held on in a Line never interrupted Even in a forlorn and miserable Church there may be a personall succession How little were the Jewes better for this when they had lost the Urim and Thummim sincerity of Doctrine and Manners This stayed with them even whiles they and their Sons crucified Christ What is more ordinary then wicked Sons of holy Parents It is the succession of Truth and Holiness that makes or institutes a Church whatever become of the persons Never times were so barren as not to yeeld some good The greatest dearth affords some few good Eares to the Gleaners Christ would not have come into the world but he would have some faithful to entertain him He that had the disposing of all times and men would cast some holy ones into his own times There had been no equality that all should either over-run or follow him and none attend him Zachary and Elizabeth are just both of Aarons blood and John Baptist of theirs whence should an holy seed spring if not of the Loyns of Levi It is not in the power of Parents to traduce Holinesse to their Children it is the blessing of God that feoffes them in the Vertues of their Parents as they feoffe them in their sinnes There is no certainty but there is likelihood of an holy Generation when the Parents are such Elizabeth was just as well as Zachary that the fore-runner of a Saviour might be holy on both sides If the stock and the griffe be not both good there is much danger of the fruit It is an happy match when the Husband and the Wife are one not onely in themselves but in God not more in flesh then in the spirit Grace makes no difference of sexes rather the weaker carries away the more honour because it hath had lesse helps It is easie to observe that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women then the old Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy whose barrenness ended in a miraculous fruit both of her body and of her time This religious pair made no lesse progress in vertue then in age and yet their vertue could not make their best age fruitfull Elizabeth was barren A just soul and a barren womb may well agree together Amongst the Jews barrenness was not a defect only but a reproach yet while this good woman was fruitful of holy obedience she was barren of children As John which was miraculously conceived by man was a fit fore-runner of him that was conceived by the Holy Ghost so a barren Matron was meet to make way for a Virgin None but a son of Aaron might offer incense to God in the Temple and not every son of Aaron and not any one at all seasons God is a God of order and hates confusion no lesse then irreligion Albeit he hath not so streightned himself under the Gospel as to tie his service to persons or places yet his choice is now no lesse curious because it is more large He allows none but the authorised he authoriseth none but the worthy The incense doth ever smell of the hand that offers it I doubt not but that perfume was sweeter which ascended up from the hand of a just Zacharie The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God There were courses of ministration in the Legal services God never purposed to burthen any of his creatures with devotion How vain is the ambition of any soul that would load it self with the universal charge of all men How thankless is their labour that do wilfully overspend themselves in their ordinary vocations As Zacharie had a course in Gods house so he carefully observed it the favour of these respites doubled his diligence The more high and sacred our calling is the more dangerous is neglect It is our honour that we may be allowed to wait upon the God of heaven in these immediate services Woe be to us if we flacken those duties wherein God honours us more then we can honour him Many sons of Aaron yea of the same family served at once in the Temple according to the variety of imployments To avoid all difference they agreed by lot to assign themselves to the several offices of each day the lot of this day called Zacharie to offer Incense in the outer Temple I doe not finde any prescription they had from God of this particular manner of designment Matters of good order in holy affairs may be ruled by the wise institution of men according to reason and expediencie It fell out well that Zacharie was chosen by lot to this ministration that Gods immediate hand might be seen in all the passages that concerned his great Prophet that as the person so the occasion might be of Gods own chusing In lots and their seeming casual disposition God can give a reason though we can give none Morning and Evening twice a day their Law called them to offer Incense to God that both parts of the day might be consecrate to the maker of time The outer Temple was the figure of the whole Church upon earth like as the Holy of holiest represented Heaven Nothing can better resemble our faithful prayers then sweet perfume these God looks that we should all his Church over send up unto him Morning and Evening The elevations of our hearts should be perpetual but if twice in the day we do not present God with our solemn invocations we make the Gospel lesse officious then the Law That the resemblance of prayers and incense might be apparent whiles the Priest sends up his incense within the Temple the people must send up their prayers without Their breath and that incense though remote in the first rising met ere they went up to heaven The people might no more goe into the Holy place to offer up the incense of prayers unto God then Zacharie might goe into the Holy of holies Whiles the partition wall stood betwixt Jews and Gentiles there were also partitions betwixt the Jews and themselves Now every man is a Priest unto God every man since the veil was rent prayes within the Temple What are we the better for our greater freedome of accesse to God under the Gospel if we doe not make use of our priviledge Whiles they were praying to God he sees an Angel of GOD as Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the sacrifice so did Zacharie's Angel as it were come down in the fragrant smoak of his incense It was ever great news to see an Angel of God but now more because God had long withdrawn from them all the means of his supernaturall revelations As this wicked people were strangers to their God in their conversation so was God grown a stranger to them in his apparitions yet now that the season of the Gospel approached he visited them with his Angels before he visited them by his Son He sends his Angel to men in the form of man before he sends his Son to take humane form The presence of Angels
A tyrannous guiltinesse never thinks it self safe but ever seeks to assure it self in the excesse of cruelty Doubtlesse he which so privily inquired for Christ did as secretly brew this massacre The mothers were set with their children on their laps feeding them with the breast or talking to them in the familiar language of their love when suddenly the Executioner rushes in and snatches them from their armes and at once pulling forth his Commission and his knife without regard to shrieks or teares murthers the innocent Babe and leaves the passionate mother in a mean between madnesse and death What cursing of Herod what wringing of hands what condoling what exclaiming was now in the streets of Bethleem O bloody Herod that couldst sacrifice so many harmlesse lives to thine ambition What could those Infants have done If it were thy person whereof thou wert afraid what likelihood was it thou couldst live till those sucklings might endanger thee This news might affect thy Successors it could not concern thee if the heat of an impotent and furious envy had not made thee thirsty of blood It is not long that thou shalt enjoy this cruelty After a few hatefull years thy soul shall feel the weight of so many Innocents of so many just curses He for whose sake thou killedst so many shall strike thee with death and then what wouldest thou have given to have been as one of those Infants whom thou murtheredst In the mean time when thine executioners returned and told thee of their unpartial dispatch thou smiledst to think how thou hadst defeated thy rivall and beguiled the Starre and deluded the Prophecies whiles God in Heaven and his Son on earth laugh thee to scorn and make thy rage an occasion of further glory to him whom thou meantest to suppresse He that could take away the lives of other cannot protract his own Herod is now sent home The coast is clear for the return of that holy Family now God calls them from their exile Christ and his Mother had not stayed so long out of the confines of the reputed visible Church but to teach us continuance under the Crosse Sometimes God sees it good for us not to sip of the cup of affliction but to make a diet-drink of it for constant and common use If he allow us no other liquor for many yeares we must take it off chearfully and know that it is but the measure of our betters Joseph and Mary stir not without a command their departure stay removall is ordered by the voice of God If Egypt had been more tedious unto them they durst not move their foot till they were bidden It is good in our own businesse to follow reason or custome but in God's businesse if we have any other guide but himself we presume and cannot expect a blessing O the wonderful dispensation of God in concealing 〈◊〉 himself from men Christ was now some five years old he bears 〈◊〉 as an infant and knowing all things neither takes nor gives notice of ought concerning his removall and disposing but appoints that to be done by his Angel which the Angel could not have done but by him Since he would take our nature he would be a perfect child suppressing the manifestation and exercise of that Godhead whereto that infant-nature was conjoyned Even so O Saviour the humility of thine infancy was answerable to that of thy birth The more thou hidest and abasest thy self for us the more should we magnifie thee the more should we deject our selves for thee Unto thee with the Father and the holy Ghost he all honour and glory now for ever Amen Contemplations THE SECOND BOOK Containing Christ among the Doctors Christ Baptized Christ Tempted Simon Called The Marriage in Cana. The good Centurion To the Honourable General Sir EDWARD CECILL Knight all Honour and Happiness Most Honoured Sir THE store of a good Scribe is according to our Saviour both old new I would if I durst be ambitious of this only honour Having therefore drawn forth those not frivolous thoughts out of the Old Testament I fetch these following from the New God is the same in both as the body differs not with the age of the sute with the change of robes The old and new wine of holy Truth came both out of one vineyard yet here may we safely say to the Word of his Father as was said to the Bridegroom of Cana Thou hast kept the best wine till the last The authority of both is equally sacred the use admits no lesse difference then is betwixt a Saviour fore shadowed and come The intermission of those military imployments which have wone you just honour both in forrain nations and at home is in this onely gainfull that it yields you leisure to these happy thoughts which shall more fully acquaint you with him that is at once the God of Hosts and the Prince of Peace To the furtherance whereof these my poor labours shall doe no thankless offices In lieu of your noble favours to me both at home and where you have merited command nothing can be returned but humble acknowledgments and hearty prayers for the increase of your Honour and all Happiness to your self and your thrice-worthy and vertuous Lady by him that is deeply obliged and truly devoted to you both JOS. HALL Christ among the Doctors EVen the Spring shews us what we may hope for of the tree in Summer In his nonage therefore would our Saviour give us a tast of his future proof lest if his perfection should have shewed it self without warning to the world it should have been entertained with more wonder then belief Now this act of his Childhood shall prepare the faith of men by fore-exspectation Notwithstanding all this early demonstration of his Divine graces the incredulous Jews could afterwards say Whence hath this man his wisdome and great works What would they have said if he had suddenly leapt forth into the clear light of the world The Sun would dazle all eyes if he should break forth at his first rising into his full strength now he hath both the day-star to goe before him and to bid men look for that glorious body and the lively colours of the day to publish his approach the eye is comforted not hurt by his appearance The Parents of Christ went up yearly to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passeover the Law was only for the males I do not finde the Blessed Virgin bound to this voiage the weaker sex received indulgence from God Yet she knowing the spiritual profit of that journey takes pains voluntarily to measure that long way every year Piety regards not any distinction of sexes or degrees neither yet doth God's acceptation rather doth it please the mercy of the Highest more to reward that service which though he like in all yet out of favour he will not impose upon all It could not be but that she whom the holy Ghost over-shadowed should be zealous of God's
know that hereby thou intendedst to teach thy Parents that thou couldest live without them and that not of any indigency but out of a gracious dispensation thou wouldest ordinarily depend upon their care In the mean time thy Divine wisdome could not but foreknow all these corroding thoughts wherewith the heart of thy dear Mother must needs bleed through this sudden dereliction yet wouldst thou leave her for the time to her sorrow Even so O Saviour thou thoughtest fit to visit her that bore thee with this early affliction Never any loved thee whom thou doest not sometimes exercise with the grief of missing thee that both we may be more careful to hold thee and more joyful in recovering thee Thou hast said and canst not lie I am with you to the end of the world but even whiles thou art really present thou thinkest good to be absent unto our apprehensions Yet if thou leave us thou wilt not forsake us if thou leave us for our humiliation thou wilt not forsake us to our final discomfort Thou mayest for three daies hide thy self but then we shall finde thee in the Temple None ever sought thee with a sincere desire of whom thou wert not found Thou wilt not be either so little absent as not to whet our appetites nor so long as to fainten the heart After three daies we shall finde thee and where should we rather hope to finde thee then in the Temple There is the habitation for the God of Israel there is thy resting place for ever Oh all ye that are grieved with the want of your Saviour see where you must seek him In vain shall ye hope to finde him in the streets in the Taverns in the Theaters seek him in his holy Temple seek him with piety seek him with faith there shall ye meet him there shall ye recover him Whiles children of that age were playing in the streets Christ was found sitting in the Temple not to gaze on the outward glory of that house or on the golden Candlesticks or Tables but to hear and appose the Doctors He who as God gave them all the wisdome they had as the Son of man hearkens to the wisdome he had given them He who sate in their hearts as the Author of all learning and knowledge sits in the midst of their school as an humble Disciple that by learning of them he might teach all the younger sort humility and due attendance upon their Instructors He could at the first have taught the great Rabbins of Israel the deep mysteries of God but because he was not yet called by his Father to the publick function of a Teacher he contents himself to hear with diligence and to ask with modesty and to teach only by insinuation Let those consider this which will needs run as soon as they can go and when they finde ability think they need not stay for a further vocation of God or men Open your eyes ye rathe ripe invaders of God's Chair and see your Saviour in his younger years not sitting in the eminent pulpits of the Doctors but in the lowly floors of the Auditors See him that could have taught the Angels listning in his minority to the voice of men Who can think much to learn of the Ancients when he looks upon the Son of God sitting at the feet of the Doctors of Israel First he hears then he asks How much more doth it concern us to be hearers ere we offer to be teachers of others He gathers that hears he spends that teacheth if we spend before we gather we shall soon prove bankrupts When he hath heard he asks and after that he answers Doubtless those very questions were instructions and meant to teach more then to learn Never had these great Rabbins heard the voice of such a Tutor in whom they might see the wisdome of God so concealing it self that yet it would be known to be there No marvel then if they all wondred at his understanding and answers Their eyes saw nothing but humane weakness their ears heard Divine sublimity of matter betwixt what they saw and what they heard they could not but be distracted with a doubting admiration And why did ye not O ye Jewish teachers remember That to us a Childe is born and unto us a Son is given and the government is upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace Why did ye not now bethink your selves what the Star the Sages the Angels the Shepherds Zachary Simeon Anna had premonished you Fruitless is the wonder that endeth not in faith No light is sufficient where the eyes are held through unbelief or prejudice The Doctors were not more amazed to hear so profound a childhood then the Parents of Christ were to see him among the Doctors the joy of finding him did strive with the astonishment of finding him thus And now not Joseph he knew how little right he had to that Divine Son but Mary breaks forth into a loving expostulation Son why hast thou dealt so with us That she might not seem to take upon her as an imperious Mother it is like she reserved this question till she had him alone wherein she meant rather to expresse grief then correption Onely herein the Blessed Virgin offended that her inconsideration did not suppose as it was that some higher respects then could be due to flesh and blood called away the Son of God from her that was the daughter of man She that was but the mother of humanity should not have thought that the business of God must for her sake be neglected We are all partial to our selves naturally and prone to the regard of our own rights Questionlesse this gracious Saint would not for all the world have willingly preferr'd her own attendance to that of her God through heedlesness she doth so her Son and Saviour is her monitor out of his Divine love reforming her natural How is it that ye sought me Know ye not that I must goe about my Fathers businesse Immediately before the Blessed Virgin had said Thy father and I sought thee with heavy hearts Wherein both according to the supposition of the world she called Joseph the Father of Christ and according to the fashion of a dutiful Wife she names her Joseph before her self She well knew that Joseph had nothing but a name in this business she knew how God had dignified her beyond him yet she saies Thy father and I sought thee The Son of God stands not upon contradiction to his Mother but leading her thoughts from his supposed father to his true from earth to Heaven he answers Knew ye not that I must go about my Fathers business It was honour enough to her that he had vouchsafed to take flesh of her it was his eternal honour that he was God of God the everlasting Son of the heavenly Father Good reason therefore was it that the respects to flesh
us of the Devil and his Angels Messengers are inferiour to those that send them The seven Devils that entered into the swept and garnished house were worse then the former Neither can Principalities and Powers and Governours and Princes of the darkness of this World design others then several ranks of evil Angels There can be no being without some kind of order there can be no order in parity If we look up into Heaven there is The King of Gods The Lord of Lords higher then the highest If to the earth there are Monarchs Kings Princes Peeres people If we look down to Hell there is the Prince of Devils They labour for Confusion that call for Parity What should the Church doe with such a for me as is not exempliied in Heaven in Earth in Hell One Devil according to their supposition may be used to cast out another How far the command of one spirit over another may extend it is a secret of infernal state too deep for the inquiry of men The thing it self is apparent upon compact and precontracted composition one gives way to other for the common advantage As we see in the Common-wealth of Cheaters and Cut-purses one doth the fact another is feed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actor falls not out with the revealer but divides with him that cunning spoil One malicious miscreant sets the Devil on work to the inflicting of disease or death another upon agreement for a further spiritual gain takes him off There is a Devil in both And if there seem more bodily favour there is no less spiritual danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitor in the other It will be no cause of discord in Hell that one Devil gives ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gain of a Soul Oh God that any creature which bears thine Image should not abhorre to be beholding to the powers of Hell for aid for advice Is is not because there is not a God in Israel that men goe to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men be so sottish to think that the vowed enemie of their Souls can offer them a bait without an hook What evil is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redress He wounds he heals again And if he will not It is the Lord let him doe what seems good in his eyes If he do not deliver us he will crown our faithfulness in a patient perseverance The wounds of God are better then the salves of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Envy could devise so high a slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Devil to the Jewes therefore they accuse him for a conjurer Beelzebub was the chief of Devils therefore they accuse him for on Arch-exorcist for the worst kinde of Magician Some professors of this black Art though their work be devilish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Jesus and will presumptuously seem to doe that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement The Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Devil and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the Law of Moses in the very hand of a Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deep doth this wound reach that our Saviour searching it to the bottome findes no less in it then the sin against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadful sentence of the irremissibleness of that sin unto death And if this horrible crimination were cast upon thee O Saviour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if we thy sinful servants be branded on all sides with evil tongues Yea which is yet more how plain is it that these men forced their tongue to speak this slander against their own heart Else this Blasphemy had been onely against the Son of man not against the Holy Ghost but now that the searcher of hearts findes it to be no less then against the Blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully cross their conscience Envie never regards how true but how mischievous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For us Blessed are we when men revile us and say all manner of evil of us for the name of Chirst For them What reward shall be given to thee thou false tongue Even sharp arrows with hot burning coales yea those very coales of hell from which thou wert inkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid-way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the miracle to a Satanical operation they confess it good but not enough and therefore urge Christ to a further proof Though thou hast cast out this dumb Devil yet this is no sufficient argument of thy Divine power We have yet seen nothing from thee like those antient Miracles of the times of our fore-fathers Joshuah caused the Sun to stand still Elias brought fire down from heaven Samuel astonish'd the people with thunder and rain in the midst of harvest If thou wouldst command our belief doe somewhat like to these The casting out of a Devil shews thee to have some power over Hell shew us now that thou hast no less power over Heaven There is a kinde of unreasonableness of desire and insatiableness in infidelity it never knows when it hath evidence enough This which the Jews overlooked was a more irrefragable demonstration of Divinity then that which they desired A Devil was more then a Meteor or a parcel of an element to cast out a Devil by command more then to command fire from Heaven Infidelity ever loves to be her own carver No son can be more like a father then these Jews to their progenitours in the desart that there might be no fear of degenerating into good they also of old tempted God in the Wilderness First they are weary of the Egyptian bondage and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those fornaces By ten miraculous Plagues they are freed and going out of those confines the Egyptians follow them the Sea is before them now they are more afflicted with their liberty then their servitude The Sea yields way the Egyptians are drowned and now that they are safe on the other shore they tempt the Providence of God for water The Rock yields it them then no less for bread and meat God sends them Manna and Quailes they cry out of the food of Angels Their present enemies in the way are vanquished they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan Nothing from God but Mercy nothing from them but Temptations Their true brood both in nature and in sin had abundant proofs of the
Means out of office The Motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled THE time drew on wherein Jesus must be received up He must take death in his way Calvary is in his passage to mount Olivet He must be lift up to the Cross thence to climb into his Heaven Yet this comes not into mention as if all the thought of Death were swallowed up in this Victory over Death Neither O Saviour is it otherwise with us the weak members of thy mystical body We must die we shall be glorified What if Death stand before us we look beyond him at that transcendent Glory How should we be dismai'd with that pain which is attended with a blessed Immortality The strongest receit against Death is the happy estate that follows it next to that is the fore-exspectation of it and resolution against it He stedfastly set his face to goe to Hierusalem Hierusalem the nest of his enemies the Amphitheater of his conflicts the fatall place of his death Well did he know the plots and ambushes that were there laid for him and the bloody issue of those designs yet he will goe and goes resolved for the worst It is a sure and wise way to send our thoughts before us to grapple with those evils which we know must be incountred The enemy is half overcome that is well prepared for The strongest mischief may be outfaced with a seasonable fore-resolution There can be no greater disadvantage then the suddennesse of a surprisal O God what I have not the power to avoid let me have the wisdome to exspect The way from Galilee to Judaea lay through the Region of Samaria if not the City Christ now towards the end of his Preaching could not but be attended with a multitude of followers It was necessary there should be purveyors and harbingers to procure lodgings and provision for so large a troup Some of his own retinue are addressed to this service they seek not for palaces and delicates but for house-room and victuals It was he whose the earth was and the fulnesse thereof whos 's the Heavens are and the mansions therein yet he who could have commanded Angels sues to Samaritanes He that filled and comprehended Heaven sends for shelter in a Samaritane Cottage It was thy choice O Saviour to take upon thee the shape not of a Prince but of a Servant How can we either neglect means or despise homelinesse when thou the God of all the World wouldst stoop to the suit of so poor a provision We know well in what terms the Samaritanes stood with the Jews so much more hostile as they did more symbolize in matter of Religion no Nations were mutually so hatefull to each other A Samaritane's bread was no better then Swines-flesh their very fire and water was not more grudged then infectious The looking towards Jerusalem was here cause enough of repulse No enmity is so desperate as that which arises from matter of Religion Agreement in some points when there are differences in the main doth but advance hatred the more It is not more strange to hear the Son of God sue for a lodging then to hear him repelled Upon so churlish a denial the two angry Disciples return to their Master on a fiery errand Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them as Elias did The Sons of Thunder would be lightning straight their zeal whether as kinsmen or Disciples could not brook so harsh a refusal As they were naturally more hot then their fellows so now they thought their Piety bade them be impatient Yet they dare not but begin with leave Master wilt thou His will must lead theirs their choler cannot drive their wills before his all their motion is from him onely True Disciples are like those artificial engines which goe no otherwise then they are set or like little Children that speak nothing but what they are taught O Saviour if we have wills of our own we are not thine Do thou set me as thou wouldst have me goe do thou teach me what thou wouldst have me say or doe A mannerly preface leads in a faulty suit Master wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them Faulty both in presumption and in desire of private revenge I do not hear them say Master will it please thee who art the sole Lord of the Heavens and the Elements to command fire from Heaven upon these men but Wilt thou that we command As if because they had power given them over diseases and unclean spirits therefore Heaven and earth were in their managing How easily might they be mistaken Their large commission had the just limits Subjects that have munificent grants from their Princes can challenge nothing beyond the words of their Patent And if the fetching down fire from Heaven were lesse then the dispossessing of Devils since the Devil shall inable the Beast to doe thus much yet how possible is it to doe the greater and stick at the lesse where both depend upon a delegated power The Magicians of Egypt could bring forth Frogs and Blood they could not bring Lice ordinary Corruption can doe that which they could not It is the fashion of our bold Nature upon an inch given to challenge an ell and where we finde our selves graced with some abilities to flatter our selves with the faculty of more I grant Faith hath done as great things as ever Presumption undertook but there is great difference in the enterprises of both The one hath a warrant either by instinct or expresse command the other none at all Indeed had these two Disciples either meant or said Master if it be thy pleasure to command us to call down fire from Heaven we know thy word shall enable us to doe what thou requirest if the words be ours the power shall be thine this had been but holy modest faithfull but if they supposed there needed nothing save a leave only and that might they be but let loose they could goe alone they presumed they offended Yet had they thus overshot themselves in some pious and charitable motion the fault had been the lesse now the act had in it both cruelty and private revenge Their zeal was not worthy of more praise then their fury of censure That fire should fall down from Heaven upon men is a fearfull thing to think of and that which hath not been often done It was done in the case of Sodome when those five unclean Cities burned with the unnatural fire of hellish Lust it was done two several times at the suit of Elijah it was done in an height of triall to that great pattern of Patience I finde it no more and tremble at these I finde But besides the dreadfulness of the judgment it self who can but quake at the thought of the suddainnesse of this destruction which sweeps away both Body and Soul in a state of unpreparation of unrepentance so as this fire should but
begin a worse this Heavenly flame should but kindle that of Hell Thus unconceivably heavy was the revenge but what was the offence We have learned not to think any indignity light that is offered to the Son of God but we know these spiritual affronts are capable of degrees Had these Samaritans reviled Christ and his train had they violently assaulted him had they followed him with stones in their hands and blasphemies in their mouths it had been a just provocation of so horrible a vengeance Now the wrong was onâ—ly negative they received him not And that not out of any particular quarrell or dislike of his Person but of his Nation onely the men had been welcome had not their Country distasted All the charge that I hear our Saviour give to his Disciples in case of their rejection is If they receive you not shake off the dust of your feet Yet this was amongst their own and when they went on that sacred errand of publishing the Gospel of Peace These were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel This measure was not to Preachers but to Travellers only a mere inhospitality to misliked guests Yet no lesse revenge will serve them then fire from Heaven I dare say for you ye holy sons of Zebedee it was not your spleen but your zeal that was guilty of so bloody a suggestion your indignation could not but be stirred to see the great Prophet and Saviour of the world so unkindly repelled yet all this will not excuse you from a rash Cruelty from an inordinate Rage Even the best heart may easily be miscarried with a well-meant Zeal No affection is either more necessary or better accepted Love to any Object cannot be severed from hatred of the contrary whence it is that all creatures which have the concupiscible part have also the irascible adjoined unto it Anger and displeasure is not so much an enemy as a guardian and champion of Love Whoever therefore is rightly affected to his Saviour cannot but finde much regret at his wrongs O gracious and divine Zeal the kindely warmth and vitall temper of Piety whither hast thou withdrawn thy self from the cold hearts of men Or is this according to the just constitution of the old and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisdome but in a dull indifferency and chuse rather to freeze then burn How quick and apprehensive are men in cases of their own indignities how insensible of their Saviour's But there is nothing so ill as the corruption of the best Rectified zeal is not more commendable and usefull then inordinate and misguided is hatefull and dangerous Fire is a necessary and beneficial element but if it be once misplaced and have caught upon the beams of our houses or stacks of our corn nothing can be more direfull Thus sometimes Zeal turns Murder They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholesome and blessed is that zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by wisdome and charity Wisdome to avoid rashnesse and excesse Charity to avoid just offence No motion can want a pretence Elias did so why not we He was an holy Prophet the occasion the place abludes not much there wrong was offered to a servant here to his Master there to a man here to a God and man If Elias then did it why not we There is nothing more perillous then to draw all the actions of Holy men into examples For as the best men have their weaknesses so they are not priviledged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instict or speciall command which we shall expect in vain There must be much caution used in our imitation of the best patterns whether in respect of the persons or things else we shall make our selves Apes and our acts sinfull absurdities It is a rare thing for our Saviour to finde fault with the errous of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with Gods own hand I finde him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitors and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitablenesse cannot be swallowed up in zeal If there were any colour to hide the blemishes of this misdisposition it should be this crimson die But he that needs not our Lie will let us know he needs not our Injury and hates to have a good cause supported by the violation of our Charity We have no reason to disclaim our Passions Even the Son of God chides sometimes yea where he loves It offends not that our Affections are moved but that they are inordinate It was a sharp word Ye know not of what spirit ye are Another man would not perhaps have felt it a Disciple doth Tender hearts are galled with that which the carnal minde slighteth The spirit of Elias was that which they meant to assume and imitate they shall now know their mark was mistaken How would they have hated to think that any other but God's Spirit had stirred them up to this passionate motion now they shall know it was wrought by that ill spirit whom they professed to hate It is far from the good Spirit of God to stir up any man to private revenge or thirst of blood Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwinde or in the fire but in the soft voice O Saviour what do we seek for any precedent but thine whose name we challenge Thou camest to thine own thine own received thee not Didst thou call for fire from Heaven upon them didst thou not rather send down water from thy compassionate eyes and weep for them by whom thou must bleed Better had it been for us never to have had any spirit then any but thine We can be no other then wicked if our mercies be cruelty But is it the name of Elias O ye Zelots which ye pretend for a colour of your impotent desire Ye do not consider the difference betwixt his Spirit and yours His was extraordinary and heroical besides the instinct or secret command of God for this act of his far otherwise is it with you who by a carnal distemper are moved to this furious suggestion Those that would imitate Gods Saints in singular actions must see they goe upon the same grounds Without the same Spirit and the same warrant it is either a mockery or a sin to make them our Copies Elias is no fit pattern for Disciples but their Master The Son of Man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Then are our actions and intentions warrantable and praise-worthy when they accord with
desire rather to leave their children great then good that are more ambitious to have their sons Lords on earth then Kings in Heaven Yet I commend thee Salome that thy first plot was to have thy sons Disciples of Christ then after to prefer them to the best places of that attendance It is the true method of Divine prudence O God first to make our children happy with the honour of thy service and then to endeavour their meet advancement upon earth The mother is but put upon this suit by her sons their heart was in her lips They were not so mortified by their continual conversation with Christ hearing his Heavenly doctrine seeing his Divine carriage but that their mindes were yet roving after temporal Honours Pride is the inmost coat which we put off last and which we put on first Who can wonder to see some sparks of weak and worldly desires in their holiest teachers when the blessed Apostles were not free from some ambitious thoughts whiles they sate at the feet yea in the bosome of their Saviour The near kindred this woman could challenge of Christ might seem to give her just colour of more familiarity yet now that she comes upon a suit she submits her self to the lowest gesture of suppliants We need not be taught that it is fit for petitioners to the Great to present their humble supplications upon their knees O Saviour if this woman so nearly allied to thee according to the flesh coming but upon a temporal occasion to thee being as then compassed about with humane infirmities adored thee ere she durst sue to thee what reverence is enough for us that come to thee upon spiritual suits sitting now in the height of Heavenly Glory and Majesty Say then thou wife of Zebedee what is it that thou cravest of thine omnipotent kinsman A certain thing Speak out woman what is this certain thing that thou cravest How poor and weak is this supplicatory anticipation to him that knew thy thoughts ere thou utteredst them ere thou entertainedst them We are all in this tune every one would have something such perhaps as we are ashamed to utter The Proud man would have a certain thing Honour in the world the Covetous would have a certain thing too Wealth and abundance the Malicious would have a certain thing Revenge on his enemies the Epicure would have Pleasure and Long life the Barren Children the Wanton Beauty Each one would be humored in his own desire though in variety yea contradiction to other though in opposition not more to God's will then our own good How this suit sticks in her teeth and dare not freely come forth because it is guilty of its own faultinesse What a difference there is betwixt the prayers of Faith and the motions of Self-love and infidelity Those come forth with boldnesse as knowing their own welcome and being well assured both of their warrant and acceptation these stand blushing at the door not daring to appear like to some baffled suit conscious to its own unworthinesse and just repulse Our inordinate desires are worthy of a check when we know that our requests are holy we cannot come with too much confidence to the throne of Grace He that knew all their thoughts afar off yet as if he had been a stranger to their purposes asks What wouldest thou Our infirmities do then best shame us when they are fetcht out of our own mouths Like as our Prayers also serve not to acquaint God with our wants but to make us the more capable of his mercies The suit is drawn from her now she must speak Grant that these my two sons may sit one on thy right hand the other on thy left in thy Kingdome It is hard to say whether out of more pride or ignorance It was as received as erroneous a conceit among the very Disciples of Christ that he should raise up a Temporal Kingdom over the now-tributary and beslaved people of Israel The Romans were now their masters their fancy was that their Messias should shake off this yoke and reduce them to their former Liberty So grounded was this opinion that the two Disciples in their walk to Emmaus could say We trusted it had been he that should have delivered Israel and when after his Resurrection he was walking up mount Olivet towards Heaven his very Apostles could ask him if he would now restore that long-exspected Kingdome How should we mitigate our censures of our Christian brethren if either they mistake or know not some secondary truths of Religion when the domestick Attendants of Christ who heard him every day till the very point of his Ascension misapprehended the chief cause of his coming into the world and the state of his Kingdome If our Charity may not bear with small faults what doe we under his name that conniv'd at greater Truth is as the Sun bright in it self yet there are many close corners into which it never shined O God if thou open our hearts we shall take in those beams till thou doe so teach us to attend patiently for our selves charitably for others These Fishermen had so much Courtship to know that the right hand and the left of any Prince were the chief places of Honour Our Saviour had said that his twelve Followers should sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel This good woman would have her two sons next to his person the prime Peers of his Kingdome Every one is apt to wish the best to his own Worldly Honour is neither worth our suit nor unworthy our acceptance Yea Salome had thy mind been in Heaven hadst thou intended this desired preeminence of that celestial state of Glory yet I know not how to justifie thine ambition Wouldst thou have thy sons preferred to the Father of the faithfull to the blessed Mother of thy Saviour That very wish were presumptuous For me O God my ambition shall goe so high as to be a Saint in Heaven and to live as holily on earth as the best but for precedency of Heavenly honour I do not I dare not affect it It is enough for me if I may lift up my head amongst the heels of thy Blessed Ones The mother asks the sons have the answer She was but their tongue they shall be her eares God ever imputes the acts to the first mover rather then to the instrument It was a sore check Ye know not what ye ask In our ordinary communication to speak idly is sin but in our suits to Christ to be so inconsiderate as not to understand our own petitions must needs be a foul offence As Faith is the ground of our Prayers so Knowledge is the ground of our Faith If we come with indigested requests we prophane that Name we invoke To convince their unfitness for Glory they are sent to their impotency in Suffering Are ye able to drink of the cup whereof I shall drink and to be baptized with the Baptisme wherewith
Temple were now diverted to the Roman Exchequer There was no necessity that the Roman Lords should be tied to the Jewish reckonings it was free for them to impose what payments they pleased upon a subdued people when great Augustus commanded the world to be taxed this rate was set The mannerly Collectors demand it first of him with whom they might be more bold Doth not your Master pay tribute All Capernaum knew Christ for a great Prophet his Doctrine had ravish'd them his Miracles had astonish'd them yet when it comes to a money-matter his share is as deep as the rest Questions of profit admit no difference Still the Sacred Tribe challengeth reverence who cares how little they receive how much they pay Yet no man knows with what minde this demand was made whether in a churlish grudging at Christ's immunity or in an awful compellation of the servant rather then the Master Peter had it ready what to answer I hear him not require their stay till he should goe in and know his Masters resolution but as one well acquainted with the minde and practice of his Master he answers Yes There was no truer pay-master of the Kings dues then he that was King of Kings Well did Peter know that he did not onely 〈◊〉 but preach tribute When the Herodians laid twigs for him as supposing that so great a Prophet would be all for the liberty and exemption of God's chosen people he choaks them with their own coin and told them the stamp argued the right Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars O Saviour how can thy servants challenge that freedome which thy self had not who that pretends from thee can claim homage from those to whom thou gavest it If thou by whom Kings reign forbarest not to pay tribute to an heathen Prince what power under thee can deny it to those that rule for thee That demand was made without doors No sooner is Peter come in then he is prevented by his Master's question What thinkest thou Simon of whom do the Kings of the earth receive tribute of their own children or of strangers This very interrogation was answer enough to that which Peter meant to move he that could thus know the heart was not in true right liable to humane exactions But O Saviour may I presume to ask what this is to thee Thou hast said My Kingdome is not of this world how doth it concern thee what is done by the Kings of the earth or imposed upon the sons of earthly Kings Thou wouldst be the Son of an humble Virgin and chosest not a Royal state but a servile I dispute not thy natural right to the throne by thy lineal descent from the loyns of Juda and David what should I plead that which thou wavest It is thy Divine Royalty and Sonship which thou here justly urgest the argument is irrefragable and convictive If the Kings of the earth do so priviledge their children that they are free from all tributes and impositions how much more shall the King of Heaven give this immunity to his onely and natural Son so as in true reason I might challenge an exemption for me and my train Thou mightest O Saviour and no less challenge a tribute of all the Kings of the earth to thee by whom all powers are ordained Reason cannot mutter against this claim the creature owes it self and whatsoever it hath to the Maâ—er he owes nothing to it Then are the children free He that hath right to all needs not pay any thing else there should be a subjection in Soveraignty and men should be debters to themselves But this right was thine own peculiar and admits no partners why dost thou speak of children as of more and extending this priviledge to Peter sayest Lest we scandalize them Was it for that thy Disciples being of thy robe might justly seem interessed in the liberties of their Master Surely no otherwise were they children no otherwise free Away with that fanatical conceit which challenges an immunity from secular commands and taxes to a spiritual and adoptative Sonship no earthly Saintship can exempt us from tribute to whom tribute belongeth There is a freedom O Saviour which our Christianity cals us to affect a freedom from the yoke of sin and Satan from the servitude of our corrupt affections we cannot be Sons if we be not thus free O free thou us by thy free Spirit from the miserable bondage of our Nature so shall the children be free but as to these secular duties no man is less free then the children O Saviour thou wert free and wouldst not be so thou wert free by natural right wouldst not be free by voluntary dispensation Lest an offence might be taken Surely had there followed an offence it had been taken onely and not given Woe be to the man by whom the offence cometh It cometh by him that gives it it cometh by him that takes it when it is not given no part of this blame could have cleaved unto thee either way Yet such was thy goodness that thou wouldst not suffer an offence unjustly taken at that which thou mightest justly have denied How jealous should we be even of others perils how careful so to moderate out power in the use of lawful things that our Charity may prevent others scandals to Temit of our own right for anothers safety Oh the deplorable condition of those wilful mâ—â— who care not what blocks they lay in the way to Heaven not forbearing by a known lewdness to draw others into their own damnation To avoid the unjust offence even of very Publicans Jesus will work a Miracle Peter is sent to the sea and that not with a net but with an hook The Disciple was now in his own trade He knew a net might inclose many fishes an hook could take but one with that hook must he goe angle for the tribute-money A fish shall bring him a stater in her mouth and that fish that bites first What an unusual bearer is here what an unlikely element to yield a piece of ready coin Oh that Omnipotent power which could command the fish to be both his Treasurer to keep his Silver and his Purveyour to bring it Now whether O Saviour thou causedst this fish to take up that shekel out of the bottome of the sea or whether by thine Almighty word thou mad'st it in an instant in the mouth of that fish it is neither possible to determine nor necessary to inquire I rather adore thine infinite Knowledge and Power that couldst make use of unlikeliest means that couldst serve thy self of the very fishes of the sea in a business of earthly and civil imployment It was not out of need that thou didst this though I do not finde that thou ever affectedst a full purse What veins of Gold or Mines of Silver did not lye open to thy command But out of a desire to teach Peter that whiles he would be tributary to Caesar the very
be the inculcation of Gods merciful promises of their relief and supportation O God if thou hast said it I dare believe I dare cast my Soul upon the belief of every word of thine Faithfull art thou which hast promised who wilt also doe it In spight of all the unjust discouragements of Nature we must obey Christ's command Whatever Martha suggests they remove the stone and may now see and smell him dead whom they shall soon see revived The sent of the corps is not so unpleasing to them as the perfume of their obedience is sweet to Christ And now when all impediments are removed and all hearts ready for the work our Saviour addresses to the Miracle His eyes begin they are lift up to Heaven It was the malicious mis-suggestion of his enemies that he lookt down to Beelzebub the beholders shall now see whence he exspects and derives his power and shall by him learn whence to exspect and hope for all success The heart and the eye must goe together he that would have ought to doe with God must be sequestred and lifted up from earth His Tongue seconds his Eye Father Nothing more stuck in the stomack of the Jews then that Christ called himself the Son of God this was imputed to him for a Blasphemy worthy of stones How seasonably is this word spoken in the hearing of these Jews in whose sight he will be presently approved so How can ye now O ye cavillers except at that title which ye shall see irrefragably justified Well may he call God Father that can raise the dead out of the grave In vain shall ye snarle at the style when ye are convinced of the effect I hear of no Prayer but a Thanks for hearing Whiles thou saidst nothing O Saviour how doth thy Father hear thee Was it not with thy Father and thee as it was with thee and Moses Thou saidst Let me alone Moses when he spake not Thy will was thy Prayer Words express our hearts to men Thoughts to God Well didst thou know out of the self-fameness of thy will with thy Fathers that if thou didst but think in thine heart that Lazarus should rise he was now raised It was not for thee to pray vocally and audibly lest those captious hearers should say thou didst all by intreaty nothing by power Thy thanks overtake thy desires ours require time and distance our thanks arise from the Echo of our prayers resounding from Heaven to our hearts Thou because thou art at once in earth and Heaven and knowst the grant to be of equal paces with the request most justly thankest in praying Now ye cavilling Jews are thinking straight Is there such distance betwixt the Father and the Son is it so rare a thing for the Son to be heard that he pours out his thanks for it as a blessing unusual Do ye not now see that he who made your heart knows it and anticipates your fond thoughts with the same breath I knew that thou hearest me alwaies but I said this for their sakes that they might believe Merciful Saviour how can we enough admire thy goodness who makest our belief the scope and drift of thy doctrine and actions Alas what wert thou the better if they believed thee sent from God what wert thou the worse if they believed it not Thy perfection and glory stands not upon the slippery terms of our approbation or dislike but is real in thy self and that infinite without possibility of our increase or diminution We we onely are they that have either the gain or loss in thy receit or rejection yet so dost thou affect our belief as if it were more thine advantage then ours O Saviour whiles thou spak'st to thy Father thou liftedst up thine eyes now thou art to speak unto dead Lazarus thou liftedst up thy voice and criedst aloud Lazarus come forth Was it that the strength of the voice might answer to the strength of the affection since we faintly require what we care not to obtain and vehemently utter what we earnestly desire Was it that the greatness of the voice might answer to the greatness of the work Was it that the hearers might be witnesses of what words were used in so miraculous an act no magical incantations but authoritative and Divine commands Was it to signifie that Lazarus his Soule was called from farre the speech must be loud that shall be heard in another world Was it in relation to the estate of the body of Lazarus whom thou hadst reported to sleep since those that are in a deep and dead sleep cannot be awaked without a loud call Or was it in a representation of that loud voice of the last Trumpet which shall sound into all graves and raise all flesh from their dust Even so still Lord when thou wouldst raise a Soul from the death of sin and grave of corruption no easie voice will serve Thy strongest commands thy loudest denunciations of Judgements the shrillest and sweetest promulgations of thy Mercies are but enough How familiar a word is this Lazarus come forth no other then he was wont to use whiles they lived together Neither doth he say Lazarus revive but as if he supposed him already living Lazarus come forth To let them know that those who are dead to us are to and with him alive yea in a more entire and feeling society then whiles they carried their clay about them Why do I fear that separation which shall more unite me to my Saviour Neither was the word more familiar then commanding Lazarus come forth Here is no suit to his Father no adjuration to the deceased but a flat and absolute injunction Come forth O Saviour that is the voice that I shall once hear sounding into the bottome of my grave and raising me up out of my dust that is the voice that shall pierce the rocks and divide the mountains and fetch up the dead out of the lowest deeps Thy word made all thy word shall repair all Hence all ye diffident fears he whom I trust is Omnipotent It was the Jewish fashion to enwrap the corps in linen to tye the hands and feet and to cover the face of the dead The Fall of man besides weakness brought shame upon him ever since even whiles he lives the whole Body is covered but the Face because some sparks of that extinct Majesty remain there is wont to be left open In death all those poor remainders being gone and leaving deformity and gastliness in the room of them the Face is covered also There lies Lazarus bound in double fetters One Almighty word hath loosed both and now he that was bound came forth He whose power could not be hindred by the chains of death cannot be hindred by linen bonds He that gave life gave motion gave direction He that guided the Soul of Lazarus into the body guided the body of Lazarus without his eyes moved the feet without the full liberty of his regular paces no doubt
What an happiness is it that without all offence of Necromancy I may here call up any of the antient Worthies of Learning whether humane or divine and confer with them of all my doubts that I can at pleasure summon whole Synods of Reverend Fathers and acute Doctors from all the Coasts of the Earth to give their well-studied judgments in all points of question which I propose Neither can I cast my eye casually upon any of these silent Masters but I must learn somewhat It is a wantonness to complain of choice No Law bindes us to read all but the more we can take in and digest the better-liking must the Mindes needs be Blessed be God that hath set up so many clear Lamps in his Church now none but the wilfully blinde can plead darkness And blessed be the memory of those his faithfull Servants that have left their blood their spirits their lives in these precious papers and have willingly wasted themselves into these during Monuments to give light unto others LXXII Upon the red Crosse on a Door OH sign fearfully significant This sicknesse is a Crosse indeed and that a bloody one both the form and colour import Death The Israelites doors whose lintels were besprinkled with blood were passed over by the destroying Angel here the destroying Angel hath smitten and hath left this mark of his deadly blow We are wont to fight chearfully under this Ensign abroad and be victorious why should we tremble at it at home O God there thou fightest for us here against us under that we have fought for thee but under this because our sins have fought against thee we are fought against by thy Judgments Yet Lord it is thy Crosse though an heavy one It is ours by merit thine by imposition O Lord sanctifie thine Affliction and remove thy Vengeance LXXIII Upon the change of Weather I Know not whether it be worse that the Heavens look upon us alwaies with one face or ever varying For as continual change of Weather causes uncertainty of Health so a permanent setledness of one Season causeth a certainty of distemper perpetual Moisture dissolves us perpetual Heat evaporates or inflames us Cold stupifies us Drought obstructs and withers us Neither is it otherwise in the state of the Minde If our thoughts should be alwaies volatile changing inconstant we should never attain to any good habit of the Soul whether in matter of Judgment or Disposition but if they should be alwaies fixed we should run into the danger of some desperate extremity To be ever thinking would make us mad to be ever thinking of our Crosses or Sins would make us heartlesly dejected to be ever thinking of Pleasures and Contentments would melt us into a loose wantonness to be ever doubting and fearing were an Hellish servitude to be ever bold and confident were a dangerous presumption but the interchanges of these in a due moderation keep the Soul in health O God howsoever these Variations be necessary for my Spiritual condition let me have no weather but Sun-shine from thee Do thou lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and stablish me ever with thy free spirit LXXIV Upon the sight of a Marriage WHat a comfortable and feeling resemblance is here of Christ and his Church I regard not the Persons I regard the Institution Neither the Husband nor the Wife are now any more their own they have either of them given over themselves to other not onely the Wife which is the weaker vessel hath yielded over her self to the stronger protection and participation of an abler head but the Husband hath resigned his right in himself over to his feebler consort so as now her weaknesse is his his strength is hers Yea their very flesh hath altered property hers is his his is hers Yea their very Soul and spirit may no more be severed in respect of mutuall affection then from their own severall bodies It is thus O Saviour with thee and thy Church We are not our own but thine who hast married us to thy self in truth and righteousnesse What powers what indowments have we but from and in thee And as our holy boldness dares interesse our selves in thy Graces so thy wonderfully-compassionate mercy vouchsafes to interesse thy self in our Infirmities thy poor Church suffers on Earth thou feelest in Heaven and as complaining of our stripes canst say Why persecutest thou me Thou again art not so thine own as that thou art not also ours thy Sufferings thy Merits thy Obedience thy Life Death Resurrection Ascension Intercession Glory yea thy blessed Humanity yea thy glorious Deity by virtue of our right of our Union are so ours as that we would not give our part in thee for ten thousand Worlds O gracious Saviour as thou canst not but love and cherish this poor and unworthy Soul of mine which thou hast mercifully espoused to thy self so give me Grace to honour and obey thee and forsaking all the base and sinfull rivalty of the World to hold me only unto thee whiles I live here that I may perfectly enjoy thee hereafter LXXV Upon the sight of a Snake I Know not what horrour we finde in our selves at the fight of a Serpent Other creatures are more loathsome and some no lesse deadly then it yet there is none at which our blood riseth so much as at this Whence should this be but out of an instinct of our old enmity We were stung in Paradise and cannot but feel it But here is our weaknesse it was not the body of the Serpent that could have hurt us without the suggestion of sin and yet we love the sin whiles we hate the Serpent Every day are we wounded with the sting of that old Serpent and complain not and so much more deadly is that sting by how much it is lesse felt There is a sting of Guilt and there is a sting of Remorse there is mortall venome in the first whereof we are the least sensible there is lesse danger in the second The Israelites found themselves stung by those fiery Serpents in the Desart and the sense of their pain sent them to seek for Cure The World is our Desart and as the sting of Death is Sin so the sting of Sin is Death I do not more wish to finde ease then pain if I complain enough I cannot fail of cure O thou which art the true brazen Serpent lifted up in this wildernesse raise up mine eyes to thee and fasten them upon thee thy Mercy shall make my Soul whole my wound soveraign LXXVI Upon the Ruines of an Abby IT is not so easie to say what it was that built up these walls as what it was that pulled them down even the wickednesse of the Possessours Every stone hath a tongue to accuse the Superstition Hypocrisie Idlenesse Luxury of the late owners Methinks I see it written all along in Capitall letters upon these heaps A fruitfull Land maketh he barren for the iniquity of
