be thy name Doth it beseem me to be angry with the Lords most holy prayer for his sake that saith it as if what Christs lips had sanctified his lips could prophane for my devotion Or can I be angry with any of Christs words wheresoever I find them and not be guilty of anger against Christ and against Christianity Is the love of my God to be over-ruled by the hatred of my neighbour or may I indeed hate my God for my neighbours sake who am bound to love mine enemy for Gods sake The argument then will proceed à minori ad majus that if I may not in a true worship deny my communion to a stranger much less to a brother if not to a brother then much less to a mother If not to one single Minister much less to a whole Church which God hath entrusted with his own worship and with my soul For if I must look on that particular Minister whom God hath set over me as one that directeth me in his worship by his authority then much more must I so look upon my Church which God first set over that Minister before he set that Minister over me And if every particular Minister amongst us would as conscionably acknowledge and as couragiously vindicate his Churches Trust as he confidently assumes and diligently performs his own we should soon have much less faction in the Church and much more Religion in the people SECT V. The Prince as the supream governour of the particular Church in his own Dominions is Gods Trustee concerning the outward exercise of Religion not to manage or perform but to propagate and to protect it The antient Divines acknowledged this Trust and the antient Princes discharged it and Princes were bound so to do because it is their right by the Law of nature and because without the discharge of this Trust there can neither be the face nor the order of Religion among any People IT was the singular providence of God to commit the care and trust of man in matters of Religion only to men for since the devil can transform himself into an Angel of light if in this case we had been entrusted with the Angels we might have been deluded by the Devils But now having a more sure word of prophesie then can be any voice from heaven whosoever be the speaker or the messenger 2 Pet. 1. 19. there is no true Christian Church but may with confidence and must with courage say unto the people committed to her Trust as Saint Paul said to the Galatians Though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. God hath not trusted Angels but men with preaching his Gospel nor hath he trusted men to preach a new Gospel but that only which the Apostles at first preached and what he hath given some men spiritual power to preach that he hath given other men temporal power to maintain The Priest is to preach it the Prince is to maintain it and the same God who in the affairs of the body hath given his Angels charge over men hath in the affairs of the soul given men charge over Angels for though an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel yet neither might the Priest publish it nor the Prince protect it It being a priviledge of men above Angels since the eternal truth took on him not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham that as Angels are the guardians of men so men should be the guardians of Gods truth And happily in this regard we find two sorts of men especially in the holy Scriptures called Angels to wit Kings and Priests because God hath most especially trusted them with his truth T is sure this reason is given why the King is so called 2 Sam. 14. 17. For as an Angel of God so is my Lord the King to discern good and bad And t is very probable the same reason is meant though it be not given why the Priests are so called Revel 2. For we find the Angels of those several Churches strictly examined if not severely blamed for the neglect of this Trust God hath made Kings and Priests guardians of his truth as he hath made the Angels guardians of our persons that we should admire his infinite power whereby he is able and adore his infinite goodness whereby he is willing not only to send down from heaven his Ministring Spirits but also to raise up from earth his Ministring flesh to be our guardian Angels Nor can we now without unthankfulness to God injury to the Truth and injustice if not uncharitableness to our selves deny either King or Priest his part in this guardianship And God he knows we have great need of both It hath been the Devils cheifest policy to sow seeds of jealousie and dissension between these two Trustees that so he might make himself the greater harvest either by depraving the purity or by disturbing the peace of Religion In some Churches the Priest hath almost expelled the King in other Churches the King hath almost expelled the Priest The one extending his spirituals even to temporals the other extending his temporals even to spirituals neither but cometh short of his duty whiles both go beyond their Trust God make both truly to see the danger and the burden of their own
shall bless id est ye shall use this very prescript form of blessing And to shew that this precept was to be looked on as doctrinal and not as occasional as general not as particular we find Moses himself putting it in practise in another case for when the Ark set forward he said Rise up Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee and when it rested he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel Numb 10. 35 36. He that considers how oft the Ark moved and rested must needs confess that Moses used this set form of prayer very often If to the stinting of the Spirit or excluding of the gift of prayer let us blame Saint Paul for saying Moses verily was faithful in all his house Heb. 3. 