upon but discursive In matters of faith if reasons may be brought for the conviction of the gain-sayers it is well if they be helps they cannot be grounds of our belief In the most faithful heart there are some sparks of infidelity so to believe that we should have no doubt at all is scarce incident unto flesh and blood It is a great perfection if we have attained to overcome our doubts What did mislead Zacharie but that which uses to guide others Reason I am old and my wife is of great age As if years and drie loines could be any let to him which is able of very stones to raise up children unto Abraham Faith and reason have their limits where reason ends faith begins and if reason will be encroaching upon the bounds of faith she is straight taken captive by infidelity We are not fit to follow Christ if we have not denied our selves and the chief piece of our selves is our reason We must yield God able to doe that which we cannot comprehend and we must comprehend that by our faith which is disclaimed by reason Hagar must be driven out of doors that Sara may rule alone The authority of the reporter makes way for belief in things which are otherwise hard to passe although in the matters of God we should not so much care who speaks as what is spoken and from whom The Angel tells his name place office unasked that Zacharie might not think any news impossible that was brought him by an heavenly messenger Even where there is no use of language the spirits are distinguished by names and each knows his own appellation and others He that gave leave unto man his Image to give names unto all his visible and inferiour creatures did himself put names unto the spiritual and as their name is so are they mighty and glorious But lest Zacharie should no lesse doubt of the stile of the messenger then of the errand it self he is at once both confirmed and punished with dumbness That tongue which moved the doubt must be tyed up He shall ask no more questions for forty weeks because he asked this one distrustfully Neither did Zacharie lose his tongue for the time but his ears also he was not onely mute but deaf For otherwise when they came to ask his allowance for the name of his Son they needed not to have demanded it by signs but by words God will not passe over slight offences and those which may plead the most colourable pretences in his best children without a sensible check it is not our holy entireness with God that can bear us out in the least sin yea rather the more acquaintance we have with his Majesty the more sure we are of correction when we offend This may procure us more favour in our well-doing not lesse justice in evil Zacharie staied and the people waited whether some longer discourse betwixt the Angel and him then needed to be recorded or whether astonishment at the apparition and news withheld him I inquire not the multitude thought him long yet though they could but see afar off they would not depart till he returned to blesse them Their patient attendance without shames us that are hardly perswaded to attend within whiles both our senses are imploied in our divine services and we are admitted to be co-agents with our Ministers At last Zacharie comes out speechlesse and more amazes them with his presence then with his delay The eyes of the multitude that were not worthy to see his vision yet see the signs of his vision that the world might be put into the exspectation of some extraordinary sequell GOD makes way for his voice by silence His speech could not have said so much as his dumbness Zacharie would fain have spoken and could not with us too many are dumb and need not Negligence Fear Partiality stop the mouthes of many which shall once say Woe to me because I held my peace His hand speaks that which he cannot with his tongue and he makes them by signs to understand that which they might read in his face Those powers we have we must use But though he have ceased to speak yet he ceased not to minister He takes not this dumbness for a dismission but stayes out the eight daies of his course as one that knew the eyes and hands and heart would be accepted of that God which had bereaved him of his tongue We may not straight take occasions of withdrawing our selves from the publick services of our God much lesse under the Gospel The Law which stood much upon bodily perfection dispensed with age for attendance The Gospel which is all for the Soul regards those inward powers which whiles they are vigorous exclude all excuses of our ministration The Annunciation of CHRIST THE Spirit of GOD was never so accurate in any description as that which concerns the Incarnation of GOD. It was fit no circumstance should be omitted in that Story whereon the faith salvation of all the World dependeth We cannot so much as doubt of this truth and be saved no not the number of the moneth not the name of the Angel is concealed Every particle imports not more certainty then excellence The time is the sixth moneth after John's Conception the prime of the Spring Christ was conceived in the Spring born in the Solstice He in whom the World received a new life receives life in the same season wherein the World received his first life from him and he which stretches out the dayes of his Church and lengthens them to Eternitie appeares after all the short and dimme light of the Law and enlightens the World with his glory The Messenger is an Angel A man was too mean to carry the news of the Conception of God Never any businesse was conceived in Heaven that did so much concerne the earth as the Conception of the GOD of Heaven in Womb of earth No lesse then an Arch-Angel was worthy to bear this tydings and never any Angel received a greater honour then of this Embassage It was fit our reparation should answer our fall An evil Angel was the first motioner of the one to Eve a Virgin then espoused to Adam in the Garden of Eden a good Angell is the first reporter of the other to Mary a Virgin espoused to Joseph in that place which as the Garden of Galilee had a name from flourishing No good Angel could be the Author of our restauration as that evil Angel was of our ruine But that which those glorious Spirits could not doe themselves they are glad to report as done by the God of Spirits Good news rejoices the bearer With what joy did this holy Angel bring the news of that Saviour in whom we are redeemed to life himself established in life and glory The first Preacher of the Gospel was an Angel That office must needs be glorious that derives it self from such a Predecessor God appointed his Angel to be the first
Preacher and hath since called his Preachers Angels The message is well suited An Angel comes to a Virgin Gabriel to Mary He that was by signification the strength of God to her that was by signification exalted by God to the conceiving of him that was the God of strength to a Maid but espoused a Maid for the honour of Virginity espoused for the honour of Marriage The marriage was in a sort made not consummate through the instinct of him that meant to make her not an example but a miracle of women In this whole work God would have nothing ordinary It was fit that she should be a married Virgin which should be a Virgin mother He that meant to take mans nature without mans corruption would be the Son of man without mans seed would be the seed of the woman without man and amongst all women of a pure Virgin but amongst Virgins of one espoused that there might be at once a Witness and a Guardian of her fruitful Virginity If the same God had not been the authour of Virginity and Marriage he had never countenanced Virginity by Marriage Whether doth this glorious Angel come to finde the Mother of him that was GOD but to obscure Galilee A part which even the Jewes themselves despised as forsaken of their priviledges Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Behold an Angel comes to that Galilee out of which no Prophet comes and the God of Prophets and Angels descends to be conceived in that Galilee out of which no Prophet ariseth He that filleth all places makes no difference of places It is the person which gives honour and priviledge to the place not the place to the person as the presence of God makes the Heaven the Heaven doth not make the honour glorious No blinde corner of Nazareth can hide the blessed Virgin from the Angel The favours of God will finde out his children wheresoever they are withdrawn It is the fashion of God to seek out the most despised on whom to bestow his honours We cannot run away as from the judgements so not from the mercies of our God The cottages of Galilee are preferred by God to the famous Palaces of Jerusalem he cares not how homely he converse with his own Why should we be transported with the outward glory of places whiles our God regards it not We are not of the Angels diet if we had not rather be with the blessed Virgin at Nazareth then with the proud Dames in the Court of Jerusalem It is a great vanity to respect any thing above goodness and to disesteem goodness for any want The Angel salutes the Virgin he prayes not to her he salutes her as a Saint he prayes not to her as a Goddess For us to salute her as he did were grosse presumption for neither are we as he was neither is she as she was If he that was a Spirit saluted her that was flesh and blood here on earth it is not for us that are flesh and blood to salute her which is a glorious Spirit in Heaven For us to pray to her in the Angels salutation were to abuse the Virgin the Angel the salutation But how gladly doe we second the Angel in the praise of her which was more ours then his How justly doe we blesse her whom the Angel pronounceth blessed How worthily is she honoured of men whom the Angel proclaimeth beloved of God O blessed Mary he cannot blesse thee he cannot honour thee too much that deifies thee not That which the Angel said of thee thou hast prophesied of thy self we believe the Angel and thee All Generations shall call thee blessed by the fruit of whose womb all Generations are blessed If Zachary were amazed with the sight of this Angel much more the Virgin That very Sex had more disadvantage of fear If it had been but a man that had come to her in that secrecie and suddenness she could not but have been troubled how much more when the shining glory of the person doubled the astonishment The troubles of holy mindes end ever in comfort Joy was the errand of the Angel and not terrour Fear as all passions disquiets the heart and makes it for the time unfit to receive the messages of God Soon hath the Angel cleared these troublesome mists of passions and sent out the beams of heavenly consolation in the remotest corner of her soul by the glad news of her Saviour How can joy but enter into her heart out of whose womb shall come salvation What room can fear finde in that breast that is assured of favour Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God Let those fear who know they are in displeasure or know not they are gracious Thine happy estate calls for confidence and that confidence for joy What should what can they fear who are favoured of him at whom the Devils tremble Not the presence of the good Angels but the temptations of the evil strike many terrors into our weaknesse we could not be dismaied with them if we did not forget our condition We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father If that Spirit O God witnesse with our spirits that we are thine how can we fear any of those spirituall wickednesses Give us assurance of thy favour and let the powers of Hell doe their worst It was no ordinary favour that the Virgin found in Heaven No mortall Creature was ever thus graced that he should take part of her nature that was the God of Nature that he which made all things should make his humane body of hers that her womb should yield that flesh which was personally united to the Godhead that she should bear him that upholds the world Loe thou shalt conceive and bear a Son and shalt call his name Jesus It is a question whether there be more wonder in the Conception or in the Fruit the Conception of the Virgin or Jesus conceived Both are marvellous but the former doth not more exceed all other wonders then the latter exceedeth it For the childe of a Virgin is the reimprovement of that power which created the world but that God should be incarnate of a Virgin was an abasement of his Majestie and an exaltation of the creature beyond all example Well was that Child worthy to make the mother blessed Here was a double Conception one in the wombe of her body the other of the soul If that were more miraculous this was more beneficiall that was her priviledge this was her happinesse If that were singular to her this is common to all his chosen There is no renewed heart wherein thou O Saviour art not formed again Blessed be thou that hast herein made us blessed For what womb can conceive thee and not partake of thee Who can partake of thee and not be happy Doubtlesse the Virgin understood the Angel as he meant of a present Conception which made her so much
more inquisitive into the manner and means of this event How shall this be since I know not a man That she should conceive a Son by the knowledge of man after her Marriage consummate could have been no wonder But how then should that Son of hers be the Son of God This demand was higher How her present Virginity should be instantly fruitfull might be well worthy of admiration of inquiry Here was desire of information not doubts of infidelitie yea rather this question argues Faith it takes for granted that which an unbelieving heart would have stuck at She sayes not Who and whence art thou what Kingdome is this where and when shall it be erected but smoothly supposing all those strange things would be done she insists onely on that which did necessarily require a further intimation and doth not distrust but demand Neither doth she say This cannot be nor How can this be but How shall this be So doth the Angel answer as one that knew he needed not to satisfie curiositie but to informe judgement and uphold faith He doth not therefore tell her of the manner but of the Author of this act The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall over-shadow thee It is enough to know who is the undertaker and what he wil doe O God what doe we seek a clear light where thou wilt have a shadow No Mother knows the manner of her naturall Conception what presumption shall it be for flesh and blood to search how the Son of God took flesh and blood of his Creature It is for none but the Almighty to know those works which he doth immediatly concerning himself those that concern us he hath revealed Secrets to God things revealed to us The answer was not so full but that a thousand difficulties might arise out of the particularities of so strange a message yet after the Angels Solution we hear of no more Objections no more Interrogations The faithfull heart when it once understands the good pleasure of God argues no more but sweetly rests it self in a quiet expectation Behold the Servant of the Lord be it to me according to thy Word There is not a more noble proof of our Faith then to captivate all the powers of our understanding and will to our Creator and without all sciscitations to goe blind-fold whither he will lead us All disputations with God after his will known arise from infidelity Great is the Mysterie of godlinesse and if we will give Nature leave to cavil we cannot be Christians O God thou art faithfull thou art powerfull It is enough that thou hast said it In the humilitie of our obedience we resign our selves over to thee Behold the Servants of the Lord be it unto us according to thy Word How fit was her womb to conceive the flesh of the Son of God by the power of the Spirit of God whose breast had so soon by the power of the same Spirit conceived an assent to the will of God and now of an Hand-maid of God she is advanced to the Mother of God No sooner hath she said be it done then it is done the Holy Ghost over-shadows her and forms her Saviour in her own body This very Angel that talks with the Blessed Virgin could scarce have been able to express the joy of her heart in the sense of this Divine burden Never any mortall creature had so much cause of exultation How could she that was full of God be other then full of joy in that God Grief grows greater by concealing Joy by expression The holy Virgin had understood by the Angel how her Cousin Elizabeth was no lesse of kin to her in condition the fruitfulnesse of whose age did somewhat suit the fruitfulnesse of her Virginitie Happinesse communicated doubles it self Here is no straining of courtesie The blessed Maid whom vigor of age had more fitted for the way hastens her journey into the Hill-country to visit that gracios Matron whom God had made a sign of her miraculous Conception Onely the meeting of Saints in Heaven can parallel the meeting of these two Cousins the two wonders of the World are met under one roof and congratulate their mutual happinesse When we have Christ spiritually conceived in us we cannot be quiet till we have imparted our joy Elizabeth that holy Matron did no sooner welcome her blessed Cousin then her Babe welcomes his Saviour Both in the retired Closets of their Mothers Womb are sensible of each others presence the one by his omniscience the other by instinct He did not more fore-run Christ then over-run Nature How should our hearts leap within us when the Son of God vouchsafes to come into the secret of our Souls not to visit us but to dwell with us to dwell in us The Birth of Christ AS all the actions of men so especially the publick actions of publick men are ordered by God to other ends then their own This Edict went not so much out from Augustus as from the Court of Heaven What did Caesar know Joseph and Mary His charge was universal to a world of subjects through all the Roman Empire God intended this Cension onely for the Blessed Virgin and her Son that Christ might be born where he should Caesar meant to fill his Coffers God meant to fulfil his Prophesies and so to fulfill them that those whom it concerned might not feel the accomplishment If God had directly commanded the Virgin to goe up to Bethleem she had seen the intention and expected the issue but that wise Moderatour of all things that works his will in us loves so to doe it as may be least with our fore-sight and acquaintance and would have us fall under his Decrees unawares that we may so much the more adore the depths of his Providence Every Creature walkes blind-fold onely he that dwels in light sees whither they goe Doubtless blessed Mary meant to have been delivered of her Divine burden at home and little thought of changing the place of Conception for another of her Birth That house was honoured by the Angel yea by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost none could equally satisfie her hopes or desires It was fit that he which made choice of the Womb wherein his Son should be conceived should make choice of the place where his Son should be born As the work is all his so will he alone contrive all the circumstances to his own ends Oh the infinite Wisedom of God in casting all his Designs There needs no other proof of Christ then Caesar and Bethleem and of Caesars then Augustus his Government his Edict pleads the truth of the Messias His Government now was the deep peace of all the world under that quiet Scepter which made way for him who was the Prince of Peace If Wars be a sign of the time of his second coming Peace was a signe of his first His Edict now was the Scepter departed from Juda. It was
the time for Shilo to come No power was left in the Jewes but to obey Augustus is the Emperor of the World under him Herod is the King of Judaea Cyrenius is president of Syria Jurie hath nothing of her own For Herod if he were a King yet he was no Jew and if he had been a Jew yet he was no otherwise a King then tributary and titular The Edict came out from Augustus was executed by Cyrenius Herod is no actor in this service Gain and glory are the ends of this taxation each man profest himself a subject and paid for the priviledge of his servitude Now their very heads were not their own but must be payed for to the head of a forrein Seate They which before stood upon the termes of their immunitie stoop at the last The proud suggestions of Judas the Galilean might shed their blood and swell their stomacks but could not ease their yoak neither was it the meaning of God that holinesse if they had been as they pretended should shelter them from subjection A Tribute is imposed upon Gods free people This act of bondage brings them liberty Now when they seemed most neglected of God they are blessed with a Redeemer when they are most pressed with forrein Soveraignty God sends them a King of their own to whom Caesar himself must be a subject The goodnesse of our God picks out the most needfull times of our relief and comfort Our extremities give him the most glory Whither must Joseph and Marie come to be taxed but unto David's Citie The very place proves their descent He that succeeded David in his Throne must succeed him in the place of his Birth So clearly was Bethleem designed to this honour by the Prophets that even the Priests and the Scribes could point Herod unto it and assured him the King of the Jews could be no where else born Bethleem justly the house of bread the bread that came down from Heaven is there given to the world whence should we have the bread of life but from the house of bread O holy David was this the Well of Bethleem whereof thou didst so thirst to drink of old when thou saidst O that one would give me drink of the water of the Well of Bethleem Surely that other water when it was brought thee by thy Worthies thou pouredst it on the ground and wouldst not drink of it This was that living Water for which thy soul longed whereof thou saidst elsewhere As the Hart brayeth after the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God It was no lesse then four daies journey from Nazareth to Bethleem How just an excuse might the Blessed Virgin have pleaded for her absence What woman did ever undertake such a journey so near her delivery And doubtlesse Joseph which was now taught of God to love and honour her was loath to draw forth a dear wife in so unwieldy a case into so manifest hazard But the charge was peremptory the obedience exemplary The desire of an inoffensive observance even of Heathenish authority digests all difficulties We may not take easie occasions to withdraw our obedience to supreme commands Yea how didst thou O Saviour by whom Augustus reigned in the Womb of thy Mother yield this homage to Augustus The first lesson that ever thy example taught us was Obedience After many steps are Joseph and Mary come to Bethleem The plight wherein she was would not allow any speed and the forced leisure of the journey causeth disappointment the end was worse then the way there was no rest in the way there was no room in the Inne It could not be but that there were many of the kindred of Joseph and Mary at that time in Bethleem for both there were their Ancestors born if not themselves and thither came up all the Cousins of their blood yet there and then doth the holy Virgin want room to lay either her head or her burthen If the house of David had not lost all mercy and good nature a Daughter of David could not so near the time of her travel have been destitute of lodging in the City of David Little did the Bethleemites think what a guest they refused else they would gladly have opened their doors to him which was able to open the gates of Heaven to them Now their inhospitality is punishment enough to it self They have lost the honour and happinesse of being host to their God Even still O blessed Saviour thou standest at our doors and knockest every motion of thy good Spirit tells us thou art there Now thou comest in thine own name and there thou standest whiles thy head is full of dew and thy locks wet with the drops of the night If we suffer carnal desires and worldly thoughts to take up the lodging of our heart and revel within us whiles thou waitest upon our admission surely our judgement shall be so much the greater by how much better we know whom we have excluded What do we cry shame on the Bethleemites whilest we are wilfully more churlish more unthankfull There is no room in my heart for the wonder at this humility He for whom Heaven is too streight whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain lies in the streight cabbin of the womb and when he would inlarge himself for the world is not allowed the room of an Inne The many mansions of Heaven were at his disposing the Earth was his and the fulnesse of it yet he suffers himself to be refused of a base cottage and complaineth not What measure should discontent us wretched men when thou O God farest thus from thy creatures How should we learn both to want and abound from thee which abounding with the glory and riches of heaven wouldst want a lodging in thy first welcome to the earth Thou camest to thine own and thy own received thee not How can it trouble us to be rejected of the world which is not ours What wonder is it if thy servants wandred abroad in sheeps skins and goats skins destitute and afflicted when their Lord is denyed harbour How should all the world blush at this indignity of Bethleem He that came to save men is sent for his first lodging to the beasts the stable is become his Inne the cratch his bed O strange cradle of that great King which heaven it self may envy O Saviour thou that wert both the Maker and Owner of Heaven of Earth couldst have made thee a Palace without hands couldst have commanded thee an empty room in those houses which thy creatures had made When thou didst but bid the Angels avoid their first place they fell down from Heaven like lightning and when in thy humbled estate thou didst but say I am he who was able to stand before thee How easie had it been for thee to have made place for thy self in the throngs of the stateliest Courts Why wouldst thou be thus homely but that
the first and best for the Maker By this Rule God should have had his service done onely by the heirs of Israel But since God for the honour and remuneration of Levi had chosen out that Tribe to minister unto him now the first-born of all Israel must be presented to God as his due but by allowance redeemed to their parents As for beasts the first male of the clean beasts must be sacrificed of unclean exchanged for a price So much Morality is there in this constitution of God that the best of all kindes is fit to be consecrated to the Lord of all Every thing we have is too good for us if we think any thing we have too good for him How glorious did the Temple now seem that the Owner was within the walls of it Now was the hour and guest come in regard whereof the Second Temple should surpasse the first This was his House built for him dedicated to him there had he dwelt long in his spirituall Presence in his typical There was nothing either placed or done within those walls whereby he was not resembled and now the Body of those Shadows is come and presents himself where he had been ever represented Jerusalem is now every where There is no Church no Christian heart which is not a Temple of the living God there is no Temple of God wherein Christ is not presented to his Father Look upon him O God in whom thou art well pleased and in him and for him be well pleased with us Under the Gospel we are all first-born all heirs every soul is to be holy unto the Lord we are a royal generation an holy Priesthood Our Baptism as it is our Circumcision and our sacrifice of purification so is it also our presentation unto God Nothing can become us but holinesse O God to whom we are devoted serve thy self of us glorifie thy self by us till we shall by thee be glorified with thee HEROD and the Infants WEll might these wise-men have suspected Herod's secrecy If he had meant well what needed that whispering That which they published in the streets he asks in his privy chamber yet they not misdoubting his intention purpose to fulfill his charge It could not in their apprehension but be much honour to them to make their successe known that now both King and people might see it was not fancie that led them but an assured Revelation That God which brought them thither diverted them and caused their eies to shut to guide them the best way home These Sages made a happy voyage for now they grew into further acquaintance with God They are honoured with a second messenger from heaven They saw the Star in the way the Angel in their bed The Star guided their journey unto Christ the Angel directed their return They saw the Star by day a vision by night God spake to their eies by the Star he speaks to their heart by a dream No doubt they had left much noise of Christ behinde them they that did so publish his Birth by their inquiry at Jerusalem could not be silent when they found him at Bethleem If they had returned by Herod I fear they had come short home He that meant death to the Babe for the name of a King could mean no other to those that honoured and proclaimed a new King and erected a throne besides his They had done what they came for and now that God whose businesse they came about takes order at once for his Sons safety and for theirs God which is perfection it self never begins any businesse but he makes and end and ends happily When our waies are his there is no danger of miscarriage Well did these wise-men know the difference as of Stars so of dreams they had learned to distinguish between the natural and Divine and once apprehending God in their sleep they follow him waking and return another way They were no subjects to Herod his command pressed them so much the lesse or if the being within his dominions had been no lesse bond then native subjection yet where God did countermand Herod there could be no question whom to obey They say not We are in a strange country Herod may meet with us it can be no lesse then death to mock him in his own territories but chearfully put themselves upon the way and trust God with the successe Where men command with God we must obey men for God and God in men when against him the best obedience is to deny obedience and to turn our backs upon Herod The wise-men are safely arrived in the East and fill the world full of exspectation as themselves are full of wonder Joseph and Mary are returned with the Babe to that Jerusalem where the wise-men had inquired for his Birth The City was doubtlesse still full of that rumor and little thinks that he whom they talk of was so neare them From thence they are at least in their way to Nazareth where they purpose their abode God prevents them by his Angel and sends them for safety into Aegypt Joseph was not wont to be so full of visions It was not long since the Angel appeared unto him to justifie the innocency of the Mother and the Deity of the Son now he appears for the preservation of both and a preservation by flight Could Joseph now chuse but think Is this the King that must save Israel that needs to be saved by me If he be the Son of God how is he subject to the violence of men How is he Almighty that must save himself by flight or how must he flie to save himself out of that Land which he comes to save But faithful Joseph having been once tutored by the Angel and having heard what the wise-men said of the Star what Simeon and Anna said in the Temple labours not so much to reconcile his thoughts as to subject them and as one that knew it safer to suppresse doubts then to assoil them can believe what he understands not and can wonder where he cannot comprehend Oh strange condition of the King of all the word He could not be born in a baser estate yet even this he cannot enjoy with safety There was no room for him in Bethleem there will be no room for him in Judaea He is no sooner come to his own then he must flie from them that he may save them he must avoid them Had it not been easie for thee O Saviour to have acquit thy self from Herod a thousand waies What could an arm of flesh have done against the God of Spirits What had it been for thee to have sent Herod five years sooner unto his place what to have commanded fire from Heaven on those that should have come to apprehend thee or to have bidden the Earth to receive them alive whom she meant to swallow dead We suffer misery because we must thou because thou wouldest The same will that brought thee from Heaven into earth sends
the need of Baptism John baptized without Christ within The more holy a man is the more sensible he is 〈◊〉 his unholiness No carnal man could have said I have need to be baptized of thee neither can he finde what he is the better for a little Font-water The sense of our wretchedness and the valuation of our spiritual helps is the best tryal of our regeneration Our Saviour doth not deny that either John hath need to be baptized of him or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of John but he will needs thus far both honour John and disparage himself to be baptized of his Messenger He that would take flesh of the Virgin education from his Parents sustenance from his creatures will take Baptism from John It is the praise of his Mercy that he will stoop so low as to be beholden to his creatures which from him receive their Being and power both to take and give Yet no so much respect to John as obedience to his Father drew him to this point of humiliation Thus it behoves us to fulfill all righteousness The Counsels and Appointments of God are Righteousness it self There needs no other motive either to the servant or the Son then the knowledge of those righteous purposes This was enough to lead a faithful man through all difficulties and inconveniencies neither will it admit of any reply or any demur John yieldeth to this honour which his Saviour puts upon him in giving Baptism to the Authour of it He baptized others to the remission of their sins now he baptizes him by whom they are remitted both to the Baptizer and to others No sooner is Christ baptized then he comes forth of the water The element is of force but during the use it turns common when that is past Neither is the water sooner powâ—ed on his head then the Heavens are opened and the Holy Ghost descendeth upon that head which was baptized The Heavens are never shut whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administred and received neither do the Heavens ever thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost But now that the God of Heaven is baptized they open unto him which are opened to all the faithful by him and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him together with the Father joyns with the Father in a sensible testimony of him that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heavens in the Father in the Holy Spirit and might expect nothing but Divine from the entrance of such a Mediatour Christ tempted NO sooner is Christ come out of the water of Baptism then he enters into the fire of Tentation No sooner is the Holy Spirit descended upon his head in the form of a Dove then he is led by the Spirit to be tempted No sooner doth God say This is my Son then Satan saies If thou be the Son of God It is not in the power either of the gift or seals of Grace to deliver us from the assaults of Satan they may have the force to repell evil suggestions they have none to prevent them yea the more we are ingaged unto God by our publick vows and his pledges of favour so much more busie and violent is the rage of that Evil one to encounter us We are no sooner stept forth into the field of God then he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands or to turn them against us The voice from Heaven acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God This Divine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan but exasperate it Now that venomous Serpent swels with inward poison and hasts to assail him whom God hath honoured from Heaven O God how should I look to escape the suggestions of that wicked one when the Son of thy love cannot be free when even grace it self draws on enmity That enmity that spared not to strike at the Head will he forbear the weakest and remotest limme Arm thou me therefore with an expectation of that evil I cannot avoid Make thou me as strong as he is malicious Say to my Soul also Thou art my Son and let Satan do his worst All the time of our Saviours obscurity I do not finde him set upon now that he looks forth to the publick execution of his Divine Office Satan bends his forces against him Our privacy perhaps may sit down in peace but never man did endevour a common good without opposition It is a sign that both the work is holy and the Agent faithful when we meet with strong affronts We have reason to be comforted with nothing so much as with resistance If we were not in a way to do good we should finde no rubs Satan hath no cause to molest his own and that whiles they goe about his own service He desires nothing more then to make us smooth paths to sinne but when we would turn our feet to Holinesse he blocks up the way with Tentations Who can wonder enough at the sawcinesse of that bold spirit that dares to set upon the Son of the ever-living God Who can wonder enough at thy meeknesse and patience O Saviour that wouldst be tempted He wanted not Malice and Presumption to assault thee thou wantedst not Humility to endure those assaults I should stand amazed at this voluntary dispensation of thine but that I see the susception of our Humane nature laies thee open to this condition It is necessarily incident to manhood to be liable to Tentations Thou wouldst not have put on flesh if thou hadst meant utterly to put off this consequence of our infirmity If the state of Innocence could have been any defence against evil motions the first Adam had not been tempted much lesse the second It is not the presenting of Tentations that can hurt us but their entertainment Ill counsel is the fault of the Giver not of the Refuser We cannot forbid lewd eyes to look in at our windows we may shut our doors against their entrance It is no lesse our praise to have resisted then Satans blame to suggest evil Yea O blessed Saviour how glorious was it for thee how happy for us that thou wert tempted Had not Satan tempted thee how shouldest thou have overcome Without blows there can be no victory no triumph How had thy power been manifested if no adversary had tried thee The first Adam was tempted and vanquished the second Adam to repay and repair that foile doth vanquish in being tempted Now have we not a Saviour and High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but such an once as was in all things tempted in like sort yet without sin How boldly therefore may we goe unto the Throne of grace that we may receive mercy and finde grace of help in time of need Yea this Duell was for us Now we see by this conflict of our Almighty Champion what manner of Adversary we have how he fights how he is resisted how overcome
over-ruling power The same power therefore that could have caused the fishes to leap upon drie land or to leave themselves forsaken of the waters upon the sands of the Lake will rather finde them in a place natural to their abiding Lanch out into the deep Rather in a desire to gratifie and obey his guest then to pleasure himself will Simon bestow one cast of his net Had Christ injoyned him an harder task he had not refused yet not without an allegation of the unlikelihood of successe Master we have travailed all night and caught nothing yet at thy word I will let down the Net The night was the fittest time for the hopes of their trade not unjustly might Simon misdoubt his speed by day when he had worn out the night in unprofitable labour Sometimes God crosseth the fairest of our exspectations and gives a blessing to those times and means whereof we despair That pains cannot be cast away which we resolve to lose for Christ O God how many do I see casting out their Nets in the great Lake of the World which in the whole night of their life have caught nothing They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity they hatch Cockatrices egges and weave the Spiders web he that eateth of their egges dieth and that which is trodden upon breaketh out into a Serpent their webs shall be no garment neither shall they cover themselves with their labours O ye sons of men how long will ye love vanity and follow after lies Yet if we have thus vainly misspent the time of our darkness let us at the command of Christ cast out our new-washen nets our humble and penitent obedience shall come home laden with blessings And when they had so done they inclosed a great multitude of fishes so that their Net brake What a difference there is betwixt our own voluntary acts and those that are done upon command not more in the grounds of them then in the issue those are oft-times fruitlesse these ever successfull Never man threw out his Net at the word of his Saviour and drew it back empty Who would not obey thee O Christ since thou dost so bountifully requite our weakest services It was not mere retribution that was intended in this event but instruction also This act was not without a mysterie He that should be made a fisher of men shall in this draught foresee his success The Kingdome of Heaven is like a draw-net cast into the Sea which when it is full men draw to land The very first draught that Peter made after the complement of his Apostleship inclosed no lesse then three thousand Souls O powerful Gospel that can fetch sinful men from out of the depths of natural corruption O happy souls that from the blinde and muddy cells of our wicked nature are drawn forth to the glorious liberty of the sons of God! Simon 's Net breaks with the store Abundance is sometimes no lesse troublesome then want The Net should have held if Christ had not meant to over-charge Simon both with blessing and admiration How happily is that Net broken whose rupture draws the fisher to Christ Though the net brake yet the fish escaped not He that brought them thither to be taken held them there till they were taken They beckned to their partners in the other ship that they should come and help them There are other ships in partnership with Peter he doth not fish all the Lake alone There cannot be a better improvement of society then to help us gain to relieve us in our profitable labours to draw up the spiritual draught into the vessel of Christ and his Church Wherefore hath God given us partners but that we should becken to them for their aid in our necessary occasions Neither doth Simon slacken his hand because he had assistants What shall we say to those lazie fishers who can set others to the Drag whiles themselves look on at ease caring only to feed themselves with the fish not willing to wet their hands with the Net What shall we say to this excesse of gain The Nets break the ships sink with their burden Oh happy complaint of too large a capture O Saviour if those Apostolical vessels of thy first rigging were thus overlaid ours flote and totter with a ballasted lightness Thou who art no lesse present in these bottoms of ours lade them with an equall fraught of converted souls and let us praise thee for thus sinking Simon was a skilfull Fisher and knew well the depth of his trade and now perceiving more then Art or Nature in this draught he falls down at the knees of Jesus saying Lord goe from me for I am a sinfull man Himself is caught in this Net He doth not greedily fall upon so unexspected and profitable a booty but he turns his eyes from the draught to himself from the Act to the Author acknowledging vileness in the one in the other Majestie Goe from me Lord for I am a sinfull man It had been pity the honest Fisher-man should have been taken at his word O Simon thy Saviour is come into thine own ship to call thee to call others by thee unto blessedness and dost thou say Lord goe from me As if the Patient should say to the Physician Depart from me for I am sick It was the voice of astonishment not of dislike the voice of humility not of discontentment yea because thou art a sinfull man therefore hath thy Saviour need to come to thee to stay with thee and because thou art humble in the acknowledgment of thy sinfulness therefore Christ delights to abide with thee and will call thee to abide with him No man ever fared the worse for abasing himself to his God Christ hath left many a soul for froward and unkinde usage never any for the disparagement of it self and intreaties of humility Simon could not devise how to hold Christ faster then by thus suing to him to be gone then by thus pleading his unworthiness O my Soul be not weary of complaining of thine own wretchedness disgrace thy self to him that knows thy vilenesse be astonished at those mercies which have shamed thine ill deservings Thy Saviour hath no power to goe away from a prostrate heart He that resists the proud heartens the lowly Fear not for I will make thee henceforth a Fisher of men Loe this Humility is rewarded with an Apostleship What had the Earth ever more glorious then a Legacie from Heaven He that bade Christ goe from him shall have the honour to goe first on this happy errand This was a Trade that Simon had no skill of it could not but be enough to him that Christ said I will make thee the Miracle shewed him able to make good his word He that hath power to command the Fishes to be taken can easily inable the hands to take them What is this Divine Trade of ours then but a spiritual Piscation The World is a Sea Souls like fishes swim
a Woman nor so look upon him as a Son that she should not regard him as a God He was so obedient to her as a Mother that withall she must obey him as her God That part which he took from her shall observe her she must observe that nature which came from above and made her both a Woman and a Mother Matter of miracle concerned the Godhead only Supernatural things were above the sphere of fleshly relation If now the Blessed Virgin will be prescribing either time or form unto Divine acts O woman what have I to doe with thee my hour is not come In all bodily actions his style was O Mother in spirituall and heavenly O Woman Neither is it for us in the holy affairs of God to know any faces yea if we have known Christ heretofore according to the flesh henceforth know we him so no more O Blessed Virgin if in that heavenly glory wherein thou art thou canst take notice of these earthly things with what indignation dost thou look upon the presumptuous superstition of vain men whose suits make thee more then a solicitor of Divine favours Thy Humanity is not lost in thy Motherhood nor in thy Glory The respects of Nature reach not so high as Heaven It is far from thee to abide that honour which is stolne from thy Redeemer There is a Marriage whereto we are invited yea wherein we are already interessed not as the Guests onely but as the Bride in which there shall be no want of the wine of gladnesse It is marvel if in these earthly banquets there be not some lack In thy presence O Saviour there is fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Blessed are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb. Even in that rough answer doth the Blessed Virgin descry cause of hope If his hour were not yet come it was therefore coming when the exspectation of the guests and the necessity of the occasion had made fit room for the Miracle it shall come forth and challenge their wonder Faithfully therefore and observantly doth she turn her speech from her Son to the Waiters Whatsoever he saith unto you doe it How well doth it beseem the Mother of Christ to agree with his Father in Heaven whose voice from Heaven said This is my well-beloved Son hear him She that said of her self Be it unto me according to thy word saies unto others Whatsoever he saith to you doe it This is the way to have Miracles wrought in us obedience to his Word The power of Christ did not stand upon their officiousnesse he could have wrought wonders in spite of them but their perverse refusall of his commands might have made them uncapable of the favour of a miraculous action He that can when he will convince the obstinate will not grace the disobedient He that could work without us or against us will not work for us but by us This very poor house was furnished with many and large vessels for outward purification as if sin had dwelt upon the skin that superstitious people sought Holiness in frequent washings Even this rinsing fouled them with the uncleannesse of a traditional will-worship It is the Soul which needs scowring and nothing can wash that but the blood which they desperately wished upon themselves and their children for guilt not for expiation Purge thou us O Lord with hyssop and we shall be clean wash us and we shall be whiter then snow The Waiters could not but think strange of so unseasonable a command Fill the water pots It is wine that we want what do we goe to fetch water Doth this Holy man mean thus to quench our Feast and cool our stomacks If there be no remedy we could have sought this supply unbidden Yet so far hath the charge of Christs Mother prevailed that in stead of carrying flagons of wine to the table they goe to fetch pails-full of water from the Cisterns It is no pleading of unlikelihoods against the command of an Almighty power He that could have created wine immediately in those vessels will rather turn water into wine In all the course of his Miracles I do never finde him making ought of nothing all his great works are grounded upon former existences He multiplied the bread he changed the water he restored the withered limmes he raised the dead and still wrought upon that which was and did not make that which was not What doth he in the ordinary way of nature but turn the watery juice that arises up from the root into wine He will only do this now suddenly and at once which he doth usually by sensible degrees It is ever duly observed by the Son of God not to doe more miracle then he needs How liberal are the provisions of Christ If he had turned but one of those vessels it had been a just proof of his power and perhaps that quantity had served the present necessity now he furnisheth them with so much wine as would have served an hundred and fifty guests for an intire Feast Even the measure magnifies at once both his power and mercy The munificent hand of God regards not our need only but our honest affluence It is our sin and our shame if we turn his favour into wantonness There must be first a filling ere there be a drawing out Thus in our vessels the first care must be of our receit the next of our expence God would have us Cisterns not Channels Our Saviour would not be his own taster but he sends the first draught to the Governour of the Feast He knew his own power they did not Neither would he bear witness of himself but fetch it out of others mouths They that knew not the original of that wine yet praised the taste Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and when men have well drunk then that which is worse but thou hast kept the good wine untill now The same bounty that expressed it self in the quantity of the Wine shews it self no lesse in the excellence Nothing can fall from that Divine hand not exquisite That liberality hated to provide crab-wine for his guests It was fit that the miraculous effects of Christ which came from his immediate hand should be more perfect then the natural O Blessed Saviour how delicate is that new Wine which we shall one day drink with thee in thy Fathers Kingdome Thou shalt turn this water of our earthly affliction into that Wine of gladnesse wherewith our Souls shall be satiate for ever Make haste O my Beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the Mountain of Spices The good Centurion Even the bloody trade of War yielded worthy Clients to Christ This Roman Captain had learned to believe in that Jesus whom many Jews despised No Nation no trade can shut out a good heart from God If he were a forreiner for birth yet he was a domestick in
heart He could not change his blood he could over-rule his affections He loved that Nation which was chosen of God and if he were not of the Synagogue yet he built a Synagogue where he might not be a partie he would be a Benefactor Next to being good is a favouring of goodnesse We could not love Religion if we utterly want it How many true Jews were not so zealous Either will or ability lacked in them whom duty more obliged Good affections do many times more then supply Nature Neither doth God regard whence but what we are I do not see this Centurion come to Christ as the Israelitish Captain came to Elias in Carmel but with his Cap in his hand with much suit much submission by others by himself he sends first the Elders of the Jews whom he might hope that their Nation and place might make gracious then left the imployment of others might argue neglect he seconds them in person Cold and fruitlesse are the motions of friends where we do wilfully shut up our own lips Importunity cannot but speed well in both Could we but speak for our selves as this Captain did for his servant what could we possibly want What marvel is it if God be not forward to give where we care not to ask or ask as if we cared not to receive Shall we yet call this a suit or a complaint I hear no one word of entreaty The lesse is said the more is concealed it is enough to lay open his want He knew well that he had to deal with so wise and merciful a Physician as that the opening of the malady was a craving of cure If our spiritual miseries be but confessed they cannot fail of redress Great variety of Suitors resorted to Christ one comes to him for a Son another for a Daughter a third for himself I see none come for his Servant but this one Centurion Neither was he a better man then a Master His Servant is sick he doth not drive him out of doors but laies him at home neither doth he stand gazing by his beds-side but seeks forth He seeks forth not to Witches or Charmers but to Christ he seeks to Christ not with a fashionable relation but with a vehement aggravation of the disease Had the Master been sick the faithfullest Servant could have done no more He is unworthy to be well served that will not sometimes wait upon his followers Conceits of inferiority may not breed in us a neglect of charitable offices So must we look down upon our Servants here on earth as that we must still look up to our Master which is in Heaven But why didst thou not O Centurion rather bring thy Servant to Christ for cure then sue for him absent There was a Paralytick whom Faith and Charity brought to our Saviour let down through the uncovered roof in his Bed why was not thine so carried so presented Was it out of the strength of thy faith which assured thee thou neededst not shew thy Servant to him that saw all things One and the same grace may yield contrary effects They because they believed brought the Patient to Christ thou broughtest not thine to him because thou believedst Their act argued no lesse desire thine more confidence Thy labour was lesse because thy Faith was more Oh that I could come thus to my Saviour and make such mone to him for my self Lord my soul is sick of unbelief sick of self-love sick of inordinate desires I should not need to say more Thy mercy O Saviour would not then stay by for my suit but would prevent me as here with a gracious ingagement I will come and heal thee I did not hear the Centurion say either Come or Heal him The one he meant though he said not the other he neither said nor meant Christ over-gives both his words intentions It is the manner of that Divine munificence where he meets with a faithful Suitor to give more then is requested to give when he is not requested The very insinuations of our necessities are no lesse violent then successefull We think the measure of humane bountie runs over when we obtain but what we ask with importunity that infinite Goodnesse keeps within bounds when it overflows the desires of our hearts As he said so he did The Word of Christ either is his act or concurs with it He did not stand still when he said I will come but he went as he spake When the Ruler intreated him for his son Come down ere he dye our Saviour stir'd not a foot the Centurion did but complain of the sicknesse of his servant and Christ unasked sayes I will come and heal him That he might be farre from so much as seeming to honour wealth and despise meannesse he that came in the shape of a Servant would goe down to the sick Servants pallet would not goe to the Bed of the rich Rulers Son It is the basest motive of respect that ariseth merely from outward Greatnesse Either more Grace or more Need may justly challenge our favourable regards no lesse then private Obligations Even so O Saviour that which thou offeredst to doe for the Centurion's Servant hast thou done for us We were sick unto death so farre had the dead palsie of sin overtaken us that there was no life of Grace left in us when thou wert not content to sit still in Heaven and say I will cure them but addedst also I will come and cure them Thy self camest down accordingly to this miserable World and hast personally healed us so as now we shall not die but live and declare thy works O Lord. And oh that we could enough praise that love and mercy which hath so graciously abased thee and could be but so low dejected before thee as thou hast stooped low unto us that we could be but as lowly subjects of thy goodnesse as we are unworthy O admirable return of Humility Christ will goe down to visit the sick Servant The Master of that Servant saies Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof the Jewish Elders that went before to mediate for him could say He is worthy that thou shouldest doe this for him but the Centurion when he comes to speak for himself I am not worthy They said He was worthy of Christ's Miracle he sayes he is unworthy of Christ's presence There is great difference betwixt others valuations and our own Sometimes the world under-rates him that findes reason to set an high price upon himself Sometimes again it overvalues a man that knows just cause of his own humiliation If others mistake us this can be no warrant for our errour We cannot be wise unlesse we receive the knowledge of our selves by direct beams not by reflection unlesse we have learned to contemn unjust applauses and scorning the flattery of the World to frown upon our own vilenesse Lord I am not worthy Many a one if he had been in the Centurion's
no moment be free He can be no more weary of doing evil to us then God is of doing good Are we therefore preserved from the malignity of these powers of darkness Blessed be our strong Helper that hath not given us over to be a prey unto their teeth Or if some scope have been given to that envious one to afflict us hath it been with favourable limitations it is thine only mercy O God that hath chained and muzled up this band-dog so as that he may scratch us with his paws but cannot pierce us with his fangs Far far is this from our deserts who had too well merited a just abdication from thy favour and protection and an interminable seisure by Satan both in soul and body Neither do I here see more matter of thanks to our God for our immunity from the external injuries of Satan then occasion of serious inquiry into his power over us for the spiritual I see some that think themselves safe from this ghostly tyranny because they sometimes finde themselves in good moods free from the suggestions of gross sins much more from the commission Vain men that feed themselves with so false and frivolous comforts will they not see Satan through the just permission of God the same to the Soul in mental possessions that he is to the body in corporal The worst Demoniack hath his lightsome respites not ever tortured not ever furious betwixt whiles he might look soberly talk sensibly move regularly It is a wofull comfort that we sin not alwaies There is no Master so barbarous as to require of his Slave a perpetual unintermitted toyle yet though he sometimes eat sleep rest he is a vassal still If that Wicked one have drawn us to a customary perpetration of evil and have wrought us to a frequent iteration of the same sin this is gage enough for our servitude matter enough for his tyranny and insultation He that would be our Tormenter alwaies cares onely to be sometimes our Tempter The possessed is bound as with the invisible fetters of Satan so with the material chains of the inhabitants What can bodily forces prevail against a spirit Yet they endeavour this restraint of the man whether out of charity or justice Charity that he might not hurt himself Justice that he might not hurt others None do so much befriend the Demoniack as those that binde him Neither may the spiritually possessed be otherwise handled for though this act of the enemy be plausible and to appearance pleasant yet there is more danger in this dear and smiling tyranny Two sorts of chains are fit for outragious sinners good laws unpartiall executions That they may not hurt that they may not be hurt to eternal death These iron chains are no sooner fast then broken There was more then an humane power in this disruption It is not hard to conceive the utmost of Nature in this kinde of actions Sampson doth not break the cords and ropes like a threed of towe but God by Sampson The man doth not break these chains but the Spirit How strong is the arm of these evil angels how far transcending the ordinary course of Nature They are not called Powers for nothing What flesh blood could but tremble at the palpable inequality of this match if herein the mercifull protection of our God did not the rather magnifie it self that so much strength met with so much malice hath not prevailed against us In spight of both we are in safe hands He that so easily brake the iron fetters can never break the adamantine chain of our Faith In vain do the chafing billows of Hell beat upon that Rock whereon we are built And though these brittle chains of earthly metall be easily broken by him yet the sure-tempered chain of God's eternal Decree he can never break that Almighty Arbiter of Heaven and Earth and Hell hath chained him up in the bottomlesse pit and hath so restrained his malice that but for our good we cannot be tempted we cannot be foiled but for a glorious victory Alas it is no otherwise with the spiritually possessed The chains of restraint are commonly broken by the fury of wickedness What are the respects of civility fear of God fear of men wholsome laws carefull executions to the desperately licentious but as cobwebs to an hornet Let these wilde Demoniacks know that God hath provided chains for them that will hold even everlasting chains under darkness These are such as must hold the Devils themselves their masters unto the judgment of the great Day how much more those impotent vassals Oh that men would suffer themselves to be bound to their good behaviour by the sweet and easie recognizances of their duty to their God and the care of their own Souls that so they might rather be bound up in the bundle of life It was not for rest that these chains were torn off but for more motion This prisoner runs away from his friends he cannot run away from his Jaylor He is now carried into the Wildernesse not by mere external force but by internal impulsion carried by the same power that unbound him for the opportunity of his Tyranny for the horrour of the place for the affamishment of his body for the avoidance of all means of resistance Solitary Desarts are the delights of Satan It is an unwise zeal that moves us to doe that to our selves in an opinion of merit and holinesse which the Devil wishes to doe to us for a punishment and conveniency of tentation The evil Spirit is for solitarinesse God is for society He dwels in the assembly of his Saints yea there he hath a delight to dwell Why should not we account it our happinesse that we may have leave to dwell where the Author of all Happinesse loves to dwell There cannot be any misery incident unto us whereof our gracious Redeemer is not both conscious and sensible Without any intreaty therefore of the miserable Demoniack or suit of any friend the God of spirits takes pity of his distresse and from no motion but his own commands the evil Spirit to come out of the man Oh admirable precedent of mercy preventing our requests exceeding our thoughts forcing favours upon our impotence doing that for us which we should and yet cannot desire If men upon our instant solicitations would give us their best aide it were a just praise of their bounty but it well became thee O God of mercy to goe without force to give without suit And do we think thy goodness is impaired by thy glory If thou wert thus commiserative upon earth art thou lesse in Heaven How dost thou now take notice of all our complaints of all our infirmities How doth thine infinite pity take order to redress them What evil can befall us which thou knowest not feelest not relievest not How safe are we that have such a Guardian such a Mediator in Heaven Not long before had our Saviour commanded the windes and
waters and they could not but obey him now he speaks in the same language to the evil Spirit he intreats not he perswades not he commands Command argues Superiority He only is infinitely stronger then the strong one in possession Else where powers are matcht though with some inequality they tugge for the victory and without resistance yield nothing There are no fewer sorts of 〈◊〉 with Satan then with men Some have dealt with him by suit as the old Satanian hereticks and the present Indian Savages sacrificing to him that he hurt not Others by covenant conditioning their service upon his assistance as Witches and Magicians Others by insinuation of implicite compact as Charmers and Figure-casters Others by adjuration as the sons of Scaeva and modern Exorcists unwarrantably charging him by an higher name then their own None ever offered to deal with Satan by a direct and primary command but the God of Spirits The great Archangel when the strife was about the body of Moses commanded not but imprecated rather The Lord rebuke thee Satan It is only the God that made this Spirit an Angel of light that can command him now that he hath made himself the Prince of darkness If any created power dare to usurp a word of command he laughs at their presumption and knows them his vassals whom he dissembles to fear as his Lords It is thou only O Saviour at whose beck those stubborn Principalities of Hell yield and tremble No wicked man can be so much a slave to Satan as Satan is to thee The interposition of thy grace may defeat that dominion of Satan thy rule is absolute and capable of no lett What need we to fear whiles we are under so omnipotent a Commander The waves of the deep rage horribly yet the Lord is stronger then they Let those Principalities and Powers doe their worst Those mighty adversaries are under the command of him who loved us so well as to bleed for us What can we now doubt of His power or his will How can we professe him a God and doubt of his power How can we professe him a Saviour and doubt of his will He both can and will command those Infernal powers We are no lesse safe then they are malicious The Devil saw Jesus by the eyes of the Demoniack for the same saw that spake but it was the ill spirit that said I besecch thee torment me not It was sore against his will that he saw so dreadfull an object The over-ruling power of Christ dragged the soul spirit into his presence Guiltiness would fain keep out of sight The limmes of so wofull an head shall once call on the Hills and Rocks to hide them from the face of the Lamb such Lion-like terrour is in that milde face when it looks upon wickedness Neither shall it be one day the least part of the torment of the damned to see the most lovely spectacle that Heaven can afford He from whom they fled in his offers of Grace shall be so much more terrible as he was and is more gracious I marvel not therefore that the Devil when he saw Jesus cried out I could marvell that he fell down that he worshipped him That which the proud spirit would have had Christ to have done to him in his great Duell the same he now doth unto Christ fearfully servilely forcedly Who shall henceforth brag of the external homage he performs to the Son of God when he sees Satan himself fall down and worship What comfort can there be in that which is common to us with Devils who as they believe and tremble so they tremble and worship The outward bowing is the body of the action the disposition of the Soul is the soul of it therein lies the difference from the counterfeit stoopings of wicked men and spirits The religious heart serves the Lord in fear and rejoices in him with trembling What it doth is in way of service In service to his Lord whose Soveraignty is his comfort and protection in the fear of a son not of a slave in fear tempered with joy in a joy but allayed with trembling whereas the prostration of wicked men and Devils is only an act of form or of force as to their Judge as to their tormentor not as to their Lord in mere servility not in reverence in an uncomfortable dulness without all delight in a perfect horror without capacity of joy These worship without thanks because they fall down without the true affections of worship Whoso marvels to see the Devil upon his knees would much more marvel to hear what came from his mouth Jesu the Son of the most high God A confession which if we should hear without the name of the Author we should ask from what Saint it came Behold the same name given to Christ by the Devil which was formerly given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his name Jesus That awfull name whereat every knee shall bow in Heaven in earth and under the earth is called upon by this prostrate Devil And lest that should not import enough since others have been honoured by this name in Type he addes for full distinction The Son of the most high God The good Syrophenician and blind Bartimaeus could say The Son of David It was well to acknowledge the true descent of his pedigree according to the flesh but this infernall Spirit looks aloft and fetcheth his line out of the highest Heavens The Son of the most high God The famous confession of the prime Apostle which honoured him with a new name to immortality was no other then Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God and what other do I hear from the lips of a fiend None more Divine words could fall from the highest Saint Nothing hinders but that the veriest miscreant on earth yea the foulest Devil in Hell may speak holily It is no passing of judgment upon loose sentences So Peter should have been cast for a Satan in denying forswearing cursing and the Devil should have been set up for a Saint in confessing Jesus the Son of the most high God Fond hypocrite that pleasest thy self in talking well heare this Devil and when thou canst speak better then he look to fare better but in the mean time know that a smooth tongue and a foul heart carries away double judgments Let curious heads dispute whether the Devil knew Christ to be God In this I dare believe himself though in nothing else he knew what he believed what he believed that he confessed Jesus the Son of the most high God To the confusion of those semi-Christians that have either held doubtfully or ignorantly mis-known or blasphemously denied what the very Devils have professed How little can a bare speculation avail us in these cases of Divinity So far this Devil hath attained to no ease no comfort Knowledge alone doth but puffe up it is our love that edifies If there be not a sense of our sure interest in
when I see those Devils which are many in substance are one in name action habitation Who can too much brag of unity when it is incident unto wicked spirits All the praise of concord is in the subject if that be holy the consent is Angelical if sinfull devilish What a fearfull advantage have our spiritual enemies against us If armed troops come against single straglers what hope is there of life of victory How much doth it concern us to band our hearts together in a communion of Saints Our enemies come upon us like a torrent Oh let us not run asunder like drops in the dust All our united forces will be little enough to make head against this league of destruction Legion imports Order number conflict Order in that there is a distinction of regiment a subordination of Officers Though in Hell there be confusion of faces yet not confusion of degrees Number Those that have reckoned a Legion at the lowest have counted it six thousand others have more then doubled it Though here it is not strict but figurative yet the letter of it implies multitude How fearfull is the consideration of the number of Apostate Angels And if a Legion can attend one man how many must we needs think are they who all the world over are at hand to the punishment of the wicked the exercise of the good the tentation of both It cannot be hoped there can be any place or time wherein we may be secure from the onsets of these enemies Be sure ye lewd men ye shall want no furtherance to evil no torment for evil Be sure ye godly ye shall not want combatants to trie your strength and skill Awaken your courages to resist and stir up your hearts make sure the means of your safety There are more with us then against us The God of Heaven is with us if we be with him and our Angels behold the face of God If every Devil were a Legion we are safe Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we shall fear no evil Thou O Lord shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of our enemies and thy right hand shall save us Conflict All this number is not for sight for rest but for motion for action Neither was there ever hour since the first blow given to our first Parents wherein there was so much as a truce betwixt these adversaries As therefore strong frontier Towns when there is a peace concluded on both parts break up their garrison open their gates neglect their Bulwarks but when they hear of the enemy mustering his forces in great and unequal numbers then they double their guard keep Sentinell repair their Sconces so must we upon the certain knowledge of our numerous and deadly enemies in continual aray against us addresse our selves alwaies to a wary and strong resistance I do not observe the most to think of this ghostly hostility Either they do not find there are Tentations or those Tentations hurtful they see no worse then themselves and if they feel motions of evil arising in them they impute it to fancy or unreasonable appetite to no power but Nature's and those motions they follow without sensible hurt neither see they what harm it is to sin Is it any marvell that carnal eyes cannot discern spiritual Objects that the World who is the friend the vassal of Satan is in no war with him Elisha's servant when his eyes were opened saw troops of spiritual souldiers which before he discerned not If the eyes of our Souls be once enlightned by supernatural knowledge and the clear beams of Faith we shall as plainly descry the invisible powers of wickednesse as now our bodily eyes see Heaven and Earth They are though we see them not we cannot be safe from them if we do not acknowledge not oppose them The Devils are now become great suitors to Christ That he would not command them into the deep that he would permit their entrance into the swine What is this deep but hell both for the utter separation from the face of God and for the impossibility of passage to the region of Rest and Glory The very evil spirits then fear and expect a further degree of torment they know themselves reserved in those chains of darknesse for the judgment of the great Day There is the same wages due to their sins to ours neither are the wages paid till the work be done They tempting men to sin must needs sin grievously in tempting as with us men those that mislead into sin offend more then the actors Not till the upshot therefore of their wickednesse shall they receive the full measure of their condemnation This day this deep they tremble at what shall I say of those men that fear it not It is hard for men to believe their own unbelief If they were perswaded of this fiery dungeon this bottomlesse deep wherein every sin shall receive an horrible portion with the damned durst they stretch forth their hands to wickednesse No man will put his hand into a fiery Crucible to fetch gold thence because he knows it will burn him Did we as truly believe the everlasting burning of that infernal fire we durst not offer to fetch Pleasures or Profits out of the midst of those flames This degree of torment they grant in Christ's power to command they knew his power unresistible had he therefore but said Back to hell whence ye came they could no more have stai'd upon earth then they can now climbe into Heaven O the wonderfull dispensation of the Almighty who though he could command all the evil spirits down to their dungeons in an instant so as they should have no more opportunity of Temptation yet thinks fit to retain them upon earth It is not out of weaknesse or improvidence of that Divine hand that wicked spirits tyrannize here upon earth but out of the most wise and most holy ordination of God who knows how to turn evil into good how to fetch good out of evil and by the worst instruments to bring about his most just decrees Oh that we could adore that awfull and infinite power and chearfully cast our selves upon that Providence which keeps the Keyes even of Hell it self and either lets out or returns the Devils to their places Their other suit hath some marvell in moving it more in the grant That they might be suffered to enter into the Herd of Swine It was their ambition of some mischief that brought forth this desire that since they might not vex the body of man they might yet afflict men in their goods The Malice of these envious spirits reacheth from us to ours It is sore against their wills if we be not every way miserable If the Swine were Legally unclean for the use of the table yet they were naturally good Had not Satan known them usefull for man he had never desired their ruine But as Fencers will seem to fetch a blow at
swinge of common corruptions they shall both deliver their own Souls and help to withhold judgment from others The Gadarenes sue to Christ for his departure It is too much favour to attribute this to their modesty as if they held themselves unworthy of so Divine a Guest Why then did they fall upon this suit in a time of their losse Why did they not taxe themselves and intimate a secret desire of that which they durst not beg It is too much rigour to attribute it to the love of their Hogs and an anger at their losse then they had not intreated but expelled him It was their fear that moved this harsh suit a servile fear of danger to their persons to their goods lest he that could so absolutely command the Devils should have set these tormentors upon them lest their other Demoniacks should be dispossessed with like losse I cannot blame these Gadarenes that they feared This power was worthy of trembling at Their fear was unjust They should have argued This man hath power over men beasts devils it is good having him to our friend his presence is our safety and protection Now they contrarily mis-infer Thus powerfull is he it is good he were further off What miserable and pernicious misconstructions do men make of God of Divine Attributes and actions God is omnipotent able to take infinite vengeance of sin Oh that he were not He is provident I may be carelesse He is merciful I may sin He is holy Let him depart from me for I am a sinful man How witty Sophisters are natural men to deceive their own Souls to rob themselves of a God O Saviour how worthy are they to want thee that wish to be rid of thee Thou hast just cause to be weary of us even whiles we sue to hold thee but when once our wretched unthankfulnesse grows weary of thee who can pity us to be punished with thy departure Who can say it is other then righteous that thou shouldst regest one day upon us Depart from me ye wicked Contemplations THE FOURTH BOOK Containing The faithfull Canaanite The deaf and dumb man cured Zacheus John Baptist beheaded The five loaves and two fishes The walk upon the waters The bloody issue healed Jairus and his daughter The motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled The ten Lepers The pool of Bethesda Christ transfigured The woman taken in adultery The thankfull Penitent Martha and Mary The begger that was born blinde cured The stubborn Devil ejected The Widows mites The ambition of the two sons of Zebedee The tribute-money payd Lazarus dead Lazarus raised Christ's procession to the Temple Christ betrayed The Agony Peter and Malchus or Christ apprehended Christ before Caiaphas Christ before Pilate The Crucifixion The Resurrection The Ascension To the onely honour and glory of God my Saviour and to the benefit and behoof of his blessed Spouse the Church I do in all humility devote my self and all my Meditations The weak and unworthy Servant of both J. E. To the READER THose few spare houres which I could either borrow or steale from the many imployments of my busie Diocese I have gladly bestowed upon these not more recreative then usefull Contemplations for which I have been some years a debter to the Church of God now in a care to satisfie the desires of many and my owne pre-ingagement I send them forth into the light My Reader shall finde the discourse in all these passages more large and in the latter as the occasion gives more fervent And if he shall misse some remarkable stories let him be pleased to know that I have purposely omitted those pieces which consist rather of speech then of act and those that are in respect of the matter coincident to these I have selected I have so done my task as fearing not affecting length and as carefull to avoid the cloying of my Reader with other mens thoughts Such as they are I wish them as I hope they shall be beneficiall to God's Church and in them intend to set up my rest beseeching my Reader that he will mutually exchange his prayers for and with me who am the unworthiest of the Servants of Christ J. E. The faithfull Canaanite IT was our Saviours trade to doe good Therefore he came down from Heaven to earth therefore he changed one station of earth for another Nothing more commends Goodnesse then generality and diffusion whereas reservednesse and close-handed restraint blemish the glory of it The Sun stands not still in one point of Heaven but walks his daily round that all the inferiour world may share of his influences both in heat and light Thy bounty O Saviour did not affect the praise of fixedness but motionâ— one while I finde thee at Jerusalem then at Capernaum soon after in the utmost verge of Galilee never but doing good But as the Sun though he daily compass the world yet never walks from under his line never goes beyond the turning points of the longest and shortest day so neither didst thou O Saviour passe the bounds of thine own peculiar people Thou wouldest move but not wildly not out of thine own sphear wherein thy glorified estate exceeds thine humbled as far as Heaven is above earth Now thou art lift up thou drawest all men unto thee there are now no lists no limits of thy gracious visitations but as the whole earth is equidistant from Heaven so all the motions of the world lie equally open to thy bounty Neither yet didst thou want outward occasions of thy removal perhaps the very importunity of the Scribes and Pharisees in obtruding their Traditions drave thee thence perhaps their unjust offence at thy Doctrine There is no readier way to lose Christ then to clog him with humane ordinances then to spurn at his heavenly instructions He doth not alwaies subduce his Spirit with his visible presence but his very outward withdrawing is worthy of our sighs worthy of our tears Many a one may say Lord if thou hadst been here my Soul had not died Thou art now with us O Saviour thou art with us in a free and plentifull fashion how long thou knowest we know our deservings and fear Oh teach us how happy we are in such a guest and give us grace to keep thee Hadst thou walked within the Phoenician borders we could have told how to have made glad constructions of thy mercy in turning to the Gentiles thou that couldest touch the Lepers without uncleannesse couldest not be defiled with aliens but we know the partition wall was not yet broken down and thou that didst charge thy Disciples not to walk into the way of the Gentiles wouldst not transgresse thine own rule Once we are sure thou camest to the utmost point of the bounds of Galilee as not ever confined to the heart of Jewry thou wouldest sometimes blesse the outer skirts with thy presence No angle is too obscure for the Gospel the land of Zabulon and the land of Nepthali by the
way of the Sea beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people which sate in darknesse saw great light The Sun is not scornfull but looks with the same face upon every plot of earth not onely the stately palaces and pleasant gardens are visited by his beams but mean cottages but neglected boggs and mores God's word is like himself no accepter of persons the wilde Kern the rude Scythian the savage Indian are alike to it The Mercy of God will be sure to finde out those that belong to his Election in the most secret corners of the world like as his Judgments will fetch his enemies from under the hills and rocks The good Shepherd walks the wildernesse to seek one sheep strayed from many If there be but one Syrophoenician soul to be gained to the Church Christ goes to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon to fetch her Why are we weary to doe good when our Saviour underwent this perpetuall toyle in healing bodies and winning Souls There is no life happy but that which is spent in a continuall drudging for edification It is long since we heard of the name or nation of Canaanites All the Country was once so styled that people was now forgotten yet because this woman was of the blood of those Phoenicians which were anciently ejected out of Canaan that title is revived to her God keeps account of pedigrees after our oblivion that he may magnifie his mercies by continuing them to thousands of the generations of the just and by renewing favours upon the unjust No Nation carried such brands and scars of a Curse as Canaan To the shame of those carelesse Jews even a faithfull Canaanite is a suppliant to Christ whiles they neglect so great Salvation She doth not speak but cry Need and desire have raised her voice to an importunate clamour The God of mercy is light of hearing yet he loves a loud and vehement solicitation not to make himself inclinable to graunt but to make us capable to receive blessings They are words and not prayers which fall from carelesse lips If we felt our want or wanted not desire we could speak to God in no tune but cries If we would prevail with God we must wrestle and if we would wrestle happily with God we must wrestle first with our own dulnesse Nothing but cries can pierce Heaven Neither doth her vehemence so much argue her Faith as doth her compellation O Lord thou Son of David What Proselyte what Disciple could have said more O blessed Syrophoenician who taught thee this abstract of Divinity What can we Christians confesse more then the Deity and the Humanity the Messiaship of our glorious Saviour His Deity as Lord his Humanity as a Son his Messiaship as the Son of David Of all the famous progenitors of Christ two are singled out by an eminence David and Abraham a King a Patriarch and though the Patriarch were first in time yet the King is first in place not so much for the dignity of the Person as the excellence of the Promise which as it was both later and fresher in memory so more honourable To Abraham was promised multitude and blessing of seed to Davidâ—â—rpetuity â—â—rpetuity of dominion So as when God promiseth not to destroy his people it is for Abraham's sake when not to extinguish the Kingdome it is for David's sake Had she said The Son of Abraham she had not come home to this acknowledgment Abraham is the Father of the faithfull David of the Kings of Juda and Israel There are many faithfull there is but one King so as in this title she doth proclaim him the perpetual King of his Church the rod or flower which should come from the root of Jesse the true and onely Saviour of the world Whoso would come unto Christ to purpose must come in the right style apprehending a true God a true Man a true God and Man any of these severed from other makes Christ an Idol and our prayers sin Being thus acknowledged what suit is so fit for him as mercy Have mercy on me It was her daughter that was tormented yet she saies Have mercy on me Perhaps her possessed childe was senseless of her misery the parent feels both her sorrow and her own As she was a good woman so a good mother Grace and good nature have taught her to appropriate the afflictions of this divided part of her own flesh It is not in the power of another skin to sever the interest of our own loyns or womb We finde some fouls that burn themselves whiles they endeavour to blow out the fire from their young And even Serpents can receive their brood into their mouth to shield them from danger No creature is so unnatural as the reasonable that hath put off affection On me therefore in mine for my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil It was this that sent her to Christ It was this that must incline Christ to her I doubt whether she had inquired after Christ if she had not been vexed with her daughters spirit Our Afflictions are as Benhadad's best counsellors that sent him with a cord about his neck to the mercifull King of Israel These are the files whetstones that set an edge on our Devotions without which they grow dull and ineffectual neither are they stronger motives to our suit then to Christ's mercy We cannot have a better spokes-man unto God then our own misery That alone sues and pleads and importunes for us This which sets off men whose compassion is finite attracts God to us Who can plead discouragements in his accesse to the throne of Grace when our wants are our forcible advocates All our worthiness is in a capable misery All Israel could not example the Faith of this Canaanite yet she was thus tormented in her daughter It is not the truth or strength of our Faith that can secure us from the outward and bodily vexations of Satan against the inward and spiritual that can and will prevail it is no more antidote against the other then against feavers and dropsies How should it whenas it may fall out that these sufferings may be profitable and why should we exspect that the love of our God shall yield to forelay any benefit to the Soul He is an ill patient that cannot distinguish betwixt an affliction and the evil of affliction When the messenger of Satan buffets us it is enough that God hath said My grace is sufficient for thee Millions were in Tyre and Sidon whose persons whose children were untouched with that tormenting hand I hear none but this faithfull Woman say My daughter is grievously vexed of the Devil The worst of bodily afflictions are an insufficient proof of Divine displeasure She that hath most Grace complains of most discomfort Who would now expect any other then a kinde answer to so pious and faithfull a petition And behold he answered her not a word O holy Saviour we have oft found cause to wonder at
thy words never till now at thy silence A miserable suppliant cries and sues whiles the God of mercies is speechlesse He that comforts the afflicted addes affliction to the comfortlesse by a willing disrespect What shall we say then Is the fountain of Mercy dried up O Saviour couldst thou but hear she did not murmur not whisper but cry out couldst thou but pity but regard her that was as good as she was miserable If thy ears were open could thy bowels be shut Certainly it was thou that didst put it into the heart into the mouth of this woman to ask and to ask thus of thy self She could never have said O Lord thou son of David but from thee but by thee None calleth Jesus the Lord but by the holy Ghost Much more therefore didst thou hear the words of thine own making and well wert thou pleased to hear what thou thoughtest good to forbear to answer It was thine own grace that sealed up thy lips Whether for the triall of her patience and perseverance forâ— silence carried a semblance of neglect and a willing neglect laies strong siege to the best fort of the Soul Even calm tempers when they have been stirred have bewrayed impetuousness of Passion If there be any dregs in the bottom of the glasse when the water is shaken they will be soon seen Or whether for the more sharpning of her desires and raising of her zealous importunity Our holy longings are increased with delaies it whets our appetite to be held fasting Or whether for the more sweetning of the blessing by the difficulty or stay of obtaining The benefit that comes with ease is easily contemned Long and eager pursuit endears any favour Or whether for the ingaging of his Disciples in so charitable a suit Or whether for the wise avoidance of exception from the captious Jews or lastly for the drawing on of an holy and imitable pattern of faithfull perseverance and to teach us not to measure God's hearing of our suit by his present answer or his present answer by our own sense Whiles our weakness exspects thy words thy wisdome resolves upon thy silence Never wert thou better pleased to hear the acclamation of Angels then to hear this woman say O Lord thou son of David yet silence is thy answer When we have made our prayers it is an happy thing to hear the report of them back from Heaven but if we alwaies do not so it is not for us to be dejected and to accuse either our infidelity or thy neglect since we finde here a faithfull suitor met with a gracious Saviour and yet he answered her not a word If we be poor in spirit God is rich in mercy he cannot send us away empty yet he will not alwaies let us feel his condescent crossing us in our will that he may advance our benefit It was no small fruit of Christ's silence that the Disciples were hereupon moved to pray for her not for a mere dismission it had been no favour to have required this but a punishment for if to be held in suspense be miserable to be sent away with a repulse is more but for a mercifull grant They saw much passion in the woman much cause of passion they saw great discouragement on Christ's part great constancy on hers Upon all these they feel her misery and become suitors for her unrequested It is our duty in case of necessity to intercede for each other and by how much more familiar we are with Christ so much more to improve our interest for the relief of the distressed We are bidden to say Our Father not mine yea being members of one body we pray for our selves in others If the foot be prickt the back bends the head bows down the eyes look the hands stir the tongue calls for aide the whole man is in pain and labours for redresse He cannot pray or be heard for himself that is no mans friend but his own No prayer without faith no faith without charity no charity without mutual intercession That which urged them to speak for her is urged to Christ by them for her obtaining She cries after us Prayer is as an arrow if it be drawn up but a little it goes not far but if it be pull'd up to the head it flies strongly and pierces deep If it be but dribbled forth of carelesse lips it falls down at our foot the strength of our ejaculation sends it up into Heaven and fetches down a blessing The childe hath escaped many a stripe by his loud crying and the very unjust Judge cannot indure the widows clamour Heartless motions do but teach us to deny servent suits offer violence both to earth and Heaven Christ would not answer the woman but doth answer the Disciples Those that have a familiarity with God shall receive answers when strangers shall stand out Yea even of domesticks some are more intire He that lay in Jesus his bosome could receive that intelligence which was concealed from the rest But who can tell whether that silence or this answer be more grievous I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel What is this answer but a defence of that silence and seeming neglect Whiles he said nothing his forbearance might have been supposed to proceed from the necessity of some greater thoughts but now his answer professeth that silence to have proceeded from a willing resolution not to answer and therefore he doth not vouchsafe so much as to give to her the answer but to her solicitors that they might return his deniall from him to her who had undertaken to derive her suit to him I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Like a faithfull Embassadour Christ hath an eye to his commission That may not be violated though to an apparant advantage whither he is not sent he may not goe As he so all his have their fixed marks set at these they aime and think it not safe to shoot at rovers In matter of morality it is not for us to stand onely upon inhibitions avoiding what is forbidden but upon commands endeavouring only what is injoyned We need no other rule of our life then the intention of our several stations And if he that was God would take no further scope to himself then the limits of his commission how much doth it concern us frail men to keep within compass or what shall become of our lawlesness that live in a direct contrariety to the will of him that sent us Israel was Jacob's name from him derived to his posterity till the division of the Tribes under Jeroboam all that nation was Israel then the Father's name went to the most which were ten Tribes the name of the Son Juda to the best which were two Christ takes no notice of this unhappy division he remembers the antient name which he gave to that faithfull wrestler It was this Christ with whom Jacob strove it was he
light eschueth the light even in good To seek our own glory is not glory Although besides this bashfull desire of obscurity here is a meet regard of opportunity in the carriage of our actions The envy of the Scribes and Pharisees might trouble the passage of his Divine ministery their exasperation is wisely declined by this retiring He in whose hands time is knows how to make his best choice of seasons Neither was it our Saviours meaning to have this Miracle buried but hid Wisdome hath no better improvement then in distinguishing times and discreetly marshalling the circumstances of our actions which whosoever neglects shall be sure to shame his work and mar his hopes Is there a spiritual Patient to be cured Aside with him To undertake him before the face of the multitude is to wound not to heal him Reproof and good counsel must be like our Alms in secret so as if possible one eare or hand might not be conscious to the other As in some cases Confession so our Reprehension must be auricular The discreet Chirurgion that would cure a modest Patient whose secret complaint hath in it more shame then pain shuts out all eyes save his own It is enough for the God of Justice to say Thou didst it secretly but I will doe it before all Israel and before this Sun Our limited and imperfect wisedome must teach us to apply private redresses to private maladies It is the best remedy that is least seen and most felt What means this variety of ceremony O Saviour how many parts of thee are here active Thy finger is put into the eare thy spittle toucheâ—h the tongue thine eyes look up thy lungs sigh thy lips move to an Ephphatha Thy word alone thy beck alone thy wish alone yea the least act of velleity from thee might have wrought this cure Why wouldst thou imploy so much of thy self in this work Was it to shew thy liberty in not alwaies equally exercising the power of thy Deity in that one-while thine onely command shall raise the dead and eject Devils another while thou wouldest accommodate thy self to the mean and homely fashions of natural agents and condescending to our senses and customes take those waies which may carry some more near respect to the cure intended Or was it to teach us how well thou likest that there should be a ceremonious carriage of thy solemn actions which thou pleasest to produce cloathed with such circumstantial formes It did not content thee to put one finger into one eare but into either eare wouldst thou put a finger Both ears equally needed cure thou wouldest apply the means of cure to both The Spirit of God is the finger of God Then dost thou O Saviour put thy finger into our eare when thy Spirit inables us to hear effectually If we thrust our own fingers into our eares using such humane perswasions to our selves as arise from worldly grounds we labour in vain yea these stoppels must needs hinder our hearing the voice of God Hence the great Philosophers of the antient world the learned Rabbins of the Synagogue the great Doctors of a false faith are deaf to spiritual things It is only that finger of thy Spirit O blessed Jesu that can open our eares and make passage through our eares into our hearts Let that finger of thine be put into our eares so shall our deafnesse be removed and we shall hear not the loud thunders of the Law but the gentle whisperings of thy gracious motions to our Souls We hear for our selves but we speak for others Our Saviour was not content to open the eares only but to untie the tongue With the eare we hear with the mouth we confesse The same hand is applied to the tongue not with a drie touch but with spittle in allusion doubtlesse to the removal of the natural impediment of speech Moisture we know glibs the tongue and makes it apt to motion how much more from that Sacred mouth There are those whose ears are open but their mouths are still shut to God they understand but do not utter the wonderfull things of God There is but half a Cure wrought upon these men their eare is but open to hear their own judgment except their mouth be open to confesse their Maker and Redeemer O God do thou so moisten my tongue with thy Graces that it may run smoothly as the pen of a ready writer to the praise of thy Name Whiles the finger of our Saviour was on the tongue in the eare of the Patient his eye was in Heaven Never man had so much cause to look up to Heaven as he there was his home there was his throne He onely was from Heaven heavenly Each of us hath a good minde homeward though we meet with better sights abroad how much more when our home is so glorious above the region of our peregrination But thou O Saviour hadst not onely thy dwelling there but thy seat of Majesty There the greatest Angels adored thee it is a wonder that thine eye could be ever any where but there What doth thine eye in this but teach ours where to be fixed Every good gift and every perfect gift coming down from above how can we look off from that place whence we receive all good Thou didst not teach us to say O infinite God which art every where but O our father which art in Heaven There let us look up to thee Oh let not our eyes or hearts grovell upon this earth but let us fasten them above the hills whence cometh our salvation Thence let us acknowledge all the good we receive thence let us expect all the good we want Why our Saviour look'd up to Heaven though he had Heaven in himself we can see reason enough But why did he sigh Surely not for need The least motion of a thought was in him impetratory How could he chuse but be heard of his Father who was one with the Father Not for any fear of distrust but partly for compassion partly for example For compassion of those manifold infirmities into which sin had plunged mankinde a pitiful instance whereof was here presented unto him For example to fetch sighs from us for the miseries of others sighs of sorrow for them sighs of desire for their redresse This is not the first time that our Saviour spent sighs yea tears upon humane distresses We are not bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh if we so feel not the smart of our brethren that the fire of our passion break forth into the smoak of sighs Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not Christ was not silent whiles he cured the dumb his Ephphatha gave life to all these his other actions His sighing his spitting his looking up to Heaven were the acts of a man But his command of the eare and mouth to open was the act of God He could not command that which he made not His word is
I have heard the fame of his wonderful works and held it happiness enough for me to have seen his face and doth he take notice of my person of my name Surely the more that Zacheus knew himself the more doth he wonder that Christ should know him It was slander enough for a man to be a friend to a Publican yet Christ gives this friendly compellation to the chief of Publicans and honours him with this argument of a sudden intireness The favour is great but not singular Every elect of God is thus graced The Father knows the childes name as he calls the stars of Heaven by their names so doth he his Saints the stars on earth and it is his own rule to his Israel I have called thee by thy name thou art mine As God's children do not content themselves with a confused knowledge of him but aspire to a particular apprehension and sensible application so doth God again to them it is not enough that he knows them as in the croud wherein we see many persons none distinctly but he takes single and several knowledge of their qualities conditions motions events What care we that our names are obscure or contemned amongst men whiles they are regarded by God that they are raked up in the dust of earth whiles they are recorded in Heaven Had our Saviour said no more but Zacheus come down the poor man would have thought himself taxed for his boldness and curiosity it were better to be unknown then noted for miscarriage But now the next words comfort him For I must this day abide at thine house What a sweet familiarity was here as if Christ had been many years acquainted with Zacheus whom he now first saw Besides our use the Host is invited by the Guest and called to an inexspected entertainment Well did our Saviour hear Zacheus his heart inviting him though his mouth did not Desires are the language of the Soul those are heard by him that is the God of spirits We dare not doe thus to each other save where we have eaten much salt we scarce go where we are invited though the face be friendly and the entertainment great yet the heart may be hollow But here he that saw the heart and foreknew his welcome can boldly say I must this day abide at thine house What a pleasant kinde of entire familiarity there is betwixt Christ and a good heart If any man open I will come in and sup with him It is much for the King of Glory to come into a cottage and sup there yet thus he may doe and take some state upon him in sitting alone No I will so sup with him that he shall sup with me Earthly state consists in strangeness and affects a stern kinde of majesty aloof Betwixt God and us though there be infinite more distance yet there is a gracious affability and familiar intireness of conversation O Saviour what dost thou else every day but invite thy self to us in thy Word in thy Sacraments who are we that we should entertain thee or thou us dwarfs in Grace great in nothing but unworthiness Thy praise is worthy to be so much the more as our worth is less Thou that biddest thy self to us bid us be fit to receive thee and in receiving thee happy How graciously doth Jesus still prevent the Publican as in his sight notice compellâ—tion so in his invitation too That other Publican Levi bad Christ to his house but it was after Christ had bidden him to his Discipleship Christ had never been called to his feast if Levi had not been called into his family He loved us first he must first call us for he calls us out of love As in the general calling of Christianity if he did not say Seek ye my face we could never say Thy face Lord will I seek so in the specialties of our main benefits or imployments Christ must begin to us If we invite our selves to him before he invite himself to us the undertaking is presumptuous the success unhappy If Nathanael when Christ named him and gave him the memorial token of his being under the fig-tree could say Thou art the Son of God how could Zacheus do less in hearing himself upon this wilde fig-tree named by the same lips How must he needs think If he knew not all things he could not know me and if he knew not the hearts of men he could not have known my secret desires to entertain him He is a God that knows me and a merciful God that invites himself to me No marvel therefore if upon this thought Zacheus come down in hast Our Saviour said not Take thy leisure Zacheus but I will abide at thine house to day Neither did Zacheus upon this intimation sit still and say When the prease is over when I have done some errands of my office but he hasts down to receive Jesus The notice of such a guest would have quickned his speed without a command God loves not slack and lazy executions The Angels of God are described with wings and we pray to doe his will with their forwardness Yea even to Judas Christ saith What thou doest doe quickly O Saviour there is no day wherein thou dost not call us by the voice of thy Gospel what do we still lingring in the Sycomore How unkindely must thou needs take the delaies of our Conversion Certainly had Zacheus staid still in the Tree thou hadst balked his house as unworthy of thee What construction canst thou make of our wilful dilations but as a stubborn contempt How canst thou but come to us in vengeance if we come not down to entertain thee in a thankful obedience Yet do I not hear thee say Zacheus cast thy self down for hast this was the counsel of the Tempter to thee but Come down in hast And he did accordingly There must be no more hast then good speed in our performances we may offend as well in our heady acceleration as in our delay Moses ran so fast down the hill that he stumbled spiritually and brake the Tables of God We may so fast follow after Justice that we out-run Charity It is an unsafe obedience that is not discreetly and leisurely speedful The speed of his descent was not more then the alacrity of his entertainment He made hast and came down and received him joyfully The life of hospitality is chearfulness Let our chear be never so great if we do not read our welcome in our friends face as well as in his dishes we take no pleasure in it Can we marvel that Zacheus received Christ joyfully Who would not have been glad to have his house yea himself made happy with such a guest Had we been in the stead of this Publican how would our hearts have leapt within us for joy of such a presence How many thousand miles are measured by some devout Christians onely to see the place where his feet stood How much happier must he needs think
himself that owns the roof that receives him But oh the incomparable happiness then of that man whose heart receives him not for a day not for years of dayes not for millions of years but for eternity This may be our condition if we be not streightned in our own bowels O Saviour do thou welcome thy self to these houses of clay that we may receive a joyful welcome to thee in those everlasting habitations Zacheus was not more glad of Christ then the Jews were discontented Four vices met here at once Envy Scrupulousness Ignorance Pride Their eye was evil because Christ's was good I do not hear any of them invite Christ to his home yet they snarl at the honour of this unworthy Host they thought it too much happiness for a Sinner which themselves willingly neglected to sue for Wretched men they cannot see the Mercy of Christ for being bleared with the happiness of Zacheus yea that very Mercy which they see torments them If that viper be the deadliest which feeds the sweetest how poisonous must this disposition needs be that feeds upon Grace What a contrariety there is betwixt good Angels and evil men The Angels rejoyce at that whereat men pout and stomack men are ready to cry and burst for anger at that which makes musick in Heaven Oh wicked and foolish elder brother that feeds on hunger and his own heart without doors because his younger brother is feasting on the fat calf within Besides Envy they stand scrupulously upon the terms of Traditions These sons of the earth might not be conversed with their threshold was unclean Touch me not for I am holier then thou That he therefore who went for a Prophet should go to the house of a Publican and Sinner must needs be a great eye-sore They that might not go in to a Sinner cared not what sins entred into themselves the true cozens of those Hypocrites who held it a pollution to go into the Judgment-hall no pollution to murder the Lord of life There cannot be a greater argument of a false heart then to stumble at these straws and to leap over the blocks of gross impiety Well did our Saviour know how hainously offensive it would be to turn in to this Publican he knows and regards it not A Soul is to be won what cares he for idle misconstruction Morally good actions must not be suspended upon danger of causeless scandal In things indifferent and arbitrary it is fit to be overruled by fear of offence but if men will stumble in the plain ground of good let them fall without our regard not without their own peril I know not if it were not David's weakness to abstain from good words whiles the wicked were in place Let Justice be done in spite of the world and in spite of Hell Mercy Ignorance was in part guilty of these scruples they thought Christ either too holy to go to a Sinner or in going made unholy Foolish men to whom came he To you righteous Let himself speak I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Whither should the Physician go but to the sick the who le need him not Love is the best attractive of us and he to whom much is forgiven loves much O Saviour the glittering palaces of proud Justiciaries are not for thee thou lovest the lowly and ragged cottage of a contrite heart Neither could here be any danger of thy pollution Thy Sun could cast his beams upon the impurest dunghil and not be tainted It was free and safe for the Leper and Bloody-fluxed to touch thee thou couldst heal them they could not infect thee Neither is it otherwise in this moral contagion We who are obnoxious to evil may be insensibly defiled thy Purity was enough to remedy that which might marre a world Thou canst help us we cannot hurt thee Oh let thy presence ever bless us and let us ever bless thee for thy presence Pride was an attendant of this Ignorance so did they note Zacheus for a Sinner as if themselves had been none His sins were written in his forehead theirs in their breast The presumption of their secrecy makes them insult upon his notoriousness The smoke of pride flies still upward and in the mounting vanisheth Contrition beats it down and fetcheth tears from the tender eyes There are stage-sins and there are closet-sins These may not upbraid the other they may be more hainous though less manifest It is a dangerous vanity to look outward at other mens sins with scorn when we have more need to cast our eyes inward to see our own with humiliation Thus they stumbled and fell but Zacheus stood All their malicious murmur could not dishearten his Piety and Joy in the entertaining of Christ Before Zacheus lay down as a Sinner now he stands up as a Convert sinning is falling continuance in sin is lying down Repentance is rising and standing up Yet perhaps this standing was not so much the site of his Constancy or of his Conversion as of his Reverence Christ's affability hath not made him unmannerly Zacheus stood And what if the desire of more audibleness raised him to his feet In that smalness of stature it was not fit he should lose ought of his height It was meet so noble a proclamation should want no advantage of hearing Never was our Saviour better welcomed The penitent Publican makes his Will and makes Christ his Supervisor His Will consists of Legacies given of Debts paid gifts to the poor payments to the injuried There is Liberality in the former in the latter Justice in both the proportions are large Half to the poor fourfold to the wronged This hand sowed not sparingly Here must needs be much of his own that was well gotten whether left by patrimony or saved by parsimony or gained by honest improvement For when he had restored fourfold to every one whom he had oppressed yet there remained a whole half for pious uses and this he so distributes that every word commends his bounty I give and what is more free then gist In alms we may neither sell nor return nor cast away We sell if we part with them for importunity for vain-glory for retribution we return them if we give with respect to former offices this is to pay not to bestow we cast away if in our beneficence we neither regard order nor discretion Zacheus did neither cast away nor return nor sell but give I do give not I will The prorogation of good makes it thankless The alms that smell of the hand lose the praise It is twice given that is given quickly Those that deferre their gifts till their death-bed do as good as say Lord I will give thee something when I can keep it no longer Happy is the man that is his own executor I give my goods not anothers It is a thankless vanity to be liberal of another mans purse Whoso gives of that which he hath taken away from the owner doth more
in the Sea Where do we ever else finde any compulsion offered by Christ to his Disciples He was like the good Centurion he said to one Go and he goeth When he did but call them from their nets they came and when he sent them by paires into the Cities and Country of Juâ—aea to preach the Gospel they went There was never errand whereon they went unwillingly only now he constrained them to depart We may easily conceive how loth they were to leave him whether out of love or of common civility Peter's tongue did but when it was speak the heart of the rest Master thou knowest that I love thee Who could chuse but be in love with such a Master and who can willingly part from what he loves But had the respects been only common and ordinary how unfit might it seem to leave a Master now towards night in a wild place amongst strangers unprovided of the means of his passage Where otherwise therefore he needed but to bid now he constrains O Saviour it was ever thy manner to call all men unto thee Come to me all that labour and are heavy laden When didst thou ever drive any one from thee Neither had it been so now but to draw them closer unto thee whom thou seemedst for the time to abdicate In the mean while I know not whether more to excuse their unwillingness or to applaud their obedience As it shall be fully above so it was proportionally here below In thy presence O Saviour is the fulness of joy Once when thou askedst these thy Domesticks whether they also would depart it was answered thee by one tongue for all Master whither should we goe from thee thou hast the words of eternal life What a death was it then to them to be compelled to leave thee Sometimes it pleaseth the Divine goodness to lay upon his servants such commands as savour of harshness and discomfort which yet both in his intention and in the event are no other then gracious and soveraign The more difficulty was in the charge the more praise was in the obedience I do not hear them stand upon the terms of capitulation with their Master nor pleading importunately for their stay but instantly upon the command they yield and goe We are never perfect Disciples till we can depart from our reason from our will yea O Saviour when thou biddest us from thy self Neither will the multitude be gone without a dismission They had followed him whiles they were hungry they will not leave him now they are fed Fain would they put that honour upon him which to avoid he is fain to avoid them gladly would they pay a Kingdome to him as their shot for their late banquet he shuns both it and them O Saviour when the hour of thy Passion was now come thou couldst offer thy self readily to thine apprehenders and now when the glory of the world presses upon thee thou runnest away from a Crown Was it to teach us that there is less danger in suffering then in outward prosperity What do we dote upon that worldly honour which thou heldest worthy of avoidance and contempt Besides this reservedness it was devotion that drew Jesus aside He went alone up to the mountain to pray Lo thou to whom the greatest throng was a solitude in respect of the fruition of thy Father thou who wert uncapable of distraction from him with whom thou wert one wouldst yet so much act man as to retire for the opportunity of prayer to teach us who are nothing but wilde thoughts and giddy distractedness to goe aside when we would speak with God How happy is it for us that thou prayedst O Saviour thou prayedst for us who have not Grace enough to pray for our selves not worth enough to be accepted when we do pray Thy prayers which were most perfect and impetrative are they by which our weak and unworthy prayers receive both life and favour And now how assiduous should we be in our supplications who are empty of grace full of wants when thou who wert a God of all power praiedst for that which thou couldst command Therefore do we pray because thou praiedst therefore do we exspect to be graciously answered in our prayers because thou didst pray for us here on earth and now intercedest for us in Heaven The evening was come the Disciples look'd long for their Master and loath they were to have stirred without him but his command is more then the strongest wind to fill their sailes and they are now gone Their expectation made not the evening seem so long as our Saviours devotion made it seem short to him He is on the mount they on the sea yet whiles he was in the mount praying and lifting up his eyes to his Father he failes not to cast them about upon his Disciples tossed on the waves Those all-seeing eyes admit of no limits At once he sees the highest Heavens and the midst of the sea the glory of his Father and the misery of his Disciples Whatever prospects present themselves to his view the distress of his Followers is ever most noted How much more dost thou now O Saviour from the height of thy glorious advancement behold us thy wretched servants tossed on the unquiet sea of this World and beaten with the troublesome and threatning billows of Affliction Thou foresawest their toil and danger are thou dismissedst them and purposedly sendest them away that they might be tossed Thou that couldest prevent our sufferings by thy power wilt permit them in thy wisdome that thou maist glorifie thy mercy in our deliverance and confirm our Faith by the issue of our distresses How do all things now seem to conspire to the vexing of thy poor Disciples The night was sullen and dark their Master was absent the sea was boistrous the windes were high and contrary Had their Master been with them howsoever the elements had raged they had been secure Had their Master been away yet if the sea had been quiet or the winds fair the passage might have been indured Now both season and sea and winde and their Master's desertion had agreed to render them perfectly miserable Sometimes the Providence of God hath thought good so to order it that to his best servants there appeareth no glimpse of comfort but so absolute vexation as if Heaven and earth had plotted their full affliction Yea O Saviour what a dead night what a fearful tempest what an astonishing dereliction was that wherein thou thy self cryedst out in the bitterness of thine anguished Soul My God my God why hast thou for saken me Yet in all these extremities of misery our gracious God intends nothing but his greater glory and ours the Triumph of our Faith the crown of our Victory All that longsome and tempestuous night must the Disciples wear out in danger and horror as given over to the windes and waves but in the fourth watch of the night when they were wearied out with toils