9. but if rather for the solemnity and reverence and certainty of Religion that all Israel might pray with him and knowing his prayer before hand might pray in the greater assurance and comfort of Faith then let us not blame Gods Church for following the example of his faithfulness For indeed this is a general rule concerning Gods publick worship and the Church cannot be faithfull unless she carefully observe this rule If it have any ill blemish thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God Deut. 15. 21. Though it be a lamb yet if it hath any ill blemish it is all one as to thy sacrifice as if it were a Hog This is in effect Jarchies gloss upon the place to shew that a lamb might no less be excluded for his il-favoredness then a hog for his uncleanness Nay indeed this is in effect Gods own gloss Mat. 1. 8. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evill or if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil as if he had said though the offering you bring be not unclean in it self yet if it be blind or lame or sick t is unclean in its use for it may not be offered as a sacrifice And the more either to conform their obedience to this command or to convince their disobedience against it he appealeth to common sense and in that to conscience saying offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person q. d. If it be against thy sense to offer it to thy Governour let it be much more against thy conscience to offer it to thy Maker For if man who creepeth on the earth then much more God who sitteth on the heavens will disdain thy blind and lame and sick offerings Now let us consider seriously to whose care and charge did God commit the sacrifices and offerings did he trust every man to bring what he pleased or did he trust only the Priests as to offer so also to see what was fit to be offered Surely we shall find that he who said Cursed be the deceiver ver 14. did not so much curse the people for deceiving their Priests as he did curse the Priests for deceiving their God These were the grand impostors these were the most unpardonable deceivers because to all other deceits they added this also that they deceived their trust God had laid a trust upon them and they so negligently performed it as if they had undertaken rather to deceive then to discharge that trust Accordingly all his contestations are with them all his expostulations against them as ver 6. If I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts unto you O Priests that despise my name And ye say wherein have we despised thy name ye offer polluted bread upon mine Altar and ye say wherein have we polluted thee in that ye say the Table of the Lord is contemptible ver 7. If Gods publick worship be either contemned for want of due honour or prophaned for want of due fear if either his name be despised or his Altar be polluted he expostulates not with the people but only with the Priests either about the contempt or about the prophanation which plainly sheweth that the Priests alone were his Trustees both for â—â—s Name lest that should be despised and also for his Altar lest that should be prophaned And is there a less care to be taken about our spiritual then was about their material sacrifices about the Calves of our lips then about the Calves of their stalls about the offerings of our souls then about the offerings of their Heards about our Prayers then about their Bullocks Are not our prayers real sacrifices when as their bullocks were but Typical as saith Athenagoras most divinely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us lift up pure hands to him and what need will he have of any other Hecatomb of any other magnificent sacrifices For sure one pure head is more to God then an hundred Oxen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What should I look after whole burnt offerings which God needeth not yet let me offer unto him an unbloody sacrifice even that of prayer and praise which proceedeth from my soul Nor did God himself say otherwise under the Law but that he set a much higher value upon the offerings of the soul then of the flock Thinkest thou that I will eat Bulls flesh and drink the blood of goats There he makes light esteem of the offerings of the Flock Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most Highest there he makes great esteem of the offerings of the soul Psal 50. Then let us know assuredly that God is no less angry with us for blemishes in our Prayers then he was with them for blemishes in their sacrifices And that as then his anger was chiefly against the Priests of the Temple so it is now chiefly against the Ministers of the Church for it is their part to oversee the prayers as it was the Priests part to oversee the sacrifices upon which ground the second Milevitane Council would not allow any other Prayers to be used in the Churches of Africa but such as had been perused and approved in some Synod Placuit ut nullae aliae preces omnino dicantur in Ecclesia nisi quae à prudentioribus tractatâ— vel comprobatae in Synodo fuerint ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum Concil Milev 2 Can. 12. We have determined that no other Prayers should be used in our Churches but such as have been perused by some wise men or have been approved in some Synod lest any thing contrary to sound and saving Faith should either out of ignorance or out of carelesness have scaped the composers of any publick prayers They rightly Judged they were to answer for other mens sins in Gods service and if they did not accordingly prevent them they would no longer be other mens sins but theirs And this without all doubt was one main ground of Liturgies that men