so daunt the heart of those which are free from their power what a terror shall it be to live perpetually in the sight yea under the torture of thousands of legions of millions of Devils Oh the madness of wilfull sinners that will needs run themselves headily into so dreadfull a damnation It was high time for our Saviour to speak What with the Tempest what with the Apparition the Disciples were almost lost with fear How seasonable are his gracious redresses Till they were thus affrighted he would not speak when they were thus affrighted he would not hold his peace If his presence were fearfull yet his word was comfortable Be of good chear it is I yea it is his word only which must make his presence both known and comfortable He was present before they mistook him and feared there needs no other erection of their drooping hearts but It is I. It is cordial enough to us in the worst of our afflictions to be assured of Christs presence with us Say but It is I O Saviour and let evils doe their worst thou needest not say any more Thy voice was evidence enough so well were thy Disciples acquainted with the tongue of thee their Master that It is I was as much as an hundred names Thou art the good Shepherd we are not of thy Flock if we know thee not by thy voice from a thousand Even this one is a great word yea an ample style It is I. The same tongue that said to Moses I am hath sent thee saith now to the Disciples It is I I your Lord and Master I the commander of windes and waters I the soveraign Lord of Heaven and earth I the God of Spirits Let Heaven be but as one scroll and let it be written all over with titles they cannot expresse more then It is I. Oh sweet and seasonable word of a gracious Saviour able to calm all tempests able to revive all hearts Say but so to my Soul and in spight of Hell I am safe No sooner hath Jesus said I then Peter answers Master He can instantly name him that did not name himself Every little hint is enough to Faith The Church sees her Beloved as well through the Lattice as through the open Window Which of all the Followers of Christ gave so pregnant testimonies upon all occasions of his Faith of his Love to his Master as Peter The rest were silent whiles he both owned his Master and craved accesse to him in that liquid way Yet what a sensible mixture is here of Faith Distrust It is Faith that said Master it was Distrust as some have construed it that said If it be thou It was Faith that said Bid me come to thee implying that his word could as well enable as command it was Faith that durst step down upon that watery pavement it was Distrust that upon the sight of a mighty winde feared It was Faith that he walked it was Distrust that he sunk it was Faith that said Lord save me Oh the imperfect composition of the best Saint upon earth as far from pure Faith as from mere Infidelity If there be pure earth in the center all upward is mixed with the other elements contrarily pure Grace is above in the glorified Spirits all below is mixed with infirmity with corruption Our best is but as the Aire which never was never can be at once fully enlightned neither is there in the same Region one constant state of light It shall once be noon with us when we shall have nothing but bright beams of Glory now it is but the dawning wherein it is hard to say whether there be more light then darkness We are now fair as the Moon which hath some spots in her greatest beauty we shall be pure as the Sun whose face is all bright and glorious Ever since the time that Adam set his tooth in the Apple till our mouth be full of mould it never was it never can be other with us Far be it from us to settle willingly upon the dregs of our Infidelity far be it from us to be disheartened with the sense of our defects and imperfections We believe Lord help our unbelief Whiles I finde some disputing the lawfulness of Peter's suit others quarrelling his If it be thou let me be taken up with the wonder at the Faith the fervour the Heroical valour of this prime Apostle that durst say Bid me come to thee upon the waters He might have suspected that the Voice of his Master might have been as easily imitated by that imagined Spirit as his Person he might have feared the blustering tempest the threatning billows the yielding nature of that devouring element but as despising all these thoughts of misdoubt such is his desire to be near his Master that he saies Bid me come to thee upon the waters He saies not Come thou to me this had been Christ's act and not his Neither doth he say Let me come to thee this had been his act and not Christ's Neither doth he say Pray that I may come to thee as if this act had been out of the power of either But Bid me come to thee I know thou canst command both the waves and me me to be so light that I shall not bruise the moist surface of the waves the waves to be so solid that they shall not yield to my weight All things obey thee Bid me come to thee upon the waters It was a bold spirit that could wish it more bold that could act it No sooner hath our Saviour said Come then he sets his foot upon the unquiet Sea not fearing either the softness or the roughness of that uncouth passage We are wont to wonder at the courage of that daring man who first committed himself to the Sea in a frail Bark though he had the strength of an oaken planck to secure him how valiant must we needs grant him to be that durst set his foot upon the bare sea and shift his paces Well did Peter know that he who bade him could uphold him and therefore he both sues to be bidden and ventures to be upholden True Faith tasks it self with difficulties neither can be dismaied with the conceits of ordinary impossibilities It is not the scattering of straws or casting of mole-hills whereby the virtue of it is described but removing of mountain Like some courageous Leader it desires the honour of a danger and sues for the first onset whereas the worldly heart freezes in a lazie or cowardly fear and only casts for safety and ease Peter sues Jesus bids Rather will he work Miracles then disappoint the suit of a faithful man How easily might our Saviour have turned over this strange request of his bold Disiple and have said What my Omnipotence can doe is no rule for thy weakness It is no lesse then presumption in a mere man to hope to imitate the miraculous works of God and man Stay thou in the ship and wonder
him that ceremony must yield to substance and that main points of Obedience must take place of all Rituall complements It is not for nothing that note is made of the Countrey of this thankfull Leper He was a Samaritane The place is known and branded with the infamy of a Paganish mis-religion Outward disadvantage of place or parentage cannot block up the way of God's Grace and free election as contrarily the priviledges of birth and nature availe us nothing in spirituall occasions How sensible wert thou O Saviour of thine own beneficence Were there not ten cleansed but where are the nine The trouping of these Lepers together did not hinder thy reckoning It is both justice and wisdome in thee to keep a strict account of thy favours There is an wholesome and usefull art of forgetfulnesse in us men both of Benefits done and of Wrongs offered It is not so with God Our injuries indeed he soon puts over making it no small part of his style that he forgives iniquities but for his mercies there is no reason he should forget them they are worthy of more then our memory His favours are universall over all his works there is no creature that tasts not of his bounty his Sun and Rain are for others besides his friends but none of his good turns escapes either his knowledge or record Why should not we O God keep a book of our receits from thee which agreeing with thine may declare thee bounteous and us thankfull Our Saviour doth not ask this by way of doubt but of exprobration Full well did he count the steps of those absent Lepers he knew where they were he upbraids their ingratitude that they were not where they should have been It was thy just quarrell O Saviour that while one Samaritane returned nine Israelites were healed and returned not Had they been all Samaritanes this had been faulty but now they were Israelites their ingratitude was more foul then their Leprosie The more we are bound to God the more shamefull is our unthankfulnesse There is scarce one in ten that is carefull to give God his own this neglect is not more generall then displeasing Christ had never missed their presence if their absence had not been hatefull and injurious The Pool of Bethesda Meditated on in a Sermon preached at the Court before King James of Blessed memory To the Reader THe Reader may be pleased to understand that my manner hath still been first to passe through all these Divine Histories by way of Sermons and then after to gather the quintessence of those larger discourses into these formes of Meditations which he sees Onely I have thought good upon these two following heads for some good reasons to publish the Sermons in their own shape as they were delivered without alteration It seemed not amisse that some of those metalls should be shewn in the oare whereof so great a quantity was presented in the wedge The Pool of Bethesda O Therwhere ye may look long and see no Miracle but here behold two Miracles in one view the former of the Angel curing Diseases the later of the God of Angels Christ Jesus preventing the Angel in his Cure Even the first Christ wrought by the Angel the second immediatly by himself The first is incomparable for as Montanus truly observes there is no one miraculum perpetuum but this one in the whole Book of God Be content to spend this hour with me in the porches of Bethesda and consider with me the Topography the Aitiology the Chronography of this Miracle These three limit our speech and your patient attention The Chronography which is first in place and time offers us two heads 1. a Feast of the Jewes 2. Christ going up to the Feast The Jews were full of Holy-days both of God's institution and the Churches Of God's both weekly monthly anniversary Weekly that one of seven which I would to God we had learned of them to keep better In this regard it was that Seneca said the Jewes did Septimam aetatis partem perdere lose the seventh part of their life Monthly the New moons Numb 18. Anniversary Easter Pentecost and the September-feasts The Churches both the Purim by Mardocheus and the Encaenia by Judas Maccabaeus which yet Christ honored by his solemnization John 10. Surely God did this for the chearfulnesse of his people in his service hence the Church hath laudably imitated this example To have no Feasts is sullen to have too many is Paganish and Superstitious Neither would God have cast the Christian Easter upon the just time of the Jewish Pasch and their Whitsontide upon the Jewish Pentecost if he would not have had these Feasts continued And why should the Christian Church have lesse power then the Jewish Synagogue Here was not a mere Feriation but a Feasting they must appeare before God cum muneribus with gifts The tenth part of their encrease must be spent upon the three solemn Feasts besides their former tithes to Levi Deut. 14. 23. There was no holy-day wherein they feasted above six hours and in some of them Tradition urged them to their quantities of drink And David when he would keep holy-day to the Ark allows every Israelite a cake of bread a piece of flesh a bottle of wine not a dry dinner prandium caninum not a mere drinking of wine without meat but to make up a perfect feast Bread Flesh Wine 2. Sam. 6. The true Purims of this Iland are those two Feasts of August and November He is no true Israelite that keeps them not as the daies which the Lord hath made When are joy and triumphs seasonable if not at Feasts but not excesse Pardon me I know not how Feasts are kept at the Court but as Job when he thought of the banquets of his Sons sayes It may be they have sinned so let me speak at peradventures If sensuall immoderation should have set her foot into these Christian Feasts let me at least say with indulgent Ely Non est bona fama filii It is no good report my sons Do ye think that S Paul's rule Non in comessationibus ebrietate not in surfeiting and drunkennesse was for work-days only The Jewes had a conceit that on their Sabbath and. Feast-days the Devils fled from their Cities ad montes umbrosos to the shadie mountains Let it not be said that on our Christian Feasts they should è montibus aulam petere and that he seeks and finds not loca arida but madida God forbid that Christians should sacrifice to Bacchus in stead of the ever-living God and that on the day when you should have been blown up by treacherous fire from earth to Heaven you should fetch down the fire of God's anger from Heaven upon you by swilling and surfeits God forbid God's service is unum necessarium one thing necessary saith Christ Homo cbrius superflua creatura A drunken man is a superfluous creature saith Ambrose How ill do those two agree
our Souls may be cured and through all the degrees of Grace may be carried to the full height of their Glory The first Part of the Meditations upon the Transfiguration of Christ In a Sermon preacht at Havering-Bower before K. James of Blessed memory THere is not in all Divinity an higher speculation then this of Christ transfigured Suffer me therefore to lead you up by the hand into Mount Tabor for nearer to Heaven ye cannot come while ye are upon earth that you may see him glorious upon earth the Region of his shame and abasement who is now glorious in Heaven the throne of his Majestie He that would not have his Transfiguration spoken of till he were raised would have it spoken of all the world over now that he is raised and ascended that by this momentany glory we may judge of the eternal The circumstances shall be to us as the skirts of the Hill which we will climb up lightly the Time place Attendants Company The Time after six dayes the Place an high hill apart the Attendants Peter James John the Company Moses and Elias which when we have passed on the top of the hill shall appear to us that sight which shall once make us glorious and in the mean time happy All three Evangelists accord in the Terminus à quo that it was immediately after those words There be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death till they have seen the Son of Man come in his Kingdome Wherein methinks the act comments upon the words Peter James and John were these some they tasted not of death till they saw this Heavenly image of the Royalty of Christ glorified But the Terminus quò disagrees a little Matthew and Mark say after six Luke post ferè octo which as they are easily reconciled by the usual distinction of inclusivè and exclusivè necessary for all computations and Luke's about eight so methinks seem to intimate God's seventh day the Sabbath why should there be else so precise mention of six dayes after and about eight but to imply that day which was betwixt the sixth and eighth God's day was fittest for so Divine a work and well might that day which imported God's rest and mans glory be used for the clear representation of the rest and glory of God and man But in this conjecture for ought I know I goe alone I dare not be too resolute Certainly it was the seventh whether it were that seventh the seventh after the promise of the glory of his Kingdome exhibited and this perhaps not without a mystery God teacheth both by words and acts saith Hilary that after six Ages of the world should be Christs glorious appearance and our transfiguration with him But I know what our Saviours farewel was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not for us to know But if we may not know we may conjecture yet not above that we ought faith S. Paul we may not super sapere as Tertullian's phrase is For the Place tradition hath taken it still for Tabor I list not to cross it without warrant This was an high Hill indeed thirty furlongs high saith Josephus mirâ rotundiâ—ate sublimis saith Hierome and so steep that some of our English travellers that have desired to climbit of late have been glad to give it up in the mid-way and to measure the rest with their eyes Doubtless this Hill was a Symbol of Heaven being near it as in situation in resemblance Heaven is expressed usually by the name of God's hill and Nature or this appellation taught the Heathens to figure it by their Olympus All Divine affairs of any magnificence were done on Hils On the hill of Sinai was the Law delivered on the hill of Moriah was Isaac to be sacrificed whence Abraham's posie is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in monte providebitur on the hill of Rephidim stood Moses with the rod of God in his stretched hand and figured him crucified upon the hill whom Joshua figured victorious in the valley on the hils of Ebal and Gerizim were the Blessings and Curses on Carmel was Eliah's sacrifice The Phrontisteria Schools or Universities of the Prophets were still Ramah and Gibeah excelsa High places Who knows not that on the hill of Sion stood the Temple I have looked up to the hils saith the Psalmist And Idolatry in imitation had their hill-altars On the Mount of Olives was Christ wont to send up his Prayers and sent up himself And here Luke saith he went up to an high hill to pray not for that God makes difference of places to whose immensity Heaven it self is a valley It was an heathenish conceit of those Aramites that God is Deus montium the God of the mountains but because we are commonly more disposed to good by either the freedom of our scope to Heaven or the awfulness or solitary silence of places which as one saith strikes a kinde of adoration into us or by our local removal from this attractive body of the earth howsoever when the body sees it self above the earth the eye of the Minde is more easily raised to her Heaven It is good to take all advantage of place setting aside superstition to further our Devotion Aaron and Hur were in the mountain with Moses and held up his hands Aaron say some Allegorists is mountainous Hur fiery Heavenly Meditation and the fire of Charity must lift up our prayers to God As Satan carried up Christ to an high hill to tempt him so he carries up himself to be freed from temptation and distraction If ever we would be transfigured in our disposition we must leave the earth below and abandon all worldly thoughts Venite ascendamus Oh come let us climb up to the hill where God sees or is seen saith devout Bernard O all ye cares distractions thoughtfulness labours pains servitudes stay me here with this ass my body till I with the boy that is my Reason and Understanding shall worship and return saith the same Father wittily alluding to the journey of Abraham for his sacrifice Wherefore then did Christ climb up this high hill Not to look about him but saith S. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray not for prospect but for devotion that his thoughts might climb up yet nearer to Heaven Behold how Christ entred upon all his great works with Prayers in his mouth When he was to enter into that great work of his Humiliation in his Passion he went into the Garden to pray when he is to enter into this great work of his Exaltation in his Transfiguring he went up into the mountain to pray he was taken up from his knees to both O noble example of Piety and Devotion to us He was God that prayed the God that he prayed to he might have commanded yet he prayed that we men might learn of him to pray to him What should we men dare to doe without prayers when he that was God would doe nothing
therefore say to you with the Psalmist I have said ye are Gods if ye were transfigured in Tabor could ye be more but ye shall die like men there is your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was a worthy and witty note of Hierome that amongst all trees the Cedars are bidden to praise God which are the tallest and yet Dies Domini super omnes Cedros Libani Esay 2. Ye gallants whom a little yellow earth and the webs of that curious worm have made gorgeous without and perhaps proud within remember that ere long as one worm decks you without so another worm shall consume you within and that both the earth that you pranck up and that earth wherewith you pranck it is running back into dust Let not your high estate hide from you your fatal humiliation let not your Purples hide from you your Winding-sheet But even on the top of Tabor think of the depth of the Grave think of your departure from men while ye are advanced above men We are now ascended to the top of the Hill Let us therefore stand and see and wonder at this great sight as Moses to see the bush flaming and not consumed so we to see the Humanity continuing it self in the midst of these beams of Glory Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in the form of a servant now for the time he was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transformed That there is no cause why Maldonat should so inveigh against some of ours yea of his own as Jansenius who translates it Transformation for what is the external form but the figure and their own Vulgar as hotly as he takes it reads it Philip. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 formam servi accipiens There is no danger in this ambiguity Not the substantial form but the external fashion of Christ was changed he having three forms as Bernard distinguishes contemptam splendidam Divinam changeth here the first into the second This is one of the rarest occurrences that ever befel the Saviour of the World I am wont to reckon up these four principal Wonders of his life Incarnation Tentation Transfiguration and Agonie the first in the Womb of the Virgin the second in the Wilderness the third in the Mount the fourth in the Garden the first that God should become man the second that God and man should be tempted and transported by Satan the third that man should be glorified upon earth the last that he which was man and God should sweat blood under the sense of Gods wrath for man And all these either had the Angels for witnesses or the immediate voice of God The first had Angels singing the second Angels ministring the third the voice of God thundring the fourth the Angels comforting that it may be no wonder the Earth marvels at those things whereat the Angels of Heaven stand amazed Bernard makes three kinds of wonderful changes Sublimitas in humilitatem Height to lowliness when the Word took flesh Contemptibilitas in Majestatem when Christ transformed himself before his Disciples Mutabilitas in Aeternitatem when he rose again and ascended to Heaven to reign for ever Ye see this is one of them and as Tabor did rise out of the valley of Galilee so this Exaltation did rise out of the midst of Christ's Humiliation Other marvels do increase his dejection this onely makes for his Glory and the glory of this is matchable with the humiliation of all the rest That Face wherein before saith Esay there was no form nor beautie now shines as the Sun That Face which men hid their faces from in contempt now shines so that mortal eyes could not chuse but hide themselves from the lustre of it and immortal receive their beams from it He had ever in vultu sidereum quiddam as Hierome speaks a certain heavenly Majesty and port in his countenance which made his Disciples follow him at first sight but now here was the perfection of supercelestial brightness It was a Miracle in the Three Children that they so were delivered from the flames that their very garments smelt not of the fire it is no less Miracle in Christ that his very garments were died Celestial and did savour of his Glory like as Aaron was so anointed on his head and beard that his skirts were all perfumed His clothes therefore shined as snow yea that were but a waterish white as the Light it self saith S. Mark and Matthew in the most Greek Copies That seamless coat as it had no welt so it had no spot The King's Son is all fair even without O excellent Glory of his Humanitie The best Diamond or Carbuncle is hid with a case but this brightness pierceth through all his garments and makes them lightsome in him which use to conceal light in others Herod put him on in mockage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 23. not a white but a bright robe the ignorance whereof makes a shew of disparity in the Evangelists but God the Father to glorifie him cloaths his very garments with Heavenly splendor Behold thou art fair my beloved behold thou art fair and there is no spot in thee Thine head is as fine gold thy mouth is as sweet things and thou art wholly delectable Come forth ye daughters of Sion and behold King Salomon with the Crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of the gladness of his heart O Saviour if thou wert such in Tabor what art thou in Heaven If this were the glory of thy Humanity what is the presence of thy Godhead Let no man yet wrong himself so much as to magnifie this happiness as anothers and to put himself out of the participation of this glory Christ is our head we are his members As we all were in the First Adam both innocent and sinning so are we in the Second Adam both shining in Tabor and bleeding sweat in the Garden And as we are already happy in him so shall we be once in our selves by and through him He shall change our vile bodies that they may be like his glorious body Behold our Pattern and rejoyce Like his glorious body These very bodies that are now cloddie like the earth shall once be bright as the Sun and we that now see clay in one anothers faces shall then see nothing but Heaven in our countenances and we that now set forth our bodies with clothes shall then be clothed upon with Immortality out of the wardrobe of Heaven And if ever any painted face should be admitted to the sight of this Glory as I much fear it yea I am sure God will have none but true faces in Heaven they would be ashamed to think that ever they had faces to daub with these beastly pigments in comparison of this Heavenly complexion Let us therefore look upon this flesh not so much with contempt of what it was and is as with a joyfull hope of what it shall be And when our courage is assaulted with the
merry Ye delicatest Courtiers tell me if Pleasure it self have not an unpleasant tediousness hanging upon it and more sting then honey And whereas all happiness even here below is in the vision of God how is our spiritual eye hindered as the body is from his Object by darkness by false light by aversion Darkness he that doth sin is in darkness False light whilst we measure eternal things by temporary Aversion while as weak eyes hate the light we turn our eyes from the true and immutable good to the fickle and uncertain We are not on the hill but the valley where we have tabernacles not of our own making but of clay and such as wherein we are witnesses of Christ not transfigured in glory but blemished with dishonour dishonoured with oaths and blasphemies recrucified with our sins witnesses of God's Saints not shining in Tabor but mourning in darkness and in stead of that Heavenly brightness cloathed with sackcloth and ashes Then and there we shall have tabernacles not made with hands eternal in the heavens where we shall see how sweet the Lord is we shall see the triumphs of Christ we shall hear and sing the Hallelujahs of Saints Quae nunc nos angit vesania vitiorum sitire absinthium c. saith that devour Father Oh how hath our corruption bewitched us to thirst for this wormwood to affect the shipwracks of this world to dote upon the misery of this fading life and not rather to fly up to the felicity of Saints to the society of Angels to that blessed contemplation wherein we shall see God in himself God in us our selves in him There shall be no sorrow no pain no complaint no fear no death There is no malice to rise against us no misery to afflict us no hunger thirst weariness tentation to disquiet us There O there one day is better then a thousand There is rest from our labours peace from our enemies freedome from our sins How many clouds of discontentment darken the Sunshine of our joy while we are here below Vae nobis qui vivimus plangere quae pertulimus dolere quae sentimus timere quae exspectamus Complaint of evils past sense of present fear of future have shared our lives amongst them Then shall we be semper laeti semper satiati alwaies joyfull alwaies satisfied with the vision of that God in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Shall we see that heathen Cleombrotus abandoning his life and casting himself down from the rock upon an uncertain noise of immortality and shall not we Christians abandon the wicked superfluities of life the pleasures of sin for that life which we know more certainly then this What stick we at my beloved Is there a Heaven or is there none have we a Saviour there or have we none We know there is a Heaven as sure as that there is an earth below us we know we have a Saviour there as sure as there are men that we converse with upon earth we know there is happiness as sure as we know there is misery and mutability upon earth Oh our miserable sottishness and infidelity if we do not contemn the best offers of the world and lifting up our eyes and hearts to Heaven say Bonum est esse hîc Even so Lord Jesus come quickly To him that hath purchased and prepared this Glory for us together with the Father and Blessed Spirit one Incomprehensible God be all praise for ever Amen The Prosecution of the Transfiguration BEfore the Disciples eyes were dazled with Glory now the brightness of that glory is shaded with a Cloud Frail and feeble eyes of mortality cannot look upon an Heavenly lustre That Cloud imports both Majesty and Obscuration Majesty for it was the testimony of God's presence of old the Cloud covered the Mountain the Tabernacle the Oracle He that makes the clouds his Chariot was in a cloud carried up into Heaven Where have we mention of any Divine representation but a Cloud is one part of it What comes nearer to Heaven either in place or resemblance Obscuration for as it shew'd there was a Majesty and that Divine so it shew'd them that the view of that Majesty was not for bodily eyes Like as when some great Prince walks under a Canopy that veile shews there is a Great person under it but withall restrains the eye from a free sight of his person And if the cloud were clear yet it shaded them Why then was this cloud interposed betwixt that glorious Vision and them but for a check of their bold eyes Had they too long gazed upon this resplendent spectacle as their eyes had been blinded so their hearts had perhaps grown to an over-bold familiarity with that Heavenly Object How seasonably doth the cloud intercept it The wise God knows our need of these vicissitudes and allayes If we have a light we must have a cloud if a light to chear us we must have a cloud to humble us It was so in Sinai it was so in Sion it was so in Olivet it shall never be but so The natural day and night do not more duely interchange then this light and cloud Above we shall have the light without the cloud a clear vision and fruition of God without all dim and sad interpositions below we cannot be free from these mists and clouds of sorrow and misapprehension But this was a bright cloud There is difference betwixt the cloud in Tabor and that in Sinai This was clear that darksome There is darkness in the Law there is light in the Grace of the Gospel Moses was there spoken to in darkness here he was spoken with in light In that dark cloud there was terrour in this there was comfort Though it were a Cloud then yet it was bright and though it were bright yet it was a Cloud With much light there was some shade God would not speak to them concerning Christ out of darkness neither yet would he manifest himself to them in an absolute brightness All his appearances have this mixture What need I other instance then in these two Saints Moses spake oft to God mouth to mouth yet not so immediately but that there was ever somewhat drawn as a curtain betwixt God and him either fire in Horeb or smoak in Sinai so as his face was not more veiled from the people then God's from him Elias shall be spoken to by God but in the Rock and under a Mantle In vain shall we hope for any revelation from God but in a cloud Worldly hearts are in utter darkness they see not so much as the least glimpse of these Divine beams not a beam of that inaccessible light The best of his Saints see him here but in a cloud or in a glass Happy are we if God have honoured us with these Divine representations of himself Once in his light we shall see light I can easily think with what amazedness these three
Disciples stood compassed in that bright Cloud exspecting some miraculous event of so Heavenly a Vision when suddenly they might hear a voice sounding out of that Cloud saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him They need not be told whose that voice was the place the matter evinced it No Angel in Heaven could or durst have said so How gladly doth Peter afterwards recount it For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son c. It was onely the eare that was here taught not the eye As of Horeb so of Sinai so of Tabor might God say Ye saw no shape nor image in that day that the Lord spake unto you He that knows our proneness to idolatry avoids those occasions which we might take to abuse our own fansies Twice hath God spoken these words to his own Son from Heaven once in his Baptisme and now again in his Transfiguration Here not without some oppositive comparison not Moses not Elias but This. Moses and Elias were Servants this a Son Moses and Elias were sons but of grace and choice this is that Son the Son by nature Other sons are beloved as of favour and free election this is The Beloved as in the unitie of his essence Others are so beloved that he is pleased with themselves this so beloved that in and for him he is pleased with mankinde As the relation betwixt the Father and the Son is infinite so is the Love We measure the intention of Love by the extention the love that rests in the person affected alone is but streight true Love descends like Aaron's Ointment from the head to the skirts to children friends allyes O incomprehensible large love of God the Father to the Son that for his sake he is pleased with the World O perfect and happy complacence Out of Christ there is nothing but enmity betwixt God and the Soul in him there can be nothing but peace When the beams are met in one center they do not only heat but burn Our weak love is diffused to many God hath some the world more and therein wives children friends but this infinite love of God hath all the beams of it united in one onely Object the Son of his Love Neither doth he love any thing but in the participation of his Love in the derivation from it O God let me be found in Christ and how canst thou but be pleased with me This one voice proclaimes Christ at once the Son of God the Reconciler of the world the Doctor and Law-giver of his Church As the Son of God he is essentially interessed in his Love as he is the Reconciler of the world in whom God is well pleased he doth most justly challenge our love and adherence as he is the Doctor and Law-giver he doth justly challenge our audience our obedience Even so Lord teach us to hear and obey thee as our Teacher to love thee and believe in thee as our Reconciler and as the eternal Son of thy Father to adore thee The light caused wonder in the Disciples but the voice astonishment They are all falne down upon their faces Who can blame a mortal man to be thus affected with the voice of his Maker Yet this word was but plausible and hortatory O God how shall flesh and blood be other then swallowed up with the horror of thy dreadful sentence of death The Lion shall roar who shall not be afraid How shall those that have slighted the sweet voice of thine invitations call to the rocks to hide them from the terror of thy Judgments The God of mercies pities our infirmities I do not hear our Saviour say Ye lay sleeping one while upon the earth now ye lye astonished Ye could neither wake to see nor stand to hear now lye still and tremble But he graciously touches and comforts them Arise fear not That voice which shall once raise them up out of the earth might well raise them up from it That hand which by the least touch restored sight lims life might well restore the spirits of the dismaied O Saviour let that soveraign hand of thine touch us when we lye in the trances of our griefs in the bed of our securities in the grave of our sins and we shall arise They looking up saw no man save Jesus alone and that doubtless in his wonted form All was now gone Moses Elias the Cloud the Voice the Glory Tabor it self cannot be long blessed with that Divine light and those shining guests Heaven will not allow to earth any long continuance of Glory Only above is constant happiness to be look'd for and injoyed where we shall ever see our Saviour in his unchangeable brightness where the light shall never be either clouded or varied Moses and Elias are gone only Christ is left The glory of the Law and the Prophets was but temporary yea momentany that onely Christ may remain to us intire and conspicuous They came but to give testimony to Christ when that is done they are vanished Neither could these raised Disciples finde any miss of Moses and Elias when they had Christ still with them Had Jesus been gone and left either Moses or Elias or both in the Mount with his Disciples that presence though glorious could not have comforted them Now that they are gone and he is left they cannot be capable of discomfort O Saviour it matters not who is away whiles thou art with us Thou art God all-sufficient what can we want when we want not thee Thy presence shall make Tabor it self an Heaven yea Hell it self cannot make us miserable with the fruition of thee The Woman taken in Adultery WHat a busie life was this of Christs He spent the night in the mount of Olives the day in the Temple whereas the night is for a retired repose the day for company His retiredness was for prayer his companiableness was for preaching All night he watches in the Mount all the morning he preaches in the Temple It was not for pleasure that he was here upon earth his whole time was penal and toilsome How do we resemble him if his life were all pain and labour ours all pastime He found no such fair success the day before The multitude was divided in their opinion of him messengers were sent and suborned to apprehend him yet he returns to the Temple It is for the sluggard or the coward to plead a Lion in the way upon the calling of God we must overlook and contemn all the spight and opposition of men Even after an ill harvest we must sow and after denials we must woe for God This Sun of Righteousness prevents that other and shines early with wholesome doctrines upon the Soules of his hearers The Auditory is both thronged and attentive Yet not all with the same intentions If the people came to learn the Scribes and
I am baptized O Saviour even thou who wert one with thy Father hast a Cup of thine own never Potion was so bitter as that which was mixed for thee Yea even thy draught is stinted it is not enough for thee to sip of this Cup thou must drink it up to the very dregs When the vinegar and gall were tendred to thee by men thou didst but kiss the cup but when thy Father gave into thine hands a potion infinitely more distastful thou for our health didst drink deep of it even to the bottome and saidst It is finished And can we repine at those unpleasing draughts of Affliction that are tempered for us sinful men when we see thee the Son of thy Fathers love thus dieted We pledge thee O Blessed Saviour we pledge thee according to our weakness who hast begun to us in thy powerful suffereings Onely do thou enable us after some four faces made in our reluctation yet at last willingly to pledge thee in our constant Sufferings for thee As thou must be drenched within so must thou be baptized without Thy Baptisme is not of water but of blood both these came from thee in thy Passion we cannot be thine if we partake not of both If thou hast not grudged thy precious blood to us well maiest thou challenge some worthless drops from us When they talk of thy Kingdome thou speakest of thy bitter Cup of thy bloody Baptisme Suffering is the way to reigning Through many tribulations must we enter into the Kingdome of Heaven There was never wedge of gold that did not first pass the fire there was never pure grain that did not undergoe the flail In vain shall we dream of our immediate passage from the pleasures and jollity of earth to the glory of Heaven Let who will hope to walk upon Roses and Violets to the throne of Heaven O Saviour let me trace thee by the track of thy Blood and by thy red steps follow thee to thine eternal rest and Happiness I know this is no easie task else thou hadst never said Are ye able Who should be able if not they that had been so long blessed with thy presence informed by thy doctrine and as it were beforehand possessed of their Heaven in thee Thou hadst never made them judges of their power if thou couldst not have convinced them of their weakness Alas how full of feebleness is our body and our minde of impatience If but a Bee sting our flesh it swels and if but a tooth ake the head and heart complain How small trifles make us weary of our selves What can we doe without thee without thee what can we suffer If thou be not O Lord strong in my weakness I cannot be so much as weak I cannot so much as be Oh do thou prepare me for my day and enable me to my trials I can doe all things through thee that strengthenest me The motion of the two Disciples was not more full of infirmity then their answer We are able Out of an eager desire of the Honour they are apt to undertake the condition The best men may be mistaken in their own powers Alas poor men when it came to the issue they ran away and I know not whether one without his coat It is one thing to suffer in speculation another in practice There cannot be a worse signe then for a man in a carnal presumption to vaunt of his own abilities How justly doth God suffer that man to be foiled purposely that he may be ashamed of his own vain self-confidence O God let me ever be humbly dejected in the sense of mine own insufficiency let me give all the Glory to thee and take nothing to my self but my infirmities Oh the wonderful mildness of the Son of God! He doth not rate the two Disciples either for their ambition in suing or presumption in undertaking but leaving the worst he takes the best of their answer and omitting their errors incourages their good intentions Ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with my baptisme but to sit on my right hand and my left is not mine to give but to them for whom it is prepared of my Father I know not whether there be more mercy in the concession or satisfaction in the denial Were it not an high Honour to drink of thy Cup O Saviour thou hadst not fore-promised it as a favour I am deceived if what thou grantest were much less then that which thou deniest To pledge thee in thine own Cup is not much less dignity and familiarity then to sit by thee If we suffer with thee we shall also reign together with thee What greater promotion can flesh and blood be capable of then a conformity to the Lord of Glory Enable thou me to drink of thy Cup and then set me where thou wilt But O Saviour whiles thou dignifiest them in thy grant dost thou disparage thy self in thy denial Not mine to give Whose is it if not thine If it be thy Fathers it is thine Thou who art Truth hast said I and my Father are one Yea because thou art one with the Father it is not thine to give to any save those for whom it is prepared of the Father The Father's preparation was thine his gift is thine the Decree of both is one That eternal counsel is not alterable upon our vain desires The Father gives these Heavenly honours to none but by thee thou givest them to none but according to the Decree of thy Father Many degrees there are of celestial Happiness Those supernal Mansions are not all of an height That Providence which hath varied our stations upon earth hath pre-ordered our seats above O God admit me within the wals of thy new Jerusalem and place me wheresoever thou pleasest The Tribute money pai'd ALL these other Histories report the Power of Christ this shews both his Power and Obedience his Power over the creature his Obedience to civil Powers Capernaum was one of his own Cities there he made his chief abode in Peter's house to that Host of his therefore do the Toll-gatherers repair for the Tribute When that great Disciple said We have left all he did not say We have abandoned all or sold or given away all but we have left in respect of managing not of possession not in respect of right but of use and present fruition so left that upon just occasion we may resume so left that it is our due though not our business Doubtless he was too wise to give away his own that he might borrow of a stranger His own roof gave him shelter for the time and his Master with him Of him as the Housholder is the Tribute required and by and for him is it also paid I inquire not either into the occasion or the summe What need we make this exaction sacrilegious as if that half-shekel which was appointed by God to be paid by every Israelite to the use of the Tabernacle and
fish of the sea was tributary to him How should this incourage our dependance upon that Omnipotent hand of thine which hath Heaven earth sea at thy disposing Still thou art the same for thy members which thou wert for thy self the Head Rather then offence shall be given to the world by a seeming neglect of thy dear Children thou wilt cause the very fowls of Heaven to bring them meat and the fish of the sea to bring them money O let us look up ever to thee by the eye of our Faith and not be wanting in our dependance upon thee who canst not be wanting in thy Providence over us LAZARUS Dead OH the Wisdome of God in penning his own Story The Disciple whom Jesus loved comes after his fellow-Evangelists that he might glean up those rich ears of History which the rest had passed over That Eagle soars high and towrs up by degrees It was much to turn water into wine but it was more to seed five thousand with five loaves It was much to restore the Rulers son it was more to cure him that had been thirty eight years a Cripple It was much to cure him that was born blind it was more to raise up Lazarus that had been so long dead As a stream runs still the stronger and wider the nearer it comes to the Ocean whence it was derived so didst thou O Saviour work the more powerfully the nearer thou drewest to thy Glory This was as one of thy last so of thy greatest Miracles when thou wert ready to die thy self thou raisedst him to life who smelt strong of the grave None of all the Sacred Histories is so full and punctual as this in the report of all circumstances Other Miracles do not more transcend Nature then this transcends other Miracles This alone was a sufficient eviction of thy Godhead O blessed Saviour none but an infinite power could so farre go beyond Nature as to recal a man four daies dead from not a mere privation but a setled corruption Earth must needs be thine from which thou raisest his body Heaven must needs be thine from whence thou fetchest his Spirit None but he that created man could thus make him new Sickness is the common preface to death no mortal nature is exempted from this complains even Lazarus whom Jesus loved is sick What can strength of Grace or dearness of respect prevail against disease against dissolution It was a stirring message that Mary sent to Jesus He whom thou lovest is sick as if she would imply that his part was no-less deep in Lazarus then hers Neither doth she say He that loves thee is sick but he whom thou lovest not pleading the merit of Lazarus his affection to Christ but the mercy and favour of Christ to him Even that other reflexion of love had been no weak motive for O Lord thou hast said Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him Thy goodness will not be behinde us for love who professest to love them that love thee But yet the argument is more forcible from thy love to us since thou hast just reason to respect every thing of thine own more then ought that can proceed from us Even we weak men what can we stick at where we love Thou O infinite God art Love it self Whatever thou hast done for us is out of thy love the ground and motive of all thy mercies is within thy self not in us and if there be ought in us worthy of thy love it is thine own not ours thou givest what thou acceptest Jesus well heard the first groan of his dear Lazarus every short breath that he drew every sigh that he gave was upon account yet this Lord of Life lets his Lazarus sicken and languish and die not out of neglect or impotence but out of power and resolution This sickness is not to death He to whom the issues of death belong knows the way both into it and out of it He meant that sickness should be to death in respect of the present condition not to death in respect of the event to death in the process of Nature not to death in the success of his Divine power that the Son of God might be glorified thereby O Saviour thy usual style is the Son of man thou that wouldst take up our infirmities wert willing thus to hide thy Godhead under the course weeds of our Humanity but here thou saist That the Son of God might be glorified Though thou wouldst hide thy Divine glory yet thou wouldst not smother it Sometimes thou wouldst have thy Sun break forth in bright gleams to shew that it hath no less light even whiles it seems kept in by the clouds Thou wert now near thy Passion it was most seasonable for thee at this time to set forth thy just title Neither wâ—s this an act that thy Humanity could challenge to it self but farre transcending all finite powers To die was an act of the Son of man to raise from death was an act of the Son of God Neither didst thou say merely that God but that the Son of God might be glorified God cannot be glorified unless the Son be so In very natural Relations the wrong or disrespect offered to the child reflects upon the father as contrarily the parents upon the child how much more where the love and respect is infinite where the whole effence is communicated with the intireness of relation O God in vain shall we tender our Devotions to thee indefinitely as to a glorious and incomprehensible Majesty if we kiss not the Son who hath most justly said Ye believe in the Father believe also in me What an happy family was this I finde none upon earth so much honoured Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus It is no standing upon terms of precedency the Spirit of God is not curious in marshalling of places Time was when Mary was confessed to have chosen the better part here Martha is named first as most interessed in Christs love for ought appears all of them were equally dear Christ had familiarly lodged under their roof How fit was that to receive him whose in-dwellers were hospital pious unanimous Hospital in the glad entertainment of Jesus and his train Pious in their Devotions Unanimous in their mutual Concord As contrarily he balâ—s and hates that house which is taken up with uncharitableness profaneness contention But O Saviour how doth this agree thou lovedst this Family yet hearing of their distress thou heldest off two daies more from them Canst thou love those thou regardest not canst thou regard them from whom thou willingly absentest thy self in their necessity Behold thy love as it is above ours so it is oft against ours Even out of very affection art thou not seldome absent None of thine but have sometimes cryed How long Lord What need we instance when thine eternal Father did purposely estrange his face from thee so as thou cryedst out of
I see both an Embleme and a Prophesie How didst thou herein mean to teach thy Disciples how much thou hatest an unfruitful profession and what judgements thou meantest to bring upon that barren generation Once before hadst thou compared the Jewish nation to a Fig-tree in the midst of thy vineyard which after three yeares exspectation and culture yielding no fruit was by thee the Owner doomed to a speedy excision now thou actest what thou then saidst No tree abounds more with leaf and shade no Nation abounded more with Ceremonial observations and semblances of Piety Outward profession where there is want of inward truth and real practice doth but help to draw on and aggravate judgment Had this Fig-tree been utterly bear and leafless it had perhaps escaped the Curse Hear this ye vain Hypocrites that care only to shew well never caring for the sincere truth of a Conscionable Obedience your fair outside shall be sure to help you to a Curse That which was the fault of this tree is the punishment of it fruitlesness Let no fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever Had the boughs been appointed to be torn down and the body split in pieces the doom had been more easy and that juicy plant might yet have recovered and have lived to recompence this deficiency now it shall be what it was fruitless Woe be to that Church or Soul that is punished with her own Sin Outward plagues are but favour in comparison of Spiritual judgements That Curse might well have stood with a long continuance the Tree might have lived long though fruitless but no sooner is the word passed then the leaves flagg and turn yellow the branches wrinkle and shrink the bark discolours the root dries the plant withers O God what creature is able to abide the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure Even the most great and glorious Angels of Heaven could not stand one moment before thine anger but perish'd under thy wrath everlastingly How irresistible is thy Power how dreadful are thy Judgements Lord chastise my fruitlesness but punish it not at least punish it but curse it not lest I wither and be consumed Christ betraied SUCH an eye-sore was Christ that raised Lazarus and Lazarus whom Christ raised to the envious Priests Scribes Elders of the Jews that they consult to murder both Whiles either of them lives neither can the glory of that Miracle die nor the shame of the oppugners Those malicious heads are laid together in the Parlour of Caiaphas Happy had it been for them if they had spent but half those thoughts upon their own Salvation which they misimployed upon the destruction of the innocent At last this results that Force is not their way Subtilty and Treachery must doe that which should be vainly attempted by Power Who is so fit to work this feat against Christ as one of his own There can be no Treason where is not some Trust Who so fit among the domesticks as he that bare the bag and over-lov'd that which he bare That heart which hath once enslaved it self to red and white earth made be may any thing Who can trust to the power of good means when Judas who heard Christ daily whom others heard to preach Christ daily who daily saw Christ's Miracles and daily wrought Miracles in Christ's name is at his best a Thief and ere long a Traitor That crafty and malignant spirit which presided in that bloody counsel hath easily found out a fit instrument for this Hellish plot As God knows so Satan guesses who are his and will be sure to make use of his own If Judas were Christ's domestick yet he was Mammon's servant he could not but hate that Master whom he formally professed to serve whiles he really served that master which Christ professed to hate He is but in his trade whiles he is bartering even for his Master What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you Saidst thou not well O Saviour I have chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil Thou that knewest to distinguish betwixt men and spirits callest Judas by his right name Loe he is become a tempter to the worst of evils Wretched Judas whether shall I more abhor thy treachery or wonder at thy folly What will they what can they give thee valuable to that head which thou proferest to sale Were they able to pay or thou capable to receive all those precious metalls that are laid up in the secret cabins of the whole earth how were this price equivalent to the worth of him that made them Had they been able to have fetch'd down those rich and glittering spangles of Heaven and to have put them into thy fist what had this been to weigh with a God How basely therefore dost thou speak of chaffering for him whose the world was What will ye give me Alas what were they what had they miserable men to pay for such a purchase The time was when he that set thee on work could say All the kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them are mine and I give them to whom I please all these will I give thee Had he now made that offer to thee in this wofull bargain it might have carried some colour of a temptation and even thus it had been a match ill made But for thee to tender a trade of so invaluable a commodity to these pelting petty chapmen for thirty poor silverlings it was no lesse base then wicked How unequal is this rate Thou that valuedst Mary's ointment which she bestowed upon the feet of Christ at three hundred pieces of silver sellest thy Master on whom that precious odour was spent at thirty Worldly hearts are penny-wise and pound-foolish they know how to set high prizes upon the worthlesse trash of this world but for Heavenly things or the God that owns them these they shamefully undervalue And I will deliver him unto you False and presumptuous Judas it was more then thou couldst doe thy price was not more too low then thy undertaking was too high Had all the powers of Hell combined with thee they could not have delivered thy Master into the hands of men The act was none but his own all that he did all that he suffered was perfectly voluntary Had he pleased to resist how easily had he with one breath blown thee and thy complices down into their Hell It is no thank to thee that he would be delivered O Saviour all our safety all our comfort depends not so much upon thine act as upon thy will in vain should we have hoped for the benefit of a forced redemption The bargain is driven the price pai'd Judas returns and looks no lesse smoothly upon his Master and his fellows then as if he had done no differvice What cares he his heart tells him he is rich though it tell him he is false He was not now first an Hypocrite The Passeover is at hand no man is so busie
of all other this eare of Malchus hath the loudest tongue to blazon the praise of thy Clemency and Goodnesse to thy very enemies Wherefore came that man but in an hostile manner to attach thee Besides his own what favour was he worthy of for his Masters sake And if he had not been more forward then his fellows why had not his skin been as whole as theirs Yet even amidst the throng of thine apprehenders in the heat of their violence in the height of their malice and thine own instant peril of death thou healest that unnecessary eare which had been guilty of hearing Blasphemies against thee and receiving cruell and unjust charges concerning thee O Malchus could thy eare be whole and not thy heart broken and contrite with remorse for rising up against so mercifull and so powerfull an hand Could thou chuse but say O blessed Jesu I see it was thy Providence that preserved my head when my eare was smitten it is thine Almighty Power that hath miraculously restored that eare of mine which I had justly forfeited this head of mine shall never be guilty of plotting any further mischief against thee this eare shall never entertain any more reproaches of thy name this heart of mine shall ever acknowledge and magnifie thy tender mercies thy Divine Omnipotence Could thy fellows see such a demonstration of Power and Goodnesse with unrelenting hearts Unthankfull Malchus and cruell souldiers ye were worse wounded and felt it not God had struck your breasts with a fearfull obduration that ye still persist in your bloody enterprise And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away c. Christ before Caiaphas THat Traitor whom his own cord made soon after too fast gave this charge concerning Jesus Hold him fast Fear makes his guard cruell they binde his hands and think no twist can be strong enough for this Sampson Fond Jews and Souldiers if his own will had not tied him faster then your cords though those Manicles had been the stiffest cables or the strongest iron they had been but threds of tow What eyes can but run over to see those hands that made Heaven and Earth wrung together and bruised with those mercilesse cords to see him bound who came to restore us to the liberty of the Sons of God to see the Lord of Life contemptuously dragged through the streets first to the house of Annas then from thence to the house of Caiaphas from him to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod back again to Pilate from Pilate to his Calvarie whiles in the mean time the base rabble and scum of the incensed multitude runs after him with shouts and scorns The act of death hath not in it so much misery and horrour as the pomp of death And what needed all this pageant of Cruelty wherefore was this state and lingring of an unjust execution Was it for that their malice held a quick dispatch too much Mercy Was it for that whiles they meant to be bloody they would fain seem just A suddain violence had been palpably murderous now the colour of a legal processe guilds over all their deadly spight and would seem to render them honest and the accused guilty This attachment this convention of the innocent was a true night-work a deed of so much darknesse was not for the light Old Annas and that wicked Bench of gray-headed Scribes and Elders can be content to break their sleep to doe mischief Envie and malice can make noon of midnight It is resolved he shall die and now pretences must be sought that he may be cleanly murdered All evil begins at the Sanctuarie The Priests and Scribes and Elders are the first in this bloody scene they have pai'd for this head and now long to see what they shall have for their thirty silverlings The Bench is set in the Hall of Caiaphas False witnesses are sought for and hired they agree not but shame their suborners Woe is me what safety can there be for Innocence when the evidence is wilfully corrupted What State was ever so pure as not to yield some miscreants that will either sell or lend an oath What a brand hath the wisdome of God set upon falshood even dissonance and distraction whereas Truth ever holds together and jars not whiles it is it self O Saviour what a perfect innocence was in thy Life what an exact purity in thy Doctrine that malice it self cannot so much as devise what to slander It were hard if Hell should not finde some Factors upon earth At last two Witnesses are brought in that have learned to agree with themselves whiles they differed from truth they say the same though false This fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and build it again in three daies Perjured wretches Were these the terms that you heard from that Sacred mouth Said he formally thus as ye have deposed It is true he spake of a Temple of destroying of building of three daies but did he speak of that Temple of his own destroying of a material building in that space He said Destroy ye Ye say I am able to destroy He said this Temple of his body Ye say the Temple of God He said I will make up this Temple of my body in three daies Ye say I am able in three daies to build this material Temple of God The words were his the sentence yours The words were true the evidence false So whiles you report the words and misreport the sense ye swear a true falshood aud are truly forsworn Where the resolutions are fixed any colour will serve Had those words been spoken they contained no crime had he been such as they supposed him a mere man the speech had carried a semblance of ostentation no semblance of Blasphemy yet how vehement is Caiaphas for an answer as if those words had already battered that sacred pile or the protestation of his ability had been the highest treason against the God of the Temple That infinite Wisdome knew well how little satisfaction there could be in answers where the sentence was determined Jesus held his peace Where the asker is unworthy the question captious words bootlesse the best answer is silence Erewhile his just and moderate speech to Annas was returned with a buffet on the cheek now his silence is no lesse displeasing Caiaphas was not more malicious then crafty what was in vain attempted by witnesses shall be drawn out of Christs own mouth what an accusation could not effect an adjuration shall I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God Yea this was the way to screw out a killing answer Caiaphas thy mouth was impure but thy charge is dreadfull Now if Jesus hold his peace he is cried down for a prophane disregarder of that awfull Name if he answer he is ensnared an affirmation is death a denial worse then death No Caiaphas thou shalt well know it was not fear
that all this while stopped that Gracious mouth thou speakest to him that cannot fear those faces he hath made he that hath charged us to confesse him cannot but confesse himself Jesus saith unto him Thou hast said There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence He that is the Wisdome of his Father hath here given us a pattern of both We may not so speak as to give advantage to cavils we may not be so silent as to betray the Truth Thou shalt have no more cause proud and insulting Caiaphas to complain of a speechlesse prisoner now thou shalt hear more then thou demandedst Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven There spake my Saviour the voice of God and not of man Hear now insolent High Priest and be confounded That Son of man whom thou seest is the Son of God whom thou canst not see That Son of man that Son of God that God and man whom thou now seest standing despicably before thy Consistorial seat in a base dejectednesse him shalt thou once with horrour and trembling see majestically sitting on the Throne of Heaven attended with thousand thousands of Angels and coming in the clouds to that dreadfull Judgment wherein thy self amongst other damned malefactors shalt be presented before that glorious tribunal of his and adjudged to thy just torments Goe now wretched Hypocrite and rend thy garments whiles in the mean time thou art worthy to have thy Soul rent from thy body for thy spightfull Blasphemy against the Son of God Onwards thy pretence is fair and such as cannot but receive applause from thy compacted crue What need have we of witnesses behold now ye have heard his Blasphemy What think ye And they answered and said He is guilty of death What heed is to be taken of mens judgment So light are they upon the balance that one dram of prejudice or forestalment turns the scales Who were these but the grave Benchers of Jerusalem the Synod of the choice Rabbies of Israel yet these passe sentence against the Lord of Life sentence of that death of his whereby if ever they shall be redeemed from the murder of their sentence O Saviour this is not the last time wherein thou hast received cruel dooms from them that professe Learning and Holiness What wonder is it if thy weak members suffer that which was indured by so perfect an head What care we to be judged by man's day when thou who art the Righteous Judge of the world wert thus misjudged by men Now is the fury of thy malignant enemies let loose upon thee what measure can be too hard for him that is denounced worthy of death Now those foul mouths defile thy Blessed Face with their impure spittle the venemous froth of their malice now those cruell hands are lifted up to buffet thy Sacred Cheeks now scorn and insultation triumphs over thine humble Patience Prophesie unto us thou Christ who it is that smote thee O dear Jesu what a beginning is here of a Passion There thou standst bound condemned spat upon buffetted derided by malicious sinners Thou art bound who camest to loose the bands of death thou art condemned whose sentence must acquit the world thou art spat upon that art fairer then the sons of men thou art buffeted in whose mouth was no guile thou art derided who art clothed with Glory and Majesty In the mean while how can I enough wonder at thy infinite Mercy who in the midst of all these wofull indignities couldst finde a time to cast thine eyes back upon thy frail and ingratefull Disciple and in whose gracious eare Peter's Cock sounded louder then all these reproaches O Saviour thou who in thine apprehension couldst forget all thy danger to correct and heal his over-lashing now in the heat of thy arraignment and condemnation canst forget thy own misery to reclaim his errour and by that seasonable glance of thine eye to strike his heart with a needfull remorse He that was lately so valiant to fight for thee now the next morning is so cowardly as to deny thee He shrinks at the voice of a Maid who was not daunted with the sight of a Band. O Peter had thy slip been sudden thy fall had been more easie Premonition aggravates thy offence that stone was foreshewed thee whereat thou stumbledst neither did thy warning more adde to thy guilt then thine own fore-resolution How didst thou vow though thou shouldst die with thy Master not to deny him Hadst thou said nothing but answered with a trembling silence thy shame had been the lesse Good purposes when they are not held do so far turn enemies to the entertainer of them as that they help to double both his sin and punishment Yet a single denial had been but easie thine I fear to speak it was lined with swearing and execration Whence then oh whence was this so vehement and peremptory disclamation of so gracious a Master What such danger had attended thy profession of his attendance One of thy fellows was known to the high-priest for a Follower of Jesus yet he not onely came himself into that open Hall in view of the Bench but treated with the Maid that kept the door to let thee in also She knew him what he was and could therefore speak to thee as brought in by his mediation Art not thou also one of this mans Disciples Thou also supposes the first acknowledged such yet what crime what danger was urged upon that noted Disciple What could have been more to thee Was it that thy heart misgave thee thou mightest be called to account for Malchus It was no thank to thee that that eare was healed neither did there want those that would think how near that eare was to the head Doubtlesse that busie fellow himself was not far off and his fellows and kinsmen would have been apt enough to follow thee besides thy Discipleship upon a bloodshed a riot a rescue Thy conscience hath made thee thus unduly timorous and now to be sure to avoid the imputation of that affray thou renouncest all knowledge of him in whose cause thou foughtest Howsoever the sin was hainous I tremble at such a Fall of so great an Apostle It was thou O Peter that buffetedst thy Master more then those Jews it was to thee that he turned the cheek from them as to view him by whom he most smarted he felt thee afar off and answered thee with a look such a look as was able to kill and revive at once Thou hast wounded me maiest thou now say O my Saviour thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes that one Eye of thy Mercy hath wounded my heart with a deep remorse for my grievous sin with an indignation at my unthankfulnesse that one glance of thine hath resolved me into the tears of sorrow and contrition Oh that mine eyes were fountains and my cheeks channels that
suffered till now now thy bloody Passion begins a cruell expoliation begins that violence Again do these grim and mercilesse Souldiers lay their rude hands upon thee and strip thee naked again are those bleeding wales laid open to all eyes again must thy Sacred body undergoe the shame of an abhorred nakednesse Lo thou that clothest man with raiment beasts with hides fishes with scales and shells earth with flowers Heaven with Stars art despoiled of cloaths and standest exposed to the scorn of all beholders As the First Adam entred into his Paradise so dost thou the Second Adam into thine naked and as the First Adam was clothed with Innocence when he had no cloaths so wert thou the Second too and more then so thy nakednesse O Saviour cloaths our Souls not with Innocence only but with Beauty Hadst not thou been naked we had been cloathed with confusion O happy nakednesse whereby we are covered from shame O happy shame whereby we are invested with glory All the beholders stand wrapped with warm garments thou only art stripped to tread the wine-presse alone How did thy Blessed Mother now wish her veile upon thy shoulders and that Disciple who lately ran from thee naked wish'd in vain that his loving pity might doe that for thee which fear forced him to for himself Shame is succeeded with Pain Oh the torment of the Crosse Methinks I see and feel how having fastned the transverse to the body of that fatal Tree and lai'd it upon the ground they racked and strained thy tender and sacred Lims to fit the extent of their fore-appointed measure and having tentered out thine arms beyond their natural reach how they fastned them with cords till those strong iron nails which were driven up to the head through the palms of thy Blessed hands had not more firmly then painfully fixed thee to the Gibbet The tree is raised up and now not without a vehement concussion setled in the mortise Woe is me how are thy joynts and sinews torn and stretched till they crack again by this torturing distension how doth thine own weight torment thee whiles thy whole body rests upon this forced and dolorous hold till thy nailed feet bear their part in a no lesse afflictive supportation How did the rough iron pierce thy Soul whiles passing through those tender and sensible parts it carried thy flesh before it and as it were rivetted it to that shamefull Tree There now O dear Jesu there thou hangest between Heaven and earth naked bleeding forlorn despicable the spectacle of miseries the scorn of men Be abashed O ye Heavens and earth and all ye creatures wrap up your selves in horrour and confusion to see the shame and pain and curse of your most pure and Omnipotent Creator How could ye subsist whiles he thus suffers in whom ye are O Saviour didst thou take flesh for our Redemption to be thus indignely used thus mangled thus tortured Was this measure fit to be offered to that Sacred body that was conceived by the Holy Ghost of the pure substance of an immaculate Virgin Woe is me that which was unspotted with sin is all blemished with humane crueltie and so wofully disfigured that the Blessed Mother that bore thee could not now have known thee so bloody were thy Temples so swolne and discoloured was thy Face so was the skin of thy whole body streaked with red and blew stripes so did thy thornie diadem shade thine Heavenly countenance so did the streams of thy blood cover and deform all thy parts The eye of Sense could not distinguish thee O dear Saviour in the nearest proximity to thy Crosse the eye of Faith sees thee in all this distance and by how much more ignominy deformity pain it finds in thee so much more it admires the glory of thy mercy Alas is this the Head that is decked by thine eternall Father with a Crown of pure gold of immortall and incomprehensible Majesty which is now bushed with thorns Is this the Eye that saw the Heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descending upon that head that saw such resplendence of Heavenly brightnesse on mount Tabor which now begins to be overclouded with death Are these the Eares that heard the voice of thy Father owning thee out of Heaven which now tingle with buffettings and glow with reproaches and bleed with thorns Are these the Lips that spake as never mans spake full of grace and power that called out dead Lazarus that ejected the stubbornest Devils that commanded the cure of all diseases which now are swoln with blows and discoloured with blewnesse and blood Is this the Face that should be fairer then the sons of men which the Angels of Heaven so desired to see and can never be satisfied with seeing that is thus foul with the nasty mixtures of sweat and blood and spittings on Are these the Hands that stretched out the Heavens as a curtain that by their touch healed the lame the deaf the blind which are now bleeding with the nailes Are these the Feet which walked lately upon the liquid pavement of the sea before whose footstool all the Nations of the earth are bidden to worship that are now so painfully fixed to the Crosse O cruell and unthankfull mankind that offered such measure to the Lord of Life O infinitely mercifull Saviour that wouldst suffer all this for unthankfull mankind That fiends should doe these things to guilty souls it is though terrible yet just but that men should doe thus to the Blessed Son of God it is beyond the capacity of our horrour Even the most hostile dispositions have been only content to kill Death hath sated the most eager malice thine enemies O Saviour held not themselves satisfied unlesse they might injoy thy torment Two Thieves are appointed to be thy companions in death thou art designed to the midst as the chief malefactor on whether hand soever thou lookest thine eye meets with an hatefull partner But O Blessed Jesu how shall I enough admire and celebrate thy infinite Mercy who madest so happy an use of this Jewish despight as to improve it to the occasion of the Salvation of one and the comfort of millions Is not this as the last so the greatest specialty of thy wonderfull compassion to convert that dying Thief with those nailed hands to snatch a Soul out of the mouth of Hell Lord how I blesse thee for this work how doe I stand amazed at this above all other the demonstrations of thy Goodnesse and Power The Offender came to die nothing was in his thoughts but his guilt and torment whiles he was yet in his blood thou saidst This Soul shall live Ere yet the intoxicating Potion could have time to work upon his brain thy Spirit infuses Faith into his heart He that before had nothing in his eye but present death and torture is now lifted up above his Crosse in a blessed ambition Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome Is this the voice of a Thief
let you ye would fain pull upon your selves the guilt of his blood he deprecates it ye kill he sues for your remission and life His tongue cries louder then his blood Father forgive them O Saviour thou couldst not but be heard Those who out of ignorance and simplicity thus persecuted thee find the happy issue of thine intercession Now I see whence it was that three thousand souls were converted soon after at one Sermon It was not Peter's speech it was thy prayer that was thus effectual Now they have grace to know and confess whence they have both forgiveness and salvation and can recompence their blasphemies with thanksgiving What sin is there Lord whereof I can despair of the remission or what offence can I be unwilling to remit when thou prayest for the forgiveness of thy murderers and blasphemers There is no day so long but hath his evening At last O blessed Saviour thou art drawing to an end of these painful sufferings when spent with toil and torment thou criest out I thirst How shouldst thou do other O dear Jesu how shouldst thou do other then thirst The night thou hadst spent in watching in prayer in agony in thy conveyance from the Garden to Jerusalem from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilate in thy restless answers in buffetings and stripes the day in arraignments in haling from place to place in scourgings in stripping in robing and disrobing in bleeding in tugging under thy Cross in woundings and distension in pain and passion No marvel if thou thirstedst Although there was more in this drought then thy need It was no less requisite thou shouldst thirst then that thou shouldst dye Both were upon the same predetermination both upon the same prediction How else should that word be verified Psal 22. 14 15. All my bones are out of joynt my heart is like waxe it is melted in the midst of my bowels My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jawes and thou hast brought me into the dust of death Had it not been to make up that word whereof one jot cannot pass though thou hadst felt this thirst yet thou hadst not bewrayed it Alas what could it avail to bemoan thy wants to insulting enemies whose sport was thy misery How should they pity thy thirst that pitied not thy bloodshed It was not their favour that thou expectedst herein but their conviction O Saviour how can we thy sinful servants think much to be exercised with hunger and thirst when we hear thee thus complain Thou that not long since proclaimedst in the Temple If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters now thy self thirstest Thou in whom we believe complainest to want some drops thou hadst the command of all the waters both above the firmament and below it yet thou wouldst thirst Even so Lord thou that wouldst dye for us wouldst thirst for us O give me to thirst after those waters which thou promisest whatever become of those waters which thou wouldst want The time was when craving water of the Samaritan thou gavest better then that thou askedst Oh give me to thirst after that more precious Water and so do thou give me of that water of life that I may never thirst again Blessed God how marvelously dost thou contrive thine own affaires Thine enemies whiles they would despight thee shall unwittingly justifie thee and convince themselves As thou fore saidst In thy thirst they gave thee vineger to drink Had they given thee Wine thou hadst not taken it the night before thou hadst taken leave of that comfortable liquor resolving to drink no more of that sweet juice till thou shouldst drink it new with them in thy Fathers Kingdome Had they given thee Water they had not fulfilled that prediction whereby they were self-condemned I know not now O dear Jesu whether this last draught of thine were more pleasing to thee or more distastful Distastful in it self for what liquor could be equally harsh pleasing in that it made up those Sufferings thou wert to indure and those Prophesies thou wert to fulfil Now there is no more to doe thy full consummation of all predictions of all types and ceremonies of all sufferings of all satisfactions is happily both effected and proclaimed nothing now remains but a voluntary sweet and Heavenly resignation of thy Blessed Soul into the hands of thine eternal Father and a bowing of thine head for the change of a better Crown and a peaceable obdormition in thy bed of ease and honour and an instant entrance into rest triumph Glory And now O blessed Jesu how easily have carnal eyes all this while mistaken the passages and intentions of this thy last and most glorious work Our weakness could hitherto see nothing here but pain and ignominy now my better-inlightned eyes see in this elevation of thine both honour and happiness Lo thou that art the Mediator betwixt God and man the reconciler of Heaven and earth art lift up betwixt earth and Heaven that thou mightest accord both Thou that art the great Captain of our Salvation the conquerour of all the adverse powers of death and hell art exalted upon this Triumphal chariot of the Cross that thou mightest trample upon death and drag all those Infernal Principalities manicled after thee Those arms which thine enemies meant violently to extend are stretched forth for the imbracing of all mankind that shall come in for the benefit of thine all-sufficient redemption Even whiles thou sufferest thou reignest Oh the impotent madness of silly men They think to disgrace thee with wrie faces with tongues put out with bitter scoffs with poor wretched indignities when in the mean time the Heavens declare thy righteousness O Lord and the earth shews forth thy power The Sun pulls in his light as not abiding to see the sufferings of his Creator the Earth trembles under the sense of the wrong done to her Maker the Rocks renâ— the veile of the Temple teares from the top to the bottome shortly all the frame of the world acknowledges the dominion of that Son of God whom man despised Earth and Hell have done their worst O Saviour thou art in thy Paradise and triumphest over the malice of men and Devils The remainders of thy Sacred person are not yet free The Souldiers have parted thy garments and cast lots upon thy seamless coat those poor spoils cannot so much inrich them as glorifie thee whose Scriptures are fulfilled by their barbarous sortitions The Jews sue to have thy bones divided but they sue in vain No more could thy garments be whole then thy body could be broken One inviolable Decree over-rules both Foolish executioners ye look up at that crucified Body as if it were altogether in your power and mercy nothing appears to you but impotence and death little do ye know what an irresistible guard there is upon that Sacred
corps such as if all the Powers of Darkness shall band against they shall finde themselves confounded In spight of all the gates of Hell that word shall stand Not a bone of him shall be broken Still the infallible Decree of the Almighty leads you on to his own ends through your own waies Ye saw him already dead whom ye came to dispatch those bones therefore shall be whole which ye had had no power to break But yet that no piece either of your cruelty or of Divine prediction may remain unsatisfied he whose bones may not be impaired shall be wounded in his flesh he whose Ghost was yielded up must yield his last blood One of the souldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith there came out blood and water Malice is wont to end with life here it overlives it Cruel man what means this so late wound what commission hadst thou for this bloody act Pilate had given leave to break the bones of the living he gave no leave to gore the side of the dead what wicked supererogation is this what a superfluity of maliciousness To what purpose did thy spear pierce so many hearts in that one why wouldst thou kill a dead man Methinks the Blessed Virgin and those other passionate associates of hers and the Disciple whom Jesus loved together with the other of his fellows the friends and followers of Christ and especially he that was so ready to draw his sword upon the troup of his Masters apprehenders should have work enough to contain themselves within the bounds of patience at so savage a stroke their sorrow could not chuse but turn to indignation and their hearts could not but rise as even mine doth now at so impertinent a villany How easily could I rave at that rude hand But O God when I look up to theee and consider how thy holy and wise Providence so overrules the most barbarous actions of men that besides their will they turn beneficial I can at once hate them and bless thee This very wound hath a mouth to speak the Messiahship of my Saviour and the truth of thy Scripture They shall look at him whom they have pierced Behold now the Second Adam sleeping and out of his side formed the Mother of the living the Evangelical Church Behold the Rock which was smitten and the waters of life gushed forth Behold the fountain that is set open to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness a fountain not of water only but of blood too O Saviour by thy water we are washed by thy blood we are redeemed Those two Sacraments which thou didst institute alive flow also from thee dead as the last memorials of thy Love to thy Church the water of Baptisme which is the laver of Regeneration the blood of the new Testament shed for remission of sins and these together with the Spirit that gives life to them both are the three Witnesses on earth whose attestation cannot fail us Oh precious and soveraign wound by which our Souls are healed Into this cleft of the rock let my Dove fly and enter and there safely hide her self from the talons of all the birds of prey It could not be but that the death of Christ contrived and acted at Jerusalem in so solemn a Festival must needs draw a world of beholders The Romans the Centurion and his band were there as actors as supervisors of the Execution Those strangers were no otherwise ingaged then as they that would hold fair correspondence with the Citizens where they were engarisoned their freedome from prejudice rendred them more capable of an ingenuous construction of all events Now when the Centurion and they that were with him that watched Jesus saw the Earthquake and the things that were done they feared greatly and glorified God and said Truely this was the Son God What a marvelous concurrence is here of strong and irrefragable convictions Meekness in suffering Prayer for his murderers a faithful resignation of his Soul into the hands of his Heavenly Father the Sun eclipsed the Heavens darkned the earth trembling the graves open the rocks rent the veile of the Temple torn who could goe less then this Truly this was the Son of God He suffers patiently this is through the power of Grace many good men have done so through his enabling The frame of Nature suffers with him this is proper to the God of Nature the Son of God I wonder not that these men confessed thus I wonder that any Spectator confessed it not these proofs were enough to fetch all the world upon their knees and to have made all mankind a Convert But all hearts are not alike no means can work upon the wilfully-obdured Even after this the Souldier pierced that Blessed side and whiles Pagans relented Jews continued impenitent Yet even of that Nation those beholders whom envie and partiality had not interessed in this slaughter were stricken with just astonishment and smote their breasts and shook their heads and by passionate gesture spake what their tongues durst not How many must there needs be in this universal concourse of them whom he had healed of diseases or freed from Devils or miraculously fed or some way obliged in their persons or friends These as they were deeply affected with the mortal indignities which were offered to their acknowledged Messiah so they could not but be ravished with wonder at those powerful demonstrations of the Deity of him in whom they believed and strangely distracted in their thoughts whiles they compared those Sufferings with that Omnipotence As yet their Faith and Knowledge was but in the bud or in the blade How could they chuse but think Were he not the Son of God how could these things be and if he were the Son of God how could he die His Resurrection his Ascension should soon after perfect their belief but in the mean time their hearts could not but be conflicted with thoughts hard to be reconciled Howsoever they glorifie God and stand amazed at the expectation of the issue But above all other O thou Blessed Virgin the Holy Mother of our Lord how many swords pierced thy Soul whiles standing close by his Cross thou sawest thy dear Son and Saviour thus indignely used thus stripped thus stretched thus nailed thus bleeding thus dying thus pierced How did thy troubled heart now recount what the Angel Gabriel had reported to thee from God in the message of thy blessed Conception of that Son of God How didst thou think of the miraculous formation of that thy Divine burden by the power of the Holy Ghost How didst thou recal those prophecies of Anna and Simeon concerning him and all those supernatural works of his the irrefragable proofs of his Godhead and laying all these together with the miserable infirmities of his Passion how wert thou crucified with him The care that he took for thee in the extremity of his torments could not chuse but melt thy heart into sorrow But
at once removes that which both they did and might have feared The stone is removed the seal broken the watch fled What a scorn doth the Almighty God make of the impotent designes of men They thought the stone shall make the grave sure the seal shall make the stone sure the guard shall make both sure Now when they think all safe God sends an Angel from Heaven above the earth quakes beneath the stone rolls away the Souldiers stand like carkasses and when they have got heart enough to run away think themselves valiant the Tomb is opened Christ is risen they confounded Oh the vain projects of silly men as if with one shovel-full of mire they would dam up the Sea or with a clout hang'd forth they would keep the Sun from shining Oh these Spiders-webs or houses of Cards which fond children have as they think skilfully framed which the least breath breaks and ruines Who are we sorry worms that we should look in any business to prevail against our Creator What creature is so base that he cannot arm against us to our confusion The Lice and Frogs shall be too strong for Pharaoh the Worms for Herod There is no wisdome nor counsel against the Lord. Oh the marvellous pomp and magnificence of our Saviours Resurrection The earth quakes the Angel appears that it may be plainly seen that this Divine person now rising had the command both of earth and Heaven At the dissolution of thine Humane nature O Saviour was an Earthquake at the re-uniting of it is an Earthquake to tell the world that the God of Nature then suffered and had now conquered Whiles thou laiest still in the earth the earth was still when thou camest to fetch thine own The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob. When thou our true Sampson awakedst and foundst thy self tied with these Philistian cords and rousedst up and brakest those hard and strong twists with a sudden power no marvel if the room shook under thee Good cause had the earth to quake when the God that made it powerfully calls for his own flesh from the usurpation of her bowels Good cause had she to open her graves and yield up her dead in attendance to the Lord of Life whom she had presumed to detain in that cell of her darkness What a seeming impotence was here that thou who art the true Rock of thy Church shouldst lye obscurely shrouded in Joseph's rock thou that art the true corner-stone of thy Church shouldst be shut up with a double stone the one of thy grave the other of thy vault thou by whom we are sealed to the day of our Redemption shouldst be sealed up in a blind cavern of earth But now what a demonstration of power doth both the world and I see in thy glorious Resurrection The rocks tear the graves open the stones roll away the dead rise and appear the Souldiers flee and tremble Saints and Angels attend thy rising O Saviour thou laiest down in weakness thou risest in power and glory thou laiest down like a man thou risest like a God What a lively image hast thou herein given me of the dreadful Majesty of the general Resurrection and thy second appearance Then not the earth onely but the powers of Heaven shall be shaken not some few graves shall be open and some Saints appear but all the bars of death shall be broken and all that sleep in their graves shall awake and stand up from the dead before thee not some one Angel shall descend but thou the great Angel of the Covenant attended with thousand thousands of those mighty Spirits And if these stout Souldiers were so filled with terrour at the feeling of an Earthquake and the sight of an Angel that they had scarce breath left in them for the time to witness them alive where shall thine enemies appear O Lord in the day of thy terrible appearance when the earth shall reel and vanish and the elements shall be on a flame about their ears and the Heavens shall wrap up as a scroll O God thou mightest have removed this stone by the force of thine Earthquake as well as rive other rocks yet thou wouldst rather use the Ministery of an Angel or thou that gavest thy self life and gavest being both to the stone and to the earth couldst more easily have removed the stone then moved the earth but it was thy pleasure to make use of an Angels hand And now he that would ask why thou wouldst doe it rather by an Angel then by thy self may as well ask why thou didst not rather give thy Law by thine own immediate hand then by the ministration of Angels why by an Angel thou struckest the Israelites with plagues the Assyrians with the sword why an Angel appeared to comfort thee after thy Temptation and Agony when thou wert able to comfort thy self why thou usest the influences of Heaven to fruiten the earth why thou imployest Second causes in all events when thou couldst doe all things alone It is good reason thou shouldst serve thy self of thine own neither is there any ground to be required whether of their motion or rest besides thy will Thou didst raise thy self the Angels removed the stone They that could have no hand in thy Resurrection yet shall have an hand in removing outward impediments not because thou needst but because thou wouldst like as thou alone didst raise Lazarus thou badst others let him loose Works of Omnipotency thou reservest to thine own immediate performance ordinary actions thou doest by subordinate means Although this act of the Angels was not merely with respect to thee but partly to those devout Women to ease them of their care to manifest unto them thy Resurrection So officious are those glorious Spirits not onely to thee their Maker but even to the meanest of thy servants especially in the furtherance of all their spiritual designes Let us bring our Odours they will be sure to roll away the stone Why do not we imitate them in our forwardness to promote each others Salvation We pray to doe thy will here as they doe in Heaven if we do not act our wishes we do but mock thee in our Devotions How glorious did this Angel of thine appear The terrified Souldiers saw his face like lightning both they and the Women saw his garments shining bright and white as snow such a presence became his errand It was fit that as in thy Passion the Sun was darkned and all Creatures were clad with heaviness so in thy Resurrection the best of thy Creatures should testifie their joy and exsultation in the brightness of their habit that as we on Festival-dayes put on our best cloaths so thine Angels should celebrate this blessed Festivity with a meet representation of Glory They could not but injoy our joy to see the work of mans Redemption thus fully finished and if there be mirth in Heaven at the conversion of
one sinner how much more when a world of sinners is perfectly ransomed from death and restored to Salvation Certainly if but one or two appeared all rejoyced all triumphed Neither could they but be herein sensible of their own happy advantage who by thy mediation are confirmed in their glorious estate since thou by the blood of thy Cross and power of thy Resurrection hast reconciled things not in earth onely but in Heaven But above all other the Love of thee their God and Saviour must needs heighten their joy and make thy Glory theirs It is their perpetual work to praise thee how much more now when such an occasion was offered as never had been since the world began never could be after when thou the God of Spirits hadst vanquished all the spiritual powers of darkness when thou the Lord of Life hadst conquered death for thee and all thine so as they may now boldly insult over their last enemy O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Certainly if Heaven can be capable of an increase of joy and felicity never had those Blessed Spirits so great a cause of triumph and gratulation as in this day of thy glorious Resurrection How much more O dear Jesu should we men whose flesh thou didst assume unite revive for whose sake and in whose stead thou didst vouchsafe to suffer and die whose arrerages thou payedst in death and acquittedst in thy Resurrection whose Souls are discharged whose Bodies shall be raised by the power of thy rising how much more should we think we have cause to be over-joyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceiveable Mercy Lo now how weak soever I am in my self yet in the confidence of this victorious Resurrection of my Saviour I dare boldly challenge and defie you O all ye adverse Powers Doe the worst ye can to my Soul in despight of you it shall be safe Is it Sin that threats me Behold this Resurrection of my Redeemer publishes my discharge My Surety was arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave had not the utmost farthing of mine arrerages been paid he could not have come forth He is come forth the Summe is fully satisfied What danger can there be of a discharged Debt Is it the Wrath of God Wherefore is that but for sin If my sin be defraied that quarrel is at an end and if my Saviour suffered it for me how can I fear to suffer it in my self That infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen Is it Death it self Lo my Saviour that overcame death by dying hath triumph'd over him in his Resurrection How can I now fear a conquered enemy What harm is there in the Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin that is pulled out by my powerful Redeemer it cannot now hurt me it may refresh me to carry this cool Snake in my bosome O then my dear Saviour I bless thee for thy Death but I bless thee more for thy Resurrection That was a work of wonderful Humility of infinite Mercy this was a work of infinite Power In that was humane Weakness in this Divine Omnipotence In that thou didst die for our sins in this thou didst rise again for our Justification And now how am I conformable to thee if when thou art risen I lie still in the grave of my Corruptions How am I a lim of thy body if whiles thou hast that perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over me if whiles thou art alive and glorious I lie rotting in the dust of death I know the locomotive faculty is in the Head by the power of the Resurrection of thee our Head all we thy Members cannot but be raised As the earth cannot hold my body from thee in the day of the Second Resurrection so cannot sin withhold my Soul from thee in the First How am I thine if I be not risen and if I be risen with thee why do I not seek the things above where thou sittest at the right hand of God The Vault or Cave which Joseph had hewn out of the rock was large capable of no less then ten persons upon the mouth of it Eastward was that great stone rolled within it at the right hand in the North part of the Cave was hewn out a receptacle for the body three handfuls high from the pavement and a stone was accordingly fitted for the cover of that Grave Into this Cave the good Women finding the stone rolled away descended to seek the body of Christ and in it saw the Angels This was the Goal to which Peter and John ran finding the spoils of death the grave cloaths wrapped up and the napkin that was about the head folded up together and laid in a place by it self and as they came in haste so they return'd with wonder I marvel not at your speed O ye blessed Disciples if upon the report of the Women ye ran yea flew upon the wings of zeal to see what was become of your Master Ye had wont to walk familiarly together in the attendance of your Lord now society is forgotten and as for a wager each tries the speed of his legs and with neglect of other vies who shall be first at the Tomb. Who would not but have tried masteries with you in this case and have made light touches of the earth to have held paces with you Your desire was equal but John is the yonger his lims are more nimble his breath more free he first looks into the Sepulcher but Peter goes down first O happy competition who shall be more zealous in the enquiry after Christ Ye saw enough to amaze you not enough to settle your Faith How well might you have thought Our Master is not subduced but risen Had he been taken away by others hands this fine linen had not been left behinde Had he not himself risen from this bed of earth he had not thus wrapped up his night-cloaths and laid them sorted by themselves What can we doubt when he foretold us he would rise O Blessed Jesu how wilt thou pardon our errours how should we pardon and pity the errours of each other in lesser occasions whenas yet thy prime and dearest Disciples after so much Divine instruction knew not the Scriptures that thou must rise again from the dead They went away more astonished then confident more full of wonder as yet then of belief There is more strength of zeal where it takes in the weaker Sex Those holy Women as they came first so they staid last especially devout Mary Magdalene stands still at the mouth of the Cave weeping Well might those tears have been spared if her Knowledge had been answerable to her Affection her Faith to her Fervour Withall as our eye will be where we love she stoops and looks down
interposed Hadst thou merely respected thine own Glory thou hadst instantly changed thy grave for thy Paradise for so much the sooner hadst thou been possessed of thy Fathers joy we would not continue in a Dungeon when we might be in a Palace but thou who for our sakes vouchsafedst to descend from Heaven to earth wouldst now in the upshot have a gracious regard to us in thy return Thy death had troubled the hearts of many Disciples who thought that condition too mean to be compatible with the glory of the Messiah and thoughts of diffidence were apt to seize upon the holiest breasts So long therefore wouldst thou hold footing upon earth till the world were fully convinced of the infallible evidences of thy Resurrection of all which time thou only canst give an account it was not for flesh and blood to trace the waies of Immortality neither was our frail corruptible sinful nature a meet companion for thy now-glorified Humanity the glorious angels of Heaven were now thy fittest attendants But yet how oft did it please thee graciously to impart thy self this while unto men and not only to appear unto thy Disciples but to renew unto them the familiar forms of thy wonted conversation in conferring walking eating with them and now when thou drewest near to thy last parting thou who hadst many times shew'd thy self before to thy several Disciples thoughtest meet to assemble them all together for an universal valediction Who can be too rigorous in censuring the ignorances of well-meaning Christians when he sees the domestick Followers of Christ even after his Resurrection mistake the main end of his coming in the flesh Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdome to Israel They saw their Master now out of the reach of all Jewish envie they saw his power illimited and irresistible they saw him stay so long upon earth that they might imagine he meant to fix his abode there and what should he doe there but reign and wherefore should they be now assembled but for the choice and distribution of Offices and for the ordering of the affairs of that state which was now to be vindicated O weak thoughts of well-instructed Disciples What should an Heavenly body doe in an earthly throne How should a spiritual life be imployed in secular cares How poor a business is the temporal Kingdome of Israel for the King of Heaven And even yet O Blessed Saviour I do not hear thee sharply controll this erroneous conceit of thy mistaken Followers thy mild correction insists rather upon the time then the misconceived substance of that restauration It was thy gracious purpose that thy Spirit should by degrees rectifie their judgements and illuminate them with thy Divine truths in the mean time it was sufficient to raise up their hearts to an expectation of that Holy Ghost which should shortly lead them into all needful and requisite verities And now with a gracious promise of that Spirit of thine with a careful charge renewed unto thy Disciples for the promulgation of thy Gospel with an Heavenly Benediction of all thine acclaming attendance thou tak'st leave of earth When he had spoken these things whiles they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight Oh happy parting fit for the Saviour of mankind answerable to that Divine conversation to that succeeding Glory O blessed Jesu let me so farre imitate thee as to depart hence with a blessing in my mouth let my Soul when it is stepping over the threshold of Heaven leave behind it a legacy of Peace and Happiness It was from the mount of Olives that thou tookst thy rise into Heaven Thou mightest have ascended from the valley all the globe of earth was alike to thee but since thou wert to mount upward thou wouldst take so much advantage as that staire of ground would afford thee thou wouldst not use the help of a Miracle in that wherein Nature offered her ordinary service What difficulty had it been for thee to have styed up from the very center of earth But since thou hadst made hills so much nearer unto Heaven thou wouldst not neglect the benefit of thy own Creation Where we have common helps we may not depend upon Supernatural provisions we may not strain the Divine Providence to the supply of our negligence or the humoring of our presumption Thou that couldst alwaies have walked on the Sea wouldst walk so but once when thou wantedst shipping thou to whom the highest mountains were but valleys wouldst walk up to an hill to ascend thence into Heaven O God teach me to bless thee for means when I have them and to trust thee for means when I have them not yea to trust to thee without means when I have no hope of them What hill was this thou chosest but the mount of Olives Thy Pulpit shall I call it or thine Oratory The place from whence thou hadst wont to showre down thine Heavenly Doctrine upon the hearers the place whence thou hadst wont to sent up thy Prayers unto thy Heavenly Father the place that shared with the Temple for both In the day-time thou wert preaching in the Temple in the night praying in the mount of Olives On this very hill was the bloody sweat of thine Agonie now is it the mount of thy Triumph From this mount of Olives did flow that oyle of gladness wherewith thy Church is everlastingly refreshed That God that uses to punish us in the same kind wherein we have offended retributes also to us in the same kind and circumstances wherein we have been afflicted To us also O Saviour even to us thy unworthy members dost thou seasonably vouchsafe to give a proportionable joy to our heaviness laughter to our mourning glory to contempt and shame Our agonies shall be answered with exaltation Whither then O Blessed Jesu whither didst thou ascend whither but home into thine Heaven From the mountain wert thou taken up and what but Heaven is above the hills Lo these are those mountains of spices which thy Spouse the Church long since desired thee to climbe Thou hast now climbed up that infinite steepness and hast left all sublimity below thee Already hadst thou approved thy self the Lord and Commander of Earth of Sea of Hell The Earth confest thee her Lord when at thy voice she rendered thee thy Lazarus when she shook at thy Passion and gave up her dead Saints The Sea acknowledged thee in that it became a pavement to thy feet and at thy command to the feet of thy Disciple in that it became thy Treasury for thy Tribute-money Hell found and acknowledged thee in that thou conqueredst all the powers of darkness even him that had the power of death the Devil It now onely remained that as the Lord of the Aire thou shouldst pass through all the regions of that yielding element and as Lord of Heaven thou shouldst pass through all the glorious contignations thereof that so every knee might bow
to thee both in Heaven and in Earth and under the earth Thou hadst an everlasting right to that Heaven that should be an undoubted possession of it ever since it was yea even whiles thou didst cry and spraul in the Cratch whiles thou didst hang upon the Cross whiles thou wert sealed up in thy Grave but thine Humane nature had not taken actual possession of it till now Like as it was in thy true Type David he had right to the Kingdome of Israel immediately upon his anointing but yet many an hard brunt did he pass ere he had the full possession of it in his ascent to Hebron I see now O Blessed Jesu I see where thou art even farre above all Heavens at the right hand of thy Father's Glory This is the farre countrey into which the Nobleman went to receive for himself a Kingdom farre off to us to thee near yea intrinsecal Oh do thou raise up my Heart thither to thee place thou my Affections upon thee above and teach me therefore to love Heaven because thou art there How then O Blessed Saviour how didst thou ascend Whiles they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight So wast thou taken up as that the act was thine own the power of the act none but thine Thou that descendedst wast the same that ascendedst as in thy descent there was no use of any power or will but thine own no more was there in thine ascent Still and ever wert thou the Master of thine own acts Thou laidst down thy own life no man took it from thee Thou raisedst up thy self from death no hand did or could help thee Thou carriedst up thine own glorified flesh and placedst it in Heaven The Angels did attend thee they did not aid thee whence had they their strength but from thee Elias ascended to Heaven but he was fetcht up in a Chariot of fire that it might appear hence that man had need of other helps who else could not of himself so much as lift up himself to the Aiery Heaven much less to the Empyreal But thou our Redeemer neededst no Chariot no carriage of Angels thou art the Author of life and motion they move in and from thee As thou therefore didst move thy self upward so by the same Divine power thou wilt raise us up to the participation of thy Glory These vile bodies shall be made like to thy glorious body according to the working whereby thou art able to subdue all things unto thy self Elias had but one witness of his rapture into Heaven S. Paul had none no not himself for whether in the body or out of the body he knew not Thou O Blessed Jesu wouldst neither have all eyes witnesses of thine Ascension nor yet too few As after thy Resurrection thou didst not set thy self upon the pinnacle of the Temple nor yet publickly shew thy self within it as making thy presence too cheap but madest choice of those eyes whom thou wouldst bless with the sight of thee thou wert seen indeed of five hundred at once but they were Brethren So in thine Ascension thou didst not carry all Jerusalem promiscuously forth with thee to see thy glorious departure but onely that selected company of thy Disciples which had attended thee in thy life Those who immediately upon thine ascending returned to Jerusalem were an hundred and twenty persons a competent number of witnesses to verifie that thy miraculous and triumphant passage into thy Glory Lo those onely were thought worthy to behold thy Majestical Ascent which had been partners with thee in thy Humiliation Still thou wilt have it thus with us O Saviour and we embrace the condition if we will converse with thee in thy lowly estate here upon earth wading with thee through contempt and manifold afflictions we shall be made happy with the sight and communion of thy Glory above O my Soul be thou now if ever ravished with the contemplation of this comfortable and blessed farewel of thy Saviour What a sight was this how full of joyful assurance of spiritual consolation Methinks I see it still with their eyes how thou my glorious Saviour didst leisurely and insensibly rise up from thine Olivet taking leave of thine acclaming Disciples now left below thee with gracious eyes with Heavenly Benedictions Methinks I see how they followed thee with eager and longing eyes with arms lifted up as if they had wished them winged to have soared up after thee And if Eliah gave assurance to his servant Elisha that if he should behold him in that rapture his Masters Spirit should be doubled upon him what an accession of the Spirit of joy and confidence must needs be to thy happy Disciples in seeing thee thus gradually rising up to thy Heaven Oh how unwillingly did their intentive eyes let goe so Blessed an Object How unwelcome was that Cloud that interposed it self betwixt thee and them and closing up it self left only a glorious splendour behind it as the bright track of thine Ascension Of old here below the Glory of the Lord appeared in the Cloud now afarre off in the sky the Cloud intercepted this Heavenly Glory if distance did not rather doe it then that bright meteor Their eyes attended thee on thy way so farre as their beams would reach when they could goe no further the Cloud received thee Lo yet even that very screen whereby thou wert taken off from all earthly view was no other then glorious how much rather do all the beholders fix their sight upon that Cloud then upon the best piece of the Firmament Never was the Sun it self gazed on with so much intention With what long looks with what astonished acclamations did these transported beholders follow thee their ascending Saviour as if they would have lookt through that Cloud and that Heaven that hid thee from them But oh what tongue of the highest Archangel of Heaven can express the welcome of thee the King of Glory into those Blessed Regions of Immortality Surely the Empyreal Heaven never resounded with so much joy God ascended with jubilation and the Lord with the sound of the Trumpet It is not for us weak and finite creatures to wish to conceive those incomprehensible spiritual Divine gratulations that the Glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now-glorified Humane nature Certainly if when he brought his onely-begotten Son into the world he said Let all the Angels worship him much more now that he ascends on high and hath led captivity captive hath he given him a Name above all Names that at the name of JESUS all knees should bow And if the Holy Angels did so caroll at his Birth in the very entrance into that estate of Humiliation and in firmity with what triumph did they receive him now returning from the perfect atchievement of man's Redemption And if when his Type had vanquished Goliah and carried the head into Jerusalem the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and
and felicity if his absence could be grievous his return shall be happy and glorious Even so Lord Jesus come quickly In the mean while it is not Heaven that can keep thee from me it is not earth that can keep me from thee Raise thou up my Soul to a life of Faith with thee let me ever injoy thy conversation whiles I exspect thy return A SERMON OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING For the wonderful Mitigation of the late Mortalitie Preached before His Majestie upon His gracious Command at His Court of Whitehall Jan. 29. 1625. and upon the same Command published by JOS. HALL Dean of Worcester Psal 68. vers 19 20. Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death YEa blessed be the Lord who hath added this unto the load of his other Mercies to his unworthy servant that the same Tongue which was called not long since to chatter out our Publick Mournings in the Solemn Fast of this place is now imployed in a Song of Praise and the same Hand which was here lifted up for Supplication is now lift up in Thanksgiving Ye that then accompanied me with your tears and sighs accompany me now I beseech you in this happy change of note and time with your joyful Smiles and Acclamations to the GOD that hath wrought it It is not more natural for the Sun when it looks upon a moist and wellfermented earth to cause Vapors to ascend thence then it is for Greatness and Goodness when they both meet together upon an honest heart to draw up holy desires of gratulation The worth of the Agent doth it not alone without a â—it disposition in the Subject Let the Sun cast his strongest beams upon a flint a pumice he fetches out no stream Even so the Greatness and Goodness of the Almighty beating upon a dry and hard heart prevailes nothing Here all three are happily met In God infinite Greatness infinite Goodness such Greatness that he is attended with thousand thousands of Angels a Guard fit for the King of Heaven such Goodness that he receives Gifts even for the rebellious In David a Gracious heart that in a sweet sense of the great Goodness of his God breaths out this Divine Epiphonema Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation c. Wherein methinks the sweet Singer of Israel seems to raise his note to the emulation of the Quire of Heaven in the melody of their Allelujahs yea let me say now that he sings above in that Blessed Consort of glorious Spirits his Ditty cannot be better then this that he sung here upon earth and wherein we are about to bear our parts at this time Prepare I beseech you both your eares for David's Song and your hearts and tongues for your own And first in this Angelical strain your thoughts cannot but observe without me the Descant and the Ground The Descant of Gratulation Blessed be the Lord wherein is both Applause and Excitation an Applause given to God's Goodness and an Excitation of others to give that Applause The Ground is a threefold respect Of what God is in himself God and Lord Of what God is and doth to us which loadeth us daily with benefits Of what he is both in himself and to us The God of our Salvation which last like to some rich Stone is set off with a dark foyl To God the Lord belong the issues from death So in the first for his own sake in the second for our sakes in the third for his own and ours as God as Lord as a Benefactor as a Saviour and Deliverer Blessed be the Lord. It is not hard to observe that David's Allelujahs are more then his Hosannas his thanks more then his suits Oft-times doth he praise God when be begs nothing seldome ever doth he beg that favour for which he doth not raise up his Soul to an anticipation of Thanks neither is this any other then the universal under-song of all his Heavenly Ditties Blessed be the Lord. Praised as our former Translation hath it is too low Honour is more then Praise Blessing is more then Honour Neither is it for nothing that from this word Barac to bless is derived Berec the knee which is bowed in blessing and the cryer before Joseph proclaimed Abrech calling for the honour of the knee from all beholders Gen. 41. 43. Every slight trivial acknowledgement of worth is a Praise Blessing is in a higher strain of gratitude that carries the whole sway of the heart with it in a kinde of Divine rapture Praise is in matter of complement Blessing of Devotion The Apostle's Rule is that the less is blessed of the greater Abraham of the King of Salem The Prophets charge is that the greater should be blessed of the less yea the greatest of the least God of man This agrees well Blessing is an act that will bear reciprocation God blesseth man and man blesseth God God blesseth man imperatively man blesseth God optatively God blesseth man in the acts of Mercy man blesseth God in the notions in the expressions of thanks God blesses man when he makes him good and happy man blesseth God when he confesseth how good how gracious how glorious he is so as the blessing is wholly taken up in agnition in celebration in the one we acknowledge the Bounty of God to us in the other we magnifie him vocally really for that Bounty Oh see then what high account God makes of the affections and actions of his poor silly earth-creeping creatures that he gives us in them power to bless himself and takes it as an honour to be blessed of us David wonders that God should so vouchsafe to bless man how much more must we needs wonder at the mercy of God that will vouchsafe to be blessed by man a worm an atome a nothing Yet both S. James tels us that with the tongue we bless God and the Psalmist calls for it here as a service of dear acceptation Blessed be the Lord. Even we men live not Cameleon-like with the aire of thanks nor feed ere the fatter with praises how much less our Maker O God we know well that whatsoever men or Angels doe or doe not thou canst not but be infinitely Blessed in thy self before ever any creature was thou didst equally injoy thy blessed Self from all Eternity what can this worthless loose filme of flesh either adde to or detract from thine Infiniteness Yet thou that humblest thy self to behold the things that are done in Heaven and earth humblest thy self also to accept the weak breath of our Praises that are sent up to thee from earth to Heaven How should this incourage the vows the endeavours of our hearty thankfulness to see them graciously taken Would men take up with good words with good desires and quit our bonds
for thanks who would be a debter With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current If he then will honour us so far as to be blessed of us Oh let us honour him so far as to blesse him Quare verbis parcam gratuita sunt Why do we spare thanks that cost us nothing as that wise heathen O give unto the Lord ye mighty give unto the Lord the praises due to his name offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and still let the foot of our song be Blessed be the Lord. This for the Descant of gratulation the Ground follows His own sake hath reason to be first God will be blessed both as Jah and Adonai the one the style of his Essence the other of his Soveraignty Even the most accursed Deist would confesse that as a pure simple infinite absolute being God is to be blessed for if Being be good and these two be convertible Nature must needs teach him that an absolute and infinite Being must needs be absolutely and infinitely good But what do I blur the Glory of this Day with mention of those Monsters whose Idol is Nature whose Religion is secondary Atheism whose true region is the lowest Hell Those damned Ethnicks cannot will not conceive of God as he is because they impiously sever his Essence from his inward Relations We Christians can never be so heavenly affected to God as we ought till we can rise to this pitch of Piety to blesse God for what he is in himself without the external beneficial relations to the creature Else our respects reflect too much homeward and we do but look through God at our selves Neither is it for us only to blesse him as an absolute God but as a Soveraign Lord too whose Power hath no more limit then his Essence the great Moderator of Heaven and earth giving laws to his creature overruling all things marshalling all events crushing his enemies maintaining his Church adored by Angels trembled at by Devils Behold here a Lord worthy to be blessed We honour as we ought your conspicuous Greatness O ye eminent Potentates of the earth but alas what is this to the great Lord of Heaven when we look up thither we must crave leave to pity the breath of your nostrils the rust of your Coronets the dust of your graves the sting of your felicities and if ye take not good heed the blots of your memories As ye hold all in â—ee from this great Lord so let it be no disparagement to you to doe your lowliest homage to his footstool homage I mean in Action give me the reall benediction I am sure that is the best They blesse God that praise him they blesse him more and praise him best that obey him There are that crouch to you Great ones who yet hate you Oh let us take heed of offering these hollow observances to the searcher of hearts if we love not our own confusion They that proclaimed Christ at Jerusalem had not only Hosanna in their mouths but palms in their hands too so must we have Let me say then If the Hand bless not the Lord the Tongue is an Hypocrite Away with the wast complements of our vain Formalities Let our loud actions drown the language of our words in blessing the name of the Lord. Neither must we bless God as a Soveraign Lord only but which is yet a more feeling relation as a munificent Benefactor Who loadeth us daily with benefits Such is man's self-love that no inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence Whiles thou makest much of thy self every one shall speak well of thee how much more whiles thou makest much of them Here God hath met with us also Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm above all other of David's to abound see here I beseech you a four-fold gradation of Divine Bounty First here are Benefits The word is not expressed in the Original but necessarily implied in the sense for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God Favours Precepts Punishments the other two are out of the road of Gratulation When we might therefore have exspected Judgments behold hold Benefits And those secondly not sparingly handfulled out to us but dealt to us by the whole load loadeth with benefits Whom thirdly doth he load but us Not worthy and well-deserving subjects but us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebels And lastly this he doth not at one doal and no more as even churls rare Feasts use to be plentifull but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 successively unweariedly perpetually One favour were too much here are Benefits a sprinkling were too much here is a load once were too oft here is daily largition Cast your eyes therefore a little upon this threefold exaggeration of Beneficence the measure a load of benefits the subject unworthy us the time daily Who daily loadeth us with benefits Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of Mercies Were it no more but that he hath given us a world to live in a life to injoy aire to breath in earth to tread on fire to warm us water to cool and cleanse us cloaths to cover us food to nourish us sleep to refresh us houses to shelter us variety of creatures to serve and delight us here were a just load But now if we yet adde to these civility of breeding dearnesse of friends competency of Estate degrees of Honour honesty or dignity of vocation favour of Princes successe in imployments domestick comforts outward peace good reputation preservation from dangers rescue from evils the load is well mended If yet ye shall come closer and adde due proportion of Body integrity of parts perfection of senses strength of nature mediocrity of health sufficiency of appetite vigour of digestion wholsome temper of seasons freedome from cares this course must needs heighten it yet more If still ye shall adde to these the order and power and exercise of our inward Faculties inriched with Wisdome Art Learning Experience expressed by a not-unhandsome Elocution and shall now lay all these together that concern Estate Body Minde how can the axel-tree of the Soul but crack under the load of these Favours But if from what God hath done for us as men we look to what he hath done for us as Christians that he hath imbraced us with an everlasting Love that he hath molded us anew enlivened us by his Spirit fed us by his Word Sacraments clothed us with his Merits bought us with his Blood becoming vile to make us glorious a Curse to invest us with Blessedness in a word that he hath given himself to us his Son for us Oh the height and depth and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh the boundlesse toplesse bottomlesse load of Divine benefits whose immensity reaches from the center of this earth to the unlimited extent of the very Empyreal Heavens Oh that men would praise the