all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 2. 14. thereby decâ—aring unto us as it were the two integral parts of our Christian communion Peace and Holiness and the reason why we should embrace them both even that we may come to the beatifical vision follow peace with all men that you may have communion with Gods Church and follow holiness that you may have communion with God himself for if you leave out either of these or leave following either of these you cannot see the Lord We that follow peace with no men not so much as with our selves how shall we see God we that follow holiness in no kind at least conscientiously but only contentiously pretending to set it up in some one commandment that we may the more plausibly beat it down in all the rest how shall we see God Let all unpeacefull and unholy men for surely they go both together though holiness hath of late been made a pretence for breaking the peace here see the danger of their perversness that hereafter they feel not the mischief of it those who neither follow peace nor holiness and yet pretend their eyes are open so as to see God more then all the world besides For it is a sad thing so to see God as not to come neer him Dives could do so in hell He could see Abrahams bosome though he could not get neer it for it was afar off saith the Text Luke 16. 23. T is a sad thing to have a Vision of God without a fruition but t is an impossible thing to have a fruition without a communion Excellently Alensis asks this question Per quid est unio membrorum in corpore Ecclesiae By what is it that good Christians are joined together or the faithfull are united as members in the body of the Church and he thus answers it Per unam perfectionem una enim est perfectio in capite Christo in omnibus Sanctis sc Spiritus sanctus ex quo est nobis communio Trinitatis et per unam dispositionem sc Fide spe charitate opere nam Idem credunt Idem appetunt seu volunt Idem expectant Idem imitantur Par. 3. q. 12. m. 2. art 3. Christ and good Christians are all united together by one Perfection and by one Disposition By one perfection for there is the same perfection in Christ the head and in all the Saints which are his body to wit the Holy-Ghost which joins them both in communion with the blessed Trinity and by one Disposition to wit in Faith Hope Charity and Works for they all believe the same thing viz. The first truth All desire the same thing viz. The chiefest good All expect the same thing viz. Eternal bliss All imitate the same thing viz. The pattern or example of holiness and hence it is that they all are of the same communion SECT V. That the Catholick Church requires our communion by the authority of Christ as his body That the whole Christian Church is this Catholick Church and that it is known to be so by the word of Christ and how a particular Church may be sure to keep communion with the Catholick Church HE that truly desires communion with God cannot but highly esteem and zealously pursue the actual communion with his Church because the Church is appointed to bring and lead him unto God And this was the reason of that antient saying Extra Ecclesiam non est Salus Out of the Church there is no hope of Salvation that is out of the Catholick Church which is the body of Christ So that for any man not to be a member of that body is in effect to be a limb of the devil and fewel for hell which consideration made Saint Cyprian break out into that pathetical expostulation Vbi ex qua â—ui nâ—tus est qui filius Ecclesiae non est ut habere quis possit Deum Patrem ante Ecclesiam matrem Saint Cypr. Epist and Pompeium Where of whom or to whom is he born who is not â— Son of the Church that he should have God for his father who hath not the Church for his mother And this doctrine not only many very good Christian Divines but also the Jewish Doctors have enforced as a duty of the Text from these words of Solomon My Son hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the Law of thy mother Prov. 1. 8. for say they by Father is here meant God the Father almighty and by Mother is here meant the Church which teacheth us the word of God Thus Solomon Jarchi glosseth that Text my Son hear the instruction of thy father that is saith he Hear the Instruction which God blessed for ever gave to Moses partly in writing partly by word of mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And forsake not the Law of thy mother that is saith he forsake not the Law of the Church or the Congregation of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor the interpretations of the Scribes which are as it were a hedge of the Law And doubtless he that will not hearken to the Churches instruction will not hearken to Gods instruction and he that will not hearken to Gods instruction cannot hope for Gods communion which made the Prophet Jeremiah to say Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee Jer. 6. 8. T is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut non laxetur anima mea à te lest my Soul be loosed or disjointed from thee the same word saith Rabbi David that is used about the hollow of Jacobs thigh being out of joint and the signification of it is the removing of a thing out of its place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence we may gather that the communion of faithful Souls with God is like the knitting of the joints in the bodies of men and as a member when it is out of joint affords great pain but no use to the man as long as it is dislocated So is it with the Soul whiles it is out of Gods communion it is subject to very much horrour and great anguish but is not capable of any good motion or inclination Consider what it is to put thy soul out of joint before thou play the Ephraimite starting aside like a broken bow from the communion of God in his Church for if the dislocation of a joint be so painfull because of the distention of the parts what pangs and horrours must needs accompany a disjointed Soul that is distended upon the wrack of an evil and a troubled conscience Accordingly Rabbi David thus glosseth the Prophets words Be thou instructed O Jerusalem for if thou wilt not be instructed my good-will shal be separated from thee that I will take no delight in thee A dismal judgement for a Separatist that God will be separated from him and take no delight in him but the reason is because he would needs be separated from God and