our Earth ready to sink under the load of his Mercies What Nation under Heaven hath not envied and wondred at our Blessings I do not carry back your eyes to the ancient favours of our God to the memorable frustrations of â—â—â—ein Invasions to the miraculous discoveries of Treasons to the successfull maintenance of oppressed neighbourhood That one mercy I may not forget that in the shutting up of blessed Queen Elizabeth the Pope and the then-King of Spain were casting Lots for the Crown and palpably plotting for their severally-designed Successors as appears in the publick posthume Letters of Cardinal D' Ossat a witnesse beyond exception Three several Briefs were addressed hither by that inclement shaveling of Rome for the defeating of the Title and Succession of our late Soveraign of dear and blessed memory and his Royal Issue Yet in spight of Rome and Hell God brought him in and set him peaceably upon this just Throne of his Fore-fathers and may he perpetuate it to the fruit of those loyns till world and time shall be no more Amen If I must follow the times let me rather balk that hellish Sulphur-mine then not search it and yet who can look at that any otherwise then the Jews do at the Rain-bow with horror and astonishment What do I tell you of our long Peace our full Plenty our wholsome Laws our easefull Government with a world of these common favours It is for poor men to reckon Those two late Blessings if no more were worthy of immortal memory the Prince out of Spain Religion out of the dust For the one what a winter was there in all good hearts when our Sun was gone so far Southward how chearfull a Spring in his return For the other who saw not how Religion began during those purposely-protracted Treaties to droop and languish her friends to sigh her enemies to insult daring to brave us with challenges to threaten our ruine The Lord looked down from Heaven and visited this poor Vine of his and hath shaken off these Caterpillars from her then-wasting leaves now we live and it flourisheth These would have been great favours of God even to the best Nation but more to us who have answered Mercies with Rebellions O God if proud disguises if gluttonous pamperings if drunken healths if wanton dalliances if bloody oaths if mercilesse oppressions may earn Blessings from thee too many of us have supererogated Woe is me these are the measures thou hast had from too many hands That thou shouldst therefore inlarge thy bounty to an unworthy unkinde disobedient generation it is more then we can wonder at and we could almost be ready to say with Peter Lord depart from us for we are sinfull men Yet the wise Justice of the Almighty meant not to cocker us up with mere dainties with a loose indulgence but hath thought fit to temper our sweets with tartnesse and to strike our backs whiles he strokes our heads Ecce in pace amaritudo amarissima the comfort of our Peace was allayed with the bitternesse of death He saw that in this common Plethorie it was fit for us to bleed he saw us Eeles that would not be caught but when the waters were troubled He therefore sent his destroying Angel abroad who laid about him on all sides What slaughter what lamentation what horror was there in the streets of our mother City More then twenty thousand Families run from their houses as if those had been on fire over their heads and seek shelter in Zoar and the mountains Some of them are overtaken by the pursuer and drop down in the way and lie there as wofull spectacles of mortality till necessity and not Charity could finde them a grave Others passe on and for friends finde strangers Danger made men wisely and unwillingly unhospital The Cozen the Brother forgets his own blood and the Father looks shily upon his own childe and welcomes him with frowns if not with repulses There were that repai'd their grudged harbour with infection And those that sped best what with care for their abandoned houses and estate what with grief for the misery of their forsaken neighbours what with the rage of those Epidemical diseases which they found abroad as it is well observed by one that in a contagious time all sicknesses have some tincture of Pestilence wore out their daies in the deepest sorrow and heavinesse There leave we them and return to the miserable Metropolis of this Kingdome which they left Who can expresse the dolefull condition of that time and place The arms of London are the Red Cross and the Sword what house almost wanted these Here was the Red Cross upon the door the Sword of God's Judgment within doors and the Motto was Lord have mercy upon us What could we hear but alarms of death what could we see but Trophees of death Here was nothing but groaning and crying and dying and burying Carts were the Biers wide pits were the Graves mens cloaths were their Coffins and the very Exequies of friends were murderous The carkasses of the dead might say with the sons of the Prophets Behold the place where we lie is too streight for us New Dormitories are bought for the dead and furnished neither might the corpses be allowed to lie single in their earthen beds but are piled up like fagots in a stack for the society of their future Resurrection No man survived but he might say with the Psalmist that thousands fell at his side and ten thousands at his right hand And if we take all together the mother and the daughters surely the number was not much short of David's though his time were shorter It is not without reason that from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the Plague is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Desart Certainly the Plague turns the most populous City into a Desart Oh the wofull desolation of this place It was almost come to Herba tegit Trojam And if some infrequent passenger crossed our streets it was not without his medicated Posie at his nose and his Zedoary or Angelica in his mouth Every room seemed a Pest-house every sent mortal Here should he meet one pale ghost muffled up under the throat another dragging his legs after him for the tumor of his groin another bespotted with the Tokens of instant death here might he hear one shreeking out in a frantick distraction there another breathing out his Soul in his last groans What should I say more This glorious chamber of the Kingdome seemed no other then a dreadfull dungeon to her own a very Golgotha to all beholders and this proud Queen of our British Cities sate in the dust of her compassion howling in the rags of her sackcloth not mourning more then mourned for pitied no lesse then forsaken when the God of our Salvation looked down upon her deep afflictions and miraculously proved unto us that unto him belong the issues from death It was
drink no more of the fruit of this Vine till I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom Mat. 26. 29. It must needs be an excellent liquor which is used to resemble the joyes of Heaven Yea the Blood of the Son of God that celestial Nectar which tomorrow shall chear our Souls is it otherwise resembled then by the blood of the Grape He is Vitis vera the true Vine this is his juice Alas would God we had not too much cause to complain of the pleasure of this fruit Religion Reason Humanity savour not to the palate of many in comparison of it Wine is a mocker saith Solomon How many thousands doth it daily cheat of their Substance of their Patrimony of their Health of their Wit of their Sense of their Life of their Soul Oh that we had the grace to be sensible of our owne scorn and danger But this is the honour of the fruit and the shame of the man the excesse is not more our Sin then the delicacy is the praise of the Grape For sweetnesse of verdure then all plants will yield to the Vine so tastfull so pleasing so delightfull unto God are the Persons the Graces the Endeavours of his Israel Their Persons are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 1. Their Love is better then wine Cant. 4. 10. Their Alms are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet-smelling savour Philip. 4. 18. Their Prayers as evening Incense of a most fragrant composition and for the rest of their words the roof of their mouth is like the best Wine Cant. 7. 9. Acceptation hath wont to be the incouragement of forwardnesse Honourable and beloved how should this hearten us in our holy stations in our conscionable actions Whiles we continue Vines it is not in the power of our imperfections to lose our thanks The delicatest Grape cannot be so relishsome to the palate of man as our poor weak obediences are to the God of Mercies Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart saith Christ of his Church Cant. 4. 9. The Vine is a noble plant but a feeble and tender one Other trees grow up alone out of the strength of their own sap this grovels on the ground and rots if it have not an Elm to prop it like as Man the best creature is in his birth most helplesse and would presently die without outward succours Such is the Israel of God the worthiest piece of Gods Creation yet of it self impotent to good here is no growth no life but from that Divine Hand Without me ye can doe nothing They are no Vines that can stand alone Those proud spirits as they have no need of God so God hath no interest in them His Israel is a Vineyard and the Vine must be propped As a Vineyard so God's Vineyard The Church shall be sure not to be Masterlesse There is much wast ground that hath no owner our Globe can tell us of a great part of the World that hath no name but Incognita not known whether it have any inhabitant but a Vineyard was never without a Possessor till Noah the true Janus planted one there was no news of any Come into some wilde Indian Forest all furnished with goodly Trees you know not whether ever man were there God's hand we are sure hath been there perhaps not mans but if you come into a well-dressed Vineyard where you see the Hillocks equally swelling the Stakes pitcht in a just height and distance and the Vines handsomely pruned now it is easie to say as the Philosopher did when he found Figures Here hath been a man yea a good husband There is an universall Providence of God over the World but there is a special eye and hand of God over his Church In this God challengeth a peculiar interest that is his as we heard worthily this day in a double right of Confederation of Redemption Israel is my Son yea my first-born saith God to Pharaoh Thou hast brought a Vine out of AEgypt thou hast cast out the Heathen and planted it saith the Psalmist 80. 8. Oh the blasphemous diffidence of foolish men Can we dare we impute ill husbandry to the God of Heaven Hath God a Vineyard and shall he not tend it shall he not mightily protect it Goe on ye Foxes ye little Foxes to spoil the tender Grapes goe on ye Boars of the Wood to waste this Vineyard and ye wilde beasts of the field to devour it our sins our sins have given this scope to your violence and our calamity But ye shall once know that this Vineyard hath an Owner even the mighty God of Jacob every cluster that you have spoiled shall be fetcht back again from the bloody Wine-presse of his wrath and in spight of all the gates of Hell this Vine shall flourish Even so return we beseech thee O God of Hosts look down from Heaven and visit this Vine and the Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the branch that thou madest strong for thy self Ye have seen Israel a Vineyard and God's Vineyard now cast your eyes upon the favours that God hath done to his Vineyard Israel such as that God appeals to their own hearts for Judges What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done Mark I beseech you He doth not say What could have been done more then hath been done but more that I have not done challenging all the acts done to his Vineyard for his own As the Soil is his so is all the culture He that elsewhere makes himself the Vine and his Father the Husbandman here makes Israel the Vine and himself the Husbandman Nothing is nothing can be done to his Church that passeth not his hands My Father still worketh saith he and I work This work this care knows no end no limits Many a good Husband over-tasks himself and undertakes more then his eye can overlook or his hand sway and therefore is fain to trust to the management of others and it speeds thereafter But the owner of this Vineyard is every where and works whereever he is nothing can passe his eye every thing must passe his hand This is the difference betwixt Solomon's Vineyard and his that is greater then Solomon Solomon lets out his Vineyard to Keepers Cant. 8. 11. Christ keeps his in his own hand He useth indeed the help of men but as Tools rather then as Agents he works by them they cannot work but by him Are any of you Great ones Benefactors to his Church a rare style I confesse in these not dative but ablative times ye are but as the hands of the Sub-almoners of Heaven God gives by you Are any great Potentates of the earth secret or open persecutors of his Church Ashur is the rod of my wrath saith God they are but as God's pruning◠Knives to make his Vine bleed out her superfluous juice God cuts by them He is the Author of both men are the instruments
desire to save the labour of Transcriptions I found it not unfit the World should see what Preparative was given for so stirring a Potion neither can there be so much need in these languishing times of any discourse as that which serves to quicken our Mortification wherein I so much rejoyce to have so happily met with those Reverend Bishops who led the way and followed me in this Holy Service The God of Heaven make all our endeavours effectuall to the saving of the Souls of his people Amen A SERMON PREACHED To his Majestie on the Sunday before the Fast being March 30. at White-hall In way of preparation for that holy Exercise By the B. of EXCESTER Galat. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live c. HE that was once tossed in the confluence of two Seas Acts 27. 41. was once no lesse streightned in his resolutions betwixt life and death Phil. 1. 23. Neither doth my Text argue him in any other case here As there he knew not whether he should chuse so here he knew not whether he had I am crucified there he is dead yet I live there he is alive again yet not I there he lives not but Christ in me there he more then lives This holy correction makes my Text full of wonders full of sacred riddles 1. The living God is dead upon the Crosse Christ crucified 2. S. Paul who died by the sword dies on the Cross 3. S. Paul who was not Paul till after Christ's death is yet crucified with Christ 4. S. Paul thus crucified yet lives 5. S. Paul lives not himself whiles he lives 6. Christ who is crucified lives in Paul who was crucified with him See then here both a Lent and an Easter A Lent of Mortification I am crucified with Christ an Easter of Resurrection and life I live yet not I but Christ lives in me The Lent of my Text will be sufficient as proper for this season wherein my speech shall passe through three long stages of discourse Christ crucified S. Paul crucified S. Paul crucified with Christ In all which your Honourable and Christian patience shall as much shorten my way as my care shall shorten the way to your patience Christ's Cross is the first lesson of our infancy worthy to be our last and all The great Doctor of the Gentiles affected not to flie any higher pitch Grande crucis Sacramentum as Ambrose This is the greatest wonder that ever earth or heaven yielded God incarnate was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but God suffering and dying was so much more as Death is more penal then Birth The God-head of man and the blood of God are two such Miracles as the Angels of Heaven can never enough look into never admire enough Ruffin tells us that among the Sacred Characters of the Egyptians the Cross was antiently one which was said to signifie eternal life hence their Learneder sort were converted to and confirmed in the Faith Surely we know that in God's Hieroglyphicks Eternal Life is both represented and exhibited to us by the Crosse That the Crosse of Christ was made of the Tree of Life a slip whereof the Angels gave to Adam's son out of Paradise is but a Jewish Legend Galatine may believe it not we but that it is made the Tree of Life to all believers we are sure This is the only scale of Heaven never man ascended thither but by it By this Christ himself climb'd up to his own glory Dominus regnavit à ligno as Tertullian translates that of the Psalm Father glorifie thy name that is saith he Duc me ad crucem Lift me up to the tree not of my shame but of my triumph Behold we preach Christ crucified saith Saint Paul to the Jews a stumbling-block to the Greeks foolishnesse but to them which are called Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1. 23. Foolish men that stumble at power and deride wisdome Upbraid us now ye fond Jews and Pagans with a Crucified Saviour It is our glory it is our happinesse which ye make our reproach Had not our Saviour died he could have been no Saviour for us had not our Saviour died we could not have lived See now the flag of our dear Redeemer this Cross shining eminently in loco pudoris in our foreheads and if we had any place more high more conspicuous more honourable there we would advance it O blessed Jesu when thou art thus lifted up on thy Cross thou drawest all hearts unto thee there thou leadest captivity captive and givest gifts unto men Ye are deceived O ye blinde Jews and Painims ye are deceived it is not a Gibbet it is a Throne of Honour to which our Saviour is raised a Throne of such Honour as to which Heaven and earth and hell do and must vail The Sun hides his awfull head the earth trembles the rocks rend the graves open and all the frame of Nature doth homage to their Lord in this secret but Divine pomp of Crucifixion And whiles ye think his feet and hands despicably fixed behold he is powerfully trampling upon Hell and Death and setting up trophees of his most glorious Victory and scattering everlasting Crowns and Scepters unto all Believers O Saviour I do rather more adore thee on the Calvary of thy Passion then on the Tabor of thy Transsiguration or the Olivet of thine Ascension and cannot so effectuously blesse thee for Pater clarifica Father glorifie me as for My God my God why hast thou forsaken me sith it is no news for God to be great and glorious but for the Eternal and ever-living God to be abased to be abased unto death to the death of the Cross is that which could not but amaze the Angels and confound Devils and so much more magnifies thine infinite Mercy by how much an infinite person would become more ignominious All Hosannas of men all Allellujahs of Saints and Angels come short of this Majestick humiliation Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Revel 5. 13. And ye Honourable and beloved as ever ye hope to make musick in Heaven learn to tune your harps to the note and ditty of these Heavenly Elders Rejoice in this and rejoice in nothing but this Cross not in your transitory Honours Titles Treasures which will at the last leave you inconsolately sorrowfull but in this Cross of Christ whereby the world is crucified to you and you to the world Oh clip and embrace this pretious Cross with both your arms and say with that blessed Martyr Amor meus crucifixus est My Love is crucified Those that have searched into the monuments of Jerusalem write that our Saviour was crucified with his face to the West which howsoever spightfully meant of the Jews as not allowing him worthy to look on the Holy City and Temple yet was not without a mysterie Oculi ejus super Gentes respiciunt
so clear Predictions of the Prophets after so miraculous demonstrations of the Divine power of Christ after so many graves ransack'd dead raised Devils ejected lims and eyes new-created after such testimonies of the Starre Sages Angels God himself after such triumphs over death and hell do yet detrect to believe in him and to receive him for their Messias most justly are they in this first kinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a froward generation And so is any Nation under Heaven that follows them in the steps of their peevish incredulity more or less shutting their eyes upon the glorious light of Saving Truth like that sullen Tree in the Indies which they say closes it self against the beams of the rising Sun and opens onely to the dampish shades of the night Where we must take this Rule with us a Rule of most just proportion That the means of Light to any Nation aggravate the hainousness and damnableness of their Unbelief The time of that ignorance God regarded not but now saith Saint Paul to the Athenians Act. 17. 30. If I had not come and spoken to them they should have had no sin saith our Saviour Joh. 15. 22. Those that walk in Cimmerian in AEgyptian darkness it is neither shame nor wonder if they either erre or stumble but for a man to stumble the Sun in the face or to grope by the walls at noon in the midst of Goshen is so much more hateful as the occaecation is more willing The latter which is the negative untowardness in Action is when any Nation fails palpably in those holy duties of Piety Justice Charity which the Royal Law of their God requireth Of this kinde are those usual complaints The fear of God is not before their eyes God looked to see if there were any that looked after God and behold there was none The righteous is perished from the children of men Behold the teares of the oppressed and none comforted them The Prophets are full of these querulous notes there is not a page of them free yea hardly shall ye meet with one line of theirs which doth not brand their Israel with this defect of Holiness From the negative cast your eyes upon the positive crookedness or untowardness That is in matter of Faith the maintenance or Impiety Misbelief Heresie Superstition Atheisme and whatever other intellectual wickedness In matter of Fact Idolatries Profane carriage violation of Gods Daies and Ordinances Disobediences Murders Adulteries Thests Drunkenness Lyes Detractions or any other actual rebellion against God Behold I have drawn forth before you an Hellish rabble of sins enough to marre a world Whatever Nation now or succession of men abounds either in these sinful omissions or these hainous commissions whether in matter of Judgment or Manners is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an untoward generation That which makes a man crooked or untoward makes a Generation so for what is a Generation but a resultance of men their number doth not vary their condition But let not our zeal as it oft doth make us uncharitable when a whole Generation is taxed for untowardness think not that none are free No not one saith the Psalmist by way of servent aggravation All seek their own saith the Apostle all in comparison But never times were so overgrown with iniquity as that God hath not left himself some gracious remainders when the thievish Chaldaeans and Sabaeans have done their worst there shall be a messenger to say I am escaped Never was harvest or vintage so curiously inned that some gleanings were not left in the field some clusters among the leaves But these few if they may give a blessing to the times yet they cannot give a style the denomination still follows the greater though the worse part let these be never so good the Generation is and is noted for evil Let me therefore here commend to your better thoughts these three emergent considerations 1. The irreparable wrong and reproach that lewd men bring upon the very Ages and Nations where they live 2. The difference of times and Ages in respect of the degrees of evil 3. The warrant of the free censure of ill-deserving Times or Nations It were happy if the injury of a wicked man could be confined to his own bosome that he only should fare the worse for his sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as the Greek rule runs if it were but self-doe self-have as the old word is But as his lewdness is like some odious sent diffused through the whole room where he is so it reacheth to earth and Heaven yea to the very times and generations upon which he is unhappily faln Doubtless there were many worthy Saints in these very times of St. Peter there was the Blessed Mother of Christ the paragon of Sanctity there was a beavy of those devout and holy dames that attended the Doctrine bewailed the Death and would have embalmed the Corps of our Blessed Saviour there were the twelve Apostles the seventy Disciples the hundred and twenty names that were met in one room at Jerusalem Acts 1. 15. the five hundred brethren that saw Christ after his glorious and victorious Resurrection besides those many thousands that believed through their word in all the parts of Judaea and Galilee yet for all that the Apostle brands this with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an untoward generation It is not in the vertue of a few to drown the wickedness of the more If we come into a field that hath some good plenty of corn and some store of weeds though it be red with poppy or yellow with carlock or blew with wild-bottles or scabious we still call it a corn-field but if we come into a barn-floor and see some few graines scattered amongst an heap of chaffe we do not call it a corn-heap the quantity of the offal devours the mention of those insensible grains Thus it is with Times and Nations A little good is not seen amongst much ill a righteous Lot cannot make his City to be no Sodom Wickedness as it helps to corrupt so to shame a very Age. The Orator Tertullus when he would plead against Paul sayes We have found this man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pestilence Act. 24. 5. Foolish Tertullus that mistook the Antidote for the Poison the remedy for the disease But had S. Paul been such as thy misprision supposed him he had been such as thy unjust crimination now makes thy self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the plague of thy people A wicked man is a perfect contagion he infects the world with sin the very Age with infamy Malus vir malum publicum is not a more old then true word Are there then in any Nation under Heaven lewd miscreants whose hearts are Atheists whose tongues are â—lasphemers whose bodies are a Stews whose lips are nothing but a Factory of close villany let them please themselves and let others if ye will applaud them for their beneficial contributions to the publick affairs in
the style of bonus civis a good Patriot as men whose parts may be useful to the weal-publick yet I say such men are no better then the bane of their Country the stain of their Age. Turpis est pars quae suo toti non convenit as Gerson well it is an ill member for which all the body fares the worse Hear this then ye glorious sinners that brag of your good affections and faithful services to your dear Country your hearts your heads your purses your hands ye say are prest for the publick good yea but are your hearts Godless are your lives filthy let me tell you your sins doe more disservice to your Nation then your selves are worth All your valour wisdome subsidiary helps cannot counterpoise one dram of your wickedness Talk what ye will Sin is a shame to any people saith wise Solomon ye bring both a curse and a dishonour upon your Nation It may thank you for the hateful style of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a froward generation This for our first Observation Never Generation was so straight as not to be distorted with some powerful sins but there are differences and degrees in this distortion Even in the very first world were Giants as Moses tells us Gen. 6. 4. which as our Mythologists adde did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bid battel to Heaven In the next there were mighty hunters proud Babel-builders after them followed beastly Sodomites It were easie to draw down the pedigree of evils through all times till we come to these last which the holy Ghost marks out for perillous Yet some Generation is more eminently sinful then other as the Sea is in perpetual agitation yet the Spring-tides rise higher then their fellows Hence Saint Peter notes this his Generation with an emphasis of mischief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is a transcendencie of evil What Age may compare with that which hath embrued their cruel hands in the blood of the Son of God That roaring Lion is never still but there are times wherein he rageth more as he did and doth in the first in the last dayes of the Gospel The first that he might block up the way of saving Truth the last for that he knows his time is short There are times that are poisoned with more contagious Heresies with more remarkable villanies It is not my meaning to spend time in abridging the sacred Chronologies of the Church and to deduce along the cursed successions of damnable Errours from their hellish original only let me touch at the notable difference betwixt the firâ—t and the last world In the first as Epiphanius observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was neither diversity of opinion nor mention of Heresie nor act of Idolatry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only piety and impiety divided the world whereas now in the last which is the wrangling and techy dotage of the decrepit world here is nothing but unquiet clashings of Opinion nothing but foul Heresie either maintained by the guilty or imputed to the innocent nothing but gross Idolatry in Paganisme in mis-believing Christianity and woe is me that I must say it a coloured Impiety shares too much of the rest My speech is glided ere I was aware into the third Head of our discourse and is suddenly faln upon the practice of that which S. Peter's example here warrants the censure of ill-deserving times which I must crave leave of your Honorable and Christian patience with an holy and just freedome to prosecute It is the peevish humour of a factious eloquence to aggravate the evils of the times which were they better then they are would be therefore cried down in the ordinary language of male contented spirits because present But it is the warrantable and necessary duty of S. Peter and all his true Evangelical successors when they meet with a froward Generation to call it so How commonly do we cry out of those querulous Michaiahs that are still prophesying evil to us and not good No theme but sins no sawce but vineger Might not one of these galled Jewes of S. Peter's Auditory have started up and have thus challenged him for this tartness What means this hard censure why do you slander the time Solomon was a wise man and he sayes Say not thou What is the cause that the former dayes were better then these for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this this is but a needless rigour this is but an envious calumny The Generation were not untoward if your tongue were not uncharitable The Apostle feares none of these currish oblatrations but contemning all impotent misacceptions calls them what he finds them A froward generation And well might he doe so his great Master did it before him an evil and adulterous generation and the Harbinger of that great Master fore-ran him in that censure O generation of Vipers Mat. 3. 7. and the Prophets led the same way to him in every page And why do not we follow Peter in the same steps wherein Peter followed Christ and Christ his Fore-runner and his Fore-runner the Prophets Who should tell the times of their sins if we be silent Pardon me I beseech you most Noble reverend and beloved hearers necessity is laid upon me in this day of our publick mourning I may not be as a man in whose mouth are no reproofs Oh let us be thankful for our Blessings wherein through the mercy of God we outstrip all the nations under Heaven but withall let us bewail our sins which are so much more grievous because ours Would to God it were no less unjust then unpleasing to complain of this as an untoward Generation There be four things that are wont both to make up and evince the pravity of any Generation woe is me that they are too apparently met in this multitude of sins magnitude of sins boldness of sin impunity of sinning Take a short view of them all You shall see that the Multitude is such as that it hath covered the earth the Magnitude such as hath reach'd to Heaven the Boldness such as out-faceth the Gospel the Impunity such as frustrates the wholesome Laws under which we live For the Multitude where is the man that makes true conscience of any the Laws of his God And if every man violate all the laws of God what do all put together Our Forefathers sins were but as drops ours are as torrents Instance in some few Cannot we our selves remember since a debauch'd Drunkard was an Owle among birds a beast of men a monster of beasts abhorred of men shouted at by children Is this sight now any news to us Is not every Tavern a stye of such swine Is not every street indented with their shameful staggerings Is there not now as much spent in wanton Smoak as our honâ—st â—orefathers spent in substantial Hospitality Cannot we remember since Oathes were so geason and uncouth that their sound startled the hearer as amazed at the strange language of treason against the
heart of flesh Ezec. 11. 19. Are there any of us weary of carrying our old Adam about us a grievous burden I confess and that which is able to weigh us down to Hell do we groan under the load and long to be eased none but the Almighty hand can doe it by the power of Godliness creating us anew to the likeness of that second Adam which is from heaven heavenly without which there is no possibility of Salvation for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God In a word would we have this earth of ours translated to Heaven it is only the power of godliness can doe it And as this power of Godliness is great so no less beneficial beneficial every way both here and hereafter Here it frees us from evil it feoffes us in good Godliness is an Antidote against all mischief and misery yea such is the power of it that it not onely keeps us from evil but turns that evil to good All things work together to the best to them that love and fear God saith the Apostle Lo all things Crosses Sins Crosses are blessings Sins are advantages Saint Paul's Viper befriended him Saint Martin's Ellebore nourished him Saluti fuere pestifera as Seneca speaks And what can hurt him that is blessed by Crosses and is bettered by Sins It feoffes us in good Wealth Honour Contentment The Apostle puts two of them together Godliness is great gain with contentment 1 Tim. 6. 6. Here are no ifs or ands but gain great gain and gain with self-sufficiencie or contentment Wickedness may yield a gain such as it is for a time but it will be gravel in the throat gain farre from contentment Length of dayes are in the right hand of true wisedome and in her left hand riches and honour Prov. 3. 16. Lo honour and wealth are but gifts of the left hand common and mean favours length yea eternity of dayes is for the right that is the height of bounty Godliness hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come saith the Apostle the promise that is enough Gods promises are his performances with men to promise and to pay are two things they are one with God To them that by patient continuing in well-doing seek glory and honour and immortality eternal life Rom. 2. 7. Briefly for I could dwell here alwaies it is Godliness that onely can give us the beatifical sight of God The sight yea the fruition of him yea the union with him not by apposition not by adhesion but by a blessed participation of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. I can goe no higher no the Angels and Arch-angels cannot look higher then this To summe up all then Godliness can give wisedome to the fool eyes to the blind life to the dead it can eject Devils change the course of Nature create us anew free us from evil feoffe us in good honour wealth contentment everlasting happiness O the wonderful O the beneficial power of Godliness And now what is the desire of my Soul but that all this could make you in love with Godliness that in stead of the ambitions of Honour the tradings for Wealth the pursuit of Pleasure your hearts could be set on fire with the zealous affectation of true Godliness Alas the least overture of any of these makes us mad of the world if but the shadow of a little Honour Wealth Promotion Pleasure be cast before us how eagerly do we prosecute it to the eternal hazard of our Souls Behold the substance of them all put together offers it self in Godliness How zealously should we embrace them and never give rest to our Souls till we have laid up those true grounds of Happiness which shall continue with us when all our Riches and earthly Glory shall lye down with us in the dust Alas Noble and Christian hearers ye may be outwardly great and inwardly miserable it was a great Caesar that said I have been all things and am never the better It is not your Bags ye wealthy Citizens that can keep the Gout from your joints or Care from your hearts It is not a Coronet ye great Peers that can keep your heads from aching all this earthly pomp and magnificence cannot keep out either death or conscience Our Prosperity presents us as goodly Lilies which whiles they are whole look fair and smell sweet but if once bruised a little as nasty both in sight and sent It is only Godliness that can hold up our heads in the evil day that can bid us make a mock at all the blustering storms of the world that can protect us from all miseries which if they kill yet they cannot hurt us that can improve our sufferings and invest us with true and eternal Glory O then be covetous be ambitious of this blessed estate of the Soul and as Simon Macchabaeus with three yeares labour took down the top of mount Acra in Jerusalem that no hill might stand in competition of height with the Temple of God so let us humble and prostrate all other desires to this one that true Godliness may have the sway in us Neither is this consideration more fit to be a whetstone to our zeal then a touchstone to our condition Godliness why it is an herb that grows in every soil As Platina observes that for 900 yeares and upwards none of those Popes to whom Sanctity is ascribed in the abstract were yet held Saints after their death except Celestine the 5 which gave up the Pontifical Chair after six Moneths weary sitting in it so on the contrary we may live Ages ere we heare a man profess himself God-less whiles he is abominably such He is too bad that will not be thought Godly as it is a brazen-fac'd Curtezan that would not be held honest That which Lactantius said of the Heathen Philosophers that they had many Scholars few followers I cannot say of the Divine we have enough to learn enough to imitate but few to act Be not deceived Godliness is not impotent whereever Godliness is there is power Hath it then prevailed to open our eyes to see the great things of our peace hath it raised us up from the grave of our sins ejected our hellish corruptions changed our wicked natures new created our hearts well may we applaud our selves in the confidence of our Godliness But if we be still old still corrupt still blind still dead still devilish away vain Hypocrites ye have nothing to doe with Godliness because Godliness hath had no power on you Are ye godly that care to know any thing rather then God and spiritual things Are ye godly that have neither ability nor will to serve that God whom ye fashionably pretend to know Are ye godly which have no inward awe of that God whom ye pretend to serve no government of your Passions no Conscience of your Actions no care of your Lives False Hypocrites ye do but abuse and profane that name which ye unjustly
of these Birds every where at home I appeal your eyes your ears would to God they would convince me of a slander But what of all this now The power of Godlinesse is denied by wicked men How then what is their case Surely inexplicably unconceivably fearfull The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodlinesse saith the Apostle How revealed say you wherein differ they from their neighbours unlesse it be perhaps in better fare no gripes in their Conscience no afflictions in their life no bands in their death Impunitas ausum ausus excessum parit as Bernard Their impunity makes them bold their boldness outragious Alas wretched Souls The world hath nothing more wofull then a Sinners welfare It is for slaughter that this Ox is fatned Ease slayeth the simple and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Prov. 1. 32. This bracteata felicitas which they injoy here is but as Carpets spread over the mouth of Hell For if they deny the power of Godliness the God of power shall be sure to deny them Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not There cannot be a worse doom then Depart from me that is depart from peace from blessedness from life from hope from possibility of being any other then eternally exquisitely miserable Qui te non habet Domine Deus totum perdidit He who hath not thee O Lord God hath lost all as Bernard truly Dying is but departing but this departing is the worst dying dying in Soul ever dying so as if there be an Ite depart there must needs be a maledicti depart ye cursed cursed that ever they were born who live to die everlastingly For this departure this curse ends in that fire which can never never end Oh the deplorable condition of those damned Souls that have slighted the power of Godliness what tears can be enough to bewail their everlasting burnings what heart can bleed enough at the thought of those tortures which they can neither suffer nor avoid Hold but your finger for one minute in the weak flame of a farthing Candle can flesh and blood indure it With what horror then must we needs think of Body and Soul frying endlesly in that infernal Tophet Oh think of this ye that forget God and contemn Godlinesse with what confusion shall ye look upon the frowns of an angry God rejecting you the ugly and mercilesse Fiends snatching you to your torments the flames of Hell flashing up to meet you with what horror shall ye feel the gnawing of your guilty Consciences and hear that hellish shreeking and weeping and wailing and gnashing It is a pain to mention these woes it is more then death to feel them Perhorrescite minas formidate supplicia as Chrysostome Certainly my beloved if wicked sinners did truly apprehend an Hell there would be more danger of their despair and distraction then of their security It is the Devil's policy like a Raven first to pull out the eyes of those that are dead in their sins that they may not see their imminent damnation But for us tell me ye that hear me this day are ye Christians in earnest or are ye not If ye be not what doe ye here If ye be there is an hell in your Creed Ye do not lesse believe there is an Hell for the godlesse then an Earth for men a Firmament for Stars an Heaven for Saints a God in Heaven and if ye do thus firmly believe it cast but your eyes aside upon that fiery gulf and sin if ye dare Ye love your selves well enough to avoid a known pain we know there are Stocks and Bride-wells and Gaols and Dungeons and Racks and Gibbets for malefactors and our very feare keeps us innocent were your hearts equally assured of those Hellish torments ye could not ye durst not continue in those sins for which they are prepared But what an unpleasing and unseasonable subject am I fallen upon to speak of Hell in a Christian Court the embleme of Heaven Let me answer for my self with devout Bernard Sic mihi contingat semper be are amicos terrendo salubriter non adulando fallaciter Let me thus ever blesse my friends with wholesome frights rather then with plausible soothings Sumenda sunt amara salubria saith Saint Austin Bitter wholsome is a safe receipt for a Christian and what is more bitter or more wholsome then this thought The way not to feel an Hell is to see it to fear it I fear we are all generally defective this way we do not retire our selves enough into the Chamber of Meditation and think sadly of the things of another world Our Self-love puts off this torment notwithstanding our willing sins with David's plague non appropinquabit It shall not come nigh thee If we do not make a league with Hell and Death yet with our selves against them Fallit peccatum falsâ dulcedine as Saint Austin Sin deceives us with a false pleasure The pleasure of the world is like rhat Colchian honey whereof Xenophon's souldiers no sooner tasted then they were miserably distempered those that took little were drunk those that took more were mad those that took most were dead thus are we either intoxicated or infatuated or kil'd out-right with this deceitfull world that we are not sensible of our just fears at the best we are besotted with our stupid security that we are not affected with our danger Woe is me the impenitent resolved sinner is already faln into the mouth of Hell and hangs there but by a slender twig of his momentany life when that hold fails he falls down headlong into that pit of horrour and desolation Oh ye my dear brethren so many as love your Souls have mercy upon your selves Call aloud out of the deeps of your sins to that compassionate Saviour that he will give you the hand of Faith to lay hold upon the hand of his mercy and plenteous redemption and pull you out of that otherwise-irrecoverable destruction else ye are gone ye are gone for ever Two things as Bernard borrows of Saint Gregory make a man both good and safe To repent of evil To abstain from evil Would ye escape the wrath of God the fire of Hell Oh wash you clean and keep you so There is no Laver for you but your own teares and the blood of your Saviour Bathe your Souls in both of these and be secure Consider how many are dying now which would give a world for one hour to repent in Oh be ye carefull then to improve your free and quiet hours in a serious and hearty contrition for your sins say to God with the Psalmist Deliver me from the evilman that is from my self as that Father construes it And for the sequel in stead of the denying the power of Godlinesse resolve to deny your selves to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world that having felt and approved the power
Church then is a Dove Not an envious Partridge not a carelesse Ostridge not a stridulous Jay not a petulant Sparrow not a deluding Lapwing not an unclean-sed Duck not a noisome Crow not an unthankfull Swallow not a death-boding Schrich-owl but an harmlesse Dove that fowl in which alone envy it self can finde nothing to tax Hear this then ye violent spirits that think there can be no Piety that is not cruell the Church is a Dove not a Glead not a Vultur not a Falcon not an Eagle not any bird of prey or rapine Who ever saw the rough foot of the Dove armed with griping talons who ever saw the beak of the Dove bloody who ever saw that innocent bird pluming of her spoil and tiring upon bones Indeed we have seen the Church crimson-suited like her celestial Husband of whom the Prophet Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bozrah and straight Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garment like him that treadeth in the wine-press Esay 63. 1 2. but it hath been with her own blood shed by others not with others blood shed by her hand She hath learned to suffer what she hateth to inflict Do ye see any Faction with knives in their hands stained with massacres with firebrands in their hands ready to kindle the unjust stakes yea woods of Martyrdome with pistols and poniards in their hands ambitiously affecting a canonization by the death of God's Anointed with matches in their hands ready to give fire unto that powder which shall blow up King Prince State Church with thunderbolts of censures ready to strike down into Hell whosoever refuses to receive novell opinions into the Articles of Faith If ye finde these dispositions and actions Dove-like applaud them as beseeming the true Spouse of Christ who is ever like her self Columba perfecta yea perfecta columba a true Dove for her quiet Innocence For us let our Dove-ship approve it self in meekness of Suffering not in actions of Cruelty We may we must delight in blood but the blood shed for us not shed by us Thus let us be Columba in foraminibus petrae Cant. 2. 14. a Dove in the clifts of the rock that is in vulneribus Christi as the Glosse in the gashes of him that is the true Rock of the Church This is the way to be innocent to be beautifull a Dove and undefiled The Propriety follows My Dove The Kite or the Crow or the Sparrow and such like are challenged by no owner but the Dove still hath a Master The World runs wilde it is ferae naturae but the Church is Christs domestically intirely his My Dove not the worlds not her own Not the worlds for If ye were of the world saith our Saviour the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Joh. 15. 19. Not her own so S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price Justly then may he say My Dove Mine for I made her there is the right of Creation Mine for I made her again there is the right of Regeneration Mine for I bought her there is the right of Redemption Mine for I made her mine there is the right of spiritual and inseparable Union O God be we thine since we are thine we are thine by thy Merit let us be thine in our Affections in our Obedience It is our honour it is our happiness that we may be thine Have thou all thine own What should any piece of us be cast away upon the vain glory and trash of this transitory world Why should the powers of darkness run away with any of our services in the momentany pleasures of sin The great King of Heaven hath cast his love upon us and hath espoused us to himself in truth and righteousness oh then why will we cast roving and lustfull eyes upon adulterous rivals base drudges yea why will we run on madding after ugly Devils How justly shall he loath us if we be thus shamefully prostituted Away then with all our unchast glances of desires all unclean ribaldry of conversation let us say mutually with the blessed Spouse My beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 2. 16. My Dove mine as to love so to defend That inference is natural I am thine save me Interest challenges protection The Hand saies It is my Head therefore I will guard it the Head saies It is my Hand therefore I will devise to arm it to withdraw it from violence The Soul saies It is my Body therefore I will cast to cherish it the Body saies It is my Soul therefore I would not part with it The Husband saies Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes much of her Ephes 5. 29. And as she is desiderium oculorum the delight of his eyes to him Ezec. 24. 16. so is he operimentum oculorum the shelter of her eyes to her Gen. 20. 16. In all cases it is thus So as if God say of the Church Columba mea my Dove she cannot but say of him Adjutor meus my helper Neither can it be otherwise save where is lack either of love or power Here can be no lack of either not of Love he saith Whoso toucheth Israel toucheth the apple of mine eye not of power Our God doth whatsoever he will both in heaven and earth Band you your selves therefore ye bloody Tyrants of the world against the poor despised Church of God threaten to trample it to dust and when you have done to carry away that dust upon the soles of your shoes He that sits in Heaven laughs you to scorn the Lord hath you in derision O Virgin Daughter of Sion they have despised thee O daughter of Jerusalem they have shaken their heads at thee But whom have ye reproched and blasphemed and against whom have ye exalted your voice and lift up your eyes on high Even against the Holy one of Israel who hath said Columba mea my Dove Yea let all the spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places all the legions of Hell troup together they shall as soon be able to pluck God out of his throne of Heaven as to pull one feather from the wing of this Dove This Propriety secures her She is Columba mea my Dove From the Propriety turn your eyes to the best of her Properties Unity Let me leave Arithmeticians disputing whether Unity be a number I am sure it is both the beginning of all numbring numbers and the beginning and end of all numbers numbred All Perfection rises hence and runs hither and every thing the nearer it comes to perfection gathers up it self the more towards Unity as all the virtue of the Loadstone is recollected into one point Jehovah our God is one from him there is but one World one Heaven in that world one Sun
Church cannot abide either Conventicles of Separation or pluralities of professions or appropriations of Catholicism Catholick Romane is an absurd Donatian Solecism This is to seek Orbem in urbe as that Council said well Happy were it for that Church if it were a sound lim though but the little toe of that mighty and precious body wherein no believing Jew or Indian may not challenge to be jointed Neither difference of time nor distance of place nor rigor of unjust censure nor any unessential errour can barre our interest in this blessed Unity As this flourishing Church of great Britain after all the spightfull calumniations of malicious men is one of the most conspicuous members of the Catholick upon earth so we in her Communion do make up one body with the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and faithfull Christians of all ages and times We succeed in their Faith we glory in their Succession we triumph in this Glory Whither go ye then ye weak ignorant seduced souls that run to seek this Dove in a forein cote She is here if she have any nest under Heaven Let me never have part in her or in Heaven if any Church in the world have more part in the Universal Why do we wrong our selves with the contradistinction of Protestant and Catholick We do only protest this that we are perfect Catholicks Let the pretensed look to themselves we are sure we are as Catholick as true Faith can make us as much one as the same Catholick Faith can make us and in this undoubted right we claim and injoy the sweet and inseparable communion with all the blessed members of that mystical body both in earth and Heaven and by virtue thereof with the glorious Head of that dear and happy body Jesus Christ the righteous the Husband to this one Wife the Mate to this one Dove to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one God be given all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen THE FASHIONS OF THE WORLD Laid forth in a SERMON at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By J. H. Rom. 12. 2. Fashion not your selves like to this World but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde c. THAT which was wont to be upbraided as a scorn to the English may be here conceived the Embleme of a Man whom ye may imagine standing naked before you with a paire of sheers in his hand ready to cut out his own fashion In this deliberation the World offers it self to him with many a gay misshapen fantasticall dresse God offers himself to him with one onely fashion but a new one but a good one The Apostle like a friendly monitor adviseth him where to pitch his choice Fashion not your selves like to this world but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde How much Christianity crosses Nature we need no other proof then my Text. There is nothing that Nature affects so much as the Fashion and no fashion so much as the worlds for our usuall word is Doe as the most And behold that is it which is here forbidden us Fashion not your selves like to this world All fashions are either in Device or Imitation There are vain heads that think it an honour to be the founders of Fashions there are servile fools that seek onely to follow the Fashion once devised In the first rank is the World which is nothing but a mint of Fashions yet which is strange all as old as mis-beseeming We are forbidden to be in the second If the World will be so vain as to mis-shape it self we may not be so foolish as to follow it Let us look a little if you please at the Pattern here damn'd in my Text The world As in extent so in expression the World hath a large scope yea there are more Worlds then one There is a world of creatures and within that there is a world of men and yet within that a world of believers and yet within all these a world of corruptions More plainly there is a good world an evil world an indifferent A good world as of the creatures in regard of their first birth so of men in regard of their second a world of renewed Souls in the first act of their renovation believing Joh. 17. 20. upon their belief reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 19. upon their reconcilement saved Joh. 3. 16. An evil world yea set in evil 1 Joh. 5. 19. a world of corrupt unregeneration that hates Christ and his Joh. 15. 18. that is hated of Christ Jam. 4. 4. An indifferent world that is good or evil as it is used whereof St. Paul Let those that use the world be as not abusing it 1 Cor. 7. 31. This indifferent world is a world of commodities affections improvement of the creature which if we will be wise Christians we must fashion to us framing it to our own bent whether in want or abundance The good world is a world of Saints whose Souls are purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. To this world we may be fashioned The evil world is a world of mere men and their vicious conditions God hath made us the lords of the indifferent world himself is the Lord of the good Satan is lord of the evil Princeps hujus Seculi And that is most properly the world because it contains the most as it is but a chaffe-heap wherein some grains of wheat are scattered To this evil world then we may not fashion our selves in those things which are proper to it as such in natural in civil actions we may we must follow the world singularity in these things is justly odious herein the World is the true master of Ceremonies whom not to follow is no better then a Cynicall irregularity in things positively or morally evil we may not There is no material thing that hath not his form the outward form is the fashion the fashion of outward things is variable with the times so as every external thing cloaths building plate stuffe gesture is now in now out of fashion but the fashions of Morality whether in good or evil are fixed and perpetual The world passeth and the fashion of it but the evil of the fashions of the world is too constant and permanent and must be ever the matter of our detestation Fashion not your selves like to this world But because evils are infinite as wise Solomon hath observed it will be requisite to call them to their heads and to reduce these forbidden fashions to the several parts whereto they belong I cannot dream with Tertullian that the Soul hath a Body but I may well say that the Soul follows the body and as it hath parts ascribed to it according to the outward proportion so are these parts suited with severall fashions Let your patient attention follow me through them all Begin with the Head a part not more eminent in place then in power What is the
no other no better then beast as if according to that old foolish Heresie God had not made both There are those whose hands are white and clean from bribes from extortion but their feet are yet swift to shed blood upon their own private revenge Let not these men say they are transformed Let the first say their face is changed let the next say their tongue is changed let the other say their breasts or hands are changed but unlesse face and tongue and breast and hand and foot and all be changed the man is not changed God be mercifull to us the world is full of such monsters of Hypocrisie who care onely for an appearing change of some eminent and noted part neglecting the whole as some sorry Tap-house white-limes and glazes the front towards the street and sets out a painted sign when there is nothing in the inward parts but sticks and clay and ruines and cold earthen floors and fluttery This is to no purpose If any piece of us be unchanged we are still our old selves odious to God obnoxious to death But as all motions have their termes what is that into which we must be transformed I see transformations enough every where God knows too many I see zealous Professors transformed to key-cold worldlings reformed Catholicks turn'd to Romish Factionists I see men transformed into women in their effeminate dispositions and demeanours women transform'd to men in their affectation of masculine boldness and fashions I see men and women transform'd into Beasts of all kindes some into drunken Swine others into cruell Tigers others into ranck Goats others into mimick Apes yea I see those beasts transform'd again into Devils in the delight they take in sin in their mischievous tempting of others to sin All these are transformed so as it is from good to ill from bad to worse so transformed that as Cypran said of painted faces it is no marvell if God know them not for they have made themselves quite other from what he made them That whereinto we must be transformed is the image of God 2 Cor. 3. 18. consisting in holinesse and righteousness Ephes 4. 24. That Image we once had and lost and now must recover by our transformation Oh blessed change that of the Sons of men we become the children of the ever-living God of the firebrands of hell such we are naturally we become the heirs of Heaven That as the eternal Son of God having the form of God did yet graciously change this glorious habit for the form of a servant so we that are the sons of men should change the servile form of our wretched nature into the Divine form of the Son of God! This is a change not more happy then needfull It was another change that Job said he would wait for but of this change we must say I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber untill an happy change have wrought this heart of mine which by Nature is no better then a stie of unclean devils to be an habitation for the God of Jacob. Wo be to the man whose last change overtakes him ere this change be wrought in him There is nothing more wretched then a mere man We may brag what we will how noble a creature man is above all the rest how he is the Lord of the world a world within himself the mirrour of Majesty the visible model of his Maker but let me tell you if we be but men it had been a thousand times better for us to have been the worst of beasts Let it not seem to savour of any Misanthropie to say that as all those things which are perfections in creatures are eminently in God so all the vicious dispositions of the creature are eminently in man in that debauch'd and abused Reason is the quintessence of all Bestialitie What speak I of these silly brutes In this streight triangle of man's Heart there is a full Conclave of Cardinal wickednesses an Incorporation of Cheaters a Goal of Malefactors yea a legion of Devils Seest thou then the most loathsome Toad that crawls upon the earth or the most despised Dog that creeps under thy feet thou shalt once envy their condition if thou be not more then a man Thou seest the worst of them thou canst not conceive the worst of thine own For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God and fores canes without shall be Dogs Revel 22. 15. When they shall be vanished into their first nothing thou shalt be ever dying in those unquenchable flames which shall torment thee so much the more as thou hadst more Wit and Reason without Grace But oh what a wofull thing it is to consider and how may we bemone our selves to Heaven and earth that yet men will not be transformed All the menaces all the terrors of God cannot move men from what they are but he that is filthy will be filthy still In spight of both Law and Gospel men have obdured their selves against the counsel of God they have an iron neck Esa 48. 4. an uncircumcised care Jer. 6. 10. a brawny heart Mark 3. 5. Say God and man what they will these enchanted creatures will rather be beasts still then return to men If we will not change be sure God will not He hath said it and he will perform it After thine hardness and heart that cannot repent thou treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. Far far be this obstinacy from us Honorable and beloved For God's sake for your Souls sake yield your selves willingly into the hands of God and say Convert me O Lord and I shall be converted As we love our selves and fear hell let us not content our selves with the shape with the faculties of men but let us be transformed and think that we were only made men that we might passe through the estate of humanity to Regeneration This for the Transformation See now that this transformation must be by Renewing The same Spirit that by Solomon said There is nothing new under the Sun saith by S. Paul All things are become new Nothing is so new that it hath not been All things must be so new as they were This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renovation implies that which once was and therefore was new before That God who is the Antient of daies doth not dislike any thing for mere Age for Time is his and continuance of Time is so much more excellent as it comes nearer to the duration of Eternity Old age is a crown of glory Neither is ought old in relation to God but to us neither is age faulty in respect of Nature but of corruption for as that word of Tertullian is true Primum verum the first is true so may I as truly say Primum bonum the first is good Only now as our Nature stands depraved our Old man is the body of corruptions which
that will be climbing to Heaven by ladders of their own making with Acesius in Jerome what other issue can they exspect from the jealous God but a fearful precipitation Neither doubt I but this is one main ground of the Angels proclamation in the Apocalyps Cecidit cecidit Babylon It is fallen it is fallen Babylon the great City Thus from the Sin which is Pride we descend to the Punishment which is Ruine A mans Pride shall bring him low How can a bladder sink Yet Pride though it be light in respect of the inflation is heavie in respect of the offence The guiltiness is as a milstone to which it is tied that will bear it down to the bottome of the deep As therefore there is a reflex action in the Sin so is there in the Punishment it shall ruine it self No other hands shall need to be used in the Judgement besides her own As the lightning hath ever a spight at the high spires and tall pines striking them down or firing them when the shrubs and cotages stand untouched so hath the God that made it at a self-advanced Greatness whether out of a scorn of rivality or a just punishment of theft for the Proud man both in a cursed emulation makes himself his own Deity and steales glory from God to set out himself For both these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour he shall be brought down saith Solomon Down whither to the dust to Hell by others by God himself temporally here eternally hereafter Insomuch as Aesop himself we have it in Stobaeus when he was ask'd what God did answers Excelsa deprimit extollit humilia Besides the odionsness of a proud man amongst men commonly God is even with him here How many have we known that have been fastidious of their Diet which have come to leap at a crust to beg their bread yea to rob the hogs with the Prodigal How many that have been proud of their Beauty have been made ere they died the loathsome spectacles of deformity That of Esay strikes home Because the daughters of Sion are haughty and walk with stretched-out necks and wanton eyes c. Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughter of Zion Esay 3. 16. How many that from the height of their over-weening have been brought to Benhadad's halter or have been turn'd to graze with Nebuchadnezzar The Lord roots up the house of the proud Prov. 15. 25. But if they escape here as sometimes they do hereafter they shall not For the proud man is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 16. 5. God cannot indure him Ps 101. 5. And what of that Tu perdes superbos Thou shalt destroy the proud Ps 119. 21. The very Heathens devised the proud Giants struck with thunder from Heaven And if God spared not the Angels whom he placed in the highest Heavens but for their pride threw them down headlong to the nethermost hell how much less shall he spare the proud dust and ashes of the sons of men and shall cast them from the height of their earthly altitude to the bottome of that infernall dungeon Humility makes men Angels Pride made Angels Devils as that Father said I may well adde makes Devils of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies the Heathen Poet Menander Never soul escaped the revenge of Pride never shall escape it So sure as God is just Pride shall not go unpunished I know now we are all ready to call for a Bason with Pilate and to wash our hands from this foul sin Honourable and beloved this Vice is a close one it will cleave fast to you yea so close that ye can hardly discern it from a piece of your selves this is it that aggravates the danger of it For as Aquinas notes well some sins are more dangerous propter vehementiam impugnationis for the fury of their assault as the sin of Anger others for their correspondence to Nature as the sins of Lust others propter latentiam sui for their close sculking in our bosome as this sin of Pride Oh let us look seriously into the corners of our false hearts even with the Lantern of Gods Law and find out this subtile Devil and never give peace to our Souls till we have dispossessed him Down with your proud plumes O ye glorious Peacocks of the World look upon your black legs and your snake-like head be ashamed of your miserable infirmities else God will down with them and your selves in a fearful vengeance There is not the holiest of us but is this way faulty Oh let us be humbled by our Repentance that we may not be brought down to everlasting confusion let us be cast down upon our knees that we may not be cast down upon our faces For God will make good his own word one way A mans pride shall bring him low The sweeter part of this Ditty follows which is of Mercy Mercy which hath two strains also the Grace the Reward The gratious disposition for a Vertue properly it is not is Humility expressed here in the Subject The humble in spirit Not he that is forcibly humbled by others whether God or man so a wicked Ahab may walk softly and droop for the time and be never the better What thank is it if we bow when God sets his foot upon us but he that is voluntarily humble in spirit And yet there are also vicious kinds of this self-humility As first when man having only God supra se and therefore owing religious worship to him alone worships Angels or Saints that are but juxta se It is the charge that S. Paul gives to his Colossians Let no man deceive you in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels much less then of stocks and stones These very walls if they had eyes and tongues could testifie full many of these impious and Idolatrous cringes and prostrations So as if wood or stone could be capable of pollution here was enough till this abused frame was happily washed by the clear streams of the Gospel and re-sanctified by the Word and Prayer This is a Superstitious Humility 2. When a man basely subjects himself to serve the humors of the Great by gross supparasitation by either unjust or unfit actions and offices yielding himself a slave to the Times a pander to Vice This is a Servile Humility 3. When a man affects a courteous affability and lowly carriage for ostentation for advantage or when a man buries himself alive in an homely cowle in a pretence of mortification as if he went out of the world when the world is within him To be proud of Humility as a Father said well is worse then to be superciliously and openly proud This is an Hypocritical Humility 4. When out of pusillanimity or inordinateness a man prostitutes himself to those unworthy conditions and actions of sinful pleasure that mis-beseem a man a Christian This is a Brutish Humility All
as the great Emperour could say I have been all things and am never the better Have ye Great ones all the incurvations of the knee the kisses of the hand the styles of Honour yea the flatteries of Heralds let Gods hand touch you but a little with a spotted Fever or girds of the Colick or belking pains of the Gout or stoppings of the bladder alas what ease is it to you that you are laid in a Silken bed that a potion is brought you on the knee in a Golden cup that the Chirurgion can say he hath taken from you Noble blood As Esau said of his birth-right ye shall say mutat is mutandis of all these ceremonies of Honour What are these to me when I am ready to dye for pain Is it Beauty What is that or wherein consists it Wherein but in mere opinion The Aethiopians think it consists in perfect Blackness we Europeans in white and red and the wisest say That is fair that pleaseth And what Face is it that pleaseth all Even in the worst some eyes see features that please in the best some others see lines they like not And if any Beauty could have all voices what were this but a wast and worthless approbation Grant it to be in the greatest exquisiteness what is it but a Blossome in May or a Flower in August or an Apple in Autumn soon faln soon withered Should any of you glorious Dames be seized upon with the nasty pustles of the small Pox alas what pits do those leave behind them to bury your Beauties in Or if but some languishing Quartan should arrest you how is the delicate skin turn'd tawnie How doth an unwelcome Dropsie wherein that disease too often ends bag up the eyes and mis-shape the face and body with unpleasing and unkindly tumors In short when all is done after all our cost and care what is the best hide but saccus stercorum as Bernard speaks which if we do not finde noisome others shall Well may I therefore ask with Ecclesiasticus Quid superbit terra cinis Why is this earth and ashes proud though it were as free from sin as it is from perfection But now when wickedness is added to vanity and we are more abominable by sin then weak by nature how should we be utterly ashamed to look up to Heaven to look upon our own faces Surely therefore whensoever you see a Proud man say there is a Fool 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the heathen Menander could say so for if he were not a mere stranger in himself he could be no other then confounded in himself We see our own outward filthiness in those loathsome excretions which the purest nature puts forth but if we could as well see our inward Spiritual beastliness we could not but be swallowed up of our confusion It falls out with men in this case as with some old foul and wrinkled dames that are soothed up by their Parasites in an admiration of their Beauty to whom no glass is allowed but the picturers that flatters them with a smooth fair and young image Let such a one come casually to the view of a Glass she falls out first with that mirrour and cries out of the false representation but after when upon stricter examination she finds the fault in her self she becomes as much out of love with her self as ever her flatterers seemed to be enamour'd of her It is no otherwise with us We easily run away with the conceit of our Spiritual Beauty of our innocent Integrity every thing feeds us in our over-weening opinion Let the Glass of the Law be brought once and set before us we shall then see the shameful wrinkles and foul morphews of our Souls and shall say with the Prophet We lye down in our shame and our confusion covereth us for we have sinned against the Lord our God Jer. 3. 25. Thus if we be humbled in spirit◠we shall be raised unto true Honour even such Honour as have all his Saints To the participation whereof that God who hath ordained graciously bring us for the sake of Jesus Christ the Righteous to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen CHRIST AND CAESAR A SERMON preached at Hampton-Court By Jos. HALL Joh. 19. 15. The chief Priests answered We have no King but Caesar THere cannot be a more loyal speech as it may be used One Sun is enough for Heaven one King for earth But as it is used there cannot be a worse For in so few words these Jews flatter Caesar reject Christ oppose Christ to Caesar First pretending they were Caesar's subjects secondly professing they were not Christs subjects thirdly arguing that they could not be Christ's subjects because they were Caesar's The first by way of affirmation Caesar is our King the second by way of negation No King but Caesar the third by way of implication Christ is not our King because Caesar is The first was a truth Caesar was indeed now their King but against their wils Conquest had made his name unwelcome They say true then and yet they flatter Wonder not at this a man may flatter yea lye in speaking truth when his heart believes not the title that his tongue gives So it was with these Jews they call'd him King whom they malign'd as an Usurper For they feeding themselves with the conceit of being God's free people wherein Judas Gaulonites and Sadducus the Pharisee had soothed them hated him as an enemy whom they were forced to fear as their King holding it no better then a sinful vassalage to stoop unto an Heathen scepter Ye know the question moved upon the Tribute-money Matth. 22. 17. Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar Lo they say not Is it needful but Is it lawful The Herodians were a Faction that had never moved this question unless the Pharisees and their scrupulous clients had denied it They make it a difficulty not of purse but of conscience Licetne Is it lawful Yet here Regem habemus Caesarem Caesar is our King They liked well enough to have a King yea hereupon they were so ready to swagger with God and his Samuel They had learn'd of Nature and experience the best form of Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they would have had him of their own As God said of the great Prophet so they are glad to hear him say of their King De numero fratrum tuorum From among thy brethren Propriety is in nothing more pleasing then in matter of Government It is a joy to think we have a King of our own our own blood our own Religion according to the motto of our Princes Ich Dicn Otherwise next to Anarchy is Heterarchy neither do we find much difference betwixt having no head at all and having another mans head on our shoulders The Bees love to have a King but one that is of their own hive If an Hornet
they wait upon base and sinful flesh It was a great praise that was given to Placilla the Wife of Theodosius in Theodoret's history Neque enim imperii principatu extollebatur c. Her throne had not over-carried her thoughts but inflamed her holy desires the more for the largeness of Gods blessing so much more intended her love to the giver Let me be bold to say we have seen we have seen the incomparable favours of God to your Sacred Majesty we that were witnesses both of the weakness of your Cradle and the strength of your Throne and what loyal heart did not feel the danger of your late Southern Voiage and the safety of your return Go on happily to fear and honour that God who hath so blessed you and us in you Yield still unto the Son of God the faithful kisses of your reverence loyalty observance he shall return unto you the happy kisses of his Divine Love and Favour and after a long and safe Protection the dear imbracements of an eternal welcome to Glory Thus much of the Negation Christ is not our King The Implication follows Christ is not our King because Caesar is The Anabaptist and the Jew are so cross that I wonder how one Amsterdam can hold them both The Anabaptist saies Caesar is not our King because Christ is the Jew saies Christ is not our King because Caesar is Both of them equally absurd Could there be a more ignorant Paralogisme then this wherewith the foolish Jews beguiled themselves as if these two Christ and Caesar had been utterly incompatible This senseless misprision was guilty of all the plots against Christ Herod no sooner hears of a King of the Jews then he startles up and is straight jealous of his Crown the Jews hear of a King and they are jealous of Caesar's Crown the Caesars following hear of a King and they are jealous of the Jews for as Suetonius tels us in the Life of Vespasian Percrebuerat in Oriente toto vetus constans opinio esse in fatis at Judaei hoc tempore rerum potirentur It was an old and constant conceit all the East over that the Jews were about this time destin'd to rule This was on all hands an ignorant an injurious scrupulosity O vain men could they but have known that this was he that truly said Per me Reges regnant By me Kings reign they had concluded Caesar could be no King but from him Earthly jurisdiction is derived from this Heavenly It is he that makes this a Monarch that a Prince that other a Peer Omnis potestas All power is given to him both in Heaven and earth and from him to men Caesar hath his Crown from Christ so farre is Christ from pulling the Crown from Caesar There were two points of State which if they had known would have secured them from these idle fears the Subordination the Diversity of Christs Kingdome and Caesar's Subordination for Christ is the founder of all just Soveraignty he can be no enemy to it Plainly Christ is Caesar's Lord Caesar is Christs Deputy The deputed power is not against the Original but as by it so for it As Caesar was Christs Lord in forma servi ye know his charge Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and the liquid cofer of the Sea shall rather yield the Didrachma then he will not pay it Matth. 17. 27. so Christ is Caesar's Lord in the Soveraignty of his Deity Solus supra Caesarem Deus qui fecit Caesarem None above Caesar but the God that made Caesar as that Father said There can be no Contrariety in Subordination So is Caesar to Christ as Earth is to Heaven under not against it All the life and motion of any earthly creature is from the influences of Heaven without which this whole Globe were nothing but a dull and drossie clod And as here is Subordination one way so Diversity another Pilate question'd our Saviour punctually of his kingdome Art thou a King He denies not but distinguishes My kingdome is not of this world Joh. 18. 36. Lo Christs kingdome was not of this world Caesar's was not of the other here can be no danger of opposition Audite Judaei audite Gentes as S. Austin wittily Hear O Jews hear O Gentiles I hinder not your Dominion in this world for mine is of another Fear not Herod 's vain fear who killed the Infants to rid Christ timendo magìs quam irascendo crudelior more cruel in his fear then in his rage My Kingdome he saies is not of this world Oh come then to that Kingdome which is not of this world come in believing and do not tyrannize in fearing Thus he This King came not into the world to subdue Kings by fighting but to win them by dying as Fulgentius well Neither doth he take away mortal Kingdomes who gives Heavenly as the Christian Poet said aright Upon both these grounds therefore it is a blasphemous inconsequence Caesar is our King therefore not Christ yea therefore Caesar because Christ Religion doth not cross Policy but perfects it rather Give me leave I beseech you to press this Point a little It is Religion that teacheth us that God hath ordained Kingly Soveraignty Rom. 13. 1. ordained it immediately That Position was worthy of a Red Hat Potestas Principis dimanavit à populo Pontificis à Deo in the Recognition of the book de Laicis purposely raised to depress the Dignity of Kings to advance the Priesthood I am sure Samuel when it was said Ecce prafecit vobis Jehova Regem Behold God hath set a Kiog over you 1 Sam. 12. 13. And Kings are wont to have no less title then Unctus Jehove the Anointed of the Lord not unctus populi the anointed of the people 1 Sam. 24. 6. 2 Sam. 1. 14. Daniel could say of God He removes Kings and setteth up Kings Dan. 2. 21. What need I perswade Christian Kings and Princes that they hold their Crowns and Scepters as in fee from the God of Heaven Cyrus himself had so much Divinity Ezra 1. 2. It is Religion that teaches us that the same power which ordained Caesar injoyns all faithful Subjection to Caesar not for fear but for conscience Rom. 13. 5. Tribute to whom tribute honour to whom honour yea all devout prayers for a Nero himself 1 Tim. 2. 2. curbing both the tongue and the heart Thou shalt not curse the King in thy thoughts nor the rich in thy Bed-chamber Eccles 10. 20. It is Religion that teaches us that vengeance shall be sure to follow Rebellion Nuntius crudelis Prov. 17. 21. yea no less then Hell and Damnation Rom. 13. 2. Cursed be they that say Religion is onely to keep men in awe and cursed be he that says there is any so sure way to keep men in awe as Religion Go ye crafty Politicks and rake hell for reasons of State ye shall once find that there is no wisdome nor understanding nor counsel
give wilful provocations of this publick revenge by gross open intolerable injuries as Hanun did to David such are incroachments upon their neighbour-territories violating the just covenants of league and commerce by main violences if fourthly they refuse to give just satisfaction where they have unjustly provoked as the Benjamites in case of the Sodomitical villany of their Gibeah Where all where any of these are found well may we brand that people with delight in warre And since they will needs delight in warre God shall fit them accordingly With the froward thou shalt shew thy self froward Ps 18. 26. He shall delight in warring against them He shall rouze up himself as a Giant refreshed with new wine Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hoasts the mighty one of Israel Ah I will ease me of my adversaries and revenge me of mine enemies Es 1. 24. These are the Enemies The Defeat follows Rebuke and scatter The two first though bad enough must be rebuked the last must be scattered All Gods enemies may not be to us alike neither aequè nor aqualiter Some are Calves simple though violent some others are Bulls fierce and furious some other Lions from among the reeds ravenous and devouring all these though cruel yet perhaps are not malicious an increpa is enough for them Saul was one of these wild Buls breathing out threatnings against the Church and tossing upon his horn many worthy Christians had it not been pity he had been destroyed in that height of his rage an increpation brought him home God had never such a Champion Now certamen bonum certavi I have fought a good fight saith he justly of himself 2 Tim. 4. 7. This increpa then is Discountenance them dishearten them discomfit them disband them Put them down O Lord and let them know they are but men humble them to the very dust but not to the dust of death to correction as Habacuc speaketh not to a full destruction onely till they humbly bring pieces of silver till they come in with the tributes of peacefull submission of just satisfaction The end of all just was is Peace As we are first bidden to inquire of Abel ere we inferre it offeres ei pacem Deut. 20. 10. so when we hear of Abel we must stint it Warre to the State is Physick to the body This is no other then a civil evacuation whether by potion or phlebotomy What is the end of Physick but health when that is once recovered we have done with the Apothecary He wantons away his life foolishly that when he is well will take Physick to make him sick It is far from us to wish the confusion of the ignorant and seduced enemies of God's Church those that follow Absalom with an upright heart No we pity them we pray for them Oh that they would come in with their pieces of silver and tender their humble obediences to the apparent Truth of God and yield to the laws of both Divine and humane Justice Oh that God would perswade Japâ—â—t to dwell in the tents of Sem Father forgive them for they know not what they doe O thou sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet put up thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still Jer. 47. 6. But for those other that delight in war Dissipa Domine Scatter them O Lord. Confusion is but too good for them bring them to worse then nothing The perfection and suddenness of this dissipation is expressed emphatically in the beginning of this Psalm by a double Metaphor as smoak before the wind as wax before the fire so scatter them Of all light bodies nothing is more volatile then smoak of all solid none more flitting then wax As wind is to the smoak and fire to the wax so are the Judgements of God to his enemies the wax melteth the smoak vanisheth before them The conceit is too curious of those that make the Gentiles to be smoak who mount up in the opinion of their wisdome and power the Jews wax dropp'd from the honey-comb of their many Divine priviledges No all are both smoak and wax Even so do thou scatter them O Lord and be not merciful to them that offend on malicious wickedness Two thoughts onely remain now for us The first that it must be God onely who must rebuke and scatter The second that it is our Prayer onely that must obtain from God this rebuke this dissipation Both which when I have touched a little I shall put an end to this exercise of your patient Devotion It is God onely that must doe it for vain is the help of man And how easie is it for the Almighty to still the enemy and avenger They are as a potters vessel to his iron Scepter as the thorns or wax to his fire as chaff or smoak to his wind To our weakness the opposite powers seem strong and unconquerable the Canaanitish was reach up to Heaven and who can stand before the sons of Anak When we see their Bulwarks we would think they roll Pelion upon Ossa with the old Giants when we see their Towers we would think they would scale Heaven with the builders of Babel when we see their Mines we would think they would blow up the earth Let the wind of Gods Power but breath upon them they vanish as smoak let the fire of his wrath but look upon them they melt as wax Tyrannous Aegypt had long made slaves of God's people and now will make slaughter of them following them armed at the heels into the chanel of the Sea Stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord for the Aegyptians which you have seen to day ye shall see no more for ever Exod. 14. 13. The great Hoast of proud Benhadad will carry away all Samaria in their pockets for pin-dust Ere long ye shall see their haughtie King come in haltred and prostrate Vaunting Sennacherib comes crowing over poor Jerusalem and he will lend them two thousand horses if they can set riders on them and scorns their King and defies their God Stay but till morning all his hundred fourscore and five thousand shall be dead corpses Vain fools What is a finite power in the hands of an infinite Where there is an equality of force there may be hard tugging but where brass meets with clay how can that brittle stuff escape unshattered Let this cool your courages and pull down your plumes O ye insolent enemies of God When ye look to your own sword there is no rule with you Mihi perfacile est c. It is easie for me saith Uldes in the story to destroy all the earth that the Sun looks upon but when God takes you to task what toyes what nothings ye are Behold we come against you in the Name of the Lord of Hoasts It is he that shall rebuke and scatter you He will doe it but he will doe it upon our Prayers Not that our poor Petitions can put mercy into God
a man that hath chewed Saffron discolours a Painted face so this blunt sincerity shamed the glorious falshood of Superstition The proud offenders impatient of reproof try what fire and faggot can doe for them and now according to the old word suppressed spirits gather more authority as the Egyptian violence rather addeth to God's Israel Insomuch as Erasmus could tell the Rector of Lovan that by burning Luther's Books they might rid him from the Libraries of men not from their Hearts The ventilation of these points diffused them to the knowledge of the World and now upon serious scanning it came to this as that Honour of Rotterdam professeth Non defuisse that there wanted not great Divines which durst confidently affirm that there was nothing in Luther which might not be defended by good and allowed Authours Nothing doth so whet the edge of wit as contradiction Now he who at first like the blind man in the Gospel it is Beza's comparison saw men like trees upon more clear light sees and wonders at those gross Superstitions and Tyrannies wherewith the Church of God had been long abused And now as the first Hue and Cry raiseth a whole Countrie the World was awakened with the noise and startling up saw and stood amazed to see it s own Slavery and besottedness Mean while that God who cannot be wanting to himself raiseth up Abettors to his Truth The contention grows Books flie abroad on both parts Straight Buls bellow from Rome nothing but Death and Damnation to the opposites Excommunications are thundred out from their Capitoline powers against all the partakers of this so called Heresie the flashes of publick Anathemas strike them down to Hell The condemned reprovers stand upon their own integrity call Heaven and Earth to record how justly they have complained how unjustly they are censured in large Volumes defending their innocence and challenging an undeniable part in the true visible Church of God from which they are pretended to be ejected appeal next to the Tribunal of Heaven to the sentence of a free general Council for their right Profer is made at last of a Synod at Trent but neither free nor general nor such as would afford after all semblances either safety of access or possibility of indifferency That partial meeting as it was prompted to speak condemns us unheard right so as Ruffinus reports it in that case of Athanasius Judicandi potestas c. The power of judging was in the accusers contrary to the rule of their own Law Non debet c. The same party may not be the Judge Accuser Witness contrary to that just rule of Theodericus reported by Cassiodore Sententia c. The sentence that is given in the absence of the parties is of no moment We are still where we were opposing suffering in these terms we stand What shall we say then if men would either not have deserved or have patiently indured reproof this breach had never been Wo be to the men by whom this offence cometh For us that rule of Saint Bernard shall clearly acquit us before God and his Angels Cam carpuntur vitia c. When faults are taxed and scandal grows he is the cause of the scandal who did that which was worthy to be reproved not he that reproved the ill-doer CHAP. III. The Reformed unjustly charged with Novelty Heresie Schisme BE it therefore known to all the world that our Church is onely Reformed or Repaired not made new there is not one Stone of a new foundation laid by us yea the old Wals stand still onely the overcasting of those ancient stones with the untempered morter of new inventions displeaseth us Plainly set aside the Corruptions and the Church is the same And what are these Corruptions but unsound adjections to the Ancient structure of Religion These we cannot but oppose and are therefore unjustly and imperiously ejected Hence it is that ours is by the opposite styled an Ablative or Negative Religion forsomuch as we joyn with all true Christians in all affirmative positions of ancient Faith onely standing upon the denial of some late and undue additaments to the Christian belief Or if those Additions be reckoned for ruines it is a sure Rule which Durandus gives concerning Material Churches appliable to the Spiritual That if the Wall be decayed not at once but successively it is judged still the same Church and upon reparation not to be re-consecrated but onely reconciled Well therefore may those mouths stop themselves which loudly call for the names of the Professors of our Faith in all succession of times till Luther look'd forth into the World Had we gone about to broach any new positive Truths unseen unheard of former times well and justly might they challenge us for a deduction of this line of Doctrine from a pedigree of Predecessours Now that we onely disclaim their superfluous and novel opinions and practices which have been by degrees thrust upon the Church of God retaining inviolably all former Articles of Christian Faith how idle is this plea how worthy of hissing out Who sees not now that all we need to doe is but to shew that all those points which we cry down in the Romane Church are such as carry in them a manifest brand of Newness and Absurdity This proof will clearly justifie our refusal Let them see how they shall once before the awful Tribunal of our last Judge justifie their uncharitableness who cease not upon this our refusal to eject and condemn us The Church of Rome is sick ingenuous Cassander confesseth so Nec inficior c. I deny not saith he that the Romane Church is not a little changed from her ancient beauty and brightness and that she is deformed with many diseases and vicious distempers Bernard tells us how it must be dieted profitable though unpleasing medicines must be poured into the mouth of it Luther and his associates did this office as Erasmus acknowledgeth Lutherus porrexit Luther saith he gave the World a potion violent and bitter whatever it were I wish it may breed some good health in the body of Christian people so miserably foul with all kinds of evils Never did Luther mean to take away the life of that Church but the sickness wherein as Socrates answered to his Judges surely he deserved recompence in stead of rage For as S. Ambrose worthily Dulcior est Sweeter is a religious chastisement then a smoothing remission This that was meant to the Churches health proves the Physicians disease so did the bitterness of our wholsome draughts offend that we are beaten out of doors neither did we run from that Church but are driven away as our late Soveraign professeth by Casaubon's hand We know that of Cyrill is a true word Those which sever themselves from the Church and communion are the enemies of God and friends of
him Insomuch as Cardinal Bellarmine himself is fain to confess a very high Hyperbole in their speeches Non est novum It is no unusual thing saith he with the Ancients and especially Irenaeus Hilary Nyssen Cyril and others to say that our bodies are nourished by the holy Eucharist Neither do they use less height of speech as our Learned Bishop hath particularly observed in expressing our participation of Christ in Baptisme wherein yet never any man pleaded a Transubstantiation Neither have there been wanting some of the Classical Leaders of their Schools which have confessed more probability of ancient evidence for Consubstantiation then for this change Certainly neither of them both entred ever into the thoughts of those Holy men however the sound of their words have undergone a prejudicial mistaking Whereas the sentences of those Ancients against this mis-opinion are direct punctual absolute convictive and uncapable of any other reasonable sense What can be more choaking then that of their Pope Gelasius above a thousand years since Et tamen c. Yet there ceaseth not to be the very substance of Bread and Wine What can be more plain then that of S. Augustine It is not this Body which you see that you shall eat neither is it this Blood which my Crucifiers shall spill that you shall drink it is a Sacrament that I commend unto you which being spiritually understood shall quicken you Or that other Where a flagitious act seems to be commanded there the speech is figurative as when he saith Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man c. it were an horrible wickedness to eat the very flesh of Christ therefore here must needs be a figure understood What should I urge that of Tertullian whose speech Rhenanus confesseth to have been condemned after in Berengarius My Body that is the figure of my Body That of Theodoret The mystical signes after consecration lose not their own nature That of S. Chrysostome It is a carnal thing to doubt how Christ can give us his flesh to eate whenas this is mystically and spiritually to be understood And soon after inquiring what it is to understand carnally he thus explicates it It is to take things simply as they are spoken and not to conceive of any other thing meant by them This wherein we are is a beaten path trod with the feet of our holy Martyrs and traced with their blood What should I need to produce their familiar and ancient Advocates who have often wearied and worn this bare Athanasius Justine Origen Cyprian Nazianzen Basil Hierome Hilary Cyril Macarius Bertram besides those whom I formerly cited Of all others which I have not found pressed by former Authors that of our Albinus or Beda's learned Scholar who lived in the time of Charles the Great seems to me most full and pregnant Hoc est ergo This is therefore to eate that flesh and to drink that blood to remain in Christ and to have Christ remaining in us so as he that remains not in Christ and in whom Christ remaineth not without doubt doth not spiritually eat his flesh although carnally and visibly he chew the Sacrament of his body and blood with his teeth but rather he eates and drinks the Sacrament of so great a thing unto his own Judgement because he presumed to come unclean unto those Sacraments of Christ which none can take worthily but the clean Thus he Neither is this his single testimony but such as he openly professeth the common voice of all his Predecessours And a little after upon those words The flesh profiteth nothing he addeth The flesh profiteth nothing if ye understand the flesh so to be eaten as other meat as that flesh which is bought in the Shambles This is the ordinary language of Antiquity whereof we may truely say as the Disciples did of Christ Behold now thou speakest plainly and speakest no Parable At last Ignorance and misunderstanding brought forth this Monster of Opinion which Superstition nursed up but fearfully and obscurely and not without much scope of contrary judgements till after Pope Nicolas had made way for it in his proceedings against Berengarius by so gross an expression as the Gloss is fain to put a caveat upon Anno 1060. the Laterane Council authorised it for a matter of Faith Anno 1215. Thus yong is Transubstantiation Let Scripture and Reason shew how erroneous Sect. 2. Transubstantiation against Scripture WEre it not that men do wilfully hood-wink themselves with their own prejudice the Scripture is plain enough For the mouth that said of bread This is my Body said also of the same body My flesh is meat indeed long before there can be any plea of Transubstantiation and I am the bread that came down from Heaven so was he Manna to the Jews as he is bread to us And S. Paul says of his Corinths Ye are the body of Christ yet not meaning any transmutation of substance And in those words wherein this powerful conversion is placed he says onely This is not This is transubstantiate and if whiles he says This is he should have meant a Transubstantiation then it must needs follow that his Body was transubstantiate before he spake for This is implies it already done He adds This is my body His true natural humane Body was there with them took the Bread brake it gave it ate it if the Bread were now the Body of Christ either he must have two bodies there or else the same body is by the same body taken broken eaten and is the while neither taken nor broken nor eaten Yet he adds which is given for you This was the body which was given for them betrayed crucified humbled to the death not the glorious body of Christ which should be capable of ten thousand places at once both in Heaven and Earth invisible incircumscriptible Lastly he addes Doe this in remembrance of me Remembrance implies an absence neither can we more be said to remember that which is in our present sense then to see that which is absent Besides that the great Doctor of the Gentiles tels us that after consecration it is bread which is broken and eaten neither is it less then five times so called after the pretended change Shortly Christ as man was in all things like to us except sin and our humane body shall be once like to his glorious body The glory which is put upon it shall not strip it of the true essence of a body and if it retain the true nature of a body it cannot be at the same instant both above the Heavens and below on earth in a thousand distant places He is locally above for the heavens must receive him till the times of the restitution of all things He is not at once in many distant places of the earth
our remedies Thus that learned Spaniard in an honest confession of the degenerate courses of the late Popes from the simple integrity of their Predecessors What should I adde unto these the presumptuous Dispensations with Vows and Oaths with the Laws of God himself with the Law of Nature a priviledge ordinarily both yielded and defended by flattering Canonists and that which meets with us at every turn in Hostiensis Archidiaconus Felinus Capistranus Triumphus Angelus de Clavasio Petrus de Ancorano Panormitan as is largely particularized by our learned Bishop of Derry Sect. V. The new challenge of Popes domineering over Kings and Emperours I May well shut up the Scene with that notorious Innovation of the Popes subducing himself from the due Obedience of his once-acknowledged Lord and Soveraign and endeavouring to reduce all those Imperiall powers to his homage and obedience The time was when Pope Gregory could say to Mauritius Vobis obedientiam praebere desidero I desire to give you due obedience and when Pope Leo came with cap and knee to Theodosius for a Synod to be called with Clementia vestra concedat as Cardinall Cusanus cites it from the History The time was when Nemo Apostolicae c. No man did offer to take upon him the steering of the Apostolick Bark till the authority of the Emperour had designed him as their Balbus out of their own law That of Pope Gregory is plain enough Ecce serenissimus c. Behold saith he speaking of his own advancement to the Bishoprick of Rome our gracious Lord the Emperor hath commanded an Ape to be made a Lion and surely at his command it may be called a Lion but it cannot be one so as he must needs lay all my faults and negligences not upon me but upon his own piety which hath committed this Ministery of power to so weak an Agent The time was when the Popes of Rome dated their Apostolick letters with the style of the reign of their Lords the Emperours now ever since Pope Paschal they care only to note the year of their own Apostleship or Papacy The time was when the holy Bishops of that See professed to succeed Saint Peter in homely simplicity in humble obedience in piety in zeale in preaching in tears in sufferings now since the case is altered the world sees and blushes at the change for now Quanta inter Solem Lunam c. Look how much the Sun is bigger then the Moon so much is the Papall power greater then the Imperiall now Papa est Dominus Imperatoris The Pope is the Emperours Lord saith their Capistranus and the Emperour is subject to the Pope as his minister or servant saith Triumphus and lest this should seem the fashionable word of some clawing Canonist only hear what Pope Adrian himself saith Unde habet c. Whence hath the Emperour his Empire but from us all that he hath he hath wholly from us Behold it is in our power to give it to whom we list And to the same purpose is that of Pope Innocent the Fourth Imperator est advocatus c. The Emperour is the Popes Advocate and swears to him and holds his Empire of him But perhaps this place is yet too high for an Emperour a lower will serve fit Canonicus c. The Emperor is of course made a Canon and brother of the Church of Lateran Yet lower he shall be the Sewer of his Holiness Table and set on the first dish and hold the Bason for his hands Yet lower he shall be the Train-bearer to the Pope in his walking Processions he shall be the Quirie of his Stable and hold his stirrup in getting upon his horse he shall be lastly his very Porter to carry his Holinesse on his shoulder And all this not out of will but out of duty Where now is Augustus ab Augendo as Almain derives him when he suffers himself thus to be diminished Although there is more wonder in the others exaltation Papae Men are too base to enter into comparison with him His authority is more then of the Saints in Heaven saith one yet more he excelleth the Angels in his Jurisdiction saith another yet more once The Pope seems to make one and the same Consistory with God himself and which comprehends all the rest Tu es omnia super omnia Thou art all and above all as the Council of Lateran under Julius Oh strange alteration that the great Commanders of the World should be made the drudges of their subjects That Order and Soveraignty should lose themselves in a pretence of Piety That the professed Successour of him that said Gold and silver have I none should thus trample upon Crowns That a poor silly Worm of the Earth should raise up it self above all that is called God and offer to crawle into the glorious Throne of Heaven CHAP. XVIII The Epilogue both of Exhortation and Apologie NOT to wearie my Reader with more particularities of Innovation let now all Christians know and be assured that such change as they sensibly finde in the Head they may as truly though not so visibly note in the Body of the Roman Church yea rather in that Soul of Religion which informeth both And if thereupon all our endeavour as we protest before God and his holy Angels hath been and is only to reduce Rome to it self that is to recall it to that original Truth Piety Sincerity which made it long famous through the World and happy how unjustly are we ejected persecuted condemned But if that Antient Mistress of the World shall stand upon the terms of her Honour and will needs plead the disparagement of her retractions and the age and authority of these her impositions let me have leave to shut up all with that worthy and religious contestation of Saint Ambrose with his Symmachus That eloquent Patron of Idolatry had pleaded hard for the old Rites of Heathenism and brings in Antient Rome speaking thus for her self Optimi principes c. Excellent Princes the Fathers of your Country reverence ye my years into which my pious Rites have brought me I will use the Ceremonies of my Ancestors neither can I repent me I will live after mine own fashion because I am free This Religion hath brought the World under the subjection of the Laws these sacred Devotions have driven Hannibal from our walls from our Capitol Have I been preserved for this that in mine old age I should be reproved Say that I did see what were to be altered yet late and shamefull is the amendment of age To which that holy Father no lesse wittily and elegantly answers by way of retortion bringing in Rome to speak thus rather I am not ashamed in mine old age to be a Convert with all the rest of the World It is surely true that in no age it
in my Fathers Study where of I conceived good use might be made in regard of that spirituall advantage which they promised I obtained of him good leave to send them abroad whereto he professed himself the more easily induced for that his continuall and weighty employments in this large and busie Diocese will not yet afford him leisure to dispatch those his other fixed Meditations on the History of the New Testament In the mean time the expressions of these voluntary and sudden thoughts of his shall testifie how fruitfully he is wont to improve those short ends of time which are stolne from his more important avocations and unlesse my hopes fail me the pattern of them may prove not a little beneficial to others Holy mindes have been ever wont to look through these bodily Objects at spiritual and heavenly So Sulpitius reports of S. Martin that seeing a Sheep newly shorn he could say Loe here is one that hath performed that command in the Gospel having two Coats she hath given away one and seeing an Hogherd freezing in a thin suit of skins Loe said he there is Adam cast out of Paradise and seeing a Medow part rooted up part whole but eaten down and part flourishing he said The first was the state of Fornication the second of Marriage the third of Virginity But what do I seek any other Author then the Lord of Life himself who upon the drawing of water from the Well of Shilo on the day of the great Hosanna took occasion to speak of those Living waters which should flow from every true believer John 7. 38. and upon occasion of a bodily Feast Luke 14. entred into that Divine discourse of God's gracious invitation of us to those spiritual viands of Grace and Glory Thus methinks we should still be climbing up in our thoughts from Earth to Heaven and suffer no Object to crosse us in our way without some spiritual Use and Application Thus it pleased my Reverend Father sometimes to recreate himself whose manner hath been when any of these Meditations have unsought offer'd themselves unto him presently to set them down a course which I wish had been also taken in many more which might no doubt have been very profitable These as they are I send forth under your Honourable Name out of those many Respects which are in an hereditary right due to your Lordship as being apparent Heir to those two singular Patrons of my justly-Reverenced Father the eminent Vertue of which your Noble Parents in a gracious Succession yields to your Lordship an happy Example which to follow is the onely way to true Honour For the daily increase whereof here and the everlasting Crown of it hereafter his Prayers to God shall not be wanting who desires to be accounted Your Lordships devoted in all humble observance RO. HALL Occasionall MEDITATIONS The Proeme I Have heedlesly lost I confesse many good thoughts these few my Paper hath preserved from vanishing the example whereof may perhaps be more usefull then the matter Our active Soul can no more forbear to think then the Eye can chuse but see when it is open Would we but keep our wholesome Notions together mankinde would be too rich To doe well no Object should passe us without use every thing that we see reads us new lectures of Wisdome and Piety It is a shame for a man to be ignorant or Godlesse under so many Tutors For me I would not wish to live longer then I shall be better for my eyes and have thought it thank-worthy thus to teach weak mindes how to improve their thoughts upon all like occasions And if ever these lines shall come to the publick view I desire and charge my Reader whosoever he be to make me and himself so happy as to take out my Lesson and to learn how to read Gods great Book by mine The TABLE of these MEDITATIONS following MED I. Upon the sight of the Heavens moving Pag. 452 MED II. Upon the sight of a Diall ib. MED III. Upon the sight of an Eclipse of the Sun ib. MED IV. Upon the sight of a gliding Star 453 MED V. Upon a fair Prospect ib. MED VI. Upon the frame of a Globe casually broken 454 MED VII Upon a Cloud ib. MED VIII Upon the sight of a Grave digged up ib. MED IX Upon the sight of Gold melted 455 MED X. Upon the sight of a Pitcher carried ib. MED XI Upon the sight of a Tree full blossomed ib. MED XII Upon the report of a man suddenly struck dead in his Sin ib. MED XIII Upon the view of the Heaven and the Earth 456 MED XIV Upon occasion of a Red-breast coming into his Chamber ib. MED XV. Upon occasion of a Spider in his Window ib. MED XVI Upon the sight of a Rain in the Sun-shine 457 MED XVII Upon the length of the way ib. MED XVIII Upon the Rain and Waters ib. MED XIX Upon the same Subject 458 MED XX. Upon occasion of the Lights brought in ib. MED XXI Upon the same occasion 459 MED XXII Upon the blowing of the Fire ib. MED XXIII Upon the barking of a Dog ib. MED XXIV Upon sight of a Cock-fight ib. MED XXV Upon his lying down to rest 460 MED XXVI Upon the kindling of a Charcole fire ib. MED XXVII Upon the sight of an humble and patient Begger 461 MED XXVIII Upon the sight of a Crow pulling off wool from the back of a Sheep ib. MED XXIX Upon the sight of two Snails ib. MED XXX Upon the hearing of the street-Cries in London 462 MED XXXI Upon the Flies gathering to a galled Horse ib. MED XXXII Upon the sight of a dark Lantern ib. MED XXXIII Upon the hearing of a Swallow in the Chimney ib. MED XXXIV Upon the sight of a Flie burning it self in the Candle 463 MED XXXV Upon the sight of a Lark flying up ib. MED XXXVI Upon the singing of the Birds in a Spring morning ib. MED XXXVII Upon a Coal covered with Ashes 464 MED XXXVIII Upon the sight of a Blackmore ib. MED XXXIX Upon the small Stars in the Galaxie or milkie Circle in the Firmament ib. MED XL. Upon the sight of Boyes playing 465 MED XLI Upon the sight of a Spider and her Web. ib. MED XLII Upon the sight of a Naturall ib. MED XLIII Upon the Loadstone and the Jett 466 MED XLIV Upon hearing of Musick by night ibid. MED XLV Upon the fanning of Corn. ib. MED XLVI Upon Herbs dried 467 MED XLVII Upon the quenching of Iron in Water ib. MED XLVIII Upon a fair-coloured Flie. ib. MED XLIX Upon a Glow-worm ib. MED L. Upon the shutting of one eye 468 MED LI. Upon a Spring-water ib. MED LII Upon Gnats in the Sun ib. MED LIII Upon the sight of Grapes ib. MED LIV. Upon a Corn-field over-grown with Weeds 469 MED LV. Upon the sight of Tulips and Marigolds c. in his Garden ib. MED LVI Upon the sound of a crackt Bell. ib. MED LVII Upon the sight
of a Blinde man ib. MED LVIII Upon a Beech-tree full of Nuts 470 MED LIX Upon the sight of a piece of Money under the Water ib. MED LX. Upon the first rumour of the Earthquake at Lime wherein a Wood was swallowed up with the fall of two Hills ib. MED LXI Upon the sight of a Dormouse 471 MED LXII Upon Bees fighting ib. MED LXIII Upon Wasps falling into a Glass ib. MED LXIV Upon a Spring in the wilde Forest 472 MED LXV Upon the sight of an Owle in the twilight ibid. MED LXVI Upon an Arm benummed 473 MED LXVII Upon the Sparks flying upward ib. MED LXVIII Upon the sight of a Raven ib. MED LXIX Upon a Worm 474 MED LXX Upon the putting on of his Cloaths ibid. MED LXXI Upon the sight of a great Library ibid. MED LXXII Upon the red Cross on a Door 475 MED LXXIII Upon the change of Weather ib. MED LXXIV Upon the sight of a Marriage ib. MED LXXV Upon the sight of a Snake 476 MED LXXVI Upon the Ruines of an Abby ib. MED LXXVII Upon the discharging of a Peece 477 MED LXXVIII Upon the tolling of a passing-Bell ib. MED LXXIX Upon a Defamation dispersed 478 MED LXXX Upon a ring of Bells ib. MED LXXXI Upon the sight of a full Table at a Feast ib. MED LXXXII Upon the hearing of a Lute well played on 479 MED LXXXIII Upon the sight and noise of a Peacock ib. MED LXXXIV Upon a penitent Malefactor ibid. MED LXXXV Upon the sight of a Lilly 480 MED LXXXVI Upon the sight of a Coffin stuck with Flowers ib. MED LXXXVII Upon the view of the World ib. MED LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp 481 MED LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon ib. MED XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock 482 MED XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts ib. MED XCII Upon the sight of an Harlot carted ibid. MED XCIII Upon the smell of a Rose 483 MED XCIV Upon a cancelled Bond. ib. MED XCV Upon the report of a great losse by Sea ib. MED XCVI Upon sight of a bright Skie full of Stars 484 MED XCVII Upon the rumours of Wars ib. MED XCVIII Upon a Childe crying 485 MED XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sicknesse ibid. MED C. Upon the challenge of a Promise 486 MED CI. Upon the sight of Flies ib. MED CII Upon the sight of a fantasticall Zelot ib. MED CIII Upon the sight of a Scavenger working in the Canell 487 MED CIV Upon a pair of Spectacles ib. MED CV Upon Moats in the Sun ib. MED CVI. Upon the sight of a Bladder ib. MED CVII Upon a man Sleeping 488 MED CVIII Upon the sight of a Deaths-head ib. MED CIX Upon the sight of a Left-handed man ib. MED CX Upon the sight of an old unthatched Cottage 489. MED CXI Upon the sight of a fair Pearl ib. MED CXII Upon a Screen ib. MED CXIII Upon a Bur-leaf ib. MED CXIV Upon the Singing of a Bird. ib. MED CXV Upon the sight of a man Yawning 490 MED CXVI Upon the sight of a Tree lopped ib. MED CXVII Upon a Scholar that offered violence to himself ib. MED CXVIII Upon the coming in of the Judge 491 MED CXIX Upon the sight of an Heap of stones ibid. MED CXX Upon sight of a Bat and Owle ib. MED CXXI Upon the sight of a well-fleeced Sheep 492 MED CXXII Upon the hearing of Thunder ib. MED CXXIII Upon the sight of an Hedg-hog ib. MED CXXIV Upon the sight of a Goat 493 MED CXXV Upon the sight of the Blinde and the Lame ib. MED CXXVI Upon the sight of a Map of the World ib. MED CXXVII Upon the sight of Hemlock 494 MED CXXVIII Upon a Flower-de-luce ib. MED CXXIX Upon the sight of two Trees one high the other broad ib. MED CXXX Upon the sight of a Drunken man ibid. MED CXXXI Upon the whetting of a Sithe 495 MED CXXXII Upon the sight of a Looking-glass ibid. MED CXXXIII Upon the shining of a piece of Rotten wood ib. MED CXXXIV Upon an Ivie tree 496 MED CXXXV Upon a Quartan ague ib. MED CXXXVI Upon the sight of a loaded Cart. ibid. MED CXXXVII Upon the sight of a Dwarf 497 MED CXXXVIII Upon an importunate Begger ibid. MED CXXXIX Upon a Medicinal potion ib. MED CXL Upon the sight of a Wheel 498 Occasionall MEDITATIONS I. Upon the sight of the Heavens moving I Can see nothing stand still but the Earth all other things are in motion Even the Water which makes up one Globe with the Earth is ever stirring in ebbes and flowings the Clouds over my head the Heavens above the clouds these as they are most conspicuous so are they the greatest patterns of perpetuall action What should we rather imitate then this glorious frame O God when we pray that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven though we mean chiefly the Inhabitants of that place yet we do not exclude the very Place of those Blessed inhabitants from being an example of our Obedience The motion of this thy Heaven is perpetuall so let me ever be acting somewhat of thy will the motion of thy Heaven is regular never swerving from the due points so let me ever walk steddily in the wayes of thy will without all diversions or variations from the line of thy Law In the motion of thine Heaven though some Stars have their own peculiar and contrary courses yet all yield themselves to the sway of the main circumvolution of that First mover so though I have a will of mine own yet let me give my self over to be ruled and ordered by thy Spirit in all my waies Man is a little World my Soul is Heaven my Body is Earth if this Earth be dull and fixed yet O God let my Heaven like unto thine move perpetually regularly and in a constant subjection to thine Holy Ghost II. Upon the sight of a Diall IF the Sun did not shine upon this Diall no body would look at it in a cloudy day it stands like an uselesse post unheeded unregarded but when once those beams break forth every passenger runs to it and gazes on it O God whiles thou hidest thy countenance from me methinks all thy Creatures passe by me with a willing neglect indeed what am I without thee And if thou have drawn in me some lines and notes of able endowments yet if I be not actuated by thy Grace all is in respect of use no bettter then nothing But when thou renewest the light of thy loving countenance upon me I finde a sensible and happy change of condition methinks all things look upon me with such chear and observance as if they meant to make good that Word of thine Those that honour me I will honour now every line and figure which it hath pleased thee to work in me serve for usefull and profitable direction O Lord all the glory is thine give thou me light I shall give others information both of us shall give thee praise III.
corruption she receives and restores her charge I can no more withhold my body from the earth then the earth can withhold it from my Maker O God this is thy Cabinet or Shrine wherein thou pleasest to lay up the precious relicks of thy dear Saints untill the Jubilee of Glory With what confidence should I commit my self to this sure reposition whiles I know thy word just thy Power infinite IX Upon the sight of Gold melted THis Gold is both the fairest and most solid of all Metals yet is the soonest melted with the fire others as they are courser so more churlish and hard to be wrought upon by a dissolution Thus a sound and good heart is most easily melted into sorrow and fear by the sense of Gods Judgments whereas the carnal minde is stubborn and remorslesse All Metals are but earth yet some are of finer temper then others all hearts are of flesh yet some are through the power of Grace more capable of Spirituall apprehensions O God we are such as thou wilt be pleased to make us Give me a heart that may be sound for the truth of Grace and melting at the terrors of thy Law I can be for no other then thy Sanctuary on earth or thy Treasury of Heaven X. Upon the sight of a Pitcher carried THus those that are great and weak are carried by the eares up and down of Flatterers and Parasites Thus ignorant and simple hearers are carried by false and mis-zealous Teachers Yet to be carried by both eares is more safe then to be carried by one It argues an empty Pitcher to be carried by one aâ—one Such are they that upon the hearing of one part rashly passe their sentence whether of acquitall or censure In all disquisitions of hidden Truths a wise man will be led by the eares not carried that implies a violence of Passion over-swaying Judgement but in matter of civill occurrence and unconcerning rumor it is good to use the Eare not to trust to it XI Upon the sight of a Tree full blossomed HEre is a Tree over-laid with blossomes it is not possible that all these should prosper one of them must needs rob the other of moisture and growth I do not love to see an Infancy over-hopefull in these pregnant beginnings one Faculty starves another and at last leaves the Minde saplesse and barren As therefore we are wont to pull off some of the too-frequent blossomes that the rest may thrive so it is good wisdome to moderate the early excesse of the parts or progresse of over-forward Childhood Neither is it otherwise in our Christian profession a sudden and lavish ostentation of Grace may fill the eye with wonder and the mouth with talk but will not at the last fill the lap with fruit Let me not promise too much nor raise too high expectations of my undertakings I had rather men should complain of my small hopes then of my short performances XII Upon the report of a man suddenly struck dead in his Sin I Cannot but magnifie the Justice of God but withall I must praise his Mercy It were woe with any of us all if God should take us at advantages Alas which of us hath not committed sins worthy of a present revenge had we been also surprized in those acts where had we been O God it is more then thou owest us that thou hast waited for our Repentance it is no more then thou owest us that thou plaguest our offences The wages of Sin is Death and it is but Justice to pay due wages Blessed be thy Justice that hast made others Examples to me blessed be thy Mercy that hast not made me an Example unto others XIII Upon the view of the Heaven and the Earth WHat a strange contrariety is here The Heaven is in continuall motion and yet there is the onely place of Rest the Earth ever stands still and yet here is nothing but Unrest and unquietnesse Surely the end of that Heavenly motion is for the benefit of the Earth and the end of all these Earthly turmoils is our reposall in Heaven Those that have imagined the Earth to turn about and the Heavens to stand still have yet supposed that we may stand or sit still on that whirling Globe of earth how much more may we be perswased of our perfect Rest above those moving Sphears It matters not O God how I am vexed here below a while if ere long I may repose with thee above for ever XIV Upon occasion of a Red-brest coming into his Chamber PRetty Bird how chearfully dost thou sit and sing and yet knowest not where thou art nor where thou shalt make thy next meal and at night must shrowd thy self in a Bush for lodging What a shame is it for me that see before me so liberal provisions of my God and finde my self set warm under my own roof yet am ready to droop under a distrustfull and unthankfull dulnesse Had I so little certainty of my harbour and purveyance how heartlesse should I be how carefull how little list should I have to â—â—ke musick to thee or my self Surely thou camest not hither without a Providence God sent thee not so much to delight as to shame me but all in a conviction of my sâ—llen unbelief who under more apparent means am lesse chearfull and confident Reason and Faith have not done so much in me as in thee mere instinct of Nature Want of fore-sight makes thee more merry if not more happy here then the foresight of better things maketh me O God thy Providence is not impaired by those Powers thou hast given me above these Brute things let not my greater helps hinder me from an holy security and comfortable reliance upon thee XV. Upon occasion of a Spider in his Window THere is no vice in man whereof there is not some Analogie in the brute Creatures As amongst us men there are Thieves by Land and Pirats by Sea that live by spoil and blood so is there in every kinde amongst them variety of natural Sharkers the Hawk in the Aire the Pike in the River the Whale in the Sea the Lion and Tiger and Wolf in the Desart the Wasp in the Hive the Spider in our Window Amongst the rest see how cunningly this little Arabian hath spred out his tent for a prey how heedfully he watches for a Passenger So soon as ever he hears the noise of a Flie afar off how he hastens to his door and if that silly heedlesse Traveller do but touch upon the verge of that unsuspected walk how suddenly doth he seize upon the miserable booty and after some strife binding him fast with those subtile cords drags the helplesse Captive after him into his cave What is this but an Embleme of those Spiritual Free-booters that lie in wait for our Souls They are the Spiders we the Flies they have spred their nets of Sin if we be once caught they binde us fast and hale us into Hell O Lord
the least substance To affect obscurity or submission is base and suspicious but that LIV. Upon a Corn-field over-grown with Weeds HEre were a goodly field of Corn if it were not over-laid with Weeds I do not like these reds and blews and yellows amongst these plain stalks and ears This beauty would do well elswhere I had rather to see a plot lesse fair and more yielding In this Field I see a true picture of the World wherein there is more glory then true substance wherein the greater part carries it from the better wherein the native sons of the Earth out-strip the adventitious brood of Grace wherein Parasites and unprofitable hang-byes do both rob and overtop their Masters Both Field and World grow alike look alike and shall end alike both are for the Fire whiles the homely and solid ears of despised Vertue shall be for the garners of Immortality LV. Upon the sight of Tulips and Marigolds c. in his Garden THese Flowers are true Clients of the Sun how observant they are of his motion and influence At Even they shut up as mourning for his departure without whom they neither can nor would flourish in the Morning they welcome his rising with a chearfull openness and at Noon are fully displayed in a free acknowledgment of his bounty Thus doth the good heart unto God When thou turnedst away thy face I was troubled saith the man after Gods own heart In thy presence is life yea the fulnesse of joy Thus doth the Carnall heart to the world when that withdraws his favour he is dejected and revives with a smile All is in our choice whatsoever is our Sun will thus carry us O God be thou to me such as thou art in thy self thou shalt be mercifull in drawing me I shall be happy in following thee LVI Upon the sound of a crackt Bell. WHat an harsh sound doth this Bell make in every eaâ—e The metall is good enough it is the rift that makes it so unpleasingly jarring How too like is this Bell to a scandalous and ill-lived Teacher His Calling is honourable his noise is heard far enough but the flaw which is noted in his Life marres his Doctrine and offends those ears which else would take pleasure in his teaching It is possible that such a one even by that discordous noise may ring in others into the triumphant Church of Heaven but there is no remedy for himself but the fire whether for his reforming or judgment LVII Upon the sight of a Blinde man HOW much am I bound to God that hath given me eyes to see this mans want of eyes With what suspicion and fear he walks How doth his hand and staffe examine his way With what jealousie doth he receive every morsell every draught and yet meets with many a post and stumbles at many a stone and swallows many a flie To him the world is as if it were not or as if it were all rubs and snares and downfalls and if any man will lend him an hand he must trust to his however faithlesse guide without all comfort save this that he cannot see himself miscarry Many a one is thus Spiritually blinde and because he is so discerns it not and not discerning complains not of so wofull a condition The god of this world hath blinded the eyes of the Children of disobedience they walk on in the waies of death and yield themselves over to the guidance of him who seeks for nothing but their precipitation into Hell It is an addition to the misery of this inward occaecation that it is ever joyned with a secure confidence in them whose trade and ambition is to betray their Souls Whatever become of these outward Senses which are common to me with the meanest and most despicable creatures O Lord give me not over to that Spiritual darkness which is incident to none but those that live without thee and must perish eternally because they want thee LVIII Upon a Beech-tree full of Nuts HOW is this Tree overladen with mast this year It was not so the last neither will it I warrant you be so the next It is the nature of these free trees so to powr out themselves into fruit at once that they seem after either sterile or niggardly So have I seen pregnant Wits not discreetly governed overspend themselves in some one master-piece so lavishly that they have proved either barren or poor and flat in all other Subjects True Wisdome as it serves to gather due sap both for nourishment and fructification so it guides the seasonable and moderate bestowing of it in such manner as that one season may not be a glutton whiles others famish I would be glad to attain to that measure and temper that upon all occasions I might alwaies have enough never too much LIX Upon the sight of a piece of Money under the Water I Should not wish ill to a Covetous man if I should wish all his Coin in the bottome of the River No pavement could so well become that stream no sight could better fit his greedy desires for there every piece would seem double every teston would appear a shilling every Crown an Angel It is the nature of that Element to greaten appearing quantities whiles we look through the aire upon that solid body it can make no other representations Neither is it otherwise in Spiritual Eyes and Objects If we look with Carnal eyes through the interposed mean of Sensuality every base and worthlesse pleasure will seem a large contentment if with Weak eyes we shall look at small and immaterial Truths aloof off in another element of apprehension every parcell thereof shall seem main and essential hence every knack of Heraldry in the Sacred Genealogies and every Scholastical querk in disquisitions of Divinity are made matters of no lesse then life and death to the Soul It is a great improvement of true Wisdome to be able to see things as they are and to value them as they are seen Let me labour for that power and staiedness of Judgment that neither my Senses may deceive my Minde nor the Object may delude my Sense LX. Upon the first rumour of the Earthquake at Lime wherein a Wood was swallowed up with the fall of two Hills GOod Lord how do we know when we are sure If there were Man or Beast in that Wood they seemed as safe as we now are they had nothing but Heaven above them nothing but firm Earth below them and yet in what a dreadfull pitfall were they instantly taken There is no fence for Gods hand A man would as soon have feared that Heaven would fall upon him as those Hills It is no pleasing our selves with the unlikelihood of Divine Judgments We have oft heard of Hills covered with Woods but of Woods covered with Hills I think never till now Those that planted or sowed those Woods intended they should be spent with Fire but loe God meant they should be devoured with Earth We
other services it failed me not now that I have rested upon it I finde cause to complain It is no trusting to an arm of flesh on whatsoever occasion we put our confidence therein this reliance will be sure to end in pain and disappointment O God thine arm is strong and mighty all thy Creatures rest themselves upon that and are comfortably sustained Oh that we were not more capable of distrust then thine Omnipotent hand is of weariness and subduction LXVII Upon the Sparks flying upward IT is a feeling comparison that of Job of man born to labour as the sparks to flie upward That motion of theirs is no other then natural neither is it otherwise for man to labour his Minde is created active and apt to some or other Ratiocination his Joynts all stirring his Nerves made for helps of moving and his occasions of living call him forth to action So as an idle man doth not more want Grace then degenerate from Nature Indeed at the first kindling of the fire some sparks are wont by the impulsion of the bellows to flie forward or sideward and even so in our first Age youthly vanity may move us to irregular courses but when those first violences are overcome and we have attained to a setledness of disposition our sparks flie up our life is labour And why should we not doe that which we are made for Why should not God rather grudge us our Being then we grudge him our work It is no thank to us that we labour out of necessity Out of my Obedience to thee O God I desire ever to be imployed I shall never have comfort in my toil if it be rather a purveyance for my self then a Sacrifice to thee LXVIII Upon the sight of a Raven I Cannot see that Bird but I must needs think of Eliah and wonder no lesse at the Miracle of his Faith then of his Provision It was a strong belief that carried him into a desolate retiredness to exspect food from Ravens This fowl we know is ravenous all is too little that he can forage for himself and the Prophets Reason must needs suggest to him that in a drie barren Desart bread flesh must be great dainties yet he goes aside to exspect victuals from that purveyance He knew this Fowl to be no lesse greedy then unclean unclean as in Law so in the nature of his feed what is his ordinary prey but loathsome carrion Yet since God had appointed him this Caterer he stands not upon the nice points of a fastidious squeamishness but confidently depends upon that uncouth provision And accordingly those unlikely purveyors bring him bread and flesh in the Morning and bread and flesh in the Evening Not one of those hungry Ravens could swallow one morsell of those viands which were sent by them to a better mouth The River of Cherith sooner failed him then the tender of their service No doubt Eliah's stomack was often up before that his incurious diet came when exspecting from the mouth of his Cave out of what coast of Heaven these his Servitors might be descried upon the sight of them he magnified with a thankfull heart the wonderfull Goodness and Truth of his God and was nourished more with his Faith then with his Food O God how infinite is thy Providence Wisdome Power We creatures are not what we are but what thou wilt have us when thy turn is to be served we have none of our own Give me but Faith and doe what thou wilt LXIX Upon a Worm IT was an homely expression which God makes of the state of his Church Fear not thou Worm Jacob. Every foot is ready to tread on this despised creature Whiles it kept it self in that cold obscure Cell of the Earth wherein it was hidden it lay safe because it was secret but now that it hath put it self forth of that close Cave and hath presented it self to the light of the Sun to the eye of Passengers how is it vexed with the scorching beams and wrings up and down in an helplesse perplexity not finding where to shrowd it self how obnoxious is it to the fowls of the aire to the feet of men and beasts He that made this creature such and calls his Church so well knew the answerableness of their condition How doth the world overlook and contemn that little flock whose best guard hath ever been secrecy And if ever that despicable number have dared to shew it self how hath it been scorched and trampled upon and entertained with all variety of Persecution O Saviour thy Spouse fares no otherwise then thy self to match her fully thou hast said of thy self I am a Worm and no man Such thou wert in thine humbled estate here on earth such thou wouldest be But as it is a true word that he who made the Angels in Heaven made also the worms on earth so it is no lesse true that he who made himself and his Church Worms upon Earth hath raised our Nature in his Person above the Angels and our Person in his Church to little lesse then Angels It matters not how we fare in this valley of tears whiles we are sure of that infinite amends of Glory above LXX Upon the putting on of his Cloaths WHat a poor thing were Man if he were not beholden to other creatures The Earth affords him flax for his linen bread for his belly the Beasts his ordinary Cloaths the Silk-worm his bravery the back and bowels of the earth his metalls and fewell the Fishes Fowls Beasts his nourishment His wit indeed works upon all these to improve them to his own advantage but they must yield him materials else he subsists not And yet we fools are proud of our selves yea proud of the cast suits of the very basest Creatures There is not one of them that have so much need of us They would enjoy themselves the more if Man were not O God the more we are sensible of our own indigence the more let us wonder at thine All-sufficiency in thy self and long for that happy condition wherein thou which art all perfection shalt be all in all to us LXXI Upon the sight of a great Library WHat a world of Wit is here pack'd up together I know not whether this sight doth more dismay or comfort me It dismaies me to think that here is so much that I cannot know it comforts me to think that this variety yields so good helps to know what I should There is no truer word then that of Solomon There is no end of making many Books this sight verifies it there is no end indeed it were pity there should God hath given to man a busie Soul the agitation whereof cannot but through time and experience work out many hidden Truths to suppresse these would be no other then injurious to Mankinde whose Mindes like unto so many Candles should be kindled by each other The thoughts of our deliberation are most accurate these we vent into our Papers
thou abasest thy self to behold the things both in Heaven and Earth It is our glory to look up even to the meanest piece of Heaven it is an abasement to thine incomprehensible Majesty to look down upon the best of Heaven Oh what a transcendent Glory must that needs be that is abased to behold the things of Heaven What an happinesse shall it be to me that mine eyes shall be exalted to see thee who art humbled to see the place and state of my blessednesse Yea those very Angels that see thy face are so resplendently glorious that we could not overlive the sight of one of their faces who are fain to hide their faces from the sight of thine How many millions attend thy Throne above and thy Footstool below in the ministration to thy Saints It is that thine invisible world the Communion wherewith can make me truely blessed O God if my body have fellowship here amongst Beasts of whose earthly substance it participates let my Soul be united to thee the God of Spirits and be raised up to enjoy the insensible society of thy blessed Angels Acquaint me before-hand with those Citizens and affairs of thine Heaven and make me no stranger to my future Glory LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp HOW small things may annoy the greatest Even a Mouse troubles an Elephant a Gnat a Lion a very Flea may disquiet a Giant What weapon can be nearer to nothing then the sting of this Wasp Yet what a painfull wound hath it given me that scarce-visible point how it envenomes and ranckles and swells up the flesh The tenderness of the part addes much to the grief And if I be thus vexed with the touch of an angry File Lord how shall I be able to indure the sting of a tormenting Conscience As that part is both most active and most sensible so that wound which it receives from it self is most intolerably grievous there were more ease in a nest of Hornets then under this one Torture O God howsoever I speed abroad give me Peace at home and whatever my Flesh suffer keep my Soul free Thus pained wherein do I finde ease but in laying honey to the part infected That Medicine only abates the anguish How near hath Nature placed the remedy to the offence Whensoever my Heart is stung with the remorse for sin only thy sweet and precious Merits O blessed Saviour can mitigate and heal the wound they have virtue to cure me give me Grace to apply them that soveraign receipt shall make my pain happy I shall thus applaud my grief It is good for me that I was thus afflicted LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon WIth what terrour doth this Malefactor stand at that Bar his Hand trembles whiles it is lift up for his triall his very Lips quake whiles he saith Not guilty his Countenance condemns him before the Judge and his fear is ready to execute him before his Hangman Yet this Judge is but a weak man that must soon after die himself that Sentence of Death which he can pronounce is already passed by Nature upon the most innocent that act of Death which the Law inflicteth by him is but momentany who knows whether himself shall not die more painfully O God with what horror shall the guilty Soul stand before thy dreadfull Tribunall in the day of the great Assizes of the World whiles there is the presence of an Infinite Majesty to daunt him a fierce and clamorous Conscience to give in evidence against him Legions of ugly and terrible Devils waiting to seize upon him a gulf of unquenchable Fire ready to receive him whiles the Glory of the Judge is no lesse confounding then the Cruelty of the Tormenters where the Sentence is unavoidable and the Execution everlasting Why do not these terrors of thee my God make me wise to hold a privy Sessions upon my Soul actions that being acquitted by my own heart I may not be condemned by thee and being judged by my self I may not be condemned with the World XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock. How harshly did this note sound in the eare of Peter yea pierced his very heart Many a time had he heard this Bird and was no whit moved with the noise now there was a Bird in his bosome that crowed lowder then this whose shrill accent conjoined with this astonished the guilty Disciple The wearie Labourer when he is awakened from his sweet sleep by this natural Clock of the Houshold is not so angry at this troublesome Bird nor so vexed at the hearing of that unseasonable sound as Peter was when this Fowl awakened his sleeping Conscience and called him to a timely repentance This Cock did but crow like others neither made or knew any difference of this tone and the rest there was a Divine hand that ordered this Mornings note to be a Summons of Penitence He that fore-told it had fore-appointed it that Bird could not but crow then and all the noise in the High Priests Hall could not keep that sound from Peter's eare But O Saviour couldst thou finde leisure when thou stoodst at the Bar of that unjust and cruell Judgment amidst all that bloody rabble of Enemies in the sense of all their fury and the exspectation of thine own Death to listen unto this Monitor of Peter's Repentance and upon the hearing of it to cast back thine eyes upon thy Denying Cursing Abjuring Disciple O Mercy without measure and beyond all the possibility of our admiration to neglect thy self for a Sinner to attend the Repentance of one when thou wert about to lay down thy life for all O God thou art still equally mercifull Every Elect Soul is no lesse dear unto thee Let the sound of thy faithfull Monitors smite my ears and let the beams of thy mercifull eyes wound my heart so as I may go forth and weep bitterly XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts WHen I bethink my self how Eternity depends upon this moment of life I wonder how I can think of any thing but Heaven but when I see the distractions of my Thoughts and the aberrations of my life I wonder how I can be so bewitched as whiles I believe an Heaven so to forget it All that I can doe is to be angry at mine own vanity My Thoughts would not be so many if they were all right there are ten thousand by-waies for one direct As there is but one Heaven so there is but one way to it that living way wherein I walk by Faith by Obedience All things the more perfect they are the more do they reduce themselves towards that Unity which is the Center of all Perfection O thou who art one and infinite draw in my heart from all these stragling and unprofitable Cogitations and confine it to thine Heaven and to thy self who art the Heaven of that Heaven Let me have no life but in thee no care but to injoy thee no ambition but thy Glory Oh make
me thus imperfectly happy before my time that when my time shall be no more I may be perfectly happy with thee in all Eternity XCII Upon the sight of an Harlot carted WIth what noise and tumult and zeal of solemn Justice is this sin punished The Streets are not more full of beholders then clamors Every one strives to expresse his detestation of the fact by some token of revenge one casts Mire another Water another rotten Egges upon the miserable offender neither indeed is she worthy of lesse but in the mean time no man looks home to himself It is no uncharity to say that too many insult in this just Punishment who have deserved more Alas we men value sins by the outward Scandall but the Wise and Holy God against whom onely our sins are done esteems them according to the intrinsecal Iniquity of them and according to the secret violation of his Will and Justice thus those Sins which are slight to us are to him hainous We ignorants would have rung David's Adultery with Basons but as for his numbring of the people we should have past it over as venial the wise Justice of the Almighty found more wickedness in this which we should scarce have accused Doubtlesse there is more mischief in a secret Infidelity which the World either cannot know or cares not to censure then in the foulest Adultery Publick sins have more Shame private may have more Guilt If the world cannot charge me of those it is enough that I can charge my Soul of worse Let others rejoice in these publick Executions let me pity the sins of others and be humbled under the sense of my own XCIII Upon the smell of a Rose SMelling is one of the meanest and least usefull of the Senses yet there is none of the Five that receives or gives so exquisite a contentment as it Methinks there is no earthly thing that yields so perfect a pleasure to any Sense as the odour of the first Rose doth to the Sent. It is the Wisdome and Bounty of the Creator so to order it that those Senses which have more affinity with the body and with that earth whereof it is made should receive their delight and contentation by those things which are bred of the earth but those which are more sprightfull and have more affinity with the Soul should be reserved for the perfection of their pleasure to another world There and then only shall my Sight make my Soul eternally blessed XCIV Upon a cancelled Bond. WHiles this Obligation was in force I was in servitude to my parchment my Bond was double to a Payment to a Penalty now that is discharged what is it better then a wast scroll regarded for nothing but the witness of its own voidance and nullity No otherwise is it with the severe Law of my Creator Out of Christ it stands in full force and bindes me over either to perfect Obedience which I cannot possibly perform or to exquisite torment and eternall Death which I am never able to indure but now that my Saviour hath fastened it cancelled to his Cross in respect of the rigour and malediction of it I look upon it as the monument of my past danger and bondage I know by it how much was owed by me how much was payed for me The direction of it is everlasting the obligation by it unto death is frustrate I am free from Curse who never can be free from Obedience O Saviour take thou Glory and give me Peace XCV Upon the report of a great losse by Sea THe Earth and the Water are both of them great givers and both great takers As they give matter and sustentation to all Sublunary creatures so they take all back again insatiably devouring at last the fruits of their own wombs Yet of the two the Earth is both more beneficial and lesse cruell for as that yields us the most generall maintenance and wealth and supportation so it doth not lightly take ought from us but that which we resign over to it and which naturally falls back unto it Whereas the Water as it affords but a small part of our livelihood and some few knacks of ornament so it is apt violently to snatch away both us and ours and to bereave that which it never gave it yields us no precious Metalls and yet in an instant fetches away millions And yet notwithstanding all the hard measure we receive from it how many do we daily see that might have firm ground under them who yet will be trusting to the mercy of the Sea Yea how many that have hardly crawled out from a desperate shipwrack will yet be trying the fidelity of that unsure and untrusty Element O God how venturous we are where we have reason to distrust how incredulously fearfull where we have cause to be confident Who ever relied upon thy gracious Providence and sure Promises O Lord and hath miscarried Yet here we pull in our Faith and make excuses for our Diffidence And if Peter have tried those waves to be no other then solid pavement under his feet whiles his Soul trod confidently yet when a billow and a winde agree to threaten him his Faith flags and he begins to sink O Lord teach me to doubt where I am sure to finde nothing but uncertainty and to be assuredly confident where there can be no possibility of any cause of doubting XCVI Upon sight of a bright Skie full of Stars I Cannot blame Empedocles if he professed a desire to live upon earth only that he might behold the face of the Heavens surely if there were no other this were a sufficient errand for a mans being here below to see and observe these goodly Spangles of Light above our heads their places their quantities their motions But the employment of a Christian is far more noble and excellent Heaven is open to him and he can look beyond the veil and see further above those Stars then it is thither and there discern those Glories that may answer so rich a pavement Upon the clear sight whereof I cannot but wonder if the chosen Vessel desired to leave the earth in so happy an exchange O God I blesse thine Infiniteness for what I see with these bodily eyes but if thou shalt but draw the curtain and let me by the eye of Faith see the inside of that thy Glorious frame I shall need no other Happiness here My Soul cannot be capable of more favour then Sight here and Fruition hereafter XCVII Upon the rumours of Wars GOod Lord what a shambles is Christendome become of late How are men killed like flies and blood poured out like water Surely the cruelty and ambition of the Great have an heavy reckoning to make for so many thousand Souls I condemn not just Arms those are as necessary as the unjust are hatefull even Michael and his Angels fight and the style of God is the Lord of Hoasts But wo be to the man by whom the offence
more praise the mercy and wisdome of the giver and exercise the charity and thankfulness of the receiver The essence of our Humanity doth not consist in Stature he that is little of growth is as much man as he that is taller Even so also Spiritually the quantity of Grace doth not make the Christian but the truth of it I shall be glad and ambitious to adde cubits to my height but withall it shall comfort me to know that I cannot be so low of stature as not to reach unto Heaven CXXXVIII Upon an importunate Begger IT was a good rule of him that bade us learn to pray of Beggers with what zeal doth this man sue with what feeling expressions with how forceable importunity When I meant to passe by him with silence yet his clamour draws words from me when I speak to him though with excuses rebukes denials repulses his obsecrations his adjurations draw from me that Alms which I meant not to give How he uncovers his Sores and shews his impotence that my eyes may help his tongue to plead With what oratory doth he force my compâ—ssion so as it is scarce any thank to me that he prevails Why doe I not thus to my God I am sure I want no lesse then the neediest the danger of my want is greater the alms that I crave is better the store and mercy of the Giver infinitely more Why shouldst thou give me O God that which I care not to ask Oh give me a true sense of my wants and then I cannot be cool in asking thou canst not be difficult in condescending CXXXIX Upon a Medicinall potion HOW loathsome a draught is this how offensive both to the eye and to the scent and to the tast yea the very thought of it is a kinde of sickness and when it is once down my very disease is not so painfull for the time as my remedy How doth it turn the stomach and wring the entrails and works a worse distemper then that whereof I formerly complained And yet it must be taken for health neither could it be so wholsome if it were lesse unpleasing neither could it make me whole if it did not first make me sick Such are the chastisements of God and the reproofs of a Friend harsh troublesome grievous but in the end they yield the peaceable fruit of Righteousnesse Why do I turn away my head and make faces and shut mine eyes and stop my nostrils and nauseate and abhor to take this harmlesse potion for Health when we have seen Mountebanks to swallow dismembred toads and drink the poisonous broath after them only for a little ostentation and gain It is only weaknesse and want of resolution that is guilty of this queasinesse Why do not I chearfully take and quaffe up that bitter cup of Affliction which my wife and good God hath mixed for the health of my Soul CXL Upon the sight of a Wheel THE Prophet meant it for no other then a fearfull imprecation against Gods enemies O my God make them like unto a wheel whereby what could he intend to signifie but instability of condition and suddain violence of Judgement Those spoaks of the wheel that are now up are sooner then sight or thought whirled down and are straight raised up again on purpose to be depressed Neither can there be any motion so rapid and swift as the Circular It is a great favour of God that he takes leisure in his affliction so punishing us that we have respites of Repentance There is life and hope in these degrees of suffering but those hurrying and whirling Judgments of God have nothing in them but wrath and confusion O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger I cannot deprecate thy rebuke my sins call for correction but I deprecate thine anger thou rebukest even where thou lovest So rebuke me that whiles I smart with thy Rod I may rejoyce in thy Mercy CERTAIN CATHOLICK PROPOSITIONS Which A Devout Son of the CHURCH Humbly offers to the serious consideration of all ingenuous Christians wheresoever dispersed all the world over To all them who through the whole Israel of God follow Absolom with a simple heart BE not deceived any longer dear Christian Souls be ye free that ye may be safe There is a certain Sacred Tyranny that miserably abuses you and so cunningly beguiles you that you chuse rather to erre and perish God hath given you Reason and above that Faith do not so far wrong your selves as to be made the mere slaves of anothers will and to think it the safest way to be willingly blinde Lay aside for a while all prejudice and superstitious side-taking and consider seriously these few words which my sincere love to your Souls and hearty ambition of your Salvation hath commanded me as before the awfull Tribunall of Almighty God to tender unto you If what I say be not so clear and manifest to every ingenuous judgment that it shall not need to borrow further light from abroad condemn this worthlesse scroll and in your severe doom punish the Author with the losse of an hours labour But if it shall carry sufficient evidence in it self and shall be found so reasonable as that to any free minde it shall not perswade but command assent give way for Gods sake and for your Souls sake to that powerfull Truth of God which breaks forth from Heaven upon you and at last acknowledge besides a world of foul Errours the miserable insolence and cruelty of that once-Famous and renowned Church which to use Gerson's word will needs make Faith of Opinion and too impotently favouring her own passions hath not ceased to persecute with fire and sword the dear and holy servants of God and at last notwithstanding all the vain thunderbolts of a proud and lawlesse fury make much of those your truly-Christian and religious brethren who according to the just liberty of Faithfull men refuse and detest those false and upstart Points of a new-devised Faith But if any of you which God forbid had still rather to be deceived and dote upon his received Errors and as angry Curres are wont shall bark and bay at so clear a light of Truth my Soule shall in silence and sorrow pity that man in vain I wis we have had disputing enough if not too much Away from henceforth with all these Paper-brablings God from Heaven shall stint these strifes Wonder O Catholicks and ye whom it concerns repent Certain Catholick PROPOSITIONS which a devout Son of the Church humbly offers to the serious consideration of all ingenuous Christians wheresoever dispersed all the World over I. EVery true Christian is in that very regard properly capable of Salvation and for matter of Faith goes on in the ready way to Heaven II. Whosoever being duely admitted into the Church of God by lawfull Baptism believeth and maintaineth all the main and essential Points of Christian Faith is for matter of belief a true Christian III. The Summe of the Christian
Religion But alas poor souls we are mistaken all this while it is nothing else but pure Piety forsooth which we ignorantly condemn for Cruelty 't is the zeal of Gods house wherewith Good Prelate thou art so inflamed that thou hast hereupon both wished and importuned the utter extirpation of all those Hereticks stabling in the French Territories O forehead O bowels For us we call God Angels Saints to witness of this foul calumniation I wis those whom thou falsly brandest for Hereticks thou shalt one day hear when the Church shall imbrace them for her children Christ for the spiritual Members of his mystical body For what I beseech you do we hold which the Scriptures Councils Fathers Churches and Christian Professors have not in all Ages taught and published To say the truth All that which we professe your own most approved Authors have still maintained whence then is this quarrell Shall I tell you There are indeed certain new Patches of Opinion which you would needs adde to the ancient Faith these we most justly reject and do still constantly refuse They are humane they are your own briefly they are either doubtfull or impious And must we now be cast out of the bosome of the Church and be presently delivered up to fire and sword Must we for this be thunder-strucken to Hell by your Anathemas there to frie in perpetuall Torments Is it for this that a stall and shambles are thought good enough for such brutish animals Good God! See the justice and charity of these Popelings This is nothing but a mere injury of the Times it was not wont to be Heresie heretofore that is so now-a-daies If it had been our Happinesse to have lived in the Primitive times of the Churches Simplicity before ever that Romish Transcendency Image-worship Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Masse Purgatory single or half-Communion Nundination of Pardons and the rest of this rabble were known to the Christian world surely Heaven had been as open to us as to other Devout Souls of that purer Age that took their happy flight from hence in the Orthodox Faith of Christ Jesus But now that we are reserved to that dotage of the world wherein a certain new brood of Articles are sprung up it is death to us forsooth and to be expiated by no lesse punishment then the perpetuall torments of Hell-fire Consider this O ye Christians wheresoever dispersed upon the face of the whole earth consider I say how far it is from all Justice and Charity that a new Faith should come dropping forth at mens pleasure which must adjudge Posterity to eternal death for Mis-believers whom the ancient Truth had willingly admitted into Heaven These new Points of a politick Religion are they indeed that have so much disturbed the peace of Christendome these are they that set at variance the mighty Potentates of the earth who otherwise perhaps would sit down in an happy Peace these are they that rend whole Kingdomes distract people dissolve Societies nourish Faction and Sedition lay wast the most flourishing Kingdomes and turn the richest Cities to dust and rubbish But should these things be so Do we think this will one day be allowed for a just warrant of so much war and bloodshed before the Tribunall of that supreme Judge of Heaven and earth Awake therefore now O ye Christian Princes and You especially King Lewis in whose eares these wicked counsels are so spightfully and bloodily whispered rouse up your self and see how cruell Tyranny seeks to impose upon your Majesty in a most mischievous manner under a fair pretence of Piety and Devotion They are your own native Subjects whom these malicious foreigners require to the slaughter yea they are Christs and will you imbrue your hand and sword in the blood of those for whom Christ hath shed his yea who have willingly lavished their own in the behalf of You and your great Father Hear I beseech thee O King who art wont amongst thine own to be instiled Lewis the Just If we did adore any other God any other Christ but thine if we aspired to any other Heaven embraced any other Creed any other Baptisme lastly if we made profession of a new Church built upon other foundations there were some cause indeed why thou shouldest condemn such Hereticks stabling in France to the revenging sury of thy flames If this thy people have wilfully violated any thing established by our common God or lawfully commanded by thee we crave no pardon for them let them smart that have deserved it is but just they should But do not in the mean time fall fiercely upon the fellow-servants of thy God upon thine own best Subjects whose very Religion must make them loyall suffer not those poor wretches to perish for some late upstart superfluous additions of humane invention and mere will-worship who were alwaies most forward to redeem Thine thy Great Fathers Safety and Honour with the continuall hazzard of their owne most precious lives Let them but live then by thy gracious sufferance by whose Valour and Fidelity thou now reignest But suppose they were not yours yet remember that they are Christians a title wherewith your style is wont most to be honored washed in the same Laver of Baptisme bought with the same price renewed by the same Spirit and whatsoever impotent malice bawle to the contrary the beloved Sons of the Celestiall Spouse yea the Brethren of that Spirituall Bride-groom Christ Jesus But they erre you will say from the Faith From what faith I beseech you Not the Christian surely but the Romish What a strange thing is this Christ doth not condemn them the Pope doth If that great Chancellour of Paris were now alive he would freely teach his Sorbon as he once did that it is not in the Popes power that I may use his owne word to hereticate any Proposition Yea but an Oecumenicall Council besides hath done it What Council That of Trent I am deceived if that were hitherto received in the Churches of France or deserved to be so hereafter Consult with your own late Authors of most undoubted credit they will tell you plainly how unjust that Council was yea how no Council at all It was only the Popes act whatsoever was decreed or established by that pack'd Conclave envassalled to the Seven hills Consider lastly I beseech you how the Reformed Christians stand in no other terms to the Papists then the Papists do to the Reformed Heresie is with equall vehemency upbraided on both sides But do we deale thus roughly with the followers of the Roman Religion Did we ever rage against the Popish Faith with fire and sword Was ever the crime of a poor misled conscience capitall to any soul You may finde perhaps but very seldome some audacious Masse-priest some firebrand of Sedition and contemner of our publick Laws to have suffered condign punishment But no Papist I dare boldly say ever suffered losse either of life or lim merely for his Religion
should give place to the God of Spirits How well contented was holy Mary with so just an answer how doth she now again in her heart renew her answer to the Angel Behold the servant of the Lord be it according to thy word We are all the Sons of God in another kinde Nature and the World thinks we should attend them We are not worthy to say we have a Father in Heaven if we cannot steal away from these earthly distractions and imploy our selves in the services of our God Christ's Baptism JOHN did every way forerun Christ not so much in the time of his Birth as in his office Neither was there more unlikeliness in their Disposition and carriage then similitude in their Function Both did preach and baptize only John baptized by himself our Saviour by his Disciples our Saviour wrought miracles by himself by his Disciples John wrought none by either Wherein Christ meant to shew himself a Lord and John a servant and John meant to approve himself a true servant to him whose harbinger he was He that leapt in the womb of his mother when his Saviour then newly conceived came in presence bestir'd himself when he was brought forth into the light of the Church to the honour and service of his Saviour he did the same before Christ which Christ charged his Disciples to do after him Preach and Baptize The Gospel ran alwaies in one tenor and was never but like it self So it became the Word of him in whom there is no shadow by turning and whose Word it is I am Jehova I change not It was fit that he which had the Prophets the Star the Angel to foretell his coming into the world should have his Usher to goe before him when he would notifie himself to the world John was the voice of a Cryer Christ was the Word of his Father it was fit this Voice should make a noise to the world ere the Word of the Father should speak to it John's note was still Repentance the Axe to the root the Fan to the floor the Chaffe to the fire as his raiment was rough so was his tongue and if his food were wilde Hony his speech was stinging Locusts Thus must the way be made for Christ in every heart Plausibility is no fit preface to Regeneration If the heart of man had continued upright God might have been entertained without contradiction but now violence must be offered to our corruption ere we can have room for Grace If the great Way-maker do not cast down hills and raise up valleys in the bosomes of men there is no passage for Christ Never will Christ come into that Soul where the Herald of Repentance hath not been before him That Saviour of ours who from eternity lay hid in the Counsel of God who in the fulness of time so came that he lay hid in the womb of his mother for the space of forty weeks after he was come thought fit to lye hid 〈◊〉 Nazareth for the space of thirty years now at last begins to shew himself to the world and comes from Galilee to Jordan He that was God alwaies and might have been perfect man in an instant would by degrees rise to the perfection both of his Manhood and execution of his Mediatorship to teach us the necessity of leasure in spiritual proceedings that many Suns and successions of seasons and means must be stayed for ere we can attain our maturity and that when we are ripe for the imployments of God we should no lesse willingly leave our obscurity then we took the benefit of it for our preparation He that was formerly circumcised would now be baptized What is Baptism but an Evangelical Circumcision What was Circumcision but a Legal Baptism One both supplied and succeeded the other yet the Authour of both will undergoe both He would be circumcised to sanctifie his Church that was and baptized to sanctifie his Church that should be that so in both Testaments he might open a way into Heaven There was in him neither filthiness nor foreskin of corruption that should need either knife or water He came not to be a Saviour for himself but for us we are all uncleanness and uncircumcision he would therefore have that done to his most pure body which should be of force to clear our impure Souls thus making himself sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him His Baptism gives virtue to ours His last action or rather passion was his baptizing with blood his first was his baptization with water both of them wash the world from their sins Yea this latter did not onely wash the souls of men but washeth that very water by which we are washed from hence is that made both clean and holy and can both cleanse and hallow us And if the very handkerchief which touched his Apostles had power of cure how much more that Water which the sacred body of Christ touched Christ comes far to seek his baptism to teach us for whose sake he was baptized to wait upon the Ordinances of God and to sue for the favour of spiritual blessings They are worthlesse commodities that are not worth seeking for It is rarely seen that God is found of any man unsought for that desire which only makes us capable of good things cannot stand with neglect John durst not baptize unbidden his Master sent him to doe this service and behold the Master comes to his servant to call for the participation of that priviledge which he himself had instituted and injoyned How willingly should we come to our spiritual Superiours for our part in those mysteries which God hath left in their keeping yea how gladly should we come to that Christ who gives us these blessings who is given to us in them This seemed too great an honour for the modesty of John to receive If his mother could say when her blessed cousin the Virgin Mary came to visit her Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me how much more might he say so when the Divine Son of that mother came to call for a favour from him I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me O holy Baptist if there were not a greater born of woman then thou yet thou couldest not be born of a woman and not need to be baptized of thy Saviour He baptized with fire thou with water Little would thy water have availed thee without his fire If he had not baptized thee how wert thou sanctified from the womb There can be no flesh without filthiness neither thy supernatural Conception nor thy austere life could exempt thee from the need of Baptism Even those that have not lived to sin after the similitude of Adam yet are they so tainted with Adam that unless the second Adam cleanse them by his Baptism they are hopeless There is no less use of Baptism unto all then there is certainty of